In Bern, Switzerland on Epix, Wladimir Klitschko (58-3) defended his heavyweight championship in a rematch against Tony Thompson (36-3) with a TKO in round six. Thompson threw more punches than Klitschko, but was out of distance when throwing and had very few connects with very little power on them. Thompson needed to punch more aggressively to have had a chance.

Klitschko dropped the challenger in round five with a right hand to the mouth. Thompson never recovered and went down in round six from a barrage of punches. He was in the fetal postion on the canvas, but appeared more to be beaten with no hope to continue. It was a pathetic match up and Klitschko is in need of a real challenge. Klitschko did jab much less in the fight than his usual bouts.

On HBO, Nonito Donaire (29-1) continued his climb up the pound for pound ranks with a tough unanimous decision win over super bantamweight Jeffrey Mathebula (26-4-2). Donaire was the pressure fighter against his much taller opponent. 

Mathebula was dropped by a left hook to the jaw at the end of round four, but he recovered well. It was a competitive bout with Donaire taking most of the rounds, but Mathebula appeared to do enough to win rounds and many thought it was closer than the judges' scores ringside. HBO reported that Mathebula may have had his jaw broke near the end of the fight. 

In the HBO co-feature, super middleweight Kelly Pavlik (40-2) continued his comeback trail with a solid unanimous decision win over Will Rosinsky (16-2) in the ten round bout. Early in the fight, Pavlik knocked him down in round two with a short right hand to the chin. Rosinsky has fast hands and moves well, but he just did not have quite enough to win very many rounds. Pavlik did have a bruised ear and a cut over his eye after the bout. 

On Fox Sports Network, light middleweight Jesus Soto Karass (26-7-3) defeated Euri Gonzalez (20-3-1) by TKO in round five. Gonzalez was dropped by a right hand and Karass kept on him until the referee halted the bout. 

Javier Fortuna (20-0) defeated veteran boxer Cristobal Cruz (39-14-3) by second round technical knockout in quick fashion on the super featherweight main event for ESPN Friday Night Fights. 

Fortuna made his opponenet look outmatched from the beginning with much better hand speed and power to go with it. Cruz was knocked down in the first round from a flurry of punches. In round two, the southpaw Fortuna caught him with a short powerful left hand that caused the referee to call the TKO when Cruz barely wobbled up to his feet with a bloody nose.

There was also a trio of four rounders televised:
Heavyweight Magomed Abdusalamov (15-0) defeated Maurice Byarm (13-2-1) by TKO round two.
Featherweight Rocco Santomauro (9-0) defeated DeWayne Wisdom (2-4) by unanimous decision.
Cruiserweight Mitch Williams (6-2-1) defeated Manuel Otero (2-4) by unanimous decision. 


Javier Fortuna vs Cristobal Cruz

Cornelies "K-9" Bundrage (32-4) battered Cory Spinks (39-7) in their rematch for a TKO win in round seven of the main event on ShoBox for the IBF light middleweight championship. Spinks looked really out of sorts and his legs were jello from the opening bell. Bundrage was rugged as usual, but still has a monstrous right hand. Spinks was hit by a sledgehammer overhand right from Bundrage late in the first round that dropped him. Rest of the fight was very sloppy, but Spinks did manage to get some connects and land body shots albeit with little power. By round seven, K-9 was landing solid right hands with this time dropping Spinks three times in the round which caused the referee to stop the fight. 

Former Olympian Gary Russell Jr (20-0) made a quick night of Christopher Perez (23-3) with a third round knock out victory in the featherweight match. The speed and combinations were too much for the outmatched Perez. Russell knocked down Perez three times with the last one putting him through the ropes. He had knockdowns with both his right hook and straight left. 

The first bout of the night was competitive with a solid unanimous decision win for light middleweight Erislandy Lara (17-1-1) over Freddy Hernandez (30-3). Lara used his boxing skills and hand speed to run the show. It did get interesting in the sixth when Hernandez was verbally challenging his opponent to fight after Lara did an awkward move featuring a double punch and headbutt all in one. In round seven, Hernandez suffered another headbutt that this time caused a cut and Lara was deducted a point. Lara coasted the rest of the way while Hernandez slowed late in the fight. 
 

Light welterweight Ruslan Provodnikov (22-1) wasted no time on the ESPN Friday Night Fights main event with a knock out of Jose Reynoso (16-4-1) in round two. The Russian hammered Reynoso with hard shots including some good body punches and ended the fight with a sweeping right to the head. Provodnikov dominated his outclassed opponent as expected.

The co-feature was also an entertaining fight. Junior featherweight Christopher Martin (24-2-3) defeated Roberto Castaneda (20-2) by knockout in round six via a body shot. Martin started out very slow and was mostly just throwing pop shots while Castaneda was outworking him. By round five, Castaneda slowed and Martin found his weak spot which was the body. Late in the fifth, Martin dropped him with a right uppercut to the solar plexus and went back to the body in round six with a left hook to the liver that finished him off. 

In an electrifying upset, Josesito Lopez (30-4) defeated Victor Ortiz (29-4-2) by TKO after round nine of the Showtime welterweight main event. According to reports ringside, Lopez broke Ortiz's jaw early in round nine. Ortiz then quit on his stool after the round while spitting up blood. It brought reminders of Muhammad Ali vs. Ken Norton except without the Ali. 

It was a good fight from beginning to end with back and forth action. Lopez showed no fear and obviously came to fight. Lopez came out strong, but he was also hurt by a straight left hand followed by a right hook in round two. He regained his composure while keeping a steady pace and backing off Ortiz with his punches in return. In round five, Ortiz pulled a dirty move by bluntly hitting Lopez in the back of the head. However by round seven, Lopez was putting together strong effective combinations and egging on Ortiz to fight. 

Unknown initially, a left hook to Ortiz's jaw while his mouth was open may have caused the injury early in the ninth that led to the technical knockout. Showtime's Jim Gray attempted to interview Ortiz, but he sounded like a drunken sailor doing a bad Daffy Duck impersonation and his handlers took him away. Ortiz was up on all judges' scorecards at the time of the stoppage by 86-85, 87-84, and 88-83. 

Victor Ortiz was set to fight Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in September on pay per view, but that will not happen and this is another drastic setback for Ortiz. His heart has been questioned before when he quit against Marcos Maidana earlier in his career and his recent debacle in the Mayweather fight along with this will drop Ortiz's status significantly. He appears to break down mentally too often in tough fights to be an elite boxer. Ortiz did look badly hurt, but just too many of his fights have ended in a strange manner. 

In the co-feature, Lucas Matthysse (31-2) defeated Humberto Soto (58-8-2) by TKO after round five. Soto did well early, but got into a firefight. Matthysse dropped Soto at the end of round five as a result of consecutive ruthless overhand rights. Soto was not able to recover and his corner called the bout while he sat on the stool. 

Both Showtime fights ended with fighters on their stools, but both were very entertaining bouts. 


Recap: Victor Ortiz vs. Josesito Lopez & Humberto Soto vs. Lucas Matthysse

Mike Dallas Jr (19-2-1) defeated Javier Castro (27-5) by TKO victory in the light welterweight main event on ESPN Friday Night Fights. Dallas was holding often in the fight. He did suddenly spark alive in round six and rocked Castro with a hard right hand followed by more hard connects leading to the stoppage. Castro was still standing, but was not returning punches and took repeated flush shots. For Dallas, he has made a good comeback since his TKO loss to Josesito Lopez by winning two in a row with only one loss since the Lopez bout which was a majority decision. 

Mike Dallas Jr vs Javier Castro

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (46-0-1) took one more step out of his father's shadow and into his own spotlight with his TKO victory over middleweight Andy Lee (28-2) tonight on HBO World Championship Boxing. Chavez began slow with only throwing eight punches in the opening round, but was strong once he warmed up. Lee boxed well early with winning the first couple rounds, but was broke down as the fight went on. In round four, Chavez's hard power shots were landing more frequently on his opponent's chin along with some vicious body shots. 

By time round seven, Chavez was beating the hell out of Lee with all sorts of power punches including right crosses and hooks from every direction. The referee jumped in to stop the punishment while Lee was against the ropes. Chavez's infighting and body punching skills are well above par; it is almost like he was born with it (couldn't help it). Julio Cesar Chavez Jr is expected to fight the Ring middleweight champion Sergio Martinez this fall.

On another network, NBC Sports, heavyweight "Fast" Eddie Chambers (36-3) lost to Tomasz Adamek (46-2) in a close bout that contradicted the scoring. Chambers left bicep was hurt in the first round and he primarily used his right hand the rest of the way. Fast Eddie demonstrated good defense and did well early, but slowed down in the middle and late rounds. He did not really appeared fatigued, but was unwilling to throw punches as he has done in the past and it may have been due some to his injury. 

Adamek did not land many clean head shots, but did get some good body shots in. It looked like a slight win for Chambers, but it was a difficult fight to score. The final scores were 116-112 twice and a 119-110 all for Adamek. The 119-110 score was ridiculous and Adamek even stated afterwards that it was close. Either way, Chambers needed to punch more. 

On the undercard of boxing on NBC Sports, heavyweight Bryant Jennings (14-0) defeated Steve Collins (25-2-1) by out landing him 246 to 85 punches with a knockdown leading to a unanimous ten round decision. Jennings paced himself through the fight and may have gotten the knockout if he would have stepped on the pedal just a little more.  Also, Jamal Davis (14-8-1) defeated tough fighter Doel Carrasquillo (16-20-1) by unanimous decision in a eight round light middleweight match. The boxers actual had to fight through a six minute round caused by a time keeping error. 

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr vs Andy Lee

On HBO pay per view, welterweight superstar Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2) lost for the first time since 2005 by splt decision against Timothy Bradley (29-0) in possibly the worst decision of contemporary boxing history for a top tier fight. All judges scored the match 115-113 with two in favor of Bradley and the other for Pacquiao. Harold Lederman of HBO scored the match 11 rounds to 1 and Fight Night Blog had it 10 rounds to 2. Dan Rafael of ESPN also had the same score as Lederman. There is no way that Bradley could have won seven rounds and the only real clear rounds won were by Pacquiao. The main event was delayed some due to Pacquiao watching the Celtics vs. Heat game and then he took time to stretch his calves before gloving up. 

The first couple rounds started off slow and round two was somewhat close, but Pacquiao easily dominated from round three on while easing up some of the last few rounds. There were a couple times in the fight that Bradley was hurt and Pacquiao had a very strong outing. He was landing his lethal left often and his power was the significant difference in the bout. It was surprising that Bradley survived and he might not have if he did not decide to change his game plan to more boxing instead of heated exchanges as the bout progressed. According to HBO punch stats, Pacquiao had an overwhelming advantage on power punch connects landing 190 of 493 compared to 108 of 390 for Bradley which a fighter rarely loses with that large of a statistical advantage. There was round by round coverage of the bout on the Fight Night Blog Facebook Page.  

The last televised undercard of bantamweights Jorge Arce (60-6-2) vs. Jesus Rojas (18-1-1) ended with a no contest. Rojas was knocked down in the opening session, but came back strong and was landing well by round two. However, he landed a low blow followed by a left to the side of the head of Arce causing him unable to continue ending with the no contest. 

Randall Bailey (43-7) had a stunning victory by knock out over welterweight prospect Mike Jones (26-1) in a match that was relatively boring until late fireworks. Jones was effectively boxing and moving around Bailey while winning rounds in the process. He seemed very unwilling to exchange for much of the fight which led to a mostly boring match. However, Jones picked up the pace later in the fight and it cost him. He was floored by a straight right hand near the end of round 10 and in the following round, he was knocked out by a right uppercut that left him on Queer Street.

In the opening televised match, Guillermo Rigondeaux (10-0) defeated Teon Kennedy (17-2-2) by TKO in round five of the super bantamweight bout. The Cuban native Rigondeaux dominated and dropped Kennedy five times. Rigondeaux was timing him easily with power counter lefts. There was just too much precision and skill for his opponent to handle.  

Former middleweight champion Kelly "The Ghost" Pavlik (39-2) returned to television with a TKO win over Scott Sigmon (22-4) on ESPN Friday Night Fights. Pavlik walloped his outmatched opponent most of the night and at times looked to be just a couple punches away from a knock out. As the fight went on, Sigmon was battered resulting in a bloody nose and cut mostly from Pavlik's straight rights. He was also hammered repeatedly by left hooks to the body. The bout was halted at the end of round seven. Pavlik should step a notch up for his next match, but needs to build more before facing another fighter in the top tier of a stacked super middle weight division. 

Also on the undercard, former Notre Dame boxer Mike Lee (9-0) defeated Elisio Durazo (4-3) by unanimous decision in a six round bout that ESPN and many ringside thought was a four round scheduled match. It was noted by ESPN commentators that Lee was in a Subway commercial with Michael Phelps and others (see below). He won the bout, but was not impressive against a clearly out of shape opponent. Maybe he should try double meat next time on his pre-fight subs. Hey as he says, "when you're training to be the best, you got to eat the best."

Pavlik Wins by TKO 

Mike Lee in Subway Commercial

Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley have weighed in for their Saturday night pay per view event. Pacquiao weighed in at the heaviest of his career at 147 pounds and Bradley tipped the scales at 146 pounds. If it was a bodybuilding contest, then Bradley won hands down, but the contest is in the ring tomorrow night. Freddie Roach proclaimed that Bradley would not win a round. Follow round by round coverage of the Pacquiao vs Bradley main event on the Fight Night Blog Facebook Page and the full recap afterwards on the FNB website.  

HBO Telecast- Manny Pacquiao vs Timothy Bradley Official Weigh in