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: Andrade decisions Williams

    The boxing weekend didn't see any huge upsets, but it did see some interesting fights with possible reverberations down the road.  

Saturday afternoon from Matchroom/DAZN saw Hollywood, Florida as the site for Demetrius Andrade's successful defense of his WBO middleweight title.

Andrade won a clear unanimous decision and knocked Williams down in the second round with a straight left, but Williams did have his moments and the fight was more exciting than the usual lopsided Andrade fight.

I scored Andrade a 117-109 winner (9-3 with the knockdown).

Andrade was hit occasionally by Williams and showed enough vulnerability that you would think any of the other three champions (WBC Jermall Charlo, WBA Ryota Murata, and IBF Gennady Golovkin) would be interested in a unification fight more than perhaps in the past.

I doubt it, but perhaps.

Andrade now has his mandatory out of the way for the year, but I (and Andrade with promoter Eddie Hearn) have next to no idea on Andrade's next defense unless the unlikely event that the three mentioned champions decides Andrade is suddenly worth the risk.

In the co-feature, undefeated super middleweight Carlos Gongora dominated Christopher Pearson and won every round through seven and finished Pearson off in the eighth.

Pearson appeared as if he could have risen, but took the ten count as he had clearly had enough of Gongora for the evening.

I'd like to see Gongora against a better challenger and he would make a very interesting fight for quite a few of the contenders in the division.

In the main event on Fox, former WBC junior middleweight champion Tony Harrison was rocked early by Bryant Perrella and outworked over most of the twelve-round fight by Perrella, who moved up in weight for this fight.

Harrison seemed a bit listless in his first fight since losing to Jermell Charlo and didn't move his hands enough, which likely cost him the fight as when Harrison picked up the pace he was effective against Perrella.

Harrison was fortunate to escape with a draw in a difficult bout to score.

I thought Perrella shaded it 115-113, but the Perrella judge scored 117-111 ( too wide), the Harrison judge scored 116-112 ( too wide), and the final judge scored 114-114, which seemed fair.

And then there was Twiller.

Peter Kahn (Twiller's chief boxing officer) has been all over the boxing podcast circuit with several respected members of the boxing media over the last two weeks talking about what Twiller is going to bring to boxing.

While I'm all for more attention and more exposure to the sport, I'm not sure that attention and exposure of a positive nature are coming anytime soon for what was essentially a freak show last night from Atlanta.

I'll be writing more later in the week about a pay per view card that seemed to be straight from a carnival that included YouTube star Jake Paul vs MMA fighter Ben Askren, former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir boxing against former IBF cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham, lots of musicians and comedians, Ric Flair officiating a "Slap Fight" with Saturday Night Live's Pete Davidson, about ten people commentating on the matches that ranged from a bemused Al Bernstein to a clearly inebriated (TONS of Marijuana references and use on this show) Oscar De La Hoya and Snoop Dog, and all of this looked like it was filmed in an abandoned warehouse with lousy lighting.

With all of that said, they may do strong numbers and I am anxious to see how well they do in PPV buys.

If they are successful, full credit to them because they are finding an audience that boxing clearly isn't getting without them.

However, is it sustainable and how many times can you play the card of gimmick shows before people tune out?

I don't have the answer to that question.

In the only real boxing match that mattered, former WBA junior welterweight Regis Prograis won the first five rounds in controlling veteran Ivan Redkach before round six when Redkach was hit with what was ruled a low blow, sold the injury like he was Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, and was unable to continue.

The reaction on Twitter was mixed with most people stating that Redkach wasn't even hit with a punch at all or if so it was a glancing shot.

Others thought that Redkach had been smashed in the kidneys and the result was believable.

In any case, Redkach was carried out on a stretcher, while I waited for a wrestler to come out of nowhere and overturn the stretcher as happened so often in pro wrestling of days past, and the fight moved to the scorecards with Prograis winning the justified unanimous decision.

What a trainwreck.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored five points on the day, which moves the total to 50-46 on the year.

Boxing Challenge: Navarrete Decisions Villa

  At times, Ruben Villa's slick boxing seemed to confuse the favored Emmanuel Navarrete and kept Navarrete at bay with wild swings that brought back memories of the wide swipes of 80s heavyweight title contender Renaldo "Mr." Snipes.

The problem for Villa was that two of those wild lefts landed in the first and fourth, knocked him down, and handed Navarrete two 10-8 rounds that he needed on the scorecards as Navarrette won a unanimous decision to pick up the WBO featherweight title vacated by Shakur Stevenson.

Had Navarrete not scored a knockdown in this fight, the fight would have ended in a majority draw as two judges scored Navarrete a 114-112 winner and that would have been a bit unfair.

I scored Navarrete a 116-110 winner (8-4 in rounds with two knockdowns), but Villa might have had a case to winning either or both rounds that he was dropped in and could have been a draw on my card under those conditions.

However, those weren't the conditions and the scores were not the greatest that I've seen- even compared to the awful scores many judges have been turning in recently.

It seemed like my card, while wide than the official scores weren't as wide as many viewers scored on their cards.

The scorecards seemed a little friendly to Villa, who I thought had plenty of moments that frustrated Navarrette, but in the end, just wasn't strong enough to earn Navarrete's respect.

Navarrete would make some interesting unification fights with IBF champion Josh Warrington, who has an association with Top Rank (Navarrete's promoter) and even though the WBA STILL has Leo Santa Cruz as their champion at featherweight (And holds their junior lightweight title AND could have one of their knockoff belts at lightweight, should LSC defeat Gervonta Davis later this month), they are expected to "promote" their "regular" champion  (Bleech) Xu Can to their champion and Can has an association with Top Rank as well.

Both Warrington and Can are aggressive fighters that aren't power punchers, so fights against Navarrete could be filled with action, but could either hurt Navarrete and make him pay for the wide, looping punches with straight counters down the middle?

I might rate Navarrete a favorite over Can and a mild favorite over Warrington.

A match with WBC champion Gary Russell can be placed off the table as Russell fights for PBC and never seems interested in fighting more than once a year.

As for Villa, his boxing skills aren't going to be popular and I don't think many top featherweights are going to go out of their way to face him.

However, he's not a big puncher ( five KOs) and his lack of strength certainly hurt him against Navarrete.

If Villa can make the weight and I have no idea how well he makes weight, I bet he'd be smart to consider dropping to junior featherweight if he could.

It could help with his physical strength against smaller fighters and could give him the edge that he needs to win a title.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica added one point for the Navarrete win to cut my lead to 129-119.

As far I know, there is no live broadcast of middleweight contender Liam Williams fight today from the UK.

If I have a chance to watch it, I could do another post on that or update this post with the result.

UPDATE: Liam Williams stopped Andrew Robinson in the first round of their middleweight match in London.

I added two points for the Williams KO win, while Ramon Malpica picked up one.

The season total is 131-120.

Boxing Challenge: Charlo rallies past Harrison

The rematch between Tony Harrison and Jermell Charlo appeared to be the opposite of their first fight.
Charlo seemed to have won their first battle and the judges saw it differently-scoring for Harrison.
In the rematch, other than a second-round flash knockdown, it was Harrison appearing to be winning and yet the judges had Charlo leading on the scorecards.

However, this time the fighter that didn't deserve to be ahead made sure that his hand was raised as Jermall Charlo dropped Tony Harrison twice in the eleventh round, survived California Athletic Commission members entering the ring after the second knockdown and win back the WBC junior middleweight title that he lost one year ago.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Charlo fight without a small dab of controversy somewhere and this one was more than the CAA entry, it arrived from referee Jack Reiss, who gave every chance for Harrison to survive the two knockdowns when it could have been arguably easy to end the fight and instead ended it just as Harrison seemed to be regaining his senses a bit.
I didn't think it was an awful stoppage by Reiss, but it seemed like he tried to allow Harrison the opportunity to fight through adversity as a champion should and just as he was turning the tide, the hassock was placed in his way to trip over.

I had Harrison up by two points entering the eleven and had he avoided the second-round knockdown in a round that he was winning (giving Charlo a 10-8 round in a round that was going to be scored 10-9 for Harrison), could have had the fight well in hand on my scorecard with two rounds to go.
That takes nothing away from Charlo, who took advantage of Harrison moving less than in their initial faceoff and caught him to take away much of the controversy that was looming from the judges, but while I would think a third fight is eventually in order, I would think that a three belt unification is next for Charlo with WBA/IBF champion Julian Williams, while it wouldn't be a bad thing for Harrison to pair with another former champion Jarrett Hurd and attempt to avenge Hurd's past win over Harrison.
Those two fights together would give the Charlo-Williams winner a natural opponent for their first defense and one capable of winning the three titles.
PBC is deep at 154, but I'm not sure there is a standout among Charlo, Williams, Hurd, Harrison, Erislandy Lara, and Erickson Lubin.
However, it's a unique situation as it seems that almost any of these fighters are capable of beating the others, can make interesting fights with almost any combination, and the victorious champion may come down to the style that suits a particular fighter, not that any of this group is above the others overall.

However, the Charlo brothers don't make themselves easy to root for and this win wasn't an exception as Charlo commented that he "dominated" (he didn't) and that he was off to bigger and better things (which is reasonable but could have been far more gracious in victory).
The Charlo brothers have so much to prove ( between them they have only Jermall's win over Julian Williams over a top guy) still, but when you only want to fight once or twice a year and only one is against a Harrison type (lower end of the top ten ), the chances of becoming a true star dim.
It's tough to claim "Lions Only" when the best opponents are usually a notch or two lower on the food chain.

The PBC delivered a fun night of boxing on Fox with the other challenge bout as heavyweight prospect Efe Ajagba knocked out trialhorse Iago Kiladze in a surprisingly captivating scrap in five rounds.
The power-punching former Nigerian Olympian dropped Kiladze in the second and appeared to be on his way to be knocking Kiladze out for the fourth time in his last five fights in the third round as Kiladze was rolling around the ring as if he was wearing roller skates.
Ajagba backed off as if he was expecting either Kiladze to drop to the floor or the referee to move in and end the fight.
Neither of those happened and as Ajagba moved forward to finish what seemed to be a foe on his last legs, Kiladze launched a right hand that sent Ajagba crashing down to the canvas!
Ajagba didn't appear seriously hurt, but it was enough to allow Kiladze to survive the round and the following fourth.
Ajagba knocked Kiladze down again in the fifth round with a right that sent Kiladze crumpling to the mat that could have seen the end of the fight, but Kiladze continued and still attempted to fire those counter rights to keep Ajagba honest, but as he was trapped along the ropes it was the corner of Kiladze that jumped to the apron and allow their man to end the fight honorably and on his feet.
Give Kiladze credit for making such a strong attempt at winning and Ajagba continues his learning curve as a prospect.
Ajagba has plenty of power, but he is still very raw and after being knocked down by a blown-up cruiserweight, it's not an unreasonable concern to wonder about the eventual quality of his chin when he starts taking shots from contenders rather than journeymen.

The other fight on the entertaining PBC evening wasn't a boxing challenge event, but it allowed me to watch one of my most enjoyable things in boxing- An unknown fighter brought in as an enhancement talent to lose to a hot prospect doesn't and pulls an upset that not only is fun to watch but dismays the promotion as well.
Former U.S. Olympian Karlos Balderas was stopped in six rounds by Mexico's Rene Tellez Giron in a fight that was notable for several reasons other than the obvious upset.
The fight was often spent toe to toe that saw both fighters score well, but Balderas seemed to be the stronger and bigger boxer for the first two and three-quarters rounds.
Near the end of the third, Giron's left hook dropped onto the jaw of Balderas and sent him flying to the ring surface in what seemed to be a spectacular KO.
Surprisingly, Balderas was able to get up, but he was clearly buzzed and the fight should have been called as referee Joe Corona asked Balderas to walk to him (he couldn't), Balderas stumbled backward.
Corona instead allowed the fight to continue and the bell shortly clanged saving Balderas, who gained even more time when he drilled Giron extremely low early in the next round.

Here's my problem with the non-stoppage- it can be argued that Corona heard the thump sound on the mat to indicate there were ten seconds or less in the round and that allowing Balderas to continue and give him the minute between rounds to recover was appropriate.
That would be a fair argument and even a good one- If that standard was usually followed by referees that far more often stop fights in that situation than allow the fight to continue.
However, it usually isn't used properly and fights are ended and in all honesty, if the situations were reversed and it was Giron in that spot and not the heavily PBC invested Balderas, do you really believe that Giron would have been allowed the chance to continue?
I doubt it.

Balderas (with the aid of the low blow) did manage to recover and exchange pretty evenly for the next few rounds of the eight-rounder with Giron.
I still had Giron well ahead on the cards and, with this being boxing, I was already wondering just Giron was going to be screwed on the scorecards against the better-connected fighter when yet another left hook smacked against Balderas and sent him to the floor again.
This time, Corona decided to end the fight and the upset was complete.
The other fun part about watching these types of upsets?
If you watch enough boxing, you have to be familiar with the "face of PBC" Sam Walton ( no, not THAT Sam Walton), who appears in someone's corner for every PBC fight and for PBC fighters in their rare inter-promotional fights, as a one-man support squad,
At first, when Al Haymon appeared on the scene with Floyd Mayweather at HBO and began to accumulate power in the sport, I thought Walton WAS Al Haymon!
That is how often you see the face of Sam Walton when you view PBC events and when you have the chance to see Sam's head down and face frowning, it's a sight to see!

From London, heavyweight prospect Daniel DuBois knocked out Kyotaro Fujimoto in the second round of their scheduled ten rounder.
DuBois knocked Fujimoto down with a jab in the second and after Fujimoto managed to get up, DuBois ended the fight quickly with a piledriving right hand that was over before Fujimoto hit the floor.
DuBois didn't prove much in this squash match other than that he might be ready to see an increase in resistance from his opponents.
There are plenty of questions that DuBois needs to answer as he rises up the rankings, but the power isn't one of those.

In a WBO eliminator, middleweight Liam Williams impressively disposed of Alantez Fox in five rounds in what might put him eventually in the path of WBO beltholder Demetrius Andrade.
Williams won every round against the 6'4 Fox, cutting him early, knocking him down in the fourth, before badly hurting Fox in the fifth.
The desperate Fox was penalized a point for holding but was soon sent wobbling into the ropes and the fight was stopped thereafter.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored five points on the day to change the season numbers to 312-276.

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..