Remember how I've written here and said on Fightheads (I really miss doing that!) about sometimes in boxing, it takes as little as 20 or 30 seconds to see what's in store in the fight?
That was the case in the biggest (literally) fight of the weekend as Dillian Whyte blew out Lucas Browne with one left hook in the sixth round.
Whyte, who entered the bout as the WBC's number one contender to their champion Deontay Wilder, won every round, just about ripped the side of Browne's face in round two, causing bleeding throughout the fight and as mentioned finished the Australian off with one violent hook.
Browne, who I couldn't decide whether he reminded me of Bald Bull or King Hippo, just listlessly lumbered forward ineffectively and ate punch after punch from Whyte.
Whyte now has placed himself squarely in the middle of the heavyweight picture and someone will have to deal with Whyte in the near future.
The WBC could mandate Whyte against Deontay Wilder or Whyte could face the winner of next week's heavyweight unification bout, who will walk away with the other three heavyweight championships either Anthony Joshua (WBA and IBF) or Joseph Parker (WBO).
Whyte's only loss was to Joshua in a great fight that saw Whyte hit the deck in the second round, only to arise to badly hurt Joshua and sending him stumbling around the ring in the third round before being stopped in the seventh.
With Whyte and Joshua both being promoted by Eddie Hearn, I would imagine a Joshua rematch would be worth more than a Wilder fight, but if Whyte and Hearn wanted to take a risk, Whyte could try to take Wilder's belt and make a Joshua rematch even more lucrative with all four belts on the line.
I wrote of the other three bouts being from the horrid WBA and was critical of the organization.
I think titles are good for the sport, I do think four titles are too many, which is why I waited close to 20 years before reluctantly recognizing the WBO last year and I definitely think that three "World Champions" from one organization is really diluting the broth.
I was very critical of the filling of the vacant "regular" cruiserweight title with two untested fighters without zero recognizable wins.
I'll stand by the title being superfluous and that both fighters didn't deserve to be fighting for a title, even a ridiculous one like this one, but they put on a decent fight and maybe even produced someone worth keeping an eye in winner Arsen Goulamiran, who stopped Ryad Merhy in the eleven round.
Goulamiran is trained by Abel Sanchez, who trains an actual cruiserweight champion in Murat Gassiev, and was very impressive in walking down Merhy throughout the bout and asserting his presence with authority ( Bull Durham reference).
Goulamiran looked much larger than Merhy, who tried hard but looked overmatched in this one.
I'm not ready to throw Goulamiran in with the winner (or loser for that matter) of the World Boxing Super Series final, who will own all four "real" titles, quite yet, but I saw enough to want to see him against hopefully a top ten level opponent to get a real feel for what he brings to the table.
I had Goulamiran ahead 98-92 after ten rounds before he impressively closed the show.
No one has put up video of the other two challenge fights yet so I haven't seen them yet.
Tyron Zeuge retained his minor title with a second-round knockout of Issac Ekpo in a rematch of their fun five rounder of last year that ended on an Ekpo headbutt that badly cut Zeuge and allowed the German to win the technical decision.
From what I have read Zeuge dropped Ekpo in the first round and only the bell saved Ekpo from being blown out in one.
Instead, he was blown out in two and likely is finished as a contender.
Zeuge should eventually have to challenge the George Groves-Callum Smith winner (The winner will have the real WBA belt, but having seen German champions in the past, who have been very reluctant to leave German and its big purses and knowing the WBA and its penchant for collecting sanctioning fees-I would bet you'll see Zeuge happily keeping his minor belt and knocking over second level opponents for a decent amount of time.
In the other WBA fight, Michel Soro decisioned John Vera via unanimous nod to become the mandatory challenger for the winner of the Erislandy Lara-Jarrett Hurd unification fight in two weeks.
Soro was the more seasoned fighter against decent opponents and from reports, it showed against Vera, who is promoted by Roy Jones and had looked strong against very limited opponents.
Soro isn't a true top ten level fighter, but being top twenty caliber was a planetary leap in challengers for Vera, who wasn't ready for that jump.
In the boxing challenge, I earned five points to Ramon Malpica's two to increase my lead to 48-37.
My points came from wins from Michel Soro (two) and one each from Arsen Goulamiran, Tyron Zeuge, and Dillian Whyte.
Ramon grabbed one point each from wins by Whyte and Zeuge.
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