Boxing Challenge: Andrade decisions Williams

    The boxing weekend didn't see any huge upsets, but it did see some interesting fights with possible reverberations down the road.  

Saturday afternoon from Matchroom/DAZN saw Hollywood, Florida as the site for Demetrius Andrade's successful defense of his WBO middleweight title.

Andrade won a clear unanimous decision and knocked Williams down in the second round with a straight left, but Williams did have his moments and the fight was more exciting than the usual lopsided Andrade fight.

I scored Andrade a 117-109 winner (9-3 with the knockdown).

Andrade was hit occasionally by Williams and showed enough vulnerability that you would think any of the other three champions (WBC Jermall Charlo, WBA Ryota Murata, and IBF Gennady Golovkin) would be interested in a unification fight more than perhaps in the past.

I doubt it, but perhaps.

Andrade now has his mandatory out of the way for the year, but I (and Andrade with promoter Eddie Hearn) have next to no idea on Andrade's next defense unless the unlikely event that the three mentioned champions decides Andrade is suddenly worth the risk.

In the co-feature, undefeated super middleweight Carlos Gongora dominated Christopher Pearson and won every round through seven and finished Pearson off in the eighth.

Pearson appeared as if he could have risen, but took the ten count as he had clearly had enough of Gongora for the evening.

I'd like to see Gongora against a better challenger and he would make a very interesting fight for quite a few of the contenders in the division.

In the main event on Fox, former WBC junior middleweight champion Tony Harrison was rocked early by Bryant Perrella and outworked over most of the twelve-round fight by Perrella, who moved up in weight for this fight.

Harrison seemed a bit listless in his first fight since losing to Jermell Charlo and didn't move his hands enough, which likely cost him the fight as when Harrison picked up the pace he was effective against Perrella.

Harrison was fortunate to escape with a draw in a difficult bout to score.

I thought Perrella shaded it 115-113, but the Perrella judge scored 117-111 ( too wide), the Harrison judge scored 116-112 ( too wide), and the final judge scored 114-114, which seemed fair.

And then there was Twiller.

Peter Kahn (Twiller's chief boxing officer) has been all over the boxing podcast circuit with several respected members of the boxing media over the last two weeks talking about what Twiller is going to bring to boxing.

While I'm all for more attention and more exposure to the sport, I'm not sure that attention and exposure of a positive nature are coming anytime soon for what was essentially a freak show last night from Atlanta.

I'll be writing more later in the week about a pay per view card that seemed to be straight from a carnival that included YouTube star Jake Paul vs MMA fighter Ben Askren, former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir boxing against former IBF cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham, lots of musicians and comedians, Ric Flair officiating a "Slap Fight" with Saturday Night Live's Pete Davidson, about ten people commentating on the matches that ranged from a bemused Al Bernstein to a clearly inebriated (TONS of Marijuana references and use on this show) Oscar De La Hoya and Snoop Dog, and all of this looked like it was filmed in an abandoned warehouse with lousy lighting.

With all of that said, they may do strong numbers and I am anxious to see how well they do in PPV buys.

If they are successful, full credit to them because they are finding an audience that boxing clearly isn't getting without them.

However, is it sustainable and how many times can you play the card of gimmick shows before people tune out?

I don't have the answer to that question.

In the only real boxing match that mattered, former WBA junior welterweight Regis Prograis won the first five rounds in controlling veteran Ivan Redkach before round six when Redkach was hit with what was ruled a low blow, sold the injury like he was Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, and was unable to continue.

The reaction on Twitter was mixed with most people stating that Redkach wasn't even hit with a punch at all or if so it was a glancing shot.

Others thought that Redkach had been smashed in the kidneys and the result was believable.

In any case, Redkach was carried out on a stretcher, while I waited for a wrestler to come out of nowhere and overturn the stretcher as happened so often in pro wrestling of days past, and the fight moved to the scorecards with Prograis winning the justified unanimous decision.

What a trainwreck.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored five points on the day, which moves the total to 50-46 on the year.

Boxing Challenge: Ryan Garcia dazzles!

The boxing challenge for this week saw four fights filled with interesting, if predictable results.

Friday night in Anaheim, California saw Ryan Garcia deliver an impressive first-round knockout of former world title challenger Francisco Fonseca.
Garcia blasted Fonseca with one counter left hook that sent Fonseca to the floor and when Fonseca's head thumped off the mat, the fight was immediately stopped.
Ryan Garcia has now stopped his two toughest opponents in the first round and is beginning to convert some non-believers.
Garcia will be tested in the future, but even the most fervent skeptic has to be impressed with his last two wins.

And that test might come in Ryan Garcia's next fight against former three-division champion Jorge Linares, who might have been the most impressive winner of the weekend had Garcia not been so explosive, as Linares stopped Carlos Morales in the fourth round.
Morales had lost a very competitive majority decision to Garcia last year, but was confounded by the attack of the always-smooth Linares, who dropped Morales in the third before completing the task in the fourth.
Garcia-Linares is a fight that I am excited about and could go either way.
I can see Linares and his elite skills baffling Garcia and teaching the young prospect a few tricks and winning, but I can also see that happening and the paper-mache' jaw of Linares (Linares has lost five times by stoppage) gives out for a Garcia win.
Garcia-Linares should be a good one.

And then there's PBC on Fox with another "Ahem" thrilling Caleb Plant domination of a no-hoper to defend his IBF super-middleweight title, this time with a tenth round knockout of mandatory contender Vincent Feigenbutz in Plant's hometown of Nashville.
Plant dominated the lumbering German, won every round on my card and was rarely hit in return.
Plant is very skilled and could be a handful for anyone at 168, but still has only one win over anyone in the top 25 and for his talk of wanting to "face anyone", hasn't seemed remotely interested in actually fighting them.

The co-main was nothing special until the final half-minute as welterweight Bryant Perrella built a huge lead on the scorecards until he was floored by a vicious uppercut by Abel Ramos.
Perrella barely rose and soon was sent to the canvas again, but a badly hurt Perrella got up by referee Jack Reiss called off the fight with one second to go in the fight.
Perrella was in very bad shape and usually, I wouldn't have had an issue with the stoppage as the fighter wasn't likely to stand up under more punishment.
However with one second to go, Ramos wasn't going to land any punches, Perrella was going to win the fight on the scorecards and it seemed a bit unfair to me.
I'm not buying the referee shouldn't hold that into account either, the ten-second thump on the mat is used for a reason, which is why I think it was a bad call.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and each scored five points on the week.
I lead the challenge 29-25.