Wilder vs. Fury Undercard Results: Navarrete, Ananyan, Molina, and Martin Win

By: William Holmes

The MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada was the host site of tonight’s Pay Per View card featuring a heavyweight match between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury.

This was a rare card where two competing promoters, Top Rank Promotions and Premier Boxing Champions, as well two competing networks, Fox and ESPN, partnered together to put on this event.

The first bout on the televised undercard was between Subriel Matias (15-0) and Petros Ananyan (14-2-2) in the featherweight division.

Matias controlled the early rounds with his jab, but was warned a few times with landing low blows.  He had a strong pace early on and was landing hard uppercuts in the fifth round that had Ananyan bleeding from the mouth.

Matias had landed 203 punches by the sixth round, but was badly hurt in the seventh rounds from several looping right hands and was given a standing eight count.

Ananyan come on strong in the later rounds and likely won many of them.  It was a close fight with Matias dominating the early rounds and Ananyan winning the later rounds.

The judges scored the bout 96-93, 95-94 and 95-94 for Petros Ananyan.

Next bout was between Amir Imam (22-2) and Javier Molina (21-2) in the welterweight division. 

Imam pressed the action, and came forward behind his jab early on.  He was setting the pace and established ring generalship.  Molina was able to land some hard counters, but he wasn’t throwing as many punches as the more active Imam.

Imam landed some good shots on the inside in the fifth round, and had blood coming from the nose of Molina in the seventh round.  But Molina was landing the stronger and better counter punches, and his were having a bigger effect than Imam.

Many rounds were close, but by the final round it appeared that Molina was slightly ahead.  Imam was unable to catch up to Molina and score a knockdown. 

The scores were 79-73, 78-74, 78-74 for Javier Molina

The first fight on the Pay Per View Portion of the card was a super welterweight bout between Daniel Lewis (6-0) and Sebastian Fundora (13-0-1) in the super welterweight division. 

Fundora was very tall for a super welterweight, and towered over his opponent at 6’6”.  Lewis was able to land some good shots and had blood coming from Fundora’s nose in the second round, but was out landed by the taller and lankier Fundora.

Lewis had some swelling on his face by the fourth round, but didn’t appear to be too worried about the power of Fundora.  Lewis looked like he was tiring by the ninth round, but Fundora’s jabs were only landing at a 4% clip at this point.

Lewis needed a knockout in the final round to win, but Fundora’s best round of the night was the last round.

The judges scored it 97-93, 98-92, and 99-91 for Sebastian Fundora.

The next fight was between Emanuel Navarrete (30-1) and Joe Santisima (19-2) for the WBO Super Bantamweight Title.

Navarrete looked like he was two weight classes bigger than Santisima.  He used his height and reach to his advantage and was popping Santisima from the outside early on.

By the third round Navarrete was cruising and landed good combinations to the body and head of his opponent.

Santisima landed a decent left hook in the fourth round that caused Navarrete to briefly lose his balance, but Navarrete won the remainder of the round. 

Navarrete continued to dominate the middle to late rounds, and looked like he could have maybe stopped his opponent a few times if he stepped on the gas pedal, but he fought a smart and relaxed.

Navarrete unleashed a flurry of combinations in the tenth round and had Santisima on the defensive, but he wasn’t able to knock him down. 

Navarrete finally go the finish in the eleventh round when he landed a multitude of unanswered punches and forced the referee to stop the fight.

Emanuel Navarrete wins by TKO at 2:20 of the eleventh round.

The last fight on the undercard was a heavyweight bout between Charles Martin (27-2-1) vs. Gerald Washington (20-3-1).

They started off by feeling each other out and not really taking many risks.  Washington was able to land a decent straight right hand near the end of the opening round.

The second and third rounds were slow, but Martin was landing a few good shots.  A straight left form Martin got a good reach from the crowd in the fourth round. 

Martin knocked Washington down with a left hook right to the chin.  Washington was able to get back to his feet before the count of ten, but was still on wobbly legs and the referee stopped the bout.

Charles Martin wins by KO at 1:56 of the sixth round.