Boxing Challenge: Stevenson Superb, Teraji retains titles

 I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter!

I will be covering the two cards from ESPN+ from Saturday here and the DAZN and Showtime cards tomorrow with two tremendous upsets involved on those two programs!

From Newark N.J., Shakur Stevenson staked his claim in the lightweight division with a dominant performance in a WBC eliminator against Shuichiro Yoshino.

Stevenson was never mildly pressed by Yoshino and knocked him down twice in the second and fourth rounds before battering him in the sixth to force the stoppage.

My scorecard had Stevenson up 50-43 at the time of the stoppage

Stevenson is transitioning into a more exciting fighter by moving less but still remaining elusive for opponents to find and while Yoshino may have been sent from central casting as the perfect foil, don't allow that to take away from Stevenson's effort- he looked terrific and should this version of Stevenson continue to evolve, he might not only be the best of the lightweight division, he may be the most exciting as well.

Top Rank placed arguably their two best prospects at the top of their supporting card with both scoring victories.

Heavyweight Jared Anderson didn't score a knockdown. Still, he did control a reluctant George Arias until hurting Arias late in the third round with the corner calling it a night for the previously undefeated Arias.

It may not have been a brilliant outing for Anderson but it showed that he's ready to jump a level in opponent quality as Arias wasn't a remotely substantial test.

Lightweight Keyshawn Davis stopped former title challenger Anthony Yigit in the ninth round of a lightweight tilt that was filled with headbutts and sloppy fouls from each man.

Davis and Yigit each committed their share of fouls with Davis literally landing a knee-lift reminiscent of Mr. Wrestling II to Yigit's face in the seventh round.

Davis crushed Yigit with seconds remaining in the eighth with a punishing body shot to send him to the floor that may have been better suited to end the fight but Yigit surprisingly rose and even more surprisingly came out for the ninth before Davis swarmed over the Swede to finish the fight.

I had Davis ahead comfortably at 79-73 at the end of the fight.

Earlier in the day from Tokyo, Kenshiro Teraji retained his WBA and WBC light flyweight titles with a ninth-round knockout of late replacement Anthony Olascuaga in an excellent action battle.

The quality of the fight was a surprise considering Olascuaga stepped in on a few weeks' notice for WBO champion Jonathan Gonzalez and was facing Teraji in only his sixth pro fight.

Teraji won six of the first seven rounds on my card but Olascuaga was constantly winging right hands and landing his share against the perpetually attacking Teraji often enough to make things entertaining.

And it became even more interesting with Olascuaga stunning Teraji in the eighth as out of nowhere it seemed as if a major upset was very possible.

However, Teraji may have decided that the fight may have been getting too close for comfort as he quickly leaped on Olascauga early in the ninth, sending him to the floor where referee Mark Nelson decided he had seen enough.

For Teraji, another action battle with a unification pairing against Jonathan Gonzalez coming up as soon as it can be re-scheduled, and for Olascuaga, gritty more than describe his outing under extraordinary circumstances.

I'm sure we will see Olascuaga again soon in the 105-pound division.

Takuma Inoue picked up the WBA bantamweight title that his brother Naoya vacated with a unanimous decision over Liborio Solis.

Takuma doesn't punch anywhere near as hard as Naoya but he controlled the second half of the fight with the aging Solis tiring badly down the stretch.

I scored Inoue a 117-111 winner, which agreed with the middle of the three scores of 118-110, 117-111, and 116-112.

Takuma has only four knockouts in his eighteen wins, so my guess is that Takuma's title defenses will be kept as easy as possible with those defenses held in Japan until an eventual mandatory against a top foe would be forced.

Japan's Reiya Abe dominated former junior featherweight and featherweight champion Kiko Martinez with an easy unanimous decision in a featherweight eliminator for the IBF.

Not much to say about this one as Martinez charged ineffectively as Abe scored easily with countershots or easily moved away from the Spanish veteran.

I gave Martinez the first two rounds and Abe the final ten for a score of 118-110.

The judges saw Abe as the winner at 119-109 times two and 117-111.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 58 Pts (10) 

Ramon Malpica: 53 Pts (12) 

Vince Samano: 43 Pts (10) 

Boxing Challenge: Castano and Charlo Draw

     In San Antonio Texas Saturday night, the four titles in the junior middleweight division were expected to belong to one man at the end of the evening.

The judges had different ideas as WBA/WBC/IBF champion Jermell Charlo and WBO titlist Brian Castano battled to a draw in a very good fight that was only marred by one scorecard.

I had Castano winning 115-113 which was the same score as one judge, and if I wanted to give every close round to Charlo perhaps I could agree with the judge that scored it 114-114 as a draw.

And then (cue the Bea Arthur Maude theme) came to judge Nelson Vasquez, who not only had Charlo winning, which I didn't see unless you had your scorecard filled out early but 117-111!

As in nine-three in rounds!

That's an awful card, but Charlo did have the two biggest opportunities in the fight stinging Castano late in the second and during much of the early half of the tenth round and Castano did give Charlo the final three rounds on my card (although the twelfth could have been given to either fighter) to allow him to make the fight close and pull out the draw- unless you were Nelson Vasquez, who must have spent the evening watching Tim Duncan highlights.

Castano threw more punches, controlled the exchanges by brushing Charlo's countering attempts aside with his gloves and aside from the tenth round counter left hook that had Castano in serious trouble, managed to keep himself inside the heavier hitter's strike zone.

To have this fight close (and I did), you had to give Charlo every benefit of the doubt (which I also did give him my two toss-up rounds in rounds five and twelve), so while I don't have a real problem with a draw, I do think that it's a stretch to get there and even more so to give Charlo the duke.

I'd think that a rematch would be in order, but the sanctioning bodies could get in the way with mandatory contenders, which is more of a problem for Charlo than Castano.

Why?

Well, PBC seems to be the promotional organization that loves those minor titles most (WBA regular, interim, WBC silver, diamond, etc) and each sanctioning body has a rule that they do not rank another organization's champion.

Which would be OK- BUT the minor titles are considered titles as well, so if you hold one of these worthless trinkets you are not eligible to be rated by any of the other three.

That is why top contenders Erickson Lubin (1st in WBC and their Silver champion) and Erislandy Lara (WBA "regular" champion) aren't in the other three's rankings which weakens the mandatory contender pool and forces more time to drag mandatory defenses out, which is a major problem when champions often fight twice a year.

While the Charlo-Lubin rematch (Charlo stopped Lubin in one in 2017, but Lubin has worked his way back into contention) does have some intrigue and Charlo-Lara would be a solid fight, although the WBA has a way of rarely having their "super" and "regular" champions face each other, neither rank with the prestige of a Charlo-Castano rematch and resulting in a four titleholder.

Castano would have an interesting mandatory and a chance to make a large purse, should he decide to face Tim Tszyu, the son of former junior welterweight champion Kostya, in his native Australia in what based on styles could be a real barnburner.

It's ironic but the underdog that most feel won the fight has better options in front of him if a rematch cannot be agreed to than the more established star and that seldom is the case in boxing...

Lightweight Rolando Romero rolled late substitute Anthony Yigit in seven rounds, scoring less than ten points per round on my card and that was due to a point deduction.

Romero knocked Yigit down in the same round (the fifth) that he lost a point in for excessive rough tactics for a rare 9-8  on the scorecards.

Romero reminds me of a wide-open free swinger like a Ricardo Mayorga type that is crude but makes fun fights at times but can be made to look very ordinary against even an average boxer.

Romero likes to play the heel like Mayorga used to and called out Gervonta Davis after the fight.

Both fighters are with Mayweather Promotions and PBC, so that could be easy to make and could be fun for a while but Davis has superior hands and is likely to overpower Romero.

It would be interesting and Romero is naturally larger but I'd favor Davis pretty strongly in such a matchup.

In the boxing challenge, I earned two points for the Romero knockout to Ramon Malpica's one to move my lead to 100-90 on the season. 

Boxing Challenge: Jacobs edges Dereyvanchenko

The boxing weekend began in beautiful Bulgaria before traveling to the Big Easy and the Big Apple to finish with somewhat of a flourish.

The biggest fight of the weekend took place in New York City as Daniel Jacobs nipped Sergiy Dereyvanchenko via a split decision to win the vacant IBF middleweight title.
I scored Jacobs a 114-113 winner with the difference being a first-round knockdown scored by Jacobs.
Dereyvanchenko hurt Jacobs more often over the course of the fight than in reverse, but Jacobs managed to stay up and that gave him the win on my scorecard, which seemed to be closer than most of the press.
Jacobs should be the most likely opponent for Canelo Alvarez in May, considering both champions are contracted with DAZN in what would put the IBF title back with the WBA and WBC titles before it was stripped from Gennady Golovkin earlier this year.

The co-feature saw Alberto Machado impressively dispose of Yaundale Evans in the first round to retain his minor title, dropping Evans three times before the referee called the mismatch off.
The lanky banging Machado might be a tough out for anyone at 130 pounds, but with his size, I could see him moving to the lightweight division and have little problems with strength.

New Orleans was the host for two World Boxing Super Series scraps in the junior welterweight tournament with the main event featuring top seed and local product Regis Prograis dominate former WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan to retain his minor title via a unanimous decision to move the next round in the tournament.
Prograis dominated throughout and dropped Flanagan to his knees in the ninth for the first time in Flanagan's career.
I scored Prograis a 118-109 winner, which seemed to be in line with most.
Prograis will battle WBA champion Kiryl Relikh in the semi-finals.

In the other quarter-final, Ivan Baranchyk earned the vacant IBF belt when Anthony Yigit was unable to continue due to a virtually closed eye in the seventh round.
I had Baranchyk far ahead and the eye brought to mind the puffed eye that Rocky Balboa asked Mickey to cut in his first fight with Apollo Creed as Fred Landucci commented on when we discussed this fight.
I thought it was a good decision to end the fight because Yigit wasn't going to be able to keep Baranchyk off of him anyway and the eye was only going to make things worse for the wounded Swede.
The new IBF champion will face the winner of next weekend's Josh Taylor-Ryan Martin fight in the semi-finals.

In Sofia, Bulgaria, veteran Kubrat Pulev won a unanimous decision over Hughie Fury to become the top contender in the IBF ratings, which means an eventual shot at Anthony Joshua's championship.
Fury looked to be the stronger fighter early, but a Pulev jab in the second round tore open a gash along Fury's and slowly took the starch out of the Englishman, but didn't exactly leave Joshua concerned about his eventual challenge.
I scored Pulev a 116-112 winner.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me seven to five over the weekend and cut my lead to 177-154.