Jai Opietaia won back the IBF cruiserweight title that was stupidly stripped from him and repeated his 2022 win over Mairis Breidis by unanimous decision.
The fight wasn't quite as good as their first fight in action but it was similar with both fighters marking up the other, Opietaia building a large lead, and staving off the late rush by Briedis, who hurt Opietaia twice in the final few rounds.
Opietaia won the decision at 117-11 and two scores of 116-112, which was a little wider than my score of 115-113 for Opietaia.
In the upset of the day, underdog Anthony Carace stopped Joe Cordina in the eighth round to win the IBF junior lightweight title.
The win wasn't without controversy as in the third round, the referee yelled "break" and Cordina stopped fighting.
Carace didn't, cracking Cordina with a right hand and would send him to the canvas later in the round.
The fight was all Carace after that round as Cordia could not bounce back from the knockdown.
The punch did take a little of the shine of the surprising win for Carace.
Heavyweight Agit Kabayel continues to cement his reputation as a heavyweight contender as Kabayel dominated previously unbeaten Frank Sanchez and took him out in the seventh round with a body shot.
The normally smooth-boxing Sanchez clearly had knee issues from the start of the fight made him a sitting duck for Kabayel, who pressured Sanchez into submission.
Sergey Kovalev is at the end of his career as he lost almost every round to the unheralded Robin Safar and was knocked down in the final round in spectacular fashion.
Give Kovalev credit for getting up and avoiding the knockout but he's finished as a fighter, so continuing to box will only make things worse.
Boxing Challenge
Ramon Malpica: 75 Pts (4)
TRS: 63 Pts (3)
Vince Samano: 41 Pts ( 7)
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