Boxing Challenge: Brook gets his wish

    One of the biggest grudge matches in years ended in a one-sided drubbing in Manchester, England as Kell Brook dominated Amir Khan from the first round, staggering him several times throughout the fight, and never allowing Khan to settle in and use his speed until the referee decided to end the battering in the sixth round with Khan having had more than enough.

Brook walked Khan down from the start of the fight and established himself as the stronger fighter and easily stormed past the counterpunches of Khan.

An argument could have been for the fight being stopped even earlier as Khan was hurt in the fifth and Brook himself could have ended the fight earlier, had he used the jab more as he bullied his way into punching range as it seemed to me that every time that Brook smacked Khan with his jab, a right hand would land soon after.

My scorecard gave each of the first five rounds to Brook.

There is a rematch clause in the contract that was only activated with a Brook victory (Had Khan won there would have been no such option) that will be up to Khan and another sizable payday for both fighters would be received by the fighters but I don't think that it's a good idea for Khan because I don't see the result of this fight changing any and other than the extra cash for the two thirty-five-year-olds, I don't see either getting anything from a rematch.

For Khan, it's time to retire unless he absolutely has to take one more shot at Brook because a weak chin that has always plagued him isn't going to improve over time.

As for Brook, he looked impressive in victory but despite hurting Khan several times, Brook never knocked Khan down and it's fair to consider that Brook may have looked so good because Khan looked so bad.

Brook still should be matched carefully in his next fight (should Khan decide not to activate the rematch clause) because we still don't know how much Brook has left against championship-caliber competition.

Earlier in the day from Russia, a very good fight was ruined for American audiences on ESPN+ as Zaur Abdullaev knocked out former champion Jorge Linares in the final round in a WBC lightweight eliminator that might mean the end of Linares as a legitimate title contender.

Abdullaev knocked Linares down twice in the final round before the fight was stopped with only thirty-two seconds remaining of an action affair.

I had Abdullaev slightly ahead entering the final round 105-104 and the knockdowns would have put the fight away for Abdullaev even with the possible survival of Linares, so give Abdullaev credit for taking matters into his own hands and not allowing a close fight to reach the scorecards.

With the win, Abdullaev will place himself in the line for a rematch with Devin Haney for the WBC lightweight title in what would be a rematch with the fighter that handed Abdullaev his only loss via fourth-round knockout in 2019.

How could such an exciting fight be ruined?

How about by NOT SHOWING THE ENDING!

On a broadcast filled with the undercard often joining fights in mid-round, showing the same four awful commercials constantly, portions not having sound, skipping two decision announcements, and having maybe the worst commentator that I've ever heard (and not for his English either), the show was already one that wasn't very pleasing.

And then it got worse as the start of round twelve of a closely contested fight, the dreaded technical difficulties graphic arrived and no one saw Abdullaev's thrilling final round stoppage.

Just an absolutely awful broadcast and while I know it was only a purchase of another feed by ESPN and wasn't produced by them, with the problems that came with the show it was almost not worth seeing.

Almost.

In the evening from Tijuana Mexico, middleweight contender Jaime Munguia notched another semi-meaningless victory in a homecoming performance with a third round knockout of D'Mitrus Ballard.

Ballard entered the fight unbeaten but had never faced anyone of the level of Munguia and it showed as the first time Munguia hurt Ballard, he finished him off.

Ballard fought reasonably well in the first two rounds and I gave him both rounds, although the second could have been given to either man, Munguia landed a left hook in the third that stunned Ballard, and his following shots sent Ballard to the canvas face first.

Ballard showed heart in getting up but Munguia quickly jumped on Ballard to force the stoppage.

The less said about this one the better as Munguia has now fought five times at middleweight since giving up his WBO junior middleweight title and has yet to face a top ten contender with the past their primes Tureano Johnson and Gabriel Rosado standing as his best opponents.

In the co-feature, powerhitting lightweight William Zepeda easily, if sloppily, finished off veteran Luis Viedas in the third round in a fight that was more memorable for strange occurrences than the actual KO.

Viedas slipped on what appeared to be a small lake in a corner in the first round and injured his knee and was knocked down in the second round before a shove on Zepeda was scored a knockdown.

An infuriated Zepeda then shoved down Viedas and was deducted a point for his misdeed.

Zepeda knocked down Viedas twice in the third with Viedas being counted out on the second knockdown.

Zepeda could use a challenge in his next fight as Golden Boy hasn't done a great job of upgrading the competition for their prospects and contenders of late.

Boxing Challenge Total Points with this weeks points in parenthesies.

TRS: 24 Pts (7)

V.S: 24 Pts (3)

R.L.: 21 Pts (3)

Boxing Challenge: Crawford stops Brook

Photo: Mikey Williams-Top Rank

        Terence Crawford may not be facing the best welterweights in the world, through no fault of his own, but against the opposition that is facing Crawford is showing why the elite fighters in his division have shown such reticence to meet him in the ring.

Crawford took a few rounds to figure out former IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook and then took Brook out in the fourth round in a manner that enhanced his standing as the best finisher in the sport.

Crawford's fourth round right hand spun Brook into (and almost through) the ropes and his resulting hop away brought to my mind the desperate leap by Joe Frazier against George Foreman in 1973.

After the knockdown was declared, Brook attempted to continue but with Crawford jumping on him and scoring with another strong right hand, Brook was fortunate to have the fight ended before serious injury occurred.

For Kell Brook, the time appears right to walk away from boxing for a once-excellent boxer.

Unless the UK-lusted for fight with Amir Khan can be signed, I don't see a lot of reasons for Brook to continue fighting.

A Khan fight would bring a sizable payday and not a lot of danger, so I can see making that fight, but otherwise I don't see the point.

Terence Crawford was the best welterweight in the world entering this fight and I believe he left this fight at the same level.

Errol Spence has a legitimate claim to the same title, but with promotional issues involved a fight that needs to be made looks unlikely.

Mainly because it appears that both see more money to be made by fighting a 42 year old Manny Pacquiao in the Middle East somewhere.

Both Crawford and Spence would be favored to win such a fight and enrich themselves doing it, but the best fight is with each other.

It appears to be possible that Crawford may have to leave Top Rank to meet Spence (Although all bets are off if Danny Garcia upsets Spence in December) and I'm fine with that, if that's what it takes to make the fight, but it shouldn't be this hard to put the best against the best- yet boxing always finds a way.

Speaking of boxing always finding a way, there was the co-feature in which boxing botched another one.

In Andrew Moloney's rematch vs Joshua Franco, Moloney dominated the first two rounds and appeared to close Franco's eye shut with his jab.

However, referee Russell Mora ruled the eye was swollen by a headbutt, but no worries as Nevada has installed an instant replay program to avoid these travesties.

BUT this is boxing and after a twenty minute delay for a national television audience and countless reviews from the ESPN truck, the Nevada officials decided not to overturn Mora's mistake and ruled the fight a no-contest to deprive Moloney of a deserved win.

Only in boxing.

In the boxing challenge, I added two points to Ramon Malpica's one and move the season total to 158-148.

Boxing Challenge: Russell retains, Rigondeaux bores.

The boxing challenge returns with a five-fight weekend with two titles on the line along with a minor title, a title eliminator and the return of a former star to the ring.

We start in Allentown, Pennsylvania with a PBC card on Showtime and the annual appearance of WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell.
Russell, who fights once a year, clicks up a victory, makes grand proclamations and then returns to the Washington area like Puff the Magic Dragon slipping into his cave to await his next year's contest, won a unanimous decision over mandatory challenger Tug Nyambayar to retain his championship.
Russell controlled the fight for the first eight rounds with those rounds being more tactical than action-filled, but Nyambayar picked up the pace in the final third of the fight, landed his best shots and forced Russell into entertaining exchanges.
The late rally wasn't close to enough for the challenger from Mongolia, who lost 116-112 on my card, which was the closest card among the three judges and Nyambayar may look back on this fight and bemoan his lack of punches that caused him to fall behind on the cards as he was effective, especially to the body, when he was offensively active.
Russell announced plans to move up two divisions to lightweight, should a hoped for, but unlikely fight with Leo Santa Cruz falls through, which seems like a pipe dream with most of the best lightweights being involved with Top Rank rather than Russell's PBC.

The co-feature saw Guillermo Rigondeaux drop to bantamweight to win another tedious split decision and pick up a minor title with a split decision over Liborio Solis.
Solis started aggressively in the first round and seemed to surprise Rigondeaux with a right hand that forced the Cuban to grab and hold on for the end of the round.
Rigondeaux then settled into his standard (read dull) style and except for a seventh-round technical knockdown that drove Solis into the ropes from a left hand and the ropes holding him up, the fight was generally lacking in action.
I saw Rigondeaux a 115-112 winner and despite the split card, I don't need to see this fight again.

On DAZN from Sheffield, England, Kell Brook returned from a ring absence and an awful albeit winning last fight against Michael Zerafa to dominate Mark DeLuca of the United States and knock DeLuca out in the seventh round in a squash match intended to make Brook shine.
This fight did that as Brook smashed DeLuca's nose in the third and scored a knockdown with a strong left hook that saw DeLuca rise just as the bell clanged.
DeLuca was hurt again in the fourth before being dropped for the count with an impressive left hook/uppercut with blood flowing furiously through his nose.
Brook mentioned a rematch with Errol Spence, which is unlikely, but the likely next step on his comeback could be against fellow Briton and Matchroom promotee Liam Smith in what could be an interesting fight with both fighters attempting to make a last stand in the sport.

In the Matchroom co-feature, Kid Galahad outboxed Claudio Marrero for the entire fight and forced Marrero's corner to stop the fight at the end of the eighth round to move into the IBF's mandatory contender position for the second time in the featherweight division.
Galahad stood on the outside, landed his jab at all and methodically drained the aggression from Marrero as he won all but the first round on my scorecard.
Galahad now qualifies for a rematch against IBF champion Josh Warrington from their fight last year that saw Warrington retain his title via split decision in a close but ugly mix of styles that will see very few looking forward to a rematch.

The final fight of the challenge saw Artem Dalakian retain his WBA flyweight title by unanimous decision over Josber Perez in Kyiv, Ukraine.
I have this fight available via YouTube, but I have yet to watch it as of this writing.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica seven to five on the week with the difference being my extra points from Gary Russell's decision win and Kell Brook's KO.
I extended my lead to 24-20 in the early part of the marathon.

Boxing Challenge: Lomachenko Unifies!

 Al Bello/Getty Images

The Boxing Challenge had its main event from New York, but the performances on the undercard were equally as strong and it was a nice night of the Sweet Science from the Big Apple (Big Apple, Big Cesspool as Wes Huntley once quipped).

The main event starred Vasyl Lomachenko in his return from shoulder surgery against Jose Pedraza as he won a unanimous decision to add Pedraza's WBO lightweight belt to the WBA version that he held entering the fight.
Lomachenko looked a little slow to start, but he dominated the second half of the fight and the eleventh round where he knocked Pedraza down twice might have been the best fought round by a fighter this year.
Only the bell saved Pedraza after that onslaught and his best in the final round allowed him to go the distance.
My card had Lomachenko winning 117-109 and Lomachenko mentioned after the fight wanting to have a chance to collect the remaining two belts in the division.
Mikey Garcia holds the WBC title and between his Quixote-like attempt to defeat Errol Spence and his noted difficulty to do business with makes such a fight as unlikely to happen as it would be awaited by fans and the IBF title is vacant currently to be decided by the winner of a Richard Commey- Isa Chaniev bout in February.
The Commey-Chaniev fight will take place on the ESPN telecast of the Eleider Alvarez-Sergey Kovalev rematch and according to Top Rank president Bob Arum, an agreement has been made with Lou DiBella, who promotes both fighters, that the winner will face Lomachenko in May.
I've never seen Chaniev fight, but I have seen Commey and Chaniev will have to be pretty strong to win that fight.

Lomachenko wasn't the only impressive winner on the worldwide leader as Emanuel Navarette upset Issac Dogboe by a unanimous decision to earn the WBO junior featherweight title that Dogboe won earlier this year.
Navarette entered the fight untested, but with an impressive record, much larger and taller than Dogboe and using those advantages was able to control Dogboe to rarely allow the Ghana native to step inside and do his best work.
Navarette was very sharp in the win, but let's wait to see if he is truly a new star.
Often styles make fights and physically, Dogboe was made for Navarette.
I scored Navarette a 116-112 winner.

And there was Teofimo Lopez, the talented lightweight prospect who faced his toughest opponent to date in trialhorse Mason Menard.
Menard had lasted seven rounds with former WBO champion Ray Beltran and eight against another nice lightweight prospect in Devin Haney in May, but I wrote if Lopez is as good as I think he is, he'll take Menard out in less than five.
Menard lasted forty-four seconds and ended the fight face down on the canvas in what will at least be a competitor in the race for KO of the year.
That was about as impressive as you could be and Lopez needs to receive yet another bounce in competition.
I hate to rush young boxers, but he's not going to be tested by the level of Menard-like fighters and he might as well take those risks.

In England, Matchroom, and DAZN led the top of their card with Kell Brook against what appeared to be a squash match and title eliminator in journeyman Michael Zerafa.
Instead, Brook won a clear decision (118-110 on my card) but looked dreadful winning and looked to be nowhere near ready to take on a top contender
Brook looked slow, took his share of punches from Zerafa and never seriously hurt a fighter that was taken out in five by Peter Quillin in the past.
Amir Khan vs Brook has been a dream fight for British fans for years, but unless Khan watched this fight and decides easy money against Brook is better than a bid to dethrone Terence Crawford, Brook might be in No Man's land.
It's sad to say, but although Brook should be applauded for courage for jumping to middleweight to try Gennady Golovkin, it was a foolish move as the beating that Brook took seems to have ruined him as a world-class fighter.

The other challenge bout from England was canceled when welterweight prospect Josh Kelly fell ill and his leap in competition against David Avanesyan was canceled.

On the final HBO card, junior featherweight contender Juan Francisco Estrada wore down former sparring partner Victor Mendez and Mendez's corner ended the fight after the seventh round.
I had Estrada ahead six to one on my card and Mendez looked ready to go, had he continued the fight and tried the eighth round.
Estrada is the mandatory contender for WBC champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and a rematch of their exciting fight that Rungvisai squeaked a majority decision would be welcomed.

In the boxing challenge, I earned six points to Ramon Malpica's five with the difference being two points for me to Ramon's one for the Juan Francisco Estrada win.
The total is currently 206-185.

Boxing Challenge:Wilder makes his case

The boxing challenge continues to move up and along after a five-fight weekend.

Sorry, this has been a little late, but there have been some family illness issues and I am a bit behind.

In the biggest fight of the weekend as part of a two fight Showtime telecast, Deontay Wilder came from behind (on my card anyway) to stop Luis Ortiz in the tenth and retain his WBC heavyweight title in Brooklyn.
Wilder had floored Ortiz in the fifth, but Ortiz didn't seem to be especially hurt after rising.
Ortiz badly hurt Wilder, leaving him wobbling around the ring and lurching into Ortiz as he desperately held onto the Cuban to survive the round.
The bell may have saved Wilder, but referee David Fields, in a strange move, asked the doctor to check Wilder before the round started and bought Wilder extra time to clear his head.
Here's why this was so strange-Wilder was not cut, so that shouldn't have been an issue and the doctor had the minute in between the seventh and eighth round to look at Wilder in the corner and saw no reason to stop the fight.
It seemed a little fishy to me, but still give Wilder credit, I had questions about his chin (I still do) and what would happen when he was tested- He survived the Ortiz attack and battled on.
Wilder would finish Ortiz in the tenth with two knockdowns and as good of an uppercut as you'll see.
The good news? The final few rounds were pretty dramatic and fun to watch.
The bad news? The first almost five rounds were pretty close to unwatchable and the scorecards that had Wilder ahead after nine were downright laughable.
Had Wilder not stopped Ortiz and gauging the way that the fight was being judged, Wilder was on his way to a decision win-one that would have again cast controversy.For the record, I had Ortiz up 86-83 as Ortiz lost a point for the fifth round knockdown and I scored round seven 10-8 for Ortiz in the round that he almost finished Wilder off.
In the end- it was an average fight with a few really good exchanges and some really high drama.

In the Brooklyn co-feature, Jose Uzcategui avenged his controversial disqualification loss to Andre Dirrell by winning almost every round ( I had him winning 79-73) before Dirrell's corner stopped the fight in between the eighth and ninth rounds.
Uzcategui didn't score a knockdown, but did bust up the face of Dirrell and pounded him thoroughly to the point that the stoppage was more humane than a reflection on Dirrell, who I have been critical of in the past for dogging it in some fights.
Uzcategui's win places him as the next fight for the winner of the IBF title rematch between Caleb Truax and James DeGale.
Truax pulled off a shocking upset of DeGale and unless DeGale shows that his loss was simply a really bad night and dominates the rematch, I would consider Uzcategui a solid favorite against either.
I'd go even farther and say I'm not sure that Uzcategui would be worse than pick 'em against anyone in the division and that includes champions George Groves (WBA), David Benavidez (WBC) and Gilberto Ramirez (WBO).

Over in Manhattan at Madison Square Garden, HBO showed arguably the two best light heavyweights in the world with title defenses by WBO champion Sergey Kovalev and WBA beltholder Dmitry Bivol.

In the main event, Kovalev continued to rebuild himself with a pounding of fellow Russian Igor Mikhalkin in which he won every round, cut Mikhalkin on his nose, caused heavy bleeding from the nose and then ripped open a cut under Mikhalkin's eye in the sixth.
The ending came in the seventh as the doctor saw Mikhalkin's cuts as serious and since he had lost every round, ending the fight seemed the right thing to do.
I've been a long-time Kovalev fan and gave him and his team the benefit of the doubt in scheduling two squash matches for his comeback since losing to Andre Ward.
I won't give him that benefit for his next fight- the Krusher needs to pick up the competition.

Dmitry Bivol was far ahead of Sullivan Barrera entering the final round (109-100) and could have been content to jab his way to a dominant, if not thrilling victory over the first top ten (arguably even top five) opponent of his career.
Bivol wasn't going to settle for that in flooring and finishing Barrera for a knockout win.
Bivol was very impressive in dominating Barrera like no one previously had done and that includes Andre Ward.
In the perfect world, I'd love to see a Bivol-Kovalev unification fight (makeable with both guys with HBO) or a Bivol-Artur Beterbiev unification fight (Not so makeable with Beterbiev having promotional issues) before the end of the year, but keeping Bivol active against quality opponents is going to be nothing but a positive for the struggling HBO boxing program.

In an untelevised fight from England, former IBF welterweight champ Kell Brook moved up to junior middleweight and snapped a two-fight losing streak and a two-fight broken eye-socket streak with a second-round knockout of Sergei Rabchenko.
Rabchenko might have not been top quality as far as opponents go, but he was decent enough all things considered and Brook looked quite impressive in taking him out.
Brook might be considered for a title match against WBC champ Jermell Charlo at his new weight and that faceoff would answer lots of questions about both men...

In the boxing challenge. I scored eight points to Ramon Malpica's four to boost my lead to 36-27
I earned two points for wins by Kell Brook, Dmitry Bivol and Sergey Kovalev and one point each for wins by Deontay Wilder and Jose Uzcategui.

Ramon earned two points for Sergey Kovalev's win and one point each for the wins of Dmitri Bivol and Kell Brook.

The Spence Era Begins-Boxing Challenge

The Boxing Challenge returned with a bout that boxing junkies had hungered for a long time and were rewarded with a back and forth thriller that ended with Errol Spence taking the IBF welterweight belt away from Kell Brook with an eleventh round stoppage.
The bout featured plenty of action with both fighters having more than a few moments, but Spence knocked Brook down in the tenth and Brook dropped to a knee in the eleventh surrendering honorably.
Spence also broke the eye socket of Brook in the middle rounds as he re-injured the socket that Gennady Golovkin broke in Brook's last bout, along with badly puffing the left eye of Brook up with swelling.
I had Spence leading at the time of the stoppage 96-93 (6-4 with an extra point deducted from Brook for the tenth round knockdown).
It was just the type of fight that fans hoped for and with the Spence victory, Premiere Boxing Champions may have found the star that they have lacked since opening their promotion.
PBC has hyped several fighters and hoped those fighters (Keith Thurman, Adrien Broner, etc) would develop into the flagbearer for their company, but for various reasons fell short.
Errol Spence has the type of skills and personality to be such a star-let's hope that PBC can avoid the inactivity pitfalls and allow fans to see him active to build his fanbase, which will allow him to develop into a star.
As for Kell Brook, it appears that he has developed a chronic problem with his facial bones and is going to have problems in tough fights as his face is going to bust up.
Issues like that don't get better over time and Brook is going to have to deal with these problems for the rest of his career.
Ramon Malpica earned two points in the boxing challenge for the Spence knockout, while I picked up one for the Spence victory.

I got that point back when George Groves won the vacant WBA super-middleweight title with a sixth-round stoppage over Fedor Chudinov in another great fight loaded with action.
I had Groves slightly ahead after five rounds (3-2) but wobbled Chudinov badly in the sixth before the referee stopped the bout.
Groves could have two big-money unification bouts that would draw huge crowds (and dollars) in the U.K. with IBF champ James DeGale (Groves handed him his only loss) and if Callum Smith could defeat Andre Dirrell for the vacant WBC title, either could be in Groves' future.
I picked Groves for one point with Ramon picking Chudinov.

As of now, I don't have a result for the final bout for this week from Panama with Anselmo Moreno against Julio Ceja.
I'll add that to this post when I have the result.
Editor's Note Ceja stopped Moreno in three rounds, giving Ramon two points and my zero.
I lead the challenge as of now 70-66

Boxing Challenge

Lots of things to catch up on here at TRS with trips to Norfolk,Lexington and my 30th anniversary tour stops,but I'll be catching up on those as the week goes on.

First,we have a bout that boxing fans have been salivating over from the time that it was announced as Kell Brook defends his IBF welterweight title against undefeated Errol Spence.
Brook's win over Shawn Porter was far more impressive than Keith Thurman's over the same Porter,has had troubles getting top welterweights to fight him-much in the same fashion as Gennady Golovkin has at middleweight,while the talented Spence has outclassed his own limited competition put in front of him by the PBC and is untested against top opponents.
Brook showed he'll fight anyone by his challenge of Golovkin,but we'll see what that bout took out of him after Golovkin broke his eye socket,but Spence has been off since August and his knockout of Leonard Bungu,who will not bring back memories of Jose Napoles by any means.
I've been back and forth on who I think wins this and this is a true fight that can go either way.
The fight is on Showtime around five in the afternoon-I'll be in Frederick for the Keys and Buies Creek Astros,so I'll be watching on a delay.

The undercard sees the WBA filling its super middleweight title vacancy with former champion Fedor Chudinov,who lost his belt via controversial decision to Felix Sturm,who then failed his post fight drug test against George Groves,who despite his talent has lost three title challenges.
If Groves wins,the UK could see a big money fight there with Groves unifying his WBA title with James DeGale and his IBF title.
Groves decisioned DeGale in 2011 for the only loss in DeGale's career.

The final bout is a non-televised fight from Panama as two former champions fight for a mandatory WBC 122 pound title fight with Rey Vargas.
Anselmo Moreno,a former bantamweight champ, faces Julio Ceja,who once held the belt owned by Vargas...

IBF Welterweight Title.12 rds
Kell Brook vs Errol Spence
R.L:Spence KO 6
TRS:Spence Unanimous Decision

Vacant WBA Super Middleweight Title,12 rds
Fedor Chudinov vs George Groves
R.L: Chudinov Unanimous Decision
TRS:Groves Unanimous Decision

Jr.Featherweights.12 rds
Anselmo Moreno vs Julio Ceja
R.L:Ceja KO 7
TRS:Moreno Unanimous Decision

Boxing Challenge-GGG dries up Brook

The boxing challenge moved on with a big boxing weekend.
I earned ten points to Ramon Malpica's seven to boost the overall lead to 106-87..

We each earned two points for Gennady Golovkin's fifth round stoppage of Kell Brook.
Give Brook lots of credit for taking the fight and for coming to fight,but he was overmatched and undersized and Golovkin clearly was breaking him down physically (broken eye socket) and his corner did the right thing in saving their fighter,who could still be a terrific fighter in 147 and 154 pound action.
As for Golovkin,who retained his WBA,WBC and IBF belts,the WBA is asking for Daniel Jacobs next and hopefully the political powers (HBO and PBC) can come to an agreement to get that fight in the fall.

Roman Gonzalez won the WBC Jr.Bantamweight title from Carlos Cuadras with a unanimous decision nod.
Cuadras fought well and had he set down a little more of his punches,might have prevailed.
I scored Gonzalez a narrow 115-113 winner,but we might have seen the weight where Gonzalez transitions from great to very good.
It happens to all fighters as they move up,their power lessens and their greatness dims just a bit.
I added two points for the Gonzalez victory with Ramon adding one.
The undercard fight on HBO saw Jesus Soto-Karass surrender in his corner after round eight against Yoshihiro Kamegai.
The bout was entertaining enough,but Kamegai was clearly ahead on the cards.
Might be time for Soto-Karass to consider hanging the gloves up.
Ramon picked Kamegai and added one point,while I picked Soto-Karass to win.

The best fighter that you may not have heard kept his IBF Jr.Welterweight title as Eduard Troyanovsky blew away Keita Obara in two in Moscow.
Troyanovsky might be the next star in the making from Russia,if he gets some U.S. exposure.
I earned two points for the win and knockout with Ramon getting one for the win

On the Golovkin-Brook undercard,we each earned two points for Lee Haskins unanimous decision win over Stuart Hal for Haskins IBF Bantamweight crown,but I added one to Ramon's zero for Johnriel Casimero's 10th round stoppage of Charlie Edwards to retain his IBF Flyweight title.

Podcast:Crazy year,GGG-Brook and Females in baseball

The podcast talks about this crazy year,gun violence,Golovkin vs Brook and Females in baseball....

Boxing Challenge

On  a last second whim.I decided to add a few bouts from a strong card from Great Britain to the boxing challenge despite the fights not being televised in the U.S.
I gained three points to R.L,Malpica's two and took a 59-58
lead in the challenge.

The main event proved the point difference as Kell Brook kept busy and kept his IBF Welterweight title with a sixth round stoppage over countryman Frankie Gavin.
I picked Brook via 8th round KO,while R.L picked Brook to win a decision.
Brook continued an interesting run and keeps building towards a big fight of sometime and shows why Amir Khan seems to be uninterested in fighting Brook,who would bring Khan his largest non-Floyd Mayweather purse.

We each added a point for Jorge Linares and his tenth round stoppage win over Kevin Mitchell to retain his WBC Lightweight title in what has been reported to be a tremendous action fight.
Each of us selected Linares to win via decision.

Both of us selected Evgeni Gradovich to retain his IBF Featherweight title over England's Lee Selby by decision,but the home fighter won a technical decision after the eighth round to win the title.
Selby might have gotten himself a nice payday down the road once the Nicholas Walters-Vasyl Lomachenko battle for the best in the division shakes out or Selby could try the junior varsity division with a trip to the PBC against WBC titlist Gary Russell.

The most interesting bout might have been one not in the boxing challenge as Olympic gold medalist Anthony Joshua crushed former title challenger Kevin Johnson in just two rounds.
Johnson is just a journeyman,but one that always goes the distance and did so against Vitali Klitschko and Tyson Fury.
Joshua dropped Johnson twice in round one and only the bell allowed him to return for round two before being dispatched less than halfway through round one.
Joshua looks to be the top prospect in the heavyweight division and it appears its just a matter of time before either WBA/IBF champ Wladimir Klitschko or WBC beltholder Deontay Wilder will be facing Anthony Joshua....

Boxing Challenge: Brook upsets Porter

England's Kell Brook upset Shawn Porter to take Porter's IBF Welterweight title via majority decision in Carson, California.
Brook used a superior jab and a surprisingly strong inside game to clearly outpoint Porter (at least on my card, which was 117-111) over the 12 round distance.

It is easy to say this now that Porter has lost and especially since I picked him to win by KO, but watching the fight, one thing became clear-Porter's power is overrated against fighters that can punch hard enough to earn his respect.

Porter's recent wins over Devon Alexander and Paulie Malignaggi both followed the blueprint, fighters that couldn't hurt Porter or match his punch output.
Brook didn't follow the script and kept Porter off balance and outside the pocket, which resulted in a puzzled Porter...
Brook will likely look for a lucrative title defense against Amir Khan, likely in the UK, which would be a huge draw there.

R.L.and I each earned zero points for the Brook win, but we would both earn a point from Omar Figueroa's knockout win over Daniel Estrada in round nine to keep his WBC 135 pound belt, just when things were looking bleak.
A busted-up and cut Figueroa came out for round nine with his corner wanting to stop the bout, figuring that their fighter was ahead on the cards.
It turned out that he was, even though the fight was even on my card, and Figueroa dropped and then finished Estrada to end an exciting scrap.
Both R.L. and I picked Figueroa by decision,so we each earned a point.
Figueroa is expected to vacate his title and move to the talent-rich Jr.Welterweight division after his big win...

R.L earned two points to my one as Anthony Dirrell lifted Sakio Bika's WBC Super Middleweight title via unanimous decision.
R.L picked Dirrell by a unanimous nod, while I preferred Dirrell via split nod.
I had Dirrell winning 117-110, but if not for a point deduction, the fight would be a majority win as one card had Dirrell winning by a point.
It was a rematch of a draw between the two and followed a similar style of sloppy and dirty action from the first bout.
Dirrell clearly won, but his antics and acting over various fouls brought to mind his older brother Andre's routine in his bouts...

The Boxing Challenge now shows R.L. with a 59-56 lead over yours truly...