Sunday, February 16, 2020

Boxing Challenge: Ryan Garcia dazzles!

The boxing challenge for this week saw four fights filled with interesting, if predictable results.

Friday night in Anaheim, California saw Ryan Garcia deliver an impressive first-round knockout of former world title challenger Francisco Fonseca.
Garcia blasted Fonseca with one counter left hook that sent Fonseca to the floor and when Fonseca's head thumped off the mat, the fight was immediately stopped.
Ryan Garcia has now stopped his two toughest opponents in the first round and is beginning to convert some non-believers.
Garcia will be tested in the future, but even the most fervent skeptic has to be impressed with his last two wins.

And that test might come in Ryan Garcia's next fight against former three-division champion Jorge Linares, who might have been the most impressive winner of the weekend had Garcia not been so explosive, as Linares stopped Carlos Morales in the fourth round.
Morales had lost a very competitive majority decision to Garcia last year, but was confounded by the attack of the always-smooth Linares, who dropped Morales in the third before completing the task in the fourth.
Garcia-Linares is a fight that I am excited about and could go either way.
I can see Linares and his elite skills baffling Garcia and teaching the young prospect a few tricks and winning, but I can also see that happening and the paper-mache' jaw of Linares (Linares has lost five times by stoppage) gives out for a Garcia win.
Garcia-Linares should be a good one.

And then there's PBC on Fox with another "Ahem" thrilling Caleb Plant domination of a no-hoper to defend his IBF super-middleweight title, this time with a tenth round knockout of mandatory contender Vincent Feigenbutz in Plant's hometown of Nashville.
Plant dominated the lumbering German, won every round on my card and was rarely hit in return.
Plant is very skilled and could be a handful for anyone at 168, but still has only one win over anyone in the top 25 and for his talk of wanting to "face anyone", hasn't seemed remotely interested in actually fighting them.

The co-main was nothing special until the final half-minute as welterweight Bryant Perrella built a huge lead on the scorecards until he was floored by a vicious uppercut by Abel Ramos.
Perrella barely rose and soon was sent to the canvas again, but a badly hurt Perrella got up by referee Jack Reiss called off the fight with one second to go in the fight.
Perrella was in very bad shape and usually, I wouldn't have had an issue with the stoppage as the fighter wasn't likely to stand up under more punishment.
However with one second to go, Ramos wasn't going to land any punches, Perrella was going to win the fight on the scorecards and it seemed a bit unfair to me.
I'm not buying the referee shouldn't hold that into account either, the ten-second thump on the mat is used for a reason, which is why I think it was a bad call.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and each scored five points on the week.
I lead the challenge 29-25.


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