Boxing Challenge: Opetaia outlasts Briedis, Cacace stuns Cordina

      The undercard for the Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury main event was interesting with a world title back where it should have been all along, a surprising new world champion, a developing heavyweight contender, and what will hopefully be goodbye to a once-great fighter.

Jai Opietaia won back the IBF cruiserweight title that was stupidly stripped from him and repeated his 2022 win over Mairis Breidis by unanimous decision.

The fight wasn't quite as good as their first fight in action but it was similar with both fighters marking up the other, Opietaia building a large lead, and staving off the late rush by Briedis, who hurt Opietaia twice in the final few rounds.

Opietaia won the decision at 117-11 and two scores of 116-112, which was a little wider than my score of 115-113 for Opietaia.

In the upset of the day, underdog Anthony Carace stopped Joe Cordina in the eighth round to win the IBF junior lightweight title.

The win wasn't without controversy as in the third round, the referee yelled "break" and Cordina stopped fighting.

Carace didn't, cracking Cordina with a right hand and would send him to the canvas later in the round.

The fight was all Carace after that round as Cordia could not bounce back from the knockdown.

The punch did take a little of the shine of the surprising win for Carace.

Heavyweight Agit Kabayel continues to cement his reputation as a heavyweight contender as Kabayel dominated previously unbeaten Frank Sanchez and took him out in the seventh round with a body shot.

The normally smooth-boxing Sanchez clearly had knee issues from the start of the fight made him a sitting duck for Kabayel, who pressured Sanchez into submission.

Sergey Kovalev is at the end of his career as he lost almost every round to the unheralded Robin Safar and was knocked down in the final round in spectacular fashion.

Give Kovalev credit for getting up and avoiding the knockout but he's finished as a fighter, so continuing to box will only make things worse.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 75 Pts (4)

TRS: 63 Pts (3)

Vince Samano: 41 Pts ( 7)

Boxing Challenge: Opietaia Upsets Briedis

    In what can only be described as a bruising battle, Jai Opietaia survived a broken jaw and a furious late-round rally from Mairis Briedis to win a unanimous decision and take away the IBF cruiserweight championship in Broadbeach Australia.

Opietaia dominated the early rounds by outboxing Briedis from the outside and busted the aging champion up early, breaking his nose in the fourth round and winning six of the first seven rounds on my card.

But Briedis was far from finished as he began to break Opietaia down, breaking his jaw (which left him unable to speak after the bout) and badly hurting him in rounds ten and twelve to pull closer on the cards.

I saw some people on social media that thought the late-round stretch allowed Briedis to salvage a close win but my scorecard of 115-113 for Opietaia agreed with one official score with the remaining two tabbing Opietaia the winner at 116-112.

Briedis asked for a rematch, which I think he deserves after his late-round rally, and with the blood and guts action from the fight, it should be an easy sell especially if Briedis returns to Australia for the rematch.

A very good fight that is a notch below fight of the year level but a fight that will have no problem gaining interest for a potential second match between the two

In London, WBO number one heavyweight contender Joe Joyce lost the first two rounds to journeyman Christian Hammer but walked through the best hammers thrown to score a fourth-round knockout.

Joyce scored a knockdown in the third and two more in the fourth to pull the curtain down on the fight.

Hammer was a semi-late replacement and he gambled on taking Joyce out early because he didn't have the conditioning to go into the late rounds and he had success for two rounds.

Joe Joyce has a world-class chin and he can punch but I wonder what happens when he faces the best of the division.

Joyce takes a lot of punches and wings his shots a bit but he is going to come forward until his opponent stops him and even if you beat him, Joyce is going to make you pay for your victory.

In the other London fight, former junior bantamweight and bantamweight champion Zolani Tete scored a spectacular fourth-round KO of Jason Cunningham to perhaps placing his name in contention for a 122-pound title shot.

Tete knocked Cunningham down in the fourth and when the action resumed, landed a few punches that saw Cunningham go down and hit his head after falling which was quite scary.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 118 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 99 Pts (0)

Vince Samano: 96 Pts (3) 

Boxing Challenge: Upset of the Millenium?

  Larry Merchant used to call boxing "The Theatre of the Absurd" when crazy things would happen on HBO's broadcasts and what he meant was anything can happen in our nutty sport.

Saturday night in Fresno, California, some may have recalled Merchant's phrase and yet others may have preferred the phrase from childhood "Whatever comes around goes around" when you saw someone get their comeuppance.

By all accounts, Mikey Garcia had a great career in winning titles in three divisions but he often was his own worst enemy outside the ring in refusing to budge in order to make career-defining fights, several long layoffs between fights, promotional disputes, and a refusal to see that one doesn't become an A-side until you compromise a little to defeat an A-side fighter or two.

Add to that what seemed to be an almost disdain for the sport and one could easily see Mikey Garcia being upset by a lesser fighter sooner or later.

What no one saw as Spaniard Sandor Martin, who had lost to the only name fighter on his record in former title challenger Anthony Yigit, and was a more than prohibitive underdog to be overwhelmed by Garcia in yet another Garcia "need to get the rust off" after a self-enforced inactive period, take advantage of an unprepared and unmotivated Garcia to win a shocking majority decision in arguably the biggest upset in years.

The fight was slow and lacked a lot of action, so Martin did the one thing that he could do to win, even against a dull Garcia- stick, move, and pray for help on the scorecards.

Martin controlled through his boxing from outside with Garcia throwing just one punch at a time and the big question was this- Would the unknown fighter get the close decision that he deserved against the hometown big name?

To my surprise, he did with two scores of 96-94 (same as mine) and a third of a 98-92 for a majority decision that was as big of a surprise as any fight in recent years.

Matchroom CEO Eddie Hearn stated that there was not a rematch clause for the two but really a rematch will be the largest financial option for Martin and for Garcia, he almost will have to defeat Martin in order to return to contender status.

Mikey Garcia always talked about how much he never liked boxing and with his behavior towards the business of boxing Garcia showed that out.

However, it is not unfair to consider that Mikey Garcia may have already given boxing the best that the sport will see and what boxing historians and fans could eventually decide about Mikey Garcia for all of his accomplishments that boxing never saw the best that he could have offered.

In the co-feature, mandatory challenger Jonathan Gonzalez spoiled the plans for a light flyweight unification fight as Gonzalez won the WBO title via split decision over Elwin Soto.

In many ways, Gonzalez's win was very much like the victory that would follow later in the evening by Sandor Martin- Gonzalez used the stick and move method and held off the weak aggression of Soto that probably deserved a unanimous decision rather than a split nod.

Gonzalez winning two cards (and mine) at 116-112 with a pretty bad 116-112 card for Soto in opposition was the fair result and ruined a unification fight with Soto and WBA champion Hiroto Kyoguchi that was planned for next year.

The best fighter of the weekend won his showcase bout in his home country as Mairis Bredis kept his IBF cruiserweight belt with a third-round knockout of Germany's Artur Mann in Riga, Latvia.

Breidis knocked Mann down in the second round before adding two more in the third to finish the outmatched Mann.

Breidis did announce his intention to face the second-best fighter in the division, England's Lawrence Okolie, and unify the IBF and WBO titles before both fighters would move to the heavyweight division.

It's the best fight that can be made with the cruiserweight and hopefully can be signed for the first half of 2021.

In Newcastle, England, Hughie Fury defeated Christian Hammer vis TKO when Hammer was unable to continue after the fifth round.

I thought Fury won all five rounds but the fifth round did see several exchanges between the two and the injury to Hammer's bicep that forced the ending in the corner was ill-timed as it occurred just as the fight was starting to open up.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored three points to move the total to 140-120.

Boxing Challenge: Briedis wins WBSS, Taylor wins in one!

  The afternoon from the old country saw two world title fights before the huge PPV from PBC in the evening.

If you chose to watch DAZN live from Germany- you were able to see a good matchup.

If you picked ESPN+ from England, well, at least it was short.

From Munich Germany, what could be the final event from the World Boxing Super Series crowned the winner of their cruiserweight tournament as top-seeded Mairis Breidis defeated second-seed Yunier Dorticos via a majority decision to win the tournament and lift the IBF championship from Dorticos as well.

It was a fight that saw heavy punches exchanged, yet one that had its tactical parts as well with Briedis using the right hand to land counterpunches against the heavier-hitting and aggressive Dorticos that shifted the tide his way in a close fight.

I scored Briedis a 116-112 winner and thought the decision was a fair one.

I'd like to see Briedis stay in the division, where he is the top fighter for now, but he could seek bigger heavyweight money as the other three champions (WBA Arsen Goulamirian, WBC Illunga Makubu, and WBO title is vacant) aren't likely to be bouts that fans crave.

As for Dorticos, a rematch against Briedis down the road is not out of the question, and a fight against any of the other champions would be favored.

As for the WBSS, which has seen financial problems, it'll be interesting to see if it survives.

I would imagine that if it would continue, the purses could drop, and with that drop would go any incentive for fighters to not control their opponents for their next three fights.

Even it should continue, I'm not sure that there is a fit with many divisions for a compelling elite tournament.

Top Rank refuses to send their fighters, PBC only sends very few and usually in the lower weight divisions, and Matchroom, Sauerland, and other European promoters do participate, but they might wonder if it is worth the time spent, if their fighters aren't fighting the best.

When you consider the promotional ties involved, only two divisions make sense to run a tournament with the best fighters in the game.

Junior bantamweight could work with Matchroom controlling the best of the division with Juan Francisco Estrada, Roman Gonzalez, and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and if WBO champion Kazuto Ioka and the latest Japanese phenom Kosei Tanaka could be added, all the best fighters would be available except IBF champion Jerwin Ancajas, who is associated with Top Rank.

Flyweight would be available with three excellent champions in Julio Cesar Martinez, Moruti Mthalane, and Artem Dalakian and might make a star with an eventual winner.

Other than those two, only junior featherweight would even be close to having the elite and that would have to be worked out with PBC as they have the best of the division other than WBA/IBF champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev.

Unless the WBSS would be willing to settle for a lesser tournament with contenders and prospects, I don't see any other divisions that would work out.

It would be a sad end for a series that gave world stages and made stars out of Oleksandr Usyk, Callum Smith, Naoya Inoue, and Josh Taylor, but that could be how it ends...

As for Josh Taylor, the quicker we can move away from IBF mandatory contender Apinun Khongsong the better as Taylor retained his WBA and IBF junior welterweight titles with a first-round knockout with the first significant punch that he landed to Khongsong's body.

Taylor, wearing Bay City Rollers style Tartan, left Khongsong writhing in pain on the floor and will unify all four titles in the division in his next fight with WBC and WBO champion Jose Ramirez.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored three points to move our totals to 117-109. 

Boxing Challenge: Wild Night in Riga, Warrington survives.

The World Boxing Super Series finished the semi-finals of their third and final tournament with the cruiserweights, resulting in two of the wildest fights that they could have imagined from Riga, Latvia.

In the first semi-final, Yunier Dorticos won the vacant IBF title with a one-punch KO of Andrew Tabiti in the tenth of a clumsy mix of styles.
The style differential resulted in plenty of awkward stumbles and grasps along with clashes of heads and shoulders that on one occasion in round six ended with a severe gash above the right eye after an encounter of heads.
Dorticos was the aggressive fighter throughout and despite an occasional moment, Tabiti appeared to be very tentative in his first championship attempt.
Dorticos ended the fight with one right hand that will certainly be a KO of the year challenger and moves to the finals of the tournament and a chance to unify two cruiserweight titles.

Why only two?
Didn't I write in the preview that the tournament winner would hold three titles?
Well. the WBC decided that someone (The WBSS, the Latvian boxing federation, the WBO, and who knows who else received various blame) didn't give them enough say in judging, so before the bout in a fit of pique decided to take away their sanctioning of the fight.
Up to that point, the semi-final winner would have then owned two titles and the tournament winner-three, but this decision took away from that.
Maybe someone can pacify the Sulaiman gang before the final and their belt can go to the victor.
In the ring, it was quite wacky as Mairis Briedis ripped away the WBO title from Krzysztof Glowacki via a controversial third-round knockout that was so strange that if it was not for the next fight being for the WBSS tournament championship, I'd bet the WBO would have called for an immediate rematch and I'd bet even more that the organization will rule that the Briedis-Yunier Dorticos winner will be mandated to face Glowacki.

For a round and a half, each fighter landed some punches in exchanges and it appeared that this battle could be a good one, then it all went to hell.
Both fighters move into an almost-clinch, but referee Robert Byrd doesn't move in right away,
The fighters attempt to separate from each other,  and as Briedis locks up the right arm of Glowacki, Glowacki steps to the side and throws a chopping left to the back of the head of Breidis.
Breidis didn't enjoy this rabbit punch and responded with one of those side elbows that resembled one of the famous "seven moves" of Kevin Nash to the face of Glowacki, who crumbled to the floor faster than a vampire staked by Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Glowacki then rolls on the mat with one of those Jimmy Valiant-like spasms and tries to win the fight by DQ, but Robert Byrd isn't having any of that.
Still, Byrd deducts a point from Briedis and the round resumes with Briedis dropping a clearly in trouble Glowacki with a strong right.
Glowacki gets to his feet, says he is OK, and three seconds later (I timed it) before the fighters could reach each other to engage, the bell rings to end round two.

BUT everyone hears it, BUT Robert Byrd.
Briedis jumps on Glowacki and EIGHT seconds after the round should have ended, Briedis knocks down Glowacki, the bell is still ringing and after a badly dazed Glowacki beats the count and takes the mandatory eight count, Byrd seems to finally hear the bell ringing, BUT then waves the fight off for either Glowacki's safety or for Glowacki's corner entering the ring!
Someone explains to Byrd that all of this action came well after what should have been the end of the round and Byrd lets the fight continue, but the damage has already taken its toll on Glowacki, who barely staggers out for round three and is quickly finished off by Briedis.
Byrd is 74 years of age and even though he doesn't look it, this fight may show that retirement from refereeing (I would be OK with him staying as a judge, which Byrd does at times as well for now) should be at least considered and likely decided upon as his performance contributed to the winner of the fight.
Just a farce and even though I think Briedis is the more rounded and skilled fighter and would have likely won this fight, Glowacki was not given a fair chance due to the official that is there to make the fight fair and deserves a rematch.

In Leeds, England, Josh Warrington kept his IBF featherweight crown by a far closer than expected split decision over countryman Kid Galahad.
Warrington's walk forward and throw accumulative punches to simply wear out his opponent, didn't work in this one as Galahad was able to consistently gum up the works through an ugly run-out-the-clock defense.
Galahad's tactics allowed him to stay in the fight, throw Warrington out of sync and basically give him the best chance to win.
Galahad didn't win the fight officially or on my card (115-113 Warrington), but he made Warrington look like less than exciting and with Warrington attempting to land a unification fight with WBO champion Oscar Valdez and battling with Warrington victim Carl Frampton to do so, this fight could not have helped his cause.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica six to five over the weekend with a one-point difference due to the Tyson Fury KO (Ramon picked Fury by decision).
We each selected winning fighters in both WBSS fights and Josh Warrington while losing with Sullivan Barrera.
I lead the challenge 147-132

Boxing Challenge: Usyk finishes Bellew

Photo Courtesy: Getty Images

In a DAZN centered weekend, the star was the expected one as the only man to hold all four championships in his division,Oleksandr Usyk ended a close fight (on some cards) with a left hand that not only ended his fight with former WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew, but likely ended the Briton's career in the eighth round.
The fight was interesting and competitive entering round eight, but I had Usyk well ahead (5-2) and wearing Bellew down, but apparently, the on-site judges were seeing something that I was not as Bellew led on two cards and was even on the third.
Bellew had his moments early, but I cannot fathom him being even in any way, let alone ahead, but Usyk took the scorecards out of play with one shot.
Usyk is likely to vacate his titles (too bad, I really like having one champion) for a move to the heavyweight division, where Eddie Hearn, who co-promotes Usyk and fully promotes WBA/IBF/WBO champion Anthony Joshua, was quoted after the fight that the plan was for Usyk to fight his next fight at heavyweight and then challenge Joshua.
The win for Usyk added Bellew to Mairis Briedis and Murat Gassiev to Usyk's victims for 2018 and considering that all three wins were in his opponent's home countries and the World Boxing Super Series victory, Oleksandr Usyk will more than likely be my choice for fighter of the year.

The co-feature saw former WBA lightweight champion Anthony Crolla hammer out a workmanlike unanimous decision over Daud Yordan to become the mandatory contender for the WBA and their lightweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko.
Lomachenko, who will attempt to add the WBO belt of Jose Pedraza in a few weeks, might be likely to travel to London to spread his reputation (and show he can sell tickets) in Europe to fight Crolla, but Eddie Hearn may not be in a hurry to force his man to fight Lomachenko and may be content to bide his time and hope for a Lomachenko voluntary vacating of that title, should that situation arise.
I scored Crolla a 117-111  (9-3) winner.

The evening card had the World Boxing Super Series finishing their quarter-final round by completing their cruiserweight semi-final bracket from Chicago.
The first fight featured the tournament's top seed and the man that gave Oleksandr Usyk his most difficult bout earlier this year with former WBC champion Mairis Briedis against little known Noel Mikaelian of Germany.
This fight displayed two surprises- the first came when Mikaelian controlled the fight with his jab against an either underprepared or overconfident (perhaps both) Briedis and won handily on my card 115-111 (8-4) with both fighters being penalized one point for fouls (Mikaelian in the 4th, Briedis in the 10th) in the fight.
The second surprise rose when the scorecards were announced to the surprise of everyone, including Briedis it seemed, that Briedis was the winner and even worse by margins that were simply incredible (2,4 and an unbelievable 6 points).
I feel bad for Mikaelian, who stepped up with a solid effort against the toughest test of his career and should have been rewarded with a winning, if not glittering victory.
If I made the decision for the WBSS, I'd immediately place Mikaelian as the "Stand-by Alternate" for each of the next two rounds to be used in case of an injury or a competitor misses weight.
Briedis will face the winner of the other bout in Krzysztof Glowacki.

Glowacki, who won a WBO minor title that I usually wouldn't mention, but if Oleksandr Usyk does vacate his titles. Glowacki will likely be elevated to full champion in that organization, defeated Maksim Vlasov via a unanimous decision in a fight that was more entertaining than the other quarter-final, but still was far from a classic.
Glowacki was credited with a third-round knockdown that appeared to be more along the lines of a trip but was scored a knockdown on his way to a 118-109 (10-2 with a bonus point for the knockdown) triumph on my scorecard.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me six to five on the weekend with the difference being Ramon earning two points for the Mairis Briedis win, whereas I scored just one for the Briedis "win".
I lead the season 186-164.

Boxing Challenge:Usyk slips by Briedis

Photo Credit; World Boxing Super Series

The boxing weekend featured the World Boxing Super Series unifying two titles and giving viewers more than they could have expected and then HBO gave their subscribers one of the worst cards that they have offered in years to end the day with an utter waste of time...

The first semi-final in the cruiserweight division of the World Boxing Super Series in Riga, Latvia looked to be an interesting matchup as two titles would be unified, but some thought it might be more of a world-class battle of chess.
The pleasant surprise saw the early leader for fight of the year (hey, it's January) as WBO champ and top seed Oleksandr Uskyk took the WBC title away from the home country hero and third seed by as hard-fought of a majority decision as you'll see and advance to the finals.
A great fight with ebbs and flows that I scored even at 114, but it "felt" like Usyk edged it out by a hair, yet when you added it all up, I had it even.
It's one of those fights that is screaming for a second viewing (and scoring).
Usyk will face the winner of next week's fight between IBF champion Murat Gassiev and minor beltholder Yunier Dorticos in what is sure to be an exciting fight from Russia.

The problem is seeing these fights because American television isn't picking them up, the streams are struggling to work and it's tough to find them.
It's too bad because once you do-it's really high-level stuff with the cruiserweights (the super middleweights haven't been as strong thus far).

What makes the lack of ease finding the WBSS even frustrating is when you have such issues and then HBO, the network that has been the Cadillac of boxing television for so many years, puts on a card like they did Saturday night from the Forum in Inglewood California.
I know HBO has hitched its wagon mainly to Golden Boy Promotions (along with a few other "independents"), but this looked like a card better suited to their ESPN deal (where it would have been a nice "free "show) and not worthy of an HBO slot.

In the main event and in one of the dullest non-Erislandy Lara or Guillermo Rigonedeaux main events that you'll see, Lucas "The Machine" Matthysse continued his comeback with a knockout of unknown Tewa Kiram in the eighth round after seven rounds that had the live crowd booing and the Twitter followers disgusted with the dreadful fight.
I've always been a Matthysse fan, but he looks like a fighter that unless you match him against someone that stands directly in front of him and engages, he might be a shot fighter.
Matthysse picked up one of those WBA minor belts that we don't recognize, which means he could eventually be forced upon Keith Thurman, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to happen, but he mentioned a Danny Garcia rematch (Garcia won their first match against a prime Matthysee off his jab, I fail to see why rematching a faded version changes anything) or a Manny Pacquiao pipedream, which might be a more fun fight to watch but considering Matthysse's still potent power is a high-risk low reward for Manny.
As for Kiram, the less said the better and I really don't need to see him again period, let alone on HBO.

In the co-feature, challenger Mercito Gesta tried hard and lasted the distance with WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares, but other than winning a few early rounds was clearly outclassed by one of the two best lightweights in the world.
The problem for Linares is that the other best lightweight in the world, WBC champ Mikey Garcia talks a lot about fighting him, but doesn't seem actually interested in signing a contract to make the fight happen.
That is one of many baffling business decisions from Garcia, who I'd favor to defeat Linares, who still considers himself more of a businessman that boxes than a boxer that makes solid business decisions,
I thought Linares was two cuts above Gesta, who wasn't deserving of a title shot and that's about how it turned out as I scored it a perhaps overly generous (for Gesta) 117-111 win for Linares.
It's just hard for me to believe HBO turned down rights to great stuff like Usyk (who they have televised in the past)- Breidis and next week's likely barnburner between Gassiev and Dorticos to buy fights like these and then have the head of their boxing department (Peter Nelson) actually try with a straight face before the card to portray these as "50/50 fights".
Just plain awful...

In the boxing challenge-Ramon Malpica earned six points for the weekend to my four to move ahead in the overall standings at 8-7.

Ramon earned three points from Lucas Matthysee's win and KO (Bonus point for round), two from Jorge Linares, and one from Oleksandr Usyk.
I received two from Matthysee and one each from Linares and Usyk.

Boxing Challenge-Briedis outpoints Perez

The World Boxing Super Series featured the only bout of the weekend in the boxing challenge as WBC Cruiserweight champion Mairis Briedis retained his title with a tedious unanimous decision over Mike Perez in the first-ever title fight in Briedis' home country of Latvia.

With the victory, Briedis not only kept his WBC title, he also moved on in the WBSS tournament to the semi-finals, where he will face the tournament's top seed in WBO kingpin Oleksandr Usyk in what will also be a unification battle.
I still cannot figure out why the tournament top seed faces the 3rd seed, not the 4th in the semi's, but  I suppose they have their reasons.

In any event, Usyk-Briedis won't have much to live up to compared to this bout as far as action goes, because this fight didn't have much of it.
I questioned the inclusion of Mike Perez, to begin with, his selection over Kryzstof Glowacki (Glowacki won his fight on the undercard) and Perez lived down to expectations as his most effective sequence over the twelve rounds was his headbutt that busted Briedis open in round three.
Briedis rocked Perez with a hard right uppercut in round seven, but other than that, the fight lacked a lot of drama or action.
I scored the fight for Briedis 116-109,9-3 in rounds with Perez losing a point for his third round headbutt and Briedis dropping a point for holding in the tenth.

This was the first fight for the WBSS with an American network as the Audience network, which is mainly seen on Directv, and it was disappointing to me.
First, because of the network feed of Big Sky football, the fight was shown on delay, so most fans knew the result of the fight before it happened.
Add to that, the fight wasn't streamed live as the first three fights had been and there wasn't a lot of reasons to check out the least attractive matchup of the first round.
On the television side, the graphics are just way too small and the issues with the fuzzy screen haven't disappeared.
I still say that it's because of those lights that look so good during the pre-match proceedings, but adds a haziness when the fight starts.

Ramon Malpica and I added one point for the Briedis win in the boxing challenge.
I lead 135-123.

I hope to have a Buckeye review of their squash match over Rutgers before the Browns start against the Bengals.

Briedis decisions Huck-Boxing Challenge

Undefeated Mairis Briedis remained that way with a clear unanimous decision over Marco Huck to claim the vacant WBC cruiserweight title in Dortmund,Germany.
Briedis didn't score a knockdown,but seemed to hurt Huck on several occasions (especially in 8th and 9th round action) and carried the action with pressure that consistently kept Huck off balance and unable to get any serious power behind his punches.
Huck did rally in the final few rounds,but never seriously threatened to hurt Briedis.
My score was in the realm of the judges scoring as I saw it 117-111 (9-3) in rounds.

Now with Briedis holding the WBC belt and two other champions having some American television backing with WBO champ Oleksandr Usyk (HBO) and IBF beltholder Murat Gassiev having a past association with PBC,there is suddenly some life injected into the often sluggish cruiserweight division.
If not for the clueless decision by the WBA to allow Denis Lebedev to not have to defend his title against Gassiev in the bout for the vacant IBF belt (Gassiev won a deserved decision),there would be three undefeated fighters holding the four titles in the the division.
All three are good punchers with Usyk being the most skilled of the three and any combination of fights (and add WBA champ Lebedev too) would make entertaining fights to watch,

The issue might be that there is more money to be made for these guys in Europe or in the former Soviet states as all could build a rivalry built around nationalistic pride.
Gassiev (and Lebedev) are from Russia,Usyk is a Ukraine native and Briedis is a product of Latavia,so I'd think any potential unification fights would be good box office in any of other countries.
Should those battles occur,you could make a case that any of the three could be considered to be the best of the bunch with any combination being a pick 'em bout.

The cruiserweight division has the talent at the top,the biggest question of all is this-can the best fights be made?
Or is it more important to make decent money fighting at home against lesser challengers?
I'm hoping for the former,but for the short-term,betting on the latter...


Ramon Malpica and I each added one point in the boxing challenge with the Briedis victory to move the total to 32-30 for the year.