Boxing Challenge: Champions all defend successfully

On a Saturday that saw three titleholders defend their belts from two California locations, all three walked away with their titles packed away, but with varying degrees of difficulty.

From Los Angeles (cue Van Earl Wright audio), the most difficult evening saw Billy Joe Saunders rally to knock out unheralded Marcelo Coceres after three knockdowns in the eleventh round.
The odd thing about this fight arrived after the tenth round in the corner of Coceres, where Coceres seemed to be celebrating early with kisses and hugs to members of his corner and close on the scorecards (he was down 96-94 on two cards and ahead on the third by the same score), left his corner and was knocked out in that round.
Why a professional corner didn't even attempt to keep their fighter focused on the prize with everything going their way and possibly only two rounds away from winning a world title, is beyond mind-boggling to me.
Their fighter was controlling the action, what there was of it anyway, and Coceres had won six of the previous seven rounds, mainly by doing to Saunders what Saunders had done to so many of his opponents- outslicking and frustrating them with angles and quickness.
I had Coceres ahead 96-94 (6-4) and that was after giving Saunders the first three rounds.
Saunders finally caught Coceres with the right shot and the fight was essentially finished then and there, although Coceres would attempt to survive before the referee waved the fight over after the third knockdown.
For Coceres, he'll more than likely return to Argentine obscurity, while Saunders may have saved a possible fight with Canelo Alvarez, although I'm not sure that will be a great money fight or even a great fight in the ring and it comes with more risk than you think as a prepared and sharp Saunders (which hasn't regularly been the case) has the ability to give Alvarez fits.
To do that, Saunders will have to be far more prepared than he was in this title defense though and I wouldn't ever bank on that preparation occurring.

On the same card, Devin Haney struggled a little bit early in dealing with the taller Alberto Santiago, but not enough to lose any rounds on my card (120-108) or the judges to retain his WBC lightweight title for the first time.
Haney was too much for Santiago and although Haney scored a fifth-round knockdown, Santiago was never seriously in danger of being stopped.
Haney doesn't really have a challenger that is waiting for him unless inter-promotional issues can be dealt with.
The 'real' champion Vasyl Lomachenko now has no reason to face Haney now that he has the ridiculous franchise title, the WBC's top contender and third-ranked contenders in Gervonta Davis and Javier Fortuna both are affiliated with PBC, making a Haney match a difficult one to sign.
That leaves second-rated Luke Campbell, who gave Lomachenko a strong effort in losing last time out and like Haney, fights for Matchroom/DAZN, so Campbell may be next for Haney as his first significant test.

Up the road in Fresno, Jamel Herring retained his WBO junior lightweight title with a close unanimous decision over mandatory challenger Lamont Roach.
The fight was an often messy match with two styles that didn't mesh well and as is often the case when awkward styles mixes occur, the scorecards were wider than I thought with two 117-111's and a 115-113 that was closer to what I saw at 114-114.
Roach rocked Herring and almost scored a knockdown in the eleventh, but was helped by a missed knockdown that should have been scored in the ninth round.
On my card, Herring won most of the early rounds, with Roach coming on strong in the later rounds.
Herring taking on WBC champion Miguel Berchelt would make sense with both of the champions promoted by Top Rank or another possibility could be former WBO featherweight champion, Oscar Valdez.
Valdez has also been rumored to fight Berchelt and whichever champion doesn't get that fight with Valdez has a less than inspiring list of future opponents.

In the co-feature, heavyweight Kubrat Pulev won almost every round (99-91 on my card) over journeyman Rydell Booker in winning a unanimous decision.
Pulev never scored a knockdown, but steadily wore down Booker, who showed a good chin, but came into the fight looking out of shape.
Pulev is the number one contender for the IBF and will be a mandatory challenger for the winner of December's Andy Ruiz-Anthony Joshua rematch.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me nine to six over the weekend ( including the bantamweight fights from Japan) to move the overall score to 271-241.
Ramon grabbed two points for Jamel Herring's win (I picked Lamont Roach) and two to my one for the win by Billy Joe Saunders to make the difference.