Les Miserables! Devin Vargas and Karim Mayfield Among Fighters Exposed in Final March Weekend, as Reliable 171 Loss British Ringer Kristian Laight Wins by Decision
By Robert Brizel, Head RCM Boxing Correspondent
This past week was not a kind one for professional boxers in search of the guts and the glory, who instead found disappointment, and in the case of one failed comeback attempt.
Former 2000 and 2001 National Golden Gloves heavyweight champion and 2004 Olympic team captain in Athens, Devin Vargas, failed miserably in a comeback attempt after three years inactivity. Sadly, Vargas got stopped in the third round by Jason ‘Ironman’ Bergman, a ten loss fighter. Bergman dropped Vargas in the second round, and landed combinations at will, forcing Vargas to take a knee in the third round under pressure. When Bergman was hitting Vargas at will after he beat the count, the referee wisely stopped it.
Vargas has not won a fight in five years, and after this dismal showing in a NABA USA title bout, should retire for good. At 17-0, Vargas made a huge career mistake when he accepted a bout with Star Boxing stablemate Kevin Johnson in May 2009 and got stopped in the sixth round, allowing Johnson to get a world title fight with VitaliKlitschko later that year. Johnson has since faded from contention as well, losing five bouts in Europe. In 2011, Vargas was stopped in the ninth round by 22-0 Polish contender Andrzej Wawrzyk.
Six favored boxers, including five unbeaten records, went down in shame at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
26-0 top rated light heavyweight contender Cedric Agnew got knocked out by World Boxing Organization World Light Heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev in the seventh round of their world title bout. Agnew wore earmuffs for the entire bout, protecting his face, but showing little offensive skills, leaving his body exposed. Kovalev, finding the defensive flaw, worked the body till Agnew, whose record was mostly padded, caved in from Kovalev’s body power shots. Agnew cut Kovalev over both eyes with head butts, an action sure to reduce his stock and prevent him from getting any potential future bouts of significance.
San Francisco light welterweight Karim Mayfeild, 18-0-1, got taken to town in Atlantic City by Thomas Dulorme of Puerto Rico in a 10 round ‘hugathon’ for the vacant NABF light welterweight title. Dulorme jabbed from the outside, and consistently tied and tangled up Dulorme all night, never letting Dulorme get inside, and setting the tempo of the fight. Dulorme also added some low blows for good measure, and Mayfield for some reason refused to take the full five minute rest periods offered by referee Steve Smoger, and allowed the action to resume without his usual steam. Despite the pleas of his corner, Mayfield never let his hands go, preferring to let Dulorme play the part of Fred Astaire and do the tango with him all night, getting outworked and outclassed.
Light heavyweight Lionel Thompson, a previous loser to Kovalev who had beaten Yathomas Riley and Ryan Coyne in two his previous bouts, lost an eight round split decision to unknown Bosnian fighter Radivoje Kalajdzivic.
Unbeaten 6-0-1 middleweight Khurshid Abdullaev lost an eight round split decision to Wilky Comfort, while 6-0 middleweight Dushane Crooks lost a six round split decision to Ishmael Garcia. 3-0 light welterweight Gerald Smith lost a four round decision to Wellington Romero.
In bouts elsewhere around the world, fighters with big win totals wound up as big losers.
Sebastian Andres Lujan, a 12 win fighter, lost a ten round decision for the Argentina Welterweight title to Victor Hugo Velazquez, a six loss fighter.
Onetime heavyweight world title challenger Petr Okello got stopped in the ninth round by Evgeny Orlov in a WBC regional heavyweight title bout in the off location of Chengdu, China.
20-0 light heavyweight prospect Emmanuel Danso got knocked out in the seventh round of a vacant WBO International light heavyweight title bout by Robin Krasniqi.
8-0 Gina Chamie got stopped in the seventh round of a WBO World Super Featherweight female world title bout by Ramona Kuehne.
38 win cruiserweight Laszlo Hubert got knocked out in the second round in Belgium by Bilal Laggoune in a WBC regional title bout. 31 win cruiserweight LubosSuda got stopped in the second round by Dmitry Kudryashov in a WBC regional title bout in Russia.
30 win middleweight contender Grady Brewer lost a unanimous decision to Chris Chatman on Long Island to California journeyman Chris Chapman, a winner of only two of his previous five fights. One judge gave Chapman every round on the scorecards, while the other two judges both gave Brewer one round.
26 win Tanzanian light heavyweight Said Mbelwa got stopped in the fifth round in Russia Sergey Emimov. 39 win middleweight Ishmael El Massoudi on Morocco lost a 12 round split decision to Lenny Battai in Italy in an IBF regional title bout. 24 win middleweight Ryan Davis lost to Andy Kolle in Minnesota. 34 win light flyweight Heri Arnol of Indonesia lost a six round decision to Wanheng Menayothin in Thailand.
1-8 light welterweight LazizbekUzokov, 2-4 flyweight TatsujiKakumoto, 2-5 bantamweight Saturo Morishita, 3-4 super bantamweight Hikaru Takaki, 1-4 super bantamweight Toshiki Maruyama, super middleweight 0-1 Eric Diamandstein, 2-3-2 super middleweight Michael Mitchell, 1-7-3 female bantamweight Alejandra Morales, and winless French super bantamweight Daniel Martins were all winners over the weekend, proving records don’t mean anything if you cannot fight. Winless Armenian light middleweight Guram Khatchaterian and winless Argentian Jose Portaluppi both managed to fight to a draw against better opponents. 1-18-1 Czech lightweight Petr Gyna ruined the professional debut of Tibor Berki, stopping him in the second round.
The Peter Buckley ‘I am a better fighter than you think’ boogieman prize of the weekend goes to 8-171-7 British light welterweight ringer Kristian Laight AKA Mr. Reliable, who decisioned Aaron Flynn in Bedworth, England over four rounds. In January of this year, Laight decisioned and exposed 5-0 pretender Craig Whyatt in London, taking the bookies to the cleaners.
The sad saga of Thailand fighters traveling to Australia for a payday continues, with 35 win flyweight Samransak Singmanasak, and 34 win light heavyweight Kiatchai Singweancha, both getting knocked out, as well as Thai welterweight Manopnoi Singmanasaklosing on the same card.
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