Pulev's opponent Bogdan Dinu was simply the fighter chosen to showcase Pulev, who can either wait for a mandatory title shot against Anthony Joshua or use his newly signed agreement with Top Rank to pursue Tyson Fury.
Dinu had looked almost meek in losing for the first time against Jarrell Miller in his last fight and few considered Pulev to be in danger of endangering his future prospects.
Endangered they were however as Dinu had his moments entering round four, but Pulev seemed to be in control before Dinu landed a right hand that opened one of the worst cuts that you'll see in quite a while along the left eye of Pulev and dominated that fourth round.
Now, the race was on- could the cut be slowed before Pulev could pull this fight from the fire?
The fifth and sixth rounds were entertaining as both fighters landed heavy shots against the other, but Dinu seemed to have landed his best blows and Pulev seemed to have the fight moving toward him despite the blood.
Pulev roared out in the seventh and was seemingly prepared to finish the fight early in the round as he sent Dinu to the mat with what appeared to be knockout blows, but with Dinu on the floor, Pulev struck him on the back of the head.
Dinu was given time to recover and Pulev was deducted one point, although the knockdown remained intact.
More often than not in these situations, the fighter that got hammered on the back of the head doesn't survive to receive any value from the foul and Dinu didn't either as he was dropped after the recovery period and floored again for a second time with the finishing shot seeming to land on a spot very close to the original impact of the foul.
This time, it wasn't a foul due to the circumstances and also this time, Dinu would be finished as the blood continued to flow down the side of Pulev's face as the large Bulgarian contingent cheered wildly.
I had Pulev slightly ahead after six rounds at 58-56 entering the final round.
While Dinu seems to have lost perhaps the best chance that he will ever have to leap into title contention, Pulev's value has to have risen among fans after such an exciting victory and will make a challenge of either Joshua or Fury both more valuable and more interesting.
On the undercard, former WBO junior featherweight champion Jessie Magdaleno returned from his first loss to Isaac Dogboe to dominate a less than interested Rico Ramos over ten rounds to win a unanimous decision.
Former champion Ramos missed weight, fought almost reluctantly and lost every round with the exception of the final two with Magdaleno going into cruise control to safely earn the nod.
I had Magdaleno a 98-92 winner and was never threatened.
No word on Magdaleno returning to 122 or staying at 126 where Top Rank could have fights against WBO champion Oscar Valdez or newly signed Carl Frampton waiting for him.
As for Ramos, I've seen more than enough of his multiple returns and it is more than overdue for boxing observers to move on and simply realize that his title-winning KO of Akifumi Shimoda in 2011 was simply lightning striking.
DAZN and Matchroom were live from London Saturday afternoon (for me anyway) with a typical boxing event where a fighter wins a title in an upset and is given a very winnable first title defense usually before a home crowd.
That stereotype hit every mark that you could think of as Charlie Edwards defended his WBC flyweight title for the first time with a unanimous decision over Angel Moreno.
Edwards won every round on my card and all three judges with the crude Moreno resigned to throwing an occasionally wild right hand.
It was the first defense for Edwards after his surprising title victory over Crisofer Rosales in the fall.
I wouldn't rate Edwards highly against the other champions in the division (Kosei Tanaka WBO, Artem Dalakian WBA, and Moruti Mthalane IBF) but being with Matchroom and their television connections, I bet Edwards will be the easiest one to see his fights live.
In the boxing challenge, I earned five points to Ramon Malpica's four and increased my lead to 66-60
We each earned two points from Charlie Edwards and one from Jessie Magdaleno, but Kubrat Pulev's knockout handed me two points to Ramon's one.
Lots of things to write about on this Sunday/Monday as more boxing from the PBC on FS1 with an interesting Lamont Peterson-Sergey Lipinets main event on tap, the Arizona Hotshots in the battle for sole possession of second place against the San Diego Fleet (1st place San Antonio held serve there with a Saturday victory) and maybe Ohio State in the field of 32 against the Houston Cougars.
I didn't write about the Buckeyes first-round upset over Iowa State because I didn't get to see very much of it due to work, although I did see the last few minutes.
As far as Buckeye coverage, it will really come down to how I feel after a long day of lunch with the lovely Cherie after work and then even more sports.
I mean, really how much gas can one have?
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