Boxing Challenge: Andrade decisions Williams

    The boxing weekend didn't see any huge upsets, but it did see some interesting fights with possible reverberations down the road.  

Saturday afternoon from Matchroom/DAZN saw Hollywood, Florida as the site for Demetrius Andrade's successful defense of his WBO middleweight title.

Andrade won a clear unanimous decision and knocked Williams down in the second round with a straight left, but Williams did have his moments and the fight was more exciting than the usual lopsided Andrade fight.

I scored Andrade a 117-109 winner (9-3 with the knockdown).

Andrade was hit occasionally by Williams and showed enough vulnerability that you would think any of the other three champions (WBC Jermall Charlo, WBA Ryota Murata, and IBF Gennady Golovkin) would be interested in a unification fight more than perhaps in the past.

I doubt it, but perhaps.

Andrade now has his mandatory out of the way for the year, but I (and Andrade with promoter Eddie Hearn) have next to no idea on Andrade's next defense unless the unlikely event that the three mentioned champions decides Andrade is suddenly worth the risk.

In the co-feature, undefeated super middleweight Carlos Gongora dominated Christopher Pearson and won every round through seven and finished Pearson off in the eighth.

Pearson appeared as if he could have risen, but took the ten count as he had clearly had enough of Gongora for the evening.

I'd like to see Gongora against a better challenger and he would make a very interesting fight for quite a few of the contenders in the division.

In the main event on Fox, former WBC junior middleweight champion Tony Harrison was rocked early by Bryant Perrella and outworked over most of the twelve-round fight by Perrella, who moved up in weight for this fight.

Harrison seemed a bit listless in his first fight since losing to Jermell Charlo and didn't move his hands enough, which likely cost him the fight as when Harrison picked up the pace he was effective against Perrella.

Harrison was fortunate to escape with a draw in a difficult bout to score.

I thought Perrella shaded it 115-113, but the Perrella judge scored 117-111 ( too wide), the Harrison judge scored 116-112 ( too wide), and the final judge scored 114-114, which seemed fair.

And then there was Twiller.

Peter Kahn (Twiller's chief boxing officer) has been all over the boxing podcast circuit with several respected members of the boxing media over the last two weeks talking about what Twiller is going to bring to boxing.

While I'm all for more attention and more exposure to the sport, I'm not sure that attention and exposure of a positive nature are coming anytime soon for what was essentially a freak show last night from Atlanta.

I'll be writing more later in the week about a pay per view card that seemed to be straight from a carnival that included YouTube star Jake Paul vs MMA fighter Ben Askren, former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir boxing against former IBF cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham, lots of musicians and comedians, Ric Flair officiating a "Slap Fight" with Saturday Night Live's Pete Davidson, about ten people commentating on the matches that ranged from a bemused Al Bernstein to a clearly inebriated (TONS of Marijuana references and use on this show) Oscar De La Hoya and Snoop Dog, and all of this looked like it was filmed in an abandoned warehouse with lousy lighting.

With all of that said, they may do strong numbers and I am anxious to see how well they do in PPV buys.

If they are successful, full credit to them because they are finding an audience that boxing clearly isn't getting without them.

However, is it sustainable and how many times can you play the card of gimmick shows before people tune out?

I don't have the answer to that question.

In the only real boxing match that mattered, former WBA junior welterweight Regis Prograis won the first five rounds in controlling veteran Ivan Redkach before round six when Redkach was hit with what was ruled a low blow, sold the injury like he was Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, and was unable to continue.

The reaction on Twitter was mixed with most people stating that Redkach wasn't even hit with a punch at all or if so it was a glancing shot.

Others thought that Redkach had been smashed in the kidneys and the result was believable.

In any case, Redkach was carried out on a stretcher, while I waited for a wrestler to come out of nowhere and overturn the stretcher as happened so often in pro wrestling of days past, and the fight moved to the scorecards with Prograis winning the justified unanimous decision.

What a trainwreck.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored five points on the day, which moves the total to 50-46 on the year.

Boxing Challenge: Not much of a Show (time)

Photo Credit: Showtime Sports

The Saturday night card from Showtime and PBC from the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn wasn't one that was going to excite many fans going into the evening and it didn't even live up to those standards in three bouts that were about as stimulating as a meal at Bob Evans.

In the main event, Danny Garcia cruised to a unanimous decision over Ivan Redkach in a twelve rounder that was an overpriced sparring session.
Garcia won the first ten rounds on my card before wrapping the final two rounds for Redkach in the boxing version of the garbage (known here as the Phillip Rivers) touchdown for a 118-110 win.
Garcia was never even bothered by the much smaller Redkach, which I suppose was the entire idea of Redkach's selection as an opponent, but other than cutting Redkach over his left eye in round seven Garcia didn't seem interested in pushing the pace and attempting to take Redkach out and putting watchers out of their misery.
The most exciting part of the match was at the end of the eighth round when Redkach bit Garcia on the side of the neck which was far more effective than anything else Redkach landed.
Garcia will likely battle either Errol Spence or Manny Pacquiao sometime over the summer in yet another case of boxing giving you something you didn't ask for and expect you to do an endzone dance over it.
Garcia is a solid fighter and certainly world-class, but at welterweight, he lacks that little extra that the elite fighters have and it showed in his close losses to current WBC champ Shawn Porter and former WBA/WBC champion Keith Thurman, who both are also more on the level of Garcia than that of Spence, Pacquiao or Terence Crawford.
Keep in mind, Garcia has been at this weight since August 2015 and Garcia still does not own a win over a top ten welterweight with his best wins over smaller and not quite top 10 welterweights Robert Guerrero and Brandon Rios.
Garcia will put up a good fight in his next fight, but I don't see him having much of a chance against Spence or Pacquiao.

Before the Garcia-Redkach main event, former WBA and IBF junior middleweight champion Jarrett Hurd returned to the ring for the first time since his upset loss to Julian Williams and much like Garcia, disappointed to a degree in winning a unanimous decision over Francisco Santana.
Santana had never fought about welterweight and had lost three of his last four entering the fight, so this seemed to be a match made to make Hurd look strong in his return,
Hurd won easily (99-90) on my card, but as in the case of Danny Garcia, he didn't seem interested in winning by a knockout until dropping Santana with seconds remaining in the final round.
Santana rose and the fight ended, but the fight seemed more like gym work than a fight on a premium network.
Other than getting a ten-round win and removing the loss to Williams as the last thing on his resume',
I'm not sure what this win really did for Hurd.
I still have him placed solidly in the mix in the junior middleweight division and he wouldn't be more than a mild underdog against anyone in the division, but Hurd will have to raise his level in his next bout against a top fighter in the division.

In the opener, Stephen Fulton won a unanimous decision over Arnold Khegai over twelve rounds in an eliminator to earn the mandatory slot for WBO junior featherweight champion Emmanuel Navarrete.
Fulton's jab and speed managed to build a big lead on the cards and held off the late charge of Khegai, who was aggressive throughout the contest, but simply gave away too many rounds on my card (116-112 Fulton) to make it close
Fulton's a smooth boxer that might not have enough power to sting Navarrete, but his speed makes him a dark horse to pull an upset.

A side note on the Fulton-Khegai fight.
The PBC had made it clear that they didn't recognize the WBO as a major sanctioning body and used it as a reason to not mention Terence Crawford as a welterweight champion.
Much of their problems are likely because many PBC fighters aren't in the WBO top ten contenders to the point of silliness, so while I don't agree with their stance I can see their aggravation, but this was an official eliminator and brings a few questions.
Is this the beginning of a thaw between the WBO and PBC?
Which of the two might have stepped forward, if so?
Which one needs it more?
Likely the WBO as sanctioning fees doesn't grow on trees.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored four points on the evening as Ramon maintained his lead in the overall standings at 10-9.

Boxing Challenge: Smith Dazzles in NYC

With all of the massive repercussions from Andy Ruiz's victory over Anthony Joshua to take away three of the four heavyweight titles, I am only now getting around to the other three fights in the weekend boxing challenge.

In the co-feature at Madison Square Garden, the best super middleweight in the world also made an American debut, although the United States bow for Callum Smith was far more spectacular than that of Anthony Joshua as Smith blew away Hassan N'Dam in only three rounds to retain his WBA 168 pound title.
Smith scored a knockdown in each of the three rounds and N'Dam, who hit the floor six times in a loss to Peter Quillin and another four in his loss to David Lemieux, was overmatched from the opening bell.
You had the feeling that this was the type of fight that fighters can be seriously hurt in with a bigger and stronger fighter like Smith against a too gutsy for his own good N'Dam, who would continue to beat the count with each knockdown and take a prolonged beating, so the referee's stoppage was a very good one.
Smith, who appears to have only one possible fight inside the division that would be really interesting (I think David Benavidez against Smith would be very interesting, should his out of the ring problems be in the past) has been rumored as a potential opponent for Canelo Alvarez, should the Canelo third fight against Gennady Golovkin fall through later this year.
Smith's younger brother (Liam) lost to Canelo a few fights back, but Callum is bigger and stronger than Canelo and should that be held in England, which has been floated as a possibility, I'd think Smith has a pretty fair chance of winning that fight.

PBC's card from San Jacinto, California saw a surprise in the main event as Ivan Redkach, who had struggled at 135 and 140 pounds of late after receiving early notice as a prospect, stunned former two-division champion Devon Alexander by scoring three sixth-round knockdowns and finishing a badly buzzed Alexander then and there.
Alexander led slightly on my card (48-47) in five predictably sludgey rounds in typical Alexander style filled with bumps, nudges, and grabs before an uppercut that drove Alexander out of his crouch (I've been screaming for years for Alexander opponents to do that!) and a chopping left that reminded me of a Tim Witherspoon style right and sent Alexander face first to the mat.
Give Alexander credit, he got up from what looked to be a candidate for knockout of the year, but the fight was essentially over then and there with the following two knockdowns as simple formalities leading up to the official end.
I'm not sure what this means for Redkach, who disappointed as a lightweight prospect and seems a bit small to defeat top welterweights, other than he'll likely receive a few more fights with PBC, but for Alexander, who I thought defeated Victor Ortiz and Andre Berto only to be given a draw and a split decision loss, it might be time to pack it in.
Much was made of the replacement of longtime trainer Kevin Cunningham in favor of Roy Jones for Alexander and it wasn't Jones that crumbled under that uppercut, so he's not to blame for the loss, it simply might be Alexander's time.

The co-feature was a predictably boring middleweight bout as Willie Monroe Jr outboxed Hugo Centeno via unanimous decision.
The less said about this the better (I had Monroe winning 96-94), but about the only interesting part of this fight where the post-fight interview with Monroe with Jordan Hardy saw Monroe call out (sigh) Jermall Charlo, where an excited (for some reason) Hardy breathlessly commented: "Hopefully we'll see that one soon!".
Oh brother, so that means that should Charlo-Monroe happen before the end of the year (with PBC, that's not a guarantee) after a projected Charlo win over Brandon Adams, Over a three year span after Charlo's knockout of Julian Williams, which is really Charlo's only top-notch victory, Jermall Charlo's opponents after moving to middleweight are: Jorge Heiland, Hugo Centeno, Matt Korobov, Brandon Adams and Willie Monroe.
Not exactly a way to create excitement around your fighter.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica scored four points to my two (two points each for Callum Smith and Willie Monroe, while I added only Smith's points) to trim the lead to 137-124.