Boxing Challenge: Bam unifies, Showtime bids farewell

      The boxing weekend's biggest fight came from Matchroom/DAZN from Glendale, Arizona with Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez taking the IBF flyweight title from Sunny Edwards to add it to the WBO title that Rodriguez owned entering the fight.

Edwards made the fight more entertaining than was expected before the fight as he was willing to exchange shots with the stronger puncher but that was to the detriment of the Englishman, who is known for his boxing skills and not his punching power.

I thought Edwards held his own early and had the fight even after four rounds but Sunny's left eye had been compromised in the second round and would only get worse as the fight progressed.

Edwards announced after the fight that he had suffered an orbital fracture and considering the eye damage, Edwards deserves kudos for hanging in there against the power punches of Rodriguez.

Round six saw both men land well with Edwards surprising with his eagerness to swap in the middle of the ring but even with Edwards's success, Rodriguez still won the round and controlled the seventh and eighth.

Rodriguez battered Edwards in the ninth and dropped him near the ropes as the round neared its end.

Edwards got up and reached his corner but his team wisely ended the fight.

I had Rodriguez ahead at the time of the stoppage 87-84.

Rodriguez was mentioned for a big fight with junior bantamweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada, which could be an excellent action fight as well as a possible changing of the guard with the veteran Estrada attempting to make a final stand against the young tiger, Rodriguez.

In the co-feature, former WBA and IBF junior featherweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev knocked out Kevin Gonzalez in the eighth round to win a title eliminator that will eventually allow Akhmadaliev to fight for his old WBA title after Naoya Inoue vacates his 122-pound belts after his likely win next week over Marlon Tapales.

Gonzalez fought well early but Akhmadaliev broke down Gonzalez, dropped him twice in round six before knocking him down and finishing him off in the eighth.

Had Akhmadaliev fought like this against Marlon Tapales earlier this year, it would be Akhmadaliev that would be unifying titles with Naoya Inoye next week and in my opinion, would be a far more interesting challenge to Inoue than Tapales will be.

It was goodbye to Showtime on Saturday from Minneapolis with a three-fight card with a mismatch in the main event as David Morrell retained his minor title with a second-round drilling of Sena Agbeko in a super middleweight pairing.

Morrell was expected to dispatch Agebeko with ease and he did so, so there's not much else to say other than Morrell looks like the real deal but his competition has been less demanding than Morrell's talent deserves.

The problem is that Morrell looks to be one of the best three super middleweights in the world and in that world, the champion, Canelo Alvarez, doesn't seem thrilled with fighting the second-best, David Benavidez, and Benavidez doesn't seem intrigued with fighting Morrell.

Holding the minor WBA title will eventually put Morrell in a spot to challenge for a title, against Alvarez or a vacant belt but the big fights may elude Morrell for a while.

The super middleweight division has some talented young fighters but they are spread out among several promoters.

Christian Mbilli and Erik Bazinyan are based with Montreal's Eye of the Tiger, who works with Top Rank, Diego Pacheco, and Edgar Berlanga are with Matchroom, and Jaime Munguia is promoted by Golden Boy, so few if any have an incentive to try Morrell on for size.

I'd say the next step for Morrell could be Caleb Plant or Jermall Charlo, should Charlo not fight David Benavidez.

Plant may be the more likely choice, having suffered knockout losses to Alvarez and Benavidez but there is a grudge between Charlo and Plant outside the ring that may make a fight between them a better sale to fans.

In the co-feature, Jose Valenzuela didn't allow the judges to be involved in his rematch with Chris Colbert as Valenzuela knocked Colbert down in round one, and battered him throughout before a one-punch knockout ended the fight in the sixth round.

Colbert tried hard and landed an occasional counter right but he was outgunned by the harder-punching Valenzuela and took a lot of punishment for the third fight in a row had the judges not given the first fight to Colbert, unjustly, Colbert would be on a three-fight losing streak.

Colbert doesn't punch hard enough to keep top fighters off him, and while he is a skilled boxer he's not skilled enough to overcome that liability.

Valenzuela called for Gervonta Davis after the fight and considering the dearth of talent for PBC at lightweight other than Isaac Cruz, Valenzuela could get his chance in 2024, assuming Davis needs an opponent.

The opener was a blast from the past as two welterweight veterans Robert Guerrero battled Andre Berto in a rematch of their spirited 2012 match,

Guerrero won the first fight by unanimous decision and he would repeat the win in the same manner.

Berto was quicker, Guerrero stronger, and Guerrero would win the inside battles to win a reasonably entertaining unanimous decision by scores of 99-91 and 98-92 (x2).

I had the fight a bit closer for Guerrero at 97-93.

It was the type of pairing that fighters of a certain age and quality can still be successful as I don't have much interest in seeing either of these two against a contender or even a solid prospect but matched properly, older boxers can still have a place in the sport.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 187 Pts (6)

Ramon Malpica: 169 Pts (6)

Vince Samano: 124 Pts (6) 

Boxing Challenge: Alvarez storms through the Krusher

The boxing challenge rumbled into the Northeast on Saturday with a five-bout slate split between Atlantic City and the renovated Nassau Coliseum in Long Island and at the end of the evening, there was one fighter that clearly was the star of the weekend- and he did it without winning a round.

In an upset that some thought could happen, but that few thought would occur in this fashion- Eleider Alvarez scored three knockdowns on Sergey Kovalev out of nowhere in the seventh round and stripped Kovalev of not only his WBO light heavyweight title but also his fearsome demeanor and possibly even his career.
I thought Kovalev had won every round and seemed to be on his way to a lopsided win over the long-time WBC number one contender that champion Adonis Stevenson had spent almost three years avoiding.
One right hand changed all of that and three knockdowns later, the immediate future of the 175-pound division was gone as a Kovalev-Dmitry Bivol unification bout in December was gone.
There is a rematch clause and Kovalev winning all the rounds gives "Krusher" backers hope for a second battle, but this is a huge shot for the light heavyweight division in the short-term.
Alvarez, this KO aside, is not a big puncher and being promoted by Canada's Yvon Michel, who has managed his man Adonis Stevenson away from challengers for years, makes things even more confusing for his future.
As for Kovalev, he did answer some questions about his heart from the Andre Ward fight, as he rose from each knockdown and tried gallantly to fire back and survive, but he still was knocked out by a contender that had never knocked a top ten contender at 175 ( worn-out former super middleweight champion Lucien Bute doesn't count) out and isn't a draw even in his adopted country.

The co-feature from HBO saw Dmitry Bivol retain his WBA title via a unanimous decision over Issac Chilemba.
I haven't been able to watch this fight yet, so no scoring from my card.
Bivol has made some noise about fighting Alvarez in the same December unification bout planned for Kovalev, but after what has been reported to be a workmanlike, but nothing special effort for Bivol.

PBC wasted another national television platform on Fox with three less than thrilling fights.
In the main event of faded former welterweight champions, Andre Berto won a surprising split decision over Devon Alexander at the renovated (Praise the Lord for that fixup project from the home of Circulatory Socks) Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.
Alexander gave away some rounds late, but scored the fight's only knockdown in round three and won going away on my card 116-111.
Berto now gives us the gift of yet another undeserved PBC title shot in which the net result is a one-sided beatdown and waste of the viewers time.
Alexander has to feel snake bitten as for the second fight in a row (This loss and a draw with Victor Ortiz), the judges took away a deserved decision victory.

Former WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin dominated super middleweight J'Leon Love and won a clear unanimous decision as the co-feature.
It wasn't a fun fight to watch as Quillin walked Love down, as Love did little other than bounce around the ring and generated little offense.
Quillin might be an interesting name to see as an opponent for WBC champ David Benavidez or IBF kingpin Jose Uzcategui on a future PBC card, especially Uzcategui, who may be looking for an opponent with the injury to mandatory Caleb Plant pushing that fight back until late 2018 or early 2019.
I had Quillin winning 99-91.

The first fight saw Sergey Lipinets struggle to a majority decision win in his welterweight bow against trialhorse Erick Bone.
I agreed with one judge at 95-95, but the remaining judges had their cards filled out before the fight with ridiculous cards of 99-91 and 98-92, which were insulting to the effort of Bone.
Lipinets might be better served to stay at junior welter, where he made a strong effort in his loss to Mikey Garcia earlier this year.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica gained two points on me in the boxing challenge as he scored five points to my three.
Ramon added two points each from the Quillin and Bivol wins and one from the victory by Lipinets.
I scored one point for each of the above victories.
The challenge now stands at 120-97.

Spike's Premiere of PBC,Berto stops Lopez

Photo Credit-PBC

Spike's debut with the PBC was a mixed bag and we'll look at what I liked and disliked about the show shortly,but first the fights and the boxing challenge results.

In the main event that should have been hyped as "loser leaves boxing" Andre Berto knocked Josesito Lopez down twice in the sixth round and finished the show when the referee stopped the bout.
I thought the stoppage was a bit premature and had Lopez winning four of the first five rounds.
The win will likely keep Berto on the periphery of title contention,but I have a feeling that Berto might be overmatched against the best of the division.
In the better than expected co-feature,former IBF 147 pound champion Shawn Porter stopped Erick Bone in the fifth round.
The last minute replacement Bone fought hard and kept things competitive for four rounds until a body shot stunned Bone in the fifth.
Not sure what this proved for Porter on the rebound against a smaller,outgunned opponent,but Bone did try hard in a very difficult situation,

The boxing challenge saw me gain a point and snip the lead of R.L.Malpica to one point at 23-22.
We both earned four points for the Berto and Porter wins and knockouts.but I snared a bonus point for picking Porter's round correctly in the fifth.
The challenge continues tonight with two (maybe three) bouts on HBO...

We move on to the Spike production of their first card for Premiere Boxing Champions and a a few words on that.
When I saw the names involved with the Spike cards,I must admit to rolling my eyes a bit.
Dana Jacobson,who I had never been a fan of going back years to her days on the ill-fated Cold Pizza on ESPN, as host?
Scott Hanson from NFL Red Zone as the blow by blow man?
I admit to thinking,where is their boxing background? Are they fans or is this another example of television networks thinking anyone can cover boxing without even a minimal background?
Well,both were at least well-prepared for this one.
Hanson needs more experience on blow by blow and there was an occasional hiccup,but for a first try,he was more than acceptable,but the real surprise came with Jacobson.
I'm big enough (literally) to admit when I was wrong and I was on this night.
I had been very critical of Dana Jacobson in her ESPN days,but she was prepared,knew her stuff,didn't stumble over name pronunciation  (like happened all night on NBC's PBC telecast) and came across as classy and yes,even charming in her role as host.
Jacobson walked Thomas Hearns through their discussions with kindness and care and for that, I am grateful.
You see the "Hitman" is one of my favorite fighters ever,but the long career and punches taken have left the "Motor City Cobra" more than a bit hard to understand and his thoughts can sometime wander off point.
Dana Jacobson got the needed perspective out of Hearns and did it in a way that allowed Hearns to have his dignity.
Very well done and I'm glad to say I was wrong about Jacobson being the wrong hire for the position.

Not all was smooth though as I still had a few issues.

After two PBC shows,I'm still not a fan of the ring announcer.
I'm not a fan of him being outside the ring and he doesn't really build drama either..

I know Spike is trying to brand their Friday nights as a combat sports block with Boxing,kick-boxing and MMA,but it seemed like PBC's broadcast was more MMA than boxing.
The arena seemed more like a large television studio than a live venue and it didn't standout from the other Spike sports.

The sound was really off.
It was often hard to hear the announcers and in ring interviews and that needs to be addressed before the next show..

I think PBC made an error by keeping Spike's MMA commentator Jimmy Smith with this venture.
Not that Smith is bad,but I think Antonio Tarver is quite good and Smith's (or anyone else's) presence reduces Tarver's analysis time.
Considering that Scott Hanson will be learning on the fly,Spike might be better suited to go with a basic two man booth for now.
Smith may be a boxing fan (I don't know),but he clearly is more suited for MMA.

I give this a solid B+ with the surprises and in simple presentation,I liked Spike's performance better than I liked NBC's.
Sometimes bigger names does not mean better performance