Boxing Challenge: Parker, Ruiz survive Heavyweight tests.

    Two former heavyweight champions survived stern tests from veterans attempting to stay relevant on Saturday with both winning entertaining affairs and both having to get off the floor to notch victories.

In Manchester, England, former WBO champion Joseph Parker was knocked down in the opening seconds and fell far behind on the scorecards against Dereck Chisora before rallying in the second half of the fight to grab a split decision.

Chisora was more aggressive and banked most of the first half of the fight, but tired badly as the bout continued with visible gasps for air in the corner between rounds.

Parker turned the tide against the weary Chisora in the second half of the fight, but on my card, it was decided by the knockdown in the opening round, 114-113 for Chisora.

Two judges scored it 115-113 for each fighter, which was very fair, and then the decisive score of 117-111 for Parker was ridiculous.

Parker is rated in the top six by the WBC, IBF, and WBO, so he'll likely have an eliminator soon, but the opponent is unknown as the fighters above him are with other promoters except for Oleksandr Usyk, who would be unlikely to take such a fight.

As for Dereck Chisora, it was yet another close fight that didn't quite go his way, but a strong effort that will earn him another paycheck against another contender.

On the other heavyweight fight, I wasn't surprised that Andy Ruiz and Chris Arreola put on an excellent fight, I was surprised that it went the twelve-round distance with Ruiz winning a unanimous decision.

Arreola knocked Ruiz down in the second round and won some early rounds, but Ruiz kept grinding and when Arreola courageously battled through a shoulder injury, he was meat on the platter for Ruiz, who swept the final rounds for the victory.

I scored Ruiz a 116-111 winner and though Arreola had his moments in an entertaining battle, Ruiz was the clear winner.

Ruiz is ranked in the top five by three of the four organizations and even though his PBC affiliation hinders him from title chances against Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury, there are interesting fights for him against Deontay Wilder or Luis Ortiz at the top of the food chain or Adam Kownacki or Robert Helenius below him.

Any of those names would make entertaining brawls against Ruiz and a win over a Wilder or Ortiz would zoom him to the top of the contender list.

On the Parker-Chisora undercard, WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol won an unimpressive unanimous decision over a surprising Craig "Spider" Richards.

Richards had fought no one of Bivol's caliber, but tried throughout and landed occasional right hands which is more than I expected of him, but Bivol never tried to step up the pace and was content to take a closer than expected decision with two scores of 115-114 and 115-113, which were too close in my opinion.

I scored Bivol a 117-111 winner with Richards winning the final three rounds while Bivol was on cruise control, but Bivol, who was once thought of as a possible future superstar, continues to be content to win less than thrilling decisions that drive away fans.

Bivol is expected to face former WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez next in a fight that Bivol will need to perform far better than he has of late.

On the Ruiz-Arreola card from Carson California, former WBC lightweight champion Omar Figueroa was beaten up for six rounds by fringe contender Abel Ramos and then had the fight stopped in the corner in what has been reported as an uncompetitive fight.

I haven't seen this yet, but it sounds like the once-promising Figueroa may be headed for retirement.

On the Fox version of the undercard, Erislandy Lara knocked out undeserving Thomas LaManna with one punch in the first round to win one of the WBA's gumball machine belts, this one in the middleweight division.

I rambled about the wretched WBA in previewing this bout, so I'll save my breath now rather than ranting further about a mismatch that was clear before the contract was signed.

In the boxing challenge, I scored five points to Ramon Malpica's four and lead the challenge 59-56.

Boxing Challenge: Kowacki outworks Arreola, Pascal stuns Browne

The largest part of the boxing weekend was brought to you by PBC on Fox from their unofficial home base at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, and entering the evening, the card looked very much like a less than stellar set of fights.
Instead, PBC provided a pretty strong evening of fun boxing and left me wishing that they would offer more nights like this in the future.

In the main event, heavyweight Adam Kownacki took a unanimous decision over Chris Arreola to continue his movement towards what might eventually see Kownacki face Deontay Wilder for Wilder's WBC title.
The fight was filled with more action in the first half of the fight than in the latter, but each fighter landed plenty in a fight that the Fox broadcast stated that records were set for punches thrown and landed for a heavyweight fight.
Neither fighter used a lot of movement, but it was Kownacki landing the bigger shots and forced the veteran Arreola backward for most of the fights.
There were no knockdowns scored and the first seven to eight rounds had toe to toe exchanges that had the crowd roaring with approval.
I wouldn't rate this as an all-time classic, but it was an excellent fight and any fight fan had to enjoy this one with a possible rematch being worth signing.
With that said, I wouldn't be against this fight standing alone either as PBC is building Kownacki as a future opponent for Wilder, yet his limitations could get him defeated in any fight and possibly blow a big crowd in Brooklyn for Kownacki, who lives in the area.
At the same time, as well as Arreola fought, it is also possible that this was the last stand for the veteran from California and a rematch could see a lopsided win for Kownacki.

The semi-main event between Marcus Browne and Jean Pascal for one of those pesky minor WBA belts looked to be all in the corner of Browne, who dominated the 36-year-old former champion for five of the completed seven rounds and looked the part of the best PBC light heavyweight as he fought for the first time since dominating Badou Jack earlier this year.
The problem was that Browne's chin considered a question since being knocked down twice by Radivoje Kalajdzic in an even more questionable split decision win, couldn't hold up as Pascal knocked Browne down in the fourth and twice more in the seventh with the bell perhaps saving Browne.
With the bout even on my card, Pascal jumped on Browne to start the eighth round and during that flurry, a clash of heads opened a horrendous cut over Browne's left eye and resulted in the fight being stopped shortly thereafter.
The decision by Pascal to attack resulted in his winning the fight, as the partially completed round still had to be scored and with Pascal winning that round on all cards, resulted in his winning the fight via the unanimous decision.
The fight screams for a rematch and with the dearth of PBC contenders in the division makes it likely to happen.
For Browne, it not only was his first loss, but it also showed his vulnerability to right hands as Pascal isn't known as a big puncher as he had never scored a knockout over a top ten contender in his career and makes one wonder how Browne would fare against a really big hitter.
For Pascal, who fought surprisingly well, the win should give him another payday or two as his career winds down and with luck, perhaps a few more.

The opening fight saw another upset as middleweight Wale Omotoso crushed former middleweight title challenger Curtis Stevens in three rounds.
Stevens, who has made his career in beating fringe contenders outside the top ten, attacked in his normal manner, but was knocked down once in the first and twice in the second, appearing to be in big trouble in round two.
Stevens came out strong in the third and seemed to be Omotoso hurt and prepared for a come from behind victory before Omotoso dropped Stevens to end the fight after Stevens just barely rose and the referee ended the fight.
Stevens should likely retire and Omotoso will remain a fringe contender in the middleweights.
Considering the spectacular win, I would not be at all surprised to see Omotoso in against WBC champion Jermall Charlo, with the weak condition of 160 pounders on the PBC side.

The other challenge fight is one that I have not seen yet as featherweight prospect Michael Conlan stopped Diego Antonio Ruiz in the ninth round.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica 2 to 1 to move my lead to 200-174