The boxing weekend would see a champion with something to prove and two championships to be claimed by challengers hoping to prove their worth with excellent outings.
One of those fighters succeeded, another did well enough to win, and a third may have proven that he may be the most fortunate fighter in the sport.
In Stockton, California from ESPN/Top Rank, WBO middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhnauly rebounded from an average effort in his previous fight to destroy undeserving Canadian challenger Steven Butler in two rounds.
The buildup for this one was based around Alimkhanuly's off-night against Denzel Bentley, whether he would return to form, and his Golovkin-like status as the man that is too good to face for such little reward, while Butler, a fighter without a win against a contender in his career and having been stopped in all three of his defeats, was the "only man willing to step up".
Butler may have been willing to step up but even in what may be an historically weak time for the middleweight division, Butler wasn't deserving of a top ten rating or a championship challenge and it showed as after a slow first round, Alimkhanuly knocked Butler down three times in the second for a quick and brutal end to a mismatch.
The fight was essentially over after the first knockdown and give Butler credit for trying to survive but it could have been stopped after the second knockdown and no one would have complained.
This fight didn't prove anything other than Alimkhanuly is usually going to walk through fringe contenders, there still isn't a big fight waiting for him, and boy is the 160-pound division in awful shape.
The co-feature was expected to be the best matchup of the weekend but it didn't deliver as Jason Moloney won the vacant WBO bantamweight title with a majority decision win over Vincent Astrolabio.
Moloney was content to counterpunch and move just enough to keep the harder puncher Astrolabio off balance, which had the desired effect as Astrolabio simply wasn't aggressive enough to offset Moloney's boxing.
I had Moloney a 116-112 winner, which was the same as one card with the others scoring 115-113 for Moloney and even at 114-114.
I thought Moloney deserved the win but the ESPN crew seemed to have Moloney far ahead and I saw a different fight than they did but they could have been zoning out listening to Andre Ward talk about the obligations of fighters, how much he cares and money ZZZZZZ.
Ordinarily, the hypocrisy of Andre Ward would receive more time here but the "main event" from Showtime/PBC in Las Vegas was even worse for boxing.
Take Rolando Romero, he of the fast mouth, wild punches, and even slower hands and his previous form.
Romero "won" a minor lightweight title in one of the worst decisions seen in years over Jackson Marinez ( Marinez would be knocked out in his next two fights by both Richard Commey and Frank Martin), defeated journeyman Avery Sparrow and fringe contender Anthony Yigit to parlay that into a big fight against Gervonta Davis, where he was stopped in six generally rounds.
Romero then doesn't fight for almost a year (two weeks shy), is handed a title fight against Alberto Puello without ever fighting in the junior welterweight division, and then rather than fight Batyr Akhmedov, who was fighting on the undercard, for the title stripped from Puello for PED use, Romero receives forty-year-old Ismael Barroso for the vacated championship.
Barroso, who had never defeated a championship contender and had lost by knockout to his two best opponents (Anthony Crolla and Akhmedov), seemed to be yet again another "lucky" draw for Rolando Romero dealt to him by his promoters (Al Haymon) and the always lovable WBA.
The stage was set for Romero to win a title that he shouldn't be fighting for in the first place against an aging opponent that isn't of title caliber but Barroso appeared to be throwing a wrench into the plan by knocking Romero down in the third round, reducing Romero to wild swipes amid chases around the ring, and building a lead on the scorecards that short of a few knockdowns, Barroso was likely to hold.
Romero does try in the ninth round to throw some heavy shots as he has to know he's losing (Believe it or not, all three judges had Barroso ahead, which knowing boxing was a surprise to me), and in his aggressiveness throws a punch/shove/crosscheck that sends Barroso to the mat, which referee Tony Weeks calls a knockdown.
Barroso rises unhurt but now knows he's on the verge of losing a 10-8 round so with Romero attacking, Barroso countering, and neither landing much or hurting the other- Tony Weeks leaps in and ends the fight to a stunned Romero hometown crowd, who know what has happened here.
Romero gets a title (and the biggest race at the PBC offices will be who can lock up the first chance at Rolando Romero) and Barroso, who at forty years old and fighting the fight of his career, is screwed as even if he is able to land an immediate rematch (short of the WBA demanding it, that's not happening) , considering his age, he's unlikely to repeat how well he fought against Romero.
As for Tony Weeks, we may have seen his Joey Curtis moment.
Joey Curtis was a well-respected referee in Nevada boxing in the 70s and 80s and he was the third man for 1982's WBA heavyweight title bout between Mike Weaver and Michael Dokes.
Dokes dropped Weaver seconds into the fight, Weaver got up and as Dokes missed every punch of a combination, Curtis stopped the fight after only sixty-three seconds and never worked a major fight after that.
I'm not saying Tony Weeks will never referee again but I think we've seen the beginning of his descent from the top fights in the sport.
I haven't had the time to watch the co-feature, which was a WBA eliminator in the junior welterweight division (and the organization that now has Rolando Romero as its champion in the division) as Kenneth Sims defeated Batyr Akhmedov in what everyone reports as a very entertaining fight by majority decision.
Boxing Challenge
TRS: 80 Pts (5)
Ramon Malpica: 75 Pts (5)
Vince Samano:61 Pts (5)
