The answer to that query was yes as Artur Beterbiev retained his WBC, IBF, and WBO light heavyweight titles via eighth-round TKO over a dead game Anthony Yarde in London.
The bout would see each fighter land booming shots against the other for seven hard-fought rounds and the scorecards were divergent with scores that ranged from Beterbiev up by several rounds to cards that had Yarde ahead by a similar amount.
Two judges had Yarde in the lead after seven rounds at 68-65 and 67-66 with the dissenting judge scoring Beterbiev as the leader at 67-66 which is the same score as mine.
Yarde had success from the outside and when he would attack at times as well but he seemed to lose some energy after the first few rounds in which he seemed to be fighting with nervousness and that would take its toll as the fight progressed.
Each fighter would cut the other around the eye in the sixth round with Beterbiev's cut along his left eyelid with Yarde's located just under his right eye.
Beterbiev hammered Yarde with a right hand and then dropped him with a follow-up right that sent him to the mat on his hands and knees.
Yarde beat the count but when the best finisher in boxing is charging you there is little that one can do after eating two more rights, the Yarde corner climbed the steps and signaled to referee Steve Gray for an honorable surrender for their fighter, who gained much in defeat with a valiant effort.
For Beterbiev, he is hoping for a unification for the only title that he doesn't own against WBA champion Dmitry Bivol but that will be difficult as Beterbiev's promoter Bob Arum has stated that a Beterbiev-Bivol affair must take place on his network-ESPN.
Bivol has other options, such as a lucrative rematch with Canelo Alvarez which would be a higher purse and lesser risk since Bivol has already defeated Alvarez.
Should such a match not occur, Beterbiev will likely have a mandatory from the WBC for former WBA and WBC super middleweight Callum Smith to deal with, which is another interesting fight that may not be a lot different than the usual Beterbiev battle.
In the co-feature, Artem Dalakian retained his WBA flyweight title via a controversial unanimous decision over his mandatory challenger, minor beltholder David Jimenez.
Dalakian didn't fight with his usual fervor and Jimenez's aggressiveness did seem to carry the day on my card, which was 115-113 for Jimenez.
The official scores were 116-112 and two scores of 115-113 for the champion and even though I thought Jimenez won a close fight, I didn't think it was a robbery.
That differed from ESPN's Andre Ward and Tim Bradley, both of whom ranted after the fight about the problems and injustices from bad scoring etc that affect careers etc, which I thought was rich when you consider that each of the biggest victories in their own careers (Bradley over Manny Pacquiao and Ward over Sergey Kovalev in their first fight) were almost universally condemned for their awful scoring.
It was a close fight that I thought Jimenez deserved but wasn't a decision to spend time complaining about.
In the evening from Inglewood, California, welterweight contender Alexis Rocha steamrolled late replacement George Ashie and finished him with a spectacular knockout in the seventh round.
Rocha knocked Ashie down late in the third round and the bell might have saved Ashie from a stoppage then and there, which may have been better for Ashie's health than continuing to take punches for the Ghana native.
Rocha could face WBO champion Terence Crawford next as Crawford was in the Golden Boy offices earlier Saturday and with a dearth of contenders that aren't affiliated with PBC and Rocha rated third by the WBO, I could say there are worse fighters for Crawford to stay busy against.
Still, I don't see Rocha having much of a chance against Crawford and I'm not very excited about the fight other than keeping Crawford in action, which is never a bad thing for boxing.
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