Boxing Challenge: Questionable Night In Minneapolis

    The Showtime/PBC card from Minneapolis did more than showcase some talented boxers, twice in their three-fight evening, a problem throughout boxing was shoved to the forefront and it's one that sanctioning bodies, promoters, fighters, and their teams, and fans would be wise to begin paying more attention to.

PBC's main event would see middleweight Carlos Adames retain his minor title with a controversial ninth-round stoppage over former WBA and IBF junior middleweight Julian Williams when referee Mark Nelson stopped the fight with Williams stung along the ropes but throwing punches back.

I thought Williams was in a little bit of trouble, and he had been busted up just under his right eye, so it's not as if Williams was a lock to survive but he was punching back and I thought the stoppage was premature.

Adames had a large lead on the scorecards after eight rounds with leads of three, four, and an astonishing eight points, which means that the judge had scored every round for Adames.

I had the fight closer at 77-75 for Adames and he was likely on his way to a win but Williams fought well and deserved a better fate or at least the chance to place his fate in his own hands defensively at the end.

I don't really see Adames as this "boogeyman" ( there must be two of these boogeymen around at 160 pounds as Top Rank says the same thing about WBO champion Janibek Alimkhanuly) as he was called in the pre-fight buildup, although he is a good fighter in a very week middleweight division and deserves the full WBC with champion Jermall Charlo inactive for two years and soon to fight Canelo Alvarez at super middleweight, the WBC should do the right thing and force Charlo to fight Adames next (which he wouldn't and shouldn't do considering the payday for a Canelo fight) and when he chooses to face Canelo, give the full title to Adames.

As bad as the Adames-Williams ending was, the co-feature was worse as junior middleweight Erickson Lubin returned from an over a year layoff after losing to Sebastian Fundora, to defeat veteran Luis Arias by a fifth-round knockout.

After the first four rounds were fairly evenly fought (I had Lubin ahead 39-37), Lubin landed a right hand just behind the ear of Arias in the fifth that knocked Arias down but it appeared to be a glancing blow, although a legitimate knockdown.

Arias was perched on one knee as he listened to the court of Zachary Young and appeared to me to get up at the count of nine.

Young, however, counted to ten and claimed that Arias had not gotten up in time to beat the count which was clearly untrue.

An absolutely putrid call by Young, who could have stopped the fight with less controversy by judging Arias unable to continue (I would have said that would have been a mistake as well but there is a difference between judgment and a blatant violation of the rules).

It's a needed comeback win for Lubin and a tough loss for Arias, who lost his third fight in his last four and was stopped for the first time, which is a difficult pill to swallow considering how he lost.

These crazy things such as awful scorecards, misinterpretations of the rules by referees, poor stoppages, etc, seem to pop up most often in states that aren't widely known as hotbeds for the sport- in this case, Minnesota.

There really needs to be something about these smaller state commissions shoving their referees and/or judges into roles for world-class fights that they either aren't experienced enough or aren't good enough to handle properly.

Sanctioning bodies could install more qualified people for these spots but in many cases, the state commission will insist on their people being involved.

The answer could be the media provider or the promoter insisting on world-class referees and judges and if the state doesn't like it (in this case, Minnesota), pull the event and go somewhere else.

Faced with the loss of money from the event, I'd bet after a few times, these commissions will do the right thing.

The key to this would be working with the commission a few weeks before the card on deciding on the officials involved and ironing out any differences early.

A compromise could be allowing the state to use their people for the lower undercard and the world-class level fights is where the better/more experienced officials could step in.

There is too much on the line for champions and contenders to continue to have these types of problems.

In the opening fight, Fernando Martinez retained his IBF junior bantamweight title with an eleventh knockout of Jade Bornea.

I had the fight even after eight hard-fought rounds and in round nine, Martinez landed a left hook against Bornea's right ear, which caused what I would call a boil, bulging on the ear.

Martinez landed another hook against the ear later in the ninth, busting the boil open and causing lots of blood to flow.

Martinez dominated the tenth and the fight was stopped in the eleventh with Bornea weakening to the loss of blood.

I haven't watched the Kazuto Ioka-Joshua Franco fight or the Edgar Berlanga-Jason Quigley battle, so I'll do a followup with those two fights and the boxing challenge results with that post.

Boxing Challenge: Miller walks through Dinu

A Matchroom card televised by DAZN managed to kill a Saturday (or in my case Saturday and Sunday before I watched the entire card) with various bouts of interest and three in the boxing challenge from the boxing hotbed of Mulvane, Kansas.

The main event saw Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller win a minor heavyweight title with a fourth-round knockout of Bogdan Dinu.
Miller weighed in at over 300 pounds and Dinu looked strong enough by winning the first two rounds.
Miller picked up the pace in the third before finishing him in the fourth round after two knockdowns.
Miller could be the spring opponent for three title holding champion Anthony Joshua, who is also promoted by Matchroom, but even if not then Miller will eventually receive that shot with the minor title that he won in Mulvane.
Miller makes me think of so many of the beefy 1980's heavyweights such as Greg Page, Tony Tubbs, Michael Dokes etc that possessed world-class abilities and the appetite to go with it that made them capable of the occasional brilliant performance yet so often were maddeningly inconsistent.
Hopefully, Miller can win his battle with the fork and make the best of his chances.

Going into the evening, I believed that the best fight of the night would be the grudge middleweight fight between Gabriel Rosado and Luis Arias, but the surprise of the night was the absolute war (which is an often overused term in boxing, but it fits here) between Brandon Rios and Ramon Alvarez, the brother of Canelo in a junior middleweight contest that saw plenty of punches thrown and plenty caught by each fighter as Rios wore down Alvarez and stopped him in round nine.
I have nominated Rios for a "Zabbie" (Fighter that I wish would go retire) plenty in the past and even in this win as a junior middleweight, I still think that would be a good idea.
However, if matched properly and preferably at welterweight, Rios can still have some fun fights to watch, but not at anyone resembling a current contender and especially one at junior middle.
That will not be how it turns out though as Rios still is a name, he'll face someone he shouldn't and he is very likely to take a bad beating.

The Rosado-Arias bout had what looked like a sure-fire ingredient for the best fight, bad blood, a side bet between the fighters of ten thousand dollars, what seemed to be a motivated Luis Arias, who looked dreadful against Daniel Jacobs and you had Gabe Rosado, who always makes interesting, if not always competitive battles before his face would fall apart and let him down.
This time Rosado used a new game plan for him that saw him be less entertaining, but longer lasting as the normally cut prone Rosado wasn't bothered by cuts at all.
The problem was on my card, where Rosado's new style cost him the first rounds before his usual late charge against Arias.
The final card saw a draw with one judge scoring the fight for each fighter and the third had the scores even.
I had Arias a close 96-94 winner, but if the fight had been a twelve rounder, I think Rosado would have gotten the nod.
The winner could have been next for WBO champion Demetrius Andrade, although I don't think either would be deserving or overly competitive in a prospective fight.
The talk was of a rematch, where perhaps both camps could double down on their wager and bet $20,000 on the outcome.

Non-Boxing challenge fights on the slate was another ladies title fight and Olympic bronze medalist Nico Hernandez, who won a less than fascinating unanimous decision in his eight rounder.
Hernandez is going to have to show a little more pop in his mitts if he wants to draw attract American fans to his normally internationally dominated division.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica scored four points (Three for Jarrell Miller and one for Brandon Rios) to my two (One per Miller and Rios) to cut my lead to 190-169.