Boxing Challenge- Broner and Vargas draw, Frampton tops Donaire

A big boxing weekend saw several top fighters in action and a few that were once considered future superstars that disappointed returned to the ring as well..

Showtime televised a three-bout card that had the never boring on the mic, yet often less than scintillating in the ring Adrien Broner in a welterweight fight against Jessie Vargas.
Broner had won titles in three divisions and Vargas in two entering the fight,(which says a lot on there being too many organizations and they have way too many titles)  so on the surface, this looked like a bigger fight than it actually was, but the two gave a better fight than expected and saved an evening with two fights that were basically squashes.
Vargas dominated the first half of the fight with great bodywork and overwhelming Broner with the sheer number of punches but slowed in the middle of the bout and Broner took over in the second half of the fight before I thought Vargas won the last two rounds.
I had Vargas a 115-113 winner but had no issues with the majority draw from the judges.
One judge had Broner ahead 115-113 with other two judges scoring the fight even.

The other two fights were blowouts against overmatched opponents.
The second fight saw Jermall Charlo win an "interim" title in a division with an active champion by blowing away Hugo Centeno with a crushing left hook in the second round.
Charlo looked great and despite winning just two fights at the weight against fighters that had never beaten a top 15 fighter, is now a "champion: and an eventual mandatory challenger to Gennady Golovkin.
Both Charlo brothers are talented and revel in playing the "heel" role, but I still think they are hanging their hat on spectacular wins against untested prospects making their first leap against top fighters (Jermall over Julian Williams, Jermell over Erickson Lubin) and want to see what happens when they fight top five level fighters and what happens when they get hit on the chin.
PBC is weak at 160 pounds so we may have to wait until Charlo actually fights Golovkin to finally see him tested.

Gervonta Davis may have won the WBA title (or may not ) in his steamrolling Jesus Cuellar in three rounds.
Davis was clearly the bigger and stronger man and Cuellar, who hadn't fought in well over a year, simply wasn't able to hold Davis off.
The more interesting part for me was the WBA making Davis their "Super" champion over Alberto Machado, who had beaten their former "super" champion Jezreel Corrales, which to my way of thinking would make Machado their top champ.
Instead, it appears to be Davis, who may not have to fight Machado, who is promoted by Golden Boy that is looking for unification against the Tevin Farmer-Billy Dib winner for the vacant IBF title at the weight.
In the end, Machado's belt appears to be demoted for nothing more than someone felt like it.
Davis is the more talented fighter and would be my pick if Davis was to fight Machado, but that still doesn't make this decision the correct one from the most corrupt organization in boxing.
I now have a headache.

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, Carl Frampton won a unanimous decision over Nonito Donaire in a less than exciting bout that saw Frampton perhaps a bit too respectful towards the slowing Donaire.
This was Frampton's second fight since losing to Leo Santa Cruz and Frampton seems like he may have lost a step himself after two physical fights with Santa Cruz.
We will see if that is the case as Frampton is now the mandatory contender for WBO champion Oscar Valdez.
I had the same score as all three judges 117-111 for Frampton

The co-feature from Belfast saw Zolani Tete keep his WBO bantamweight title over Omar Narvaez by unanimous decision, winning all 12 rounds on every card.
I wouldn't know because this fight was so awful that I fell asleep.

Amir Khan returned to the ring and blew out Canada's Phil LoGreco in under a minute, scoring two knockdowns before the fight was stopped.
The fight was the first on the new and heralded ESPN+ app and I'm sure the 37 seconds was worth the five dollars for the month.
Kell Brook entered the ring post-fight to challenge Khan for a long overdue fight that might happen before the end of the year.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored nine points on the weekend.
We both added two points each for the wins by Jermall Charlo, Gervonta Davis and Carl Frampton.
Ramon picked up two for Zolani Tete's win and one for Amir Khan's victory,
I added two for Khan and one for Tete.
The challenge is currently at 70-57