6/11/2016 New York- Showtime had plenty of action last night, Willie Nelson (no, not THAT one) didn’t have anything to do with it (more later on that one). Evidently, the boxing world hasn’t received my memo on theses hard to pronounce names, yet. Big props to the announcers  for being able to keep pace. It’s like watching a woman’s tennis match where all the names Not ending in Williams, is ‘something NOVA’.

Dejan Zlaticanin (17-0-10K) v. Franklin Mamani ( 21-2-12K)

How in tha’ hell does one get a title bout with only 11 days notice? That means he probably only trained a week or so. Anyway, that’s the backdrop for one Franklin Mamani as he faced the brutal punches of DeJan Zlaticanin (who will be known as Zman). Z man stormed out of his corner  and immediately pounced on Franklin like he was a side of beef, wobbling him with a big left hook in mid round. I thought he only had an 11 day notice but he’s not gonna’ last 11 MINUTES as this rate. Franklin ate that hook and fought back well, winging hard shots of his own to Z man’s body. After another tough round, the short notice was beginning to take its toll as Franklin was starting to react to the heavy, two-fistic bombardment of Dejan. The relief came in the third round as Dejan propped  Mamani to the ropes and poured everything on him dropping him and cause the stoppage. Zlaticanin is now the new WBC lightweight champ and he seems to be something to reckon with and I’m sure his next opponent will require more than 11 days to get ready.

Demetrius Andrade (22-0-15K) v. Willie Nelson (25-2-1-15K)

This was about as one-sided a fight as I’ve ever seen. I’d never paid much attention to Andrade since he’s been so inactive and I know he struggled with underachiever,  Vanes  Martirosyan. Well, I’ll pay attention from now on after what he did to Willie Nelson. Nelson acted like he was on weed ( Willie Nelson on WEED,  be serious). Nelson sleepwalked through this whole fight, like he was in a damn trance. Andrade should’ve gotten arrested for molestation, the way he put his hands on this 6’4” punching bag. Nelson looks like that old prison champion James Scott and Andrade was like a Chad Dawson with heart.

Andrade was super smooth and super sharp as he spent so much time in Nelson’s  ass, he should’ve paid rent. He dropped Nelson in the first with a right hook and proceeded to beat his ass the rest of the night. Lead right uppercuts, blistering body shots, looping head shots, Demetrius was clearly sending a memo to all ’54 pounders. He called out the Charlo Twins especially. He didn’t mention J Rock Williams, though, hell, who does? Andrade said he wanted all fighters with names starting with a C and ending with an O, Charlo, Cotto, Canelo…. Nelson seemed so disinterested in the fight and he paid dearly. Round by round, he was ravages by the vicious body shots from Andrade as well as shots upstairs. His corner never seemed concerned as the trouncing went on and on and on. The beating continued as long as Nelson was erect and in the final round, he was no longer erect, the Viagra had worn off. He was dropped three times in a brutal 12^th round and finally, FINALLY the ref stepped in at the 1:38 mark. Nelson had better take a quick look at his situation because he was TOTALLy unprepared for Andrade and his corner didn’t have a damn clue. They seemed to be in a daze, just like not too slick, Willie.

Ruslan Provodnikov (25-4-18K) v. John Molina (28-6-23K)

In a battle that saw both fighters enter the fight with new trainers, it was gonna’ be interesting to see how things turned out. In one corner, Molina (with an a) had my good buddy Shadeed Suluki and Ruslan had Joel Diaz, who trained Tim Bradley for years. Suluki told me about a month ago that he was training Molina, which SURPRISED me then said he was gonna’ have him “boxing” which SHOCKED me. Molina and  “boxing”  sounds like a REAL oxymoron. I thought teaching him to box was one thing, teaching him to WANNA’ box might be another, given John’s penchant and desire for violent confrontations. Plus Ruslan didn’t care a whole lot about this “boxing” thing either.

Man, was I surprised, Molina DID come out boxing showing a pinpoint jab and a nice right hand behind it. Sometimes  straight, sometimes looping. He showed  a lotta’ versatility. He was blasting the one direction Ruslan with hard lead uppercuts as well. But, the Siberian Rocky had his moments as well. He and Molina went at it for 12 rounds, each taking turns landing their shots, but Molina was the slicker of the two and seemed to be in better shape. This pitched battle went on, back and forth right up to the final bell. Molina’s new style suits him well and he gave props to his new trainer, calling Suluki his new “teacher”. Teacher was doing some  serious cursing between rounds too. He kept Molina focused with his demands to “throw more right hands behind the jab” Suluki said, I’m “getting’ hoarse telling you to do this, my damn throat’s sore”. I’m sure Molina was more concerned with that Siberian tiger clawing at his ass.

This was a really hard fight for both guys and in a surprise,  Ruslan admitted the judges call was the right one, when they gave Molina the unanimous decision. You don’t see that too often. Molina was effusive in his praise of his new trainer and mentioned Sam Watson who has found the best way to always be in the camera’s line of sight is to stand against the ring post directly behind the fighter when he’s introduced. Ruslan mentioned a possible lack of focus during training and wasn’t as sharp as he should’ve been. Isn’t that what Joel Diaz said about Tim Bradley after he was ditched for Teddy atlas and lost to Manny Pacquiao? So now, Molina is the new WBO International Jr. welterweight boss.

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