Boxing Challenge: Inoue marches through MJ

   We recapped the Las Vegas side of the boxing weekend earlier, so now it's onto the remainder of the weekend, which saw the world junior featherweight title retained and two new champions taking their place at the table.

Nagoya, Japan, was the site as Naoya "The Monster" Inoue dominated Murodjon "MJ" Akhmadaliev and won an easy unanimous decision to retain his undisputed junior featherweight titles.

Inoue never hurt or knocked down Akhmadaliev, which speaks volumes about the challenger's quality. However, the Monster was far too fast and skilled for Akhmadaliev, and aside from two or three rounds, Inoue dominated the fight.

Akhmadaliev did wobble Inoue in the waning seconds of the fight, but had little time to follow up.

Inoue earned the judges' nod by scores of 118-110 twice and 117-111, which was my score.

Inoue will make his next defense against another mandatory challenger (Akhmadaliev was the WBA's mandatory challenger) before the end of the year against the WBC's Alan David Picasso in Saudi Arabia.

Should Inoue retain those titles, he would face Junto Nakatani next year in the Tokyo Dome in the biggest All-Japanese fight in history.

The co-feature saw an upset as Christian Medina knocked out Yoshiki Takei in the fourth round to win the WBO bantamweight title.

Medina floored Takei in the first round and battered him throughout before finishing him in the fourth.

Paddy Donovan met Lewis Crocker for the second time, and for the second time, Crocker emerged with a controversial victory. 

Donovan was dominating the first fight but was disqualified for hitting Crocker after the bell in an IBF welterweight eliminator.

Since then, Jaron "Boots" Ennis vacated the title, and the IBF mandated rematch was for the vacant title.

This time, Crocker scored knockdowns in the third and fifth rounds, but I thought Donovan was ahead (114-112 on my card) at the end of the fight.

The official decision differed, with Crocker winning on two cards (114-112 and 114-113), with Donovan winning on one card (115-111).

I'd be fine with a third fight eventually between these two.

Roman Gonzalez continued his comeback with a unanimous decision win over Hector Robles in Nicaragua.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 132 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica: 125 Pts (2)

Vince Samano: 52 Pts (1) 

Boxing Challenge: Munguia Vaporized!

    The boxing weekend appeared to have a few interesting bouts, mainly to keep contenders in action, but one right hand from the sky felled a contender and became the star of the weekend.

Unbeaten and unknown Bruno Surace of France hadn't beaten anyone of note and had only fought a few ten-rounders before he traveled to Tijuana, Mexico to face super middleweight contender Jaime Munguia.

Few gave Surace a chance, and even if you thought Surace had a chance, with only four knockouts in his twenty-five wins, no one thought Surace could stop the durable Munguia. After the expected Munguia win, he would face Christian Mbilli in a WBC-ordered eliminator, which would be sure to be a crowd-pleaser.

Surace was better than advertised and despite losing most of the first five rounds and being knocked down in the second round by a Munguia hook, Surace was hanging around in a fight that he appeared to be overmatched.

That was before Surace bounded off the ropes with a pulverizing right hand that dropped Munguia to the floor.

Munguia bravely beat the count but couldn't continue as the fight ended as what will likely be named the upset of the year for 2024.

Munguia vs Mbilli will be delayed as Munguia will likely look for a chance to redeem himself against Surace as quickly as possible.

Monte Carlo was the site of the first of DAZN's two cards with their main event featuring former WBA and IBF junior featherweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev, who knocked Ricardo Espinoza down three times in the third round before the referee stopped the fight in that round.

Akhmadaliev is the best fighter in the division that has yet to meet the undisputed champion, Naoya Inoue, and in winning a WBA minor title,  Akhmadaliev will hopefully receive his chance at "The Monster" sometime in 2025.

In the evening DAZN program, welterweights Alexis Rocha and Raul Curiel swapped punches for twelve exciting rounds with the judges deciding on a majority decision draw.

Rocha banked the early rounds by boxing a bit and keeping Curiel at bay from the outside but began to exchange more often, which made the fight more fan-friendly but took away Rocha's tactical advantage.

The scorecards were 116-112 for Rocha and two at 114-114, which is how I saw the fight.

Both fighters seemed amenable to a rematch; considering this fight, a rematch would be well received.

Unbeaten junior middleweight Charles Conwell continued his march to a title shot with a dominating seventh-round knockout of Gerardo Vergara.

Conwell should be in line for either a title chance or a final title eliminator next year.

On Sunday, heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte won a surprisingly entertaining slugfest over Ebenezer Tetteh when Tetteh's corner ended the fight after the seventh round.

Tetteh's only loss entering the fight came to Daniel DuBois via first-round knockout and most expected Tetteh to look for a way out as soon as Whyte hit him but showed plenty of heart in exchanging with Whyte throughout the fight.

Whyte hurt Tettah badly in both the sixth and seventh rounds and the fight was stopped at the right time.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 184 Pts(5)

TRS: 184 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 116 (1)

Boxing Challenge: Bam unifies, Showtime bids farewell

      The boxing weekend's biggest fight came from Matchroom/DAZN from Glendale, Arizona with Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez taking the IBF flyweight title from Sunny Edwards to add it to the WBO title that Rodriguez owned entering the fight.

Edwards made the fight more entertaining than was expected before the fight as he was willing to exchange shots with the stronger puncher but that was to the detriment of the Englishman, who is known for his boxing skills and not his punching power.

I thought Edwards held his own early and had the fight even after four rounds but Sunny's left eye had been compromised in the second round and would only get worse as the fight progressed.

Edwards announced after the fight that he had suffered an orbital fracture and considering the eye damage, Edwards deserves kudos for hanging in there against the power punches of Rodriguez.

Round six saw both men land well with Edwards surprising with his eagerness to swap in the middle of the ring but even with Edwards's success, Rodriguez still won the round and controlled the seventh and eighth.

Rodriguez battered Edwards in the ninth and dropped him near the ropes as the round neared its end.

Edwards got up and reached his corner but his team wisely ended the fight.

I had Rodriguez ahead at the time of the stoppage 87-84.

Rodriguez was mentioned for a big fight with junior bantamweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada, which could be an excellent action fight as well as a possible changing of the guard with the veteran Estrada attempting to make a final stand against the young tiger, Rodriguez.

In the co-feature, former WBA and IBF junior featherweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev knocked out Kevin Gonzalez in the eighth round to win a title eliminator that will eventually allow Akhmadaliev to fight for his old WBA title after Naoya Inoue vacates his 122-pound belts after his likely win next week over Marlon Tapales.

Gonzalez fought well early but Akhmadaliev broke down Gonzalez, dropped him twice in round six before knocking him down and finishing him off in the eighth.

Had Akhmadaliev fought like this against Marlon Tapales earlier this year, it would be Akhmadaliev that would be unifying titles with Naoya Inoye next week and in my opinion, would be a far more interesting challenge to Inoue than Tapales will be.

It was goodbye to Showtime on Saturday from Minneapolis with a three-fight card with a mismatch in the main event as David Morrell retained his minor title with a second-round drilling of Sena Agbeko in a super middleweight pairing.

Morrell was expected to dispatch Agebeko with ease and he did so, so there's not much else to say other than Morrell looks like the real deal but his competition has been less demanding than Morrell's talent deserves.

The problem is that Morrell looks to be one of the best three super middleweights in the world and in that world, the champion, Canelo Alvarez, doesn't seem thrilled with fighting the second-best, David Benavidez, and Benavidez doesn't seem intrigued with fighting Morrell.

Holding the minor WBA title will eventually put Morrell in a spot to challenge for a title, against Alvarez or a vacant belt but the big fights may elude Morrell for a while.

The super middleweight division has some talented young fighters but they are spread out among several promoters.

Christian Mbilli and Erik Bazinyan are based with Montreal's Eye of the Tiger, who works with Top Rank, Diego Pacheco, and Edgar Berlanga are with Matchroom, and Jaime Munguia is promoted by Golden Boy, so few if any have an incentive to try Morrell on for size.

I'd say the next step for Morrell could be Caleb Plant or Jermall Charlo, should Charlo not fight David Benavidez.

Plant may be the more likely choice, having suffered knockout losses to Alvarez and Benavidez but there is a grudge between Charlo and Plant outside the ring that may make a fight between them a better sale to fans.

In the co-feature, Jose Valenzuela didn't allow the judges to be involved in his rematch with Chris Colbert as Valenzuela knocked Colbert down in round one, and battered him throughout before a one-punch knockout ended the fight in the sixth round.

Colbert tried hard and landed an occasional counter right but he was outgunned by the harder-punching Valenzuela and took a lot of punishment for the third fight in a row had the judges not given the first fight to Colbert, unjustly, Colbert would be on a three-fight losing streak.

Colbert doesn't punch hard enough to keep top fighters off him, and while he is a skilled boxer he's not skilled enough to overcome that liability.

Valenzuela called for Gervonta Davis after the fight and considering the dearth of talent for PBC at lightweight other than Isaac Cruz, Valenzuela could get his chance in 2024, assuming Davis needs an opponent.

The opener was a blast from the past as two welterweight veterans Robert Guerrero battled Andre Berto in a rematch of their spirited 2012 match,

Guerrero won the first fight by unanimous decision and he would repeat the win in the same manner.

Berto was quicker, Guerrero stronger, and Guerrero would win the inside battles to win a reasonably entertaining unanimous decision by scores of 99-91 and 98-92 (x2).

I had the fight a bit closer for Guerrero at 97-93.

It was the type of pairing that fighters of a certain age and quality can still be successful as I don't have much interest in seeing either of these two against a contender or even a solid prospect but matched properly, older boxers can still have a place in the sport.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 187 Pts (6)

Ramon Malpica: 169 Pts (6)

Vince Samano: 124 Pts (6) 

Boxing Challenge: Akhmadaliev, Fundora Upset!

     The DAZN and Showtime portions of the boxing Saturday were filled with action and with two massive upsets that will have large repercussions in two divisions in the near future.

Matchroom/DAZN's show from San Antonio featuring hometown hero Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez's attempt to drop a weight class and win his second world championship after vacating the WBC junior bantamweight title earlier this year.

Rodriguez was successful in winning the vacant WBO flyweight title but he was unable to stop a resilient Cristian Gonzalez and even worse suffered a broken jaw in the unanimous decision victory.

Gonzalez moved just well enough to frustrate Rodriguez and while Rodriguez never stopped chasing and landed plenty of punches, Rodriguez never hurt Gonzalez seriously.

I scored Rodriguez a 117-111 winner with the official scores reading 118-110,117-111 and 116-112.

The best fight of the evening was a stunning upset as double-digit underdog Marlon Tapales grabbed many of the early rounds and held off a late charge from Murodjon Akhmadaliev to win the WBA and IBF junior featherweight titles by a split decision.

Akhmadaliev started slowly and allowed Tapales to land his jab and looping right far too often in building a lead and it wasn't until the second half that Akhmadaliev began to step up his punch output.

When Akhmadaliev did, the fight was quite entertaining and Akhmadaliev generally got the better of the action but officially he waited too long with two judges giving Tapales a 115-113 edge for the upset.

Akhmadaliev won the other by a ridiculous 118-110 which was far too wide as I gave Akhmadaliev the win at 115-113.

As Tapales was a mandatory challenger, Akhmadaliev isn't owed a contractual rematch and may have to win an eliminator or two for an eventual try to regain his crown.

Featherweight Raymond Ford knocked down former WBO junior featherweight champion Jessie Magdaleno in the fourth and eleventh rounds and dominated the other rounds as well in winning an easy unanimous decision in a WBA eliminator.

Not much to say about this one other than Ford was the bigger, faster, and stronger fighter in winning the biggest fight of his career by scores of 119-107 x2 and 116-110, with my score agreeing at 119-107.

Magdaleno looks to be in a tough spot at being unable to make the weight at junior featherweight and is not strong enough to battle the best at 126 pounds.

Carson California was the site of the Showtime/PBC card for a strange evening of boxing led by an upset that changed the future of the junior middleweight division.

For six rounds, the 6'5 Sebastian Fundora was having a clear path to retaining his minor title and more importantly his spot at the top of the WBC ratings and an eventual shot at unified champion Jermell Charlo as he battered the face of Brian Mendoza in winning all six rounds on my card.

That would all change seconds into the seventh round as Mendoza countered an uppercut attempt from Fundora with an electric left hook that sent Fundora stumbling backward and as he tried to stay upright, Mendoza leaped into the space with a right and left that left Fundora on the floor for a stunning ten count.

The win gives Mendoza the minor title held by Fundora but more importantly, it will be Mendoza in a position to wait for the winner of Charlo's title defense against Tim Tszyu, assuming he could hold that spot until his turn arrives.

The upset was the second in a row for Mendoza, who knocked out former WBA and IBF champion Jeison Rosario in his previous bout, and while I'd rate him as a strong underdog against either Charlo or Tszyu, it could be that Mendoza is one of those stories that is finding lightning in a bottle at the perfect time in a career.

The co-feature saw an excellent action fight between junior welterweight prospect Brandun Lee and veteran Pedro Campa, who slammed the other with punches for the ten rounds with Campa's face looking the worse for wear but Campa landing the heavier punches.

Lee emerged with an unpopular unanimous decision by scores of 97-93, 98-92, and 99-91, all of which seemed far wide for my tastes.

I scored the fight even at 95 as a draw, so my beef isn't with Lee's win, just some awful judging.

Some of the shine from Lee has disappeared in his last few fights and I'm not sure he is championship caliber in a division that is filled with top boxers but he does make action fights and as long as he keeps winning, he'll get a chance eventually.

On the undercard, Gabriel Maestre forced former two-division champion Devon Alexander to surrender after three one-sided rounds.

Maestre didn't prove a lot in the victory as Alexander clearly needs to step into retirement.

I didn't add the opener of the Showtime telecast to the challenge as undefeated featherweights Luis Nunez and Christian Olivo started the show but I wanted to add to the ridiculous judging of the evening as Nunez won a unanimous decision that he didn't deserve by scores of an incredible 100-90, 98-92, and 97-93.

I scored Olivo a 97-93 victor and feel awful for him as he was robbed of a win that he deserved.

If there is any justice, PBC will set up a rematch as the fight was entertaining- hopefully with new judges.

Boxing Challenge 

TRS: 63 Pts (5)

Ramon Malpica: 59 Pts (6)

Vince Samano: 48 Pts (5)  

Boxing Challenge: Bam breaks out!

    Two title fights and a title eliminator saw three excellent performances but one stood highest of them all as Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez stamped himself as a star with a dominant eighth-round knockout of former champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai to retain the WBC junior bantamweight title in Rodriguez's hometown of San Antonio, Texas.

Rungvisai entered the fight with three wins in Thailand since losing a decision to Juan Francisco Estrada in 2019 but owned a win over Estrada and two wins over Roman Gonzalez, so the question with Rungvisai was this- How close to his peak form was Rungvisai to that fighter and could he handle a highly skilled and talented young fighter?

The answer is still unclear on what Rungvisai has remaining in his career because Rodriguez was so good that he looked clearly out of Rungvisai's league as Rodriguez won arguably every round ( I gave Rungvisai the second round and that was a close round) with sharp counters and the type of speed that the veteran had no chance against.

Give Rungvisai credit- he kept coming forward but it was clear by the middle rounds that he was overmatched and when Rodriguez landed a left hand in the seventh that caused Rungvisai to stumble and with some assistance from shoes that troubled him all fight long, touched his gloves to the floor for a knockdown.

Rodriguez finished the fight in the eighth, landing several punches that drove Rungvisai into the ropes and pounded him until the referee had little choice but to step in to end the fight.

Rodriguez says he can return to fight at flyweight or he could fight either WBA champion Juan Francisco Estrada (who gave up the title that Rodriguez holds) or Roman Gonzalez in what would be highly anticipated fights.

No matter the path that Rodriguez and promoter Eddie Hearn choose, there is a star in the making in Bam Rodriguez and I think boxing fans could be watching this young man for a long time to come.

In the co-feature, Murodjon Akhmadaliev survived an injured hand to stop Ronny Rios in the final round to retain his WBA and IBF junior featherweight titles.

Akhmadaliev dominated the first six rounds before injuring his left hand and choosing to box almost one handed for the latter half of the fight before stepping up the pace with a two fisted attack that would knock Rios to the floor.

Rios would rise but the fight was ended there.

Akhmadaliev badly hurt Rios in the fifth round and almost ended the fight in that round and it's not impossible that he injured his left hand during his biggest round of the fight.

I had the champion well ahead after eleven rounds (109-100) but I loved the killer instinct that allowed him to go for the impressive finish of Rios rather than be satisfied with a wide decision win.

The fight to be made is the full unification against WBC and WBO champion Stephen Fulton and both fighters seem to want the bout but as always in boxing, network and promotional issues will need to be overcome.

Both champions appear to be versatile fighters that can use different styles to win their fights and I could see their fight as anywhere from a war to a bore, but it needs to be made soon.

An upset occurred in Mexicali, Mexico on ESPN+ as former WBA light flyweight champion Hekkie Budler traveled from South Africa to win a unanimous decision over former WBO champion Elwin Soto and earned a title shot against WBC light flyweight titleholder Ken Shiro (Teraji).

Soto won the first four rounds on my card but Budler's smoother boxing took over in round five and Soto was just the duller and less active fighter for the remainder of the fight.

Budler dropped an off-balance Soto early in the final round as Soto tried to rescue the fight as he did in his title-winning fight against Angel Acosta, and it appeared that the knockdown was the exclamation point on a solid win for Budler (116-11 on my card).

Then the scoring was announced with all three judges scoring it for Budler 114-113, which meant that had Budler not scored what seemed to be a superfluous knockdown the fight would have ended in a draw that saved the hometown combatant.

That would have been a travesty of justice for Budler, who gave a terrific performance considering his travel, age (34), and his fighting just once since losing his title to Hiroto Kyoguchi and should make an interesting matchup with Ken Shiro in his title fight.

As for Soto, it was his second defeat in a row (he lost his title to Jonathan Gonzalez by split decision) and he has become a fighter that just doesn't throw enough punches and has become reliant on his power to save him. Boxing Challenge

TRS: 115 Pts(4) 

Ramon Malpica: 99 Pts (3)

Vince Samano: 93 Pts (3)