Friday, September 14, 2018

Boxing Challenge

The boxing challenge starts a day early this week with a world title defense on Friday brought to you from ESPN and Top Rank.

However, we lead off with the grudge match that you've waited a year for- through a bogus decision, a difficult negotiation, a PED suspension, a stripped world championship, an even more difficult negotiation, and some extremely bad blood, we arrive for the rematch between WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez.

After a first fight that was good, not great and might be best remembered over time for the ridiculous scorecard by Adelaide Byrd, who scored the fight for Alvarez an astonishing 118-110 (10-2, not even De La Hoya who thought Canelo won, bought that card) in a fight that if your last name wasn't Alvarez or De La Hoya or work for Golden Boy, you thought Golovkin won.
Alvarez claims he's going to attack more this time, Golovkin claims he will start quickly and go to the body more to slow Alvarez's movement and neither seem all that interested in being around each other at all.
If Canelo engages more than in their first fight, this could be a great action slugfest, but there are more people than I expected that is picking Canelo to win this and many of those site Golovkin's age-36.
How old was Floyd Mayweather, when he handed Alvarez his only loss (officially anyway)?
36.

The undercard is much better than the undercard of the first Golovkin-Alvarez a year ago.
WBO junior middleweight titleholder Jaime Munguia defends his title against Brandon Cook in what appears to be a squash match.
Cook is 20-1, but his only loss was against his only step in competition (Undefeated Kanat Islam) and that ended in a knockout.
Look for this one to end early.

The fight of the night appears to be a grudge match middleweight brawl between former IBF champ David Lemieux and England's Gary "Spike" O'Sullivan.
Lemieux is the bigger banger by far, O'Sullivan has the better chin and both aren't afraid to walk forward and fire lots of bombs.
The pre-fight buildup for this one has been very entertaining and if the fight is as good in the ring as I think it could be, this could be a tremendous action fight.

The opener features the comeback of Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez against Moises Fuentes.
Gonzalez has been off for a year since he lost his WBC junior bantamweight title via a shocking fourth-round knockout to Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and it'll be interesting to see just what he might have left in the tank.
The once world-class Fuentes (holds a win over the excellent Ivan Calderon and a draw against Donnie Nietes) was destroyed by the talented Daigo Higa in his last fight for the WBC flyweight title in one round and has lost three of his last four, two of them by KO, so Gonzalez will be expected to look very strong or questions will arise.

ESPN starts the weekend with a Friday card with Jose Ramirez defending his title for the first time against Antonio Orozco.
Orozco has a history of not making weight, but if he does this is a close and interesting fight between two talented and unbeaten fighters.
Ramirez is fighting at home in Fresno, so he does have that advantage as well as it's his promoter running this show (Orozco fights with Golden Boy), but still Orozco would clearly be his toughest test as a pro.

I lead the boxing challenge over Ramon Malpica 133-111.

WBA/WBC Middleweight Titles. 12 Rds
Gennady Golovkin vs Canelo Alvarez
R.L: Golovkin Split Decision
TRS: Golovkin Unanimous Decision

WBO Junior Middleweight Title 12 Rds
Jaime Munguia vs Brandon Cox
R.L: Munguia KO 3
TRS: Munguia KO 2

Middleweights 12 Rds
David Lemieux vs Gary "Spike" O'Sullivan
R.L: Lemieux KO 7
TRS: Lemieux Unanimous Decision

Junior Bantamweights. 10 Rds
Roman Gonzalez vs Moises Fuentes
R.L: Gonzalez Unanimous Decision
TRS: Gonzalez KO 5

WBC Junior Welterweight Title 12 rds
Jose Ramirez vs Antonio Orozco
Both: Ramirez Unanimous Decision



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