Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Boxing Challenge: KO's, New Boss and a Robbery

The last big weekend in the 2018 boxing year saw a tremendous heavyweight battle with a clean knockout, one European taking the place of another at the top of a division, two disappointing performances and one of those ended in a terrible decision.

The best fight was in London, where Dillian Whyte and Dereck Chisora hooked up in a rematch of their bombs away bout of 2016 that Whyte won by a narrow split decision that I scored a draw.
This one wasn't quite of that caliber, but it still was very exciting and action filled (think of taking two tests and scoring a 95 and a 92, both are excellent, but one is slightly better) and the ending was quite dramatic.
I had Chisora ahead 95-94 entering the 11th (6-4 with Chisora losing a point for a low blow in the eighth) before Chisora lost another point in the eleventh for elbowing.
Just when you began to wonder if those two points had the potential to cost Chisora the fight on the cards, Whyte decided to make that point moot with a left hook that wiped out Chisora for the evening and keep Whyte at the top of the list of heavyweight contenders.
Whyte deserves a rematch vs Anthony Joshua and may get it in the spring, while this might have been the last stand for Chisora, it was a strong one and it might be best for Chisora to step aside on a high note, although his effort in this one might earn him more paychecks.
On the undercard in a fight that I've not seen of this writing, Britain's Charlie Edwards upset Cristofer Rosales via unanimous decision to win the WBC flyweight title.

In Manchester, Josh Warrington retained his IBF featherweight title for the first time with a unanimous decision over the favored Carl Frampton.
Warrington shot to the lead by winning five of the first six rounds and never looked back, winning on my card 117-111.
Warrington isn't going to knock out many (only six KO's), but his attack never slows and he simply did not allow Frampton to get comfortable enough to fire back and keep Warrington off of him.
The swarming Warrington throws punches by a rate that surpasses other noted volume punchers in the division such as WBA champion Leo Santa Cruz.
Frampton was talking retirement after the fight and the time may be right for Frampton to step away.
Frampton isn't getting hurt, but he hasn't been the same fighter since his winning first fight against Leo Santa Cruz and even though he's still a top ten fighter, he's dropped back from the best of the division.
As for the victor, Warrington is rumored to be headed to the U.S in 2019 for a title unification fight vs WBO champ Oscar Valdez, which should be a good one, although selfishly, a Warrington unification against Leo Santa Cruz might set a record for combined punches in a fight.
I'd still rank Warrington as an underdog against Valdez, Santa Cruz or WBC champ Gary Russell, but Warrington has surprised observers in his last two wins and he'd be a live underdog against any of the three.

On the Warrington-Frampton undercard, former minor titleholders at middleweight battled in a fight to prove future viability with Hassan N'Dam winning a majority decision over Martin Murray.
I scored the fight even at 114-114, but it seemed like N'Dam did a little more and was certainly more active than Murray, who showed a reluctance that he had not shown in past efforts.

The PBC returned for a "reboot" on network television and it reportedly did reasonably well in the ratings after doing plenty of promotional work during football.
The card pushed the Charlo brothers and while neither brother looked particularly effective, both deserved victories, but surprisingly only one received a raised hand.

Jermall Charlo defeated late replacement Matt Korobov via unanimous decision (115-113 on my card) with a late run that saw him win five of the final six rounds to gain the victory,
The cards were wider than I had it scored, with one ridiculous 119-108 scorecard being unfair to Korobov, who showed that he deserved another chance against good competition with a strong outing on short notice.
Charlo now using the nickname "Hit Man" which both Thomas Hearns and Bret Hart should sue for damaging a trademark didn't score a knockdown, but he did have Korobov hurt in the final round.
I'm still not totally convinced that Charlo will do well against the best of the division.
Charlo's best wins are still a KO of a somewhat untested at the time Julian Williams, a decision of an aging Austin Trout and now Korobov, who hadn't fought a quality opponent in four years, so there are still questions to be answered- questions other than who said it was a good idea to name Charlo "Hit Man" that is...

In the shocker of the day, Tony Harrison stunned Jermell Charlo via unanimous decision to take away the WBC junior middleweight title in a fight that would be quickly forgotten if not for the terrible decision (I had Charlo winning 116-112), Charlo's charging that Harrison told him that Charlo had clearly won to the interviewer that Harrison had denied, shortly after Harrison had graciously called Charlo a great champion, told him that he would receive a rematch and Harrison (on live national TV no less) responded with "F You, I'll fight Hurd then", referring to a unification with Jarrett Hurd, who holds the WBA and IBF titles and was expected to fight Charlo next.
A Hurd-Harrison fight would be fine to unify, but they have fought previously with Hurd stopping Harrison in nine rounds, so a rematch wouldn't especially be anticipated.
I'd bet we'll see the Harrison-Charlo rematch instead and hope it'll be better to watch than this one.
Charlo clearly deserved the win, but like his brother didn't impress doing so.
Both Charlo's seem to be overrated as punchers and underrated as boxers and would seem to be most effective when they blend the two styles.
As for the PBC, they learned a valuable lesson- when your fighters fight once or twice a year and you wait to have your best fight the best- anything can happen to derail the end game.

Heavyweight Dominic Breazeale knocked out Carlos Negron in the opening fight in the ninth round in a stay busy fight until Breazeale recieves his mandatory title fight against WBC champion Deontay Wilder.
Breazeale had not fought in over a year in a somewhat common occurrence among PBC fighters and needed to get some rounds in.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me 6-4 over the weekend.
My season lead was cut to 214-197.
Ramon scored two points for wins by Breazeale and Charlo along with one each from Whyte and N'Dam.
My points came from Breazeale (two) and one each from Charlo and Whyte

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