Oscar Valdez had a difficult time leading up to his fight with amateur rival Robson Conceicao dealing with a failed test for PED but he nearly had a more difficult time inside the ring with the former Olympic gold medalist before controlling the second half of the match to win a unanimous decision and retain his WBC junior lightweight title.
Conceicao built an early lead on the scorecards but gradually reduced his punch output as Valdez began to step the pace to close the gap in the fight.
Conceicao may only have himself to blame after the final few rounds were spent in mobile mode and a dubious point deduction by referee Tony Zaino for a rabbit punch that was clearly more of a tap in the middle of a Valdez clutch took away any chance of a victory.
The point didn't matter on the official cards with Valdez winning 115-112 on two cards (7-5 and the point lost) and a ridiculous 117-110 ( 9-3 and the point deduction) but it did on mine as Valdez won 114-113 on my scorecard.
Many are wondering about the failed test and the regression from Valdez's best career win in his last fight against Miguel Berchelt.
I don't think either is the case completely, although the hysteria over the failed test surely didn't help Valdez any, as the problem seemed to be a talented foe that is familiar with Valdez had a style that wasn't quite as easy to look impressive against as the straight forward Berchelt.
All things considered, this wasn't an overly impressive outing for Oscar Valdez but he escaped with the title on an evening that it could have been easy to lose.
The co-feature saw a stunner as heavily hyped lightweight prospect Gabriel Flores was dominated in losing a unanimous decision to Luis Alberto Lopez.
Not only was Flores beaten by Lopez, he took a beating and I wouldn't have uttered a peep in complaint had the fight been stopped at any time in the final three rounds with Flores's father attempting to stop the fight with seconds remaining but was unable to get the attention of the referee to end things early.
Flores took a beating that some prospects never recover from and it will be interesting to see how it affects Flores in the future.
At the bare minimum, Flores is going to have to be carefully matched over the next year in order to rebuild his confidence. and the awkward Lopez will likely receive some extra opportunities after a surprising performance.
The opener saw an action-packed three-round plus before Junto Nakatani kept his WBO flyweight title when the doctor stopped the fight due to a broken and badly bleeding nose from challenge Angel Acosta.
Nakatani appeared to have broken Acosta's nose in the first round and despite the best efforts of Acosta to battle through the pain, Nakatani controlled the fight.
In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica 3-2 and moved my lead to 125-110.
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.
In a strange day in what was expected to be a less than exciting boxing weekend gave followers something to at least make people shake their heads and recall what Larry Merchant always said about boxing- "the theatre of the absurd".
From Philadelphia, ESPN and Top Rank's main event was the return to action of WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk with the first defense of his championship.
Gvozdyk was in with what was thought to be a soft touch in French transport Doudou Ngumbu, originally from the Congo, with the fact being unknown of how Gvozdyk would react in his first bout since injuring Adonis Stevenson.
We still don't know how Gvozdyk will react after his fifth-round stoppage over Ngumbu, which saw the fight end with Ngumbu unable to continue, but not after any Gvozdyk punches.
Instead, it was Ngumbu finished off with an injured calf that left him gimping around the ring like Fred Flintstone doing the Frantic and sitting in a corner distraught with tears after a lost chance that at 38 he will likely to never see again.
I thought Gvozdyk won every round but wasn't dominating Ngumbu and the calf hurt the challenger far more than the champions punches to that point.
Gvozdyk will hopefully face a better opponent later this year, hopefully, in a title unification against either WBO champion Sergey Kovalev or IBF standard-bearer Artur Beterbiev, should they win their next scheduled defenses.
The undercard saw a surprise as the WBO's top contender to their welterweight champion Terence Crawford, Egid Kavaliauskas may have lost his mandatory title fight as he struggled to a majority draw against Ray Robinson.
Robinson had been knocked out by Yordanis Ugas in his last fight and was thought to be a stay busy fight for the exposure to the boxing audience for Kavaliauskas to increase attention for a potential Crawford bout.
Instead, the majority draw could see Kavaliauskas dropped from the top contender position, although that isn't a given when you consider any sanctioning bodies ability to make a decision and that's the sanctioning body (WBO) that is coziest with Bob Arum.
Should Kavaliauskas be moved from the top spot, the big winners could be Jessie Vargas and DAZN as it would be Vargas (number three contender with second rated Amir Khan already facing Crawford next) that would benefit most.
Still, despite scores that read 97-93 for Robinson and two scores of 95-95. I thought Kavaliauskas was the 96-94 winner as he threw the harder punches against the mildly busier Robinson, if not impressive in doing so.
Golden Boy Promotions on DAZN presented the other Saturday night card from Indio, California with social media magnet Ryan Garcia in the top spot against veteran Jose Lopez.
Garcia had struggled to a close win two fights previously over Carlos Morales and Golden Boy is attempting to carefully match the nineteen-year-old to re-establish him.
Lopez, much smaller and slower was the perfect foil for Garcia to look good against and was hurt in round one.
Garcia finished the job in the second round with several right hands that put Lopez on the floor for the finish shots, although Lopez would stagger to his corner, where his corner ended the fight before the start of round three.
Garcia has impressive hand speed and what seems to be good power, but he seems very wide open to me and despite Oscar De La Hoya's words after the fight about the competition moving to the top level soon, I'm not sure Garcia is anywhere near ready for the top fighters in the 130 pound division.
Angel Acosta retained his WBO light flyweight title with an eighth-round knockout of former WBC champion Ganigan Lopez as the co-feature.
Lopez attempted to stick and move and was effective against Acosta, who I had slightly ahead 67-66 at the time of the stoppage.
Acosta managed to stun Lopez with a hard left hook in the eighth and managed to shrug off a dazed Lopez and his attempts to tackle the champion enough to drop him for the ten count.
Acosta vs WBC champion Ken Shiro would be a terrific unification fight in the division, but rarely are the best fights in the 108-pound division signed as it's often much easier to build up defenses against lesser contenders or move up to the flyweight division.
In the boxing challenge, I scored six points to Ramon Malpica's five to increase my lead to 72-65.
We each scored two points for the wins by Gvozdyk and Garcia, but I scored two points to Ramon's one for the win by Angel Acosta.
I usually don't write in the boxing challenge about non-challenge fights but I had to write a few words about the Matchroom card from Liverpool England on DAZN.
I considered the main event with former WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith against Sam Eggington for the challenge but decided against it.
However, as I try to watch almost everything, I still watched the card and one of the undercard fights saw former top prospect David Price appear.
Price won an Olympic bronze medal and was thought to be a potential champion with elite level power.
Price still can hurt anyone that he hits, but an alarmingly bad chin against anyone around the top 25 level had led to a series of losses that led to Price being knocked out in spectacular fashion last year against Alexander Povetkin in a fight that was such a mismatch that it shouldn't have been sanctioned.
For four rounds against undefeated former sparring partner Kash Ali, Price looked every bit the part of a contender, but entering the fifth round, the book on Price was referred to as "get through four rounds against Price and watch him melt".
Ali was clearly frustrated by Price and began fouling starting in the third round with a bite, following up with a fourth round shot to the back of Price' head and then taking him down in the fifth with better technique than some linebackers.
The fun began as the fighters rolled along the ropes with suddenly Price's head snaps back against the bottom rope and lets out a yelp.
The referee then has had enough of Ali's antics, disqualifies him as Price rises with a splotch on his torso that rivals that of Dusty Rhodes when he had that marking during that damn video that Jim Crockett Promotions played at every commercial break in 1987!
Price's win will likely see him in another OK Corral showdown against someone from the next level, where his big pop and soft chin are in a race to see which makes its way to the forefront first.
Just another crazy day in boxing and shows once again that even when you think it will be a dull day, boxing always can surprise.
It was a WBO weekend in the Boxing Challenge with three championships being defended in various venues and two quarterfinals in the World Boxing Super Series.
The biggest bout hailed from Omaha, Nebraska where hometown star Terence Crawford ripped home a tremendous uppercut in the final round to drop Jose Benavidez and followed up with the most ferocious finishing attack in the business to end the fight with a beaten Benavidez helpless and sliding along the ropes.
Benavidez fought pretty well for the first half of the fight, but Crawford steadily wore the taller and seemingly larger opponent down and was well ahead on my scorecard (8-3) entering the final round.
The problem for Jose Benavidez and what a talented fighter hasn't been able to figure out to date, is that he has excellent physical advantages for the division (tall and strong), but has never learned to use them.
In other words, Benavidez doesn't fight "tall" and use a strong jab to keep opponents on their back foot.
When Benavidez tried that against Crawford and he didn't do enough of it, he had success and whether Crawford took that away from him or he simply refused to continue using what worked, that is where the fight swung to Crawford.
As for Terence Crawford, arguably the top fighter in the world, it looks like a mandatory defense next and then who knows what waits on the Top Rank side.
Everyone wants to see Errol Spence vs Terence Crawford, but the problem is that the guy that likes to fight and wants to be more active (Crawford) doesn't have a lot of fights available, while the person that is content with one or two fights a year (Spence) has plenty of them that are easy to make.
I hate to say it, but we might look back down the road at Crawford-Spence and that might be another great fight that never happened or at least, happened too late.
On the undercard, Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson knocked down late replacement Viorel Simion three times in the first round in a round one stoppage in showing the power that Stevenson had yet to flash in his start as a pro.
A great performance by Stevenson, but I thought the refereeing was inept as the second knockdown was clearly a slip and despite Simion being badly hurt after the third knockdown, the bell clanged loudly that the round was over after Simion rose, yet the referee stopped the fight rather than allow Simion the minute between rounds to try to put things together.
I'm very doubtful that would have happened, but Simion deserved the chance to try.
Bad refereeing happens so often in states like Nebraska that rarely have fight cards and I know that there would be a certain degree of hassle involved, but I'd really like to see referees (and judges for that matter) be imported that have more experience for the world-class cards that are scheduled for less than world class boxing states.
In Russia, the World Boxing Super Series limped to a slow beginning with two quarter-finals in two divisions that went the distance and excited no one.
In the cruiserweight division, American Andrew Tabiti won a unanimous decision over Ruslan Fayfer in a less than exciting fight.
The most exciting thing in this fight was Fayfer's point deduction in the last round for pushing.
I scored Tabiti a 115-112 winner and Tabiti will face the winner of this weekend's Yunier Dorticos-Mateusz Masternak matchup in the semi's.
The other fight in the bantamweight divisional tournament wasn't more exciting as lanky Zolani Tete retained his WBO title with a unanimous decision over a decorated amateur, but inexperienced professional in Mikhail Aloyan,
Outside of Tete knocking Aloyan down in the first round, the bout was eleven rounds of attempted movement by Tete and loads of grabbing, wrestling, and holding by both boxers to the point of both fighters having a point deducted.
Tete will face the winner of the upcoming WBA title fight between Ryan Burnett and Nonito Donaire in the next round.
Let's hope that both Tabiti and Tete will deliver better fights in their next fights than they did last week.
I'm not sure how many people were watching on Facebook as this fight took place at the same time as Terence Crawford was fighting on ESPN, but WBO light flyweight champ Angel Acosta took out Abraham Rodriguez with a bullet of a left hook in the second round as you'll see anywhere.
I'm not sure what Acosta has next for his future, but for his size, he punches as hard as anyone under 126 pounds.
In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica 8-7 on the weekend to increase my lead to 167-143 on the season.
