Boxing Challenge: Showtime Snoozer

   The boxing weekend continued with cards from Top Rank on ESPN and PBC with Showtime with the main event that might rank among the worst ever and considering that Guillermo Rigondeaux has many of the candidates for that title- that says it all.

Sometimes in boxing programming, you have a card that just doesn't work out the way you planned it and you received next to no action at all.

It was one of those nights for PBC and Showtime from Carson, California as they received two rounds of a lopsided blowout, about fifteen seconds before a headbutt ended a fight, and then a major title fight with premium ramifications turned into a 10,000-meter race.

The WBO bantamweight title between John Riel Casimero and Guillermo Rigondeaux was hoped to be an entertaining battle as Casimero usually makes action fights and Rigondeaux's legs seemed to be slowing in his second to most recent fight against Julio Ceja in what was arguably the only entertaining fight of Rigondeaux's career.

So it wasn't an unreasonable thought to think that this should be at least an average action fight with the potential for more- which meant that fans were served up twelve rounds of Rigondeaux running around the ring and neither fighter landing double-digit punches in any round (which may be a record for a world title fight) in the worst "big" fight that anyone can remember in recent history.

With the live crowd and almost everyone watching at home booing the hell of this mess, fans knew the cards for this one would vary and everyone crossed their fingers that Casimero's attempted aggression would be rewarded so exciting fights like Casimero-Donaire or Casimero-Inoue may be made rather than sleep inducers such Rigondeaux-Donaire II or heavens forbid Rigondeaux-Inoue.

Fortunately, the fans caught a break with Casimero winning a split decision with scores of 117-111 and 116-112 (my score) to overrule a 115-113 tag for Rigondeaux.

Hopefully, Casimero and WBC champion Nonito Donaire can be made next time in what almost certainly will be a war with both fighters having personal grudges against the other.

As for Rigondeaux, I'd like to say at 40 years old we have seen the last of him but don't bet on it.

The co-feature ended in sixteen seconds as featherweights Emanuel Rodriguez and Gary Antonio Russell each moved to the center of the ring, collided skulls, and the fight was called with both fighters dazed and Rodriguez taking the worst of it.

That's about as much as one could say about that.

The two rounds of the opener saw all the action for the televised portion as former WBA bantamweight champion Rau'shee Warren stopped an outclassed Damien Vazquez in two rounds.

Warren knocked down Vazquez twice in the first and once in the second before the merciful ending.

Warren could be in the title picture, should Donaire-Casimero fall through as a potential opponent for either champion.

The card looked good on paper but this is boxing and you just cannot ever take things for granted inside the ring.

Top Rank and ESPN starred a third fight that was compelling for the two fighters not for the minor WBA belt on the line as Joshua Franco and Andrew Moloney battled hard after a rematch that ended after a phantom headbutt allowed Franco to escape with a no-contest in a fight that Moloney seemed to be on the way to winning.

The second fight made Moloney the favorite but it was Franco that outworked Moloney in a good not great fight to win a unanimous decision in Tulsa Oklahoma.

Moloney started well but Franco took control winning most of the middle part of the fight.

Moloney rallied late but he was too far behind on the scorecards, all of which agreed with my 116-112 card for Franco.

A huge win for Franco, who might be a good opponent for Naoya Inoue, should Inoue be unable to make unification matches with either Nonito Donaire or John Riel Casimero.

The co-feature saw junior welterweight contender Arnold Barboza dominate veteran Antonio Moran over ten rounds as a stay busy bout for Barboza. who broke the nose of Moran and won the final nine rounds on my card in a 99-91 card.

Barboza will likely be in the mix whenever Josh Taylor vacates his four titles for a vacant title but should Taylor decide to stick around the division for a while Barboza might be a nice opponent for Taylor with both boxers associated with Top Rank.

In the main event on the ESPN+ card, Jason Moloney rebounded from his knockout loss to Naoya Inoue to win a close unanimous decision over Joshua Greer in a crossroads bantamweight fight.

Again as in the main event, this fight was entertaining enough but not outstanding as I saw Moloney as a 96-94 winner.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored six points on the two cards to move our total to 117-103.

Boxing Challenge: Russell retains, Rigondeaux bores.

The boxing challenge returns with a five-fight weekend with two titles on the line along with a minor title, a title eliminator and the return of a former star to the ring.

We start in Allentown, Pennsylvania with a PBC card on Showtime and the annual appearance of WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell.
Russell, who fights once a year, clicks up a victory, makes grand proclamations and then returns to the Washington area like Puff the Magic Dragon slipping into his cave to await his next year's contest, won a unanimous decision over mandatory challenger Tug Nyambayar to retain his championship.
Russell controlled the fight for the first eight rounds with those rounds being more tactical than action-filled, but Nyambayar picked up the pace in the final third of the fight, landed his best shots and forced Russell into entertaining exchanges.
The late rally wasn't close to enough for the challenger from Mongolia, who lost 116-112 on my card, which was the closest card among the three judges and Nyambayar may look back on this fight and bemoan his lack of punches that caused him to fall behind on the cards as he was effective, especially to the body, when he was offensively active.
Russell announced plans to move up two divisions to lightweight, should a hoped for, but unlikely fight with Leo Santa Cruz falls through, which seems like a pipe dream with most of the best lightweights being involved with Top Rank rather than Russell's PBC.

The co-feature saw Guillermo Rigondeaux drop to bantamweight to win another tedious split decision and pick up a minor title with a split decision over Liborio Solis.
Solis started aggressively in the first round and seemed to surprise Rigondeaux with a right hand that forced the Cuban to grab and hold on for the end of the round.
Rigondeaux then settled into his standard (read dull) style and except for a seventh-round technical knockdown that drove Solis into the ropes from a left hand and the ropes holding him up, the fight was generally lacking in action.
I saw Rigondeaux a 115-112 winner and despite the split card, I don't need to see this fight again.

On DAZN from Sheffield, England, Kell Brook returned from a ring absence and an awful albeit winning last fight against Michael Zerafa to dominate Mark DeLuca of the United States and knock DeLuca out in the seventh round in a squash match intended to make Brook shine.
This fight did that as Brook smashed DeLuca's nose in the third and scored a knockdown with a strong left hook that saw DeLuca rise just as the bell clanged.
DeLuca was hurt again in the fourth before being dropped for the count with an impressive left hook/uppercut with blood flowing furiously through his nose.
Brook mentioned a rematch with Errol Spence, which is unlikely, but the likely next step on his comeback could be against fellow Briton and Matchroom promotee Liam Smith in what could be an interesting fight with both fighters attempting to make a last stand in the sport.

In the Matchroom co-feature, Kid Galahad outboxed Claudio Marrero for the entire fight and forced Marrero's corner to stop the fight at the end of the eighth round to move into the IBF's mandatory contender position for the second time in the featherweight division.
Galahad stood on the outside, landed his jab at all and methodically drained the aggression from Marrero as he won all but the first round on my scorecard.
Galahad now qualifies for a rematch against IBF champion Josh Warrington from their fight last year that saw Warrington retain his title via split decision in a close but ugly mix of styles that will see very few looking forward to a rematch.

The final fight of the challenge saw Artem Dalakian retain his WBA flyweight title by unanimous decision over Josber Perez in Kyiv, Ukraine.
I have this fight available via YouTube, but I have yet to watch it as of this writing.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica seven to five on the week with the difference being my extra points from Gary Russell's decision win and Kell Brook's KO.
I extended my lead to 24-20 in the early part of the marathon.

Boxing Challenge: PBC's One Shot Night

The PBC card on Fox looked bad Sunday night from Las Vegas on paper.

After all, the WBC junior middleweight title grudge rematch between Tony Harrison and Jermell Charlo was on ice after Harrison suffered a training injury to his ankle that required surgery, late replacement Jorge Cota was clearly not on Charlo's level, the perpetually boring, yet technically dominant Guillermo Rigondeaux in the supporting bout against Julio Ceja and another Joey Spencer squash match to drag out what looked to be a dull night live from Haymon Land.

The main event ended as expected as Jermell Charlo violently knocked out Jorge Cota in the third round with a pair of right hands, the first one which dropped Cota and almost ended the fight then and there, but Cota was given the chance to survive only to be devastated by one more straight right that looked to be guided by radar and end the fight that will certainly be mentioned in the knockout of the year conversation.
While the KO was exciting, the fight didn't really prove anything considering the opponent and the post-fight talk featured the typical Charlo crowing, including the inference that Harrison dodged the fight, despite his watching from ringside with the ankle propped up, many fans/media criticized Charlo for yet another win against a fighter that was not remotely in his class.
I won't and I've not been afraid to notate either Charlo's weak challengers in the past, but I'm not sure what people expected from Charlo or PBC.
The division isn't especially deep right now. there was no one interested in taking a tough fight that isn't for a title on short notice, Fox had a network date set and both Charlo's have been criticized by me in the past for not fighting enough.
All things considered, I'm not blaming Jermell Charlo or PBC for the mismatch, it was one of those times that it simply could not be avoided, although if they fought better opponents (Remember that Harrison was lightly regarded after his split decision win over aging Ishe Smith entering their fight) I'd be more likely to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Guillermo Rigondeaux has been regarded for years as a master boxer that was boring to watch as his racehorse-like legs carried him around the ring to dominate top fighters such as Nonito Donaire and
Joseph Agbeko and occasionally show power against fighters that he didn't respect their punching prowess to score the odd knockout.
In an eliminator to face WBC champion Rey Vargas for his junior featherweight title, Rigondeaux appeared to be a prohibitive favorite against former WBC champion Julio Ceja, who had fought only three times since his February 2016 title loss in one round to Hugo Ruiz and one of those against good competition (Former bantamweight champion Anselmo Moreno) as he was expected to once again gallop circles around Ceja, earn a unanimous decision and move on the likely difficult work of making the mandatory fight against Vargas and his promoters with Golden Boy.

Instead, Rigondeaux dug into the canvas and fought Ceja in the most entertaining fight of the former two-times Olympic champion's career.
The action swung back and forth and often pushed the rulebook as both fighters were penalized in the eighth round for low blows and it seemed to be Ceja that was charging down the stretch to slightly lead (67-66) on my card after seven rounds.
The eighth round saw plenty of exchanges including the penalization of points as mentioned above, but it was Rigondeaux, who landed largest and last with a left hand that looked to have ended the fight with Ceja dropping to the floor with a thud.
Ceja surprisingly beat the count and was in deep waters, but referee Russell Mora waved the fight off with one second to go in the round.
Here's my complaint-you always hear the thump from ringside to indicate ten seconds remaining in the round, so Mora knows the time remaining, why not give Ceja a chance in his round to revive as, with only one second to go, Rigondeaux isn't going to be able to land any further punches in the round.
Simply follow Ceja to the corner, tell the corner you need to see some offense quickly or you'll stop the fight.
By not doing so, Ceja was not given a chance to continue in a situation where he should have been.
Bad call by Russell Mora, a referee that makes more than any referee named Lawrence Cole.
Rigondeaux seemingly has begun to make the same transition as his fellow Cuban Erislandy Lara, who also has become less dominant while providing more entertaining fights.
If this is a sign to come, Rigondeaux's fights may see a more vulnerable boxer, yet in the waning stages of his career, one that fans may finally want to watch him fight.

A final word on a non-boxing challenge fight as prospect Joey Spencer survived a stern challenge to remain undefeated with a close unanimous decision over Akeem Black, who entered the fight at only 5-2.
While I thought Spencer won the six rounder, his face was bloody at the end and Black rocked him in the fourth round to make me wonder just what PBC has in Spencer.
They must think he has the makings of something they can work with as Spencer's fights are often shoved into the two-hour block that PBC always advertises, but never reaches, but I question that after the struggles last night.
This is a problem when you push a prospect to the front of the line rather than for the hardcore observer that watches every prelim bout- every blemish is seen and it makes one wonder just what PBC expects from Spencer to give him this type of push?
It'll be interesting to see if the management slows Spencer's exposure down a bit to see where that may take them.
I do know this- it isn't good for a prospect to squeak by this early in his career against the fighter level that he is opposing.

In the boxing challenge, I added five points (3 from Charlo with a bonus point for the round of KO and 2 from Rigondeaux to Ramon Malpica's four (2 Charlo, 2 Rigondeaux) to move my lead to 152-138

Boxing Challenge-Lomachenko Dominates Rigondeaux

Huge weekend in the boxing challenge and since I was in Pittsburgh for the Steel City Comic Con, I have yet to catch on everything as of this writing, but I did see the biggest card of the weekend from Top Rank on ESPN with the anticipated first ever meeting of two double Olympic gold medal winners as Vasyl Lomachenko defended his WBO junior lightweight title against Guillermo Rigondeaux.

Sadly, the bout didn't live up to its hype as Lomachenko dominated every round against Rigondeaux and left the reluctant Cuban to retire on his stool at the end of the sixth round with an injured hand.
Now, it is tremendously difficult to fight through a hand injury and I'm not attempting to diminish the injury at all, but it's the difference between the warrior and just a fighter and when it was time to determine what was in the tank for Rigondeaux when the rubber hit the road, he chose to quit.
No knockdowns scored and what wasn't expected to be a war, but it was even more disappointing than expected.
I'm not sure what Rigondeaux has in his future, but Lomachenko doesn't appear to have any challenges at 130 unless he wants to collect belts and even then I don't think those are true challenges,simply exercises in collecting.
Lomachenko may have to move to 135 for potential fights against Jorge Linares or Mikey Garcia to face any sort of competitive opponent.

The co-feature promising junior lightweight prospect Christopher Diaz blow out Bryant Cruz in three impressive rounds as he scored knockdowns in every round.
Diaz may not be ready for Lomachenko soon, but he might be the fighter that takes over the division when Lomachenko moves to 135.

On FS1 from the PBC on Friday, former light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal had not looked good of late and entered what he claimed to be his final fight against Ahmed Elbali, who had looked very impressive as he had worked his way through his early tests.
I thought Pascal was ripe for being the first name on Elbali's resume and early on it looked to be the case.
However, Pascal drained the gas from Elbali's tank and stopped an exhausted Elbali in the sixth round.
Let's see after such a big win if Pascal truly is able to walk away.

On HBO, a three bout card from Las Vegas saw the junior lightweights featured.
The main event saw the end of the exciting career of the only fighter to defeat Vasyl Lomachenko as Orlando Salido was stopped by Miguel Roman in the 9th round of an excellent fight.
I had Roman slightly ahead entering round nine, mainly on the basis of knockdowns scored in the fourth and eighth round before closing the show in the ninth.
Glad to see Salido go out before he gets seriously hurt and going out in a good fight instead of one in which he was badly overmatched.

We saw a Hamburglar arrival as Kenichi Ogawa won the vacant IBF title by a split decision over Tevin Farmer.
This was a robbery as I had Farmer a 117-111 winner and I fail to see how anyone could see Ogawa a winner in any way.
I would not be surprised to see the IBF mandate an immediate rematch due to the decision.

Francisco Vargas won the opener by a unanimous technical decision in the tenth round when a head butt split the ear IN HALF (YES!) of Stephen Smith in round ten..
I've been around boxing a long time-I've never seen an injury like that!
If you didn't see this and have a weak stomach, don't look this up!
I had Vargas a 97-93 winner.

Boxing challenge points
R.L: One point for Lomachenko and Roman wins
TRS:Two points for Lomachenko win/KO, One point Cruz win

Total Standings TRS leads:188-171

I'll have to watch the other three bouts on youtube later this week and I'll add them to Wednesday morning's Jeff Horn bout for that Challenge recap!
 

Boxing Challenge :More Controversy between Ward and Kovalev

In boxing, nothing ever comes easy, and once again, things come with an asterisk as Andre Ward retained his WBA/IBF/WBO light heavyweight titles with a controversial eighth-round stoppage of Sergey Kovalev in Las Vegas.

I had Kovalev slightly ahead after seven rounds (4-3), but Ward did make Kovalev wobble with a right hand and did have him in some trouble before drilling him with three low blows that sent Kovalev into the ropes, crouching in pain.
This is where referee Tony Weeks blew it as he could have either called the low blows (he later claimed he didn't see them, despite replays showing he was right in front of them) which would have given Kovalev time to recover or since Kovalev was on the ropes, could have given Ward a knockdown and began to count Kovalev down.

Instead, Weeks weakly jumped in and ended the fight with another questionable win for Andre Ward.
Ward did seem to be landing a lot of low blows in the final sequence, and Kovalev was seeming to get tired, so Ward might have ended the fight anyway, but the ending still was unsatisfying and to me, not all that impressive for a knockout win.
I'm not sure where either go from here after this fight.
Ward talked about moving to cruiserweight (I don't see how, none of the fighters there are big money fights yet), Adonis Stevenson is unlikely to fight him,m and the other promising contenders aren't quite ready for him yet.
Kovalev will need a little rebuilding, but could revitalize himself quickly with wins over a contender or two, so he might not be finished quite yet.
Ramon Malpica and I each picked Kovalev, so no points on this one.

The undercard saw some controversy as well, as Guillermo Rigondeaux retained his WBA junior featherweight title with a first-round knockout of Moises Flores.
At the end of a dull first round, the bell rang and Rigondeaux clocked Flores with a left, sending Flores to the mat, where he put on an acting routine.
The punch was after the bell, but the Flores theatrical writhing routine caused him to be counted out and ended the fight.
The Nevada commission could look at the fight and change it to a no-decision if they feel the punch landed after the bell, which it did.
Ramon and I each added one point for the Rigondeaux win.

Light heavyweight Dmitry Bivol blew through former contender Cedric Agnew in four rounds and impressed me with a relentless attack that floored Agnew in the first along pounded him over the rest of the fight.
Bivol looks to be one of many young contenders that will make the light heavyweights fun to watch in the future-other than Andre Ward that is...
I earned three points (win, KO, and a bonus point for the round), while Ramon earned two points.

In Germany, Tyron Zeuge retained his minor super middleweight title with a unanimous decision victory over England's Paul Smith.
Ramon and I each earned two points for the Zeuge victory.
The challenge now stands at 76-71 in my favor.