Ryan Garcia dropped Conor Benn with a right hand and finished him off after a shaky Benn got to his feet in round two, for a painless stoppage of Benn in the biggest fight promoted by Zuffa Boxing in their short existence.
Benn slugged it out evenly with Garcia in the first round, but his drop from the middleweight division may have weakened him, as the Englishman crumbled with the big right hand from Garcia.
Garcia has spoken of several opponents for his next fight, asking for a return from retirement from former three-division undisputed champion Terence Crawford, a rematch with Gervonta Davis, who stopped Garcia in seven rounds in 2023, or a unification fight with WBA champion Teofimo Lopez.
Benn will likely rise in weight but doesn't have an obvious opponent for his next fight and will have to revitalize himself after a devastating loss.
Unbeaten former IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opietaia stopped WBC champion Noel Mikelian in nine rounds in the co-feature, but didn't win the title as Mikaelin was stripped of the title before the fight.
Andres Cortes won a unanimous decision over former featherweight champion Mark Magsayo in a lightweight ten rounder and in the best fight of the night, welterweight contender Alexis Rocha won a competitive unanimous decision over former junior welterweight champion Jose Ramirez.
The boxing weekend's main event from Las Vegas wasn't an entertaining thriller, but it did return Ryan Garcia as a potential participant in future big fights and might have finally removed one of boxing's least talented champions from the scene.
I've been speaking for years about the mediocrity of Mario Barrios (and yes, I picked him to win, but my defense is Ryan Garcia sleepwalked through a loss to Rolando Romero, who is just as mediocre as Barrios in his last fight) and his title 'defense" draws against journeyman Abel Ramos and the ancient Manny Pacquiao didn't fill me with confidencce either.
The enigmatic Garcia has always been talented, but his form in borderline quitting against Gervonta Davis, his juiced-up "win" (later changed to a no-contest) against Devin Haney, and his walking down defeat to Rollie Romero made me wonder how much Garcia had left or what type of fighter would show up in Las Vegas.
Garcia sent Barrios down with a right hand in the first round and was never threatened thereafter, as neither his jab nor his right could miss Barrios.
I scored the fight 120-107, same as judge David Sutherland, with the remaining judges giving Barrios one and two rounds respectively
The victory gave Garcia his first world championship, the WBC welterweight title, and he immediately called out Shakur Stevenson, who recently defeated Teofimo Lopez for the WBO junior welterweight title, and that fight makes sense.
Garcia will always have the rematch against Devin Haney in his back pocket.
A Haney return would be a unification match (Haney recently won the WBO title from Brian Norman), that fight is viable at any time, IBF champion Lewis Crocker wouldn't be a draw in the USA, and while another rematch against WBA boss Rolando Romero would make sense, their first fight was very boring, with few lining up for an immediate second go.
And Stevenson doesn't have a big fight waiting in his division unless he wants to fight WBC champion Dalton Smith in the United Kingdom, which would be big there, not in America, so meeting Garcia would be a large payday for Stevenson.
I'm still lukewarm on Ryan Garcia's future, although this win is enough to keep him viable as a top name for a few more fights.
It just always seems that there's something with Garcia you can't count on. Despite his dominant win over Barrios, Garcia wasn't able to completely dispel that problem because of the disparity in talent between them.
Garcia-Stevenson only has one small issue, and it depends on how much Garcia values his new WBC belt.
Stevenson refused to pay the WBC a six-figure sum for "allowing" him to meet Lopez for the WBO title in another division and was stripped of his WBC lightweight title.
Stevenson claimed he will never fight for another WBC title, and it's a consideration, but this is boxing, and never is a word we never use!
The WBC wouldn't like that fight unless there was a change of heart from Stevenson, but I'm sure if Garcia was willing to pay the sanctioning fee, the organization could get past it, especially if there was a caveat that Garcia could keep the belt with a win and would become vacant should Stevenson grab the victory.
As for Mario Barrios, he's had a nice career filled with a world title and solid paychecks despite winning just one fight against a top opponent (Yordenis Ugas), and it would be nice to see him walk away.
Barrios will retain a name and will be a fighter in demand for young challengers and champions to add to their record book, but his days as a top boxer are over if he ever had them.
I'll be back next time with the undercard, a fight from England, and the unprofessional behavior of Richardson Hitchins, who was supposed to fight in the co-main event, only to drop out hours before his scheduled bout vs Oscar Duarte.
The Ring magazine card in Times Square appeared to be a good idea initially, but various problems with the city of New York and its zoning rules turned the crowd into a quiet crowd of high rollers.
That was before the fights began, when they were rewarded with thirty-six rounds of less-than-exciting action and a likely loss in one of the more anticipated fights in the game.
In the main event, Rolando Romero pulled a huge upset by winning a unanimous decision over Ryan Garcia and perhaps losing the much-anticipated rematch between Garcia and Devin Haney.
Romero didn't exactly dazzle in victory, but he scored the only knockdown of the evening when he dropped Garcia in the second round with a left hook and did his job well enough to win a WBA minor title, which should earn him a bigger fight eventually.
Garcia fought as poorly as one could remember in an awful performance as a prohibitive favorite, and it's reasonable to wonder how much of his win over Devin Haney may have been due to his use of PED's.
That's how bad Ryan Garcia looked, and he looked like a fighter who may have blazed past his prime without stopping at Go.
Romero did enough to win (118-109 and 115-112 x 2, my score 117-110), but let's not fool ourselves, we didn't see a new star born in Times Square, and if I have a solid welterweight right now, I'm gunning for Rolly Romero.
The co-feature was equally dull as Devin Haney dominated Jose Ramirez, but he did that as tediously as you could have imagined.
Haney moved, Ramirez lumbered, and it was this for twelve long rounds.
The less said about this, the better, but Haney did his part by winning his fight for the Ryan Garcia rematch, as dreadful as it was.
Haney won by scores of 119-109 x2 (and my score) and 118-108.
Teofimo Lopez showed his skills in a workmanlike victory over Arnold Barboa with a unanimous decision victory.
Lopez's speed was too much for Barboza, who won a few rounds but generally was a step behind Lopez.
Lopez won on the scorecards 118-110 and 116-112 times two, the same as my score.
Lopez retained his WBO junior welterweight title in the win, but without a marquee opponent in the division ( champions Alberto Puello, Richardson Hitchins, and Gary Antuanne Russell), Lopez talked of a rise to the welterweight division for a challenge of WBA and IBF champion Jaron "Boots" Ennis after the bout.
The idea of a live card in Times Square was an audacious attempt, but in actuality, the card lacked atmosphere and reminded me more of the post-COVID "Bubble" cards than a raucous live crowd.
Points for effort, but overall, I'd be fine without a return.
Few people including myself gave Ryan Garcia much of a chance against Devin Haney after his antics since the fight was signed, even less when he missed weight by over three pounds (which turned the fight into a non-title welterweight pairing rather than for Haney's WBC junior welterweight belt), and even less than those expectations when he drained a large bottle of alcohol at the weigh-in.
However, this is boxing and anything can happen, so Garcia surprised everyone by knocking down Hnaey in the seventh, tenth, and eleventh rounds, and winning a shocking majority decision.
Garcia staggered Haney in the first and may have finished Haney off in the seventh after dropping him but two possible knockdowns weren't counted, Garcia was penalized a point for hitting on the break, and there was an added stop in the action when a cameraman entered the ring thinking the round was completed with a minute remaining.
The problem was that on my card if you take away the knockdown rounds and round one, round eight was the only other round that Garcia had a case for winning.
I thought Haney won seven of the twelve rounds, which is how I scored the fight 112-112 with the poor decision by referee Harvey Dock to dock (pun intended) the point in the seventh costing Garcia the fight on my card and one judges as well with the two majority cards going to Garcia 115-109 and 114-110.
Garcia was the faster fighter and landed his left hook consistently but his lack of conditioning cost him in the close rounds in my opinion to allow Haney to squeeze out a few rounds that Garcia might have grabbed in better shape.
Still, it was phenomenal for Garcia to fight so well under the circumstances, and credit him for winning the fight.
However, he did miss weight by over three pounds, pounds that Haney made, and now I would have questions about Garcia making weight for any signed fight, let alone one for a championship since he isn't sorrowful about missing weight, he's reveling in his achievement and now will have no incentive to try in the future.
The fight reminded me of the Jose Luis Castillo-Diego Corrales rematch of arguably the greatest fight ever where Castillo badly missed weight, Corrales made the weight and took a piece of Castillo's purse before the much stronger Castillo, who didn't weaken himself to hit the scale, knocked Corrales out in four.
In the case of Castillo-Corrales II and Garcia-Haney, there will always be an asterisk around those wins despite excellent performances as the question that will forever be unanswered is this- Could they have fought so well had they made weight or at least been forced to try?
Some are complaining about the WBC decision to allow Haney to keep his title despite the defeat.
I'm not.
Garcia missed weight, Haney made it, and then it was agreed to allow the fight to take place as a welterweight match-up, that makes it a non-title fight and the result should have nothing to do with Haney keeping his title, he lost over the weight, that's why there are weight classes, and should he wish to fight at 140 pounds (Garcia announced plans to move to 147 pounds), it's reasonable to see Haney remain as champion.
Garcia didn't seem interested in a rematch with Haney or the man who defeated him in Gervonta Davis and even at 147, I don't see much for him in big fights with Terence Crawford moving to 154 pounds and not wanting any part of the IBF champion Jaron "Boots" Ennis.
Garcia may wait for more of the stars at 140 pounds to move to 147 and he can make lots of money against lesser contenders as he waits for the big fight.
Haney will need to re-establish himself after the loss and his marketability may have taken a hit after the loss but I'm not sure that's fair.
We ask our stars not to be boring (as in Shakur Stevenson), and yet when they abandon their best style to be more entertaining as Haney did and make a better fight with a loss, we shuffle them aside.
Boxing fans and writers often want things both ways and in the case of Devin Haney, I'm not sure that's fair quite yet.
I was away on the weekend on a trip (I'll be writing about it in the coming days), so I haven't seen the complete undercard.
I have seen the best fight on the undercard with David Jimenez upsetting John "Scrappy Ramirez for a minor junior bantamweight title by unanimous decision of 117-11 x2 and 116-112.
I picked Ramirez even though I liked Jimenez's chances because Ramirez was better connected and I thought that may make the difference in a close fight.
Glad the judges got the right result as Jimenez's only loss was controversial in losing a decision to then-WBA flyweight champion Artem Dalakian.
I also watched Sergey Dereyvanchenko's unanimous win over durable trialhorse Vaughn Alexander in a super middleweight ten-rounder.
Dereyvanchenko floored Alexander in the eighth round for the fights only knockdown with a body shot.
Talented junior middleweight Charles Conwell dominated veteran Nathaniel Gallimore in his return to the ring after a long absence.
Conwell won every round before the referee ended the fight in round six, which was an excellent decision on his part.
Conwell is the mandatory contender in the WBC ratings and will be a tough out for whoever has to take him on.
I have not seen the co-feature but many are howling about the split decision that was given to 140-pound contender Arnold Barboza over Great Britain's Sean McComb.
Barboza's scores were 97-93 and 96-94 with the more popular score for McComb at 98-92.
The boxing weekend was a bit light but it did showcase the return of Ryan Garcia, who fought for the first time since his knockout loss to Gervonta Davis.
Oscar Duarte fought well at times and Garcia on occasion looked tentative but when Garcia finally hurt Duarte, he quickly ended the evening in the eighth round.
Garcia fought a bit like Floyd Mayweather with some attempts at using the shoulder roll and did enough to lead the fight on my card at 58-56 at the time of the stoppage and give him credit for finishing the fight as soon he had a good chance. Still, he didn't fight as aggressively as usual and it does seem that he has some residual damage from the Davis defeat as he didn't seem anxious to engage with Duarte as he did in the past.
There may have been some damage done to Ryan Garcia that we might only see once he fights someone better than Oscar Duarte but time will tell.
Earlier in the afternoon from Belfast Northern Ireland, two veterans with questions to answer about how well their chins would hold up battled in a featherweight scrap that answered the questions for one of those aging battlers as Jordan Gill knocked out Michael Conlain in the seventh round.
The fight was even after six rounds with both fighters having their share of advantages with the biggest coming in the second round when Gill knocked Conlan down which was the difference on my card after six rounds at 57-56 for Gill.
Gill badly hurt Conlan in the seventh and the referee ended the affair then and there.
Conlan still has his skills but the knockout loss to Leigh Wood damaged his ability to take a good blow and he should consider retirement at this stage of his career.
Gill will move on but with his own chin problems will likely be sacrificed to an up-and-coming prospect ready to make their next step.
Boxing Challenge
TRS: 179 Pts(2)
Ramon Malpica: 163 Pts (3) Vince Samano: 118 Pts (3)
The highly anticpated battle between hard-punching young stars Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia may not have been Hagler-Hearns as they and others proclaimed before the fight but it was entertaining before the evening ended with sort of an anti-climax as Davis crunched a left hook to the body of Garcia that invoked a delayed reaction with Garcia dropping to his left knee, taking the ten count in the seventh round of their Las Vegas showdown.
Garcia fought very well in winning round one and was easily on his way to adding round two to his side when Davis slipped Garcia's right hand and countered with a left that sent Garcia to the canvas.
Garcia wasn't seriously hurt by the knockdown but the fight changed after that as Garcia continued to come forward on Davis but never with the same abandon or aggressiveness as in those two rounds.
With Garcia now respecting the power of Davis, the fight changed subtly as Davis began to counter Garcia more effectively, slipping his jab more often and blunting the more controlled attacks of Garcia, who no longer wished to take chances that could back Davis up but increase the risk of getting hit with power punches.
Garcia would have his occasional moments after round two and the fight was certainly competitive and hard-fought but only the third and sixth rounds were close and while the ending was sudden, it did feel inevitable.
Davis could have several big fights that would be anticipated by boxing fans in the lightweight division, where he is best suited as far as size against the winner of the undisputed lightweight title pairing later this spring between Devin Haley and Vasyl Lomachenko or Shakur Stevenson in what would be a huge fight for the East Coast fan base.
But fights against either man could be difficult to sign with promotional considerations, Davis would have a large size disadvantage against the best junior welterweights, and there isn't really anyone at junior lightweight that would be considered a major fight for Davis.
That leaves Davis as likely to return to facing good fighters that would be heavy underdogs, wouldn't bring him the respect that he craves, and drawing big crowds with sizable paychecks.
Unless Davis is motivated to do business with Top Rank, the best fights for Davis in-house with PBC may be a rematch with Isaac Cruz, who lost via close decision to Davis, or maybe slick boxing Frank Martin, who may be a high risk without a high rate of return.
As for Garcia, he stated that he will stay in the junior welterweight division and there are plenty of fights there for him but with a loss, and a knockout loss that some believe that he could have shown more effort in attempting to continue, Garcia will have to be matched carefully for a fight or two before facing a strong challenge in a big fight.
Garcia's problem is similar to Davis's as a division loaded with talent doesn't have one that is promoted by Garcia's promoter in Golden Boy Promotions.
The WBO title will be with Top Rank, held by the winner of Josh Taylor-Teofimo Lopez, WBC champion Regis Prograis is available but perhaps too dangerous for Garcia right now, IBF king Subriel Matias is promoted by PBC and is a major puncher with a high risk for a fighter coming off a stoppage loss and the WBA title was recently stripped from Alberto Puello and will be fought for between PBC's colorful Rolando Romero and Ismael Barroso.
Adding into the equations former champion Jose Ramirez, veteran contenders Jack Catterall and Jose Zepeda, and undefeated Gary Antuanne Russell and Arnold Barboza, none of which fights for Golden Boy, and it's hard to see Garcia facing a challenge for a while, unless undefeated lightweight contender William Zepeda, who does fight for Golden Boy, could be tempted by a big payday and a chance to defeat Garcia.
In any event, while both fighters are still stars after the fight, I'm struggling to see an avenue that will see either fighter in a test in their next fight unless some rival promotions decide to work together, and since such a fight is likely to lack anywhere near the amount of money made from Davis-Garcia, which is highly unlikely.
I'll be writing about the other boxing challenge fights in a post tonight or tomorrow.
Ryan Garcia was noticeably larger than Javier Fortuna at the first visual glance of the two and he fought like the bigger man as he rarely allowed Fortuna to attack, let alone land a punch.
And when Garcia landed punches, he was the much bigger puncher as he dropped Fortuna three times with left hooks, once in round four, another in round five, and the final in round six, which ended the fight in Garcia's favor.
Garcia's win was impressive but I'm not quite as impressed as many seem to be by the victory as while Fortuna is a solid contender, he has never succeeded against the elite of any division, and Fortuna is naturally a junior lightweight with Garcia moving north in weight.
Every time that Garcia landed solidly, you could see that Fortuna was badly outgunned and when Garcia scored the first knockdown in the fourth round, the outcome was decided, only when the fight would end was in question.
Fortuna was resigned to occasional fruitless lunges to attempt to get to Garcia but was punished with each attempt by Garcia consistently landing the left hook that would score the three knockdowns.
Garcia called out Gervonta Davis for a fight that many will anticipate and just as many would be surprised if the network issues (Garcia DAZN and Davis Showtime) could be straightened out in order to make the fight.
Garcia also said that he preferred to stay in the junior welterweight division and challenged Davis to fight him at that weight.
That would be an advantage for Garcia as the naturally larger man as Davis doesn't really have the frame to move much higher than 140 pounds.
A Garcia-Davis fight carries lots of intrigue as both fighters have one-shot knockout power.
Neither has faced the best competition yet with Garcia's best win over long-time top ten lightweight Luke Campbell with Davis's best win over Jose Pedraza years ago.
I think Davis has the better chin from what we have seen thus far but style-wise, Garcia may have the edge with the smaller Davis having to attack the lanky Garcia in the same manner as Javier Fortuna unsuccessfully tried last night.
I'd love to see this one signed and in the ring before the end of the year but I will believe it when I see it.
Saturday night's card from DAZN and Golden Boy from San Antonio, Texas may have gotten the desired result in the win column but it didn't answer any of the questions surrounding lightweight star Ryan Garcia, who dominated but didn't dazzle in a unanimous decision victory over Emmanuel Tagoe.
Garcia scored a second-round knockdown that might have been more of a push and hurt Tagoe badly with a right hand in the tenth that saw the Ghanian lucky to survive the round.
Garcia was aggressive and he tried for the knockout throughout the fight but Tagoe moved for most of the fight and Garcia did appear to have some issues in cutting off the ring as well as winging some punches that a better contender than Tagoe might take advantage with counters against an open Garcia.
I scored Garcia an easy victor at 119-108
For his first fight in fifteen months, it was a solid effort against a veteran that wasn't interested in exchanging punches with Garcia and was very mobile but it did make you wonder how Garcia will do against an elite boxer with better skills than Tagoe.
The co-feature was a dull fight as Shane Mosley Jr. scored a surprising majority decision upset over veteran Gabriel Rosado over ten rounds
Mosley dominated with the jab, never allowed Rosado to rough him up on the inside, and outworked the aging veteran, who lost his third in his last four bouts and is 1-4-1 in his last six with the only win his miracle third-round knockout over Beketmir Melikuziev, which he was knocked down and getting pounded before the stunning one-punch ending.
For Mosley, even considering the sliding of form for Rosado, this is the biggest win of his career and I'm sure this will get him more fights in the future against name fighters.
However, I don't think he can hold off stronger fighters or pressure boxers and he seems to be caught in the role of a fringe contender with a memorable moniker.
The other surprise was the scoring with judge Mendez Ramos with an odoriferous card of 95-95.
I had Mosely well ahead at 98-92.
I'll be writing on the Showtime card later today when I have a chance to watch the broadcast.
Sorry, call me a crusty old guy dedicated to "stats of the past" but I'm not in on Scott Rolen for the Hall of Fame.
I think Rolen was a very fine player and I wouldn't be furious over his selection but the baseball Hall voting seems to wobble from one extreme to the other with the younger more stat focused voter preferring players that suit their ideas of a great player and the various committees that prefer ignoring many qualities in favor of the buddy system such as the induction of Harold Baines.
I'd rate Rolen as a Hall of Very Good player but not quite at the level of what a Hall-level should be.
I wonder what the New Orleans Saints will do without Sean Payton but I don't think that things look good at all in the Crescent City.
New Orleans somehow wobbled to a 9-8 record in what was Payton's best coaching job but have been kicking salary cap problems down the road for years, have a major problem at quarterback, and have two impact players with large salaries and injury issues (Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas).
The Saints job might not be the most attractive job available and it might be the least.
I wonder boxing lightweight Ryan Garcia isn't rapidly becoming boxing's version of Shawn Michaels?
Talented, temperamental, and can thrill you in the ring before disappointing you with his behavior outside the ring.
I wonder if this past weekend's four playoff games might have been the best weekend in NFL history.
Four games all decided on the final play of the game.
My solution to the disappointment of teams not getting the ball in playoff overtime?
Toss the coin, play an extra period, and should the game be tied at the end of that period, the game then moves to sudden death.
This would be used in the playoffs only, although I would like to see the regular season's sudden death overtime period return to fifteen minutes rather than the current ten-minute version.
For all the hype about the three young quarterbacks in the AFC in this weekend's games (add Justin Herbert of the Chargers, and first-round losing QB's Mac Jones of the Patriots and Derek Carr of the Raiders) as the future of the conference. the Browns could have had some of them.
Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, and Mac Jones were off the board in the 2020 and 21 drafts plus the Browns believed they had their foundational quarterback already, but Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Derek Carr all could have been Browns.
While I ranked Patrick Mahomes as my top QB in the 2017 draft, not even I at that time wouldn't have taken Mahomes over Miles Garrett, the Browns could have drafted Derek Carr three times and passed him over for Justin Gilbert, Johnny Manziel, and Joel Bitonio in 2014, and what seems to be the biggest mistake (since they drafted a quarterback over him), Baker Mayfield, over Josh Allen.
Meanwhile, as the Browns believe they have turned a corner as a franchise, there are several AFC teams that have their proven franchise QB and only one is over 30, the soon-to-be 31 Derek Carr.
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.
The boxing challenge for this week saw four fights filled with interesting, if predictable results.
Friday night in Anaheim, California saw Ryan Garcia deliver an impressive first-round knockout of former world title challenger Francisco Fonseca.
Garcia blasted Fonseca with one counter left hook that sent Fonseca to the floor and when Fonseca's head thumped off the mat, the fight was immediately stopped.
Ryan Garcia has now stopped his two toughest opponents in the first round and is beginning to convert some non-believers.
Garcia will be tested in the future, but even the most fervent skeptic has to be impressed with his last two wins.
And that test might come in Ryan Garcia's next fight against former three-division champion Jorge Linares, who might have been the most impressive winner of the weekend had Garcia not been so explosive, as Linares stopped Carlos Morales in the fourth round.
Morales had lost a very competitive majority decision to Garcia last year, but was confounded by the attack of the always-smooth Linares, who dropped Morales in the third before completing the task in the fourth.
Garcia-Linares is a fight that I am excited about and could go either way.
I can see Linares and his elite skills baffling Garcia and teaching the young prospect a few tricks and winning, but I can also see that happening and the paper-mache' jaw of Linares (Linares has lost five times by stoppage) gives out for a Garcia win.
Garcia-Linares should be a good one.
And then there's PBC on Fox with another "Ahem" thrilling Caleb Plant domination of a no-hoper to defend his IBF super-middleweight title, this time with a tenth round knockout of mandatory contender Vincent Feigenbutz in Plant's hometown of Nashville.
Plant dominated the lumbering German, won every round on my card and was rarely hit in return.
Plant is very skilled and could be a handful for anyone at 168, but still has only one win over anyone in the top 25 and for his talk of wanting to "face anyone", hasn't seemed remotely interested in actually fighting them.
The co-main was nothing special until the final half-minute as welterweight Bryant Perrella built a huge lead on the scorecards until he was floored by a vicious uppercut by Abel Ramos.
Perrella barely rose and soon was sent to the canvas again, but a badly hurt Perrella got up by referee Jack Reiss called off the fight with one second to go in the fight.
Perrella was in very bad shape and usually, I wouldn't have had an issue with the stoppage as the fighter wasn't likely to stand up under more punishment.
However with one second to go, Ramos wasn't going to land any punches, Perrella was going to win the fight on the scorecards and it seemed a bit unfair to me.
I'm not buying the referee shouldn't hold that into account either, the ten-second thump on the mat is used for a reason, which is why I think it was a bad call.
In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and each scored five points on the week.
I lead the challenge 29-25.
For ten rounds in the Nevada desert, it seemed to me that we might be headed to a controversy at best and a possible Hamburglar at worst, but then it ended and ended suddenly as Canelo Alvarez landed a crunching left hook and as Sergey Kovalev struggled to remain upright, Alvarez finished Kovalev with a vicious right hand that sent Kovalev down to his knees and unable to continue as referee Russell Mora quickly waved the fight off.
It seemed that most watchers had Kovalev ahead either slightly or significantly entering the eleventh round, and Canelo seemed to need at least a knockdown to have a chance on most cards (I had Kovalev ahead 97-93).
However, after the fight, what most expected to happen in Las Canelos was, in fact, happening as after ten rounds, two judges had Alvarez leading by two points and the other had the fight even.
Essentially, even if Kovalev had been able to continue, the fight was lost on the cards as soon as he hit the floor.
Now, on my
card, I had two very close rounds that could have gone Canelo's way (the third and the eighth) and if you gave both to Canelo, I can see the even scorecard, but the narrative that is so common continues- If you want to beat Canelo Alvarez in Nevada, you better take him out.
The fight was pretty dull actually, with few exchanges and controlled by Kovalev's jab, so even though Canelo came from behind ( on most scorecards anyway), there won't be a hue and cry for a rematch.
Sergey Kovalev followed a game plan and consistently used his jab to effectively nullify the aggressiveness of Alvarez, but he never turned up the heat and tried to use his physical advantages to land his own big right hand, and by the end, Alvarez had no fear of getting hit by anything other than the jab.
I'll give Canelo Alvarez credit for leaping to light heavyweight and facing Kovalev, even if it's a Kovalev that is past his peak, but it's pretty clear that should he elect to continue at 175 pounds, he would have a very difficult time with WBC/IBF champion Artur Beterbiev and even though he matches better physically with the smaller WBA champion Dmitry Bivol, Bivol could take the Kovalev template and perhaps keep Alvarez on the outside all night and win a decision- if that fight is not in Nevada that is.
The fight that makes the most sense (since Canelo has no interest in fighting Gennady Golovkin again) would be against WBA super-middleweight champion Callum Smith.
Smith is with DAZN, holds the real title, and Alvarez holds the secondary title below. Smith is regarded as the top super middleweight, and you have the storyline built in with Canelo's knockout win over Smith's brother Liam a few years back.
As for Sergey Kovalev, I'd like for this to be the end after his third knockout loss in his last seven fights, but I'd bet that Kovalev fights on and there will always be money in an Artur Beterbiev fight, although it'll never be what it could have been before Beterbiev's promotional issues and Kovalev's loss to Andre Ward.
The knockout victory gave Alvarez the WBO light heavyweight title, and even before the fight, Golden Boy and DAZN were attempting to make the argument that Alvarez now equals Henry Armstrong's achievement of holding three titles at the same time.
The ridiculous attempt to place Alvarez's titles (WBA middleweight, the secondary WBA title at super middleweight that Alvarez won from Rocky Fielding and has sat on for a year and now the WBO light heavyweight) pales in comparison to Armstrong holding the feather, light, and welterweight titles at the same time as in Armstrong's era, only one champion existed and in only eight weight classes.
The co-feature on the card that never seemed to end saw Ryan Garcia notch a first-round knockout over Romero Duno in a grudge lightweight match.
Garcia was accused of ducking Duno in September and demanded Duno as his opponent in the first fight under his new contract.
The reason that I didn't add the adjective "impressive" to Garcia's win was that when you watch the replay, it doesn't really appear that Garcia landed any particular strong punch, and Duno stopped fighting faster than a pack of dollar store batteries.
Putting the effort of Duno aside, Garcia's win should move him up in some of the sanctioning bodies, and I suppose he'll make another jump in competition soon, but I think Garcia might be better suited to have a few more fights before facing his first world-class opponent.
Garcia was talking about the newly dubbed WBC champion Devin Haney, and even though Haney hasn't fought anyone of top-level either, his opponents have been better than Garcia's, and Haney appears to be a higher grade of boxer than Garcia as well.
On ESPN during the LONG wait for the final two DAZN fights, Miguel Berchelt looked tremendous in stopping Jason Sosa when Sosa's corner conceded the victory in the fourth round.
Berchelt knocked Sosa down in the second, and Sosa barely survived that round before Berchelt knocked Sosa down again in the fourth and battered Sosa badly before Sosa's corner threw in the towel.
Sosa was once a minor beltholder and upset Javier Fortuna along with a losing challenge to Vasyl Lomachenko, but Berchelt's right hands are whip-like and almost like a baseball pitcher that throws sidearm, and Sosa simply could not avoid them.
Berchelt won't look much better than he did in this one, and I'm not sure what else he could have on tap for his future.
IBF champion Tevin Farmer is with Matchroom/DAZN doesn't make fun fights and judging by his demands for fight with Gervonta Davis, Farmer may ask for far more than the fight is worth, the WBA title was recently vacated by Davis and even though WBO champion Jamel Herring is with Top Rank, Herring will be an underdog against talented and undefeated Lamont Roach, who is with Golden Boy/DAZN.
Vasyl Lomachenko has been rumored for Berchelt for a while now, and the fight never seems close to being put together.
I know Lomachenko wants the winner of the IBF lightweight title fight between Richard Commey and Teofimo Lopez next to unify all the titles, but since the WBC ruined that with their ridiculous "Franchise" champion, Berchelt vs the Commey-Lopez winner would be a great fight, and the winner moving onto Lomachenko would have that much more credibility.
I haven't watched the PBC card yet, so I'll have a small post in a day or so on those results and some other thoughts on the WBC and their "franchise champion", DAZN's waiting until after 1 AM on the East Coast to start Kovalev-Canelo and why Canelo Alvarez has fewer fights that you think because of how his refusal to fight certain opponents is leaving him with few options.
In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me five to two on this part of the boxing weekend.
Ramon added two points each from Ryan Garcia and Miguel Berchelt, while I settled for the two points from Berchelt.
The challenge still stands in my favor, 263-230.
In a strange day in what was expected to be a less than exciting boxing weekend gave followers something to at least make people shake their heads and recall what Larry Merchant always said about boxing- "the theatre of the absurd".
From Philadelphia, ESPN and Top Rank's main event was the return to action of WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk with the first defense of his championship.
Gvozdyk was in with what was thought to be a soft touch in French transport Doudou Ngumbu, originally from the Congo, with the fact being unknown of how Gvozdyk would react in his first bout since injuring Adonis Stevenson.
We still don't know how Gvozdyk will react after his fifth-round stoppage over Ngumbu, which saw the fight end with Ngumbu unable to continue, but not after any Gvozdyk punches.
Instead, it was Ngumbu finished off with an injured calf that left him gimping around the ring like Fred Flintstone doing the Frantic and sitting in a corner distraught with tears after a lost chance that at 38 he will likely to never see again.
I thought Gvozdyk won every round but wasn't dominating Ngumbu and the calf hurt the challenger far more than the champions punches to that point.
Gvozdyk will hopefully face a better opponent later this year, hopefully, in a title unification against either WBO champion Sergey Kovalev or IBF standard-bearer Artur Beterbiev, should they win their next scheduled defenses.
The undercard saw a surprise as the WBO's top contender to their welterweight champion Terence Crawford, Egid Kavaliauskas may have lost his mandatory title fight as he struggled to a majority draw against Ray Robinson.
Robinson had been knocked out by Yordanis Ugas in his last fight and was thought to be a stay busy fight for the exposure to the boxing audience for Kavaliauskas to increase attention for a potential Crawford bout.
Instead, the majority draw could see Kavaliauskas dropped from the top contender position, although that isn't a given when you consider any sanctioning bodies ability to make a decision and that's the sanctioning body (WBO) that is coziest with Bob Arum.
Should Kavaliauskas be moved from the top spot, the big winners could be Jessie Vargas and DAZN as it would be Vargas (number three contender with second rated Amir Khan already facing Crawford next) that would benefit most.
Still, despite scores that read 97-93 for Robinson and two scores of 95-95. I thought Kavaliauskas was the 96-94 winner as he threw the harder punches against the mildly busier Robinson, if not impressive in doing so.
Golden Boy Promotions on DAZN presented the other Saturday night card from Indio, California with social media magnet Ryan Garcia in the top spot against veteran Jose Lopez.
Garcia had struggled to a close win two fights previously over Carlos Morales and Golden Boy is attempting to carefully match the nineteen-year-old to re-establish him.
Lopez, much smaller and slower was the perfect foil for Garcia to look good against and was hurt in round one.
Garcia finished the job in the second round with several right hands that put Lopez on the floor for the finish shots, although Lopez would stagger to his corner, where his corner ended the fight before the start of round three.
Garcia has impressive hand speed and what seems to be good power, but he seems very wide open to me and despite Oscar De La Hoya's words after the fight about the competition moving to the top level soon, I'm not sure Garcia is anywhere near ready for the top fighters in the 130 pound division.
Angel Acosta retained his WBO light flyweight title with an eighth-round knockout of former WBC champion Ganigan Lopez as the co-feature.
Lopez attempted to stick and move and was effective against Acosta, who I had slightly ahead 67-66 at the time of the stoppage.
Acosta managed to stun Lopez with a hard left hook in the eighth and managed to shrug off a dazed Lopez and his attempts to tackle the champion enough to drop him for the ten count.
Acosta vs WBC champion Ken Shiro would be a terrific unification fight in the division, but rarely are the best fights in the 108-pound division signed as it's often much easier to build up defenses against lesser contenders or move up to the flyweight division.
In the boxing challenge, I scored six points to Ramon Malpica's five to increase my lead to 72-65.
We each scored two points for the wins by Gvozdyk and Garcia, but I scored two points to Ramon's one for the win by Angel Acosta.
I usually don't write in the boxing challenge about non-challenge fights but I had to write a few words about the Matchroom card from Liverpool England on DAZN.
I considered the main event with former WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith against Sam Eggington for the challenge but decided against it.
However, as I try to watch almost everything, I still watched the card and one of the undercard fights saw former top prospect David Price appear.
Price won an Olympic bronze medal and was thought to be a potential champion with elite level power.
Price still can hurt anyone that he hits, but an alarmingly bad chin against anyone around the top 25 level had led to a series of losses that led to Price being knocked out in spectacular fashion last year against Alexander Povetkin in a fight that was such a mismatch that it shouldn't have been sanctioned.
For four rounds against undefeated former sparring partner Kash Ali, Price looked every bit the part of a contender, but entering the fifth round, the book on Price was referred to as "get through four rounds against Price and watch him melt".
Ali was clearly frustrated by Price and began fouling starting in the third round with a bite, following up with a fourth round shot to the back of Price' head and then taking him down in the fifth with better technique than some linebackers.
The fun began as the fighters rolled along the ropes with suddenly Price's head snaps back against the bottom rope and lets out a yelp.
The referee then has had enough of Ali's antics, disqualifies him as Price rises with a splotch on his torso that rivals that of Dusty Rhodes when he had that marking during that damn video that Jim Crockett Promotions played at every commercial break in 1987!
Price's win will likely see him in another OK Corral showdown against someone from the next level, where his big pop and soft chin are in a race to see which makes its way to the forefront first.
Just another crazy day in boxing and shows once again that even when you think it will be a dull day, boxing always can surprise.
Gennady Golovkin's return to action didn't last as long as it takes to bake a potato. but the ending was spectacular as ever as Golovkin retained his three middleweight titles with a second-round crushing of Vanes Martirosyan in Carson, California.
The IBF didn't sanction the fight as a title defense, although the title would have been ruled vacant had Martirosyan won, but Golovkin took a punch or two in the first before the finishing in the second that left Martirosyan prone on the floor.
The less said the better about this one, now the speculation begins whether Golovkin will face Canelo Alvarez in September.
If Golovkin wants to keep the IBF title, he will have to face Sergey Dereyvanchenko next and Golovkin has claimed for years that he wants all four belts and being stripped of one is a step back for that goal.
However, the dollars aren't even in the same universe for that fight compared to the Canelo rematch, but I don't think we will see that rematch in September anyway.
I cannot imagine that Golden Boy Promotions will have their cash cow fight Golovkin off a one-year layoff and what I think will happen will see Canelo's comeback against a softer opponent, most likely Spike O'Sullivan with Golovkin taking care of his IBF mandatory in Dereyvanchenko-possibly even on the same card.
To me, that makes sense and covers bases for both parties- Canelo gets a fight to chip the rust off and GGG gets to keep a title belt (or attempt to).
In London, Tony Bellew looks to have finally finished the career of David Haye with a fifth-round knockout in their rematch of Bellew's win in 2017.
Bellew knocked Haye down twice in the third before finishing Haye off in the fifth.
I had Bellew winning every round, although Haye was throwing punches, it appeared to me that he couldn't sit down on his punches and the Achilles injury that he suffered in the first fight didn't appear to be healed as he was forced to throw his punches off the front foot.
Bellew was calling for Andre Ward after the fight (No thanks), but a better fight might be Bellew against the Oleksandr Usyk-Murat Gassiev winner for the unified cruiserweight title.
Bellew left the division as the WBC's "Champion in Emeritus" which means he can cash in a title shot whenever he asks for it, so that could happen.
On the Bellew-Haye undercard, Emmanuel Rodriguez knocked Paul Butler down in the first and cruised to a unanimous decision to win the vacant IBF bantamweight title.
Only Rodriguez could win the title as Butler failed to make the weight and I had Rodriguez a 119-108 winner.
On Friday on ESPN, highly touted prospect (much of it on social media by himself) Ryan Garcia took a step up in competition against former world title challenger Jayson Velez and won a unanimous decision.
Garcia looked strong early but visibly weakened later in his first time going ten rounds against the tough but smaller Velez.
I had Garcia a 98-92 winner, but I'm not sure what the hurry is with Golden Boy pushing Garcia so quickly and these calls for fighters like Gervonta Davis would be a huge mistake for Garcia.
Garcia needs a few more fights against fighters that are on a similar level to Velez before anyone should even think about a title challenge or a fight against a top five level opponent.
In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored six points on the weekend.
Ramon received two points each from wins by Emmanuel Rodriguez and Gennady Golovkin and one each from Ryan Garcia and Tony Bellew.
My six came from two-point wins from Golovkin. Rodriguez and Garcia.
I lead the challenge 81-67.
