Notebook: Okolie outpoints Cieslak in messy fight to retain cruiserweight title

Garcia dominates Colbert; Russell stops Postol; Martinez wins junior bantamweight title; Catterall speaks out; sanctioning bodies come together against Russia; Show and tell

Feb 28, 2022

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In an ugly, messy fight filled with clinches and punches behind the head, Lawrence Okolie outpointed Michal Cieslak in the main event of a Matchroom Boxing card on DAZN on Sunday at The O2 in London.

Okolie rocked Cieslak with a right hand in the first round, dropped him with a right to the side of the head in the fifth round that drew blood from his ear and grappled with him for much of the rest of the fight to win 117-110, 116-111 and 115-112 as he retained his 200-pound title for the second time.

Okolie’s seven-fight knockout streak ended but the victory set him up for a potential unification bout later in the year against Mairis Briedis, who holds the IBF title and is widely regarded as the No. 1 fighter in the division.

Briedis (28-1, 20 KOs), 37, of Latvia, who is just getting over Covid-19, was ringside and is first slated to defend in Australia against Jai Opetaia (21-0, 17 KOs) in a fight that was scheduled for April 6 but postponed after his diagnosis. The new date hasn’t been announced yet but could be later in April or in May.

Cieslak (21-2, 15 KOs), 32, of Poland, showed plenty of grit to take many clean right hands from Okolie, but he fell to 0-2 in world title bouts, having suffered his only other defeat by unanimous decision to Ilunga Makabu when they met for the vacant WBC title in January 2020.

The fight degenerated into a sloppy clinch fest as it went on, causing referee Michael Alexander to warn the fighters about the dirty tactics and holding several times.

“He’s a tough competitor and he pushed the pace,” Okolie said. “He’s physically strong, so it was a good 12 rounds. The right hand, he was tucking under it very well so I was trying to find the different angles to get him. He had a lot of grit.

“I thought when I dropped him in the fifth I would close the show. But when you get to this level you can’t just drop them and get rid of them straight away. You have to pick more shots and have belief in your conditioning to empty the tank and go again. But as much as I was focused I think it’s difficult to get up for certain fights when I’m looking at unifications and when I’m coming down from being so heavy, which I won’t let happen again. Sorry, (trainer) Shane (McGuigan).”

Briedis, dressed like the video game character Super Mario — he calls himself “Super Mairis” — joined in the post-fight interview with Okolie (18-0, 14 KOs), 29, of England, and said he hopes they will fight later this year.

“Congratulations,” Briedis told Okolie. “This is a strong man and I hope after Australia we come back to London and we fill this arena.”

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, who promotes Okolie and has a good relationship with Briedis promoter Kalle Sauerland, said he thinks the fight can be made.

“I believe so. I hope (Briedis) wants to give us the best fights in the division because that is the best fight in the division, Lawrence Okolie against Mairis Briedis,” Hearn said. “I believe (Okolie) is the best cruiserweight in the world but (Briedis) has a fantastic resume. So, I believe it’s a fight we need to see. (Okolie is) gonna move up to heavyweight. It’s only a matter of time, so we must make these unifications before he does it.”

In an undercard bout, Galal Yafai (1-0, 1 KO), 29, who won the flyweight gold medal for Great Britain at this past summer’s delayed 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, made his professional debut.

Yafai, the younger brother of former junior bantamweight titleholder Kal Yafai, wants to move quickly and boxed in a scheduled 10-rounder but needed half that allotment as he knocked out Carlos Vado Bautista (10-5-1, 3 KOs), 25, of Mexico, at 2 minutes, 11 seconds of the fifth round to win a WBC regional belt.

Garcia upsets Colbert

Hector Garcia, who took the fight on a few weeks’ notice, surprisingly dropped and dominated Chris Colbert in a one-sided decision win in a WBA junior lightweight title elimination fight that headlined the Premier Boxing Champions tripleheader on Showtime on Saturday night at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

Colbert was the mandatory challenger for WBA 130-pound titlist Roger Gutierrez and was supposed to fight him in the main event, but he dropped out after coming down with Covid-19 and was replaced by Garcia.

Garcia (15-0, 10 KOs), a 30-year-old southpaw and 2016 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, turned in a tremendous performance en route to winning 119-108, 118-109 and 118-109 in a fight that was never in doubt.

Garcia used his powerful left hand to take it to Colbert (16-1, 6 KOs), 25, of Brooklyn, New York, who many viewed as one of boxing’s best rising talents.

“I have to thank everyone in my corner, Ismael Salas and Bob Santos, and everyone that worked with me,” Garcia said through an interpreter, although head trainer Salas was unable to be in the corner on fight night because of a conflict and was replaced by strength coach Santos. “I feel great. I definitely knew three weeks ago that my life would change. My trainers gave me the confidence to win this fight. I want to fight Gutierrez for the world championship.”

Garcia pressed forward throughout the bout and dropped Colbert for the first time in his career when he landed a hard left hand in the seventh round.

“I’m sorry I let everyone down. Today he was the better man,” Colbert said afterward, his arm draped around Garcia during his in-ring interview. “I take my losses like I take my wins. I want to run it back and hopefully we can do it again. There’s no excuses. He was the better man today.”

Russell stops Postol

In the co-feature, junior welterweight Gary Antuanne Russell (15-0, 15 KOs), 25, a southpaw from Capitol Heights, Maryland, scored his biggest win by becoming the first opponent to stop former world titlist Viktor Postol (31-4, 12 KOs), 38, who fought with a lot on his mind as he is from Ukraine and his wife and 5-year-old twin sons were at home as Russia invaded their country.

Russell, a 2016 U.S. Olympian and the younger brother of former featherweight titlist Gary Russell Jr., who was in his corner, pressed Postol throughout the fight and was clearly winning when the end came suddenly. Russell hurt Postol with a left uppercut and followed with a series of rights, prompting referee Mike Ortega to stop it at 2 minutes, 31 seconds, drawing an immediate protest from Postol. The loss was Postol’s second in a row, having dropped a disputed majority decision challenging then-unified titlist Jose Ramirez in August 2020.

“The performance speaks for itself,” Russell said. “You see (Postol) went the distance with Terence Crawford (in a 2016 junior welterweight unification fight), and I just stopped him. I believe I’m ready for another step-up fight.”

Russell also paid tribute to Postol’s toughness and fortitude.

“I take my hat off to him. His country is literally at war but we’re in the squared circle doing our jobs,” Russell said. “This man is coming to hurt me and I’m coming to hurt him.”

Russell was ahead 89-82, 89-82 and 88-83 at the time of the stoppage.

“I just couldn't do what I wanted to do in the ring,” Postol said. “My legs were not there and my arms were not there like I needed them to be. I've fought much better fighters than Russell, but for some reason I wasn't able to perform to my abilities. I came here to win tonight. Unfortunately I wasn't able to achieve my goal.”

Martinez rips title from Ancajas

In the action-packed opener of the tripleheader, unheralded Fernando Martinez pummeled Jerwin Ancajas relentlessly throughout the fight to win a lopsided unanimous decision and take his IBF junior bantamweight title.

Argentina’s Martinez (14-0, 8 KOs), 30, boxing in the United States for the first time, won 118-110, 118-110 and 117-111 to end one of boxing’s longest active title reigns. Ancajas (33-2-2, 22 KOs), 30, a southpaw from the Philippines, was making his 10th defense since winning the 115-pound belt in 2016.

With his promoter, former two-division titlist Marcos Maidana, cheering for him at ringside, Martinez put on a show of power punching as he took it to Ancajas throughout the fight and marked up and swelled his face.

Martinez was emotional afterward, choking back tears.

“This moment is so special to me,” Martinez said through an interpreter. “It hurts so much that my father’s not here for this great moment in my life, but I know that he oversaw this. I’m so happy for my corner and for the people who supported me over the years.”

Ancajas took major punishment and his corner asked him if he wanted to continue after the ninth round. He did and had a few good moments in the late rounds, but Martinez continually pounded him.

According to CompuBox statistics, Martinez landed 427 of 1,046 punches (41 percent) and Ancajas landed 192 of 816 (24 percent). Martinez’s 421 landed power shots (anything other than a jab) set the CompuBox junior bantamweight record and he became the 47th fighter in CompuBox history to land 400 or more punches in a title fight.

Ancajas was taken to the hospital for precautionary reasons.

“I am so thankful for team Martinez to give me this opportunity to make this fight,” Ancajas said. “Yes, I want the rematch and I’ll do everything to achieve my goal. I learned a lot in this fight and he’s a great challenger.”

Organizations unite

The four major sanctioning organizations have come together to do what little part they can in terms of taking a stand against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The four presidents — Mauricio Sulaiman of the WBC, Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel of the WBO, Daryl Peoples of the IBF and Gilberto Mendoza of the WBA — issued a joint statement on Saturday titled “The World of Boxing United.”

The presidents said, “The four boxing governing organizations in the world join together to express their position with regards to the tragic war which is taking place as Russia has invaded Ukraine. Just as the world claims for cease of fire, our organizations have decided to not sanction any boxing championships in Russia. Just as this war has put a stop of boxing in Ukraine, our organizations will not sanction fights in Russia until further assessment of the situation. May God bless everyone and bring peace to our world.”

Catterall heartbroken

After Jack Catterall lost a controversial split decision challenging undisputed junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor on Saturday on Taylor’s home turf at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland, he did not do an in-ring interview or attend the post-fight news conference.

On Sunday, however, he posted his thoughts on the fight on social media.

“You know what hurts the most,” he wrote. “It wasn’t for me. I done all of this for my family, my team, my town and country (England). My baby girl and misses, our future. Today I should of been waking up with all of the belts. 15 months out the ring, they all wrote me off. Fucked me in every way possible for over two years, finally got the fight. Sacrificed everything to fight one of the top p4p ranked fighters, gave him a lesson. For what? Boxing shame on you. Judges — dreams stolen.”

Catterall (26-1, 13 KOs), 28, dropped fellow southpaw Taylor (19-0, 13 KOs), 31, for the first time in his career with a left hand in the eighth round and appeared to have deserved to win, but two judges saw it otherwise. Taylor won 114-111 and 113-112 while one judge had it 113-112 for Catterall, the WBO mandatory challenger.

Show and tell

Mexican warriors Rafael Marquez and Israel Vazquez fought four times with the first three fights, each for the WBC junior featherweight title and coming consecutively, being among the all-time great action battles so far this century. The second fight was widely acclaimed as the 2007 fight of the year and the only reason fight No. 1 wasn’t was because it was also in 2007. The third fight was even better than the first two and was the consensus pick as 2008 fight of the year, which Vazquez won by dramatic split decision to retain the title he had regained from Marquez in the rematch.

In the third fight, Vazquez got knocked down in the fourth round, Marquez lost a point for a low blow in the 10th round and got knocked down in the final seconds of the fight, allowing Vazquez to retain the title via scores of 114-111 and 113-112 on two scorecards with Marquez winning 114-111 on the third. It’s as good of an action fight as you will ever see and it took place on March 1, 2008 — 14 years ago on Tuesday. Here is the Showtime poster, which is signed in silver sharpie by both fighters, in my collection.

Okolie-Cieslak photo Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing; Colbert-Garcia, Russell-Postol, Ancajas-Martinez photos: Stephanie Trapp/Showtime; Taylor-Catterall photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank

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