We start with the biggest show of the weekend and the performance of the weekend, as Shakur Stevenson ended Teofimo Lopez's reign as the WBO junior welterweight champion with a unanimous decision victory in New York City.
Lopez had struggled against mobile boxers like Sandor Martin and Jamaine Ortiz, and with Stevenson's movement, it was natural to think Lopez would struggle against Stevenson.
Instead, Stevenson stood in front of Lopez and still made himself unable to be hit in a performance so dominant that Lopez appeared to be on a different level.
Stevenson won on all three cards (and mine) at 119-109 and now will have to choose between keeping his WBC lightweight title, WBO junior welterweight title, or even moving to welterweight for a potential bout with Conor Benn, whom Stevenson invited into the ring after the fight.
As for Lopez, I'm not sure he has the strength or the power at welterweight, but the division isn't strong at the moment, so it's possible he could succeed.
In the co-feature, Keyshawn Davis returned as a junior welterweight, knocking out Jamaine Ortiz in the twelfth round.
Davis dropped Ortiz in the eleventh round and finished him in the final stanza.
Ortiz had lost close decisions to Vasyl Lomachenko and Teofimo Lopez and was expected to test Davis, which didn't happen with the best performance of Davis's career.
Davis called out Devin Haney for a fight this year, and that would be interesting.
The best fight of the night was Bruce Carrington winning the vacant WBC featherweight title with a sudden ninth-round knockout of Carlos Castro.
Castro gave Carrington all that he wanted and had the favorite wobbled in one instant, but Carrington was leading on my card 77-75 at the end, and the fight was swinging his way before the knockout.
Heavyweight Jarrell Miller won a split decision over Kingsley Ibeh in a match that will be remembered by most for Miller losing his hairpiece during the fight and fighting the rest of it with a ring of glue around his head for the remainder of the match.
Boxing Challenge
No comments:
Post a Comment