The biggest fight of the weekend saw WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia deliver arguably the best performance of his career in his move to junior welterweight with a dominant unanimous decision over Adrien Broner on Showtime.
Garcia is about as technically sound as they come and he used combinations along with a surprising body attack to leave the inactive Broner to do little but shake his head in an attempt to shake Garcia's poise.
I scored Garcia a 118-110 winner and you could make an argument for 120-108.
Garcia has lots of interesting fights that could be made,if promotional issues would not enter into the picture-as they always do.
Garcia could drop back to 135 where he still holds the WBC title and fight WBA champ Jorge Linares,but with Linares with Golden Boy,that could be difficult to make.
If Garcia chooses to stay at 140,a Terence Crawford (or Julius Indongo should he upset Crawford in August) fight would be one of the best in boxing,but Crawford is a Top Rank fighter and since Garcia's divorce from the Bob Arum company,I doubt they will do many favors for Garcia.
Garcia could get PBC champions at 147 in Keith Thurman or Errol Spence in fights that again would be interesting,but that involves going up another seven pounds for a fighter that won his first title at 126.
Still,it'll be interesting to see what avenue Garcia takes next...
As for Adrien Broner,I think we've seen what we'll see from him.
He's good,but not great,neither a true boxer or big banger and more of a top ten fighter rather than a true elite fighter.
Despite the branding and building of the name,Adrien Broner simply isn't an elite fighter.
Oh.every once in a while in the future,the name he built will be used to make some money or build another fighters resume' and maybe he'll even win another title,if matched properly,but he's been exposed for good now and you'll never see him as a true A side in a big fight again.
Ramon and I each received two points for the Garcia win.
In the other Showtime bout,Jermall Charlo debuted as a middleweight with a fourth round knockout over Jorge Sebastian Heiland to become the WBC's mandatory contender for the winner of Gennady Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez.
Heiland clearly was injured entering the bout with a leg issue and just couldn't keep his balance in going down in the second and fourth.
Charlo did what needed to be done,but for this to be his first fight at the weight against an overmatched journeyman with just one name victory (an over the hill Matthew Macklin) and qualify him for a title fight was ridiculous.
Charlo's post-fight interview was just as ludicrous as Charlo called himself the Hitman,the "real Tommy Hearns" and later compared himself to Sugar Ray Leonard.
I wasn't aware that wins over Julian Williams (Charlo's best win to date) and Jorge Sebastian Heiland brought one such prestige,but apparently they do....
I added two points for the Charlo KO with Ramon adding one for the win.
Showtime also streamed a heavyweight fight for free on their YouTube channel,showing while HBO is stuck in 2007,Showtime is being innovative and using technology to grow the sport-now if they could only get some of their better guys to fight more often and versus better competition.
Talented,but overweight Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller returned after a long layoff to stop Gerald Washington at the end of round eight.
You might remember Washington's last bout in a undeserved title fight against WBC champion Deontay Wilder where he fought evenly for four rounds vs Wilder before being stopped in the fifth round,this time Washington was generally bullied by the bulkier Miller in being badly hurt in the sixth,seventh and eighth rounds before not being allowed to start the ninth round.
I thought Miller won every round before the end of the bout.
Miller is going to have to try to be in better shape against tougher opponents,but I'm intrigued by Miller's potential,if he could do that.
Ramon and I each added two points for the Miller knockout.
In an untelevised bout,former bantamweight champion Rau'shee Warren won a unanimous decision over former junior bantamweight champ McJoe Arroyo to become the IBF's mandatory contender for their champion Jerwin Ancajas.
Ramon received two points for the Warren win and unanimous nod,while I added one for the Warren win.
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