Hopefully, I have smoothed those out and will have no future issues, but it did cause me to lose the entire column on the Cavaliers game three thrashing of the Celtics.
Fingers crossed that this is not an issue that continues!
Kudos to Showtime for the three fight weekend from three cities, two countries, and two platforms.
I'll have more on Showtime below.
Adonis Stevenson looked to be the fearsome champion of old for six rounds and was far ahead on my card to retain his WBC light heavyweight title in Toronto.
When the bell rang to begin round seven, everything changed for the reluctant one and he would win just one more round against the challenge of Badou Jack.
That round was enough to salvage a 114-114 draw on my card and saved his title on the judges' scorecards as Stevenson kept his championship with a majority draw.
Two judges saw it as I did with another scoring 115-113 for Jack.
It was a good enough fight, but nothing that I have to see again soon.
Stevenson was badly staggered by Jack in the 12th round, looked every one of his forty years of age and might be the sports most vulnerable champion as contenders elbow their promoters for a shot at the aging Haitian expatriate.
Jack would love a second shot, I'm sure, but the WBC allowed this fight as long as the winner agreed to fight Oleksandr Gvozdyk next.
Stevenson's track record shows that he is likely to put that fight off as long as possible and the WBC has given him more breaks than any fighter that I can remember in years, so I'm not sure that fight happens next, but it should as the WBC should order that fight or mandate that Stevenson vacate the title.
Badou Jack now owns two draws in his two biggest fights ( He drew with James DeGale in a super middleweight unification contest in 2017) and really can only blame himself.
Jack gives away far too many early rounds and makes a late charge to get back into the fight only to be at the mercy of the judges in hairline fights.
It's easy to say that Jack needs to start faster, but perhaps he simply cannot.
Meanwhile, in beautiful Oxon Hill, Maryland (and I really need to hit one of these cards sometime), Gary Russell made one of his yearly appearances and for six rounds was in a dogfight with mandatory contender Joseph Diaz.
The problem with that was that title fights are twelve rounds and Russell kicked the fight into a gear that Diaz wasn't capable of keeping up with over the second half of the fight to win a unanimous decision to keep his WBC featherweight strap.
Diaz did exactly what Badou Jack in the half of the fight-he simply didn't throw enough punches to keep Russell honest and for some reason after investing lots of bodywork in the first half of the bout didn't follow up over the second half.
I thought this is how this fight would play out and as someone that has always thought the world of Gary Russell the fighter and yet next to nothing of Gary Russell's management, I hope to see Russell back in the ring before the end of the year and against good competition too.
Gary Russell deserves better, he simply needs to step up and fight for it- outside the ring as well as inside.
The afternoon fight from Leeds, England saw Josh Warrington surprise Lee Selby with a split decision win to take Selby's IBF featherweight title and attempt to place himself in the bigger picture at 126 pounds.
Selby was never able to accomplish that throughout his title reign, so we'll have to see if Warrington can pull that off, but on this night, Warrington should have won a unanimous decision as the 115-113 Selby card was ridiculous.
Warrington has one of suffocating styles that smothers others (like that?) but is never going to bother anyone with his pop (6 KO's in his 27 wins) and against the elite of the division I would be dubious of his chances, but one thing is clear-If Warrington gets that shot against the top names- they better be ready to fend him off for twelve rounds.
A few words on Showtime, if you please ( An nod to Gordon Solie there) and their growing dominance in televising boxing.
Putting aside their connection with Al Haymon's PBC, which is often more than tentative about putting their best against the best), Showtime consistently is making solid fights, if not fights that make the world stop on a dime and have made themselves the network that I have always hoped to see in televised boxing.
Showtime is making bouts happen more than any other network and keeping boxing fans active and eyes on their product that not only helps the sport but the network as well.
Not every bout has to have championship connotations and I would like to see some fighters against better competition (most notably the Charlo's), but it's tough to argue against an active network that brings boxing to fans multiple times a month in at least interesting fights.
Showtime also offers the fairest broadcast set in the fight game as well and I was struck by this watching the Gary Russell-Joseph Diaz bout last night.
The easy way to cover this was to shower Russell, a Showtime/PBC fighter, with praise while discussing Diaz, a Golden Boy Promotions, and non-Showtime fighter, with some distance as Showtime would not gain anything from a Diaz victory.
Instead, their three-man crew of Mauro Ranallo, Al Bernstein, and Paulie Malignaggi called it straight, gave both fighters their due with what happened in the ring with no consideration for their connections outside of the ring.
This would be a layup to say that is the way all events should be called, but it isn't the case.
ESPN is somewhat of an offender with Timothy Bradley, who is quite friendly with many of Top Rank's stars outside the ring, and Mark Kriegel, who is from a writing background and calls fights with a wish for a storyline and not what is actually happening in the ring.
The opposite of what Showtime does with their commentators is HBO, who has the solid Jim Lampley, but employs Max Kellerman and Roy Jones (and occasionally Andre Ward), who enter the fight with a narrative, rarely deviate from said narrative and definitely choose a side more often than not.
I've been critical on occasion of Mauro Ranallo for often generating artificial excitement when it is not needed, but I think it's his legitimate if somewhat misguided enthusiasm for the sport that causes this and I cannot knock that.
Al Bernstein has been a favorite of mine for years and even though I wasn't always a fan of Paulie Malignaggi in the ring as a fighter, I think as a commentator, Malignaggi brings up points from the fighters perspective that aren't always about his career as is often the case with the aforementioned Roy Jones.
Showtime's announcers are the fairest in the game and from the viewer's standpoint, that's all boxing fans can ask for from the new leader in boxing television.
In the boxing challenge, I scored two points to Ramon Malpica's one.
I added two points from Gary Russell's win with Ramon scoring one.
No points were scored from the Stevenson-Jack draw and both of us selected Lee Selby to defeat Josh Warrington.
I now lead the challenge 90-71.
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