the13th POLL


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2017-07-06
TTR's Monthly Honors: June 2017
Pictured: Andre Ward (left) in his rematch with Sergey Kovalev



This is the first of what I plan to be many of these pieces. Any respectable Fight publication isn't complete without an acknowledgement of the Top Performers and Performances in the sport. So without further ado......


Fighter Of the Month: Andre Ward

The biggest fight of the month, and one of the biggest controversies of the month, but no matter how you may feel about the unusual finish there's no question that Andre Ward is the fighter of the month for June. This win ranks as either THE best or certainly one of the best wins of his careeer, and it appeared as though he was beginning to break down Kovalev prior to the stoppage. I feel like he probably would've beaten him without controversy if not for Weeks stopping it the way he did, but we'll never know. At any rate, the bottom line is controversy or no controversy there's no question that the biggest achievement by any Boxer in the month of June was Andre Ward stopping Sergey Kovalev. It arguably launched him to P4P #1 that's still debatable depending on who you ask...but what's not debatable is Andre Ward is TTR's Fighter of the Month!


Fight of the Month: Avery Sparrow W6 Isaelin Florian

The tone for this fight was set early as Florian came out and tried to touch gloves with Sparrow who took the opportunity to try to take his head off with a wild right hand. He wasn't here to touch gloves, he was here to fight! The two winged away with heavy shots from both hands, very wide hooks that were wildly thrown, but enough found their mark to produce 2 knockdowns in the first round. 1st Florian was dropped and then Sparrow getting a bit over-anxious going for the finish got dropped as well. Sparrow undettered by the knockdown he suffered continued to attack aggressively in the 2nd round dropping Florian for a 2nd time in the fight. He aggressively went for the finish, but wasn't able to get the game Florian out of there. Florian then proceeded to win the 3rd round and score a 2nd knockdown of his own in the 4th, the fight was now dead even. Unfortunately for Florian he suffered what appeared to be a dislocated shoulder in the 4th round, and this handicap along with the aggression of Sparrow was too much to overcome and Sparrow wound up winning the last 2 rounds and the fight. Hard luck for Florian to be hampered with the shoulder injury, but at least he has the pride of having taken part in TTR's inaugural Fight of the Month! Both fighters should be proud of their wonderfully entertaining efforts and I for one look forward to seeing them both again.

Honorable Mention: Also receiving 5 votes in the TTR Fight of the Month Poll was Dmitry Kudryashov's 5th round stoppage of Olanrewaju Durodola. Kudryashov was attempted to avenge an earlier defeat to Durodola a year and a half prior, their first meeting was a wild affair with Kudryashov landing several HEAVY shots early only to wound up being assault and stopped by Durodola in the 2nd round. This one was every bit as entertaining...probably more so as Kudryashov was hell bent to get revenge, and was attacking with forceful punches and knockout intent from the get go. Durodola was dropped in Round 4 and rocked numerous times prior to finally being stopped in the 5th round of another wildly entertaining slugfest!


Knockout of the Month: Jon Fernandez KO 2 Juan Reyes

The 2nd eye catching win Fernandez has had on television this year. He landed a vicious right hand in a downward motion to Reyes temple or ear...hard to tell exactly where it landed, but at any rate the result was devastating. Reyes goes limp and falls backward hitting the canvas hard. There was no doubt that this was the end as the referee immediately waved the fight off. Fernandez is one to look out for as this one elevated his record to 13-0 with 11 Knockouts and earned him our inaugural Knockout of the Month award.

 
Article By: Bobby Davis