Baumgardner Defeats Linardatou; Andy Cruz Looks Incredible!
BAUMGARDNER VS LINARDATOU – It had been five years since undisputed champion Alycia “The Bomb” Baumgardner (15-1, 7KO) dropped her ‘0’ to Christina “Medusa” Linardatou (14-3, 6KO). This time around, she vowed to get revenge.
Coming into this fight, it was evident Baumgardner had become a different fighter. She has honed her counter-punching ability and she has better awareness defensively. Meanwhile, Linardatou returned on a year layoff and dropped down two weight divisions. She did not change her approach from the first fight and seemed a bit sluggish. This was ultimately her undoing as the undisputed champ was the fresher fighter.
Baumgardner did an excellent job staying focused and finding the openings during Linardatou’s aggressive onslaughts. While Medusa landed some big shots that put the champ on her back-foot from time to time, Baumgardner was the more crisp fighter. Her accuracy was on point behind the jab and she did an excellent job timing the challenger coming in.
RELATED: Alycia Baumgardner: “Katie Taylor Is Declining! We’d Love To Challenge Her At 135!”
The Bomb successfully made the first defense of her undisputed crown by scores of 99-91 and 98-92 twice. In the post-fight interview, she called out Katie Taylor, Chantelle Cameron and Amanda Serrano. These match-ups should definitely be discussed for her in the future!
ANDY CRUZ VS JUAN CARLOS BURGOS
The highly anticipated pro-debut of 2020 Olympic Gold medalist, Andy Cruz (1-0) started out slow, but ended extremely well! It didn’t matter that his first fight was a 10-rounder against former title challenger and respected veteran Juan Carlos Burgos (35-8-3, 21KO), his transition into the pro ranks was smooth.
Although, it was his debut, Cruz is still seasoned. At 27 years-old, the amateur system developed him into an all-around talent. This allowed him to display a high-level I.Q. and defensive prowess that confused Burgos early. By round four, Cruz started walking the vet down and sat in the pocket, fighting Burgos’ fight! The Mexican still could not land anything significant while getting caught by several hard shots. Seeing how dominant Cruz was, his trainer, Bozy Ennis started calling for the knockout regardless of the fact that Burgos had never been stopped.
RELATED: Andy Cruz On Facing Keyshawn Davis: “It Can Happen Down The Line!”
The once highly aggressive bruiser was relegated to a low-volume puncher in retreat mode. In essence, Cruz’ abilities made Burgos look like he was the amateur! The most impressive aspect of Cruz’ performance is he did not fight like an amateur. Cuban fighters are typically content with touching their opponent to score points. Cruz actually sat down on his shots, punishing the Mexican and making him gun shy.
Cruz picked up an easy unanimous decision as Burgos still proved to be impossible to stop. The win already places him in the rankings as he gained the IBF International title. This means he is going to be on the “fast-track” which given this performance, he’s ready for!
JERMAINE FRANKLIN VS ISAAC MUNOZ
After back to back losses on the biggest stage against Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte, Jermaine “989 Assassin” Franklin (22-2, 14KO) returned for somewhat of a homecoming. His opponent was an undefeated, but highly inexperienced Mexican heavyweight in Isaac “Drago” Munoz (17-1, 14KO).
This fight was a mis-match from the opening bell. Franklin was not worried about the padded knockout rate of Munoz and went directly at him. It seemed he wanted to score a knockout badly, as he kept up a high-volume attack. This was a different approach as fans are used to seeing Franklin having lower volume behind a counter-punching style. Nevertheless, the gameplan was a good one as Munoz could not keep up the same pace.
The result, Drago getting hit with hard shot after hard shot, round after round! The best thing that could be said about Munoz is he can take a punch! This led to Franklin taking home an easy unanimous decision. Bottom line, this fight did nothing for Franklin if he was looking to fix the flaws that contributed to his loses.
