Boxing Challenge: Wake me when it's over

     Riyadh Season Promotions have made some things happen in boxing that wouldn't have happened without them, which is good.

However, their back-to-back cards this weekend, Times Square and Riyadh, were an absolute disaster with boring fights, the defeat of Ryan Garcia, and it was the first setback for the promotion.

Throwing money at stars isn't always the answer; hopefully, they will learn their lesson.

In the main event, Canelo Alvarez regained the IBF super middleweight title that he never lost with a unanimous decision over the stuck-in-reverse William Scull.

Once again, Alvarez holds all four titles in the division. After the win, a fall fight with Terence Crawford was announced in the ring, and that was the only good thing from the main event.

Scull ran (I tweeted this during the fight), Canelo plodded after him, few punches landed, none of those significant, and it was dreadful to watch.

As bad as this was, and it was bad, I'm not going to rip Scull as many are currently.

This was his best chance to win- stink the joint out and hope the judges value his "work".

Scull won a few rounds on my card (117-111 for Canelo), and you might say that if he were more active and took more chances, he might have won ( official cards 119-109, 116-112, and 115-113) against the cement shoes of Canelo.

I'd disagree, as taking those chances would have placed him in front and gotten him knocked out.

It made an awful match, and you can blame Scull for the tedium, but he took his only chance to win, as slim as that was.

The best fight of the weekend wasn't Holyfield-Qawi I, but it was a solid cruiserweight fight as Badou Jack retained his WBC cruiserweight title with a majority decision over Noel Mikeaelin.

Both fighters did their share of good work, and it was entertaining in its own way.

Jack earned the decision by scores of 115-113 times two and 114-114.

I had Mikaelin winning 115-113, but this was a very close fight, and I'd like to see a rematch.

Jaime Munguia won his rematch with Bruno Surace by unanimous decision and regained some of his stature in the super middleweight division that he lost when Surace knocked him out with one punch in December.

However, it was a more reticent Munguia that boxed more and didn't get hit as much, although less entertaining, You could see the changes in Munguia from his change in trainers to Eddy Reynoso.

Munguia mentioned the names Caleb Plant and Edgar Berlanga after the fight; either would be welcomed as potential foes.

Munguia won by scores of 117-111 times two and 116-112, with my score agreeing with the latter.

Efe Ajagba and Martin Bakole batted to a majority draw in their heavyweight opener.

Ajagba controlled the fight from a distance for most of the early fight, Bakole rallied late, hurting Ajagba in the seventh, and I think if the fight was a twelve-rounder, Bakole would have gotten the nod.

Official scores of 96-94 for Ajagba and two of 95-95, I scored Ajagba a 96-94 winner.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 65 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica: 62 Pts (4)

Vince Samano: 28 Pts (3)

Boxing Challenge: Upsets and Pushes

 The Crawford-Madrimov undercard was filled with interesting fights that saw a few upsets and spectacular endings.

In the co-feature, Isaac "Pit Bull Cruz" lost his WBA junior welterweight title and a possible rematch against Gervonta Davis in a split decision defeat to Jose Valenzuela.

Cruz didn't fight badly but he seemed a step behind Valenzuela throughout the fight and never grabbed any type of rhythm that would wear down the challenger.

I scored Valenzuela the winner at 116-112, the same as the two judges with the dissenting card for Cruz at 115-113.

With both fighters aligned with PBC and this fight being an optional defense for Cruz, I'd think that a rematch is possible soon.

The two fights in the heavyweight division featured a former heavyweight champion, a former top contender, and the top American prospect, and yet none of those became the star of the evening.

That honor belonged to Martin Bakole, whom I described as a live dog in my preview of his fight against Jared Anderson and then punished the touted American prospect for five rounds, dropping him three times on his way to the knockout triumph.

Bakole forced Anderson into retreat from the beginning and while Anderson fought back gamely when he could have packed it in, Bakole's domination was complete.

Bakole would make some interesting fights against other contenders (Zhilei Zhang, perhaps?) and made a name for himself with his upset win while Anderson, who has made no secret of not being in love with boxing and has had legal issues, answered questions about his heart and desire but created others about his ability to fend off bigger and aggressive fighters.

In the other heavyweight bout, former heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz and former contender/PED user Jarrell Miller slugged it out to a majority decision draw in a "Battle of The Big Boys" that brought to mind the Saturday Night Main Event from the 1980s between King Kong Bundy and Uncle Elmer.

Miller dropped thirty pounds from his loss to Daniel DuBois but still weighed over three hundred pounds against Ruiz, who hadn't fought for almost two years and fought at two hundred seventy-four pounds, yet it was Miller who finished the fight stronger in the second half of the fight.

I scored Miller the winner 115-113 with one judge giving the edge to Miller 116-112 and the other two scored the fight even at 114-114.

While the fight was somewhat entertaining, it was also sloppy enough that neither fighter distinguished themselves enough for a bigger fight soon, so it makes sense to hook these two up for a rematch.

David Morrell moved up from super middleweight to light heavyweight for a minor title but the vaunted "boogeyman" didn't look especially strong in winning a unanimous decision over Radivoje Kalajdzic.

Kalajdzic fought surprisingly well and deserved better on the cards, which I thought were unfair to Kalajdzic with Morrell winning by scores of 118-110 and 117-111 times two.

I scored Morrell the narrow victor 115-113 and Morrell continued the strange circle of call-outs as Morrell constantly requests to face David Benavidez while Benavidez asks for Canelo Alvarez and uses similar excuses to not face Morrell as Alvarez uses to avoid Benavidez.

In the opener, former Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz was struggling in his fight with veteran Antonio Moran before stopping him in the seventh round.

Moran appeared to have hurt Cruz in round five and the fight was even on my card at 57-57 entering the seventh round.

Cruz didn't dazzle anyone in victory but deserved credit for ending the fight and avoiding what could have been a close decision.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica; 111 Pts (4)

TRS: 99 pts (4) 

Vince Samano: 55 pts (5)

Boxing Challenge: Charlo Unifies over Castano!

 In another action fight, Jermell Charlo suddenly ended his rematch with Brian Castano with a left hook in the tenth round and stopped him after a second knockdown to take Castano's WBO junior middleweight title and add it to the three (WBA, WBC, and IBF) championships to create the undisputed title in the division for the first time in the four championship era.

I had Charlo leading by one point (86-85) entering the tenth round, so it was another close and exciting fight on my card but Charlo was far ahead on the official judges' cards (by three, five, and seven points) and little did anyone know that at the start of the round, it was Castano that needed a knockout to win.

I thought all of the cards were ridiculous and anything more than a point or two in favor of either fighter was an awful scorecard.

Castano landed more punches and more power shots, yet Charlo led by seven points on one scorecard?

This fight was even better than their first and the styles mesh so well that should Castano win a fight or two on the comeback trail, I would have no issues with the two fighters hooking it up for the third time.

Charlo doesn't seem to have a lot of options for big money despite his status as the undisputed king of the division.

In the division, fights against promising, undefeated mandatory challengers Sebastian Fundora (WBC) and Tim Tszyu (WBO) would provide Charlo with interesting and action affairs with each having a solid chance to dethrone Charlo but neither will provide the champion with an excessively large paycheck either.

What would be a big money fight could be the winner of the Errol Spence-Terence Crawford fight as the unified welterweight champion challenging Charlo for all four of the junior middleweight titles but that likely only happens if Crawford wins as Spence is a Charlo buddy along with sharing a trainer to make a Charlo-Spence fight unlikely at best.

Charlo's brother, Jermall, is having trouble finding big fights at 160 as the WBC champion, so moving to middleweight for big paydays seems to be a long shot, although a title challenge of someone wouldn't be.

Now that I think about it, Charlo could force a challenge against WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade now that he holds their championship, Charlo could use the WBO's rule of a champion vacating their title to move up in weight could immediately become their number one contender at their new weight class.

While I am not always a fan of the Charlo brother's act outside the ring, give Jermell (and not Jermall) all the credit that he deserves- he earned those four titles by fighting everyone that he could and with no excuses.

Charlo may have been aided in his quest by his promotional company controlling all the stars in his division which made unification fights easier to make but the fighter still fought the fights and didn't back down- full credit to Jermell Charlo.

However, the star of the night once again was welterweight sensation Jaron "Boots" Ennis as Ennis became the IBF's mandatory challenger with a destructive second-round knockout of Canadian Custio Clayton with one right hand.

Ennis landed a shot behind the temple that floored Clayton and even though Clayton rose, his balance was severely impaired and the fight was stopped.

Ennis will now wait for the Errol Spence-Terence Crawford drama to play out and will eventually face the winner but will have to wait again for the fight to happen and what is more likely to happen is the titles are vacated after Spence-Crawford with Ennis fighting for one of those belts.

An idea for Ennis?

How about Ennis vs Jermell Charlo?

If the situation at welter drags out for a while and Charlo gets past whichever mandatory challenger is given first dibs between Sebastian Fundora and Tim Tszyu, tell me you wouldn't be all in for a Boots Ennis challenge of Jermell Charlo?

In 1980 lightweight contender Aaron Pryor was ducked by champions Ernesto Espana (WBA) and Jim Watt (WBC) and couldn't find anyone to fight him.

The Robin Hood of Boxing, Harold Smith, financed a title shot for Pryor at junior welterweight against legendary WBA champion Antonio Cervantes and four rounds later, Pryor was the champion and never saw lightweight again.

Ennis certainly has the frame and power for such a move and despite never fighting at the weight, I'd still pick Ennis over Charlo.

Unlikely to occur but fun to think about.

The reason that I didn't howl too loud about the bad scorecards for Charlo-Castano II was it seemed almost normal compared to the heist that was almost pulled in Paris, France as heavyweight Martin Bakole battered former Olympic gold medalist Tony Yoka around the ring for ten rounds, knocking him down twice, and yet would only win a majority decision.

Bakole knocked down Yoka in the first and almost finished him off in round one and would be given credit for a fifth-round knockdown that was really more of a shove.

Bakole, the younger brother of WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makubu, dominated Yoka, broke his nose early in the fight, and bullied him to the point of Yoka fighting for mere survival in the final round when Yoka needed a knockout to save his undefeated record.

But then the scorecards that had Bakole winning by scores of 96-92 (6-4 minus two knockdowns), 95-93 (5-5 and knockdowns), and a downright amazing 94-94 (6-4 for Yoka and knockdowns) were announced to the amazement to those watching.

I had Bakole winning 99-89 with Yoka only winning round seven and maybe if you were kind, one may have been able to give Yoka round six but nothing else was remotely close.

That would have easily been the worst decision that we have seen in a long time and I'd start counting on having to knock Yoka out if my fighter was going to fight him in France.

Boxing fans often talk of fighters being "exposed" as far as their weaknesses and flaws in particular fights and although that's an overused take, it seems to ring true for Yoka, who seemed to have no clue on how to fend off the aggression of Bakole and had little success doing anything more than a jab that Bakole usually walked through and an occasional right hand.

Yoka entered the fight rated fifth by the IBF, ninth by the WBC, and thirteenth in the WBA ratings, so Bakole's win should allow him to appear in the ratings and might see him leap into involvement in the eliminators held by the IBF to establish their mandatory challenger for the winner of the Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua rematch.

It's too bad that the judges will be remembered longer than the best effort of Bakole's career.

I'll be back later with the rest of the boxing weekend from DAZN and the return of Triller PPV.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 72 Pts (2)

Vince Samano: 64 Pts (5)

Ramon Malpica: 62 Pts (4)