Kovalev Mashes Mohammedi In 3 For Vegas Coming Out Party

The match started off slow for the first few moments but ended rather quickly about 9 minutes later via a destructive finish for Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (28-00-01) as he improved his KOs to 25 stopping his latest challenger, Nadjib “Ironjib” Mohammedi (38-04-00 w/23 KOs) in the main event of the latest installment of HBO boxing from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

The fight served as another successful title defense for the powerful Russian as he simultaneously made his long awaited Las Vegas debut while putting his WBO, IBF and WBA Light Heavyweight titles along with his undefeated streak on the line.

France’s former belt holder Mohammedi had little to offer his European counter-part and his walk out song, the title theme to the popular American movie  “The Terminator” was probably the most intimidating weapon in his arsenal.

For his troubles Mohammedi engaged his opponent with a very high guard which he used to somewhat paw away at his foe, reminiscent of the one Hasim Rahman used in his rematch against Lennow Lewis coincidentally in the same arena. Not only did he give up too much space for the opening round, he filled it with little to no offense.

Going into the 2nd round Kovalev started to walk his man down opening up with some straight and looping right hands. He closed the distance landing a short right hook on the inside that sent his foe to the canvas close to the 10-second mark indicating the end of the round.

Mohammedi beat the count making it to the 3rd round but looked very shaky walking back to his corner in between the 2nd and 3rd frames. Heading into the 3rd Kovalev walked his man down some more with authority not fearing anything at all coming back his way even when a hook or two landed on his face.

He marched forward landing an overhand right followed by a straight left hand shortly after the round began that forced his foe to the canvas. Nadjib Mohammedi beat the count exactly as referee Kenny Bayless raised his hands to waive it off. The very alert and intelligent ref looked at the fallen warrior’s state realizing immediately what needed to be done calling a halt to the action.

The official time of the stoppage came at (2:38) of the 3rd round giving Sergey Kovalev the victory in front of an extremely appreciative boxing crowd at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

The celebration did not stop there as “Krusher” literally reached into his bag of tricks following his post-fight interview with Max Kellerman and started throwing out mini-replica boxing gloves into the crowd with the Kovalev logo and look on them.

For the post-fight press conference the reigning king of the 175lbs division addressed his future hinting at his desire to fight the WBC Light Heavyweight title holder, Adonis “Superman” Stevenson adding a not so complimentary nickname to his potential challenger of his own calling him “Adonis “Piece of (explicit) Stevenson”.

The Russian powerhouse also made it clear that he wanted to make the best fights in his division possible not ruling out a high profile match with 168-pound king pin, undefeated champion Andre Ward.

Everyone in the arena was on their feet giving ex-title holder Jean Pascal (30-03-01 w/17 KOs) and his opponent, Yuniesky Gonzalez (16-01 w/12 Kos) a standing ovation following their 10-round, show-stealing, 175-pound, ‘Fight of the Year” candidate as the co-main event for the HBO card promoted by Main Events.

Once the cards came in and were read by boxing icon Michael Buffer it was all but a presumed wrap once he declared, “96-94 from all three judges” however, as soon as he mentioned Pascal the winner those cheers as well as devoted clapping morphed into a disgusted booing from the fans in attendance.

Not to take away from what was an outstanding light heavyweight war that had everything from vicious jabs, thunderous hooks, double hooks, looping right hands, crashing overhand rights, amazing pressure, unbelievable conditioning and the kitchen sink being thrown from both men as well as a pace usually set by lightweights, that fight was perfect for any fan from casual to hardcore aficionados to remain loyal.

Nonetheless, Pascal taking it on all 3 of the cards by way of 6-4 rounds makes no logical sense regardless if HBO’s Harold Lederman saw it 97-93 for Gonzalez. The ruling not only left a bitter taste across world to those watching , reporting on social media as well as the obvious crowd robbed of justice inside of the arena , but the topper was that it left a grown man in the ring emotionally shattered as previously unbeaten fighter, Gonzalez began to openly weep after the points were read.

The judging now joins the unwanted list of fellow recent questionable decisions such as: Danny Garcia over Mauricio Herrera, Paul Williams over Erislandy Lara, Tavoris Cloud over Gabriel Campillo, Jose Benavidez over Mauricio Herrera and a host of other black eyes to the sport.

To those that will argue that the fight could have been a draw , surprisingly enough they may have the best argument yet. There needed to be no loser in one of the best fights of the second half of 2015, period.

For the fans that can argue that it was even for the first half and the deciding factors were the last 4 rounds a retort should surface that Canada’s Jean Pascal made the crucial mistake of giving away some of those stanzas dipping, turning his back and essentially running away from Gonzalez.

Add to this fault, Pascal nor his team were nowhere to be found immediately following the fight letting Team Gonzalez and his Cuban supporters get the best of the arguments, seeing how for about 10-15 minutes there was absolutely no one from Pascal’s camp to defend him.

Once they showed up they made it known that Jean Pascal had gone to the hospital after hurting both of his hands, making them swollen as early as the 3rd round. To that , Team Gonzalez replied something along the lines of him being concussed from all the clean shots he absorbed.

Ironically enough in the end, this instant classic will be talked about even more throughout the boxing community injecting further attention to it due to its controversy.

A very game Zoulikha threw everything in his arsenal from rounds 1 to 4 as well as caution to the wind for the other 10-round light heavyweight bout on the card. He doubled the hooks to the head and body launching some bombs back upstairs in the form of overhand shots thrown from the hip.

However, the inability to put his man away mixed in with the mid-round body assault from Barrera was the catalyst to Zoulikha’s inevitable destruction. To his credit, he always seemed dangerous looking for that one hitter quitter, that game changer that alluded him once the slightly taller and more polished Barrera managed to time him from about the 3rd round and up.

Also, Barrera was caught clean and early so credit goes to his beard for holding up allowing him to weather the early storm. After stringing some solid punches together and nailing his man with a double-jab-over hand right combination, Barrera finally managed to send his foe to the canvas.

Another short left hook on the inside almost put him away but the valiant warrior would not go quietly still winging away with some wide shots. Unfortunately for him, the fresher Barrera was able to begin teeing off on the tired fighter prompting referee Russell Mora to step in an call a stop to the bout.

Result: Sullivan Barrera remains unbeaten defeating Hakim Zoulikha via 8th round TKO at (1:34).

Diaz strengthened his winning streak tonight thanks to a one-sided beating of Guadalajara native, Rodriguez. The orthodox-stance fighters met in the center of the ring in search of bobbing and weaving

while setting up the jab in hopes of landing something meaningful.

Not much happened for the first two minutes until Diaz landed the best punch of the round in the form of a looped left hand hook to the side of the head of Rodriguez that got his attention.  Both men began trading heavy leather in the following round and during a heated exchange Diaz landed a right hand that sent his man on his seat during the half way point of the round.

He followed that up with a straight right hand that send his foe to the canvas just before the 10-second mark sounded. Rodriguez beat the count but he was really looking sluggish and flat from the faster pace of the match set by his foe. Rodriguez saw the mat again the following round thank this time to a short left hook that partially connected but was strengthened by a follow up straight right.

Throwing caution to the wind Rodriguez opted to stand and trade for the remaining minutes of the bout, choosing to stop moving as much or using his legs to skip out of danger.

Diaz easily took control of the match going into the 4th round early planting his feet launching a counter, crisp , deadly right cross to his foe’s lazy left hook.

The inevitable came as the solid strike raked across Rodriguez’ face sending him to the mat for one final time as referee Kenny Bayless had seen enough and jumped in to stop the match.

Result: Joel Diaz remains  undefeated beating Alejandro Rodriguez via TKO at the 39 second mark of Round 4.