Fighters of the Week

  1. Luke Rockhold: Well damn. I didn’t know how Rockhold was going to respond after his KO loss and such a long layoff, but damned if he didn’t beat the tar out of David Branch, who had become one of the best fighters in the world outside of the UFC, making him lose to the ultimate humiliation, tapping to strikes.

  2. Billy Joe Saunders: Aaaand in the other world middleweight championship bout from the weekend, Saunders retained his WBO strap with a win over two-time challenger Willie Monroe Jr. in London.

  3. Yuta Kubo: The winner of K-1’s welterweight grand prix, felling Minoru Kimura, Hitoshi Tsukakoshi, and Mohan Dragon.

  4. Gennady Golovkin/Saul Alvarez: Leave it to Adelaide Byrd to ruin what should have been a defining moment in boxing. A draw would have been defensible, but enough has been said about her incompetence/corruption. Nevertheless, both men will take tens of millions on the rematch, but GGG deserved his win, but Canelo showed heart for roaring back and facing Golovkin head-on, and would have earned respect with a loss. Instead, people will keep (not unjustifiably) saying Televisa and De La Hoya is propping up Canelo by any means necessary.

  5. Jesus M. Rojas: Claimed Claudio Marrero’s interim WBA World Featherweight championship with a nasty KO Friday on “the ESPN family of networks”. Claimed Claudio Marrero’s interim WBA World Featherweight championship with a nasty KO Friday on “the ESPN family of networks”.

6. Takeru: In a very slim decision, Junguang Wang proved to be one hell of a tough opponent for the murderous Takeru, but he escaped with his K-1 Featherweight title.

7. Alex Lohore/Mike Shipman/Daniel Crawford: Putting these three lads together because, quite frankly, they all won titles by KO/TKO in the welterweight, middleweight, and featherweight championships, respectively, at BAMMA 31.

8. Nathaniel Wood: In his initial title defense, Wood remained champion after a first-round TKO of Josh Reed at Cage Warriors 86 after a hellacious comeback.

9. Roberto Traven: In the main event of Fight To Win Pro’s 47th event in Houston, as a benefit for hurricane relief, it was the crusty veteran withstanding an early onslaught to grind out a decision win.

10. Callum Smith: Kicked off the super middleweight division of the World Boxing Super Series with a win over Erik Skoglund.

11. Kairat Akhmetov: Only a month and change after losing a title unification to Adriano Moraes, Akhmetov was right back at it, taking a win over tough OneFC vet Geje Eustaquio in the main event of OneFC: Total Victory.

12. Haruo Ochi: Cool story here, as Kanta Sato defeated Ochi by SD in the strawweight tourney in DEEP, but Ochi had his chance to prove he was the better fighter, and got a submission in the main event of DEEP 79 Impact and the strawweight title is his.

13. Diego De La Hoya: The kid dominated Randy Caballero, who was previously 24-0 and the NABF Junior Featherweight champ, and is now a fight or two away from serious world title contention as the NABF champion.

14. Ibrahim El Boustati: In the main event of Enfusion Live 52, El Boustati KO’d Mauricio Costa Cardosa in the third round.

15. Anthony Smith: That’s three finishes in a row for the journeyman Smith, who has now won 11 out of his last 12, his last being TKOing former feared striker Hector Lombard at UFC Fight Night Pittsburgh.