Saturday night from Las Vegas, Top Rank, and ESPN+ offered the first championship defense of the so-called "Boogieman" Janibek Alimkhanuly's WBO middleweight title that he was promoted to after Demetrius Andrade vacated the championship to move to 168 pounds rather than face Alimkhanuly.
Alimkhanuly retained his title by unanimous decision over unheralded Briton Denzel Bentley but he looked far from a champion that anyone is avoiding in defeating Bentley, who had been knocked out in three rounds by the best fighter that he had faced in Felix Cash.
Alimkhanuly won handily (116-112 x 2 and 118-110, which seemed a bit harsh to Bentley) with my score of 116-112 giving Bentley a few of the middle rounds when he took advantage of Alimkhanuly's taking a few rounds off.
Bentley put up a good performance in a fight that he was brought in to make Alimkhanuly look spectacular but never was a serious threat to Alimkhanuly, who finished strongly and hurt Bentley in the final round.
Perhaps Alimkhanuly overlooked Bentley and took him lightly but after wins over former minor champions Hassem N'Dam and Rob Brant and a blowout win over another Brit in Danny Dignum. it was understandable to expect a better performance.
Alimkhanuly doesn't appear likely to have a unification fight in his future against WBA and IBF champion Gennady Golvokin (both are countrymen) or WBC titleholder Jermall Charlo (PBC) but Jaime Munguia (Golden Boy) can have the fight whenever he wishes.
However, Munguia's promoter has been reticent in Munguia accepting the opportunity against Andrade and I haven't seen signs that they are in any hurry for their man to fight anyone that will hold their hands up and fight back., which would eliminate Alimkhanuly as well.
One thing is certain, Alimhanuly's performance didn't scare anyone away- if there was anyone interested in fighting him to start with.
On Friday from Sheffield, England, Sunny Edwards held off the late-round comeback of former WBA and IBF light flyweight champion Felix Alvarado to win a close unanimous decision to retain his IBF flyweight title.
Edwards used his smooth boxing skills to frustrate the constantly in-motion Alvarado in winning most of the early and middle rounds to build a huge lead on the scorecards before he tired after the eighth round as the bodywork and aggression began to pay dividends for Alvarado as he swept through those rounds to hammer the tiring champion.
However, Alvarado's comeback wasn't enough to overcome the number of rounds that Edwards had earned earlier in the bout with Edwards winning by scores of 116-112 and 115-113 x 2 (same as my card).
Edwards had been calling for WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez in recent months but has changed his tune since Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez gave up his WBC junior bantamweight title to return to the flyweight division, where Rodriguez is preparing to face Cristian Gonzalez for the WBO 112 pound championship that was vacated by Junto Nakatani last month.
However, both Martinez and Rodriguez are promoted by Eddie Hearn and Matchroom, and Edwards along with his brother Charlie, a former flyweight king, have feuded with Hearn in the past.
Edwards is promoted by Probellum, which means that Edwards couldn't enter the United States for a fight due to the sanctions against Probellum's former benefactor Daniel Kinahan, and could make a difficult fight to sign even harder.
Boxing Challenge
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