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| Photo Credit; World Boxing Super Series |
The first semi-final in the cruiserweight division of the World Boxing Super Series in Riga, Latvia looked to be an interesting matchup as two titles would be unified, but some thought it might be more of a world-class battle of chess.
The pleasant surprise saw the early leader for fight of the year (hey, it's January) as WBO champ and top seed Oleksandr Uskyk took the WBC title away from the home country hero and third seed by as hard-fought of a majority decision as you'll see and advance to the finals.
A great fight with ebbs and flows that I scored even at 114, but it "felt" like Usyk edged it out by a hair, yet when you added it all up, I had it even.
It's one of those fights that is screaming for a second viewing (and scoring).
Usyk will face the winner of next week's fight between IBF champion Murat Gassiev and minor beltholder Yunier Dorticos in what is sure to be an exciting fight from Russia.
The problem is seeing these fights because American television isn't picking them up, the streams are struggling to work and it's tough to find them.
It's too bad because once you do-it's really high-level stuff with the cruiserweights (the super middleweights haven't been as strong thus far).
What makes the lack of ease finding the WBSS even frustrating is when you have such issues and then HBO, the network that has been the Cadillac of boxing television for so many years, puts on a card like they did Saturday night from the Forum in Inglewood California.
I know HBO has hitched its wagon mainly to Golden Boy Promotions (along with a few other "independents"), but this looked like a card better suited to their ESPN deal (where it would have been a nice "free "show) and not worthy of an HBO slot.
In the main event and in one of the dullest non-Erislandy Lara or Guillermo Rigonedeaux main events that you'll see, Lucas "The Machine" Matthysse continued his comeback with a knockout of unknown Tewa Kiram in the eighth round after seven rounds that had the live crowd booing and the Twitter followers disgusted with the dreadful fight.
I've always been a Matthysse fan, but he looks like a fighter that unless you match him against someone that stands directly in front of him and engages, he might be a shot fighter.
Matthysse picked up one of those WBA minor belts that we don't recognize, which means he could eventually be forced upon Keith Thurman, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to happen, but he mentioned a Danny Garcia rematch (Garcia won their first match against a prime Matthysee off his jab, I fail to see why rematching a faded version changes anything) or a Manny Pacquiao pipedream, which might be a more fun fight to watch but considering Matthysse's still potent power is a high-risk low reward for Manny.
As for Kiram, the less said the better and I really don't need to see him again period, let alone on HBO.
In the co-feature, challenger Mercito Gesta tried hard and lasted the distance with WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares, but other than winning a few early rounds was clearly outclassed by one of the two best lightweights in the world.
The problem for Linares is that the other best lightweight in the world, WBC champ Mikey Garcia talks a lot about fighting him, but doesn't seem actually interested in signing a contract to make the fight happen.
That is one of many baffling business decisions from Garcia, who I'd favor to defeat Linares, who still considers himself more of a businessman that boxes than a boxer that makes solid business decisions,
I thought Linares was two cuts above Gesta, who wasn't deserving of a title shot and that's about how it turned out as I scored it a perhaps overly generous (for Gesta) 117-111 win for Linares.
It's just hard for me to believe HBO turned down rights to great stuff like Usyk (who they have televised in the past)- Breidis and next week's likely barnburner between Gassiev and Dorticos to buy fights like these and then have the head of their boxing department (Peter Nelson) actually try with a straight face before the card to portray these as "50/50 fights".
Just plain awful...
In the boxing challenge-Ramon Malpica earned six points for the weekend to my four to move ahead in the overall standings at 8-7.
Ramon earned three points from Lucas Matthysee's win and KO (Bonus point for round), two from Jorge Linares, and one from Oleksandr Usyk.
I received two from Matthysee and one each from Linares and Usyk.
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