Now, boxing is truly back.
Starting in the afternoon in London, former junior featherweight and featherweight champion Carl Frampton returned as a junior lightweight and dominated Darren Traynor throughout the fight before dropping him with a body punch in the seventh round that left Traynor quickly offering his surrender.
Traynor was a late replacement and he was fairly effective at times from long range early in the fight, but as Frampton picked up the pace it was clear that the talent difference between the two was going to be too large to overcome for Traynor.
Frampton put Traynor on the floor with a body blow late in the sixth round and Traynor barely continued to the end of the round as the stage for the completion of the fight was set.
Frampton is expected to fight the winner of the WBO championship fight between Jamel Herring and Jonathan Oquendo later this fall.
Michael Conlan lost two points due to low blows, but he won just about everything else in his fight with Sofiane Takoucht and stopped Takoucht in the tenth and final round.
Conlan, who announced his decision to drop in weight from 126 pounds to 122, dominated Takoucht throughout and it didn't take long for the storyline to become this- could Conlan stop Takoucht before the low blows took him out of the fight?
Conlan will likely face the winner of the mandated WBO junior featherweight title defense of newly crowned Angelo Leo against Stephen Fulton in a bout that was delayed by Fulton's positive test for Covid-19
Leo, an aggressive fighter without a lot of power, might be perfect for Conlan as Leo walks forward into Conlan's power punches.
Fulton may be a different case as the flashy Philadelphian might keep Conlan a step behind throughout that test as Conlan might have trouble with Fulton's speed.
Either would be an interesting and possibly entertaining fight, so be on the lookout for that one early in 2021.
Showtime's evening card from their enclosed environment would have been a card that would have easily been forgotten, if not for one of those pesky Hamburglar appearances in the middle of the three matches.
In the main event, a very nice sparring session was held as David Benavidez battered Roamer Alexis Angulo around the ring for ten rounds before the corner of Angulo decided that their fighter had enough for one day.
Benavidez missed weight and the WBC super-middleweight title will be vacated.
Benavidez landed what he wished, was able to get away with dropping his hands throughout without being concerned by any punches from Angulo, and offered ten rounds of a high-level sparring session.
Benavidez has the body frame of a light heavyweight and would be best suited to move up, but while PBC has plenty of options at super middleweight, it is Top Rank that controls most of the top light heavyweights, so Benavidez may decide to stay at 168 and hope that this missed weight was an aberration that can be excused by the downtime caused by the pandemic.
Still, Benavidez has now lost the same title twice without losing in the ring ( a failed drug test caused his first title stripping) and you have to wonder how responsible the still-only 23-year-old is going to be about making weight.
No word on who will fill the vacant title other than one will likely be mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim and knowing the WBC, do not be surprised to see David Benavidez in the other corner.
The co-feature looked to have the potential to create a new star in power-punching lightweight Rolando Romero from Floyd Mayweather's money team and I stated in the preview that Romero could be the star of the evening.
Instead, undefeated and virtually unknown Columbian Jackson Marinez outboxed Romero and appeared to have won one of those "valuable" WBA minor titles that are often given away like promotional bobbleheads at baseball games, back when they played those in front of real customers.
The fight was far from thrilling, as it boiled down to Marinez landing loads of jabs and enough right hands to keep Romero honest and Romero swinging and missing like Aaron Judge in attempts for a knockout, but the verdict seemed pretty clear-cut to everyone watching.
And (cue the Ray Stevens music) then. AND THEN Along came the Hamburglar with a unanimous decision win for Romero with scores of 115-113 (maybe a passable scorecard, IF you give every close round to Romero), 116-112 (Awful), and a jaw-dropping 118-110, which ranks with one of the worst cards in quite a while.
I scored the fight 116-112 for Marinez and that may have been mildly generous on my part.
The decision and especially the 118-110 scorecard was so awful that PBC and Money Team guys were tweeting how bad it was and busting Romero's gloves about the ridiculous decision.
Boxing people often blame a crowd for bad decisions when the cheering can influence judges, but I can't offer one reasonable explanation for this.
The WBA has stated that they will order a rematch, but from what I saw Saturday night Rollie Romero has a big punch but needs many rounds to sand his rough edges away, and having a "title" to defend and fighting twelve round fights is way beyond what he is prepared for right now.
Romero has talent, but he might be pushed far too quickly in a loaded lightweight division.
As for Marinez, he deserved a win but didn't show anything special, so he could return to obscurity should a rematch not be arranged.
That's too bad and yet another reason that boxing can suck.
The opener was about what I expected as Otto Wallin won all four rounds against Travis Kauffman, and then won by fifth-round stoppage when a shoulder injury to Kauffman caused the fight to be stopped.
Kauffman had surgery on the shoulder after his 2018 loss to Luis Ortiz and re-injured it in round one.
Kauffman announced his retirement after the fight, while Wallin's win is the biggest of his career.
Wallin's competition had been very weak before his credible loss to Tyson Fury, so this win over the veteran journeyman is the biggest of his career.
Wallin's a solid heavyweight that may not be championship timber, but he can slot in the lower half of the top fifteen consistently and won't embarrass himself against the elite of the division.
In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored eight points on the day to move our totals to 89-79.
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