Not so Boxing Challenge: Inoue, Nakatani notch wins

    It comes too late to be, but I wanted to write before it was too late. The biggest fight in Japanese history appears to be on the horizon, but not without some difficulty in Riyadh.

In the main event, undisputed world junior featherweight champion Naoya Inoue retained his four titles with a dominant unanimous decision over mandatory contender Alan David Picasso.

No knockdowns scored with the champion winning by scores of 120-109, 119-109 (my score), and 117-111.

Former unified bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani made his junior featherweight bow a successful one. Still, he had to battle for it, as Nakatani barely repelled the unexpectedly firm challenge of Sebastian Hernandez by a close but unanimous decision.

Lots of action, and Nakatani's left eye was swollen shut by the end of the bout.

Scores of 115-113 on two cards (and mine) with the third an absurd 118-110 all for Nakatani.

Inoue and Nakatani are expected to meet in the spring at the Tokyo Dome for Inoue's titles in the biggest All-Japanese fight in the nation's history.

The other fight took place in Japan, where Masamichi Yabuki retained his IBF flyweight title with a final-round knockout of former light flyweight champion Felix Alvarado.

Yabuki scored knockdowns in the eleventh and twelfth rounds to cement the win.

Boxing Challenge: Saturday Bloody Saturday

    Saturday's boxing was quite a bloody one, with fights involving plenty of the red stuff left in the ring.

The first fight of the day came from Japan, where the lower-weight's "King of the Upset" pulled another one as IBF junior flyweight champion Masamichi Yabuki rose to the flyweight division and knocked out unbeaten champion Angel Ayala in the final round to take Ayala's IBF title.

Yabuki dropped Ayala in each of the first two rounds. While Ayala won some rounds, Yabuki led by a wide margin entering the final round when Yabuki scored one final knockdown to end the fight.

Yabuki made his name by upsetting Kenshiro Teraji and taking Teraji's WBC title by knockout before losing the rematch, and in his most recent fight before beating Ayala, he knocked out Sivenathi Nonthshinga to win the light flyweight title.

Yabuki will have one week to decide which of the two titles he will keep, and it's expected to be the flyweight championship as it would set up a lucrative third match against WBA and WBC champion Kenshiro Teraji with three of the division's titles at stake.

On ESPN from Las Vegas, Mikaela Mayer was too active for Sandy Ryan, and that made the difference in the fight as Mayer retained the WBO welterweight title that she won from Ryan in another exciting battle.

Ryan landed the higher percentage, but Mayer's output and punches landed allowed her to win the justified decision by scores of 97-93 x2 and 98-92.

I had the match a little closer for Mayer at 96-94.

Brian Norman was dynamite in the co-feature as he retained his WBO welterweight title by a third round knockout of Derrieck Cuevas.

Cuevas landed well in round one, but Norman hurt Cuevas in round two, and after a third round knockdown, Cuevas had little interest in fighting on.

Bruce Carrington stopped Jose Vivas in the third round of a featherweight eliminator and is expected to fight for a title in his next fight.

Carrington scored a second-round knockdown before the finish in the third round in his impressive victory.

DAZN and Golden Boy were in Cancun, Mexico, for the lightweight rematch between top contender William Zepeda and former IBF junior lightweight champion Tevin Farmer.

Zepeda won an arguable split decision in the first fight, and although the rematch was closely contested, Zepeda was the deserving majority decision victor.

Zepeda dominated the first half of the match, Farmer charged back in rounds eight through twelve but Zepeda built enough of a lead to win on my card 115-113 with the official cards reading 116-112 and 115-113 for Zepeda, along with a score of 114-114 on the final card.

Zepeda should finally receive his title shot in his next fight, while Farmer, after another tough-luck defeat, deserves another attempt to upend a contender.

Oscar Collazo retained his WBA and WBO strawweight titles with a fifth round knockout of Edgar Cano after a vicious bodyshot.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 44 Pts (10)

Ramon Malpica: 37 Pts (7)

Vince Samano: 20 Pts (2)

Boxing Challenge: Beterbiev bumps Bivol

    The long-awaited light heavyweight unification match between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol may not have been a firefight but it was a fascinating technical battle at the highest level that the sport can offer and at the end of twelve closely-matched rounds, it was Beterbiev who emerged with the narrow victory and adding the fourth (WBA) title to his three (WBC, IBF, WBO) and the title as the undisputed best in the division.  

The fight's scoring has been criticized but I scored it 114-114 which agreed with one judge and the others giving an edge to Beterbiev 115-113 and 116-112.

Beterbiev threw over two hundred more punches and landed the stronger shots but Bivol landed six more punches overall for a higher percentage. 
I thought it was even but if I am forced to choose, I would lean towards the more aggressive Beterbiev.

Beterbiev went the distance for the first time in his career after twenty knockouts in his previous twenty fights, while Bivol suffered his first defeat.

I would not have an issue if someone scored Bivol a close winner and a rematch seems to be the main money fight for each man as neither is likely to move to cruiserweight and Bivol's loss may render him uninteresting for Canelo Alvarez, now that Bivol does not hold a title.

The undercard was pretty mundane with one exception as Fabio Wardley conclusively finished his rivalry with Frazer Clarke with a stunning first-round knockout.

The two hooked up in a sensational war in March that was scored a draw but this one ended when Wardley hurt Clarke with a right hand and sent him to a knee in the corner in no condition to continue.

An excellent win for Wardley, who will move up in the ratings after a spectacular victory.

Jai Opetaia retained his IBF cruiserweight title with a sixth-round stoppage of Jack Massey.

Opetaia was well ahead on my card when Massey's corner threw in the towel.

Opetaia is the top cruiserweight currently and I would love to see him against the winner of this fall's unification match between WBA champion Gilberto Ramirez and WBO king Chris Billam-Smith.

Middleweight Chris Eubank Jr, knocked down Kamil Szeremets three times before stopping him in the seventh round of a middleweight mismatch.

In Nagoya Japan, Masamchi Yabuki won the IBF junior flyweight title with a ninth-round stoppage of Sivenathi Nontshinga.

Yabuki, the former WBC champion in the division and the only fighter to defeat Kenshiro Teraji knocked down Nontshinga late in the eighth round and was dropped twice in the ninth round before the referee ended the fight.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica; 143 Pts (6)

TRS: 136 Pts (6)

Vince Samano: 80 Pts (4) 

Boxing Challenge: Teraji regains title

   A fairly non-descript boxing weekend started in Kyoto, Japan as Kenshiro Teraji avenged his only career loss and regained his WBC light flyweight title with a vicious one punch knockout of Masamichi Yabuki in the third round.

Teraji had lost his title via tenth round knockout to Yabuki last year in a surprising upset, which Teraji blamed on not having fully recovered of Covid-19 which caused the first fight's postponement before it took place.

Turned out that may have been the case as Teraji stormed Yabuki from the start, pounding Yabuki with a power jab and forcing the champion to back up from the opening bell.

Teraji ended the fight with one right hand that dropped Yabuki to his knees and only with great effort and to my surprise, Yabuki beat the count but the referee correctly stopped the bout.

For Teraji, he could be looking for unification in the division but a bigger fight could be at flyweight where he could face countryman and WBO 112 pound champion Junto Nakatani.

The fledgling promotional company Probellum's latest card from Dubai was streaming on the FUBO sports network (check out your Roku,Amazon Fire, etc to find this channel) with two fights of world caliber interest.

In the main event, Sunny Edwards retained his IBF flyweight title with a unanimous decision over mandatory challenger Muhammad Waseem.

Edwards did just enough in a foul-filled affair to hold off Waseem, who was deducted points twice in the fight, in a fight that Edwards controlled when he boxed from the outside but fought with Waseem enough to allow the challenger to win a few rounds.

I had Edwards a 116-110 winner (8-4 in rounds minus the two lost points) which was the same as one scorecard with the other two cards seeing Edwards a 115-111 winner.

After the fight, Edwards called out WBC champion Julio Cesar Martinez in a unification fight that would have a backstory with Martinez battering Edwards's brother Charlie for Charlie's then-WBC flyweight title but was ruled a no-contest when Martinez hit Charlie after knocking him down.

After the WBC ruled an immediate rematch was in order, Charlie Edwards vacated the title with Martinez winning the vacant title.

I'm not sure this fight ever takes place not due to the different promoters (Martinez is with Matchroom) but Martinez missed weight badly in his junior bantamweight loss to Roman Gonzalez, so I'm not feeling positive about Martinez's ability to make the flyweight limit.

In the co-feature, former WBA junior welterweight champion Regis Prograis continued his comeback with a sixth round TKO over Tyrone McKenna when McKenna's cuts around his eyes were judged to be too bad for him to continue.

Prograis knocked McKenna down in the second with a left hand and dominated McKenna throughout as most expected in Prograis third fight since his close loss to Josh Taylor in 2019.

Prograis should be in the mix of one of the four titles that are expected to vacated soon by Taylor.

The evening saw cards from DAZN and ESPN with interesting main events.

DAZN and Golden Boy's top of the card bout was the best action fight of the day as welterweights Alexis Rocha and Blair Cobbs slugged it out for nine rounds before Rocha finished Cobbs off for a ninth round victory.

I had Rocha slightly ahead after seven before Rocha dropped Cobbs with an uppercut in round eight with Cobbs barely surviving the round.

Cobbs did show courage in coming out of his corner for the ninth bu Rocha quickly leaped on him with a volley of punches to grab the win in the first minute of the round.

It was an excellent action fight but the stronger and better technically Rocha wore down the flashier and faster Cobbs and looked very good in the win.

I had Rocha ahead after eight rounds 77-74 (5-3 with a knockdown) and I'm hoping to see Rocha again against at least an opponent of Cobbs level, if not someone better.

ESPN+ wasn't nearly as lucky in their main event as undefeated super middleweight Edgar Berlanga won a unanimous decision over Canada's Steve Rolls in a dull ten rounder.

Berlanga went the distance for the third fight in a row after fourteen first-round knockouts to start his career and didn't dazzle anyone in this fight although I thought he won the first five rounds mainly because Rolls did even less than Berlanga did.

Once Rolls started rolling in the sixth (sorry, had to do it)  and threw a few punches, Rolls won three rounds in a row and seemed to be ready to push Berlanga to the edge.

And as quickly as it started, it ended as Berlanga turned the fight back around and won the final two rounds.

My 97-93 Berlanga score equaled two of the judges with the other scoring 96-94 in a fight that gave Berlanga a victory but added another log to a fire that wonders just how good Berlanga really is.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 39 Pts (6)

Vince Samano 38 Pts (6)

Ramon Malpica: 35 Pts (7)