Sorry, this has been a little late, but there have been some family illness issues and I am a bit behind.
In the biggest fight of the weekend as part of a two fight Showtime telecast, Deontay Wilder came from behind (on my card anyway) to stop Luis Ortiz in the tenth and retain his WBC heavyweight title in Brooklyn.
Wilder had floored Ortiz in the fifth, but Ortiz didn't seem to be especially hurt after rising.
Ortiz badly hurt Wilder, leaving him wobbling around the ring and lurching into Ortiz as he desperately held onto the Cuban to survive the round.
The bell may have saved Wilder, but referee David Fields, in a strange move, asked the doctor to check Wilder before the round started and bought Wilder extra time to clear his head.
Here's why this was so strange-Wilder was not cut, so that shouldn't have been an issue and the doctor had the minute in between the seventh and eighth round to look at Wilder in the corner and saw no reason to stop the fight.
It seemed a little fishy to me, but still give Wilder credit, I had questions about his chin (I still do) and what would happen when he was tested- He survived the Ortiz attack and battled on.
Wilder would finish Ortiz in the tenth with two knockdowns and as good of an uppercut as you'll see.
The good news? The final few rounds were pretty dramatic and fun to watch.
The bad news? The first almost five rounds were pretty close to unwatchable and the scorecards that had Wilder ahead after nine were downright laughable.
Had Wilder not stopped Ortiz and gauging the way that the fight was being judged, Wilder was on his way to a decision win-one that would have again cast controversy.For the record, I had Ortiz up 86-83 as Ortiz lost a point for the fifth round knockdown and I scored round seven 10-8 for Ortiz in the round that he almost finished Wilder off.
In the end- it was an average fight with a few really good exchanges and some really high drama.
In the Brooklyn co-feature, Jose Uzcategui avenged his controversial disqualification loss to Andre Dirrell by winning almost every round ( I had him winning 79-73) before Dirrell's corner stopped the fight in between the eighth and ninth rounds.
Uzcategui didn't score a knockdown, but did bust up the face of Dirrell and pounded him thoroughly to the point that the stoppage was more humane than a reflection on Dirrell, who I have been critical of in the past for dogging it in some fights.
Uzcategui's win places him as the next fight for the winner of the IBF title rematch between Caleb Truax and James DeGale.
Truax pulled off a shocking upset of DeGale and unless DeGale shows that his loss was simply a really bad night and dominates the rematch, I would consider Uzcategui a solid favorite against either.
I'd go even farther and say I'm not sure that Uzcategui would be worse than pick 'em against anyone in the division and that includes champions George Groves (WBA), David Benavidez (WBC) and Gilberto Ramirez (WBO).
Over in Manhattan at Madison Square Garden, HBO showed arguably the two best light heavyweights in the world with title defenses by WBO champion Sergey Kovalev and WBA beltholder Dmitry Bivol.
In the main event, Kovalev continued to rebuild himself with a pounding of fellow Russian Igor Mikhalkin in which he won every round, cut Mikhalkin on his nose, caused heavy bleeding from the nose and then ripped open a cut under Mikhalkin's eye in the sixth.
The ending came in the seventh as the doctor saw Mikhalkin's cuts as serious and since he had lost every round, ending the fight seemed the right thing to do.
I've been a long-time Kovalev fan and gave him and his team the benefit of the doubt in scheduling two squash matches for his comeback since losing to Andre Ward.
I won't give him that benefit for his next fight- the Krusher needs to pick up the competition.
Dmitry Bivol was far ahead of Sullivan Barrera entering the final round (109-100) and could have been content to jab his way to a dominant, if not thrilling victory over the first top ten (arguably even top five) opponent of his career.
Bivol wasn't going to settle for that in flooring and finishing Barrera for a knockout win.
Bivol was very impressive in dominating Barrera like no one previously had done and that includes Andre Ward.
In the perfect world, I'd love to see a Bivol-Kovalev unification fight (makeable with both guys with HBO) or a Bivol-Artur Beterbiev unification fight (Not so makeable with Beterbiev having promotional issues) before the end of the year, but keeping Bivol active against quality opponents is going to be nothing but a positive for the struggling HBO boxing program.
In an untelevised fight from England, former IBF welterweight champ Kell Brook moved up to junior middleweight and snapped a two-fight losing streak and a two-fight broken eye-socket streak with a second-round knockout of Sergei Rabchenko.
Rabchenko might have not been top quality as far as opponents go, but he was decent enough all things considered and Brook looked quite impressive in taking him out.
Brook might be considered for a title match against WBC champ Jermell Charlo at his new weight and that faceoff would answer lots of questions about both men...
In the boxing challenge. I scored eight points to Ramon Malpica's four to boost my lead to 36-27
I earned two points for wins by Kell Brook, Dmitry Bivol and Sergey Kovalev and one point each for wins by Deontay Wilder and Jose Uzcategui.
Ramon earned two points for Sergey Kovalev's win and one point each for the wins of Dmitri Bivol and Kell Brook.
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