Boxing Challenge: Not much of a Show (time)

Photo Credit: Showtime Sports

The Saturday night card from Showtime and PBC from the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn wasn't one that was going to excite many fans going into the evening and it didn't even live up to those standards in three bouts that were about as stimulating as a meal at Bob Evans.

In the main event, Danny Garcia cruised to a unanimous decision over Ivan Redkach in a twelve rounder that was an overpriced sparring session.
Garcia won the first ten rounds on my card before wrapping the final two rounds for Redkach in the boxing version of the garbage (known here as the Phillip Rivers) touchdown for a 118-110 win.
Garcia was never even bothered by the much smaller Redkach, which I suppose was the entire idea of Redkach's selection as an opponent, but other than cutting Redkach over his left eye in round seven Garcia didn't seem interested in pushing the pace and attempting to take Redkach out and putting watchers out of their misery.
The most exciting part of the match was at the end of the eighth round when Redkach bit Garcia on the side of the neck which was far more effective than anything else Redkach landed.
Garcia will likely battle either Errol Spence or Manny Pacquiao sometime over the summer in yet another case of boxing giving you something you didn't ask for and expect you to do an endzone dance over it.
Garcia is a solid fighter and certainly world-class, but at welterweight, he lacks that little extra that the elite fighters have and it showed in his close losses to current WBC champ Shawn Porter and former WBA/WBC champion Keith Thurman, who both are also more on the level of Garcia than that of Spence, Pacquiao or Terence Crawford.
Keep in mind, Garcia has been at this weight since August 2015 and Garcia still does not own a win over a top ten welterweight with his best wins over smaller and not quite top 10 welterweights Robert Guerrero and Brandon Rios.
Garcia will put up a good fight in his next fight, but I don't see him having much of a chance against Spence or Pacquiao.

Before the Garcia-Redkach main event, former WBA and IBF junior middleweight champion Jarrett Hurd returned to the ring for the first time since his upset loss to Julian Williams and much like Garcia, disappointed to a degree in winning a unanimous decision over Francisco Santana.
Santana had never fought about welterweight and had lost three of his last four entering the fight, so this seemed to be a match made to make Hurd look strong in his return,
Hurd won easily (99-90) on my card, but as in the case of Danny Garcia, he didn't seem interested in winning by a knockout until dropping Santana with seconds remaining in the final round.
Santana rose and the fight ended, but the fight seemed more like gym work than a fight on a premium network.
Other than getting a ten-round win and removing the loss to Williams as the last thing on his resume',
I'm not sure what this win really did for Hurd.
I still have him placed solidly in the mix in the junior middleweight division and he wouldn't be more than a mild underdog against anyone in the division, but Hurd will have to raise his level in his next bout against a top fighter in the division.

In the opener, Stephen Fulton won a unanimous decision over Arnold Khegai over twelve rounds in an eliminator to earn the mandatory slot for WBO junior featherweight champion Emmanuel Navarrete.
Fulton's jab and speed managed to build a big lead on the cards and held off the late charge of Khegai, who was aggressive throughout the contest, but simply gave away too many rounds on my card (116-112 Fulton) to make it close
Fulton's a smooth boxer that might not have enough power to sting Navarrete, but his speed makes him a dark horse to pull an upset.

A side note on the Fulton-Khegai fight.
The PBC had made it clear that they didn't recognize the WBO as a major sanctioning body and used it as a reason to not mention Terence Crawford as a welterweight champion.
Much of their problems are likely because many PBC fighters aren't in the WBO top ten contenders to the point of silliness, so while I don't agree with their stance I can see their aggravation, but this was an official eliminator and brings a few questions.
Is this the beginning of a thaw between the WBO and PBC?
Which of the two might have stepped forward, if so?
Which one needs it more?
Likely the WBO as sanctioning fees doesn't grow on trees.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored four points on the evening as Ramon maintained his lead in the overall standings at 10-9.