Boxing Challenge: Roach wins while drawing vs Davis

  This will be a hybrid of the usual reports as I am still recovering (more on that in future posts) and still have plenty of other items to catch up with.

The biggest fight of the weekend saw the biggest story of the weekend as the top American star in the game, WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis, was taken to the brink against WBA junior lightweight titleholder Lamont Roach, and held to a majority decision draw that bluntly should have given Davis his first career defeat.

Roach was robbed of a massive victory and a paycheck for a rematch that would be far larger with a win than a majority draw that he was given.

I scored the fight 114-114, as did two judges with the dissenter tabbing Davis the winner 115-113. so the scorecards were all reasonable but the travesty occurred in round nine when Roach landed a short right hand that was followed by a soft jab that then saw Davis voluntarily take a knee, which he claimed was needed when "grease from his hair had gotten into his eye".

That may have been the case but no matter the reason, if a fighter takes a knee it should be scored a knockdown.

Referee Steve Wilks started a count and then stopped it allowing Davis to save the point- a point that would save his title.

If the proper call had been made, Roach would have won round 10-8 and flipped all three cards in his favor for a unanimous decision stunner.

While I'm sure a rematch will be signed and Roach will be paid handsomely, he should have the title entering a second fight which would have been worth even more money.

As for Gervonta Davis, this could have been an off night or overconfidence against a former amateur rival moving up in weight and isn't known for his power in the smaller division.

While Davis didn't fight poorly, he didn't look sharp either.

Despite his tremendous one-shot power, Davis isn't a physically large lightweight, so perhaps there are some reasons that Davis is consistently matched against smaller lightweights (Frank Martin, Isaac Cruz) and junior lightweights moving up in weight (Roach, Hector Luis Garcia.

Davis is among the best bangers in the sport and his skills are excellent but in a division with excellent fights to be made, Davis appears content to defend against second-tier fighters for large paychecks.

While I completely understand the goal of making as much money as possible, Davis is beginning to feel the backlash of being a fighter who is dodging the elite challenges that are available.

The problem with that gameplan is that when you eventually lose, it will be to an opponent that will be considered inferior, and the defeat usually hurts your "legacy".

It's not too late for Gervonta Davis but Davis needs a convincing win over Lamont Roach in a rematch and then set sail to finally make those matches to see just how he will be remembered.

In other bouts-

Gary Antuanne Russell dominated Jose Valenzuela to win the WBA junior welterweight title, winning by scores of 120-108 (same as mine) and 119-109 times two.

Russell, like his older brother and former WBC featherweight champion Gary, has excessive talent but falls into long periods of inactivity.

Hopefully, that will not happen this time as PBC would like to see Russell unify with WBC champion Alberto Puello, who kept his title via a split decision over Sandor Martin.

Puello won 116-112 and 115-113 to overrule the 115-113 card for Martin.

I scored it 115-113 for Martin.

Puello handed Gary Antuanne Russell his only career loss, so a rematch does have some intrigue.

Cuban junior middleweight Yoenis Tellez battered former WBA and IBF champion Julian Williams in winning a unanimous decision by scores of 119-109, 118-110 (my score) and 117-111.

Former IBF junior welterweight champion Subriel Matias won a title eliminator with an eighth-round knockout of Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela in Puerto Rico.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 25 Pts(6)

Ramon Malpica: 23 Pts(5)

Vince Samano: 15 Pts(0)

John Herndon: 5 Pts (5)

Boxing Challenge: Davis Flattens Martin

  

    The boxing weekend was centered in Las Vegas for the latest Amazon/PBC pay per view and while the card saw two upsets, the fights at the top of the slate played out as expected.

Frank Martin boxed well at the start of the fight but slowly became more stationary and when you are in punching range of Gervonta Davis, a fighter is always in the danger zone.

I had Martin slightly ahead at 67-66 after seven rounds but he wouldn't see another scored round as Davis landed a crunching uppercut followed by a left that knocked Martin down and out in round eight for the conclusive ending.

Davis retained his WBA lightweight title with the knockout and he called out the remaining three champions in the division after the win.

WBC champion Shakur Stevenson becomes a promotional free agent after his next fight which would be the biggest fight but would Stevenson accept the likely B-side payday for such a fight?

IBF champion Vasyl Lomachenko (Top Rank) is unlikely and Top Rank also holds options (I believe) on WBO boss Denys Baranchyk, who would likely leap at a career-best payday otherwise.

Davis's problem is that unless he willingly works with promoters outside the PBC brand, his list of potential opponents is small.

Martin's resume wasn't bulked with top names and he was the best PBC fighter at Davis's weight.

Should Davis move to 140, a rematch with WBA champion Isaac Cruz might have some mild appeal as the best option.

At 29, it's time for Gervonta Davis to decide what he wants his legacy in the sport to be.

Does he want to bank lots of money (which he has done and will continue to do) and add to a career that is filled with spectacular knockouts against good opponents who aren't the elite?

Or does he want to face the best and take a chance of losing with the upside of winning and being remembered as the best of his era?

The comparison is the career of another PBC performer- Deontay Wilder.

Like Davis, Wilder notched spectacular knockouts against average competition, accumulating a high quantity of wins rather than quality (Wilder's best wins in his career are his decision win over Bermane Steverne in their first fight and his two wins over Luis Ortiz) before finally stepping up for his first fight against Tyson Fury.

Wilder finished 0-2-1 in his three fights against Fury and if not for a one-round squash match KO of Robert Helenius, Wilder hasn't won a fight since November 2019.

Wilder falls just short of the Hall of Fame in my opinion and while Davis still has plenty of time for the legacy-setting fights, his best wins to date are over Isaac Cruz (a win that looks much better now than it did when the two squared off) with other good wins that all have asterisks beside them.

Ryan Garcia, who unwisely agreed to weight demands and essentially quit, an undersized and overrated Leo Santa Cruz, and Jose Pedraza, who has lost to the best that he has fought as well.

I'll give Davis credit for the Pedraza win as that was when Pedraza was at the top of his game and his opposition is better than Wilder's but it still lacks that signature victory that comes to mind when a great fighter's name is brought up in conversation.

Deontay Wilder would eventually take the chance against better opposition and it might be argued that had he made the decision earlier in his career, his career could been even better (I could see Wilder landing the right hand and taking out Anthony Joshua when both were unbeaten heavyweight champions), will Davis wait too long to make his move as well?

I think Gervonta Davis could beat any of the three other champions (could, not will).

The question is when will he take the risk?

I'll have the rest of the boxing weekend tomorrow.

Boxing Challenge: Davis knocks out Garcia

   The highly anticpated battle between hard-punching young stars Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia may not have been Hagler-Hearns as they and others proclaimed before the fight but it was entertaining before the evening ended with sort of an anti-climax as Davis crunched a left hook to the body of Garcia that invoked a delayed reaction with Garcia dropping to his left knee, taking the ten count in the seventh round of their Las Vegas showdown.

Garcia fought very well in winning round one and was easily on his way to adding round two to his side when Davis slipped Garcia's right hand and countered with a left that sent Garcia to the canvas.

Garcia wasn't seriously hurt by the knockdown but the fight changed after that as Garcia continued to come forward on Davis but never with the same abandon or aggressiveness as in those two rounds.

With Garcia now respecting the power of Davis, the fight changed subtly as Davis began to counter Garcia more effectively, slipping his jab more often and blunting the more controlled attacks of Garcia, who no longer wished to take chances that could back Davis up but increase the risk of getting hit with power punches.

Garcia would have his occasional moments after round two and the fight was certainly competitive and hard-fought but only the third and sixth rounds were close and while the ending was sudden, it did feel inevitable.

Davis could have several big fights that would be anticipated by boxing fans in the lightweight division, where he is best suited as far as size against the winner of the undisputed lightweight title pairing later this spring between Devin Haley and Vasyl Lomachenko or Shakur Stevenson in what would be a huge fight for the East Coast fan base.

But fights against either man could be difficult to sign with promotional considerations, Davis would have a large size disadvantage against the best junior welterweights, and there isn't really anyone at junior lightweight that would be considered a major fight for Davis.

That leaves Davis as likely to return to facing good fighters that would be heavy underdogs, wouldn't bring him the respect that he craves, and drawing big crowds with sizable paychecks.

Unless Davis is motivated to do business with Top Rank, the best fights for Davis in-house with PBC may be a rematch with Isaac Cruz, who lost via close decision to Davis, or maybe slick boxing Frank Martin, who may be a high risk without a high rate of return.

As for Garcia, he stated that he will stay in the junior welterweight division and there are plenty of fights there for him but with a loss, and a knockout loss that some believe that he could have shown more effort in attempting to continue, Garcia will have to be matched carefully for a fight or two before facing a strong challenge in a big fight.

Garcia's problem is similar to Davis's as a division loaded with talent doesn't have one that is promoted by Garcia's promoter in Golden Boy Promotions.

The WBO title will be with Top Rank, held by the winner of Josh Taylor-Teofimo Lopez, WBC champion Regis Prograis is available but perhaps too dangerous for Garcia right now, IBF king Subriel Matias is promoted by PBC and is a major puncher with a high risk for a fighter coming off a stoppage loss and the WBA title was recently stripped from Alberto Puello and will be fought for between PBC's colorful Rolando Romero and Ismael Barroso.

Adding into the equations former champion Jose Ramirez, veteran contenders Jack Catterall and Jose Zepeda, and undefeated Gary Antuanne Russell and Arnold Barboza, none of which fights for Golden Boy, and it's hard to see Garcia facing a challenge for a while, unless undefeated lightweight contender William Zepeda, who does fight for Golden Boy, could be tempted by a big payday and a chance to defeat Garcia.

In any event, while both fighters are still stars after the fight, I'm struggling to see an avenue that will see either fighter in a test in their next fight unless some rival promotions decide to work together, and since such a fight is likely to lack anywhere near the amount of money made from Davis-Garcia, which is highly unlikely.

I'll be writing about the other boxing challenge fights in a post tonight or tomorrow. 

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 65 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica : 61 Pts (2)

Vince Samano: 50 Pts (2)

Boxing Challenge: Davis stops Garcia

 Gervonta Davis continued his recent run of late knockouts and big crowds as Davis forced WBA junior lightweight champion Hector Luis Garcia to surrender in his corner following the eighth round in Washington D.C before a sellout crowd at the Capital One Arena.

Davis landed a big left to the head of Garcia late in the eighth round that spun Garcia into the ropes and with a bit more time, Davis would have likely finished Garcia off then and there.

Garcia told his corner that he couldn't see and the fight was stopped before the start of round nine.

Davis was well ahead on the scorecards (79-73 x2 and 78-74, my scorecard was 77-75) when the end came and despite some early round success from Garcia, one never had the feeling that he was going to keep Davis off him all evening.

Davis will hopefully face Ryan Garcia as planned in April but he has to avoid potential jail time from a hit-and-run charge that will see his trial next month in Baltimore.

I haven't seen the undercard fights but the results of the boxing challenge are noted.

Should I watch them soon, I'll update this page.

Jaron Ennis unanimous decision over Karen Chukhadzhian

Demetrius Andrade unanimous decision over Demond Nicholson

Roiman Villa majority decision over Rashidi Ellis.

Boxing Challenge

Vince Samano: 5 Pts

Ramon Malpica: 4 Pts

TRS: 4 Pts 

Boxing Challenge: Davis Whacks Romero

    For most of the first six rounds at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Rolando Romero had not only fought a surprisingly technically sound fight against heavily favored Gervonta Davis, but he was also fighting well against Davis.

That ended late in the sixth round when Davis smashed a left hand that sent Romero sailing to the floor and ended the fight as Romero beat the count but was judged unable to continue by referee David Fields.

Romero was leading on one card 58-57, as did I, with the other two judges giving Davis the nod by the same score entering what would be the final round but Davis had his best round of the fight in the fifth and appeared to be taking control of the fight.

Romero didn't charge from the gate throwing the wild power punches that he had been known for in his fights against lesser opponents but he did throw enough that Davis was surprisingly reserved in his offense in return, waiting to set Romero up for exactly the counter that would win "Tank" the fight.

For Davis, we now wait to see if he re-signs with Floyd Mayweather promotions, takes the side step to Al Haymon's PBC where he could stay with his longtime broadcaster Showtime or take his wares to the open market in an attempt to land a big fight that his resume' lacks.

Davis is certainly a live and pay-per-view attraction but the question still remains what happens when better fighters are able to handle Davis's power and can answer back.

Ryan Garcia was in attendance for the card and both fighters called the other out but I'm not sure that fight takes place in the event that Davis would stay with PBC and/or Mayweather Promotions as PBC and Golden Boy almost never do business together.

Physically, Garcia's build, punching power, and style seem to give him an edge against Davis but Davis is more experienced and I might give Davis a small edge in power.

I'd like to see the match and I think it would do heavy purchases on PPV and at the arena but color me skeptical on getting this one off the drawing board and into the ring.

While Davis vs Romero didn't prove to be the mismatch that most predicted, that couldn't be said for the co-feature which was the exact lopsided fight that almost all expected as Erislandy Lara knocked out Spike O'Sullivan in the eighth round.

The less said about this the better with Lara winning every round, knocking O'Sullivan down in the fourth and out in the eighth and both fighters simply repeating their history with Lara dominating in these types of showcase fights and O'Sullivan getting knocked out in now his fourth attempt to defeat a world-class boxer.

Lara's win over O'Sullivan was his fourth in a row over an overmatched opponent (Ramon Alvarez, Greg Vendetti, Thomas "Cornflake" LaManna, and now O'Sullivan) to retain his worthless WBA trinket against fighters that aren't even top twenty material.

Lara hasn't fought anyone of note since his 2018 split decision loss to Jarrett Hurd and his 2019 draw with Brian Castano, so Lara has not notched a noticeable victory since his October 2017 decision win over Terrell Gausha, who is solid but not a divisional elite.

At thirty-nine, Lara either is happy to rack up "title defenses" against opponents that no one wants to see or is hoping to wait out the WBA and hope they eventually get around to addressing the middleweight division as they reduce their belt situation.

I have no need to see any more of these B.S. squash matches presented as world title fights from Lara and PBC but I have a feeling that we will see one next year when Lara makes his yearly "defense" against the latest no-hoper.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 93 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 77 (3)
Ramon Malpica: 77 (3) 

Boxing Challenge: Davis Defeats Cruz

    Sunday night, Gervonta Davis retained his minor title with a tougher than expected unanimous decision triumph over Isaac Cruz in Los Angeles.

Davis was unable to extend his knockout string, which saw Davis stop his previous sixteen opponents dating back to German Maraz surviving the eight-round distance in October 2014.

Cruz was aggressive throughout the fight but in my opinion, didn't throw enough punches in the first eight rounds and fell behind on the cards.

Davis appeared to have injured his left hand and rarely threw it over the final few rounds, leading to Cruz getting back into the fight by winning the last three rounds on my card.

Still, I agreed with two of the judges scoring for Davis at 115-113 (the third had Davis up 116-112) and the lead was too much for Cruz to overcome.

Davis looked a little vulnerable against Cruz and his concern about preferring taller fighters than himself before the fight proved to be a legitimate worry as Cruz was very effective in keeping Davis from cracking him to the body.

The fight still could be a good thing for Davis in showing him that not every fighter is going to fall down every time they are punched and if Cruz's performance was helped by a lack of preparation by Davis (not saying that is the case), perhaps that can be corrected in the future.

After the fight, Davis gave up his minor WBA title at junior welterweight, choosing to keep his minor WBA title at lightweight.

Sooner or later, I would imagine the WBA will make Davis fight their real champion in George Kambosos as the organization tries to clean up their mess of titles but until then look for Davis to keep knocking over fighters similar to Cruz (top ten/twelve level) or even lesser.

Lightweight may be the most talented division in boxing with terrific fighters that unfortunately are scattered almost several promotional companies and with the exception of Kambosos, a promotional free agent, appear content to lob Twitter grenades rather than get into the ring and fight each other.

I would be surprised to see any of these stars except for maybe Kambosos and Devin Haney actually face each other in 2022. 

I have not seen the other two fights with the results:

Sebastian Fundora unanimous decision over Sergio Garcia.

Carlos Adames majority decision over Sergey Dereyvanchenko.

In the boxing challenge, I scored three points to Ramon Malpica's two and moved the total to 163-145.

Boxing Challenge: Lomachenko, Davis notch knockout wins

    The boxing Saturday saw two of the game's biggest stars grab victories, a once-hot prospect staked his claim to a second title try, and a former Olympian made a statement that perhaps he is ready to enter the top ten in his division.

Top Rank and ESPN+ finished their stretch in Las Vegas with the return of former three-division champion Vasyl Lomachenko to the ring for the first time since his surprising loss to Teofimo Lopez.

Lomachenko's opponent, Japan's Masayoshi Nakatani, had fought well in his decision loss to Lopez and had rallied in his last fight to knockout Felix Verdejo in the ninth round, so this was not a walkover for the comeback of the former champion entering their fight.

However, when the fight started it was all Lomachenko as he won every round, dropped Nakatani with a short left hand in the fifth and when the fight was stopped in the ninth, Nakatani was standing but without his faculties from the Lomachenko assault and with a swollen and battered right eye to boot.

Lomachenko received good news after his victory as it was announced that he would receive a rematch with Teofimo Lopez, should Lopez win in his oft-delayed mandatory defense against Australia's George Kambosos.

Should Lomachenko manage to repeat his performance in his victory over Nakatani against Lopez, I'd give Lomachenko a good chance of reversing his original result in the rematch.

The co-feature saw former Olympian Janibek Alimkhanuly dominated former minor beltholder, Rob Brant, winning each round, knocking Brant to the floor on one knee in the sixth, and forced his corner to stop the fight after the eighth round.

Alimkhanuly hit Brant with the left hand all night and as impressive as Alimkhanuly looked in overwhelming a former top ten middleweight, I'll wait until his next fight to decide if Alimkhanuly is that strong of a contender or was Brant simply used up and Alimkhanuly simply was the first fighter to reach him?

I'm definitely stating the latter, although it could be some of the former as well.

PBC's pay per view hasn't been watched by me as of this writing.

In Atlanta, Gervonta Davis knocked out Mario Barrios in the eleventh round to win another WBA minor title, this time in the junior welterweight division.

The fight was reported to be an excellent fight with Davis scoring two knockdowns in the eighth before the fight ended in the eleventh.

The problem with Davis isn't his skills (he's talented), his power (he can punch well), his fights (they are often entertaining), or his ability to draw on PPV (he's drawn excellent numbers).

The problem is who he's defeating- PBC isn't very deep in the three divisions that Davis has fought in during his last three fights and his wins are over washed-up Yuriorkis Gamboa, much smaller Leo Santa Cruz, and now Barrios who doesn't have a top ten win in his career.

Now, Davis may be content to win bogus belts, make entertaining fights against limited opponents, and collect nice paychecks from pay per view, but until he faces a top fighter that is his size and defeats them, I'll still have questions to be answered.

It's nothing against Davis, who for his limited competition has fought more second-level fighters than compatriots Ryan Garcia or Devon Haney have and they have the same questions to answer, although I'd say their top wins (Garcia over Luke Campbell and Haney over Jorge Linares) are better than Davis's top win.

While I'd like to see Davis against a top fighter next and preferably at lightweight, I'm wondering just who will be next for him.

Two fights that aren't glamourous, but could be made might be Chris Colbert, who holds a minor WBA belt at 130 pounds in the one division that Davis's title is the main one, or lightweight Rolando Romero, who holds a minor title and fights for PBC.

In the co-feature, Erickson Lubin stopped Jeison Rosario with a body shot in the sixth round.

The victory places Lubin in the WBC's mandatory position for the winner of next month's four title unification between Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano.

Lubin suffered his only loss via a spectacular first-round knockout challenging Charlo in 2017.

On DAZN, Julio Cesar Martinez defended his WBC flyweight tilt with a sixth-round knockout over Joel Cordova in Mexico.

I've yet to see this fight either.

Editor's Note; Cordova's average 12-3-2 record belied his effort against the powerful Martinez, winning three of the five rounds before Martinez stopped Cordova in the sixth.

My scorecard was 48-47 Cordova at the time of the stoppage.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica 9-6 on Saturday with the three-point difference coming from the win, result, and bonus round point for the win by Erickson Lubin.

Boxing Challenge: One Punch Knockout Night for Davis,Inoue

  The boxing Saturday was filled with world title defenses, title contenders returning to the ring, and two of the most devastating one-punch knockouts that you'll see.

Let's start with the final card of the evening with PBC putting together a pay-per-view from San Antonio, Texas, and a fight that has been reported to be quite an action-packed affair.

Editors Note: As of this writing, I have not seen any of the PPV cards yet, so I'm just reporting the results. When I have a chance to see and score them, I'll come back and edit my scorecard with thoughts for posterity.

In the main event, Gervonta Davis took away Leo Santa Cruz's WBA junior lightweight title and kept his own minor title by a crunching sixth-round knockout that left Santa Cruz out cold for a period of time and will be a contender for knockout of the year.

The fight was noted to be fought on mostly even terms before the left uppercut (that I have seen!) that will threaten Alexander Povetkin's knockout of Dillian Whyte for the KO of the year.

Davis claims that he will keep both championships (Which I don't have an issue with if he can continue to make the weight), but in the past, the WBA has claimed that they will not allow a champion to hold two of their titles, but organizations in boxing tend to make these decisions on the fly and according to the fighter or promoters so who knows how the WBA will rule on this.

In the undercard matches.

Mario Barrios kept his minor title over Ryan Karl by 6th round knockout

Regis Prograis stopped Juan Heraldez in three rounds

Isaac Cruz knocked out Diego Magdaleno in the first round...

From London's television studio, Oleksander Usyk received what he was looking for from Derek Chisora- A good twelve-round test as a heavyweight and moved to the future with a unanimous decision victory.

Chisora started well in the first few rounds and had his moments late, but Usyk rallied after the early stages and banked rounds to build a solid lead on the scorecards.

No knockdowns, although Usyk did wobble Chisora a bit near the end of the seventh round.

I scored Usyk a 116-112 winner, so the verdict was a fair one.

Usyk is the mandatory contender in the WBO for champion Anthony Joshua, but could take step aside money for Joshua's unification fight with Tyson Fury, or should he refuse to move away, he could fight for a vacated title from Joshua.

The co-feature saw a mild upset as George Kambosos won a split decision over former IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby in an IBF lightweight eliminator to earn a mandatory title shot next year against Teofimo Lopez.

The thoughts were as wide as the scorecards as experts from England (Selby) and Australia (Kambosos) were each puzzled by a split decision and complained about the judges not favoring their man.

I thought Kambosos landed the harder punches against the smoother Selby and deserved a close call- 115-113 on my scorecard.

On ESPN Plus from the Las Vegas bubble, Top Rank featured the "Monster" Naoya Inoue in his debut for the company, and Inoue shined as hoped with a one-punch knockout of tough Australian contender Jason Moloney.

Moloney fought on almost even terms for the first three rounds, but Inoue began to land well in the fourth and fifth before a left hook sent Moloney to the mat in round six.

Inoue's right hand ended the fight in the seventh with a KO that would have received far more attention had Gervonta Davis not scored his highlight-reel knockout later in the evening.

Inoue could face WBO champion John Riel Casimero next in a unification fight that was scheduled earlier this year before the Covid-19 pandemic.

In an untelevised bout, former cruiserweight champion Murat Gassiev made his heavyweight debut with a first-round KO of Sefer Sefari.

Gassiev scored an early knockdown with Seferi rising unsteadily and the referee stopping the fight.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica 13-9 on the day and boosted my lead to 153-144.

Boxing Challenge: Davis Stops Gamboa in 12th

The three-fight Showtime card from Atlanta turned out to be fun, interesting and disappointing as the broadcast moved forward.

In the main event, Gervonta Davis picked up a minor title in his lightweight debut as he stopped veteran Yuriorkis Gamboa, but didn't look as impressive as most expected him to against an opponent in his late 30's and had been dropped in double figures over his career.

Gamboa was reported to have fought through a torn Achilles tendon that he suffered in the second round and if that is true, that is a tremendous show of courage from the Cuban.
Still, Davis knocked Gamboa down in the second, where Gamboa is thought to have injured his Achilles, eighth, and again in the final round, when referee Jack Reiss ended the fight with Gamboa on the floor.
Davis dominated Gamboa ( I had Davis winning 109-97 after eleven rounds), but all things considered including taking two attempts to make the weight limit, the evening had to be somewhat disappointing for Davis and his team on the overall.
Davis has drawn strong crowds for his three fights this season (over 36,000 at three venues) against less than sturdy competition, so he has shown a fanbase, but with a resume' so soft that his second-best career win might be this one over the faded Gamboa, Davis is talented, but remains unproven and combined with a lack of dedication to training/making weight, I still wonder about the viability of Davis against the elite of the division such as Vasyl Lomachenko, Teofimo Lopez, and Devin Haney.
Davis shouldn't have to worry about those three as they aren't affiliated with PBC and PBC is planning on taking Davis to pay per view next time against WBA junior lightweight champion and fellow protectee Leo Santa Cruz in a fight that should see the larger Davis as a prohibitive favorite in a pairing that few want to see.

The co-main was the fun fight of the evening as veteran light heavyweights Jean Pascal and Badou Jack slugged it out for twelve rounds for Pascal's minor title in what was a tale of two fights.
The early rounds were controlled by Pascal, who scored a knockdown in the fourth round, while the late rounds were dominated by Jack, who notched a knockdown of his own in the twelfth round, just missing finishing off the tiring Pascal, who gamely held onto the final bell and retained his minor belt via split decision.
I thought Jack's late rally slightly outweighed the early work of Pascal as I scored it 114-112 for Jack, but it certainly was close enough to go either way.
A rematch would be a good idea considering the ages of the fighters (Pascal 37 Jack 36), the quality of this fight and the lack of other light heavyweight contenders other than Marcus Browne (Pascal defeated Browne and Jack lost to Browne this year) who are connected with PBC makes a rematch very likely.

Journeyman Lionell Thompson made his move down in weight from light heavyweight to super middleweight a surprising success as the underdog upset former IBF champ Jose Uzcategui via unanimous decision.
Thompson scored a flash knockdown late in the first but was deducted a point for holding in the fourth to even the playing field.
Thompson managed to land enough jabs to keep Uzcategui at bay and pull off the victory, 95-93 on my scorecard.
Uzcategui continued against Thompson what he started in his title losing effort against Caleb Plant by giving away points via flash knockdowns and not throwing enough punches until late in the fight.

In the boxing challenge, I scored four points to Ramon Malpica's two on the card (the difference being the Pascal win) to boost my lead to 323-287.

Boxing Challenge: Davis dominates homecoming

The Showtime portion of the weekend looked to be the weaker of the two events and it lived up to expectations as both the main event and the top supporting bout both ended in two uncompetitive rounds from Baltimore.

Gervonta "Tank" Davis rolled his treads over an overmatched Ricardo Nunez in two rounds to retain his WBA junior lightweight championship.
Some questioned referee Harvey Dock's stoppage, but I thought it was fine, Nunez was about out on his feet and unless he slipped on Ted DiBiase's mysterious loaded black glove, Nunez wasn't going to threaten Davis on this night, or likely any night.
Davis, who did what you would hope he would against a huge underdog, then called out Tevin Farmer for a unification fight, carried out the IBF title belt that he lost on the scales, claimed he was the IBF champion and said he hoped to make a Farmer fight before the end of the year.

Here are my problems with that:
One, Davis lost that title due to his own actions and that belt should have stayed in his trophy case (When a champion loses a championship, they do keep the physical belt, which is how Davis possessed an IBF title to display)
Two: Fans still learning the sport are often confused by the excessive amount of championships as it is, no need to confuse them on who the champion is.
Three: Jim Gray, who did mention Tevin Farmer, didn't correct the Davis claim to the viewers, which would have been as simple as saying "this is the title that you lost by missing weight, which Tevin Farmer now holds".
Coming on the heels of Fox/PBC not listing Terence Crawford as a welterweight champion on the Thurman-Pacquiao fight, again this looks like PBC propaganda.
And finally-Four: As much as I would like to see Davis vs Farmer and that's a fight that I think Davis would win, PBC and Floyd Mayweather (Davis' Promoters) have shown almost no exertion in making fights with other promoters as we have seen with Top Rank, Golden Boy, and Matchroom and nothing I've seen so far makes me think they'll start now.
I really get annoyed when fighters from all promoters call guys out for fights that are unlikely to occur, but it REALLY bugs me when PBC guys use this tactic as they have been the largest impediment to signing inter-promotional big fights.

I'd like to see Davis-Farmer next, but it's more likely that we'll see Davis against another Nunez type in his next fight.
Much as PBC can ice Terence Crawford from their top welterweights, Top Rank can do the same to Davis with their top fighters at lightweight and junior lightweight.
The state of boxing today, ladies and gentlemen.

The undercard was underwhelming as aging Yuriorkis Gamboa swatted aside a badly shot Roman "Rocky" Martinez in two rounds in a lightweight match of two former champions at lower weights.
Gamboa knocked Martinez down in the second and finished him off with a right hand later in the round.
Martinez looked nowhere near his old self and needs to step away from the game before he gets hurt.
Gamboa, who scored his first KO in five years, will likely return in a fight that will be used to build a younger fighter's resume.

In the first fight, lightweight Ladarius Miller won a controversial split decision over Jezreel Corrales in a less than memorable and very awkward fight that if remembered at all, will be recalled only for the awful decision by referee Brent Bozell to deduct a point from Corrales for holding with 40 seconds remaining in the fight.
That deduction cost Corrales a draw as one of the two cards for Miller saw Miller win 95-94.
I had Corrales a 95-94 winner after the lost point, so I wouldn't scream robbery by the judges, but the Bozell decision clearly cost Corrales on his record.

Speaking of Maryland's judges and referees, Maryland is beginning to host higher-level boxing cards
far more often than in the past and yet on far too many occasions, their referees and judges are shown to be not up to the task.
If Maryland is going to stage bigger and better fights, they need to improve the quality of their officials, either by licensing top officials from other states or training better ones here.

Finally, it was nice to see veteran Barry Tompkins back with the main crew announcing for Showtime.
I'm not a hater of Mauro Ranallo, but not a fan either of his forced puns and pop culture takes along with his Gus Johnson-like tendency to inject exciting commentary when there is often no reason to
do so, but Tompkins is a much better fit for boxing telecasts than Ranallo, who seems to be far smoother for his other gigs with mixed martial arts and pro wrestling.
Showtime has the best production and the best two color commentators in the sport with Al Bernstein and Paulie Malignaggi and it would be nice to see more of Tompkins, who does blow by blow for Showtime's ShoBox series, and has been the voice of so many famous boxing highlights from his time on HBO and ESPN, on the main offerings on the network.

In the boxing challenge, I added four (Two each from Davis and Gamboa) to two for Ramon Malpica (Two from Davis) to extend my lead to 198-173.

Boxing Challenge:Farmer holds off Carroll

Errol Spence and Mikey Garcia might be getting the majority of the publicity for this boxing weekend and that is more than justified, but Matchroom Boxing and DAZN put together two fights that were filled with punches, action, and drama on the night before boxing's big evening that could possibly give the winners of those bouts a chance to step forward in the near future.

In the main event from Philadelphia, hometown star Tevin Farmer rallied strongly late to win a unanimous decision over Ireland's Jono Carroll and retain his IBF junior lightweight championship.
The wide scorecards did a disservice to the surprisingly stern challenge of Carroll, who wore down Farmer with a devoted body attack and fought through two facial cuts as he fought Farmer evenly through ten rounds.
Farmer dug down to win the final two rounds and the fight on my card 115-113 (7-5) after badly hurting Carroll in the final minute of the eleventh to the point of almost finishing the fight then and there.
Carroll managed to bravely stand tall against the Farmer attack and stay on his feet, but the effects would follow in the final round, which Farmer won to clinch the fight.
Farmer continues to crow and ask for a fight against WBA champion Gervonta Davis, which DAZN claimed during this event that Matchroom was offering Davis five million for such a fight.
IF (huge if) that is a five million dollar/one fight offer without options, I suppose the time for reckoning will have arrived for Davis promoter Floyd Mayweather and the PBC.
Can an organization that claims their fighters are treated so well, turn down an offer that is more than five times a fighter's highest purse for one fight elsewhere?
Especially when you consider that Davis would be a strong favorite in such a bout?
Those decisions alone are going to be fascinating to watch.
As for Tevin Farmer, he's a solid fighter that likes to stay active and he's evolved into more of an attacker than a dancer over his last few outings that's much more fun to watch, but I just don't see Farmer on the same level as Gervonta Davis.

The middleweight co-feature was scheduled to identify the next challenger for WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade in June.
Maciej Sulecki will be that challenger after a unanimous decision that saw Sulecki dominate warhorse Gabriel Rosado for eight rounds and knock Rosado down in the first and eighth rounds.
The latter knockdown had the DAZN commentators wondering if Rosado's corner, the referee or the doctor might be best suited to end Rosado's suffering.
After all, for eight rounds Rosado had shown zero capabilities of reaching Sulecki with the type of shot that would win this fight by knockout and that's what it would take to do so.
Considering all of that, of course, the best story would be Rosado coming out of nowhere to turn the fight around and he did just that with two knockdowns that would have almost certainly ended the fight had the bell not clanged after Sulecki rose from the second knockdown.
Rosado continued to abuse Sulecki in the tenth round, but Sulecki stayed on his feet to hang on for the win, which was far closer on the scorecards than it appeared to me.
I scored Sulecki a 96-90 winner, 8-2 in rounds with Sulecki losing a 10-7 ninth round and Rosado losing two points for his earlier knockdowns.
Sulecki has now been dropped late in the two biggest fights (Rosado and Daniel Jacobs) of his career and that will be something to look for as he enters his title challenge of Andrade.
As for Rosado, his late rally is going to be just enough to encourage him and his team to continue fighting and despite that rally, I'm afraid we've seen the best of a brave warrior.

Ramon Malpica and I each received four points for the evening, allowing me to retain my lead of 54-53.

Cancio stuns Machado, Davis rolls Ruiz

 (Photo: Tom Hogan-Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions)

The boxing challenge looked to have two junior lightweight champions that eventually would be forced to meet in what a generous person would call a showcase bout and what a cynical one would describe as a squash match.

Quickly after WBA champion Gervonta Davis crushed Hugo Ruiz like a 7up can in breaking his nose and finishing him in one round on Showtime, that gave me time to flip to DAZN and WBA minor champion Alberto Machado's showcase against Andrew Cancio.
It looked that Machado was on his way to a one round evening as well after dropping Cancio about 25 seconds after I changed the stream.
The difference was Cancio got up, began to fight back and three rounds later, the early leader for the upset of the year was in the books as Cancio scored three knockdowns with body shots and battered a suddenly disinterested Machado before the fight was stopped.
The new champion will likely be targeted by several in the division thinking that he is an easy mark, but despite his average record, Cancio may not appear to be a long term stock to buy, but once again, the rule comes up that being thrown in tough and accumulating a few losses isn't always a bad thing before the big time comes calling.

Rey Vargas was knocked down in the second round by Franklin Manzanilla and looked vulnerable to the Salidoesque tactics of the challenger.
Those tactics soon would backfire with two different point reductions that canceled out the knockdowns over the course of the fight and Vargas did what he does-control from the outside and delivered a solid, but unspectacular effort to win going away by unanimous decision to retain his WBC junior featherweight title.
I had Vargas winning 117-111, which was pretty close to the official score.
I have hope that the winner of the WBA-IBF unification fight at the weight between Daniel Roman and T.J Doheny on DAZN could be convinced to unify further against Vargas, who isn't proving a lot with his defenses against lesser contenders.

Joseph Diaz dominated neighborhood rival and childhood friend Charles Huerta in winning every round on my round and winning an easy unanimous decision.
Huerta did his best, but this is the difference between a world-class competitor and an average ten round fighter.

On Showtime, the main event did see Gervonta Davis do what you expect someone of his talent to do when facing an undermanned, outgunned late substitute when he smacked Hugo Ruiz around for a round before blowing him out like a baseball bat going through the bottom of a paper cup.
The problem is that Ruiz was the first fight in ten months for Davis after fighting just once last year and doesn't appear to have any peers in his division capable of giving him a hard fight other than WBC champ Miguel Berchelt, who is not with PBC.
Davis could move to lightweight after trouble making weight for Ruiz, but the picture isn't any better there with WBA/WBO lightweight champ Vasyl Lomachenko and IBF champ Richard Commey having agreements to fight on ESPN through their promoters.
WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia would be a very attractive fight and one easy to make, depending on the outcome of Garcia's fight with Errol Spence next month.
Other than Garcia, I just don't see Davis having a fight to be excited about for quite a while.

Lightweight Javier Fortuna slogged his way to a unanimous decision win over Sharif Bogere in a sloppy mix of styles that could be considered ill-advised matchmaking.
Fortuna did score a borderline knockdown in the sixth, but the rest of the bout had so much headbutting, wrestling and grappling that I expected Mr.Wrestling II to kneelift both these guys out of the ring.
My card agreed with all three judges 96-93 Fortuna.

Erickson Lubin showed his power in driving former junior middleweight champion (albeit six years ago and lost in his first defense to the long forgotten Carlos Molina) Ishe Smith into retirement with four knockdowns in three rounds before the fight was stopped in the corner after the third.
The intrigue here was could Lubin stop the never before stopped Smith before Smith tested the china chin of Lubin.
Lubin landed first and showed the huge power that he possesses in crushing Smith as never before.
Lubin reminds me a lot of former junior middleweight and middleweight champion and 2019 Hall of Fame Inductee Julian Jackson.
Few in the game had the power of Jackson (Lubin) and Jackson (Lubin) can take anyone out that they hit squarely and conversely anyone that hits them (Jackson/Lubin) has the ability to take them out with chins that describing as questionable would be a very positive assessment to say on anyone's part.
Erickson Lubin will continue to be almost mandatory watching because the ending will likely be exciting and unpredictable.

In the boxing challenge Ramon Malpica and I each scored nine points and remain tied at 29.

Boxing Challenge- Broner and Vargas draw, Frampton tops Donaire

A big boxing weekend saw several top fighters in action and a few that were once considered future superstars that disappointed returned to the ring as well..

Showtime televised a three-bout card that had the never boring on the mic, yet often less than scintillating in the ring Adrien Broner in a welterweight fight against Jessie Vargas.
Broner had won titles in three divisions and Vargas in two entering the fight,(which says a lot on there being too many organizations and they have way too many titles)  so on the surface, this looked like a bigger fight than it actually was, but the two gave a better fight than expected and saved an evening with two fights that were basically squashes.
Vargas dominated the first half of the fight with great bodywork and overwhelming Broner with the sheer number of punches but slowed in the middle of the bout and Broner took over in the second half of the fight before I thought Vargas won the last two rounds.
I had Vargas a 115-113 winner but had no issues with the majority draw from the judges.
One judge had Broner ahead 115-113 with other two judges scoring the fight even.

The other two fights were blowouts against overmatched opponents.
The second fight saw Jermall Charlo win an "interim" title in a division with an active champion by blowing away Hugo Centeno with a crushing left hook in the second round.
Charlo looked great and despite winning just two fights at the weight against fighters that had never beaten a top 15 fighter, is now a "champion: and an eventual mandatory challenger to Gennady Golovkin.
Both Charlo brothers are talented and revel in playing the "heel" role, but I still think they are hanging their hat on spectacular wins against untested prospects making their first leap against top fighters (Jermall over Julian Williams, Jermell over Erickson Lubin) and want to see what happens when they fight top five level fighters and what happens when they get hit on the chin.
PBC is weak at 160 pounds so we may have to wait until Charlo actually fights Golovkin to finally see him tested.

Gervonta Davis may have won the WBA title (or may not ) in his steamrolling Jesus Cuellar in three rounds.
Davis was clearly the bigger and stronger man and Cuellar, who hadn't fought in well over a year, simply wasn't able to hold Davis off.
The more interesting part for me was the WBA making Davis their "Super" champion over Alberto Machado, who had beaten their former "super" champion Jezreel Corrales, which to my way of thinking would make Machado their top champ.
Instead, it appears to be Davis, who may not have to fight Machado, who is promoted by Golden Boy that is looking for unification against the Tevin Farmer-Billy Dib winner for the vacant IBF title at the weight.
In the end, Machado's belt appears to be demoted for nothing more than someone felt like it.
Davis is the more talented fighter and would be my pick if Davis was to fight Machado, but that still doesn't make this decision the correct one from the most corrupt organization in boxing.
I now have a headache.

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, Carl Frampton won a unanimous decision over Nonito Donaire in a less than exciting bout that saw Frampton perhaps a bit too respectful towards the slowing Donaire.
This was Frampton's second fight since losing to Leo Santa Cruz and Frampton seems like he may have lost a step himself after two physical fights with Santa Cruz.
We will see if that is the case as Frampton is now the mandatory contender for WBO champion Oscar Valdez.
I had the same score as all three judges 117-111 for Frampton

The co-feature from Belfast saw Zolani Tete keep his WBO bantamweight title over Omar Narvaez by unanimous decision, winning all 12 rounds on every card.
I wouldn't know because this fight was so awful that I fell asleep.

Amir Khan returned to the ring and blew out Canada's Phil LoGreco in under a minute, scoring two knockdowns before the fight was stopped.
The fight was the first on the new and heralded ESPN+ app and I'm sure the 37 seconds was worth the five dollars for the month.
Kell Brook entered the ring post-fight to challenge Khan for a long overdue fight that might happen before the end of the year.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored nine points on the weekend.
We both added two points each for the wins by Jermall Charlo, Gervonta Davis and Carl Frampton.
Ramon picked up two for Zolani Tete's win and one for Amir Khan's victory,
I added two for Khan and one for Tete.
The challenge is currently at 70-57

Boxing Challenge:Mayweather stops McGregor

At the end of a big boxing weekend, I had earned 12 points with Ramon Malpica adding seven to put the boxing challenge at 116-102.

In the fight that excited many, but not me, Floyd Mayweather showed signs of age and rust from being 40 and out of the ring for two years before rallying to stop Conor McGregor in the tenth round.
I thought McGregor won the first three rounds, but none thereafter and I had Mayweather ahead 87-84 before the stoppage by referee Robert Byrd.
I'm going to give this a little more than I thought I would so here are a few thoughts.
Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor are brilliant.
Mayweather wasn't going to be hurt by the supposed big bombing McGregor, who learned that being a big puncher in what he does in the UFC doesn't translate to boxing and McGregor wasn't going to be overwhelmed by Mayweather offensively, so neither were going to be hurt.
Mayweather looks to be a spent force at 40 and he needs to take his vow seriously of retiring for good.
Had this been an Errol Spence, Canelo Alvarez, or Gennady Golovkin in the ring last night, Mayweather likely would have hung his first L.
As for McGregor against the same bunch, the fight would have likely ended in half the rounds that this one did.
McGregor looked awkward but looked better than I figured and won a few rounds, which is more than many had done against Mayweather.
Give him credit for exceeding expectations, but keep in mind, the "big hitter" was walked down and stopped by Floyd Mayweather, who hadn't stopped anyone that hadn't dropped their hands to talk to the ref (Victor Ortiz 2011) since Ricky Hatton in 2007!
Better than expected, but still nothing I had to see...
Ramon and I both added two points for the Mayweather KO win.

The undercard was underwhelming as expected.
Mayweather Promotions supposed future superstar Gervonta Davis had a rough weekend as he failed to make weight so he forfeited his IBF junior lightweight title on the scales, got hurt in the seventh round of his bout with Francisco Fonseca before fouling Fonseca with a punch to the back of the head and referee Russell Mora counting Fonseca out rather than penalizing Davis and giving Fonseca a rest period in round eight.
I had Davis ahead 68-65 when the fight ended.
Davis is going to have to do better than this in the future if he is going to be the star that Mayweather hopes he will be.
Ramon and I earned two points each for this bout.

In the most impressive bout of the evening, Badou Jack was impressive in his light heavyweight title debut by taking a secondary light heavyweight title with a fifth-round demolition of Nathan Cleverly.
Jack won every round on my card and I would think that PBC would be pointing him towards WBC champ Adonis Stevenson, but first mandatory challenger Dimitry Bivol awaits.
I would favor the hard-punching Bivol in that bout, so don't be surprised if Jack vacates his minor title for a Stevenson bout, which could be a very entertaining fight.
Ramon and I each earned one point for the win by Jack.

In the PPV opener, Andrew Tabiti won a unanimous decision over former champion Steve Cunningham in a cruiserweight fight.
I haven't seen that fight, so no scoring there.
I added two points for the win by the undefeated Tabiti, while Ramon picked Cunningham.

In a Fox televised prelim affair, Yordanis Ugas won a unanimous decision over Thomas Dulorme in an entertaining scrap.
Ugas knocked down Dulorme twice in the second with Dulorme returning the favor with a seventh-round knockdown.
Dulorme had points deducted for illegalities twice and those cost him the fight as he lost by one point on two cards.
I scored Ugas a 94-92 winner in a fight that would have been five-five on my card if using the rounds system.
I gained two points for the win by the former Olympic bronze medalist with Ramon picking Dulorme.

Over on HBO, two world titles were on the line from Carson, California.
Miguel Cotto won every round from the constantly attacking Yoshihiro Kamegai and won a unanimous decision to win the vacant WBO junior middleweight title.
Kamegai took some huge shots and kept coming, but as good as Cotto looked, he never hurt Kamegai and I told Fred Landucci as I watched that I saw some slowing from Cotto, who was getting hit more than he should from the crude Kamegai.
Cotto says he'll fight one more time before he retires and wants the Golovkin-Alvarez winner, which I'm sure he prefers Alvarez to turn out to be the winner.
Ramon and I each won one point for the Cotto decision...

I only saw the last two rounds of the HBO opener as Rey Vargas won a unanimous decision over Ronny Rios to keep his WBC junior featherweight title.
I added two points for the Vargas win with Ramon adding one.

Now that boxing is finished for the weekend, I hope to start on my New York trip soon.
Keep in mind that Fightheads will be returning in eight days and I've missed it more than I thought.
Can't wait to return to the air... 

DeGale and Jack battle to Draw-Boxing Challenge

As bad as the PBC presentation on Spike was on Friday,that's how good the same promotion (with some help from "Mayweather Promotions") was on Showtime on Saturday as two title fights and a preliminary fight on Showtime Extreme produced excellent viewing for the boxing fan....

The main event saw an attempt to unify two of the super middleweight titles that failed as WBC champion Badou Jack and IBF beltholder James DeGale battled to a majority draw in an entertaining bout.
DeGale scored a flash knockdown of Jack in round one and dominated the early and middle rounds before ceding control to Jack,who won many of the late rounds and dropped DeGale in the final round,nearly stopping the Briton.
Had DeGale not been knocked down in the twelve,he would have won a unanimous decision.
I had DeGale a 114-112 winner,which agreed with one judge,but the other two scored the bout a draw.
One would think a rematch would be in order after such an exciting fight,but Floyd Mayweather,the promoter of Jack appears to want to move Jack to light heavyweight where the natural fight considering promotional issues would be against WBC champion Adonis Stevenson.

The co-feature saw the emergence of a possible future star as Gervonta Davis took the IBF junior lightweight title away from Jose Pedraza via a seventh round knockout.
Davis,another member of Floyd Mayweather's "Money Team" fights far differently than his mentor as Davis comes forward, makes exciting fights and is fun to watch-none of which could be said on a consistent basis of Floyd Mayweather.
Pedraza could have been more effective,if less exciting had he used his size to use the jab and see if Davis could find his way through it.
Instead,Pedraza stood his ground and attempted to back Davis up to his own detriment and fell far behind on the cards before the Davis stoppage.
PBC is stronger in some divisions than others and 130 pounds is not one of their stronger divisions as many of the bullies in the division including the boss of them all in Vasyl Lomachenko fight for other promoters and make fights vs those fighters difficult to make.
Davis strikes me as a talented fighter,who will make good fights,but will wind up being very good,but not elite....
Ramon Malpica and I each earned one point for the Davis win,so after the first weekend.I lead Ramon 4-3...

Normally,I don't mention undercard fights,but Showtime extreme shows a few undercard fights early in the evening at times and there was a middleweight fight between two undefeated prospects that both have been seen on Showtime's ShoBox series for prospects.
Immanuel Aleem was the underdog vs Ievgen Khytrov,but in the fight of the night (which does go a long way),Aleem dropped Khytrov in the first and then again in the third and looked to be ready to put Khytrov away.
That's when the fun really began as a stunned Khytrov turned the tide and began to send Aleem reeling around the ring and was out on his feet before being saved by the bell.
In round six,Aleem dropped a badly hurt Khytrov with a crunching left and an argument could have been made to end the fight right then,but Khytrov gamely rose before being driven into the ropes to be pounded before the referee stopped the fight.
Huge win for Immanuel Aleem,who is worth remembering after this fight and goes to show that there is more than just the main event when it's time for good action in the ring....