Boxing Challenge:Hrgovic survives Itauma

    Saturday was supposed to be the coronation for heavyweight Moses Itauma.

Itauma had been compared to Mike Tyson for his electrifying power, and Filip Hrgovic was the foil in Itauma's first title fight, the vacant IBF championship.

And Itauma showed his power, winning all eight rounds and showing Hrgovic that the reviews of the twenty-one-year-old's offense were correct.

However, those rounds came at a price- sapping the stamina of Itauma and changing the attack to wild, looping punches that won rounds but didn't have the impact of earlier blows.

Itauma scored a knockdown in round two with a glancing hook, but Itauma landed many other power punches that Hrgovic was able to essentially shrug off.

In round nine, Itauma was still throwing wild punches, but Hrgovic battered Itauma around, avoiding his desperate counters, and just as the referee moved in to stop the fight, the towel flew in from Itauma's corner.

For Hrgovic, mandatory challenger Frank Sanchez is next, as Sanchez took a large cash-out to allow Itauma and Hrgovic to meet for the IBF title under the condition that he would be next to face the winner.

Itauma suffered a leg injury during the fight, and he'll have to take time to recover, but he's young enough and talented enough to bounce back and become a force in the division.

Lightweight contender Sam Noakes won an easy unanimous decision over former WBO champion Denis Berinchyk in the co-feature.

And in California, super middleweight contender Lester Martinez stopped Luca Planic in ten rounds.

Boxing Challenge

TRS:99 Pts (5)

Ramon Malpica: 84 Pts (3)

Vince Samano; 60 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: Davis bashes Berinchyk!

      Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn Davis vowed to crunch another former Olympic silver medalist and take the WBO lightweight title from Denis Berinchyk after the latest out-of-the-ring controversy before a New York-based fight.

Before the weigh-in, someone reported as possibly being part of Berinchyk's team sent a racist note and bananas to Davis's room and an enraged Davis said he would take it out on Berinchyk in the ring.

Davis did just that, dropping Berinchyk with a body shot in the third round before landing another body blow to the liver in the fourth that sent Berinchyk to his knees and unable to beat the count.

Davis's win was very impressive as he dominated Berinchyk and was never threatened in return.

The lightweight division now has four excellent and diverse champions with Davis holding the WBO title, Gervonta Davis the WBA belt, Shakur Stevenson the WBC titleholder, and the injured Vasyl Lomachenko holding the IBF strap but hasn't decided if he will be continuing his career.

Another unbeaten Top Rank prospect notched an impressive win as junior middleweight Xander Zayas stopped Slawa Spomer in the ninth round.

Zayas won every round and other than one right hand landed by Spomer in the fifth round, It was all Zayas.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 16 Pts (3) 

Ramon Malpica; 15 Pts (2)

Vince Samano : 8 Pts (2)

Boxing Challenge-Berinchyk surprises Navarrete

     The ESPN boxing card from San Diego saw two upsets with one new champion and another simply biding his time before stepping forward to collect his belt.

In the main event, Denis Berinchyk surprised heavy favorite Emanuel Navarrete with a split decision to win the vacant WBO lightweight title in a fight that wasn't nearly as active as one expects from a Navarrete fight.

Berinchyk countered the wild punches of Navarrete more effectively than Navarrete's opponents in the lighter-weight divisions and it was Berinchyk who dominated the late rounds of the fight surprising Navarrete who has usually been the stronger fighter in the waning rounds in the past.

Navarrete was slower than usual and he may have been sluggish at the higher weight enabling Berinchyk to do just enough to earn a split decision with scores of 116-112 and 115-113 to counter a dissenting card of 116-112 for Navarrete.

Berinchyk might be headed for WBC champion Shakur Stevenson next while Navarrete could return to the junior lightweight division and defend the WBO title that he still holds in that division or stay at lightweight, where he will need to improve his efforts if he expects to contend for a championship.

In the co-feature, Brian Norman turned in the best outing of his career in busting up Giovanni Santillan's face before dropping him twice and finishing him off in round ten,

Norman had not been overly impressive in his unbeaten career against less-than-strong opposition and Santillan looked very strong in his six-round crushing of Alexis Rocha, costing Rocha his top ranking in the WBO.

Santillan started strong and looked to be bullying Norman before Norman established his respect in the fourth round and began to steadily beat up Santillan, cutting him on both sides of his face which would cover both combatants in blood.

Norman hurt Santillan in the ninth and perhaps the Santillan corner could have stopped the fight but allowed their fighter to come out for the tenth where Norman knocked Santillan down and the referee could have ended things then and there but kept things going which resulted with Norman landing an uppercut for the final knockdown with the fight finally concluding.

With the win, Norman wins the WBO interim welterweight title, which normally means nothing but Norman will become the full champion when Terence Crawford officially leaves the division.

I'll be writing on the Usyk-Fury undercard in my next post.