Boxing Challenge: Valdez Bewilders Berchelt

   Oscar Valdez was a solid underdog against Miguel Berchelt in their WBC junior lightweight title fight in Las Vegas.

The fight was anticipated, but most preferred Berchelt for one reason- despite Valdez's undefeated record and former WBO featherweight title reign, Valdez hadn't looked like the same fighter since breaking his jaw in a victory over Scott Quigg.

All of which meant that Valdez would give the performance of his career, knock Berchelt into the ropes to score a knockdown in the fourth round, and sent him to the canvas in the ninth as Berchelt had been starting a rally by winning the recent three rounds on my card.

As Berchelt's corner sent the champion out for the tenth round with the knowledge that he had to take Valdez out to retain the title, Berchelt aggressively stalked Valdez to try for the only chance that he had to win for most of the round and in the waning seconds, ran into a Valdez left hook that dropped him face down on the mat and the conclusion of the fight.

I had Valdez well ahead at 87-82 (6-3 with two knockdowns) at the time of the stoppage.

Valdez has several options, the biggest would seem to be against Shakur Stevenson for Top Rank, although that wouldn't unify any titles, the winner would have a clear claim as the best junior lightweight in the world, although WBA champion Gervonta Davis would have a claim for that position as well.

Berchelt has now been knocked out in both of his two defeats and I would guess that he will be moving to lightweight, although with far less hoopla than had he defeated Valdez and with renewed questions about how his chin will hold up against the bigger men.

In the co-feature, undefeated junior lightweight Gabe Flores looked spectacular in his first test against veteran Jayson Velez as Flores dropped Velez twice in the sixth round and forced the referee to stop the fight after the second knockdown.

I had Flores ahead 50-45 after five rounds.

Flores had not scored a stoppage in his last six fights and the stoppage of his best opponent to date shows that Flores has some punching power.

As for the once-sturdy Velez, who had never been stopped before his previous fight in the final round against Oscar Valdez, it may be time for the former title challenger to consider calling it a career.

Earlier in the day from London, and DAZN/Matchroom, veteran David Avanesyan pulled a mild upset over undefeated former Olympian Josh Kelly with a sixth-round knockout.

Kelly started fast and hurt Avanesyan in the second round, but by the end of the round, Avanesyan had turned the fight by opening a ghastly cut on the left side of Kelly's face (it was hard to tell where the exact cut was as the blood was all over the place) and began to take control.

In the sixth, Avanesyan's punches bent Kelly forward with Kelly's gloves touching the floor for a knockdown and just as Kelly hit the floor for a second time, Kelly's corner tossed in the towel.

I had Kelly slightly ahead (48-47) after five rounds, but it was clear that Avanesyan was breaking Kelly down.

For Kelly, it was his second disappointment in three fights in attempts to defeat better fighters after a draw with Ray Robinson on the undercard of Joshua-Ruiz I.

While it's back to the drawing board for Kelly, Avanesyan may have earned himself a title try after the biggest win of his career since sending Shane Mosley into retirement in 2016.

I would think with Top Rank and Terence Crawford always looking for opponents that Avanesyan would make sense as Crawford's next foil since Errol Spence seems to be disinterested in the fight that everyone wants to see.

And from the PBC compound in Connecticut, the latest waste of time in the Adrian Broner roadshow continued on Showtime as Broner escaped with a unanimous decision over undefeated and unknown Jovanie Santiago that was arguable at best and ridiculous (the scorecards with Broner winning by three, five, and seven points) at worst.

I had Santiago winning 114-113 after Santiago lost a point following the fourth round for punching Broner after the bell, and I don't have a problem with Broner winning by a point or so, but despite Broner winning many of the later rounds and his punches landed cleaner, Santiago out-landed Broner for the fight and threw many more as well.

After the fight, Broner dropped several F-Bombs at several people including veteran scribe Steve Farhood, who had Santiago winning, and the "haters" on Twitter, talked about his sex life, and generally made everyone that wasn't watching from an adult bookstore's skin crawl.

I don't know what you do with Broner at this point.

His skills have deteriorated that he is struggling to win against a fighter that is unknown and likely not in anyone's top thirty before the fight, he claimed after the fight that he still intends to make 140 pounds (I don't see how), even if he does the best in the division fight for Top Rank, and even if a fight could be made with the winner of Josh Taylor-Jose Ramirez with the reach of Broner making the weight, is there anyone that believes that Broner is competitive with those two?

I'm starting to feel for Showtime, who is my pick for the best overall production in the game with the total event broadcast, as they look like they are stuck with whatever Broner does next complete with trashing their long-time employees (Broner made a similar rant on Al Bernstein in the past) and their network.

Showtime deserves better than Adrien Broner.

The co-feature saw heavyweight Otto Wallin dominate Dominic Breazeale over twelve rounds and cruise to an easy unanimous decision.

My scorecard agreed with the widest scorecard of the officials at 118-110 (10-2) and it was far from exciting as Wallin outboxed Breazeale and partially closed his left eye.

Wallin may not be a top contender quite yet, but he is a solid back half of the top ten level contender and again I don't know what I do with him if I am PBC.

Wallin isn't going to wow anyone with action, but he has skills and I would hesitate to put the promotion's top two heavyweights (Deontay Wilder and Andy Ruiz) against him because Wallin just may beat either one.

Former IBF lightweight champion Robert Easter controlled Ryan Martin to win a unanimous decision by six, eight, and eight points in a junior welterweight opener.

Easter snapped the jab out, Martin couldn't miss it and that's about the way every round played out.

Easter is another less than thrilling, but effective fighter that doesn't seem to have a PBC opponent that could make an interesting fight against him.

Adrien Broner trains with Easter and that might be twelve rounds of Easter landing jab after jab off Broner's head and the top PBC fighter in the division- former WBA champion Regis Prograis, who lost to Josh Taylor via close decision, is likely too strong for Easter.

Anything beats Easter-Rances Barthelemy II though!

Damn, I wish some of these promoters could work together once in a while.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me, seven to six on the weekend, and cut my lead to one point overall at 16-15.

Boxing Challenge:Wilder obliterates Breazeale

Early in the afternoon as the thunder rolled through town and rain was falling around my town, it looked like the performance of the boxing day was clearly going to be that of Naoya Inoue in the World Boxing Super Series.
Inoue's performance will be discussed in the next post.but his knockout buzz lasted less than ten hours after Deontay Wilder's single hand ended the grudge match for the WBC heavyweight title with Dominic Breazeale in the first round, retaining his championship, sending people that normally don't post about Twitter to do just that and emphasize the difference between the top three heavyweights ( and maybe the top five with Luis Ortiz and maybe Dillian Whyte) and everyone else in the division.

There's not more than I can say about Wilder's win than it was devastating, despite Breazeale's top rating in the WBC, which I've questioned from day one, he's still a top 10/12 heavyweight and this was impressive, if Deontay Wilder hits you, he hurts you and the stage is now set for Anthony Joshua in two weeks against Andy Ruiz to impress the public and have the casuals demand Joshua-Wilder.
Breazeale didn't roll over for Wilder as he was throwing punches back including one stretch where he reminded me of Wilder's vulnerability when a wild Wilder right was countered by Breazeale in the corner.
However, when you can punch like Wilder, you can get away with a lot and the pulverizing right ended this one shortly thereafter.
Now with his WBC mandatory out of the way for a while, the chant for Joshua-Wilder will pick up and even more drumbeating, should Joshua win impressively against Andy Ruiz.
Wilder's post-fight comments about good things come to those who wait can cause eye-rolling among fans who aren't interested in Dominic Breazeale and Andy Ruiz, let alone the tomato can that is being rolled over to America for Tyson Fury and makes me wonder if this fight might be "Marinated" too much before it actually comes off.
Remember how badly Luis Ortiz hurt Wilder and I've questioned his chin for someone that swings for the fences with every shot, so if an Ortiz rematch is next (I'm fine with an Ortiz rematch, not so thrilled with an Adam Kownacki challenge, Kownacki is the other fighter rumored for Wilder) Wilder and PBC are really risking a massive payday to face the best heavyweight without a claim to the title.
Still, any Deontay Wilder fight against a solid opponent brings a highwire act that will always entertain, I'd just like to see him against Joshua or a Fury rematch to finally see who is the best.

The Halley's Comet of professional boxing made its annual appearance as Gary Russell stopped overmatched Kiko Martinez on cuts in the fifth round.
The result in this one was pretty much decided on the day the fight was signed as the veteran Martinez has lost against every top fighter that he has faced in his career and the big question was would Martinez hold up against Russell's punches and if he took them well, would his skin stay in place to last the distance?
The answer was pretty much this-Martinez took a lot of punches, took them fairly well, but the skin didn't hold up.
Moving on, Russell's post-fight was also a yearly tradition, where he talks about bigger challenges and then after the post-fight high, begins to decide that he likes fighting once a year (his words, not mine).
Russell mentioned Leo Santa Cruz, who holds the WBA title which would rank the two top fighters in the division and since both fight for PBC would be very easy to sign, but considering the track record of Russell (and for that matter LSC, name one real challenge that he has ever taken other than Carl Frampton?) on these matters, I'll believe when they announce it and that is being generous on my part.
Russell also was asked about a move to 130 pounds and what would be a massive fight in the DMV against WBA junior lightweight titleholder Gervonta Davis with Russell living in a Washington suburb and Davis residing in Baltimore.
Instead, Russell answered with Miguel Berchelt because "we both hold the WBC titles") rather than Davis, which sounds like a dodge as Berchelt has a co-promotional deal with Top Rank making a fight very difficult to sign, but Davis being with PBC would be very easy to make, one would think.
Still, nothing with Gary Russell or Gervonta Davis for that matter comes easy and that is too bad-because either or both have a lot to offer boxing and their own bank account.

Back later with the boxing weekend from across the Atlantic as three new world champions are crowned.

Boxing Challenge: KO's, New Boss and a Robbery

The last big weekend in the 2018 boxing year saw a tremendous heavyweight battle with a clean knockout, one European taking the place of another at the top of a division, two disappointing performances and one of those ended in a terrible decision.

The best fight was in London, where Dillian Whyte and Dereck Chisora hooked up in a rematch of their bombs away bout of 2016 that Whyte won by a narrow split decision that I scored a draw.
This one wasn't quite of that caliber, but it still was very exciting and action filled (think of taking two tests and scoring a 95 and a 92, both are excellent, but one is slightly better) and the ending was quite dramatic.
I had Chisora ahead 95-94 entering the 11th (6-4 with Chisora losing a point for a low blow in the eighth) before Chisora lost another point in the eleventh for elbowing.
Just when you began to wonder if those two points had the potential to cost Chisora the fight on the cards, Whyte decided to make that point moot with a left hook that wiped out Chisora for the evening and keep Whyte at the top of the list of heavyweight contenders.
Whyte deserves a rematch vs Anthony Joshua and may get it in the spring, while this might have been the last stand for Chisora, it was a strong one and it might be best for Chisora to step aside on a high note, although his effort in this one might earn him more paychecks.
On the undercard in a fight that I've not seen of this writing, Britain's Charlie Edwards upset Cristofer Rosales via unanimous decision to win the WBC flyweight title.

In Manchester, Josh Warrington retained his IBF featherweight title for the first time with a unanimous decision over the favored Carl Frampton.
Warrington shot to the lead by winning five of the first six rounds and never looked back, winning on my card 117-111.
Warrington isn't going to knock out many (only six KO's), but his attack never slows and he simply did not allow Frampton to get comfortable enough to fire back and keep Warrington off of him.
The swarming Warrington throws punches by a rate that surpasses other noted volume punchers in the division such as WBA champion Leo Santa Cruz.
Frampton was talking retirement after the fight and the time may be right for Frampton to step away.
Frampton isn't getting hurt, but he hasn't been the same fighter since his winning first fight against Leo Santa Cruz and even though he's still a top ten fighter, he's dropped back from the best of the division.
As for the victor, Warrington is rumored to be headed to the U.S in 2019 for a title unification fight vs WBO champ Oscar Valdez, which should be a good one, although selfishly, a Warrington unification against Leo Santa Cruz might set a record for combined punches in a fight.
I'd still rank Warrington as an underdog against Valdez, Santa Cruz or WBC champ Gary Russell, but Warrington has surprised observers in his last two wins and he'd be a live underdog against any of the three.

On the Warrington-Frampton undercard, former minor titleholders at middleweight battled in a fight to prove future viability with Hassan N'Dam winning a majority decision over Martin Murray.
I scored the fight even at 114-114, but it seemed like N'Dam did a little more and was certainly more active than Murray, who showed a reluctance that he had not shown in past efforts.

The PBC returned for a "reboot" on network television and it reportedly did reasonably well in the ratings after doing plenty of promotional work during football.
The card pushed the Charlo brothers and while neither brother looked particularly effective, both deserved victories, but surprisingly only one received a raised hand.

Jermall Charlo defeated late replacement Matt Korobov via unanimous decision (115-113 on my card) with a late run that saw him win five of the final six rounds to gain the victory,
The cards were wider than I had it scored, with one ridiculous 119-108 scorecard being unfair to Korobov, who showed that he deserved another chance against good competition with a strong outing on short notice.
Charlo now using the nickname "Hit Man" which both Thomas Hearns and Bret Hart should sue for damaging a trademark didn't score a knockdown, but he did have Korobov hurt in the final round.
I'm still not totally convinced that Charlo will do well against the best of the division.
Charlo's best wins are still a KO of a somewhat untested at the time Julian Williams, a decision of an aging Austin Trout and now Korobov, who hadn't fought a quality opponent in four years, so there are still questions to be answered- questions other than who said it was a good idea to name Charlo "Hit Man" that is...

In the shocker of the day, Tony Harrison stunned Jermell Charlo via unanimous decision to take away the WBC junior middleweight title in a fight that would be quickly forgotten if not for the terrible decision (I had Charlo winning 116-112), Charlo's charging that Harrison told him that Charlo had clearly won to the interviewer that Harrison had denied, shortly after Harrison had graciously called Charlo a great champion, told him that he would receive a rematch and Harrison (on live national TV no less) responded with "F You, I'll fight Hurd then", referring to a unification with Jarrett Hurd, who holds the WBA and IBF titles and was expected to fight Charlo next.
A Hurd-Harrison fight would be fine to unify, but they have fought previously with Hurd stopping Harrison in nine rounds, so a rematch wouldn't especially be anticipated.
I'd bet we'll see the Harrison-Charlo rematch instead and hope it'll be better to watch than this one.
Charlo clearly deserved the win, but like his brother didn't impress doing so.
Both Charlo's seem to be overrated as punchers and underrated as boxers and would seem to be most effective when they blend the two styles.
As for the PBC, they learned a valuable lesson- when your fighters fight once or twice a year and you wait to have your best fight the best- anything can happen to derail the end game.

Heavyweight Dominic Breazeale knocked out Carlos Negron in the opening fight in the ninth round in a stay busy fight until Breazeale recieves his mandatory title fight against WBC champion Deontay Wilder.
Breazeale had not fought in over a year in a somewhat common occurrence among PBC fighters and needed to get some rounds in.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me 6-4 over the weekend.
My season lead was cut to 214-197.
Ramon scored two points for wins by Breazeale and Charlo along with one each from Whyte and N'Dam.
My points came from Breazeale (two) and one each from Charlo and Whyte

Boxing Challenge:The Rest of the Weekend

I only wanted to cover the Wilder-Stiverne fight as I had some things to write about the heavyweight division, so now it's time to catch up on the rest of the boxing weekend.

Dmitry Bivol continues to show promise as the next boss at light heavyweight with a one round destruction of Trent Broadhurst to retain his WBA title.
Bivol didn't figure to be tested by Broadhurst and he wasn't, but Bivol figures to have a sterner bout in his next defense against Sullivan Barrera.

Also on the Bivol card in Monte Carlo:
Just as the Jamie McDonnell-Librado Solis rematch started to heat up, a clash of heads caused the fight to stopped in the third with a massive cut over McDonnell's eye.
Not sure if there will be a third fight, but there was nothing resolved after the controversial decision won by McDonnell in their bout.

Scott Quigg won every round on my card before the referee stepped in round six in a WBA eliminator over Oleg Yefimovich,
Quigg will be the mandatory contender to the winner of next year's Leo Santa Cruz-Abner Mares fight.

Undefeated heavyweight Agit Kabayel won a majority decision over veteran fringe contender Dereck Chisora.
I had Kabayel a 117-111 winner, but the official cards were far closer at 114-114 on one card and 115-113 on the other two for Kabayel.
Chisora might have lost a lucrative shot at Dillion Whyte rematch with the loss, while Kabayel might be able to move to the next level of the Euro contenders...

On the undercard of Wilder-Stiverne.
Shawn Porter won a unanimous decision over Adrian Granados with all three judges agreeing with my card of 117-111.
Granados was game in defeat, but being a natural 140 pounder rising in weight for the fight, he was just too small to handle the larger Porter, who retained his top contender status.

Sergey Lipinets won a more difficult than expected unanimous decision over Akihiro Kondo to win the vacant IBF junior welterweight title.
Kondo was better than advertised, but Lipinets earned a 115-113 nod on my card.
Lipinets may face Adrien Broner next in the latest of "last chances" for Broner.

In a WBC heavyweight eliminator, Dominic Breazeale stopped Eric Molina in the eighth round.
Originally, this was scheduled to determine the number one contender for Deontay Wilder, but this might be an eliminator to fight for the top spot in their next fight after lots of criticism from the boxing media.
Breazeale has had out of the ring issues with Wilder and might get the shot in Wilder's next optional defense.
This fight was not televised, so no scoring on this.

In the boxing challenge, I scored ten points to Ramon Malpica's nine on the weekend.
The difference was Agit Kabayel's win over Dereck Chisora as I picked Kabayel for a point while Ramon tabbed Chisora as the winner.
My ten came from two points from wins from Porter, Breazeale, and Bivol with one pointers from Lipinets, Quigg, Wilder, and Kabayel.

Ramon's nine came from two pointers from Breazeale, Bivol, and Lipinets with one pointers from Wilder, Quigg and Porter.
The challenge is at 169-151

Wilder stops Washington-Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica hit the round correctly on two stoppage wins,outscored me 8 to 5 on the night and moved into the lead over me in the boxing challenge 18-16...

The biggest (literally) fight of the night saw Deontay Wilder retain his WBC heavyweight title with a fifth round stoppage of late replacement Gerald Washington.
Washington had his moments in the fight and I had the fight even when Wilder dropped Washington out of nowhere in round five.
Washington rose,but was battered around the ring before the referee ended the bout.
Wilder didn't do much to answer any questions that I have about his viability against the top heavyweights when he was fighting evenly against the untested and inexperienced Washington.
I'll continue to look at him with a raised eyebrow until he defeats a top 10 contender at minimum.
Ramon scored three points to my two for the Wilder victory.

The co-feature saw Jarrett Hurd wear down Tony Harrison after giving away the first four rounds and stop Harrison in the ninth to win the IBF junior middleweight title that Jermall Charlo vacated last week.
I thought Harrison won the first four rounds and had him ahead after eight rounds,five to three,but you could clearly see things swinging Hurd's way and with Hurd landing the bigger shots,you had a feeling how this was going to end.
Hurd still needs some refining,but his uppercut is top notch and I see him having a chance to be a power broker in the 154 pound division.
As for Harrison,his meltdown occurred just as it had in his previous loss to Willie Nelson-building a lead and running out of gas before the finish line and his world title hopes look to be questionable at this stage until he can prove that he can complete an effort against top competition.
In this bout too,Ramon earned three points to my two.

In the PBC opener and non-challenge bout (Had I know it would be televised,I would have put into the challenge) you saw as good of an action bout in the heavyweight division that you could ask for as Dominic Breazeale stopped Izuagbe Ugonoh in the fifth round of an absolute bomb fest.
Breazeale knocked Ugonoh down in the third,then Ugonoh would have put Breazeale down,if not for a stunned Breazeale's tackle of Ugonoh on his way to the canvas.
Round three of this one is the clubhouse leader for round of the year.
Ugonoh looked on his way to the win when he floored Breazeale face first in the fourth and pounded him after that along with almost closing his puffy left eye,but as Howard Cosell used to say-BUT NO!!
Breazeale then sent Ugonoh down in the fifth,Ugonoh got up but was sent down and out along the ring apron to end an explosive bout!
Breazeale's punching and lesser chin is always going to make exciting fights,but not sure he's going to win against top 10 level opponents,while Ugonoh looks to be a little overmatched size wise and if it's possible,I think he should consider trying to fight at cruiserweight,where I think he'd be a tough out for anyone down there.
If you missed this one-catch it on youtube!!

In the non-American challenge bouts,Ramon would earn two points to my one as Rey Vargas won the vacant WBC junior featherweight title via a majority decision over Gavin McDonnell in England and Eliezer Alvarez knocked out Lucien Bute in the fifth round of their light heavyweight fight in Quebec City...