Boxing Challenge: Benavidez wins, Upsets abound

       In Satirday's co-feature from the PBC card in Las Vegas, David Benavidez won a unanimous decision over Oleksandr Gvozdyk in his debut in the light heavyweight division.

Benavidez was solid and workmanlike in the easy victory over the former WBC champion but never dazed Gvozdyk and despite winning a minor title, Benavidez may be better suited (and he said he is considering this at the post-fight press conference) returning to super middleweight for the time being and hoping Canelo Alvarez will eventually decide to face him.

Benavidez won on scorecards of 119-109, 117-111, and 116-112, my score agreeing with the middle score.

In two fights that I have yet to watch, one title was retained and an undefeated contender was surprised with his first loss.

Carlos Adames retained his WBC middleweight title with a unanimous decision over Terrell Gausha.

Adames doesn't really have a big fight in the division, so look for Adames to have a few of these fights against Gausha types that aren't quite good enough to win a title.

Scores of 119-11 and 118-110 times two for Adames.

Gary Antuanne Russell was a big favorite to win a minor junior welterweight title against former WBA champ Alberto Puello and set himself up for bigger things in the future.

Instead, Puello survived an eighth-round holding deduction to pull a surprise split decision win for the minor title.

Russell has all the talent in the world but like his brother and trainer, former WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell, he doesn't fight more than once a year, and at the top level fighting that infrequently will eventually cost you in sharpness.

Scores for Puello were 114-113 and 115-112 and for Russell 118-109.

PBC and boxing observers have been glowing in their reviews on middleweight prospect Elijah Garcia and his potential but Garcia hit a roadblock in his fight against veteran Kyrone Davis, with Davis winning a deserved but surprising split decision.

Davis couldn't miss with his right hand and while Garcia was persistent with his aggression, Davis held serve until the final two rounds when Garcia rallied and perhaps if this fight were a twelve-rounder, Garcia could have snatched victory.

Scores for Davis at 97-93 x2 (same as mine) with an awful score for Garcia of 98-92, which is beyond terrible in my opinion.

In Puerto Rico, a huge upset occurred as Australia's Liam Paro upset Subriel Matias in the homecoming fight for Matias and took away the IBF junior welterweight title.

Paro lost a point in the seventh round for hitting behind the head and while Paro's move, jab, and grab offense wasn't exciting, it was very effective against Matias, who rallied down the stretch but ran out of time.

Scores for Paro 116-111 and 115-112 x2, I had it closer for Paro 114-113.

In London from Boxxer/Peacock, Chris Billam-Smith avenged his only loss and retained his WBO cruiserweight title with a unanimous decision outdoors at the home field of Crystal Palace.

This fight wasn't as exciting as their first fight and Riakporhe didn't throw enough punches to overcome the more active Billam-Smith.

Riakporhe lost a point in the final round for headbutting but that had no effect on the scorecards- all for Billiam-Smith 116-111 (same as mine) and 115-112.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 88 Pts (8)

TRS: 72 Pts (4)

Vince Samano: 46 Pts (3)

Boxing Challenge: Warrington regains title

   The boxing weekend started in Leeds, England where Josh Warrington roared out of his corner from the opening ball and floored Kiko Martinez in the first round before battering the Spanish champion throughout before the fight was stopped in the seventh round.

The win gave Warrington the IBF featherweight championship back after he vacated in 2021 and placed Warrington back in the divisional spotlight.

Warrington cut Martinez over both eyes and on the bridge of the nose with an aggressive assault in the first two rounds before settling and boxing an increasingly desperate Martinez, who continued to try to find the miracle bomb that won him the title from Kid Galahad.

I had Warrington ahead 59-54 after six rounds and after the fight, it seemed that promoter Eddie Hearn was ready to pit Warrington against WBA minor titleist Leigh Wood, who attended the card, even though Wood is supposed to face WBA champion Leo Santa Cruz for the consolidated WBA championship.

However,Warrington's father (and trainer) indicated that Warrington would prefer to face Santa Cruz next so things were in flux until it was discovered that Warrington had broken his jaw during the fight.

That makes Santa Cruz-Wood more likely ( as now Warrington will need time to heal) as the WBA has mandated that fight next with no exceptions, although I'll believe Santa Cruz fights again at 126 pounds when someone is singing the national anthems before the fight.

In Minneapolis from Showtime/PBC, undefeated top junior middleweight contender Tim Tszyu survived a first round flash knockdown to win a closer than I scored unanimous decision over Terrell Gausha.

Tszyu wasn't in serious trouble following the knockdown and starting in the second round, Tszyu began exert his strength and held Gausha at bay against the ropes for most of the remainder of the fight.

Tszyu hurt Gausha in the fourth and fifth rounds and once in (I think) the fourth, Tsyzu's right hand sent Gausha sprawling into the ropes and the referee could have called a knockdown with the ropes holding Gausha up.

The scores were closer than my 117-110 card for Tszyu with a 116-111, 115-113 and a really bad 114-113 official scoring.

Gausha did land far more right hands than you would like to see Tszyu get hit with and Gausha showed lots of heart making it to the end of the fight, so the fight was fairly entertaining but Tszyu still has questions to answer whenever he receives his title shot against either Jermell Charlo or Brian Castano and Gausha appears to be settling in as a gatekeeper of the division.

In the co-feature lightweight Michel Rivera won a unanimous decision over Joseph Adorno in a fight that I have yet to watch.

On ESPN from Las Vegas, former WBC junior lightweight champion Miguel Berchelt might be finished as a top fighter after his lightweight debut saw Jeremiah Nakathila defeat Berchelt when the fight was stopped between the sixth and seventh rounds.

Berchelt fought very tentatively in an attempt to more of boxer than the slugger that defended his title six times before taking a pounding in his tenth round knockout loss to Oscar Valdez.

Nakathila dropped Berchelt with a jab in the third round and generally dominated the fight until the fifth when Berchelt stepped up the pace and landed some good right hands to win the only round he would win all evening.

Nakathila landed a booming right hand that sent Berchelt's gumsheild flying across the ring which saved Berchelt as the time that was taken to clean the mouthpiece allowed a shaken Berchelt some badly needed time and he barely survived the round but the fight was stopped before the start of the seventh in a very good move.

I had Nakathila ahead 59-54 at the time of the stoppage.

Nakathila will stay around in the future at lightweight and I wouldn't be surprised if he was selected to eventually be the comeback opponent for Vasyl Lomachenko when the Ukrainian star returns to the ring after the end of the Russian invasion of his country.

As for Berchelt, his legs are gone and he seems to be reluctant to use the aggressive style that gave him success because he is afraid to take the chance of getting cracked in return.

If Berchelt was my fighter, I'd suggest he consider hanging the gloves up because if he's not willing to engage and use his strengths, I see no chance of turning his career around.

Boxing challenge

TRS: 44 Pts  (5)

Vince Samano: 43 Pts (5)

Ramon Malpica: 38 Pts (3) 

Boxing Challenge: Benavidez Bullies Ellis

   Showtime and the PBC had a very difficult task as they counter-programmed DAZN and Matchroom's card with Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman Gonzalez at the top and even though their slate wasn't able to match the card in quality or importance, PBC got the one result that they needed most.

David Benavidez lost the first round to Ronald Ellis and would lose no others until the referee was forced to end the fight in the eleventh round to save Ellis from further punishment.

Give Ellis credit for giving his all throughout the fight, but he was out of his element against the larger and more powerful boxer.

Other than Benavidez not knocking Ellis down, no one could have asked for more from the talented Benavidez, who is establishing himself as the fighter that boxing pundits and fans would want to be paired with Canelo Alvarez.

Alvarez has business in May against WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders in his attempt to add that title to the WBA and WBC championships that he already owns., but Benavidez has placed his name in the conversation for a fall match if Alvarez defeats Saunders as he is expected to do.

The question could come down to this- Would Alvarez face Benavidez in the fall, in what would be a fight of huge interest in Mexico (Benavidez's father was born in Mexico) or would he select IBF champion Caleb Plant in a fight that would give Alvarez the final title to complete unification?

Benavidez would be the more exciting fight in the ring, he is a bigger (Plant is the same height, but Benavidez has a longer reach) fighter, and with both fighters being of Mexican heritage, the fight is the more likely of the two to receive larger media attention.

The argument for fighting Plant is straight-forward- he would have the final piece of the championship puzzle and Benavidez could be available for the fight following Plant.

I would tend to believe that Plant would be the choice, but Benavidez did everything that he needed to stake his claim as the natural opponent and could be the possible opponent.

In the co-feature, Isaac Cruz defeated Jose Matias Romero via unanimous decision in a WBA lightweight eliminator.

I scored Cruz a 115-112 winner with Cruz losing a point during the fight.

The junior middleweight opener saw veteran Terrell Gausha score his biggest win in a while when he caught JaMontay Clark with a counter right in the second round that knocked Clark down and when a dazed Clark rose and tried to hold off Gausha, Gausha muscled Clark into a corner and fired away to force a stoppage.

The win likely will move Gausha into a fight somewhere up the ladder in the mostly-PBC controlled division in the future.

In the boxing challenge, I scored five points to Ramon Malpica's three with the Isaac Cruz win making the difference.

I increased my overall lead to 28-25.

Boxing Challenge: Boots Ennis shines brightly!

Welterweight Jaron "Boots" Ennis may not have been in the main event from Uncasville, Connecticut on Showtime's three-fight card, but on a night that didn't have a lot of action, it was Ennis that walked away as the evening's star.

It wasn't that Ennis disposed of veteran gatekeeper Juan Carlos Abreu in six rounds as that would have been impressive enough considering Abreu had never been stopped in his five losses to contenders such as Egid Kavaliauskas, Alexander Besputin, and Jamal James.

It was how Ennis did it as he controlled Ennis with power punches that shook the durable veteran with every punch and showing veteran poise in the fifth round.

Ennis and Abreu each landed very low punches that cause brief stoppages and warnings, but as Abreu charged in, Ennis leaned away from the incoming punch and connected with a huge uppercut that dropped Abreu with seconds remaining in the round.

Abreu rose and survived, but tried some macho tactics to unnerve Ennis at the end of the round with an attempt to make Ennis do something dumb.

Ennis verbally sparred back to Abreu but showed maturity by not getting physical.

The decision proved fruitful when Ennis quickly dropped Abreu again and continued to batter Abreu into a corner before Abreu dropped to the floor for a second time with the referee waving the fight off.

It's not often that the first fight on a show leads off our recap, but as much as that says for the other fights on the evening, it says tons for the talent of Boots Ennis.

Ennis is almost certainly a future champion, assuming his chin holds up when tested.

My biggest concern with Boots Ennis is this- A few years from now, boxing fans may be pining away for a Boots Ennis-Vergil Ortiz welterweight unification fight as they currently are for an Errol Spence-Terence Crawford matchup and they may be equally unfulfilled.

In the main event, Erickson Lubin trudged through twelve rounds to win a unanimous decision over Terrell Gausha and put himself in position for a future junior middleweight title shot against the winner of next Saturday's Jermell Charlo-Jeison Rosario title unification bout.

The positives in this one, Gausha hurt Lubin in the tenth round, and round twelve was a pretty good round with both fighters exchanging punches.

Outside of those positives, this one was quite the snoozer with Lubin winning the rounds, but looking far from the exciting bomber that was at the top of most prospect lists before his one-round knockout loss to Jermell Charlo.

Lubin could arguably say he is more effective now, but he certainly isn't half as fun to watch.

Lubin's chin questions still are a concern after being hurt badly by Gausha, who is not known as a puncher, but that's one thing that can be said for the "new" Lubin- he is protecting that chin much better than in the past.

I scored Lubin a 118-110 winner with Lubin winning the first nine rounds.

I'm not sure Lubin will fare much better in a potential Charlo rematch, but should he decide to go bomb for bomb against Rosario, the result could be a memorable encounter.

But if it is this version of Lubin that arrives for his title shot, his challenge might not be more watchable than this victory.

Tug Nyambayar won a split decision over late replacement Cobia Breedy to win an eliminator that may lead to a rematch against WBC champion Gary Russell or at least another eliminator to earn that rematch.

Nyambayar fought much like he did in his loss to Russell with a reluctance to get off punches and giving away early rounds, but salvaged the first two with knockdowns in those rounds.

Nyambayar did begin winning rounds on the last half of the fight once he began to move his hands and won on my card 115-111 (7-5 in rounds minus two knockdown points).

Despite the victory, Nyambayar didn't seem especially motivated for the fight, which is understandable with a late replacement that was unknown at the world level and I wonder about his future with his tendency to start slowly continuing to plague him.

As for Breedy, his showing was an excellent one considering his lack of experience and stepping in on late notice.

Without those early knockdowns, Breedy may have had a case for a victory, although the scorecard for Breedy was an outlandish 115-111.

That scorecard gave Breedy nine of the ten rounds remaining after being knocked down twice and for all that Breedy overcame to make a good showing, that simply was not the case.

Meanwhile, over at the Top Rank bubble on ESPN+, Jose Pedraza won a ten round unanimous decision over Javier Molina in a battle of Olympic teammates.

Pedraza puzzled Molina and left him unable to do much offensively other than desperate and ineffective charges with Pedraza hitting him over and over with the straight right.

Not much else to say for this one other than Pedraza hurting Molina badly in the final round and Pedraza attempted to put Molina away for the strong finish.

Give Molina credit for holding off Pedraza and making it to the final bell, but that's mostly what he was about to walk away with as I scored Pedraza a 99-91.

Pedraza will likely be in the scramble next year for pne of the open titles after a projection that will see the Josh Taylor-Jose Ramirez winner give up the titles to move up to welterweight.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored seven points to move the total to 114-106.

Next week will have a NINE fight entry in the challenge, so a big week will be on hand!!

Boxing Challenge: Haney steals the show, Herring upsets Ito

Despite a world title changing hands, there could only be one star of the night and it was clearly Devin Haney, who dominated a normally solid Antonio Moran for six rounds and hammered home a looping right hand in the seventh for a memorable one punch knockout on DAZN.

It was Haney's DAZN/Matchroom debut and he was dazzling in his performance as Moran, who lost a close decision to Jose Pedraza last June, was overmatched against Haney.
I scored Haney as the winner of every round before the memorable ending and the fight's only question by the fourth round was whether Haney would be able to stop Moran, who had never been stopped in his previous losses.
Haney will have to take another step up when he challenges for a world title, but I wouldn't be surprised a bit if, by 2021, the fight fans are talking about as the "fight that must be made" would match Devin Haney with Teofimo Lopez.

On ESPN, the WBO junior lightweight title was the centerpiece of a pro wrestling like storyline as former Marine and Olympian Jamel Herring pulled an upset of champion Masayuki Ito in Kissimmee, Florida via a unanimous decision.
Herring was just too slick for Ito, who was noted for never having an amateur fight before turning pro and it showed against the skilled, but never noted for being outstanding Herring.
In hindsight, Ito was made to order for a fighter of Herring's style and I should have seen that coming.
Herring avoided the wild lunges of Ito well and was able to control the fight from the outside as Ito seemed confused by Herring's left-handed stance and was rarely able to land.
I scored Herring a 116-112 (8-4) winner which agreed with one judge, with the other two scoring a too wide 118-110.
Herring dedicated the win to his late daughter, who passed away from SIDS as an infant and would have turned ten on the day of Herring's title win.
It's a compelling story, but one that isn't likely to end in a long championship book as Herring may fight WBC champion Miguel Berchelt in a unification fight in which Herring will again be a sizable underdog.

In the co-main event, Jose Pedraza returned from his loss to Vasyl Lomachenko to stop Antonio Lozada in the ninth round of their ten round event.
Lozada showed lots of heart and aggression and gave Pedraza little quarter, but the difference between a top ten fighter and a top twenty fighter can be vast and despite the effort, Pedraza wore Lozada down before being knocked down and finished in the ninth round.
Pedraza may be blocked in the lightweight division for now and might have to move to 140 pounds for another title shot.
Pedraza is unlikely to receive a Lomachenko rematch for two (and likely three after his match with Luke Campbell) belts and the remaining champion Richard Commey (IBF) is defending against Ray Beltran next,a victory should see Commey cash in against Lomachenko for all the lightweight gold and Pedraza is surprisingly unranked by the IBF.

Over with the PBC on FS1 from Biloxi Mississippi, the Hamburglar peeped his head outside the arches as former Olympian Terrell Gausha appeared to have clearly outpointed former champion Austin Trout in a fight that could be called boring and well, I'm calling it boring, but Gausha didn't receive the deserved nod as the judges called the fight a draw with three divergent and inaccurate card.
I had Gausha winning originally 96-94, but a rewatch (hey, I was at work and I was bored!) saw me give Gausha a 97-93 decision.
The Gausha judge scored it 99-91, which was ridiculous, but the 95-95 wasn't good (I thought my original 96-94 Gausha was generous to Trout), but the 96-94 Trout card was terrible.
It wasn't that Gausha was exciting or terrific in triumph, mind you, but Trout looked slow and just didn't move his hands enough.
Trout called for a rematch, saying he hadn't fought enough of late and while that may be true (and just whose fault is that again?), I don't think anyone really wants to see this again and what would it prove even if they did.
PBC could stick either of these two against Julian Williams or the Tony Harrison/Jermell Charlo winner anyway, so a rematch seems pointless.

I would like to add one point- Austin Trout seems to be the first fighter to succumb to the matchmaking style of PBC, where you fight once a year and maybe face a top-notch boxer every other year.
Inactivity dulls the skills and inactivity hurts an older fighter more than a younger one as far as sharpness goes, but the younger fighter is hurt by not fighting enough by not learning what you need to learn as an older fighter to dig deep, win a fight that you shouldn't or discover the tricks of the trade to give you a chance to win in a fight you might not be the favorite to win.
The system that PBC pushes for their fighters is that you'll get good pay for fewer fights and take less damage and that makes sense- in theory.
However, what that seems to be doing as well is limiting their fighters prime (in earning years as well as performance), affecting their long term performance and keeping them from the careers that their fighters are capable of.
Austin Trout might be the first test case of my theory, but over the next few years, I'm willing to bet that he won't be the last.

The other fight in the challenge from China has not taken place yet (Later this morning), so I will edit this post with the result and update to the boxing challenge after it is over.

In the boxing challenge as of this writing, I have added three points to Ramon Malpica's two with the Devin Haney fight being the difference in points.
Both of us picked Jose Pedraza's win for one point, both of us picked Masayuki Ito in his loss and the Trout-Gausha draw gives no points.

Editor's Note; Carlos Canizales defeated Sho Kimura via unanimous decision.
Ramon added two points for that win and took four points to my three for the weekend.
Ramon cuts my lead in the challenge to 135-120.