Saturday, May 1, 2021

Boxing Challenge

The boxing Saturday covers two continents, two important heavyweight fights, a world championship fight, and two others of interest including the latest ridiculous news from the always ridiculous WBA.

Matchroom and DAZN start in the afternoon from Manchester, England with a heavyweight contest that could be very entertaining.

Former WBO champion Joseph Parker continues on his comeback trail against veteran gatekeeper Dereck Chisora in what is essentially an eliminator without being sanctioned as one.

Chisora usually makes entertaining fights, and when he loses, he can often lose spectacularly and while Parker's fights are seldom entertaining, his decision loss to Dillian Whyte was a great fight because Whyte forced Parker to stand and fight.

Who had two excellent fights with Dillian Whyte? Dereck Chisora.

I have a feeling this could be a very big action fight with the winner moving on to another contender in the division.

The co-feature sees the return to the ring of WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol against journeyman Craig Richards.

Bivol hasn't fought since October 2019 with a less than exciting win over Gilbert Castillo, and this is hoped to be a tune-up fight for Bivol, who may fight former super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez in his next fight.

Richards is 16-1, but hasn't fought anyone near the top ten and isn't expected to give Bivol much of a test, although Bivol's power is starting to be questioned after four decision wins in a row, so the tag for this fight could be about Bivol's power.

In the evening, Fox will have a preliminary card before a pay-per-view that really shouldn't be one.

The PPV could have an entertaining brawl between Mexican heavyweights Andy Ruiz and Chris Arreola.

Ruiz fights for the first time since dropping his three titles back to Anthony Joshua and is supposedly in shape after joining trainer Eddy Reynoso.

You hear that often through the careers of fighters that are out of shape, so I'm dubious but Reynoso isn't known as a coddling trainer so perhaps Ruiz is ready to go.

If Ruiz is ready, his fight with 40-year-old Chris Arreola could be fun to watch with punches exchanged often.

Arreola was often described in similar manners to Ruiz during his prime, but he has been in better shape in recent years and he set a record for punches thrown by a heavyweight in his last fight- a 2019 decision loss to Adam Kownacki, so this could be a good fight- for as long as it lasts.

The undercard on the PPV isn't much, but former WBC lightweight champion Omar Figueroa faces Abel Ramos in what could be the last run for Figueroa, who once showed so promise as a future star but for various reasons never fulfilled his potential.

Figueroa lost for the first time in 2019 to current WBA welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas in a fight that he barely won a round and looks to be far too small against the best welterweights, but unable or unwilling to cut to 135 or 140 which would be the best weight for him.

Ramos lost a split decision to Ugas in his last fight, but the scorecard for Ramos was one of the worst in recent years and his only big win was the final round stoppage of Bryant Perrella with only seconds remaining.

The win over Perrella looks better after Perrella's recent draw against Tony Harrison, which I thought Perrella won close, and this again could be an action fight if Figueroa is in shape.

The final challenge fight isn't from the PPV, it is from the Fox preview show with former WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara moving up to middleweight for one of the WBA's ridiculous minor titles.

It's not only that Lara is in a "title" fight in his first fight at the weight, or that he looked disinterested in his last win over Greg Vendetti, it's his opponent Thomas LaManna.

LaManna like Vendetti isn't a fighter of this level and the only question in this one is-  Will Lara care enough to stop his opponent or like against Vendetti, be more than happy to drag fans through twelve rounds of "action".

LaManna has lost to both fighters that he's faced that are even fringe contenders (Dusty Hernandez-Harrison and Jorge Cota) and is undeserving of facing Lara period-let alone for a 'title' as worthless as that title.

Keep in mind that his five-round knockout loss to Jorge Cota was against a fighter used to build other fighters at the contender level, hence Cota's early KO losses to Jermell Charlo (in 3) and Erickson Lubin (in 4) and Cota being fed to promising Sebastian Fundora on this PPV card in a bout that I didn't even place on the challenge.

Yet Cota stopped LaManna, LaManna has lost two of his last four and has never fought at middleweight, yet he is on national television for a "title" from a sanctioning body.

LaManna's last two wins are over fighters with 30-26 and 22-14 records and even against a 38-year-old and aging Lara, he seems sadly out of his league- PBC and the WBA should be ashamed.

In the boxing challenge, I lead Ramon Malpica 54-52.

Heavyweights. 12 Rds 
Joseph Parker vs Dereck Chisora
Both: Parker Unanimous Decision

WBA Light Heavyweight Title. 12 Rds
Dmitry Bivol vs Craig Richards
R.L: Bivol KO 7
TRS: Bivol KO 5

Heavyweights. 12 Rds
Andy Ruiz vs Chris Arreola
R.L: Ruiz KO 10
TRS: Ruiz KO 6

Welterweights 12 Rds
Omar Figueroa vs Abel Ramos
Both: Figueroa Unanimous Decision

Middleweights 12 Rds
Erislandy Lara vs Thomas LaManna
R.L: Lara Unanimous Decision
TRS: Lara KO 9

No comments: