Jones captures WBA cruiserweight belt

A great fight card was held today in the Color Line Arena in Germany. The main event saw Guillermo Jones (36-3-2, 28 KO’s) stopping reigning champ Firat Arslan (29-4-1, 18 KO’s) in the tenth round as the ref waved off the bout at 2:33.

The first half of the fight saw Jones dominating on sheer work rate. Arslan’s usual “Winky Wright” type defense with counter punching would not get it done in this fight. It showed in the first five rounds as Jones just kept punching away. For the most part Arslan waited too long to counter. A cut opened up on Arslan’s mouth in the third round, which would be looked at by the ringside physician all night long. It seemed that Jones could land the uppercut nearly at will, which was easily the best punch he had in the fight.

The second half of the fight saw Arslan open up more on offense, which was his only chance to win. Arslan made a good comeback in round 6, only to see Jones have one of his best rounds in round 7. Arslan came back strong in round 8, but him being more offensive seemed to empty his tank. In round 9, Jones had another huge round, landing multiple combinations. Round 10 would be the end for the former champ as the ref stepped in to call a halt to the bout. Between Arslan being hit way too much, or his bad cut and bleeding from the mouth, there were multiple reasons why this fight was to be stopped. At the time of the stoppage I had Jones ahead on the scorecards 88-83.

Heavyweight Juan Carlos Gomez (44-1, 35 KO’s) had just too much speed and movement as he coasted to a UD win over Vladimir Virchis (24-2, 20 KO’s). Virchis gave it an effort in the fight, but Gomez had more of a speed advantage than the big Ukrainian could overcome. Gomez dropped Virchis in the 4th round with a beautiful counter left hook as he moved onto the decision victory. With the win, Gomez has lined himself up for the winner of the Sam Peter/Vitali Klitschko bout and a shot at the WBC heavyweight belt. Scores were 117-110, 117-109, 115-111.

Dennis Inkin (34-0, 24 KO’s) won the vacant WBO super middleweight title winning a UD against Fulgencio Zuniga (21-3-1, 18 KO’s) by the scores of 118-110, 117-111, and 116-112. The fight was a little closer than what the first two scores would suggest.

Cruiserweight Alexander Alexeev (16-0, 15 KO’s) ended all title hopes of Rob Calloway (70-8-2, 56 KO’s) with an impressive third round stoppage. A one-two set Calloway up for trouble in the middle of the third round, which saw Calloway go down in the corner in an attempt to avoid any more punches. Once back up, it wouldn’t be to long until Calloway hit the canvas again, this time from a big left hook. The ref jumped in, waving the fight off at the time of 2:34. With the loss Calloway should probably just look for a farewell fight in front of the hometown fans. On the opposite end, with the impressive victory Alexeev has probably entered a few top 20 cruiserweight rankings. He is easily a top 10 P4P prospect and appears to have a bright future. Alexeev also won the WBO Intercontinental cruiserweight belt.

Hard hitting super featherweight Rene Gonzalez (21-1, 16 KO’s) showed Mohamed Benbiou (13-13, 8 KO’s) just how hard he can hit, stopping him at the 2:35 mark of the first round.