Boxing Challenge:Lomachenko adds another belt

The Boxing Challenge zipped forward with fights from England, Australia, and the United States before taking next weekend off.

The main fight of the weekend was held across the pond as Vasyl Lomachenko kept his WBA and WBO lightweight titles and added the vacant WBC championship with a unanimous decision over Luke Campbell.
I scored the fight closer than the official judges at 116-111 for Lomachenko, which seems to be more in line with the majority of scorecards.
Lomachenko did have some issues with the jab and the length of Campbell, who boxed very well and I thought he was in the fight after ten rounds (6-4 in favor of Lomachenko), which wasn't the case on the official cards, but Lomachenko began drilling Campbell in the eleventh and a right to the body sent Campbell to one knee.
Campbell battled through the round and survived to the final bell without being knocked down again.
Lomachenko needs one other belt, that of the IBF which currently held by Richard Commey.
Commey will face the meteoric prospect Teofimo Lopez in December and the winner is expected to face Lomachenko in the spring of 2020.

On the undercard, Alexander Povetkin slogged his way to a unanimous decision over Hughie Fury in a boring bout.
Povetkin scored enough with his right to gain the clear decision (I agreed with all three judges that saw Povetkin a 117-111 winner) and will eventually have another chance against a heavyweight that is a top ten type in an eliminator.
As for Hughie Fury, who falls to 0-3 against world-class competition and it looks to me like Fury is a clear cut below that level and I'm not sure I'm interested in seeing him face those opponents in the future.

Controversy reigned in the other London bout as Charlie Edwards retained his WBC flyweight title when his fight vs Julio Cesar Martinez ended in a no-contest in the third round.
Martinez seemed to be on the way to taking the championship with an attack that was breaking Edwards down rapidly.
In the third, Martinez dropped Edwards to a knee with a big left hook, but then followed up with a shot to the body while Edwards was on the floor.
The referee didn't see the foul and counted Edwards out and Martinez was announced as the new champion.
The WBC did see the foul and ruled the bout a no contest, Edwards was returned his title and an immediate rematch was ordered.
It certainly was a foul and the correct call, but there was next to no question in my mind that Martinez was on his way to winning and I'm very doubtful that Edwards can do anything differently to turn the tide in his direction in a rematch.

The PBC card on Fox from Minneapolis looked weak on paper and it wasn't much better in the ring with the main event being a downright joke as Erislandy Lara knocked out Ramon Alvarez in two rounds win one of those WBA minor titles.
The main joke part was Alvarez, a totally undeserving "contender", who had never beaten a top contender (the biggest names on his record in Ben Tackie and Vivian Harris were well past their prime and well over their top fighting weight) weighed four pounds over the limit for the fight and essentially was a rated contender as part of the various sanctioning bodies never-ending need to kiss the ring of Ramon's brother, who happens to be named Canelo Alvarez.
Lara called out Canelo after the fight for a rematch of their July 2014 fight in which Alvarez won a controversial split decision that many believe Lara won.
Next to no chance of that happening with the promotional divide in the sport, but it kills me when PBC fighters call out fighters from other platforms, yet none of them show interest in making such fights when the time to negotiate begins.
I know all fighters call the other groups fighters out, but only PBC lacks a track record in making the biggest inter-promotional fights.

In a decent fight, junior middleweights Sebastian Fundora and Jamontay Clark fought to a draw.
The freakishly tall for the division Fundora at 6'6 was hit by Clark far more than he should have over his jab, but it made for a good fight as far as action goes.
I scored Clark a winner by a speck at 96-94, but I have no problem with the draw or even a similar score for Fundora, but the judge that saw Fundora winning scored a silly 98-92 card.

From Australia, Michael Zerafa knocked out former WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn in the ninth round in an upset.
I haven't seen the fight yet, but I have seen the final minute and the referee that allowed a badly hurt Horn to continue for well past the time that the fight should have been stopped, should never work a fight again.
Jeff Horn is very fortunate to escape this loss with his health and might want to consider retirement after this loss to Zerafa, who has never won at this level previously,

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica five points to four.
Both of us earned two points from Alexander Povetkin and one from Vasyl Lomachenko, with the difference being my two points from Erislandy Lara to Ramon's one.
I lead the overall standings 219-188.

Boxing Challenge: Pulev cuts down Dinu

Saturday night's card from ESPN had been promoted all week as the Kubrat Pulev show as the Bulgarian that holds down the number one contender position in the IBF prepared to make his American debut.
Pulev's opponent Bogdan Dinu was simply the fighter chosen to showcase Pulev, who can either wait for a mandatory title shot against Anthony Joshua or use his newly signed agreement with Top Rank to pursue Tyson Fury.
Dinu had looked almost meek in losing for the first time against Jarrell Miller in his last fight and few considered Pulev to be in danger of endangering his future prospects.
Endangered they were however as Dinu had his moments entering round four, but Pulev seemed to be in control before Dinu landed a right hand that opened one of the worst cuts that you'll see in quite a while along the left eye of Pulev and dominated that fourth round.
Now, the race was on- could the cut be slowed before Pulev could pull this fight from the fire?
The fifth and sixth rounds were entertaining as both fighters landed heavy shots against the other, but Dinu seemed to have landed his best blows and Pulev seemed to have the fight moving toward him despite the blood.
Pulev roared out in the seventh and was seemingly prepared to finish the fight early in the round as he sent Dinu to the mat with what appeared to be knockout blows, but with Dinu on the floor, Pulev struck him on the back of the head.
Dinu was given time to recover and Pulev was deducted one point, although the knockdown remained intact.
More often than not in these situations, the fighter that got hammered on the back of the head doesn't survive to receive any value from the foul and Dinu didn't either as he was dropped after the recovery period and floored again for a second time with the finishing shot seeming to land on a spot very close to the original impact of the foul.
This time, it wasn't a foul due to the circumstances and also this time, Dinu would be finished as the blood continued to flow down the side of Pulev's face as the large Bulgarian contingent cheered wildly.
I had Pulev slightly ahead after six rounds at 58-56 entering the final round.
While Dinu seems to have lost perhaps the best chance that he will ever have to leap into title contention, Pulev's value has to have risen among fans after such an exciting victory and will make a challenge of either Joshua or Fury both more valuable and more interesting.

On the undercard, former WBO junior featherweight champion Jessie Magdaleno returned from his first loss to Isaac Dogboe to dominate a less than interested Rico Ramos over ten rounds to win a unanimous decision.
Former champion Ramos missed weight, fought almost reluctantly and lost every round with the exception of the final two with Magdaleno going into cruise control to safely earn the nod.
I had Magdaleno a 98-92 winner and was never threatened.
No word on Magdaleno returning to 122 or staying at 126 where Top Rank could have fights against WBO champion Oscar Valdez or newly signed Carl Frampton waiting for him.
As for Ramos, I've seen more than enough of his multiple returns and it is more than overdue for boxing observers to move on and simply realize that his title-winning KO of Akifumi Shimoda in 2011 was simply lightning striking.

DAZN and Matchroom were live from London Saturday afternoon (for me anyway) with a typical boxing event where a fighter wins a title in an upset and is given a very winnable first title defense usually before a home crowd.
That stereotype hit every mark that you could think of as Charlie Edwards defended his WBC flyweight title for the first time with a unanimous decision over Angel Moreno.
Edwards won every round on my card and all three judges with the crude Moreno resigned to throwing an occasionally wild right hand.
It was the first defense for Edwards after his surprising title victory over Crisofer Rosales in the fall.
I wouldn't rate Edwards highly against the other champions in the division (Kosei Tanaka WBO, Artem Dalakian WBA, and Moruti Mthalane IBF) but being with Matchroom and their television connections, I bet Edwards will be the easiest one to see his fights live.

In the boxing challenge, I earned five points to Ramon Malpica's four and increased my lead to 66-60
We each earned two points from Charlie Edwards and one from Jessie Magdaleno, but Kubrat Pulev's knockout handed me two points to Ramon's one.

Lots of things to write about on this Sunday/Monday as more boxing from the PBC on FS1 with an interesting Lamont Peterson-Sergey Lipinets main event on tap, the Arizona Hotshots in the battle for sole possession of second place against the San Diego Fleet (1st place San Antonio held serve there with a Saturday victory) and maybe Ohio State in the field of 32 against the Houston Cougars.
I didn't write about the Buckeyes first-round upset over Iowa State because I didn't get to see very much of it due to work, although I did see the last few minutes.
As far as Buckeye coverage, it will really come down to how I feel after a long day of lunch with the lovely Cherie after work and then even more sports.
I mean, really how much gas can one have?