Mighty Joe Ward Hurts Left Knee, Loses Via TKO; Ceballo Snags Stoppage, Baranchyk Beats Bracero

Mighty Joe Ward had a bummer of a pro debut, as the Irishman with over 300 amateur fights had the fight stopped in round two.

His left leg buckled underneath him as he was readying to throw at Madison Square Garden Saturday evening, against Marco Delgado, in a light heavyweight scrap.

The time was 1:00 elapsed, and Delgado rises to 6-1 with the weird win.

Ward was on his back for a spell and the stretcher came out, but he got up and made it out of the ring himself.

The 25 year old Ward, from Athlone in County Westmeath Ireland fights for Lou Dibella; he did 10 fights in the World Series of Boxing before turning pro.

Brian Ceballo, the welterweight prospect fighting for Tom Leoffler and Split T Management, had his second outing at Madison Square Garden, underneath Gennady Golovkin. Again, he snagged the W; this time, Ramal Amanov was the L-taker, and Ceballo was able to pick up his check early.

Ceballo, well spoken Brooklyner, rose to 11-0 while Amanov (age 35; from Azerbijian), fighting out of Miami, drops to 16-1. He’d beaten a pro debuter in his last outing, and had a padded record.

MSG seems to fit Ceballo; he downed Bakhtiyar Eyubov supporting Golovkin-Rolls back in June. On this occasion, he started out strong, in round number one. He threw combos, weaved, countered strong with the right. Amanov showed decent D, he moved his head, but he wasn’t as busy as the New Yorker.

In round two, Ceballo hooked off the jab, he has learned from old school trainer Colin Morgan. He looked to land heavier thunder, and Amanov was on his scooter now. Ceballo upped his aggression, and his body work had the crowd appreciative, if not Amanov. To round three–we started it late after the docs gave the loser a neuro check. NY docs are not afraid to hop in and do extra testing. He passed…Ceballo hammered him, a right uppercut stung like a hive’s worth, and the ref halted it, to let the doc look. The doc said no mas. At 1:20 of the third, a TKO was called, because the loser’s right cheek was hurting. It didn’t look puffy as he walked to the dressing room.

It was weird, I thought it was off a cut. Nah, it was internal.

Middleweight Kamil Szeremeta from Poland got treated right in NYC; he scored a TKO2 win, after 45 seconds, over Oscar Cortes, now 27-5. He’s been stopped four times. The Pole rises to 21-0.

Easy work for Ali Akhmedov, who went 16-0, as he downed Andrew Hernandez in a 168 scrap. 44 seconds into the first, the Kazakh boxer saw the loser dipping to his right, head on a platter. He snapped a right cross, on the temple and he sent the Arizona boxer to the mat. He rose but on rubbery legs. In NYC, they don’t let that fly. Next time, expect Ali (below) to be matched tougher.

Ivan Baranchyk had a power edge over Gabe Bracero and it paid off hard in the fourth. A left hook to the body, how Bracero didn’t go down was testament to his conditioning. A right hand follow buzzed him, though and the junior welter fell forward. He would have tried like the dickens to rise, but his corner said no thanks, and pulled the plug on their boy.

At 38, Bracero (25-4-1) gave a good account of himself, in the chin department. He scored a few right counters, but Baranchyk (20-1), coming off a loss to Josh Taylor, was in mad motivation mode. He grabbed a WBA intercontinental belt, for the record.

Israil Madrimov sent Alejandro Barrera to the mat in the first, off a head shot. He then switched to the body…and then switched to lefty at MSG. Who woulda thunk it, we saw round two? Indeed, Barrera showed heart and cajones galore, making it into round five, before the basting from Madrimov forced the ref to pull that plug.

In the second, it was righty, then lefty, for Madrimov.

He smashes like a brute, but the Mexican was handling it. In the third, Madrimov stalked, and kept whacking to the body. Barrera changed levels with his head to good effect. They traded to end the round. Barrera impressed the punters with his mettle.

To the fourth, we saw lefty Madrimov (4-0) get angles, to try and find a cleaner opening. Then he just bore in, cave-manning to the body. He did square up, and was open for counters, something to note moving forward. To the fifth–Madrimov smashed to the body, Barrera (29-6), bless him, so earned his check. He tried to answer, backing up. He was almost done, and he hung on, but the ref hopped in. So brave, and the referee Benji Esteves did the right thing. 2:36, after one nasty left hook, and then a finisher left hook. The WBA inter continental super welter title belongs to Madrimov.