WEEKEND IN REVIEW: Rojas, Segura, Kirakosyan, Porter

Big hitting was provided by Giovanni Segura and Leva Kirakosyan, but the most skilful performance of the weekend came from Elio Rojas as he outboxed and outclassed Guty Espadas on Saturday night, with live internet coverage made available by the WBC.

Rojas, in his first defence of the WBC featherweight title, boxed beautifully and dominated the fight. Espadas gave it a great try, his every success greeted with roars of approval by the hometown crowd in Merida, Yucatan, but Rojas was always moving too well and punching too rapidly.

It seemed that every time Espadas landed a worthwhile punch it was cancelled out by something better from Rojas, and I thought that the champion from the Dominican Republic took his boxing to a new level. Rojas was relaxed and flashy, a thoroughbred streaking out of the gate and staying in front. Rojas even threw the occasional bolo punch in an entertaining showing. He was boxing at the same fast pace in the last round as the first. It was an impressive demonstration of classy boxing and exemplary conditioning, and although Espadas kept pressing in and throwing punches I couldn’t give the Mexican fighter a round.

In Friday’s Sky Sports main event, Armenian banger Leva Kirakosyan made it look easy as he destroyed the game but massively outgunned Scott Lawton in three rounds.

Lawton’s hometown crowd at Stoke in the English midlands was stunned into silence by the brutally one-sided nature of the fight. I had expected more from Lawton, but he was never in the fight. Lawton stood up straight and Kirakosyan soon found his chin.

A right hand put Lawton down in the opening round and a left hook had him slumping against the ropes for another eight count in the second. Kirakosyan was just walking through him, far too powerful for the taller British boxer. It was a relief when the Danish referee called a halt after a big right hand had Lawton out on his feet in the third.

This was the Kirakosyan who twice destroyed Carl Johanneson in the U.K., a compact, heavy handed puncher with considerable belief in his firepower. Lawton couldn’t keep him off and couldn’t keep away from him, and the crushing outcome was soon looking inevitable.

There was also an inevitability about Giovanni Segura’s third-round demolition of Walter Tello on Fox Sports Espanol on Saturday night.

Segura, who retained his WBA 108-pound title, is one of the most colourful and exciting fighters in the business. It was bombs away from the start, most thrown in the southpaw posture. The Panamanian southpaw Tello was game, but trying to trade punches with the much more powerful Segura could only ever have one outcome for him, and not a good one.

Tello was able to land his punches but he couldn’t hurt Segura, while the Panamanian was being rocked and staggered in the one-sided exchanges.

When Tello almost went down from a right uppercut in the third it was apparent that the end was near, and referee Luis Pabon made a well-judged intervention after yet another in a series of big right hooks buckled the challenger’s legs.

Segura is wide open, but his attack is his best defence. He has now stopped four consecutive opponents in title bouts and a match with master boxer Ivan Calderon would be intriguing.

Big disappointment of the weekend was unbeaten junior middle Shawn Porter in his unanimous decision win over Russell Jordan on Friday Night Fights.

Porter won clearly on points but his vaunted punching power was missing. He picked up points with combinations but never had Jordan in trouble. Indeed, it was the towering southpaw from Rochester, NY, who looked like the puncher in the fight and I thought he hurt Porter several times, notably with a right hook in the second round. I had expected much more from Porter. True, he was meeting a much taller, awkward southpaw who was quite dangerous with shots from either hand, but Porter just didn’t have the look of a future star. At least the hometown crowd in Cleveland was treated to an entertaining fight: Jordan came to win and the local boxer had to work hard for the victory.