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)

Boxing Challenge: Spence TKO's Ugas

 Errol Spence shined in his latest "can you top this" with WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford as Spence dominated most of his fight with Yordenis Ugas and won the WBA crown held by Ugas when the doctor ruled that Ugas was unable to continue due to a closed right eye in the tenth round in Arlington, Texas.

In the victory, Spence retained his WBC and IBF titles to add to the WBA belt that he won here from Ugas.

Spence never knocked Ugas down but his heavy shots moved the Cuban around the ring and despite a brave effort on the part of Ugas, he committed what seems to be an awful mistake with the decision to stand and slug with the powerful Spence rather than use his physical skills to box Spence from the outside.

Still, for all of the domination by Spence, Ugas did land his share and punches and almost scored the first knockdown against Spence in his career.

Ugas landed a right hand that visibly stunned Spence and knocked his mouthpiece out.

As a jarred Spence looked down for the mouthpiece, the opportunistic Ugas jumped on Spence (very legal) with a combination of punches that sent Spence bouncing off the ropes, which should have been scored a knockdown as the ropes helped Spence remain on his feet.

Ugas attempted to land more punches but the always corrupt/inept Lawrence Cole decided then to rinse the mouthpiece but first walked Spence to the wrong corner before arriving at Spence's corner for the rinse buying Spence a few extra badly needed seconds to get things straight.

By the time action resumed, Spence was back in control of his faculties, and Ugas's best chance of an upset had passed.

Spence pounded Ugas badly in the eighth (two judges would score the round 10-8 for Spence) and the eye swelling began to increase rapidly for the soon-to-be former champion, who was found to have had suffered an orbital fracture around his right eye.

And then after the fight, the words that fight fans have been waiting for years were finally uttered as Spence stated that he wanted Terence Crawford next.

Hopefully, that fight can be made for the fall and once and all decide just which of the two is the true top welterweight of this era.

The preliminary bouts were all fights that were lopsided affairs and if all were right with boxing, the three losers would consider leaving the sport with their best days behind them.

Isaac Cruz rebounded from his close decision loss to Gervonta Davis with a five-round annihilation of washed-up Yuriorkis Gamboa.

Punch resistance has never been a strong suit of Gamboa even at his peak but his chin and legs are finished with this game as Cruz shook the veteran with every punch landed and dropped Gamboa in the second, third, fourth, and fifth rounds, before the fight ended with Gamboa against the ropes in the fifth round.

The fight likely could have been stopped two rounds before and no one would have complained a bit.

Promising lightweight Jose Valenzuela scored the biggest win of his young career with one left hook that sent former WBC junior lightweight champion Francisco Vargas down and out in the first round.

Vargas had taken his share of punishment in some terrific fights but at this stage, Vargas is a spent fuse.

As for Valenzuela, he appears to be a very promising prospect with big things ahead of him.

Welterweight Cody Crowley scored a unanimous decision over shopworn Josesito Lopez in a ten-rounder.

I haven't watched the fight of this writing...

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 63 Pts (7)

Vince Samano: 55 Pts (5)

Ramon Malpica: 52 Pts (6)

Boxing Challenge: Ugas ends the Pacquiao era.

    Late replacement and WBA welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas ended the tenure of Manny Pacquiao by a close but unanimous decision in Las Vegas and retained his championship with the victory.

Ugas, a late replacement for WBC and IBF champion Errol Spence after Spence suffered a detached retina, didn't dominate the legend, but he did more than enough to earn the win in this on scores of 115-113 and 116-112 (twice), I agreed with the 115-113 score but that is about as close as I could see the fight possibly being scored.

Ugas used the jab to consistently keep Pacquiao off balance and blunted his trademark ability to hop in and out of the zone to land punches by using the jab.

Ugas landed his right very well against Pacquiao with a right hand that is a hybrid between a looping and overhand to its top effectiveness and Pacquiao seemed to catch it every time that Ugas needed to connect to keep the fight in his favor.

Contrary to many opinions, while I would like to see Manny Pacquiao walk away from the sport now, I'm not sure that he is a completely spent force.

I think fighting only three times in four years and only one in the previous two did not help his skills stay sharpened and Manny at this stage (and he did the same in his win against Keith Thurman) of his career reminds me of Hall of Famer Donald Curry at the end of his career.

Curry became a fighter that could build a lead for seven or eight rounds and the race was then on- could Curry make it to the end of the fight and hold the lead?

Pacquiao has become the same type of fighter and that type of fighter isn't up to the task of defeating the elite of the welterweight division but matched properly Pacquiao can still win some fights against the back of top ten style contenders.

The question is does he want to and does he have to?

The want to portion would depend on his Presidential ambitions in his native Philippines and being able to devote the time needed to get into better shape which seems unlikely at 42.

But the need to? It has been well-known that Pacquiao has dealt with multiple financial issues through the years and one never knows if one of those could pop up again.

While Pacquiao's effort wasn't a stimulating one nor a winning one, it wasn't so terrible that it would eliminate him completely should someone throw enough dollars at him to make it worth his while.

I still don't think that with the nostalgia craze in boxing running well, one could entirely cross out a future Marquez-Pacquiao V or with enough dollars on the line, a rematch with Oscar De La Hoya, or even Floyd Mayweather down the road.

As Ugas, it's pretty clear what his future will be as he most likely will face Spence in a three title unification bout next unless Spence wants a warmup fight in which case Ugas would take one as well.

Ugas still rates below Terence Crawford and Errol Spence in the division but between his win over Pacquiao and split decision loss to Shawn Porter, it's not unfair to list him with Porter and the two rising stars Jaron Ennis and Vergil Ortiz at the level just under the top two.

In the co-feature, faded welterweight veterans Robert Guerrero and Victor Ortiz squared in a good fight but not as strong as I expected it to with Guerrero winning a close unanimous decision on all cards 96-94.

I agreed with the scoring but the downside is that whichever fighter won will likely be pushed above their pay grade by PBC in the future.

I could easily see Guerrero with a recognizable name and a recent win over another recognizable name in Ortiz being the fighter fed to Spence or Ugas should they need an interim fight before their clash.

It won't be competitive but I'm not sure PBC would really want competitive with bigger dollars on the line down the road.

Wait a second, forget I mentioned that.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored one point to move the season total to 118-104. 

Boxing Challenge:Ugas outclasses Ramos, Hamburglar returns

Life is an amazing thing.
Every day, something new happens and this is a first for the boxing challenge- The Hamburglar arrives for a decision that saw the correct fighter win, but everything else was wrong.

Other than the absolutely inept decision, there was nothing to suggest that anything about the third of the three awful mismatches masquerading as main events was different than the other two cards promoted by PBC and broadcast by Fox.

First, the co-feature was canceled between former junior lightweight and lightweight champion Rances Barthelemy and Alberto Puello for a worthless WBA "title",  leaving another uninspiring main event with welterweights Yordenis Ugas against Abel Ramos for another WBA "title" of little value.
Ugas is a top seven fighter in the division having lost only a split decision to Shawn Porter in the last seven years in a fight that could have easily been given to Ugas (I scored the fight even at 114) and Ramos was thoroughly outclassed against Bryant Perrella for all but the final half of the final round before a miracle finish and an awful stoppage with one second to go gave Ramos a win that he really didn't deserve.
Perrella is a top twenty type welterweight, a solid step below Ugas and by extension, Ramos looked to be two classes below Ugas in quality.

The fight was about what everyone expected as Ugas dominated with a jab that couldn't miss and right hands that smacked Ramos as he bulled his way in.
The rounds rolled on and repeated themselves, Ramos caught between aggressive and befuddled while Ugas scored consistently but seemed to content to score an easy win.
Ugas won the first ten rounds on my card, the eleventh could have gone to either man and Ramos won the twelfth and even wobbled Ugas briefly, but not seriously.
This is where I would usually stop and speculate what could be next for Ugas, but the Hamburglar was about to arrive.

The first tip was Jimmy Lennon announcing a split decision.
That alone caused my mouth to drop open.
Then the first scorecard from veteran judge Lou Moret- 117-111 for RAMOS!
In rounds, that is NINE to three for Ramos in a fight that I was generous would have scored 118-110 for Ugas!
My actual score was 119-109 for Ugas.
The other two judges (Zachary Young and Edward Hernandez) salvaged the fight by scoring for Ugas to get the winner correctly named, but even their cards were terrible with both scoring 115-113 (7-5).
There is no way that Ramos won five rounds, let alone Moret's nine, and all three of the judges need to be looked at seriously at being not allowed to do this job anymore.

On a night that the story should be another dominant performance in the main event that featured two classes of fighters for yet another poor attempt by PBC to establish a national television presence, the judging in this fight took the promoter and the network off the hook.
By changing the story, the narrative now is the terrible work of the judges, not Yordenis Ugas or the awful cards by PBC and that is boxing in a nutshell.
Only Boxing takes a bad thing and makes it worse.

Ramon Malpica and I each scored one point for the Ugas victory in the boxing challenge.
The total is now 104-98 in my favor.