A roundup of the past week's notable boxing results from around the world:
Sunday at Tokyo
Ryota Murata TKO7 Hassan N'Dam -- Full recap
Wins a middleweight title
Records: Murata (13-1, 10 KOs); N'Dam (36-3, 21 KOs)
Gabriel Rosado makes a statement against Glen Tapia, winning the bout via sixth-round TKO. Bernardo Osuna and Joel Diaz break down Rosado's 24th career win and what it means for his spot in the middleweight division.
Rafael's remarks: Murata, 31, a 2012 Japanese Olympic gold medalist, and N'Dam, 33, of France met again in a rematch of a controversial decision last May, and this time Murata took the result out of the judges' hands. The aggressive Murata stalked N'Dam and laid an absolute beating on him. Murata did damage with overhand rights and body shots and just wore N'Dam out. He staggered N'Dam with a right hand in the sixth round and after the seventh round N'Dam retired on his stool. The CompuBox stats showed just how lopsided the fight was. Murata landed 147 of 295 punches (50 percent), including 109 of 193 power shots (an absurdly high 57 percent) while N'Dam connected on 68 of 347 (20 percent). For what it's worth the judges were in sync with reality this time. Murata was leading 70-63, 69-64 and 68-65 after seven rounds.
Daigo Higa TKO7 Tomas Masson
Retains a flyweight title
Records: Higa (14-0, 14 KOs); Masson (17-4-1, 5 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Higa, 22, of Japan, won a vacant world title in May and made his first defense against Masson, 27, of France, in a dominant outing. He pressured Masson, nailed him with combinations, dropped him to a knee with a left hook in the seventh round and had so badly swelled his right eye that referee Tom Taylor waved off the fight at 1 minute, 10 seconds of the seventh round upon advice of the ringside doctor. At the time of the stoppage Higa led 60-54 on two scorecards and 59-55 on the third.
Ken Shiro W12 Pedro Guevara
Retains a junior flyweight title
Scores: 116-112, 115-113, 114-114
Records: Shiro (11-0, 5 KOs); Guevara (30-3-1, 17 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: In May, Shiro, 25, of Japan, took a majority decision from Ganigan Lopez to win the 108-pound belt and made his first defense against mandatory challenger Guevara, 28, of Mexico, who was seeking to regain the title he held from 2014 to 2015. The quicker Shiro worked Guevara hard to the body and was the well-deserved winner of the majority decision against a vastly more experienced opponent. Guevara opened a comfortable lead through the first four rounds -- 40-36 twice and 39-37 -- as they were announced under open scoring rules before Shiro came back. He opened a cut over Guevara's left eye in the fourth round and one over his right eye in the sixth round. Guevara continued to fight on despite the blood, but Shiro closed strong to earn the hard-fought decision.
Saturday at Newark, N.J.
Murat Gassiev KO3 Krzysztof Wlodarczyk -- Full recap
Retains a cruiserweight title - World Boxing Super Series quarterfinals
Records: Gassiev (25-0, 18 KOs); Wlodarczyk (53-4-1, 37 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Trainer Abel Sanchez has long referred to Gassiev as his cruiserweight Gennady Golovkin because of his intense work ethic and debilitating power. Gassiev, 24, of Russia, showed off that devastating power after a couple of rounds of toying with the tentative Wlodarczyk, as he caught him with a powerful left uppercut followed by a nasty left to the body that sent him the mat. Poland's Wlodarczyk, 36, the ultra-experienced two-time world titleholder, was in agony as referee Earl Brown counted him out at 1 minute, 57 seconds. It was dominant first title defense for Gassiev, who advanced to the early 2018 tournament semifinals to face fellow titleholder Yunier Dorticos (22-0, 21 KOs), 31, a Cuban defector fighting out of Miami. Dorticos was ringside, and they got the hype started right away. It should be a tremendous fight between undefeated knockout artists.
Saturday at Verona, N.Y.
Alberto Machado KO8 Jezreel Corrales
Wins a vacant junior lightweight title
Records: Machado (19-0, 16 KOs); Corrales (22-2, 8 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: In the HBO main event, Puerto Rico's Machado, a 27-year-old power-punching southpaw trained by Hall of Famer Freddie Roach, rallied for a title-winning knockout over heavily favored Corrales, 26, of Panama. Corrales, also a southpaw, badly missed weight Friday, weighing 133.25 pounds for what was supposed to be his third 130-pound title defense and was stripped of the belt. But he was still in total control against the slower, far less skilled Machado, including knocking him down with a left hand in the fifth round. Corrales was leading on all three scorecards, 68-64, 68-64 and 67-65, at the start of the eighth round, but Machado had never given up and continued to press the action. He broke though with a sharp left to the chin and a right hand. Corrales went down and referee Mark Nelson counted him out at 2 minutes, 18 seconds as he was getting to his feet.
Demetrius Andrade W12 Alantez Fox
Middleweight
Scores: 118-110, 118-109, 116-111
Records: Andrade (25-0, 16 KOs); Fox (23-1-1, 11 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Andrade, a 29-year-old southpaw from Providence, Rhode Island, a former two-time junior middleweight titlist, moved up to middleweight and dominated Fox, 25, of Forestville, Maryland. Although the 6-foot-4 Fox, very tall for the division, held a three-inch height advantage and also rehydrated 20 pounds to 180 from the weigh-in, he had no idea how to use his height and bulk advantage against the slick southpaw Andrade, who boxed circles around him in the first bout of a deal with HBO. Andrade, trying to get into the mix for major fights at 160 pounds against Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez, rocked Fox, who was taking a major step up in opposition, in the first round and cruised. In the seventh round referee Gary Rosato badly blew a knockdown call, ruling that Andrade hit the mat from a punch when television replays clearly showed he did not get hit and slipped. Nonetheless, Andrade controlled the entire fight, and Fox was unwilling to fight and merely trying to survive. How one-sided was it? Per CompuBox, Fox never landed double-digit punches in a round, landed only one punch in the second and 11th rounds and landed just eight overall in the final three rounds. Overall, Andrade landed 158 of 572 (28 Percent) and Fox just 52 of 301 (17 percent).
Saturday at Belfast, Northern Ireland
Ryan Burnett W12 Zhanat Zhakiyanov
Unifies two bantamweight titles
Scores: 119-109, 118-110, 116-112
Records: Burnett (18-0, 9 KOs); Zhakiyanov (27-2, 18 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Zhakiyanov, 33, of Kazakhstan, won his title in February and Burnett, 25, nabbed his in June in front of a hometown crowd in Belfast. They agreed to meet to unify their belts in their first defenses with Zhakiyanov, a career-long road warrior, agreeing to fight him in Belfast. It was a rough fight with a lot of holding and mauling, as are most fights with the Ricky Hatton-trained Zhakiyanov. But there was also a lot of hard-hitting, toe-to-toe action. Burnett got the better of it, but Zhakiyanov surely deserved closer cards than the wide ones. According to CompuBox, Burnett landed 214 of 646 punches (33 percent) and Zhakiyanov 132 of 547 (24 percent), although it was Burnett who went to the hospital after the fight as a precaution after he complained of a headache.
Saturday at Leeds, England
Josh Warrington TKO10 Dennis Ceylan
Featherweight - Title eliminator
Records: Warrington (26-0, 6 KOs); Ceylan (18-1-2, 8 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Warrington, 26, gave his hometown fans a thrill as he earned a mandatory fight with world titleholder Lee Selby. Warrington got off to a slow start but steadily built up his lead as the fight wore on. Finally, in the 10th round he did damage to Ceylan, 28, of Denmark, dropping him twice. First, he floored him with a left-right-left combination and then immediately dropped the spent Ceylan again with a flurry of shots. He beat the count by a tick but was done and referee Michael Alexander stopped it at 1 minute, 43 seconds.
Friday at London
Joe Joyce TKO8 Ian Lewison
Heavyweight
Records: Joyce (1-0, 1 KO); Lewison (12-4-1, 8 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Joyce, 32, claimed the Olympic super heavyweight silver medal for Great Britain at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and made his pro debut to begin what he hopes is a very quick rise to the top of the division. He made his debut in a scheduled 10-rounder against the experienced Lewison, 36, of England, who was coming off a one-year layoff since giving contender Dillian Whyte a good go in a 10th-round knockout loss for the vacant British title last October. Joyce stayed behind his jab, swelled Lewison's eye by the fifth round, and after he hurt Lewison with a left hook in the eighth round, Lewison's corner threw in the towel and referee Robert Williams stopped it at 2 minutes, 35 seconds.
Also on the card, Bellator MMA fighter Michael Page (1-0, 1 KO), 30, of England, made his pro boxing debut, scoring a third-round knockout of Jonathan Castano (2-12-1, 2 KOs), 30, of Spain, in a cruiserweight fight. Also, highly touted light heavyweight prospect Willy Hutchinson (1-0, 1 KO), 18, a Scottish amateur standout, made his pro debut, crushing Attila Nagy (10-28-1, 7 KOs), 29, of Hungary, in 89 seconds.
Thursday at Las Vegas
Gabriel Rosado TKO6 Glen Tapia -- Full recap
Middleweight
Records: Rosado (24-11, 14 KOs); Tapia (23-5, 15 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: In the main event of Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN, former two-time middleweight world title challenger Rosado, 31, of Philadelphia, shook off a two-fight losing streak (though he still just 3-6 with a no decision in his past 10 fights) as he stopped the even more faded Tapia, 27, of Passaic, New Jersey, who has lost four fights in a row, including three by knockout. It all came down one big left hook he landed on Tapia in the sixth round that badly hurt Tapia, and Rosado followed up to send him to the mat. Tapia wisely was sent to the hospital afterward to get checked out.
In the action-packed co-feature, welterweight KeAndre Gibson (18-1-1, 7 KOs), 27, of St. Louis, won his second fight in a row, taking a majority decision (should have been unanimous) against Alejandro Barrera (29-4, 17 KOs), 31, of Mexico. The judges had it 98-92, 97-93 and a dubious 95-95 as Gibson busted up Barrera's face.