Boxing Challenge: Kavaliauskas, Gonzalez score comeback victories.

Photo Credit: Mikey Williams Top Rank

The boxing challenge was completed at one location with ESPN+ and Top Rank returning to the bubble in Las Vegas.

The main event was a spicy affair with plenty of punches exchanged with a sudden ending as Egid "The Mean Machine" Kavaliauskas rallied against a tough Mikael Zewski to win his return to action after a loss to Terence Crawford in his last outing.
Kavaliauskas had all he wanted against Zewski, who I had leading the fight after six rounds and even after Kavaliauskas landed a huge right uppercut near the end of the seventh round sending Zewski to the ropes and to the floor after a followup combination of shots.
Zewski barely beat the count and only the bell saved him for more action, but there would only be seven seconds of action as Kavaliauskas charged from his corner and dropped Zewski with one right hand to conclude the evening's activities.
For Kavaliauskas, the win and exciting battle suits him well in his bounce back from his first defeat to Crawford and keeps him solidly in the top ten in the division.
As for Zewski, a strong effort against a top ten contender should allow him to receive plenty of offers from other welterweights for future fights.
A good main event from Top Rank and both fighters.

The co-feature wasn't quite as exciting, but it was decent enough as the comeback theme started with featherweight Joet Gonzalez winning his first fight since being dominated by Shakur Stevenson with a clear, but not easy unanimous decision over veteran Miguel Marriaga.
Gonzalez managed to wear down and back Marriaga up over the second half of the fight after a competitive first few rounds and scored a very good victory over Marriaga, who lost for the first time against a non-champion (previous losses to Vasyl Lomachenko, Nicholas Walters, and Oscar Valdez).
I was impressed by Gonzalez in his victory (I scored him a 98-92 winner) and I'd like to see him against IBF champion Josh Warrington soon.
I think that would be a good matchup for Gonzalez and an entertaining fight that could go either way, but a WBO title challenge against the winner for the title vacated by Stevenson between Emmanuel Navarrete and Ruben Villa is more likely as Gonzalez is only rated by the WBO for now (11th entering the Marriaga fight) and Marriaga was rated sixth by that organization before the fight, so Gonzalez should make a major jump in their rankings.

In the boxing challenge, I scored three points to Ramon Malpica's one with the Joet Gonzalez win being the difference.
I increased my lead in the boxing challenge, moving my margin to 107-99.