Boxing Challenge: Davis dominates Albright in rematch

  Nahir Albright got his rematch against Keyshawn Davis in Norfolk, Virginia, but while the ending was the same, the fight was far more one-sided as Davis won an easy unanimous decision.

Davis won by scores of 118-110 on two cards and 117-109 on the third, and despite missing weight, showed the talent to make plenty of waves in the welterweight division.

Davis won every round, but lost two points for a bodyslam in round six.

In the co-feature, former WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman knocked out Josh Wagner in two rounds in Norman's first appearance since losing his title to Devin Haney.

Norman knocked Wagner down twice in the second round on the way to the victory.

In Doncaster, England, Filip Hrgovic stopped Dave Allen in three rounds in a showcase match that could see Hrgovic become the next opponent for highly touted Moses Itauma.

And in Germany, Paddy Donovan won a majority decision over Karen Chukhadzian to win an IBF welterweight eliminator and become the mandatory challenger for the winner of next month's IBF title match between Lewis Crocker and Liam Paro.

Official scores of 115-111, 114-112, and 113-113.

I have yet to watch this fight to score.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 51 Pts (6)

Ramon Malpica: 44 Pts (2)

Vince Samano:  36 Pts (6)

Boxing Challenge:Stevenson dominates Lopez

      The boxing weekend was packed with matches, so packed that the weekend previews were split into two; we will do the same with the results.

We start with the biggest show of the weekend and the performance of the weekend, as Shakur Stevenson ended Teofimo Lopez's reign as the WBO junior welterweight champion with a unanimous decision victory in New York City.

Lopez had struggled against mobile boxers like Sandor Martin and Jamaine Ortiz, and with Stevenson's movement, it was natural to think Lopez would struggle against Stevenson.

Instead, Stevenson stood in front of Lopez and still made himself unable to be hit in a performance so dominant that Lopez appeared to be on a different level.

Stevenson won on all three cards (and mine) at 119-109 and now will have to choose between keeping his WBC lightweight title, WBO junior welterweight title, or even moving to welterweight for a potential bout with Conor Benn, whom Stevenson invited into the ring after the fight.

As for Lopez, I'm not sure he has the strength or the power at welterweight, but the division isn't strong at the moment, so it's possible he could succeed.

In the co-feature, Keyshawn Davis returned as a junior welterweight, knocking out Jamaine Ortiz in the twelfth round.

Davis dropped Ortiz in the eleventh round and finished him in the final stanza.

Ortiz had lost close decisions to Vasyl Lomachenko and Teofimo Lopez and was expected to test Davis, which didn't happen with the best performance of Davis's career.

Davis called out Devin Haney for a fight this year, and that would be interesting.

The best fight of the night was Bruce Carrington winning the vacant WBC featherweight title with a sudden ninth-round knockout of Carlos Castro.

Castro gave Carrington all that he wanted and had the favorite wobbled in one instant, but Carrington was leading on my card 77-75 at the end, and the fight was swinging his way before the knockout.

Heavyweight Jarrell Miller won a split decision over Kingsley Ibeh in a match that will be remembered by most for Miller losing his hairpiece during the fight and fighting the rest of it with a ring of glue around his head for the remainder of the match.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 13 Pts (7)

Vince Samano: 13 Pts (6)

Ramon Malpica: 12 Pts (4)

Boxing Challenge: Davis bashes Berinchyk!

      Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn Davis vowed to crunch another former Olympic silver medalist and take the WBO lightweight title from Denis Berinchyk after the latest out-of-the-ring controversy before a New York-based fight.

Before the weigh-in, someone reported as possibly being part of Berinchyk's team sent a racist note and bananas to Davis's room and an enraged Davis said he would take it out on Berinchyk in the ring.

Davis did just that, dropping Berinchyk with a body shot in the third round before landing another body blow to the liver in the fourth that sent Berinchyk to his knees and unable to beat the count.

Davis's win was very impressive as he dominated Berinchyk and was never threatened in return.

The lightweight division now has four excellent and diverse champions with Davis holding the WBO title, Gervonta Davis the WBA belt, Shakur Stevenson the WBC titleholder, and the injured Vasyl Lomachenko holding the IBF strap but hasn't decided if he will be continuing his career.

Another unbeaten Top Rank prospect notched an impressive win as junior middleweight Xander Zayas stopped Slawa Spomer in the ninth round.

Zayas won every round and other than one right hand landed by Spomer in the fifth round, It was all Zayas.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 16 Pts (3) 

Ramon Malpica; 15 Pts (2)

Vince Samano : 8 Pts (2)

Boxing Challenge: Davis Destroys Lemos

     Gustavo Lemos didn't show very much respect for the game when he missed weight for a lightweight title eliminator by a full division.

Keyshawn Davis would make Lemos pay for his lack of respect as Davis knocked Lemos down three times in the second round to force the referee to shorten the evening in Davis's homecoming to his native Norfolk, Virginia.

Lemos entered the fight after his first loss to junior welterweight contender Richardson Hitchins and somehow thought he was going to drop five pounds to fight Davis in a lightweight eliminator.

It was thought that Lemos could enter the ring at over one hundred fifty pounds, raising questions about Davis's ability to handle a larger fighter.

None of that mattered as Davis overwhelmed Lemos in the second with three knockdowns and showed complete control with an impressive victory that is likely to move Davis into a title opportunity against WBO lightweight champion Denys Barinchyk in his next bout.

Barinchyk is a talented champion as he showed in his upset of Emanuel Navarrete to win the vacant title but Davis is a step above in talent and I would favor Davis in that matchup.

The better question might be will Barinchyk take more money to defend against Davis in Norfolk or fight in a neutral site that gives him a better chance to win?

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 157 Pts (1)

TRS: 153 Pts (1)
Vince Samano: 96 Pts  (2)

Boxing Challenge: Zepeda Shines, Stevenson Wins

     The Boxing Weekend's biggest star was in Newark, New Jersey and while Shakur Stevenson controlled Artur Harutyunyan and retained his WBC lightweight title via a comfortable unanimous decision, Stevenson did little to polish a reputation that is rapidly becoming stained by boredom.

Stevenson had a mild window in the eighth and ninth rounds that he might have stopped Harutyunyan but he didn't press for the stoppage and the chance drifted away.

Stevenson's contract with Top Rank ended with a victory and while his win (119-109, 118-110, 116-112, my score 118-110) was more exciting than his last win over Edwin De Los Santos, it was far from a barnburner and didn't give Stevenson a great statement to sell himself to potential suitors.

For all of his tremendous skills, Stevenson may be the Pernell Whitaker of his era, a fighter with immense talents who can beat anyone but is satisfied with dominant but dull wins.

That may win fights, titles, and even the Hall of Fame but doesn't attract fans or pay-per-view purchases

The Hamburglar made an appearance in Newark after O'Shaquie Foster was robbed of his WBC junior lightweight title via split decision to Robson Conceicao.

This was the fight that I rated as the hardest to choose a winner of the weekend yet Foster outboxed Conceicao and while I didn't have it the shutout as the ESPN commentators scored, I did think Foster won handily at 117-111.

I thought the judges who scored for Foster at 116-112 had the fight too close but the other judges were simply terrible with scores of 116-112 and 115-113 for Conceciao.

I picked Conceciao to win but I was heartbroken for Foster during his post-fight interview as there was no anger in his eyes, only tears and his voice breaking.

Hopefully, Top Rank or the WBC will mandate an immediate rematch, Foster at least deserves that much.

Lightweight Keyshawn Davis won a foul-filled, dirty fight over Miguel Madueno by a unanimous decision.

Scores for Davis of 99-91 (same as mine) and while I like Davis, he has the feel of a fighter that could be very good but not great.

Abdullah Mason's fight with Luis Lebron wasn't part of the challenge but his impressive three-round knockout deserves mentioning.

Mason will be a star and if they fought soon, I'd pick Mason to beat Keyshawn Davis right now.

I think Mason is that good.

The star of the weekend was lightweight contender William Zepeda, who mowed down Giovanni Cabrera in three rounds.

Cabrera had lost only once, a split decision to WBC junior welterweight champion Isaac Cruz, and had an excellent first round against Zepeda.

Zepeda improved in the second and third, began to land to the head and body, finishing Zepeda off with a shot to the liver.

As the top contender in all four sanctioning groups, Zepeda has options that few challengers have, and win or lose, Zepeda is going to give a champion all sorts of hell.

I have yet to see these fights but here are the results.

From Golden Boy/DAZN

Ricardo Sandoval stopped Angel Acosta in the 10th and final round in what has been reported to be a close fight and a dubious stoppage.

Pay Per View

Shane Mosley Jr won a unanimous decision over Daniel Jacobs 

Fernando Martinez won a unanimous decision over Kazuto Ioka to unify the WBA and IBF junior bantamweight titles.

Martinez should be in line for a 2025 fight with WBC champion Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez or perhaps WBO champion Kosei Tanaka later this year.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 103 Pts  (6)

TRS: 91 Pts (7)

Vince Samano: (0)

Boxing Challenge: Davis roars, Lopez bores

   Teofimo Lopez had a chance to dazzle the Las Vegas crowd in the area for Sunday's Super Bowl and his entrance was entertaining as a circus ringmaster.

Unfortunately, that was as entertaining as things would be in the main event as Lopez looked mediocre in a desultory outing in retaining his WBO junior welterweight title by a unanimous decision that has been panned by many over Jamaine Ortiz.

Neither fighter threw many punches and Ortiz was content to box from the outside using a lefthanded stance which was enough to win on my card 115-113.

Lopez experienced difficulty cutting the ring off from the mobile Ortiz. He looked more like the puzzled and unmotivated fighter that slid by Sandor Martin than the determined tiger that upended Josh Taylor last year.

Lopez won on two cards 115-113, which I disagree with but the Steve Weisfeld card of 117-111 seemed particularly out of whack.

While I thought Ortiz deserved the nod, I don't need to see a rematch of a fight that was extremely dull and Lopez certainly will not want to face a defensive-minded boxer like Ortiz for a lesser paycheck again.

Teofimo Lopez is starting to remind me of Zab Judah as a fighter that you can never count out yet as one that you can't count on as well.

Lopez has the talent to defeat the best in the sport but struggles against mobile boxers, especially if he feels that he doesn't have to focus on the opposition.

It happened against George Kambosos, Sandor Martin, and now Jamaine Ortiz, showing a pattern of his biggest flaw.

Just don't rule him out against elite fighters, because when motivated Lopez ranks at the top of the spot.

The star of the night was former Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn Davis, who impressed in stopping former junior lightweight and lightweight champion Jose Pedraza in six rounds.

Davis showed more strength and power than he had in recent outings and won every round against Pedraza, who tried his best but didn't use his range and seemed content to wait and hope for a right-hand miracle.

Davis looked very sharp in victory, and I'm looking forward to seeing him in his next attempt against top opponents.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 20 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 18 Pts (3)

Vince Samano; 10 Pts (3) 

Boxing Challenge: The Hamburglar Visits Oklahoma

     The Hamburglar had been on the fringes of a re-appearance in boxing of late with some controversial decisions but he finally was forced to step out of the darkness on Saturday in Shawnee Oklahoma for the main event of a light boxing weekend.

George Kambosos may have been given a majority decision victory in an IBF lightweight title eliminator over Maxi Hughes but he certainly didn't deserve the win and while Kambosos will now be in line to fight for a potentially vacant championship should Devin Haney decide to move to the junior welterweight division, it's certainly fair to begin to wonder if the post-fight excuses by Teofimo Lopez were legitimate concerning Kambosos's upset and perhaps any decent boxer have possibly beaten a weakened Lopez on that night.

The scores and decision will long outlive the actual fight as it wasn't particularly exciting or even interesting but Hughes did more than enough to fend off the ineffective aggression from Kambosos.

I had Hughes clearly ahead 116-112 and some watchers had Hughes with a larger lead than mine before the staggeringly terrible scorecards- 114-114 (I could see this if you stretched to give Kambosos every narrow round but still not good), 115-113 for Kambosos ( terrible) and 117-11 for Kambosos, which might be the worst card I've seen in quite a while.

I feel terrible for Hughes, who did everything that a heavy underdog could do to win and still got hosed out of a career-defining win that would have likely earned him a shot at a vacant world championship.

Kambosos could very well be boxing's one-hit wonder and while it would be premature to write the Australian off entirely, Kambosos has fought so dismally in his three fights since his upset over Teofimo Lopez that it is fair to wonder if he has already passed his best days.

The co-feature saw lightweight prospect Keyshawn Davis dominated Francesco Patera to win an easy ten-round decision.

Davis knocked down Patera in the eighth round but Patera battled through to last the ten-round distance.

Davis won by scores of 100-89 times two with my score the same as the final judge of 99-90.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 122 Pts (2) 

Ramon Malpica: 109 Pts (2)

Vince Samano: 89 Pts (2)

Boxing Challenge: Stevenson Superb, Teraji retains titles

 I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter!

I will be covering the two cards from ESPN+ from Saturday here and the DAZN and Showtime cards tomorrow with two tremendous upsets involved on those two programs!

From Newark N.J., Shakur Stevenson staked his claim in the lightweight division with a dominant performance in a WBC eliminator against Shuichiro Yoshino.

Stevenson was never mildly pressed by Yoshino and knocked him down twice in the second and fourth rounds before battering him in the sixth to force the stoppage.

My scorecard had Stevenson up 50-43 at the time of the stoppage

Stevenson is transitioning into a more exciting fighter by moving less but still remaining elusive for opponents to find and while Yoshino may have been sent from central casting as the perfect foil, don't allow that to take away from Stevenson's effort- he looked terrific and should this version of Stevenson continue to evolve, he might not only be the best of the lightweight division, he may be the most exciting as well.

Top Rank placed arguably their two best prospects at the top of their supporting card with both scoring victories.

Heavyweight Jared Anderson didn't score a knockdown. Still, he did control a reluctant George Arias until hurting Arias late in the third round with the corner calling it a night for the previously undefeated Arias.

It may not have been a brilliant outing for Anderson but it showed that he's ready to jump a level in opponent quality as Arias wasn't a remotely substantial test.

Lightweight Keyshawn Davis stopped former title challenger Anthony Yigit in the ninth round of a lightweight tilt that was filled with headbutts and sloppy fouls from each man.

Davis and Yigit each committed their share of fouls with Davis literally landing a knee-lift reminiscent of Mr. Wrestling II to Yigit's face in the seventh round.

Davis crushed Yigit with seconds remaining in the eighth with a punishing body shot to send him to the floor that may have been better suited to end the fight but Yigit surprisingly rose and even more surprisingly came out for the ninth before Davis swarmed over the Swede to finish the fight.

I had Davis ahead comfortably at 79-73 at the end of the fight.

Earlier in the day from Tokyo, Kenshiro Teraji retained his WBA and WBC light flyweight titles with a ninth-round knockout of late replacement Anthony Olascuaga in an excellent action battle.

The quality of the fight was a surprise considering Olascuaga stepped in on a few weeks' notice for WBO champion Jonathan Gonzalez and was facing Teraji in only his sixth pro fight.

Teraji won six of the first seven rounds on my card but Olascuaga was constantly winging right hands and landing his share against the perpetually attacking Teraji often enough to make things entertaining.

And it became even more interesting with Olascuaga stunning Teraji in the eighth as out of nowhere it seemed as if a major upset was very possible.

However, Teraji may have decided that the fight may have been getting too close for comfort as he quickly leaped on Olascauga early in the ninth, sending him to the floor where referee Mark Nelson decided he had seen enough.

For Teraji, another action battle with a unification pairing against Jonathan Gonzalez coming up as soon as it can be re-scheduled, and for Olascuaga, gritty more than describe his outing under extraordinary circumstances.

I'm sure we will see Olascuaga again soon in the 105-pound division.

Takuma Inoue picked up the WBA bantamweight title that his brother Naoya vacated with a unanimous decision over Liborio Solis.

Takuma doesn't punch anywhere near as hard as Naoya but he controlled the second half of the fight with the aging Solis tiring badly down the stretch.

I scored Inoue a 117-111 winner, which agreed with the middle of the three scores of 118-110, 117-111, and 116-112.

Takuma has only four knockouts in his eighteen wins, so my guess is that Takuma's title defenses will be kept as easy as possible with those defenses held in Japan until an eventual mandatory against a top foe would be forced.

Japan's Reiya Abe dominated former junior featherweight and featherweight champion Kiko Martinez with an easy unanimous decision in a featherweight eliminator for the IBF.

Not much to say about this one as Martinez charged ineffectively as Abe scored easily with countershots or easily moved away from the Spanish veteran.

I gave Martinez the first two rounds and Abe the final ten for a score of 118-110.

The judges saw Abe as the winner at 119-109 times two and 117-111.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 58 Pts (10) 

Ramon Malpica: 53 Pts (12) 

Vince Samano: 43 Pts (10)