Monday, July 14, 2025

Boxing Challenge: Sheeraz bursts Berlanga, Stevenson shines vs Zepeda

     Riyadh Season's first card in the New York market (Times Square) may have been a massive disappointment, but their second, held in the Louis Armstrong Tennis Center (home of the U.S.Open), was filled with exciting fights without a bad one in the bunch.

In the main event, Hamzah Sheeraz ended the carefully managed contention of Edgar Berlanga with a vicious fifth-round knockout.

Sheeraz dropped Berlanga twice in the fourth round, and Berlanga was lucky to survive. Sheeraz then drove a stunned Berlanga into the ropes seconds into the fifth round, forcing the end of the fight.

Despite being the first fight in the super middleweight division for Sheeraz, he looked bigger and stronger than Berlanga, who showed heart in getting up from the knockdowns but was overmatched and now faces several questions about his viability as a future contender.

Sheeraz could face Canelo Alvarez next (should Alvarez defeat Terence Crawford) as Sheeraz and Chris Eubank Jr appear to be next in line for a Canelo challenge.

In the co-main event (which I differ with), Shakur Stevenson not only retained his WBC lightweight title via unanimous decision over the difficult challenge of William Zepeda, but he also won in an entertaining fashion, which had turned off many fans in recent months.

Stevenson outboxed Zepeda, but he did so skillfully and didn't move around the ring, preferring to counter the aggressive Zepeda.

I had the fight even after eight rounds, but Stevenson dominated the final four rounds of the fight, winning them all to win 116-112 on my card.

The official scores were far too wide for my tastes (119-109 and 118-108 times two), were unkind to Zepeda, and didn't fairly represent the fight.

Stevenson spoke of a potential move to junior welterweight after his win but he could stay at lightweight for fights against any of Lamont Roach (his fall rematch with WBA champion Gervonta Davis appears in jeopardy after another Davis legal problem), IBF champion Raymond Muratalla or in the least likely option to happen, the winner of the vacant WBO title fight between Abdullah Mason and Sam Noakes.

Zepeda lost nothing in defeat and remains a very viable challenge for anyone in the lightweight division.

Subriel Matias won the WBC junior welterweight title with a majority decision victory over Alberto Puello.

The fight was well-paced from the start, with Matias walking down Puello, who boxed but didn't run from the stronger fighter.

Neither fighter seriously hurt the other, and the fight has been dubbed "controversial" by online pundits.

I scored it 115-113 for Matias, which agreed with two of the judges, with the other scoring a draw at 114-114.

Matias will face the WBC's top contender Dalton Smith in the fall, with the two meeting in the ring after the win.

Puello will reportedly face the winner of that fight after losing this one by such a small margin.

I could have been fine with either Matias or Puello winning their decision, as I thought the more controversial decision was the card opener with David Morrell winning a split decision over former Olympic bronze medalist Imam Khataev.

Khataev was the more aggressive fighter and landed the harder shots throughout the fight.

Khataev dropped Morrell late in the fifth round, and while Morrell wasn't seriously hurt, it capped off the scorecard for me, as I had Khataev a 96-93 winner.

The official scores were 96-93 and 95-94 for Morrell and 95-94 for Khataev.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 107 Pts (4)
Ramon Malpica: 97 Pts (4)
Vince Samano: 44 Pts (4)






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