Errol Spence was a lopsided favorite to unify his IBF championship with that of the WBC title with a victory over Shaun Porter and Spence came through with a victory to do so, but the unexpected difficulty and the resulting terrific battle was a surprise to almost everyone.
Spence's split decision victory was the proper one and give Spence plenty of credit for battling through what proved to be the sternest test of his career from Porter, but I do wonder if Spence couldn't have made this fight easier with just a few changes.
I suppose the question that perhaps eventually answered is this one- Was this a great fight because Shawn Porter forced Errol Spence to fight his fight or did Errol Spence make a tactical decision to do so, therefore allowing Porter to have his best chance to win, but gave fans a far more exciting fight than expected?
I had the fight dead even through ten rounds and the eleventh was even until Spence's counter left on the chin of the charging Porter scored a knockdown, which essentially gave Spence the fight on my card and I had Spence winning round twelve as well in a round that featured many furious exchanges between the two combatants.
It was a terrific fight and I was only disappointed by one point after the bout.
We might be farther away from Terence Crawford against Errol Spence than ever before.
Spence had stated entering the fight that he would fight Crawford, but his desired fight against WBA champion Manny Pacquiao would come first.
After the fight, Spence seemed to indicate that should Pacquiao choose another foe rather than Spence for his next fight, he would face Danny Garcia in a fight that I cannot imagine many being excited about.
When you consider that few of the PBC's top fighters fight more than twice a year, should Spence face Danny Garcia next, you would think that his other fight would be against Pacquiao should Manny take that fight or after the unexpectedly difficult fight against Porter, a rematch could be slotted as the other fight for Spence in 2020 and push Crawford to early 2021 at its earliest.
Only in boxing can fans eventually lose by watching a great fight.
David Benavidez won the WBC super-middleweight title that he never lost in the ring over Anthony Dirrell when the fight was stopped from Dirrell's corner as Benavidez pounded Dirrell in the ninth round.
I had Benavidez well ahead (79-73) when the fight was stopped and Benavidez badly cut Dirrell in the sixth round which led to Benavidez stepping the pace in dominating the seventh and eighth rounds before the final ninth.
I have been critical of Team Dirrell in the past in various fights, but give credit in this one as Dirrell could have chucked it in several times and instead battled on.
Still, I would have stopped the fight after the eighth and saved Dirrell from the pounding that he took in the ninth.
David Benavidez fights like a heavyweight as his style is a physical, walk the opponent down and pound on them until they surrender style and he's the biggest guy in the division physically, so he's going to be a tough out for anyone, but while I like Benavidez a lot, he's going to have problems against guys that move and the biggest fight at his weight with PBC is with IBF champ Caleb Plant, who uses just the kind of movement that could give Benavidez concerns.
Still, Plant is not a big hitter and unless he can box all night against the pressure of Benavidez, Benavidez will have more than an even chance for wearing Plant down in that potential bout, although I'm not betting on that fight happening anytime soon as Plant hasn't seemed interested in fighting decent opponents other than his title-winning match against Jose Uzcategui.
I haven't been able to see the two opening bouts, but the reports on Mario Barrios unanimous decision win over Batyr Akhmedov are approaching Hamburglar level robbery.
Barrios scored two flash knockdowns, but I've read that his face was badly lumped and from one observer commented that Barrios took the type of punishment in "winning" that you never recover from and despite still being undefeated and now holding a minor junior welterweight title, Barrios could be damaged goods, while Akhmedov, despite being dropped twice, seems to have won quite a few fans in his loss.
Editors Note: While Akhmedov generally kicked the hell out of Barrios from round five through the end of the fight, I wouldn't say that the win for Barrios was a robbery as many have written.
Here's why- I gave Barrios the first four rounds with the fourth at 10-8 with a flash knockdown, Akhmedov won the next seven rounds easily and was winning the final round before another flash knockdown.
Because Barrios was losing the round before the knockdown, I scored Barrios as winning the final round, but only by 10-9.
In rounds, Akhmedov wins on my card 7-5 and loses the point for the fourth round knockdown.so that results in a 114-113 card for Akhmedov, who dealt out vast amounts of punishment to Barrios, yet the two flash knockdowns made the fight closer on the cards than the action in the ring actually was and therefore not a robbery, although, in my opinion, the wrong guy won.
In the opener, veteran Josesito Lopez stopped even older veteran John Molina in the eighth round in a welterweight fight that will hopefully see Molina step away from the stage.
Lopez knocked Molina down twice in the first round with Molina barely surviving the initial round before Lopez dropped Molina again in the seventh before finishing him off in the eighth.
Most scorecards had Lopez winning every round, so Lopez will likely fight on in the PBC ( I wouldn't be stunned to see a rematch with Keith Thurman when Thurman returns from his latest injury hiatus).
As for Molina, the time is right for him to collect his gold watch and step aside before he gets hurt.
Friday afternoon from London, talented heavyweight Daniel DuBois knocked Ebenezer Tetteh down twice in the first round and finished him off then and there.
Tetteh was hardly a test for DuBois, but I'm really looking forward to seeing the competition improve for DuBois, who only needs to prove a sturdy chin to be of title timber as I think his skills are of that level.
In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me seven to six to cut my lead to 231-202.
We both scored two points from David Benavidez and Daniel Dubois and one from Errol Spence, but Ramon scored two from Mario Barrios and I scored one from Josesito Lopez.
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