Boxing Challenge: Joshua Dropped, Tsyzu retires Spence

      No upsets over the weekend, but the biggest news came from a near-upset as unknown Kristian Prenga dropped former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua twice in the first round before Joshua would return the favor by stopping Prenga in the second.

Joshua's next opponent, Tyson Fury, won his warm-up fight over veteran Mariusz Wach when Wach was unable to answer the bell for the eighth round.

Fury and Joshua are scheduled to meet sometime in the fall.

In Australia, former junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu won a unanimous decision over comebacking former welterweight champion Errol Spence.

Spence announced his retirement after the fight.

Former junior middleweight and middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade won his ring return with a first-round KO of Douglas Ataide.

Josh Kelly retained his IBF junior middleweight title with a unanimous decision over Caoimhin Agyarko, and Hamzah Sheeraz kept his WBO super middleweight title with a unanimous decision over Simon Zachenhuber in two boring fights on the Joshua-Prenga undercard.

Edgar Berlanga stopped Steven Butler in seven rounds in the Zuffa main event from New York City.

Richardson Hitchins won a unanimous decision over Ricardo Salas, and Jalil Hackett earned a unanimous decision over Sergey Dereyvanchenko in the supporting bouts.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 85 Pts (13)

Ramon Malpica: 70 Pts (10)

Vince Samano: 58 Pts (12)

Boxing Challenge: Benavidez no picnic for Boo Boo

   David Benavidez stamped himself again as the best possible opponent for world super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez when Demetrius Andrade was unable to answer the bell for the start of round seven in their Las Vegas clash.

Andrade started well, outboxing Benavidez in the first two rounds before Benavidez began landing in the third round and dominated thereafter, knocking Andrade down in the fourth with a body shot, and battering a very game Andrade in the fifth and sixth.

With Andrade's right eye starting to swell badly, referee Thomas Taylor asked Andrade to show him something in the upcoming round or he would have to stop the fight, Andrade's corner did the right thing in protecting their fighter by ending the evening for Andrade.

A dominant win for Benavidez and the best of his career in my opinion and Andrade was brave in taking his first defeat, showing more in defeat against the bigger man than he may have in his previous wins.

Benavidez once again called out Canelo Alvarez, who hadn't seemed interested in fighting Benavidez in the past, and I'd be surprised if Alvarez answered that call in his next outing, even though Alvarez still has two more fights scheduled with PBC, the promoter for Benavidez.

Benavidez is bigger, younger, and stronger than Canelo, and a prospective fight between the two reminds me of another all-Mexican battle between Oscar De La Hoya and Julio Cesar Chavez, which also ended with the younger, stronger, and faster De La Hoya winning on cuts in four rounds in 1996 and winning the rematch in eight rounds.

Benavidez deserves the shot at Canelo next but if I had to guess who is going to get that chance, that man made his ring return after almost a two-and-a-half year absence in WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo, who missed weight by multiple pounds even though he was fighting above his division limit.

Charlo looked better than I expected in winning an easy unanimous decision over the much smaller Jose Benavidez over ten rounds held at a catchweight in the super middleweight division.

Charlo didn't score a knockdown but under the circumstances that's about the only thing to be critical of his outing but remember this- Benavidez is a natural 140-pounder, entered the fight with a record of 1-2-1 over the last five years, and he was knocked out by Terence Crawford, so while Benavidez is a tough customer, this wasn't a quality contender Charlo was beating.

Charlo won by scores of 100-90, 99-91, and 98-92 which was my score.

I haven't seen the other two title fights which saw Subriel Matias stop Shohjahon Ergashev in six to retain his IBF junior welterweight title, and Lamont Roach defeat Hector Luis Garcia by split decision to win the WBA junior lightweight belt.

I did see the YouTube free fight with Michel Rivera winning a close unanimous decision over Sergey Lipinets in a ten-round junior welterweight battle.

I scored Rivera the winner at 96-94.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 177 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 160 Pts (3)

Vince Samano:115 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: Andrade Annilates Quigley

     The DAZN card from Manchester, New Hampshire played according to plan as the heavy favorites both scored dominant victories and as is usual in boxing, had a disappointment in the third pairing.

In the main event, Demetrius Andrade did what champions are supposed to do with overmatched challengers- dismiss them quickly and Andrade did just that in his second round knockout of Jason Quigley to defend his WBO middleweight title.

Andrade knocked Quigley down in the first and two more times in the second with referee Arthur Mercante Jr.ending the fight after the second knockdown.

Andrade will hopefully receive a bigger fight than a undeserving challenger such as Quigley and he called out all the right names but I still think getting any of those are unlikely.

Still, Andrade has made the first step to getting those fights in not allowing his opponents to survive longer than they should.

M.J. Akhmadaliev won every round in retaining his WBA and IBF junior featherweight titles over late replacement Jose Velasquez.

Akhmadaliev showed every tool in his kit except for power as he was unable to knock down the rock-jawed Velasquez, who showed plenty of heart and earned kudos for his toughness in the defeat.

Akhmadaliev needs a bigger test and the best fight could be made with the winner of next Saturday's Brandon Figueroa-Stephen Fulton fight, which would leave two titles with the victor and two with Akhmadaliev.

The other fight was shaping up to be a good one between Julio Cesar Martinez and McWilliams Arroyo for the WBC flyweight title held by Martinez before a clash of heads in the second round caused the fight to end in a no contest before the beginning of round three.

Both fighters scored knockdowns in the first round and Martinez scored another in the second round with Arroyo also scoring well in the round

The head clash caused two separate cuts on the eyelid of Arroyo and when Arroyo told the doctor that he couldn't see the fight was stopped immediately.

It seemed like Arroyo could have continued and now it will be up to the WBC to decide if a rematch is needed or not.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica scored three points to my two to move the boxing challenge to 149-132 in my favor.

Boxing Challenge: Andrade decisions Williams

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

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

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

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

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

I doubt it, but perhaps.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And then there was Twiller.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I don't have the answer to that question.

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

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

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

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

What a trainwreck.

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

Boxing Challenge: Andrade breezes, Diaz and Akhmadaliev win titles.

A rare Thursday boxing challenge from Miami on Super Bowl weekend saw three world championship fights with two of those matches resulting in new champions.

In the main event, WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade stopped Luke Keeler in the ninth round of yet another uncompetitive Andrade title defense.
Andrade knocked Keeler down in the first and second rounds, but then gradually broke Keeler down under a steady assault before a badly hurt Keeler was saved by the referee with seconds remaining in the ninth.
Andrade won every round and rarely was even touched by Keeler in the lopsided tilt.
Andrade, who is the ultimate high-risk/low reward fighter in the game today, is in desperate need of someone that can test him and thus far in his title reign hasn't been pushed at all, spoke of moving to super-middleweight to fight WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders in a fight that was scheduled for 2018 for the title that Andrade currently possesses, but was then owned by Saunders.
That fight was canceled when Saunders tested positive for a banned substance and the two have sparred on social media since.
Saunders would be the toughest test for Andrade in his career, but I'd rather see Andrade against WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo, who reportedly turned down seven million dollars for a one fight agreement to face Andrade.

The middle fight was a little more competitive but wasn't close on my scorecard as Joseph Diaz won the IBF junior lightweight title from Tevin Farmer via unanimous decision in a mild upset.
Diaz gritted through an extremely bad gash over his left eye after the two collided heads in the second round and took advantage of a heavy-legged Farmer to land to the body often.
I thought Diaz controlled the bout easily, but my 118-110 card was a bit larger than those of the judges.
Diaz simply refused to back up and Farmer neither had the legs to box Diaz with movement nor the strength to win the inside battles.
The surprising win for Diaz will have to be repeated as there is a rematch clause in the contract.

The best fight of the night was the opener as M.J. (he wants to be known as M.J for his love of Michael Jackson) Akhmadaliev squeaked out a split decision over Daniel Roman to lift Roman's WBA and IBF junior featherweight titles.
Akhmadaliev won the majority of the early rounds with Roman rallying later as the best action rounds were the final three rounds with both fighters landing hard blows, but Roman earning a small edge.
The scorecards were close and fair as all three judges scored the fight 115-113 (7-5 rounds) with two for Akhmadaliev and the dissenting board for Roman.
The styles meshed well with Akhmadaliev as a more athletic and slick southpaw with Roman fighting in a more traditional manner.
I scored the fight even at 114-114 and I would love to see a rematch, which is likely considering the other two champions in the division (WBC champ Rey Vargas is now with PBC and WBO champ Emmanuel Navarrete is a Top Rank/ESPN fighter) fight elsewhere and a rematch is the likely biggest fight that either can find at this time.

One final note: While Daniel Roman should be applauded for fighting his mandatory in a tough fight, Chris Mannix of DAZN, who I like, stated on the broadcast, as he had on his podcast, earlier in the week that he couldn't understand why Roman accepted the challenge of Akhmadaliev and that he should have vacated one of the two titles (In this case the WBA) to avoid Akhmadaliev and stay undefeated.

In boxing, we claim so often that a loss shouldn't ruin a fighter and that we want to see the best fight the best, but then when a champion does just that and dares to be the best, some wonder why they didn't take the easy way out.

Mannix is dead wrong on this and more fighters should bet on themselves as Daniel Roman did- Roman may have lost his titles, but he gained in the eyes of the intelligent observer because he was everything that fans wish champions to be.
Good for him.

In the Boxing Challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica three to two and pulled into an overall tie for the season lead at 12-12.
The difference was the Akhmadaliev win over Roman.  

Boxing Challenge: Somnambulant Middleweights

On a night filled with uncompetitive matches and not even in the same universe as compelling, two of the middleweight titles were on the line on two networks and neither was remotely interesting to watch.

The best performance was that of WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade, who charged from his corner and for one round seemed interested in changing his reputations for dominant and yet dull performances when he dropped challenger Maciej Sulecki in the first minute of round one and delivering a round filled with power punches that dazzled the challenger from Poland.
Andrade then returned to his corner to be told by his trainer and father, Paul Andrade that they "didn't come here for a war and to box".
Andrade then controlled every round, won them all on my card (120-107), cruised to a unanimous decision to retain his title and yet didn't do a thing to make fans want to see him against Canelo Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin.
I've always liked Andrade, and back in the old days of the FightHeads podcast ( Selfish Plug-If you are reading this and would like me to appear on a podcast, ask!) I even picked Andrade as a possible top star, if he would only fight more.
Now, he's fighting more often but isn't exciting anyone in the process.
It looks to me that Andrade is in the same position that Gennady Golovkin once found himself in- A fight against him is a low reward and high risk.

The DAZN undercard wasn't exciting either as former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker pounded Alex Leapai for ten rounds before the merciful end in the tenth.
Parker looked good, but it would have been hard not to against a retreating heavy bag that would occasionally toss a looping counter right.
The best I can say about this is that Parker threw more punches, punch output has been something Parker's been criticized for, and Leapai's chin is pretty dam strong.
Kal Yafai won a boring unanimous decision over Norbelto Jimenez that left the crowd booing and me wondering why I watch boxing sometimes.
Yafai scored a late knockdown to win going away (118-109 on my card) and hopes for a unification fight against WBC champion Juan Francisco Estrada next in which he'll need to put forth the best effort of his career to win.

And then there was Showtime, home of the best announcing team and production in boxing and suddenly finds itself showing B level shows from the PBC.
This three fight card was one better suited for another network and I felt bad for Showtime watching it.
I've always been someone that campaigned for boxing to have network television, but it appears that PBC is shoveling better fights to Fox and considering the broadcast quality of Fox, who schleps the non-boxing guy Chris Myers out for their fights- that's not a good thing.

Jermall Charlo, who had been gifted the WBC middleweight title earlier in the week, defending his newly handed title with a unanimous decision over Brandon Adams in a sloppy, awkward fight.
No knockdowns and little excitement for Charlo, which was expected entering into the fight and with the fight becoming a full title fight during fight week, it just seemed like a second class event.
I've always been a "belts matter" (copyright Steve Kim) guy, but this is so silly for a fighter to have wins over Jorge Heiland, Hugo Centeno, Matt Korobov, and now Brandon Adams and claim to be the champion of the world.
I've been critical of Jermall Charlo's competition (he really only possesses three wins of note- the KO of Julian Williams, which was impressive and close decision wins over Austin Trout and last-minute replacement Korobov) and that's a fair one, but the real villain here isn't Charlo, it's the WBC for putting their champion in such a place.
I plan on taking them on later this week.

The co-feature predictably saw Erickson Lubin hammer Zakaria Attou for four rounds before the fight was ended with mercy.
I could have written that result and saved Attou the beating.
We still don't know how much Lubin has recovered from his one round loss to Jermell Charlo and we won't until he fights someone that fights back- which is a question so often uttered when dealing with PBC promoted fighters.

The first bout saw Claudio Marrero win a unanimous decision over Eduardo Ramirez to become mandatory for Leo Santa Cruz's WBA featherweight title.
This wasn't exactly a barnburner, but at least it was competitive, which was rare on this evening, no matter your network.
I scored Marrero a 115-113 winner and despite losing his previous fight to Tug Nyambayar, will now eventually face the oft-protected Santa Cruz.

Just a tedious night of boxing and one that showed the worst of the game.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica nine to seven with the difference being the bonus point for calling the round of Erickson Lubin's KO and Demetrius Andrade winning by decision.
I lead the overall challenge 163-147

Boxing Challenge: Two Networks, Two Shockers!

Friday night was looked at as a mere appetizer for the Manny Pacquiao- Adrien Broner PPV slate on Saturday, but instead, each network involved promoted what turned out to be a major upset that will shake up future fights in their division.

Let's start with Matchroom Boxing on DAZN, where in the main event,
Demetrius Andrade retained his WBO middleweight title for the first time with a final round stoppage of Artur Akakov in the Madison Garden Theatre (formerly known as the Felt Forum).
Andrade issued his typical performance, using his jab that kept Akakov puzzled all evening and entered the final round up nine rounds to two on my card before Andrade mildly buzzed Akakov with a right hand with 45 seconds remaining.
Surprisingly, referee Arthur Mercante Jr stopped the fight over the severe protests of Akakov and the stoppage seemed very premature in my opinion.
Andrade called out Gennady Golovkin after the fight, but I'd be surprised that would be next, even if Golovkin selected DAZN as his television home, Andrade is high risk, little reward and wouldn't make very much sense, if the end game is a third fight with Canelo Alvarez.
I would guess that Andrade would next face another contender of Akakov's level, which is in the top 15 range depending on the organization, although the eventual big fight might be former WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders, who was stripped of the title last fall for failing an illegal substance test before a title defense vs Andrade.

Former three division champion Jorge Linares was expected to take another step towards a junior welterweight title fight against WBC champion Jose Ramirez and all Linares had to do earn that shot would be to defeat veteran fringe contender Pablo Cesar Cano in the co-feature.
Less than one round and three knockdowns later, the title fight possibilities and possibly the career of Linares was finished with Cano pulling the upset of his career.
For all the talent and offensively tremendous skills that Linares has always possessed, Linares has always had a less than sturdy chin and when this fight started, Cano looked like a fighter far larger and Linares didn't have a chance as the first punch Cano landed sent Linares to the mat.
Linares never seemed to regain his equilibrium and despite landing some shots against the charging Cano, was unable to repel his aggression in being knocked down two more times with the fight being called after a woozy Linares rose to his feet on unsteady legs.
This might be all she wrote for Linares, who Steve Kim has called arguably the most brilliant and flawed fighter of his time.
Linares clearly isn't strong enough to hold off 140 pounders and dropping back to lightweight either may not an option in making weight or after this loss, a Vasyl Lomachenko rematch or a talked about fight for years against Mikey Garcia would be highly unlikely.
As for Cano, he'll receive the chance to face Jose Ramirez for his WBC title and attempt to add another surprise victory to his record.

IBF junior featherweight champion T.J. Doheny defended his championship for the first time against overmatched late substitute Ryohei Takahashi by an eleventh round knockout.
The stoppage seemed a little soon to me (Not nearly as bad as the Andrade-Akakov ending later in the evening), but Doheny had won every round and even though Takahashi never stopped moving forward, one could argue enough was enough.
I liked what I saw from the technically strong Doheny and I think the possible All-DAZN unification fight with WBA beltholder Daniel Roman could prove to be a very even fight.

Meanwhile, on the other end of New York state in Verona, Heavyweight Bryant Jennings looked to cement himself as a possible challenger to champion Anthony Joshua with a win over Oscar Rivas.
Jennings entered the fight as the number two contender in the WBO and assuming he continued winning over the average competition he had been facing since his loss to Luis Ortiz, he would eventually receive a title shot.
The undefeated Rivas had fought every fight of his career in Canada and against no one of note and no one knew what he would bring in his first fight against a contender.
I had Jennings narrowly ahead entering the final round (6-5 in rounds) and the ESPN+ broadcast flashed a graphic that stated Rivas did not land more than nine punches in any of the previous eleven closely contested, but not visually thrilling rounds.
The Rivas corner screamed at their man that the fight was on the line and he needed a big twelfth round and how many times in boxing do we hear that and watch the fighter shuffle along to take his chances on the cards?
Rivas listened and roared from his corner with a rage unseen and pounded Jennings with a series of rights that sent Jennings to the canvas.
Jennings barely beat the count and couldn't hold off Rivas, who drove Jennings into the ropes with a volley of bombs that forced the referee to end the fight.
Rivas will likely zoom to near the top of at least the WBO rankings, if not other organizations as well and we could see more of him in a top loaded heavyweight division.
For Jennings, he'll have to start over, which might be a daunting task and he'll likely have to face tougher competition to speed that process along.

Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson looked sensational in winning the first three rounds and then stopping Jessie Rosales with one straight left.
Stevenson is beginning to throw and land more power punches than he did in his initial bouts and as a result, is not only improving as a fighter, he has become much more fun to watch,
Stevenson is ready for a jump in competition.

In the boxing challenge, I earned six points to Ramon Malpica's three to lead the boxing challenge 7-4.
I added three points from Shakur Stevenson (win, knockout and bonus point for the round), two points from T.J. Doheny and one from Demetrius Andrade.
Ramon picked up one point from each of those wins.

Boxing Challenge: Brant stuns Murata!

Source: STEVE MARCUS/Getty Images North America

In a five-fight boxing challenge weekend, the best fight and biggest news occurred in Las Vegas where Top Rank's best-laid plans burned in ashes as Rob Brant upset Ryota Murata to take his minor title via a clear and unanimous decision, that still was an exciting fight to watch.

The Brant victory blew up a planned Murata "title" defense in Japan at the Tokyo Dome early in 2019 against Gennady Golovkin that would have been a major event there with sizable checks for all involved.
Brant ruined that with a relentless attack that saw an Aaron Pryoresque offense that just never stopped throwing punches at the taller Japanese import.
No knockdowns were scored, but Brant's punches beat up Murata around both eyes and around his cheekbones causing some impressive swelling.
I scored Brant a 117-111 winner, which was along the line of the three judges.
Murata does have a rematch clause, so should he choose to activate it, Brant might have to travel to Japan for it, but against the best competition that he has faced at middleweight (his only loss was to Jurgen Braehmer at super middle in the WBSS), Brant looked like someone that is going to be a tough out even for the best in the division, should he fight at this level every time out.

Meanwhile, DAZN featured a pair of cards from Boston and Orlando that you could pick the one you want to watch live and watch the other on replay.
This is always a hard strategy to navigate when you are trying to avoid knowing results (especially if you are friends with Fred Landucci! Just teasing, buddy) and fight facts beforehand.

Photo: Matchroom Boxing

From Boston, Demetrius Andrade grabbed one of the two vacant middleweight titles with his shutout win over Walter Kautondokwa to win the WBO version.
Andrade joins Canelo Alvarez (WBA/WBC) and the winner of the Daniel Jacobs-Sergey Dereyvanchenko fight next Saturday (IBF) and suddenly there could be a way to unify the titles if the desire is there with all of those fighters having connections with DAZN, Matchroom Boxing or both.
Andrade won every round on my scorecard (120-104) with the wider margin explained by Andrade dropping Kautondokwa in the first, third and twice in the fourth.
Andrade wasn't as safety-first as he had been in the past, but he never seemed to truly turn the jets on and try to put the Namibian away.

In the other Boston challenge bout, IBF junior lightweight champion Tevin Farmer dominated James Tennyson of Great Britain thru four rounds and finished him in the fifth.
Farmer dumped Tennyson to the canvas with a fourth-round body shot that essentially finished him then, even though an ailing Tennyson came out for the fifth, but was quickly staggered with another body blow that was enough to convince the referee that the fight should be concluded.
The rare knockout (just the sixth among twenty-seven wins) for Farmer might say more for Tennyson's lack of an ability to take a good punch (he once was knocked out by a guy with a 2-64-5 record) than any newfound punching ability of Farmer, who has been involved in a social media shouting match with WBA champ Gervonta Davis with both calling the other out for a unification battle.
I don't mind fighters calling the other out- IF there is a chance of making the fight, which I think this one has little chance of happening with Davis, who sadly rarely fights, being involved with Floyd Mayweather's Money Team/PBC and Farmer with Matchroom/DAZN.
There just isn't enough money to be made from this fight to be worth the sides to work together to get this one in the ring.
If the fight would be made, I like Davis in that one.

Meanwhile, in Orlando, the World Boxing Super Series filled semi-final slots in the bantamweight and cruiserweight tournaments.

Yunier Dorticos went the entire twelve rounds for the first time in his career and won a narrow unanimous decision over a tougher than expected Mateusz Masternak to move to the semi-finals.
No knockdowns, but the story was Masternak giving the booming punches of Dorticos and his vaunted power all that he wanted before just falling short on my card 115-113.
Dorticos will move on against American Andrew Tabiti in the semi-finals in early 2019.

Talented Emmanuel Rodriguez also was given all that he wanted by the mandatory contender Australia's Jason Moloney, but moved to the semi's and retained his IBF bantamweight title with a split decision victory.
All three judges scored the fight the same at 115-113, with two selecting Rodriguez and the other picking Moloney as the victor.
I agreed with the majority leaning the way of Rodriguez by the same score.
Rodriguez will face the Monster Naoya Inoue in the next round and though Inoue will be a heavy favorite, Rodriguez will be a live underdog in my opinion against the Japanese sensation.

In the boxing challenge, I scored five points to Ramon Malpica's four.
Ramon and I scored one point each for wins by Dorticos, Farmer, Rodriguez and Andrade, but my extra point came from predicting Andrade would go the distance.
I lead the challenge 172-147.

Boxing Challenge:Machado upsets Corrales

The boxing challenge for the weekend starts in Verona, New York with two bouts from HBO that had varying intensities.

In the main event, Alberto Machado won the WBA junior lightweight title from Jezreel Corrales (TRS #3) when Machado landed a left hand while eating one from Corrales, dropping
Corrales and surviving himself.
The eighth round knockout allowed Machado to win a title that Corrales could not retain after missing weight by multiple pounds at the weigh-in.
WBA rules stated that after an agreement to keep the fight going that if Machado won, he would become champion and the title would become vacant with a Corrales win.
Machado had won just one round on my card (the sixth, where he should have been given a 10-8 round for a knockdown that was not called) before the abrupt victory.
The lean Machado will be an interesting addition to the 130 pound title picture with WBC champ Miguel Berchelt as a possible opponent should he defeat the gritty veteran Orlando Salido in December or the IBF champion (decided on the same card in December as Tevin Farmer faces Kenichi Ogawa for the title that Gervonta Davis sacrificed on the scale in August) for the slot of best in the division other than WBO champion Vasyl Lomachenko.

The co-feature saw the return of Demetrius Andrade (TRS #3 at junior middle) moving up to middleweight against undefeated and untested Alantez Fox.
In a bout that rivaled any Guillermo Rigondeaux or Erislandy Lara fight for boredom, Andrade won every round on my card, but the seventh and took a unanimous decision.
Fox scored a knockdown in the seventh that really was a tangled foot issue.
I scored Andrade a 118-109 winner and I hope we see him against better challengers next time out.

HBO showed a good bantamweight bout on tape delay from Belfast, Northern Ireland as Ryan Burnett unified his IBF title with the WBA belt with a unanimous decision over Zhanat Zhakiyanov (TRS #3).
I scored Burnett a 117-111 winner after the fight was even after six rounds, but saw Burnett dominate the second half of the fight.
I'm sure we will see Burnett debut in the next edition of the TRS ratings.

In the final quarter-final of the World Boxing Super Series, Murat Gassiev (TRS #2) retained his IBF cruiserweight title in Newark, New Jersey with a body shot in round three that dropped Krzysztof Wlodarczyk for the count.
Gassiev pushed Wlodarczyk around the ring and from the opening bell, the verdict was clear that Gassiev could pick his round of victory,
Gassiev moves to the semi-finals against Yunier Dorticos in what should be a thrilling battle early in 2018 and might be establishing the early leader for 2018 fight of the year.
Next Saturday will have the final quarter-final in the super middleweights between Jurgen Brahmer and Rob Brant and following that, I'll have a look and some thoughts about the initial round of the WBSS.

From Tokyo for a minor title, Ryota Murata avenged one of the worst decisions in 2017 when Hassan N'Dam could not answer the bell for round eight in their middleweight fight.
I had Murata ahead on the cards and dominated the fight seen live on ESPN2 at 7;30 AM.
My issue is why the WBA made this for their "regular" title, when the organization that claims they want to reduce their titles, could have swallowed this one when Gennady Golovkin defeated Daniel Jacobs in March?
There is a manner to force a fight between the champion and a top challenger- it's called being the number one contender and that doesn't mean they are a champion too.

In an untelevised bout in the challenge, Daigo Higa (TRS #3) retained his WBC flyweight title with a seventh round knockout of Thomas Massson on the Murata-N'Dam undercard.
Higa has won by KO in all 14 of his pro bouts.

In the Boxing Challenge-

I earned three points for the Murat Gassiev win (a bonus point for getting the round correct), two points for the Daigo Higa KO win, one point for the wins by Ryan Burnett , Demetrius Andrade, and Ryota Murata and I missed on Alberto Machado's victory.

Ramon added two points for Gassiev's win and one each for the Andrade and Higa wins while missing on Machado,Murat and Burnett's wins.

The Challenge now stands at 154-137.
Don't forget to listen to Fightheads Monday at 8 EST for talk about these and other boxing issues!!

Lemieux crunches Stevens-Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica and I each earned four points over the weekend in the boxing challenge on a three fight weekend.
I lead the challenge 26-24..

On the HBO stage,fight fans were thrilled and bored on the two fight card.

The thrills came from the expected slugfest between middleweight bombers David Lemieux and Curtis Stevens.
For two and a half rounds,it was all you could want from a fight until Lemieux shook off a Stevens right hand and replied with a left hook that nearly sent Stevens out of the ring and did send him down and out cold in the third round.
Stevens was carried out of the ring on a stretcher and taken to the hospital,where his test results were fine.
What a fight and Lemieux's hook has given his stoppage the lead for knockout of the year.
This KO was so vicious that it is going to be very difficult for Stevens to retain contending status and he may never be the same fighter again.
As far Lemieux,he might have made himself the likely opponent for Canelo Alvarez,assuming Alvarez defeats Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and would wish for another fight before (Or instead of) Gennady Golovkin.
Ramon and I each scored two points for the Lemieux knockout.

Ramon and I each scored a point for the tedious comeback win of Yuriorkis Gamboa,who was reluctant to engage against journeyman Rene Alvarado on his way to a unanimous decision win.
Alvarado scored a flash knockdown on Gamboa in the 10th in the only remotely interesting portion of the fight.
I scored Gamboa a 97-92 winner.

In a non-televised junior middleweight fight from Germany,Demetrius Andrade started quickly,slowed in the middle before hitting the gas late and winning a split decision over Jack Culcay for a lesser title.
The judge that scored the bout for Culcay must have been asleep or scored the fight before it started.
Simply an atrocious scorecard.
Andrade might be the best talent in the division,if he would just fight more often.
The win sets Andrade up for as the mandatory contender for WBA champion Erislandy Lara.
I had Andrade a 117-111 winner and Ramon and I each added one point in the challenge.

I'll be talking about these three fights and a preview of Gennady Golovkin-Daniel Jacobs next weekend on Monday night in the latest edition of Fightheads....