Boxing Challenge-Benavidez survives,Usyk kicks off World Super Series

The boxing challenge started Friday night and Saturday afternoon with two title fights that were interesting.

Friday night on Showtime,heavily favored David Benavidez survived the surprisingly stern challenge of Ronald Gavril to win a split decision and capture the vacant WBC super middleweight title in Las Vegas..
Benavidez dominated the early rounds and built a lead on the cards before a rally by Gavril that brought him back into the fight.
Benavidez's lead appeared safe,especially when he dominated the twelfth round for the first two minutes before Gavril scored a flash knockdown out of nowhere.
I scored the round for Gavril,but only 10-9 because Benavidez won the round other than the knockdown.
I had issues with all three scores as they were all far too wide with two for Benavidez and one for Gavril.
I had Benavidez a 115-113 winner.
Ramon Malpica and I each added one boxing challenge point for the Benavidez win.

Meanwhile in Germany,the World Boxing Super Series kicked off and it was a mixed bag as far as production goes,but a solid,but lopsided fight in the ring as Oleksander Usyk defended his WBO title in winning his quarterfinal battle in the cruiserweight tournament with a tenth round stoppage of Marco Huck.
Huck was determined and never stopped trying,but was simply far too slow to deal with the flashy and athletic Usyk,who won every round,but one on my card and that was more that the champion and tournament top seed took the round off more than anything that Huck did.
Usyk looked very strong in the win and will face the winner of the WBC title/quarterfinal bout between Marius Breidis and Mike Perez.
Usyk-Breidis (who I assume will win) should be an excellent bout.
Ramon and I each added one point for Usyk's victory and the challenge score is 118-104.

The World Boxing Super Series is a great concept and did a much better job than I ever dreamed of filling the brackets with top fighters.
However,there have been some stumbles.
A bracket that favors the second seed more than the first,a lack of an American television outlet and today's slipup that to be fair came from trying to do the right thing.
The WBSS announced today that they were streaming the Usyk-Huck fight on their website,if you signed up.
I did and waited for an email that would give me the password to access.
I am still waiting for that email seven hours later!
Others must have had issues as well because a little before fight time,a tweet came through that said that it was available on their website.
It was.
For six rounds-it was.
Then the site was this bout has ended and the stream was gone-never to be found again.
The WBSS has time to work these things out,but today's issues were less than a strong start....

Back later with HBO's tripleheader and the Buckeyes hosting the Oklahoma Sooners...

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.

PBC-One step forward,Two steps back

The PBC returned this weekend with a Friday card on Spike and a Saturday slate on NBC Sports Net.
Neither card looked inspiring and was so bad that I didn't even bother to add them to the boxing challenge.

The one part that I was interested in was long time WBO (title unrecognized by TRS) Cruiserweight champ Marco Huck defending against undefeated European champion Krzysztof Glowacki.
Huck had defended his title 13 times and was attempting to break the division record for successful defenses in his American and PBC debut.

Huck was signed by PBC to give them a dominant cruiser champ and possibly eventual opposition for their heavyweight titleholder Deontay Wilder,who has been fighting a pro wrestling like list of squash fights before his 2016 mandatory vs Alexander Povetkin,who went life and death in a close fight with Huck two years ago.
What resulted was the best action fight that the PBC has offered since its inception this year as Huck and Glowacki had the Newark crowd rocking with supporters for both fighters.
It looked to be over in the sixth as Huck slammed a left hook that looked to be a knockout shot that dropped Glowacki to the floor.
A dazed Glowacki barely beat the count,but instead of holding,Glowacki fired punches back in desperation to keep Huck off of him and was effective enough to see the rounds end.
I had Huck ahead entering round eleven 96-93,so Glowacki would have to at least floor Huck to have a chance on my card and Huck had never been dropped to the mat in his career,so that would be a tough chore.
Glowacki did just that as a combination surprisingly dropped Huck and now it was his turn to beat the count,which he barely did.
However,Huck was unable to derail Glowacki,who drove Huck into the ropes with repeated punches and forced the referee to stop the fight.
I wouldn't say this was as good as Matthysse-Provodnikov for fight of the year,but it clearly was PBC's best and a top five bout for sure.
This was the type of fight that PBC needs more of-close,competitive and action filled.

But just as you felt good about PBC,they offered a lead weight to bring you down as aging former cruiserweight champ Steve Cunningham battled even older former light heavyweight boss Antonio Tarver at heavyweight.
This fight goes to show you that just because a fight is close,doesn't mean it was good as both men looked like they were stuck in glue in a fight that I should have gotten paid for watching.
PBC was hoping to find a winner to offer up to Deontay Wilder in December after he beats another walkover opponent in September,but instead found a draw with two judges scoring 115-113 for each man and the other scoring 114-114.
I had it 114-114,but would have no quibble with any card.
Just please don't give me another fight with these two.

PBC's offerings this month look especially dreadful with the exception being ESPN's offering of Leo Santa Cruz-Abner Mares and even that might be a year too long in being made.
It's stuff like this that has made PBC such a disappointment to me and others.
An inability or unwillingness to make top fights have left PBC wobbling with a less than thrilling lineup.
I want PBC to be successful.
It rises all boats as the old saying goes,but they need better fights and they have the capability to do so with a strong roster in some divisions.
They won't get there by boring people with more Tarver-Cunninghams,they could with more Huck-Glowacki's.....