Boxing Challenge: Benavidez decisions Morrell, Fulton dethrones Figueroa

     On paper, PBC's Saturday night pay-per-view from Las Vegas was their best, from top to bottom, and it was a good evening of boxing.

Still, it felt like a mild disappointment despite providing some strong action and it started at the top of the card with David Benavidez winning a unanimous decision over David Morrell to make Benavidez the top contender to the winner of the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol rematch that will occur later this month.

Benavidez-Morrell was a good fight but far from the light-heavyweight Armageddon that many thought was possible as Benavidez added Morrell's minor title to the minor belt that Benavidez already owned.

Benavidez threw more, landed more, and simply outworked Morrell, although Morrell had his moments most notably his eleventh-round knockdown of an off-balance Benavidez.

Morrell lost that extra point at the end of the same round when he hit Benavidez after the bell and had a point deducted, which was clearly a foul.

Benavidez won on the scorecards of 118-108 and 115-111 twice, the latter agreeing with my card.

The co-feature was a story of redemption and disappointment as Stephen Fulton won the WBC featherweight title unanimously over Brandon Figueroa in a rematch of their terrific 2021 matchup, won by Fulton by a majority decision.

The redemption comes from Fulton's rebounding from a knockout loss to Naoya Inoue and a controversial decision win over Carlos Castro in his recent two fights.

The disappointment part is that the fight wasn't nearly as exciting as their first fight as Fulton boxed more and Figueroa didn't punch nearly as often which gave Fulton a more conclusive victory.

The scores for Fulton were 117-111 and 116-112 twice, the same as my score.

The fight of the night was expected to be the junior welterweight ten-rounder between Isaac Cruz and Angel Fierro and that lived up to expectations as the two slugged each other for ten brutal rounds.

An absolute battle with Cruz winning on the scorecards 98-92, 97-93, and 96-94, the latter same as my card.

Cruz keeps his viability after losing his WBC championship to Jose Valenzuela but Cruz's aggressive attacking style isn't hurting junior welterweights as badly as lightweights and Cruz should consider dropping back to 135 pounds if he can make the weight.

Fierro made himself some fans with his effort and I'm sure earned himself future paydays.

In the opener, middleweight Jesus Ramos knocked out former junior middleweight champion Jeison Rosario in the eighth round after winning all seven of the previous rounds, dropping Rosario in the seventh.

Rosario has never been known for a stern chin but Ramos's win was still impressive.

Saturday afternoon from London, Peacock was expected to stream promising junior welterweight Adam Azim's latest challenge against former IBF junior lightweight champion Sergey Lipinets but the card never appeared on the streaming service for whatever reason.

Azim was deducted two points for low blows in the fight but controlled Lipinets before stopping him in round nine.

I've only seen highlights at this time.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 13 Pts(5)

TRS: 13 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 6 Pts (4)

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: Ennis erases Lipinets, Smith shades Vlasov

 The Saturday boxing evening shifted to ESPN and Showtime and while the results ended in wins for the expected "Chalk", but in only one case did the winner walk out of the ring with the kudos that were expected as well.

Let's start with the three-fight Showtime card from Uncasville, Connecticut, and their main event with the highly touted Jaron "Boots" Ennis taking his next step forward against former IBF junior welterweight champion Sergey Lipinets.

Much as in last week's fight between Jamel Herring and Carl Frampton, the size difference between these two was glaring and Ennis dominated the once-beaten Lipinets in every round, including a 10-8 round after a fourth-round knockdown.

With Ennis leading 50-44 going to the sixth, there wouldn't be a seventh as Ennis finished with a right hook followed by a left hand to send Lipinets crashing to the floor with the fight ended without a count.

Al Bernstein made a great point on the telecast when he stated that Ennis is unusual for a fighter that can switch easily from lefty to righthander in that he can do so without losing power in either hand.

Ennis is bad news already for anyone in the division, not named Spence or Crawford, and his talents might be just as even against them although he could need a little seasoning against a fighter better than Lipinets against a Shawn Porter or Keith Thurman before a fight with the champions.

Ennis may not receive that title shot for a while as he is the definition of high risk-low reward for Spence, Crawford, or newly crowned WBA champion Yordenis Ugas and may have to be the mandatory challenger, but unless one of the inept "Four Donkeys" of boxing decides to radically elevate Ennis after his win over Lipinets, Ennis may have to fight an eliminator or not.

Ennis is currently ranked 7th by the WBO, 9th in the IBF (although this could be his biggest leap as Lipinets was rated 3rd there), 12th by the WBC, and unranked by the putrid WBA, who finds a way to rate fighters such as Gabriel Maestre, Alberto Palmetta, Abel Ramos, Cody Crowley, and Conor Benn without Ennis.

Truly awful...

The undercard pitting two of those WBA welterweights rated ahead of Ennis in an eliminator between Eimantas Stanionis and Thomas Dulorme.

Dulorme is a solid, but not quite top ten 147 pounder and he was thought to give the undefeated Stanionis his toughest fight as a pro and he did so in a close unanimous decision victory,

Stanionis won the final four rounds on my card to win 115-113 over Dulorme, who likely earned himself another paycheck against an undefeated prospect/contender with a strong effort.

I don't think Stanionis has a prayer against Jaron Ennis, but he looks like an eventual top ten welterweight.

The opener was expected to be a dull battle and instead was a terrific fight as Jerwin Ancajas retained his IBF junior bantamweight championship with a unanimous decision over Jonathan Rodriguez.

Lots of action in this one and Ancajas scoring an eighth-round knockdown that won him the fight on my card 114-113, although it seemed that many were unhappy with the official scores that saw Ancajas win by wider margins of three, five, and seven points.

If you really stretch things, you may see Ancajas by three points but the five and seven are ridiculous cards.

Ancajas kept his title for the ninth time and I'd like to see him in a unification fight against WBO champion Kazuto Ioka, which would create a natural opponent for the survivor of the triangle between Juan Francisco Estrada, Roman Gonzalez, and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, and a great attempt for the unknown Rodriguez, who I would like to see again in a big fight.

Over on ESPN, heavily favored Joe Smith rallied to win the final two rounds and slide by Maxim Vlasov by a majority decision in Tulsa Oklahoma to grab the vacant WBO light heavyweight title.

The scorecards were even at 114-114 and the two cards for Smith were 115-113 and 115-112.

The latter score didn't cost Vlasov the fight, but Smith hit Vlasov in the back of the head in the eleventh round and the fight was shortly delayed so Vlasov could recover, but the 115-112 judge still scored the round 10-8 stating that he thought it was a knockdown.

That's great and all, but your ruling isn't suppose to overrule the referee's decision- Be grateful that point didn't cost Vlasov all that much.

Vlasov used an awkward volume punching style that puzzled Smith for most of the fight and I thought Vlasov did enough to pull the upset 115-113 on my scorecard.

But per usual, the underdog on the road rarely gets the close call and Vlasov certainly didn't help his cause by giving Smith the final two rounds which were enough to give Smith the win.

Smith will likely unify his newly won title with those of WBC and IBF champion Artur Beterbiev in what should be a great fight between two straight ahead bombers with the best punching power in the division.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica seven-five on the weekend (including the previously written Conor Benn win) with the win by Jerwin Ancajas allowing for the two-point difference.

I lead the boxing challenge 45-41.

Boxing Challenge: Lipinets, Clayton battle to Majority Draw

   Saturday night's PBC card from Showtime didn't appear to be one of their more glamorous offerings from the premium cable network and while it lacked huge names and anything resembling what DAZN televised on Friday night, they still delivered a decent night from their Covid-19 home of Uncasville, Connecticut.

In the main event, welterweights Sergey Lipinets and late replacement Custio Clayton battled to a majority decision draw for an interim IBF belt that was planned so long ago that at that time, the organization didn't know the status of their champion Errol Spence and Spence will fight in early December against Danny Garcia.

Hopefully, the majority draw and Spence's return will take this belt out of play because one of the few things that the IBF ( and the WBO for the most part) does well is that they usually stay out of the multiple titles in the same division garbage that the WBA and WBC do so often with their "titles".

This one wasn't filled with action, but there was enough to follow that it wasn't a boring fight either and Clayton credit as he stepped up well as a late replacement and in his first test after an amateur career that saw him fight at the Olympic level.

I had Clayton a 115-113 winner as did one of the judges, but have no problems with the majority draw in such a close fight.

The two undercard bouts featured prospects from the Floyd Mayweather camp with the evening ending in a mixed bag for the Money Team.

Junior lightweight Xavier Martinez survived an eighth round that saw veteran Claudio Marrero knock him down twice to win a unanimous decision.

I haven't watched this fight yet in its entirety (was on the way to the road office), but reading the reports of others Martinez deserved the close nod despite the knockdowns from Marrero, who continues to be a stern test as a crossroads fighters in the 126 and now 130 pound divisions.

I did see the first fight with junior welterweight Subriel Matias rebounding from his first pro loss with a stoppage of a surprisingly meek Malik Hawkins when the doctor ended the fight one second into the seventh round.

Matias is the young bomber that knocked out Maxim Dadashev and Dadashev passed away from his injuries shortly after the fight.

Matias lost his next fight after that and I wondered if Matias may have been scarred by the tragedy entering this match with Hawkins, but Matias walked through Hawkins' punches, ignored his jab and broke Hawkins down with a stoppage seeming to be inevitable.

For Matias, the win returns him to fighter to watch status and for Hawkins, this uncompetitive loss combined with his last fight with Darwin Price, where he was on his way to a loss before a knee injury to Price gave Hawkins the duke, marks him as more suspect than prospect. 

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica scored three points to my two to cut my lead further at 137-129.

Boxing Challenge:Lipinets retires Peterson

In what will definitely receive consideration for fight of the year when those decisions are made, Sergey Lipinets defeated Lamont Peterson by a tenth round TKO when Peterson's trainer Barry Hunter threw in the towel after Peterson was knocked down after staggering across the ring from Lipinets punches.

Lipinets had hurt Peterson several times in the second half of the fight, especially in the sixth round and after that series of punches, the fight began to swing toward Lipinets after being controlled by Peterson to that point, albeit very competitively.
Leading up to the ending, I had Lipinets slightly ahead 86-85 (5-4 in rounds) and with plenty of back and forth exchanges, both fighters had their moments, but Peterson simply began to run out of steam with the questions being how much Peterson had left to hold Lipinets off, could he make it to the finish line and if so, how many of those close early rounds were scored for the hometown fighter on the official cards?

After the grinding battle, a poignant moment occurred as first, Peterson trainer Barry Hunter spoke to the crowd and then handed the house microphone to Peterson, who then thanked the crowd and his local fans as he announced his retirement.
The time is right for Peterson, who won the WBA and IBF titles at junior welterweight and a minor title at welterweight and always fought with heart, but he's lost his last two fights by knockout and has reached a point in his career that he may be headed closer to gatekeeper status than that of a contender.
Instead of fighting on in a quest that looks unlikely and continuing to accumulate punches, Peterson is making the right decision and moving away from the ring.
Let's hope he keeps that decision intact.
As for Lipinets, he's not a bomber, but he punches well enough that if you choose to maul with him, you are taking the chance that he grinds you up.
I'm still not sure he's strong enough to get away with that against a natural welterweight, which Peterson was not, but he'll be entertaining in his future attempts.

Lamont's brother Anthony drew with Argenis Mendez in the other challenge bout.
Other watchers seemed to think this was a more exciting fight than I did, but it was decent enough.
The Fox crew called for a rematch, but it was nothing I have to see again.
I scored Peterson a 96-94 winner, but I wouldn't scream that a draw was ridiculous enough to bring out the Hamburglar.

In the challenge, neither Ramon Malpica or I scored any points with both picking a Peterson exacta.
Hopefully, I'll have time to return later with more from the weekend.

Boxing Challenge: Alvarez storms through the Krusher

The boxing challenge rumbled into the Northeast on Saturday with a five-bout slate split between Atlantic City and the renovated Nassau Coliseum in Long Island and at the end of the evening, there was one fighter that clearly was the star of the weekend- and he did it without winning a round.

In an upset that some thought could happen, but that few thought would occur in this fashion- Eleider Alvarez scored three knockdowns on Sergey Kovalev out of nowhere in the seventh round and stripped Kovalev of not only his WBO light heavyweight title but also his fearsome demeanor and possibly even his career.
I thought Kovalev had won every round and seemed to be on his way to a lopsided win over the long-time WBC number one contender that champion Adonis Stevenson had spent almost three years avoiding.
One right hand changed all of that and three knockdowns later, the immediate future of the 175-pound division was gone as a Kovalev-Dmitry Bivol unification bout in December was gone.
There is a rematch clause and Kovalev winning all the rounds gives "Krusher" backers hope for a second battle, but this is a huge shot for the light heavyweight division in the short-term.
Alvarez, this KO aside, is not a big puncher and being promoted by Canada's Yvon Michel, who has managed his man Adonis Stevenson away from challengers for years, makes things even more confusing for his future.
As for Kovalev, he did answer some questions about his heart from the Andre Ward fight, as he rose from each knockdown and tried gallantly to fire back and survive, but he still was knocked out by a contender that had never knocked a top ten contender at 175 ( worn-out former super middleweight champion Lucien Bute doesn't count) out and isn't a draw even in his adopted country.

The co-feature from HBO saw Dmitry Bivol retain his WBA title via a unanimous decision over Issac Chilemba.
I haven't been able to watch this fight yet, so no scoring from my card.
Bivol has made some noise about fighting Alvarez in the same December unification bout planned for Kovalev, but after what has been reported to be a workmanlike, but nothing special effort for Bivol.

PBC wasted another national television platform on Fox with three less than thrilling fights.
In the main event of faded former welterweight champions, Andre Berto won a surprising split decision over Devon Alexander at the renovated (Praise the Lord for that fixup project from the home of Circulatory Socks) Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.
Alexander gave away some rounds late, but scored the fight's only knockdown in round three and won going away on my card 116-111.
Berto now gives us the gift of yet another undeserved PBC title shot in which the net result is a one-sided beatdown and waste of the viewers time.
Alexander has to feel snake bitten as for the second fight in a row (This loss and a draw with Victor Ortiz), the judges took away a deserved decision victory.

Former WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin dominated super middleweight J'Leon Love and won a clear unanimous decision as the co-feature.
It wasn't a fun fight to watch as Quillin walked Love down, as Love did little other than bounce around the ring and generated little offense.
Quillin might be an interesting name to see as an opponent for WBC champ David Benavidez or IBF kingpin Jose Uzcategui on a future PBC card, especially Uzcategui, who may be looking for an opponent with the injury to mandatory Caleb Plant pushing that fight back until late 2018 or early 2019.
I had Quillin winning 99-91.

The first fight saw Sergey Lipinets struggle to a majority decision win in his welterweight bow against trialhorse Erick Bone.
I agreed with one judge at 95-95, but the remaining judges had their cards filled out before the fight with ridiculous cards of 99-91 and 98-92, which were insulting to the effort of Bone.
Lipinets might be better served to stay at junior welter, where he made a strong effort in his loss to Mikey Garcia earlier this year.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica gained two points on me in the boxing challenge as he scored five points to my three.
Ramon added two points each from the Quillin and Bivol wins and one from the victory by Lipinets.
I scored one point for each of the above victories.
The challenge now stands at 120-97.

Boxing Challenge:Valdez outslugs Quigg

In yet another network counterprogramming
adventure-ESPN faced off with Showtime with titles on the line in the main event on both networks.

ESPN's card featured Oscar Valdez defending his WBO featherweight title against himself as Scott Quigg weighed in three pounds overweight and could not win the title.
Valdez could have lost it though with a defeat that would cause his title to become vacant, but in a fight that was fun to watch, but felt like an anti-climax, Valdez won a unanimous decision to retain his title.
Give both fighters plenty of credit (in the ring), both fought gallantly through injuries as Quigg's nose was broken giving him a look of an NBA player wearing a mask to protect a broken nose and Valdez fought half the bout with a broken jaw that forced his corner to keep his mouthpiece in to avoid the pain of taking the gumshield in and out.
I scored Valdez a 116-113 winner (7-4-1 in rounds), which was a little closer than the scorecards.
The fight was action-filled, but the actions of Quigg (who I've always liked) and his camp in first missing weight that badly and then hamstringing Valdez/Top Rank/ESPN on terms to even allow the fight to happen at all, were less than honorable.
Quigg did fight through a stress fracture in his foot and to be fair that could have hurt his chances to make the weight, but Quigg was clearly the larger man in the bout.
Oscar Valdez rose a great deal in my eyes with this win as he overcame a size difference, dealt with outside the ring drama and dealt with a broken jaw and still managed to win the fight against a strong opponent.
It was a great fight that deserves a rematch, but I'm doubtful that we'll see it unless Valdez has no other options (which might be the case with the three other featherweight champs Gary Russell, Leo Santa Cruz and Lee Selby all being with PBC).

The co-feature saw Erick DeLeon battle to a majority draw with Andy Vences in a fight with two undefeated prospects.
I scored it 95-95, so I was more than fine with the decision.
Vences seemed a bit quicker, DeLeon threw the harder shots, a draw was good enough for me...

Meanwhile, in San Antonio, Mikey Garcia won his fourth divisional title via a unanimous decision over Sergey Lipinets to lift the IBF junior welterweight title in Texas.
Garcia wasn't as effective at the higher weight despite putting Lipinets on the floor in the seventh round and it was more workmanlike than spectacular in the victory.
I scored Garcia a 118-109 winner (10-2 with a knockdown), but in my opinion, Garcia would be better suited to return to 135, where not only is he more effective, but he has bigger fights there against Vasyl Lomachenko, Jorge Linares (rumors are flying that Lomachenko-Linares in May is close to getting signed!) or Robert Easter than at 140 where you are just beginning to see the titles filled from Terence Crawford's move up to 147.
There seem to be some fighters at junior welterweight that might develop into stars (Jose Ramirez and Regis Prograis seem to have the best chance of doing that or Amir Imam should he upset Ramirez next weekend), but they sure aren't there yet and other than collecting belts that he won't defend, I don't seem any real advantage to hanging around junior welterweight for Garcia, who has built his career on beating good fighters with flaws and has yet to face someone that might have an even chance of defeating him.

In Showtime's other bout, one of the worst decision's of 2017 was remedied as Kiryl Relikh shutout (on my card) Rances Barthelemy to win the vacant WBA junior welterweight title.
The two fought last year in a title eliminator that saw a decision so bad that the Hamburglar was out as Barthelemy took an awful decision.
The judges this time got it right in the mandated rematch as Rellikh dominated the fight against Barthelemy.
I'm not sure Relikh is a star in the making, but his walk forward style could make some fun fights at 140.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored four points on Saturday.
I received two points each from Mikey Garcia and Oscar Valdez, while Ramon earned two from Valdez and one each from Garcia and Kiryl Relikh.
I lead the challenge 41-33.

Boxing Challenge:The Rest of the Weekend

I only wanted to cover the Wilder-Stiverne fight as I had some things to write about the heavyweight division, so now it's time to catch up on the rest of the boxing weekend.

Dmitry Bivol continues to show promise as the next boss at light heavyweight with a one round destruction of Trent Broadhurst to retain his WBA title.
Bivol didn't figure to be tested by Broadhurst and he wasn't, but Bivol figures to have a sterner bout in his next defense against Sullivan Barrera.

Also on the Bivol card in Monte Carlo:
Just as the Jamie McDonnell-Librado Solis rematch started to heat up, a clash of heads caused the fight to stopped in the third with a massive cut over McDonnell's eye.
Not sure if there will be a third fight, but there was nothing resolved after the controversial decision won by McDonnell in their bout.

Scott Quigg won every round on my card before the referee stepped in round six in a WBA eliminator over Oleg Yefimovich,
Quigg will be the mandatory contender to the winner of next year's Leo Santa Cruz-Abner Mares fight.

Undefeated heavyweight Agit Kabayel won a majority decision over veteran fringe contender Dereck Chisora.
I had Kabayel a 117-111 winner, but the official cards were far closer at 114-114 on one card and 115-113 on the other two for Kabayel.
Chisora might have lost a lucrative shot at Dillion Whyte rematch with the loss, while Kabayel might be able to move to the next level of the Euro contenders...

On the undercard of Wilder-Stiverne.
Shawn Porter won a unanimous decision over Adrian Granados with all three judges agreeing with my card of 117-111.
Granados was game in defeat, but being a natural 140 pounder rising in weight for the fight, he was just too small to handle the larger Porter, who retained his top contender status.

Sergey Lipinets won a more difficult than expected unanimous decision over Akihiro Kondo to win the vacant IBF junior welterweight title.
Kondo was better than advertised, but Lipinets earned a 115-113 nod on my card.
Lipinets may face Adrien Broner next in the latest of "last chances" for Broner.

In a WBC heavyweight eliminator, Dominic Breazeale stopped Eric Molina in the eighth round.
Originally, this was scheduled to determine the number one contender for Deontay Wilder, but this might be an eliminator to fight for the top spot in their next fight after lots of criticism from the boxing media.
Breazeale has had out of the ring issues with Wilder and might get the shot in Wilder's next optional defense.
This fight was not televised, so no scoring on this.

In the boxing challenge, I scored ten points to Ramon Malpica's nine on the weekend.
The difference was Agit Kabayel's win over Dereck Chisora as I picked Kabayel for a point while Ramon tabbed Chisora as the winner.
My ten came from two points from wins from Porter, Breazeale, and Bivol with one pointers from Lipinets, Quigg, Wilder, and Kabayel.

Ramon's nine came from two pointers from Breazeale, Bivol, and Lipinets with one pointers from Wilder, Quigg and Porter.
The challenge is at 169-151