Saunders, N’Dam, Conlan & Gorman victorious

By Mike Smith

Boxingnews24.com

Former WBA/WBO middleweight champion Hassan N’Dam (37-3, 21 KOs) may have closed the door on former four time world title challenger Martin Murray’s long career in beating him by a 12 round majority decision on Saturday night on BT Sport and ESPN+ at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.

With the win, N’Dam snatches up the World Boxing Council Silver middleweight title, and puts himself a little closer to getting an eventual title shot against WBC 160 pound champion Saul Canelo Alvarez.

N’Dam used a sharp jab, quick combinations and skillful movement to box his way to a victory by the scores 117-112, 116-112 for N’Dam, and 114-114. Boxing News 24 scored it for the 31-year-old N’Dam by the score 117-112. It’s unclear what the judge saw to score it an even fight at 114-114. It was clearly a win for N’Dam. Murray tried his best, but he ran out of gas after a nice start. In the 4th round, Murray floored N’Dam. Things were looking bright for Murray at that point in the fight, but N’Dam was able to use his speed and boxing skills to get back into the fight and take over with his jab and combination punching.

Before tonight, N’Dam had been out of the ring for 14 months since losing his World Boxing Association World Middleweight Title to Ryota Murata by a 7th round stoppage in October 2017. N’Dam looked sharp tonight for a fighter that had been out of the ring for over a year.

The loss for the 36-year-old Murray snaps a 4-fight winning streak that he had going since his loss to George Groves in 2016.

Murray didn’t say after the fight whether he plans on retiring from boxing, but you have to think it might be a good idea for him to do so. It’s unlikely that his promoter is going to be able to keep getting him title shots at this point in his career. If he can’t beat fighters in the class of N’Dam, then it’s not probable that he’ll be given a high enough ranking for him to get a mandatory title shot against any of the champions at 160. Murray’s losses to George Groves, N’Dam and Arthur Abraham make him unsuitable for a voluntary defense for one of the world champions Murray has suffered too many defeats in too short of a time span for him to be a good option for champions like Saul Canelo Alvarez, Demetrius Andrade or Daniel Jacobs.

READ Billy Joe Saunders vs. Charles Adamu this Sat. on Warrington-Frampton card

Billy Joe Saunders stops Charles Adamu

In an impressive performance tonight, former WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (27-0, 13 KOs) defeated journeyman Charles Adamu (32-14, 25 KOs) by a 4th round stoppage. Adamu opted not to come out for the 5th round after taking a pounding from the 29-year-old Saunders.

Saunders weighed in at an incredible 178 pounds for the fight against Adamu. Saunders was 18 lbs over the 160 lb middleweight limit. He’s expected to return to the ring at that weight. This isn’t the first time that Saunders has let his weight balloon up for a fight. He weighed 173 lbs for his fight against Yoann Bloyer in July 2015. Saunders produced a similar result in that fight as he did tonight in stopping Bloyer in round four.

This was Saunders’ first fight since vacating his World Boxing Organization 160 lb title following a positive test for a performance enhancing substance while training for a title defense against Demetrius Andrade on October 20 on DAZN at TD Garden in Boston, Mass. The Massachusetts State Athletic Commission chose not to license Saunders for the fight, so he wound up vacating his title rather than having it stripped from him.

When Saunders does decide to return to the middleweight division, he’s going to need to lose a lot of weight. But even if he never is able to return to the weight class, it’s good to know that Saunders is capable of looking good in fighting at light heavyweight. That’s definitely an option for Saunders once he can no longer make weight for the middleweight division in the future. It’s going to be interesting to see which direction Saunders takes his career in. He has so many options. He’s got the boxing skills to perform against the best at 160 or 168.

Michael Conlan defeats Jason CunninghamREAD Paddy Barnes & Michael Conlan return to the ring this Saturday

2-time Irish Olympian Michael Conlan (10-0, 6 KOs) looked superb in beating Jason Cunningham (24-6, 6 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision. The judges scored it 97-92, 97-92 and 98-92. Boxing News 24 scored it for Conlan by a 98-92. He dominated the fight. In the last seconds of the fight, Conlan had Cunningham badly hurt and ready to be knocked out. It took a lot of heart for Cunningham to make it through the round. With the win, Conlan captures the vacant World Boxing Organisation Inter-Continental Featherweight Title. That title should help Conlan, 27, get a boost in the rankings. However, he’s still not ready to take on WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez. Conlan needs a litle more experience before he takes on a lion like Valdez.

Nathan Gorman decisions Razvan Cojanu

Heavyweight contender Nathan Gorman (15-0, 11 kOs) did a marvellous job of beating former world title challenger Razvan Cojanu (16-5, 9 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision to retain his International Silver heavyweight title. The judges’ scores were 119-109, 119-109 and 120-108. Boxing News 24 scored it for Gorman, 22, by the score 120-108. Cojanu didn’t fight well enough to win a round. Although Gorman wasn’t able to stop Cokanu like Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz did in his last fight in July of this year, he did a better job of beating the Romanian fighter than former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker did in defeating him by a 12 round unanimous decision last year in May. Cojanu was able to frustrate Parker in a way that he wasn’t able to do to Gorman. Cojanu tried hard to throw Gorman off his game, but he wasn’t confused or upset at anything he was attempting to do inside the ring.

Tommy Fury dominates Jevgenijs Andrejevs

Light heavyweight prospect Tommy Fury (1-0) defeated Jevgenijs Andrejevs (10-104-3, 4 KOs) by a 4 round unanimous decision in his pro debut. The 19-year-old Fury, who is the younger brother of former IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, looked sharp throughout against the over-matched Latvian journeyman Andrejevs.