Boxing Challenge: Navarrete, Espinoza keep titles, Hitchins wins one

    As the final month of 2024 began, the boxing weekend was stuffed to the brim with action from several platforms worldwide, and there were many entertaining battles for the fans' viewing pleasure.

Top Rank and ESPN+ appeared to have two excellent rematches for championships after both original fights were good action fights. However, the best-laid plans can go up in smoke, and both fights were disappointing in different ways.

In the Phoenix main event, Emanuel Navarrete repeated his victory over Oscar Valdez in a far more dominant manner as Navarrete dropped Valdez three times (rounds one, four, and six) and won via knockout after a body shor finished Valdez to retain his WBO junior lightweight crown.

Navarette won by a clear but entertaining unanimous decision in their first fight over Valdez but had struggled to a draw against Robson Conceicao and a loss to Denis Berinchyk in an attempt to win the vacant WBO lightweight title and didn't seem to be putting the time in to prepare properly.

Navarrete was prepared for Valdez and stormed from the gate and never allowed Valdez to get started and won every round on my card.

Navarrete is rumored to perhaps face WBC champion O'Shaquie Foster in a unification match next year while Valdez might need a confidence builder or two after taking a shellacking from Navarrete.

In the co-feature, Robiesy Ramirez appeared to be building a lead against Rafael Espinoza in their rematch for the WBO featherweight title that Espinoza took from Ramirez by a thrilling majority decision last December.

However, seconds into round six, Ramirez ended the fight with a "No Mas" to allow Espinoza to retain the title,

Throughout the fight, Joe Tessitore and Tim Bradley stated that the Ramirez team had told the referee to watch for elbows from Espinoza, which they claimed was a major factor in the first fight, and sure enough, that's exactly what Ramirez complained about in the post-fight interview and used as his reason for quitting-double vision caused by elbows that the referee did nothing to stop.

Ramirez is reported to have suffered a broken orbital bone around his right eye, which lends some credibility to his surrender.

I gave Ramirez the first four rounds and while I gave the fifth to Espinoza, it was a close round.

The judges saw it closer with two judges scoring Ramirez up by one point and the other with an incredulous card of a three-point lead for Espinoza, which I don't see in any case.

On the undercard, welterweight contender Giovani Santillan rebounded from his first loss to Brian Norman, when veteran Frederick Lawson surrendered after one round, and unbeaten junior welterweight Lindolfo Delgado knocked out Jackson Marinez in five rounds.

Richardson Hitchins won the IBF junior welterweight title in San Juan Puerto Rico via a split decision over Australia's Liam Paro.

Paro started quickly but Hitchens dominated the second half of the fight and I thought won easily at 116-112.

Two judges agreed with me at 116-112 for Hitchins with a way out of bounds score for Paro at 117-111.

Hitchins called for WBO champion Teofimo Lopez after the fight, which I find highly unlikely with Hitchins's boxing style known for bothering Lopez, differing promoters, and Hitchins not bringing a large paycheck to the table.

Unbeaten junior lightweight Henty LeBron earned his biggest career win with a unanimous decision win over former world title challenger Christopher Diaz.

I thought the fight was close for LeBron at 96-94 which was the same as one judge with the other two scoring for LeBron 97-93.

LeBron scored well with counters against Diaz, who marched forward the entire fight and deserves future fights against young prospects after a strong performance.

A fun and entertaining heavyweight match between two veterans over forty for a minor title may not have been at the world-class level but it was worth watching with two former world title challengers hooked up in Sofia Bulgaria.

In the end, it was the hometown fighter, Kubrat Pulev boxing a bit smoother with the jab and Pulev's more active offense that earned him the WBA minor title by unanimous decision over Mahmoud Charr.

Pulev's scores were 117-11 times two and 116-112 with my score at 117-111 for Pulev.

The question for me will be this, will Pulev eventually decide to keep himself as the eventual WBA mandatory challenger for a title attempt? Or at 43, will he use the "title" to bring mid-level heavyweights to Bulgaria and earn Pulev larger paydays than he could dream of making anywhere else?

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica:  179 Pts (11)

TRS: 179 Pts (11)

Vince Samano: 115 Pts (7)

Boxing Challenge: Bam cuts down Estrada!

      Saturday's WBC junior bantamweight title event from Phoenix was considered a passing of the torch from aging champion Juan Francisco Estrada to rising star Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez.

If that was the case, consider the torch transferred as Rodriguez stamped himself as a pound-for-pound star with a seventh-round knockout that left Estrada writhing in pain in an exciting, yet somewhat one-sided fight.

The first two rounds were evenly fought with both fighters landing heavy artillery but Rodriguez hurt Estrada in the third and fifth and sent him to the floor in the fourth round.

Rodriguez seemed to be ready for the kill but it was Estrada scoring a sixth-round knockdown with a counterpunch and I thought Estrada was winning the seventh round when out of nowhere, Bam slammed a left hook to the liver that made Estrada quiver on the mat for the fight-ending KO.

The talk after the fight was the scorecards as one card had Rodriguez ahead 58-54, another even and the third with Estrada up by one point.

If you gave Estrada the first two rounds (questionable but plausible) I could see an even fight after six with Estrada getting rounds one and two, Rodriguez three and five, Rodriguez a 10-8 round for the fourth, and Estrada a 10-8 round for the sixth.

I split the first two rounds, so my card was 57-55 for Rodriguez.

I've heard this was a two-fight deal, so there could be a rematch, which would be fine by me but I don't see the result changing but Rodriguez has a co-manager (Teiiken) based in Japan, and the WBA and IBF titles in the division will be unified a week from Monday as Kazuto Ioka (WBA) and Fernando Martinez (IBF) face-off.

Bam against the winner or WBO champion Kosei Tanaka could be easy fights to make and should he face them in Japan, the money would be even larger.

The exposure in Japan would help Rodriguez should he decide to build towards a fight that was being mentioned as an eventual dream fight against the undisputed world junior featherweight champion Naoya "The Monster" Inoue.

I haven't watched the co-feature with Sunny Edwards winning by a unanimous decision over Adrien Curiel after nine rounds when a clash of heads opened up a long vertical gash on the face of Edwards.

Edwards's victory in a flyweight eliminator should result in the former champion receiving a chance to win another title soon.

In Miami, WBO junior welterweight king Teofimo Lopez dominated but did not dazzle in winning a unanimous decision over Canadian Steve Claggett.

Claggett's face-first style was expected to be the antidote for a lackluster effort against boxer Jamaine Ortiz but while Lopez dominated, he never hurt Claggett and failed for the fourth time in as many fights to stop a fighter at junior welterweight.

The scores for Lopez were 120-108 X 2 and 119-109, I scored the fight 120-108.

Here are my thoughts- Teofimo Lopez is a little overrated or at least his power is a bit overrated.

And while Lopez is still an excellent fighter with a top-notch victory over Vasyl Lomachenko, his win over Josh Taylor isn't as impressive as thought immediately after his victory as Taylor lost to Jack Catterall after losing to Lopez and most think he lost to Catterall before his loss to Lopez.

There is a legitimate argument to be made that Josh Taylor was somewhat overrated too by his WBSS victories as his biggest wins (Regis Prograis and Jose Ramirez) haven't aged well.

Teofimo Lopez is clearly an excellent fighter who might be lacking the special something at 140 pounds, with two fights that he was fortunate to get the duke (Sandor Martin and Jamaine Ortiz), the Taylor win, and this one over Claggett at the weight.

It may be that Lopez needs big challenges to force the best out of himself and I wouldn't count him out against anyone but the questions are beginning to accumulate for the second time in his career, can he battle them successfully again?

In the co-feature former WBO featherweight champion Robeisy Ramirez earned his rematch with Rafael Espinoza for that title with a seventh-round knockout over overmatched Brandon Benitez.

Ramirez ended the fight with a crunching left uppercut after winning every round against the battered Benitez.

The Espinoza-Ramirez fall rematch is anticipated after their awesome first battle.

Friday in Washington D.C., Lamont Roach dominated Feargal McCrory on his way to an eighth-round knockout to retain his WBA junior lightweight.

Roach isn't known as a puncher but he dropped McCrory three times (twice in round four) and when Roach stepped up the pace in the eighth, McCrory's corner ended the evening for their man.

Boxing Challenge 

Ramon Malpica: 97 Pts (6)

TRS:84 Pts (8)
Vince Samano: 49 Pts (1)

Boxing Challenge: Haney dominates Prograis, Espinoza stuns Ramirez

     Many observers thought that Regis Prograis was a live underdog in his defense of his WBC junior welterweight title against lightweight king Devin Haney in San Francisco on Saturday.

They could not have been more wrong as Haney knocked Prograis down in the third round and won every round in a superb display of boxing to win the WBC 140-pound belt by a unanimous decision.

Prograis never was able to offer any offense against the pure skills of Haney, and after he hit the deck from a short Haney right in round three, Prograis was unable to win even on the inside against Haney and clearly looked to be a level below the new champion.

All three judges scored the fight the same as I did at 120-107.

Haney will certainly drop his remaining lightweight titles and stay at junior welterweight where he looked strong and natural at the weight.

Haney's future looks bright with the biggest potential fight with WBO champion Teofimo Lopez, which could happen with Haney having worked with Lopez's promoter Top Rank in the past, although it's unlikely to happen right away with Lopez expected to defend against former WBC and WBO champion Jose Ramirez in early 2024.

Ryan Garcia has been mentioned as a possibility but I don't see Garcia as a serious threat to Haney, although a Garcia fight would pad his wallet more than a little.

IBF champion Subriel Matias would bring a bruising style that I would love to see Haney against but Matias's link with PBC makes that a long considering the risk/reward ratio.

The PBC connection makes a chance at lightly-regarded WBA champion Rolly Romero even less likely than Matias in a fight that would be more fun at the press conferences than in the ring.

As for Prograis, a two-time champion, it's very evident from his last two fights that he looked stronger than he actually was in winning the vacant title last year due to the fading of his opponent, Jose Zepeda, and that the generation of junior welterweights that included Prograis, Josh Taylor, and Jose Ramirez turned out to be less than boxing watchers thought they would become.

One thing is for sure: Devin Haney is a terrific all-around fighter. If he has added a little more pop to his punch at the higher weight, Haney will be a very difficult out for any fighter around his division for quite a while.

Devin Haney may have delivered the performance of the evening but the fight from ESPN and Top Rank from Pembroke Pines Florida was the fight of the night and will be in the running for the fight of the year with previously unknown Rafael Espinoza shocking WBO champion Robeisy Ramirez to take his title via majority decision.

Espinoza was an unknown quantity entering the fight with an unbeaten record against unknown competition in his native Mexico but with 18 knockouts in 21 wins and a freakish 6'1 frame for a fighter in the featherweight division, one didn't know how good Espinoza was going to be.

The answer was very good as Espinoza won the first four rounds by outworking Ramirez and keeping the shorter man off balance.

Espinoza was winning the fifth until late in the round, Espinoza was switching his stances and just as he began to move, Ramirez fired a short bullet of a right hand that knocked down Espinoza with Espinoza beating the count but in serious condition.

Espinoza took advantage of the little time remaining in the round to survive but Ramirez took control of the fight and won every round on my card from the sixth through the ninth, appearing to be on his way to a difficult retention of his title with Espinoza earning deserved credit for a gallant effort.

Instead, Espinoza turned the tide by winning the tenth and eleventh rounds and the fight was literally on the line with my card reading 104-104, six rounds to five for Espinoza but Ramirez scored a 10-8 fifth round due to the knockdown.

Round twelve saw Espinoza firing all the punches that he had at Ramirez until finally hurting him late in the round and dropping Ramirez along the ropes.

Ramirez would gallantly rise and finish on his feet but the knockdown was enough to lift the challenger to a majority decision by scores of 115-111, 114-112, and 113-113.

I gave Espinoza the nod 114-112 in one of the biggest upsets of the year and the best fights of the campaign as well.

Ramirez appeared to lack focus in his pre-fight interview with Mark Kriegel due to various issues with his family in his native Cuba and I even thought before the fight that if Espinoza was as good as his record Ramirez could be in trouble as a fighter that isn't in the correct frame of mind.

Still, no one knew how good Espinoza was going to be, and while Ramirez would be very deserving of a rematch, that would depend on the WBO as Espinoza was an optional defense and the WBO"s  mandatory challenger Arnold Khegai could be forced on Espinoza before a rematch or unification possibilities. 

Boxing Challenge 

TRS: 181 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica: 163 Pts (0)

Vince Samano: 118 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: Inoue Simply the Best!

     I've written before that occasionally you can watch thirty seconds to a minute of a fight and it becomes crystal clear that one fighter is going to dominate the other, barring a change of tactics.

One of those matchups occurred earlier today in Tokyo Japan after all the pre-fight speculation, previews, and predictions, it was abundantly obvious that Naoya Inoue was going to defeat WBC and WBC junior featherweight champion Stephen Fulton unless Fulton could do anything to change the dynamic.

If Fulton would be unable to do anything to pull that off, the only question would be whether Inoue won by decision or would he be able to stop Fulton?

Fulton was trying his best to repel Inoue but he was unable to establish the jab which in the buildup for the fight was thought to be the tactical edge that Fulton might have, and Inoue used his jab to set up his attack to break down Fulton bit by bit.

Fulton did try his best and the fourth and fifth rounds were relatively close although I scored both for Inoue and Inoue held a 70-63 lead on my card.

There would be no need to score further as Inoue landed a tremendous right hand that reduced Fulton's legs to rubber only to be hit by a left hook that dropped Fulton for the first time in his career.

Fulton showed heart in getting up but he was unable to fend off the charge of Inoue's punches and knocked Fulton down again with the referee stopping the fight without a count.

Impressive is too soft to describe the victory as Inoue stepped up in weight and tore apart the best fighter that the division had to offer with ease, taking his two championships with him.

And pity poor Marlon Tapales, who upset Murodjon Akhmadaliev with a split decision to take his WBA and IBF titles in April, and was brought into the ring for a faceoff with Inoue after the fight.

Tapales, much like Paul Butler last December, will be given the payday of his career for the sacrifice of his titles, and will almost certainly be dismissed by Inoue whenever he chooses to do so.

And after Inoue dispatches Tapales, Inoue is likely to leave the junior featherweight division as he left the bantamweights- with nothing to prove and with all four titles.

That would leave the featherweight division to conquer and again the only question is when Inoue hits that magical invisible weight that his greatness is reduced to merely excellent.

Inoue would be favored against any featherweight champion and none of those fighters other than maybe WBO champion Robeisy Ramirez, a two-time Olympic gold medal winner would have even a minimal chance.

WBC king Rey Vargas fights for PBC and unlike Fulton, who also fights for PBC, Vargas doesn't appear likely to gamble on greatness to challenge Inoue.

Vargas is a safety-first boxer and would likely try to run from Inoue for twelve rounds.

The WBA champion, England's Leigh Wood fights for Matchroom and would likely engage Inoue before paying a massive price to do so, should such a fight be arranged.

IBF titleist Luis Alberto Lopez has impressed with his road wins over Josh Warrington to win this title and then defending against Michael Conlan but he doesn't appear to have the all-around game that would trouble Inoue and while WBO standard bearer Robeisy Ramirez has the amateur pedigree and maturing professional game, I wonder if he has the in-ring discipline that it will take to defeat Inoue.

It may be putting the cart well before the horse but I'm not sure that the junior lightweight division has the man to tame the Monster either.

It may be two years away before invading that division would happen but I'd favor Inoue against any of the four champions- Hector Luis Garcia (WBA/PBC) fought well before being stopped by Gervonta Davis but suffered from double-vision in that fight and his status is unknown, WBC (free agent) champion O'Shaquie Foster would likely be meat on Inoue's platter, IBF beltholder Joe Cordina (Matchroom) would meet a fate similar to Leigh Wood in an Inoue challenge, a game attack before being overwhelmed, and either WBO champion Emanuel Navarrete or his August challenger in two-division champion Oscar Valdez would be an exciting opponent for Inoue as well as the best known and with both promoted by Top Rank, would be an easy fight to sign, although both appear to be overmatched by Inoue.

Of course, upsets always are part of the boxing landscape and eventually, some unexpected boxer will take away the zero of Inoue if he fights long enough or moves up in weight too many times.

However for now and for the foreseeable future- Naoya Inoue looks unbeatable and unless the winner of Saturday night's Errol Spence-Terence Crawford battle is incredibly impressive to stake their claim, Inoue is the best fighter in the world.

In the co-feature, Robeisy Ramirez retained his WBO featherweight title with a fifth-round knockout over former Olympic bronze medalist Satoshi Shimizu.

Ramirez won the first four rounds over the lanky challenger before busting his face and eye in the fifth before crunching him with a left uppercut that Shimizu did well to get up from but was saved by the referee from taking more punishment.

Boxing Challenge 

TRS: 124 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica: 114 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 89 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: Joshua decisions Franklin

   The main event from Matchroom/DAZN on Saturday was able to give Eddie Hearn what he needed most in a victory but that's about all anyone received in Anthony Joshua's return from his two decision losses to Oleksandr Usyk as Joshua looked inflexible and at times reluctant against Jermaine Franklin,

However, the Joshua jab was enough to deter Franklin and give Joshua an unsatisfying but unanimous decision victory in London.

My card agreed with two of the judges at 117-111 with the other scoring 118-111 with Joshua working his strong jab to keep Franklin from getting inside to rough Joshua up and as a result, a less-than-exciting affair occurred.

When Franklin did decide to move his hands, he did have some success, particularly in the fourth and tenth rounds but he didn't take the risk of doing so and fell behind on the scorecards.

Joshua called for Tyson Fury after the win but from what I saw in this fight, Fury wouldn't have too many concerns against Joshua in a match that has been talked about for years but seems to be well past its prime.

Franklin is a top-ten-level heavyweight, so the victory isn't a complete washout for Joshua, and until someone beats him that isn't arguably the best fighter pound for pound, you will have to give the respect that his resume deserves.

However, if Joshua has a prayer of winning against the best in the division, this version of Joshua will have to improve a great deal.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma from ESPN/Top Rank, the WBO featherweight title vacated by Emmanuel Navarrete was at stake as Robiesy Ramirez faced former WBO junior featherweight champion Isaac Dogboe to fill the vacancy.

It was Ramirez dominating from the outside by keeping the smaller Dogboe off balance throughout the fight and scoring a final-round knockdown of an off-balance Dogboe to clinch the unanimous decision for the two-time Olympic gold medal winner.

I scored Ramirez a 117-110 winner, which was the same as the closest judge with the remaining cards listing scores of 118-109 and 119-108.

Ramirez would make a lot of sense to oppose the winner of May's IBF title fight in Ireland between Luis Alberto Lopez and Michael Conlan, with both fighters affiliated with Top Rank, a unification battle should be fairly easy to sign.

The fight of the weekend was the featherweight co-feature with two-time title challenge Joet Gonzalez and Jose Enrique Vivas banging out a ten-rounder that could have been held in an office cubicle with both men throwing and landing plenty of punches.

Gonzalez broke open a close fight in the final rounds with Vivas suffering a severely swollen jaw that I would guess is broken as Gonzalez picked up the pace in those rounds to outwork Vivas.

I think Vivas's jaw injury occurred in the ninth round and had this been a twelve-rounder, I think the fight would have stopped in favor of Gonzalez.

I scored the fight closer than the official judges at 97-93 as the official scores were 99-91 and 98-92 x2.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 48 Pts (6)

Ramon Malpica: 41 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 33 Pts (5) 

Boxing Challenge: Beterviev Batters Smith

       The unification of three-quarters of the world light-heavyweight championships Saturday night in New York City was expected to be exciting and would end in a knockout, even an early one but still, few expected an absolute crushing by whichever fighter one supported.

However, Artur Beterbiev grabbed Joe Smith's WBO title and added it to the WBC and IBF belts that Beterbiev held entering the fight with a second-round knockout that left observers stunned by its speed and violence as Beterbiev did to Smith what had never been done before his career.

Now Smith had been beaten and even soundly in decision losses to Sullivan Barrera and later to WBA champion Dmitry Bivol but Barrera had broken Smith's jaw early in the bout and Smith still lasted to the final bell, and Bivol had been badly hurt by Smith late in their fight and never came close to hurting or knocking him down in a lopsided unanimous decision win.

And that is why this win was so impressive- not that Beterbiev knocked Smith out but how he accomplished the victory as every time that Beterbiev landed a power punch, Smith involuntarily moved and when fighters that had previously proven their chin as the sturdy Smith had done over his career have that type of difficulty taking punishment- it's an impressive win!

Smith tried to bang with Beterbiev and he was throwing big shots in the first round, so this wasn't an example of an intimidated fighter, Smith was trying to win, he simply couldn't compete with a fighter that takes Smith's best quality- power and comes back with even more power.

Beterbiev scored a knockdown late in the first round and early in the second that dazed Smith more than hurt him but it was a different story for the second knockdown when Beterbiev scored another knockdown when only the ropes held Smith up with the referee correctly counting that as a knockdown.

The fight was stopped shortly thereafter when Smith wobbled around the ring from every shot before being saved from more punishment.

Beterbiev walked through the punches of a strong puncher and took him out quickly- One cannot ask for more than that.

As for what's next for the man that Timothy Bradley dubbed "The Terminator" on the ESPN broadcast, most would love to see Beterbiev against WBA champion Dmitry Bivol for all four championships but that appears to be a 2023 fight at best.

Beterbiev will travel to the UK for a mandatory challenger in the WBO- England's Anthony Yarde in the fall, while Bivol could fight his mandatory in the WBA (and that is no easy task), former super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez or take a stay-busy fight as Bivol waits for his agreed-to rematch against Canelo Alvarez.

Anthony Yarde earned his second try at the WBO belt last December when he avenged his December 2020 split decision loss to countryman Lyndon Arthur with a fourth-round knockout to replace Arthur in that position.

Yarde's first challenge ended in the eleventh round in a 2019 challenge of then-champion Sergey Kovalev and while Yarde's twenty-one knockouts in his twenty-two wins look impressive, only his win over Lyndon Arthur was over a world-class opponent and while he accounted for himself well against Kovalev, he weakened badly before the stoppage.

As for Beterbiev-Bivol, it will be an interesting fight but Bivol was rocked badly in his win over Joe Smith and unless Bivol moves for twelve rounds and makes a dull affair, I would favor Beterbiev in that fight.

In the co-feature, former two-time Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez stepped up his game with a one-punch knockout of previously undefeated Abraham Nova in the fifth round for the best win of his career in a featherweight ten-rounder.

Ramirez didn't stick and move and instead changed his usual tactics and decided to walk to Nova and overpower him in winning three of the first four rounds on my card before knocking Nova cold with one left hand in the fifth round.

It was the best win of his career for Ramirez, who looked like a fighter of his background rather than his lackluster early fights that even the most ardent Ramirez fan could understandably wonder where Ramirez could be headed in his career.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 111 Pts (4)

Ramon Malpica: 96 Pts (4)

Vince Samano: 90 Pts (4)

Boxing Challenge: Pedraza defeats LesPierre-No replay needed

Photo Credit; Mikey Williams Top Rank

The Vegas Bubble continued with the boxing challenge with two bouts with a former champion trying to maintain viability and an Olympic champion attempting to avenge a defeat to move onward and upward in his career.

Former IBF junior lightweight and WBO lightweight champion Jose Pedraza dominated Mikkel LesPierre in their junior welterweight fight that was delayed by a few weeks and won an easy unanimous decision in the main event.
Pedraza used an ambidextrous style to befuddle LesPierre throughout the bout and it seemed like his right hand couldn't' miss LesPierre as it seemed to land whenever Pedraza pleased.
Pedraza knocked down LesPierre in the fifth and tenth rounds and almost finished LesPierre off for the stoppage in the final round.
I scored Pedraza a 99-89 winner on my card, but there was a small bit of controversy before the sixth round as a LesPierre knockdown was looked at via instant replay.
The replay look is fine, in my opinion, there is plenty of room for boxing to improve from referee errors, but referee Kenny Bayliss left the ring to look at the replay and it took several minutes to see that LesPierre tripped Pedraza for the knockdown and invalidating it.
It was close and there was contact between the two, but LesPierre did land a punch so I would have counted it, but it was nothing to be enraged over.
However, leaving the ring to look at the video and slowing the fight down seems very clunky to me and the system shouldn't take that long.
Now, I do think the fighters need to be notified ASAP on the points situation in these matters, but I'd like to offer a better way.
What if there was a fourth official in charge of only replay and the only changes that they can make are knockdowns (to reverse both called and not called in the ring) and on cuts in order to determine if they were from a punch or from illegal contact?
Then you add one more stipulation- you have no more than one round to make a determinatiom.
By adding that time limit, the fighters know their situation on the cards as soon as they can and we move on.

Pedraza bounced back from his September defeat to Jose Zepeda and I can see him as a solid back half of the top ten fighter in the 140 pound division, which is a very top-heavy division.
I can see Pedraza in the mix for a 2021 title fight against a possible four belt unification winner of a Jose Ramirez-Josh Taylor fight or maybe in the scramble for any of the titles that could be vacated by the winner, but he's 0-3 against top of the division fighters and his best win is over an aging Ray Beltran, so I'm not sure that I'm buying stock long term.
However, should the chips falling in the right place against the right style, Pedraza could walk away with a title belt.

In the other challenge fight, two-time Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez avenged his career opening decision loss to Adan Gonzales via unanimous decision in a six rounder.
Ramirez was far better prepared for the rematch and forced Gonzales to back up with a strong performance that only lacked a knockout to showcase the Cuban's skills in winning all six rounds.
Ramirez makes me think of the type of boxer that will need to be motivated to be successful and might be a fighter that will win some fights when he could be written off, but also could lose some fights that he'll be favored because he may not take everything seriously.
Zab Judah was often in that mode as was fellow Cuban Joel Casamayor and the enigmatic careers that each of them had might cost them potential spots in the boxing hall of fame.

Ramon Malpica added four points on the evening to my three and cut my lead to seven points at 65-58 with an extra point for Robiesy Ramirez and his decision win made the difference.

Boxing Challenge: Ortiz outslugs Orozco

In the latest step up in the career of elite welterweight prospect Vergil Ortiz, Ortiz won a minor title, but more importantly, showed patience and power as he knocked out Antonio Orozco in the sixth round in Grand Prarie, Texas.

The title may be almost meaningless, but the performance certainly was not as Ortiz nearly finished the fight in the first round as he drove Orozco into the ropes, badly stunning and I wouldn't have argued had the referee ruled that a knockdown.
Ortiz then settled into a groove and even though Orozco continued to throw punches with occasional success, Ortiz was showing the type of patience that future champions possess as he entered the sixth round for the first time in his career.
Ortiz landed a huge uppercut early in the sixth that really was the end of the fight as Orozco hit the floor.
Orozco showed a massive heart in rising, but soon was dropped again and could have packed the evening in right there. but lifted himself up one more time and attempted to hold on, but a screaming Ortiz left hook sent Orozco to the floor once more and there was no need to see anything further as the fight was called off.
For Ortiz, it was a solid win over a world-class level fighter, although Orozco had proven himself at junior welterweight, not at welterweight and showed that he can be more than a one-dimensional hitter as he moves higher up the welterweight rankings.
The biggest problem for Ortiz might be similar to that of Terence Crawford in the welterweight division- his promoter/media presenter just doesn't have anyone for him to fight.
The only DAZN (and not even Golden Boy Promotions) fighter in the division in the top ten is Jessie Vargas, so that fight would make sense as something to pursue, but other than Vargas there is next to nothing available in the division at this time.
Vergil Ortiz might be the next star welterweight, let's hope he gets the chance to prove it.

In the other fight in the challenge, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr knocked out Evert Bravo in the first round after landing a body shot.
Chavez looked strong in his first fight at 175 pounds, but Bravo had been knocked out in three of his previous four fights, so let's see him in his next outing.

In the boxing challenge, I scored three points to Ramon Malpica's two to extend my lead to 203-176.

Finally, on the ESPN card that I watched, despite not placing any fights for the boxing challenge, one of those fights that you love to see, but rarely occur took place in Philadelphia as the highly-touted prospect lost against the fighter brought in as an enhancement talent.
This one was even bigger than just a touted prospect as two-time Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez was shocked by 5-2-2 Adan Gonzales in a split decision that should have been unanimous.
Ramirez suffered a flash knockdown in the first round when a Gonzales left hand knocked Ramirez off balance and when Ramirez's glove steadied him on the floor, it was correctly ruled a knockdown.
With a 10-8 first-round against him, Ramirez would have to sweep the next three rounds to win the fight and all things considered, it was still considered likely, but instead, Gonzales continued to win the exchanges as Ramirez looked stuck in the amateur style, didn't work off his jab as the taller and longer fighter and most importantly was outworked throughout the fight as I scored Gonzales a 39-36 victor.
To no one's surprise, there is always the house judge as somehow David Braslow scored Ramirez a 38-37 winner, meaning that on his card, Ramirez did win the final three rounds.
The bigger surprise, which says a lot for boxing, is that the other two judges didn't find a way to score the fight for the house fighter and gave Gonzales a split decision win.
We'll see if this win is the highlight of the career for Adan Gonzales or if he has a future ahead of him, but for one night Gonzales was as good as he had to be to pull a huge and unexpected upset.