In the main event, Anthony Joshua rallied from behind on my scorecard to knockout Alexander Povetkin in the seventh round and retain his WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight championships.
Joshua looked tentative and Povetkin landed often early as he bloodied the nose of the champion in round one.
Povetkin was far more aggressive in this fight than he was in his only previous career defeat, a decision loss to Wladimir Klitschko and that aggressiveness allowed him to build a lead on my card of 4-2 at the midway point of the bout, with it arguably being 5-1 as Joshua narrowly won one round on my card that I "asterisked" as a round that could have been given to either fighter.
However, in the sixth round, you began to feel that Povetkin had fired his best shot as Joshua put together his best round of the fight as things began to swing towards the champion's corner.
Joshua took advantage in the seventh by dropping a badly hurt Povetkin, who almost tumbled out of the ring as he hit the floor and barely beat the count.
Povetkin attempted to survive, but Joshua leaped on the Russian and finished him off with a combination that sent Povetkin's cornerman onto the apron to stop the bout just as the referee waved off the ending.
Give credit to Povetkin, who has been criticized throughout his career for his two failed drug tests and his anemic effort vs Wladimir Klitschko, he fought hard and with bravery when he could have packed it in after the first knockdown and a little to Joshua for taking the best shots of a more than solid puncher and rallying to win.
Why only a little to the victor and still champion?
Well, to start with and this isn't his fault, all three judges had Joshua ahead, so had things continued along the lines of the first six, Joshua was on his way to winning a questionable decision.
However, the main problem and this is a marginal complaint considering he decisively knocked out a guy that had never been knocked before, is that the Klitschko fight that we all love so much has changed Anthony Joshua as a fighter.
Joshua's exciting win and resulting knockdowns at the hands of Klitschko has led to change in style, much like the last great heavyweight from Britain- Lennox Lewis, who transitioned from an exciting fighter (check his fight vs Ray Mercer out) to a more conservative, but arguably more effective boxer after beginning to work with trainer Emanuel Steward.
The change in style turned Lewis into a far less interesting fighter to watch, but it protected a vulnerable chin far better and Lewis became a Hall of Fame level fighter and I see the same in Anthony Joshua.
Joshua and his team are discovering that almost any top ten lever fighter has the ability to take you out, so why test that theory?
Joshua will be arguably (he sure wasn't in this one, in my opinion) more effective and take fewer punches, but he won't be nearly as much fun to watch.
Fans are hoping to see the final title unified with Joshua facing the winner of the WBC title match between champion Deontay Wilder and the lineal champion Tyson Fury next year.
Should that not happen, a rematch with top contender Dillian Whyte is the likely next title contender to try Joshua.
Whyte badly hurt Joshua in their first bout before Joshua knocked out Whyte in the seventh.
In the co-feature, Luke Campbell avenged a loss to Yvon Mendy via unanimous decision to become the mandatory to WBC lightweight champ Mikey Garcia.
Campbell had lost their first bout via a split decision but controlled this bout (118-110 on my card) via the jab and staying outside against the perpetually charging Mendy.
Campbell is unlikely to fight Garcia, mainly because he won't bring Garcia "I'm only looking for big fights" sizable dollars and there would be promotional issues involved (Campbell is with Eddie Hearn's Matchroom, while Garcia is loosely affiliated with PBC and Showtime) in making the fight.
Campbell would be likely to fight for the title after Garcia would likely vacate it rather than defend that title against Campbell, who lost a split decision to then WBA champion Jorge Linares in 2017.
In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica continued to gain ground with a four-point weekend (two points for each fight) to my three-pointer (Two for Campbell and one for Joshua).
The tally now stands at 144-123.
This card was also my first as a DAZN subscriber and I have a few words to write about the broadcast.
The stream looked just as strong as an HD broadcast (Which has always been a streaming concern of mine) and although there was an occasional buffering issue, that could have been my having a few windows open as I followed the Ohio State game etc.
The graphics were large and easy to read, yet they weren't obnoxious or bothersome.
Amazing how easy that can be and just as amazing is how so many screw it up.
The bigger issue was the broadcast crew.
Brian Kenny is very good on blow by blow and his knowledge of the game as a historian comes through very well.
I would wager that if DAZN is able to keep Kenny busy enough with enough work that he could challenge Jim Lampley for the best in the game in that role.
I would already slot Kenny ahead of both Mauro Ranallo of Showtime and Joe Tessitore of ESPN, so Lampley might have to step his game up to stay in the top slot.
The color commentators are where DAZN shows a need to improve.
Sugar Ray Leonard was an all-time great in the ring, but he hasn't been regularly at ringside since he left HBO in 1990 and it shows.
Leonard offers the same cliches' that he used in the 80's and for all the charisma Leonard had in the ring, he has never seemed to possess the same zip behind the mic.
Sergio Mora is another semi-active fighter giving commentating a try while he still occasionally fights.
Sadly, Mora has fallen into the trap that so many have fallen into- being critical while commentating of things that you did or didn't do in the ring.
An example came in a prelim fight when Mora was critical of one of the fighters for holding so much and the referee for not deducting points.
I found this laughable because Mora is a fighter that holds constantly in his bouts and frankly is a perennial Zabbie Award contender.
At a time where the color commentary position is very weak other than Showtime's excellent pair of Al Bernstein and Paulie Malignaggi, DAZN could have leaped over HBO's increasingly shrill (and partial) Max Kellerman/Roy (Let me tell what Roy would have done here in 1991) Jones and ESPN's pairing of Mark Kriegel (Love his writing, below average at ringside) and Timothy Bradley and freelancer Andre (challenger to the Roy Jones- it's all about me award) Ward to make themselves a top-notch unit.
Perhaps over time, they can tinker with personnel at those positions.
I really liked Chris Mannix as part of the hosting pairing.
Mannix is unafraid to offer opinions and came across well on TV.
I hope to see more of him.
I really don't know much about Kay Adams, who works for NFL Network, but I'm usually skeptical about new media folks involved in boxing.
Adams stumbled a bit on a few occasions, which makes me wonder if this is another television person shoved into a boxing role rather than a boxing person doing television.
I was critical of the various PBC hosts a few years back when they were buying half of the cable networks for their shows for lack of knowledge (Most notably ESPN's Marysol Castro) or someone dating a fighter with the company, so although I don't know enough about Adams to say for sure yet, but if I had to guess, she could be along those lines.
In a sport with Brian Custer (Showtime) Crystina Poncher (ESPN/Top Rank) and Jessica Rosales (ESPN/Golden Boy) that are solid boxing people with excellent hosting capabilities, I would like to see DAZN use a boxing person in the role rather than just another sports anchor.
After all, they will be surviving on a subscriber base, it's not too much to ask that the people paying for their product have someone that is as passionate about the product that they pay for hosting the event.
All in all, there are some things that I'd change, I found that I liked DAZN's presentation and would recommend it to the huge boxing fan.
I passed last night on the HBO replay of the Golovkin-Alvarez fight due to watching college football and some things I needed to do at work.
I will be watching on demand tonight, mainly because I want to re-score the fight again, but also because I have heard some many bad things about the commentary of Max Kellerman and Roy Jones ( my fight broadcast was in Russian) and I want to hear just how fair they actually were.
No Browns today, so looks like some features coming your way over the next few days!!
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