Boxing Challenge: Beterbiev barrels over Smith

     Artur Beterbiev was expected to have a difficult evening defending his WBC, IBF, and WBO light heavyweight championships against former WBA super middleweight champion Callum Smith in Quebec City with even more at stake than his three belts.

It wasn't as the usually slow-starting Beterbiev aggressively bullied Smith from the beginning of the fight and never stopped in delivering a punishing attack that left Smith swollen and bruised around both eyes and knocking him down for the first time in his career with Smith hitting the mat twice in the seventh round before Smith's trainer Buddy McGirt entering the ring to surrender for his fighter honorably.

Smith did have some success hitting Beterbiev but the punches didn't have any effect and they could not slow the attack of the thirty-nine-year-old Russian native, now a Canadian citizen.

Beterbiev looked terrific in grinding the gallant Smith down. The win should see the long-hoped-for unification fight between Beterbiev and WBA champion Dmitry Bivol in the summer in Saudi Arabia.

The Beterbiev-Bivol fight is so intriguing because you can make a legitimate case for Betebiev breaking Bivol down or Bivol brilliantly outboxing Beterbiev for twelve rounds.

Super middleweight contender, Christian Mbilli battered Rohan Murdock before Murdock's corner stopped the fight after round six.

Murdock gave all he had and tried bravely but took the full arsenal of the varied offense of Mbilli and took far too much punishment than he deserved.

Mbilli looks to be ready for the best in the division and I'd give him a live chance against any of the top fighters at 168, which includes Canelo Alvarez and David Benavidez.

The best fight of the night saw Jason Moloney retain his WBO bantamweight title with a hard-fought majority decision over Saul Sanchez.

The fight was a bit marred by several clashes of heads on the inside, cutting Moloney in the early rounds and leaving both men bloody by the end of the fight, with several strong battles in the trenches.

Several close rounds could go to either fighter, so my score of 115-113 for Sanchez was the outlier on the cards of 114-114 and 116-112 x2 for Moloney.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 10 Pts (5) 

Ramon Malpica: 9 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 2 Pts (1) 

Boxing Challenge: Usyk retains title in Joshua rematch

   Oleksandr Usyk survived a rocky ninth round, swept the final three rounds to clinch a split decision win over Anthony Joshua in their rematch, and retained his WBA, IBF, and WBO championships in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Joshua gave a much more spirited effort than in their first bout and after rocking Usyk badly in the ninth seemed on the verge of regaining the championship for a third reign.

However, the Pride of Ukraine wasn't about to allow that to happen as Usyk immediately grabbed control in the tenth round as he hurt Joshua and swept the final three rounds on my scorecard for a 116-112 win.

I thought the fight was close entering the final round and had Joshua won that round, I might have understood a scorecard of a draw but I was surprised to see a 115-113 score for Joshua that was overruled by the two judges giving Usyk the edge at 115-113 and 116-112.

While this fight was far more entertaining than the first affair, I don't think we need a third fight for a while in a similar matter to Deontay Wilder's great attempt in losing his third fight to Tyson Fury.

It was a good fight but Joshua needs to reestablish himself and move on (for now) as Deontay Wilder is doing as well.

Joshua stated that he will be back in the ring in December, which is a good thing to be more active, and while I still think there is lots of money in a Joshua-Wilder clash, I'm dubious of that happening.

After all, if Al Haymon and Eddie Hearn couldn't get this done for the unified heavyweight championship for all of those dollars so close, why should I expect them to agree for smaller, although sizable paydays as contenders?

As for Usyk, the logical next fight would be the unification bout with WBC champion Tyson Fury, who waffles back and forth on his future as most people flip the cool side of the pillow in order to grab attention but is unlikely to turn away the big bucks for a Usyk fight.

I'll say this and I respect the talent and ability of Tyson Fury but I'll be rooting for Oleksandr Usyk in that one for a few reasons- most of which are personal preferences of mine.

Usyk is entertaining yet not clownish and doesn't need the constant attention, it would be a wonderful thing that his home country of Ukraine could use right now, and I would like to move away a bit from the hulking heavyweights that have come into vogue over the last decade or two.

It's an intriguing fight that Fury will be favored in but I still remember that Steve Cunningham knockdown against Fury and Cunningham was a natural cruiserweight as well.

Fury will be the firm favorite and deservedly so with his advantages but this is the first time that he will be facing a fighter with more skills and more experience- Sleep on the chances of Oleksandr Usyk at your own betting peril.

The undercard was very entertaining with two fights that were very close and a former world champion scoring a devastating knockout.

Filip Hrgovic held off the attack of the surprising Zhilei Zhang and became the mandatory challenger in the IBF for Oleksandr Usyk with a close unanimous decision victory.

Zhang scored a flash knockdown in the first round, which made the difference on my card as I thought Zhang earned the nod by a 114-113 score.

The judges disagreed with all scoring for Hrgrovic by scores of 115-112 (x2) and 114-113.

Both fighters were hurt during the fight with Hrgrovic wobbling around the ring in the seventh round and he was fortunate that the round ended when it did.

Hrgovic was cut in the third from the scalp from a headbutt and Zhang ended the fight with heavy bruises and marks around both of his eyes.

Both fighters had their excellent moments and neither fighter could fully keep command of the fight as each landed their share of power punches.

Hrgovic showed some vulnerabilities that he hadn't in the past and Zhang redeemed himself a bit for his lackluster draw with Jerry Forrest in his previous test against better heavyweights.

A fun twelve-rounder and while I'm not sure either is ready for a title shot, the pair meshed for a tight and exciting co-feature.

Former WBA and WBC super middleweight champion Callum Smith moved to the top contender spot in the WBC ratings with a spectacular fourth-round knockout of Mathieu Bauderlique.

Smith lost the first two rounds on my card but in the third began to reach the Frenchman with long right hands.

Smith landed a left early in the fourth round that caused Bauderlique to use his glove to keep him off the floor, which is a knockdown, and shortly after rising, Bauderlique moved into full retreat and attempted to fend off Smith but ate a left hook that sent him to the mat and the fight ended before a count.

Smith is now in a position to eventually challenge WBC/IBF and WBO light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev sometime in 2023 after Beterbiev's WBO mandatory is fulfilled against Great Britain's Anthony Yarde.

Former WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack won a split decision over formerly undefeated Richard Rivers in an excellent cruiserweight action fight that will be remembered for more than only the action.

The first was the crazy eighth round which lasted for a minute longer than it should have and Jack landed several punishing bombs during that minute on Rivera, which likely gave the edge to Jack for the round and took a lot of energy from Rivera during the final two rounds.

Had the round ended properly, Rivera would have likely gotten the round and the fight would have ended in a majority draw.

Both fighters gave as good as they received and the split decision for Jack was reasonable at 96-94 from two judges with the other scoring 96-94 for Rivera.

I split the difference with a 95-95 scorecard, so my major issue is with the comatose timekeeper, not the scoring.

The other memorable portion of this fight was the commitment to Rivera of his gimmick as Popeye which included wearing the character's hat and pipe during his ring introductions, using Popeye on his waistband, and quickly sliding back into the costume after the fight.

Give credit as this was an entertaining evening of boxing even if the crowd seemed like they were relatively disengaged and not very excitable despite the action.

I will be back next with the Showtime and ESPN action from the weekend as my Sunday fantasy football draft took away my writing time on Sunday.

Boxing Challenge

TRS:148 Pts (5)

Ramon Malpica:126 Pts (5)

Vince Samano:116 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: Usyk Dethrones Joshua

     The boxing world lost arguably its biggest fight when Anthony Joshua was upset in his native London by unanimous decision to Oleksandr Usyk and lost his WBA, IBF, and WBO championships to the former cruiserweight champion.

The defeat ended hopes of a Joshua-Tyson Fury fight that would have unified all four heavyweight titles next spring and makes fans wonder where the division is going after Fury fights Deontay Wilder next month.

I wrote in my preview of the fight that I almost picked Usyk and had he looked a bit more impressive in his two heavyweight wins, I would have done so.

I thought that should Usyk defeat Joshua, he would do so in similar ways as Michael Spinks had surprised the larger Larry Holmes- keep the larger man off balance with lunges on the inside, getting out before he can be hit and when he is on the outside, stay far enough outside that he isn't hit there.

Usyk did all of these well and smoothly but the bigger surprise was that Usyk was the more powerful puncher of the two as he stunned Joshua several times during the bout and badly hurt Joshua with under a minute to go in the final round, driving a dazed Joshua into the ropes and if there would have been another minute to go in the fight. I think Usyk might have put Joshua away.

Usyk swept the final five rounds of the fight on my card to win 117-111 (9-3) and two of the official cards were close to mine at 117-112 and 116-112 with the other card for Usyk at 115-113 which I thought was a little closer than it was, but there were three close rounds on my card (I gave two of three to Usyk) so that isn't a crazy scorecard.

Joshua is expected to activate his rematch clause for next spring, the WBC is expected to mandate that next month's Dillian Whyte-Otto Wallin winner will immediately face the Fury-Wilder winner so a unified championship isn't happening before next fall and the real fly in the ointment to all of this could happen if Wilder would defeat Fury as I doubt Al Haymon puts Wilder in with Usyk at all.

Remember for all the vast power that Deontay Wilder possesses, he isn't a large heavyweight and he's closer in size to Usyk than he is Fury, so with Usyk's boxing ability I don't see a path for a Usyk-Wilder fight should Wilder win.

Give credit to a history-making effort by Oleksandr Usyk and credit to Anthony Joshua who could have folded his tent in the late rounds when he suffered an eye socket injury and caused his eye to swell almost shut and instead fought through to finish the fight.

On the undercard, Lawrence Okolie retained his WBO cruiserweight title with a third-round knockout of unknown Dilan Prasovic.

Okolie scored a late knockdown in the second round and quickly finished off Prasovic with a body shot early in the third.

I'd like to Okolie against IBF champion Mairis Bredis next to establish the winner as the best cruiserweight in the world.

Callum Smith crushed Lenin Castillo with one right hand that scared anyone that saw it as Castillo twitched badly while on the canvas.

Castillo was reported fine after a hospital trip and the win by Smith was very impressive as Castillo had never been stopped before and had lasted the full twelve rounds against WBA champion Dmitry Bivol.

For Smith, it could see Bivol in his future as Bivol's championship is the only one of the four not controlled by Top Rank and Bivol has worked with Smith's promoter Matchroom in the past.

In Madrid. the comeback of former middleweight champion Sergio Martinez continued with a unanimous decision over veteran Briton Brian Rose.

I scored Martinez a 97-93 winner and Martinez survived a rough second round where Rose had Martinez in a good deal of trouble.

I'm not really sure if I'm ready to state that Martinez is ready for a title shot, but even at 46 he's still capable of competing against anyone other than the elite and just under the elite of the division.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica five to four with the difference being a bonus point scored by me for calling the round of the Lawrence Okolie knockout win.

I lead the challenge 130-114.

Boxing Challenge: Canelo Bullies Callum Smith, Hamburglar Alert in CT!

  Using a brutal body attack and imposing his physical prowess, Canelo Alvarez easily brushed aside Callum Smith in San Antonio to win Smith's WBA super-middleweight title and add the WBC title that was left vacant by David Benavidez missing weight in his last planned title defense.

Alvarez broke Smith down, especially to the body and caused Smith to retreat throughout the fight as the taller man was not the more physical fighter.

Alvarez landed repeated uppercuts that busted Smith open and caused him to literally wince in the late rounds and Smith bravely survived to the final bell.

I scored Alvarez a 119-109 winner, giving Smith only the sixth round.

A dominant victory by Alvarez and by methodically eliminating the top fighter in the division, Alvarez has several fighters that he could face from as many as five weight divisions, so who knows who will be next to face him.

Some of these fights I like better than others, especially considering styles, but it'll be interesting to see who the next opponent is, considering that Alvarez can deal with any promoter that he wishes.

On Showtime from Uncasville, Connecticut, the Hamburglar rose his ugly head with an awful decision as Reymart Gaballo won an awful split decision for a minor tile over former IBF bantamweight champion Emmanuel Rodriguez.

It was not an exciting fight, but the heralded Gaballo didn't rise to expectations as Rodriguez just outboxed him and Gaballo didn't win a round until the second half of the fight on my card and even then only two rounds, as Rodriguez won 118-110 on my scorecard.

Just an awful decision.

On the undercard, welterweight Jaron Ennis collided heads with veteran Chris Van Heerden in round one with the fight being stopped due to a bad cut on Van Heerden.

Too bad as I was looking forward to see Ennis get some experience against a rugged warhorse that once went eight rounds with Errol Spence.

In the opener, bantamweight Gary Antonio Russell won a unanimous technical decision over former WBA champion Juan Carlos Payano, due to an accidental headbutt.

I haven't watched this one yet, so no comments on the Russell win...

From Spain, former middleweight champion Sergio Martinez continued his comeback with a ninth round stoppage of Jussi Koivula of Finland via cuts.

A Martinez right had cut Koivula in the eighth round and the fight was stopped in the corner.

Martinez led on my card 78-74, but he's clearly not at the world-class level and he is turning 46 in February.

Martinez can win fights of this type, but I am skeptical on his chances against even the back half of the top ten-fifteen contenders.

In boxing challenge action, I scored five points to Ramon Malpica's four to move my lead to 188-177.

Boxing Challenge: Wilder crunches Ortiz, Callum Smith creaks by Ryder

For almost seven complete rounds, Luis Ortiz was trying to complete his rematch with Deontay Wilder such as a jockey that is attempting to hold the lead at a very slow pace to lessen the chances of a stronger closer coming off the pace for a victory.

However, when you have the fastest gun in the game on your side it only takes one shot to end a fight.
And it only takes one mistake even as Ortiz was landing well be on his way to winning another round when Wilder fired one right hand.
That right hand landed flush and when the smoke cleared, it was only Wilder standing and keeping the WBC heavyweight title via seventh-round knockout in Las Vegas.
I had Ortiz ahead 59-55 after six rounds and would have likely given him the seventh, had the round ended.
The fight wasn't filled with activity and could have been called dull as both fighters respected the power of the other and rarely engaged.
I'm not really sure what this fight answered that we didn't already know- Deontay Wilder can erase a lot of effective boxing with one shot and Deontay Wilder can look pretty ordinary against good fighters while he waits for one shot.
Wilder moves onto the rematch with Tyson Fury in what appears to be February in another intriguing
fight.
Tyson Fury is the one fighter that took Wilder's best shot and got up, and Deontay Wilder is the one fighter that proved that he can hurt Tyson Fury when he lands, so the rematch is certainly very interesting.
Now, if we can just talk PBC and Top Rank into a cross-promotional fight or two on the undercard.

The undercard looked promising and then crumbled before the fight.
My favorite fight between two of the top five bantamweights in the world was canceled when Luis Nery missed weight by a pound and Emmanuel Rodriguez refused to accept compensation to fight an overweight Nery, so the fight was sadly canceled.
I think I'm with Rodriguez here.
Rodriguez is coming off his first career loss, is fighting a very talented former champion that has a PED history and has a history of missing weight.
When you consider all of those facts, should you risk another second loss against a fighter that is stronger for not hitting the weight mark for a couple thousand dollars?
I completely understand Rodriguez not proceeding and since this fight was a WBC title eliminator, the fair thing is to declare Rodriguez the top contender and refuse to rank Nery at 118 pounds.
Considering it's the WBC, the likely decision is likely to make this the fault of Rodriguez and give Nery the mandatory position.
Sarcasm mildly intended.

And if you thought Luis Nery was unprofessional, please allow me to introduce Julio Ceja!
Ceja, a former WBC junior featherweight champion, entered his fight with minor Titleist Brandon Figueroa after a terrific try against Guillermo Rigondeaux that saw him on the wrong side of an early stoppage while leading on the scorecards.
Ceja's effort against Rigondeaux was the best ever against the Cuban ( other than his ill-advised attempt against Vasyl Lomachenko), so Ceja had some goodwill in the bank that went awry when
Ceja missed weight by a stunning FOUR and a quarter pounds!
To put that in perspective, Ceja would have been overweight for a featherweight title fight and this was scheduled for the 122-pound junior featherweight division.
Figueroa decided to accept the fight when he was both compensated financially and assured by the sanctioning body that he would not lose his minor title, should he lose.
And here is why the argument made by Emmanuel Rodriguez for not accepting the extra money against an overweight opponent made sense because Figueroa's normally a very good puncher and he just couldn't hurt the larger Ceja in an excellent fight.
Figueroa-Ceja ended in a draw and it was fun to watch, but Ceja had such an artificial edge with the weight advantage that you wondered just how much that played into the fight.
Ceja has been knocked out three times in his career, yet Figueroa, a very good puncher, couldn't move him at all.
I scored Ceja a 115-113 winner in a fight that was very close and felt bad for Figueroa in the situation.

The co-feature was another gift for Leo Santa Cruz, who seems to thrive on winning vacant titles against questionable competition and then sitting on them until he rises in weight.
Santa Cruz won his fourth world title (from three different organizations.) with a unanimous decision over Miguel Flores to add the WBA junior lightweight title to his trophy case and won few fans in doing so.
Santa Cruz fights usually follow the same pattern, landing lots of punches, with not a lot of power, and his overmatched opponents are defeated on the scorecards, but generally unhurt.
This fight followed that template as I gave Flores the first round and no others, so the scorecard isn't the issue for me.
My issue with Santa Cruz is this- he's talented and has won four "titles". but is only 1-1 against top-notch fighters, splitting a series with Carl Frampton and his two wins over Abner Mares after Mares had slipped past his best are his only other notable wins.
I'm not sure what the issues are with Santa Cruz, is it that he doesn't want to fight top opponents and is satisfied with belts and money?
Or is it that his promoters choose not to roll the dice and gamble Santa Cruz against someone that could beat him?
I wonder about the PBC sometimes in these situations with fighters that haven't fought good competition and how it happens with examples such as Santa Cruz, Gary Russell, and Gervonta Davis.
My guesses are as follows:
Gervonta Davis is a fighter that is "on the wrong side of the street" (I'm really beginning to hate that phrase) promotionally in his division and has a chance to win against the best in the game.
Davis has that kind of ability but needs a breakout win that PBC seems unwilling or unable to provide.
Russell has tons of talent but seems content to fight once a year, keep a title, cash a nice check, and not challenge himself.
Santa Cruz isn't as talented as the above two and has been protected from fighters such as Russell (both are featherweight champions with PBC and could easily fight) and either his management or promotion realizes this and is protecting him for as long as possible.

We move to DAZN with cards from Matchroom and Golden Boy and a very interesting result that has been overshadowed by the Wilder-Ortiz fight.

Matchroom's main event from Liverpool, England looked to be a stay busy fight as Callum Smith, who is looked at by most as the top super middleweight in the world, defended his WBA title against countryman John Ryder, who entered the fight on a four-fight upset streak with all four wins over undefeated or one-loss fighters.
However, the biggest name on Ryder's record was Rocky Fielding in a loss, so Smith was a prohibitive favorite to defend his title.
Watching the clips of the weigh-in, Smith looked to be a full division larger than Ryder, and with six inches in height and reach over Ryder, this seemed to be a mismatch.
AND that's why we fight the fights and why everyone makes mistakes.

In honesty, I watched this fight twice.
The first time that I watched it, I scored it 115-113 for Callum Smith with Smith holding off the late charge of Ryder, who won the final three rounds on my card.
After that, I went to bed having stayed up to watch Ohio State-Penn State, then Smith-Ryder and needing sleep before work.
When I got up, something was nagging at me about it, but I had to watch the other DAZN card, Wilder-Ortiz, etc and I put it aside.
Still, I talked to Fred Landucci and he asked me about my thoughts which made my earlier questions return.
In short, I rewatched it and my score changed to 115-113 for Ryder, who attacked throughout, took advantage of a seemingly overconfident and underprepared Smith and my rewatched card could be slightly kind to Smith.
Ryder was the stronger fighter, worked Smith over to the ropes and ripped away on the inside to the body of the bigger man.
I also thought that Ryder did much better than expected in the center of the ring where you would think Smith would not only want to be but where he would control the action.

I had the edge of rewatching to get things right which judges in live-action do not, but what seems to happen in fights where the huge favorite wins an unpopular decision is this- In those early rounds when fights are just starting to settle in, judges fall into a trap and score those early rounds for the fighter that's expected to win- because they think that's what should be happening rather than what is.
By the time that you realize that the fight isn't happening the way it "should", it's too late and there is how you get a bad call.
I would imagine a rematch is in order, but I have a feeling that John Ryder may have already fought the fight of his life once, and should a rematch be forced, Callum Smith is going to be ready.
Callum Smith is the better fighter, but John Ryder deserved the duke on this night.
A belated Hamburglar for this one.

The evening card for DAZN was a Golden Boy card with two of those wonderful minor belts from the WBA and saw an upset in the main event as Rene Alvarado tore apart Andrew Cancio like Gale Sayers through an overmatched defense.
Cancio had knocked out Alvarado in their first fight in 2015 and after two wins over highly regarded Alberto Machado, was thought to be a rising fighter with a great story.
Alvarado used his longer reach and surprising aggressiveness from the start to cur Cancio around both eyes and bloodied his nose to the point of Alvarado's white trunks appearing to be a light pink from Cancio's blood.
Cancio fought as bravely as he could, but he couldn't figure out how to avoid Alvarado's incessant offense in order to get inside to do his best work.
I had Alvarado ahead 69-64 (6-1) when the fight was mercifully ended in Cancio's corner at the end of the seventh round.
Cancio was becoming quite a story, but it is very possible that Cancio is a solid fighter that simply had the number of Alberto Machado.
We'll see if Rene Alvarado, also a solid fighter, can perform well against fighters other than Andrew Cancio.

In the other fight, China's Xu Can continues to impress in his move up the featherweight ladder with his unanimous decision win over Manny Robles.
Can reminds me a bit of Josh Warrington in that he throws a lot of punches and attempts to overwhelm his opponents with volume.
Funny that I should mention Warrington, who was the champion called out in the post-fight interview by Can and that would be a very exciting fight to see.
Neither fighter has world-class sting on their punches but in a fight between those two the ringside people counting the punches had better be ready to work overtime!
I scored Can the winner 118-110 over Robles, who took his first loss but had won his previous two fights by close split decisions and the bloom seems to be fading off a once-promising prospect.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica seven to five (the Wilder KO making the difference) to move my overall lead to 278-246.

I'm going to try to be back later with the Browns romp over Miami and looking forward to a rematch in Pittsburgh.
 

Boxing Challenge: Smith Dazzles in NYC

With all of the massive repercussions from Andy Ruiz's victory over Anthony Joshua to take away three of the four heavyweight titles, I am only now getting around to the other three fights in the weekend boxing challenge.

In the co-feature at Madison Square Garden, the best super middleweight in the world also made an American debut, although the United States bow for Callum Smith was far more spectacular than that of Anthony Joshua as Smith blew away Hassan N'Dam in only three rounds to retain his WBA 168 pound title.
Smith scored a knockdown in each of the three rounds and N'Dam, who hit the floor six times in a loss to Peter Quillin and another four in his loss to David Lemieux, was overmatched from the opening bell.
You had the feeling that this was the type of fight that fighters can be seriously hurt in with a bigger and stronger fighter like Smith against a too gutsy for his own good N'Dam, who would continue to beat the count with each knockdown and take a prolonged beating, so the referee's stoppage was a very good one.
Smith, who appears to have only one possible fight inside the division that would be really interesting (I think David Benavidez against Smith would be very interesting, should his out of the ring problems be in the past) has been rumored as a potential opponent for Canelo Alvarez, should the Canelo third fight against Gennady Golovkin fall through later this year.
Smith's younger brother (Liam) lost to Canelo a few fights back, but Callum is bigger and stronger than Canelo and should that be held in England, which has been floated as a possibility, I'd think Smith has a pretty fair chance of winning that fight.

PBC's card from San Jacinto, California saw a surprise in the main event as Ivan Redkach, who had struggled at 135 and 140 pounds of late after receiving early notice as a prospect, stunned former two-division champion Devon Alexander by scoring three sixth-round knockdowns and finishing a badly buzzed Alexander then and there.
Alexander led slightly on my card (48-47) in five predictably sludgey rounds in typical Alexander style filled with bumps, nudges, and grabs before an uppercut that drove Alexander out of his crouch (I've been screaming for years for Alexander opponents to do that!) and a chopping left that reminded me of a Tim Witherspoon style right and sent Alexander face first to the mat.
Give Alexander credit, he got up from what looked to be a candidate for knockout of the year, but the fight was essentially over then and there with the following two knockdowns as simple formalities leading up to the official end.
I'm not sure what this means for Redkach, who disappointed as a lightweight prospect and seems a bit small to defeat top welterweights, other than he'll likely receive a few more fights with PBC, but for Alexander, who I thought defeated Victor Ortiz and Andre Berto only to be given a draw and a split decision loss, it might be time to pack it in.
Much was made of the replacement of longtime trainer Kevin Cunningham in favor of Roy Jones for Alexander and it wasn't Jones that crumbled under that uppercut, so he's not to blame for the loss, it simply might be Alexander's time.

The co-feature was a predictably boring middleweight bout as Willie Monroe Jr outboxed Hugo Centeno via unanimous decision.
The less said about this the better (I had Monroe winning 96-94), but about the only interesting part of this fight where the post-fight interview with Monroe with Jordan Hardy saw Monroe call out (sigh) Jermall Charlo, where an excited (for some reason) Hardy breathlessly commented: "Hopefully we'll see that one soon!".
Oh brother, so that means that should Charlo-Monroe happen before the end of the year (with PBC, that's not a guarantee) after a projected Charlo win over Brandon Adams, Over a three year span after Charlo's knockout of Julian Williams, which is really Charlo's only top-notch victory, Jermall Charlo's opponents after moving to middleweight are: Jorge Heiland, Hugo Centeno, Matt Korobov, Brandon Adams and Willie Monroe.
Not exactly a way to create excitement around your fighter.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica scored four points to my two (two points each for Callum Smith and Willie Monroe, while I added only Smith's points) to trim the lead to 137-124.

Boxing Challenge: Smith Smokes Groves. WIns WBSS!

The majority of the matches in the boxing challenges took place on a Friday for a change with the main event showcasing the finals of the super middleweight tournament in the WBSS from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia which hosted professional boxing for the first time.

Callum Smith won the super middleweight tournament for the first season of the World Boxing Super Series and the WBA title in the division with a seventh-round knockout of George Groves.
I picked Groves, but in my preview of the fight, I noted that I was considering Smith because, at the weigh-in, he appeared so much physically larger than Groves.
I stayed with Groves, but my hunch was correct as Smith kept Groves at bay from the outside, yet was controlling the inside on those occasions that Groves was able to get into range.
I thought Smith won five of the six rounds, although Groves did occasionally have his highlights before the hook that staggered Groves into the corner and led to the flurry that ended the fight in the seventh with Groves on his knees.
With four champions at super middleweight and all four being young and talented (Smith WBA, David Benavidez WBC, Jose Uzcategui IBF, and Gilberto Ramirez WBO), it would be interesting to see a mini-tournament to settle who would be the best.
It would be tough to make with the exception of the unaffiliated Uzcategui because the other three are with different promoters and I'm not sure which fighter I would pick to win any unification bout.

Chris Eubank Jr returned from his loss to Groves with a squash match win over J.J. McDonagh, when McDonagh retired in his corner with an injured shoulder at the end of the third round.
This bout was more notable for the post-fight interview when Eubank chided McDonagh for quitting and McDonagh challenged Eubank to finish the fight.
That might have been a better idea to do before you conceded the fight.

Friday night's ESPN+ doubleheader from Oakland saw another super middleweight champion in the IBF's Jose Uzcategui in a stay busy fight against Argentina's Ezequiel Maderna.
I scored Uzcategui a shutout winner in winning all ten rounds as he kept the motor running smoothly after mandatory contender Caleb Plant was unable to fight due to a hand injury.
The Uzcategui-Plant fight is expected to happen in March, which means Uzcategui will be waiting another seven months to fight an undeserving challenger, who has defeated one person that would be considered a near a top 50 fighter ( the shopworn Porky Medina) and otherwise has delivered sleep-inducing wins over non-entities.
But hey, he does date the PBC ringside host, so maybe that's enough to be rated top in the IBF now?

The other ESPN+ bout saw IBF junior bantamweight champ Jerwin Ancajas escape Oakland with his title after a draw with Alejandro Santiago in the best fight of the weekend.
I had Santiago a close winner at 115-113, but it was very close with several close rounds except for on two judges cards where one scored 116-112 for Ancajas (Not Good) and another typed a 118-110 for Santiago score (Awful).
I'd like to see a rematch, which Top Rank was quoted to have wanted to make next time out for both fighters.

Saturday night on Facebook from Golden Boy, Jorge Linares returned from his knockout loss to Vasyl Lomachenko with a third-round blitz of Abner Cotto in his first fight in the junior welterweight division.
As expected, Linares dominated Cotto as he knocked Cotto down in the second and twice in the third before the overmatched Cotto was unable to continue.
With the World Boxing Super Series running a junior welterweight tournament with two of the four champions involved (WBA Kiryl Relikh and the winner of a vacant IBF title fight) Linares might have to deal with Top Rank again for a shot at WBC champion Jose Ramirez or if Top Rank's Alex Saucedo can win his challenge of WBO beltholder Maurice Hooker later this year.
Hooker is a Matchroom fighter, so Linares and GBP don't hold a lot of cards in the current title picture at 140 pounds.

I scored five points to Ramon Malpica's four over the weekend to move my lead to 149-127.
I scored two points for the wins by Linares and Eubank with one from Uzcategui.
Ramon scored one each from wins from Linares, Eubank, Uzcategui and Callum Smith.

Boxing Challenge

The boxing challenge continues with most of the bouts on Friday, so this post is earlier than usual.
I am also working on yet another boxing post on the end of the line for HBO Boxing that I'm hoping to have up within the day.

The World Boxing Super Series finally wraps up their first season as the super middleweight finals finished with an all-British battle held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia?
Well, yes- Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in a decision to place the fight there and not the UK that the promoters are likely kicking themselves for.
The delayed final was due to a shoulder injury suffered by George Groves in the final round in his victory over Chris Eubank Jr and despite the tournament flirting with placing Eubank in the finals due to the extra time for Groves to heal, the organizer did the right thing and allowed Groves until September under the conditions that if it looked like he wasn't ready to go by then that Eubank would step in for him.

The super middle bracket wasn't nearly as exciting as the cruiser tourney and no titles will be unified, but the final is still an interesting one as WBA champion George Groves defends against Callum Smith.
Groves, who continues a run of wins since his split decision win over Badou Jack, defeated Jamie Cox and Chris Eubank Jr, (in the only battle of top ten fighters in the tournament) to reach the finals, while Smith defeated unknown Swede Rob Skoglund and late replacement Nicky Holzken to cruise through his side of the bracket to set up the championship.
I've been torn on this fight.
I've always rooted for George Groves through his various near-misses against Carl Froch and then Badou Jack and Callum Smith is very untested even considering his being in the finals, so it was pretty clear that I favored Groves to win.
Then came today's weigh-in and Smith made weight, but just looks physically huge!
Smith looks like he is a full division larger than Groves and that has me thinking that perhaps this is a much bigger (and happens to be younger) man that now I'm thinking about Smith.
It's a close call and should be a good one in Saudi Arabia.

Chris Eubank Jr returns on the undercard against journeyman JJ McDonagh.
Eubank was the on-call fighter in case of an issue with Groves or Smith and was matched lightly to be prepared in case of emergency.

ESPN Plus comes to you from Oakland Friday night with IBF super middleweight champ Jose Uzcategui in a non-title bout against Ezequiel Maderna at light heavyweight
Uzcategui was training for a title bout against mandatory contender Caleb Plant when Plant suffered an injury, so Uzcategui's team decided to take this bout to stay busy.
Jerwin Ancajas defends his IBF junior bantamweight title against Alejandro Santiago in the co-feature.

The final bout is on Saturday on Facebook as former two-division champions Jorge Linares returns to the ring for the first time since his loss to Vasyl Lomachenko in a move to 140 pounds against fringe contender (and cousin of Miguel) Abner Cotto.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica has been narrowing the gap, but I still hold a 144-123 lead.

WBA Super Middleweight Title/World Boxing Super Series Final 12 Rds
George Groves vs Callum Smith
R.L: Smith Unanimous Decision
TRS: Groves Unanimous Decision

Super Middleweights. 10 Rds
Chris Eubank Jr vs J.J. McDonagh
R.L: Eubank Unanimous Decisions
TRS: Eubank KO 8

Light Heavyweights. 10 Rds
Jose Uzcategui vs Ezequiel Maderna
R.L: Uzcategui KO 7
TRS: Uzcategui KO 9

IBF Junior Bantamweight Title. 12 Rds
Jerwin Ancajas vs Alejandro Santiago
R.L: Ancajas KO 6
TRS: Ancajas KO 8

Junior Welterweights. 12 Rds
Jorge Linares vs Abner Cotto
R.L: Linares Unanimous Decisions
TRS: Linares KO 6

Boxing Challenge-Smith decisions Holzken

Photo Credit: World Boxing Super Series

The World Boxing Super Series semi-finals ended as softly as its beginning was exciting as the Super Middleweight completed the final matchup as second seed Callum Smith won a dominant but less than exciting unanimous decision over late replacement and kickboxing champion Nicky Holzken in Nuremberg Germany.

It could have been far worse, Holzken came forward and tried to win, but the massive gap in experience and skill was far too much for the Dutch native to overcome.
Holzken fought better than expected and he brought up some memories of seeing some PKA Karate stars of the 1980's (I watched that on ESPN) such as Dale "Apollo" Cook struggle against low level competition in their boxing attempts.
The karate/kickboxers that attempt to make the leap in boxing never seem to have the ability to punch hard and Holzken actually was better with his punches than I expected, but he is simply starting far too late in the sport.
Callum Smith was certainly fighting a safer fight than I expected against the late substitute and would have been better suited to hit the gas to finish this fight strongly, but in tournament action, the win is the most important thing and Smith won going away on my card 118-110.

One final note on a fight that won't be especially memorable for many (including a crowd that was less than enthralled by both the action and the absence of hometown fighter Jurgen Braehmer), but is the most interesting on a dull night, Watching the post-fight "staredown" between the two finalists-Callum Smith just seems so much larger than George Groves and I didn't expect that.
Considering how much the rangy Smith used the jab to fend off the novice Holzken, it'll be interesting to see if Smith can do the same against the experienced and crafty Groves.
Groves used his jab well to neutralize much of the offense of the taller Chris Eubank Jr so it will be key for Groves to do the same to Callum Smith.

The tournament for the super middleweights didn't look as strong as the cruiserweights from the start and the bracket looked highly likely to be an all UK-battle in the finals with Callum Smith favored in his part of the tourney and the winner of Groves-Eubank to fill the other slot.
The WBSS needs to have better fighters on standby than the likes of Nicky Holzken for future emergency situations but as Burt Reynolds uttered in the underrated comedy "Breaking In"- "we learn by doing" and hopefully a lesson has been learned by the dull fight, silent crowd and amount of no-shows for the next time that this situation comes into play.

Still have the Superfly card and a few words on tonight's retirement of Patrik Elias to write tonight as well.

Golovkin-Alvarez Draw-Boxing Challenge

Photo: Getty Images

I had a big weekend filled with things going on in and out of the sports world, so I'll be here catching up with everything over the next few days.
Not sure how much coverage I am going to do on the Ohio State win over Army, but if I have time to watch, I'll have a few notes.


The Boxing Challenge continued with a huge fight filled with garbage around it.

In the main event, Gennady Golovkin finally got his time on the main stage and retained his WBA/WBC/IBF middleweight titles after his fight with Canelo Alvarez was scored a draw.
I had Golovkin a 116-112 winner and most scores I've seen were similar, but my notes had two rounds as close so I could see a 114-114 draw as one judge scored.
The problem was the godawful 118-110 score for Alvarez, which was so bad that you cannot believe it.
Byrd's score was excused by the chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission as a "bad night", so despite a less than sterling track record-she'll be back in the future.

The biggest issue with last night, well behind the draw and Adelaide Byrd was the awful undercard, which featured three boring bouts that did nothing to attract new fans on an evening that gave new watchers a chance to become followers.

Oscar De La Hoya and his Golden Boy Promotions so often get passes from many in the boxing media-I for one am tired of that.
De La Hoya used his position to duck Gennady Golovkin for years as promoter of Canelo Alvarez and then on a night where the fight everyone wanted to see delivered a good battle, De La Hoya gave them featherfisted Joseph Diaz, De La Hoya's cousin Diego and disappointing prospect Ryan Martin in a combined 32 boring rounds that saw no knockdowns scored.

Diego De La Hoya's win over Randy Caballero looked better on paper than it turned out in the ring, which happens sometimes in boxing-they cannot all be winners, after all, but still, a promoter should be able to figure out that on the biggest stage that the sport had to offer, you need to put exciting fights together.

Instead, the promotion took the lazy way out, figuring that the pay-per-view buys were there anyway, so why bother to spend money on bigger fights?
The answer should have been this- If we want to save money and not pay for "bigger" fights, at least put together exciting fights.
Golden Boy did neither in a major failing.

The less I say about those fights the better, but the Diaz and De La Hoya unanimous decision wins gave Ramon Malpica and I each four boxing challenge points.

In Europe, two fights of interest were challenge features.
The WBO middleweight title (the only one not held by Gennady Golovkin) was defended by Billy Joe Saunders of England with a unanimous decision win over Willie Monroe Jr.
Monroe had been knocked out by Golovkin a few years back, so this was seen as a way for Saunders to look good.
I haven't watched it yet, so not sure about how he looked.
Two points for Ramon and me for the Saunders win.

The other bout was the beginning of the World Boxing Super Series tournament in the super middleweight division as second seed Callum Smith won a unanimous decision over Erik Skoglund.
Smith dominated the overmatched Skoglund as expected and dropped him in the eleventh round.
I scored Smith a 117-110 winner as Smith advances to fight the winner of Jurgen Brahmer and Rob Brant's fight next month.
Ramon scored two points for Smith's win compared to my one.
The Challenge stands at 129-115 in my favor.