Boxing Challenge: Prograis crushes Indongo

Showtime stepped up its ShoBox series from prospect level to serious championship challengers for titles in the 140-pound division with a two-fight slate in the boxing hotbed of Deadwood, South Dakota.

In the main event for the "Interim" title of the WBC, who hasn't even filled their real title in the junior welterweight division, Regis Prograis of New Orleans smoked former WBA and IBF champion Julius Indongo in just two rounds to not only win himself a trinket,but make himself a live contender to defeat any 140 pounder around.
Prograis dropped Indongo late in the first round and finished him with three second-round knockdowns.
I thought the final knockdown was arguable, but the legs of Indongo were gone and the stoppage was inevitable, so I was fine with the fight's ending.
Indongo had the disadvantage of being a late substitute for Viktor Postol, but from what I saw Indongo would have had problems taking the punches from Prograis no matter how much he was given to prepare.
Often times in boxing, a fighter's ability to take punches can change drastically and permanently after one fight and it appears that the loss to Terence Crawford may have done just that to Julius Indongo.
Keep an eye on his next few fights, it's possible Regis Prograis is that good of a puncher, but it could be that Indongo has lost the capacity to take a good shot.
As for Prograis, he proved a great deal in mowing down a former champion with ease, although time may show that he happened to be the first guy to fight a faded fighter, and with 18 KO's in 21 wins, Prograis is going to be a tough out for the winner of the Jose Ramirez-Amir Imam bout ( My money is on Ramirez there) and a possible Ramirez-Prograis fight might be one of the better fights this year.
I'd be extremely interested in seeing that one.

In the co-feature and eliminator for the IBF version of the junior welterweight title, Ivan Baranchyk ran over former lightweight contender Petr Petrov in eight rounds to earn the mandatory position for the winner of the Sergey Lipinets-Mikey Garcia fight later tonight from San Antonio.
Baranchyk scored knockdowns in the first, second and sixth rounds and was simply too big and too strong for Petrov, who was taking the fight on a week's notice and moving up from the lightweight division as a replacement for Anthony Yegit of Sweden.
I cannot imagine Mikey Garcia defending against Baranchyk (though he'd likely beat him), so my guess is that a Garcia win will eventually result in a vacated belt that Baranchyk would likely fight for.

In the boxing challenge-both Ramon Malpica and I earned one point for Baranchyk's win and no others as we both picked the shell of Julius Indongo against Regis Prograis.
I lead the challenge 37-29.

Crawford stops Indongo in Three-Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica and I each scored four points on Saturday night's Top Rank card from Lincoln,Nebraska with correct selections on both fights.
The Challenge now stands at 102-94.

In the main event,Terence Crawford looked terrific in stopping Julius Indongo in the third round with a vicious body shot,
Crawford had knocked Indongo down in the second round,but Indongo did land his share of shots on Crawford and Indongo was trying to win rather than survive,so credit him for that.
The victory gives Crawford all four junior welterweight titles and he said he might consider making one defense of the four titles before a move to 147 pounds,although I'd be surprised if that happened.
Crawford fights against PBC champions Keith Thurman and Errol Spence would be must see television (although Crawford's activity goes against the often idle fighters in the PBC) and would help establish any winner of those bouts as pound for pound top contenders.

Oleksander Gvozdyk stopped Craig Baker in round six of their light heavyweight bout.
Gvozdyk looked impressive in finishing Baker in the final round,but looked a little listless in the first five rounds of the fight.
Gvozdyk called out Andre Ward after the fight,a fight that could happen with Ward seemingly on his way to Top Rank after doing the bout as a color commentator.
Gvozdyk is talented and has a bright future,but might not have enough seasoning for Ward at this time.

Boxing Challenge!

The Boxing Challenge continues Saturday night on ESPN as for the first time in years (going back to the Bernard Hopkins middleweight reign) that all four titles in a division will be unified as Terence Crawford (WBC and WBO) will face fellow champion Julius Indongo (WBA and IBF) in Lincoln,Nebraska.
Crawford is one of the top fighters in the game,while Indongo has come out of nowhere to win his titles in his last two bouts on the road,where he will have to win again in order to hold all four belts.
It'll interesting to see how Crawford handles being the shorter fighter with the lesser reach for a change,so this fight does have some intrigue.

In the co-feature,power hitting light heavyweight Oleksander Gvozdyk takes on Craig Baker in what looks to be a squash match.,,
I lead Ramon Malpica in the challenge 98-90.

Unification WBA & IBF vs WBC & WBO Junior Welterweight Titles.12 rds
Julius Indongo vs Terence Crawford
R.L:Crawford KO 10
TRS: Crawford KO 12

Light Heavyweights,10 rds
Oleksander Gvozdyk vs Craig Baker
R.L: Gvozdyk KO 4
TRS:Gvodyk KO 2

Indongo incinerates Burns

In an lopsided bout in Glasgow,Scotland, Julius Indongo added the WBA junior welterweight title to his IBF title in the same division in a lopsided unanimous decision over Ricky Burns.
I scored Indongo a 119-109 winner (11-1 in rounds) and even the round that I gave Burns could have gone to Indongo..

Indongo backed Burns up by using his reach and kept Burns off his back foot,unable to do anything remotely threatening to the native of Namibia.
I (and Ramon Malpica) picked Burns,but this was one of those fights that a minute into the bout,you could see that if Indongo didn't make a tactical error and was able to continue to fight in the same manner that he started,that this fight was decided...
I picked Burns because I had seen less than a minute of Indongo in the ring against anything remotely resembling even top 50 competition,but it's clear that he'll be a handful for anyone in the 140 pound division and that includes Terence Crawford.

Indongo is very tall for a 140 pounder (nearly 5'11) and has an awkward style that is aggressive,yet with some skills to go with the size.
Of course,you would have to favor the more tested Crawford,but Indongo brings enough to make that fight an interesting one.
Crawford has beaten fighters with similar size before (Viktor Postol),so the taller fighter is not something Crawford hasn't seen,but Indongo moves forward unlike Postol,who was more of a boxer and he throws more punches.
I'd like to see that fight get made after Crawford's May fight against Felix Diaz,who is far from a light touch and I think that fight is makeable.
The IBF signed off on this fight since it was a unification fight and would do the same for a Crawford fight,but if that fight cannot be made next, Indongo's next foe will be the IBF mandatory Sergei Lipinets,who is 12-0 and a PBC fighter.

Big fight weekend next week in the challenge coming up.
I'll be back later tonight with a look at the Cavaliers nailbiter over Indiana..

Boxing Challenge

The boxing challenge has a one fight weekend,but it's a significant fight that is either a on-line or YouTube bout as the WBA and IBF junior welterweight belts will be unified in Glasgow,Scotland as WBA champ Ricky Burns meets IBF titlist Julius Indongo to unify their titles.

Ricky Burns is reminds one much of WBO lightweight champ Terry Flanagan,who fought last weekend-technically sound,not a lot of pop and not quite good enough to beat the elite of the division,
Julius Indongo was literally an unknown as he had never left his home country of Namibia or fought even a top twenty contender before traveling to Russia and wiping out Eduard Troyanovsky in less than a minute.
Watching that fight,you'd think Indongo is a destroyer,but he's only knocked out eleven of his twenty one opponents.
Has Indongo suddenly found significant power or did he just catch Troyanvosky cold or unprepared?
Burns is good enough to give us a better idea on Indongo after Saturday as his history shows that he loses to really good fighters,while having enough to beat merely good ones.

Boxing fans should be rooting for Indongo to win as after the bout the four titles will be divided between the winner and Terence Crawford,who not only owns the WBC and WBO belts,he also owns a decision over Ricky Burns,in which Crawford won almost every round,making a rematch to unify all the titles unlikely to happen as I can't think of anyone. not even Burns that wants to see that fight again.
An Indongo win,especially if he can stop Burns,which has never been done,not even by Crawford would make a Crawford-Indongo fight possible and intriguing.

I lead the boxing challenge 41-36 over Ramon Malpica and both of us are picking Ricky Burns by a unanimous decision...

Gassiev outpoints Lebedev,Saunders wins-Boxing Challenge

The Boxing Challenge rolled on through Europe as all four fights from the challenge were overseas.
Ramon Malpica and I each added three points for the weekend to bring the total to 136-112.

Murat Gassiev won the IBF cruiserweight title with a split decision win over WBA/IBF champ Denis Lebedev in Moscow.
No,that's not a typo,Lebedev applied for a waiver with the WBA to not put that belt on the line,which the WBA ridiculously granted despite Gassiev being ranked by the organization and the fight being at the division weight.
I'm a fan of titles,but this was just idiotic as Lebedev keeps his title despite the loss.
The fight was a good and close one that I scored 115-112 for Gassiev.
Gassiev dropped Lebedev with a body shot in the fifth round and was the harder puncher to offset the busier Lebedev.
Ramon and I each added one point for the Gassiev win.

However,the knockout of the weekend came on the same card in Moscow.
I sometimes criticize sanctioning bodies for rating fighters from countries where their true mettle is not tested until they hit the big time,but occasionally you can hit oil.
This strike came with Julius Indongo,who had never fought outside of Namibia (which will never be confused with even a middling boxing country) knocked Eduard Troyanovsky silly in less than a minute with a right hand that won Indongo the IBF junior welterweight title.
I'm not sure if Indongo is a star in the making (I had never even heard of Indongo before signing for the fight) or a one punch wonder like Bredis Prescott was when he starched Amir Khan,but what a shot!!!



I haven't watched Billy Joe Saunders and his unanimous decision win to retain his WBO middleweight title over Artur Akakov yet,but it's been reported to be a very close fight against an opponent with less than strong credentials.
Saunders defeated Andy Lee for the title a year ago and this was his first defense and wobbled past against a hand-picked opponent.
Saunders seems to have little interest in fighting top notch foes,although he is quite active in talking about fighting them,as he has turned down huge paydays to fight Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez.
The WBO needs to look into this and have Saunders fight someone soon.
Ramon and each added two points for the win.

Editor's Note: I have now watched the fight and scored Saunders a 115-112 winner.

In Moscow,I haven't seen this fight as of now either,but Denis Shafikov shaded Richard Commey via split decision to earn Shafikov a title fight at lightweight against IBF champion Robert Easter,who had won the vacant belt in his last fight via split decision over Commey.
Ramon and I each picked Commey for no points...