Boxing Challenge: Martin escapes

      The boxing weekend lacked a title fight but there were three fights that could affect boxing in the near future as well as down the road.

In the main event from Las Vegas for Showtime and PBC, lightweight contender Frank Martin used a late rally to escape with a narrow but unanimous decision over Artem Harutyunyan.

 Harutyunyan forced Martin's hand a bit with a style that I wouldn't call overly aggressive nor a pure boxing style either, that confused Martin through most of the fight and kept the Texan a step behind.

Martin had his moments, including a big sixth round that saw him stagger Harutyunyan and looked to have the momentum in his direction but Harutyunyan took over instead and had a sizable lead on my card after nine rounds.

Martin's trainer Derrick James thought so too as he exhorted Martin to step up the pace between the ninth and tenth round and Martin responded with some of his best rounds of the fight, sweeping the final three rounds and forcing Harutyunyan to take a knee in the final round.

The knockdown cost Harutyunyan on one scorecard as he would have gotten a draw on one scorecard without it, losing on that 114-113 and on the other two cards 115-112.

I scored Harutyunyan a winner at 114-113 but the fight was very close with several rounds that could have been given to either fighter, so giving Martin the nod is acceptable and reasonable in my opinion.

Still, even in victory, and considering the terrific try by the former Olympic bronze medalist, Harutyunyan, Martin now has some question marks for a potential fight against an elite fighter in the division.

PBC isn't especially strong at 135 pounds, other than Gervonta Davis and maybe Issac Cruz, so it's possible that Martin's outing might make either man more likely to try Martin now than after his dazzling win over Michel Rivera, so this could eventually be a good thing for Martin if he just had a bad night or trouble with a difficult style.

In the co-feature, junior welterweight Elvis Rodriguez scored the biggest win of his career when he stopped former WBC champion Viktor Postol in the seventh round.

The fight was evenly fought through four rounds and Postol was winning the fifth before a Rodriguez right hand late in the round wobbled Postol a bit.

Rodriguez dropped Postol in round six and broke Postol's nose, causing some profuse bleeding.

Postol survived the sixth but Rodriguez poured it on in the seventh with the referee maybe stopping the fight a smidge too soon.

However, Postol wasn't going to turn the fight around and it seemed like a matter of time in any case.

Rodriguez looked much better than he did in his previous fight, a majority decision win over Joseph Adorno, and might be on his way to another improvement in opponent soon.

As for Postol, it was his second loss by stoppage in a row after never having an early loss before and unless he would be satisfied with being a name opponent, might be time to consider retirement.

The other boxing challenge fight was the co-feature from Matchroom/DAZN in Detroit for the pro debut of Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz, who used his superior skills and speed to dominate trialhorse Juan Carlos Burgos over ten rounds.

Burgos was at one time good enough to fight for a world title and should have won one, drawing against Roman Martinez in a fight he won in my opinion.

But those days are gone and Burgos is just another rugged opponent that good young lightweights face to gain experience with Burgos losing decisions to those fighters as each tries to be the first to stop him.

Cruz was no different than Keyshawn Davis, Mikey Garcia, or Devin Haney, all of who dominated Burgos, and yet couldn't stop him as they settled for dominant unanimous decision victories.

Cruz won every round on two cards and mine at 100-90 as the other card was 98-92 for Cruz, which in its own way is one of the crazier cards this year as I can't find one round for Burgos, no matter how hard I try to.

Cruz is planning on fighting an even better opponent in his second fight and hopes to gain a title fight in his third pro bout.

I'm not sure if that is feasible, especially if Devin Haney stays in the division and holds all four titles but Cruz will have his chances against the better fighters sooner or later and the inevitable fight with Keyshawn Davis, who Cruz defeated multiple times in the amateurs, including for Olympic gold.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 120 Pts (4) 

Ramon Malpica: 107 Pts (0)

Vince Samano: 87 Pts (3)

Boxing Challenge: Showtime Upsets in Vegas!

    The Showtime card Saturday night was a surprisingly strong one with a world championship changing hands, a prospect moving into contender status, and a late replacement dominating a fighter that had been heavily pushed by the promoter (PBC ) and the network itself.

In the main event, Hector Garcia grabbed an opportunity after WBA junior lightweight champion Roger Gutierrez had to drop out of his title defense against mandatory contender Chris Colbert after testing positive for Covid-19 and turned it into the night of his boxing career as Garcia dominated, bullied, knocked Colbert down for the first time in his career, and turned the highly touted Colbert into someone running for his life in the last third of the fight as Garcia won an easy unanimous decision in Las Vegas.

Garcia was a former Olympian but had not fought anyone near the level of Colbert before this fight and the first four round were fought evenly before Garcia began to hammer Colbert to the body to slow down a fighter that used his legs to control all of his previous fights.

Garcia threw lots of punches that surprised Colbert when he could not grab and hold as a tactic accumulating points and not allowing Colbert to fire many counterpunches.

In the seventh, Garcia dropped Colbert and almost finished the fight then and there with a badly hurt Colbert showing heart in surviving the round but Colbert shifted into permanent "Camacho" mode for the remainder of the fight with more interest in surviving than attempting to fire a miracle bomb.

I scored Garcia an easy 118-109 (10-2 with a knockdown in rounds) victor, which was near the three official scores.

For Garcia, the win is the stepping forward to the world stage and it will be Garcia that faces the healed Gutierrez for the WBA title.

As for Colbert, this is a devastating defeat that not only cost him a championship attempt but Colbert also took a beating that some boxers never recover from and at a minimum this loss provided future opponents a game plan to follow in future bouts.

The co-feature was the fight I was most looking forward to and even though it was far from a stinker, it was the least impactful of the three fights on the card as junior welterweight Gary Antuanne Russell scored his sixteenth stoppage in as many wins and won his first fight over a world-class fighter in stopping former WBC champion Viktor Postol with seconds remaining in the fight.

Don't get too excited about stopping Postol as the stoppage was a poor one considering Postol may have been mildly dazed but far from hurt before the fight was stopped.

Still, Russell fought very well and would have been the deserved winner on the scorecards.

I had Russell ahead 87-84 entering the final round and he clearly was going to add the final round over the game but distracted Postol, a native of Ukraine, who fought well but was outfought by Russell.

Postol's three losses were all decision losses to champions Terence Crawford, Josh Taylor, and Jose Ramirez, so PBC will likely give that stat an unjustified push but Russell looked solid in his first try against top ten fighters and I'd think Russell will be in the mix for one of those four titles in the division that Josh Taylor may be planning to vacate.

In another surprise involving a former Olympian, Argentina's Fernando Martinez overpowered and outslugged Jerwin Ancajas via unanimous decision and took away the IBF junior bantamweight title held by Ancajas.

Ancajas had made nine defenses of the title since 2016 and was scheduled to unify his title with the WBO version held by Kazuto Ioka in his next fight after their first fight was canceled due to Covid-19 in December, so unless Martinez would like to jump in and take the Ioka fight, the unification in the division is off the board for now as Ancajas does have a rematch clause.

The fight itself was an action-filled affair that saw each fighter throw and land often but Martinez held a large edge in both as I scored Martinez an easy 117-111 winner.

Sunday from London, Lawrence Okolie retained his WBO Cruiserweight title over Michal Cieslak via unanimous decision in a sloppy fight that saw the larger Okolie control Cieslak and scored the fight's only knockdown in the fifth round.

IBF champion Mairis Briedis was in attendance dressed as Super Mario and what could be a good sign that Briedis vs Okolie for the best fighter in a weak division could be coming soon, should Bredis dispose of his mandatory against Jai Opetaia in his next outing.

Boxing Challenge-This Week's Pts in parentheses

Vince Samano 28 Pts (4)

TRS 26 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica 23 Pts (2)

Boxing Challenge: Ramirez evades Postol, Dubois destroys.

The boxing world anticipated Jose Ramirez defending his WBC and WBO junior welterweight titles against difficult veteran Viktor Postol from the Las Vegas bubble for several reasons.
Getting the fight in at all after two postponements, Ramirez dealing with a difficult style from a more experienced and taller fighter, and would Ramirez be looking forward to a unification bout against WBA and IBF champion Josh Taylor at the expense of looking past Postol?

The answers to those questions vary, but Ramirez will be marching on to face Josh Taylor after a difficult majority decision over Postol, winning 116-112 and 115-113 on two cards with the other scoring it a draw at 114-114.
The fight swung back and forth between the two, as I had Ramirez winning the first few rounds, Postol taking command for the next handful, Ramirez then appeared to be coming on to put the fight in his column, but Postol rallied to put the seed of doubt in the minds of many before the cards were announced.
Ramirez was the aggressor throughout, but he did have his struggles against the jab and straight right of Postol and it does make you wonder about his chances against Taylor, who isn't as tall as Postol, but can box well and punches harder.
I'm willing to give Ramirez the benefit of the doubt between a thirteen-month layoff and three training camps for the fight for a good, not great victory, but he'll have to improve before a fight against Taylor.
As for Postol, at 37, he proved that he is still at a championship-caliber level and he should be in the mix for one of the titles that the winner of Ramirez-Taylor will be sure to vacate after their unification in 2021.

The co-feature saw undefeated junior welterweight Arnold Barboza win every round on all three scorecards (and mine) and only a late-round point deduction cost Barboza a perfect score of 100-90 in a unanimous decision over Tony Luis.
Barboza didn't step up the pace looking for a KO, but he was content with a lopsided domination and should be tested more in a possible next outing against former title challenger Alex Saucedo in what I think would be a very interesting crossroads fight.

Earlier in the day, ESPN+ streamed the best heavyweight prospect in the world as Daniel Dubois blasted out the sadly out of his league Ricardo Snijders in two rounds.
Dubois knocked Snijders down three times in the first round with the third knockdown occurring late enough in the round for Snijders to survive, but within seconds of round two Snijders was on the floor for the fight's conclusion.
Dubois looks the part as a future star, but his competition has not been stellar and who knows what happens when he gets hit.
Some answers will come in Dubois's next fight against undefeated former Olympic silver medalist Joe Joyce, who is very slow but hurts what he hits.
Dubois vs Joyce is another upcoming bout that I'm very interested in seeing.

And then there's Maude. errr PBC on Fox with another main event of dreadfully mismatched fighters.
Erislandy Lara had been given praise by many. including myself, for engaging more often and delivering more exciting fights in a split decision loss to Jarrett Hurd and a draw against Brian Castano and the "new" Lara was expected to cruise to victory against New England clubfighter Greg Vendetti.
Lara did cruise to victory, although the scores of 116-112 and 117-111 times two were closer than I saw the fight at 119-111,  but he didn't excite anyone doing so and he certainly didn't pick up the pace in winning.
In other words, the "old" Erislandy Lara arrived when the new one would have saved himself and the viewers a long twelve rounds.
Lara looks to fight Canelo Alvarez next (fat chance) or the winner of the three title unification fight between Jermell Charlo and Jeison Rosario, which is more likely with Lara and the winner promoted by PBC but may not be the immediate focus.

The co-feature saw plenty of punches landed in an entertaining fight at a lower level as late replacement Vladimir Hernandez won a unanimous decision over Alfredo Angulo in a super middleweight fight that was initially scheduled as an IBF eliminator for a shot at Caleb Plant.
Both fighters landed plenty of punches, but either fighter would have had issues with an opponent of average speed, and Hernandez at 12-4 isn't going to beat very many contenders, but the story is Angulo, who is at the stage of his career that he needs to consider retirement.
Angulo, who upset Peter Quillin in his last fight, takes punishment in every fight and unless he's matched carefully as against Quillin, he will take more and more abuse.
The three judges scored the fight 98-92 for Hernandez, while I scored it for Hernandez a bit closer at 96-94.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored seven points over the weekend.
The total moves to 101-94.

Boxing Challenge: Prograis and Donaire score WBSS KO wins

Plenty of catching up to do here after my weekend trip to Virginia and I'll be writing about those stops along with catching up with the remainder of the Cleveland Browns draft picks, including one that I am very excited about.

However, first, we start with the weekend in boxing and after a tremendous card from Matchroom and DAZN on Friday night, the Saturday portion had a high bar to leap to match that card and although some performances were excellent, that bar didn't come close to being reached.

The financially troubled World Boxing Super Series finally returned with two semi-finals and they were pretty predictable from Lafayette, Louisiana.
Regis Prograis won the WBA junior welterweight title from Kiryl Relikh when Relikh's corner stopped the fight with Prograis in full control in round six.
Prograis knocked Relikh down in the first round and never was threatened after that, cutting Relikh's nose, which bled most of the fight and simply didn't allow the champion to sustain any sort of offense.
Prograis will fight the winner of the Ivan Baranchyk-Josh Taylor fight which will also be for Baranchyk's IBF title in the finals of the tournament in a unification fight.
It's strange how boxing works as just 18 months after Terence Crawford vacated all four titles in a division that seemingly was cleaned out, the division has four exciting young champions (WBA Prograis, IBF Baranchyk, WBC Jose Ramirez and WBO Maurice Hooker) has another in Josh Taylor, who would be right there with a win over Baranchyk and looks like it could be on the verge of some compelling battles.
Meanwhile, Crawford, who moved up because of a lack of remaining challenges, looks to be filled with struggles with a lack of options at welterweight due to a top-heavy division that has most of those fighters promoted by someone else.
Only in boxing.

Also, in Lafayette, Nonito Donaire retained his WBA bantamweight belt with a highlight reel knockout in the sixth round over late replacement Stephon Young.
Young, who was on the undercard in a fight made for this exact situation, replaced WBO champion Zolani Tete, who pulled out on fight week due to a shoulder injury.
I like that the WBSS thinks ahead for these concerns, but Young wasn't on the same level as Donaire or for a world-class level tournament and it showed as Donaire won every round on his way to the one punch knockout.
Donaire will move on to the finals against the winner of the Naoya Inoue-Emmanuel Rodriguez tilt for Rodriguez's IBF championship.

I'm usually quite complimentary towards Showtime's boxing program.
Their production is top notch, Al Bernstein and Paulie Malignaggi are the best color commentators in the game and even though Mauro Ranallo isn't my choice of blow by blow men that man the mike, he's not like Gus Johnson and ruins things for me.
Still, even with all of that, the three-bout card from PBC, Saturday night was to put it nicely- a snoozer and should I prefer to go negative- the worst card from a major boxing provider perhaps ever.

The main event was for one of those minor trinkets that the WBA likes to hand out in return for sanctioning fees as former IBF lightweight champion Robert Easter drew with former IBF junior lightweight and lightweight champion Rances Barthelemy in one of the worst fights that you'll see.
A draw was the fairest verdict in a fight that saw NEITHER fighter land 55 punches over 12 rounds.
Just awful in the ring and awful that Showtime accepted this as the main event, to begin with.
I scored it 114-114, but hell, score it as you wish, I'm just lucky I stayed awake during it.
Let us all simply hope that the WBA, Showtime, Al Haymon, or anyone else does not decide to make this one happen again because this was arguably the worst main event that a major boxing network has televised in years.

The semi-main looked bad from the day that it was announced and it was just as bad in the ring as former WBC junior welterweight champion Viktor Postol won every boring round on my card (100-90) over Mohammed Mimoune.
Mimoune fell behind early against the taller Postol and with Mimoune's two career KO's. he wasn't coming from behind for a knockout.
Postol will become the mandatory contender for WBC champion Jose Ramirez, which will hopefully be more entertaining than this one was.

Heavyweight punisher Efe Ajajba blew out Michael Wallisch in two rounds of a squash match that was as competitive as expected.
Ajajba will hurt whom he hits but needs time to develop and I'd bet he's another year away from fighting someone that will really test him.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica eleven to eight for the Saturday totals to move my lead to 108-95.
The difference was maybe my best night for bonuses ever for me as I added points for calling the rounds for KO's by Prograis, Donaire, and Ajajba.

Berchelt crushes Barros, Taylor defeats Postol

In the boxing challenge, there were several impressive performances, but the day's first star goes to Miguel Berchelt, who retained his WBC junior lightweight title with a three-round smashing of former featherweight champion Jonathan Barros in Mexico.
Berchelt badly hurt Barros in the first and scored a knockdown in the second that had it happened before the waning seconds of that round, could have ended the fight then and there.
Berchelt immediately sent Barros to the mat in the third and relentlessly stalked Barros with a real beating before Barros hit the canvas again.
The game, if outgunned Barros rose, but his corner had seen enough and entered the ring to stop the bout.
Barros might have been an expired item, but Berchelt did exactly what a champion does in a situation against an opponent with little left than a name- he took him out quickly and impressively.
Berchelt has an all-Mexican mandatory defense against Mickey Roman next and hopefully, then a unification bout can be matched with the talented, if mercurial WBA champ (which he should not hold, but that's beside the point) Gervonta Davis, who is the only fighter in the division that can make an argument other than Berchelt as the best in the division.

Another impressive win was Scotland's Josh Taylor, who pulled a mild upset over former WBC junior welterweight champion Viktor Postol by a far (FAR) wider than was remotely realistic unanimous decision in Glasgow.
Taylor dropped Postol in the tenth round of a strong action fight and that knockdown gave Taylor the win on my card by a 114-113 tally.
Taylor now earns a mandatory shot at WBC champion Jose Ramirez sometime soon, but I wouldn't rule out a chance of Taylor entering the next World Boxing Super Series tournament at junior welterweight.
Postol fought well in defeat and I'd consider giving him a slot in that bracket as well.

Also in the U.K, but in England, veteran middleweight contender Martin Murray continued his later career drive towards a fifth world title attempt with a unanimous decision over Roberto Garcia of Mexico.
Murray wins a minor title from Garcia and keeps his name around in the rankings for a potential rematch with Gennady Golovkin or Canelo Alvarez, should he dethrone Golovkin in September.
I would rather see Murray get a shot at WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders, which would be a grudge match after that bout has been canceled twice, a winnable fight for Murray and should draw a nice house in England as well.
I haven't seen this fight yet, so no scoring on this one.

On ESPN, Golden Boy's Vergil Ortiz looks like their best young prospect since Canelo Alvarez as he looked very strong in against his first name opponent as he ripped through former junior lightweight champion Juan Carlos Salgado in three rounds in Los Angeles.
Ortiz's body shot folded Salgado in half and finished him off cleanly.
I'm a big believer in Ortiz and think that Golden Boy might have the real deal in Ortiz after several disappointments among their homegrown talents.

In the boxing challenge, I scored six points to Ramon Malpica's three on the weekend to push my lead to 107-83.
My six came from two points from wins from Martin Murray, Vergil Ortiz and Miguel Berchelt.
Ramon's three were added with two points from Berchelt and one from Ortiz.

Crawford unifies over Postol

Terence Crawford unified his WBO junior welterweight title with the WBC version of the title with a easy unanimous decision win over Viktor Postol in Las Vegas.

Since as with all pay per views fights,I am unable to watch those due to work,I am relying on the words of others for the bout.
The fight was even for four rounds,before Crawford(TRS rated 1st at 140) dropped Postol (rated 2nd by TRS) twice in the fifth round and didn't lose another round as he cruised to victory,

Crawford called for Manny Pacquiao after the win,if Pacquiao would drop the weight to fight at Crawford's division,but reading the reports,some have been critical of Crawford for not stepping the pace forward in an attempt to finish Postol off.
Crawford would certainly be a preferable foe for Pacquiao than the other proposed opponent-the also Top Rank controlled WBO welterweight champ Jessie Vargas.but I'm not sure that Top Rank wants to take that fight so quickly.
Crawford might be the right fighter to tame Pacquiao,but another cash-in against Vargas first enables the money train to keep rolling...

Oscar Valdez was impressive in winning the vacant WBO featherweight title in blowing out Matias Rueda in just two rounds.
Valdez looks to be a coming star in the 126 pound division,but the issue is that all of the fighters rated ahead of him in the TRS rankings (Valdez is currently 5th) are all promoted by Al Haymon's PBC,so those fighters could be tough fights to make for Valdez.

Ramon Malpica and I each notched four points in the boxing challenge,which currently stands at 88-73

Postol stuns Matthysse-Boxing Challenge

The boxing challenge with R.L.Malpica rolled on with an upset in the 140 pound division that has division shaking affects...

On the HBO side of the evening,the shocker came when Viktor Postol stunned Lucas Matthysse with a tenth round knockout.
Postol,not known as a puncher,dropped Matthyssee with a short right hand that dropped the Argentine to his knees and despite looking like he could have risen,chose not to.
Matthysse was favored by most,but I did see a few people looking at Postol as a live dog in this one,due to his style,which controlled the day.
It has become clear that Matthysse cannot handle taller fighters with a decent jab,which is how Danny Garcia took a close decision over him.
This was not nearly as close as I had Postol ahead 87-84 entering the tenth round.
Postol earned the WBC title with the win and immediately was being talked about as the next opponent for WBO titlist Terrence Crawford,who is an HBO star and in need of a strong future fight should he defeat Dierry Jean in three weeks on the network.
Ramon and I each picked Matthysse,so "No points on that one"

On a side note-ever notice how huge punchers often times show little heart in losses?
I'll be talking about this on a future podcast,but I'm always surprised that a bomber has no qualms about going toe to toe for 12 rounds as Lucas Matthyssee did in 12 rounds of hell vs Ruslan Provodnikov,but often will not continue after being out-jabbed by a boxer/puncher.
It has to be mostly mental....

The HBO co-feature saw Ramon and I each add two points for Antonio Orozco's unanimous decision win over Humberto Soto.
The cards were all wider than my 96-94 score for Orozco,but the judges had the correct winner,so that's as much as I can ask for....

Over on Showtime,Ramon and I each added two points for getting the winners correct,but not how they earned their victories..

Adrien Broner added the WBA version of the 140 pound crown with a 12th round stoppage of Khalib Allakhverdiev.
I had Broner far ahead at the time of the ending,but Broner didn't overly impress in the win.
Broner simply was in with a fighter that allowed him to do what he wanted.
The best part of this fight (and I mean that loosely) came when Broner challenged Floyd Mayweather to offer up Ashley Theophane from his "Money Team".
That's Ashley Theophane as in 35 year old,39 and 6 with zero victories over world class opposition.
Ashley Theophane.
That fight will get made too as PBC continues to emulate the worst of pro wrestling.
Only in boxing.....

In the co-feature,Jose Pedraza retained his IBF Jr.Lightweight title with a split decision over Edner Cherry.
I scored Cherry a 115-113 winner and wouldn't have quibbled with a similar scorecard for Pedraza.
However,both Pedraza winning scorecards notched a 117-111 verdict,which was way out of whack in my opinion.
Pedraza lost even more points with me with a post-fight interview that saw him comment on a potential rematch with "Yes,but he'll have to wait a while" when asked why "I'm the champ,he waits for me".
Uhhh,Ok.

I still retain my four point lead over R.L in the boxing challenge at 118-114