In Manchester, England, former WBO champion Joseph Parker was knocked down in the opening seconds and fell far behind on the scorecards against Dereck Chisora before rallying in the second half of the fight to grab a split decision.
Chisora was more aggressive and banked most of the first half of the fight, but tired badly as the bout continued with visible gasps for air in the corner between rounds.
Parker turned the tide against the weary Chisora in the second half of the fight, but on my card, it was decided by the knockdown in the opening round, 114-113 for Chisora.
Two judges scored it 115-113 for each fighter, which was very fair, and then the decisive score of 117-111 for Parker was ridiculous.
Parker is rated in the top six by the WBC, IBF, and WBO, so he'll likely have an eliminator soon, but the opponent is unknown as the fighters above him are with other promoters except for Oleksandr Usyk, who would be unlikely to take such a fight.
As for Dereck Chisora, it was yet another close fight that didn't quite go his way, but a strong effort that will earn him another paycheck against another contender.
On the other heavyweight fight, I wasn't surprised that Andy Ruiz and Chris Arreola put on an excellent fight, I was surprised that it went the twelve-round distance with Ruiz winning a unanimous decision.
Arreola knocked Ruiz down in the second round and won some early rounds, but Ruiz kept grinding and when Arreola courageously battled through a shoulder injury, he was meat on the platter for Ruiz, who swept the final rounds for the victory.
I scored Ruiz a 116-111 winner and though Arreola had his moments in an entertaining battle, Ruiz was the clear winner.
Ruiz is ranked in the top five by three of the four organizations and even though his PBC affiliation hinders him from title chances against Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury, there are interesting fights for him against Deontay Wilder or Luis Ortiz at the top of the food chain or Adam Kownacki or Robert Helenius below him.
Any of those names would make entertaining brawls against Ruiz and a win over a Wilder or Ortiz would zoom him to the top of the contender list.
On the Parker-Chisora undercard, WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol won an unimpressive unanimous decision over a surprising Craig "Spider" Richards.
Richards had fought no one of Bivol's caliber, but tried throughout and landed occasional right hands which is more than I expected of him, but Bivol never tried to step up the pace and was content to take a closer than expected decision with two scores of 115-114 and 115-113, which were too close in my opinion.
I scored Bivol a 117-111 winner with Richards winning the final three rounds while Bivol was on cruise control, but Bivol, who was once thought of as a possible future superstar, continues to be content to win less than thrilling decisions that drive away fans.
Bivol is expected to face former WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez next in a fight that Bivol will need to perform far better than he has of late.
On the Ruiz-Arreola card from Carson California, former WBC lightweight champion Omar Figueroa was beaten up for six rounds by fringe contender Abel Ramos and then had the fight stopped in the corner in what has been reported as an uncompetitive fight.
I haven't seen this yet, but it sounds like the once-promising Figueroa may be headed for retirement.
On the Fox version of the undercard, Erislandy Lara knocked out undeserving Thomas LaManna with one punch in the first round to win one of the WBA's gumball machine belts, this one in the middleweight division.
I rambled about the wretched WBA in previewing this bout, so I'll save my breath now rather than ranting further about a mismatch that was clear before the contract was signed.
In the boxing challenge, I scored five points to Ramon Malpica's four and lead the challenge 59-56.
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