The biggest fight of the weekend was on Showtime with a rematch of one of the better fights of 2016 with Leo Santa Cruz regaining the WBA featherweight title from Carl Frampton via majority decision in Las Vegas.
The fight was filled with plenty of action,but for pure pugnaciousness,I thought the first fight was a little better.
It appears the next step for both will be a third fight,this time possibly in Frampton's home country of Northern Ireland.
I'm not really against a third fight,but unless it's going to be made quickly (it took six months for this rematch),I'd rather see Santa Cruz in another defense first.
I'm not a fan of two guys being the only two people involved with a title belt for well over a year.
Santa Cruz didn't throw as many punches as in the first fight,but he did make adjustments from his loss by being able to stay "long" and keep Frampton outside with more use of the jab than in the first fight.
I scored Santa Cruz a 115-112 winner or 7-4-1 in rounds....
Ramon and I each picked Frampton for no points.
The other Showtime bout saw Mikey Garcia win a title in his third division with a three round demolition of Dejan Zlaticanin to take away the WBC lightweight title.
Ramon picked Garcia for one point,while I picked Zlaticanin and 30 seconds into the fight,it became clear that Garcia was going to win this fight-it was only a matter how long and how.
The knockout is an early contender for KO of the year and hopefully this will be the start of Garcia being more active.
Garcia has always been extremely talented,I've never doubted that.
My doubts have always been just how much Garcia likes this game and does he have the desire to be great?
Hopefully,a Garcia match vs WBA champ Jorge Linares (Assuming Linares wins his rematch vs Anthony Crolla) can be made between the two top lightweights in the world.
HBO's bouts may not have had the significance of the Showtime card,but it did have a title fight and an eliminator for that champion to defend against in his next fight..
Those fights came through with two excellent action fights and well worth the watch as well-even if on delay after Showtime's bouts.
The main event saw Miguel Berchelt beat up Francisco Vargas and strip away his WBC junior lightweight title with an eleven round stoppage,
Vargas,who had endured huge beatings in tremendous battles against Takashi Miura (winning his title with a come from behind KO) and Orlando Salido (in a draw that I thought Salido won) had his moments,but Berchelt was bigger and stronger and was the deserving win in a good action fight.
Fighters like Vargas that are all action and take tons of punishment tend to lose their skills all at once and Vargas may have done that on this night.
I would suggest to Vargas that he consider retirement,I simply believe he is going to take beatings if he continues his career.
As for Berchelt,he steps into the forefront at 130 with several other fighters that all seem to be around the same talent level and can make plenty of great fights behind Vasyl Lomachenko,who is clearly the top fighter in the division....
WBC champ Berchelt,newly crowned IBF champ Gervonta Davis,WBA Jezreel Corrales and former champs Miura and Salido would make a great fight in any combination and perhaps the survivor of all could be a solid and interesting fight for Lomachenko...
Berchelt's win gave Ramon one point and none for me.
The eliminator saw Takashi Miura go back and forth with Miguel Roman before Miura put Roman away in round 12 to earn the title match later this year vs Berchelt.
I had Roman slightly ahead after nine rounds,but Miura dropped Roman in both the tenth and eleventh round before the fight ending knockdown in the final round.
This was the fight of the night,which says a lot on a night like this one!
Miura gave me two points for the win and knockout,while Ramon added one for the Miura victory
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