Boxing Challenge:Angulo nips Qullin in bruising battle

The boxing challenge was lighter this weekend, but the challenge did see two very good fights of the three and I have not seen the third fight as of this writing.

On Showtime Friday night, undefeated lightweight Michael Dutchover was upset in a good battle by Thomas Mattice in Midland, Texas.
I had Dutchover ahead by one point entering the eighth round of his first ten rounder and against his first true test, but Mattice landed a right hand that severely cut Dutchover and forced the fight to be stopped.
Mattice looked as good as I had ever seen him in previous bouts, but Dutchover had won the last three rounds on my card to take the slim lead and appeared that he was taking the fight over.
Hopefully, the arrangements can be made to put these two together for a rematch.

PBC's card from Bakersfield, California looked pretty weak on paper but was a pleasant surprise with highlight-reel level KO's from prospects Jesus Ramos and Chris Colbert and a mild upset with veteran Thomas Dulorme winning a unanimous decision over previously undefeated Terrel Williams in a fight that should have been in the challenge, but I missed it.

The main event was expected to be former WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin's chance to earn a shot at either of PBC's champions in the super middleweight division (WBC champion Anthony Dirrell or David Benavidez as they fight next Saturday and IBF titleholder Caleb Plant) with a win over late replacement Alfredo Angulo, who has seen his best days long ago and at the junior middleweight class as well.
Quillin drove to the early lead and seemed to be on his way to either stopping the ponderous Angulo or clearly dominating him to an easy decision.
Then after the third round, Quillin seemed to be crumbling before my eyes as Angulo's punches that you would think almost anyone could avoid began to land and Quillin wasn't taking them very well.
The fight had several exchanges that saw both men land and the Angulo charge severely battered Quillin in each of the final three rounds (all won by Angulo on my card) to make the fight very close.
Quillin landed far more punches, but most lacked steam while Angulo's punches were the harder punches with many fewer finding their target.
I scored it 95-95, but it had the "feel" of an Angulo win as I've written about draws in the past.
In the end, Angulo won the surprising upset split decision and the fight was very entertaining.
Still, I'd hate to see either of these two in a title fight because both are so shopworn that against world class fighters there is a good chance that they could be injured.
Quillin can't avoid Angulo, who's one of the slower punchers in the game, how would he fare against a faster fighter and Angulo's just going to be beaten up as he trudges forward into sharper punches.
I would hope both would consider retirement, but it's doubtful either will take my advice.
Still, if they have to continue their career, they need to be managed carefully and stay against fighters of their level, which is why I wouldn't have an issue with a rematch that would likely be entertaining and not see either fighter severely damaged.

Joseph Diaz won a majority decision on Facebook Live over Jesus Cuadro that I have not watched yet.
Perhaps Diaz will now receive his title challenge to IBF junior lightweight champion Tevin Farmer that could prove to be more entertaining in the media conferences and weigh-in than in the actual fight.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me two to one with the difference being the Thomas Mattice win over Michael Dutchover.
The Challenge now stands at 225-195

Boxing Challenge: Derevyanchenko slips Culcay

Minneapolis isn't known as a huge boxing town, but the PBC has been running cards more often in the northern city and the two main events were not only boxing challenge bouts, but more importantly- two title eliminators brought to you by the IBF and the people that might have the fairest manner of determining their mandatory challenge and yet consistently seems to have the worst mandatory contenders.

The bout that actually was completed saw Sergiy Dereyvanchenko defeat Jack Culcay by a close and unanimous decision to become the IBF's mandatory contender to the winner of the May 4th unification match between Canelo Alvarez and Daniel Jacobs.
Jacobs currently holds the IBF title after winning the vacant championship via split decision over Dereyvanchenko but is an underdog against Alvarez for their fight.
The rugged Dereyvanchenko was expected to walk down and wear down the naturally smaller Culcay, who has spent most of his career at junior middleweight, but it was Culcay that was rallying later in the fight and staggered Derevyvanchenko in the tenth, almost knocking him down and pulled even on my card after ten rounds.
That was all Culcay seemed to have left as it was then Derevyanchenko winning the final two rounds, the twelfth by a sizable margin to win 115-113 on my card.
Derevyanchenko will give anyone a rugged fight and against the right fighter on the right night could pull an upset, while Culcay continues a run of coming very close in surprisingly entertaining fights and losing close decisions (Demetrius Andrade, Maciej Sulecki, and Dereyvanchenko) in them.

The main event was supposed to determine who would become the IBF's mandatory contender to their super middleweight champion Caleb Plant with former IBF champion Caleb Truax (PBC owns the market of super middleweight Caleb's) battling former WBO middleweight titleholder Peter Quillin.
The battle of the Caleb's or Plant-Quillin will have to wait as a clash of heads in round two opened a deep cut over Truax's eye/nose that forced a no-contest.
I suppose there could be a rematch, Plant could make an optional defense or the IBF could make their current highest rated contender Germany's Vincent Feigenbutz the mandatory contender for Plant, but when it comes to sanctioning bodies, trying to figure them out can be maddening.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica earned two points for Sergiy Dereyvanchenko's victory to my one and shaved a point off my lead.
My current lead is 79-71.

Boxing Challenge: Alvarez storms through the Krusher

The boxing challenge rumbled into the Northeast on Saturday with a five-bout slate split between Atlantic City and the renovated Nassau Coliseum in Long Island and at the end of the evening, there was one fighter that clearly was the star of the weekend- and he did it without winning a round.

In an upset that some thought could happen, but that few thought would occur in this fashion- Eleider Alvarez scored three knockdowns on Sergey Kovalev out of nowhere in the seventh round and stripped Kovalev of not only his WBO light heavyweight title but also his fearsome demeanor and possibly even his career.
I thought Kovalev had won every round and seemed to be on his way to a lopsided win over the long-time WBC number one contender that champion Adonis Stevenson had spent almost three years avoiding.
One right hand changed all of that and three knockdowns later, the immediate future of the 175-pound division was gone as a Kovalev-Dmitry Bivol unification bout in December was gone.
There is a rematch clause and Kovalev winning all the rounds gives "Krusher" backers hope for a second battle, but this is a huge shot for the light heavyweight division in the short-term.
Alvarez, this KO aside, is not a big puncher and being promoted by Canada's Yvon Michel, who has managed his man Adonis Stevenson away from challengers for years, makes things even more confusing for his future.
As for Kovalev, he did answer some questions about his heart from the Andre Ward fight, as he rose from each knockdown and tried gallantly to fire back and survive, but he still was knocked out by a contender that had never knocked a top ten contender at 175 ( worn-out former super middleweight champion Lucien Bute doesn't count) out and isn't a draw even in his adopted country.

The co-feature from HBO saw Dmitry Bivol retain his WBA title via a unanimous decision over Issac Chilemba.
I haven't been able to watch this fight yet, so no scoring from my card.
Bivol has made some noise about fighting Alvarez in the same December unification bout planned for Kovalev, but after what has been reported to be a workmanlike, but nothing special effort for Bivol.

PBC wasted another national television platform on Fox with three less than thrilling fights.
In the main event of faded former welterweight champions, Andre Berto won a surprising split decision over Devon Alexander at the renovated (Praise the Lord for that fixup project from the home of Circulatory Socks) Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.
Alexander gave away some rounds late, but scored the fight's only knockdown in round three and won going away on my card 116-111.
Berto now gives us the gift of yet another undeserved PBC title shot in which the net result is a one-sided beatdown and waste of the viewers time.
Alexander has to feel snake bitten as for the second fight in a row (This loss and a draw with Victor Ortiz), the judges took away a deserved decision victory.

Former WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin dominated super middleweight J'Leon Love and won a clear unanimous decision as the co-feature.
It wasn't a fun fight to watch as Quillin walked Love down, as Love did little other than bounce around the ring and generated little offense.
Quillin might be an interesting name to see as an opponent for WBC champ David Benavidez or IBF kingpin Jose Uzcategui on a future PBC card, especially Uzcategui, who may be looking for an opponent with the injury to mandatory Caleb Plant pushing that fight back until late 2018 or early 2019.
I had Quillin winning 99-91.

The first fight saw Sergey Lipinets struggle to a majority decision win in his welterweight bow against trialhorse Erick Bone.
I agreed with one judge at 95-95, but the remaining judges had their cards filled out before the fight with ridiculous cards of 99-91 and 98-92, which were insulting to the effort of Bone.
Lipinets might be better served to stay at junior welter, where he made a strong effort in his loss to Mikey Garcia earlier this year.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica gained two points on me in the boxing challenge as he scored five points to my three.
Ramon added two points each from the Quillin and Bivol wins and one from the victory by Lipinets.
I scored one point for each of the above victories.
The challenge now stands at 120-97.

Jacobs stretches Quillin in One! Boxing Challenge

The Boxing challenge continued as R.L.Malpica and I each earned 4 points to keep my lead at 145-140 after a Showtime televised card from Brooklyn...

R.L. is in a tough spot with the season running out and he has to pick upsets to hope for a comeback.

R.L. picked up two points from the main event as Daniel Jacobs stopped Peter Quillin in the first round of the middleweight "Battle for Brooklyn".
Jacobs simply overwhelmed Quillin with a stunning assault that sent Quillin dazed and wobbling badly away from Jacobs before a referee stoppage.
Quillin was never knocked down,but his eyes betrayed him and while I thought the stoppage was a little fast in live action,the replay showed Quillin's eyes and you could easily see that Quillin was out on his feet.
The victory cements Jacobs as the best middleweight on the PBC side,but it was notable in the post-fight interview that Jacobs didn't call out the best middles in the world-Gennady Golovkin,Canelo Alvarez etc,but instead spoke of a rematch with Qullin or maybe even the winner of the WBO title between Andy Lee and Billy Joe Saunders.
Some might look at the lack of a usual grandstand challenge (because we know one side rarely fights the other) as a lack of confidence on Jacobs part,but I look at it differently.
While I don't have any desire to see a rematch,I did like that Jacobs realizes the promotional issues and unless an sanctioning body comes in and demands a fight (the WBA could with Golovkin being their main champ with Jacobs their secondary titleholder), his outlook isn't strong for any of those guys.
I enjoyed the honesty....

I earned two points back with Jesus Cuellar's workmanlike unanimous decision over Jonathan Oquendo in a featherweight fight.
Not much to be said other than I scored it for the winner 117-111.
Chris Algeri continued his remake under new trainer John David Jackson with a unanimous decision of Erick Bone in a welterweight ten rounder.
I've been critical of Algeri in the past for a dull style and especially for his "win" over Ruslan Provodnikov,but in this fight and his close loss to Amir Khan,fans have seen a different Algeri-one willing to engage and interesting to watch.
Algeri was credited with an eighth round knockdown that really wasn't,but I still scored him a 96-93 winner in a solid action fight...

If I have time later,I may be back with the Giants signing of Jeff Samardzija,but I'll have Browns tomorrow and likely a new podcast....