Put aside the four knockdowns (rounds three, five, and two in round 12) and this was an even fight.
In fact, if you used the old-school rounds system, where a close round won had equal weight on the cards as a round won with knockdowns, the fight would have been even on my card at six rounds apiece.
The fifth-round knockdown was clearly a poor call as Quigley stumbled to the floor and the third-round knockdown was fairly scored but Quigley suffered a flash knockdown rather than being hurt by Berlanga.
Still, you had to like Berlanga's final round where he showed the offensive style that made him such a hot prospect and the fire to try for a knockout but he couldn't take Quigley out, who had been knocked out in both his losses (Demetrius Andrade, Tureano Johnson) neither by fighters noted for their pop.
Berlanga won on scores that were bigger than I thought Quigley deserved at 118-106, and 116-108 times two, with my score for Berlanga at 114-109.
Quigley's grit served him well and he fought as well as he can fight, so he likely earned himself some more fights in the future against higher-profile opponents.
As for Berlanga, who signed with Matchroom with the thinking that would be the fastest path to a fight vs Canelo Alvarez, who then moved to PBC, Eddie Hearn has been talking up the prospect of Berlanga against Jaime Munguia, which would be a strong action battle and seemingly easy to make with both fighters affiliated with DAZN but Hearn and Munguia's promoter Oscar De La Hoya aren't exactly pals and unless the network extends the pressure on both companies to make the fight, it could be more difficult to put together than one would think.
The day started with a rematch of the New Year's Eve junior bantamweight unification draw between WBA champion Joshua Franco and then-WBO leader Kazuto Ioka from Tokyo, Japan.
Since then, Ioka vacated the WBO version in order to take the rematch against Franco rather than defend against his WBO mandatory, the dangerous puncher Junto Nakatani, and with the fight only with the WBA title at stake, Franco blew the weigh-in and lost the title on the scales.
Should Ioka win, he would claim the WBA title.
A Franco win or draw would result in the WBA title becoming vacant.
Most (including me) thought that Franco deserved the decision in their first fight and favored him in the rematch- Until Franco failed on weight.
Then you just had the feeling that Ioka might be more motivated and better prepared- to the point that Ioka became the favorite and he deserved to be as Ioka generally controlled the fight in winning a unanimous decision.
Scores read at 116-112 times two (mine as well) and 115-113 for Ioka, who cut Franco badly along the right eye in the fifth round after being cut Franco's effectiveness dropped off a bit although he did continue to try to reach Ioka but was unable to miss the Ioka uppercut that scored constantly.
Ioka could now pursue Junto Nakatani in what would again be a WBA-WBO unification match and more lucrative now for both boxers.
As for Franco, he announced his retirement after the loss, citing mental health issues.
While I don't want to question anyone's mental suffering as how would I know what anyone is truly going through, I do have concerns about more and more boxers discussing mental health issues.
Ryan Garcia, Jermall Charlo, Adrien Broner, and now Franco have talked about their issues and the two consistent themes have been fighter inactivity and problems with making weight.
What I wonder is- are fighters beginning to use mental health as an excuse for losing fights (in the ring or the scales) or does boxing's culture have a problem that has always existed but is only now beginning to find the light?
I hope it is the latter and not the former.
Mental health is a serious issue and hopefully doesn't become a standard excuse for fighters that are disappointed with their ring performance.
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