Boxing Challenge

The boxing challenge returns with a five fight weekend-a tripleheader on HBO and a world lightweight title bout on Twitter of all places...

HBO features one of the best fighters in the world as WBO junior lightweight champ Vasyl Lomachenko defends against Jason Sosa,who gave up a secondary title to face Lomachenko.
Sosa's far from a soft touch,but I don't see anyone at 130 that has anything more than a very remote Hail Mary of a chance.

Oleksander Usyk defends his WBO cruiserweight title against undefeated former Olympian Michael Hunter.
Usyk is part of the three fighters that are revitalizing the cruisers with Mairis Breidis and Murat Gassiev and could use an exciting win in his second appearance on American TV.
Hunter has faced no one even remotely considered a top twenty fighter,but his amateur experience along being the son of one of the most awkwardly effective fighters of the 80's and 90's-Mike "the Bounty" Hunter has the potential to make this an interesting fight.

The other HBO fight pits light heavyweights as Oleksander Gvozdyk faces Yuniesky Gonzalez.
Gvozdyk has defeated former title contenders in his previous three fights (Tommy Karpency and Nadjib Mohammedi were squash match contenders though) and his win over Issac Chilemba in his last outing was more impressive than Sergei Kovalev's win over Chilemba four months before.
Gonzalez looked like a division comer after a loss to Jean Pascal that most thought Gonzalez deserved to win,but a subsequent loss to Vyachaslav Shabranskky dulled that reputation.
This could be an interesting clash of styles...

Terry Flanagan defends his WBO lightweight title against mandatory contender Petr Petrov in the UK and that bout can be found at 5 pm on Twitter.
Not sure why Twitter picked up this bout,but I'm glad it did as the winner could land unification fights against any of Jorge Linares,Mikey Garcia or Robert Easter or make some fun fights in defenses against recent title fight losers Anthony Crolla or Dejan Zlatcanin.
Petrov is an aggressive fighter and could make a exciting fight....

The other fight was going to be for the WBO "interim" junior middleweight title before a mishap.
I'm normally not in favor of interim title,but Canelo Alvarez holds the WBO title and is unlikely to defend it,yet hasn't vacated it.
The winner of this bout would have been the full champion when Alvarez vacated,but Liam Smith missed weight and is ineligible to win the title.
Smith was knocked out by Alvarez in his last bout,but was favored to defeat Liam Williams in this one (How many Liam's are around,let alone two fighting for the same title?)
If Williams wins,he wins the interim title,if Smith wins,the title remains vacant.

I lead Ramon Malpica in the boxing challenge 32-30.

WBO Junior Lightweight title.12 rds
Vasyl Lomachenko vs Jason Sosa
R,L:Lomachenko unanimous decision
TRS:Lomachenko KO 9

WBO Cruiserweight title.12 rds
Oleksander Usyk vs Michael Hunter
R.L:Usyk KO 4
TRS;Usyk KO 8

Light Heavyweights.10 rds
Oleksander Gvozdyk vs Yunieski Gonzalez
Both:Gvozdyk unanimous decision

WBO Lightweight title.12 rds
Terry Flanagan vs Petr Petrov
Both:Flanagan unanimous decision

Junior Middleweights.12 rds
Liam Smith vs Liam Williams
R,L:Smith unanimous decision
TRS:Smith KO 10