Fighters of the Week
by Luke Irwin
1. Anthony Joshua: Fought a smart fight, keeping Andy Ruiz at bay with his jab and utterly refusing to let him get inside or get anything going. He certainly took Ruiz more seriously this time, and reclaimed his three world titles. Now the focus turns to Fury-Wilder to see how the heavyweight division will shake out.
2. Jermall Charlo: Dennis Hogan was a victim of a robbery over Jaime Munguia, so he moved up in weight to challenge for a middleweight title against Jermall Charlo, where he had absolutely not a damned thing for Charlo. Jermall won every round en route to a stoppage in the seventh-round.
3. Marat Grigorian: Took Elvis Gashi into the fifth round before finishing him, retaining his Glory Lightweight title for the second time in the main event of Glory 73.
4. Jairzinho Rozenstruik: For over twenty-four minutes, Alistair Overeem and Rozenstruik had a rather technical, if decent heavyweight bout. Then, with ten seconds left, Rozenstruik detached Overeem’s lip from his face. The stoppage might have been a tad early, but it was a hell of a shot, and Overeem was gassing, so it’s a great reminder to fight every second of all twenty-five minutes.
5. Emmanuel Navarrete: Took care of business and held serve in Mexico on ESPN+, defending his WBO junior featherweight title against an overmatched Francisco Horta in Saturday’s main event.
6. Jerwin Ancajas: Like Navarrete, in the co-main of the Top Rank on ESPN card, Ancajas made short work of an overmatched opponent, Miguel Gonzalez in this card, in the co-main, retaining his IBF junior bantamweight title.
7. Sam-A Gaiyanghadao/Alaverdi Ramazanov: The inaugural OneFC Kickboxing Strawweight and Bantamweight champions, respectively, both winning by five-round unanimous decision at OneFC: Mark Of Greatness.
8. Gordon Ryan: In a battle of BJJ vs. Wrestling superfight, Ryan took on Penn State legend Bo Nickal at Third Coast Grappling’s third event, and came out the victor by submission.
9. Ryosuke Iwasa: Pulled off the biggest upset of the week, rallying from a slow start to earn an 11th-round TKO over Marlon Tapales, taking the interim IBF World Junior Featherweight title with him.
10. Levi Ritgers: Won the 2019 Enfusion Heavyweight Grand Prix, defeating Martin Pacas in the finals.
11. River Daz: The Australian won the Glory Featherweight tournament, defeating Binqian Hu and Goafeng Meng, both Chinese fighters at Glory 73 in front of their home crowd in Shenzhen.
12. Mary McGee: Is the new IBF World Female Junior Welterweight champion after flooring Ana Laura Esteche on the way to a TKO win in the co-main on Thursday’s UFC Fight Pass card.
13. Tayfun Ozcan: The new Enfusion World 70kg champ after a fantastic back-and-forth bout with Jonay Risco in the main event of Enfusion 93. He’s now a double champ in the promotion.
14. AJ Agazarm: Went toe-to-toe(hold?) in the main event of the final Fight To Win Event of 2019 and came out the victor over Atos’s Ary Farias.
15. Andrei Stoica: The Romanian twin brother and Enfusion mainstay took on renowned heavyweight Anderson Braddock Silva’s trek down to light heavyweight, and summarily KO’d him not even two minutes in at Glory 73.
Honorable Mention:
Ismael Londt/Sergej Braun: Winners of the heavyweight and middleweight, respectively, tournaments at Mix Fight 27.
Scott Askham
Alexander Povetkin/Michael Hunter
Bryce Mitchell
Rob Font