Posts on those coming soon.
The violence in the two main events on Saturday won't be forgotten any time shortly as the two offered the type of actions that boxing fans crave and non-boxing fans can see what our sport is all about.
The biggest fight came from Las Vegas where on a Golden Boy?DAZN card, Vergil Ortiz survived a huge test from Serhii Bohachuk to win a close and somewhat controversial majority decision to win a minor junior middleweight title.
The win could give Ortiz a chance at Terence Crawford's WBO junior middleweight title in what would be a terrific pairing of two former welterweight standouts but let's not move too quickly past his savage battle vs Serhii Bohachuk.
Ortiz was the slightly more aggressive boxer and landed a few more punches but Bohachuk threw more and dictated the pace of the fight a little more in my opinion.
Ortiz's punches had a little more power but it was Bohachuk who scored knockdowns in the first and eighth rounds.
Neither punch hurt Ortiz badly and the first-round knockdown was initially scored a slip before being overturned at the beginning of round five after replay analysis that is used in Nevada.
Ortiz rallied strong in the eighth after the knockdown and on my card, his work was able to salvage losing the round 10-9 rather than the standard 10-8 in a round involving a knockdown, and he hurt Bohachuk in each of the final two rounds but was unable to drop Bohachuk.
Ortiz won the majority decision by scores of 114-112 times two and the other 113-113.
I scored the fight for Bohachuk 114-113 but I wouldn't say that I have a problem with Ortiz gaining the victory.
This battle would be my choice for fight of the year thus far and while Bohachuk deserves a rematch, I can't blame Ortiz for taking a Terence Crawford fight if offered.
Ortiz's style is exciting but he takes punishment and he could get beaten before a huge fight, so it's good business for him to cash in.
For Bohachuk, he remains a force at 154 pounds and deserves a fight against another of the division's elite as he lost little in his losing effort.
The evening's other fight may not have featured quite as much action as Ortiz-Bohachuk but the IBF featherweight title battle from Albuquerque New Mexico did have one thing they lacked- A spectacular ending that may win knockout of the year.
Angelo Leo would battle evenly with champion Luis Alberto Lopez into the tenth round with the fight hanging in the balance (I had Lopez ahead 86-85 after nine rounds but Leo ahead by the same score is very plausible).
Leo did the better work on the inside and Lopez with his Naseem Hamed-like swipes did the damage from the outside and both fighters swapped the momentum throughout the fight.
Then suddenly and conclusively the fight ended as Lopez lobbed a jab like a Bill Lee folly-floater that Leo slipped and slammed home a left hook that dropped Lopez to his back like the Road Warriors throwing pumpkins off a scaffold (I'm done with analogies now), hitting his head on the floor and even though Ernie Sharif (referee) didn't need to count, he did anyway.
Leo now holds his second world title (he held the WBO junior featherweight title briefly) and has a few options- a title unification against the winner of the WBO title rematch between Rafael Espinoza and Robiesy Ramirez, a rematch against Lopez, or possibly as the first title adversary for the talented prospect Bruce Carrington.
As for Lopez, he always makes fun fights and his name will keep him involved in the title picture for a while but he will be rebuilding himself for a bit as he'll have to prove he hasn't lost his punch resistance after such a devastating defeat.
No matter who you rooted for, there is no denying that this was one awesome evening of boxing.
Boxing Challenge;
TRS: 100 Pts (1)
Vince Samano: 55 Pts (0)
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