Boxing Challenge: Eubank outslugs Benn

    The boxing weekend was all about the British as London's Tottenham Hotspur stadium held the four fights in the boxing challenge.

The main event was a surprise as I believed the match between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn would be a bigger man wearing down a smaller man in a lopsided result of a heavily hyped fight.

Instead, the two brawled for twelve rounds in a fight that begged for these two to hook it up for a second time, with Eubank Jr emerging with the unanimous decision victory.

All three judges scored the bout 116-112 (as I did) for Eubank Jr.

Eubank's larger frame was too much for the gutsy Benn to get past, and it wasn't until the final round that either fighter was seriously in trouble, when Eubank stunned Benn and attempted to earn the stoppage, with Benn barely surviving.

I have to admit this fight did very little for me before the bout, but both men showed heart and skill,s and I was wrong, this fight was worth the time.

Light heavyweight contender Anthony Yarde won the rubber match in his third fight against Lyndon Arthur by unanimous decision.

This one was entertaining for six rounds, but Yarde controlled the second half of the fight to win by scores of 116-112 times two (my score) and 115-113.

Middleweight Aaron McKenna won the biggest fight of his career with a battering of former WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith.

McKenna almost stopped Smith in the final round, dropping him after a punch to the body, but Smith managed to hear the final bell.

McKenna's winning scores were 119-108, 118-108, and 117-109, with my score at 118-109.

McKenna should be moved to the next level after a tremendous outing, while Smith should consider retirement after an excellent career.

Former WBO cruiserweight champion Chris Billam-Smith was a winner in his return from his title loss to Gilberto Ramirez with a unanimous decision over Brandon Glanton.

I had the fight even after eight rounds, but it was all Billam-Smith late to earn the nod on the scorecards.

Scores of 116-112 times two (same as mine) and 116-113 for Billam-Smith

Billam-Smith is now in line to meet the winner of this weekend's WBC cruiserweight title match between champion Badou Jack and Noel Mikaelian.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 61 Pts (4)

Ramon Malpica:56 Pts (6)

Vince Samano:23 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: Eubank earns redemption!

     Chris Eubank Jr. claimed for eight months that Liam Smith had just gotten lucky and hit him with a one-in-a-million punch from which he couldn't recover and he would reverse that loss when he received his contractually obligated rematch.

Most people, including myself, thought Eubank's once-sturdy chin had shown its first crack and Smith would repeat his win, even though I thought Eubank would last the distance in the rematch.

In boxing, the unforeseen often appears when least expected, which would mean that Eubank would dominate Smith, rarely get hit,  knock Smith down in the fourth and again in the tenth before the referee had finally had enough and ended the fight in Eubank's favor.

Eubank's performance was so complete that I don't see a need for a third fight because Smith looked so bad and downright decrepit that I'm not sure how you can sell it to even the British public, who often buy almost anything from an All-British clash.

Ironically, Smith may have been able to make a case for a third fight had the fight been stopped when he was knocked down in round four.

It could have been sellable for a third fight if a promoter could say "Both guys got caught early one time and we need a rubber match to settle the issue".

Instead, Smith was pummelled for ten rounds, shown next to nothing in his offense, and unless you really want to buy into Smith's excuse of a leg/ankle injury in camp (Smith did look very stiff and immobile to be fair) and try to make the argument a 100% Smith could win the third fight, it's going to be a very hard fight to sell to the public.

Eubank called out Conor Benn for their fight that never happened (not excited), Kell Brook (likely not competitive as Brook hasn't fought since his Feb. 2022 win over the even more faded Amir Khan), and Gennady Golovkin, who isn't likely to fight again, so those fights are either unlikely, unsellable, or unappetizing for Eubank.

As for Smith, unless his injury truly made a big difference, he looked like he aged ten years since his win eight months ago and looked so bad that if that is the best that he has, Smith should consider retirement. Still, I would understand if he wanted to fight another time to see if that was the case.

If Smith and his team decide to carry on, I would be very cautious in selecting his next opponent and make sure it's a lower-level opponent or at minimum, a fighter that isn't a big puncher.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 141 Pts (0)

Ramon Malpica: 128 Pts (0)

Vince Samano: 96 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: Smith knocks out Eubank!

 If you had selected the least likely result for Saturday's middleweight clash between Chris Eubank Jr. and Liam Smith before the fight, you likely would have picked a Smith KO.

Smith has never been known as a big puncher, and Eubank has always shown an excellent chin, so combined with Eubank being the natural middleweight and Smith moving up to the division, it was only natural to think Smith's best chance to win was via decision.

And as so often happens in boxing, the least likely result was exactly what happened as Smith landed a left uppercut that sent Eubank slumping in a corner, and on very unsteady legs after he rose.

Smith grabbed the opportunity to floor Eubank again and after he rose from the floor, his coordination looked even worse and the fight ended in round four.

As the post-fight began a large lump under Eubank's right eye began to appear and in hindsight, Eubank may have had major problems with the eye not swelling shut as the fight progressed.

For Liam Smith, it's the biggest win of his career and may have earned him a potential title fight later this year as the defeated Eubank was rated in the top five in three of the rating organizations.

Smith may have to repeat his win over Eubank as there is a rematch clause, should Eubank choose to activate his option but if not Smith certainly will be in line for bigger fights.

As for Eubank, this loss isn't one to finish a career but he will need to bounce back from this, if not with a win over Smith in a rematch, a win over someone to regain his standing in the division.

Eubank is capable of winning a rematch as he looked very good in the third round and looked to be ready to swing the fight his way, so I would imagine that he could justify a rematch by stating he just caught perfectly by an average puncher and could win a rematch.

Eubank had better win that rematch if he asks for it as a second loss could leave him as permanently damaged goods.

In the co-feature, undefeated Richard Riakporhe knocked out former WBO cruiserweight champion Krzysztof Glowacki in the fourth round for the biggest win of his career.

Riakporhe fended off the occasional rushes of Glowacki and came close to ending the fight in round two as he rocked Glowacki late in the round before the round ended.

Riakporhe punished Glowacki in the fourth round and after raining punches on the veteran and trapping him in a corner, the referee bailed Glowacki out with an honorable stoppage before he would take even more of a beating.

Riakporhe looks to be in line for a challenge of WBO cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie next or fight for a possible vacant title, should Okolie decide to leave the division.

As for Glowacki, with knockout losses in three of his last fights, he seems to be well past his prime and should consider retirement.

In the other challenge fight, former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker rebounded from his knockout loss to Joe Joyce with an easy unanimous decision over awkward former cruiserweight Jack Massey.

Massey looked almost frail next to Parker and the southpaw did try to be effective. especially in the tenth round when he rallied a bit.

Massey lost a point in the eighth round for holding and there wasn't a ton of action for Parker to brag about a big win.

Scorecards saw Parker a winner at 97-93, 96-93, and 97-92.

I scored Parker the winner at 98-91.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 10 Pts (4)

TRS: 10 Pts (3)

Vince Samano: 10 Pts (3)

 

Boxing Challenge: Stevenson dominates Valdez

    Shakur Stevenson faced his toughest career test and while I wouldn't say that Oscar Valdez was flicked aside with ease, Stevenson dominated most of the fight and won a lopsided unanimous decision over Valdez to add the WBC junior lightweight title to his own WBO championship.

The fight was competitive for the first five rounds and although I scored only one for Valdez (the third) Stevenson wasn't dominating until he scored the fight's only knockdown in round six on a right hand that dropped Valdez seat-first along the ropes.

Valdez wasn't hurt and rose quickly but the fight was never close again as Valdez's rushes became more clumsy as the fight moved on and only the tenth would go into his column on my card.

The scorecards reflected that with Stevenson taking scores of 117-110 and two of 118-109, which is how I saw the fight.

Stevenson stated that he wanted the other two champions in the division but fights against WBA champion Roger Gutierrez and IBF beltholder Kenichi Ogawa are likely to be less competitive than Valdez against the young champion, few would be excited over those fights, and unless Top Rank was willing to overpay, I don't see either wanting to hand over their titles to Stevenson.

The easy take is comparing Stevenson with a young Floyd Mayweather and I can see where some would say that with the speed and skill of both fighters.

However, there are differences and Stevenson is a little more willing to engage in the pocket than Mayweather (even young Floyd) and he's not quite as elusive as Floyd could be.

Stevenson will not face an opponent to challenge him for quite a while but if you are interested in a possible future opponent to test Stevenson- root for Devin Haney to dethrone and then win his rematch against George Kambosis.

Haney's recent move to Top Rank makes this fight possible, as well as a Stevenson-Vasily Lomachenko match that would be easy to make, are the two most likely top opponents for Stevenson, although I have my fingers crossed for a Gervonta Davis break from Mayweather Productions for a superfight that should take place in either Baltimore or Washington.

In the co-feature to the Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano battle (which Taylor won via split decision, while I had Serrano a slight victor), a crossroads battle between veteran junior middleweights almost stole the show as Liam Smith and Jessie Vargas slugged it out toe to toe before the smaller Vargas eventually wilted with Smith scoring the tenth round stoppage.

Vargas won the first two rounds but as Smith began to assert his strength, the naturally larger fighter began to control the exchanges as he frequently trapped Vargas along the ropes and pounded him into the corner.

Both fighters bled throughout the bout and even though the exciting main event overshadowed a very good affair.

Smith should move up in the rankings of the WBO after winning a minor title and I'd wager he'll be in another crossroads fight next fight out.

As for Vargas, he should try to drop back to welterweight, if he can make the weight as he simply doesn't have the power to keep the stronger junior middleweights off him.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 69 Pts (3)

Vince Samano: 59 (3) 

Ramon Malpica: 56 (2) 

Boxing Challenge: Fury finishes off Wilder.

    The undercard for the third and likely final fight between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder may have disappointed but the main event certainly did not as Fury and Wilder slugged it out into the eleventh round before Fury conclusively finished Wilder with a crunching overhand right that left no doubt on who the better heavyweight is and retain his WBC heavyweight title.

Fury knocked Wilder down in the third and tenth, while Wilder sent Fury to the floor twice in the fourth round and just missed pulling off an amazing upset.

Fury generally controlled most of the action as he did in the first two fights, but Wilder had a few more moments in the third fight and his fourth-round knockdowns had Fury in more trouble than after either of the two knockdowns in the first fight.

My scorecard entering the final round had Fury ahead 94-91.

For Fury, the bigger man did what he did in the second fight, using his size and footwork to wear down Wilder on the inside and in clinches and at the same time move well enough to frustrate the often wild swipes from Wilder.

Wilder was effective in the early rounds when he scored with combinations and was able to stun Fury enough to keep the larger man off balance but by the sixth round, his legs were essentially gone and left Wilder resigned to basically winging the right hand and hoping to clip Fury with a miracle bomb.

Fury appears to be destined next to face Dillian Whyte, the longtime top WBC mandatory contender in what would be a huge fight in England, should Whyte defeat Otto Wallin in their October 30th fight and that's not a guarantee when you consider Wallin's close loss to Fury.

Should Fury defeat Whyte as he will be favored to do (or Wallin should he defeated Whyte), I would imagine he would next face the winner of the Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua rematch sometime next summer to unify Fury's WBC belt with the other three organizations titles held by the winner of the rematch.

As for Wilder, I'm not convinced that at 36 years of age that he might be better suited to consider retirement.

Wilder would have to be rebuilt in order to qualify for a future title shot that would be at least 18 months away at the earliest and while there would be interest in a Wilder-Joshua or even a Wilder-Usyk bout, even after all these years, I think few would be interested in a fourth Wilder-Fury fight.

And with PBC having nothing to with Usyk, Fury, or Joshua, Wilder's best bets could be against former champion Andy Ruiz, Robert Helenius, or Frank Sanchez, both of whom won on the undercard.

Still, Wilder may have proved more with his strong effort and willingness to go out on his shield than in any of his title defenses against mostly soft touches.

I thought the fight was very good at a high level but I didn't think it was the greatest heavyweight title fight of all time as some claimed after the fight.

I would say it's in the middle to back half of the top ten heavyweight title fights in history.

The undercard was thought to be paired with two fights that could be action slugfests and both came up short.

Robert Helenius left no doubt about his second win over Adam Kownacki with a sixth-round battering that left Kownacki with a broken orbital bone.

Kownacki stumbled around and was repeatedly smashed by the taller and longer Helenius before the fight was stopped in the sixth.

I had given Helenius all five rounds before the stoppage.

In a very droll fight between two undefeated heavyweights, PBC's Frank Sanchez won a unanimous decision over Top Rank's Efe Ajagba in a fight that really deserved to be skipped.

Sanchez knocked Ajaaba to one knee in the eighth round for the fight's only highlight.

I had Sanchez a 98-91 winner and looks to be placed against a PBC veteran that has a name or high ranking in the near future.

Part of the reason that this was posted so late as I was waiting to have time to watch "The Battle of Liverpool" that pitted former WBO champion Liam Smith against rising prospect Anthony Fowler in junior middleweight slugfest on a DAZN/Matchroom card.

Smith finished Fowler in the eighth round with a left hook that Fowler got up from but was unable to continue with the referee stopping the bout.

Fowler started fast, winning the first three rounds on my cards and cutting Smith above the left eye in the first round.

Smith began to turn the tide in fourth when he returned the favor to Fowler and scored a knockdown in the fifth and had taken the lead on my card after seven rounds, 67-65.

Smith will stay on the scene with the likelihood of meeting someone in a title eliminator for one of the sanctioning bodies soon while Fowler seems to be more of a European title level veteran rather than a top fifteen style contender.

In the boxing challenge, I scored five points to Ramon Malpica's two to move my lead to 135-116.

Boxing Challenge: Canelo breaks down BJS

    For almost eight rounds, the super middleweight title unification fight was close (unless you were one of two judges) between Canelo Alvarez and Billy Joe Saunders and seemed to be ramping up towards a dramatic ending in Arlington, Texas.

Alvarez ended all of that drama late in the eighth round when a crunching right undercut damaged the right eye of Saunders and as the round ended, Saunders' eye was inflating by the second.

Within the minute between rounds, Saunders's corner determined that the damage was too much for their fighter to continue and stopped the fight, which handed Alvarez the WBO title to add to the WBA and WBC championships that Alvarez held entering the fight.

Saunders was quite slippery and had some success against Canelo with my scorecard showing the battle even at 76 after eight rounds, but the eighth was Alvarez's best of the fight and with a damaged eye Saunders was clearly going to need a miracle as the scorecards had him trailing by two, four, and four points after eight.

Give Saunders credit for only stumbling a bit after taking a tremendous shot from Canelo and he was never even in mild trouble during the fight, but he didn't throw enough punches and going against a fighter like Canelo Alvarez when you aren't a big puncher you will need to win a decision and to win such a decision you may have to win 9-3 or 10-2 in rounds to win a 7-5 decision.

Saunders's eye socket is suspected to be broken and you have to wonder how Saunders will recover physically as after Kell Brook broke his eye socket against Gennady Golovkin, he broke it again against Errol Spence and was never the same fighter.

Canelo Alvarez called for the only champion that is left to defeat next in IBF champion Caleb Plant.

Plant fights for PBC and while you would think that Plant cannot make anything close to what he'd make to face Alvarez, PBC head Al Haymon has ways that make his fighters decide to work against their financial interest in the past, most notably, Jermall Charlo turning down seven million (twice his career-high at the time) to fight Demetrius Andrade on DAZN and Peter Quillin vacating his WBO middleweight title rather than fight Matt Korobov for a career-high 1.4 million (over three times his career-high purse at the time) for Roc Nation after the now-defunct company won a purse bid.

I could also see Haymon thinking that the missing title is what makes Plant valuable (he's right on that considering Plant's resume'), have Plant score another dominant victory over a non-entity (Plant has fought one fighter of top ten quality in Jose Uzcategui) in an attempt to increase Plant's value before he cashes in with a fight that he is likely to lose.

In other words, don't be surprised at all if Caleb Plant, the guy noted as "What else does he have to do" by Eddie Hearn, actually finds someone else to fight.

The co-feature saw WBO light flyweight champion Elwin Soto defeat former minimumweight champion, Katsunari Takayama, by ninth-round stoppage when our "favorite" referee Laurence Cole stopped the fight a bit early in my opinion.

I had Soto had ahead 76-75 (5-3 in rounds, with Soto losing a point in the first round for hitting after the bell) and Takayama was rallying on my card, winning three of the four previous to the ninth.

Soto could have a unification match with WBA champion Hiroto Kyoguchi soon as both fighters recently fought for the first time with Matchroom and what should be an almost guaranteed action battle.

Friday in Russia, Magomed Kurbanov won a unanimous decision over former WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith in a fight that could have been scored for either combatant.

I scored Kurbanov a 115-113 winner, which was the same as two judges with the third a ridiculous 117-111 card, but the fight was extremely close and I wouldn't even offer a word should someone score Smith a close winner.

Smith landed plenty but didn't seem to hurt Kurbanov and these two are the type of solid back end of the top ten/twelve contenders that could fight five times and deliver five tight affairs.

Ramon Malpica outscored me four to three in the boxing challenge and cut my lead to 62-60.

Boxing Challenge;Usyk wins WBSS!!

Finally, we have a four belt champion and the winner of the first World Boxing Super Series as Oleksandr Usyk gave the performance of his career with a dazzling and dominant victory over Murat Gassiev in Moscow via a unanimous decision.

Usyk's win annexed the WBA and IBF cruiserweight titles from Gassiev added them to the WBO and WBC championships that he already held and left no doubt that he is the best cruiserweight in the world.
I thought the fight was a pick em level fight, but I leaned Gassiev by a hair.
I was quickly proven wrong as the speed and quickness of Usyk left Gassiev befuddled and confused for the evening and on the occasion that the power-hitting Gassiev did connect, Usyk took those hammers extremely well in winning a 118-110 decision on my card.
Usyk was the tournament's top seed and won all three of his tournament events in his opponent's home country defeating Marco Huck in Germany, Mairis Briedis in Latvia and then Gassiev in Russia in the final.

The rumored next fight for Usyk is Brit Tony Bellew, a former cruiserweight champ with two wins over former heavyweight champion David Haye in Bellew's last two fights.
Hopefully, that fight will be at cruiserweight, where it would be nice to see Usyk make a few defenses of the unified title and not have the title break back into four pieces after a move to heavyweight.
I'd like to see Usyk in a rematch vs Mairis Bredis, who Usyk defeated in the semi's by a narrow majority decision before he leaves for the bigger division.
I scored their fight a draw so this would be far from a sure thing for Usyk.

As for the WBSS, they couldn't have asked for more from their first tournament.
They had every major cruiser and most of the best in the world, were able to put together exciting and compelling bouts and unified all the titles.
Every tourney won't be able to do that, as their super middleweight bracket has shown and they won't be able to attract all the champions every time, as their 2018-19 brackets have shown.
The cruiserweight champions were all European attractions, so there was not a need for an American presence- eventually, they will need one.
The WBSS still will need to prove that they will be able to bring the best fighters in from the three main American promoters (they have yet to pull a major star from Golden Boy, PBC or Top Rank), and they have to hope Eddie Hearn's streaming service DAZN catches on as season two's contests will be exclusive to that outlet, but still I have to say the WBSS is an early success story, let's hope that this can be sustained.

On HBO, the main event was the return of exciting banger Jaime Munguia in the first defense of his WBO junior middleweight title against former champion Liam Smith in Las Vegas.
I haven't had a chance to watch Munguia's unanimous decision win, so I'll edit this later when I have.

Alberto Machado won every round over Rafael Mensah in the dull opener to retain a minor title.
Machado was arguably the most screwed over fighter by the WBA after he won their top title with a stunning KO of favored Jezreel Corrales, only to be dropped to their "regular' title in order to have the top "vacant" title (which really wasn't) filled by Gervonta Davis.
Machado knocked Mensah down at the end of the first round and had he had a few more seconds, might have ended the fight there.
Instead, we received eleven more rounds of a tedious beating.
I scored Machado a 120-107 winner.

In the challenge, Ramon Malpica scored 4 points to my 3 and cut my lead to 25 at 115-90...

Boxing Challenge-Beterbiev wins a title,Jacobs returns to ring

A five-fight weekend in the boxing challenge didn't exactly fill the world with action, but not every fight can be a war, but they still had significance on the overall scene.

On ESPN, hometown junior welterweight Jose Ramirez sold out an arena in Fresno, California and impressively blew out Mike Reed in the second round in a junior welterweight eliminator.
I think selling out a 12,000 seat arena might have been more impressive than stopping Reed, but Ramirez is going to make some fun fights to watch as he moves up the ladder and in his next fight for the vacant WBC title (one of the belts dropped by Terence Crawford) against Amir Imam.

In the co-feature, Artur Beterbiev won every round against Enrico Koelling before stopping him in the final round to preserve his flawless knockout streak and win the vacant IBF light heavyweight title.
One round was pretty much the same as the next, so the fight wasn't that great however Beterbiev wins a title and adds himself to the top of an interesting light heavyweight division.

On HBO, Daniel Jacobs won almost every round (119-109 on my card) in a unanimous decision over Luis Arias.
I thought Jacobs looked good, not great and it'll be worth a look in his next fight against whoever that will be to see if Jacobs is truly a top five fighter or one that bulked up to have an advantage against Gennady Golovkin in his biggest bout.
I always laugh when fighters talk about the importance of staying active as Jacobs did in his post-fight interview that has a background of fighting once or twice a year.
Attention fighters:If you REALLY want to stay active-Do NOT sign with Al Haymon and the PBC.
Jacobs may be serious now as he is with Eddie Hearn.

In two fights that I have yet to see in the challenge-
Heavyweight Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller stopped veteran journeyman Mariusz Wach in the ninth round.
Wach was ranked in the top ten for some reason, so this win should move Miller up the rankings of the sanctioning bodies.

In the U.K. Liam Smith won a unanimous decision over Liam Williams in a rematch of their bloody war from the summer.
Unfair for me to say since I have not seen the fight yet, but I have seen a few (a few) that thought Williams clearly won...

In the challenge, Ramon Malpica earned seven points to my six and pulled to 175-158 for the year.
Ramon's seven points were acquired as followed:
Two points each with wins from Beterbiev, Miller and Smith and one from the win by Daniel Jacobs.

My six were as noted;
Two points each from Beterbiev and Jacobs and one point each from Ramirez and Miller.

Join me tonight at 8 EST on Fightheads to talk boxing at  (646) 787-1746 

Lomachenko dominates Sosa-Boxing Challenge

The boxing challenge rolled into Maryland of all place for three fights and two more in England for a big fight weekend.
I outscored Ramon Malpica nine to six on the weekend to move my lead to 41-36 on the year....

The first ever card at the new MGM casino in Oxon Hill Maryland featured what some consider the best fighter in the world as Vasyl Lomachenko won every round from Jason Sosa and forced his corner to throw in the towel after the ninth round to retain his WBO junior lightweight title.
Lomachenko did not score a knockdown on the game Sosa,but steadily pounded the challenger and rarely took a punch,let alone one of value.
The knockout win gave me three points (win,result and round called) to Ramon's one.

As for Lomachenko,who might be boxing's most avoided man,who knows what's next.
None of the other three champions (WBA Jezreel Corrales,WBC Miguel Berchelt or IBF Gervonta Davis) seem to have any interest in fighting him,which is why Jason Sosa took his shot.
Orlando Salido,who defeated Lomachenko in a fight that saw Salido miss weight and fire low blows consistently over their fight that should have seen Salido lose points,but weren't before Salido won a narrow split decision.
That rematch would be interesting as Salido has been the only opponent not only defeat Lomachenko,but even give him a challenge.
However,Top Rank (Lomachenko's promoter) thinks Salido has overpriced himself to avoid the rematch.
A move to 135 pounds could see two challengers to make Lomachenko work in WBA champ Jorge Linares or WBC champ Mikey Garcia,but if the WBC has their way,those two will fight each other next.
Other than those two,I don't see anyone capable of giving Lomachenko a mild challenge under 140 pounds and that could mean more squash matches like last night....

The undercard saw Oleksandr Usyk win a unanimous decision over former U.S.Olympian Michael Hunter to retain his WBO cruiserweight title.
Usyk badly hurt Hunter in the 12th and scored a knockdown when the ropes held a badly hurt Hunter up on his feet.
This fight should have been stopped in that round,but it wasn't-if Maryland is going to become a fight staple in Oxon Hill-they had better start training some quality referees.
I scored Usyk a 117-110 winner (9-3 with the knockdown),but Hunter showed some good things.
He needs more seasoning,but he could be back down the road.
I'd love to see Usyk against IBF champ Murat Gassiev or WBC titleist Mairis Breidis in unification fights,which would be close and entertaining contests.
Ramon and I each scored one point for the win,as we did for the other fight on the HBO broadcast as
there is a looming star in the light heavyweight division in Oleksandr Gvozdyk,who steamrolled Yunieski Gonzalez in three rounds.
Gvozdyk dropped Gonzalez twice in the round,sending him staggering around the ring before finishing him off in leaving him face down on the canvas.
The light heavyweight division is suddenly filled with promising big punching contenders in Gvozdyk,Artur Beterbiev,Joe Smith among other solid contenders in Elieder Alvarez,Sullivan Barrera and the rising in weight Badou Jack,so lots of good fights could be made-lets see what happens....

In Manchester,England,Terry Flanagan retained his WBO lightweight title with a unanimous decision over Petr Petrov.
I scored Flanagan a 116-112 winner,but from what I saw against the solid,but unspectacular Petrov.
Flanagan might want to stay away from the top two lightweights in the above mentioned Linares and Garcia.
Ramon and I each earned two points for the Flanagan win.

In a travesty on many levels,Liam Smith defeated Liam Williams when a severe (and rare) double cut on Williams eyelid forced his corner to resign after the ninth round.
The bout was scheduled to be for the "interim" WBO junior middleweight title that will be more than likely upgraded to the full title when Canelo Alvarez vacates the division,but Smith missed weight and left only Williams to win the title.
And then the worst part,I had Williams ahead six rounds to three at the end of nine,but near the end of the round,I thought Smith clearly charged in with malice head first and headbutted Williams causing the cut that would end the fight.
It was ruled a clash of heads and had Williams continued and had the fight been stopped due to that cut,the scorecards would have been consulted.
Instead the corner looked after their fighter over the chance of victory,gave Smith an undeserved win and kept the title vacant.
Smith's stoppage win gave me two points and Ramon one...

More on these and other boxing issues Monday on Fightheads..