Boxing Challenge: Navarrete outlasts Valdez

 Boxing in August often can be the slowest month of the year and looking at the schedule, this past Saturday was the biggest of the month, and up until the final bout of the day, the day had been mostly unsatisfying.

That bout would save the day as Emanuel Navarrete went to war with Oscar Valdez for twelve rounds and kept his WBO junior lightweight title with a unanimous decision victory that he deserved but not by the margins that he received on two cards.

The one card of 116-112 was the same as mine, with Navarrete pulling away in winning the final two rounds but the scores of 119-109 and 118-110 were extremely unfair to Valdez.

Navarrete is wide-open offensively and often fights down to his perceived competition but was clearly motivated on this night against a fellow Mexican and an underdog on the betting line.

Valdez's advantage in technical skill was outweighed by the relentless number of punches tossed by Navarrete and the right eye of Valdez was completely closed by the end of the fight to prove the point.

Give Valdez credit for grit and effort and should a rematch be eventually signed, I'd give him a chance to reverse the result but he'll have to throw more punches and he's going to have to do it against a Navarrete that could have full use of his right hand, which Navarrete injured midway through the fight.

Neither fighter scored a knockdown nor had the other in serious trouble, so the fight did lack some of the drama that other action fights but it deserves at least an honorable mention when the fights of the year are determined.

It's a good thing that Navarrete-Valdez delivered because the remainder of the weekend wasn't the most exciting that boxing has ever seen.

In London from Matchroom/DAZN, former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua sleepwalked through six dull rounds against late replacement Robert Helenius, even losing a round or two against Helenius, and had fans wondering if Joshua had become so defensive that he may never be the same fighter again.

And then it all went away as Joshua crunched Helenius with one right hand that was reminiscent of the right hand that Deontay Wilder wiped Helenius out with, albeit six rounds later than Wilder's, in the seventh round to end the fight and suddenly make the proposed December match with Wilder much more intriguing that it had been a few minutes previously.

Other than the fight-ending bomb, there isn't much to say about Joshua-Helenius other than Helenius lasting longer than expected, and doing better than expected.

I had Joshua leading 59-55 at the end of the fight.

Hopefully, it's onto the Wilder-Joshua fight that has been rumored seemingly forever, which could be a battle of who lands first between two bombers or a tentative disappointment with Joshua taking few chances or Wilder swiping wildly at air.

I can see either result occurring and that's some of the intrigue for the fight that thus far has been oft-rumored and never happening.

The co-feature saw the number one contender for the IBF heavyweight title score a final-round stoppage that was neither dramatic nor overly interesting as Filip Hrgovic stopped previously unbeaten Demsey McKean in round twelve.

It was pretty dull as Hrgovic didn't really press much of the action, McKean would grab when Hrgovic tried to be aggressive, and even when he didn't, with Marcos McDonnell, who is nearing Lawrence Cole level as far as obnoxious officiating, calling none of it and causing McKean to hold even more.

That covered it until Hrgovic landed a right that stunned McKean with Hrgovic landing a series of chopping Tim Witherspoon-style rights that trapped McKean along the ropes helpless before McDonnell ended the fight.

Not a great performance by Hrgovic but he finished it well and one would hope the work would be a positive for his challenge of the Oleksandr Usyk-Daniel DuBois title fight winner in two weeks.

Sometimes, two well past their prime warriors can put on a fun but sloppy fight because they can't move away and hit every punch they throw, and other times, well you get two old guys just doing enough to be safe with bored onlookers wondering when the next fight starts.

The latter was the result of the Derek Chisora-Gerald Washington fight that was filled with huffs, puffs, and holds in a forgettable fight that Chisora won by unanimous decision by scores of 96-94, 97-94, and 98-93.

My score for Chisora at 96-94 seemed about right and my hope is that Eddie Hearn won't put Chisora in next with someone that can hurt him due to the win.

Showtime's three-fight slate from PBC may not have had the most important fights of the weekend but they did fill a title vacancy, an unbeaten prospect wins by early knockout, and another prospect is shocked by another early-round KO.

The main event would see a dominant performance by Emmanuel Rodriguez, who won every round and knocked down Melvin Lopez three times in the final round on his way to a unanimous decision and would win the IBF bantamweight title vacated by Naoya Inoue.

Not much to add to the three judge's cards of 120-105 other than I concur.

Gary Antuanne Russell added his seventeenth knockout to his flawless mark with a first-round knockout of Kent Cruz.

Russell dropped Cruz twice with Cruz taking the count after the second knockdown.

Many have tabbed welterweight Travon Marshall as a future star and fighting near his home appeared to be the first step forward for Marshall's career.

Marshall had looked impressive in his eight wins with seven by KO and his opponent had disappointed as a pro in former Olympian Gabriel Maestre, who has been most remembered for his decision win over Mykel Fox that was such an awful decision that it was the fulcrum that forced the WBA into dissolving its minor titles, a process that they are still involved in to this date.

Marshall won round one and then ate a huge right hand from Maestre that sprawled him across the ropes and partially outside the ring.

Honestly, referee Sharon Sands gave Marshall every opportunity and could have stopped the fight there.

Maestre leaped on Marshall, who fired back as best he could but didn't try to hold and when he ran into a right hand that floored him again, the fight was over.

Marshall will definitely need some rebuilding after losing in his first test and Maestre will likely receive a shot against another mid-level welterweight soon after his surprising win.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 137 Pts (9)

Ramon Malpica: 123 Pts (8)

Vince Samano: 95 Pts (6)

Boxing Challenge: Haney retains, Wilder returns

   The boxing Saturday is going to have to carry the next two weeks in the sport as the schedule lightens until the final weekend of the month but the world lightweight championship was at stake and the return of a former heavyweight champion in desperate need of a spectacular win, so it was more than adequate to help boxing fans make it to the end of the month.

In Melbourne, Australia, Devin Haney retained his world lightweight championship with a unanimous decision in his rematch with George Kambosos.

I'll sum this fight up in this manner, George Kambosos tried harder, fought better, and the rematch was a more exciting fight and none of it mattered because Devin Haney dominated equally as much as in their first affair, winning a unanimous decision by scores of 119-109 and two tallies of 118-110.

I scored Haney the easy winner at 118-110.

Haney landed his jab at will and ripped Kambosos with counter rights that caused Kambosos to bleed impressively from a cut over his left eye that Kambosos had to fight through along with a cut over his right eye, which was cut from a late clash of heads that cut Haney as well.

It was a needed step for Haney to complete his obligation to Kambosos for a rematch few outside of Australia wanted to see and move on to an anticipated fight against Vasyl Lomachenko, should Lomachenko win his fight over Jamaine Ortiz in two weeks.

Haney may not be the most exciting fighter but he is so technically sound and considering that many with such skills are dreadfully dull, I think Haney isn't dull by any means.

Haney will likely move to junior welterweight after a potential defense against Lomachenko and he should fit in very well in a loaded 140-pound division.

In the co-feature bantamweight, Jason Moloney moved himself into the WBC mandatory challenger position with a unanimous decision over Nawaphon Kaikanha in an eliminator.

Moloney won by scores of 119-109 and 118-110 twice, which was the same score as mine.

Moloney will likely be involved in 2023 for the title expected to be vacated by Naoya Inoue after Inoue unifies (expected to anyway) all four bantamweight belts against Paul Butler (WBO champion) in December.

Inoue knocked out Moloney in seven rounds in October 2020 to retain the WBA and IBF titles and Inoue has since added the WBC belt to his collection.

In Brooklyn, New York, former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder returned to the ring for the first time since his second loss to Tyson Fury and won his first fight since November 2019 with a first-round knockout of Robert Helenius in a WBC eliminator.

It only took one concussive right from Wilder, who landed it as Helenius pressed the action, trapping Wilder in a corner before he ran into the counter bomb.

Helenius was never in danger of getting up and once again, Deontay Wilder shows that for all the flaws in his game that there may not be a bigger puncher in all of boxing for one shot power and if you make one mistake the fight could end.

Wilder will now fight in another WBC eliminator to decide the mandatory challenger for champion Tyson Fury against fellow PBC boxer and former champion Andy Ruiz in what could be a very interesting match

I haven't seen the undercard fights but I have seen the one-punch knockout by former IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant over former WBC champion Anthony Dirrell in the ninth round and give Plant credit for ending conclusively a fight that reports say was a very boring first eight rounds.

While it was an incredible knockout, Plant's behavior in pantomiming a gravedigger shoveling dirt on a still-fallen Dirrell was in very poor taste.

I've never been a Plant fan but this was beyond awful after a devastating knockout with the opponent still down and his safety unknown at the time.

For all of Plant's title defenses and Dirrell's shopworn condition ( and Dirrell should now consider retirement with a record of 1-2-1 over his last four fights with the draw being very questionable against Kyrone Davis and being stopped by Plant and David Benavidez), Dirrell is the best name on his resume' and I'd love to see Plant against David Benavidez next.

However. Benavidez will face Jose Uzcategui in January in a fight few want to see.

Ironically, Uzcategui, a former IBF champion, was the biggest win in Caleb Plant's career with Plant winning the title from him in January 2019.

Heavyweight Frank Sanchez stopped veteran Carlos Negron in nine rounds and in a mild surprise former IBF bantamweight champion Emmanuel Rodriguez dominated Gary Antonio Russell in winning a unanimous decision after ten rounds in a WBA and IBF eliminator.

Rodriguez was fighting Russell for the second time after their first fight ended after sixteen seconds after the two smashed their heads together and it was a head clash that ended this after the two collided in the ninth round with the fight being stopped a few seconds into the tenth to go to scorecards.

Rodriguez knocked Russell down in the eighth and won on all three cards convincingly at 100-90, 99-91, and 99-93 to likely be involved in one of the vacant title chases, should Naoya Inoue vacate next year.

Rodriguez was stopped in two rounds by Inoue, losing his IBF title in a World Boxing Super Series semi-final.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 175 Pts  (9)

Ramon Malpica: 151 Pts (9)

Vince Samano:140 Pts  (6)  

Boxing Challenge: Showtime Snoozer

   The boxing weekend continued with cards from Top Rank on ESPN and PBC with Showtime with the main event that might rank among the worst ever and considering that Guillermo Rigondeaux has many of the candidates for that title- that says it all.

Sometimes in boxing programming, you have a card that just doesn't work out the way you planned it and you received next to no action at all.

It was one of those nights for PBC and Showtime from Carson, California as they received two rounds of a lopsided blowout, about fifteen seconds before a headbutt ended a fight, and then a major title fight with premium ramifications turned into a 10,000-meter race.

The WBO bantamweight title between John Riel Casimero and Guillermo Rigondeaux was hoped to be an entertaining battle as Casimero usually makes action fights and Rigondeaux's legs seemed to be slowing in his second to most recent fight against Julio Ceja in what was arguably the only entertaining fight of Rigondeaux's career.

So it wasn't an unreasonable thought to think that this should be at least an average action fight with the potential for more- which meant that fans were served up twelve rounds of Rigondeaux running around the ring and neither fighter landing double-digit punches in any round (which may be a record for a world title fight) in the worst "big" fight that anyone can remember in recent history.

With the live crowd and almost everyone watching at home booing the hell of this mess, fans knew the cards for this one would vary and everyone crossed their fingers that Casimero's attempted aggression would be rewarded so exciting fights like Casimero-Donaire or Casimero-Inoue may be made rather than sleep inducers such Rigondeaux-Donaire II or heavens forbid Rigondeaux-Inoue.

Fortunately, the fans caught a break with Casimero winning a split decision with scores of 117-111 and 116-112 (my score) to overrule a 115-113 tag for Rigondeaux.

Hopefully, Casimero and WBC champion Nonito Donaire can be made next time in what almost certainly will be a war with both fighters having personal grudges against the other.

As for Rigondeaux, I'd like to say at 40 years old we have seen the last of him but don't bet on it.

The co-feature ended in sixteen seconds as featherweights Emanuel Rodriguez and Gary Antonio Russell each moved to the center of the ring, collided skulls, and the fight was called with both fighters dazed and Rodriguez taking the worst of it.

That's about as much as one could say about that.

The two rounds of the opener saw all the action for the televised portion as former WBA bantamweight champion Rau'shee Warren stopped an outclassed Damien Vazquez in two rounds.

Warren knocked down Vazquez twice in the first and once in the second before the merciful ending.

Warren could be in the title picture, should Donaire-Casimero fall through as a potential opponent for either champion.

The card looked good on paper but this is boxing and you just cannot ever take things for granted inside the ring.

Top Rank and ESPN starred a third fight that was compelling for the two fighters not for the minor WBA belt on the line as Joshua Franco and Andrew Moloney battled hard after a rematch that ended after a phantom headbutt allowed Franco to escape with a no-contest in a fight that Moloney seemed to be on the way to winning.

The second fight made Moloney the favorite but it was Franco that outworked Moloney in a good not great fight to win a unanimous decision in Tulsa Oklahoma.

Moloney started well but Franco took control winning most of the middle part of the fight.

Moloney rallied late but he was too far behind on the scorecards, all of which agreed with my 116-112 card for Franco.

A huge win for Franco, who might be a good opponent for Naoya Inoue, should Inoue be unable to make unification matches with either Nonito Donaire or John Riel Casimero.

The co-feature saw junior welterweight contender Arnold Barboza dominate veteran Antonio Moran over ten rounds as a stay busy bout for Barboza. who broke the nose of Moran and won the final nine rounds on my card in a 99-91 card.

Barboza will likely be in the mix whenever Josh Taylor vacates his four titles for a vacant title but should Taylor decide to stick around the division for a while Barboza might be a nice opponent for Taylor with both boxers associated with Top Rank.

In the main event on the ESPN+ card, Jason Moloney rebounded from his knockout loss to Naoya Inoue to win a close unanimous decision over Joshua Greer in a crossroads bantamweight fight.

Again as in the main event, this fight was entertaining enough but not outstanding as I saw Moloney as a 96-94 winner.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored six points on the two cards to move our total to 117-103.

Boxing Challenge: Canelo Bullies Callum Smith, Hamburglar Alert in CT!

  Using a brutal body attack and imposing his physical prowess, Canelo Alvarez easily brushed aside Callum Smith in San Antonio to win Smith's WBA super-middleweight title and add the WBC title that was left vacant by David Benavidez missing weight in his last planned title defense.

Alvarez broke Smith down, especially to the body and caused Smith to retreat throughout the fight as the taller man was not the more physical fighter.

Alvarez landed repeated uppercuts that busted Smith open and caused him to literally wince in the late rounds and Smith bravely survived to the final bell.

I scored Alvarez a 119-109 winner, giving Smith only the sixth round.

A dominant victory by Alvarez and by methodically eliminating the top fighter in the division, Alvarez has several fighters that he could face from as many as five weight divisions, so who knows who will be next to face him.

Some of these fights I like better than others, especially considering styles, but it'll be interesting to see who the next opponent is, considering that Alvarez can deal with any promoter that he wishes.

On Showtime from Uncasville, Connecticut, the Hamburglar rose his ugly head with an awful decision as Reymart Gaballo won an awful split decision for a minor tile over former IBF bantamweight champion Emmanuel Rodriguez.

It was not an exciting fight, but the heralded Gaballo didn't rise to expectations as Rodriguez just outboxed him and Gaballo didn't win a round until the second half of the fight on my card and even then only two rounds, as Rodriguez won 118-110 on my scorecard.

Just an awful decision.

On the undercard, welterweight Jaron Ennis collided heads with veteran Chris Van Heerden in round one with the fight being stopped due to a bad cut on Van Heerden.

Too bad as I was looking forward to see Ennis get some experience against a rugged warhorse that once went eight rounds with Errol Spence.

In the opener, bantamweight Gary Antonio Russell won a unanimous technical decision over former WBA champion Juan Carlos Payano, due to an accidental headbutt.

I haven't watched this one yet, so no comments on the Russell win...

From Spain, former middleweight champion Sergio Martinez continued his comeback with a ninth round stoppage of Jussi Koivula of Finland via cuts.

A Martinez right had cut Koivula in the eighth round and the fight was stopped in the corner.

Martinez led on my card 78-74, but he's clearly not at the world-class level and he is turning 46 in February.

Martinez can win fights of this type, but I am skeptical on his chances against even the back half of the top ten-fifteen contenders.

In boxing challenge action, I scored five points to Ramon Malpica's four to move my lead to 188-177.

Boxing Challenge: Wilder crunches Ortiz, Callum Smith creaks by Ryder

For almost seven complete rounds, Luis Ortiz was trying to complete his rematch with Deontay Wilder such as a jockey that is attempting to hold the lead at a very slow pace to lessen the chances of a stronger closer coming off the pace for a victory.

However, when you have the fastest gun in the game on your side it only takes one shot to end a fight.
And it only takes one mistake even as Ortiz was landing well be on his way to winning another round when Wilder fired one right hand.
That right hand landed flush and when the smoke cleared, it was only Wilder standing and keeping the WBC heavyweight title via seventh-round knockout in Las Vegas.
I had Ortiz ahead 59-55 after six rounds and would have likely given him the seventh, had the round ended.
The fight wasn't filled with activity and could have been called dull as both fighters respected the power of the other and rarely engaged.
I'm not really sure what this fight answered that we didn't already know- Deontay Wilder can erase a lot of effective boxing with one shot and Deontay Wilder can look pretty ordinary against good fighters while he waits for one shot.
Wilder moves onto the rematch with Tyson Fury in what appears to be February in another intriguing
fight.
Tyson Fury is the one fighter that took Wilder's best shot and got up, and Deontay Wilder is the one fighter that proved that he can hurt Tyson Fury when he lands, so the rematch is certainly very interesting.
Now, if we can just talk PBC and Top Rank into a cross-promotional fight or two on the undercard.

The undercard looked promising and then crumbled before the fight.
My favorite fight between two of the top five bantamweights in the world was canceled when Luis Nery missed weight by a pound and Emmanuel Rodriguez refused to accept compensation to fight an overweight Nery, so the fight was sadly canceled.
I think I'm with Rodriguez here.
Rodriguez is coming off his first career loss, is fighting a very talented former champion that has a PED history and has a history of missing weight.
When you consider all of those facts, should you risk another second loss against a fighter that is stronger for not hitting the weight mark for a couple thousand dollars?
I completely understand Rodriguez not proceeding and since this fight was a WBC title eliminator, the fair thing is to declare Rodriguez the top contender and refuse to rank Nery at 118 pounds.
Considering it's the WBC, the likely decision is likely to make this the fault of Rodriguez and give Nery the mandatory position.
Sarcasm mildly intended.

And if you thought Luis Nery was unprofessional, please allow me to introduce Julio Ceja!
Ceja, a former WBC junior featherweight champion, entered his fight with minor Titleist Brandon Figueroa after a terrific try against Guillermo Rigondeaux that saw him on the wrong side of an early stoppage while leading on the scorecards.
Ceja's effort against Rigondeaux was the best ever against the Cuban ( other than his ill-advised attempt against Vasyl Lomachenko), so Ceja had some goodwill in the bank that went awry when
Ceja missed weight by a stunning FOUR and a quarter pounds!
To put that in perspective, Ceja would have been overweight for a featherweight title fight and this was scheduled for the 122-pound junior featherweight division.
Figueroa decided to accept the fight when he was both compensated financially and assured by the sanctioning body that he would not lose his minor title, should he lose.
And here is why the argument made by Emmanuel Rodriguez for not accepting the extra money against an overweight opponent made sense because Figueroa's normally a very good puncher and he just couldn't hurt the larger Ceja in an excellent fight.
Figueroa-Ceja ended in a draw and it was fun to watch, but Ceja had such an artificial edge with the weight advantage that you wondered just how much that played into the fight.
Ceja has been knocked out three times in his career, yet Figueroa, a very good puncher, couldn't move him at all.
I scored Ceja a 115-113 winner in a fight that was very close and felt bad for Figueroa in the situation.

The co-feature was another gift for Leo Santa Cruz, who seems to thrive on winning vacant titles against questionable competition and then sitting on them until he rises in weight.
Santa Cruz won his fourth world title (from three different organizations.) with a unanimous decision over Miguel Flores to add the WBA junior lightweight title to his trophy case and won few fans in doing so.
Santa Cruz fights usually follow the same pattern, landing lots of punches, with not a lot of power, and his overmatched opponents are defeated on the scorecards, but generally unhurt.
This fight followed that template as I gave Flores the first round and no others, so the scorecard isn't the issue for me.
My issue with Santa Cruz is this- he's talented and has won four "titles". but is only 1-1 against top-notch fighters, splitting a series with Carl Frampton and his two wins over Abner Mares after Mares had slipped past his best are his only other notable wins.
I'm not sure what the issues are with Santa Cruz, is it that he doesn't want to fight top opponents and is satisfied with belts and money?
Or is it that his promoters choose not to roll the dice and gamble Santa Cruz against someone that could beat him?
I wonder about the PBC sometimes in these situations with fighters that haven't fought good competition and how it happens with examples such as Santa Cruz, Gary Russell, and Gervonta Davis.
My guesses are as follows:
Gervonta Davis is a fighter that is "on the wrong side of the street" (I'm really beginning to hate that phrase) promotionally in his division and has a chance to win against the best in the game.
Davis has that kind of ability but needs a breakout win that PBC seems unwilling or unable to provide.
Russell has tons of talent but seems content to fight once a year, keep a title, cash a nice check, and not challenge himself.
Santa Cruz isn't as talented as the above two and has been protected from fighters such as Russell (both are featherweight champions with PBC and could easily fight) and either his management or promotion realizes this and is protecting him for as long as possible.

We move to DAZN with cards from Matchroom and Golden Boy and a very interesting result that has been overshadowed by the Wilder-Ortiz fight.

Matchroom's main event from Liverpool, England looked to be a stay busy fight as Callum Smith, who is looked at by most as the top super middleweight in the world, defended his WBA title against countryman John Ryder, who entered the fight on a four-fight upset streak with all four wins over undefeated or one-loss fighters.
However, the biggest name on Ryder's record was Rocky Fielding in a loss, so Smith was a prohibitive favorite to defend his title.
Watching the clips of the weigh-in, Smith looked to be a full division larger than Ryder, and with six inches in height and reach over Ryder, this seemed to be a mismatch.
AND that's why we fight the fights and why everyone makes mistakes.

In honesty, I watched this fight twice.
The first time that I watched it, I scored it 115-113 for Callum Smith with Smith holding off the late charge of Ryder, who won the final three rounds on my card.
After that, I went to bed having stayed up to watch Ohio State-Penn State, then Smith-Ryder and needing sleep before work.
When I got up, something was nagging at me about it, but I had to watch the other DAZN card, Wilder-Ortiz, etc and I put it aside.
Still, I talked to Fred Landucci and he asked me about my thoughts which made my earlier questions return.
In short, I rewatched it and my score changed to 115-113 for Ryder, who attacked throughout, took advantage of a seemingly overconfident and underprepared Smith and my rewatched card could be slightly kind to Smith.
Ryder was the stronger fighter, worked Smith over to the ropes and ripped away on the inside to the body of the bigger man.
I also thought that Ryder did much better than expected in the center of the ring where you would think Smith would not only want to be but where he would control the action.

I had the edge of rewatching to get things right which judges in live-action do not, but what seems to happen in fights where the huge favorite wins an unpopular decision is this- In those early rounds when fights are just starting to settle in, judges fall into a trap and score those early rounds for the fighter that's expected to win- because they think that's what should be happening rather than what is.
By the time that you realize that the fight isn't happening the way it "should", it's too late and there is how you get a bad call.
I would imagine a rematch is in order, but I have a feeling that John Ryder may have already fought the fight of his life once, and should a rematch be forced, Callum Smith is going to be ready.
Callum Smith is the better fighter, but John Ryder deserved the duke on this night.
A belated Hamburglar for this one.

The evening card for DAZN was a Golden Boy card with two of those wonderful minor belts from the WBA and saw an upset in the main event as Rene Alvarado tore apart Andrew Cancio like Gale Sayers through an overmatched defense.
Cancio had knocked out Alvarado in their first fight in 2015 and after two wins over highly regarded Alberto Machado, was thought to be a rising fighter with a great story.
Alvarado used his longer reach and surprising aggressiveness from the start to cur Cancio around both eyes and bloodied his nose to the point of Alvarado's white trunks appearing to be a light pink from Cancio's blood.
Cancio fought as bravely as he could, but he couldn't figure out how to avoid Alvarado's incessant offense in order to get inside to do his best work.
I had Alvarado ahead 69-64 (6-1) when the fight was mercifully ended in Cancio's corner at the end of the seventh round.
Cancio was becoming quite a story, but it is very possible that Cancio is a solid fighter that simply had the number of Alberto Machado.
We'll see if Rene Alvarado, also a solid fighter, can perform well against fighters other than Andrew Cancio.

In the other fight, China's Xu Can continues to impress in his move up the featherweight ladder with his unanimous decision win over Manny Robles.
Can reminds me a bit of Josh Warrington in that he throws a lot of punches and attempts to overwhelm his opponents with volume.
Funny that I should mention Warrington, who was the champion called out in the post-fight interview by Can and that would be a very exciting fight to see.
Neither fighter has world-class sting on their punches but in a fight between those two the ringside people counting the punches had better be ready to work overtime!
I scored Can the winner 118-110 over Robles, who took his first loss but had won his previous two fights by close split decisions and the bloom seems to be fading off a once-promising prospect.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica seven to five (the Wilder KO making the difference) to move my overall lead to 278-246.

I'm going to try to be back later with the Browns romp over Miami and looking forward to a rematch in Pittsburgh.
 

Boxing Challenge: Inoue annihilates Rodriguez, Taylor, Saunders win titles.

The European version of the boxing weekend saw the World Boxing Super Series fill their final matchups in the division and saw another title change hands at another location for three championships to have new owners at the end of the day.

The star of the day had to be Naoya Inoue, who knocked down Emmanuel Rodriguez three times in the second round, twice with body shots, to win the IBF bantamweight title and advance to the finals of the WBSS, where Inoye will attempt to unify his title with WBA champion Nonito Donaire.
Donaire has been more than fortunate in making the finals with his win over Ryan Burnett coming when Burnett had to surrender with a back injury and Zolani Tete having to pull out of the tournament late in the week to be replaced by Stephon Young and I'm afraid this one could end up with a very sad ending.
I had written that Rodriguez was going to give Inoue some problems and he did for one round.
Rodriguez showed no fear of Inoue and the first round was pretty even and could have been scored for either fighter.
Round two was a different story once Inoue landed the left hook that essentially ended the fight, although Rodriguez showed tons of courage in getting up from that and then again from another hook to the body that dropped him to the mat.
It was only a matter of time and Inoue ended it with another body shot that floored Rodriguez.
For Inoue, another destruction in victory and I can't find anyone that gives the aging Donaire any type of chance in the WBSS finals.
Assuming that's the case and assuming Inoye won't be worried about unifying the division (winning over Donaire would give him two of the four titles and had Zolaini Tete not been injured before the Donaire fight, the winner of the final would have three of the four) against WBO champion Zolani Tete or WBC champion Nordine Ouabaali, I suppose Inoue could either wait for one of the best junior bantams to move up in Juan Francisco Estrada or Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, but he might try to rise in weight himself to junior featherweight where an Inoue vs the winner of fall's expected three title unification fight between Danny Roman and Rey Vargas would have some appeal.

In the other WBSS tussle from Glasgow, Josh Taylor won a unanimous decision to take away Ivan Baranchyk's IBF junior welterweight title and set up a WBSS final that will not only pit the top two seeds against each other but create a 50/50 fight as well.
Taylor knocked Baranchyk down twice in the sixth round and looked to be on the verge of finishing the champion, who showed grit in surviving the round and was actually fighting better down the stretch than earlier in the fight.
Baranchyk was landing his share in the final two rounds and even though Taylor wasn't seriously hurt, Baranchyk never stopped trying to pull a victory out of the blue.
I scored Taylor a 116-110 winner (8-4 plus a 10-7 sixth round) and that was in the range of the judge's cards which had Taylor winning by eight (a little too much) and twice by four (a little too close)
Taylor will unify his newly won championship with that of WBA champion Regis Prograis and this one is one that I am anxiously awaiting.
I lean slightly to Prograis in the finals, but Taylor is more than capable of winning the tournament.
The fight may very well come down to where the fight is held with a crowd playing a part in the result.

The final part of the weekend in England saw the return of Billy Joe Saunders, who won the WBO super middleweight crown vacated by Gilberto Ramirez in the usual sleep-inducing fashion by a unanimous decision over outmatched Shefat Isufi.
Saunders never hurt Isufi, nor seemed to even try to turn up the heat as he won almost every round on my card 119-109 (11-1), but showed nothing to change anyone's mind about fighting a slick boxing southpaw that isn't going to bring you a big payday or be willing to stand in front and fight.
In other words, Saunders is more trouble to potential opponents than what he's worth.

Heavyweight Joe Joyce knocked out Alexander Ustinov in the third round.
I'm not sure what the future will hold for the former Olympic silver medalist, who hits with power, but is painfully slow.
If Joyce can take a good punch, he could be Ray Mercer, good enough to fight a long time and win enough to stay relevant, but never an elite heavyweight.
If Joyce's chin proves to be less than world class, he's going to lose a lot because he's going to outbox no one.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica picked up twelve points to my eleven on the weekend.
I picked five of the six winners and results correctly, but Ramon nailed all six winners and results to gain a point.
My lead now stands at 132-116.

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: GGG returns, Bellew finishes Haye.

Gennady Golovkin's return to action didn't last as long as it takes to bake a potato. but the ending was spectacular as ever as Golovkin retained his three middleweight titles with a second-round crushing of Vanes Martirosyan in Carson, California.
The IBF didn't sanction the fight as a title defense, although the title would have been ruled vacant had Martirosyan won, but Golovkin took a punch or two in the first before the finishing in the second that left Martirosyan prone on the floor.

The less said the better about this one, now the speculation begins whether Golovkin will face Canelo Alvarez in September.
If Golovkin wants to keep the IBF title, he will have to face Sergey Dereyvanchenko next and Golovkin has claimed for years that he wants all four belts and being stripped of one is a step back for that goal.
However, the dollars aren't even in the same universe for that fight compared to the Canelo rematch, but I don't think we will see that rematch in September anyway.
I cannot imagine that Golden Boy Promotions will have their cash cow fight Golovkin off a one-year layoff and what I think will happen will see Canelo's comeback against a softer opponent, most likely Spike O'Sullivan with Golovkin taking care of his IBF mandatory in Dereyvanchenko-possibly even on the same card.
To me, that makes sense and covers bases for both parties- Canelo gets a fight to chip the rust off and GGG gets to keep a title belt (or attempt to).

In London, Tony Bellew looks to have finally finished the career of David Haye with a fifth-round knockout in their rematch of Bellew's win in 2017.
Bellew knocked Haye down twice in the third before finishing Haye off in the fifth.
I had Bellew winning every round, although Haye was throwing punches, it appeared to me that he couldn't sit down on his punches and the Achilles injury that he suffered in the first fight didn't appear to be healed as he was forced to throw his punches off the front foot.
Bellew was calling for Andre Ward after the fight (No thanks), but a better fight might be Bellew against the Oleksandr Usyk-Murat Gassiev winner for the unified cruiserweight title.
Bellew left the division as the WBC's "Champion in Emeritus" which means he can cash in a title shot whenever he asks for it, so that could happen.

On the Bellew-Haye undercard, Emmanuel Rodriguez knocked Paul Butler down in the first and cruised to a unanimous decision to win the vacant IBF bantamweight title.
Only Rodriguez could win the title as Butler failed to make the weight and I had Rodriguez a 119-108 winner.

On Friday on ESPN, highly touted prospect (much of it on social media by himself) Ryan Garcia took a step up in competition against former world title challenger Jayson Velez and won a unanimous decision.
Garcia looked strong early but visibly weakened later in his first time going ten rounds against the tough but smaller Velez.
I had Garcia a 98-92 winner, but I'm not sure what the hurry is with Golden Boy pushing Garcia so quickly and these calls for fighters like Gervonta Davis would be a huge mistake for Garcia.
Garcia needs a few more fights against fighters that are on a similar level to Velez before anyone should even think about a title challenge or a fight against a top five level opponent.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored six points on the weekend.
Ramon received two points each from wins by Emmanuel Rodriguez and Gennady Golovkin and one each from Ryan Garcia and Tony Bellew.
My six came from two-point wins from Golovkin. Rodriguez and Garcia.
I lead the challenge 81-67.