Boxing Challenge-Lomachenko Dominates Rigondeaux

Huge weekend in the boxing challenge and since I was in Pittsburgh for the Steel City Comic Con, I have yet to catch on everything as of this writing, but I did see the biggest card of the weekend from Top Rank on ESPN with the anticipated first ever meeting of two double Olympic gold medal winners as Vasyl Lomachenko defended his WBO junior lightweight title against Guillermo Rigondeaux.

Sadly, the bout didn't live up to its hype as Lomachenko dominated every round against Rigondeaux and left the reluctant Cuban to retire on his stool at the end of the sixth round with an injured hand.
Now, it is tremendously difficult to fight through a hand injury and I'm not attempting to diminish the injury at all, but it's the difference between the warrior and just a fighter and when it was time to determine what was in the tank for Rigondeaux when the rubber hit the road, he chose to quit.
No knockdowns scored and what wasn't expected to be a war, but it was even more disappointing than expected.
I'm not sure what Rigondeaux has in his future, but Lomachenko doesn't appear to have any challenges at 130 unless he wants to collect belts and even then I don't think those are true challenges,simply exercises in collecting.
Lomachenko may have to move to 135 for potential fights against Jorge Linares or Mikey Garcia to face any sort of competitive opponent.

The co-feature promising junior lightweight prospect Christopher Diaz blow out Bryant Cruz in three impressive rounds as he scored knockdowns in every round.
Diaz may not be ready for Lomachenko soon, but he might be the fighter that takes over the division when Lomachenko moves to 135.

On FS1 from the PBC on Friday, former light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal had not looked good of late and entered what he claimed to be his final fight against Ahmed Elbali, who had looked very impressive as he had worked his way through his early tests.
I thought Pascal was ripe for being the first name on Elbali's resume and early on it looked to be the case.
However, Pascal drained the gas from Elbali's tank and stopped an exhausted Elbali in the sixth round.
Let's see after such a big win if Pascal truly is able to walk away.

On HBO, a three bout card from Las Vegas saw the junior lightweights featured.
The main event saw the end of the exciting career of the only fighter to defeat Vasyl Lomachenko as Orlando Salido was stopped by Miguel Roman in the 9th round of an excellent fight.
I had Roman slightly ahead entering round nine, mainly on the basis of knockdowns scored in the fourth and eighth round before closing the show in the ninth.
Glad to see Salido go out before he gets seriously hurt and going out in a good fight instead of one in which he was badly overmatched.

We saw a Hamburglar arrival as Kenichi Ogawa won the vacant IBF title by a split decision over Tevin Farmer.
This was a robbery as I had Farmer a 117-111 winner and I fail to see how anyone could see Ogawa a winner in any way.
I would not be surprised to see the IBF mandate an immediate rematch due to the decision.

Francisco Vargas won the opener by a unanimous technical decision in the tenth round when a head butt split the ear IN HALF (YES!) of Stephen Smith in round ten..
I've been around boxing a long time-I've never seen an injury like that!
If you didn't see this and have a weak stomach, don't look this up!
I had Vargas a 97-93 winner.

Boxing challenge points
R.L: One point for Lomachenko and Roman wins
TRS:Two points for Lomachenko win/KO, One point Cruz win

Total Standings TRS leads:188-171

I'll have to watch the other three bouts on youtube later this week and I'll add them to Wednesday morning's Jeff Horn bout for that Challenge recap!
 

Fight of the year-Boxing Challenge

The boxing challenge continued with the clubhouse leader for fight of the year and the dreck that you would expect from PBC.
I added five points to R.L.Malpica's four and extended my lead to 67-56.

Let's start with the good as Francisco Vargas defended his WBC Jr.Lightweight title against Orlando Salido with a majority decision draw.
The action was strong and consistent and is certainly the leader for fight of the year.
Anything will have to go a long way to beat this as despite no knockdowns being scored,the action was quite dramatic as both fighters ere stung several times.
I had Salido a narrow 115-113 winner,but had no quibble with the two scores of draws at 114 or even the Vargas card of 115-113.
I'd love to see these two hook it up again as neither are ever in dull fights.
Check it out,if you have HBO and for their tremendous ten minute tribute to Muhammad Ali....
Since the fight was a draw,neither Ramon nor I added points.

Earlier in the day,Liam Smith retained his WBO Jr.Middleweight crown with a second round blowout of Pedrag Radosevic in the UK.
Smith,who is rumored to be the next opponent of Canelo Alvarez,didn't seem to prove anything other than being able to pick up a paycheck for mopping up an overmatched opponent.
Smith's knockout gave me two points and Ramon for one for picking Smith...

The PBC gave us two "main events" over the weekend that were that in name only.
Saturday night was ESPN show the Montreal wrecking ball Artur Beterbiev steamroller Ezequiel Maderna over four rounds in Beterbiev's return to the ring after injury.
Beterbiev was returning from shoulder surgery,so an easy touch could be acceptable this time,but the time is here for PBC to put him in the ring with their 175 pound stars Adonis Stevenson or Andrezj Fonfara.
Both Ramon and I added two points for this win....

Friday saw about was expected as Rances Barthelemy retained his IBF 135 pound belt with a snoozer of a split decision Mickey Bey in Las Vegas.
The less said about this dullsville bout the better as Ramon and I each earned one point for the Barthelemy win....