Boxing Challenge: Garcia busts Benn

   Ryan Garcia dropped Conor Benn with a right hand and finished him off after a shaky Benn got to his feet in round two, for a painless stoppage of Benn in the biggest fight promoted by Zuffa Boxing in their short existence.

Benn slugged it out evenly with Garcia in the first round, but his drop from the middleweight division may have weakened him, as the Englishman crumbled with the big right hand from Garcia.

Garcia has spoken of several opponents for his next fight, asking for a return from retirement from former three-division undisputed champion Terence Crawford, a rematch with Gervonta Davis, who stopped Garcia in seven rounds in 2023, or a unification fight with WBA champion Teofimo Lopez.

Benn will likely rise in weight but doesn't have an obvious opponent for his next fight and will have to revitalize himself after a devastating loss.

Unbeaten former IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opietaia stopped WBC champion Noel Mikelian in nine rounds in the co-feature, but didn't win the title as Mikaelin was stripped of the title before the fight.

Andres Cortes won a unanimous decision over former featherweight champion Mark Magsayo in a lightweight ten rounder and in the best fight of the night, welterweight contender Alexis Rocha won a competitive unanimous decision over former junior welterweight champion Jose Ramirez.

I'd like to see Rocha and Ramirez in a rematch.

Boxing Challenge

TRS:  106 Pts (5)

Ramon Malpica: 91 Pts (4)

Vince Samano: 60 Pts (0)

 

Boxing Challenger: Espinoza stops Chirino,Undercard theft

       Top Rank's Friday night card from Las Vegas on ESPN+ saw a title retained and a contender moving towards a title shot win a decision that he didn't deserve after missing weight before the fight.

Rafael Espinoza made the first defense of his WBO featherweight title a successful one as Espinoza knocked Sergio Chirino down three times before the referee stopped the fight in the fourth round.

Chirino was knocked down in the waning moments of both the first and second rounds but Espinoza didn't have enough time to finish the job in either round.

That wasn't the case in the fourth after another knockdown with the referee waving the bout off.

Espinoza came into prominence in the fight that made him a champion as an unknown challenger to then-champion Robeisy Ramirez and rallied from a knockdown to drop Ramirez in the final round to win the title by majority decision in a great battle.

The original plan was for an immediate rematch but Espinoza requested making an optional defense first and should Ramirez defeat Brandon Benitez next Saturday, the rematch will be scheduled in the fall.

The travesty was in the co-feature as undefeated junior lightweight contender Andres Cortes missed weight at the weigh-in and then after being outpunched by veteran Abraham Nova, was given an unpopular unanimous decision.

Nova threw more, landed more, and was the better fighter, all of which wasn't enough for the judges who somehow scored Cortes the winner 97-93 x2 and 96-94.

Nova's best round was the ninth, when he threw over one hundred punches and backed Cortes into a corner, and blasted away but one judge scored the round for Cortes anyway.

Cortes called out division champions after the fight but between blowing the scales and winning such a controversial decision, I'd think a Nova rematch would be a better idea.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 91 Pts (3)

TRS: 76 Pts (4)
Vince Samano: 48 Pts (2)