The main fight of the weekend was held across the pond as Vasyl Lomachenko kept his WBA and WBO lightweight titles and added the vacant WBC championship with a unanimous decision over Luke Campbell.
I scored the fight closer than the official judges at 116-111 for Lomachenko, which seems to be more in line with the majority of scorecards.
Lomachenko did have some issues with the jab and the length of Campbell, who boxed very well and I thought he was in the fight after ten rounds (6-4 in favor of Lomachenko), which wasn't the case on the official cards, but Lomachenko began drilling Campbell in the eleventh and a right to the body sent Campbell to one knee.
Campbell battled through the round and survived to the final bell without being knocked down again.
Lomachenko needs one other belt, that of the IBF which currently held by Richard Commey.
Commey will face the meteoric prospect Teofimo Lopez in December and the winner is expected to face Lomachenko in the spring of 2020.
On the undercard, Alexander Povetkin slogged his way to a unanimous decision over Hughie Fury in a boring bout.
Povetkin scored enough with his right to gain the clear decision (I agreed with all three judges that saw Povetkin a 117-111 winner) and will eventually have another chance against a heavyweight that is a top ten type in an eliminator.
As for Hughie Fury, who falls to 0-3 against world-class competition and it looks to me like Fury is a clear cut below that level and I'm not sure I'm interested in seeing him face those opponents in the future.
Controversy reigned in the other London bout as Charlie Edwards retained his WBC flyweight title when his fight vs Julio Cesar Martinez ended in a no-contest in the third round.
Martinez seemed to be on the way to taking the championship with an attack that was breaking Edwards down rapidly.
In the third, Martinez dropped Edwards to a knee with a big left hook, but then followed up with a shot to the body while Edwards was on the floor.
The referee didn't see the foul and counted Edwards out and Martinez was announced as the new champion.
The WBC did see the foul and ruled the bout a no contest, Edwards was returned his title and an immediate rematch was ordered.
It certainly was a foul and the correct call, but there was next to no question in my mind that Martinez was on his way to winning and I'm very doubtful that Edwards can do anything differently to turn the tide in his direction in a rematch.
The PBC card on Fox from Minneapolis looked weak on paper and it wasn't much better in the ring with the main event being a downright joke as Erislandy Lara knocked out Ramon Alvarez in two rounds win one of those WBA minor titles.
The main joke part was Alvarez, a totally undeserving "contender", who had never beaten a top contender (the biggest names on his record in Ben Tackie and Vivian Harris were well past their prime and well over their top fighting weight) weighed four pounds over the limit for the fight and essentially was a rated contender as part of the various sanctioning bodies never-ending need to kiss the ring of Ramon's brother, who happens to be named Canelo Alvarez.
Lara called out Canelo after the fight for a rematch of their July 2014 fight in which Alvarez won a controversial split decision that many believe Lara won.
Next to no chance of that happening with the promotional divide in the sport, but it kills me when PBC fighters call out fighters from other platforms, yet none of them show interest in making such fights when the time to negotiate begins.
I know all fighters call the other groups fighters out, but only PBC lacks a track record in making the biggest inter-promotional fights.
In a decent fight, junior middleweights Sebastian Fundora and Jamontay Clark fought to a draw.
The freakishly tall for the division Fundora at 6'6 was hit by Clark far more than he should have over his jab, but it made for a good fight as far as action goes.
I scored Clark a winner by a speck at 96-94, but I have no problem with the draw or even a similar score for Fundora, but the judge that saw Fundora winning scored a silly 98-92 card.
From Australia, Michael Zerafa knocked out former WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn in the ninth round in an upset.
I haven't seen the fight yet, but I have seen the final minute and the referee that allowed a badly hurt Horn to continue for well past the time that the fight should have been stopped, should never work a fight again.
Jeff Horn is very fortunate to escape this loss with his health and might want to consider retirement after this loss to Zerafa, who has never won at this level previously,
In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica five points to four.
Both of us earned two points from Alexander Povetkin and one from Vasyl Lomachenko, with the difference being my two points from Erislandy Lara to Ramon's one.
I lead the overall standings 219-188.
No comments:
Post a Comment