Apologies for that but sitting in the dark was far from fun and I would have no time for a review on Sunday for reasons that you will see later in the week!
As I return to the David's (Benavidez and Lemieux), the bigger and younger Benavidez would finish off the very courageous and just as overmatched Lemieux in the third round.
Lemieux tried to fire his once-powerful right hand. Still, Benavidez was far too strong and almost ended the fight in the first round when a left hook snapped Lemieux's head back, trapping him in a corner and with another thirty seconds may have finished the bout in one.
Benavidez busted Lemieux's nose early in the second and knocked him through the ropes early in the second (this is where I lost the telecast) with again Lemieux being very fortunate to reach the end of the round.
Lemieux tried to hold Benavidez off in the third as he attempted to step his punch output up but Benavidez quickly ended the attempt and resumed his pummelling of the Canadian to force Lemieux's corner to end the fight.
A spectacular win for Benavidez, who would love to fight Canelo Alvarez, who seems occupied for the near future but his PBC options appear limited to the always-reluctant Caleb Plant or hoping for a rise in weight for WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo for the time being.
The co-feature saw Cuban prospect Yoelvis Gomez forced to fight for the ten-round distance for the first time against veteran journeymen Jorge Cota but notched shutouts (100-90, I scored Gomez a 99-91 victor) on all three cards to earn a unanimous decision in a junior middleweight pairing.
Gomez is very aggressive but somewhat wild in delivering his shots and although I'm very high on his future, he needs a few more fights before his next attempt at improved competition.
Meanwhile, over in Las Vegas, Janibek Alimkhanuly won a minor title that could be promoted to the full WBO title depending on the eventual decision of WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade after a two-round destruction of England's unbeaten but overmatched Danny Dignum on a Top Rank/ESPN card.
Alimkhanuly was like a child throwing Nerds candy into a whirring fan before succumbing to a huge left uppercut that concluded the evening.
Alimkhanuly now awaits the decision of Demetrius Andrade, who will either vacate the WBO title to move to 168 pounds, which would give Alimkhanuly full title status, or in the event of Andrade staying at 160, he will be forced to face Alimkhanuly in what would be a very intriguing fight.
Unbeaten Jamaine Ortiz took control down the stretch over his lightweight ten rounder against former WBO junior lightweight champion Jamel Herring and won a unanimous decision that would result in Herring announcing his retirement after the decision.
Ortiz was too quick in winning the final four rounds on my card to win 97-93 (which agreed with two judges, the other scored 96-94) and surprisingly announced in his post-fight interview that he was likely to try junior welterweight in his next fight.
Herring has always been a class act and I am sorry to see him leave the stage but the time appears to be right as he has clearly lost a few steps and I'd hate to see Herring move to steppingstone status.
The day started with an evenly fought light heavyweight duo slugging each other for twelve rounds as Joshua Butasi survived a late run by Craig Richards to snare a close unanimous decision from London.
The Matchroom-DAZN event was a WBA eliminator but more importantly, was for the unofficial title of best British 175 pounder with Butasi setting the pace and Richards countering well.
The best action came in the later rounds when Richards began to rally on the scorecards but his late run came too late as Butasi won by 115-113 twice (my scorecard) and 116-112.
Buatasi is a potential opponent for WBA champion Dmitry Bivol, should Canelo Alvarez not activate his option for a rematch but I would wager that it would be Gilberto Ramirez getting the nod for a Bivol assignment under that scenario.
Boxing Challenge
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