Six Stellar Wednesday Night Fights; Only One Shown in United States
July 31, 2008 by Michael Sedor
Filed under MMA-UFC
Nine, that’s right nine, www.boxrec.com Top 20 fighters were in action yesterday in a total of six bouts held on three continents. Only one was shown on American television, a surprising ten round domination by Argentine Sebastian Lujan over former world light welterweight champ Jose Luis Castillo seen on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights. Castillo was making his first foray into the 147-pound weight class.
We at jabandgrapple.com wonder, why can’t ESPN buy the rights to these fights and show them on ESPN Classic? Or better yet why can’t somebody with the rights to old fights (like Top Rank or ESPN) start a boxing channel that airs classic fights all day and shows notable live fights from around the world that aren’t picked up for broadcast stateside. The rights could probably be had for peanuts. Anyway here are yesterday’s results:
The Ring’s #2 super middleweight Australian Anthony Mundine (33-3-0) def. Japan’s Crazy Kim (28-5-0) by ten-round unanimous decision at the Newcastle Entertainment Center, New South Wales despite getting knocked down in the third. See picture below. Brisbane Times fight recap.
At welterweight, Argentine Sebastian Lujan (30-5-2) def. Mexico’s Jose Luis Castillo (56-9-1) by ten-round unanimous decision at the Sycuan Resort & Casino, El Cajon, California.
Super featherweight Australian Billy Dib (21-1-0) def. South African Zolani Marali (19-2-0) by twelve-round unanimous decision at the Newcastle Entertainment Center, New South Wales to win the vacant IBO super featherweight title. See picture below.
The next three fights took place at the Yoyogi First Gym, Tokyo, Japan. All competitors were fighting in their home country.
Super flyweight Daigo Nakahiro (18-2-0) def. Kenji Yoshida (13-8-0) by eight-round unanimous decision.
The Ring’s #2 flyweight Daisuke Naito (33-2-3) def. Tomonobu Shimizu (13-2-0) by tenth round KO to retain the WBC flyweight title.
The Ring’s #4 flyweight Takefumi Sakata (33-4-2) def. Hiroyuki Hisataka (16-7-1) by twelve-round unanimous decision to retain the WBA flyweight title.
