Friday, October 5, 2018

Boxing Challenge

The boxing challenge has one of its bigger weekends in a while with eight bouts (seven of them available on DAZN) and it will be this way for a while with the beginning of the second year of the World Boxing Super Series.

We'll start in Yokohama, Japan on their Sunday (which I'm going to guess is our Saturday) with two WBSS bouts and another world title contest to boot.
The WBSS starts their bantamweight tournament with the "Monster" Naoya Inoue defending his minor title against former WBA champion Juan Carlos Payano.
Inoue, the favorite to win the tournament despite having just one bout at the weight, is a powerful puncher that polished off Jamie McDonnell in just one round to win the minor title, while Payano despite being a former champion and just having lost once, appears to be the perfect foil style-wise for Inoue.

The junior welterweight tournament also starts in Japan as WBA champion Kiryl Relikh defends against his mandatory contender, former IBF champion Eduard Troyanovsky.
Relikh looked very impressive in his last two fights against Rances Barthelemy, losing the first in an absolutely horrible decision before clearly winning the rematch and the championship.
Troyanovsky has fought just twice against pedestrian opponents since being memorably knocked cold by Julius Indongo in 40 seconds in December 2016, so who truly knows what the Russian has remaining.

In the other championship bout on the card, WBC light flyweight title Ken Shiro of Japan defends his title against Milan Melindo of the Philippines.
The undefeated Shiro will attempt to make the fourth defense of the title against Melindo, a former champion at the weight of the IBF variety.

DAZN and Matchroom Boxing also will hold a Saturday night card in Chicago with four challenge fights with fights that range from competitive to borderline squashes.
The main event will see former WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas against fringe contender Thomas Dulorme.
Vargas battled Adrien Broner to a majority draw in April (I had Vargas a narrow winner) as he moves from PBC to Matchroom for the first time.
Dulorme has lost each time that he attempted to move up to the top ten level, losing to Luis Abregu, Terence Crawford and Yordanis Ugas and is a sizable underdog to do so again.

Artur Beterbiev returns for the first defense of his IBF light heavyweight title against Callum Johnson of Great Britain as the co-feature.
Beterbiev won the vacant title with a knockout of Enrico Koelling last November but has struggled with inactivity due to promotional problems.
If Matchroom can keep Beterbiev busy, he will be a force to be dealt with at 175 pounds.
Johnson is undefeated but completely untested against even top 25 competition, so who really knows what Johnson brings to the ring against the power-hitting Beterbiev.

Danny Roman moves to Matchroom to defend his WBA junior featherweight title against England's Gavin McDonnell.
Roman comes off an impressive decision over Moises Flores to defend the title and seems to be a boxer growing into another level since winning the championship.
McDonnell, the twin brother of Jamie McDonnell (Mentioned above for his loss to Naoya Inoue) has just one loss, but it came in his biggest bout to Rey Vargas for the vacant WBC title.

Heavyweight Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller looms as an eventual opponent for Anthony Joshua and will showcase himself in the opener against former light heavyweight and cruiserweight champion and top ten heavyweight Tomasz Adamek of Poland.
This version of Adamek is pretty much down to the final thread of the tires though and is just 4-3 since 2014.
Adamek will sell tickets in Chicago though, which is half the battle, but if Miller has any time of struggles with Adamek, it will not bode well for a potential challenge of Joshua.

In a fight that doesn't have American television Srisaket Sor Rungvisai defends his WBC junior bantamweight belt against Iran Diaz of Mexico in his first defense in his home country of Thailand.
Rungvisai won a non-title bout there via first-round knockout in July in his first bout after his majority decision win over Juan Francisco Estrada in a terrific fight in February
Diaz is 14-2 but does hold wins over two former world champions on Hernan "Tyson" Marquez and Luis Concepcion, so he's an underdog, but one with a chance.

In the boxing challenge, I lead Ramon Malpica 149-127...

World Boxing Super Series Bantamweight Quarter-Final. 12 Rds
Naoya Inoue vs Juan Carlos Payano
R.L: Inoue KO 8
TRS: Inoue KO 4

WBA Junior Welterweight/World Boxing Super Series Junior Welterweight Quarter-Final. 12 Rds
Kiryl Relikh v Eduard Troyanovsky
R.L: Relikh KO 5
TRS: Relikh KO 7

WBC Junior Flyweight Title 12 Rds
Ken Shiro vs Milan Melindo
Both: Shiro Unanimous Decision

Welterweights. 12 Rds
Jessie Vargas vs Thomas Dulorme
R.L: Vargas Unanimous Decision
TRS: Vargas KO 9

IBF Light Heavyweight Title, 12 Rds
Artur Beterbiev vs Callum Johnson
R.L: Beterbiev Unanimous Decision
TRS: Beterbiev KO 5

WBA Junior Featherweight Title, 12 Rds
Danny Roman vs Gavin McDonnell
Both: Roman Unanimous Decision

Heavyweights 12 Rds
Jarrell Miller vs Tomasz Adamek
R.L: Miller KO 4
TRS: Miller KO 8

WBC Junior Bantamweight Title 12 Rds
Srisaket Sor Rungvisai vs Iran Diaz
R.L: Rungvisai KO 5
TRS: Rungvisai KO 4







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