Boxing Challenge: Eubank finishes DeGale, Dirrell nips Yildirim

The boxing challenge weekend begins across the pond in London with what should be the end of the career for former champion James DeGale, who was dominated and outclassed by the often-crude bomber Chris Eubank Jr at the O2 Arena.

DeGale, who has not been remotely the same caliber of fighter since his draw in January 2017 against Badou Jack in a title unification fight, was driven into a turnbuckle in the second with only the corner holding him up, which was correctly called a knockdown by Eubank's left hook, which DeGale was seemingly unable to avoid throughout the fight.
Eubank rolled up round after round as he bulled DeGale around the ring and would score another knockdown in the tenth round with another left hook as he sent a sinking DeGale to his knees.
Eubank would run out of time in the tenth to finish DeGale and one would see the frustration in that in the eleventh as DeGale attempted to hold and Eubank responded with a spinebuster that would have made Arn Anderson proud that would cause a point deduction.

I had Eubank an easy 118-107 with DeGale winning just one round, but one of the three official scorecards was a shockingly awful 114-112, which would have been a draw without the two knockdowns.

While James DeGale really needs to get out of the game with his health intact, Chris Eubank suddenly has some options with a rematch with Billy Joe Saunders (Saunders won their fight by split decision) very possible with Saunders fighting for the vacant WBO title at the weight in his next fight, countryman Callum Smith for Smith's WBA title or as Eubank Sr offered at the post-fight press conference a move back down to middleweight.

In the other 168 pound fight of the day, Anthony Dirrell won the vacant WBC championship amid controversy via a split technical decision after ten rounds over Avni Yildirim in Minneapolis.
The WBC's open scoring was shown in its impish destruction as per organization rules, each corner was given the scores after the fourth and eighth rounds with two cards showing Dirrell leading.
Therefore, after an accidental headbutt in the ninth opened a nasty cut over Dirrell's left eye, his corner, knowing they were ahead, gambled that the cut was bad enough to get the fight stopped.
The cut was bad, but in my opinion, not bad enough to end the fight with just three rounds remaining.
The gamble paid off as the fight was stopped midway through the tenth and since it was caused by a headbutt, the decision went to the judges, and since the corner knew they were likely ahead on the cards, etc and why open scoring sucks.
The worst part of the decision was the card that had Yildirim winning 8-2!
I had it 5-5, so a close card that could be given, either way, wouldn't have bothered me, but that's a really bad scorecard.
The sad part of this is what will be remembered is the ending and not what was a better than expected fight in which Dirrell fought with determination (well, until the end) after a pre-fight buildup where he mused about retirement and Yildirim placed some bad memories of his KO loss to Chris Eubank away from some observers.
I would imagine the WBC would call for an immediate rematch, it seems to be in order.

In the other challenge bouts, Humberto Soto won a unanimous decision over Brandon Rios in Mexico on DAZN in what was a guilty pleasure of a fight.
It was fun to watch between two former world champions that saw each fighter hit and be hit and also shows the value of an unofficial "seniors tour" in boxing.
What I'm trying to say that if some of these fighters are matched properly (I.E. against each other), they can deliver some entertaining fights and hopefully not get hurt.
The guilty part is they are still getting hit with punches that they shouldn't be getting hit with and should be taking no punches at all at a certain stage.
Soto managed to fight hard in spots, countered well off the ropes, and even though he seemed like the smaller fighter going into the match, he looked bigger and blockier than Rios in the ring.
I had the fight closer than the judges at 116-112 for Soto, but the right fighter "got the duke".

In the Showtime co-feature from London, Olympic silver medalist Joe Joyce stopped former WBC champion Bermane Stiverne in six rounds to win a few trinkets and move up in the WBA rankings.
Give Stiverne credit, he did try to win in this one, especially early with some counter rights that found a home with Joyce that was just enough to keep things interesting.
Still, Stiverne ran out of gas quickly and those rights started to be thrown with less and less frequency as Joyce just kept throwing punches.

Stiverne was dropped in the third and might have been better suited to end his evening there, but rose to continue to take a beating until the end in round six.
Hopefully, this will be the last for Stiverne, who likely will soldier on as a trialhorse, but for Joyce-there is work to be done.
I like the punch output and he has more power than similar punchers of volume such as Jarrell Miller. but he was getting hit by the slower Stiverne and I'm looking forward to seeing what he does when the opponent is quicker and stronger.

In a non-televised bout, former IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby overcame a bad cut to decision America Omar Douglas in a lightweight bout.
I have not been able to watch this of this writing.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica 6-5 (the extra point coming from Chris Eubank) to cut his overall lead to 41-40.

Wilder takes care of business!

AP Photo/Kevin Hagen

The biggest bout in the boxing challenge featured the biggest men as Deontay Wilder blew away the only fighter to have lasted the distance with him in just one round as Wilder crushed Bermane Stiverne in their rematch in Brooklyn.
Stiverne, who had fought just one time since his first bout with Wilder, appeared out of shape and didn't land any of the four punches that he threw at Wilder, proved that his top ranking in the WBC was as farcical as it appeared and it appeared that the skills that he once possessed that helped him take Wilder the distance were gone and he needs to retire.
As for Wilder, he did exactly what champions do when you are forced to fight undeserving challengers- dispatch them quickly and impressively as three knockdowns and leaving your opponent unconscious showed in this one.

I've been hard on Wilder's competition in the past and this didn't change that, but it's pretty clear that the time is right for Wilder to step up (or someone to step up and fight him) for a big fight.
Wilder made a lot of noise after the fight about fighting Anthony Joshua and I do believe that he wants that fight badly-mainly because it would prove who the best heavyweight is and bring Wilder the largest payday of his career- especially if Wilder is willing to go to the UK where the fight would sell out an 80,000 seat stadium.
However, is there anything more overdone in boxing than "calling out opponents"that are promoted by someone else, therefore making the said fight difficult to make?
I'm not saying Wilder doesn't want Anthony Joshua, but calling him out doesn't prove anything and I am very weary of fighters from any stable, but especially from the notoriously difficult to deal with PBC talking about fights that they aren't willing to make a deal to close a contract.
Considering the options available for Joshua there (UK fighters that might make Joshua more money at lesser risk such as Tyson Fury, Dillion Whyte and the winner of the Tony Bellew-David Haye rematch) compared to the less than wonderful options available for Wilder, I'd be surprised if this fight happened next year and very surprised to see it happen in the next fight for either man.

As I wrote, Joshua has far more options than Wilder, but that doesn't mean Wilder doesn't have any.
Since Joshua has two belts (WBA and IBF) to Wilder's WBC title if this fight cannot be worked out.
I would go looking for the third champion in WBO champ Joseph Parker, who has not looked great in winning his title against Andy Ruiz or his first title defense vs Hughie Fury.
That fight makes a lot of sense as the winner can claim two titles as Joshua does, Parker is far more likely to come to the United States than Joshua is and Parker has even fewer options than Wilder does, although after his win over Fury, Parker too "called out" Joshua.
It's easy to see that calling out the man that brings the dollars and leverage to the table is much simpler than making the actual fight.

If Wilder (and for that matter Parker) can't make fights against Joshua or each other, I would try to keep them in the ring as much as possible fighting more often.
The heavyweight division is strong at the top with three champions and if Tyson Fury is ever able to return to the ring in a decent mindset, but where it is weakest is in legitimately strong contenders.
Dillon Whyte's biggest "win" was in a loss to Joshua, the same can be argued for Dominic Breazeale, Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller gets his first top 15 test next week on HBO, Kubrat Pulev has an injured shoulder, Carlos Takam has already been beaten by Joshua and Parker, Andy Ruiz hasn't fought since his very close loss to Parker and Luis Ortiz along with Alexander Povetkin cannot be trusted to pass PED tests before title fights and these are the best of the contenders.

Staying active against weaker challengers won't prove much more about Deontay Wilder than we already know from his past soft touches, but it will keep him in front of fans and with each impressive and preferably explosive win, the roar for a Joshua-Wilder showdown will increase.
Of course, we all would love to see this made as soon as the spring and I'm not calling for a "Marinade", but there could be a way to make this a bigger event on this side of the Atlantic and it would come with multiple wins.

The heavyweight division suddenly is exciting, if not filled with proven depth, and if we cannot see Joshua-Wilder soon, let's hope that we see more of them more often against what is available in the heavyweight division....

I'll be back later with the rest of the weekend in boxing...