On The Watch “It’s All About Mikaela Mayer vs Maiva Hamadouche”

Junior Lightweight IBF/WBO Unification Championship

Last night’s Top Rank Main Event between WBO Junior Lightweight Champion Mikaela Mayer (16-0, 5 Kos) and IBF Junior Lightweight Champion Maiva Hamadouche (22-2, 18 Kos) at the Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas was a perfect display of what two of the best female boxers can produce when matched perfectly.

The undefeated Champion Mikaela showed us a different aspect of her boxing game when she elected to bang toe to toe with the always ready known banger Maiva, inside that squared circle. I was quite surprised and impressed to see that Mikaela stood her ground and asserted herself quite well in a tough battle with the shorter but ferocious Maiva.

Maiva came out the gate real aggressive and pressed the action from the jump. Maiva did her best to neutralize Mikaela’s reach but Mikaela’s patience and ring IQ played dividends when she opted to fight fire with fire disrupting Miava’s “game plan”.

This bout was nonstop action with heavy leather being thrown from round 1 to 10 with either combatant letting one another room to breathe. Although both combatants, threw an abundance of punches, it was Mikaela who seemed to land the more telling body to head punches as the rounds progressed.

That being said, after 10 full rounds of action, the Judges scored it 100-90, 99-91, 98-92 unanimously for Mikaela Mayer.

I personally felt that the score card was a lot closer than what they had but I have no dispute with the winner. This bout was by far one of the best fights for the year 2021.

Mikaela fought hard and dug deep for this one and overcame a worthy Champion in Maiva.

Congratulations Mikaela on becoming the New Junior Lightweight IBF/WBO Champion of the World.

Blaze

On The Watch “It’s All About Jamel Herring vs Shakur Stevenson”

WBO Junior Lightweight Challenge

Last night’s Top Rank Main Event at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta between WBO Junior Lightweight Champion Jamel Herring (23-3, 11 Kos) and Shakur Stevenson (17-0, 9 Kos) became a showcase type bout for the youngin dubbed the “Fearless”.

Shakur had seek and destroy written all over his face right from jump. Shakur showed Jamel absolutely no respect and continued to apply nonstop pressure with quick and strong punches from head to body.

Whatever “game plan” Jamel’s team came up with was none-existing for the simple fact that Shakur was just too strong and too fast for Jamel to content with. No disrespect to Jamel but the unusual stay in the pocket style that Shakur applied for this bout completely took Jamel by surprise and made him gun shy and unable to counterpunch when he needed to.

That being said, the “Fearless” did just that and showed absolutely no fear towards his opponent and proceeded to completely dismantle the older but more experienced Champion piece by piece.

By the 10th round the inevitable was seconds away. Jamel looked tired and beaten sitting there taking punishment without fighting back. The referee had seen enough and jumped in to stop the unanswered onslaught on Jamel.

This was the type of performance Shakur needed to bring inside that squared circle to silence the critics who doubted him. He fought toe to toe and banged on his opponent in a very dominant fashion.

With this impressive win over Jamel, Shakur now becomes a two weight Division Champion and the New WBO Junior Lightweight Champion of the World.

Congratulations Shakur on your latest achievement – now on to a unification bout.

Blaze