Boxing Challenge: Navarrete nails Nunez

      Entering Saturday's junior lightweight title unification match in Glendale, Arizona, most believed it had fight-of-the-year potential, and while it may have fallen short of that status, it was an exciting scrap.

IBF champion Eduardo "Sugar" Nunez was a slight favorite at the start of the fight, but he gave away the first four rounds to WBO boss Emanuel Navarrete in a manner that one would expect from a fan rather than a champion.

An overly respectful Nunez fell behind and never caught up as the larger and more powerful Navarrete backed Nunez up, closed his right eye, and in the tenth, busted the swelling open in gruesome fashion and forced the fight to be stopped before the start of the eleventh round.

Navarrete was the bigger man, the bigger puncher, and for a fighter known for his eccentric style, Navarrete showed some skills that he hadn't in previous fights.

Nunez showed heart and a good chin, but this is the type of battering that can ruin careers, and it will be interesting to see how he performs in his next outing.

Navarrete is now likely to meet Charly Suarez in a WBO-mandated rematch.

Suarez cut Navarrete with a punch in their first fight, but the cut was ruled to be from a butt and would go to the scorecards with Navarrete winning a close technical decision in the eighth round.

Suarez's appeal was successful, and the fight was changed to a no-contest with a rematch ordered.

Suarez accepted step-aside money to allow Navarrete to unify against Nunez, so the rematch will either be next or Navarrete will give up the WBO belt.

In the other challenge bout, veteran Abel Ramos continued his late career comeback with a split decision win over formerly unbeaten Tahmir Smalls.

Smalls led early, Ramos took over late in an entertaining fight.

I had it closer than the judges (96-94 for Ramos) did: 98-92 and 97-93, with the dissenting judge for Smalls at 96-94.

Ramos will likely move into a welterweight eliminator, while Smalls didn't hurt himself in defeat.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica:  25 Pts(3)

Vince Samano: 23 Pts (0)

TRS: 21 Pts (1)

Boxing Challenge: Nunez outslugs Diaz

      Sometimes in boxing, fighters exceed their abilities because they know that they could be down to their final chance.

Christopher Diaz had failed in two title tries, and before his third attempt, Diaz was the opponent for the homecoming of the first title defense for IBF junior lightweight champion Eduardo "Sugar" Nunez.

Nunez won the fight and retained his title via unanimous decision, but Diaz won the night with a gallant effort in providing Nunez with a severe test in an all-action brawl.

Nunez looked to be ready to finish Diaz off in the seventh round when he knocked the veteran down twice, but Diaz survived the round and gave as good as he got in the late rounds.

Nunez won by scores of 117-109 (times two) and 116-110, which were a little wider than my card of 115-111 for Nunez.

Nunez is rumored to possibly face WBO champion Emanuel Navarette in a unification fight next, in what is a can't-miss all-Mexican action battle.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 127 Pts  (1)

Ramon Malpica: 122 Pts (2)

Vince Samano: 48 Pts (2)

Boxing Challenge: Nunez wins title

   Eduardo "Sugar" Nunez won the vacant IBF junior lightweight title in Yokohama, Japan, by doing something he had never done- winning a decision.

Nunez had won his previous bouts by knockout, but the rugged Masanori Rikiishi lasted the distance with Nunez and battled him to the end.

Nunez never seemed to seriously hurt Rikiishi, but his consistent attack and hard punches allowed him to dictate the fight despite the occasional counter from the home fighter.

Nunez won by scores of 117-111, 116-112, and 115-113, my score matching the middle score.

The exciting Nunez won the title vacated by Anthony Cacace, who chose a larger purse to fight Josh Warrington rather than Nunez.

A Nunez-Cacace fight would be entertaining, but promoter Eddie Hearn mentioned the possibility of former WBA featherweight champion Raymond Ford as a likely next opponent for Nunez, which would also be intriguing.

Yoshiki Takei dropped Yuttapong Tongdee three times in the first round and was pounding Tongdee along the ropes when the referee ended the fight with barely two minutes elapsed.

Takei retained his WBO bantamweight title with the destructive triumph.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 81 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica: 78 Pts (3)

Vince Samano: 32 Pts (0)

Giants trade Eduardo Nunez to Boston

Photo Courtesy:Josh Morgan-Greenville OnLine

The San Francisco Giants made the first of what could be a few over the next few days as the trade deadline approaches as the Giants traded third baseman/utility player Eduardo Nunez to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for minor league righthanded pitchers Shaun Anderson and Gregory Santos.

Nunez should plug in for Boston at third base as the desperate BoSox have called up top prospect Rafael Devers after Devers had played just a few games at AAA Pawtucket.

The 30 year old Nunez has been one of the hotter hitters in the league of late and is hitting .307 for the season.
Nunez was obtained near last season's trade deadline from the Minnesota Twins and will be a free agent at the conclusion of this season..

As for the return from Boston,the two pitchers are a few years away from the bigs at best and we know much more about Shaun Anderson than we do about Gregory Santos.
Anderson was the Red Sox third rounder in 2016 out of Florida,where he served as the Gators closer.
Anderson throws in the low 90's and the Red Sox were trying to stretch him out into a starter in his full season in the minors.
At 6'4 and 225,Anderson looks the part of a workhorse/innings eater and could peak out as a 3 or 4 starter in the majors.
Anderson split 2017 between Low A Greenville ( 2.56 ERA in seven starts) and High A Salem (3.99 ERA in 11 starts),with the rise in level seeing a drop in effectiveness,but the move to Salem still saw batters hit just .236 against him with a solid strikeout to walk ratio of 48 to 18.
I saw Anderson pitch once and it was his worst outing of the year,so I caught him on an off night!

I know next to nothing about 17 year old Gregory Santos (turns 18 next month) other than numbers,which look sharp in seven starts for the Boston entry in the Dominican league (0.90 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 30 innings).
Santos is 6'2 and 190,which makes me think that he's quite lanky and those type of pitchers tend to throw pretty hard (think of former Red Sox top prospect Anderson Espinoza).
Santos is a hail mary selection,you just don't know what you have when you are making such a trade,but I'm assuming someone sees enough upside to take a throw deep on him.

In such a bad season for the Giants and with such a bereft farm system,these are the type of trades that are easy to make with impending free agents.
The larger question is what other trades could the Giants make?
Could Jeff Samardzija be a target with stats that both look great and terrible depending on how you want to read them?
Could Johnny Cueto be a factor in talks despite a bad season,a big contract and his player option at the end of the year?
Do the Giants think that the time is right to rebuild? Or does the front office believe that a few tweaks would put a highly thought of team before the season back into contention next season?
If that's the case,what would those tweaks be and would the team trade players in question for immediate help or prospects that might be closer to the bigs?
Lots of questions in San Francisco,the first of which was answered tonight...

Giants trade for Eduardo Nunez

The struggling offense of the San Francisco Giants needed an infusion and along with waiting for the return of Joe Panik and Hunter Pence,decided to add a little more as the Giants traded minor league pitcher Adalberto Mejia to the Minnesota Twins in return for Eduardo Nunez.

The 29 year old Nunez is in the midst of a career year as he made his first all-star team and has already set career highs in several offensive categories.
Nunez played shortstop for the Twins,but can play second or third also and looks to see plenty of time at third with the injury to an Achilles tendon for the regular at third in Matt Duffy.

The Giants always like to have a supersub around and in the best of times (which right now,these aren't) Nunez will have plenty of playing time available at various positions.
Bruce Bochy handles his position players well and is able to use a player like Nunez almost as a starter without having a steady position to play.

The cost of Mejia is one that some are wondering about as some prospect ratings have him as high as third in the Giants system.
I don't rate the 23 year old that highly,but he does possess potential,even if he may project better down the road as a reliever more than a starter.
Mejia has pitched better at AA Richmond over most of the last three (red flag) seasons there than he has in sporadic appearances at AAA Sacramento,so I wonder about that,but he certainly is still of prospect status at 23..

I like the addition of Eduardo Nunez for the Giants.
Nunez had been rumored to be of interest to the Indians of late,so I thought I might be typing a post for him,but of his arrival in Cleveland,not San Francisco.
Nunez will hopefully plug in at third base for at least a while and then find plenty of at-bats elsewhere.
Mejia is an interesting arm,but one of a cluster of interesting/not elite arms that the Giants have at Richmond and Sacramento,so I'm not too concerned about losing Mejia....

Still working on a podcast,so look for that,but wanted to hammer out this breaking news.