Boxing Challenge: Charlo Unifies over Castano!

 In another action fight, Jermell Charlo suddenly ended his rematch with Brian Castano with a left hook in the tenth round and stopped him after a second knockdown to take Castano's WBO junior middleweight title and add it to the three (WBA, WBC, and IBF) championships to create the undisputed title in the division for the first time in the four championship era.

I had Charlo leading by one point (86-85) entering the tenth round, so it was another close and exciting fight on my card but Charlo was far ahead on the official judges' cards (by three, five, and seven points) and little did anyone know that at the start of the round, it was Castano that needed a knockout to win.

I thought all of the cards were ridiculous and anything more than a point or two in favor of either fighter was an awful scorecard.

Castano landed more punches and more power shots, yet Charlo led by seven points on one scorecard?

This fight was even better than their first and the styles mesh so well that should Castano win a fight or two on the comeback trail, I would have no issues with the two fighters hooking it up for the third time.

Charlo doesn't seem to have a lot of options for big money despite his status as the undisputed king of the division.

In the division, fights against promising, undefeated mandatory challengers Sebastian Fundora (WBC) and Tim Tszyu (WBO) would provide Charlo with interesting and action affairs with each having a solid chance to dethrone Charlo but neither will provide the champion with an excessively large paycheck either.

What would be a big money fight could be the winner of the Errol Spence-Terence Crawford fight as the unified welterweight champion challenging Charlo for all four of the junior middleweight titles but that likely only happens if Crawford wins as Spence is a Charlo buddy along with sharing a trainer to make a Charlo-Spence fight unlikely at best.

Charlo's brother, Jermall, is having trouble finding big fights at 160 as the WBC champion, so moving to middleweight for big paydays seems to be a long shot, although a title challenge of someone wouldn't be.

Now that I think about it, Charlo could force a challenge against WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade now that he holds their championship, Charlo could use the WBO's rule of a champion vacating their title to move up in weight could immediately become their number one contender at their new weight class.

While I am not always a fan of the Charlo brother's act outside the ring, give Jermell (and not Jermall) all the credit that he deserves- he earned those four titles by fighting everyone that he could and with no excuses.

Charlo may have been aided in his quest by his promotional company controlling all the stars in his division which made unification fights easier to make but the fighter still fought the fights and didn't back down- full credit to Jermell Charlo.

However, the star of the night once again was welterweight sensation Jaron "Boots" Ennis as Ennis became the IBF's mandatory challenger with a destructive second-round knockout of Canadian Custio Clayton with one right hand.

Ennis landed a shot behind the temple that floored Clayton and even though Clayton rose, his balance was severely impaired and the fight was stopped.

Ennis will now wait for the Errol Spence-Terence Crawford drama to play out and will eventually face the winner but will have to wait again for the fight to happen and what is more likely to happen is the titles are vacated after Spence-Crawford with Ennis fighting for one of those belts.

An idea for Ennis?

How about Ennis vs Jermell Charlo?

If the situation at welter drags out for a while and Charlo gets past whichever mandatory challenger is given first dibs between Sebastian Fundora and Tim Tszyu, tell me you wouldn't be all in for a Boots Ennis challenge of Jermell Charlo?

In 1980 lightweight contender Aaron Pryor was ducked by champions Ernesto Espana (WBA) and Jim Watt (WBC) and couldn't find anyone to fight him.

The Robin Hood of Boxing, Harold Smith, financed a title shot for Pryor at junior welterweight against legendary WBA champion Antonio Cervantes and four rounds later, Pryor was the champion and never saw lightweight again.

Ennis certainly has the frame and power for such a move and despite never fighting at the weight, I'd still pick Ennis over Charlo.

Unlikely to occur but fun to think about.

The reason that I didn't howl too loud about the bad scorecards for Charlo-Castano II was it seemed almost normal compared to the heist that was almost pulled in Paris, France as heavyweight Martin Bakole battered former Olympic gold medalist Tony Yoka around the ring for ten rounds, knocking him down twice, and yet would only win a majority decision.

Bakole knocked down Yoka in the first and almost finished him off in round one and would be given credit for a fifth-round knockdown that was really more of a shove.

Bakole, the younger brother of WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makubu, dominated Yoka, broke his nose early in the fight, and bullied him to the point of Yoka fighting for mere survival in the final round when Yoka needed a knockout to save his undefeated record.

But then the scorecards that had Bakole winning by scores of 96-92 (6-4 minus two knockdowns), 95-93 (5-5 and knockdowns), and a downright amazing 94-94 (6-4 for Yoka and knockdowns) were announced to the amazement to those watching.

I had Bakole winning 99-89 with Yoka only winning round seven and maybe if you were kind, one may have been able to give Yoka round six but nothing else was remotely close.

That would have easily been the worst decision that we have seen in a long time and I'd start counting on having to knock Yoka out if my fighter was going to fight him in France.

Boxing fans often talk of fighters being "exposed" as far as their weaknesses and flaws in particular fights and although that's an overused take, it seems to ring true for Yoka, who seemed to have no clue on how to fend off the aggression of Bakole and had little success doing anything more than a jab that Bakole usually walked through and an occasional right hand.

Yoka entered the fight rated fifth by the IBF, ninth by the WBC, and thirteenth in the WBA ratings, so Bakole's win should allow him to appear in the ratings and might see him leap into involvement in the eliminators held by the IBF to establish their mandatory challenger for the winner of the Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua rematch.

It's too bad that the judges will be remembered longer than the best effort of Bakole's career.

I'll be back later with the rest of the boxing weekend from DAZN and the return of Triller PPV.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 72 Pts (2)

Vince Samano: 64 Pts (5)

Ramon Malpica: 62 Pts (4) 

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: Castano wins WBO Title, Diaz draws.

    In the most meaningful fight of the boxing weekend (Josh Warrington's surprising loss to Mauricio Lara may have closed the gap, but it wasn't expected to be important entering the weekend), Brian Castano dominated Patrick Teixeira and easily won a unanimous decision in Indio, California to take the WBO junior middleweight title.

I scored Castano an easy 119-110 winner and the tough but overmatched Teixeira barely survived the final round as Castano attempted to score the stoppage.

Castano's pressure suffocated the taller and longer champion, didn't allow him to use his extremely long reach, and left the Brazilian with nothing but heart by the end of the fight.

Castano is likely to take his newly won title into a four title unification against fellow PBC champion Jermell Charlo later this year in what should be a very intriguing battle.

Charlo was on social media before the fight pushing for a Castano win, which is fine considering that that's an easy fight to make promotionally, but his hashtag "Imtryintoavoidpolitics" makes me think this- I get why you want Castano to win, but you are only trying to avoid politics because the promotion you fight for is the least likely to work with anyone.

Charlo's brother Jermall is in the opposite position in the middleweight division where he needs to cross over to make big fights- Is he trying to avoid politics too?

In the main event, the IBF junior lightweight title will be vacant after champion Joseph Diaz missed weight, and with the title only available for challenger Shavkat Rakhimov, Diaz managed a late rally to pull out a majority decision draw.

Rakhimov built a large lead on the scorecards, but Diaz won the final four rounds on my card to salvage a 114-114 tally.

Two of the judges agreed with me with the other calling Diaz a slim victor at 115-113.

My guess is with the majority draw on the road and against a fighter that didn't hurt himself trying to make weight, the IBF will pit Rakhimov against the highest available contender to fill the championship.

As for Diaz, although the decision was just, his behavior since defeating Tevin Farmer to win the IBF title has been less than professional.

Refusing to fight the contractually obligated rematch for the agreed-upon rate, getting into social media battles with Farmer, and then missing weight for the Rakhimov fight makes me wonder how many people in boxing other than his long-time promoter in Golden Boy would have very much faith in Diaz's word.

Ronny Rios looked very strong in overpowering Oscar Negrete in a ten-round junior featherweight crossroads fight.

Negrete tried his best, but the naturally larger Rios ground Negrete down with his aggression and Rios looked as good as he has in years and could be nearing a possible title eliminator.

I scored Rios a 99-91 winner and for Negrete, he might be better served to return to the bantamweight division where he seems better-suited size-wise.

On ESPN, former IBF lightweight champion Richard Commey entered the ring for the first time since losing his title to Teofimo Lopez and looked to return to his old form in stopping Jackson Marinez in six rounds.

Commey took apart Marinez, who outboxed the raw prospect Rolando Romero in his previous fight but was robbed on the scorecards, and didn't allow Marinez to move around the ring.

Commey knocked Marinez down in the sixth and an argument could be made the fight could have been ended there, but Commey would not allow Marinez to benefit from the chance as he landed a punishing right hand that bounced Marinez off the ropes and on the floor for the immediate stoppage.

Commey can still be a championship contender, but a Lopez rematch is very unlikely and I doubt that Devon Haney, Gervonta Davis, or Ryan Garcia will risk a low-reward fight against someone with another promotion.

In the boxing challenge, I scored four points to Ramon Malpica's three over the weekend to move the total to 10-8.

Boxing Challenge: PBC and Boxing Notes

Finishing up the boxing challenge from the weekend from the PBC in Oxon Hill, Maryland, where both favorites notched impressive victories.

Former minor junior lightweight champion Javier Fortuna demolished former minor featherweight champion Jesus Cuellar in only two rounds in a lightweight bout.
Fortuna knocked Cuellar down near the end of the first round and might have finished him then and there, but the bell delayed the ending until the following round when two additional knockdowns ended the fight.
Cuellar looks to be near the end of the line, while Fortuna might be an opponent for Gervonta Davis after Davis dispatches Yuriorkis Gamboa as he is expected to do in December.

Junior middleweight Brian Castano bounced back from his draw with Erislandy Lara with a TKO win over Wale Omotoso when Omotoso couldn't continue at the end of the fifth round due to a shoulder injury, I thought Castano won all five rounds, but Omotoso did fire back and land enough to make it interesting.
Omotoso will likely return to undercards, while Castano could still be in the mix at junior middleweight considering the depth of the PBC at the 154 pound division against WBA /IBF champion Julian Williams, Erislandy Lara in a rematch, the winner of the WBC title rematch between Tony Harrison and Jermell Charlo or possibly Jarrett Hurd, should he decide to stay in the division.

The WBC is well on its way to replacing the WBA as the most ridiculous sanctioning body (although knowing the WBA, I'm sure that it won't take long for them to say "Hold my beer".) as they use clever names that sound prestigious for their "world" such as silver, diamond, etc compared to the WBA's super (the real champion), regular and interim titles.
In any case, there should only be one champion for each sanctioning body and the minor titles?
Well, there used to be this thing called being the number one contender that if they held a title at all, it was a regional title that held importance such as the NABF, USBA and the European championships.

However, the latest WBC title takes the cake and will result in even fewer unified champions.
The WBC's recent decision to create something called their "franchise" champion strains the term for ridiculous and it's a stain on boxing.
The first fighter that was given this was Canelo Alvarez and minor beltholder Jermall Charlo was elevated to the full championship.
Next up was Vasyl Lomachenko, who had made unifying all four titles at lightweight his goal and went out of his way to make a fight with Luke Campbell for the vacant WBC title to grab the third title that he needed.
Shortly thereafter, Lomachenko is stripped of the 'real' WBC title, it gets handed to Devin Haney and as a result, after next spring when Lomachenko fights the Richard Commey-Teofimo Lopez winner, that winner will have three titles when they could have four.
The franchise champion is not only a scam to create more titles and lessen the odds of a fully unified four-belt champion, but it's also a money-making scam.
In the case of Lomachenko, they'll continue to receive sanctioning fees for "franchise" defenses, which is even stupider when you consider that franchise champions cannot lose their title designation even with a loss and they can milk said fees from Devin Haney's title defenses!
What I'd really like to see is for Lomachenko to tell the WBC to shove their franchise belt and state this- I won your real title, I don't want this made-up title just for you to keep your hands in my pocket, give me the title I won in the ring or I won't be participating in these fights.
AKA- I'm not giving you money to sanction something meaningless.
It's the only way to make this silliness go away.

DAZN started the Kovalev-Alvarez fight after 1 o'clock in the morning after an agreement with UFC boss Dana White to not have the UFC event run at the same time as the Canelo fight.
While I understand the reasoning behind the decision for both sides, the question that I would ask is this- IF you did not want to make the audience choose or you didn't really care about the audience being able to watch both events, Why did one or the other insist on running on the same date?
This hasn't bothered promoters before, why the sudden concern?
When I arrived at the road office and began to watch the DAZN coverage, I was there for two hours and forty-five minutes and watched the one round of Ryan Garcia vs Romero Duno before the start of the main event.
I understand not wanting to lose viewers from either side and DAZN has claimed to gain subscribers from the tactic, but that could be a short-term victory.
I understand working with another entity to help both sides, but couldn't DAZN either start earlier and have Canelo's fight before the UFC card or put Canelo-Kovalev in the middle of the card at least?
It's not a good move to have the games biggest start fighting at 1:30 in the morning and hopefully, DAZN takes their money (subscribers), runs, and does not do anything like this again.

As for Canelo Alvarez, who may not be the best fighter in the world, but certainly is boxing's biggest draw and star. it is interesting to think of what's next for the two-division (nope not counting his minor title at 168) champion and has he boxed himself into a corner with all the fighters that he has ruled out facing.

I have my doubts that Canelo stays at light heavyweight to defend the WBO title that he won from Sergey Kovalev.
Kovalev had fought a mandatory (Anthony Yarde) before his fight with Canelo, so Canelo wouldn't have to fight a mandatory challenger right away, although his mandatory would be fellow Mexican Gilberto Ramirez, who has yet to fight at light heavyweight, but used the WBO rule that a champion of theirs that vacates a title to move up in weight will automatically become the number one contender in their new division.
Oleksandr Usyk has used this rule to be the heavyweight mandatory and Terence Crawford has used this rule twice in his career, so it's not created for Ramirez.
Canelo-Ramirez would be a strong draw for the Latino audience and it might be able to be made, although who knows what Canelo will want to do if it's made, it will be a draw.
I could see Canelo fighting Ramirez, even with Ramirez fighting for Top Rank, and I can see him fighting WBA champion Dmitry Bivol, who is a promotional free agent, isn't a huge puncher or an especially big light heavyweight, but as much as I would love to see it, I see no chance that Canelo steps into the ring with WBC and IBF champion Artur Beterbiev, who like Gilberto Ramirez is promoted by Top Rank.
Canelo will fight GGG two more times before he fights that wrecking ball!

The natural fight would be Gennady Golovkin for the third time, but Alvarez insists that GGG brings nothing to the table that interests him.
I disagree but assuming that is actually the case, who would offer anything for him?
If Alvarez's stance of not fighting Golovkin for the third time is firm, the other fight that would make sense would be WBA super middleweight champion, Callum Smith.
Smith has the real WBA title, won the World Boxing Super Series last year, and comes with a built-in backstory since Canelo knocked out Callum's brother Liam in 2016.
Canelo vs Smith makes sense and could be an entertaining fight, but Canelo would be favored.

The three other champions at super middleweight don't seem likely for Alvarez either.
WBC champion David Benavidez and IBF kingpin Caleb Plant are promoted by PBC and off the table and while WBO boss Billy Joe Saunders is with DAZN through Matchroom, Saunders is a lighter Tyson Fury as he outboxes, frustrates and confuses opponents.
Saunders won't bring a lot of notice, likely will make a less than exciting fight and I'd rate him a live dog to pull a massive upset.
Add all of those factors up and I'd rate Saunders a long shot to land a Canelo fight.

Canelo could drop all the back to 160, but I'm not sure who is there either that he'll be interested in fighting.
Alvarez says IBF champion Gennady Golovkin and WBO titleholder Demetrius Andrade hold next to no interest for him, WBC champion Jermall Charlo is with PBC and Alvarez's minor titleholder in the WBA (Alvarez holds the main WBA belt) is Ryota Murata, who is promoted by Top Rank and would only bring interest if Canelo was willing to go to Japan.
The WBA's number one contender is Chris Eubank Jr and Eubank would be a draw in England, but not in the U.S. yet as Eubank's American debut vs Matt Korobov is on Jermall Charlo's undercard for Charlo's fight vs Dennis Hogan and likely would only fight Canelo if Canelo didn't want to lose his WBA title and was forced to fight Eubank.

So to answer the question that I asked earlier- Has Canelo boxed himself into a corner?
Maybe not, perhaps there is a freak show for big money somewhere...

Boxing Challenge: Lara and Castano even at the end

The Barclays Center may have been generously listed as half-filled and only may have been actually attended by half of that number, but the main event on Showtime was a pretty solid fight as former WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara battled Argentina's Brian Castano to a draw for Castano's minor title.

Lara won most of the early rounds on my card, three of the first four before Castano won four of the next six with a solid body attack and didn't allow Lara to move away from Castano's swarming attack, although Lara had his moments as well.
The fight was even after ten rounds and could have easily gone either way in both the eleventh and twelfth rounds with both fighters scoring well.
I gave Lara both rounds by a close margin and as a result the fight at 115-113.
The scores were very fair with each fighter earning a winning card of 7-5 in rounds with the deciding card scoring the fight even at 6-6.
The once-thoroughbred like legs of Lara have slowed from his prime and the resulting fighter is a more exciting fighter to watch, but one that currently allows opponents that previously would not have been competitive against Lara to suddenly have success against him.
Castano may not be an elite fighter, but he certainly proved himself to be qualified and I might even lean his way in a possible rematch against the 35-year-old Lara.

The other fight didn't prove anything that we didn't know as heavyweight contender Luis Ortiz dominated Christian Hammer in winning a unanimous decision.
Ortiz won on my card 99-91 and other than Ortiz staying busy and Hammer showing a strong chin, very little was accomplished in what appears to be the last Showtime Championship Boxing card for a while, although the network does have a few ShoBox cards scheduled.

Ramon Malpica and I earned one point in the boxing challenge, where Ramon keeps a one point lead at 42-41.