Boxing Challenge

   It's been a difficult week with Blogger here at TRS and the frustrations mount, but I'm hoping that I have a fix to make things smoother.

Please hope that becomes the case!

It's a huge week in the boxing challenge with EIGHT fights to watch and all of them are either title bouts or fights with championship contenders involved...

The day starts in the afternoon with two fights from Europe with massive implications.

DAZN will be showing the long-delayed finals of the cruiserweight division of the World Boxing Super Series between Yunier Dorticos and Mairis Breidis from Germany.

The IBF title held by Dorticos is on the line also and this is a fight between the top two fighters in the division.

Briedis gave up the WBO title after a controversial win over Krzysztof Glowacki in the semi-finals that was terribly officiated and rather than a Glowacki rematch, Breidis chose the bigger money for the WBSS finals and a Dorticos showdown.

The huge punching Dorticos knocked out Andrew Tabiti on the same card with one punch in round ten to punch his ticket to the finals.

Both fighters fought in the first WBSS cruiser tournament and were eliminated in the semi-finals with Dorticos being knocked out in the final round of a great fight with Murat Gassiev and Briedis giving Oleksandr Usyk his toughest fight as a pro with Usyk winning a majority decision that I scored a draw.

I'm very excited about this fight as a true toss of the coin battle.

ESPN+ will be live from London with arguably the best junior welterweight in the world as WBA and IBF champion Josh Taylor defends those titles against IBF mandatory contender Apinun Khongsong.

I know nothing about Khongsong other than he's an undefeated fighter from Thailand, but I do know Taylor and unless Khongsong is an undiscovered diamond, this should be a Taylor rout.

Should Taylor win as expected, his next fight should be a unification for the four championships in the division against WBC and WBO titleholder Jose Ramirez.

Showtime has put together a huge pay per view with six fights for the boxing challenge.

All of them are reasonably competitive, even if there are some clear favorites and the card is broken up into two pieces with a 30-minute intermission for a unique touch.

The main events involve both Charlo brothers with their titles on the line along with two others in a unification bout.

Jermall Charlo defends his WBC middleweight title against Sergiy Derevyanchenko in what is Charlo's first true test at the weight despite being essentially handed the title when Canelo Alvarez was promoted to the ridiculous franchise champion designation.

While Charlo's competition has been as dazzling as a sparkler outside at noon, Derevyanchenko is entering the fight after his narrow loss to Gennady Golovkin and will be the best fighter that Charlo has faced at 160 pounds.

The Golovkin fight might have been 2019's fight of the year, but who knows how much that brutal battle took out of Derevyanchenko, who has lost two close fights to Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs with early flash knockdowns suffered by Derevyanchenko costing him badly in each loss, so Charlo could score an early knockdown that could be very big in the scoring.

This is a pick-em fight, but I lean Charlo very close.

Charlo will bank too many of the early rounds, Derevyanchenko will make his standard rally, but it will fall just short to win the decision.

Jermell Charlo will place his WBC junior middleweight championship against the WBA and IBF titles held by Jeison Rosario in a unification fight that will see the winner holding three of the four championships and will clearly be the top fighter in the division.

Charlo regained his title from Tony Harrison after losing a controversial decision in their first fight, to come from behind (on my card anyway) to knock Harrison out in the eleventh round.

Rosario shocked the boxing world to take the WBA and IBF titles from Julian Williams when Rosario stopped the heavily favored Williams in five rounds to ruin the planned Charlo-Williams unification fight, which would have had a built-in storyline with Williams only previous loss occurring against Jermall Charlo.

Give PBC credit for making this one ASAP rather than their usual M.O. of a squash match in between and this could be a very fun fight.

Rosario is a big puncher and Charlo hasn't faced a puncher before (other than Erickson Lubin, who went out before he had a chance to land), so Rosario is a live underdog in this one.

Still, I have to give Charlo the edge unless Rosario can land a big punch.

The exciting and controversial Luis Nery will face Aaron Alameda for the vacant WBC junior featherweight title, which became vacant when champion Rey Vargas broke his leg.

The WBC has named Vargas a "Champion in Recess" which basically means when Vargas is healthy he will get a title shot when he requests one.

Nery's power and skills rank with the best in the game, but he's missed weight on a few occasions and has been popped for PED's, so there is baggage that comes with Nery.

Still, Nery made weight for this one, which is bad news for Alameda, and his 27-9 record indicates that he's going to be a heavy underdog.

Alameda has never been stopped though and the main point of interest here is this- can Nery knock out a durable opponent?

John Riel Casimero defends his WBO bantamweight title against undefeated Duke Micah of Ghana.

Casimero knocked out Zolani Tete in three rounds to win the WBO title last November and was scheduled to face WBA champion Naoya Inoue in what would have been a unification fight, but the pandemic canceled that one and left him in need of a fight.

Micah hasn't beaten anyone of note, but rugged underdogs from Ghana have done well in similar positions in the past, so don't count out Micah in this one.

Brandon Figueroa defends one of those meaningless WBA titles in the junior featherweight division against Damien Vasquez.

Figueroa last fought in November, battling to a draw with tough veteran Julio Ceja that I scored for Ceja but Ceja missed weight by four pounds and was allowed to fight after donating a portion of his purse.

The draw was an excellent fight and considering Ceja's advantages, it's hard for me to dock Figueroa for that effort.

Vasquez has only one loss and one draw, but in his last two fights drew with Josue Morales, a fighter with a record of 9-10, and holds a win over a fighter with a record of 24-43-3, so he appears to be overmatched in the most lopsided fight of the evening.

Former WBA and IBF junior featherweight champion Daniel Roman makes his PBC debut in his first fight since losing those titles to Murodjon Akhmadaliev via a close split decision.

I scored that fight a draw and the fight really could have been given to either fighter.

Former WBA bantamweight champion Juan Carlos Payano moves up to face Roman after losing by knockout to two of the best in the world in his last three fights with a first-round KO loss to Naoya Inoue in the World Boxing Super Series and a ninth-round stoppage defeat to Luis Nery.

Payano handed the above-mentioned Damian Vasquez his first loss in between the two losses in January, so Payano may not be completely through and Roman isn't remotely in the same league as Inoue or Nery as a puncher, so Payano might be a bit competitive, but Roman seems a class above.

In the boxing challenge, I lead Ramon Malpica 114-106.

IBF Cruiserweight Title/World Boxing Super Series Final. 12 Rds

Yunier Dorticos vs Mairis Breidis

R.L: Briedis KO 8

TRS: Briedis Unanimous Decision

WBA/IBF Junior Welterweight Titles. 12 Rds

Josh Taylor vs Apinun Khongsong

R.L: Taylor KO 7

TRS: Taylor KO 5

WBC Middleweight Title. 12 Rds

Jermall Charlo vs Sergiy Derevyanchenko

Both: Charlo Unanimous Decision

Unification WBA/IBF-WBC Junior Middleweight Titles. 12 Rds

Jermell Charlo vs Jeison Rosario

R.L: Rosario KO 9

TRS: Charlo KO 10

Vacant WBC Junior Featherweight Title. 12 Rds

Luis Nery vs Aaron Alameda

R.L: Nery Unanimous Decision

TRS: Nery KO 9

WBO Bantamweight Title. 12 Rds

John Riel Casimero vs Duke Micah

R.L: Micah KO 10

TRS: Casimero Unanimous Decision

Junior Featherweights. 12 Rds

Brandon Figueroa vs Damien Vasquez

R.L: Figueroa KO 8

TRS: Figueroa KO 10

Junior Featherweights 12 Rds

Daniel Roman vs Juan Carlos Payano

Both: Roman Unanimous Decision