Berchelt crushes Barros, Taylor defeats Postol

In the boxing challenge, there were several impressive performances, but the day's first star goes to Miguel Berchelt, who retained his WBC junior lightweight title with a three-round smashing of former featherweight champion Jonathan Barros in Mexico.
Berchelt badly hurt Barros in the first and scored a knockdown in the second that had it happened before the waning seconds of that round, could have ended the fight then and there.
Berchelt immediately sent Barros to the mat in the third and relentlessly stalked Barros with a real beating before Barros hit the canvas again.
The game, if outgunned Barros rose, but his corner had seen enough and entered the ring to stop the bout.
Barros might have been an expired item, but Berchelt did exactly what a champion does in a situation against an opponent with little left than a name- he took him out quickly and impressively.
Berchelt has an all-Mexican mandatory defense against Mickey Roman next and hopefully, then a unification bout can be matched with the talented, if mercurial WBA champ (which he should not hold, but that's beside the point) Gervonta Davis, who is the only fighter in the division that can make an argument other than Berchelt as the best in the division.

Another impressive win was Scotland's Josh Taylor, who pulled a mild upset over former WBC junior welterweight champion Viktor Postol by a far (FAR) wider than was remotely realistic unanimous decision in Glasgow.
Taylor dropped Postol in the tenth round of a strong action fight and that knockdown gave Taylor the win on my card by a 114-113 tally.
Taylor now earns a mandatory shot at WBC champion Jose Ramirez sometime soon, but I wouldn't rule out a chance of Taylor entering the next World Boxing Super Series tournament at junior welterweight.
Postol fought well in defeat and I'd consider giving him a slot in that bracket as well.

Also in the U.K, but in England, veteran middleweight contender Martin Murray continued his later career drive towards a fifth world title attempt with a unanimous decision over Roberto Garcia of Mexico.
Murray wins a minor title from Garcia and keeps his name around in the rankings for a potential rematch with Gennady Golovkin or Canelo Alvarez, should he dethrone Golovkin in September.
I would rather see Murray get a shot at WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders, which would be a grudge match after that bout has been canceled twice, a winnable fight for Murray and should draw a nice house in England as well.
I haven't seen this fight yet, so no scoring on this one.

On ESPN, Golden Boy's Vergil Ortiz looks like their best young prospect since Canelo Alvarez as he looked very strong in against his first name opponent as he ripped through former junior lightweight champion Juan Carlos Salgado in three rounds in Los Angeles.
Ortiz's body shot folded Salgado in half and finished him off cleanly.
I'm a big believer in Ortiz and think that Golden Boy might have the real deal in Ortiz after several disappointments among their homegrown talents.

In the boxing challenge, I scored six points to Ramon Malpica's three on the weekend to push my lead to 107-83.
My six came from two points from wins from Martin Murray, Vergil Ortiz and Miguel Berchelt.
Ramon's three were added with two points from Berchelt and one from Ortiz.