Egidijus Kavaliauskas comes from behind to win in 'The Bubble' Saturday night

It’s Saturday night, so it was back to “The Bubble” for Top Rank Boxing in Las Vegas, Nevada on a card that saw numerous, former world title challengers in action. The bouts, live from the MGM Grand Conference Center, are part of an on-going series from Top Rank Boxing, who have been the only promoter in the world that has been running regular (bi-weekly and weekly) shows throughout the entire pandemic.

Top Rank Boxing should be highly commended for keeping their stable of fighters working under the most trying of conditions. One must assume that the financial margins for the company are minimal, nil or just outright losses. However, for the betterment of the industry, and the commitment to their fighters, they have found a way to stay up and running, almost single-handedly keeping the sport alive during this global health pandemic.

Bravo Top Rank!

In the 10-round, 147-pound main event, “Mean Machine,” Egidijus Kavaliauskas, was locking horns with experienced Canadian contender Mikael Zewski. This was Kavaliauskas’ first bout since challenging world champion Terence “Bud” Crawford last December. 

The co-feature saw former world title challengers Miguel Marriaga and Joet Gonzalez in a 10-round featherweight bout. The outcome of this bout had huge repercussions for both the winner and the loser. A loss is a huge setback at this stage of their careers, but a win puts them right back in the mix.

Main Event

-World rated welterweight Egidijus “Mean Machine” Kavaliauskas (22-1-1, 18 KO’s) looked good in stopping (also world rated) Canada’s Mikael Zewski (34-2, 23 KO’s) on Saturday night inside “The Bubble” in Las Vegas. Kavaliauskas, in his first bout since his gutsy effort against superstar Terence Crawford, loaded up and dropped Zewski in round 7. He came out hard in round 8 dropping Zewski less than 10 seconds into the round to get the stoppage win. When the fight was stopped, Zewski was ahead on 2 of the 3 judges cards. A nice win for the former title challenger who will look to land another title shot.

Undercard

-Featherweight Joet Gonzalez (24-1, 14 KO’s) scored a UD 10 over Miguel Marriaga (29-4, 25 KO’s). This is a fine win for Gonzalez who was coming off of a loss to world champion Shakur Stevenson. With the victory, Gonzalez is in a good spot to land a title shot. He could be slotted in to face the winner of the Navarrete-Villa WBO title fight. Gonzalez looked strong all night as he simply outworked 3-time world title challenger Marriaga.

- Featherweight Aleem Jumakhonov (9-3-2, 5 KO’s) KO 3 Jorge Ramos (7-3-1, 4 KO’s).

-Bantamweight, Manuel Flores (9-0, 6 KO’s) TKO 5 Jonathan Rodriguez (8-1, 3 KO’s).

-Super featherweight Anthony Chavez (9-1, 3 KO’s) UD 6 Adan Gonzales (5-4-2, 3 KO’s).

-Lightweight Eric Puente (4-0, 3 KO’s) UD 4 Luis Norambuena (4-6-1, 0 KO’s).