Boxing Challenge: Wilder crunches Ortiz, Callum Smith creaks by Ryder

For almost seven complete rounds, Luis Ortiz was trying to complete his rematch with Deontay Wilder such as a jockey that is attempting to hold the lead at a very slow pace to lessen the chances of a stronger closer coming off the pace for a victory.

However, when you have the fastest gun in the game on your side it only takes one shot to end a fight.
And it only takes one mistake even as Ortiz was landing well be on his way to winning another round when Wilder fired one right hand.
That right hand landed flush and when the smoke cleared, it was only Wilder standing and keeping the WBC heavyweight title via seventh-round knockout in Las Vegas.
I had Ortiz ahead 59-55 after six rounds and would have likely given him the seventh, had the round ended.
The fight wasn't filled with activity and could have been called dull as both fighters respected the power of the other and rarely engaged.
I'm not really sure what this fight answered that we didn't already know- Deontay Wilder can erase a lot of effective boxing with one shot and Deontay Wilder can look pretty ordinary against good fighters while he waits for one shot.
Wilder moves onto the rematch with Tyson Fury in what appears to be February in another intriguing
fight.
Tyson Fury is the one fighter that took Wilder's best shot and got up, and Deontay Wilder is the one fighter that proved that he can hurt Tyson Fury when he lands, so the rematch is certainly very interesting.
Now, if we can just talk PBC and Top Rank into a cross-promotional fight or two on the undercard.

The undercard looked promising and then crumbled before the fight.
My favorite fight between two of the top five bantamweights in the world was canceled when Luis Nery missed weight by a pound and Emmanuel Rodriguez refused to accept compensation to fight an overweight Nery, so the fight was sadly canceled.
I think I'm with Rodriguez here.
Rodriguez is coming off his first career loss, is fighting a very talented former champion that has a PED history and has a history of missing weight.
When you consider all of those facts, should you risk another second loss against a fighter that is stronger for not hitting the weight mark for a couple thousand dollars?
I completely understand Rodriguez not proceeding and since this fight was a WBC title eliminator, the fair thing is to declare Rodriguez the top contender and refuse to rank Nery at 118 pounds.
Considering it's the WBC, the likely decision is likely to make this the fault of Rodriguez and give Nery the mandatory position.
Sarcasm mildly intended.

And if you thought Luis Nery was unprofessional, please allow me to introduce Julio Ceja!
Ceja, a former WBC junior featherweight champion, entered his fight with minor Titleist Brandon Figueroa after a terrific try against Guillermo Rigondeaux that saw him on the wrong side of an early stoppage while leading on the scorecards.
Ceja's effort against Rigondeaux was the best ever against the Cuban ( other than his ill-advised attempt against Vasyl Lomachenko), so Ceja had some goodwill in the bank that went awry when
Ceja missed weight by a stunning FOUR and a quarter pounds!
To put that in perspective, Ceja would have been overweight for a featherweight title fight and this was scheduled for the 122-pound junior featherweight division.
Figueroa decided to accept the fight when he was both compensated financially and assured by the sanctioning body that he would not lose his minor title, should he lose.
And here is why the argument made by Emmanuel Rodriguez for not accepting the extra money against an overweight opponent made sense because Figueroa's normally a very good puncher and he just couldn't hurt the larger Ceja in an excellent fight.
Figueroa-Ceja ended in a draw and it was fun to watch, but Ceja had such an artificial edge with the weight advantage that you wondered just how much that played into the fight.
Ceja has been knocked out three times in his career, yet Figueroa, a very good puncher, couldn't move him at all.
I scored Ceja a 115-113 winner in a fight that was very close and felt bad for Figueroa in the situation.

The co-feature was another gift for Leo Santa Cruz, who seems to thrive on winning vacant titles against questionable competition and then sitting on them until he rises in weight.
Santa Cruz won his fourth world title (from three different organizations.) with a unanimous decision over Miguel Flores to add the WBA junior lightweight title to his trophy case and won few fans in doing so.
Santa Cruz fights usually follow the same pattern, landing lots of punches, with not a lot of power, and his overmatched opponents are defeated on the scorecards, but generally unhurt.
This fight followed that template as I gave Flores the first round and no others, so the scorecard isn't the issue for me.
My issue with Santa Cruz is this- he's talented and has won four "titles". but is only 1-1 against top-notch fighters, splitting a series with Carl Frampton and his two wins over Abner Mares after Mares had slipped past his best are his only other notable wins.
I'm not sure what the issues are with Santa Cruz, is it that he doesn't want to fight top opponents and is satisfied with belts and money?
Or is it that his promoters choose not to roll the dice and gamble Santa Cruz against someone that could beat him?
I wonder about the PBC sometimes in these situations with fighters that haven't fought good competition and how it happens with examples such as Santa Cruz, Gary Russell, and Gervonta Davis.
My guesses are as follows:
Gervonta Davis is a fighter that is "on the wrong side of the street" (I'm really beginning to hate that phrase) promotionally in his division and has a chance to win against the best in the game.
Davis has that kind of ability but needs a breakout win that PBC seems unwilling or unable to provide.
Russell has tons of talent but seems content to fight once a year, keep a title, cash a nice check, and not challenge himself.
Santa Cruz isn't as talented as the above two and has been protected from fighters such as Russell (both are featherweight champions with PBC and could easily fight) and either his management or promotion realizes this and is protecting him for as long as possible.

We move to DAZN with cards from Matchroom and Golden Boy and a very interesting result that has been overshadowed by the Wilder-Ortiz fight.

Matchroom's main event from Liverpool, England looked to be a stay busy fight as Callum Smith, who is looked at by most as the top super middleweight in the world, defended his WBA title against countryman John Ryder, who entered the fight on a four-fight upset streak with all four wins over undefeated or one-loss fighters.
However, the biggest name on Ryder's record was Rocky Fielding in a loss, so Smith was a prohibitive favorite to defend his title.
Watching the clips of the weigh-in, Smith looked to be a full division larger than Ryder, and with six inches in height and reach over Ryder, this seemed to be a mismatch.
AND that's why we fight the fights and why everyone makes mistakes.

In honesty, I watched this fight twice.
The first time that I watched it, I scored it 115-113 for Callum Smith with Smith holding off the late charge of Ryder, who won the final three rounds on my card.
After that, I went to bed having stayed up to watch Ohio State-Penn State, then Smith-Ryder and needing sleep before work.
When I got up, something was nagging at me about it, but I had to watch the other DAZN card, Wilder-Ortiz, etc and I put it aside.
Still, I talked to Fred Landucci and he asked me about my thoughts which made my earlier questions return.
In short, I rewatched it and my score changed to 115-113 for Ryder, who attacked throughout, took advantage of a seemingly overconfident and underprepared Smith and my rewatched card could be slightly kind to Smith.
Ryder was the stronger fighter, worked Smith over to the ropes and ripped away on the inside to the body of the bigger man.
I also thought that Ryder did much better than expected in the center of the ring where you would think Smith would not only want to be but where he would control the action.

I had the edge of rewatching to get things right which judges in live-action do not, but what seems to happen in fights where the huge favorite wins an unpopular decision is this- In those early rounds when fights are just starting to settle in, judges fall into a trap and score those early rounds for the fighter that's expected to win- because they think that's what should be happening rather than what is.
By the time that you realize that the fight isn't happening the way it "should", it's too late and there is how you get a bad call.
I would imagine a rematch is in order, but I have a feeling that John Ryder may have already fought the fight of his life once, and should a rematch be forced, Callum Smith is going to be ready.
Callum Smith is the better fighter, but John Ryder deserved the duke on this night.
A belated Hamburglar for this one.

The evening card for DAZN was a Golden Boy card with two of those wonderful minor belts from the WBA and saw an upset in the main event as Rene Alvarado tore apart Andrew Cancio like Gale Sayers through an overmatched defense.
Cancio had knocked out Alvarado in their first fight in 2015 and after two wins over highly regarded Alberto Machado, was thought to be a rising fighter with a great story.
Alvarado used his longer reach and surprising aggressiveness from the start to cur Cancio around both eyes and bloodied his nose to the point of Alvarado's white trunks appearing to be a light pink from Cancio's blood.
Cancio fought as bravely as he could, but he couldn't figure out how to avoid Alvarado's incessant offense in order to get inside to do his best work.
I had Alvarado ahead 69-64 (6-1) when the fight was mercifully ended in Cancio's corner at the end of the seventh round.
Cancio was becoming quite a story, but it is very possible that Cancio is a solid fighter that simply had the number of Alberto Machado.
We'll see if Rene Alvarado, also a solid fighter, can perform well against fighters other than Andrew Cancio.

In the other fight, China's Xu Can continues to impress in his move up the featherweight ladder with his unanimous decision win over Manny Robles.
Can reminds me a bit of Josh Warrington in that he throws a lot of punches and attempts to overwhelm his opponents with volume.
Funny that I should mention Warrington, who was the champion called out in the post-fight interview by Can and that would be a very exciting fight to see.
Neither fighter has world-class sting on their punches but in a fight between those two the ringside people counting the punches had better be ready to work overtime!
I scored Can the winner 118-110 over Robles, who took his first loss but had won his previous two fights by close split decisions and the bloom seems to be fading off a once-promising prospect.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica seven to five (the Wilder KO making the difference) to move my overall lead to 278-246.

I'm going to try to be back later with the Browns romp over Miami and looking forward to a rematch in Pittsburgh.
 

Boxing Challenge: Cancio crunches Machado again

It was interesting, exciting and both fighters had their moments, but in the end the Andrew Cancio-Alberto Machado rematch ended the same way as their first fight with Machado finished on the floor, this time in three rounds, not four.

The first fight saw Cancio pull a massive upset over Machado, who blamed a bad training camp and problems making weight for his loss and appeared to avoid those issues before the rematch, which Machado was contractually obligated to recieve after he activated that clause.

The first round saw both fighters land plenty with each landing their share of big body shots and the round was fought on even terms.
Machado started well in round two and when the two collided heads with the result opening a bad cut over the right eye of Cancio with the cut being bad enough that it looked to be a factor in the fight with Cancio's vision, if not potentially stopping the fight as the fight moved forward.
However, even in the second round you could feel that Cancio's strength was already taking its toll on Machado and that Machado was going to have to do something to deter the aggression on Cancio.
It didn't take long for Cancio to take that option off the table as you could feel Machado melting away against the attack and when Cancio ripped a left hook to the body that made me think of their first fight,Machado again wilted and couldn't rise from the floor.
For Cancio, it was a confirmation that his first win was not an fluke and stamped him as a player in the 130 pound division, even if it is with a minor belt.
Cancio could be headed for IBF champion Tevin Farmer (both DAZN fighters) or possibly eventually Gervonta Davis as his minor title is under the "super" (ugh) title held by Davis as long as Cancio keeps winning and forces the WBA to make that fight.
As for Machado, I'm not sure where he can go from here.
If you cannot have the strength to keep Andrew Cancio off of you, how can you expect to keep lightweights from rolling over you, especially of the caliber of Vasyl Lomachenko, Teofimo Lopez, Devin Haney and Richard Commey, all of whom are either champions or someone that will need to be dealt with to reach title contention.
Despite the talent that Machado has, I just don't see a road for success for him in the future and he may very well be finished as a title level fighter.

The co-feature saw a surprise and some controversy as Elwin Soto upset Angel Acosta with a 12th round stoppage to strip Acosta of the WBO light flyweight championship.
I had Acosta slightly ahead after a late round rally from an early deficit that saw Soto knock the champion down in the second round in a fight that saw plenty of punches thrown and punches that crashed home on their opponent.
I had Acosta ahead 105-103 (7-4 in rounds with Acosta losing a point for the knockdown) entering the final round with winning most of the second half of the fight with combinations with both hands that consistently found their mark on Soto and hurt him several times, although Soto managed to stay upright throughout the fight.
Acosta was leading on all three cards with my card agreeing with the judge that had the fight that tight, but must have thought he needed the round as he raced out of his corner to attack Soto and drove the challenger into the ropes where Soto threw a Hail Mary of a left hook that landed and hurt Acosta, who wobbled away.
However,I didn't think that Soto's followup punches landed squarely and even though Acosta was far from out of the woods, I didn't think the stoppage by referee Thomas Taylor was a good one.
I would imagine a rematch will be in order.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica added two points for Andrew Cancio's win and I scored nil on the Friday action.
Ramon cut the lead in the challenge to 147-134.

Cancio stuns Machado, Davis rolls Ruiz

 (Photo: Tom Hogan-Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions)

The boxing challenge looked to have two junior lightweight champions that eventually would be forced to meet in what a generous person would call a showcase bout and what a cynical one would describe as a squash match.

Quickly after WBA champion Gervonta Davis crushed Hugo Ruiz like a 7up can in breaking his nose and finishing him in one round on Showtime, that gave me time to flip to DAZN and WBA minor champion Alberto Machado's showcase against Andrew Cancio.
It looked that Machado was on his way to a one round evening as well after dropping Cancio about 25 seconds after I changed the stream.
The difference was Cancio got up, began to fight back and three rounds later, the early leader for the upset of the year was in the books as Cancio scored three knockdowns with body shots and battered a suddenly disinterested Machado before the fight was stopped.
The new champion will likely be targeted by several in the division thinking that he is an easy mark, but despite his average record, Cancio may not appear to be a long term stock to buy, but once again, the rule comes up that being thrown in tough and accumulating a few losses isn't always a bad thing before the big time comes calling.

Rey Vargas was knocked down in the second round by Franklin Manzanilla and looked vulnerable to the Salidoesque tactics of the challenger.
Those tactics soon would backfire with two different point reductions that canceled out the knockdowns over the course of the fight and Vargas did what he does-control from the outside and delivered a solid, but unspectacular effort to win going away by unanimous decision to retain his WBC junior featherweight title.
I had Vargas winning 117-111, which was pretty close to the official score.
I have hope that the winner of the WBA-IBF unification fight at the weight between Daniel Roman and T.J Doheny on DAZN could be convinced to unify further against Vargas, who isn't proving a lot with his defenses against lesser contenders.

Joseph Diaz dominated neighborhood rival and childhood friend Charles Huerta in winning every round on my round and winning an easy unanimous decision.
Huerta did his best, but this is the difference between a world-class competitor and an average ten round fighter.

On Showtime, the main event did see Gervonta Davis do what you expect someone of his talent to do when facing an undermanned, outgunned late substitute when he smacked Hugo Ruiz around for a round before blowing him out like a baseball bat going through the bottom of a paper cup.
The problem is that Ruiz was the first fight in ten months for Davis after fighting just once last year and doesn't appear to have any peers in his division capable of giving him a hard fight other than WBC champ Miguel Berchelt, who is not with PBC.
Davis could move to lightweight after trouble making weight for Ruiz, but the picture isn't any better there with WBA/WBO lightweight champ Vasyl Lomachenko and IBF champ Richard Commey having agreements to fight on ESPN through their promoters.
WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia would be a very attractive fight and one easy to make, depending on the outcome of Garcia's fight with Errol Spence next month.
Other than Garcia, I just don't see Davis having a fight to be excited about for quite a while.

Lightweight Javier Fortuna slogged his way to a unanimous decision win over Sharif Bogere in a sloppy mix of styles that could be considered ill-advised matchmaking.
Fortuna did score a borderline knockdown in the sixth, but the rest of the bout had so much headbutting, wrestling and grappling that I expected Mr.Wrestling II to kneelift both these guys out of the ring.
My card agreed with all three judges 96-93 Fortuna.

Erickson Lubin showed his power in driving former junior middleweight champion (albeit six years ago and lost in his first defense to the long forgotten Carlos Molina) Ishe Smith into retirement with four knockdowns in three rounds before the fight was stopped in the corner after the third.
The intrigue here was could Lubin stop the never before stopped Smith before Smith tested the china chin of Lubin.
Lubin landed first and showed the huge power that he possesses in crushing Smith as never before.
Lubin reminds me a lot of former junior middleweight and middleweight champion and 2019 Hall of Fame Inductee Julian Jackson.
Few in the game had the power of Jackson (Lubin) and Jackson (Lubin) can take anyone out that they hit squarely and conversely anyone that hits them (Jackson/Lubin) has the ability to take them out with chins that describing as questionable would be a very positive assessment to say on anyone's part.
Erickson Lubin will continue to be almost mandatory watching because the ending will likely be exciting and unpredictable.

In the boxing challenge Ramon Malpica and I each scored nine points and remain tied at 29.