Boxing Challenge: Navarrete retains title, Lipinets pounds Figueroa.

    Saturday was a day with three different fight cards and while the excellent Usyk-Joshua card from Saudi Arabia earned the headlines, both Showtime/PBC and ESPN/Top Rank made their mark on the day as well.

ESPN Plus and Top Rank's main event saw the return of WBO featherweight champion Emanuel Navarrete after a ten-month absence and the man once touted as the busiest champion in boxing looked to be suffering from his inactivity as challenger Eduardo Baez seemed to be lightly tapping his way to a potential upset.

I had Baez ahead 49-46 and I might have been generous in giving the champion one round but one left hook to the liver put Baez away in round six and saved the title for Navarrete.

Baez led on two cards (50-45 and 48-47) while judge Pat Russell somehow saw Navarrete leading 49-46,  a scorecard that seems downright nutty.

Along with Navarrete's unusual inactivity, the Mexican champion had problems making weight and he seems to be faced with a choice of either moving up to 130 and a clash with Shakur Stevenson or fighting more often to help him keep in sharp and in shape.

Navarrete's problem with staying at 126 is a lack of big-fight possibilities.

The winner of November's WBA title fight would be unlikely if Leo Santa Cruz (PBC) retains the championship over Leigh Wood (Matchroom), although Navarrete vs Wood could happen if the Englishman pulls a mild upset.

Josh Warrington (IBF and Matchroom) appears to be waiting for a fight vs Wood if he beats Santa Cruz and the mandatory for Navarrete's title is Isaac Dogboe, who has already lost to Navarrete twice in lopsided defeats and no one wants to see a third fight, likely not even Dogboe.

Meanwhile, over on Showtime, PBC's main event turned out to be very predictable but the other two matches on the telecast decided two new world champions in solid battles.

The main event was originally scheduled to be a faceoff of two faded former champions that badly needed a win and preferably an exciting one, in Adrien Broner and Omar Figueroa.

Broner's late exit from the fight brought in former IBF junior welterweight champion Sergey Lipinets into the fight in his place from the undercard as, since the Covid-19 pandemic, PBC has been very smart in arranging to have suitable replacements on their undercards in the event of a fighter not being available at the last minute.

That has proven to be prescient thinking on this and several other occasions and I applaud their preparation for different scenarios.

However, Figueroa wasn't likely to appreciate it as Lipinets is closer to his prime and a harder puncher than Broner, so Figueroa was facing a tougher opponent for his trouble and was battling back losing to Abel Ramos when he was battered into submission with the fight ending after the sixth round.

That fate was going to be repeated as Lipinets handed Figueroa another beating and forced his corner to stop the fight at the end of the eighth round.

Figueroa might have won the first round but was dropped in the second and took a pounding for the rest of the fight that might have been best suited to end a round or two sooner than it lasted.

Figueroa stated that he was planning on retiring and based on what I've seen in his losses to Ramos and Lipinets, that's a pretty good idea.

Figueroa may not have lived to the early hype of many (including myself) and became a huge star but he did win a world title and that's a pretty decent career even if it wasn't as good as was expected.

Alberto Puello won the WBA title that was relinquished by Josh Taylor via a split decision over hard-luck Batyr Akhmedv in another close fight with awful scoring.

Both fighters landed plenty and although Akhmedov attacked more, Puello didn't run away and did walk forward on some occasions.

I thought Akhmedov nosed the win out 115-113 as did one judge but I would have no issue at all with a Puello triumph-IF someone scored 115-113 for the Dominican Republic native as the fight was extremely tight.

The problem was that the two odd judges saw Puello as the winner at 117-111 and there is simply no way that either fighter in this fight won nine of twelve rounds.

Again, no issues with Puello getting a slight edge- it's the size of the win that is so awful.

It was a great fight and I wouldn't be against a rematch, considering the scoring and the quality of the fight.

In the opener, Hector Luis Garcia won the WBA junior welterweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Roger Gutierrez.

Garcia entered the bout after dominating the flashy and well-thought of Chris Colbert in his last fight, knocking Colbert out of a challenge of Gutierrez, and the WBA, deservedly and surprisingly, installed Garcia in the position previously held by Colbert as the mandatory challenger.

It was truly a tale of two fights- the first eight rounds were dominated by Garcia as Garcia controlled Gutierrez with aggression that wasn't reckless with Gutierrez downright reluctant to move his hands.

Gutierrez's corner was even threatening to stop the fight after eight rounds if Gutierrez didn't start to throw punches.

So to start the ninth, Gutierrez changed his tactics, started to reach Garcia with his right hand and began to bully Garcia to the ropes and forced the younger man to give ground as Gutierrez won the final four rounds on my card but the comeback started far too late in losing on my scorecard 116-112.

On the official cards, Garcia won a little wider with two scores of 117-111 and a 118-110 slate but Gutierrez has to be just sick after seeing how effective he was once he started throwing more punches that he was backing Garcia and had he done so earlier in the fight that he may have retained his title.

Garcia brings one junior lightweight title to PBC, who didn't have a presence in the division other than Chris Colbert entering the year, so this is good for PBC's fighters at 126 and 130, who would have had problems in making a fight with WBC/WBO champion Shakur Stevenson (Top Rank) or IBF king Joe Cordina (Matchroom).

I would think Gary Russell would make some sense as a challenger to Garcia in the PBC fold and would make an interesting fight as well.

Boxing Challenge

TRS; 152 Pts (4)

Ramon Malpica: 131 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 120 Pts (4) 

Boxing Challenge: Ortiz derails the Mean Machine

    I'm going to divide the boxing recap into two portions since I am in the middle of watching the final few fights over the next few hours.

This post will cover the three fights from the two DAZN cards with the follow-up post covering the ESPN and Showtime cards from Top Rank and PBC respectively.

The main event of the Golden Boy card from Frisco Texas saw one of the two young welterweights that none of the elites of the division want to face stop his best opponent to date as Vergil Ortiz (Jaron Ennis is the other) stopped Egidijus Kavaliauskas in the eighth round with four knockdowns in the final round before referee Lawrence Cole ended the affair.

Ortiz dropped Kavaliauskas in the third round with a straight shot in close but the biggest news in this one was Kavaliauskas hurting Ortiz in the second round.

Give Ortiz credit for stemming the tide and proving some mettle against the power of a top ten welterweight like Kavaliauskas but it may have placed the thought into the minds of the welterweights rated above him that Ortiz can be hurt.

I had Ortiz ahead 68-64 at the time of the stoppage.

Ortiz is the number one rated contender in the WBO to champion Terence Crawford but the WBO has instead forced Crawford to negotiate with their second rated contender Shawn Porter.

I'm not complaining a bit about the prospect of Crawford-Porter, which would be a tremendous battle, but what's the point of being the number one contender if the sanctioning body mandates the champion fighting the number two guy?

I'm not sure what Ortiz does from here.

He could use more experience but Golden Boy doesn't really have any welterweights to test him and even if they did- should Ortiz fight someone that could cost him that number one rating?

What we found out about Vergil Ortiz against Kavaliauskas might be all we know until his eventual title challenge.

In the co-feature, Roger Gutierrez won a split decision over Rene Alvarado to retain the WBA minor title that means anything ( explained here) and win the third fight between the two.

This wasn't as exciting as their previous fighters as both fighters seemed a bit tentative against a fighter that knew them so well. and there were many lulls in the action.

In the end, the taller and heavier punching Gutierrez did just enough pecking and pawing from the outside with his jab to win the split decision officially and on my card 115-113.

Earlier in the afternoon from Eddie Hearn's palatial estate (as they used to say on Batman) in Brentwood England, undefeated light heavyweight Joshua Buatasi stopped a game Ricard Bolotniks in the eleventh round in the type of fight that every young contender needs before stepping to the championship level.

Buatasi dropped Bolotniks down in the sixth round and appeared to be poised to finish the veteran off for a spectacular win but Bolotniks survived the attack and even had a few moments of his own in the next few round before Buatasi concluded the fight in the eleventh with a right hand that sent Bolotniks sprawled along the ropes forcing the ending.

Buatasi lost a point for low blows in the eighth round but I still had him far ahead in the fight after ten rounds at 97-91.

That's exactly the type of middle-range fights that young fighters get experience from when a veteran just won't fall down the first time that they get cracked by a big puncher and I think it'll be the advantage of Buatasi for doing so.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each added three points from the DAZN cards and moved the total to 111-97.

I'll be back with the weekend from Top Rank on ESPN and the snoozer from PBC on Showtime.

Boxing Challenge: Garcia knocks out Campbell!

   The 2021 boxing challenge started earlier than normal with a critical lightweight eliminator that may have proven the worth of one of boxing's brightest prospects.

Ryan Garcia got up from the floor in the second round and then became the first fighter to stop Luke Campbell after cracking Campbell with a left hook to the liver that sent Campbell to the floor and took the ten count on the mat at American Airlines Arena in Dallas.

I had Garcia slightly ahead after six rounds at 57-56, but after Garcia hurt Campbell at the end of the fifth round, it was the younger fighter that was charging forward and was beginning to control the exchanges.

Ryan Garcia answered some questions but created others in the biggest win of his career.

Garcia proved that he can rebound from adversity and that his punching power is going to carry forward against top ten competition- if Garcia can land against you, he can take you out.

However, getting knocked down by Luke Campbell, who isn't known for his power, isn't a good sign for how Garcia will take the punches of heavier hitters such as Teofimo Lopez, Gervonta Davis, and even Devin Haney, and his defense will leave openings for him to get him more than he would wish.

All of the above-named fighters punch harder than Luke Campbell does and I do wonder how things will turn out when Garcia gets hit against those fighters and Garcia seemed to be a bit slow with his footwork and that could make him susceptible to quicker boxers.

There are still questions to be answered, but Ryan Garcia took his first step towards being a champion.

In the co-feature, Roger Gutierrez avenged a stoppage loss to Rene Alvarado with a unanimous decision victory for a minor title.

Alvarado stopped Gutierrez in the eighth round and won the majority of the rounds in their rematch, but Gutierrez knocked Alvarado down twice in the third round with Alvarado barely surviving.

Alvarado took back control and seemed to be on his way to victory, but in the final round Gutierrez scored another knockdown of Alvarado and that would make the difference on the scorecards as each judge gave Gutierrez a 113-112 decision. Without the knockdown, Alvarado would have salvaged a draw as each judge gave more rounds to Alvarado (7-5), but the final knockdown accounted for the point separating the two.

Even with the three knockdowns, I still had Alvarado winning 113-112 (8-4 in rounds, minus three points for the knockdowns). 

Considering the action in the fight and the close decision, I'd suspect a third fight between the pair is likely to happen in the future.

Rene's twin brother Felix retained his IBF junior flyweight championship with a tenth round knockout of former IBF minimumweight champion DeeJay Kriel in another entertaining fight.

Alvarado knocked down Kriel in the second and fourth rounds, but Kriel's heart won the night as he continued to fight through the harder punches of the bigger man and even won some rounds before the punishment finally wore down Kriel, leaving the referee little choice but to end the fight with a battered Kriel against the ropes and taking punishment.

In the newest boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored two points on the card.