Callum Smith won the super middleweight tournament for the first season of the World Boxing Super Series and the WBA title in the division with a seventh-round knockout of George Groves.
I picked Groves, but in my preview of the fight, I noted that I was considering Smith because, at the weigh-in, he appeared so much physically larger than Groves.
I stayed with Groves, but my hunch was correct as Smith kept Groves at bay from the outside, yet was controlling the inside on those occasions that Groves was able to get into range.
I thought Smith won five of the six rounds, although Groves did occasionally have his highlights before the hook that staggered Groves into the corner and led to the flurry that ended the fight in the seventh with Groves on his knees.
With four champions at super middleweight and all four being young and talented (Smith WBA, David Benavidez WBC, Jose Uzcategui IBF, and Gilberto Ramirez WBO), it would be interesting to see a mini-tournament to settle who would be the best.
It would be tough to make with the exception of the unaffiliated Uzcategui because the other three are with different promoters and I'm not sure which fighter I would pick to win any unification bout.
Chris Eubank Jr returned from his loss to Groves with a squash match win over J.J. McDonagh, when McDonagh retired in his corner with an injured shoulder at the end of the third round.
This bout was more notable for the post-fight interview when Eubank chided McDonagh for quitting and McDonagh challenged Eubank to finish the fight.
That might have been a better idea to do before you conceded the fight.
Friday night's ESPN+ doubleheader from Oakland saw another super middleweight champion in the IBF's Jose Uzcategui in a stay busy fight against Argentina's Ezequiel Maderna.
I scored Uzcategui a shutout winner in winning all ten rounds as he kept the motor running smoothly after mandatory contender Caleb Plant was unable to fight due to a hand injury.
The Uzcategui-Plant fight is expected to happen in March, which means Uzcategui will be waiting another seven months to fight an undeserving challenger, who has defeated one person that would be considered a near a top 50 fighter ( the shopworn Porky Medina) and otherwise has delivered sleep-inducing wins over non-entities.
But hey, he does date the PBC ringside host, so maybe that's enough to be rated top in the IBF now?
The other ESPN+ bout saw IBF junior bantamweight champ Jerwin Ancajas escape Oakland with his title after a draw with Alejandro Santiago in the best fight of the weekend.
I had Santiago a close winner at 115-113, but it was very close with several close rounds except for on two judges cards where one scored 116-112 for Ancajas (Not Good) and another typed a 118-110 for Santiago score (Awful).
I'd like to see a rematch, which Top Rank was quoted to have wanted to make next time out for both fighters.
Saturday night on Facebook from Golden Boy, Jorge Linares returned from his knockout loss to Vasyl Lomachenko with a third-round blitz of Abner Cotto in his first fight in the junior welterweight division.
As expected, Linares dominated Cotto as he knocked Cotto down in the second and twice in the third before the overmatched Cotto was unable to continue.
With the World Boxing Super Series running a junior welterweight tournament with two of the four champions involved (WBA Kiryl Relikh and the winner of a vacant IBF title fight) Linares might have to deal with Top Rank again for a shot at WBC champion Jose Ramirez or if Top Rank's Alex Saucedo can win his challenge of WBO beltholder Maurice Hooker later this year.
Hooker is a Matchroom fighter, so Linares and GBP don't hold a lot of cards in the current title picture at 140 pounds.
I scored five points to Ramon Malpica's four over the weekend to move my lead to 149-127.
I scored two points for the wins by Linares and Eubank with one from Uzcategui.
Ramon scored one each from wins from Linares, Eubank, Uzcategui and Callum Smith.
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