The performance of the day came early Sunday morning from Yokohama Japan where the "Monster" Naoya Inoue won the first bout in the bantamweight tournament for the World Boxing Super Series when he destroyed former WBA champion Juan Carlos Payano in just one minute, leaving Payano supine on the floor and moving Inoue to the semi-finals with hardly taking a punch.
The post title comes from the beloved Sesame Street book that I enjoyed so much as a child and Ryan and Rachel did as well- Grover starring in "The Monster at the end of this book"
I only see two fighters in the tourney that have a chance against Inoue and it's not the tournament's top seed-WBA champion Ryan Burnett, who I think is meat on a platter against the Monster.
IBF champion Emmanuel Rodriguez was very impressive in winning his title on the road over England's Paul Butler and talent-wise, if not experience-wise, Rodriguez could match up well, and should Rodriguez defeat Australia's Jason Moloney, he'll get his chance against Inoue.
On the other side of the bracket, WBO champ Zolani Tete has the type of style that could trouble Inoue-IF he can box for all twelve rounds without getting hit.
Good luck with that, but Tete could make a potential Inoue bout interesting, if not exciting.
In the other WBSS bout from the junior welterweights, WBA champion Kiryl Relikh won a unanimous decision over his mandatory contender and former IBF champion Eduard Troyanovsky.
No knockdowns scored and I had Relikh winning 116-112 or 8-4 in rounds.
Relikh moves to the semi-finals and will face the winner of top-seeded Regis Prograis vs former WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan.
Another WBSS note, I'm a big fan of the tournament and the setup, but I'm still critical of the bracketing.
In the WBSS, the top seed (should they win in round one) faces the third seed (should they win) with the second seed facing the fourth, should things fall according to seeding.
In no other sport is a tournament set up this way and you are better off being the second seed than the top seed-Not the way things should be.
On Saturday afternoon, YouTube showed one of the better fighters in the world as Thailand's Srisaket Sor Rungvisai retained his WBC junior bantamweight belt in front of his countrymen with a unanimous decision over tough, but outclassed Iran Diaz of Mexico.
I had Rungvisai a 119-109 winner and I expected Rungvisai to face Juan Francisco Estrada next in what would be a rematch of their exciting fight from earlier this year that Rungvisai won by majority decision.
However, IBF champion Jerwin Ancajas was in attendance with his matchmaker Sean Gibbons in Thailand and rumors are that Rungvisai's next bout could be a unification bout vs Ancajas, who drew with Alejandro Santiago two weeks to retain his title.
Perhaps one more "Super Fly" card could be made with Rungvisai-Ancajas unifying, Estrada against Santiago in the co-feature to determine the number one contender for the new unified champion and maybe a fight for the continuing comeback of Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez?
DAZN bought the rights to the WBSS, but their main tenant is Eddie Hearn and Hearn's Matchroom Boxing, who presented a four-fight card that exceeded expectations as far action.
The main event saw Jessie Vargas receive his second majority draw in a row in a surprisingly good fight against Thomas Dulorme.
Dulorme, who had previously failed in various attempts to raise his stature, was knocked down in the tenth and appeared to be on his way to a loss, but won the 11th on my card and scored a flash knockdown of Vargas with seconds to go in the fight to win the 12th 10-8 and pull the win out 113-112.
The knockdown gave Dulorme a draw as well, as two cards scored the draw with the knockdown, so getting dropped cost Vargas a unanimous decision.
In another match that proved to be more of a battle than expected, IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev made his first defense a successful one against undefeated, but lightly matched Callum Johnson of Great Britain.
The night looked to be a short one for Johnson when Beterbiev sent him to the floor late in round one. but Johnson shockingly dropped Beterbiev in the second and things looked to be on their way to a war.
They only looked that way as Beterbiev ripped a nasty cut over Johnson's eye in round three before finishing him off with a right hand that looked like it traveled about a foot to finish him off for good.
Beterbiev against anyone would seem to be a good fight, but with HBO"s departure from the game, a Dmitry Bivol bout would be the one that is not only possible but exciting as well.
Danny Roman defended his WBA junior featherweight title with a tenth-round knockout of England's Gavin McDonnell.
I had Roman ahead 6-3 in rounds after nine before he knocked McDonnell down in the tenth, McDonnell was able to get up, but the referee called the fight off in an excellent decision.
Roman is about as solid of a technically strong fighter as you'll find and unification fights against Rey Vargas (WBC/Golden Boy) or Issac Dogboe (WBO/Top Rank) would be interesting 50/50 fights, if
the business of boxing doesn't get in the way.
Jarrell Miller blew away a washed-up Tomasz Adamek in a squash match that few even Miller wanted to see.
Miller badly hurt the former light-heavy and cruiserweight champion in the opening round, but the bell saved Adamek. who wouldn't be saved a second time when an uppercut finished off the mismatch.
Miller could be in the mix for an April date with Anthony Joshua for his three titles.
In the Boxing Challenge, I scored ten points to Ramon Malpica's nine for the weekend to move my lead to 159-136
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