Boxing Challenge: Fundora pounds Thurman

 Due to time constraints, a just-the-facts wrap-up of the boxing challenge.

Sebastian Fundora stopped Keith Thurman in six lopsided rounds to keep his WBC junior middleweight title.

Junior middleweight Yoenis Tellez won a unanimous decision over Brian Mendoza.

Heavyweight contender Moses Itauma stopped Jermaine Franklin in the fifth round.

Light heavyweight Willy Hutchinson won a unanimous decision over Ezra Taylor.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 36 Pts (5)

Ramon Malpica: 35 Pts (7)

Vince Samano: 28 Pts (0)

The Overhand Right

   It's been a long time since an edition of the Overhand Right, so here's a chance to offer a few opinions on boxing outside of fight results.

I thought Mikaela Mayer did enough to nose out Natasha Jones in their women's welterweight title fight and while it was close on my card (96-94), I thought Mayer was the clear winner as most of the rounds were decisively won by one side or the other.

I wrote about the surprising decision loss by Artem Dalakian of his WBA flyweight title to Seigo Yuri Akui and how I thought Dalakian's style of moving away hurt him as judges prefer aggressive fighters.

Sooner or later, most fighters that use this style eventually lose a fight that they deserve to win due to this factor, and Dalakian proved the rule.

Fighters like Dalakian usually make dull fights and it's not always accompanied by outrage when they lose but that still doesn't make it right.

All too often in these style matchups, the aggressive fighter receives undeserved points from judges for "coming forward" or "trying to make the fight", which isn't part of the judging criteria.

The commentators for the fight (Crystina Poncher and ladies' flyweight champion Seniesa Estrada) seemed as puzzled as I had been when hearing of the decision. However, there were observers on the net who had the fight closer than I did.

While talking about Poncher and Estrada, I found their observations of the card from Osaka to be quite interesting.

Pomcher has always been a favorite of mine as an underrated blow-by-blow voice that I hope to see given higher-profile fights for ESPN/Top Rank cards. Still, the revelation was Estrada, who offered several intriguing points during the Kenshiro Teraji-Carlos Canizales main event battle.

Estrada's best point was about Teraji's directional movement, as the champion refused to move away from Canizales's power and instead moved right into the challenger's shots.

Estrada's statement proved true later in the fight when Teraji changed things up and began to get hit far less by the challenger.

Hoping to see and hear more in the future from Poncher and Estrada as a team at the announcer's table.

I see Teofimo Lopez continues to call out Terence Crawford for a mega-fight and while I'm not sure that it happens because Lopez isn't quite the PPV draw quite yet that the WBO junior welterweight champion thinks that he is, I am still interested in that pairing.

Lopez does tend to fight better in big fights than he does small ones as he showed in wins over Vasyl Lomachenko and Josh Taylor, his only loss to George Kambosos and a split decision win over Sandor Martin that many including myself thought he lost.

Lopez doesn't have the physical disadvantages that you would think he would either against Crawford, so it's not a mismatch in stature, and skill-wise Lopez can be competitive.

However, Crawford is in a different league, in my opinion, and I'm not sure of Lopez's promotional status with Top Rank after his title defense next month against Jamaine Ortiz.

Crawford has a lawsuit pending against Top Rank and is unlikely to deal with TR should Lopez remain bound to them.

PBC announced the top two fights on their first PPV with Amazon in March.

I'm not thrilled with the main event with WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu defending against former WBA and WBC welterweight champion Keith Thurman.

Tszyu has been an active contender and now champion, having fought three times in 2023.

The same can't be said of Thurman, who hasn't fought since a ho-hum decision win over Mario Barrios in February 2022, and his most recent fight before Barros was his loss to Manny Pacquiao in July 2019.

When you add that Thurman has never fought at 154 pounds and his 1-1 record in the last five years, it's easy to see Thurman as undeserving of this title opportunity.

The co-feature will have Rollie Romero, he of the questionable win over Ismael Barroso, defending against Isaac Cruz, who moves up from lightweight for the title chance.

While I don't have a problem with Cruz, the fight should be Romero-Barroso II, especially now that Barroso knocked out Ohara Davies in one round to grab the WBA interim title that was granted with Romero out with back issues.

WBA middleweight champion Erislandy Lara will defend his title for the first time against Michael Zerafa of Australia.

Lara, who has fought very soft competition in his four bouts since his 2019 draw with Brian Castano, was promoted to full champion last year when Gennady Golovkin vacated the title but hasn't fought at all since his May 2022 win over journeyman Gary "Spike" O'Sullivan.

Zerafa has lost against his best opponents Peter Quillin, Jeff Horn, and Kell Brook, and doesn't seem deserving of his status but neither does Lara really, so that says a lot for a sadly weak 160-pound division. 

Boxing Challenge: Rodriguez crowned, Thurman wins return

    The boxing challenge saw the return of a former unified world champion, a return from a world champion that never defends his title, a grudge match between the best two middleweights in Great Britain, and what may be the biggest news of all, a young prospect making a huge leap in competition winning a vacant world title to establish himself as a future star in boxing.

We start with that young star as Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez won a unanimous decision over former WBC junior bantamweight champion Carlos Cuadras to win the vacant WBC junior bantamweight title that was vacated by Juan Francisco Estrada as the organization decided to "promote" Estrada to their ridiculous "Franchise" champion after Estrada unified the WBC title with the WBA with his split decision win over Roman Gonzalez last year.

Forget about another potential self-created mess by the WBC with Estrada and Rodriguez down the road (similar to the current self-created WBC mess at lightweight between George Kambosos and Devin Haley), and concentrate on the talented Rodriguez, who jumped from junior flyweight over the flyweight division to take a title fight at 115 pounds against Cuadras, who was a top-six fighter in the division entering the fight, and had never fought longer than eight rounds.

Room must be made for Rodriguez now after a performance that saw him control the veteran Cuadras for the first two-thirds of the fight before Cuadras rallied late to make the bout closer on the scorecards.

Rodriguez knocked Cuadras down with a short uppercut in the third round for the fight's only knockdown although Cuadras wasn't seriously in danger of the fight being stopped.

Rodriguez spoke before the fight about vacating the title after he won it to return to the flyweight or junior flyweight division won the decision by scores of 117-110 (x 2) and 115-112 which was how I scored the fight.

Cardiff, Wales was the site for a UK-middleweight grudge match between Chris Eubank Jr and Liam Williams which lived up to the grudge portion as Eubank Jr scored four knockdowns (in the first, second, fourth, and eleventh rounds) and won a unanimous decision.

Eubank's knockdown never really dazed Williams and the knockdown in the eleventh was clearly a shove instead of a punch to drop Wiliams to the mat.

The fight was filled with dirty tactics and foul play from both fighters but the biggest and more fluid Eubank controlled the distance of the fight and the knockdowns caused him to win easily on the scorecards.

I had it closer than most with Eubank winning on my card 115-108.

The PBC pay per view's main event saw the return of former WBA and WBC welterweight champion Keith Thurman, who cruised to an easy unanimous decision over Mario Barrios in Las Vegas.

Thurman looked good in his first fight since losing for the first time against Manny Pacquiao over two years ago.

Still, Thurman didn't seriously hurt a fighter that was knocked out by Gervonta Davis in his last fight and I'm still not positive that Thurman is a threat to either Errol Spence or Terence Crawford.

I gave Barrios one round as my scorecard had Thurman an easy 119-109 victor.

In challenge fights that I have not watched as of this writing-

Leo Santa Cruz Unanimous Decision over Keegan Carbajal

Luis Nery Split Decision over Carlos Castro

Lucas Santamaria Unanimous Decision over Abel Ramos

Boxing Challenge Standings

Vince Samano 19 Pts (7)

Ramon Malpica 18 Pts (7)

TRS 17 Pts (7)  

Boxing Challenge: Pacquiao dethrones Thurman

As I was away for the weekend, I haven't watched all of the Boxing Challenge fights, so I'll spend this time writing about what I have seen and will try to watch the others with an update soon.

In the main fight of the weekend (I have not seen the remainder of the card), Manny Pacquiao controlled the fight from the get-go when he scored a knockdown in round one and took Keith Thurman's WBA welterweight title by a split decision that was never that close.
Pacquiao's first-round knockdown didn't severely hurt Thurman, but what it did was establish that the naturally smaller Pacquiao had the type of power that Thurman, who had been hurt in fights by fighters that weren't huge punchers in the past, was going to have to respect and deal with.
I can't believe someone actually thought Thurman won this fight (Glenn Feldman scored a Thurman a 114-113 winner) as it was a competitive fight throughout, but one fighter clearly controlled the action.
I scored Pacquiao a 116-111 victor (8-4 and a knockdown) and for him, he could face the winner of September's IBF-WBC unification fight between Errol Spence and Shawn Porter early next year or perhaps that rematch with Floyd Mayweather (I hope not).

Also on Saturday, DAZN was on tap with a London card with Dillian Whyte against Oscar Rivas in a heavyweight eliminator. Haven't seen the Whyte victory yet, but I did see the other bout where heavyweight Dereck Chisora brutally knocked former title challenger Artur Splilka out in the second round.
Chisora isn't quite of title stock level, but he'll give anyone a tough scrap and when matched properly he advances from tough out to winning those exciting fights.

Friday night and ESPN+ was the provider for two IBF title eliminators that saw two promising young fighters move on for a title chance and left another fighting for his life.
In the main event, Teofimo Lopez earned a title fight with IBF lightweight champion Richard Commey with a unanimous decision win over Masayoshi Nakatani.
Lopez was forced to finish the scheduled distance for the first time in his career and seemed to lack the explosiveness that his career has seen thus far.
Watching the fight, the first thing that leaped out at me was the physical advantage that Nakatani had against Lopez.
At six feet tall and longer armed, Nakatani was able to keep Lopez on the outside and negated his power a bit, but even still, Lopez won the fight on my card going away at 118-110 and it shows how highly he is thought of as a prospect when you are a bit disappointed over a fight that a prospect won 10 of 12 rounds.
Going the distance is part of the maturation process for a prospect turning into a contender, but it always adds at least a little bit of thought of the possible flaws of the fighter.
The answers will begin to arrive in a fight against Commey for his IBF title, who could very well be undefeated as well, with both of his defeats coming via split decision.

The other eliminator saw Puerto Rico's Subriel Matias defeat Maxim Dadashev when Dadashev could not answer the bell for the final round when Dadashev's trainer Buddy McGirt stopped the fight.
Dadashev was well behind on the judge's scorecards ( and mine 107-102) and Matias was landing the harder punches throughout a grinding bout that saw both land plenty of hard punches.
It seemed senseless for Dadashev to continue considering that Matias had won the previous rounds and Dadashev had little chance of a final round stoppage, so the mercy ending made sense, but then Dadashev had to be helped from the ring, almost collapsed on his way to the locker room and was rushed to the hospital, where he would eventually undergo brain surgery.
Full wishes for a recovery to Dadashev, whos career is almost certainly over, but for Matias, he looks to be a very talented young fighter that will be an underdog to the winner of the Regis Prograis-Josh Taylor unification fight (Taylor is the current IBF champion), but brings the type of talent that won't be simply a walkover for either champion.

Thursday's offering was brought to you from Golden Boy on RingTV.com and some regional sports networks and GBP might have wished they did not offer that in hindsight as their middleweight prospect from Ireland, Jason Quigley was unable to keep veteran Tureano Johnson off of him and was overwhelmed by the former title challenger's aggressiveness with the result being Quigley's corner stopping the fight after the ninth round.
Johnson entered the fight with questions after a physical shellacking against Sergey Dereyvanchenko and a listless draw versus 26-13 Fernando Castaneda, but he was his old buzzsaw self against Quigley and re-established himself as at least a top 10-15 contender in the division.
As for Quigley, this pounding now raises questions about his future and should he have one, he'll need a few softballs to rebuild any confidence that he has remaining after this fight.

In the boxing challenge for the week (Including the fights I'll write about later time permitting), I outscored Ramon Malpica 12-9.

My points: Two each from: Manny Pacquiao, Dillian Whyte, Yordanis Ugas, Luis Nery, Caleb Plant,
                   One                 : Teofimo Lopez, Dereck Chisora

Ramon's:    Two each from: Caleb Plant, Luis Nery, Subriel Matias.
                   One                 : Dillian Whyte, Teofimo Lopez

The standings are currently in my favor at: 191-170

Boxing Challenge: Thurman returns, Munguia tested

The boxing weekend was brought to you from Brooklyn, New York, and Houston, Texas and to my surprise, was far better entertainment than I expected Saturday night.

Starting with the PBC on national television on Fox with the return of WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman after 22 months away from the ring.
The good news for Thurman was that he generally dominated the fight, boxed well and showed power in flooring Lopez in the second round.
The bad news was Lopez, who does not have a reputation as a huge puncher, badly hurt Thurman in the seventh round, sending a dazed champion wobbling around the ring so badly that the three official judges all gave Lopez a 10-8, a rarity in a round without a knockdown.
Thurman's majority decision should have been unanimous (I had Thurman a 116-110 winner) and I think the judge that scored it a draw was way off base, but although his performance was good, it wasn't great and much as in Thurman's win over Luis Collazo that saw Thurman badly hurt from a Collazo (another fighter not noted as a banger), you walk away thinking more about what if that had been Errol Spence or Terence Crawford hurting Thurman than about his victory.

Adam Kownacki blitzed former world title challenger Gerald Washington in two rounds in the co-feature.
A Kownacki right had Washington in major problems near the end of the first round and two knockdowns followed in round two to end the fight.
Washington has lost three of his last four, all by stoppage, and looks to be sliding to journeyman status, while Kownacki will continue to have exciting fights and I'd even wager that should he keep winning might be the post-Tyson Fury opponent for Deontay Wilder.
Both are promoted by PBC and Wilder will be due for an optional defense, I'd bet that happens.

In the first fight, Tug Nyambayar won a unanimous decision over Claudio Marrero to become the mandatory challenger for WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell. which means we might be lucky to see Russell-Nyambayar in 2021.
Nyambayar walked the game but outgunned Marrero down and almost ended the fight in the third.
Marrero was penalized for a late hit in the tenth, but that didn't change the fight on my card, which had Nyambayar a 116-111 winner.

Meanwhile, Houston was the host for Golden Boy and DAZN for a card that didn't seem to have much at all other than another viewing of the exciting young WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia in what looked to be a squash match.
Munguia won the fight going away (118-110 on my card), but the winner of the night was the heretofore unknown Takeshi Inoue, who took about every bomb known to man and showed a LaMottian chin in going the distance and firing enough overhand rights to make him dangerous.
It truly shows the old adage that sometimes, no matter the puncher, some guys simply aren't going to go on a particular night.
This fight was far more entertaining that I had any right to expect and I'm very interested in seeing both Munguia and Inoue again- I would have placed very long odds on that.

The co-feature was also a good one as China's Xu Can upset Jesus Rojas to win Rojas' minor featherweight title by unanimous decision
Both fighters threw plenty of punches, with Can having the edge in punches thrown and Rojas throwing the bigger punches.
Can won the decision far wider on the cards than I would think in winning by 4, 6, and 8 points as I scored the fight a draw at 114.
I would not be opposed to a rematch.

Undefeated welterweight Vergil Ortiz stopped his 12th foe in a row when the corner of late replacement Oscar Valdez stopped the fight after a fifth round that saw Valdez stung and cut.
Valdez was the first fighter to last more than three rounds with Ortiz, who looks to be ready to take another jump in competition.

In the boxing challenge- I outscored Ramon Malpica seven to six in the boxing challenge.
We each scored two points from Vergil Ortiz and one each from the wins by Thurman, Munguia, Nyambayar, and Kowacki, the difference being one extra point by me from the Kowacki knockout.
I lead the overall challenge 16-14

Thurman decisions Garcia-Boxing Challenge

The run of getting decisions in borderline fights ran out for Danny Garcia as he lost his WBC welterweight title to WBA champion Keith Thurman via split decision in Brooklyn.

The bout was nothing visually impressive and nothing to get excited about as Thurman controlled the bout winning 116-112 on my card despite giving away the final two rounds by "boxing" AKA running away to avoid contact.
I tweeted during the late rounds of the fight that some judge was going to have this close and sure enough, there was one.
The fight wasn't a classic by any means and I doubt that even with two title belts now that Thurman will be gaining a lot of points in the TRS rankings.
I earned two points in the boxing challenge by picking Thurman, while Ramon Malpica picked Garcia.

The undercard saw talented junior middleweight Erickson Lubin crunch overmatched Jorge Cota with a powerful left hand in the 4th and qualify for a WBC title shot vs the winner of Jermell Charlo-Charles Hatley.
Lubin is a strong prospect and it'll be interesting to see how he steps up in his title challenge.
Lubin's KO gave me two points to Ramon Malpica's one.

Andrezj Fonfara stopped former world champion Chad Dawson in an untelevised bout on the card in the tenth and final round.
Fonfara's KO allowed me two points to Ramon Malpica's one.

The fight of the day was in London, where WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew move up to heavyweight and pull a massive upset over former cruiser and heavyweight champion David Haye in the 11th round of a bombs-away slugfest.
Haye had his moments in the 4th and 5th rounds hurting Bellew before slipping on some water in the 6th and injuring his Achilles Tendon.

Bellew took over against the battered Haye, scoring a knockdown in the 6th round before ending the fight by sending Haye through the ropes in the 11th and his corner threw into the towel.
I had Bellew ahead 95-94 entering the final round with Haye winning the first five rounds prior to the injury and Bellew winning the rounds thereafter.
Haye's loss cost the UK a huge fight there with Haye challenging Anthony Joshua (assuming Joshua wins against Wladimir Klitschko).
I doubt Bellew wants that fight with the size difference, so the best payday for Bellew might be waiting for Haye to heal for a rematch.
Both Ramon and I picked Haye to win for no points.

The boxing challenge saw me outscore Ramon six to two on the weekend and move ahead in the overall challenge 22-20.

Boxing Challenge-Thurman rallies past Porter,Joshua stops Breazeale

The boxing challenge saw R.L. Malpica and I each score three points over the weekend and make the total for the year 76-63.

The PBC made its debut on CBS and I thought it was a pretty strong one as Keith Thurman rallied late in the fight to earn a unanimous decision over Shawn Porter to retain his WBA welterweight title.

All three judges scored Thurman a 115-113 winner, which was identical to my score, in which Thurman won the final three rounds to earn the win on the TRS card.
Porter cut Thurman above the eye and then slowed in his attack and allowed Thurman to get back into the fight.
The bout was pretty action-friendly and I wouldn't be against an eventual rematch, but I'd like to see each man take another fight or two before a rematch.
I'd love to see Thurman unify vs WBC champ Danny Garcia (Both being with PBC, this should be easy enough to make) and Porter could have a mandated rematch if he could beat David Avenasayan and that to me looks like an excellent network-level card.
Thurman's win was less than popular with the live crowd and I have a theory on that.
Keith Thurman gives a lot of answers that appear programmed and some fans have a negative opinion of Thurman because of that.
He comes across as a bit plastic and when he wins a close fight, there is some blowback-Just a theory.

I was very impressed with junior middleweight Jarrett Hurd, who stopped Oscar Molina in the tenth to open the CBS card.
Hurd lost only one round on my card and set the tone in the first as he dropped Molina with an uppercut.
The stoppage seemed a bit premature for my taste, but Molina wasn't winning this bout anyway, so I wouldn't feel too bad about the end of the bout.
Hurd looks to be a promising prospect and I'm looking forward to seeing more of him.

On Showtime-Anthony Joshua defended his IBF heavyweight title for the first time with a seventh-round knockout of a gutsy Dominic Breazeale.
Joshua hurt Breazeale in the second, but couldn't finish him off until the seventh, when he dropped the American twice before the end of the bout.
Breazeale was more competitive than I thought. but I had Joshua winning every round.
Joshua has the talented Joseph Parker of New Zealand as a mandatory contender, but it's unknown if Joshua will have an optional defense before a Parker bout.

The co-feature was not televised in the US, but was on the boxing challenge as George Groves defeated Martin Murray by unanimous decision to win the Yaqui Lopez award for most title shots without a win (just kidding), but more importantly, earn another title shot against one of the WBA champs at 168 as the WBA still is trying to clean their mess of multiple champions in each division up.
Reports were that it was a fun fight to watch, but I was unable to watch as of this writing...

Thurman survives Collazo in PBC's ESPN Bow

The PBC debut on ESPN led a disappointing day of boxing that looked worse (so I'm told) when held up against an entertaining night of the UFC.

The ESPN version of PBC might be my least favorite yet.
Teddy Atlas,always an opinionated commentator,appears to have been muted by the Al Haymon bunch and there appears to be way too many voices fighting for position outside the ring as Bernando Osuna (a strong boxing voice),former WWE  commentator Todd Gresham (still learning the game) and ill-informed host Marysol Castro all trying to grab mic time with not enough slices to fill all.
I've attempted to be fair in looking at the PBC host position as this isn't a traditional boxing show,but boxing,much like horse racing,consistently puts broadcasters that aren't knowledgeable enough on the broadcast and therefore in a position to fail.
Castro flubbed several names and seemed lost when doing anything other than promos for future PBC cards.
Once some time has passed,I think the PBC will shake this spot up a bit as their hosts have ranged from surprisingly good (Spike's Dana Jacobson),professional,but borderline disinterested (NBC's Al Michaels),completely reading off the company press release (CBS's Brent Stover) and finally to Castro,who looked to be not only overmatched by the product knowledge but wobbly on the basics of the game as well.
Golden Boy and Top Rank both had to be smiling even a little after watching ESPN's initial foray into the PBC...

Onto the bouts,which saw two less than stimulating bouts each have a little drama,only to be snatched away in the end.
Keith Thurman controlled the first four rounds before being badly hurt by a body shot by light hitting Luis Collazo and being put into safety mode for the next two rounds.
However,Collazo would quietly surrender in his corner from a cut following round seven for a less than satisfying ending for the fans and Thurman,who had failed to live up to his hype as the next great welterweight.
I've always felt that Thurman's power was overrated and he must have doubts after spending two of his last three bouts in retreat mode against less than power punching opposition (Bungu and Collazo).
Keith Thurman has been matched carefully (not uncommon in PBC) and has plenty to prove to me.

The undercard showed why the PBC's mode of building fighters via showcases is a flawed one as hyped and undefeated junior middleweight Tony Harrison didn't know what to do when he stepped up against someone that fought back as Willie Nelson knocked Harrison out in round nine of a dull bout.
I had Harrison slightly ahead entering round nine (77-75),but Nelson showed what you learn when challenged as you move your way up the ranks rather than being fed overmatched opposition.
The knockout saved a less than entertaining contest..

Golden Boy had a pretty good fight going between Mauricio Herrera and Hank Lundy with lots of action on HBO Latino.
The issue became moot as referee Jack Reiss stopped the bout in the fifth round with Herrera cut from an earlier headbutt by Lundy with the response of "The cut has a skin flap hanging over the cut".
On television,the cut appeared to need work,but nowhere near as bad as Reiss thought.
The unsatisfying ending went to the cards with Herrera winning a majority decision.
I had it for Herrera by a point at 48-47 at the time of the reluctant stoppage..

Two WBO title bouts from around the world in the boxing challenge as Donnie Nietes took a unanimous decision over Francisco Rodriguez to keep his light flyweight title and Terry Flanagan earned the vacant lightweight title after Jose Zepeda dislocated an elbow in the second round and was unable to continue.

In the Boxing challenge,I extended my lead to two points over R.L.Malpica at 84-82.
The difference was my selection over Mauricio Herrera over Ramon's of Hank Lundy which gave me one point.
We both earned a point for wins by Keith Thurman and Donnie Nietes and were wrong on the Flanagan-Zepeda and Nelson-Harrison matches....

I may have a podcast go up later tonight/tomorrow morning and maybe another post here as well...

Premiere Boxing Champions

The highly touted Premier Boxing Champions series finally began on NBC with two bouts and another on NBCSN last night and it was a mixed bag as any project is when it starts from scratch.
Usually,I'll talk about the bouts and the Boxing Challenge (R.L.Malpica gained one point on the night to lead 19-17 on the season),but I want to bring out the bullet points and I'll add a few words on the day's upset that WASN'T part of the PBC at the end of the piece....

Things that I liked about the broadcast.

1) Liked the guys being in suit and tie in the buildup spots and during the bumper scenes.
Added a bit of professionalism in our sport that often lacks it...

2) Al Michaels was smooth enough as a host and even though some on the internet were harsh on Marv Albert and Ray Leonard at the mic,I thought they were Ok,albeit rusty.
I think they should be better in April...

3) Many think the the lack of entourage and shortened ring walks took away the fighters personalities.
Personally.I didn't mind that,but what you did see was the subtle touch of Al Haymon (like Vince McMahon) building the PBC brand more than the individual fighters.
I liked it,but many didn't.

4) I thought the graphics were clear,easy to read and identified who was who quickly and with ease.
Sounds like a no brainer,but too often in sports-that is often not the case.

5) Keith Thurman's win over Robert Guerrero was exciting enough,but it still was a one-sided fight.
That bout saved the night,but they will need more competitive fights as the series moves on...

6) I hope the video circle or whatever they named it will be traveling from arena to arena.
It adds an aspect that is often missing from the product and was a nice touch,

Things that I didn't

1) Hated the ring announcer.
Added no drama,little excitement and generally left me flat.
I missed Michael Buffer or Jimmy Lennon Jr and perhaps they are locked up exclusively for others,but someone other than the person that they are using has to be brought in....

2) Kenny Rice is not great on interviews,but even worse on blow by blow (he did the Abner Mares fight on NBCSN),I could do without him and I thought B.J,Flores and Laila Ali were just OK as the corner reporters.
I'll look at the corner reporters as a work in progress,but I think that needs a little bit of refining the role.
Too bad that the knowledgeable Jessica Rosales from Fox Sports One wasn't available for this role and I wish someone would have talked to Steve Farhood about his unofficial scorecard instead just flashing it.

3) Adrien Broner has always been more style than substance and he confirmed that with another tedious victory ,this one over John Molina,who has now lost three fights in a row.
I thought this would be a dull one from the day it was signed and I hoped Broner would turn it up a bit late considering the event and try to be more exciting.
Instead,he was content to bore and get a W over a limited fighter that was there for the picking.
Time for Al Haymon to face it-Broner is Floyd Mayweather lite-Little power,lots of defense,overly defensive and image comes first.
Considering all that and that the real reason fans watch Mayweather is to see him get beat (watch his ratings/PPV buys fall when that happens) with the fact that Broner already has a loss and you truly have a limited draw and a somnolent fighter.

4) Good thing for the evening that Abner Mares and his win over Arturo Reyes was moved to NBCSN because it was another less than thrilling bout.
I thought Mares won a close decision,but no way by the scores on the judges cards.
If I am Al Haymon,I get Mares in the ring for Leo Santa Cruz ASAP because when he fights a top 20 fighter-he's losing and the name might as well go on the resume' of Santa Cruz while it still means something.
Jhonny Gonzalez seems to have ruined a promising career with his one round demolition of Mares...

5) The Keith Thurman-Robert Guerrero bout saved the night for the PBC,but lets keep some perspective.
It wasn't a fight of the year candidate,it was a one-sided bout (I had it 10-2 for Thurman in rounds,118-109 on points) that showed some nice exchanges and lots of heart by Guerrero.
For all the Keith Thurman "One Time" hype,he has yet to stop a top 20 fighter with one shot.
Thurman punches so much better when throwing in combinations,I think he'd be successful changing his style slightly.

6) I heard only one name from anyone about a non-PBC fighter (Lucas Matthysse) and that was to praise the punching power of John Molina.
Add that to the relentless pushing of Peter Quillin for the next card when the champion,Andy Lee,just has a quick half second picture flashed because he is a non-PBC fighter and you have a McMahonesque creation in the making.
I say that because Vince McMahon would never mention anyone that didn't wrestle for his group and acted like they didn't exist.
It appears that will be the PBC way as well....

It wouldn't fair to not mention the upset of the day where the touted Chinese Olympian Zou Shiming dropped a unanimous decision to  the IBF Flyweight champion Amnat Ruenroeng.
Ruenroeng survived a knockdown that wasn't really one and a huge crowd in China to post a clear decision (115-112 on my card).
I was all prepared for a bad decision considering the home crowd,money that Shiming brings in from China and time that his promoter Top Rank has put into him,but the judges got it right with their cards.
I wonder if HBO would consider bringing Ruenroeng back for a mini-flyweight tourney with WBC champ and very talented Roman Gonzalez and WBA champion Juan Francisco Estrada?
A unified champion with a few wins by Shiming would give plenty attention to the flyweights and offer what I think would be a series of great fights......