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Since he could make more money fighting in Moscow, Anthony Mundine decided to make his 3rd defense of his WBO MW belt in Russia against Artur Akavov.

Based on this performance, maybe Mundine should always fight in December because he looked sensational once again with a dominating 8th round TKO of Artur. Before the fight was stopped, Akavov had hit the deck 4 times & was behind by 8 points on all the cards: 69-61.

Last December Mundine blew out Andy Lee in 3!

Mundine is now 14-1 (13 KO's) @ 160.

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Making his 1st defense, Terrance Crawford put on quite a show by taking apart Mexico's big punching Roberto Ortiz.

TC dropped Ortiz in the 2nd & pretty much controlled the fight until the 8th when he decided to end it by sending the Mexican to the canvas 3 more times - ending the fight due to the 3 KD rule.

Ortiz was dropped 4 times by then WBA champ, Adrien Broner, too in June of 2015 but was able to see the final bell & lost that fight via decision. He had no such luck against the ever improving TC who's now 11-0, all KO's @ 140.

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Late last month, Carl Froch tried to end a 2 fight losing streak against solid vet - Fully Obel.

Carl's usual iron chin failed him again as Obel dropped Froch an incredible 5 times to cruise to an easy 12 UD - 114-109, 116-107 & 115-108.

Froch won the PL battle: 290 to 289 but all the KD's made a huge difference in the scoring.

Froch is now 26-4, all losses by decision. His lone loss prior to this 3rd in a row was to Tommy Hearns years ago.

He'd lost his IBO belt to Mads Larsen last year (dropped twice in that fight) & then dropped once in his loss against Karoly Balzsay for the Euro belt.

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Recently Julian Williams went to Poland & took the IBF title from Pawel Wolak with an 8th round DQ - a low blow. A fight Julian trailed on all 3 cards: 69-64.

Glen Tapia took the WBA belt with a 15th round DQ of Sechew Powell - ref Steve Smoger DQ'd Powell due to hitting on the break. A fight Powell was dominating: 136-126 on 2 cards & 136-127 on the 3rd.

So the 2 new champs agreed to a unification bout in Atlantic City.

The 1st 4 rounds were rather mundane but in the 5th, the ref warned Julian for holding & hitting. Tapia didn't appreciate it so he head butted the IBF champ. Julian backed up & pointed to his head where he'd been butted & Tapia took a swing @ him. Then the ref stepped in, warned both fighters & told them to act like pros.

When things settled down, the fight resumed & an enraged Tapia walked right in a vicious combo that ended the fight @ 1:13 of the 5th.

Julian trailed on 2 cards (37-39) with 1 even @ 38-38.

He's now 7-0 (6 KO's) & Tapia falls to 8-3.

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England's 2 MW kings decided to do battle & help clear up crowded picture @ 160.

IBF champ Matthew Macklin vs. Frank Grant - holding a portion of the IBO belt.

In the 2nd, a Grant combo countered the huge right cross miss & sent Matt to the deck for a 7 count. In the 9th, a huge overhand left sent Macklin down again.

Sensing the bout was slipping away, Matt came charging out in the 10th & a hook ended Frank's night @ 0:35 of the round.

Grant was up 86-83 on all the cards & is now 8-2 (4 KO's).

Macklin improves to 22-1 (17 KO's) - his loss to Hassim N'Dam.

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Tom Doran's short reign as champ came to a violent end as Mexican hardman, James De La Rosa, came to Wales to deliver a brutal 12 round 5 KD beat down - finally ending matters @ 2:45 of the 12th with a combo to end the night.

James was up 110-95 on all 3 cards & might have earned himself a shot @ a MW title later this summer.

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Making the 5th defense of his IBO SMW belt, Robert Stieglitz got much more than he bargained for as Joseph Kiwanuka stopped Robert @ 2:50 of the 7th with a barrage of punches.

Joseph was knocked out in the 14th last Spring by WBC champ (Thomas Oosthuizen) in a brutal fight. At the time of the KO, Joseph lead on all 3 cards.

In this fight, Joseph made sure there would be no late round rally.
The fight was even on the cards @ the time of stoppage: 59-56, 56-59 & 58-58.

With the loss, Robert is now 27-4 @ SMW & considering a move up to 175.

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Richard Commey now has fought for a version of the LW belt on 2 occasions & had a draw both times. Earlier this year he fought Dejan Zlaticanin for the vacant WBC belt - fight ended 144-141 Dejan, 143-142 Commey & one 143-143.

Last week Commey went to Korea to face the WBA champ - Ji Hoon Kim. This ended 142-140 Commey & the other 2 had it 141-141.

Richard's record is now 1-0-3.

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Former WBC champ, Bradley Pryce, got a shot @ the vacant WBO belt when Canelo decided to move to 160 full time. He took on Liam Smith in Wales & just like real life, Smith won due to a cut @ 0:18 of the 11th.

Smith however was able to make weight & won the belt as a result.

2 of the judges had Pryce up: 96-94 & 97-94 while the 3rd had Liam up 96-95. Smith was up 228-211 in PL.

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Ilunga Makabu hoped to have an easy tune up prior to a bigger fight later this year but 1 brutal punch (a right hook) from Micki Nielsen ended those plans @ 2:23 of the 8th.

Makabu was making the 8th defense of his WBO CW belt & led 69-64 on all 3 cards as well as 169 (41%) to 131 (24%) in punches landed.

Makabu is now 9-1-1.

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Charles Martin came to England for his 3rd defense against former WBA champ - David Price.

Martin came in heavy, either in hopes to deal with Price's advantage in size & bulk or he just didn't train all that hard?

Either way, most of the fight was just 2 lumbering HW's going through the motions. Until the 8th round when Price came out firing & dropped Charles with a combo & a 7 count. At that point David just kept punching until the ref called a halt @ 2:12 of the round.

Price was up on the cards 69-65 & 68-66 twice. Also landed an incredible 67% of his punches: 244 to 142 (22%).

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Forced to come to Moscow, Errol Spence didn't take long to show he could be a star as a vicious left cross ended matters @ 1:27 of the 3rd & handed Ruslan Provodnikov his 1st defeat ever. He was 7-0, 5 KO's & 147 & 14-0, 12 KO's @ 140.

Errol is now 11-0-1 with 10 KO's.

I picture a 1 punch KO like Marquez landed on Manny.

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Making his 1st defense, Andre Ward came back to Paris to face the fearsome Fabrice Tiozzo, the same man he beat last November for the vacant belt.

And just like last year, this fight ended in less than satisfying terms - a 6th TKO loss due to a cut over Fabrice's left eye. In their previous meeting, a cut over the same left eye ended that fight in the 9th. Age might be catching up with the Frenchman.

Ward landed an astounding 81% of his punches, incredible against anyone but there were two 10 rated fighters going against each other.

Edit - I checked & in their 1st meeting last Fall, Ward only landed 40% of his punches.

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Making the 2nd defense of his belt, Manny Pacquaio came to Austin Texas to face the powerful James Kirkland in his home state.

For the 1st 3 rounds, James appeared in over his head against the very fast & aggressive champ. By the 4th however, James found his footing & started winning exchanges with Manny.

In the 8th, Manny landed a hard right hook & then another that dropped Kirkland for a 8 count. Then Manny just kept punching until the ref stepped in @ 2:39 of the round.

Manny's now 7-1-1 (3 KO's) @ 154.

Kirkland: 16-1 (13 KO's). PL was 222 (41%) to 161 (36%) for MP & the judges had him up 67-66 on all 3 cards.

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In what was supposed to be a routine defense, Paulie Malignaggi dominated & outboxed Felix Diaz for the 1st 3 rounds (up 30-27 on all 3 cards). Then came the 4th & things changed, ahead 17-6 in PL, Diaz landed a vicious 3 punch combo that ended Paulie's reign after 2 defenses @ 2:35 of the round.

Also Paulie's 1st defeat @ 147 - now 15-1.

Diaz improves to 4-0, 3 KO's

Paulie lead PL 138 (34%) to 78 (37%).

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Former IBF champ, Ajose, got another title shot against potential rising star - Eduard Troyanovsky.

Ajose's a tough guy to beat, a slick lefty boxer but in the 10th he actually dropped ET. The furious Russian came back to drop Ajose twice in the 11th.

Then in the 13th, a short right cross right on the button knocked Ajose out @ 0:41 of the round.

Ajose went 15 with the mega puncher Lucas Matthysse to win the IBF belt before he lost it earlier this year to Ricky Burns by decision.

ET was up 349 (39%) to 210 (15%) in PL & 115-112, 116-111 & 116-110 on the cards.

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Fighting for a vacant interim IBO belt, 2 big punchers met & the fight ended with the expected results as Jesus Gonzalez knocked out Peter Quillin @ 2:09 of the 4th.

JG is now 18-0 (17 KO's) @ 160 & Peter's 12-2 (12 KO's).

Also for an interim version of the WBA strap, Grzegorz Proksa came to the UK to battle hardman vet - Chris Pyatt.

In a true back & forth battle, Pyatt set a trap & dropped GP with an uppercut in the middle rounds for an 8 count.

In the 12th however, Proksa landed a perfect left cross 1 punch KO @ 2:56 of the round.

GP was up on 2 of the cards: 106-103, 105-104, 104-105.

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Humberto Soto took the money & agreed to make his 3rd title defense in Namibia against Julius Indongo.

In the 1st Soto tried to knock out the lanky African but Indongo held on. His length gave Soto problems & in the 3rd a big left cross sent Soto to the canvas.

Indongo appeared to take control of the fight with his boxing ability but in the 9th & 10th, Soto came back & looked take back control against the tiring Julius. He weathered that storm regained his 2nd wind & in the 14th a right hook sent Soto to the canvas again. This time Julius kept punching until the ref stepped in @ 2:11 as Indongo became the new champ.

He was up 126-122 & 125-121 twice on the cards & out punched Soto: 446 (32%) to 216 (33%).

Note - I used the updated 6 rating from Ice Tea so both fighters were 6's.

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In a performance sure to enhance his legend, Miguel Cotto rallies in the 8th to KO former WBC MW champ - Fernando Guerrero @ 2:19 of the round.

Early in the 1st Cotto received notice this would not be an easy defense when MC missed with an upper & a R hook counter from FG dropped the champ for a count of 8.

It wasn't until the 8th until when Cotto took back control, he dropped FG for a 6 count with a left hook, then a right cross dropped FG for a count of 9. The huge upper ending the fight.

Fernando was up 69-64 on all 3 cards & drops to 23-6.

Cotto is now 5-0 with 2 KO's @ 160 & this was his 1st title defense.