Saturday roundup: In action fight, Ortiz shines in 8th-round TKO of 'Mean Machine'

Franco outpoints Moloney in third fight; Muhammad Ali's grandson wins debut; Casimero edges Rigondeaux to retain bantamweight title

Welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr., matched against the toughest opponent of his career, aced his biggest test.

Ortiz shook off some rocky moments in the second round and wore down former world title challenger “Mean Machine” Egidijus Kavaliauskas en route to an eighth-round knockout in the action-packed main event of Golden Boy’s DAZN card Saturday night at the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas.

“I think I did alright. I got the win,” Ortiz said. “I could have looked a little prettier doing it but, hey, I’m happy with my performance and we’re only going to get better from here.”

Dallas native Ortiz (18-0, 18 KOs), 23, who was the big crowd favorite in the home region fight, overcame major trouble in the second round when Kavaliauskas rocked him with a right uppercut. As Kavaliauskas continued to pound away, Ortiz, who had swelling under his right eye, went down but referee Laurence Cole ruled a slip.

Ortiz shook it off and late in the third round nailed Kavaliauskas with a straight left hand for the first of five knockdowns in the fight.

“He caught me with a good shot and I took it well and I recovered from it and here I am,” Ortiz said of absorbing the big shot. “I don’t think I was as hurt as you think I was. He hit me with a good shot but this is boxing and everyone’s going to get hit at some point and I feel good.

“After the third round, I felt more confident because I knew that I could control the fight moving forward. But he is a tough guy, a very strong fighter, and I respect that he came to fight.” 

Ortiz, who had never before been past the seventh round before, controlled the fight the rest of the way even though Kavaliauskas was game and firing back. But in the eighth it was all Ortiz. He dropped Kavaliauskas with a left hand to the body followed by a left to the head that forced him to take a knee and then another left that forced Kavaliauskas to touch his glove to the mat. Moments later, Ortiz scored the fourth knockdown of the round with a flurry of shots, causing Cole to wave the fight off at 2 minutes, 59 seconds.

“I came here to fight. I was sure I would stop him,” Kavaliauskas said. “I prepared myself so hard to be ready for this fight. I was 100 percent in shape, I was fast, I was strong. But you know, it is what it is. Today he was stronger. He is a tremendous fighter. He has good power and good speed, good jab, good technique. He is a good fighter. I was thinking that I was going to end the fight in the second round, but he survived. He is a warrior.”

Kavaliauskas (22-2-1, 18 KOs), 33, a 2008 and 2012 Olympian from Lithuania, had only previously lost by ninth-round knockout challenging WBO welterweight titlist Terence Crawford in December 2019.

Ortiz and his team have talked up a possible fight with Crawford because Ortiz is so highly ranked by the WBO, but he said it made no difference to him that he finished Kavaliauskas one round sooner than Crawford did.

“That doesn’t really mean anything to me,” Ortiz said. “Me and Crawford are different fighters, different skill sets.”

Still, when asked if he was ready to face Crawford, Ortiz was quick to respond, “Yes, sir!”

But when asked how that fight might happen — Crawford first has a mandatory due against Shawn Porter — Ortiz responded, “There’s so much shit going on in boxing I don’t even know what I have to do anymore. I’m ready to fight whenever. I’m here to fight anybody. I don’t care if it’s Crawford, (unified titlist Errol) Spence, (Manny) Pacquiao, you name it. I’ll fight anyone.”

Also on the card:

In the co-feature, Roger Gutierrez retained his secondary junior lightweight title for the first time, winning a unanimous decision against Rene Alvarado in an immediate rematch and their third fight overall. Gutierrez won the competitive bout 116-112, 116-112 and 115-113, although it lacked the action of their rematch.

“I hurt my right hand,” Gutierrez said. “It was very inconvenient because I feel like I could have ended the fight earlier. But I want to thank God we were victorious and that is the most important thing. I know Rene is a warrior, but we had a good fight today and we are happy to take on the next challenge, and perhaps fight Leo Santa Cruz.”

Alvarado said he felt like he won.

“I feel like I dominated the majority of the fight,” Alvarado said. “I do not feel like the decision was fair. In the last round, I did get the cut on my left eye and I couldn’t see, but I know that I closed those two rounds.”

When they met on Jan. 2, Gutierrez dropped Alvarado three times en route to a 113-112 unanimous decision on all three scorecards to win the 130-pound belt in an upset.

They also met in 2017 and Alvarado (32-10, 21 KOs), 32, of Nicaragua, knocked out Gutierrez (26-3-1, 20 KOs), 26, of Venezuela, in the seventh round.

Junior flyweight world titlist Felix Alvarado (37-2, 32 KOs), of Nicaragua, knocked out Mexico’s Israel Vazquez (10-5-2, 7 KOs) in the first round of a nontitle fight. Alvarado went right at Vazquez and blistered him with an assortment of shots, including a heavy body attack, before dropping him hard with a right hand. He beat the count but was in no shape to go on and referee Luis Pabon stopped it at 2 minutes, 50 seconds.

Alvarado, 32, the twin brother of Rene Alvarado, was due to defend his belt for the third time against Mexico’s Erick Lopez (16-5-1, 10 KOs) but Lopez had visa issues and was forced out of the fight, which Vazquez took on short notice.

Franco proves point vs. Moloney

After two disputed fights, Joshua Franco left no doubt in his third consecutive bout with Andrew Moloney.

Franco won a clear unanimous decision to retain his WBA secondary junior bantamweight belt in the main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

All three judges had it 116-112 for Franco, who retained the 115-pound belt for the second time.

“I had to switch it up on him. He thought I was going to put pressure on him the whole time. That wasn’t working, so I had to switch it up and go to my boxing skills,” Franco said. “I had fun with my rhythm, with my jab, my feet. I’m comfortable in there, and that’s what I did.”

In June 2020, they met in Las Vegas for the first time and Franco dropped Moloney in the 11th round and won a tight unanimous decision — 115-112, 114-113, 114-113 — to claim a secondary junior bantamweight title in an upset.

Moloney (21-2, 14 KOs), 30, of Australia, exercised his contractual right to an immediate rematch and they met again in Las Vegas on Nov. 14 and fought to a highly controversial second-round no decision, allowing Franco (18-1-2, 8 KOs), 25, of San Antonio, to retain the 115-pound belt. Franco suffered right eye damage and was unable to continue because of what referee Russell Mora ruled an accidental head butt that could not be found on video replays during a nearly 30-minute review.

The WBA then ordered Saturday’s third fight, in which Franco consistently beat Moloney to the punch.

“He’s a strong fighter. Nothing but respect to him. I wish him the best in his career,” Franco said.

Franco landed perhaps his best punch of the fight in the fifth round when he nailed Moloney with a powerful right uppercut. In the seventh round, Moloney appeared to drop Franco with a right hand, but video replay determined their feet got tangled and referee Jack Reiss waved off the knockdown.

Moloney was devastated by the loss and near tears during his interview after the fight.

“He was the better man tonight. Tonight just wasn’t my night,” Moloney said. “I feel like I let a lot of people down tonight. I let my team down, I let my family down. I’ll have to use this as motivation to come back stronger but it’s going to be a long road back.”

Franco, meantime, hopes to parlay his excellent performance into a fight with one of the bigger names in the division.

“I see bigger fights. I see ‘Chocolatito’ (Roman Gonzalez), ‘Gallo’ (Juan Francisco) Estrada, (Kazuto) Ioka, (Jerwin) Ancajas. Any of those fighters,” Franco said. “For sure, (this win) puts me in the top five, on the same list as all the other champions. I believe I’m top five.”

Ali’s grandson wins pro debut

Forty years after the late Muhammad Ali boxed for the last time, his 21-year-old grandson, middleweight Nico Ali Walsh, made his professional debut with a first-round knockout of Jordan Weeks (4-2, 2 KOs), 29, of Lexington, South Carolina, in the Franco-Moloney III co-feature.

Ali Walsh, dressed in a pair of black and white Everlast trunks that his grandfather had worn in the 1960s and gifted him, knocked Weeks down with a clean right hand. As he beat on him during a follow-up flurry, including another heavy right, referee Gerald Ritter stopped it at 1 minute, 49 seconds.

“This lived up completely to my expectations. It’s been an emotional journey this whole ride these last couple of months,” said Ali Walsh, who was standing with Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, whose began his career by promoting a Muhammad Ali heavyweight title fight against George Chuvalo in 1966. “Obviously, my grandfather, I’m thinking about him so much. I miss him. It’s just an emotional journey, and thank you to Jordan Weeks and his people. Tough, tough kid. I think me and him made a little bit of history tonight.”

Ali Walsh (1-0, 1 KO), of Las Vegas, said he was a bit nervous like any pro debut fighter would be but that he didn’t feel the pressure of carrying such a famous name.

“Honestly, it seems like a lot of pressure, but to me, it’s just my grandfather,” he said. “To everyone else, to you guys and the crowd, he’s the greatest fighter who ever lived, maybe the greatest person. But to me, he’s the greatest grandfather. To hear those Ali chants was something that I’ll never forget. I didn’t expect that, to be honest, but it was special.”

Also on the card:

Junior welterweight contender Arnold Barboza Jr. (26-0, 10 KOs), 29, of South El Monte, California, cruised to a near-shutout of Antonio Moran (26-5-1, 19 KOs), 28, of Mexico. Barboza won 100-90, 99-91 and 99-91.

“Moran is a true Mexican warrior. I thought I'd get the knockout, but he ate a lot of punches,” Barboza said. “My goal is to get that world title shot, and I am going to keep going until I make that a reality. I want any of the big names at 140 pounds.” 

Junior lightweight Karlos Balderas (10-1, 8 KOs), 24, a 2016 U.S. Olympian from Santa Maria, California, made his Top Rank debut by stopping Fidel Cervantes (9-2-1, 4 KOs) at 2:03 of the second round. Balderas was fighting for the first time since suffering an upset sixth-round knockout loss to Juan Rene Tellez in December 2019 and later parting ways with promoter Richard Schaefer.

“I’m back and better than ever,” Balderas said. “Even with this victory, I have things to work on. I’m going straight back to the gym to get ready for the next one.”

Casimero edges Rigo in snoozer

John Riel Casimero retained his WBO bantamweight title by split decision against former unified junior featherweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux in a bout devoid of action or entertainment value.

Meeting in the Showtime main event at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, Casimero and Rigondeaux heard a steady stream of booing throughout the agonizing fight to watch. In the end, two judges had it for Casimero, 117-111 and 116-112, and one had it 115-113 for Rigondeaux.

A former junior flyweight and flyweight titlist, Casimero made a second bantamweight title defense in a fight that set the CompuBox record for fewest punches (91) landed in a 12-round fight.

The numbers were pathetic. Rigondeaux (20-2, 13 KOs), 40, the southpaw two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist fighting out of Miami, has been known throughout his career as one of boxing’s most boring fighters, but he was even more safety-first than usual. He landed just 44 of 221 punches (20 percent) and spent large portions of the fight circling and running from Casimero (31-4, 21 KOs), 32, of the Philippines, who wasn’t much better. He landed only 47 of 297 blows (16 percent), but at least moved forward. Neither fighter landed more than seven punches in any of the 12 rounds.

“I'm excited to get the win,” Casimero said. “I was worried, because he said he wouldn't run, but he ran the whole time. My expectations were for a knockout. Me and all my fans wanted that. I did my best to knock him out, but he was just running and not fighting.”

Rigondeaux, of course, disputed the decision.

“Nobody wants to fight with me because I frustrate them in the ring,” said Rigondeaux, who was stripped of his WBA secondary bantamweight title upon entering the ring for a fight the sanctioning body did not approve. “I landed the punches that I needed to in order to win the fight. This is how I win. I have these God-given skills and this is the way I display them. I'm a unique fighter. It's my style and it's the only one I know. You can see I'm still better than anyone else in the lighter weight classes and I'm going to keep fighting.”

Also on the card:

Gary Antonio Russell (18-0, 12 KOs), 28, of Capitol Heights, Maryland, the younger brother of featherweight titlist Gary Russell Jr., and former bantamweight titlist Emmanuel Rodriguez (19-2, 12 KOs), 28, of Puerto Rico, fought to a first-round no contest in a title eliminator.

The fight was halted by referee Sharon Sands just 16 seconds in to the bout after an accidental head butt injured Rodriguez, who fell to the mat with a bloody nose and was unable to continue.

“It happens,” Russell said. “I was looking to establish my jab and I tried to set up a hook, and he came in at the same time. It's very disappointing.”

Said Rodriguez, “I feel OK. I'm a little frustrated after putting in all this work for the fight to end so quickly with nothing happening. With the head butt, maybe if there was no blood, we would have been able to continue. But once I saw all the blood, I knew it was over.”

Initially, the bout was scheduled to be for the vacant WBA interim bantamweight title, but on Saturday the WBA, under immense pressure to reduce the number of titles it hands out, announced it would be a title eliminator instead.

Former bantamweight titlist and three-time U.S. Olympian Rau’shee Warren (19-3, 4 KOs), 34, of Cincinnati, blitzed fellow southpaw Damien Vazquez (15-3-1, 8 KOs), 24, of Las Vegas, in a second-round knockout victory. Warren had not scored a knockout in his previous eight wins since 2015.

He dropped Vazquez with twice in the first round before putting him away with a straight left hand that badly rocked Vazquez in the second round and forced referee Ray Corona to stop it at 2 minutes, 18 seconds.

“I was trying to show them something different this time around,” Warren said. “I have always had the power, but this training camp was very different. I was sitting on my punches and working on something different. It worked in the ring. I always knew I had that power and I always knew I had that speed. It’s just about taking your time in the ring and letting them come. When I saw the opportunity, I went for it.”

Junior welterweight prospect Brandun Lee (23-0, 21 KOs), 22, of La Quinta, California, notched his 13th first-round knockout, dropping Ezequiel Fernandez (28-5-1, 3 KOs), 30, of Argentina, three times and stopping him at 1 minute, 40 seconds.

“I'm definitely ready for the next level,” Lee said. “It's only right for me to step up the competition. I'll take on anybody who's ready.”

Buatsi delivers big KO

Light heavyweight Joshua Buatsi, a 2016 Olympic bronze medalist for Great Britain, notched his most notable professional victory as he knocked out tough Ricards Bolotniks with a crushing right hand in the 11th round.

Buatsi, who had never been past the seventh round, was expected to get a stern test from Bolotniks and he did. He took some hard right hands but never wavered in somewhat dominant performance in the main event of Matchroom Boxing’s “Fight Camp” card on DAZN in the garden of Matchroom’s headquarters in Brentwood, England.

“Bolotniks, big credit to him. He pushed me,” Buatsi said. “I think he said, ‘Josh hasn’t been past seven rounds before so after seven we’ll see.’ I was there until 11 and landed a good shot. I worked every round, but I want to congratulate him.”

The 28-year-old Buatsi (15-0, 13 KOs), 28, of England, who was in his second fight under the guidance of trainer Virgil Hunter, relied heavily on his still jab to keep Bolotniks at bay.

But he also landed many power punches. In the sixth round it was a quick left hook that dropped Bolotniks, whose left eye was swelling, midway through the round. He quickly beat the count and took major damage in the follow-up attack but was able to survive the round. Referee Howard Foster docked one point from Buatsi for a low blow in the eighth round.

When it seemed as though the fight was surely going to go the distance, Buatsi unleashed a nasty right hand in the 11th round that caught Bolotniks cleanly and sent him to the mat, nearly through the bottom two ring ropes. He was in rough shape and Foster waved off the fight at 2 minutes, 8 seconds.

Bolotniks (18-6-1, 8 KOs), 31, of Latvia, saw his seven-fights winning streak since 2018 end.

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said he would like see Buatsi back in the ring in December and then match him with light heavyweight world titlist Dmitry Bivol (18-0, 11 KOs), 30, of Russia, who Hearn also works with, in their first fight of 2022. Buatsi is eager to move up to the next level of opponent.

“I’ve got a great team, I’ve got a promoter that believes in me,” Buatsi said. “He’s been pushing for fights like this because he knows I can do it. Tonight, I went out there and showed people I can do it. We just build from here.”

Quick hits

Featherweight Duke Ragan (4-0, 1 KO), 23, of Cincinnati, who won one of Team USA’s three boxing silver medals in the recently completed Tokyo Olympics, will return to the pro ranks on Oct. 23. He will box on the undercard of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card headlined by the fight between junior lightweight world titlist Jamel Herring and interim titlist Shakur Stevenson at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Ragan’s return was announced during Top Rank’s card on Saturday night.

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Matchroom Boxing announced during the Buatsi-Bolotniks show that the fight between welterweights Conor Benn and Adrian Granados has been rescheduled to take place on the undercard of the rematch between Mauricio Lara and former featherweight titlist Josh Warrington on Sept. 4 (DAZN) in Leeds, England. Benn (18-0, 12 KOs), 24, of England, and Granados (21-8-3, 15 KOs), 32, of Chicago, were supposed to meet July 31 but the fight was postponed when Benn came down with Covid-19.

Ortiz-Kavaliauskas photo: Kevin Estrada/Golden Boy; Franco-Moloney and Ali Walsh-Weeks photos: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Casimero-Rigondeaux photo: Stephanie Trapp/Showtime; Buatsi-Bolotniks photo: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing