Boxing Challenge: Davis Whacks Romero

    For most of the first six rounds at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Rolando Romero had not only fought a surprisingly technically sound fight against heavily favored Gervonta Davis, but he was also fighting well against Davis.

That ended late in the sixth round when Davis smashed a left hand that sent Romero sailing to the floor and ended the fight as Romero beat the count but was judged unable to continue by referee David Fields.

Romero was leading on one card 58-57, as did I, with the other two judges giving Davis the nod by the same score entering what would be the final round but Davis had his best round of the fight in the fifth and appeared to be taking control of the fight.

Romero didn't charge from the gate throwing the wild power punches that he had been known for in his fights against lesser opponents but he did throw enough that Davis was surprisingly reserved in his offense in return, waiting to set Romero up for exactly the counter that would win "Tank" the fight.

For Davis, we now wait to see if he re-signs with Floyd Mayweather promotions, takes the side step to Al Haymon's PBC where he could stay with his longtime broadcaster Showtime or take his wares to the open market in an attempt to land a big fight that his resume' lacks.

Davis is certainly a live and pay-per-view attraction but the question still remains what happens when better fighters are able to handle Davis's power and can answer back.

Ryan Garcia was in attendance for the card and both fighters called the other out but I'm not sure that fight takes place in the event that Davis would stay with PBC and/or Mayweather Promotions as PBC and Golden Boy almost never do business together.

Physically, Garcia's build, punching power, and style seem to give him an edge against Davis but Davis is more experienced and I might give Davis a small edge in power.

I'd like to see the match and I think it would do heavy purchases on PPV and at the arena but color me skeptical on getting this one off the drawing board and into the ring.

While Davis vs Romero didn't prove to be the mismatch that most predicted, that couldn't be said for the co-feature which was the exact lopsided fight that almost all expected as Erislandy Lara knocked out Spike O'Sullivan in the eighth round.

The less said about this the better with Lara winning every round, knocking O'Sullivan down in the fourth and out in the eighth and both fighters simply repeating their history with Lara dominating in these types of showcase fights and O'Sullivan getting knocked out in now his fourth attempt to defeat a world-class boxer.

Lara's win over O'Sullivan was his fourth in a row over an overmatched opponent (Ramon Alvarez, Greg Vendetti, Thomas "Cornflake" LaManna, and now O'Sullivan) to retain his worthless WBA trinket against fighters that aren't even top twenty material.

Lara hasn't fought anyone of note since his 2018 split decision loss to Jarrett Hurd and his 2019 draw with Brian Castano, so Lara has not notched a noticeable victory since his October 2017 decision win over Terrell Gausha, who is solid but not a divisional elite.

At thirty-nine, Lara either is happy to rack up "title defenses" against opponents that no one wants to see or is hoping to wait out the WBA and hope they eventually get around to addressing the middleweight division as they reduce their belt situation.

I have no need to see any more of these B.S. squash matches presented as world title fights from Lara and PBC but I have a feeling that we will see one next year when Lara makes his yearly "defense" against the latest no-hoper.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 93 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 77 (3)
Ramon Malpica: 77 (3) 

Boxing Challenge: Munguia stops O'Sullivan, Smith slips by Hart

The first matches for the 2020 Boxing Challenge lifted off Saturday night with the main events from ESPN and DAZN starting things off.

DAZN and Golden Boy kicked their 2020 off from San Antonio, Texas with a surprisingly interesting battle as former WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia defeated Gary "Spike" O'Sullivan via an eleventh round stoppage when O'Sullivan's corner conceded the fight with their man being pounded along the ropes.
Munguia threw more punches and was ahead on my scorecards after ten rounds  (97-92) before ending the fight in the eleventh as he pasted O'Sullivan to earn the stoppage.
Munguia threw several low blows throughout the bout and was deducted a point in the sixth round for a low shot, which I thought contributed to wearing down the smaller "Spike" in the final few rounds of the fight.
Munguia continues to be a rough draft as a fighter and where his work with trainer Erik Morales impressed me came into play was in the middle rounds as Munguia began to use the jab more effectively.
The jab not only helped the Munguia offense, but it improved the defense as well as it ended the counter rights that O'Sullivan landed far more than he should have in the first half of the fight.
Munguia is the top contender for WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade's title, due to the WBO's rule that moves a champion of theirs that vacates their title to move up or down in weight will automatically move to the top of the contender list.
Munguia still seems too unpolished to defeat Andrade and might be better suited to delay that fight for a bit and put another one or two fights at middleweights into the record books before making that challenge.
As for Spike, he took a lot of punches in the loss and he's undersized as a middleweight, to begin with.
O'Sullivan might be on the verge of considering retirement as he has been hit a lot, but if he decides to fight on, his management might be smart to consider trying him in the junior middleweight division where physically he is a better fit.

The ESPN/Top Rank slate led off their 2020 with a crossroads light heavyweight fight between Jesse Hart and Joe Smith with the victor possibly involved for the WBO title vacated recently by Canelo Alvarez or an eliminator against the winner of a 175 pound next week from ESPN with former WBO champion Eleider Alvarez and Michael Seals.
I saw it as a toss of the coin matchup with Hart throwing more punches and being the smoother boxer and Smith being the harder puncher and having the better chin with the possible variable that Smith just hasn't thrown enough punches in recent losses to Sullivan Barrera and WBA champion Dmitry Bivol.
Smith turned back the clock to his peak years when he knocked out Andrej Fonfara and Bernard Hopkins and simply overpowered Hart with punishing blows and in a surprise moved his hands enough to outland Hart.
Hart was dropped by Smith very late in the seventh round and was hurt badly again in the ninth round, but managed to grab and hold enough to make it to the final bell.
I had Smith a decisive 98-91 winner, which was in line with two judges scores, but the verdict for Smith was split as judge James Kinney threw out a Hamburglar of a scorecard that awarded his scorecard 95-94 for Hart, which not only was outrageous to fans, it was outrageous to Hart promoter Bob Arum.
That's how bad this scorecard was- the promoter of the losing fighter was railing against his fighter's winning scorecard!
The impressive return for Smith will likely see him face the aforementioned Alvarez-Seals battle next Saturday while Hart should remain on the fringes of the title picture and would be a viable opponent against top ten boxers in the division.

The Boxing Challenge starts again for 2020 as Ramon Malpica attempts to take the trophy away from me for another time.
Ramon won the first challenge, but I've been fortunate enough to emerge victoriously in the following five seasons.
Ramon and I each earned one point for the knockout win by Jaime Munguia.