From Carson, California at the don't call it StubHub Center, Shawn Porter squeezed by mandatory contender Yordenis Ugas by split decision to keep his WBC welterweight championship and hopes of bigger fights to come in the future alive.
Porter is known for his hard-driving, punishing style that wears fighters down as a strong fullback does in football and yet against Ugas, a taller, lankier fighter that uses range well, Porter decided to box from the outside, gave Ugas the best chance for the former Olympic bronze medalist to win and as noted, barely won on the scorecards.
I scored the fight even at 114-114, but sometimes a fight can be even on the cards and have the "feel" of one guy "winning" such as when I scored Usyk-Breidis last year even at 114 but noted that the same "feel" going the way of Usyk.
Using that "feel", I can see where observers can look at Ugas as the "winner", but in no way was this a robbery (hence the no Hamburglar picture) and their styles didn't really mesh together to make this a fight that was filled with exchanges that made a rematch palatable for anyone, at least right away.
The biggest question to me was this one-Did Porter fight differently because that was the gameplan or did he feel weaker with the near-miss on the scales and felt physically weaker?
In the other bout from Carson, undefeated heavyweight hitter Efe Ajagba ripped through aging Amir Mansour when the corner stopped the fight for Mansour after two rounds.
Ajagba scored two knockdowns in the first and pounded Mansour in the second causing the early ending.
Mansour tried to fight back, but Ajagba was too young and too big as he impressively passed his first test.
Moving to DAZN from Verona New York, the title bouts were very one-sided with the challengers combining to win two rounds on my cards with almost identical scores.
Dmitri Bivol won eleven out of twelve rounds and with the exception of appearing to be somewhat stung at the end of the eleventh round by Joe Smith, won about everything you could win in a fight to retain his WBA light heavyweight championship.
Bivol didn't knock down the rugged Smith but used his impressive boxing skills to dominate and control him otherwise in winning 119-109 on my scorecard.
My scorecard read 119-108 for Maurice Hooker in a unanimous decision win over Mikkel LesPierre, who took a licking in lasting the distance.
LesPierre showed grit in making the count after being crunched to the liver in a ninth-round knockdown but was not very competitive in the loss.
Hooker took four attempts to make the weight and by that could be well suited to consider a move to welterweight, but almost the top talent in that division resides with either PBC or Top Rank and Hooker should stay where he is to stay at 140 pounds.
Light heavyweight Callum Johnson might not have the skills of the top light heavyweights as he showed in being knocked out in his challenge to IBF champion Artur Beterbiev last year.
Johnson also showed in knocking Beterbiev down that he has serious power and if he lands, he can hurt even the top fighters in the division.
Seanie Monaghan is a limited fighter that is overmatched at the world-class level that can be very entertaining when matched properly.
Johnson is clearly a full step above Monaghan as he busted up Monaghan's face in the first round, dropped him twice in the second round with the bell saving from a likely stoppage and then finished him with booming punches seconds into the third.
Johnson has a punchers chance against anyone in the division, while Monaghan's level seems to be at the clubfighter watermark.
In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica 9-7 with the two point difference being the decision wins by Dmitri Bivol and Maurice Hooker.
I regain the lead in the challengeat 50-49
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