Boxing Challenge: Zepeda zaps Roach, Muratalla retains title.

     From the better late than never department, William Zepeda bounced back from his loss to Shakur Stevenson with a tremendous win over Lamont Roach to win the WBC lightweight title that was stripped from Stevenson.

I gave Roach the first two rounds, but only one round after that, as Zepeda's overwhelming barrage of punches was far too much for Roach to overcome.

My 118-110 was the same as one judge, with the other two scoring 117-111.

Raymond Muratalla won an easy if workmanlike decision over Robson Conceicao to retain his IBF version of the lightweight title.

After the win (119-109 on two cards and 118-110 on the third), Muratalla announced plans to move to the junior welterweight division.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 87 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica: 74 Pts (4)

Vince Samano: 60 Pts (2)

Boxing Challenge: Muratalla Shades Cruz

    Raymond Muratalla used an aggressive yet controlled style to force the superior boxer, Andy Cruz, to engage more and move less, winning a close majority decision to retain his IBF lightweight title in Las Vegas.

The fight reminded me a lot of the two Artur Beterbiev-Dimtri Bivol fights, as it was a fight that had plenty of action but was done with skill, not with crude punches.

Muratalla was the slightly harder puncher, had the advantage in the final few rounds, and deserved the very close decision, which he won by scores of 118-110 and 116-112 for Muratalla and 114-114 even.

I thought Muratalla won by a tight 115-113 score and believe the 118-110 card was out of touch with reality.

Muratalla was making a mandatory defense and was the visiting fighter (Muratalla is promoted by Top Rank) on a Matchroom/DAZN card.

Muratalla surprised me a little with the win and is going to be a tough out for anyone in the division but unification fights may have to wait a while with the WBA title being vacated (Gervonta Davis had the title removed due to his out of the ring issues) and the WBC title could be vacated should champion Shakur Stevenson win his junior welterweight championship match with Teofimo Lopez next week.

WBO champion Abdullah Mason is also promoted by Top Rank but is still relatively untested, and Top Rank may not be in a hurry to have a prized prospect meet Muratalla too early.

Cruz fought well, and after a close loss, I wouldn't be surprised to see his name in the mix for vacant titles.

Former WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov returned to the ring after a long absence but didn't thrill anyone in a rout of Luis David Salazar.

Madrimov won on all three cards (and mine) 99-91 and hurt Salazar in the final round, but otherwise trudged his way to the easy win.

Khalil Coe blew weight by an astonishing eight pounds before his light heavyweight fight against Jesse Hart, lost a point for bodyslamming Hart, and appeared to be defeated by Hart, a former super middleweight title challenger.

Yet, Coe was rewarded with a majority decision that he didn't deserve, winning by scores of 96-92, 95-93, and 94-94.

Hart didn't help his cause when he lost a point for holding in round six, but it didn't cost him the fight on those cards.

I scored Hart the winner 95-93.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica; 8 Pts(4)

Vince Samano: 7 Pts (3)
TRS:  6 Pts (2)

Boxing Challenge: Navarrete slips by Suarez

   The boxing weekend didn't see any major upsets, but the action was pretty good, with a little controversy as well.

In the only title match, Emanuel Navarrete retained his WBO junior lightweight title with a technical decision at the end of round seven over Charly Suarez in San Diego.

In a nip and tuck battle, the beginning of the sixth round saw Suarez land a hard left hand and then graze Navarrete's head with his own.

As the fighters separated, Navarrete bled profusely from a cut over his eye, which the referee ruled was from a headbutt.

The fight was stopped before the start of round eight and moved to the scorecards with Navarrete winning by 68-65 and 67-66 times two (my score agreed with the latter).

California uses instant replay, so they could have changed the ruling, but said the replay was inconclusive.

If the cut had been ruled by the punch landed by Suarez, the halting of the fight would have given the win and the championship to Suarez.

The fight was close and hard fought, and Suarez deserves a rematch under the circumstances, but it may not happen as Navarrete needed six (yes, six) tries to make the division limit, and he might be forced to move up in weight.

Should Navarrete decide to move up, I hope the WBO places Suarez in the fight to fill the vacated title; he deserves that, at least.

In the co-feature, Raymond Muratalla won a unanimous decision over a tough but outgunned Zair Abdullaev.

No knockdowns, but Abdullaev's face was bruised and swollen after the bout, and Muratalla was way too much for Abdullaev.

Muratalla won by scores of 119-109 times two and 118-110; my score was 119-109.

Muratalla won the IBF interim lightweight title, and while I normally hate interim titles, this is a situation that is acceptable with champion Vasyl Lomachenko idle for a year, doesn't have a fight in the works, and is considering retirement.

If Lomachenko returns to the ring, he must face Muratalla, and should he decide to retire, Muratalla will be installed as the full champion.

Earlier in the day, from Nottingham, England, former IBF junior lightweight champion Anthony Cacace stopped former WBA featherweight titleholder in the ninth round when Wood's corner tossed in the towel of their surrender, with their men taking a beating.

Cacace scored a technical knockdown early in the ninth when only the ropes allowed Wood to remain standing.

As the round progressed, Wood fought back, but Cacace hurt Wood again, and on unsteady legs and with Cacace in pursuit, the Wood corner made the decision to stop the fight.

In Equatorial Guinea, Souleymane Cissokho won a unanimous decision over Egidijus Kavaliauskas in a WBC welterweight eliminator.

Cissokho was dropped in the second and fifth rounds, but otherwise managed to box and move his way through the fight.

Scores for Cissokho at 114-112 (same as mine), 115-111, and 116-110, who will now be the mandatory contender for WBC champion Mario Barrios.

I'll be back Monday with the two remaining bouts over the weekend, which I've been unable to watch yet.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 72 Pts (4)

Ramon Malpica: 70 Pts ( 5)

Vince Samano: 30 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: Foster regains title

       The first fight between Robson Conceicao and O'Shaquie Foster is better remembered for the controversial decision than the actual fight.

Their second fight was far more entertaining but this time the right man received the decision as Foster regained the WBC junior lightweight title that he lost to Conceicao via split decision. 

Conceciao took the early rounds, Foster took over in the middle rounds, and the late rounds were fought evenly with the winner of those rounds in the eye of the beholder.

Two judges scored for Foster 115-113 (same as mine) with the other's card favoring Conceicao 115-113, all of which are very reasonable scores.

Foster may next face the winner of December's WBO title encounter between Emanuel Navarrete and Oscar Valdez in a unification bout, while Conceciao will look to establish himself for a third fight with Foster, which seems far more interesting now than it did before Saturday night.

The outstanding performance of the weekend was by lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla, who smashed durable Jesus Perez in two rounds.

Perez had never been stopped in losses to WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman, welterweight contender Alexis Rocha, or former title challenger Danielito Zorrilla but Muratalla blitzed Perez in only two rounds with the type of outing that fighters that are prepared for a championship attempt make.

Muratalla is expected to challenge IBF champion Vasyl Lomachenko, should Lomachenko decide to continue boxing.

If Lomachenko retires, as is rumored, Muratalla would fight for the vacant title against Zaur Abdulaev as the highest-rated available challengers in the IBF ratings.

Abraham Nova and Humberto Galindo struggled to a draw in a dull junior lightweight ten-rounder.

Neither fighter deserved the win with one judge scoring 95-95 (my score) with the others scoring 96-94 for Nova and 97-93 for Galindo.

In Las Vegas, unbeaten lightweight prospect Floyd Schofield defeated solid Rene Tellez Giron by unanimous decision in another fight that was more interesting than anticipated as Schofield was willing to exchange more than predicted and make things entertaining.

Schofield did slow down in his first twelve-rounder as Tellez-Giron won a few late rounds and scored a flash knockdown in the eleventh round.

Schofield won on the cards 118-109 times two and 116-111. I scored 117-110 for Schofield, who is over-ranked by the WBA at second in the world.

Schofield is talented but Tellez-Giron is his biggest win and that doesn't qualify him to be rated second in the world.

In what was scheduled to be a WBA super middleweight eliminator but was reduced after Bektemir Melikuziev missed weight, and then is reported to have struggled with David Stevens (I haven't seen it yet) in winning a split decision.

Scores 118-110 and 117-111 for Melikuziev and 116-112 for Stevens.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 156 Pts (5)

TRS: 152 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 94 Pts (3) 

Boxing Challenge; Ennis shines in title defense

     The boxing weekend took a blow when IBF and WBO middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly was forced from his title defense due to dehydration but two bouts remained on the week, both with world title ramifications.

From Philadelphia. Matchroom/DAZN presented Jaron "Boots" Ennis in his Matchroom debut as well as his first defense of his IBF welterweight title against David Avanesyan, a replacement for Cody Crowley, who was forced to drop out with an eye injury.

Avanesyan was stopped in six rounds by Terence Crawford in December 2022, so there was some interest in comparing Crawford and Ennis to their fights against Avanesyan.

Ennis took only five rounds as the fight was stopped in the corner after round five and Ennis definitely impressed with his smooth offensive style battering Avanesyan throughout the fight.

Ennis knocked Avanesyan down in the fifth and was landing loads of punches after the knockdown.

Avanesyan survived the round on unsteady legs and the corner did the right thing by ending the fight.

Ennis looked great and while many would love to see him against Terence Crawford, that fight isn't happening, and the available unifications might not be easy to make or overly exciting (Eimantas Stanonis WBA and Mario Barrios WBC are with PBC and soon-to-be promoted to WBO full champion Brian Norman is associated with Top Rank), so it's possible that Ennis may have to move to junior middleweight before we find out just how good he is- And my suspicions are that he is excellent.

After the late fall-out from Janibek Alimkhanuly, lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla's fight with former IBF junior lightweight champion Tevin Farmer was moved to the ESPN+/Top Rank main event from Las Vegas.

And for seven rounds, Farmer was on the verge of a major upset and was slightly leading on my card.

But Farmer was deducted a point for holding in round eight ( a questionable call in my opinion) and was badly hurt in the final round as part of a three-round sweep for Muratalla to pull out a unanimous decision.

Scores were 97-92, 96-93, and 95-94 for the unbeaten contender, my card agreeing with the 96-93 version.

Muratalla called out WBO champion Denis Baranchyk after the fight and that would be an easy fight to make promotionally but William Zepeda (the top contender in all four organizations) is rumored to see Baranchyk as the easiest of the four champions and may select the WBO title as the fight that Zepeda will fight for, which means Muratalla will have to wait.

As for Farmer, the veteran looked very good when you consider his recent inactivity and he could be in the title picture, should he be able to repeat his performance on Saturday.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 107 Pts (4) 

TRS: 95 Pts (4)
Vince Samano: 50 Pts (1)

Boxing Challenge: Estrada Unifies, Valdez wins

    Top Rank and ESPN+'s card from Glendale, Arizona featured two excellent fights at the top of the card with plenty of action.

In the main event, Oscar Valdez won the interim WBO junior lightweight title by a seventh-round knockout over Liam Wilson.

Normally, I don't acknowledge interim titles but Valdez will become the full champion sometime in May when Emanuel Navarette fights for the WBO lightweight title and is unlikely to return to the division, so will vacate the title.

I had Valdez slightly ahead at the time of the stoppage (58-56) and I thought the stoppage was a little early but Valdez was in command of the fight and it was an understandable decision.

Both fighters sustained facial damage and Valdez's face blew up for the second fight in a row, so there are still questions about how long Valdez will hold up in the future.

In the pre-fight, both WBC junior lightweight champion O'Shaquie Foster and IBF featherweight king Luis Alberto Lopez each mentioned future challenges against Valdez, should he emerge victorious, each could be a possible opponent later this year.

In the co-feature, Seniesa Estrada survived a stern test from Yokasta Valle to add the IBF and WBO minimumweight titles to the WBA and WBC titles she owned previously to win a unanimous decision.

All three judges' scores were the same as mine, 97-93 for Estrada, who outboxed Valle from the southpaw stance for most of the fight but Valle's straighter punches often found a home and under different rules (twelve-round fights or three-minute rounds) Valle might have won the decision as she was the stronger fighter down the stretch.

I'd like to see a rematch but that might be a hard sell for Estrada, who entered the fight with extensive emotions towards Valle's trainer, Gloria Alvarado, and Valle's promoters, Golden Boy, for her previous connections with both, and she could decide to move up in weight to junior flyweight or flyweight.

Valle was the more aggressive fighter so the crowd did have pockets of boos after the fight but I thought Gloria Alvarado's postfight comments were a bit out of line when you consider the personal issues that were involved.

Women's boxing does need to tweak one major issue and while I have always said the two-minute rounds prevent knockouts, a case can be made for the two-minute rounds adding more excitement.

The WBC seems to be the holdup on moving to three-minute rounds as many of the stars of the sport are asking to happen but I think that the best compromise could be for championship fights to stay at two minutes but move them from ten to twelve rounds.

It isn't perfect but I think it would be reasonable.

Lightweight Raymond Muratalla looked a little flat in winning a unanimous decision over Xolisani Ndongeni by scores of 99-91, 98-92, and 97-93, with my score agreeing with the final score listed.

Muratalla did not look dazzling against Ndongeni, who fought well but was unable to hit hard enough to keep Muratalla off him and was fortunate to make the final bell as Muratalla turned up the pace in the latter rounds.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 32 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 32 Pts (4)
Vince Samano: 15 Pts (0) 

Boxing Challenge: Haney squeaks by Lomachenko

   In an entertaining bout alternating between slugfest and a skilled chess match, Devin Haney retained his world lightweight title with a narrow unanimous decision over Vasyl Lomachenko in Las Vegas.

The close but unpopular decision by scores of 115-113 (times two) and 116-112 not only allowed Haney to keep all four of his world championships and keep big future fights open but to do so regardless of promotional affiliation as Haney's agreement with Top Rank concluded with his win over Lomachenko.

Haney used Lomachenko's characteristic slow start to build a lead on the scorecards and held off the Ukrainan's usual fast finish to win the fight (avoid a draw) by winning the final round and while some are screaming robbery about the decision, I wouldn't have screamed with either man winning a tight nod as I scored it even at 114.

The biggest issue was Dave Moretti's scoring the tenth round for Haney, which was arguably the best round of the fight for Lomachenko but the evening was filled with storylines that actually played out with both fighters delivering excellent performances, Lomachenko winning the crowd in Haney's hometown, and Haney digging deep for the first victory of his career against an elite fighter.

While a Haney-Lomachenko rematch would be welcomed and perhaps warranted, it's pretty clear that Haney is going to move onto other horizons with his free agency status holding the potential for multiple top-level fights, each with loads of intrigue.

A decision to continue working with Top Rank could see Haney against the linear (and WBO) junior welterweight champion, the winner of next month's Josh Taylor-Teofimo Lopez battle, or against the super-talented Shakur Stevenson in a defense of Haney's titles.

Should Haney return to his former promoter (which has been rumored from the day he left) Eddie Hearn's Matchroom boxing, Haney could face Matchoom's newly-inked WBC junior welterweight standard-bearer Regis Prograis or England's Jack Catterall, who most people think defeated Josh Taylor.

A deal with Golden Boy Promotions might net Haney a fight against recently defeated but still marketable Ryan Garcia at junior welterweight or a defense of his lightweight titles, should he choose to stay at 135 pounds, against their exciting contender William Zepeda.

And the biggest payday of them all? A title defense against the popular power-punching Gervonta Davis with Al Haymon's PBC.

Lomachenko's options are more limited without a rematch as he's not able to bulk up against the stronger junior welterweights but he certainly boosted his marketability with his outing and even without Haney, a fight against Shakur Stevenson would bring plenty of attention, and should Haney move up to 140 pounds, Lomachenko would almost certainly receive a chance at one of the vacant titles.

The best single performance of the night may have been former WBO flyweight champion Junto Nakatani moving up to the junior bantamweight division for the WBO's vacant title and brutally knocking out Andrew Moloney in the final round of a fight that should have been stopped in the corner long before then.

Nakatani scored knockdowns in the second and eleventh rounds and a battered Moloney should have been saved from himself before the last round by his corner.

Moloney would pay for his valor as Nakatani slipped a Moloney punch and crunched him with a left hand that put Moloney out before he hit the canvas without a count.

Nakatani is going to make waves in the 115-pound division and I don't see any of the big names in the division, including Juan Francisco Estrada, Roman Gonzalez, or anyone else (Kazuto Ioka gave this title up to not face Nakatani) fighting him anytime soon.

Lightweight Raymond Muratalla grabbed his biggest career win with a second-round knockout of Jeremiah Nakathila that saw Muratalla hurt Nakathila and drive him into a corner but I thought most of the follow-up punches missed with one exception and I thought the referee jumped in and ended the fight a bit prematurely in my opinion.

It's still a big win for Muratalla and may enter his name into a potential fight against either Lomachenko or Stevenson if the two don't have other options.

I haven't seen Oscar Valdez's unanimous decision win over Adam Lopez as of this writing.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 84 Pts (4)

Ramon Malpica: 79 Pts (4)

Vince Samano:64 Pts (3)