Boxing Challenge: Teraji regains title

   A fairly non-descript boxing weekend started in Kyoto, Japan as Kenshiro Teraji avenged his only career loss and regained his WBC light flyweight title with a vicious one punch knockout of Masamichi Yabuki in the third round.

Teraji had lost his title via tenth round knockout to Yabuki last year in a surprising upset, which Teraji blamed on not having fully recovered of Covid-19 which caused the first fight's postponement before it took place.

Turned out that may have been the case as Teraji stormed Yabuki from the start, pounding Yabuki with a power jab and forcing the champion to back up from the opening bell.

Teraji ended the fight with one right hand that dropped Yabuki to his knees and only with great effort and to my surprise, Yabuki beat the count but the referee correctly stopped the bout.

For Teraji, he could be looking for unification in the division but a bigger fight could be at flyweight where he could face countryman and WBO 112 pound champion Junto Nakatani.

The fledgling promotional company Probellum's latest card from Dubai was streaming on the FUBO sports network (check out your Roku,Amazon Fire, etc to find this channel) with two fights of world caliber interest.

In the main event, Sunny Edwards retained his IBF flyweight title with a unanimous decision over mandatory challenger Muhammad Waseem.

Edwards did just enough in a foul-filled affair to hold off Waseem, who was deducted points twice in the fight, in a fight that Edwards controlled when he boxed from the outside but fought with Waseem enough to allow the challenger to win a few rounds.

I had Edwards a 116-110 winner (8-4 in rounds minus the two lost points) which was the same as one scorecard with the other two cards seeing Edwards a 115-111 winner.

After the fight, Edwards called out WBC champion Julio Cesar Martinez in a unification fight that would have a backstory with Martinez battering Edwards's brother Charlie for Charlie's then-WBC flyweight title but was ruled a no-contest when Martinez hit Charlie after knocking him down.

After the WBC ruled an immediate rematch was in order, Charlie Edwards vacated the title with Martinez winning the vacant title.

I'm not sure this fight ever takes place not due to the different promoters (Martinez is with Matchroom) but Martinez missed weight badly in his junior bantamweight loss to Roman Gonzalez, so I'm not feeling positive about Martinez's ability to make the flyweight limit.

In the co-feature, former WBA junior welterweight champion Regis Prograis continued his comeback with a sixth round TKO over Tyrone McKenna when McKenna's cuts around his eyes were judged to be too bad for him to continue.

Prograis knocked McKenna down in the second with a left hand and dominated McKenna throughout as most expected in Prograis third fight since his close loss to Josh Taylor in 2019.

Prograis should be in the mix of one of the four titles that are expected to vacated soon by Taylor.

The evening saw cards from DAZN and ESPN with interesting main events.

DAZN and Golden Boy's top of the card bout was the best action fight of the day as welterweights Alexis Rocha and Blair Cobbs slugged it out for nine rounds before Rocha finished Cobbs off for a ninth round victory.

I had Rocha slightly ahead after seven before Rocha dropped Cobbs with an uppercut in round eight with Cobbs barely surviving the round.

Cobbs did show courage in coming out of his corner for the ninth bu Rocha quickly leaped on him with a volley of punches to grab the win in the first minute of the round.

It was an excellent action fight but the stronger and better technically Rocha wore down the flashier and faster Cobbs and looked very good in the win.

I had Rocha ahead after eight rounds 77-74 (5-3 with a knockdown) and I'm hoping to see Rocha again against at least an opponent of Cobbs level, if not someone better.

ESPN+ wasn't nearly as lucky in their main event as undefeated super middleweight Edgar Berlanga won a unanimous decision over Canada's Steve Rolls in a dull ten rounder.

Berlanga went the distance for the third fight in a row after fourteen first-round knockouts to start his career and didn't dazzle anyone in this fight although I thought he won the first five rounds mainly because Rolls did even less than Berlanga did.

Once Rolls started rolling in the sixth (sorry, had to do it)  and threw a few punches, Rolls won three rounds in a row and seemed to be ready to push Berlanga to the edge.

And as quickly as it started, it ended as Berlanga turned the fight back around and won the final two rounds.

My 97-93 Berlanga score equaled two of the judges with the other scoring 96-94 in a fight that gave Berlanga a victory but added another log to a fire that wonders just how good Berlanga really is.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 39 Pts (6)

Vince Samano 38 Pts (6)

Ramon Malpica: 35 Pts (7)

Boxing Challenge:Golovkin Rolls,Valdez cruises

The main events on the competing networks Saturday night ended as expected, but who truly knows what the future brings for either of the two victors.

DAZN's top pairing saw the return of Gennady Golovkin for the first time since his controversial majority decision loss to Canelo Alvarez that the majority of boxing observers feel that he won, yet many wondered what Golovkin has left at 37 years of age after two tough fights against Alvarez.

We received a few answers to a few questions, but not the main answers, which are- Will Oscar De La Hoya and Canelo Alvarez agree to a third fight and will it be next in the fall and just what Golovkin will have in the tank for that bout?
Golovkin proved that he can still punch and that he will run over anyone below the top level as he showed with his fourth-round knockout of Canadian Steve Rolls at Madison Square Garden.
Rolls fought well and even won the second round on my card, but you felt the similarities to past Golovkin wins- Rolls was being walked down and the boom was coming, the question was how would Rolls respond?
The response was not great as one Golovkin left hook crashed home in the fourth round and sent Rolls face down to the canvas and after an attempt to rise ended in failure, it was time to look forward.
GGG predictably called for Canelo, Oscar De La Hoya predictably trolled with a shot at the quality of Rolls (Like Rocky Fielding was Joe Calzaghe in Canelo's return) and told GGG to win a belt (only the WBO belt of Demetrius Andrade isn't with Canelo) and he'd "consider" the third fight.
It may not be up to Team Canelo as DAZN's President John Skipper reportedly wants that fight next and he isn't paying Canelo for Rocky Fielding's or Golovkin for Steve Rolls'.
I'd bet on what Skipper wants he will get and despite the public posturing of arguably the biggest troll in boxing, the guy that writes the checks is likely to get what he wants and after Anthony Joshua's loss to Andy Ruiz on his platform, Skipper may not want to gamble on waiting until the spring for both guys to win (and not get beat up) their next fight.

ESPN and Top Rank countered with Oscar Valdez defending his WBO featherweight strap with a unanimous decision over gutsy but outmatched Jason Sanchez in Reno Nevada.
Valdez scored a fifth-round knockdown and dominated from thereafter, although Sanchez would occasionally battle back with a right hand or two, the challenger, who was taking a large rise in competition, simply couldn't compete with the champion, who almost finished Sanchez off in the final round and just missed scoring the stoppage.
I scored Valdez a 118-109 winner and the talk after the fight wasn't a unification fight with the winner of IBF champion Josh Warrington against mandatory contender Kid Galahad later this month or recently signed by Top Rank, former champion Carl Frampton.
Instead, the discussion was of a move up to junior lightweight and WBC junior lightweight champion Miguel Berchelt.
I'd think that a match against the new WBO champion at 130 pounds and fellow Top Rank promotee Jamel Herring would be a better bet for success, but I'd be fine with Berchelt-Valdez.
I'd prefer Valdez-Warrington or Valdez-Frampton to that, but I could live with Berchelt-Valdez.
I'd favor Berchelt in that one, but Valdez certainly has a solid chance of victory.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica four points to three on the strength of calling the round of Gennady Golovkin's knockout.
I moved my lead to 141-127.