Utah heavyweight Olguin scores win on Top Rank TV card

In Las Vegas tonight, (June 23, 2020) South Jordan, Utah heavyweight Helaman Olguin (above right) scored a six-round majority decision win over Adam Stewart in a bout that was televised on ESPN, and promoted by Top Rank.

It was a good win for Olguin, 8-3, who has resurrected a career -- that started 2-3 -- with six wins in 15 months, including a promotional Utah heavyweight title belt. I suspect Top Rank thought that the tall Arizona boxer, 231-pound Stewart, 8-1-1, would get the win over Olguin, 290 pounds.

But Olguin, frankly, was more ring smart in the bout against his opponent, who hadn't fought in more than 400 days. Stewart had the edge in the first round, but Olguin controlled the majority of rounds two through five. In the earlier middle rounds he got inside Stewart's reach and pounded away. Later, as he tired, Olguin calmly outboxed Stewart, catching him with counters. The South Jordan southpaw often nailed Stewart with a looping left hand.

Stewart rallied in the final round as Olguin tired but he never was able to use his jab to effectively land hard shots against Olguin.

I scored the bout 58-57 for Olguin, giving him rounds 2, 4 and 5. I scored the third even. One judge scored the bout 57-57; the other two scores were 58-56 Olguin.

The bout was competitive and would make a good rematch, perhaps in Utah for the state heavyweight championship.

Fight highlights are here.

Utah boxer Clay Collard scores, you guessed it, another upset win

Cache Valley professional boxer Clay Collard did Thursday night what he's been doing so well the past 13 months -- going into an opponent's hometown- or promotional-ring and usually coming out with a win.

Middleweight Collard (at left in photo above) (7-2-3) dominated very game super-prospect David Kaminsky (6-1), originally from Israel but living in Tarzana, Calif., over six rounds in a nationally televised (ESPN) bout in Las Vegas. (The entire card is here). It is the second win in a row for Collard over a prospect deemed valuable enough to be signed by a major promotion. Earlier this year Collard upset Ray Guajardo, stopping him in round 2.

In the past 13 months, Collard has fought 11 times against boxers with a combined record of 65 wins and three losses. He and manager Ryan Ault have barnstormed the nation taking tough fights. This boxing experience seems ideal for a feature write up by a major sports or boxing magazine.

Collard, a professional MMA fighter, has fought with the UFC and was scheduled to spend 2020 with the Professional Fighting League MMA tourney.  Covid-19 ended his MMA plans for now so it was back to the ring.

Against Kaminsky, Collard dominated the first two rounds, cutting his opponent near the left eye with a right hand early. Kaminsky seemed confused by Collard's unorthodox aggressiveness, which includes throwing punches while charge-chasing his opponent across the ring to the ropes.

Rounds three to five were more competitive, with Kaminsky countering well at times and going to the body, once seeming to hurt Collard in Round 5 with a couple of shots to the body. However, Collard only slowed down, and didn't show any physical reaction to the punches. During the competitive middle rounds, Collard was still more active. Over the six rounds, Collard threw more punches and landed 158 shots to Kaminsky's 102.

The Utah boxer punctuated the win by wearing down Kaminsky in the final couple minutes of the sixth round. Kaminsky never stopped trying as hard as he could, but took such a beating that he was taken to an area hospital after the bout. Fortunately, it seems only precautionary and he is all right.

I scored the bout 59-54, giving Kaminsky only round five. Two judges appropriately scored the bout 58-56 for Collard. One judge, Patricia Morse Jarmen, scored it 58-56 for Kaminsky; a tally that both insulted Collard's aggressive winning effort and Kaminsky's courageous losing effort.

Also on the card was super-lightweight Justin Horsley, a stablemate of Collard's and trained by Ault. Horsley is from Las Vegas but has Utah professional MMA experience. He lost a four-round decision to Top Rank prospect Victor Rodriguez, 3-0, of Anaheim, Calif. Horsley was aggressive and occasionally landed a fast, unorthodox overhand right, but was stymied by his opponent's footwork and ring generalship. Horsley is 0-2 in his young career (both decision losses) but has fought two undefeated fighters so far.

-- Doug Gibson.

(Photo above is credited to ESPN/Top Rank)