Heavyweight contender Efe Ajagba (19-1, 14 KOs) crushed the hapless Joe Goodall (10-2-1, 9 KOs) in four rounds in the main event, while lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla (19-0, 16 KOs) stole the show with his eighth round TKO win over Diego Torres (18-1, 17 KOs) in the chief support bout on Saturday night at the BlueEvent Center in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
In the headline attraction, Ajagba beat 31-year-old Aussie Goodall (10-2-1, 9 KOs) in the fourth round of a scheduled ten round fight. The 6’6″ power-punching Ajagba staggered Goodall a couple of times in the fourth, and was teeing on him with power shots, prompting referee Tony Weeks to move in and waive it off. The time of the stoppage was at 0:50 of round four.
Goodall had been hurt in the third round but was able to make it through the round. At the start of the fourth, Ajagba jumped on Goodall and immediately hurt him with a right hand to the head. A short while later, he finished him off after trapping him against the ropes.
Ajagba hurt Goodall in round three with a couple of uppercuts but was unable to finish him in that round due to his lack of hand speed. Goodall nailed Ajagba with a right to the head, followed by a left that appeared to shake him up.
One got the sense that if Goodall had gone for broke and unloaded a flurry of shots, he would have gotten Ajagba out of there. He did not react well to the right hand Goodall nailed him with, and it’s scary to imagine what Deontay Wilder, Zhilei Zhang, Anthony Joshua, or Francis Ngannou would do to him.
Despite winning, Ajagba looked just as slow and robotic as he had two years ago when he was beaten by Frank Sanchez. The main difference is that Ajagba is throwing a lot of jabs, and he’s added an uppercut to his arsenal.
If Ajagba keeps winning, he could get a title shot by 2026 or 2027. It will probably take that long because Tyson Fury & Oleksandr Usyk will have all the titles tied up in 2024 with their two fights.
In 2025, the mandatory challengers will want their shots. Ideally. We could see two mandatory defenses get out of the way, but probably not. For Top Rank’s sake, they’re better off waiting as long as possible before they put Ajagba in a world title fight because he’s not ready.
Even if Tyson Fury & Oleksandr Usyk are both retired by the time Ajagba fights for a world title, it’s still highly unlikely he’ll capture a belt because he’s too slow, robotic, and flawed.
Ajagba is entertaining to watch, as he’s matched against beatable opposition. You can’t throw him in with someone like Zhilei Zhang or Arslanbek Makhmudov and expect him to finish the fight on his feet. Ajagba would be food for them.
In the best talent on the card, lightweight Raymond Muratalla (19-0, 16 KOs) schooled Diego Torres (18-1, 17 KOs), stopping him in the eighth round. The 26-year-old Muratalla dropped Torres in the 8th. After he got back up, the referee stopped the contest.
The time was at 1:45. Torres didn’t look all that hurt, but the referee had seen enough and probably realized that Muratalla was going to continue to pound him nonstop.
Super featherweight Henry Lebron (19-0, 19 KOs) defeated William Foster III (16-1, 10 KOs) by a ten round majority decision. The scores were 95-95, 96-94, and 99-91. Lebron did a lot of holding and was warned by the referee in the fourth.
However, Lebron continued to hold the remainder of the fight, but the referee just allowed it. Without the constant clinching, Lebron would have a lot of punishment.
The 26-year-old southpaw Lebron looked good, but he was too passive, and that made the fight harder than it should have been. In the tenth, Lebron went on the attack for the first time and looked good.
