Sad News: Dadashev passes away

Sad news from the ring as junior welterweight Maxim Dadashev passed away today at the age of 28 from injuries suffered from his fight Friday against Subriel Matias.

Dadashev was the slight favorite entering the fight against Matias with victories over former lightweight champions Darley Perez and Antonio DeMarco and Matias was untested without a victory of note other than a win over fading veteran Bredis Prescott.
However, despite a game effort by Dadashev, it was Matias taking a large lead on the scorecards with a power punching attack that slowly wore down Dadashev.
When trainer Buddy McGirt waved the fight off in the corner before the final round, Dadashev protested briefly, but allowing him to come out in poor condition, needing a KO to win would have been foolhardy and that decision seemed to be the right one as Dadashev nearly collapsed to the floor leaving the ring and would be almost carried to the dressing room.
Dadashev then began to vomit and an ambulance was immediately called for him to be taken to a local hospital, where he would undergo two-hour brain surgery to attempt to alleviate bleeding on the brain.
Dadashev was placed in a medically-induced coma with hopes that the swelling would decrease, but that did not happen and he would not regain consciousness again.
Dadashev leaves behind a wife and a young son.

Maxim Dadashev knew the risks involved in professional boxing and took those risks willingly.
That's what professionals take into the ring in any combat sport- the possibility of a severe injury that can affect the quality of one's life and on some rare occasions cost them their life.
It's what is different about boxing and as Max Kellerman has said rings true "You play Baseball, You play Football, No one plays Boxing"

It's also the best and worst of our sport.
The gallantry of a fighter far behind on the cards with a title fight on the line fighting for an opportunity for that final round to try to win, despite the injuries that would end his life and the worst is as simple as a life gone far too soon.
Many will question the sport and you might be surprised to read that I am all for those questions.
Nothing evolves without asking questions on what can be developed to make things better, make things safer and yet do so without changing what makes the sport so dramatic and appealing despite the risks and chances that every fighter takes every time that they step between the ropes.

In the end, a quote I've heard but I don't know whom to attribute it to rings home the most- "You mourn the loss, but you don't wear the black armband forever".
Boxing mourns but moves on.

Boxing Challenge: Pacquiao dethrones Thurman

As I was away for the weekend, I haven't watched all of the Boxing Challenge fights, so I'll spend this time writing about what I have seen and will try to watch the others with an update soon.

In the main fight of the weekend (I have not seen the remainder of the card), Manny Pacquiao controlled the fight from the get-go when he scored a knockdown in round one and took Keith Thurman's WBA welterweight title by a split decision that was never that close.
Pacquiao's first-round knockdown didn't severely hurt Thurman, but what it did was establish that the naturally smaller Pacquiao had the type of power that Thurman, who had been hurt in fights by fighters that weren't huge punchers in the past, was going to have to respect and deal with.
I can't believe someone actually thought Thurman won this fight (Glenn Feldman scored a Thurman a 114-113 winner) as it was a competitive fight throughout, but one fighter clearly controlled the action.
I scored Pacquiao a 116-111 victor (8-4 and a knockdown) and for him, he could face the winner of September's IBF-WBC unification fight between Errol Spence and Shawn Porter early next year or perhaps that rematch with Floyd Mayweather (I hope not).

Also on Saturday, DAZN was on tap with a London card with Dillian Whyte against Oscar Rivas in a heavyweight eliminator. Haven't seen the Whyte victory yet, but I did see the other bout where heavyweight Dereck Chisora brutally knocked former title challenger Artur Splilka out in the second round.
Chisora isn't quite of title stock level, but he'll give anyone a tough scrap and when matched properly he advances from tough out to winning those exciting fights.

Friday night and ESPN+ was the provider for two IBF title eliminators that saw two promising young fighters move on for a title chance and left another fighting for his life.
In the main event, Teofimo Lopez earned a title fight with IBF lightweight champion Richard Commey with a unanimous decision win over Masayoshi Nakatani.
Lopez was forced to finish the scheduled distance for the first time in his career and seemed to lack the explosiveness that his career has seen thus far.
Watching the fight, the first thing that leaped out at me was the physical advantage that Nakatani had against Lopez.
At six feet tall and longer armed, Nakatani was able to keep Lopez on the outside and negated his power a bit, but even still, Lopez won the fight on my card going away at 118-110 and it shows how highly he is thought of as a prospect when you are a bit disappointed over a fight that a prospect won 10 of 12 rounds.
Going the distance is part of the maturation process for a prospect turning into a contender, but it always adds at least a little bit of thought of the possible flaws of the fighter.
The answers will begin to arrive in a fight against Commey for his IBF title, who could very well be undefeated as well, with both of his defeats coming via split decision.

The other eliminator saw Puerto Rico's Subriel Matias defeat Maxim Dadashev when Dadashev could not answer the bell for the final round when Dadashev's trainer Buddy McGirt stopped the fight.
Dadashev was well behind on the judge's scorecards ( and mine 107-102) and Matias was landing the harder punches throughout a grinding bout that saw both land plenty of hard punches.
It seemed senseless for Dadashev to continue considering that Matias had won the previous rounds and Dadashev had little chance of a final round stoppage, so the mercy ending made sense, but then Dadashev had to be helped from the ring, almost collapsed on his way to the locker room and was rushed to the hospital, where he would eventually undergo brain surgery.
Full wishes for a recovery to Dadashev, whos career is almost certainly over, but for Matias, he looks to be a very talented young fighter that will be an underdog to the winner of the Regis Prograis-Josh Taylor unification fight (Taylor is the current IBF champion), but brings the type of talent that won't be simply a walkover for either champion.

Thursday's offering was brought to you from Golden Boy on RingTV.com and some regional sports networks and GBP might have wished they did not offer that in hindsight as their middleweight prospect from Ireland, Jason Quigley was unable to keep veteran Tureano Johnson off of him and was overwhelmed by the former title challenger's aggressiveness with the result being Quigley's corner stopping the fight after the ninth round.
Johnson entered the fight with questions after a physical shellacking against Sergey Dereyvanchenko and a listless draw versus 26-13 Fernando Castaneda, but he was his old buzzsaw self against Quigley and re-established himself as at least a top 10-15 contender in the division.
As for Quigley, this pounding now raises questions about his future and should he have one, he'll need a few softballs to rebuild any confidence that he has remaining after this fight.

In the boxing challenge for the week (Including the fights I'll write about later time permitting), I outscored Ramon Malpica 12-9.

My points: Two each from: Manny Pacquiao, Dillian Whyte, Yordanis Ugas, Luis Nery, Caleb Plant,
                   One                 : Teofimo Lopez, Dereck Chisora

Ramon's:    Two each from: Caleb Plant, Luis Nery, Subriel Matias.
                   One                 : Dillian Whyte, Teofimo Lopez

The standings are currently in my favor at: 191-170