Boxing Challenge: GGG Stops Murata

    Due to not having watched everything, I will be writing about the Japanese card only in this post and will write about the other events later tonight.

From Saitama, Japan, Gennady Golovkin survived a strong attack from Ryota Murata over the first five rounds and controlled the fight thereafter before stopping the Japanese star in the ninth round.

The victory added the WBA middleweight title to that of the IBF championship that Golovkin already owned and set up a fall third fight against Canelo Alvarez, assuming that Alvarez wins his May fight against WBA light heavyweight king Dmitry Bivol.

Murata gave Golovkin plenty of problems in exchanges over the first five rounds and landed many body shots that Golovkin surely felt, including a third-round punch that appeared to affect Golovkin a bit.

However, Murata's attack slowed just as Golovkin began to get his gears running smoothly which led to Golovkin landing the better punches to both the head and the body in the sixth and seventh rounds, including a right hand in the sixth that sent Murata's mouthpiece flying from his mouth.

Murata appeared to be running on fumes and Golovkin hurt him in the eighth and I thought there was a chance that the fight could end in the corner.

Golovkin stepped up the workrate in the rate and sent Murata retreating around the ring in the ninth with Murata in deep trouble along the ropes for most of the round.

Finally, GGG landed a strong straight right that dropped Murata to his knees with the corner throwing in the towel before Murata could rise.

I had Golovkin leading 78-74  after eight rounds but if you had Murata a point closer I wouldn't quibble.

For Golovkin, he fought well enough to raise the intrigue of some for the third fight against Canelo but he also raised some concerns about his ability to take shots to his body.

If you feel them from Ryota Murata, you certainly will be vulnerable to those from Canelo Alvarez.

Golovkin's style is likely always going to be a problem for Canelo Alvarez like Ken Norton's was for Muhammad Ali.

Golovkin's jab is a power jab, not one to create distance like recent opponents of Canelo like Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant and he has the power that Canelo will have to respect that others have lacked.

Still, it's clear that GGG has lost some speed as Canelo moved into his prime, and Canelo will have to be the clear favorite going into the fight.

Assuming Canelo wins, he would finally have his clear win, and to most that will be enough.

However, keep this in mind- when Canelo defeated Miguel Cotto to win the middleweight title and dodged Golovkin for nearly three years, then-promoter Oscar De La Hoya kept claiming that Canelo "Needed time" to mature to the division before fighting the supposedly bigger (they have the same reach with Golovkin holding three inches in height) Golovkin.

Canelo is the fighter that is larger now and I'm not sure that the size factor will matter an extra than it could have then.

Canelo Alvarez will be remembered as a great fighter but even more than the judging in both fights and especially the first fight and even more than Adelaide Byrd, discerning boxing historians will always remember Alvarez putting GGG off for three years before their first to try to "age him out" and insisting on Golovkin, who thrived on fighting often, fighting less by hanging potential dates that could be ruined by cut eye etc, and after the second fight (I'll place the rematch waiting a year due to Clenbuterol aside), making Golovkin wait another four years for a third fight- that will be the historical cross that Canelo Alvarez will have to bear.

We will never know how Canelo Alvarez would done against a prime Gennady Golovkin because either Alvarez and his various promoters never would allow it to take place.

That's boxing for you.

In the co-feature, exciting WBO flyweight champion Junto Nakatani battered and bruised Ryota Yamauchi for eight rounds before the merciful ending in the eighth round.

The 5'7 southpaw nailed Yamauchi with huge shots in the first two rounds and swelling around the eyes of Yamauchi combined with a broken nose gave the challenger a beaten look even before the fight had reached its halfway point.

I had Nakatani leading 69-64 before the ending.

Nakatani might be the best flyweight in the world but with his height, he could do well with a rise in weight, and should he take advantage of a WBO rule that allows a champion of theirs to move up in weight and immediately become the mandatory challenger, Nakatani could face countryman Kazuto Ioka in what would a huge domestic fight in Japan for Ioka's junior bantamweight title.

Boxing Challenge-This total does not include the Saturday evening bouts.

TRS: 48 Pts (4)

Vince Samano: 44 Pts (1)

Ramon Malpica 40 Pts (2) 

Boxing Challenge: Rising Sun Edition

The Monday morning card from Yokohama, Japan didn't bring forth any surprises,  but it did bring some strong performances from the four favorites in their victories.

In the main event, minor middleweight beltholder Ryota Murata delivered a highlight film knockout of Steven Butler in the fifth round.
Give Butler credit-for an unproven fighter that had somehow risen to the top spot in the WBO rankings (Butler passed up a title shot against Demetrius Andrade to fight Murata), he tried hard, engaged, and won the first two rounds on my scorecard.
However, Murata was too big and strong for the Canadian and his superior power soon had Butler retreating and it seemed that the question was how does Murata win the fight rather than if he wins.
One crunching right sent Butler falling to the floor with the referee ending the fight without a count.
I'd like to see Murata against better fighters in 2020, but it appears as it'll be a contractually obligated third fight with Rob Brant and possibly Brazil's Esquiva Falcao, whom Murata defeated to win his gold medal at the 2012 Olympics.
Neither of those excites me very much, but that's the state of boxing today.

Moruti Mthalane defended his IBF Flyweight title with a ninth-round knockout of Akira Yaegashi.
Yaegashi, a former champion in three divisions, fought gamely but was to be outgunned by Mthalane, who turned up the heat in the seventh and eighth rounds before the stoppage late in the ninth when a battered Yaegashi wobbled to the ropes followed by the referee stepping in to end the fight.
The 37-year-old Mthalane doesn't appear to be your usual fighter of his age and even though I'm not sure where the money would come from for this, a mini-tournament between the four flyweight champions (Mthalane, Artem Dalakian WBA, Julio Cesar Martinez WBC, and Kosei Tanaka WBO) might be as much action as boxing could offer in three fights.

Ken Shiro kept his WBC junior flyweight title after knocking late substitute Randy Petalcorin out in the fourth round.
Petalcorin won the first two rounds off his back foot, but Shiro found the weak spot of Petalcorin in the third when three body shots produced three knockdowns.
The fight likely should have ended in the corner, but the fight continued into the fourth for a short time- which was the first time that Shiro again landed to the body and that ended the fight.
Petalcorin was a replacement for IBF champion Felix Alvarado, which lost the division a unification fight.
Shiro-Alvarado would be a good fight, but the biggest fight would be another unification fight against WBA champ Hiroto Kyoguchi in an all-Japanese unification event.

The comeback for former multi-divisional champion and a top pound for pound contender Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez began with an eight-round fight against Diomel Diocos.
Gonzalez had fought only once since his stunning KO loss to Srisket Sor Rungvisai in 2017, so this was a chance to get some work against Diocos, a journeyman that had only been stopped once in his career against the then-undefeated bomber Daigo Higa.
Gonzalez wouldn't work for many rounds as he finished Diocos in two, which was an impressive result, considering the solid chin of the opponent and the time spent away from the ring by Gonzalez.
Gonzalez still might need another fight to be ready for a potential title challenge, but he doesn't look to be outmatched by any of the champions at 115 pounds.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored seven points on the evening to move the overall numbers to 319-285.

Boxing Challenge: Murata rolls over Brant

I've written before that some times you can feel that a prediction is wrong thirty seconds into a fight and I had that feeling with the Rob Brant-Ryota Murata rematch.

I had given Murata a better chance in the rematch than it seemed many did, but despite not being a true believer in Rob Brant against elite middleweights, he had swarmed Murata in the first fight with the sheer accumulation of punches thrown and Murata just seemed so slow.
I picked Brant, but I noted Murata was the bigger puncher and would have his moments in a better and closer fight in the rematch.

Those thirty seconds into the first round, I knew who was winning this fight.
Brant fired plenty of punches and looked like the same fighter as before, but it was Murata that looked different.
Murata looked like a hunter, moving aggressively forward and didn't look slow and lumbering, instead Murata moved like a cat in a first round that was extremely entertaining with both fighters landing often in exchanges.
The fight wouldn't see the end of another round as Murata landed a right hand that stunned Brant and he would never recover or avoid another right as Murata handed it again and again, although it was a left that sent Brant to the floor for the only knockdown.
Brant rose but was unable to clinch or make Murata miss with his right and eventually referee Luis Pabon had no choice other than to end the fight.

Murata notches the biggest win of his career and suddenly becomes a viable future opponent for one of the top middleweights with the addition of the minor belt involved, could be an interesting opponent for any of them- especially if Canelo Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin would be interested in traveling to Japan, where they might have a chance of selling the Tokyo Dome out for such an encounter.
Perhaps Murata had simply figured out what to do against Brant, but it will be very interesting to see if the Murata that won this fight can be maintained and if so, how he matches up with the top of the division.
As for Brant, this is the type of fight that may have set his true level as a top 15/Gatekeeper type that will make interesting fights with his high punch output, but with a lack of power and now with questions about his chin, Brant's next fight or two could see him re-establish himself as a contender or become the first name victim on a promising young fighter's record.

The co-feature saw another title defense for WBC light flyweight champion Ken Shiro as Shiro dominated Jonathan Taconing for three rounds before a right-left combination knocked down Taconing in the fourth round and with leg-weary Taconing unable to steady himself upon rising saw the fight stopped.
For Shiro, it was his sixth title defense and the undefeated champion has two lucrative options against fellow Japanese fighters as he could attempt to unify his title against the also undefeated WBA champion Hiroto Kyoguchi, who holds the Ring Magazine title as well in what would match the top two fighters at light flyweight or Shiro could move to flyweight and challenge talent Kosei Tanaka for Tanaka's WBO title.
Both would be interesting fights and either would be highly anticipated fights in Japan.

In the boxing challenge, I added two points for Shiro's KO win with Ramon Malpica adding one for Shiro's win.
I moved my lead to 165-148.
I may briefly update this post later with the Saudi Arabian fights that are not being televised in the United States.

Editors Note; Amir Khan stopped Billy Dib in four, while Hughie Fury stopped Samuel Peter in seven.
I added four and Ramon picked up two to move the challenge to 169-150

Boxing Challenge: Brant stuns Murata!

Source: STEVE MARCUS/Getty Images North America

In a five-fight boxing challenge weekend, the best fight and biggest news occurred in Las Vegas where Top Rank's best-laid plans burned in ashes as Rob Brant upset Ryota Murata to take his minor title via a clear and unanimous decision, that still was an exciting fight to watch.

The Brant victory blew up a planned Murata "title" defense in Japan at the Tokyo Dome early in 2019 against Gennady Golovkin that would have been a major event there with sizable checks for all involved.
Brant ruined that with a relentless attack that saw an Aaron Pryoresque offense that just never stopped throwing punches at the taller Japanese import.
No knockdowns were scored, but Brant's punches beat up Murata around both eyes and around his cheekbones causing some impressive swelling.
I scored Brant a 117-111 winner, which was along the line of the three judges.
Murata does have a rematch clause, so should he choose to activate it, Brant might have to travel to Japan for it, but against the best competition that he has faced at middleweight (his only loss was to Jurgen Braehmer at super middle in the WBSS), Brant looked like someone that is going to be a tough out even for the best in the division, should he fight at this level every time out.

Meanwhile, DAZN featured a pair of cards from Boston and Orlando that you could pick the one you want to watch live and watch the other on replay.
This is always a hard strategy to navigate when you are trying to avoid knowing results (especially if you are friends with Fred Landucci! Just teasing, buddy) and fight facts beforehand.

Photo: Matchroom Boxing

From Boston, Demetrius Andrade grabbed one of the two vacant middleweight titles with his shutout win over Walter Kautondokwa to win the WBO version.
Andrade joins Canelo Alvarez (WBA/WBC) and the winner of the Daniel Jacobs-Sergey Dereyvanchenko fight next Saturday (IBF) and suddenly there could be a way to unify the titles if the desire is there with all of those fighters having connections with DAZN, Matchroom Boxing or both.
Andrade won every round on my scorecard (120-104) with the wider margin explained by Andrade dropping Kautondokwa in the first, third and twice in the fourth.
Andrade wasn't as safety-first as he had been in the past, but he never seemed to truly turn the jets on and try to put the Namibian away.

In the other Boston challenge bout, IBF junior lightweight champion Tevin Farmer dominated James Tennyson of Great Britain thru four rounds and finished him in the fifth.
Farmer dumped Tennyson to the canvas with a fourth-round body shot that essentially finished him then, even though an ailing Tennyson came out for the fifth, but was quickly staggered with another body blow that was enough to convince the referee that the fight should be concluded.
The rare knockout (just the sixth among twenty-seven wins) for Farmer might say more for Tennyson's lack of an ability to take a good punch (he once was knocked out by a guy with a 2-64-5 record) than any newfound punching ability of Farmer, who has been involved in a social media shouting match with WBA champ Gervonta Davis with both calling the other out for a unification battle.
I don't mind fighters calling the other out- IF there is a chance of making the fight, which I think this one has little chance of happening with Davis, who sadly rarely fights, being involved with Floyd Mayweather's Money Team/PBC and Farmer with Matchroom/DAZN.
There just isn't enough money to be made from this fight to be worth the sides to work together to get this one in the ring.
If the fight would be made, I like Davis in that one.

Meanwhile, in Orlando, the World Boxing Super Series filled semi-final slots in the bantamweight and cruiserweight tournaments.

Yunier Dorticos went the entire twelve rounds for the first time in his career and won a narrow unanimous decision over a tougher than expected Mateusz Masternak to move to the semi-finals.
No knockdowns, but the story was Masternak giving the booming punches of Dorticos and his vaunted power all that he wanted before just falling short on my card 115-113.
Dorticos will move on against American Andrew Tabiti in the semi-finals in early 2019.

Talented Emmanuel Rodriguez also was given all that he wanted by the mandatory contender Australia's Jason Moloney, but moved to the semi's and retained his IBF bantamweight title with a split decision victory.
All three judges scored the fight the same at 115-113, with two selecting Rodriguez and the other picking Moloney as the victor.
I agreed with the majority leaning the way of Rodriguez by the same score.
Rodriguez will face the Monster Naoya Inoue in the next round and though Inoue will be a heavy favorite, Rodriguez will be a live underdog in my opinion against the Japanese sensation.

In the boxing challenge, I scored five points to Ramon Malpica's four.
Ramon and I scored one point each for wins by Dorticos, Farmer, Rodriguez and Andrade, but my extra point came from predicting Andrade would go the distance.
I lead the challenge 172-147.

Boxing Challenge- Murata wins squash, Higa upset by Rosales

A shorter than usual boxing challenge post because I have so much to work on (the Devils win and the Delmarva Shorebirds in town tonight as well as pulling cards).

Saturday in Yokohama, Japan, Ryota Murata retained his minor belt with a dominant victory over Emanuele Blandamura with an eighth round stoppage.
I thought Murata won every round over an overmatched opponent and did what he should have.
Murata is expected to fight Brazil's Esquiva Falcao next in a rematch of their Olympic final and a victory could have him against Gennady Golovin in the following bout.
I still want to see what Murata looks like against a top ten fighter and despite the talent of Falcao, he has less on his record than Murata, who at least has a somewhat shopworn Hassan N'Dam on his resume, so I assume I might be wondering after his next fight as well.

In the co-feature, I was very impressed as Cristofer Rosales stopped Daigo Higa in the ninth round to win the WBC flyweight title.
Higa had lost the title on the scales by not making weight, but Rosales could win the title with a victory, while a Higa win would have resulted in the title becoming vacant.
In an excellent fight, Rosales surprisingly held off Higa's attacks and slowly broke the smaller (in height) Higa down before Higa's corner threw in the towel in the ninth round.
A few points here- kudos to the corner of Higa (led by Hall of Famer Yoko Gushiken) for stopping the bout, saving Higa from more of a beating and perhaps keeping his viability around for another day.
Rosales was very impressive and style-wise resembled his countryman Roman Gonzalez in his win.
I think the one-time dream fight discussed before Gonzalez's two losses to Sristket  Sor Rungvisai between Gonzalez and Naoya Inoue, would have ended and been fought just as this one was.
Rosales has a loss to Andrew Selby of England and now I really want to see that fight as Rosales looked so strong in this one that I want to see what Selby brings to the table.

In the boxing challenge-Ramon Malpica and I each earned two points for the Murata win to move the total to 61-48.

Boxing Challenge:Machado upsets Corrales

The boxing challenge for the weekend starts in Verona, New York with two bouts from HBO that had varying intensities.

In the main event, Alberto Machado won the WBA junior lightweight title from Jezreel Corrales (TRS #3) when Machado landed a left hand while eating one from Corrales, dropping
Corrales and surviving himself.
The eighth round knockout allowed Machado to win a title that Corrales could not retain after missing weight by multiple pounds at the weigh-in.
WBA rules stated that after an agreement to keep the fight going that if Machado won, he would become champion and the title would become vacant with a Corrales win.
Machado had won just one round on my card (the sixth, where he should have been given a 10-8 round for a knockdown that was not called) before the abrupt victory.
The lean Machado will be an interesting addition to the 130 pound title picture with WBC champ Miguel Berchelt as a possible opponent should he defeat the gritty veteran Orlando Salido in December or the IBF champion (decided on the same card in December as Tevin Farmer faces Kenichi Ogawa for the title that Gervonta Davis sacrificed on the scale in August) for the slot of best in the division other than WBO champion Vasyl Lomachenko.

The co-feature saw the return of Demetrius Andrade (TRS #3 at junior middle) moving up to middleweight against undefeated and untested Alantez Fox.
In a bout that rivaled any Guillermo Rigondeaux or Erislandy Lara fight for boredom, Andrade won every round on my card, but the seventh and took a unanimous decision.
Fox scored a knockdown in the seventh that really was a tangled foot issue.
I scored Andrade a 118-109 winner and I hope we see him against better challengers next time out.

HBO showed a good bantamweight bout on tape delay from Belfast, Northern Ireland as Ryan Burnett unified his IBF title with the WBA belt with a unanimous decision over Zhanat Zhakiyanov (TRS #3).
I scored Burnett a 117-111 winner after the fight was even after six rounds, but saw Burnett dominate the second half of the fight.
I'm sure we will see Burnett debut in the next edition of the TRS ratings.

In the final quarter-final of the World Boxing Super Series, Murat Gassiev (TRS #2) retained his IBF cruiserweight title in Newark, New Jersey with a body shot in round three that dropped Krzysztof Wlodarczyk for the count.
Gassiev pushed Wlodarczyk around the ring and from the opening bell, the verdict was clear that Gassiev could pick his round of victory,
Gassiev moves to the semi-finals against Yunier Dorticos in what should be a thrilling battle early in 2018 and might be establishing the early leader for 2018 fight of the year.
Next Saturday will have the final quarter-final in the super middleweights between Jurgen Brahmer and Rob Brant and following that, I'll have a look and some thoughts about the initial round of the WBSS.

From Tokyo for a minor title, Ryota Murata avenged one of the worst decisions in 2017 when Hassan N'Dam could not answer the bell for round eight in their middleweight fight.
I had Murata ahead on the cards and dominated the fight seen live on ESPN2 at 7;30 AM.
My issue is why the WBA made this for their "regular" title, when the organization that claims they want to reduce their titles, could have swallowed this one when Gennady Golovkin defeated Daniel Jacobs in March?
There is a manner to force a fight between the champion and a top challenger- it's called being the number one contender and that doesn't mean they are a champion too.

In an untelevised bout in the challenge, Daigo Higa (TRS #3) retained his WBC flyweight title with a seventh round knockout of Thomas Massson on the Murata-N'Dam undercard.
Higa has won by KO in all 14 of his pro bouts.

In the Boxing Challenge-

I earned three points for the Murat Gassiev win (a bonus point for getting the round correct), two points for the Daigo Higa KO win, one point for the wins by Ryan Burnett , Demetrius Andrade, and Ryota Murata and I missed on Alberto Machado's victory.

Ramon added two points for Gassiev's win and one each for the Andrade and Higa wins while missing on Machado,Murat and Burnett's wins.

The Challenge now stands at 154-137.
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