Sunday, February 24, 2019

Boxing Challenge: Eubank finishes DeGale, Dirrell nips Yildirim

The boxing challenge weekend begins across the pond in London with what should be the end of the career for former champion James DeGale, who was dominated and outclassed by the often-crude bomber Chris Eubank Jr at the O2 Arena.

DeGale, who has not been remotely the same caliber of fighter since his draw in January 2017 against Badou Jack in a title unification fight, was driven into a turnbuckle in the second with only the corner holding him up, which was correctly called a knockdown by Eubank's left hook, which DeGale was seemingly unable to avoid throughout the fight.
Eubank rolled up round after round as he bulled DeGale around the ring and would score another knockdown in the tenth round with another left hook as he sent a sinking DeGale to his knees.
Eubank would run out of time in the tenth to finish DeGale and one would see the frustration in that in the eleventh as DeGale attempted to hold and Eubank responded with a spinebuster that would have made Arn Anderson proud that would cause a point deduction.

I had Eubank an easy 118-107 with DeGale winning just one round, but one of the three official scorecards was a shockingly awful 114-112, which would have been a draw without the two knockdowns.

While James DeGale really needs to get out of the game with his health intact, Chris Eubank suddenly has some options with a rematch with Billy Joe Saunders (Saunders won their fight by split decision) very possible with Saunders fighting for the vacant WBO title at the weight in his next fight, countryman Callum Smith for Smith's WBA title or as Eubank Sr offered at the post-fight press conference a move back down to middleweight.

In the other 168 pound fight of the day, Anthony Dirrell won the vacant WBC championship amid controversy via a split technical decision after ten rounds over Avni Yildirim in Minneapolis.
The WBC's open scoring was shown in its impish destruction as per organization rules, each corner was given the scores after the fourth and eighth rounds with two cards showing Dirrell leading.
Therefore, after an accidental headbutt in the ninth opened a nasty cut over Dirrell's left eye, his corner, knowing they were ahead, gambled that the cut was bad enough to get the fight stopped.
The cut was bad, but in my opinion, not bad enough to end the fight with just three rounds remaining.
The gamble paid off as the fight was stopped midway through the tenth and since it was caused by a headbutt, the decision went to the judges, and since the corner knew they were likely ahead on the cards, etc and why open scoring sucks.
The worst part of the decision was the card that had Yildirim winning 8-2!
I had it 5-5, so a close card that could be given, either way, wouldn't have bothered me, but that's a really bad scorecard.
The sad part of this is what will be remembered is the ending and not what was a better than expected fight in which Dirrell fought with determination (well, until the end) after a pre-fight buildup where he mused about retirement and Yildirim placed some bad memories of his KO loss to Chris Eubank away from some observers.
I would imagine the WBC would call for an immediate rematch, it seems to be in order.

In the other challenge bouts, Humberto Soto won a unanimous decision over Brandon Rios in Mexico on DAZN in what was a guilty pleasure of a fight.
It was fun to watch between two former world champions that saw each fighter hit and be hit and also shows the value of an unofficial "seniors tour" in boxing.
What I'm trying to say that if some of these fighters are matched properly (I.E. against each other), they can deliver some entertaining fights and hopefully not get hurt.
The guilty part is they are still getting hit with punches that they shouldn't be getting hit with and should be taking no punches at all at a certain stage.
Soto managed to fight hard in spots, countered well off the ropes, and even though he seemed like the smaller fighter going into the match, he looked bigger and blockier than Rios in the ring.
I had the fight closer than the judges at 116-112 for Soto, but the right fighter "got the duke".

In the Showtime co-feature from London, Olympic silver medalist Joe Joyce stopped former WBC champion Bermane Stiverne in six rounds to win a few trinkets and move up in the WBA rankings.
Give Stiverne credit, he did try to win in this one, especially early with some counter rights that found a home with Joyce that was just enough to keep things interesting.
Still, Stiverne ran out of gas quickly and those rights started to be thrown with less and less frequency as Joyce just kept throwing punches.

Stiverne was dropped in the third and might have been better suited to end his evening there, but rose to continue to take a beating until the end in round six.
Hopefully, this will be the last for Stiverne, who likely will soldier on as a trialhorse, but for Joyce-there is work to be done.
I like the punch output and he has more power than similar punchers of volume such as Jarrell Miller. but he was getting hit by the slower Stiverne and I'm looking forward to seeing what he does when the opponent is quicker and stronger.

In a non-televised bout, former IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby overcame a bad cut to decision America Omar Douglas in a lightweight bout.
I have not been able to watch this of this writing.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica 6-5 (the extra point coming from Chris Eubank) to cut his overall lead to 41-40.

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