Boxing Challenge: Joshua Dropped, Tsyzu retires Spence

      No upsets over the weekend, but the biggest news came from a near-upset as unknown Kristian Prenga dropped former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua twice in the first round before Joshua would return the favor by stopping Prenga in the second.

Joshua's next opponent, Tyson Fury, won his warm-up fight over veteran Mariusz Wach when Wach was unable to answer the bell for the eighth round.

Fury and Joshua are scheduled to meet sometime in the fall.

In Australia, former junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu won a unanimous decision over comebacking former welterweight champion Errol Spence.

Spence announced his retirement after the fight.

Former junior middleweight and middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade won his ring return with a first-round KO of Douglas Ataide.

Josh Kelly retained his IBF junior middleweight title with a unanimous decision over Caoimhin Agyarko, and Hamzah Sheeraz kept his WBO super middleweight title with a unanimous decision over Simon Zachenhuber in two boring fights on the Joshua-Prenga undercard.

Edgar Berlanga stopped Steven Butler in seven rounds in the Zuffa main event from New York City.

Richardson Hitchins won a unanimous decision over Ricardo Salas, and Jalil Hackett earned a unanimous decision over Sergey Dereyvanchenko in the supporting bouts.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 85 Pts (13)

Ramon Malpica: 70 Pts (10)

Vince Samano: 58 Pts (12)

Boxing Challenge: Pacquiao comeback ends in draw

    It was the comeback that few wanted, but forty-six-year-old Manny Pacquiao came within an eyelash of taking the WBC welterweight title from Mario Barrios.

Instead, the mediocre Barrios escaped with his championship for the second straight bout with a majority draw (he drew with Abel Ramos in his previous fight).

The official scores were 115-113 for Barrios and two scores of 114-114.

I scored the fight for Pacquiao 115-113 and thought he outhustled Barrios. However, Barrios took the final three rounds from a tiring Pacquiao to save his title officially and tighten the final tally on my card.

Pacquiao looked much better than I expected and said after the fight that he planned to continue his career.

It's still fair to question how much Pacquiao has left. Barrios might be the worst champion in boxing, and while a rematch makes sense after the decision, the action wasn't very memorable, and Pacquiao might be better off looking for a bigger fight.

In the co-feature, Sebastian Fundora retained his WBC junior middleweight title via TKO when the corner of Tim Tszyu stopped their bout after the seventh round.

Fundora scored a knockdown in the first round and controlled the fight, although Tszyu did better in the final rounds, scoring well in the seventh.

Tsyzu looked concussed in his corner after that round, and his corner did the right thing in calling the fight.

Fundora may attempt to regain the WBO title he was forced to give up to fight Tsyzu in a contractually obligated rematch against the winner of this weekend's Xander Zayas-Jorge Garcia bout.

Tszyu's career looks to be in big trouble and will need some rebuilding if he is ever to challenge for a title in the future.

Former WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell looked spectacular in his return from an over three-year absence with a tenth-round knockout of Hugo Castaneda at lightweight.

Russell scored knockdowns in the second and sixth rounds before ending the fight with a body blow in round ten.

I'm anxious to see how Russell fares against a better lightweight than Castaneda!

In a fight that I haven't seen, Brandon Figueroa won a unanimous decision over Joet Gonzalez by scores of 115-113 and 116-112 times two.

Boxing Challenge

TRS:111 Pts (1) 

Ramon Malpica: 105 Pts (6)

Vinee Samano: 44 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: Late Edition

   Due to my time constraints (which I'll write about in the future), the boxing challenge will be more concise than normal.

Janibek Alimkhauly retained his IBF and WBO middleweight titles with a fifth round KO of Anauel Ngamissengue.

Alimkanuly landed a massive left hand that sent his challenger flying across the ring on his back. Ngamissengue barely beat the count, but his corner justifiably surrendered for their man.

Filip Hrgovic slugged out a unanimous decision in his Manchester, England heavyweight battle with Joe Joyce.

Both fighters landed and took heavy missiles that saw both fighters cut and bleeding throughout the match.

Hrgrovic won by scores of 98-92, 97-93, and 96-95; my score was for Hrgrovic at 97-93.

Tim Tszyu stopped Joey Spencer in the fourth round of Tszyu's comeback match in Australia.

Spencer tried hard but was overmatched by Tszyu, with Tszyu dishing out punishment along the ropes. Spencer's corner ended the bout.

In Las Vegas, Olympic silver medalist Richard Torrez passed his first test with a unanimous decision over Guido Vianello in their heavyweight ten-rounder.

Torrez started fast and was aided by what I thought was a premature decision by the referee to deduct a point from Vianello in the second round for multiple holding violations.

As the fight moved into the second half, Vianello began to land his share against a tiring Torrez, but Torrez had built a lead too large to overcome.

Official cards for Torrez: 97-92 and 98-91 times two. My score was 97-92 for Torrez.

Lindolfo Delgado won a narrow majority decision in a crossroads junior welterweight battle.

Delgado built a lead, but Rodriguez began to hurt Delgado in the second half, and entering the final round, it was anyone's fight.

Rodriguez inexplicably gave away the final round, which was enough to give Delgado the win with two scores of 96-94 and another of 95-95,  the same as mine.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 50 Pts (6)
Ramon Malpica; 43 Pts (6)
Vince Samano: 20 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: Murtazaliev drills Tszyu!

     Boxing found itself with another upset Saturday night as Bakhram Murtazaliev knocked Tim Tszyu down four times and pounded him so badly that Tszyu's corner was forced to move to the ring apron and literally wave the towel of surrender in the third round to retain his IBF junior middleweight title in Orlando Florida.

Tsyzu fought well in the first round and things seemed to be in place for Tsyzu for an entertaining victory before something happened in round two- Tszyu couldn't avoid Murtazaliev's left hand.

Murtazaliev scored three knockdowns with Tszyu barely able to reach the corner at the end of the round and the doctor took what seemed to be an extremely lengthy check on Tszyu before the third round, which I thought might have allowed Tsyzu to survive a pivotal time in the fight.

Murtazaliev was having none of that as he immediately attacked Tszyu, sending him to the floor again the fight could have been stopped then but Tazyu showed tremendous will in beating the count and was given one final chance with the admonition that one more knockdown would end the match.

Tsyzu gamely tried to fire back but without any legs under him, Murtazaliev battered Tszyu along the ropes before the corner tossed in the towel to end the fight.

For Murtazaliev, the victory retains his title but also could place him on the radar of the Riyadh Season promoters for bigger fights in the future.

For Tim Tszyu, the loss is a devastating one as the defeat to Sebastian Fundora was excusable under the circumstances but Tszyu lacks any excuse for this setback.

All is not lost, Tszyu fought hard, is always entertaining, and if you remember his father's career, Kostya Tszyi lost a fight to Vince Phillips by knockout that he battled back to hold titles and enter the Hall of Fame.

Still, Tszyu will need to be rebuilt, and I think he needs to be rebuilt over the next one to two years with fighters that can refurbish his reputation and rebuild his confidence.

Earlier in the day, Boxxer saw their talented junior welterweight Adam Azim walk through former contender Ohara Davies on his way to an eighth-round knockout in London.

Give Davies credit, he landed his share of right hands but he lacked the pop to deter Azim, who knocked down Davies in round five and almost finished him off with Davies surviving the round on very shaky legs.

Davies survived until the eighth when a left hook polished Davies off for the evening, with the referee ending the bout with Davies on his knees.

Davies was a step up in competition for Azim and Azim looks to be ready for the next level after an excellent performance.

In a fight that I haven't watched, William Scull won the IBF super middleweight title via unanimous decision over Vladimir Shiskin by unanimous decision to win the title that the IBF stripped from Canelo Alvarez for refusing to defend against the unknown Scull.

Scores for Scull were 116-113, 115-113 and 116-112.

I've read from some that Scull outboxed Shishkin and others that Shiskin deserved the decision but it's agreed that Shiskin hurt Scull in the final round and it's agreed that it was a boring fight.

It will be interesting to see who Scull will defend against and when will the IBF mandate that fight?

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 147 Pts (0)

TRS: 143 Pts (2)
Vince Samano: 88 Pts (2)  

Boxing Challenge: Fundora upsets Tsyzu in bloody battle

      The initial PBC card on Amazon ended with an entertaining upset that saw both men spill blood and temporarily stick a cog in a fight that was anticipated for later this year as Sebastian Fundora won the WBO and the vacant WBC junior middleweight titles from Tim Tszyu in Las Vegas by a split decision.

Tszyu was doing well in the first two rounds before an errant elbow that was just short of Dusty Rhodes from Fundora split Tsyzu open on the forehead/hairline, causing impressive bleeding that would impair Tszyu's vision for the rest of the fight.

Fundora battled through an injury of his own, a broken nose sustained early in the affair, and Fundora, who had been noted in the past for not using his physical gifts (6'6 height and eighty-inch reach) showed ring smarts by using them and hitting Tsyzu at will with his jab,

I scored the fight even at 114-114 with the judge's votes going to Fundora at 116-112 and 115-113 and a dissenter for Tsyzu at 116-112.

I'd be all for a rematch when you consider the carnage done by the bionic elbow but it was Errol Spence who was brought into the ring to challenge Fundora after the fight, which is ironic when you consider that a Tsyzu victory had been rumored to have earned him a mega-fight with Spence's conqueror Terence Crawford.

Arguably the least deserving and least popular champion in recent memory was dethroned in the co-feature as Isaac Cruz won the WBA junior welterweight title from Rolando Romero by an eighth-round knockout.

Cruz won every round, hurt Romero badly in the first and seventh rounds, and finished him in the eighth.

The amazing thing about this fight is that one judge somehow had Romero leading!

While this is the first world title for Cruz, his promoters (PBC) aren't loaded in the 140-pound division but it would be fair if someone (PBC or the WBA) took care of Ismael Barroso, who dominated Romero before losing on a ridiculous stoppage by Tony Weeks, and while Romero was sidelined with a back injury, won the interim title with a first-round KO of Ohara Davies.

Barroso was supposed to be first in line for Romero's return but somehow PBC was able to place Cruz first in line.

I'd favor Cruz over Barroso but it is time to do the right thing.

Erislandy Lara retained his WBA middleweight title with a second-round KO of Michael Zerafa in another bout that really accomplished nothing other than keeping a title with Lara.

The less written about this the better.

Serhii Bohachuk won a lesser title by unanimous decision over Brian Mendoza in a fight that Bohachuk controlled and the always gritty Mendoza showed guts and heart.

Bohachuk was originally scheduled to face Sebastian Fundora for the full WBC title but in the mess created by Keith Thurman's departure, was dropped to fight for the minor title.

Bohachuk will be waiting a while for his promised chance to win that title as Fundora will either face Tim Tsyzu in a rematch or possibly Errol Spence next and perhaps even both before Bohachuk gets his chance.

I scored Bohachuk a winner 117-111, which was the same as two judges with the other scoring 118-110.

In fights that I haven't had time to watch yet on a crowded Holiday weekend.

Julio Cesar Martinez retained his WBC flyweight title by majority decision over Angel Cordova.

Gilberto Ramirez won the WBA cruiserweight title over Arsen Goulamarian by unanimous decision.

Alexis Rocha stopped Fredric Lawson when Lawson's corner stopped the fight at the end of round seven.

I'll try to be back later with some thoughts on the heavyweight battle from London which ended in a draw, so those results are included in the boxing challenge totals.

Boxing Challenge

TRS:42 Pts (10)

Ramon Malpica: 41 Pts (9) 

Vince Samano: 16 Pts (1)  

The Overhand Right

   It's been a long time since an edition of the Overhand Right, so here's a chance to offer a few opinions on boxing outside of fight results.

I thought Mikaela Mayer did enough to nose out Natasha Jones in their women's welterweight title fight and while it was close on my card (96-94), I thought Mayer was the clear winner as most of the rounds were decisively won by one side or the other.

I wrote about the surprising decision loss by Artem Dalakian of his WBA flyweight title to Seigo Yuri Akui and how I thought Dalakian's style of moving away hurt him as judges prefer aggressive fighters.

Sooner or later, most fighters that use this style eventually lose a fight that they deserve to win due to this factor, and Dalakian proved the rule.

Fighters like Dalakian usually make dull fights and it's not always accompanied by outrage when they lose but that still doesn't make it right.

All too often in these style matchups, the aggressive fighter receives undeserved points from judges for "coming forward" or "trying to make the fight", which isn't part of the judging criteria.

The commentators for the fight (Crystina Poncher and ladies' flyweight champion Seniesa Estrada) seemed as puzzled as I had been when hearing of the decision. However, there were observers on the net who had the fight closer than I did.

While talking about Poncher and Estrada, I found their observations of the card from Osaka to be quite interesting.

Pomcher has always been a favorite of mine as an underrated blow-by-blow voice that I hope to see given higher-profile fights for ESPN/Top Rank cards. Still, the revelation was Estrada, who offered several intriguing points during the Kenshiro Teraji-Carlos Canizales main event battle.

Estrada's best point was about Teraji's directional movement, as the champion refused to move away from Canizales's power and instead moved right into the challenger's shots.

Estrada's statement proved true later in the fight when Teraji changed things up and began to get hit far less by the challenger.

Hoping to see and hear more in the future from Poncher and Estrada as a team at the announcer's table.

I see Teofimo Lopez continues to call out Terence Crawford for a mega-fight and while I'm not sure that it happens because Lopez isn't quite the PPV draw quite yet that the WBO junior welterweight champion thinks that he is, I am still interested in that pairing.

Lopez does tend to fight better in big fights than he does small ones as he showed in wins over Vasyl Lomachenko and Josh Taylor, his only loss to George Kambosos and a split decision win over Sandor Martin that many including myself thought he lost.

Lopez doesn't have the physical disadvantages that you would think he would either against Crawford, so it's not a mismatch in stature, and skill-wise Lopez can be competitive.

However, Crawford is in a different league, in my opinion, and I'm not sure of Lopez's promotional status with Top Rank after his title defense next month against Jamaine Ortiz.

Crawford has a lawsuit pending against Top Rank and is unlikely to deal with TR should Lopez remain bound to them.

PBC announced the top two fights on their first PPV with Amazon in March.

I'm not thrilled with the main event with WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu defending against former WBA and WBC welterweight champion Keith Thurman.

Tszyu has been an active contender and now champion, having fought three times in 2023.

The same can't be said of Thurman, who hasn't fought since a ho-hum decision win over Mario Barrios in February 2022, and his most recent fight before Barros was his loss to Manny Pacquiao in July 2019.

When you add that Thurman has never fought at 154 pounds and his 1-1 record in the last five years, it's easy to see Thurman as undeserving of this title opportunity.

The co-feature will have Rollie Romero, he of the questionable win over Ismael Barroso, defending against Isaac Cruz, who moves up from lightweight for the title chance.

While I don't have a problem with Cruz, the fight should be Romero-Barroso II, especially now that Barroso knocked out Ohara Davies in one round to grab the WBA interim title that was granted with Romero out with back issues.

WBA middleweight champion Erislandy Lara will defend his title for the first time against Michael Zerafa of Australia.

Lara, who has fought very soft competition in his four bouts since his 2019 draw with Brian Castano, was promoted to full champion last year when Gennady Golovkin vacated the title but hasn't fought at all since his May 2022 win over journeyman Gary "Spike" O'Sullivan.

Zerafa has lost against his best opponents Peter Quillin, Jeff Horn, and Kell Brook, and doesn't seem deserving of his status but neither does Lara really, so that says a lot for a sadly weak 160-pound division. 

Boxing Challenge: Tszyu storms past Mendoza

 Tim Tsyzu retained his WBO junior middleweight title for the first time with a unanimous decision over a gutsy Brian Mendoza in Queensland. Australia.

The fight was close through six rounds with both fighters landing their share of strong punches but Tsyzu took over in the seventh round and wouldn't lose another one on my card.

Tsyzu wasn't able to knock the iron-chinned Mendoza down but he badly hurt Mendoza twice in the later rounds with only the courage of the challenger keeping him from falling to the mat.

Tsyzu won by scores of 116-111, 117-111, and 116-112 with my scorecard of 117-111 for Tszyu.

Tszyu called for WBA/WBC/IBF champion Jermell Charlo after the fight, who pulled out of a scheduled fight with Tszyu due to a hand injury and chose a larger payday against Canelo Alvarez rather than defend against Tsyzu, causing the WBO to strip Charlo and award their title to Tszyu.

Assuming that Charlo-Tsyzu isn't next, the field is wide open for the Australian's next fight, although Tszyu did say that his next fight would be in the United States.

Mendoza was the number two contender in the WBO before the fight and should Tszyu choose to fight the first or then-third contender in his next fight, Great Britain's Josh Kelly is rated first with Puerto Rico's talented prospect Xander Zayas at the third spot.

Zayas could be a future star and he looks to be very talented but his rating at third is laughable considering that he has fought just one scheduled ten-rounder thus far in his career.

Zayas is in no way ready for a Tszyu fight right now and Top Rank isn't going to risk a future headliner this soon against a fighter that would likely defeat him easily.

Kelly is a former Olympian and has notched some solid wins in his last few fights but was knocked out in his only loss by welterweight David Avanesyan in 2021, and I'm not sure if Tszyu wants to fight in the UK or if Kelly wants a shot at Tszyu quite yet.

Meanwhile, in Rosenberg, Texas, a suburb of Houston, arguably the least glamorous title unification ever was held with Janibek Alimkhanuly retaining his WBO middleweight title and taking away the IBF title from Vincent Gualtieri with a sixth-round knockout.

The less said about this the better as Alimkhanuly was stronger, faster, and better against the overwhelmed Gualtieri, who couldn't have any success against Alimkhanuly at all.

Alimkhanuly won the first five rounds with ease and when he hurt Gualtieri in the sixth, driving him into the ropes and firing punches that stung the German, referee David Fields ended the fight.

Could Gualtieri have continued? Perhaps but there was no point other than giving Gualtieri more punishment.

Alimkhanuly asked for fights against the remaining two champions, the WBA's Erislandy Lara and the WBC's Jermall Charlo but fights are unlikely against the chronically inactive pair as they fight for PBC and a fight against Alimkhanuly would be high-risk low reward with little financial gain, especially for Lara.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 159 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 145 Pts (3)
Vince Samano: 108 Pts (0) 

Boxing Challenge: Prograis struggles, Tszyu stars

     There was a world championship fight this Saturday but the winner of that match wasn't the performer of the day as that fighter was a spectacular victor and gives some consideration that a unified four-title champion may not be the best fighter in his division.

But first, Regis Prograis is a fighter that is being considered the best in the junior welterweight division.

However, he didn't show it in his split decision win in his hometown of New Orleans to retain his WBC title over Danielito Zorrilla.

Zorilla appeared to have dropped Prograis in the first round but it wasn't ruled to be one, costing Zorrilla a deserved point. and Prograis scored a flash knockdown in round three.

That about covers anything exciting as Zorrilla rarely took chances and demanded that Prograis force the action, which caused long pauses in the action and resulted in a boring fight.

There were differences in the scoring, both officially and unofficially, with Prograis winning on two judges' cards at 118-109 and 117-110 with a dissenting card of 114-113 for Zorrilla.

I had it closer for Prograis at 115-112 but I've seen several cards online for Zorrilla.

Either way, it was an ugly, clunky fight that was very awkward in the ring, and may have raised questions about Prograis, who has received recent plaudits as the best in the division after running through the respected Jose Zepeda to win the title vacated by Josh Taylor.

The old boxing adage- win today, look good the next time will have to do for Prograis in victory this time.

Meanwhile, in Australia, Tim Tszyu had a harder time overcoming a training camp dog bite than he did Carlos Ocampo as Tszyu knocked Ocampo down seconds into the fight with a right hand and after Ocampo rose, he took several punches before a left polished the veteran off after only seventy-seven seconds.

Ocampo had been knocked out in one round by Errol Spence but in his previous fight had lasted all twelve rounds with Sebastian Fundora, so the early KO isn't tarnished too much.

For Tszyu, who retained his minor title as well as his mandatory shot at Jermell Charlo, it was the type of win that gets fans and media excited about his challenge of Charlo, who hasn't fought in over a year since gaining the final of his four titles with a win in his rematch vs Brian Castano.

It may even be arguable that Tszyu could be the biggest star in his eventual Charlo fight with his activity and exciting wins over Tony Harrison and Ocampo with the consideration of Charlo's inactivity and the thought that nags at me that perhaps Charlo is the best of an average era in the junior middleweight division.

The WBO has mandated that a Charlo-Tszyu fight must take place by September 30th or Charlo will be stripped of their title and Tszyu will be elevated to full status from his minor belt.

In the co-feature, undefeated Sam Goodman scored the biggest win of his career with a split decision over Ra'eese Aleem in a qualifier for the mandatory slot for the IBF in the junior featherweight division.

Aleem started quickly and when he threw punches, had Goodman confused by Aleem's volume of punching and movement.

Aleem stopped throwing as often over the second half of the fight, so Goodman took command over the final four rounds to pull out the split decision.

The judges scored 117-111 and 116-112 for Goodman along with 116-112 for Aleem, all too wide for my tastes with my card for Goodman at 115-113.

Goodman is now the mandatory challenger for IBF and WBA champion Marlon Tapales but with possible plans for Tapales to face the winner of the WBC/WBO title battle between Stephen Fulton and Naoya Inoue held in July, Goodman may have to wait until 2024 for his eventual championship attempt.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 98 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 90 Pts (3)

Vince Samano:72 Pts (3) 

Boxing Challenge

 The boxing Saturday was somewhat slim with all three challenge events in as many countries and two continents.

In the biggest bout of the day from Sydney Australia, junior middleweight contender Tim Tszyu dominated former WBC champion Tony Harrison before bludgeoning him with several right hands and uppercuts in round nine before the fight was mercifully stopped by the referee.

Harrison had some success with the jab against Tszyu but that was about all that the veteran could offer against Tszyu's aggression that backed Harrison up and often trapped him along the ropes for long stretches.

Tszyu was the quicker fighter and the harder puncher and other than the first round, it would have been tough to find a round to give to Harrison, as I did on my scorecard which had Tszyu ahead 79-74 after eight rounds.

The victory allows Tszyu to keep his mandatory position for a challenge later this year of unified champion Jermell Charlo, which was originally scheduled for January before it was canceled due to a broken hand suffered in training by Charlo.

Charlo-Tszyu looms as a very interesting fight and while Tszyu will be an underdog, I like his chances.

I thought Charlo lost his first fight with Brian Castano and the second fight was very close before Charlo stopped Castano in the late rounds.

I've never seen Charlo as a dominant fighter like most fully unified champions and still may turn out to be the best of a bunch of similarly talented fighters, so I can see Tsyzu winning the four titles should Charlo be at anything less than his best.

However, an argument can be made that Harrison has seen better days and didn't look impressive in his bouts since losing his title to Charlo, so while Tsyzu's win is the best of his career, it may look better now than it eventually may be.

Earlier in the day in Liverpool, England, super middleweight prospect Diego Pacheco smoothly navigated the toughest test of his career in stopping British veteran Jack Cullen in four rounds.

Cullen fought on even terms in the first two rounds but Pacheco stunned Cullen with a right hand in the third which set the scene for the fourth when Pacheco dumped Cullen to the floor and despite Cullen beating the count, his corner signaled an end for their man.

Pacheco looks to be a very promising prospect in a division that is in need of an exciting young potential star.

In Paris, former Olympic heavyweight gold medalist Tony Yoka suffered his second disappointing defeat in a row, this one a listless split decision loss to former title challenger turned aging journeyman Carlos Takam.

Yoka suffered a cut over his left eye and spent most of the fight on the outside, throwing out a soft jab, and fought very tentatively against Takam, who made the fight by moving forward but never seemed to seriously hurt Yoka, who retreated anyway.

The forty-year-old Takam had slipped to journeyman status in recent fights and his win will likely earn him a few extra paydays against fringe contenders and maybe a better fight against a contender, should one need a stay active fight.

Takam called out Martin Bakole after the fight, which makes a little sense I suppose since it was Bakole that handed Yoka his first loss in the fight before this one.

As for Yoka, this should end any hope of eventual contention as he has adopted a safety-first style to avoid being hit, without the boring effectiveness that can be positive in winning fights.

Instead, Yoka's just plain boring and his future seems very bleak at this time.

I scored Takam a winner at 98-92, which was larger than the official scores of 96-94 for Takam x2 and a terrible card of 96-94 for Yoka.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 33 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica 28 Pts (3)

Vince Samano 26 Pts (2) 

 

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: Tim Tszyu defeats Hogan

  Australian junior middleweigtht Tim Tszyu continues to clean out the competition in the Southern Hemisphere with an impressive stoppage of veteran  Dennis Hogan in the fifth round in Newcastle, Australia.

Hogan was entering this fight off a fifteen-month layoff but had received title chances in his previous two fights, losing by seventh-round knockout as an undersized middleweight against Jermall Charlo for Charlo's WBC title and losing a majority decision to Jaime Munguia for the WBO junior middleweight championship that many (including me) thought that he deserved.

Tszyu had battered former WBO welterweight champion, Jeff Horn, into submission in eight rounds and then a first-round knockout of countryman Bowyn Morgan in December and entered his toughest test against Hogan as the possible next WBO mandatory challenger with a victory.

For two rounds, Hogan did well in exchanges and I gave Hogan those rounds on my card and it appeared that after a second-round headbutt cut Tsyzu on his left eyebrow that the youngster was going to receive his first taste of adversity.

However, Tszyu stayed composed and began to win the exchanges in the third and fourth rounds to even the fight entering the fifth round.

Tszyu dominated the fifth, punishing Hogan to the body, and causing him to begin to protect himself there, which naturally left him open to a huge uppercut that sent Hogan and nearly ended the fight.

Hogan did rise courageously, but Tszyu leaped on his opponent and with Hogan on the run from Tszyu's punches, the towel sailed in from the older fighter's corner as the sign of surrender.

Tim Tszyu faced his toughest opponent and did well and should he survive one more inter-country battle later in the year against Michael Zerafa, Tsyzu should be in the line for the winner of the four title unification match between Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano in 2021.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored one point to move the overall totals to 36-34.  

Boxing Challenge: Tszyu stops Horn

Australia's superfight turned out to be competitive for one round and that first round was pretty close.

After that round, Tim Tszyu took command, knocked Jeff Horn twice in the third round, and delivered a beating that should send Horn into retirement after his corner ended the one-sided drubbing at the end of the eighth round.

The first round was evenly fought and could have been scored for either fighter.
I scored it for Horn, but there would not be another round that Horn could stake a claim for his own and the speed of Tszyu was too much for the veteran, who couldn't start anything on offense other than an occasional right hand that Tszyu was able to walk through.
Tszyu controlled the exchanges and surprisingly was able to outmuscle the larger and expected to be the stronger of the two fighters.

Tszyu, the son of the former unified junior welterweight champion, showed speed and power in his first fight against world-class competition, although it remains to be determined if this version of Jeff Horn was still at that level.
Tyszu will likely move up in the rankings after this win after entering 6th in the IBF and 9th in the WBO with Horn being ranked ahead of him in the WBO ratings and I could see an interesting match with WBO champion Patrick Teixeria as a possibility soon.
Should the money (and international travel allowed) be available, I would guess that Teixeria would be willing to travel to Australia for a sizable purse increase.
I'd rate Tszyu as a slight favorite over Teixeria and as a solid underdog against either of the participants in the unification fight next month for the other three titles between Jermell Charlo (WBC) and Jeison Rosario (WBA and IBF), but I wouldn't rate him as having no chance at all against either champion.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica added one point and cut into my lead at 94-87.