Boxing Challenge: Late Edition

   Due to my time constraints (which I'll write about in the future), the boxing challenge will be more concise than normal.

Janibek Alimkhauly retained his IBF and WBO middleweight titles with a fifth round KO of Anauel Ngamissengue.

Alimkanuly landed a massive left hand that sent his challenger flying across the ring on his back. Ngamissengue barely beat the count, but his corner justifiably surrendered for their man.

Filip Hrgovic slugged out a unanimous decision in his Manchester, England heavyweight battle with Joe Joyce.

Both fighters landed and took heavy missiles that saw both fighters cut and bleeding throughout the match.

Hrgrovic won by scores of 98-92, 97-93, and 96-95; my score was for Hrgrovic at 97-93.

Tim Tszyu stopped Joey Spencer in the fourth round of Tszyu's comeback match in Australia.

Spencer tried hard but was overmatched by Tszyu, with Tszyu dishing out punishment along the ropes. Spencer's corner ended the bout.

In Las Vegas, Olympic silver medalist Richard Torrez passed his first test with a unanimous decision over Guido Vianello in their heavyweight ten-rounder.

Torrez started fast and was aided by what I thought was a premature decision by the referee to deduct a point from Vianello in the second round for multiple holding violations.

As the fight moved into the second half, Vianello began to land his share against a tiring Torrez, but Torrez had built a lead too large to overcome.

Official cards for Torrez: 97-92 and 98-91 times two. My score was 97-92 for Torrez.

Lindolfo Delgado won a narrow majority decision in a crossroads junior welterweight battle.

Delgado built a lead, but Rodriguez began to hurt Delgado in the second half, and entering the final round, it was anyone's fight.

Rodriguez inexplicably gave away the final round, which was enough to give Delgado the win with two scores of 96-94 and another of 95-95,  the same as mine.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 50 Pts (6)
Ramon Malpica; 43 Pts (6)
Vince Samano: 20 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: Alimhhanuly toys with Mikhailovich

   The build-up for the fight for the IBF middleweight title was fierce complete with threats to kill the opponent across the ring.

It didn't play out that way, instead, we saw one of the more vicious beatings in recent years as Janibek Alimkahnuly brutalized Andrei Mikhailovich for nine rounds in Sydney, Australia to retain his IBF title.

Mikhailovich landed a sharp right hand near the end of round one and it appeared that he was going to perhaps test the champion, who defended his IBF title and not his WBO version, on the evening.

It was round two that will be memorable as Alimkhanuly pounded Mikhailovich. On several occasions, the fight could have been stopped if the champion turned up the pace but instead, he would gesture and back off the gas, only to return to the attack to rip the challenger further.

As it was, the second round knockdown was the only one until the ninth, when Alimkhanuly closed the evening as the rounds in between were Alimkhnauly landing at will, Mikhailovich fighting bravely and landing the occasional right hand and little else.

Alimkhanuly called for fellow champions, Carlos Adames (WBC) and Erislandy Lara (WBA). However, both fight for PBC and neither would bring the attention or purse that would make PBC likely to work with Top Rank for a unification fight.

The best fight in the division would pair Alimkhanuly against unbeaten power puncher Hamrah Sheeraz, which could happen as Top Rank (Alimkhanuly) and Sheeraz (Queensbury) work together often.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 136 Pts  (1)

TRS: 128 Pts  (2)

Vince Samano: 75 Pts (0) 

Boxing Challenge: Tszyu storms past Mendoza

 Tim Tsyzu retained his WBO junior middleweight title for the first time with a unanimous decision over a gutsy Brian Mendoza in Queensland. Australia.

The fight was close through six rounds with both fighters landing their share of strong punches but Tsyzu took over in the seventh round and wouldn't lose another one on my card.

Tsyzu wasn't able to knock the iron-chinned Mendoza down but he badly hurt Mendoza twice in the later rounds with only the courage of the challenger keeping him from falling to the mat.

Tsyzu won by scores of 116-111, 117-111, and 116-112 with my scorecard of 117-111 for Tszyu.

Tszyu called for WBA/WBC/IBF champion Jermell Charlo after the fight, who pulled out of a scheduled fight with Tszyu due to a hand injury and chose a larger payday against Canelo Alvarez rather than defend against Tsyzu, causing the WBO to strip Charlo and award their title to Tszyu.

Assuming that Charlo-Tsyzu isn't next, the field is wide open for the Australian's next fight, although Tszyu did say that his next fight would be in the United States.

Mendoza was the number two contender in the WBO before the fight and should Tszyu choose to fight the first or then-third contender in his next fight, Great Britain's Josh Kelly is rated first with Puerto Rico's talented prospect Xander Zayas at the third spot.

Zayas could be a future star and he looks to be very talented but his rating at third is laughable considering that he has fought just one scheduled ten-rounder thus far in his career.

Zayas is in no way ready for a Tszyu fight right now and Top Rank isn't going to risk a future headliner this soon against a fighter that would likely defeat him easily.

Kelly is a former Olympian and has notched some solid wins in his last few fights but was knocked out in his only loss by welterweight David Avanesyan in 2021, and I'm not sure if Tszyu wants to fight in the UK or if Kelly wants a shot at Tszyu quite yet.

Meanwhile, in Rosenberg, Texas, a suburb of Houston, arguably the least glamorous title unification ever was held with Janibek Alimkhanuly retaining his WBO middleweight title and taking away the IBF title from Vincent Gualtieri with a sixth-round knockout.

The less said about this the better as Alimkhanuly was stronger, faster, and better against the overwhelmed Gualtieri, who couldn't have any success against Alimkhanuly at all.

Alimkhanuly won the first five rounds with ease and when he hurt Gualtieri in the sixth, driving him into the ropes and firing punches that stung the German, referee David Fields ended the fight.

Could Gualtieri have continued? Perhaps but there was no point other than giving Gualtieri more punishment.

Alimkhanuly asked for fights against the remaining two champions, the WBA's Erislandy Lara and the WBC's Jermall Charlo but fights are unlikely against the chronically inactive pair as they fight for PBC and a fight against Alimkhanuly would be high-risk low reward with little financial gain, especially for Lara.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 159 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 145 Pts (3)
Vince Samano: 108 Pts (0) 

Boxing Challenge: Alimkhanuly Dominates- Hamburglar Alert in Vegas.

  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)

Boxing Challenge: Janibek, Edwards retain titles

 Only two bouts in the boxing challenge this weekend and next weekend will be even lighter as rival promoters kept cards on the November 19th date to not challenge the expected Errol Spence-Terence Crawford superfight that was unable to reach an agreement between the two camps.

Saturday night from Las Vegas, Top Rank, and ESPN+ offered the first championship defense of the so-called "Boogieman" Janibek Alimkhanuly's WBO middleweight title that he was promoted to after Demetrius Andrade vacated the championship to move to 168 pounds rather than face Alimkhanuly.

Alimkhanuly retained his title by unanimous decision over unheralded Briton Denzel Bentley but he looked far from a champion that anyone is avoiding in defeating Bentley, who had been knocked out in three rounds by the best fighter that he had faced in Felix Cash.

Alimkhanuly won handily (116-112 x 2 and 118-110, which seemed a bit harsh to Bentley) with my score of 116-112 giving Bentley a few of the middle rounds when he took advantage of Alimkhanuly's taking a few rounds off.

Bentley put up a good performance in a fight that he was brought in to make Alimkhanuly look spectacular but never was a serious threat to Alimkhanuly, who finished strongly and hurt Bentley in the final round.

Perhaps Alimkhanuly overlooked Bentley and took him lightly but after wins over former minor champions Hassem N'Dam and Rob Brant and a blowout win over another Brit in Danny Dignum. it was understandable to expect a better performance.

Alimkhanuly doesn't appear likely to have a unification fight in his future against WBA and IBF champion Gennady Golvokin (both are countrymen) or WBC titleholder Jermall Charlo (PBC) but Jaime Munguia (Golden Boy) can have the fight whenever he wishes.

However, Munguia's promoter has been reticent in Munguia accepting the opportunity against Andrade and I haven't seen signs that they are in any hurry for their man to fight anyone that will hold their hands up and fight back., which would eliminate Alimkhanuly as well.

One thing is certain, Alimhanuly's performance didn't scare anyone away- if there was anyone interested in fighting him to start with.

On Friday from Sheffield, England, Sunny Edwards held off the late-round comeback of former WBA and IBF light flyweight champion Felix Alvarado to win a close unanimous decision to retain his IBF flyweight title.

Edwards used his smooth boxing skills to frustrate the constantly in-motion Alvarado in winning most of the early and middle rounds to build a huge lead on the scorecards before he tired after the eighth round as the bodywork and aggression began to pay dividends for Alvarado as he swept through those rounds to hammer the tiring champion.

However, Alvarado's comeback wasn't enough to overcome the number of rounds that Edwards had earned earlier in the bout with Edwards winning by scores of 116-112 and 115-113 x 2 (same as my card).

Edwards had been calling for WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez in recent months but has changed his tune since Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez gave up his WBC junior bantamweight title to return to the flyweight division, where Rodriguez is preparing to face Cristian Gonzalez for the WBO 112 pound championship that was vacated by Junto Nakatani last month.

However, both Martinez and Rodriguez are promoted by Eddie Hearn and Matchroom, and Edwards along with his brother Charlie, a former flyweight king, have feuded with Hearn in the past.

Edwards is promoted by Probellum, which means that Edwards couldn't enter the United States for a fight due to the sanctions against Probellum's former benefactor Daniel Kinahan, and could make a difficult fight to sign even harder.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 188 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 162 Pts (4)

Vince Samano: 152 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: Boom Boom! Out Go MY Lights?

   A fun day of boxing was in the middle of the Showtime main event and as David Benavidez pounded David Lemieux along the ropes in the second round of their super-middleweight fight and seemed poised to finish the veteran former IBF middleweight champion in spectacular fashion, suddenly a flash of white and a booming sound would knock my power out at the road office for the final eight and a half hours of my shift and delay my recap!

Apologies for that but sitting in the dark was far from fun and I would have no time for a review on Sunday for reasons that you will see later in the week!

As I return to the David's (Benavidez and Lemieux), the bigger and younger Benavidez would finish off the very courageous and just as overmatched Lemieux in the third round.

Lemieux tried to fire his once-powerful right hand. Still, Benavidez was far too strong and almost ended the fight in the first round when a left hook snapped Lemieux's head back, trapping him in a corner and with another thirty seconds may have finished the bout in one.

Benavidez busted Lemieux's nose early in the second and knocked him through the ropes early in the second (this is where I lost the telecast) with again Lemieux being very fortunate to reach the end of the round.

Lemieux tried to hold Benavidez off in the third as he attempted to step his punch output up but Benavidez quickly ended the attempt and resumed his pummelling of the Canadian to force Lemieux's corner to end the fight.

A spectacular win for Benavidez, who would love to fight Canelo Alvarez, who seems occupied for the near future but his PBC options appear limited to the always-reluctant Caleb Plant or hoping for a rise in weight for WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo for the time being.

The co-feature saw Cuban prospect Yoelvis Gomez forced to fight for the ten-round distance for the first time against veteran journeymen Jorge Cota but notched shutouts (100-90, I scored Gomez a 99-91 victor) on all three cards to earn a unanimous decision in a junior middleweight pairing.

Gomez is very aggressive but somewhat wild in delivering his shots and although I'm very high on his future, he needs a few more fights before his next attempt at improved competition.

Meanwhile, over in Las Vegas, Janibek Alimkhanuly won a minor title that could be promoted to the full WBO title depending on the eventual decision of WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade after a two-round destruction of England's unbeaten but overmatched Danny Dignum on a Top Rank/ESPN card.

Alimkhanuly was far too strong for the outclassed Dignum, who was game but his punches against
Alimkhanuly was like a child throwing Nerds candy into a whirring fan before succumbing to a huge left uppercut that concluded the evening.

Alimkhanuly now awaits the decision of Demetrius Andrade, who will either vacate the WBO title to move to 168 pounds, which would give Alimkhanuly full title status, or in the event of Andrade staying at 160, he will be forced to face Alimkhanuly in what would be a very intriguing fight.

Unbeaten Jamaine Ortiz took control down the stretch over his lightweight ten rounder against former WBO junior lightweight champion Jamel Herring and won a unanimous decision that would result in Herring announcing his retirement after the decision.

Ortiz was too quick in winning the final four rounds on my card to win 97-93 (which agreed with two judges, the other scored 96-94) and surprisingly announced in his post-fight interview that he was likely to try junior welterweight in his next fight.

Herring has always been a class act and I am sorry to see him leave the stage but the time appears to be right as he has clearly lost a few steps and I'd hate to see Herring move to steppingstone status.

The day started with an evenly fought light heavyweight duo slugging each other for twelve rounds as Joshua Butasi survived a late run by Craig Richards to snare a close unanimous decision from London.

The Matchroom-DAZN event was a WBA eliminator but more importantly, was for the unofficial title of best British 175 pounder with Butasi setting the pace and Richards countering well.

The best action came in the later rounds when Richards began to rally on the scorecards but his late run came too late as Butasi won by 115-113 twice (my scorecard) and 116-112.

Buatasi is a potential opponent for WBA champion Dmitry Bivol, should Canelo Alvarez not activate his option for a rematch but I would wager that it would be Gilberto Ramirez getting the nod for a Bivol assignment under that scenario.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 88 Pts (7)

Vince Samano: 74 Pts (5)

Ramon Malpica: 74 Pts (7)  

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.