Boxing Challenge: Bud!

    Terence Crawford shocked the world (although not me) in Las Vegas by winning a unanimous decision over Canelo Alvarez to take all four of the world's super middleweight titles. 

Crawford won by scores of 116-112 and two scores of 115-113 (I scored 116-112 for Crawford), and Crawford needed to win the final two rounds to win on the scorecards, which I didn't think was needed, but it's Canelo Alvarez in Las Vegas, funny scorecards seem to arrive in his fights.

Crawford outboxed Canelo, but he did so by fighting on his front foot and not by running, as recent Canelo victims Jermell Charlo and William Scull tried.

Canelo tried to stalk Crawford but wasn't quick enough or able to outmuscle Crawford in close.

Crawford is now the first fighter to be an undisputed champion in three divisions (Junior welter, welter, and super middleweight) and has won titles in five divisions (Lightweight and junior middle) after his victory that established him as the best of his generation.

Crawford mentioned an interest in winning a title at middleweight rather than defending his titles at 168 or a return to 154 to defend his WBA title or face other champions, Sebastian Fundora, Bakhram Murtazaliev, and Xander Zayas.

Alvarez might be a man without a fight, as a rematch appears to lack interest; the defeat may take away the prospects of a David Benavidez match, and the rest of the division doesn't have anyone with mass appeal to face a comebacking Canelo.

Bud Crawford cemented himself as the king of his generation, and I wouldn't be disappointed to see him call it a day.

He has nothing to prove, and by walking away, he will raise the question (which can never be answered): who was better- Crawford or Floyd Mayweather?

Crawford-Canelo may have brought the people, but the best fight of the night came on the undercard (and should have been the co-main) as Christian Mbilli retained his minor super middleweight title in an absolute thriller with a draw against Lester Martinez.

The fight was filled with tremendous action and a deserved draw that requires a rematch.

The judges' scores were 97-93 for Martinez, 96-94 for Mbilli, and 95-95, which was my score.

The actual co-feature was mildly disappointing as unbeaten junior middleweight Callum Walsh won a unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Fernando Vargas Jr.

The fight suffered from following Mbilli-Martinez but wasn't that bad, with Walsh winning by scores of 100-90 and 99-91 times two.

My score was closer for Walsh at 97-93.

The final fight of the challenge saw an upset as number one junior middleweight contender Serhii Bohachuk was upset for the second time by Brandon Adams.

Adams had knocked out Bohachuk in 2021, and Bohachuk had since become a contender with a near-win against Vergil Ortiz.

Styles make fights, and some fighters have their kryptonite, and Adams must be Bohachuk's.

Bohachuk tried, but Adams was consistently better throughout the fight and won a deserved unanimous decision by scores of 99-91 and two scores of 98-92, the same as mine.

I will be back tomorrow with the rest of the weekend in boxing

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 130 Pts (3) 

Ramon Malpica:  123 Pts (1)

Vince Samano: 51 Pts(3) 

Boxing Challenge: Wake me when it's over

     Riyadh Season Promotions have made some things happen in boxing that wouldn't have happened without them, which is good.

However, their back-to-back cards this weekend, Times Square and Riyadh, were an absolute disaster with boring fights, the defeat of Ryan Garcia, and it was the first setback for the promotion.

Throwing money at stars isn't always the answer; hopefully, they will learn their lesson.

In the main event, Canelo Alvarez regained the IBF super middleweight title that he never lost with a unanimous decision over the stuck-in-reverse William Scull.

Once again, Alvarez holds all four titles in the division. After the win, a fall fight with Terence Crawford was announced in the ring, and that was the only good thing from the main event.

Scull ran (I tweeted this during the fight), Canelo plodded after him, few punches landed, none of those significant, and it was dreadful to watch.

As bad as this was, and it was bad, I'm not going to rip Scull as many are currently.

This was his best chance to win- stink the joint out and hope the judges value his "work".

Scull won a few rounds on my card (117-111 for Canelo), and you might say that if he were more active and took more chances, he might have won ( official cards 119-109, 116-112, and 115-113) against the cement shoes of Canelo.

I'd disagree, as taking those chances would have placed him in front and gotten him knocked out.

It made an awful match, and you can blame Scull for the tedium, but he took his only chance to win, as slim as that was.

The best fight of the weekend wasn't Holyfield-Qawi I, but it was a solid cruiserweight fight as Badou Jack retained his WBC cruiserweight title with a majority decision over Noel Mikeaelin.

Both fighters did their share of good work, and it was entertaining in its own way.

Jack earned the decision by scores of 115-113 times two and 114-114.

I had Mikaelin winning 115-113, but this was a very close fight, and I'd like to see a rematch.

Jaime Munguia won his rematch with Bruno Surace by unanimous decision and regained some of his stature in the super middleweight division that he lost when Surace knocked him out with one punch in December.

However, it was a more reticent Munguia that boxed more and didn't get hit as much, although less entertaining, You could see the changes in Munguia from his change in trainers to Eddy Reynoso.

Munguia mentioned the names Caleb Plant and Edgar Berlanga after the fight; either would be welcomed as potential foes.

Munguia won by scores of 117-111 times two and 116-112, with my score agreeing with the latter.

Efe Ajagba and Martin Bakole batted to a majority draw in their heavyweight opener.

Ajagba controlled the fight from a distance for most of the early fight, Bakole rallied late, hurting Ajagba in the seventh, and I think if the fight was a twelve-rounder, Bakole would have gotten the nod.

Official scores of 96-94 for Ajagba and two of 95-95, I scored Ajagba a 96-94 winner.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 65 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica: 62 Pts (4)

Vince Samano: 28 Pts (3)

Boxing Challenge: Canelo batters Berlanga

   Is it possible to gain in stature without winning a round?

If so, then Edgar Berlanga did so against Canelo Alvarez as he lost every round on my scorecard and a unanimous decision as Alvarez retained his WBA, WBC, and WBO super middleweight titles in Las Vegas.

Berlanga won a few rounds on the official cards (118-109 x2 and 117-110, my score was 120-107). He did exchange some with Canelo but like so many Canelo opponents that talked about attacking Alvarez, Berlanga mostly fought off the back foot and after his knockdown in the third round, the question wasn't about competitiveness, it was if Berlanga would make it to the final bell.

Berlanga never threatened Canelo but fought with courage and showed some skills that might have served him better had he been more experienced against decent opposition.

Still, the name of the game is prizefighting, and earning millions of dollars without taking a risk to reach that stage is excellent management if not proper preparation for the actual fight.

Berlanga could use a fight or two against a contender to prepare for his next challenge and should he face Jaime Munguia, Christian Mbilli, or Diego Pacheco, all would be entertaining affairs that would establish him as a title contender at most and a fun fighter to watch at least.

As for Canelo Alvarez, who really knows where he stands.

I don't see him trying low reward (Although 30 million plus a piece of the pay-per-view for Canelo isn't really low reward) and high-risk mandatory challengers such as Christian Mbilli (WBC) and Diego Pacheco (WBO).

He's refused to fight David Benavidez, David Morrell has moved to light heavyweight, and there is no one of name-value available to move from 160 pounds to face him.

That means it's the winner of next month's light heavyweight unification between Artur Beterbiev (WBC, IBF, and WBO) and Dmitry Bivol (WBA) as the last fighter standing.

Bivol decisioned Alvarez in 2022 and Canelo has stated a desire to avenge that loss.

Bivol might beat you but he's not going to beat you up, while Beterbiev would be an unlikely choice with a victory as he would meet Alvarez in the middle of the ring and fight him as the bigger stronger fighter, placing Canelo in the situation of preferring to face a boxer who has already defeated him

The co-feature was as dreadful as predicted as Erislandy Lara retained his WBA middleweight title when the corner of former junior welterweight and welterweight champion Danny Garcia stopped the fight at the end of round nine.

A fight between two faded fighters who threw few punches and landed fewer with Lara winning the first seven rounds, and Garcia winning the eighth when he stunned Lara before Lara sent Garcia wobbling to the mat similar to King Hippo in the ninth.

Garcia's corner was smart in ending the fight and Garcia should consider ending a fine career.

Lara continues a title reign filled with journeymen and has-beens and I would imagine he'll be back sometime in 2015 against someone else of that ilk.

Caleb Plant recovered from a slow start and a fourth-round knockdown to stop Trevor McCumby in the ninth round in a surprisingly raucous fight to win a minor super middleweight title.

McCumby won the first four rounds on my card and scored a knockdown with a right hand to the shoulder that knocked an off-balance Plant to the floor.

Plant picked up the pace after the knockdown and trailed by only one point (due to the knockdown) after eight rounds.

Plant finished McCumby late in round nine and I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and competitiveness of a fight that I expected to be one-sided.

McCumby showed more than I expected and I would like to see him again against a similar level as for Plant, I was very critical of him during his IBF title reign for his pitiful opponents but I've gained respect for him since his first loss to Canelo Alvarez and his hard-fought defeat to David Benavidez.

I'd like to see Plant against some of these promising young contenders in the division such as  Berlanga, Munguia, Pacheco, or Mbilli.

I think he'd be the logical next step in opposition for any of them, and if they aren't up to snuff, Plant just might upset them.

Former WBC and WBO junior featherweight champion Stephen Fulton's move to the featherweight division almost ended in disaster as Fulton escaped with a razor-close split decision victory over Carlos Castro.

Castro knocked Fulton down in the fifth round and hurt him again in the eighth but Fulton managed to do enough early in the fight to build a lead on the cards and win the narrow decision.

Fulton won on two cards 96-93 and 95-94 with the Castro score at 95-94, I scored 95-94 for Castro and the fight was close enough to not complain about either fighter as the winner.

The fight was the first for Fulton since his July 2023 knockout loss to Naoya Inoue, where he lost both of his junior featherweight titles and it'll be interesting to see how Fulton looks in his next fight.

Boxing Challenge 

Ramon Malpica: 127 Pts (4)

TRS:117 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 69 Pts (4)

Boxing Challenge: Canelo beats Munguia

     Canelo Alvarez gained his revenge over Oscar De La Hoya by dominating Jaime Munguia and flooring him in the fourth round on the way to a unanimous decision.

I thought Munguia was doing very well until the fourth-round knockdown and I didn't give a round to him after that, although he never quit trying and landed an occasional right hand.

The judges scored for Alvarez by 117-110, 116-111, and a surprisingly tight 115-112.

I scored the fight 117-110 for Alvarez, who again seems to be blowing off the fight that fans want most against David Benavidez, and instead appears to be headed for a Mexico vs Puerto Rico matchup against Edgar Berlanga, who doesn't really deserve it or is close to ready for Canelo but looking at potential opponents in the division, there isn't anyone better qualified that Alvarez hasn't already defeated.

So as much as I am non-plussed for Canelo-Berlanga ( and I think it won't do well on PPV unless a strong undercard is added)  I don't see a contender that would bring a better challenge or a higher PPV buy rate than Berlanga, so I guess we are stuck with that fight.

As for Munguia, he fought bravely in his first defeat and he showed heart in getting up from the uppercut that floored him in the fourth round.

I'm sure we haven't seen the last of Munguia.

I haven't had time to watch the rest of the card yet, so here are the results and boxing challenge standings.

Mario Barrios defeated Fabian Maidana by unanimous decision in a welterweight match.

Eimantas Stanionis defeated Gabriel Maestre by unanimous decision in a welterweight battle.

Brandon Figueroa stopped Jessie Magdaleno in round nine in a featherweight tilt.

And from Japan

Ryosuke Nishida defeated Emmanuel Rodriguez by unanimous decision to win the IBF Bantamweight Title.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 65 Pts (9)

TRS: 59 Pts  (5) 

Vince Samano: 31 Pts (3) 

Boxing Challenge: Canelo shuts out Charlo

     Few gave junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo much of a chance of leaping two weight divisions and troubling super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez and Charlo lived down to those expectations in landing only seventy-one punchesand losing every round in one of the most timid big fight performances that you'll see as Alvarez retained his titles by unanimous decision.

Alvarez knocked Charlo down in the seventh round and was never threatened by Charlo in winning every round on my card (120-107) and dominating on the official cards of 119-108, and two judges at 118-109.

The overhand right that landed in the seventh dropped Charlo to one knee and looked to be the beginning of the end for Charlo but he managed to survive the fight and some of the final few rounds were the best work for him. although it wasn't enough to win a round on my card.

Alvarez has been mandated by the WBC to face mandatory contender David Benavidez next, so unless he wants to give up one of his four titles and undisputed status, Benavidez would be next in a fight that many, including myself, would love to see.

Talk in recent days has involved Alvarez in a potential fight against another undisputed champion, welterweight Terence Crawford but that's unlikely for reasons beyond David Benavidez.

Alvarez spoke after the fight with disinterest in a potential Crawford fight with the sort of disinterest that a younger Canelo used to discuss fights against Gennady Golovkin.

Canelo is a businessman, if he speaks that way about a fight/fighter he's not interested in fighting them anytime soon

As for Charlo, who is no longer the undisputed champion at 154 pounds as the WBO stripped him as soon as the bell rang to start this fight for understandably taking more money to face Canelo than fighting mandatory challenger and now WBO champion Tim Tszyu, I'm not sure what can be done after such a timid effort from the supposed Lion.

He holds three titles at junior middleweight with three mandatories that are overdue but not big box office- WBA Israil Madrimov, WBC Charles Conwell, and IBF Bakhram Murtazaliev.

A move to middleweight would normally make sense but his brother holds the WBC title and only WBA champion Erislandy Lara of the remaining champions would be an easy fight to make but again not for a big check.

Tim Tszyu would be a viable option but unless Charlo would be willing to travel to Australia, some of the luster has been taken away from that fight I would think.

The biggest fight could have been against Terence Crawford and the two had been jawing on social media even before Crawford's win over Errol Spence but Crawford seems to have ruled Charlo since he no longer holds all four titles and with his marketability damaged for now.

Jermell Charlo seems to have cashed in for a payday that I cannot blame him for taking but I'm not sure that I see a major fight in his future and he may not be satisfied with regular defenses as a champion.

I wrote that the junior middleweight fight between Jesus Ramos and Erickson Lubin was an almost guaranteed barnburner and added the almost as an off-handed insurance policy.

Of course, the fight was dull with neither man really willing to step up the pace and most thinking Ramos deserved the nod (I scored 116-112 for Ramos) but it was Lubin with the unanimous decision win at 117-111 (awful), 116-112 (terrible), and 115-113 (maybe if you give Lubin every remotely close round).

The cards were bad but Ramos allowed Lubin to hang around and it wasn't a good fight to order a rematch.

Mario Barrios pulled a mild upset to win a minor WBC title that is likely to become the full title should Terence Crawford leave the division in his defeat of former WBA champion Yordenis Ugas.

Barrios closed the right eye of Ugas, who had suffered a broken orbital bone around the same eye in his most recent fight, a loss to Errol Spence, and dropped him in the second and twelfth rounds.

The second-round knockdown was a flash knockdown from a Barrios jab but Ugas was in trouble in the last round with the knockdown and an additional point deduction for spitting out his mouthpiece in the final round as the veteran attempted to survive to the final bell.

Barrios won by scores of 118-107 times two and 117-11.

Barrios fought as well as I've seen him although how much of that was due to the fading Ugas will wait to be determined until Barrios fights again and while I still don't think he was deserving of the opportunity, give Barrios full credit for taking advantage of it.

Earlier in the day, Jai Opetaia retained his IBF cruiserweight title for the first time in London when Opetaia crushed Jordan Thompson in four rounds.

Thompson did what he could and came to fight but this was all Opetaia, who was the stronger man and after round one bullied Thompson into submission with knockdowns in rounds three and four.

It was a devastating outing for Opetaia, who hopefully will have a rematch with Mairis Breidis in his next fight after their excellent first fight.

Otto Wallin won a split decision over Murat Gassiev in Turkey in their twelve-round heavyweight tilt.

I haven't seen this so not much to write about Wallin's victory.

Boxing Challenge 

TRS: 153 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 139 Pts (2)

Vince Samano: 107 Pts (2)

Boxing Challenge: Canelo decisions Ryder, Hamburglar visits Russia.

    Arguably boxing's biggest star returned to the ring after a nine-month absence and did so in his home country for the first time in several years as the undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez retained his four titles with a unanimous decision victory over John Ryder in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Alvarez dominated the entire fight and knocked Ryder down with a right hand along the ropes in the fifth round but was unable to finish the rugged but outgunned Englishman.

Alvarez won on all three scorecards going away by scores of 120-108 and 118-11 x2, the latter of which was the same as my score.

Ryder's nose bled badly throughout the fight but other than after the fight's sole knockdown, Ryder was never seriously hurt by Alvarez.

However, that didn't mean that Ryder didn't take a pounding from Alvarez as he definitely took one.

Alvarez announced after the win that he intended to pursue a rematch vs WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol, who defeated him via unanimous decision in 2022.

From what I've seen from Canelo since the Bivol loss in wins over Gennady Golovkin and Ryder, I'm dubious of his chances in a rematch.

Alvarez is still among the best fighters in the sport but he does appear to have lost a half-step from his peak and he might be better suited to the challenges of David Benavidez or David Morrell in his own yard rather than try again to move up to try and catch the mobile Bivol.

In two other bouts that I have not watched yet on the Alvarez-Ryder card:

Julio Cesar Martinez retained his WBC flyweight title with an eleventh-round stoppage on Ronel Batista and former WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk stopped Ricards Bolotniks in six rounds.

Two times in recent months, undefeated fighters have left Eddie Hearn's Matchroom promotion in order to sign contracts with Boxxer promotions and their carrier Sky Sports.

And for the second time in a row, those fighters have notched victories after leaving but left observers bored with their bouts and unimpressed with their performances.

First, it was WBO cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie's boring decision win over David Light in March and now it's light heavyweight contender Joshua Buatsi, who won a dull unanimous decision over unbeaten and unknown Pawel Stepien of Poland in Birmingham England.

The fight could be best summed up as such; Stepien was not interested in taking any chances on offense and Buatsi was content to control the fight without any type of effort to end it.

Scores all for the former Olympic bronze medalist at 100-90, 98-92, and 97-94.

My scorecard was 99-91 for Buatsi, who will be the next mandatory contender for WBA champion Dmitry Bivol eventually but will have to show far more aggressiveness in that title attempt than he has expended in his last few bouts.

The Hamburglar arrived in Russia for the theft of the week as junior middleweight contenders Magomed Kurbanov and Michel Soro squared off in a title eliminator.

Kurbanov had three solid wins in his recent fights, a close decision that many thought Smith deserved (I scored Kurbanov a 115-113 winner), and wins over unbeaten Johan Gonzalez and former WBO champion Patrick Teixeira stamped him as the favorite over Soro, who had been controversially stopped by another top contender in Israil Madrimov, when a badly hurt Soro was nailed by multiple solid blows after the bell rang and the referee allowed Madrimov to continue to punch away.

The loss stood officially but the WBA ordered a rematch and in the third round, a vicious clash of heads forced a stoppage and a resulting no contest.

The WBA ordered a third fight but Madrimov had no interest in a third fight after being on his way to winning the first two bouts and having hi-jinks ensue, so Soro accepted a Kurbanov fight in a WBA eliminator.

So of course, in the first round, the two connected their heads with Kurbanov emerging with a long jagged cut over his left eye that bled profusely throughout the fight, and later in the fight, Soro opened another cut near the left eye, this one from a punch.

Soro moved forward and backed the counterpunching Kurbanov for most of the bout and controlled the second half of the fight and while I gave Kurbanov the final round, it was the only round that I gave him after the fourth round.

The judges' cards read 115-113 Soro (close to my 116-112 Soro card), 115-113 (Kurbanov, which maybe you could get to IF you gave every competitive round to Kurbanov), and a nutty 116-112 card for Kurbanov resulting in the home fighter getting the split decision win.

I would hope for a rematch but I'm doubtful one occurs unless ordered by the WBA.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 75 Pts (7)

Ramon Malpica:70 Pts (7)

Vince Samano:56 Pts (1)

Boxing Challenge: Canelo Decisions GGG

    Canelo Alvarez dominated the first two-thirds of the fight and held off a late Gennady Golovkin rally to win a unanimous decision to retain the world super middleweight title Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Alvarez kept a curiously reticent Golovkin from throwing more than his jab until late in the fight and Golovkin looked every bit of a fighter that saw openings but was simply too slow to fire and take advantage offensively.

Golovkin did win three of the final four rounds on my card and the fourth could have gone to either fighter but never seriously troubled Canelo, who was content to sit on a lead and cruise home.

The decision was closer than I expected with two scores of 115-113 and one at 116-112 (my score was 117-111 for Canelo) and other than the tenth round, I didn't see any other round that was difficult to score.

It almost had the feel of judges "trying to make things right" from the first two fights by giving Golovkin any close rounds.

I compare it to the second fight between Marco Antonio Barrera where Barrera was felt to have beaten Morals in their first fight and so much was made of it that the judges went overboard for Barrera in the second fight and arguably gave the fight to Barrera when Morales likely deserved the edge.

For Golovkin, I think he should consider retirement.

GGG does have something remaining but as in his win over Ryota Murata, it's taking him far too long to get started and against the top fighters in his weight class (es), GGG could be giving away rounds at the beginning of fights that will eventually cost him against a fighter below his level.

Besides, I really don't see a big money fight for him as he just lost to the champion at super middleweight and while he could return to middle to defend his WBA and IBF titles, the only semi-attractive fight might be a unification bout against WBC champion Jermall Charlo and even that has lost some shine with GGG's loss and Charlo's inactivity along with questionable opposition.

WBO champion Janibek Alimkhanuly would be for GGG as Golovkin once was for Sergio Martinez, Miguel Cotto, and Canelo himself- a high risk for a very low reward.

As for Canelo, the natural fight is against David Benavidez, although some will think Jermall Charlo with others pushing for Demetrius Andrade.

Benavidez at least tries to stay active while Charlo and Andrade have fought some less than distinguished challengers and while that may not be completely their fault in all cases, I'd like to see either beat a solid contender before a Canelo chance.

Canelo will likely activate his option for a rematch against WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol but Bivol has to get past mandatory contender in undefeated former WBO super middleweight king Gilberto Ramirez and that's far from an easy affair for Bivol.

Should Ramirez upend Bivol in what would be a mild but not massive upset, Canelo vs Ramirez in an All-Mexican battle would make all the sense for the long-rumored Canelo attempt to break the boxing attendance record for one fight in Mexico City.

I'd also wonder why Canelo has been outworked down the stretch in each of his last two fights?

Is it possible that we have seen the best that Alvarez may have had to offer in the ring and a slow decline could be starting now?

It's a fair question and one to consider.

In fights that I have not watched as of this writing

Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez retained his WBC junior bantamweight title over Israel Gonzalez via unanimous decision in what has been reported as a very good fight that was closer than the scorecards would indicate.

Super middleweight Ali Akhmedov was reported to have won every round of his ten-rounder against warhorse Gabriel Rosado.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 159 Pts (3)
Ramon Malpica: 139 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 128 Pts (4)

Boxing Challenge: Bivol Upsets Canelo!

      Dmitry Bivol pulled the surprise of the last few years in boxing as Bivol retained his WBA light heavyweight title via a closer on the cards than expected unanimous decision over Canelo Alvarez in Las Vegas.

The judges all had the same score of 115-113 (7-5 in rounds) which seems far closer than I saw it (117-111) and many others had the bout even larger in favor of Bivol, who overcame the judges giving Alvarez the first four rounds and placed Bivol in the position of needing to win the final three rounds of a fight he controlled to win the decision.

Bivol did just that and avoided yet another controversial decision given to Alvarez in Las Vegas.

Bivol used a heavy jab to keep Canelo's offense at bay much as Gennady Golovkin did with his jab in his two fights vs Alvarez and even more effectively as Alvarez spent much of the fight with his back against the ropes, again much as he did against Golovkin in their first fight.

Canelo won the first and third rounds on my card but his face was reddening as early as the second round and Alvarez started to show signs of fatigue as early as the fifth round as Bivol began to pick up speed and dominate the exchanges.

Alvarez did have a strong ninth round as he attempted to try for a stoppage that his corner must have thought that he needed although the scorecards would have him leading entering and leaving the ninth round.

Bivol took back control against Alvarez, who had clearly used his final bullet in the ninth round, and swept the final three rounds, which he needed due to the ridiculous scorecards of the judges.

For Bivol, it was the performance of his career and restored some shine to an undefeated career that had sputtered of late with uninspired efforts against underwhelming opposition and a less than willing desire to attempt to score exciting victories.

For Alvarez, it may have shown the limits of pushing a stocky but smaller frame too high and that his win over Sergey Kovalev at the weight may have been defeating an aging and flawed champion more than an ability to compete at the top level at 175 pounds.

Bivol could fight the winner of the three belt unification between Artur Beterbiev and Joe Smith (Bivol owns a decision win over Smith) to an undisputed title but the big money is in a Canelo rematch.

Canelo could make sizable dollars defending his four titles in a planned third fight against Gennady Golovkin or even a defense against a lesser contender in England or Mexico but he may decide to take the Bivol rematch instead strictly on pride.

A stunning upset in the world of boxing with ramifications throughout the sport, shaking it with more than only a championship as the top star in the sport could have his schedule for the next eighteen months changed over only one night.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 70 Pts (1)

Vince Samano: 59 Pts (0)

Ramon Malpica : 58 Pts (2)

Boxing Challenge: Canelo Cuts Down Plant

    Canelo Alvarez knocked out Caleb Plant in the eleventh round to add the IBF title to the other three titles that he already held entering the fight and become the undisputed super middleweight champion.

Plant, like Billy Joe Saunders before him, did have some early success boxing off his back foot as Alvarez started in his usual slow manner against world-class opponents.

But I didn't think the fight was as close as some did (on Twitter, I saw some that had the fight very close and even an occasional person that had Plant leading into the eleventh) and with Alvarez continuing to attack and pound Plant to the body, it appeared that the biggest question would be could Plant make it to the final bell.

Canelo knocked Plant down with a snapping right uppercut and after Plant rose courageously but hurt, Canelo chased Plant around the ring with Plant running away with a hop that brought to mind the hop of Joe Frazier just before he was stopped by George Foreman in 1973 and fired a volley of shots that sent Plant tumbling to the floor where the fight was then stopped.

I had Alvarez ahead 97-93 at the time of the stoppage.

For Canelo, he has several options for his next fights and all are of interest.

Should Canelo decide to work with PBC, a fight with David Benavidez would be a guaranteed crowd-pleaser and Benavidez has the size of Plant combined with the power Plantt lacks, so that would be a fight I'd love to see.

PBC also could offer a match with WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo, but Charlo has been more interested in talking about strong competition than actually fighting them.

Still, the cash-in for a Canelo fight would likely be too much for Charlo to turn away.

Canelo seems to like Eddie Hearn and Matchroom but their top option would be a third fight with IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and Canelo seems to have next to no interest in that.

WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade would love a shot but he's a mover and Canelo may want to face someone that will exchange with him after fighting boxers in Saunders and Plant in his last two fights.

Matchroom could also offer WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol but Bivol isn't the most exciting fighter and unless Bivol wants to drop to 168 or Canelo wants to rise to light heavyweight, that's unlikely.

Should Canelo be willing to work with ESPN/Top Rank, the fight that many fans would love to see is a fight against WBC and IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and might be the biggest test of all-a naturally larger man and the best puncher in the division.

This may be the most unlikely fight to make as Canelo's track record shows that while he is willing to fight everyone, he will do so when at his best advantage as he did making Golovkin wait for both their first fight and second affair.

WBO light heavyweight champion Joe Smith is another big puncher that might make a fun fight against Canelo and wouldn't run from him but Canelo's boxing skills would likely be too much for Smith.

As for Plant, while he proved he did have world-class skills, his lack of competition didn't prepare him well for a fight of this magnitude and I would guess he will go back to PBC for lopsided affairs.

Plant against David Benavidez would make sense with two talented young fighters but Plant wasn't interested in putting his fight with Canelo in jeopardy so I can't imagine Benavidez putting his chance in peril now.

My best bet would be almost used up veteran Anthony Dirrell, who scored an undercard win against journeyman Marcos Hernandez, for Plant's next foe.

Dirrell likely won't catch Plant, would give him a few lessons that Plant should have already learned, has a recognizable name, and someone Plant would likely defeat. 

Boxing Challenge: Canelo breaks down BJS

    For almost eight rounds, the super middleweight title unification fight was close (unless you were one of two judges) between Canelo Alvarez and Billy Joe Saunders and seemed to be ramping up towards a dramatic ending in Arlington, Texas.

Alvarez ended all of that drama late in the eighth round when a crunching right undercut damaged the right eye of Saunders and as the round ended, Saunders' eye was inflating by the second.

Within the minute between rounds, Saunders's corner determined that the damage was too much for their fighter to continue and stopped the fight, which handed Alvarez the WBO title to add to the WBA and WBC championships that Alvarez held entering the fight.

Saunders was quite slippery and had some success against Canelo with my scorecard showing the battle even at 76 after eight rounds, but the eighth was Alvarez's best of the fight and with a damaged eye Saunders was clearly going to need a miracle as the scorecards had him trailing by two, four, and four points after eight.

Give Saunders credit for only stumbling a bit after taking a tremendous shot from Canelo and he was never even in mild trouble during the fight, but he didn't throw enough punches and going against a fighter like Canelo Alvarez when you aren't a big puncher you will need to win a decision and to win such a decision you may have to win 9-3 or 10-2 in rounds to win a 7-5 decision.

Saunders's eye socket is suspected to be broken and you have to wonder how Saunders will recover physically as after Kell Brook broke his eye socket against Gennady Golovkin, he broke it again against Errol Spence and was never the same fighter.

Canelo Alvarez called for the only champion that is left to defeat next in IBF champion Caleb Plant.

Plant fights for PBC and while you would think that Plant cannot make anything close to what he'd make to face Alvarez, PBC head Al Haymon has ways that make his fighters decide to work against their financial interest in the past, most notably, Jermall Charlo turning down seven million (twice his career-high at the time) to fight Demetrius Andrade on DAZN and Peter Quillin vacating his WBO middleweight title rather than fight Matt Korobov for a career-high 1.4 million (over three times his career-high purse at the time) for Roc Nation after the now-defunct company won a purse bid.

I could also see Haymon thinking that the missing title is what makes Plant valuable (he's right on that considering Plant's resume'), have Plant score another dominant victory over a non-entity (Plant has fought one fighter of top ten quality in Jose Uzcategui) in an attempt to increase Plant's value before he cashes in with a fight that he is likely to lose.

In other words, don't be surprised at all if Caleb Plant, the guy noted as "What else does he have to do" by Eddie Hearn, actually finds someone else to fight.

The co-feature saw WBO light flyweight champion Elwin Soto defeat former minimumweight champion, Katsunari Takayama, by ninth-round stoppage when our "favorite" referee Laurence Cole stopped the fight a bit early in my opinion.

I had Soto had ahead 76-75 (5-3 in rounds, with Soto losing a point in the first round for hitting after the bell) and Takayama was rallying on my card, winning three of the four previous to the ninth.

Soto could have a unification match with WBA champion Hiroto Kyoguchi soon as both fighters recently fought for the first time with Matchroom and what should be an almost guaranteed action battle.

Friday in Russia, Magomed Kurbanov won a unanimous decision over former WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith in a fight that could have been scored for either combatant.

I scored Kurbanov a 115-113 winner, which was the same as two judges with the third a ridiculous 117-111 card, but the fight was extremely close and I wouldn't even offer a word should someone score Smith a close winner.

Smith landed plenty but didn't seem to hurt Kurbanov and these two are the type of solid back end of the top ten/twelve contenders that could fight five times and deliver five tight affairs.

Ramon Malpica outscored me four to three in the boxing challenge and cut my lead to 62-60.

Top Ten Mexican Fighters-Part One

  Ramon Malpica recently asked me to write about my opinions on the top ten Mexican fighters of All-Time with the ascension of Canelo Alvarez to arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and Ramon wanted to see where I stack Canelo on the all-time list.

I'm not usually happy with ranking active fighters on any all-time lists.

It is hard to do when you don't know how a fighter will finish a career and so much can change over an active fighter's time in the ring.

For the purposes of this list- Here are the ground rules.

I am looking at Canelo Alvarez's body of work as if he announced his retirement today and never returned to the ring.

Canelo will have several opportunities to move higher on this list as his career continues, but for now, I am going on what is, not what could happen in the future.

This is also a list that relies heavily on who you defeated and when you defeated them along with nuances such as Marco Antonio Barrera's final loss to Amir Khan doesn't cost him a lot because of the natural weight differential and Canelo Alvarez's KO win over Khan doesn't gain him very much for the same reason.

Also, I did not include the great welterweight Jose Napoles on this list because even though he fought out of Mexico, he was of Cuban Heritage.

Had I included "Mantaquilla", he certainly would have resided in the top ten.

This is not a list of who would have beaten whom in a mystical tournament of peak fighters without weight advantages

You want that in the future?

Perhaps it can be arranged.

On with the countdown in full Casey Kasem voice with the rankings of 6-10 and I expect some controversy here.

6: Marco Antonio Barrera

Barrera's career spanned two styles, first as a walk-down murderous puncher and then as a smoother boxer-puncher that could transition into boxing or as an aggressive fighter.

Barrera's three fights with Erik Morales and his two (especially the first) with Kennedy McKinney have to take a back seat to very few for exciting action.

Barrera fought any fighter that you could think of in his career, win or lose, and ducked no one.

Three legitimate world titles from 122-130 pounds, wins over Hall of Famers Erik Morales (twice), Prince Naseem Hamed, and Johnny Tapia, arguable losses to Morales (in fight one) and Juan Manuel Marquez, and fighting Manny Pacquiao twice makes the case for Barrera ahead of Canelo by a hair.

I don't think that it will end up this way, but for now (and I'll explain why) Barrera gets the edge.

7: Canelo Alvarez

A fighter that continues to improve and get better, Canelo Alvarez has wins over two Hall of Famers in an aging Shane Mosley and a small for division Miguel Cotto with a controversial win over eventual Hall of Famer Gennady Golovkin with his only loss to Hall member Floyd Mayweather.

Canelo has fought about anyone that you can think of from 154-175 and with one notable blip has not ducked anyone.

Alvarez has been mildly overrated as a puncher and underrated for his boxing skills but based on the body of work, I hold two things against him that could even out over time.

The first is that he has been very fortunate in his career in getting the benefit of the doubt from judges.

I thought he lost both fights to Gennady Golovkin, although the second was much closer than the first, I thought he lost to Erislandy Lara (but Lara's lack of aggression hurt himself on the cards), and if not for a late knockdown, may have lost to Austin Trout.

The other flaw- I do hold it against him that he didn't fight Gennady Golovkin in GGG's prime as he should have.

Promoter Oscar De La Hoya used every reason from mood rings to small rings to duck GGG after Canelo's great victory over Miguel Cotto.

Canelo was too small, needed time to adjust to the weight, threatened Golovkin constantly that if he scheduled fights and got cut, etc, he might not get a Canelo chance and faced with losing the biggest payday of his career, Golovkin lost the edge that he always held of being in the ring often and keeping his skills sharp.

You can argue that Golovkin traded his advantages for dollars and I'd agree, but the games that took two years to make their fight happen is the major black mark on Canelo's career (even more than Clenbuterol) and considering that many think he lost both fights anyway- the "What If" Canelo had fought Golovkin at his best can never go away.

Canelo has been dominating since the Golovkin fights, is coming into his best days as a fighter and I'd favor him against anyone right now from 160-175 except for Artur Beterbiev, so I'd expect upward movement in the future.

8: Vincente Saldivar

A rare southpaw that liked to brawl. Saldivar has been the forgotten star by many, but he held the unified (WBA and WBC) featherweight titles, defending them eight times before retiring, and then came out of retirement to defeat former (and future) WBC champion Jose Legra, Saldivar would take the WBC title back from Legra's conqueror Johnny Famechon.

Saldivar would lose the title in his first defense and fight only twice more to finish his career.

Saldivar defeated Hall of Famer Sugar Ramos to win his title and also holds a win over another Hall of Famer in Ismael Laguna, but while his competition was world-class, he lacks any other great wins.

A great fighter that would have been remembered by more, if he had been born a little later with the 126-pound division developing great depth in the 70s.

9: Miguel Canto

The slick boxing Canto didn't provide many knockouts (15 in 61 wins), but he rarely was hit, and for fans that enjoy the art of boxing, Canto was certainly a practitioner of that art.

Canto defeated six fighters during his title that would hold a flyweight title during their career and made fourteen title defenses before losing the title to Chan-Hee Park.

Canto would draw with Park in the rematch and never challenge for the title again (although he would beat a future champion in Gabriel Bernal before retirement), but his beautiful boxing style and 14 defenses play in his favor.

The downside? Canto never defeated a fellow Hall member although he holds wins over Shoji Oguma and Betulio Gonzalez, both of whom have a lesser case for enshrinement.

10: Erik Morales

I really wanted to pick Pipino Cuevas here and his ten title defense reign at welterweight made me consider it.

However, Cuevas never defeated a Hall of Famer, and despite ruining the career of Angel Espada, who before he ran into Cuevas, was thought to be headed in the Hall's direction, Pipino lost his biggest fights (to Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran).

Morales fought all the best of his era (except for Juan Manuel Marquez), defeated three Hall of Famers Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera (Morales fought each man three times, finishing 1-2 against both men) and Daniel Zaragoza, and was one of the more exciting fighters of his time.

Add in Morales five other victories over once or future champions and despite a to this day inexplicable loss to the pedestrian Zahir Raheem, I gave Morales a reluctant edge over my childhood favorite, Cuevas.

Honorable Mention- Alphabetical Order.

Note-Cuevas, Lopez, Pintor, and Zaragoza are members of the Hall of Fame.

Chu Cho Castillo- Never defended his WBC bantamweight title, but his three-fight series (1-2) against Ruben Olivares was one of the best rivalries in Mexican boxing history.  

Had there been never been an Olivares, could have been an all-time great.

Jose Luis Castillo- A two-time lightweight champion, put on the best fight that I've ever seen against Diego Corrales, knocked out Corrales in the rematch, and I STILL think he beat Floyd Mayweather in their first fight.

Pipino Cuevas- Ten title defenses, crunching puncher, and arguably the best Mexican boxer ever at 147 pounds or above before Canelo Alvarez.

Ricardo Lopez- 51-0-1 and two division titles, but never beat anyone remotely of Hall of Fame-caliber. 

A great fighter, but hurt by his competition.

Lupe Pintor- Overshadowed by two Hall of Famers in predecessor Carlos Zarate (who Pintor defeated via an awful decision) and fellow champion at the time in American Jeff Chandler.

Pintor defended his bantamweight title eight times, would win a junior featherweight crown, and his 14th round loss to Wilfredo Gomez might have been the best fight of the 80s-which says a lot!

Daniel Zaragoza- a two-division champion, Zaragoza defended his 122-pound title nine times over two reigns and holds a win over Mexican legend Carlos Zarate.

Look for the top five later this week!

Boxing Challenge: Canelo Crunches Yildirim

  The boxing challenge was reduced to only three fights for the weekend, but all three would be important ones in their divisions.

The biggest star in boxing took care of an obligation as Canelo Alvarez retained his WBA and WBC super-middleweight titles with a ridiculously easy stoppage of Avni Yildirim after three rounds when Yildirim's corner ended the fight.

Alvarez was barely touched in the three rounds (Yildirim landed four power punches) and the only drama in the WBC-mandated bout (Yildirim had been promised the fight for two years after a controversial loss to Anthony Dirrell)  was this- could Canelo escape without getting cut on a headbutt or a stray elbow?

Alvarez knocked Yildirim down with a straight right in the third and went on the attack and even though Yildirim didn't seem to be in extreme danger, one could see that the end was near.

However, the spectacular ending would be lacking as just as Yildirim's trainer Joel Diaz told him he was going to give him one more round, a member of the corner could be seen motioning for his surrender.

With the promised defense out of the way, Alvarez moves on and will take another step toward the goal of a unified super-middleweight title with an announced May fight against WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders.

The winner of that event will own three of the four titles in the division.

Saunders may not make an exciting fight or even a winning one, but I have a feeling that Saunders will fight better than many expect against Alvarez.

Much like his cousin, Tyson Fury, Saunders is one of those fighters that fights best when he is motivated by strong competition, and against the brightest star in boxing, he better be motivated.

Earlier in the day, the fight of the century in New Zealand had more than only national impact as amateur heavyweight rivals Joseph Parker and Junior Fa squared off with the winner staying in the title picture.

Fa landed the bigger punches and wobbled Parker in the first and seventh, but Parker threw more and was the rougher fighter in close and won a unanimous decision.

My 115-113 card for Parker matched one judge with the other two were more than a bit too wide at 117-111 and a hideous 119-108.

The fight picked up in the late rounds and I wouldn't be surprised to see a rematch eventually, but for now, it seems Parker will face Dereck Chisora next with the winner likely to see the Oleksandr Usyk-Joe Joyce winner as a possible 2022 title challenger or positioned for the also likely vacating of the WBO title by the Anthony Joshua-Tyson Fury winner.

The PBC/Fox main event between super middleweights Anthony Dirrell and Kyrone Davis ended in a draw, but I haven't watched it as of this writing.

Editor's Note: I thought Dirrell pulled this out close (115-113), but considering Davis had never fought at the weight and lacked experience against top ten competition, Dirrell looked a bit shopworn.

Dirrell will move on and could fight a rematch against David Benavidez, who dominated him in their first battle, but I expect the fight to be one-sided and it's one that I don't need to see.

Dirrell's problem is that he isn't going to beat champions or contenders, but fighting fights such as this one isn't going to add much to the bank account.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored four points to move the overall total to 20-19.

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: 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:Canelo KOs Kovalev

For ten rounds in the Nevada desert, it seemed to me that we might be headed to a controversy at best and a possible Hamburglar at worst, but then it ended and ended suddenly as Canelo Alvarez landed a crunching left hook and as Sergey Kovalev struggled to remain upright, Alvarez finished Kovalev with a vicious right hand that sent Kovalev down to his knees and unable to continue as referee Russell Mora quickly waved the fight off.

It seemed that most watchers had Kovalev ahead either slightly or significantly entering the eleventh round, and Canelo seemed to need at least a knockdown to have a chance on most cards (I had Kovalev ahead 97-93).
However, after the fight, what most expected to happen in Las Canelos was, in fact, happening as after ten rounds, two judges had Alvarez leading by two points and the other had the fight even.
Essentially, even if Kovalev had been able to continue, the fight was lost on the cards as soon as he hit the floor.
Now, on my 

card, I had two very close rounds that could have gone Canelo's way (the third and the eighth) and if you gave both to Canelo, I can see the even scorecard, but the narrative that is so common continues- If you want to beat Canelo Alvarez in Nevada, you better take him out.
The fight was pretty dull actually, with few exchanges and controlled by Kovalev's jab, so even though Canelo came from behind ( on most scorecards anyway), there won't be a hue and cry for a rematch.

Sergey Kovalev followed a game plan and consistently used his jab to effectively nullify the aggressiveness of Alvarez, but he never turned up the heat and tried to use his physical advantages to land his own big right hand, and by the end, Alvarez had no fear of getting hit by anything other than the jab.

I'll give Canelo Alvarez credit for leaping to light heavyweight and facing Kovalev, even if it's a Kovalev that is past his peak, but it's pretty clear that should he elect to continue at 175 pounds, he would have a very difficult time with WBC/IBF champion Artur Beterbiev and even though he matches better physically with the smaller WBA champion Dmitry Bivol, Bivol could take the Kovalev template and perhaps keep Alvarez on the outside all night and win a decision- if that fight is not in Nevada that is.

The fight that makes the most sense (since Canelo has no interest in fighting Gennady Golovkin again) would be against WBA super-middleweight champion Callum Smith.
Smith is with DAZN, holds the real title, and Alvarez holds the secondary title below. Smith is regarded as the top super middleweight, and you have the storyline built in with Canelo's knockout win over Smith's brother Liam a few years back.

As for Sergey Kovalev, I'd like for this to be the end after his third knockout loss in his last seven fights, but I'd bet that Kovalev fights on and there will always be money in an Artur Beterbiev fight, although it'll never be what it could have been before Beterbiev's promotional issues and Kovalev's loss to Andre Ward.

The knockout victory gave Alvarez the WBO light heavyweight title, and even before the fight, Golden Boy and DAZN were attempting to make the argument that Alvarez now equals Henry Armstrong's achievement of holding three titles at the same time.
The ridiculous attempt to place Alvarez's titles (WBA middleweight, the secondary WBA title at super middleweight that Alvarez won from Rocky Fielding and has sat on for a year and now the WBO light heavyweight) pales in comparison to Armstrong holding the feather, light, and welterweight titles at the same time as in Armstrong's era, only one champion existed and in only eight weight classes.

The co-feature on the card that never seemed to end saw Ryan Garcia notch a first-round knockout over Romero Duno in a grudge lightweight match.
Garcia was accused of ducking Duno in September and demanded Duno as his opponent in the first fight under his new contract.

The reason that I didn't add the adjective "impressive" to Garcia's win was that when you watch the replay, it doesn't really appear that Garcia landed any particular strong punch, and Duno stopped fighting faster than a pack of dollar store batteries.
Putting the effort of Duno aside, Garcia's win should move him up in some of the sanctioning bodies, and I suppose he'll make another jump in competition soon, but I think Garcia might be better suited to have a few more fights before facing his first world-class opponent.
Garcia was talking about the newly dubbed WBC champion Devin Haney, and even though Haney hasn't fought anyone of top-level either, his opponents have been better than Garcia's, and Haney appears to be a higher grade of boxer than Garcia as well.

On ESPN during the LONG wait for the final two DAZN fights, Miguel Berchelt looked tremendous in stopping Jason Sosa when Sosa's corner conceded the victory in the fourth round.
Berchelt knocked Sosa down in the second, and Sosa barely survived that round before Berchelt knocked Sosa down again in the fourth and battered Sosa badly before Sosa's corner threw in the towel.
Sosa was once a minor beltholder and upset Javier Fortuna along with a losing challenge to Vasyl Lomachenko, but Berchelt's right hands are whip-like and almost like a baseball pitcher that throws sidearm, and Sosa simply could not avoid them.

Berchelt won't look much better than he did in this one, and I'm not sure what else he could have on tap for his future.
IBF champion Tevin Farmer is with Matchroom/DAZN doesn't make fun fights and judging by his demands for fight with Gervonta Davis, Farmer may ask for far more than the fight is worth, the WBA title was recently vacated by Davis and even though WBO champion Jamel Herring is with Top Rank, Herring will be an underdog against talented and undefeated Lamont Roach, who is with Golden Boy/DAZN.

Vasyl Lomachenko has been rumored for Berchelt for a while now, and the fight never seems close to being put together.

I know Lomachenko wants the winner of the IBF lightweight title fight between Richard Commey and Teofimo Lopez next to unify all the titles, but since the WBC ruined that with their ridiculous "Franchise" champion, Berchelt vs the Commey-Lopez winner would be a great fight, and the winner moving onto Lomachenko would have that much more credibility.

I haven't watched the PBC card yet, so I'll have a small post in a day or so on those results and some other thoughts on the WBC and their "franchise champion", DAZN's waiting until after 1 AM on the East Coast to start Kovalev-Canelo and why Canelo Alvarez has fewer fights that you think because of how his refusal to fight certain opponents is leaving him with few options.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me five to two on this part of the boxing weekend.
Ramon added two points each from Ryan Garcia and Miguel Berchelt, while I settled for the two points from Berchelt.
The challenge still stands in my favor, 263-230.

IBF strips Canelo Alvarez

Boxing continues to shoot itself in the foot as the IBF stripped Canelo Alvarez of their middleweight title for a failure to sign a contract to face their number one contender in Sergey Dereyvanchenko.

Alvarez has now moved from having three of the four major titles this summer (WBA, WBC, and IBF) to holding only one of their legitimate  championships (WBA), since the ridiculous Oscar De La Hoya stamp of approval for the WBC to give Alvarez their even more ridiculous "Franchise" title that does not have any mandatory contenders and cannot be lost, even if Alvarez loses in the ring.
There will be lots of blame to pass around and I'll be doing so shortly, but the biggest worry of all is when you read between the lines of Oscar De La Hoya's whining press release, where De La Hoya vaguely threatens to have his fighters refuse to fight for any of the IBF championships.
If you combine De La Hoya/Golden Boy's possible refusal to fight for IBF title, the PBC seemingly on their way to refusing to recognize the WBO ( It took me many years to reluctantly do that), the road to making big fights between rival promoters could be hitting a major roadblock shortly.
Think about it this way, what is the main carrot that makes big fights?
It's not money, top fighters get that with in-house title defenses and are often willing to wait for big dollars which often come with larger risk.
It's often not public demand either, as the wait for Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao showed with both fighters not facing off in their prime,
It is often championships-one fighter against the other for who is truly the best (the dollars for such a fight doesn't hurt either) and we are entering a space that may begin to erode even that as an incentive.
When promoters can begin to brush off a fighter by not recognizing the title he holds, the argument for needing to decide the "true world champion" can be brushed aside easily.
"Why should I fight him to decide, I hold the "real" title, he doesn't hold one that I deem important", therefore rendering the need to unify and the excuse to avoid an anticipated fight is easy to find.

I'm not always a fan of sanctioning bodies, more often than not, they sway between ignorant and corrupt with a large dose of ridiculous tossed in for taste, but fighters need to fight for something.
If there were no titles, no trophies in team sports, what would they play for and more importantly why would they or we care about their games?
Anyone can watch a local pickup game anywhere, so why play if nothing is on the line?
A fight is just a fight after all, why pay to watch someone fight someone else without anything on the line?

Could there be a better sanctioning body?
The WBA has too many title belts, the WBC creates special titles with special privileges for fighters they like, the WBO rates Top Rank fighters far earlier and higher than they should and the IBF ratings are often bad as they attempt to be fair worldwide, they overrate fighters unproven against world-class opponents.
However, for now, we have little choice other than to try to encourage them to correct these errors as any new body would just be another belt unless all the promoters agreed to make them that title the elite championship and make sure they support it- And that just isn't happening.
For all the issues with the alphabet boys, the IBF is the one that is the fairest.
They at least follow their rules, which is more than I can say for the others, and for all their problems with ratings and often weak mandatory contenders, they have a program plotted out on how things are done and for the problems that come with that, they follow their standards.

And that leads us back to Mr. Alvarez and his promoter Mr.De La Hoya.
Mr.Alvarez, who in the eyes of the majority of boxing followers is at best 0-1-1 vs Gennady Golovkin and many (myself included) have him losing both fights, has decided to rest on his dubious win/draw and avoid a Golovkin rematch, which is not only the biggest fight that Alvarez can find, it's the main reason that DAZN doled out so many dollars to sign him to the largest contract in sports.

Team Canelo dodged Golovkin, to begin with by fighting the likes of Amir Khan, Liam Smith, and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, all while "encouraging" Golovkin to fight less so an injury wouldn't delay a potential fight.
While that was on Golovkin, what wasn't was after a draw that almost everyone thought he lost, was the "tainted beef" excuse for Alvarez's failing a PED test and then after winning a controversial decision in the second fight (The second fight was far closer than the first to be fair), to strut around as "champion" and attempt to make Golovkin jump through hoops such as "win a belt" to order to "give the people the fights they want", which is a De La Hoya fallback mantra used often.
The Alvarez management wanted so badly to avoid Golovkin they even gave up their treasured September date for 2019 because they couldn't find anyone that DAZN would approve of other than Golovkin or WBO champion Demetrius Andrade, who is tremendously talented, if not exciting and would be a real threat to decision either Alvarez or Golovkin.
Don't forget the speed that GBP/Canelo accepted the WBC's ridiculous "franchise" title, even if it cost him their real title with as that title won't force Alvarez to fight anyone including their then-minor champion Jermall Charlo.
All of this to fight who they wish without responsibility for quality opponents.

I'm not going to hammer Alvarez too much for his battle with the IBF over not fighting Sergey Dereyvanchenko, who is a top ten contender, but since his close split decision loss to Daniel Jacobs for the same IBF title stripped from Gennady Golovkin, has fought only one time, a unanimous decision over Jack Culcay and likely shouldn't be the mandatory challenger for Alvarez, although he is a far better fighter than De La Hoya claimed in his whiny statement.
Canelo's team did try to fight Dereyvanchenko, mainly because it would have been yet another reason to sidestep GGG, even taking less money from DAZN to have them sign off on this fight if it didn't have the clause that they must face Golovkin next and Derevyvanchenko promoter Lou DiBella with "advisor" Al Haymon did pull this same stunt with Golovkin, which is negotiating but delay a deal in order to hope the bigger draw isn't satisfied and vacates/strips the title, which their fighter then fights for.
The IBF could have seen that Alvarez was negotiating in good faith and given them a small time extension to attempt to get the fight signed and that was a mistake on their part, especially when you consider the history of DiBella/Haymon in similar situations, but it's tough to feel too sorry for Canelo/GBP considering their history of machinations.

So, where do we stand?
Dereyvanchenko will get his second chance to fight for the vacant IBF title, but he likely won't like the opponent in the second-ranked Golovkin in what should be a strong action fight and one that might make Golovkin look very good.
Golovkin with a win can pick up a title, which would take away another excuse from GBP for avoiding a third fight.
The IBF looks like an organization that might be too rigid for its own good, although I'll take that over the other three, who apply their rules on an "as needed" basis depending on the situation and who is involved.
Canelo Alvarez tried to do the right thing in fighting his mandatory, but after dodging Golovkin with more stipulations and ducks than in an episode of Duck Tales, it's tough to feel too sorry for him and who knows when he fights again and against who.
DAZN wants quality fights and I'm willing to bet that there are some questions inside the Canelo camp on whether they should have accepted going into business with an entity that wants to tell them who to fight and may have checkmated Oscar De La Hoya and his plans to keep Canelo active, but yet avoid the person that might have his number- no matter the scorecards of a few judges.

And for boxing, yet another loss for a sport that takes a step back with each step forward.

Boxing Challenge: Canelo decisions Jacobs

Las Vegas Nevada was the host for another event that was highly anticipated as three of the four middleweight championships were unified as Canelo Alvarez walked away adding the IBF championship to his WBA and WBC versions after his unanimous decision over Daniel Jacobs.
The three titles returned to one man after Gennady Golovkin had held all three of those titles until the period in between the two Alvarez-Golovkin fights when the IBF stripped Golovkin for fighting Vanes Martirosyan after Alvarez's failed PED test postponed their rematch.
This one was an OK fight that wasn't up to the Canelo-GGG fights but wasn't a stinker either with Canelo winning 116-112 and 115-113 on two cards.
I had it 116-112, but I didn't think anyone could see it closer than that in a matchup that saw Canelo outwork Jacobs and land the bigger blows.
Neither fighter scored a knockdown or even came close to doing so and with the exception of a few times in the later rounds, didn't have a lot of exchanges.
Canelo Alvarez is basically an underrated boxer and an overrated puncher as he continued a string of fights against his best opponents without scoring a knockdown and in fact other than one knockdown against Austin Trout, Alvarez has only that knockdown to avoid a zero in that category,
Alvarez does take out fighters that are a notch below that, which helps keep a puncher's reputation intact, but his boxing skills are way underrated as he's looked very sharp in avoiding punches and controlling the pace in this one.
Jacobs rarely threw a lot of punches until the final third of the fight and Jacobs did have a few moments down the stretch, but those moments were too few and never strong enough to turn the tide in a fight that to me felt more lopsided than I scored it, not closer.

The undercard was as awful as predicted and other than an upset loss by Sadam Ali to Anthony Young, there was little of note with only one bout for the boxing challenge.
Hot junior welterweight prospect Vergil Ortiz blasted out long time spoiler Mauricio Herrera with a highlight film knockout in the third round.
Ortiz knocked Herrera down late in the second and only the end of the round saved Herrera from being stopped right there.
The loss was the first time that Herrera has been knocked out and this might be the beginning of the end for the veteran, who looked a little shot in his previous fight which was a decision loss to Sadam Ali.
Ortiz looked spectacular in doing what had never previously been done and even though the win was over a shopworn Herrera, still it's quite an achievement for the flashy prospect.

ESPN televised Top Rank's card from Stockton, California, not because of counter-programming the DAZN card, but because of Artur Beterbiev wanting to get a fight in before his observation of Ramadan, this was the only date available for the IBF champion's title defense.
The main event was a fun one as Beterbiev walked down and stopped Radislav Kalajdzic in five rounds that saw both fighters land plenty of power punches in toe to toe exchanges.
Kalajdzic tried to use his superior reach to keep Beterbiev at bay and landed his share of big punches, but Beterbiev shrugged them off and just kept coming as Kalajdzic simply couldn't keep Beterbiev off of him.
Beterbiev knocked down Kalajdzic in the third when Kalajdzic was knocked into the ropes for a technical knockdown, but Kalajdzic battled back in a fourth-round spent exchanging bombs with the champion before the end came in the fifth.
Beterbiev will make a great fight against anyone and his amateur win over WBO champion Sergey Kovalev has made an eventual match between the two a fight that fans have wanted for years, but Beterbiev could also just as easily be placed against WBC titleholder Oleksandr Gvozdyk or former super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez in anticipated bouts.

The co-feature showcased IBF junior bantamweight champion Jerwin Ancajas defeating mandatory challenger Ryuichi Funai when the doctor stopped the bout with a battered Funai unable to continue following the doctor's evaluation for the beginning of the seventh round.
Ancajas controlled the action against the brave Funai, who constantly moved forward, but took about every punch from the champion's toolbox that one could take.
The stoppage was the correct one as Funai didn't possess the power to turn the fight around, but didn't seem to have any plans on giving up, which is the recipe for a fighter to take a ridiculous beating and in turn taking the chance of getting a warrior hurt.
Ancajas seems to be in the same boat with Top Rank as Terence Crawford, although not to Crawford's level, of course, a top fighter in a division that has the other top fighters with another promotion.

In the boxing challenge, I added eight points to Ramon Malpica's five to lengthen my lead to 116-100.
My points came from Artur Beterbiev Three (including KO round bonus)
                                    Canelo Alvarez and Jerwin Ancajas Two points each
                                    Vergil Ortiz one
Ramon's points came from Beterbiev two points
                                            Alvarez, Ancajas and Ortiz one point each