Boxing Challenge: Riyadh Rumbles!

      It's better than never coverage from me yet again, but this time it's not so bad, as there will be no boxing challenge action over the Thanksgiving weekend.

In the main event, David Benavidez stopped Anthony Yarde in the seventh round to retain his WBC light heavyweight title.

Benavidez bullied Yarde in the corners and ropes before scoring a knockdown and stoppage.

Benavidez announced that his next fight will be against WBA and WBO cruiserweight Gilberto Ramirez in 2026.

That is an interesting fight, but not as interesting to me as Benavidez against either Dmitry Bivol or Artur Beterbiev.

Devin Haney knocked down Brian Norman in the second round and outboxed him the rest of the way to take Norman's WBO welterweight title via unanimous decision.

The win gave Haney a title in a third weight division.

Haney won by scores of 117-110, 116-111, and a way too close 114-113, with my score at 117-111.

Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez added the WBA crown to his junior bantamweight title (WBC and WBO) collection with a tenth-round KO of Fernando Martinez.

Rodriguez was way ahead when he ended the fight in the tenth.

The best fight was in the opener when Abdullah Mason won the vacant WBO lightweight title by a close unanimous decision over Sam Noakes.

Mason cut Noakes over his left eye early in the fight and forced the Briton to fight through the blood all evening.

The pair met toe to toe for much of the fight and produced an action-filled fight.

Mason won by scores of  115-113 on two cards (and mine) and 117-111 on the other.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 146 Pts(5)

Ramon Malpica: 138 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 58 Pts (5)

Boxing Challenge: Martinez nips Ioka

    Fernando Martinez was victorious in his rematch with Kazuto Ioka by a unanimous decision, but it wasn't without adversity in the Tokyo fight.

Ioka knocked Martinez down in the tenth round, and I thought he did enough to earn the victory with the knockdown making the difference in my 114-113 scorecard.

The judges differed, giving Martinez the nod by surprising margins of  117-110, 115-112, and 114-113.

Martinez retains his WBA junior bantamweight title, while Ioka is reportedly considering retirement.

In Florida, Erickson Lubin knocked out Ardreal Holmes in the eleventh round of their IBF junior middleweight title eliminator.

This was a dreadful fight that saw the previously unbeaten Holmes move around and appear petrified of Lubin's power.

Holmes could have won this fight if he had punched even a little more, but he didn't, and the fairly ineffective forward movement of Lubin wore Holmes down.

Two knockdowns in the eleventh ended this one.

Lubin is now the mandatory challenger for IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev.

Boxing Challenge

TRS:74 Pts  (2)

Ramon Malpica:73 Pts (3)

Vince Samano: 30 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: Questionable Night In Minneapolis

    The Showtime/PBC card from Minneapolis did more than showcase some talented boxers, twice in their three-fight evening, a problem throughout boxing was shoved to the forefront and it's one that sanctioning bodies, promoters, fighters, and their teams, and fans would be wise to begin paying more attention to.

PBC's main event would see middleweight Carlos Adames retain his minor title with a controversial ninth-round stoppage over former WBA and IBF junior middleweight Julian Williams when referee Mark Nelson stopped the fight with Williams stung along the ropes but throwing punches back.

I thought Williams was in a little bit of trouble, and he had been busted up just under his right eye, so it's not as if Williams was a lock to survive but he was punching back and I thought the stoppage was premature.

Adames had a large lead on the scorecards after eight rounds with leads of three, four, and an astonishing eight points, which means that the judge had scored every round for Adames.

I had the fight closer at 77-75 for Adames and he was likely on his way to a win but Williams fought well and deserved a better fate or at least the chance to place his fate in his own hands defensively at the end.

I don't really see Adames as this "boogeyman" ( there must be two of these boogeymen around at 160 pounds as Top Rank says the same thing about WBO champion Janibek Alimkhanuly) as he was called in the pre-fight buildup, although he is a good fighter in a very week middleweight division and deserves the full WBC with champion Jermall Charlo inactive for two years and soon to fight Canelo Alvarez at super middleweight, the WBC should do the right thing and force Charlo to fight Adames next (which he wouldn't and shouldn't do considering the payday for a Canelo fight) and when he chooses to face Canelo, give the full title to Adames.

As bad as the Adames-Williams ending was, the co-feature was worse as junior middleweight Erickson Lubin returned from an over a year layoff after losing to Sebastian Fundora, to defeat veteran Luis Arias by a fifth-round knockout.

After the first four rounds were fairly evenly fought (I had Lubin ahead 39-37), Lubin landed a right hand just behind the ear of Arias in the fifth that knocked Arias down but it appeared to be a glancing blow, although a legitimate knockdown.

Arias was perched on one knee as he listened to the court of Zachary Young and appeared to me to get up at the count of nine.

Young, however, counted to ten and claimed that Arias had not gotten up in time to beat the count which was clearly untrue.

An absolutely putrid call by Young, who could have stopped the fight with less controversy by judging Arias unable to continue (I would have said that would have been a mistake as well but there is a difference between judgment and a blatant violation of the rules).

It's a needed comeback win for Lubin and a tough loss for Arias, who lost his third fight in his last four and was stopped for the first time, which is a difficult pill to swallow considering how he lost.

These crazy things such as awful scorecards, misinterpretations of the rules by referees, poor stoppages, etc, seem to pop up most often in states that aren't widely known as hotbeds for the sport- in this case, Minnesota.

There really needs to be something about these smaller state commissions shoving their referees and/or judges into roles for world-class fights that they either aren't experienced enough or aren't good enough to handle properly.

Sanctioning bodies could install more qualified people for these spots but in many cases, the state commission will insist on their people being involved.

The answer could be the media provider or the promoter insisting on world-class referees and judges and if the state doesn't like it (in this case, Minnesota), pull the event and go somewhere else.

Faced with the loss of money from the event, I'd bet after a few times, these commissions will do the right thing.

The key to this would be working with the commission a few weeks before the card on deciding on the officials involved and ironing out any differences early.

A compromise could be allowing the state to use their people for the lower undercard and the world-class level fights is where the better/more experienced officials could step in.

There is too much on the line for champions and contenders to continue to have these types of problems.

In the opening fight, Fernando Martinez retained his IBF junior bantamweight title with an eleventh knockout of Jade Bornea.

I had the fight even after eight hard-fought rounds and in round nine, Martinez landed a left hook against Bornea's right ear, which caused what I would call a boil, bulging on the ear.

Martinez landed another hook against the ear later in the ninth, busting the boil open and causing lots of blood to flow.

Martinez dominated the tenth and the fight was stopped in the eleventh with Bornea weakening to the loss of blood.

I haven't watched the Kazuto Ioka-Joshua Franco fight or the Edgar Berlanga-Jason Quigley battle, so I'll do a followup with those two fights and the boxing challenge results with that post.

Boxing Challenge: Fundora outpoints Ocampo

 Showtime's evening of boxing was better than expected in some ways and less than expected in others as the only show over the weekend was broadcast from Carson, California.

In the main event, junior middleweight Sebastian Fundora had a rougher time than expected from Carlos Ocampo but still emerged with a unanimous decision to retain his minor title and more importantly, a likely title shot against the winner of the Jermell Charlo-Tim Tszyu fight that is scheduled for January.

Fundora is the rare fighter in boxing that would be better suited to be less exciting but rather than use his huge wingspan, prefers to rumble on the inside and outwork his opponents.

Fundora has been able to use this style to be effective but I still think that he makes fights far harder than he has to and it will cost him sooner or later.

Ocampo landed his share of punches but Fundora threw and landed more and while Ocampo's brave attempt was surprising to me, he still was far short on the cards (mine was 117-111 for Fundora) with Fundora winning via scores of 119-109, 118-110, and 117-111.

Fundora is trying to stay active which is more than I can say for unified champion Charlo, who hasn't fought more than once a year since 2019, although in each fight Charlo has fought quality competition, and announced his January defense against Tszyu SIX MONTHS in advance.

Fundora makes every fight a grueling one and against the right fighter could be tripped up before receiving his title chance, so there is some concern with every one of his outings.

The most impressive winner of the night was Carlos Adames, who snuffed out Juan Macias-Montiel in three rounds to gain a minor title and move into the mandatory position for WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo, who is more likely to drop the title to move to 168 pounds than face Adames.

Adames raised even further questions about Charlo, who beat Montiel last year by a decision but surprised watchers by allowing Montiel to last the distance and never seriously endangered a fighter that was stopped by Jaime Munguia in two rounds before facing Charlo and now after losing to him, falling to Adames in three.

Adames began ripping Montiel in the second and finished him in the third with several heavy shots that drove Montiel into the ropes and kept him there under heavy fire before the fight was stopped.

I was surprised to see that some criticized the stoppage but I thought things were only going to get worse for Montiel and the ending was very just.

The win was the second impressive victory in a row for Adames after a decision win over Sergey Dereyvanchenko and should he receive the opportunity to face Jermall Charlo, I'd give Adames a decent chance to pull a surprise against Charlo.

In the opener, Argentina's Fernando Martinez repeated his win over Jerwin Ancajas to retain his IBF junior bantamweight title by a unanimous decision.

The rematch wasn't quite as exciting or as close as their first fight but there was still plenty of action from both fighters.

Martinez repeatedly beat Ancajas to the punch as the younger and faster fighter and removed any questions from the much closer first fight when Ancajas barely made weight before the fight.

Martinez took the duke by scores of 119-111 and 118-110 times two with my card repeating the first fight's scorecard of 117-111.

Martinez is a fine fighter but like Ancajas was as champion, could be in a position of not being able to make the biggest fights in the division as most of the other top fighters at junior bantamweight are associated with Matchroom Boxing.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 166 Pts (4) 

Ramon Malpica: 142 Pts (0)
Vince Samano: 134 Pts (3) 

Boxing Challenge: Showtime Upsets in Vegas!

    The Showtime card Saturday night was a surprisingly strong one with a world championship changing hands, a prospect moving into contender status, and a late replacement dominating a fighter that had been heavily pushed by the promoter (PBC ) and the network itself.

In the main event, Hector Garcia grabbed an opportunity after WBA junior lightweight champion Roger Gutierrez had to drop out of his title defense against mandatory contender Chris Colbert after testing positive for Covid-19 and turned it into the night of his boxing career as Garcia dominated, bullied, knocked Colbert down for the first time in his career, and turned the highly touted Colbert into someone running for his life in the last third of the fight as Garcia won an easy unanimous decision in Las Vegas.

Garcia was a former Olympian but had not fought anyone near the level of Colbert before this fight and the first four round were fought evenly before Garcia began to hammer Colbert to the body to slow down a fighter that used his legs to control all of his previous fights.

Garcia threw lots of punches that surprised Colbert when he could not grab and hold as a tactic accumulating points and not allowing Colbert to fire many counterpunches.

In the seventh, Garcia dropped Colbert and almost finished the fight then and there with a badly hurt Colbert showing heart in surviving the round but Colbert shifted into permanent "Camacho" mode for the remainder of the fight with more interest in surviving than attempting to fire a miracle bomb.

I scored Garcia an easy 118-109 (10-2 with a knockdown in rounds) victor, which was near the three official scores.

For Garcia, the win is the stepping forward to the world stage and it will be Garcia that faces the healed Gutierrez for the WBA title.

As for Colbert, this is a devastating defeat that not only cost him a championship attempt but Colbert also took a beating that some boxers never recover from and at a minimum this loss provided future opponents a game plan to follow in future bouts.

The co-feature was the fight I was most looking forward to and even though it was far from a stinker, it was the least impactful of the three fights on the card as junior welterweight Gary Antuanne Russell scored his sixteenth stoppage in as many wins and won his first fight over a world-class fighter in stopping former WBC champion Viktor Postol with seconds remaining in the fight.

Don't get too excited about stopping Postol as the stoppage was a poor one considering Postol may have been mildly dazed but far from hurt before the fight was stopped.

Still, Russell fought very well and would have been the deserved winner on the scorecards.

I had Russell ahead 87-84 entering the final round and he clearly was going to add the final round over the game but distracted Postol, a native of Ukraine, who fought well but was outfought by Russell.

Postol's three losses were all decision losses to champions Terence Crawford, Josh Taylor, and Jose Ramirez, so PBC will likely give that stat an unjustified push but Russell looked solid in his first try against top ten fighters and I'd think Russell will be in the mix for one of those four titles in the division that Josh Taylor may be planning to vacate.

In another surprise involving a former Olympian, Argentina's Fernando Martinez overpowered and outslugged Jerwin Ancajas via unanimous decision and took away the IBF junior bantamweight title held by Ancajas.

Ancajas had made nine defenses of the title since 2016 and was scheduled to unify his title with the WBO version held by Kazuto Ioka in his next fight after their first fight was canceled due to Covid-19 in December, so unless Martinez would like to jump in and take the Ioka fight, the unification in the division is off the board for now as Ancajas does have a rematch clause.

The fight itself was an action-filled affair that saw each fighter throw and land often but Martinez held a large edge in both as I scored Martinez an easy 117-111 winner.

Sunday from London, Lawrence Okolie retained his WBO Cruiserweight title over Michal Cieslak via unanimous decision in a sloppy fight that saw the larger Okolie control Cieslak and scored the fight's only knockdown in the fifth round.

IBF champion Mairis Briedis was in attendance dressed as Super Mario and what could be a good sign that Briedis vs Okolie for the best fighter in a weak division could be coming soon, should Bredis dispose of his mandatory against Jai Opetaia in his next outing.

Boxing Challenge-This Week's Pts in parentheses

Vince Samano 28 Pts (4)

TRS 26 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica 23 Pts (2)