Boxing Challenge: Yafai stops Edwards

      The only fight on the world title scene last weekend was expected to be a nip-and-tuck affair with both fighters having their fair share of support for a minor flyweight title.

Considering the combatants were a former champion with only one loss and an unbeaten Olympic gold medalist, it was reasonable to pick either fighter to win.

This means, of course, that the fight was a lopsided beatdown and would see one of the more memorable scenes from a fight that didn't happen during the action.

Gal Yafai's six-round battering of former IBF flyweight champion Sunny Edwards was surprising as the former Gold Medal winner swarmed over Edwards from the start and never allowed him to breathe.

The surprising part was how passive Edwards was in defeat and his remarkable admission between rounds two and three that he really didn't want to be in the ring.

That's almost unheard of to hear from a world class fighter and for Edwards, who announced his retirement after the fight, it may have explained how he fought so limply after battling bravely in his only career defeat to Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez just two fights before.

As for Yafai, he dominated a former world champion, picked up a minor title, and is in a position to battle Japanese star Kenshiro Teraji for Teraji's WBC flyweight title next year in Japan which is likely to be an exciting pairing.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 168 Pts (0)

TRS: 168 Pts (0)

Vince Samano: 108 Pts (1)

Boxing Challenge: Bam cuts down Estrada!

      Saturday's WBC junior bantamweight title event from Phoenix was considered a passing of the torch from aging champion Juan Francisco Estrada to rising star Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez.

If that was the case, consider the torch transferred as Rodriguez stamped himself as a pound-for-pound star with a seventh-round knockout that left Estrada writhing in pain in an exciting, yet somewhat one-sided fight.

The first two rounds were evenly fought with both fighters landing heavy artillery but Rodriguez hurt Estrada in the third and fifth and sent him to the floor in the fourth round.

Rodriguez seemed to be ready for the kill but it was Estrada scoring a sixth-round knockdown with a counterpunch and I thought Estrada was winning the seventh round when out of nowhere, Bam slammed a left hook to the liver that made Estrada quiver on the mat for the fight-ending KO.

The talk after the fight was the scorecards as one card had Rodriguez ahead 58-54, another even and the third with Estrada up by one point.

If you gave Estrada the first two rounds (questionable but plausible) I could see an even fight after six with Estrada getting rounds one and two, Rodriguez three and five, Rodriguez a 10-8 round for the fourth, and Estrada a 10-8 round for the sixth.

I split the first two rounds, so my card was 57-55 for Rodriguez.

I've heard this was a two-fight deal, so there could be a rematch, which would be fine by me but I don't see the result changing but Rodriguez has a co-manager (Teiiken) based in Japan, and the WBA and IBF titles in the division will be unified a week from Monday as Kazuto Ioka (WBA) and Fernando Martinez (IBF) face-off.

Bam against the winner or WBO champion Kosei Tanaka could be easy fights to make and should he face them in Japan, the money would be even larger.

The exposure in Japan would help Rodriguez should he decide to build towards a fight that was being mentioned as an eventual dream fight against the undisputed world junior featherweight champion Naoya "The Monster" Inoue.

I haven't watched the co-feature with Sunny Edwards winning by a unanimous decision over Adrien Curiel after nine rounds when a clash of heads opened up a long vertical gash on the face of Edwards.

Edwards's victory in a flyweight eliminator should result in the former champion receiving a chance to win another title soon.

In Miami, WBO junior welterweight king Teofimo Lopez dominated but did not dazzle in winning a unanimous decision over Canadian Steve Claggett.

Claggett's face-first style was expected to be the antidote for a lackluster effort against boxer Jamaine Ortiz but while Lopez dominated, he never hurt Claggett and failed for the fourth time in as many fights to stop a fighter at junior welterweight.

The scores for Lopez were 120-108 X 2 and 119-109, I scored the fight 120-108.

Here are my thoughts- Teofimo Lopez is a little overrated or at least his power is a bit overrated.

And while Lopez is still an excellent fighter with a top-notch victory over Vasyl Lomachenko, his win over Josh Taylor isn't as impressive as thought immediately after his victory as Taylor lost to Jack Catterall after losing to Lopez and most think he lost to Catterall before his loss to Lopez.

There is a legitimate argument to be made that Josh Taylor was somewhat overrated too by his WBSS victories as his biggest wins (Regis Prograis and Jose Ramirez) haven't aged well.

Teofimo Lopez is clearly an excellent fighter who might be lacking the special something at 140 pounds, with two fights that he was fortunate to get the duke (Sandor Martin and Jamaine Ortiz), the Taylor win, and this one over Claggett at the weight.

It may be that Lopez needs big challenges to force the best out of himself and I wouldn't count him out against anyone but the questions are beginning to accumulate for the second time in his career, can he battle them successfully again?

In the co-feature former WBO featherweight champion Robeisy Ramirez earned his rematch with Rafael Espinoza for that title with a seventh-round knockout over overmatched Brandon Benitez.

Ramirez ended the fight with a crunching left uppercut after winning every round against the battered Benitez.

The Espinoza-Ramirez fall rematch is anticipated after their awesome first battle.

Friday in Washington D.C., Lamont Roach dominated Feargal McCrory on his way to an eighth-round knockout to retain his WBA junior lightweight.

Roach isn't known as a puncher but he dropped McCrory three times (twice in round four) and when Roach stepped up the pace in the eighth, McCrory's corner ended the evening for their man.

Boxing Challenge 

Ramon Malpica: 97 Pts (6)

TRS:84 Pts (8)
Vince Samano: 49 Pts (1)

Boxing Challenge: Bam unifies, Showtime bids farewell

      The boxing weekend's biggest fight came from Matchroom/DAZN from Glendale, Arizona with Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez taking the IBF flyweight title from Sunny Edwards to add it to the WBO title that Rodriguez owned entering the fight.

Edwards made the fight more entertaining than was expected before the fight as he was willing to exchange shots with the stronger puncher but that was to the detriment of the Englishman, who is known for his boxing skills and not his punching power.

I thought Edwards held his own early and had the fight even after four rounds but Sunny's left eye had been compromised in the second round and would only get worse as the fight progressed.

Edwards announced after the fight that he had suffered an orbital fracture and considering the eye damage, Edwards deserves kudos for hanging in there against the power punches of Rodriguez.

Round six saw both men land well with Edwards surprising with his eagerness to swap in the middle of the ring but even with Edwards's success, Rodriguez still won the round and controlled the seventh and eighth.

Rodriguez battered Edwards in the ninth and dropped him near the ropes as the round neared its end.

Edwards got up and reached his corner but his team wisely ended the fight.

I had Rodriguez ahead at the time of the stoppage 87-84.

Rodriguez was mentioned for a big fight with junior bantamweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada, which could be an excellent action fight as well as a possible changing of the guard with the veteran Estrada attempting to make a final stand against the young tiger, Rodriguez.

In the co-feature, former WBA and IBF junior featherweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev knocked out Kevin Gonzalez in the eighth round to win a title eliminator that will eventually allow Akhmadaliev to fight for his old WBA title after Naoya Inoue vacates his 122-pound belts after his likely win next week over Marlon Tapales.

Gonzalez fought well early but Akhmadaliev broke down Gonzalez, dropped him twice in round six before knocking him down and finishing him off in the eighth.

Had Akhmadaliev fought like this against Marlon Tapales earlier this year, it would be Akhmadaliev that would be unifying titles with Naoya Inoye next week and in my opinion, would be a far more interesting challenge to Inoue than Tapales will be.

It was goodbye to Showtime on Saturday from Minneapolis with a three-fight card with a mismatch in the main event as David Morrell retained his minor title with a second-round drilling of Sena Agbeko in a super middleweight pairing.

Morrell was expected to dispatch Agebeko with ease and he did so, so there's not much else to say other than Morrell looks like the real deal but his competition has been less demanding than Morrell's talent deserves.

The problem is that Morrell looks to be one of the best three super middleweights in the world and in that world, the champion, Canelo Alvarez, doesn't seem thrilled with fighting the second-best, David Benavidez, and Benavidez doesn't seem intrigued with fighting Morrell.

Holding the minor WBA title will eventually put Morrell in a spot to challenge for a title, against Alvarez or a vacant belt but the big fights may elude Morrell for a while.

The super middleweight division has some talented young fighters but they are spread out among several promoters.

Christian Mbilli and Erik Bazinyan are based with Montreal's Eye of the Tiger, who works with Top Rank, Diego Pacheco, and Edgar Berlanga are with Matchroom, and Jaime Munguia is promoted by Golden Boy, so few if any have an incentive to try Morrell on for size.

I'd say the next step for Morrell could be Caleb Plant or Jermall Charlo, should Charlo not fight David Benavidez.

Plant may be the more likely choice, having suffered knockout losses to Alvarez and Benavidez but there is a grudge between Charlo and Plant outside the ring that may make a fight between them a better sale to fans.

In the co-feature, Jose Valenzuela didn't allow the judges to be involved in his rematch with Chris Colbert as Valenzuela knocked Colbert down in round one, and battered him throughout before a one-punch knockout ended the fight in the sixth round.

Colbert tried hard and landed an occasional counter right but he was outgunned by the harder-punching Valenzuela and took a lot of punishment for the third fight in a row had the judges not given the first fight to Colbert, unjustly, Colbert would be on a three-fight losing streak.

Colbert doesn't punch hard enough to keep top fighters off him, and while he is a skilled boxer he's not skilled enough to overcome that liability.

Valenzuela called for Gervonta Davis after the fight and considering the dearth of talent for PBC at lightweight other than Isaac Cruz, Valenzuela could get his chance in 2024, assuming Davis needs an opponent.

The opener was a blast from the past as two welterweight veterans Robert Guerrero battled Andre Berto in a rematch of their spirited 2012 match,

Guerrero won the first fight by unanimous decision and he would repeat the win in the same manner.

Berto was quicker, Guerrero stronger, and Guerrero would win the inside battles to win a reasonably entertaining unanimous decision by scores of 99-91 and 98-92 (x2).

I had the fight a bit closer for Guerrero at 97-93.

It was the type of pairing that fighters of a certain age and quality can still be successful as I don't have much interest in seeing either of these two against a contender or even a solid prospect but matched properly, older boxers can still have a place in the sport.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 187 Pts (6)

Ramon Malpica: 169 Pts (6)

Vince Samano: 124 Pts (6) 

Boxing Challenge: Lopez upsets Taylor, announces "Retirement"

  Teofimo Lopez rehabilitated his image and his career with a wide unanimous decision triumph over Josh Taylor to lift the WBO junior welterweight title from Taylor as well as his status as the lineal champion that Taylor held as well as all four titles since defeating Jose Ramirez in May 2021.

The fight was evenly fought through five rounds and I had Taylor slightly ahead at 48-47 but that was as good as things would get for the Scotsman as Lopez snatched control of the match and I would give each of the next seven rounds to Lopez, who would surprisingly announce his retirement after the fight, which will likely last as long as a hiccup with Lopez's return to being mentioned in elite fights to be made in the sport.

Taylor was far too slow for Lopez in the second half of the fight as Lopez connected over and over with combinations that were punctuated with an occasional wiggle and added showmanship as Taylor struggled with each attempt to regain his composure.

Lopez's victory was closer than it should have been with one judge scoring the same as I did at 117-111 and the remaining two turning in cards that were far too tight at 115-113.

While Lopez looked sharper as the fight moved on and deservedly strides back onto the big stage, I still wonder how much this win was about Lopez's skills or the sudden deterioration of Taylor, who looked less than great for the second fight in a row, and I also wonder if Taylor will ever approach the level that saw him defeat Ivan Baranchyk (when Baranchyk was unbeaten), Regis Prograis, and Jose Ramirez before his controversial win over Jack Catterall.

I suppose it's possible that Taylor's decline is due to making weight at 140 and he could move to welterweight to help with that problem.

We'll find that out when Lopez and Taylor fight again but I might think that Taylor might be best served to be matched somewhat carefully and for Lopez?

Teofimo Lopez tends to respond to challenges and when he isn't being challenged, Lopez has shown a tendency to zone out both in and outside of the ring.

While I'm sure that his team and Top Rank would like a good but not great opponent for Lopez next time out, I might not do that considering Lopez's history.

If you can make a fight with Devin Haney, do so.

With their amateur history, a battle between the three-belt unified champion at lightweight/lineal junior welterweight champion and the fully unified lightweight king moving up would certainly have plenty of intrigue.

I don't see Lopez making a fight against any of the other champions at 140 pounds with WBC and IBF champions, Regis Prograis and Subriel Matias with Matchroom and WBA "boss" Rolando Romero signed to PBC.

Although maybe there would be a chance that Lopez, who claimed before the fight that he had fulfilled his obligation to promoter Top Rank after the Taylor fight, could perhaps find either of the Matchroom duo appealing should his version of his TR contract turn out to be correct. 

The most likely big-name opponent for Lopez could be former WBC/WBO champion Jose Ramirez, who fights with Top Rank, has appeared on ESPN many times, and should Lopez decide to fight Ramirez in his hometown of Fresno, would draw a big crowd and for doing so, some extra dollars.

Ramirez has only one loss and I'd think would be an excellent consolation prize in the event that Lopez-Haney can't be signed for later this year.

Ramirez hasn't always been anxious to sign fights that would be difficult, so should Ramirez not be available, Top Rank also has undefeated contender Arnold Barboza in their camp and Barboza is likely to rise to the top contender spot (Barboza is 2nd, Jose Ramirez is 3rd) in the WBO (the title Lopez actually possesses now), so Lopez could perhaps get ahead with a mandatory (Politics depending) with a Barboza battle.

The Haney fight would make the most sense and the most dollars, Lopez would be cashing in before any possible missteps could occur, and a victory would mean possible superstardom.

Earlier in the day from London, broadcast by DAZN/Matchroom, Sunny Edwards retained his IBF flyweight title over challenger Andres Campos.

Not much to say about this one, Campos attempted to be aggressive but was generally repelled and outboxed by Edwards in a fight that was typical of an Edwards fight.

Edwards called out WBO champion Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez after the fight for a unification bout and hopefully, that can happen before the end of the year.

Edwards won on all cards by a score of 117-111, which was the same as mine.

Boxing Challenge

TRS:95 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica: 87 Pts (2)
Vince Samano: 69 Pts (0)  

Boxing Challenge: Janibek, Edwards retain titles

 Only two bouts in the boxing challenge this weekend and next weekend will be even lighter as rival promoters kept cards on the November 19th date to not challenge the expected Errol Spence-Terence Crawford superfight that was unable to reach an agreement between the two camps.

Saturday night from Las Vegas, Top Rank, and ESPN+ offered the first championship defense of the so-called "Boogieman" Janibek Alimkhanuly's WBO middleweight title that he was promoted to after Demetrius Andrade vacated the championship to move to 168 pounds rather than face Alimkhanuly.

Alimkhanuly retained his title by unanimous decision over unheralded Briton Denzel Bentley but he looked far from a champion that anyone is avoiding in defeating Bentley, who had been knocked out in three rounds by the best fighter that he had faced in Felix Cash.

Alimkhanuly won handily (116-112 x 2 and 118-110, which seemed a bit harsh to Bentley) with my score of 116-112 giving Bentley a few of the middle rounds when he took advantage of Alimkhanuly's taking a few rounds off.

Bentley put up a good performance in a fight that he was brought in to make Alimkhanuly look spectacular but never was a serious threat to Alimkhanuly, who finished strongly and hurt Bentley in the final round.

Perhaps Alimkhanuly overlooked Bentley and took him lightly but after wins over former minor champions Hassem N'Dam and Rob Brant and a blowout win over another Brit in Danny Dignum. it was understandable to expect a better performance.

Alimkhanuly doesn't appear likely to have a unification fight in his future against WBA and IBF champion Gennady Golvokin (both are countrymen) or WBC titleholder Jermall Charlo (PBC) but Jaime Munguia (Golden Boy) can have the fight whenever he wishes.

However, Munguia's promoter has been reticent in Munguia accepting the opportunity against Andrade and I haven't seen signs that they are in any hurry for their man to fight anyone that will hold their hands up and fight back., which would eliminate Alimkhanuly as well.

One thing is certain, Alimhanuly's performance didn't scare anyone away- if there was anyone interested in fighting him to start with.

On Friday from Sheffield, England, Sunny Edwards held off the late-round comeback of former WBA and IBF light flyweight champion Felix Alvarado to win a close unanimous decision to retain his IBF flyweight title.

Edwards used his smooth boxing skills to frustrate the constantly in-motion Alvarado in winning most of the early and middle rounds to build a huge lead on the scorecards before he tired after the eighth round as the bodywork and aggression began to pay dividends for Alvarado as he swept through those rounds to hammer the tiring champion.

However, Alvarado's comeback wasn't enough to overcome the number of rounds that Edwards had earned earlier in the bout with Edwards winning by scores of 116-112 and 115-113 x 2 (same as my card).

Edwards had been calling for WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez in recent months but has changed his tune since Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez gave up his WBC junior bantamweight title to return to the flyweight division, where Rodriguez is preparing to face Cristian Gonzalez for the WBO 112 pound championship that was vacated by Junto Nakatani last month.

However, both Martinez and Rodriguez are promoted by Eddie Hearn and Matchroom, and Edwards along with his brother Charlie, a former flyweight king, have feuded with Hearn in the past.

Edwards is promoted by Probellum, which means that Edwards couldn't enter the United States for a fight due to the sanctions against Probellum's former benefactor Daniel Kinahan, and could make a difficult fight to sign even harder.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 188 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 162 Pts (4)

Vince Samano: 152 Pts (0)

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: Lomachenko dominates Commey

  I haven't been able to watch all of the fight cards from Saturday (there were five in total!), so I will be splitting the reviews into two parts.

On ESPN from Madison Square Garden, former three-division champion Vasyl Lomachenko tossed his hat into the Australian derby for the right to travel Down Under for the first shot at the recently crowned WBA.IBF, and WBO lightweight champion George Kambosos with a dominant unanimous decision over former IBF lightweight champion Richard Commey.

Lomachenko started and drove Commey into the ropes with a strong right hand late in the second round but gestured to Commey to come to the center of the ring rather than jump on the veteran.

In the seventh, Lomachenko scored the only knockdown of the fight with a left hook that almost ended the fight but after Commey beat the count Lomachencko spoke to Commey's corner and asked them to stop the fight.

Richard Commey might be the best-liked fighter in the game as Teofimo Lopez liked Commey so much that he attended Commey's return to the ring after Lopez's win over Commey and Lomachenko legitimately seemed concerned by Commey's condition in the seventh round.

Lomachenko didn't move into a full-blown slowdown after the seventh but he also didn't accelerate the pace in an effort to stop Commey either as the Ghanian gamely made to the final bell without much offense in the late rounds.

I scored Lomachenko an easy 118-109 winner (10-2 with a knockdown) which is in the ballpark of the official scores (119-108 x2 and 117-110) and after his second dominant win in a row after his loss to Teofimo Lopez, Lomachenko is ranked first by the WBC and WBO and has stated that he will travel to Australia to face George Kambosos if asked.

On DAZN, Matchroom placed the first name victim on the record of welterweight prospect Conor Benn as washed-up veteran Chris Algeri was taken out with one right hand near the end of the fourth round in Liverpool England.

Benn was dominating the fight before the knockout that ended the fight with Algeri out cold and without the referee even needing to count.

Algeri, who is still living off a dubious win over Ruslan Provodnikov almost eight years ago, was overmatched against Benn, and after a knockout like this one should return to retirement before he gets hurt.

As for Conor Benn, Matchroom is starting to be cornered a bit as Benn doesn't appear ready for the top ten level fighters but is too advanced for the journeymen and fringe contenders at this time.

On AXS, which is what used to be  HD-Net, the initial card from Richard Schaffer's Probellum debuted with a rough production start (early on no sound) with crude graphics and a less than stellar on-air group and that's before the problems with the in-ring product.

The day before the fight, WBO bantamweight champion John Riel Casimero pulled out of his mandatory title defense against Paul Butler with "Gastric Distress:,

Casimero claimed he went to the hospital and the WBO quickly stated that unless Casimero produced medical records, he would be stripped of the title.

Fortunately, 44-year-old former champion Joseph Agbeko who somehow is still ranked was on-site and ready to replace Casimero against Butler for the "Interim" title with the promise of being elevated to the full titleholder, should Casimero be stripped.

That lasted for a few hours before Butler pulled out of the fight refusing to face Agbeko.

In the Probellum main event, Sunny Edwards outboxed his mandatory challenger Jayson Mama to win a dominant unanimous decision to retain his IBF flyweight title.

Edwards scored a flash knockdown in the eighth round for the only knockdown and cruised to an easy win (119-108 on my card) over the confused Mama, who had no idea on how to deal with the slickness of Edwards.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me five to four on these fights, my lead is at 167-150.

Boxing Challenge: Edwards upsets Mthalane

 Great Britain's Sunny Edwards pulled a Friday night special in London, as Edwards surprised long-time IBF flyweight champion Mortui Mthalane of South Africa in winning a unanimous decision to take his title.

Edwards, the brother of former WBC flyweight champion Charlie Edwards,  won the early rounds with a classic boxing style, didn't allow the veteran champion to get into a rhythm, and built a lead large enough to easily offset a mild late-round rally by Mthalane.

Mthalane looked every bit his age for most of this fight, but take no credit away from Edwards who executed his plan perfectly and when Mthalane made his charge Edwards was savvy enough to keep things under his control.

I saw Edwards a 117-111 winner which was closer than two judges (118-112 and 120-108), but not as close as the other (115-113).

The Edwards win shakes up the flyweight division a bit and it could help break a logjam in the division as few wanted to face Mthalane, who brought little money or attention, but Edwards may attract a bigger paycheck, should any of the champions be willing to fight in England.

Ramon Malpica grabbed two boxing challenge points and cut my lead to 54-52.

Apologies for being shorter than usual, but the NFL Draft has started...