Boxing Challenge: Rosario shocks Williams!

Photo; Corey Perrine-Getty Images

The boxing weekend saw a shocking upset in Philadelphia as their hometown champion Julian Williams lost his WBA and IBF junior middleweight titles by fifth-round knockout to Jeison Rosario in Williams' first title defense since his upset win over Jarrett Hurd.

I was struck immediately by how much larger Rosario seemed than Williams at the start of the fight, but I still figured Williams would handle Rosario.
In hindsight, I should have remembered the other fight that Williams looked so much smaller than his opponent- His KO loss to Jermall Charlo.
Williams started well, but Rosario rebounded in the second round where his right hands began to puff Williams up around his left eye and what proved to be more important, cut Williams over the same eye.
This would impair the vision of Williams as he would spend the rest of the fight, occasionally swiping at the cut in an attempt to clear his vision and it would only make sense that the champion was having problems picking up the incoming right hands from Rosario.
Rosario won the third, but Williams rebounded to grab the fourth on my scorecard to even the fight entering the fifth.
The right hand was the most damaging punch throughout the fight for Rosario, but it was the left that started the road to the championship as a left sent Williams stumbling to the ropes in distress.
Rosario began to land further, but Williams hit the deck in an attempt to hold onto Rosario and was barely able to rise from the stumble.
Williams was in such despair that I wouldn't have argued if Benji Estevez stopped the fight then, but Williams was given the chance to survive.
He wouldn't as a swarming Rosario sent Williams careening off the ropes with a right uppercut that left Estevez no choice but to end the fight.

Once again, my theory that the PBC may have a lot of talented depth in the 154-pound division, but lacks a standout, proves true with Rosario's upset of Williams.
Adding Rosario to the mix improves that depth, but I doubt that Rosario is a star either.
PBC has several fighters that can make excellent fights against one another, but the winner of these fights depends on the style and whom they are matched against.
Jarrett Hurd beats Tony Harrison, Tony Harrison beats Jermell Charlo, the elder Charlo beats Julian Williams, Williams beats Hurd, who beat Erislandy Lara, add Jeison Rosario and the beat goes on.
Williams is contractually obligated to a rematch with Rosario, just as Williams was obligated to one vs Jarrett Hurd after Williams upset win (see what I mean?), but Rosario could take Williams' place in what was scheduled to be a three title unification fight with Jermell Charlo instead.
It would make sense to have Rosario-Charlo with Hurd-Williams II as the co-feature and natural next fight for the unified winner and I bet that would be a fun card for viewers.
PBC should make Rosario-Charlo quickly and not hesitate as knowing the three sanctioning bodies, they will start shoving mandatories at both fighters soon, which could cause delays for close to a year.


The co-feature was nothing to mention as promising junior lightweight Chris Colbert won a minor title with a unanimous decision over former WBA champion Jezreel Corrales.
Colbert knocked Corrales down in the tenth round, but Corrales wasn't seriously stunned.
I scored Colbert a 117-110 winner, but the most impressive thing about this fight was the deep purple shade that Colbert dyed his hair.
I think Colbert is a very good prospect, but I wouldn't rank him as the top prospect in the game as commentator Dan Goossen stated.
I'll go with Golden Boy welterweight Vergil Ortiz for that honor.

Over on ESPN with Top Rank, their fights weren't very stimulating, but they did deliver one exciting ending as former WBO light heavyweight champion Eleider Alvarez knocked out Michael Seals with one comet-like right hand in the seventh round.
Up to that crunching right, Alvarez had won every round on my card (60-54) but wasn't thrilling in doing so as he clearly paid plenty of respect for the big punching Seals, who tried to fire his own booming right but seemed a hair off in launching it.
Both fighters attempted to fire rights at the same time in round seven and as happened throughout the bout, it was Alvarez that threw the faster and straighter punch and Seals was falling forward after the punch landed, but as Seals fell, his head smacked into the shoulder of Alvarez as he followed through.
The collision changed the trajectory of Seals and instead of falling forward, he was driven backward and smacked his head against the bottom rope in an ugly scene.
Referee Danny ( Don't call me Tony) Schiavone quickly stopped the fight and fortunately, Seals was fine upon getting to his corner.
Alvarez will next face Joe Smith on an ESPN card this spring in what should be an entertaining fight as both guys can punch well (Smith has the edge) and both men take a punch well (Alvarez might have a small advantage there) so the styles should mesh well.
The winner of that fight might be in line for either WBC and IBF champion Artur Beterbiev or WBA titleholder Dmitri Bivol.
Beterbiev-Alvarez would be very intriguing to me as Beterbiev stops everyone, Alvarez has the best chin in the division and with both fighters establishing a home in Montreal, I would think pairing them for a title defense in the Bell Centre would draw an excellent crowd.

In the co-feature, the once-touted Felix Verdejo continued to slog along the comeback trail with a unanimous decision over Manuel Rey Rojas in a lightweight ten rounder.
Verdejo dominated the fight (98-92 on my card), but never stepped the pace up in an attempt to take the journeyman Rojas out.
Verdejo is now being trained by Ismael Salas and there is always a process of development, so I wouldn't give up hope of a career rebound yet, but it could very well be that the promise that Verdejo once showed could have been left on the side of the road where he had his motorcycle accident in 2016.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me five to four to take the early season lead at six to five.
The point difference was the Eleider Alvarez knockout, which Ramon predicted with my prediction having Alvarez a decision victor.

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:Machado upsets Corrales

The boxing challenge for the weekend starts in Verona, New York with two bouts from HBO that had varying intensities.

In the main event, Alberto Machado won the WBA junior lightweight title from Jezreel Corrales (TRS #3) when Machado landed a left hand while eating one from Corrales, dropping
Corrales and surviving himself.
The eighth round knockout allowed Machado to win a title that Corrales could not retain after missing weight by multiple pounds at the weigh-in.
WBA rules stated that after an agreement to keep the fight going that if Machado won, he would become champion and the title would become vacant with a Corrales win.
Machado had won just one round on my card (the sixth, where he should have been given a 10-8 round for a knockdown that was not called) before the abrupt victory.
The lean Machado will be an interesting addition to the 130 pound title picture with WBC champ Miguel Berchelt as a possible opponent should he defeat the gritty veteran Orlando Salido in December or the IBF champion (decided on the same card in December as Tevin Farmer faces Kenichi Ogawa for the title that Gervonta Davis sacrificed on the scale in August) for the slot of best in the division other than WBO champion Vasyl Lomachenko.

The co-feature saw the return of Demetrius Andrade (TRS #3 at junior middle) moving up to middleweight against undefeated and untested Alantez Fox.
In a bout that rivaled any Guillermo Rigondeaux or Erislandy Lara fight for boredom, Andrade won every round on my card, but the seventh and took a unanimous decision.
Fox scored a knockdown in the seventh that really was a tangled foot issue.
I scored Andrade a 118-109 winner and I hope we see him against better challengers next time out.

HBO showed a good bantamweight bout on tape delay from Belfast, Northern Ireland as Ryan Burnett unified his IBF title with the WBA belt with a unanimous decision over Zhanat Zhakiyanov (TRS #3).
I scored Burnett a 117-111 winner after the fight was even after six rounds, but saw Burnett dominate the second half of the fight.
I'm sure we will see Burnett debut in the next edition of the TRS ratings.

In the final quarter-final of the World Boxing Super Series, Murat Gassiev (TRS #2) retained his IBF cruiserweight title in Newark, New Jersey with a body shot in round three that dropped Krzysztof Wlodarczyk for the count.
Gassiev pushed Wlodarczyk around the ring and from the opening bell, the verdict was clear that Gassiev could pick his round of victory,
Gassiev moves to the semi-finals against Yunier Dorticos in what should be a thrilling battle early in 2018 and might be establishing the early leader for 2018 fight of the year.
Next Saturday will have the final quarter-final in the super middleweights between Jurgen Brahmer and Rob Brant and following that, I'll have a look and some thoughts about the initial round of the WBSS.

From Tokyo for a minor title, Ryota Murata avenged one of the worst decisions in 2017 when Hassan N'Dam could not answer the bell for round eight in their middleweight fight.
I had Murata ahead on the cards and dominated the fight seen live on ESPN2 at 7;30 AM.
My issue is why the WBA made this for their "regular" title, when the organization that claims they want to reduce their titles, could have swallowed this one when Gennady Golovkin defeated Daniel Jacobs in March?
There is a manner to force a fight between the champion and a top challenger- it's called being the number one contender and that doesn't mean they are a champion too.

In an untelevised bout in the challenge, Daigo Higa (TRS #3) retained his WBC flyweight title with a seventh round knockout of Thomas Massson on the Murata-N'Dam undercard.
Higa has won by KO in all 14 of his pro bouts.

In the Boxing Challenge-

I earned three points for the Murat Gassiev win (a bonus point for getting the round correct), two points for the Daigo Higa KO win, one point for the wins by Ryan Burnett , Demetrius Andrade, and Ryota Murata and I missed on Alberto Machado's victory.

Ramon added two points for Gassiev's win and one each for the Andrade and Higa wins while missing on Machado,Murat and Burnett's wins.

The Challenge now stands at 154-137.
Don't forget to listen to Fightheads Monday at 8 EST for talk about these and other boxing issues!!

Boxing Challenge Weekend

Photo Credit:Rich Schultz Getty Images

The Boxing Challenge returned with three fights on HBO,two from PBC and two more from the United Kingdom.

Let's begin with the PBC show on Fox,which rated as a disappointment on several levels.
In the main event,former lightweight champion Omar Figueroa returned after a year and a half hiatus and blasted out former multi-division champion Robert Guerrero in three rounds with Guerrero hitting the floor three times in the second round and twice in the third before the bout was stopped.
For the winner,Figueroa couldn't ask for a better opponent than the faded Guerrero,but I wonder about Figueroa's size at 147.
It seems as Figueroa and his camp wonder as well,as Figueroa announced after the win that he planned to drop to junior welterweight for future bouts.
That seems smart to me as Figueroa looks to be a pretty strong challenge for anyone in that division that isn't named Terence Crawford.
As for Guerrero,who dropped to 1-4 in his last five bouts and could have been 0-5 if not for kind judging-he needs to give it up.
Guerrero clearly is not at the world class level anymore and continuing to try to do so will only result in lopsided losses and potential injury.
I earned one point for the Figueroa win with Ramon Malpica not earning any by picking Guerrero...

The other challenge bout on the PBC side saw former Olympian Marcus Browne blow out Seanie Monaghan in two rounds.
Browne dropped Monaghan in round one and pummeled him in the second before the bout was stopped.
Browne called out WBC champion Adonis Stevenson after the fight,although if there was justice,he would offer a rematch from two fights ago with Radivoje Kaladzic,who I thought clearly defeated Browne,but Browne was given the split decision.
Monaghan,who had been mentioned several times as an opponent for a champion or contender was exposed as a clubfighter that had never beaten anyone remotely resembling a top twenty fighter.
I added one point for Browne's win with Ramon picking Monaghan...

We move to HBO and a three fight card that looked great on paper,but didn't really produce in the ring.
Miguel Berchelt retained his WBC junior lightweight belt with a unanimous decision win over mandatory challenger and former champion Takashi Miura.
Berchelt couldn't miss Miura with the jab and on my card,I had Berchelt an 119-109 winner (11-1 in rounds).
Berchelt solidified his claim as the second best fighter at 130 pounds behind Vasyl Lomachenko and said he has no problem fighting Lomachenko,although he would be a huge underdog in that potential bout.
Ramon and I each picked up one point for the Berchelt win..

Berchelt might be better suited to unify with WBA champion Jezreel Corrales,who squeaked by rugged journeyman Robinson Castellanos by majority decision after ten rounds after a Corrales head butt busted open Castellanos and forced a stoppage.
I had the fight even at 94-94 after being mandated to score the tenth round after just 30 seconds of action in one of the dumber rules in boxing.
I scored the 10th round even,but Corrales was ahead in rounds (6-3-1),but Castellanos dropped Corrales twice in the fourth round to pick up points before losing one of those back when Corrales knocked Castellanos off balance and to the floor in the seventh.
Berchelt vs Corrales would be an interesting fight,unification is always a good idea and the winner would clearly stake his right as the second best 130 pounder and might earn himself a Lomachenko bout...
One point to both Ramon and I for the Corrales win.

The miracle run of Joe Smith hit a lull as Smith lost a unanimous decision to the talented Sullivan Barrera.
I only saw the final two rounds as of this writing with Ramon and I each getting no points for selecting Smith.

In the U.K.Chris Eubank Jr punched his ticket to the World Boxing Super Series with a unanimous decision over Arthur Abraham and Lee Selby retained his IBF featherweight title with a unanimous win over Jonathan Barros.
I've yet to watch either fight,so no scoring yet.
Ramon and I each picked two points for each of these wins.

On the day,I added eight points in the boxing challenge to Ramon's six and extended my lead in the boxing challenge to 87-80....