Boxing Challenge: Nunez wins title

   Eduardo "Sugar" Nunez won the vacant IBF junior lightweight title in Yokohama, Japan, by doing something he had never done- winning a decision.

Nunez had won his previous bouts by knockout, but the rugged Masanori Rikiishi lasted the distance with Nunez and battled him to the end.

Nunez never seemed to seriously hurt Rikiishi, but his consistent attack and hard punches allowed him to dictate the fight despite the occasional counter from the home fighter.

Nunez won by scores of 117-111, 116-112, and 115-113, my score matching the middle score.

The exciting Nunez won the title vacated by Anthony Cacace, who chose a larger purse to fight Josh Warrington rather than Nunez.

A Nunez-Cacace fight would be entertaining, but promoter Eddie Hearn mentioned the possibility of former WBA featherweight champion Raymond Ford as a likely next opponent for Nunez, which would also be intriguing.

Yoshiki Takei dropped Yuttapong Tongdee three times in the first round and was pounding Tongdee along the ropes when the referee ended the fight with barely two minutes elapsed.

Takei retained his WBO bantamweight title with the destructive triumph.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 81 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica: 78 Pts (3)

Vince Samano: 32 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge

    It's a rare mid-week entry in the boxing challenge as two world championships are at stake from Yokohama, Japan, and streamed by DAZN.

In the main event, the vacant IBF junior lightweight title will be filled as Eduardo "Sugar" Ninez meets Masanori Rikiihsi.

Anthony Cacace gave up the title for more lucrative fights against Josh Warrington and Leigh Wood rather than face the dangerous Nunez for a far smaller purse.

All of Nunez's twenty-seven wins have come by knockout, including KOs of former title challengers Oscar Escandon and Miguel Marriaga.

Masanori Rikiihsi's best win was a wild come-from-behind final round knockout of Michael Maganesi in a WBC eliminator.

The co-feature pits WBO bantamweight champion Yoshiki Takei against Yuttapong Tongdee in a battle of unbeatens.

Takei won a close but unanimous decision over Daigo Higa last September in the first defense of the title Takei won from Jason Moloney.

Tongdee is unbeaten in fifteen bouts, but four times beat fighters in their pro debut, and four other wins came over fighters with losing records, so who knows what Tongdee brings to the ring?

Boxing Challenge

Vacant IBF Junior Lightweight Title. 12 Rds

Eduardo Nunez vs Masanori Rikiihsi

Ramon Malpica: Nunez Unanimous Decision
TRS: Nunez KO 8
Vince Samano: Rikiihsi Unanimous Decision

WBO Bantamweight Title. 12 Rds

Yoshiki Takei vs Yuttapong Tongdee 

R.L and TRS: Takei Unanimous Decision
V.S:  Tongdee KO 6 

Boxing Challenge: Taylor upset, Leo keeps title

    The biggest bout of the boxing weekend would see a surprising upset. Ekow Essuman shocked the hometown crowd in Glasgow, Scotland, by winning a unanimous decision over twelve rounds over former undisputed junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor.

Taylor started quickly, banking several early rounds before Essuman turned the tide with an attack that slowed Taylor and never hit the pause button for himself.

Essuman is aggressive but lacks a powerful punch, so he never put Taylor in danger; he simply outworked Taylor and wanted the victory more.

The official scores for Essuman were 116-112, 116-113, and 115-113, with my score at 115-113.

Essuman stated that he wanted bigger fights after the win, while Taylor dropped his third fight in a row, with losses to Teofimo Lopez and Jack Catterall preceding this loss.

Promising heavyweight prospect Moses Itauma destroyed veteran Mike Balogun in two rounds on the Taylor-Essuman undercard.

Itauma dropped Balogun in the first round, and only the guts of Balogun avoided the fight ending in round one.

Itauma knocked down Balogun twice more in round two to end the fight.

Itauma will have to prove he can take a shot, but he looks legitimate as a potential divisional force.

In Japan, Angelo Leo retained his IBF featherweight title via majority decision over former bantamweight champion Tomoki Kameda.

Leo managed to keep Kameda off him just enough to earn the decision in a very good fight.

Scorecards were even at 114-114 and two for Leo, 116-112 and 115-113. I scored it 116-112 for Leo.

On Friday in Doncaster, England, lightweight Maxi Hughes banged out a unanimous decision over Archie Sharp.

Sharp was effective, but spent too much time on the move, and Hughes deserved the nod by scores of 115-113, 116-112, and a crazy 120-108.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 79 Pts (6) 

Ramon Malpica: 75 Pts (4)

Vince Samano: 32 Pts  (2)

Boxing Challenge

  The boxing challenge is filled with international bouts, with a world championship in one of the weekend fights.

The weekend's biggest name fights in Glasgow, Scotland, as former undisputed junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor moves to the welterweight division against Ekow Essuman.

Taylor's star dimmed after his 2021 win over Jose Ramirez unified all four titles as Taylor began vacating titles, won a very controversial decision over Jack Catterall, and lost the WBO title (the only one he kept) to Teofimo Lopez. and lost a rematch to Catterall in his last fight last May.

Essuman has only one loss, but he's never fought above the European level, and he's thirty-six, so if Taylor doesn't win this one, he could be at the end of the line.

The co-feature will see the best heavyweight prospect, bomber Moses Itauma, take center stage.

Itauma looked devastating in his first-round destruction of Demsey McKean in December, and his opponent, Mike Balogun, was knocked out in two rounds in his only loss against former cruiserweight champion Murat Gassiev, so this could end early.

On Friday, a solid European lightweight fight comes from Doncaster, England, with veterans Maxi Hughes and Archie Sharp facing off in a crossroads battle.

Hughes bounced back from his loss to William Zepeda with a dominant, unanimous decision win over once-beaten Gary Cully in December, while Sharp lost for the first time last July to Ryan Garner in a battle of unbeatens.

The winner will move on to a bigger fight, perhaps even a title eliminator; the loser will slide back to English level status.

The previous three fights can be seen on DAZN, but the only world title bout of the week comes from ProBox as Angelo Leo defends his IBF featherweight title in Osaka, Japan, against Tomoki Kameda.

Leo pulled an upset last August when he won the title with a tenth-round upset of Luis Alberto Lopez, knocking Lopez cold.

Kameda is one of the seemingly ten thousand brothers of the Kameda family and once owned the WBO bantamweight title.

Kameda avenged a previous split decision defeat to Lerato Diamini with a split decision win of his own last August.

Boxing Challenge

Lightweights. 10 Rds 

Maxi Hughes vs Archie Sharp

Ramon Malpica and TRS: Hughes Unanimous Decision

Vince Samano: Sharp Unanimous Decision

Welterweights 10 Rds

Josh Taylor vs Ekow Essuman

R.L and TRS: Taylor Unanimous Decision
V.S.: Essuman Unanimous Decision

Heavyweights 10 Rds

Moses Itauma vs Mike Balogun

R.L: Itauma Unanimous Decision
TRS: Itauma KO 2
V.S.: Balogun Unanimous Decision

IBF Featherweight Title, 12 Rds

Angelo Leo vs Tomoki Kameda

R.L and TRS: Leo Unanimous Decision
V.S: Kameda KO 8

Cleaning out the Inbox: Passings

       Time to pay our respects to some persons of note who have recently left us.

Goodbye to Chet Lemon at the age of 70. 

Lemon played for the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers from 1975 to 1990 in a career that saw him named to three All-Star games and win a World Series with the 1984 Tigers.

Lemon would become noted for his work as a youth coach in Florida after his playing career ended. Several players, including Zack Greinke and Prince Fielder, would make the majors.

Goodbye to Morris The Alligator at 80+

Morris's age was estimated at over eighty after his passing at the Colorado Gator Farm.

Morris starred in several films, including the "classics" Alligator and Alligator 2, but is most remembered for his acting chops in "Happy Gilmore" as the gator who took the hand of Chubbs Peterson, who took Morris's eye in the ensuing melee.

Morris would meet his demise at the hands of Happy Gilmore later in the film.

Goodbye to Nino Benvenuti at the age of 87.

Benvenuti, a former two-time middleweight champion, also held the junior middleweight title and won the gold medal as a welterweight in the 1960 Olympics in Rome.

 Benvenuti won his first sixty-five bouts before losing a split decision in 1966 to Ki-Soo Kim in Kim's home country of South Korea.

 Benvenuti would win, lose, and regain the middleweight title in a three-match set against Emile Griffith with all three bouts held in New York City in 1967-1968.

 Benvenuti successfully defended his title four times before losing it to Carlos Monzon by twelfth-round knockout in November 1970. He retired after Monzon won their rematch by third-round knockout in 1971.

 Benvenuti was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992.

Goodbye to George Wendt at the age of 76.

Wendt's biggest role was as "Norm" on the TV classic "Cheers", who was such a staple of the Boston bar that when he entered, everyone shouted "Norm" in response.

Wendt never won an Emmy for playing Norm Peterson, but was nominated six times for best supporting actor.

Wendt would not have the same success after Cheers, as his self-titled series lasted only a few episodes/ But he never stopped being busy with many character roles and occasional Saturday Night Live appearances, including as part of the Chicago Super Fans and their catchphrase "Da Bears".

Wendt is also the uncle of former SNL and "Ted Lasso" star Jason Sudeikis.

Goodbye to Ruth Buzzi at the age of 88.

Denise Nicarry sent me word of her passing. Buzzi was nominated five times for an Emmy award for her work on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" and won a Golden Globe for her various roles on the variety program, in which Buzzi was the only "featured performer" to appear in every episode of the program's one hundred and forty.

Buzzi's portrayal of the spinster "Gladys Ormphby", complete with hairnet, consistently scared the preschool TRS to death, which is even odder from a comic character!

Buzzi would star in the Saturday morning kids show by the Krofft brothers, The Lost Saucer, with co-star Jim Nabors, and would spend the remainder of her long career with guest roles and voice acting jobs in animated projects.

Goodbye to Will Hutchins at the age of 94.

Hutchins was the star of the western series, Sugarfoot, from 1957-1961 as a young lawyer named Tom Brewster who was given the nickname of "Sugarfoot" as someone who wasn't tough enough to reside in the Wild West.

Hutchins would star in the sitcom "Blondie" in 1968 as "Dagwood Bumstead" but Blondie would last only one season and he then transitioned to co-starring and supporting roles, and that is where I would see him and remember him best.

Hutchins would co-star in two Elvis Presley films, "Spinout" as police officer Tracy Richards, who fell in love with Deborah Walley, who played Elvis's female drummer in the film, and "Clambake" where Hutchins character water ski instructor Tom Wilson switches lives with Elvis's oil tycoon son Scott Hayward and we all learn a valuable lesson about wishing for lives opposite our own and quite a few music tunes as well!

Cleaning out the Inbox

    The inbox cleaning starts with WTOP reporting that affiliated baseball could be returning soon, perhaps as soon as the 2026 season, to Frederick, Maryland, and Harry Grove Stadium.

Frederick lost their High A team after the great minor league implosion of 2021, despite leading the Carolina League in attendance for years.

MLB insisted that Frederick would not retain their team due to its stadium amenities or lack thereof, but I've been to worse stadiums that retained their teams (Lynchburg, VA).

Recent renovations to Harry Grove Stadium have apparently pleased the powers that decide these things and have given the thumbs up for a return to affiliated baseball.

The article doesn't mention any rumored teams that would move to Frederick, but if I had to place a wager on the likely franchise, I'd bet on either the Aberdeen Ironbirds (High A Baltimore) or the Wilmington Blue Rocks (High A Washington).

The Athletic writes of the ownership and support of Leeds United (English Football) by NBA player Larry Nance Jr., who calls himself the "Tallest Leeds United fan in the world".

Nance bought a small share in the team from their owners, the San Francisco 49ers, and travels to as many games as possible after the NBA season.

Nance looks at his ownership as a fan more than an owner and discusses how he doesn't have or want any pull in personnel decisions.

Nance currently plays for the Atlanta Hawks, and while on the sidelines, injured, during the Hawks' two play-in playoff games, he wore two different Leeds jerseys.

The Ringer has some thoughts on the streaming service Max changing its name to HBO Max.

The name change is very important since Warner Bros. changed the name to Max from HBO Max originally.

Like the Haslem's brain-dead idea to change the Cleveland Browns uniforms only to return them to their original design as soon as they could, Warner Brothers is the latest to learn that you can freshen things without screwing up what people like and remember about your product.

The change becomes official this summer.

The James Webb telescope recently saved images of auroras from the planet Jupiter, which are described as "Hundreds of times brighter than the Northern Lights seen on Earth".

This occurs as Jupiter (like Earth's version) receives high-energy particles that the sun ejects from solar storms, but Jupiter's are even brighter due to the planet capturing particles that are ejected into space from volcanoes on its moon Io. 

Boxing Challenge: Allen avenges defeat, KO's Fisher

      Often in boxing, when an underdog is deprived of a deserved victory, they don't do as well in the rematch.

Dave Allen changed that narrative with a brutal fifth-round knockout of Johnny Fisher in London.

Fisher won their first fight in Saudi Arabia, a fight which most gave the nod to Allen, by split decision, and was expected to handle Allen at home in England. 

Fisher did well for a while, using the jab and fighting off the attacking Allen but you had the feeling that eventually Allen was going to have his chance to take Fisher out.

Allen dropped Fisher in the fifth round in the first fight but couldn't finish the job, which allowed Fisher to take the fight to the judges.

This time, the fifth round would be the end of the fight as Allen knocked down a fading Fisher, who showed heart in rising but the fight could have been ended with Fisher on shaky legs.

Allen didn't allow Fisher to wiggle off the hook this time as he slammed a left hook to Fisher, sending him face first to the floor as his corner tossed the towel of surrender in mid-flight.

For Allen, the win will help a trialhorse receive a few more solid paydays at the British level and he should be quite competitive at that level.

For Fisher, it likely finishes him as a potential world-class prospect and resigns him to a career at the British level.

In Comnerce, California, top junior middleweight contender Serhii Bohachuk hammered out a unanimous decision over Mykal Fox.

Bohachuk is currently the number one contender in the WBC and will meet the winner of the Sebastian Fundora-Tim Tszyu rematch and the experience in fighting the 6'3 Fox would come in handy against the 6'6 Fundora, if Fundora wins the Tszyu rematch.

Judges scores were 98-92 times two and 97-93 as I've been unable to watch as of this writing.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 73 Pts (1)

Ramon Malpica: 71 Pts (1)

Vince Samano: 30 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge

  So you thought last week's boxing challenge was light?

As Bachman-Turner Overdrive once sang, "You ain't seen nothing yet," as only two fights will be in this week's challenge, and one is on the scarcely used UFC Fight Pass.

The first is in London from Matchroom/DAZN as unbeaten heavyweight prospect Johnny Fisher battles veteran journeyman Dave "The White Rhino" Allen in a rematch of their December bout in Riyadh Saudi Arabia that saw Fisher get knocked down in the fifth round but emerge with a split decision that most believed should have belonged to Allen.

Even promoter Eddie Hearn, who has a vested interest in Fisher's success, believed Allen won as he stated, "When I entered the ring, the best I could hope for was a draw."

Allen, an entertaining British veteran who usually came up short against the best of Britain, fought the fight of his career against Fisher, but can he duplicate that effort against a likely better-prepared Fisher in the rematch?

It will be a Fisher crowd in London rather than the somnambulent crowd that usually attends Riyadh cards, so perhaps that will work in the younger fighter's favor this time.

Usually in these situations, the favored fighter has more to prove, doesn't take the opponent for granted, and improves in the rematch, while the underdog generally shoots his best bullets in the first fight.

Under any result, this shapes up as an entertaining banger that should see both fighters taking and giving plenty of punches.

The other fight is in Commerce, California, for a junior middleweight ten-rounder between Serhii Bohachuk and Mykal Fox.

Bohachuk knocked down Vergil Ortiz twice in their 2024 fight but lost a majority decision before returning in December for a sixth-round stoppage of Ishmael Davis.

Fox is best remembered for dominating then-unbeaten Gabriel Maestre on a PBC card in 2021 and being robbed in one of the worst decisions in years.

In his last fight, Fox won a six-round decision over a fighter with a 3-5-2 record, and he has only fought twice in the last three years.

Boxing Challenge

Heavyweights. 10 Rds

Johnny Fisher vs Dave Allen

Ramon Malpica and TRS: Fisher Unanimous Decision

Vince Samano:

Junior Middleweights 10 Rds

Serhii Bohachuk vs Mykal Fox

Ramon Malpica; Bohachuk KO 9

TRS: Bohachuk KO 6

Vince Samano: 

 

Cavaliers eliminated by Indiana

    The Cleveland Cavaliers did almost everything right in the regular season.

History tells us that means little in the postseason, and sudden flaws, along with a good opponent on a hot shooting streak, eliminated the Cavaliers last night. The Indiana Pacers survived the Cavaliers' best shot early and controlled the second half of a 114-105 game five win.

Donovan Mitchell scored 35 points, and Evan Mobley added 24 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Cavaliers in their losing effort

I plan on a future look at the Cavalier season and the tremendous problems that they face this off-season.

Swashbucklings

1)  The key play in this one?

Donovan Mitchell was fouled by Aaron Nesmith with 1:49 remaining on a three-pointer.

Mitchell goes to the line for three shots, and Cleveland is down six.

Mitchell misses all three free throws, and even though Cleveland would get as close as three points, I never had the feeling that the Cavaliers had a chance to pull this out.

2)  Give Donovan Mitchell tons of credit for fighting through the series on one leg, and he rolled up points, but the leg clearly cost him with his shooting, eight of twenty-five in this game.

Points for toughness and effort, but the facts are simple- Mitchell didn't shoot the ball well in the series.

3) Another disappearing act in the playoffs from Jarrett Allen, who finished with nine points and only four rebounds.

I like Allen, who is as personable and likable as a professional can be, but in three postseasons with Cleveland, Allen was bullied by the Knicks, sat out through a rib injury against the Celtics, and vanished against the Pacers.

Of the Cleveland "Core Four", Allen is the easiest to try to move and try something different.

The problem with that is, every other NBA team has seen Allen's postseason play as well, and who can you receive to improve the team?

4) Max Strus played well in the postseason, but he threw up a clunker in game five, finishing tied with me for game five points and missing all nine of his shots.

5) Darius Garland's toe injury affected his play in his return, and his numbers showed it with eleven points, four for sixteen shooting, with six misses in six attempts from three.

Garland is also a fun player to root fo,r but his postseason shortcomings have been glaring, and it's fair to question if a team can go far with two undersized guards (Garland and Donovan Mitchell) that aren't defensive standouts.

6) The Cavaliers themselves need to evaluate how poor their shooting is in the playoffs and what they could do to improve.

Cleveland was the second-best team in three-point percentage in the regular season and tapered off as the worst of the eight teams in the playoff quarter-finals.

Woof.

7) Two players that Cleveland needs to move away from with their second-apron status (salary cap term) are Isaac Okoro and Dean Wade.

Neither are players that you can win with in the postseason, and between the two, Cleveland spends seventeen million dollars, eleven on Okoro and six on Wade.

Those salaries wouldn't allow the Cavaliers to miss the Salary Tax, but any savings help, and neither player would be too difficult to replace.

8) Give Indiana full credit for the series win, and same to their brutally underrated coach, Rick Carlisle, who I remember as a college player at Virginia!

Damn, time moves by fast!

Anyway, Indiana's push-the-pace style on both ends is going to cook a lot of teams, and they did so to Cleveland.

Were there circumstances for that victory?
Certainly, but that doesn't mean that Indiana wasn't the better team.

9) Indiana won all three games in Cleveland's Rocket Arena in the playoffs and won seven of nine games against Cleveland overall. This was no fluke, and I'm not sure homecourt is the advantage that it once was in the league.

That's a feeling and one without actual data, but it seems that visitors are winning at a rate better than previous seasons.

10) In the end, another excellent regular season feels hollow with a postseason exit that creates offseason questions.

Kenny Atkinson did an excellent job in the regular season but was outcoached by Rick Carlisle in the Indiana series.

I can give that a pass as it was Atkinson's first playoff season, and coaches need to gain experience there as players do.

There is plenty to be said and done between now and October, but for all the regular season brilliance, the Cavaliers had their chance to step forward and allow the league to see who they are.

For now, that team folded against adversity and melted on the bigger stage- the Cavaliers indeed  #Letemknow. 

Cleaning out the Inbox

   Time to clean the inbox again, and we start with a crazed Woodpecker in Massachusetts!

A Pileated Woodpecker has been attacking trees and homes for years in Rockport, Massachusetts, but the woodpecker has found a new target- windshields and side mirrors.

The bird is destroying vehicle glass and has driven locals to cover the glass by whatever means they can, as the theory goes that the woodpecker is seeing itself in the reflection and attacking!

The Ringer scores with the recollections of Bret Hart, who looks back to his match at Wrestlemania 13 with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin as the "night everything changed".

The Hart-Austin match is rated by many as the greatest in WrestleMania history and was recently inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as the first match to enter the Hall.

With the induction, Hart became the first person to be inducted three times- as a single, in his match with Austin, and for his tag team with Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart.

The Athletic writes of the legacy of Gregg Popovich, who recently ended his twenty-nine-season run as the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs.

Popovich won five NBA titles, and his over fourteen hundred wins is the all-time most in NBA history.

Popovich deserves his spot on the NBA coaches' Mount Rushmore, but his players rave about him for more than games won.

The Big Red Zone, a site devoted to the St.Louis Football Cardinals, writes the story of former Big Red running back Wayne Morris, who played eight seasons for the Cardinals after being drafted by them in 1976.

Morris finished his career with one season with the San Diego Chargers, finished his career with over 3,330 rushing yards, and his thirty-seven rushing touchdowns are still second in Cardinals team history.

A small business owner decided to test the theory that Americans will pay more for American made products and as the Yahoo article states- the results were "sobering".

Afina tested their top product- a shower head and after finding multiple American suppliers to provide the parts to make the shower head, the Chinese-made version was priced at $129 and the American-made piece was priced at $239.

The results?

After several days (the specific number wasn't mentioned) and over 25,000 visitors to the site- Afina sold 584 China manufactured versus Zero American style.

No love for the American style there.

The added cost came through the extra suppliers rather than one in China and an American version would be three times the cost, more than simply paying the Trump Tariff.

 

Browns sign Damontae Kazee

     The Cleveland Browns needed depth at safety with the departure of Juan Thornhill and the retirement of Rodney McLeod.

Veteran Damontae Kazee was the answer to the question as the Browns signed him as a backup and special teamer to a one-year contract.

Kazee will back up starters Grant Delpit and Ronnie Hickman.

Kazee was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the fifth round of the 2017 draft from San Diego State and led the NFL in interceptions with seven in 2018.

Kazee played in Atlanta for four seasons before moving to Dallas for a year and the last three seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Kazee is remembered by most for his dirty hit on Indianapolis wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. in 2023, which earned him a suspension for the final few games of the season.

Kazee played in fifteen games for the Steelers last season, starting one, and finished with twenty-one solo tackles and one interception.

Kazee turns thirty-two in June, so he's not a long-term answer, but he's comparable to Rodney McLeod without the big salary of Juan Thornhill, so he'll do fine as the third safety.

Boxing Challenge: Martinez nips Ioka

    Fernando Martinez was victorious in his rematch with Kazuto Ioka by a unanimous decision, but it wasn't without adversity in the Tokyo fight.

Ioka knocked Martinez down in the tenth round, and I thought he did enough to earn the victory with the knockdown making the difference in my 114-113 scorecard.

The judges differed, giving Martinez the nod by surprising margins of  117-110, 115-112, and 114-113.

Martinez retains his WBA junior bantamweight title, while Ioka is reportedly considering retirement.

In Florida, Erickson Lubin knocked out Ardreal Holmes in the eleventh round of their IBF junior middleweight title eliminator.

This was a dreadful fight that saw the previously unbeaten Holmes move around and appear petrified of Lubin's power.

Holmes could have won this fight if he had punched even a little more, but he didn't, and the fairly ineffective forward movement of Lubin wore Holmes down.

Two knockdowns in the eleventh ended this one.

Lubin is now the mandatory challenger for IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev.

Boxing Challenge

TRS:74 Pts  (2)

Ramon Malpica:73 Pts (3)

Vince Samano: 30 Pts (0)

Cavaliers pull vanishing act in Game Four

       The Cleveland Cavaliers were so awful in the first half of game four of their series with the Indiana Pacers that I did what I rarely do- I quit watching the game.

Indiana led by FORTY-ONE at the half and cruised to a twenty-point win, 129-109.

Darius Garland led Cleveland with twenty-one points.

I will keep this brief since I didn't watch the second half.

I'll give DeAndre Hunter credit for knocking down Bennedict Mathurin after he was cheap-shotted (Mathurin was ejected from the game) 

Donovan Mitchell injured his ankle, didn't play in the second half, and will undergo an MRI today.

That's what I have after a pitiful game from Cleveland, who has one choice- win the next three games or their season has ended.

Boxing Challenge: Navarrete slips by Suarez

   The boxing weekend didn't see any major upsets, but the action was pretty good, with a little controversy as well.

In the only title match, Emanuel Navarrete retained his WBO junior lightweight title with a technical decision at the end of round seven over Charly Suarez in San Diego.

In a nip and tuck battle, the beginning of the sixth round saw Suarez land a hard left hand and then graze Navarrete's head with his own.

As the fighters separated, Navarrete bled profusely from a cut over his eye, which the referee ruled was from a headbutt.

The fight was stopped before the start of round eight and moved to the scorecards with Navarrete winning by 68-65 and 67-66 times two (my score agreed with the latter).

California uses instant replay, so they could have changed the ruling, but said the replay was inconclusive.

If the cut had been ruled by the punch landed by Suarez, the halting of the fight would have given the win and the championship to Suarez.

The fight was close and hard fought, and Suarez deserves a rematch under the circumstances, but it may not happen as Navarrete needed six (yes, six) tries to make the division limit, and he might be forced to move up in weight.

Should Navarrete decide to move up, I hope the WBO places Suarez in the fight to fill the vacated title; he deserves that, at least.

In the co-feature, Raymond Muratalla won a unanimous decision over a tough but outgunned Zair Abdullaev.

No knockdowns, but Abdullaev's face was bruised and swollen after the bout, and Muratalla was way too much for Abdullaev.

Muratalla won by scores of 119-109 times two and 118-110; my score was 119-109.

Muratalla won the IBF interim lightweight title, and while I normally hate interim titles, this is a situation that is acceptable with champion Vasyl Lomachenko idle for a year, doesn't have a fight in the works, and is considering retirement.

If Lomachenko returns to the ring, he must face Muratalla, and should he decide to retire, Muratalla will be installed as the full champion.

Earlier in the day, from Nottingham, England, former IBF junior lightweight champion Anthony Cacace stopped former WBA featherweight titleholder in the ninth round when Wood's corner tossed in the towel of their surrender, with their men taking a beating.

Cacace scored a technical knockdown early in the ninth when only the ropes allowed Wood to remain standing.

As the round progressed, Wood fought back, but Cacace hurt Wood again, and on unsteady legs and with Cacace in pursuit, the Wood corner made the decision to stop the fight.

In Equatorial Guinea, Souleymane Cissokho won a unanimous decision over Egidijus Kavaliauskas in a WBC welterweight eliminator.

Cissokho was dropped in the second and fifth rounds, but otherwise managed to box and move his way through the fight.

Scores for Cissokho at 114-112 (same as mine), 115-111, and 116-110, who will now be the mandatory contender for WBC champion Mario Barrios.

I'll be back Monday with the two remaining bouts over the weekend, which I've been unable to watch yet.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 72 Pts (4)

Ramon Malpica: 70 Pts ( 5)

Vince Samano: 30 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge

  The boxing weekend may not be as heavy as the previous weekend, but it does have many competitive bouts and one with a world title at stake. 

The world title defense is from San Diego, as Top Rank and ESPN near the end of their agreement, with Emanuel Navarrete defending his WBO junior lightweight title against Charly Suarez.

Navarrete is a heavy favorite after stopping Oscar Valdez in the sixth round last December, while the unbeaten Suarez, who is thirty-six, has fought no one of world-class ilk.

The co-feature is for the IBF interim lightweight title, which I rarely give recognition, but with champion Vasyl Lomachenko idle for a year and may not fight again, this title is merited.

Should Lomachenko retire, the winner of the Raymond Muratalla-Zaur Abdullaev match will be promoted to full champion, and should he return to the ring, it will be against the victor.

Muratalla knocked out Jesus Campos in two rounds last November and holds a win over Tevin Farmer.

Abdullaev lost his only fight to Devin Haney in 2019 but owns solid wins over former champions Jorge Linares and Roger Gutierrez and title challenger Dejan Zlaticanin.

Muratalla is the better of the two, and I think he'll get the nod here.

The day starts with DAZN from Nottingham, England, and a match of two former champions who didn't lose their titles in the ring, at junior lightweight.

Former champions Anthony Cacace (IBF Junior Lightweight) and Leigh Wood (WBA Featherweight) face off in what should be an entertaining scrap.

Cacace won his title last year in an upset stoppage of Joe Cordina but chose to defend against Josh Warrington (winning via decision) rather than face mandatory challenger Eduardo Nunez, causing it to be taken away.

Wood hasn't fought since his knockout of Josh Warrington in October 2023, vacating his title after the victory.

This should be a very good fight.

ProBox is back in their Florida home with an IBF junior middleweight eliminator and veteran bomber Erickson Lubin meeting unbeaten Ardreal Holmes.

Lubin has knocked out many, has been stopped in both of his losses, and has a victory (a controversial one over contender Jesus Ramos) in his last fight in October 2023.

The unbeaten Holmes is a tall boxer who doesn't hit hard (six knockouts in his seventeen wins), but he should keep Lubin on the outside.

The question here is, can Holmes hit Lubin hard enough to keep him off him?

The victor will become the mandatory challenger for IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev.

The next two fights currently do not have American TV/Streaming but are important matches.

From the boxing hotbed of Malabo, Guinea, a WBC final eliminator at welterweight between Souleymane Cissokho and Egidijus Kavaliauskas.

The winner will become mandatory for WBC champion Mario Barrios, a mediocre champion who plans to next face forty-six-year-old Manny Pacquiao.

The unbeaten Cissokho hasn't fought above the European level of opponents but owns good wins over Keiron Conway, Roberto Valenzuela, and Isaias Lucero from that level.

Kavaliauskas is the better-known of the two from his title challenge of Terence Crawford in 2019 and his loss to Vergil Ortiz in 2021.

Neither man has fought since late 2023, and it likely comes down to Kavaliauskas's aggression versus the skills from distance of Cissokho.

From Japan, we have a rematch of the great junior bantamweight unification fight between Fernando Martinez and Kazuto Ioka from last July.

Martinez won a unanimous decision, but only the WBA title is still owned by him, as he gave up the IBF title to take the more lucrative paycheck for an Ioka rematch.

The winner will hold the only title not held by the winner of the upcoming three-title unification between Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez and Phumelele Cafu.

Boxing Challenge

Junior Lightweights 12 Rds 

Anthony Cacace vs Leigh Wood

All: Cacace Unaninous Decision

WBO Junior Lightweight Title 12 Rds

Emanuel Navarette vs Charly Suarez

R.L: Navarette KO 9

TRS: Navarette KO 7
V.S: Suarez Unanimous Decision

Lightweights 12 Rds

Raymond Muratalla vs Zair Abdullaev

R.L: Muratalla Unanimous Decision
TRS: Muratalla KO 8
V.S: Abdullaev Unanimous Decision

Junior Middleweights. 12 Rds

Erickson Lubin vs Ardreal Holmes

R.L: Lubin Unanimous Decision
TRS: Holmes Unanimous Decision
V.S: Holmes KO 6

Welterweights. 12 Rds

Souleymane Cissokho vs Egidijus Kavaliauskas

All: Kavaliauskas Unanimous Decision

WBA Junior Bantamweight Title 12 Rds

Fernando Martinez vs Kazuto Ioka

R.L and TRS: Martinez Unanimous Decision
V.S: Ioka KO 8 

Cavaliers pound Pacers, win Game Three

   Donovan Mitchell scored forty-three points, but the three missing players from game two played in game three as the Cleveland Cavaliers spanked the Indiana Pacers 126-104 in Indianapolis.

Max Strus scored twenty points while Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen each posted double-doubles for Cleveland.

Indiana leads the series two games to one, with game four Sunday night in Indianapolis.

Swashbucklings

1)  After three days of criticism and questions, the Cavaliers came out firing, and other than a small chunk of time in the second quarter, the Cavaliers led the entire game.

They did the same in game two and lost, but this time was different; it didn't have the feel of a team watching the clock and hoping to hold on.

2) Cleveland's three missing players from game two all returned for this game, with Evan Mobley having the most success with eighteen points, thirteen rebounds, and three blocks.

3) Darius Garland struggled with foul problems but finished with ten points and three assists.

Garland will be a big key should Cleveland win the series.

4) Cleveland's three-point shooting improved in success, if not percentage, as the Cavaliers hit fourteen from long range.

5) Max Strus played well with twenty points, seven rebounds, and seven assists.

Strus's game has picked up in the playoffs, and he is hustling all over the floor.

6)  Ty Jerome's struggles continued, hitting one of eight from the field, and Kenny Atkinson's patience in such an important game was short as Jerome played thirteen minutes.

Sam Merrill played more than Jerome (twenty minutes to thirteen), and it'll be interesting to see if the trend between the two continues.

7) Cleveland controlled Tyrese Haliburton as the Pacer star scored only four points on two for eight shooting.

Haliburton fell hard on his wrist in game two, and it could have affected his shooting.

8) The road team has won each of the three games in the series, and the win took Cleveland off the hot seat going into Sunday's game.

Win Sunday, and it's a best-of-three with home court advantage.

Lose it, and there is no room for error. 

Cleaning out the Inbox

      The inbox may ebb and flow, but it never stops, so it's time to clean and move some things out adequately!

Ryan sends this from the 13th Dimension on the greatness of Frank Gorshin's portrayal of the Riddler on the original Batman series.

Dan Greenfield's thoughts on the Gorshin Riddler are all similar to mine, and I've thought for years that if you were creating a Batman series or film and you could magically pluck anyone from any time that played a role in any Batman related vehicle, Frank Gorshin as the Riddler is the one slam dunk to retain that role above any challengers that was originally from the 1966 TV series.

Gorshin's Riddler is that good.

The Premier League is changing its game ball manufacturer.

Puma will provide the official league ball for the 2025-26 season.

Nike had been the provider of the official ball for twenty-five seasons and, along with Adidas, had been the top two companies involved with worldwide soccer, but Germany-based Puma has begun to make strides in an attempt to catch up.

Puma has been supplying the game balls for Serie A (Italy) and La Liga (Spain), but the English Premier League brings even more prestige and visibility as the most widely watched league in the world.

ABC News wonders about the ethics of bringing back extinct animals.

Recently, scientists announced the revival of the Dire Wolf, and the article questions (without judgment either way) if it is ethical to bring back animals that became extinct.

It's interesting to consider, although I'm more concerned with returning a dangerous predator that may not have a natural enemy to the modern environment!

The Athletic writes of one of the better shots that you will see by someone off the floor.

In 2013, photojournalist Gary Knox tweeted to keep an eye on sixth-grader Paige Bueckers, rating her as the best player of her age he had ever watched.

Twelve years later, the Dallas Wings selected Bueckers as the top overall pick in the WNBA draft.

Good call. 

KC Yesterday writes of the story behind the June 1979 roof collapse of Kansas City's Kemper Arena, which hosted the NBA's Kansas City Kings at the time of the incident.

The article discusses the engineering issues that led to the collapse and how equipment that could have been replaced might have avoided the problem.

Kemper would reopen within a year, and the Kings would play their games at their previous home, Municipal Auditorium, until the roof was fixed.

Kemper Arena is still around after being converted to a youth sports facility. It is now known as Hy-Vee Arena, and a local grocery chain owns the naming rights.

Cleveland Browns Draft Review

    The Cleveland Browns needed a great draft, and I'm not sure they got it, even though some picks will help the team.

Overall, I have to say I liked the trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars, but it's also disappointing to miss Travis Hunter as a standout with the Cleveland Browns.

I think Mason Graham was a top ten player, and I have no issues with his selection, although I'd love to hear how Andrew Berry has changed his philosophy on defensive tackles in just a few years, as in the past (pre-2023), Berry had given very little importance to the position.

Graham was the best defensive tackle in the draft, and while I don't think he will be an Aaron Donald type that dominates games, since he isn't an elite pass rusher up the middle, he will provide some pass rush and shut down the run.

As of now, the trade stands as the Jaguars with Travis Hunter and Bhayshaul Tuten (4th round pick acquired from the Browns, a running back from Virginia Tech) for Mason Graham, Quinshon Judkins, Dylan Sampson, and whomever the Browns select in next year's draft with the first rounder from Jacksonville.

I'm cautiously optimistic, but it's Andrew Berry making the selections, so I'm not guaranteeing success.

The Browns' selection of UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger to start the second round is polarizing.

In a weak linebacker group, the Browns are looking at the loss of Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, and with a desperate need for an athletic linebacker who has similarities to JOK, I can see the need for the position.

And if the Browns had Schwesinger as the last linebacker who could make an impact, the pick makes sense.

However, there were superior players available, and Schwesinger only started for one season with the Bruins, although his season was incredibly productive, so there are reasons to wonder about the value of Schwesinger at this pick.

I did like the Browns' second-round choice that they acquired from Jacksonville, Ohio State running back Quinshon Judkins.

I would have been happy with either Buckeye running back (Judkins or TreVeyon Henderson), and each has their strong points.

Henderson is the faster and more explosive of the two, Judkins the more powerful and might have the edge as far as an every-down back.

This is another hit, I think, and by the season's end, Judkins will be the Browns' top running back.

The first of their two third-rounders might not make an immediate impact, but could be the long-term tight end in Bowling Green's Harold Fannin.

Fannin never played tight end until reaching Bowling Green, and with his physical skills, could be a strong replacement when David Njoku moves on.

Fannin wasn't only a Group of Five destroyer, as he had big games in Bowling Green's close road losses to Texas A&M and Penn State.

It may not be this year, but I think Fannin will eventually become a starter.

The most controversial selection came near the end of round three with Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel.

Some like Gabriel's arm more than I do; he's older than most rookies (turns 25 before the end of the year), and at 5'11 is undersized.

Reportedly, Gabriel won over the Browns in the interview process (The Ivies have been fooled by this before), and his excellent college record gives him the tag of "winner".

I think Gabriel's ceiling is a long-term backup, and I don't see him as a regular starter in the league.

I'm open to being wrong, but I don't believe so.

In round four, the Browns grabbed another running back, Tennessee's Dylan Sampson. Sampson is a speedy back who can break the big run at any time.

Sampson will hopefully team with Quinshon Judkins to give the Browns two different types of backs and allow the team to impose the running game as the focal point of the offense.

Sampson will supplant Jerome Ford, either this year or definitely in 2026, as the team's speed back who will hopefully emerge as a gamebreaker.

Then the controversy began as the Browns traded with Seattle to move up in the fifth round (they gave their sixth rounder to flip fifth rounders) to grab Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

I liked Sanders entering the draft, but not as an early first-round pick, and I wasn't in favor of a first-round quarterback at all, considering the state of the franchise.

Sanders takes a lot of sacks, and he throws better long than short, but I think he has a chance of being an NFL starter.

I'm not saying Sanders will be a franchise quarterback, but he was worth the low cost of a sixth-round pick to find out.

Overall, this is a draft that I'm pleased with, but a few questions remain.

Did the Browns reach for Carson Schewesinger because the linebackers are a weaker class and, with the likely loss of Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, caused them to panic?

Did the Browns once again reach for a smallish quarterback because the Ivy Leagues loved his rap in the interview?

And if they did, how long will Dillon Gabriel receive, and how will their Gabriel obsession affect the chances of Shedeur Sanders?

Will Mason Graham be a destructive force or merely a very good player who excels against the run?

The answers to these questions will come on the field, but for now, my grade is a B+

Until then, it's a year filled with watching and rooting against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Magnificent Mitchell not enough in Game Two

     Donovan Mitchell's forty-eight points weren't enough to hold off the late run of the Indiana Pacers. Tyrese Haliburton's three-pointer with two seconds to play gave Indiana a shocking 120-119 win in game two of the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

The crippled Cavaliers played without Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and DeAndre Hunter, which handicapped them but they don't grade basketball games on a curve, and the Pacers return home to Indianapolis for games three and four with a two games to none lead.

Max Strus finished with twenty-three points and Jarrett Allen with twenty-two, supporting Cleveland.

Swashbucklings

1) Donovan Mitchell is a warrior.

He left everything he had on the floor, and I'm unsure of his game two status, considering the pounding he took during this game.

2) Mitchell wasn't perfect; he's still struggling from three, hitting only one of seven attempts.

It's hard to criticize Mitchell, considering the game he played, but his game becomes much more effective when more of those shots from the distances drop.

3) I wasn't sure whether to tip my cap or be angry at Tyrese Haliburton for his "marbles" strut after drilling the game-winner a la Tanaka in Major League 2.

4) Ty Jerome played twenty-eight minutes, shooting one for fourteen from the floor.

Jerome had a fine season, but he's not the type of player who flourishes with more than fifteen to eighteen minutes.

Currently, he's forced to log higher minutes, and his deficiencies are showing.

5) Speaking of forced, Cleveland was also forced to give too many minutes to players who are afraid/ineffective in shooting the ball.

Dean Wade did grab ten rebounds in his thirty minutes, but scored three points on three shots.

Isaac Okoro scored five points and took two shots.

Indiana knows these guys don't want to shoot and aren't worried about them.

6) If you circle one play, it's Tyrese Haliburton's missed free throw.

Haliburton misses, charges the boards, grabs his own rebound, and takes it back to prepare for his game-winner.

Grab that rebound, Cleveland wins.

7) Cleveland did receive 23 points from Max Strus, who had a good game until his lousy pass caused a late turnover, and was given 14 points from Sam Merrill, who hit four three-pointers.

8) What concerns me is how Indiana is beating up the Cavaliers.

I'm not blaming the referees, I'm blaming the team for not standing up to the Pacers, and it's too late to bring someone in.

Jarrett Allen might be too nice, and outside of the washed-up Tristan Thompson, there is no one on the bench to push someone around.

Koby Altman has created a fun team to watch and one that is filled with players who are fun to root for, but that may not be a championship team without someone to bang around and take no quarter from opponents.

I'm not sure how Cleveland adds a player of that type, but they need one in the worst way.

9) Cleveland trails two games to none, so they must split in Indiana to avoid a sweep and have hope for a series win.

Which of Garland, Mobley, and Hunter can play in game three?

They need at least two of the three, I think.

Win game three and hope is back, lose it and it will be a long off-season in Cleveland.

Cleaning out the Inbox: Passings

     Time for another recurring post of tributes to people who have recently left our Earth.

Goodbye to Mike Patrick at the age of 80. 

Patrick is best known for his work on college football, the NFL, and college basketball for ESPN, but to me, Patrick will always be the voice of ACC basketball in the eighties on the Raycom/Jefferson Pilot network.

Patrick called the famous "Len Bias" game when Maryland upset North Carolina in overtime to hand the Tar Heels their first-ever defeat in the "Dean Dome", among many outstanding ACC clashes.

Patrick was also the sports anchor at WJLA in Washington as one of arguably the three best sports anchors in one market with WUSA's Glenn Brenner and WRC's George Michael.

Before moving to Washington, Patrick worked in Jacksonville with one of his jobs as the play-by-play voice of the WFL's Jacksonville Sharks.

Goodbye to Tommy Helms at the age of 83.

The 1966 National League Rookie of the Year, Helms was named to two All-Star teams (1967 and 1968) and won two Gold Gloves at second base in 1970 and 71 for the Cincinnati Reds.

Helms's best seasons were with the Reds, but he (along with Lee May) was the key players who were traded to the Houston Astros in 1972 in the famous trade that saw Joe Morgan, Cesar Geronimo, and Jack Billingham join the Reds.

Helms had four solid seasons with Houston before finishing his career with Pittsburgh and Boston in 1977.

Goodbye to Joey Archer at the age of 87.

The slick-boxing middleweight contender in the 1960s, Archer, overcame his lack of power (only eight knockouts in his 45 wins) to defeat fighters such as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, middleweight and light heavyweight champion Dick Tiger, and defeated the great Sugar Ray Robinson in what would be the final fight of Robinson's career.

The Robinson win would be the last of Archer's career; he would lose a split decision to contender Don Fullmer and two close decisions to middleweight champion Emile Griffith before announcing his retirement.

Archer was named to the Boxing Hall of Fame despite never winning a championship in 2005.

Goodbye to Lupe Sanchez at the age of 63.

Sanchez was a standout defensive back for UCLA before signing with the USFL's Arizona Wranglers in 1984 and moving to the Orlando Renegades in 1985.

Sanchez would play for the Pittsburgh Steelers for three seasons as a defensive back and special-teams standout, intercepting four passes as a Steeler.

Goodbye to Stan Love at the age of 76.

The father of Kevin Love, Stan Love was the first round pick (ninth overall) of the then-Baltimore Bullets and signed with the Bullets over the ABA's Dallas Chapparals.

Love would play four years of pro basketball with the Bullets, Lakers, and the then-ABA's San Antonio Spurs, averaging six points per game for his career.

Love, the brother of the Beach Boys' Mike Love, would serve as a bodyguard and caretaker for another member of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, after his basketball career.

 

Boxing Challenge: Inoue saves the weekend

   In the original Star Wars film, Princess Leia appeared as a damaged hologram in an attempt to contact Obi-Wan Kenobi, repeatedly commenting, "Obi-Wan Kenobi, you are our only hope."

That scene came to mind after the two dreary events previously over the weekend with a paraphrase "Naoya Inoue you are our only hope".

Naoya Inoue came through, but the mild surprise came from Ramon Cardenas, who didn't read the script and floored Inoue in the second round.

Inoue wasn't seriously hurt from the left hand that knocked him down, but he began to turn the tide in the fourth, and after round four, Inoue controlled the action despite Cardenas having his share of success in exchanges.

In the seventh, the Monster stung Cardenas, and it became clear the end was near, which Inoue's inner radar realized, jumping on Cardenas to start the eighth round, driving him into the ropes with authority with a series of punches that forced referee Harvey Dock to stop the fight.

I had Inoue slightly ahead at the time of the stoppage 67-66.

For Inoue, he'll be facing the top challenger in the division, former WBA and IBF champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev this September in what should be an interesting fight.

Inoue has now been dropped twice in his last three fights (Cardenas and Luis Nery) by similar punches, a counter left, and Akhmadaliev is a skilled counterpuncher, so it will be interesting to see if Inoue works on fixing a flaw before that match.

As for Cardenas, he has made a name for himself after an energetic and valiant attempt to dethrone Inoue and he's earned the chance for high-visibility fights in the future.

In the co-feature, Rafael Espinoza retained his WBO featherweight title over Edward Vazquez in a strong outing for the champion.

Vazquez tried hard but his light punching power wasn't enough to stun Espinoza and with the physical advantages held by the 6'1 champion, Vazquez couldn't use his usual game to outbox him from a distance.

Vazquez was dead game and tried to win but this was a bad style match for him, and the fight ended similarly as the main event with Espinoza pouring it onto a battering challenger along the ropes in round seven.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 68 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 65 Pts (3)

Vince Samano:30 Pts  (2)

Cavaliers surprised by Pacers in Game One

     The Indiana Pacers started fast and finished strong. 

And for the first time, the Cleveland Cavaliers missed the injured Darius Garland as the Pacers upset the Cavaliers in game one of the Eastern Conference semi-finals 121-112 in Cleveland.

Donovan Mitchell led the Cavaliers with thirty-three points, and Evan Mobley scored twenty points with ten rebounds.

Game two will be in Cleveland on Tuesday as Cleveland will attempt to tie the series at one game apiece.

Swashbucklings

1) Donovan Mitchell scored 33 points, but he shot the ball thirty times (13 of 30) and hit only one of his eleven shots from three-point land.

2) I know Mitchell is the focus of the offense with Darius Garland injured, but Cleveland works best when Mitchell takes fewer shots, not more.

It's not Mitchell's fault that the shots from Garland need to be replaced somewhere, but it showed that Mitchell cannot be the be-all and end-all for the Cavaliers to be effective.

3) Indiana likes to force a faster pace, and it seemed the Cavaliers wore down as the evening progressed.

It's fair to wonder if the pace will be a factor if the series goes six or seven games.

4) Indiana shot 53 percent from the floor and 52 percent from three-point distance while Cleveland shot 45 percent overall and a pitiful 23 percent from three.

5) A scary point came when DeAndre Hunter took a huge bump on the floor and appeared fortunate to avoid injury.

Hunter continued to play, but for a minute, it looked very ugly.

6) It's one loss, and even though the loss of home-court advantage (for now) is concerning, the bigger concern is Darius Garland.

When will Garland return, and how effective will he be when that happens?

For all that Ty Jerome has delivered this season, he isn't quick defensively (making Tyrese Haliburton even more effective for Indiana), and Indiana took advantage of Jerome's defense.

7) Cleveland didn't look sharp off a week's layoff, but Indiana wasn't active either, and it didn't affect them.

Game two at home is now a must-have.

Boxing Challenge: Wake me when it's over

     Riyadh Season Promotions have made some things happen in boxing that wouldn't have happened without them, which is good.

However, their back-to-back cards this weekend, Times Square and Riyadh, were an absolute disaster with boring fights, the defeat of Ryan Garcia, and it was the first setback for the promotion.

Throwing money at stars isn't always the answer; hopefully, they will learn their lesson.

In the main event, Canelo Alvarez regained the IBF super middleweight title that he never lost with a unanimous decision over the stuck-in-reverse William Scull.

Once again, Alvarez holds all four titles in the division. After the win, a fall fight with Terence Crawford was announced in the ring, and that was the only good thing from the main event.

Scull ran (I tweeted this during the fight), Canelo plodded after him, few punches landed, none of those significant, and it was dreadful to watch.

As bad as this was, and it was bad, I'm not going to rip Scull as many are currently.

This was his best chance to win- stink the joint out and hope the judges value his "work".

Scull won a few rounds on my card (117-111 for Canelo), and you might say that if he were more active and took more chances, he might have won ( official cards 119-109, 116-112, and 115-113) against the cement shoes of Canelo.

I'd disagree, as taking those chances would have placed him in front and gotten him knocked out.

It made an awful match, and you can blame Scull for the tedium, but he took his only chance to win, as slim as that was.

The best fight of the weekend wasn't Holyfield-Qawi I, but it was a solid cruiserweight fight as Badou Jack retained his WBC cruiserweight title with a majority decision over Noel Mikeaelin.

Both fighters did their share of good work, and it was entertaining in its own way.

Jack earned the decision by scores of 115-113 times two and 114-114.

I had Mikaelin winning 115-113, but this was a very close fight, and I'd like to see a rematch.

Jaime Munguia won his rematch with Bruno Surace by unanimous decision and regained some of his stature in the super middleweight division that he lost when Surace knocked him out with one punch in December.

However, it was a more reticent Munguia that boxed more and didn't get hit as much, although less entertaining, You could see the changes in Munguia from his change in trainers to Eddy Reynoso.

Munguia mentioned the names Caleb Plant and Edgar Berlanga after the fight; either would be welcomed as potential foes.

Munguia won by scores of 117-111 times two and 116-112, with my score agreeing with the latter.

Efe Ajagba and Martin Bakole batted to a majority draw in their heavyweight opener.

Ajagba controlled the fight from a distance for most of the early fight, Bakole rallied late, hurting Ajagba in the seventh, and I think if the fight was a twelve-rounder, Bakole would have gotten the nod.

Official scores of 96-94 for Ajagba and two of 95-95, I scored Ajagba a 96-94 winner.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 65 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica: 62 Pts (4)

Vince Samano: 28 Pts (3)

Boxing Challenge: Garcia rolled by Romero

      The Ring magazine card in Times Square appeared to be a good idea initially, but various problems with the city of New York and its zoning rules turned the crowd into a quiet crowd of high rollers.

That was before the fights began, when they were rewarded with thirty-six rounds of less-than-exciting action and a likely loss in one of the more anticipated fights in the game.

In the main event, Rolando Romero pulled a huge upset by winning a unanimous decision over Ryan Garcia and perhaps losing the much-anticipated rematch between Garcia and Devin Haney.

Romero didn't exactly dazzle in victory, but he scored the only knockdown of the evening when he dropped Garcia in the second round with a left hook and did his job well enough to win a WBA minor title, which should earn him a bigger fight eventually.

Garcia fought as poorly as one could remember in an awful performance as a prohibitive favorite, and it's reasonable to wonder how much of his win over Devin Haney may have been due to his use of PED's.

That's how bad Ryan Garcia looked, and he looked like a fighter who may have blazed past his prime without stopping at Go.

Romero did enough to win (118-109 and 115-112 x 2, my score 117-110), but let's not fool ourselves, we didn't see a new star born in Times Square, and if I have a solid welterweight right now, I'm gunning for Rolly Romero.

The co-feature was equally dull as Devin Haney dominated Jose Ramirez, but he did that as tediously as you could have imagined.

Haney moved, Ramirez lumbered, and it was this for twelve long rounds.

The less said about this, the better, but Haney did his part by winning his fight for the Ryan Garcia rematch, as dreadful as it was.

Haney won by scores of 119-109 x2 (and my score) and 118-108.

Teofimo Lopez showed his skills in a workmanlike victory over Arnold Barboa with a unanimous decision victory.

Lopez's speed was too much for Barboza, who won a few rounds but generally was a step behind Lopez.

Lopez won on the scorecards 118-110 and 116-112 times two, the same as my score.

Lopez retained his WBO junior welterweight title in the win, but without a marquee opponent in the division ( champions Alberto Puello, Richardson Hitchins, and Gary Antuanne Russell), Lopez talked of a rise to the welterweight division for a challenge of WBA and IBF champion Jaron "Boots" Ennis after the bout.

The idea of a live card in Times Square was an audacious attempt, but in actuality, the card lacked atmosphere and reminded me more of the post-COVID "Bubble" cards than a raucous live crowd.

Points for effort, but overall, I'd be fine without a return.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 63 Pts (2)
Ramon Malpica; 58 Pts (2)
Vince Samano: 25 Pts (2)

Boxing Challenge: And it's Huge!

  It's a huge boxing weekend.

For emphasis-HUGE as several of the top stars in the sport will be in action over the Friday through Sunday stretch!

Nine fights in this week's challenge, and while most of the top matches have favorites, almost all of the underdogs have a reasonable to good chance of pulling a surprising upset.

DAZN pay per view (weren't they the people that said pay per view was dead?) will be the place for the first two shows and number one is from a very odd location- Times Square in New York City.

Friday evening, Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney will face recognizable foes, but ones that they are expected to vanquish and advance to a lucrative rematch late this year.

Garcia will meet Rolando Romero for another one of those WBA minor titles that were supposed to go away in the welterweight division.

The title may be a joke as Garcia hasn't fought in a year and never (officially) as a welterweight, and Romero hasn't fought at the weight either, to go with losing two of his last four (and should have been three with the travesty of his win over Ismael Barroso).

Romero is wild, and is perfect for Garcia, who I see knocking Romero out, and possibly in spectacular fashion.

Haney also hasn't fought since his fight with Garcia and on paper, his opponent, former WBC and WBO junior welterweight champion Jose Ramirez is the more difficult of the two but Ramirez looked slow and uninspired in his last fight, a decision loss to Arnold Barboza, and looks like he's more interested in a payday rather than a victory.

If Haney is in his typical form, I think he controls Ramirez and wins a wide decision.

WBO junior welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez meets Arnold Barboza in a grudge match that has been long-awaited by many.

Lopez hasn't impressed in his two most recent fights, a close decision win over Jamaine Ortiz and an easy win over overmatched Steve Claggett, while Barboza is coming off his two best wins, a unanimous decision win over Jose Ramirez and a split decision win over talented Jack Catterall in Catterall's native England.

Barboza fits the suit in style as a fighter who would trouble Lopez, and Lopez fights his best when motivated against elite fighters (Vasyl Lomachenko and Josh Taylor).

The question is this: Is Lopez motivated and prepared to fight a good opponent with a style that troubles him?
If there is a major upset this weekend, this is my choice.

Saturday, it's onto Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for another DAZN PPV with the main event storyline centering around Canelo Alvarez's attempt to return the title taken from him by the IBF and hold all four belts in the super middleweight division for a second time.

Alvarez refused to fight his IBF mandatory, unknown William Scull, and was stripped of the title.

Scull then won a controversial decision over Vladimir Shishkin in a boring bout and "earn" this fight.

The only question in this one appears to be, Will Canelo stop Scull? Alvarez hasn't stopped an opponent since his 2021 KO of Caleb Plant and has had six fights since stopping Plant.

The co-feature will see Jaime Munguia attempt to avenge his sixth-round knockout loss in his hometown to an unknown Bruno Surace.

Munguia was ahead on the scorecards when Surace, who entered the fight with only four knockouts in his twenty-five wins, ended the fight with one right hand.

Was the punch a fluke? Or has Munguia suffered permanent damage to his psyche and chin?

A delayed heavyweight bout will happen as big punchers Martin Bakole meets Efe Ajagba.

Bakole was near the top of the heavyweight rankings before replacing Daniel DuBois on two days' notice to face Joseph Parker in February.

Parker knocked out an understandably out-of-shape Bakole in two rounds, but Bakole was promised to receive the same payday and opponent that he would have faced- Ajagba, win or lose.

Since he lost, the fight is no longer a heavyweight title eliminator, but everything is the same.

Ajagba hasn't fought since a split decision win over Guido Vianello in April 2024.

Badou Jack and Noel Mikaelian will clean up a mess over the WBC cruiserweight title that started when Jack was going to attempt to win the silly bridgerweight title, Mikaelian won the vacant title, Jack became the champion in recess, and then was given the title as champion.

It's a mess that will finally be cleared up unless the fight ends in a draw.

Sunday night, the Monster returns to America as the undisputed junior featherweight champion Naoya Inoue will defend his four titles against Ramon Cardenas.

Inoue stopped Ye-Joon Kim in four rounds in January, while Cardenas won his biggest fight in his last outing with a unanimous decision over then-unbeaten Bryan Acosta.

Cardenas is a solid top ten contender but Inoue makes even the best look bad, so a Cardenas win would be the upset of the decade.

In the co-feature, Rafael Espinoza defends his WBO featherweight title against Edward Vazquez.

Espinoza stopped Robiesy Ramirez in six rounds in December to win their rematch, while Vazquez has two losses, both controversial: a split decision loss to Raymond Ford, who eventually became a world champion, and a majority decision to Joe Cordina in November 2023 for Cordina's IBF junior lightweight title.

Espinoza is the heavy favorite, but Vazquez has the potential to surprise the champion.

Boxing Challenge

Welterweights, 12 Rds 

Ryan Garcia vs Rolando Romero

Ramon Malpica: Garcia KO 4
TRS: Garcia KO 3
Vince Samano: Garcia KO 7

Welterweights 12 Rds

Devin Haney vs Jose Ramirez

All: Haney Unanimous Decision

WBO Junior Welterweight Title 12 Rds

Teofimo Lopez vs Arnold Barboza

R.L and TRS: Barboza Split Decision
V.S: Barboza KO 9

Unification WBA/WBC/WBO-IBF Super Middleweight Titles.12 Rds

Canelo Alvarez vs William Scull

R.L and V.S.: Alvarez Unanimous Decision

TRS: Alvarez KO 8

Super Middleweights 12 Rds

Jaime Munguia vs Bruno Surace

R.L: Munguia Unanimous Decision
TRS: Munguia KO 10
V.S.: Surace Unanimous Decision

Heavyweights. 12 Rds

Martin Bakole vs Efe Ajagba

R.L: Bakole KO 6
TRS: Bakole KO 9
V.S.: Bakole KO 7

WBC Cruiserweight Title. 12 Rds

Badou Jack vs Noel Mikaelian

R.L and TRS: Mikaelin Unaninous Decision
V.S.: Jack Unanimous Decision

World Junior Featherweight Title. 12 Rds 

Naoya Inoue vs Ramon Cardenas

R.L: Inoue KO 5
TRS: Inoue KO 6
V.S.: Inoue Unanimous Decision

WBO Featherweight Title. 12 Rds

Rafael Espinoza vs Edward Vazquez

R.L and V.S:Espinoza Unanimous Decision

TRS: Espinoza Split Decision