Starting with the PBC on national television on Fox with the return of WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman after 22 months away from the ring.
The good news for Thurman was that he generally dominated the fight, boxed well and showed power in flooring Lopez in the second round.
The bad news was Lopez, who does not have a reputation as a huge puncher, badly hurt Thurman in the seventh round, sending a dazed champion wobbling around the ring so badly that the three official judges all gave Lopez a 10-8, a rarity in a round without a knockdown.
Thurman's majority decision should have been unanimous (I had Thurman a 116-110 winner) and I think the judge that scored it a draw was way off base, but although his performance was good, it wasn't great and much as in Thurman's win over Luis Collazo that saw Thurman badly hurt from a Collazo (another fighter not noted as a banger), you walk away thinking more about what if that had been Errol Spence or Terence Crawford hurting Thurman than about his victory.
Adam Kownacki blitzed former world title challenger Gerald Washington in two rounds in the co-feature.
A Kownacki right had Washington in major problems near the end of the first round and two knockdowns followed in round two to end the fight.
Washington has lost three of his last four, all by stoppage, and looks to be sliding to journeyman status, while Kownacki will continue to have exciting fights and I'd even wager that should he keep winning might be the post-Tyson Fury opponent for Deontay Wilder.
Both are promoted by PBC and Wilder will be due for an optional defense, I'd bet that happens.
In the first fight, Tug Nyambayar won a unanimous decision over Claudio Marrero to become the mandatory challenger for WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell. which means we might be lucky to see Russell-Nyambayar in 2021.
Nyambayar walked the game but outgunned Marrero down and almost ended the fight in the third.
Marrero was penalized for a late hit in the tenth, but that didn't change the fight on my card, which had Nyambayar a 116-111 winner.
Meanwhile, Houston was the host for Golden Boy and DAZN for a card that didn't seem to have much at all other than another viewing of the exciting young WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia in what looked to be a squash match.
Munguia won the fight going away (118-110 on my card), but the winner of the night was the heretofore unknown Takeshi Inoue, who took about every bomb known to man and showed a LaMottian chin in going the distance and firing enough overhand rights to make him dangerous.
It truly shows the old adage that sometimes, no matter the puncher, some guys simply aren't going to go on a particular night.
This fight was far more entertaining that I had any right to expect and I'm very interested in seeing both Munguia and Inoue again- I would have placed very long odds on that.
The co-feature was also a good one as China's Xu Can upset Jesus Rojas to win Rojas' minor featherweight title by unanimous decision
Both fighters threw plenty of punches, with Can having the edge in punches thrown and Rojas throwing the bigger punches.
Can won the decision far wider on the cards than I would think in winning by 4, 6, and 8 points as I scored the fight a draw at 114.
I would not be opposed to a rematch.
Undefeated welterweight Vergil Ortiz stopped his 12th foe in a row when the corner of late replacement Oscar Valdez stopped the fight after a fifth round that saw Valdez stung and cut.
Valdez was the first fighter to last more than three rounds with Ortiz, who looks to be ready to take another jump in competition.
In the boxing challenge- I outscored Ramon Malpica seven to six in the boxing challenge.
We each scored two points from Vergil Ortiz and one each from the wins by Thurman, Munguia, Nyambayar, and Kowacki, the difference being one extra point by me from the Kowacki knockout.
I lead the overall challenge 16-14
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