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: Andrade decisions Williams

    The boxing weekend didn't see any huge upsets, but it did see some interesting fights with possible reverberations down the road.  

Saturday afternoon from Matchroom/DAZN saw Hollywood, Florida as the site for Demetrius Andrade's successful defense of his WBO middleweight title.

Andrade won a clear unanimous decision and knocked Williams down in the second round with a straight left, but Williams did have his moments and the fight was more exciting than the usual lopsided Andrade fight.

I scored Andrade a 117-109 winner (9-3 with the knockdown).

Andrade was hit occasionally by Williams and showed enough vulnerability that you would think any of the other three champions (WBC Jermall Charlo, WBA Ryota Murata, and IBF Gennady Golovkin) would be interested in a unification fight more than perhaps in the past.

I doubt it, but perhaps.

Andrade now has his mandatory out of the way for the year, but I (and Andrade with promoter Eddie Hearn) have next to no idea on Andrade's next defense unless the unlikely event that the three mentioned champions decides Andrade is suddenly worth the risk.

In the co-feature, undefeated super middleweight Carlos Gongora dominated Christopher Pearson and won every round through seven and finished Pearson off in the eighth.

Pearson appeared as if he could have risen, but took the ten count as he had clearly had enough of Gongora for the evening.

I'd like to see Gongora against a better challenger and he would make a very interesting fight for quite a few of the contenders in the division.

In the main event on Fox, former WBC junior middleweight champion Tony Harrison was rocked early by Bryant Perrella and outworked over most of the twelve-round fight by Perrella, who moved up in weight for this fight.

Harrison seemed a bit listless in his first fight since losing to Jermell Charlo and didn't move his hands enough, which likely cost him the fight as when Harrison picked up the pace he was effective against Perrella.

Harrison was fortunate to escape with a draw in a difficult bout to score.

I thought Perrella shaded it 115-113, but the Perrella judge scored 117-111 ( too wide), the Harrison judge scored 116-112 ( too wide), and the final judge scored 114-114, which seemed fair.

And then there was Twiller.

Peter Kahn (Twiller's chief boxing officer) has been all over the boxing podcast circuit with several respected members of the boxing media over the last two weeks talking about what Twiller is going to bring to boxing.

While I'm all for more attention and more exposure to the sport, I'm not sure that attention and exposure of a positive nature are coming anytime soon for what was essentially a freak show last night from Atlanta.

I'll be writing more later in the week about a pay per view card that seemed to be straight from a carnival that included YouTube star Jake Paul vs MMA fighter Ben Askren, former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir boxing against former IBF cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham, lots of musicians and comedians, Ric Flair officiating a "Slap Fight" with Saturday Night Live's Pete Davidson, about ten people commentating on the matches that ranged from a bemused Al Bernstein to a clearly inebriated (TONS of Marijuana references and use on this show) Oscar De La Hoya and Snoop Dog, and all of this looked like it was filmed in an abandoned warehouse with lousy lighting.

With all of that said, they may do strong numbers and I am anxious to see how well they do in PPV buys.

If they are successful, full credit to them because they are finding an audience that boxing clearly isn't getting without them.

However, is it sustainable and how many times can you play the card of gimmick shows before people tune out?

I don't have the answer to that question.

In the only real boxing match that mattered, former WBA junior welterweight Regis Prograis won the first five rounds in controlling veteran Ivan Redkach before round six when Redkach was hit with what was ruled a low blow, sold the injury like he was Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, and was unable to continue.

The reaction on Twitter was mixed with most people stating that Redkach wasn't even hit with a punch at all or if so it was a glancing shot.

Others thought that Redkach had been smashed in the kidneys and the result was believable.

In any case, Redkach was carried out on a stretcher, while I waited for a wrestler to come out of nowhere and overturn the stretcher as happened so often in pro wrestling of days past, and the fight moved to the scorecards with Prograis winning the justified unanimous decision.

What a trainwreck.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored five points on the day, which moves the total to 50-46 on the year.

Boxing Challenge: Charlo rallies past Harrison

The rematch between Tony Harrison and Jermell Charlo appeared to be the opposite of their first fight.
Charlo seemed to have won their first battle and the judges saw it differently-scoring for Harrison.
In the rematch, other than a second-round flash knockdown, it was Harrison appearing to be winning and yet the judges had Charlo leading on the scorecards.

However, this time the fighter that didn't deserve to be ahead made sure that his hand was raised as Jermall Charlo dropped Tony Harrison twice in the eleventh round, survived California Athletic Commission members entering the ring after the second knockdown and win back the WBC junior middleweight title that he lost one year ago.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Charlo fight without a small dab of controversy somewhere and this one was more than the CAA entry, it arrived from referee Jack Reiss, who gave every chance for Harrison to survive the two knockdowns when it could have been arguably easy to end the fight and instead ended it just as Harrison seemed to be regaining his senses a bit.
I didn't think it was an awful stoppage by Reiss, but it seemed like he tried to allow Harrison the opportunity to fight through adversity as a champion should and just as he was turning the tide, the hassock was placed in his way to trip over.

I had Harrison up by two points entering the eleven and had he avoided the second-round knockdown in a round that he was winning (giving Charlo a 10-8 round in a round that was going to be scored 10-9 for Harrison), could have had the fight well in hand on my scorecard with two rounds to go.
That takes nothing away from Charlo, who took advantage of Harrison moving less than in their initial faceoff and caught him to take away much of the controversy that was looming from the judges, but while I would think a third fight is eventually in order, I would think that a three belt unification is next for Charlo with WBA/IBF champion Julian Williams, while it wouldn't be a bad thing for Harrison to pair with another former champion Jarrett Hurd and attempt to avenge Hurd's past win over Harrison.
Those two fights together would give the Charlo-Williams winner a natural opponent for their first defense and one capable of winning the three titles.
PBC is deep at 154, but I'm not sure there is a standout among Charlo, Williams, Hurd, Harrison, Erislandy Lara, and Erickson Lubin.
However, it's a unique situation as it seems that almost any of these fighters are capable of beating the others, can make interesting fights with almost any combination, and the victorious champion may come down to the style that suits a particular fighter, not that any of this group is above the others overall.

However, the Charlo brothers don't make themselves easy to root for and this win wasn't an exception as Charlo commented that he "dominated" (he didn't) and that he was off to bigger and better things (which is reasonable but could have been far more gracious in victory).
The Charlo brothers have so much to prove ( between them they have only Jermall's win over Julian Williams over a top guy) still, but when you only want to fight once or twice a year and only one is against a Harrison type (lower end of the top ten ), the chances of becoming a true star dim.
It's tough to claim "Lions Only" when the best opponents are usually a notch or two lower on the food chain.

The PBC delivered a fun night of boxing on Fox with the other challenge bout as heavyweight prospect Efe Ajagba knocked out trialhorse Iago Kiladze in a surprisingly captivating scrap in five rounds.
The power-punching former Nigerian Olympian dropped Kiladze in the second and appeared to be on his way to be knocking Kiladze out for the fourth time in his last five fights in the third round as Kiladze was rolling around the ring as if he was wearing roller skates.
Ajagba backed off as if he was expecting either Kiladze to drop to the floor or the referee to move in and end the fight.
Neither of those happened and as Ajagba moved forward to finish what seemed to be a foe on his last legs, Kiladze launched a right hand that sent Ajagba crashing down to the canvas!
Ajagba didn't appear seriously hurt, but it was enough to allow Kiladze to survive the round and the following fourth.
Ajagba knocked Kiladze down again in the fifth round with a right that sent Kiladze crumpling to the mat that could have seen the end of the fight, but Kiladze continued and still attempted to fire those counter rights to keep Ajagba honest, but as he was trapped along the ropes it was the corner of Kiladze that jumped to the apron and allow their man to end the fight honorably and on his feet.
Give Kiladze credit for making such a strong attempt at winning and Ajagba continues his learning curve as a prospect.
Ajagba has plenty of power, but he is still very raw and after being knocked down by a blown-up cruiserweight, it's not an unreasonable concern to wonder about the eventual quality of his chin when he starts taking shots from contenders rather than journeymen.

The other fight on the entertaining PBC evening wasn't a boxing challenge event, but it allowed me to watch one of my most enjoyable things in boxing- An unknown fighter brought in as an enhancement talent to lose to a hot prospect doesn't and pulls an upset that not only is fun to watch but dismays the promotion as well.
Former U.S. Olympian Karlos Balderas was stopped in six rounds by Mexico's Rene Tellez Giron in a fight that was notable for several reasons other than the obvious upset.
The fight was often spent toe to toe that saw both fighters score well, but Balderas seemed to be the stronger and bigger boxer for the first two and three-quarters rounds.
Near the end of the third, Giron's left hook dropped onto the jaw of Balderas and sent him flying to the ring surface in what seemed to be a spectacular KO.
Surprisingly, Balderas was able to get up, but he was clearly buzzed and the fight should have been called as referee Joe Corona asked Balderas to walk to him (he couldn't), Balderas stumbled backward.
Corona instead allowed the fight to continue and the bell shortly clanged saving Balderas, who gained even more time when he drilled Giron extremely low early in the next round.

Here's my problem with the non-stoppage- it can be argued that Corona heard the thump sound on the mat to indicate there were ten seconds or less in the round and that allowing Balderas to continue and give him the minute between rounds to recover was appropriate.
That would be a fair argument and even a good one- If that standard was usually followed by referees that far more often stop fights in that situation than allow the fight to continue.
However, it usually isn't used properly and fights are ended and in all honesty, if the situations were reversed and it was Giron in that spot and not the heavily PBC invested Balderas, do you really believe that Giron would have been allowed the chance to continue?
I doubt it.

Balderas (with the aid of the low blow) did manage to recover and exchange pretty evenly for the next few rounds of the eight-rounder with Giron.
I still had Giron well ahead on the cards and, with this being boxing, I was already wondering just Giron was going to be screwed on the scorecards against the better-connected fighter when yet another left hook smacked against Balderas and sent him to the floor again.
This time, Corona decided to end the fight and the upset was complete.
The other fun part about watching these types of upsets?
If you watch enough boxing, you have to be familiar with the "face of PBC" Sam Walton ( no, not THAT Sam Walton), who appears in someone's corner for every PBC fight and for PBC fighters in their rare inter-promotional fights, as a one-man support squad,
At first, when Al Haymon appeared on the scene with Floyd Mayweather at HBO and began to accumulate power in the sport, I thought Walton WAS Al Haymon!
That is how often you see the face of Sam Walton when you view PBC events and when you have the chance to see Sam's head down and face frowning, it's a sight to see!

From London, heavyweight prospect Daniel DuBois knocked out Kyotaro Fujimoto in the second round of their scheduled ten rounder.
DuBois knocked Fujimoto down with a jab in the second and after Fujimoto managed to get up, DuBois ended the fight quickly with a piledriving right hand that was over before Fujimoto hit the floor.
DuBois didn't prove much in this squash match other than that he might be ready to see an increase in resistance from his opponents.
There are plenty of questions that DuBois needs to answer as he rises up the rankings, but the power isn't one of those.

In a WBO eliminator, middleweight Liam Williams impressively disposed of Alantez Fox in five rounds in what might put him eventually in the path of WBO beltholder Demetrius Andrade.
Williams won every round against the 6'4 Fox, cutting him early, knocking him down in the fourth, before badly hurting Fox in the fifth.
The desperate Fox was penalized a point for holding but was soon sent wobbling into the ropes and the fight was stopped thereafter.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored five points on the day to change the season numbers to 312-276.

Boxing Challenge: KO's, New Boss and a Robbery

The last big weekend in the 2018 boxing year saw a tremendous heavyweight battle with a clean knockout, one European taking the place of another at the top of a division, two disappointing performances and one of those ended in a terrible decision.

The best fight was in London, where Dillian Whyte and Dereck Chisora hooked up in a rematch of their bombs away bout of 2016 that Whyte won by a narrow split decision that I scored a draw.
This one wasn't quite of that caliber, but it still was very exciting and action filled (think of taking two tests and scoring a 95 and a 92, both are excellent, but one is slightly better) and the ending was quite dramatic.
I had Chisora ahead 95-94 entering the 11th (6-4 with Chisora losing a point for a low blow in the eighth) before Chisora lost another point in the eleventh for elbowing.
Just when you began to wonder if those two points had the potential to cost Chisora the fight on the cards, Whyte decided to make that point moot with a left hook that wiped out Chisora for the evening and keep Whyte at the top of the list of heavyweight contenders.
Whyte deserves a rematch vs Anthony Joshua and may get it in the spring, while this might have been the last stand for Chisora, it was a strong one and it might be best for Chisora to step aside on a high note, although his effort in this one might earn him more paychecks.
On the undercard in a fight that I've not seen of this writing, Britain's Charlie Edwards upset Cristofer Rosales via unanimous decision to win the WBC flyweight title.

In Manchester, Josh Warrington retained his IBF featherweight title for the first time with a unanimous decision over the favored Carl Frampton.
Warrington shot to the lead by winning five of the first six rounds and never looked back, winning on my card 117-111.
Warrington isn't going to knock out many (only six KO's), but his attack never slows and he simply did not allow Frampton to get comfortable enough to fire back and keep Warrington off of him.
The swarming Warrington throws punches by a rate that surpasses other noted volume punchers in the division such as WBA champion Leo Santa Cruz.
Frampton was talking retirement after the fight and the time may be right for Frampton to step away.
Frampton isn't getting hurt, but he hasn't been the same fighter since his winning first fight against Leo Santa Cruz and even though he's still a top ten fighter, he's dropped back from the best of the division.
As for the victor, Warrington is rumored to be headed to the U.S in 2019 for a title unification fight vs WBO champ Oscar Valdez, which should be a good one, although selfishly, a Warrington unification against Leo Santa Cruz might set a record for combined punches in a fight.
I'd still rank Warrington as an underdog against Valdez, Santa Cruz or WBC champ Gary Russell, but Warrington has surprised observers in his last two wins and he'd be a live underdog against any of the three.

On the Warrington-Frampton undercard, former minor titleholders at middleweight battled in a fight to prove future viability with Hassan N'Dam winning a majority decision over Martin Murray.
I scored the fight even at 114-114, but it seemed like N'Dam did a little more and was certainly more active than Murray, who showed a reluctance that he had not shown in past efforts.

The PBC returned for a "reboot" on network television and it reportedly did reasonably well in the ratings after doing plenty of promotional work during football.
The card pushed the Charlo brothers and while neither brother looked particularly effective, both deserved victories, but surprisingly only one received a raised hand.

Jermall Charlo defeated late replacement Matt Korobov via unanimous decision (115-113 on my card) with a late run that saw him win five of the final six rounds to gain the victory,
The cards were wider than I had it scored, with one ridiculous 119-108 scorecard being unfair to Korobov, who showed that he deserved another chance against good competition with a strong outing on short notice.
Charlo now using the nickname "Hit Man" which both Thomas Hearns and Bret Hart should sue for damaging a trademark didn't score a knockdown, but he did have Korobov hurt in the final round.
I'm still not totally convinced that Charlo will do well against the best of the division.
Charlo's best wins are still a KO of a somewhat untested at the time Julian Williams, a decision of an aging Austin Trout and now Korobov, who hadn't fought a quality opponent in four years, so there are still questions to be answered- questions other than who said it was a good idea to name Charlo "Hit Man" that is...

In the shocker of the day, Tony Harrison stunned Jermell Charlo via unanimous decision to take away the WBC junior middleweight title in a fight that would be quickly forgotten if not for the terrible decision (I had Charlo winning 116-112), Charlo's charging that Harrison told him that Charlo had clearly won to the interviewer that Harrison had denied, shortly after Harrison had graciously called Charlo a great champion, told him that he would receive a rematch and Harrison (on live national TV no less) responded with "F You, I'll fight Hurd then", referring to a unification with Jarrett Hurd, who holds the WBA and IBF titles and was expected to fight Charlo next.
A Hurd-Harrison fight would be fine to unify, but they have fought previously with Hurd stopping Harrison in nine rounds, so a rematch wouldn't especially be anticipated.
I'd bet we'll see the Harrison-Charlo rematch instead and hope it'll be better to watch than this one.
Charlo clearly deserved the win, but like his brother didn't impress doing so.
Both Charlo's seem to be overrated as punchers and underrated as boxers and would seem to be most effective when they blend the two styles.
As for the PBC, they learned a valuable lesson- when your fighters fight once or twice a year and you wait to have your best fight the best- anything can happen to derail the end game.

Heavyweight Dominic Breazeale knocked out Carlos Negron in the opening fight in the ninth round in a stay busy fight until Breazeale recieves his mandatory title fight against WBC champion Deontay Wilder.
Breazeale had not fought in over a year in a somewhat common occurrence among PBC fighters and needed to get some rounds in.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me 6-4 over the weekend.
My season lead was cut to 214-197.
Ramon scored two points for wins by Breazeale and Charlo along with one each from Whyte and N'Dam.
My points came from Breazeale (two) and one each from Charlo and Whyte