Boxing Challenge: Pedraza defeats LesPierre-No replay needed

Photo Credit; Mikey Williams Top Rank

The Vegas Bubble continued with the boxing challenge with two bouts with a former champion trying to maintain viability and an Olympic champion attempting to avenge a defeat to move onward and upward in his career.

Former IBF junior lightweight and WBO lightweight champion Jose Pedraza dominated Mikkel LesPierre in their junior welterweight fight that was delayed by a few weeks and won an easy unanimous decision in the main event.
Pedraza used an ambidextrous style to befuddle LesPierre throughout the bout and it seemed like his right hand couldn't' miss LesPierre as it seemed to land whenever Pedraza pleased.
Pedraza knocked down LesPierre in the fifth and tenth rounds and almost finished LesPierre off for the stoppage in the final round.
I scored Pedraza a 99-89 winner on my card, but there was a small bit of controversy before the sixth round as a LesPierre knockdown was looked at via instant replay.
The replay look is fine, in my opinion, there is plenty of room for boxing to improve from referee errors, but referee Kenny Bayliss left the ring to look at the replay and it took several minutes to see that LesPierre tripped Pedraza for the knockdown and invalidating it.
It was close and there was contact between the two, but LesPierre did land a punch so I would have counted it, but it was nothing to be enraged over.
However, leaving the ring to look at the video and slowing the fight down seems very clunky to me and the system shouldn't take that long.
Now, I do think the fighters need to be notified ASAP on the points situation in these matters, but I'd like to offer a better way.
What if there was a fourth official in charge of only replay and the only changes that they can make are knockdowns (to reverse both called and not called in the ring) and on cuts in order to determine if they were from a punch or from illegal contact?
Then you add one more stipulation- you have no more than one round to make a determinatiom.
By adding that time limit, the fighters know their situation on the cards as soon as they can and we move on.

Pedraza bounced back from his September defeat to Jose Zepeda and I can see him as a solid back half of the top ten fighter in the 140 pound division, which is a very top-heavy division.
I can see Pedraza in the mix for a 2021 title fight against a possible four belt unification winner of a Jose Ramirez-Josh Taylor fight or maybe in the scramble for any of the titles that could be vacated by the winner, but he's 0-3 against top of the division fighters and his best win is over an aging Ray Beltran, so I'm not sure that I'm buying stock long term.
However, should the chips falling in the right place against the right style, Pedraza could walk away with a title belt.

In the other challenge fight, two-time Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez avenged his career opening decision loss to Adan Gonzales via unanimous decision in a six rounder.
Ramirez was far better prepared for the rematch and forced Gonzales to back up with a strong performance that only lacked a knockout to showcase the Cuban's skills in winning all six rounds.
Ramirez makes me think of the type of boxer that will need to be motivated to be successful and might be a fighter that will win some fights when he could be written off, but also could lose some fights that he'll be favored because he may not take everything seriously.
Zab Judah was often in that mode as was fellow Cuban Joel Casamayor and the enigmatic careers that each of them had might cost them potential spots in the boxing hall of fame.

Ramon Malpica added four points on the evening to my three and cut my lead to seven points at 65-58 with an extra point for Robiesy Ramirez and his decision win made the difference.

Boxing Challenge: Ortiz outslugs Orozco

In the latest step up in the career of elite welterweight prospect Vergil Ortiz, Ortiz won a minor title, but more importantly, showed patience and power as he knocked out Antonio Orozco in the sixth round in Grand Prarie, Texas.

The title may be almost meaningless, but the performance certainly was not as Ortiz nearly finished the fight in the first round as he drove Orozco into the ropes, badly stunning and I wouldn't have argued had the referee ruled that a knockdown.
Ortiz then settled into a groove and even though Orozco continued to throw punches with occasional success, Ortiz was showing the type of patience that future champions possess as he entered the sixth round for the first time in his career.
Ortiz landed a huge uppercut early in the sixth that really was the end of the fight as Orozco hit the floor.
Orozco showed a massive heart in rising, but soon was dropped again and could have packed the evening in right there. but lifted himself up one more time and attempted to hold on, but a screaming Ortiz left hook sent Orozco to the floor once more and there was no need to see anything further as the fight was called off.
For Ortiz, it was a solid win over a world-class level fighter, although Orozco had proven himself at junior welterweight, not at welterweight and showed that he can be more than a one-dimensional hitter as he moves higher up the welterweight rankings.
The biggest problem for Ortiz might be similar to that of Terence Crawford in the welterweight division- his promoter/media presenter just doesn't have anyone for him to fight.
The only DAZN (and not even Golden Boy Promotions) fighter in the division in the top ten is Jessie Vargas, so that fight would make sense as something to pursue, but other than Vargas there is next to nothing available in the division at this time.
Vergil Ortiz might be the next star welterweight, let's hope he gets the chance to prove it.

In the other fight in the challenge, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr knocked out Evert Bravo in the first round after landing a body shot.
Chavez looked strong in his first fight at 175 pounds, but Bravo had been knocked out in three of his previous four fights, so let's see him in his next outing.

In the boxing challenge, I scored three points to Ramon Malpica's two to extend my lead to 203-176.

Finally, on the ESPN card that I watched, despite not placing any fights for the boxing challenge, one of those fights that you love to see, but rarely occur took place in Philadelphia as the highly-touted prospect lost against the fighter brought in as an enhancement talent.
This one was even bigger than just a touted prospect as two-time Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez was shocked by 5-2-2 Adan Gonzales in a split decision that should have been unanimous.
Ramirez suffered a flash knockdown in the first round when a Gonzales left hand knocked Ramirez off balance and when Ramirez's glove steadied him on the floor, it was correctly ruled a knockdown.
With a 10-8 first-round against him, Ramirez would have to sweep the next three rounds to win the fight and all things considered, it was still considered likely, but instead, Gonzales continued to win the exchanges as Ramirez looked stuck in the amateur style, didn't work off his jab as the taller and longer fighter and most importantly was outworked throughout the fight as I scored Gonzales a 39-36 victor.
To no one's surprise, there is always the house judge as somehow David Braslow scored Ramirez a 38-37 winner, meaning that on his card, Ramirez did win the final three rounds.
The bigger surprise, which says a lot for boxing, is that the other two judges didn't find a way to score the fight for the house fighter and gave Gonzales a split decision win.
We'll see if this win is the highlight of the career for Adan Gonzales or if he has a future ahead of him, but for one night Gonzales was as good as he had to be to pull a huge and unexpected upset.