Boxing Challenge: Benavidez decisions Morrell, Fulton dethrones Figueroa

     On paper, PBC's Saturday night pay-per-view from Las Vegas was their best, from top to bottom, and it was a good evening of boxing.

Still, it felt like a mild disappointment despite providing some strong action and it started at the top of the card with David Benavidez winning a unanimous decision over David Morrell to make Benavidez the top contender to the winner of the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol rematch that will occur later this month.

Benavidez-Morrell was a good fight but far from the light-heavyweight Armageddon that many thought was possible as Benavidez added Morrell's minor title to the minor belt that Benavidez already owned.

Benavidez threw more, landed more, and simply outworked Morrell, although Morrell had his moments most notably his eleventh-round knockdown of an off-balance Benavidez.

Morrell lost that extra point at the end of the same round when he hit Benavidez after the bell and had a point deducted, which was clearly a foul.

Benavidez won on the scorecards of 118-108 and 115-111 twice, the latter agreeing with my card.

The co-feature was a story of redemption and disappointment as Stephen Fulton won the WBC featherweight title unanimously over Brandon Figueroa in a rematch of their terrific 2021 matchup, won by Fulton by a majority decision.

The redemption comes from Fulton's rebounding from a knockout loss to Naoya Inoue and a controversial decision win over Carlos Castro in his recent two fights.

The disappointment part is that the fight wasn't nearly as exciting as their first fight as Fulton boxed more and Figueroa didn't punch nearly as often which gave Fulton a more conclusive victory.

The scores for Fulton were 117-111 and 116-112 twice, the same as my score.

The fight of the night was expected to be the junior welterweight ten-rounder between Isaac Cruz and Angel Fierro and that lived up to expectations as the two slugged each other for ten brutal rounds.

An absolute battle with Cruz winning on the scorecards 98-92, 97-93, and 96-94, the latter same as my card.

Cruz keeps his viability after losing his WBC championship to Jose Valenzuela but Cruz's aggressive attacking style isn't hurting junior welterweights as badly as lightweights and Cruz should consider dropping back to 135 pounds if he can make the weight.

Fierro made himself some fans with his effort and I'm sure earned himself future paydays.

In the opener, middleweight Jesus Ramos knocked out former junior middleweight champion Jeison Rosario in the eighth round after winning all seven of the previous rounds, dropping Rosario in the seventh.

Rosario has never been known for a stern chin but Ramos's win was still impressive.

Saturday afternoon from London, Peacock was expected to stream promising junior welterweight Adam Azim's latest challenge against former IBF junior lightweight champion Sergey Lipinets but the card never appeared on the streaming service for whatever reason.

Azim was deducted two points for low blows in the fight but controlled Lipinets before stopping him in round nine.

I've only seen highlights at this time.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 13 Pts(5)

TRS: 13 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 6 Pts (4)

Boxing Challenge: Canelo shuts out Charlo

     Few gave junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo much of a chance of leaping two weight divisions and troubling super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez and Charlo lived down to those expectations in landing only seventy-one punchesand losing every round in one of the most timid big fight performances that you'll see as Alvarez retained his titles by unanimous decision.

Alvarez knocked Charlo down in the seventh round and was never threatened by Charlo in winning every round on my card (120-107) and dominating on the official cards of 119-108, and two judges at 118-109.

The overhand right that landed in the seventh dropped Charlo to one knee and looked to be the beginning of the end for Charlo but he managed to survive the fight and some of the final few rounds were the best work for him. although it wasn't enough to win a round on my card.

Alvarez has been mandated by the WBC to face mandatory contender David Benavidez next, so unless he wants to give up one of his four titles and undisputed status, Benavidez would be next in a fight that many, including myself, would love to see.

Talk in recent days has involved Alvarez in a potential fight against another undisputed champion, welterweight Terence Crawford but that's unlikely for reasons beyond David Benavidez.

Alvarez spoke after the fight with disinterest in a potential Crawford fight with the sort of disinterest that a younger Canelo used to discuss fights against Gennady Golovkin.

Canelo is a businessman, if he speaks that way about a fight/fighter he's not interested in fighting them anytime soon

As for Charlo, who is no longer the undisputed champion at 154 pounds as the WBO stripped him as soon as the bell rang to start this fight for understandably taking more money to face Canelo than fighting mandatory challenger and now WBO champion Tim Tszyu, I'm not sure what can be done after such a timid effort from the supposed Lion.

He holds three titles at junior middleweight with three mandatories that are overdue but not big box office- WBA Israil Madrimov, WBC Charles Conwell, and IBF Bakhram Murtazaliev.

A move to middleweight would normally make sense but his brother holds the WBC title and only WBA champion Erislandy Lara of the remaining champions would be an easy fight to make but again not for a big check.

Tim Tszyu would be a viable option but unless Charlo would be willing to travel to Australia, some of the luster has been taken away from that fight I would think.

The biggest fight could have been against Terence Crawford and the two had been jawing on social media even before Crawford's win over Errol Spence but Crawford seems to have ruled Charlo since he no longer holds all four titles and with his marketability damaged for now.

Jermell Charlo seems to have cashed in for a payday that I cannot blame him for taking but I'm not sure that I see a major fight in his future and he may not be satisfied with regular defenses as a champion.

I wrote that the junior middleweight fight between Jesus Ramos and Erickson Lubin was an almost guaranteed barnburner and added the almost as an off-handed insurance policy.

Of course, the fight was dull with neither man really willing to step up the pace and most thinking Ramos deserved the nod (I scored 116-112 for Ramos) but it was Lubin with the unanimous decision win at 117-111 (awful), 116-112 (terrible), and 115-113 (maybe if you give Lubin every remotely close round).

The cards were bad but Ramos allowed Lubin to hang around and it wasn't a good fight to order a rematch.

Mario Barrios pulled a mild upset to win a minor WBC title that is likely to become the full title should Terence Crawford leave the division in his defeat of former WBA champion Yordenis Ugas.

Barrios closed the right eye of Ugas, who had suffered a broken orbital bone around the same eye in his most recent fight, a loss to Errol Spence, and dropped him in the second and twelfth rounds.

The second-round knockdown was a flash knockdown from a Barrios jab but Ugas was in trouble in the last round with the knockdown and an additional point deduction for spitting out his mouthpiece in the final round as the veteran attempted to survive to the final bell.

Barrios won by scores of 118-107 times two and 117-11.

Barrios fought as well as I've seen him although how much of that was due to the fading Ugas will wait to be determined until Barrios fights again and while I still don't think he was deserving of the opportunity, give Barrios full credit for taking advantage of it.

Earlier in the day, Jai Opetaia retained his IBF cruiserweight title for the first time in London when Opetaia crushed Jordan Thompson in four rounds.

Thompson did what he could and came to fight but this was all Opetaia, who was the stronger man and after round one bullied Thompson into submission with knockdowns in rounds three and four.

It was a devastating outing for Opetaia, who hopefully will have a rematch with Mairis Breidis in his next fight after their excellent first fight.

Otto Wallin won a split decision over Murat Gassiev in Turkey in their twelve-round heavyweight tilt.

I haven't seen this so not much to write about Wallin's victory.

Boxing Challenge 

TRS: 153 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 139 Pts (2)

Vince Samano: 107 Pts (2)