Boxing Challenge: Schofield dazzles, Ramirez tops Dorticos

    The performance of the boxing weekend had to be the first-round blitz by unbeaten lightweight Floyd Schofield, who dropped former junior lightweight champion Tevin Farmer twice and stopped him in the first round.

The fight was thought to be a 50/50 bet with Schofield meeting the toughest foe of his career, not to mention his controversial cancellation of his fight with WBC champion Shakur Stevenson, and Farmer, in strong form following three close losses to IBF champion Raymond Muratalla and William Zepeda looked to be the best match of the evening.

In less than three minutes, Schofield had established his credentials as a title contender, and Farmer will have questions about his future in the sport.

I haven't seen either of the remaining fights in the challenge

Gilberto Ramirez retained his WBA and WBO cruiserweight titles with a unanimous decision over Yunier Dorticos.

Michel Cieslak stopped Jean Pascal in the fourth round to win a minor title.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 103 Pts (3) 

Ramon Malpica: 93 Pts (4)

Vince Samano: 40 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: Foster regains title

       The first fight between Robson Conceicao and O'Shaquie Foster is better remembered for the controversial decision than the actual fight.

Their second fight was far more entertaining but this time the right man received the decision as Foster regained the WBC junior lightweight title that he lost to Conceicao via split decision. 

Conceciao took the early rounds, Foster took over in the middle rounds, and the late rounds were fought evenly with the winner of those rounds in the eye of the beholder.

Two judges scored for Foster 115-113 (same as mine) with the other's card favoring Conceicao 115-113, all of which are very reasonable scores.

Foster may next face the winner of December's WBO title encounter between Emanuel Navarrete and Oscar Valdez in a unification bout, while Conceciao will look to establish himself for a third fight with Foster, which seems far more interesting now than it did before Saturday night.

The outstanding performance of the weekend was by lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla, who smashed durable Jesus Perez in two rounds.

Perez had never been stopped in losses to WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman, welterweight contender Alexis Rocha, or former title challenger Danielito Zorrilla but Muratalla blitzed Perez in only two rounds with the type of outing that fighters that are prepared for a championship attempt make.

Muratalla is expected to challenge IBF champion Vasyl Lomachenko, should Lomachenko decide to continue boxing.

If Lomachenko retires, as is rumored, Muratalla would fight for the vacant title against Zaur Abdulaev as the highest-rated available challengers in the IBF ratings.

Abraham Nova and Humberto Galindo struggled to a draw in a dull junior lightweight ten-rounder.

Neither fighter deserved the win with one judge scoring 95-95 (my score) with the others scoring 96-94 for Nova and 97-93 for Galindo.

In Las Vegas, unbeaten lightweight prospect Floyd Schofield defeated solid Rene Tellez Giron by unanimous decision in another fight that was more interesting than anticipated as Schofield was willing to exchange more than predicted and make things entertaining.

Schofield did slow down in his first twelve-rounder as Tellez-Giron won a few late rounds and scored a flash knockdown in the eleventh round.

Schofield won on the cards 118-109 times two and 116-111. I scored 117-110 for Schofield, who is over-ranked by the WBA at second in the world.

Schofield is talented but Tellez-Giron is his biggest win and that doesn't qualify him to be rated second in the world.

In what was scheduled to be a WBA super middleweight eliminator but was reduced after Bektemir Melikuziev missed weight, and then is reported to have struggled with David Stevens (I haven't seen it yet) in winning a split decision.

Scores 118-110 and 117-111 for Melikuziev and 116-112 for Stevens.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 156 Pts (5)

TRS: 152 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 94 Pts (3) 

Boxing Challenge: Ennis rolls over Villa

   The Showtime main event from Atlantic City saw the return of Jaron "Boots" Ennis from more than only a few months away from the ring, it would see the return of the violent Ennis that made him the apple of fans scouting for the next big star after a dominant but hardly dazzling decision win over Karen Chukhadzian to win an interim title earlier this year.

Ennis pounded an incredibly tough and game Roiman Villa for ten rounds before the end that made sense to allow Villa an out from taking the type of punishment that changes lives.

Ennis chopped Villa to the floor in the tenth and the fight quickly ended but hurt Villa multiple times in the fight, most notably in round six when Villa almost dipped to the floor and amazingly kept himself up and even more amazingly survived the round without going down.

Ennis occasionally took a right hand from Villa, so his night wasn't perfect but his offensive game ripped through Villa and had him bleeding from the nose and mouth for most of the battle.

Ennis was able to win the battles on the inside and outside against Villa, who showed a strong chin and toughness to spare but wasn't able to accomplish nearly enough against the formidable offensive toolbox of Ennis. It'll be interesting to see how much this battering took from Villa as often a fighter doesn't recover entirely after punishment like this.

Ennis called out the winner of the Errol Spence-Terence Crawford fight as a possible opponent but there will almost certainly be a rematch and the winner is likely to vacate his titles with Ennis's minor title with the IBF being promoted to the full championship.

A more realistic possibility would be against Eimantas Stanionis, who holds the minor WBA title and had his fight with Vergil Ortiz canceled for the third time earlier this week.

Stanonis fights with PBC ( The Ortiz fight was promoted by Golden Boy due to a purse bid), and a fight with Ennis would be entertaining, easy to make, I think, and could keep two of the titles that Spence or Crawford unify together.

Stanionis needs a fight, Ennis stated he wants to fight again before the end of the year, and with Spence-Crawford II contractually obligated to happen before 2023 ends, Ennis-Stanionis would make a terrific co-feature for the rematch PPV.

You would have to favor Ennis obviously but Stanionis wouldn't be without a chance to win.

The remaining two fights in the boxing challenge both showcased lightweight prospects that won lopsided decisions against overmatched opponents.

On Showtime, Edwin De Los Santos added something to his reputation as a puncher as he calmly outboxed Joseph Adorno in a dull ten-rounder.

Not much to say about this one other than De Los Santos used the jab to control Adorno throughout.

De Los Santos won easily by scores of 100-90 (same as my score) and two judges listed it as 99-91.

On DAZN from Golden Boy, Floyd Schofield was promoted to the main event after the cancellation of the Stanionis-Ortiz bout and dominated journeyman Haskell Rhodes in winning a unanimous decision.

The fight wasn't competitive but Schofield showed more pizzaz in dropping Rhodes twice in the seventh, and once in the eighth before a ninth-round headbutt tore a horizontal cut along Schofield's left cheekbone and allowed Rhodes some time to get himself together enough to last the distance.

Schofield won on all three cards 100-87, the same as mine.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 116 Pts (6) 

Ramon Malpica: 107 Pts (6)

Vince Samano: 84 Pts (6)