The biggest fight of the weekend took place in New York City as Daniel Jacobs nipped Sergiy Dereyvanchenko via a split decision to win the vacant IBF middleweight title.
I scored Jacobs a 114-113 winner with the difference being a first-round knockdown scored by Jacobs.
Dereyvanchenko hurt Jacobs more often over the course of the fight than in reverse, but Jacobs managed to stay up and that gave him the win on my scorecard, which seemed to be closer than most of the press.
Jacobs should be the most likely opponent for Canelo Alvarez in May, considering both champions are contracted with DAZN in what would put the IBF title back with the WBA and WBC titles before it was stripped from Gennady Golovkin earlier this year.
The co-feature saw Alberto Machado impressively dispose of Yaundale Evans in the first round to retain his minor title, dropping Evans three times before the referee called the mismatch off.
The lanky banging Machado might be a tough out for anyone at 130 pounds, but with his size, I could see him moving to the lightweight division and have little problems with strength.
New Orleans was the host for two World Boxing Super Series scraps in the junior welterweight tournament with the main event featuring top seed and local product Regis Prograis dominate former WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan to retain his minor title via a unanimous decision to move the next round in the tournament.
Prograis dominated throughout and dropped Flanagan to his knees in the ninth for the first time in Flanagan's career.
I scored Prograis a 118-109 winner, which seemed to be in line with most.
Prograis will battle WBA champion Kiryl Relikh in the semi-finals.
In the other quarter-final, Ivan Baranchyk earned the vacant IBF belt when Anthony Yigit was unable to continue due to a virtually closed eye in the seventh round.
I had Baranchyk far ahead and the eye brought to mind the puffed eye that Rocky Balboa asked Mickey to cut in his first fight with Apollo Creed as Fred Landucci commented on when we discussed this fight.
I thought it was a good decision to end the fight because Yigit wasn't going to be able to keep Baranchyk off of him anyway and the eye was only going to make things worse for the wounded Swede.
The new IBF champion will face the winner of next weekend's Josh Taylor-Ryan Martin fight in the semi-finals.
In Sofia, Bulgaria, veteran Kubrat Pulev won a unanimous decision over Hughie Fury to become the top contender in the IBF ratings, which means an eventual shot at Anthony Joshua's championship.
Fury looked to be the stronger fighter early, but a Pulev jab in the second round tore open a gash along Fury's and slowly took the starch out of the Englishman, but didn't exactly leave Joshua concerned about his eventual challenge.
I scored Pulev a 116-112 winner.
In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me seven to five over the weekend and cut my lead to 177-154.
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