Boxing Challenge: Boots stops Zayas

    The boxing weekend saw Jaron "Boots" Ennis do more than just snatch the WBA and WBO junior middleweight titles from Xander Zayas. Ennis solidified himself as a star in the sport and did it excitingly as Ennis stopped Zayas in seven rounds in Brooklyn, New York.

Ennis dropped Zayas in the first and fifth rounds before finishing Zayas in the seventh, but was forced to survive in the third round when Zayas appeared to have Ennis in trouble.

While Ennis was far ahead on my card at the time of the stoppage (59-53), Zayas had his successes as well in a fight that will be considered for fight of the year.

Ennis's promoter, Eddie Hearn, stated Zayas has a rematch clause should he activate it, but before the fight, Zayas stated he was likely to rise to 160 pounds, so a rematch is not guaranteed.

Ennis seems most likely to meet IBF champion Josh Kelly in a unification fight unless a more lucrative ( and long-awaited) fight against Vergil Ortiz.

Kelly is also promoted by Matchroom.

Two prospects notched impressive KO wins as the co-features as Emiliano Vargas stopped Bryce Mills in four rounds and Ben Whittaker swatted Richard "Popeye" Rivera aside in two rounds.

In the main event from Zuffa on Paramount Plus, former WBC junior welterweight champion Jose Valenzuela avenged a 2022 knockout loss to Edwin De Los Santos with a second round stoppage.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 67 Pts (5)

Ramon Malpica: 54 Pts (4)

Vince Samano:  44 Pts (2) 

Boxing Challenge: Junior Middleweight Madness!

    The non-New York side of the boxing weekend was centered around the junior middleweight division, with two titles being unified and another changing hands in a surprising upset.

The upset occurred in Newcastle, England, when former Olympian Josh Kelly upset Bakhram Murtazaliev to win the IBF version of the title via majority decision.

Kelly entered his pro career with plenty of hype, but was stopped by David Avanesyan and while on a seven fight winning streak, had beaten no one of note, while Murtazaliev had destroyed Tim Tszyu in three rounds fifteen months ago.

Kelly was the quicker and sharper fighter and when he survived a fourth round knockdown, Kelly began to take control and even scored a flash knockdown of his own in the ninth.

My issue is the scoring of Steve Gray, not for his scoring of the fight which was 114-113 Kelly same as mine.

It's for his scoring the final round even. 

I hate even rounds and to score the final round of a close fight even is a travesty.

Had Gray scored the final round for Murtazaliev, the fight would have ended in a draw with thee champion retaining the title.

The other scores were 115-111 for Kelly, a bit wide for my tastes, and even at 113-113.

The other title bout in the 154 pound division was in San Juan, Puerto Rico as Xander Zayas unified the WBA and WBO championships with a split decision over Abass Baraou.

Neither fighter was seriously hurt in the fight but I thought Zayas had the better of the action and agreed with the 116-112 scores on two cards for Zayas and the score for Baraou of 116-112 was surprised.

Sunday was the second card for Paramount+ and Zuffa Boxing for a very strong card.

In the main event, former WBC junior welterweight champion Jose Valenzuela fought through a severe cut to win a unanimous decision over Diego Torres.

Torres had his moments, including wobbling Valenzuela in the sixth round but his superior skils allowed him to counter the walk-down aggression of Torres.

All three scores were 99-91 for Valenzela, which I agreed with.

The co-feature was a cracker as Serhii Bohachuk rebounded from his second defeat to Brandon Adams, to win a split decision over Radzhab Butaev.

This fight was contested in front of the other throughout the fight with Bohachuk landing the harder punches and Butaev scoring more often.

Scorecards read 96-94 twice for Bohachuk and 96-94 for Butaev.

My scores was 95-95 even.

In the opener, former WBC light heavywweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk knocked down Radislav Kalajdzic down in the first and fourth rounds and badly hurt him in the fifth to build a huge lead on the cards before a stunning seventh round with Kalajdzic dropping the former champion and finishing him off in the seventh.

Kaladzic has always been an exciting fighter and his win might move him into contention in the division.

Gvozdyk's comeback will have to start over and at his age (38), I wouldn't be surprised to see "The Nail" consider retirement.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 17 Pts(3)

Vince Samano: 17 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 17 Pts (4)

Boxing Challenge: Zayas zaps Garcia

     On the final evening of ESPN's boxing program (for now, at least), Top Rank's two young stars earned victories that landed one a world title and the other a lesser title that could eventually become another. 

In the main event, Xander Zayas outboxed Jorge Garcia to win the WBO junior middleweight title that Sebastian Fundora vacated earlier this year.

Zayas was too slick for Garcia, and although Garcia, who earned the title chance with a still-surprising upset of Charles Conwell, never stopped his aggression, Zayas's skills never allowed Garcia to impose his will on the fight.

Zayas won by scores of 119-109, 118-110, and 116-112, with my score coming in at 117-111.

Zayas appears to be below the standard of WBC champion Sebastian Fundora and IBF king Bakhram Murtazaliev for now (Terence Crawford holds the WBA belt but will vacate before his September match with Canelo Alvarez) mainly because I will need to see more power from him to believe he could hold off either of those champions but at twenty-two I wouldn't rule Zayas out for improvement.

Bruce Carrington won a minor title at featherweight with a unanimous decision over Mateus Heita.

Carrington dominated but never hurt Heita, and despite his obvious skills, might lack the pop to hold off power-hitting WBO champion Rafael Espinoza or the relentless aggression of WBA boss Nick Ball.

Carrington wins by scores of 120-108 times two (and my score) and 119-109.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 117 Pts (3) 

Ramon Malpica:  113 Pts (4)
Vince Samano:  46 Pts (1)

Boxing Challenger: Mayer shades Ryan

        On a weekend when women's boxing had center stage over the men, the women continued to show that at the top of their game, they can produce fights that are equally exciting as the men as Mikaela Mayer narrowly took away the WBO welterweight title from Britain's Sandy Ryan in a fight that should be considered for fight of the year status.

Considering the pre-fight heat between the two camps over Ryan's trainer moving to her from training Mayer, it was hard to believe that the fight would live up to the level of anger the two fighters exchanged but it managed to and yet before the bell, things managed to get even stranger!

As Ryan was preparing to leave her hotel to go to Madison Square Garden, an unidentified attacker threw an entire can of red paint over her torso and legs with the can reported to have been thrown into her stomach.

Ryan's trainers were adamant that Ryan not fight but she insisted on defending her title and speaking to ESPN's Mark Kriegel, Ryan gave a pro wrestling-type interview where she cast the blame on Mayer, who naturally said she had nothing to with the attack.

After the fight, Ryan tweeted a thinly veiled accusation towards Mayer that she had the hotel cameras that would confirm the identity of her attacker.

For all the drama, the fight was better with swings of momentum throughout, and yet the fight was technically sound and not only an entertaining brawl with Mayer landing the straighter and sharper punches from the outside with Ryan walking Mayer down and landing the more powerful punches, especially in round six when Ryan buzzed Mayer with a right hand.

I scored the fight even at 95-95, as did one judge, and would have been the best verdict but two judges scored for Mayer 96-94 and 97-93.

96-94 either way is very acceptable but 97-93 for Mayer (or Ryan) is a bit excessive.

There is not a rematch clause but considering the closeness of the fight, the great action, and the conditions that Ryan fought under, a rematch is needed, even the WBO has to get involved to mandate it.

Mayer-Ryan will hopefully be remembered as a terrific fight and the problems away from the ring will fade with time.

Mayer's career rival (at least before Friday night) unified junior lightweight champion Alycia Baumgartner returned to action after a fourteen-month absence due to PED problems at a television studio in suburban Atlanta.

Baumgartner didn't take an easy comeback bout either facing former lightweight champion Delfine Persoon and just as the fight was starting to warm up, the fight suddenly ended as in the fourth round, Baumgartner's head smashed into the right eyelid of Persoon and caused a cut bad enough to end the fight as a no-contest.

Had the fight continued into round five, the fight would have gone to the judges' scorecards, and Baumgartner would have been ahead on the scorecards with a first-round knockdown when a Baumgartner left hook caused Persoon's glove to brush the canvas.

Persoon was doing much better in the third and fourth rounds but even if a judge had given Persoon both of those rounds, the knockdown would have given the edge to Baumgartner.

Considering that Baumgartner's promoter (Matchroom) had lost a purse bid for this fight and the media production was on something called Brinx.TV, which I had never heard of before I was writing the fight preview, it was fair to consider how the winner of a major title unification fight (Baumgartner-Mayer) has disappeared from sight while the loser has continued to stay in the news and fighting.

Baumgartner has challenged Clarissa Shields to meet her at 147 pounds for what would be a meeting of two stars but Shields fought at heavyweight in her last match and would have problems making that weight.

There were two male fights as the supporting features in New York City for Ryan-Mayer with the publicized fighters each winning but one of them barely squeezing by a gritty opponent.

Junior middleweight Xander Zayas dominated Damian Sosa in the best performance of his career, doing everything but knocking down Sosa on his way to a unanimous decision victory.

Zayas won every round on all three judges' cards and mine by scores of 100-90 against a veteran fighter who was expected to make Zayas work for his victory.

Zayas called for a "top five" contender after the fight but even after this bout, I think Zayas could use another fight or two before making the leap to the next level of competition.

Featherweight Bruce "Shu Shu" Carrington has been bragged about by Top Rank as a future champion and even mentioned as an eventual opponent for Naoya Inoue if Inoue makes the move to 126 pounds.

Carrington has risen to the top spot in the WBA rankings despite not fighting a world-class opponent to date but Top Rank attempted to get some of that experience by slotting Carrington against Sulaiman Segawa in a ten-rounder.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 135 Pts (2)

TRS: 126 Pts (4) 
Vince Samano: 75 Pts (3)

Segawa upset Ruben Villa, who was ranked number one by the WBO, by decision in his last fight and was expected to give Carrington his toughest test to date and the veteran did just that as he pushed the local fighter to his limit with Carrington emerging with a majority decision win that some think he didn't deserve.

Two scores were for Carrington at 97-93  with the other even at 95-95, which was my score.

The problem for Segawa was that he gave away the final round and the close early rounds, Segawa didn't throw enough to overcome Carrington's hometown and promotional advantages.

Carrington should learn plenty from the severe test posed by Segawa and it will help him prepare whenever he receives his first title try.

As for Segawa, he will be a dangerous foe for anyone in the top ten after his win over Ruben Villa and the close loss to Carrington, so he should have few problems finding fights with his recent form.

Boxing Challenge: Goodbye to Broner

      The three fights in the boxing challenge over the weekend were not only far from exciting, they weren't very competitive with all three fights lasting the scheduled distance.

Friday on a PPV from Don King ( complete with a dedication to the tenth anniversary of the death of former WBC President Jose Sulaiman) what's left of Adrien Broner's career looks to finally washed away as Blair Cobbs knocked Broner down in round two and dominated him on the way to an easy unanimous decision triumph.

Cobbs isn't noted as a puncher but his right hand in round two sent Broner ass over tea kettles (Knocking a tooth out from Broner) and a harder hitter might have ended the fight then and there.

After that, every round was similar with Cobbs landing whenever he threw and Broner unable to fire back with any offense.

I scored the fight 99-91 for Cobbs, which could have been generous as the ninth round that I scored for Broner was a close round, which was closer to the truth than the official scorecards which gave Cobbs the win by scores of 97-92 and two awful scores of 96-93.

Hopefully, this is the last fight for Broner, who was slow and uninspired, after being dominated by Cobbs, who is more of a top twenty welterweight than a contender, Broner will be a sideshow at best in his future fights.

About the only excitement of the weekend came in Verona, New York, when Gerardo Zapata knocked down and badly hurt WBO minimumweight champion Oscar Collazo in the second round of their championship battle.

Other than the final minute of that round, it was all Collazo, winning every other round on my card (118-109) and most others in retaining his title by unanimous decision by official scores of 119-109 times two and 117-111.

Saturday in New York City, highly touted junior middleweight Xander Zayas earned his biggest win to date with a unanimous decision over a shopworn Patrick Teixeira.

Teixeira was backed up for the entire fight, suffered a cut in round nine, and didn't win a round as Zayas dominated but never seriously threatened to stop the former WBO champion.

Zayas won 100-90 on two cards (Including mine) and 99-91 on the other, which is very hard for me to find a possible round to give Teixeira but while Zayas looked good, he didn't look dynamic and if the twenty-one-year-old is to be the star that Top Rank hopes for, he'll have to do better against overmatched opponents in the future.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 80 Pts (5)

TRS: 68 Pts (5)
Vince Samano:43 Pts (2)