Boxing Challenge: ZZZZ

    The four-fight boxing challenge weekend didn't offer much in either action or competitiveness as all four favorites won their matches in a lopsided manner.

The day started in Dublin, Ireland, with Anthony Cacace doing just enough to win the WBA junior lightweight title by unanimous decision over James "Jazza" Dickens.

Not much to say about this one other than the right guy won (116-112, which was my score, 116-113, and 115-113) and could defend against Ryan Garner, who won on the undercard.

The action wasn't much better from Anaheim, California, where Arnold Barboza dominated a welterweight eliminator over Kenneth Sims and won a unanimous decision.

Barboza won by scores of 120-108, 118-110, and 117-111.

I scored Barboza the winner 119-109.

Oscar Collazo kept his WBA and WBO minimum/strawweight titles when lightly regarded challenger Jesus Haro retired on his stool at the end of the sixth round.

Collazo hammered Haro's body and ground down his opponent, and the retirement saved Haro from a longer pounding.

Alexis Rocha controlled a spent Joseph Diaz and cruised to a unanimous decision win.

Diaz occasionally landed a strong shot but was overmatched by the larger and more powerful Rocha.

Rocha's victorious scores were: 100-90 (same as mine), 98-92, and 97-93.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 29 Pts (7)

Ramon Malpica: 27 Pts (1)

Vince Samano: 24 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: Navarrete slips by Suarez

   The boxing weekend didn't see any major upsets, but the action was pretty good, with a little controversy as well.

In the only title match, Emanuel Navarrete retained his WBO junior lightweight title with a technical decision at the end of round seven over Charly Suarez in San Diego.

In a nip and tuck battle, the beginning of the sixth round saw Suarez land a hard left hand and then graze Navarrete's head with his own.

As the fighters separated, Navarrete bled profusely from a cut over his eye, which the referee ruled was from a headbutt.

The fight was stopped before the start of round eight and moved to the scorecards with Navarrete winning by 68-65 and 67-66 times two (my score agreed with the latter).

California uses instant replay, so they could have changed the ruling, but said the replay was inconclusive.

If the cut had been ruled by the punch landed by Suarez, the halting of the fight would have given the win and the championship to Suarez.

The fight was close and hard fought, and Suarez deserves a rematch under the circumstances, but it may not happen as Navarrete needed six (yes, six) tries to make the division limit, and he might be forced to move up in weight.

Should Navarrete decide to move up, I hope the WBO places Suarez in the fight to fill the vacated title; he deserves that, at least.

In the co-feature, Raymond Muratalla won a unanimous decision over a tough but outgunned Zair Abdullaev.

No knockdowns, but Abdullaev's face was bruised and swollen after the bout, and Muratalla was way too much for Abdullaev.

Muratalla won by scores of 119-109 times two and 118-110; my score was 119-109.

Muratalla won the IBF interim lightweight title, and while I normally hate interim titles, this is a situation that is acceptable with champion Vasyl Lomachenko idle for a year, doesn't have a fight in the works, and is considering retirement.

If Lomachenko returns to the ring, he must face Muratalla, and should he decide to retire, Muratalla will be installed as the full champion.

Earlier in the day, from Nottingham, England, former IBF junior lightweight champion Anthony Cacace stopped former WBA featherweight titleholder in the ninth round when Wood's corner tossed in the towel of their surrender, with their men taking a beating.

Cacace scored a technical knockdown early in the ninth when only the ropes allowed Wood to remain standing.

As the round progressed, Wood fought back, but Cacace hurt Wood again, and on unsteady legs and with Cacace in pursuit, the Wood corner made the decision to stop the fight.

In Equatorial Guinea, Souleymane Cissokho won a unanimous decision over Egidijus Kavaliauskas in a WBC welterweight eliminator.

Cissokho was dropped in the second and fifth rounds, but otherwise managed to box and move his way through the fight.

Scores for Cissokho at 114-112 (same as mine), 115-111, and 116-110, who will now be the mandatory contender for WBC champion Mario Barrios.

I'll be back Monday with the two remaining bouts over the weekend, which I've been unable to watch yet.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 72 Pts (4)

Ramon Malpica: 70 Pts ( 5)

Vince Samano: 30 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: DuBois Drills Joshua

     Daniel DuBois may have been lightly regarded as a heavyweight champion when the IBF handed him their title following his win over Filip Hrgovic and stripping the then-undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk but gained additional credibility with a devastating fifth-round knockout of two-time champion Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium in London.

DuBois dominated the entire fight and scored knockdowns in rounds one, two, and four before the concussive final blow that ended the fight. 

Under normal circumstances, I'd say a win this conclusive that a rematch would be a hard sell.

I disagree this time for two reasons.

The first is that Joshua has done better in rematches, defeating Andy Ruiz after Ruiz knocked out Joshua, and came closer to defeating Oleksandr Usyk in their second bout, so it's reasonable to give Joshua a chance in a rematch, considering DuBois's chin is nothing to brag about himself.

The other is how Joshua was knocked out as Joshua had hurt DuBois, knocking him back into a corner Joshua moved in for what would have been one of the more sensational comeback wins in heavyweight "title" history, a dazed DuBois fired the bullet-like right hand that knocked out Joshua.

It could be promoted that Joshua could have been on his way to a win before the KO and it's plausible.

However, one thing makes an immediate rematch a problem.

The IBF doesn't allow immediate rematches and while normally, boxers would drop titles for the more lucrative fight to take place but in this case, after Oleksandr Usyk's win last year over DuBois, the IBF title is the reason for Usyk-DuBois II and without it, that rematch doesn't have the same importance.

On the undercard, undefeated middleweight contender Hamzah Sheeraz gave hope for some life in the division with his third straight impressive knockout as Sheeraz blasted Tyler Denny in two rounds.

Sheeraz dropped Denny in the first and finished him in the second with hammering blows to finish Denny, who upset heavily favored Felix Cash in his previous fight.

Sheeraz is the top contender in the WBC and WBO, so it's a question of whether Sheeraz and promoter Frank Warren would rather face Carlos Adames (WBC) or Janibek Alimkhanuly (IBF and WBO) for his eventual title opportunity.

Adames might be the easier fight, Alimkhanuly would bring more prestige and an easier fight to make with Warren's working agreement with Alimkhanuly's promoter Top Rank.

IBF junior lightweight champion Anthony Cacace wasn't allowed to defend his title against former featherweight champion Josh Warrington but he would lose his title should he lose the non-title fight, which defeats the purpose of the non-title fight but I digress.

Warrington won a few rounds in the first half of the bout but the smaller and older fighter wore down in the second half with Cacace dominating on his way to a unanimous decision.

Warrington tried hard but he may know the end of his career has come as he symbolically left his ring boots in the center after the decision.

Official scores for Cacace of 117-111 times two (my score) and 118-110.

Cacace must face mandatory challenger Eduardo Nunez next or be stripped of his championship.

I haven't watched the light heavyweight eliminator between Joshua Buatsi and Willy Hutchinson but it's been reported as a top-class battle with Buatsi winning only a split decision despite knocking Hutchinson twice and Hutchinson losing a pomt.

The story appears to be the terrible scorecard of Grzegorz Molenda, who scored Hutchinson the winner despite the knockdowns and point deductions, which from everything I have read was ridiculous.

Scores for Buatsi at 115-110 and 117-108 and for Hutchinson 113-112.

Butasi wins a minor title and will be in the hunt for a shot at the winner of October's Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol full unification of the division.

Editor's Note: I watched Buatsi-Hutchinson and while it was an entertaining fight, I can't place how someone scored this for Hutchinson.

My score 116-109 Buatsi

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica; 133 Pts (4)

TRS: 122 Pts (4)
Vince Samano: 72 Pts (3)