- Last week's action started on Spike TV with another PBC card. That card was headlined by Rances Barthelemy in a fight against Denis Shafikov. While Barthelemy did score the unanimous decision win and opened a bad cut on Shafikov, he didn't exactly impress. Barthelemy was the much taller and slicker fighter yet he repeatedly stood on the inside and squared up to Shafikov, giving him opportunities to mount an attack. Even though he won the fight Barthelemy will need to look better next time if he wants to gain some serious momentum. Also on that card was a bout between two undefeated fighters, Murat Gassiev and Isiah Thomas. In the first two rounds Thomas was the better boxer but he did look bothered by Gassiev's power. Then at the end of the third round Gassiev caught Thomas with an overhand right that was followed by a straight right hand that landed after the bell. The ringside doctor ruled that Thomas was diminished so the fight was ruled a no contest.
- There was also fights on Estrella TV on Friday night which were headlined by high touted prospect Joseph Diaz. Diaz took on Hugo Partida and did what he was supposed to do, look good against a lesser opponent. Diaz finished things with a second round stoppage and should take the next small step up when he returns to the ring. Andrew Cancio and Rene Alvarado also fought on that card and while it was a solid fight it was clear that Cancio was in control and he ended up finishing Alvarado in the seventh round.
- Saturday night is when things really got interesting. The action started in the early evening on Showtime Extreme when Andy Lee defended his WBO title against Billy Joe Saunders. The fight was a battle for gypsy bragging rights and everyone expected it to be action packed. Instead it was the opposite and both men seemed to have a lot of respect for the other which forced them to fight cautiously. In the third round Saunders floored Lee twice and looked to be on the verge of stopping him. However, like he always seems to do Lee recovered and came back nicely. In the championship rounds Lee really took control but when the scores were announced it was Saunders who came away the winner via majority decision. Also on that card but not televised in the U.S. was a fight between Liam Smith and Jimmy Kelly for Smith's WBO junior middleweight title. The fight was somewhat dirty and Kelly was deducted two points in the sixth round for using his head. Those points wouldn't matter though as Smith ended things by stopping Kelly in the very next round.
- HBO also aired a card on Saturday night and their main event was a battle of heavyweights. The undefeated Cuban power puncher Luis Ortiz took on the one loss Bryant Jennings in what was expected to be a good fight. In the opening round Jennings was badly hurt twice but somehow survived the round. In round two he came back looking very strong and took that round, However, in round three Jennings was hurt again but again was able to recover and finish strong. Things were close after that until the seventh round when Ortiz dropped Jennings and finished him off moments later. While Jennings showed a lot of heart this fight really announced Ortiz as a force in the heavyweight division and with his skills and power he could be a problem for anyone. The co-feature on HBO's card ended up being one of the worst decision in recent memory. That fight saw Nicholas Walters, in his first fight as a junior lightweight take on the unknown Jason Sosa. Walters was clearly controlling the action and hurt Sosa on a few occasions. To his credit Sosa was showing a lot of heart and never stopped coming forward or throwing punches. When the final bell rang HBO's unofficial scorekeeper Harold Lederman had it nine rounds to one for Walters, and he was probably being nice giving Sosa one round. Then the scores were announced and things got crazy. Tom Shreck had it 96-94 for Sosa, while judges Don Ackerman and Wynn Kintz had it 95-95 which made the fight a draw.
- The action continued late on Saturday night on HBO Latino which aired a tape-delay of the non-televised bouts from the Jennings-Ortiz card. The first fight was a bout between Yuriorkis Gamboa and Hylon Williams Jr. and Gamboa was able to control the action and get the unanimous decision win as expected. Then came a fun scrap between Yunieski Gonzalez and Vyacheslav Shabranskyy that was very close and ended in a majority decision for Shabranskyy. At the end of the night Gabriel Rosado took on Joshua Clottey with both mean really needing a notable win. While the fight was close it was Rosado who got the much needed win by the way of unanimous decision.
- Last week's action also included a fight on beIN Sports Espanol when Miguel Berchelt took on Rolando Giono. It was clear from the start that this would be a tough night for Giono, and it was. In the third round Berchelt really went to work and he stopped Giono about halfway through the round to run his knockout streak to seven.
WEEKLY RECORD: 5-5-1
MONTHLY RECORD: 19-11-1
OVERALL RECORD: 627-187-22
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