Boxing Challenge: Schofield dazzles, Ramirez tops Dorticos

    The performance of the boxing weekend had to be the first-round blitz by unbeaten lightweight Floyd Schofield, who dropped former junior lightweight champion Tevin Farmer twice and stopped him in the first round.

The fight was thought to be a 50/50 bet with Schofield meeting the toughest foe of his career, not to mention his controversial cancellation of his fight with WBC champion Shakur Stevenson, and Farmer, in strong form following three close losses to IBF champion Raymond Muratalla and William Zepeda looked to be the best match of the evening.

In less than three minutes, Schofield had established his credentials as a title contender, and Farmer will have questions about his future in the sport.

I haven't seen either of the remaining fights in the challenge

Gilberto Ramirez retained his WBA and WBO cruiserweight titles with a unanimous decision over Yunier Dorticos.

Michel Cieslak stopped Jean Pascal in the fourth round to win a minor title.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 103 Pts (3) 

Ramon Malpica: 93 Pts (4)

Vince Samano: 40 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge: Briedis wins WBSS, Taylor wins in one!

  The afternoon from the old country saw two world title fights before the huge PPV from PBC in the evening.

If you chose to watch DAZN live from Germany- you were able to see a good matchup.

If you picked ESPN+ from England, well, at least it was short.

From Munich Germany, what could be the final event from the World Boxing Super Series crowned the winner of their cruiserweight tournament as top-seeded Mairis Breidis defeated second-seed Yunier Dorticos via a majority decision to win the tournament and lift the IBF championship from Dorticos as well.

It was a fight that saw heavy punches exchanged, yet one that had its tactical parts as well with Briedis using the right hand to land counterpunches against the heavier-hitting and aggressive Dorticos that shifted the tide his way in a close fight.

I scored Briedis a 116-112 winner and thought the decision was a fair one.

I'd like to see Briedis stay in the division, where he is the top fighter for now, but he could seek bigger heavyweight money as the other three champions (WBA Arsen Goulamirian, WBC Illunga Makubu, and WBO title is vacant) aren't likely to be bouts that fans crave.

As for Dorticos, a rematch against Briedis down the road is not out of the question, and a fight against any of the other champions would be favored.

As for the WBSS, which has seen financial problems, it'll be interesting to see if it survives.

I would imagine that if it would continue, the purses could drop, and with that drop would go any incentive for fighters to not control their opponents for their next three fights.

Even it should continue, I'm not sure that there is a fit with many divisions for a compelling elite tournament.

Top Rank refuses to send their fighters, PBC only sends very few and usually in the lower weight divisions, and Matchroom, Sauerland, and other European promoters do participate, but they might wonder if it is worth the time spent, if their fighters aren't fighting the best.

When you consider the promotional ties involved, only two divisions make sense to run a tournament with the best fighters in the game.

Junior bantamweight could work with Matchroom controlling the best of the division with Juan Francisco Estrada, Roman Gonzalez, and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and if WBO champion Kazuto Ioka and the latest Japanese phenom Kosei Tanaka could be added, all the best fighters would be available except IBF champion Jerwin Ancajas, who is associated with Top Rank.

Flyweight would be available with three excellent champions in Julio Cesar Martinez, Moruti Mthalane, and Artem Dalakian and might make a star with an eventual winner.

Other than those two, only junior featherweight would even be close to having the elite and that would have to be worked out with PBC as they have the best of the division other than WBA/IBF champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev.

Unless the WBSS would be willing to settle for a lesser tournament with contenders and prospects, I don't see any other divisions that would work out.

It would be a sad end for a series that gave world stages and made stars out of Oleksandr Usyk, Callum Smith, Naoya Inoue, and Josh Taylor, but that could be how it ends...

As for Josh Taylor, the quicker we can move away from IBF mandatory contender Apinun Khongsong the better as Taylor retained his WBA and IBF junior welterweight titles with a first-round knockout with the first significant punch that he landed to Khongsong's body.

Taylor, wearing Bay City Rollers style Tartan, left Khongsong writhing in pain on the floor and will unify all four titles in the division in his next fight with WBC and WBO champion Jose Ramirez.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored three points to move our totals to 117-109. 

Boxing Challenge: Wild Night in Riga, Warrington survives.

The World Boxing Super Series finished the semi-finals of their third and final tournament with the cruiserweights, resulting in two of the wildest fights that they could have imagined from Riga, Latvia.

In the first semi-final, Yunier Dorticos won the vacant IBF title with a one-punch KO of Andrew Tabiti in the tenth of a clumsy mix of styles.
The style differential resulted in plenty of awkward stumbles and grasps along with clashes of heads and shoulders that on one occasion in round six ended with a severe gash above the right eye after an encounter of heads.
Dorticos was the aggressive fighter throughout and despite an occasional moment, Tabiti appeared to be very tentative in his first championship attempt.
Dorticos ended the fight with one right hand that will certainly be a KO of the year challenger and moves to the finals of the tournament and a chance to unify two cruiserweight titles.

Why only two?
Didn't I write in the preview that the tournament winner would hold three titles?
Well. the WBC decided that someone (The WBSS, the Latvian boxing federation, the WBO, and who knows who else received various blame) didn't give them enough say in judging, so before the bout in a fit of pique decided to take away their sanctioning of the fight.
Up to that point, the semi-final winner would have then owned two titles and the tournament winner-three, but this decision took away from that.
Maybe someone can pacify the Sulaiman gang before the final and their belt can go to the victor.
In the ring, it was quite wacky as Mairis Briedis ripped away the WBO title from Krzysztof Glowacki via a controversial third-round knockout that was so strange that if it was not for the next fight being for the WBSS tournament championship, I'd bet the WBO would have called for an immediate rematch and I'd bet even more that the organization will rule that the Briedis-Yunier Dorticos winner will be mandated to face Glowacki.

For a round and a half, each fighter landed some punches in exchanges and it appeared that this battle could be a good one, then it all went to hell.
Both fighters move into an almost-clinch, but referee Robert Byrd doesn't move in right away,
The fighters attempt to separate from each other,  and as Briedis locks up the right arm of Glowacki, Glowacki steps to the side and throws a chopping left to the back of the head of Breidis.
Breidis didn't enjoy this rabbit punch and responded with one of those side elbows that resembled one of the famous "seven moves" of Kevin Nash to the face of Glowacki, who crumbled to the floor faster than a vampire staked by Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Glowacki then rolls on the mat with one of those Jimmy Valiant-like spasms and tries to win the fight by DQ, but Robert Byrd isn't having any of that.
Still, Byrd deducts a point from Briedis and the round resumes with Briedis dropping a clearly in trouble Glowacki with a strong right.
Glowacki gets to his feet, says he is OK, and three seconds later (I timed it) before the fighters could reach each other to engage, the bell rings to end round two.

BUT everyone hears it, BUT Robert Byrd.
Briedis jumps on Glowacki and EIGHT seconds after the round should have ended, Briedis knocks down Glowacki, the bell is still ringing and after a badly dazed Glowacki beats the count and takes the mandatory eight count, Byrd seems to finally hear the bell ringing, BUT then waves the fight off for either Glowacki's safety or for Glowacki's corner entering the ring!
Someone explains to Byrd that all of this action came well after what should have been the end of the round and Byrd lets the fight continue, but the damage has already taken its toll on Glowacki, who barely staggers out for round three and is quickly finished off by Briedis.
Byrd is 74 years of age and even though he doesn't look it, this fight may show that retirement from refereeing (I would be OK with him staying as a judge, which Byrd does at times as well for now) should be at least considered and likely decided upon as his performance contributed to the winner of the fight.
Just a farce and even though I think Briedis is the more rounded and skilled fighter and would have likely won this fight, Glowacki was not given a fair chance due to the official that is there to make the fight fair and deserves a rematch.

In Leeds, England, Josh Warrington kept his IBF featherweight crown by a far closer than expected split decision over countryman Kid Galahad.
Warrington's walk forward and throw accumulative punches to simply wear out his opponent, didn't work in this one as Galahad was able to consistently gum up the works through an ugly run-out-the-clock defense.
Galahad's tactics allowed him to stay in the fight, throw Warrington out of sync and basically give him the best chance to win.
Galahad didn't win the fight officially or on my card (115-113 Warrington), but he made Warrington look like less than exciting and with Warrington attempting to land a unification fight with WBO champion Oscar Valdez and battling with Warrington victim Carl Frampton to do so, this fight could not have helped his cause.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica six to five over the weekend with a one-point difference due to the Tyson Fury KO (Ramon picked Fury by decision).
We each selected winning fighters in both WBSS fights and Josh Warrington while losing with Sullivan Barrera.
I lead the challenge 147-132

Boxing Challenge: Brant stuns Murata!

Source: STEVE MARCUS/Getty Images North America

In a five-fight boxing challenge weekend, the best fight and biggest news occurred in Las Vegas where Top Rank's best-laid plans burned in ashes as Rob Brant upset Ryota Murata to take his minor title via a clear and unanimous decision, that still was an exciting fight to watch.

The Brant victory blew up a planned Murata "title" defense in Japan at the Tokyo Dome early in 2019 against Gennady Golovkin that would have been a major event there with sizable checks for all involved.
Brant ruined that with a relentless attack that saw an Aaron Pryoresque offense that just never stopped throwing punches at the taller Japanese import.
No knockdowns were scored, but Brant's punches beat up Murata around both eyes and around his cheekbones causing some impressive swelling.
I scored Brant a 117-111 winner, which was along the line of the three judges.
Murata does have a rematch clause, so should he choose to activate it, Brant might have to travel to Japan for it, but against the best competition that he has faced at middleweight (his only loss was to Jurgen Braehmer at super middle in the WBSS), Brant looked like someone that is going to be a tough out even for the best in the division, should he fight at this level every time out.

Meanwhile, DAZN featured a pair of cards from Boston and Orlando that you could pick the one you want to watch live and watch the other on replay.
This is always a hard strategy to navigate when you are trying to avoid knowing results (especially if you are friends with Fred Landucci! Just teasing, buddy) and fight facts beforehand.

Photo: Matchroom Boxing

From Boston, Demetrius Andrade grabbed one of the two vacant middleweight titles with his shutout win over Walter Kautondokwa to win the WBO version.
Andrade joins Canelo Alvarez (WBA/WBC) and the winner of the Daniel Jacobs-Sergey Dereyvanchenko fight next Saturday (IBF) and suddenly there could be a way to unify the titles if the desire is there with all of those fighters having connections with DAZN, Matchroom Boxing or both.
Andrade won every round on my scorecard (120-104) with the wider margin explained by Andrade dropping Kautondokwa in the first, third and twice in the fourth.
Andrade wasn't as safety-first as he had been in the past, but he never seemed to truly turn the jets on and try to put the Namibian away.

In the other Boston challenge bout, IBF junior lightweight champion Tevin Farmer dominated James Tennyson of Great Britain thru four rounds and finished him in the fifth.
Farmer dumped Tennyson to the canvas with a fourth-round body shot that essentially finished him then, even though an ailing Tennyson came out for the fifth, but was quickly staggered with another body blow that was enough to convince the referee that the fight should be concluded.
The rare knockout (just the sixth among twenty-seven wins) for Farmer might say more for Tennyson's lack of an ability to take a good punch (he once was knocked out by a guy with a 2-64-5 record) than any newfound punching ability of Farmer, who has been involved in a social media shouting match with WBA champ Gervonta Davis with both calling the other out for a unification battle.
I don't mind fighters calling the other out- IF there is a chance of making the fight, which I think this one has little chance of happening with Davis, who sadly rarely fights, being involved with Floyd Mayweather's Money Team/PBC and Farmer with Matchroom/DAZN.
There just isn't enough money to be made from this fight to be worth the sides to work together to get this one in the ring.
If the fight would be made, I like Davis in that one.

Meanwhile, in Orlando, the World Boxing Super Series filled semi-final slots in the bantamweight and cruiserweight tournaments.

Yunier Dorticos went the entire twelve rounds for the first time in his career and won a narrow unanimous decision over a tougher than expected Mateusz Masternak to move to the semi-finals.
No knockdowns, but the story was Masternak giving the booming punches of Dorticos and his vaunted power all that he wanted before just falling short on my card 115-113.
Dorticos will move on against American Andrew Tabiti in the semi-finals in early 2019.

Talented Emmanuel Rodriguez also was given all that he wanted by the mandatory contender Australia's Jason Moloney, but moved to the semi's and retained his IBF bantamweight title with a split decision victory.
All three judges scored the fight the same at 115-113, with two selecting Rodriguez and the other picking Moloney as the victor.
I agreed with the majority leaning the way of Rodriguez by the same score.
Rodriguez will face the Monster Naoya Inoue in the next round and though Inoue will be a heavy favorite, Rodriguez will be a live underdog in my opinion against the Japanese sensation.

In the boxing challenge, I scored five points to Ramon Malpica's four.
Ramon and I scored one point each for wins by Dorticos, Farmer, Rodriguez and Andrade, but my extra point came from predicting Andrade would go the distance.
I lead the challenge 172-147.

Boxing Challenge:Gassiev guns down Dorticos

Photo Credit: World Boxing Super Series

For the second Saturday in a row, the World Boxing Super Series came through with a thriller in the cruiserweight division and for the same second Saturday in a row, a major network came through with two lopsided duds instead of finding a few dollars to show the country the fight that was worth the time to watch..

Let us start with the positive as Murat Gassiev took away Yunier Dorticos' WBA cruiserweight title and added it to his IBF belt with a savage 12th round knockout in the second World Boxing Super Series semi-final and punched his ticket to the finals in Saudi Arabia in May.
Waiting for Gassiev will be the holder of the other two cruiserweight titles in WBC/WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk, who will be entering that bout off his own action-packed win over Mairis Breidis in what looks to be one of the best bouts that boxing can offer, but in this fight Gassiev and Dorticos put together their own early contender for fight of the year (I know, it's early as I said last week!), but this one stands on its own from Usyk-Briedis as a different kind of top notch battle..
Usyk-Briedis had more sustained action at a slightly faster pace, but Gassiev-Dorticos showcased heavier punches with the majority of the shots having "Bad Intentions" as Mike Tyson used to say.
I'm not saying one was preferable to the other, both were very good, yet different.

For four rounds, Dorticos appeared to have been prepared surprisingly well to pull the upset as he switched plans, attacked Gassiev and forced Gassiev to back up where even though Gassiev scored his share of points, it was Dorticos controlling the pace and I gave the Cuban three of the first four rounds with almost all being arguable, it had the feel of one of those fights that could have three widely divergent scorecards.
However, when round five started, the fight changed for good- it was Gassiev forcing his way forward, it was Dorticos backing up and from then on, I would give Dorticos just one round.
Dorticos scored his share, similar to Gassiev early in the fight, but it was Gassiev with the "ring generalship" and I had Gassiev ahead 7-4 entering the final round.
Gassiev was slightly ahead (leading by just one point on two of the cards entering the final round, so Dorticos was not without a chance), but had seemingly hurt Dorticos in both the 10 and 11th and left me marveling at the quality of Dorticos' chin,so there were decent odds that he wasn't going to try to leave this to the scorecards despite the still dangerous power of Dorticos.
With a minute to go, Dorticos finally cracked as a Gassiev left hook dropped him to the floor.
The game Cuban rose but quickly found himself back there after a Gassiev flurry that was more powerful due to the faded condition of Dorticos than anything Gassiev landed and to be fair, you could have made an excellent argument to end the fight then and there.
Dorticos rose again and this time, he was hit and hard with a right hand that might have stopped a bull that sent him sailing to the floor, half in the ring/ half on the ring apron where the fight ended with just eight seconds to go.

A terrific fight and I'm really looking forward to May for the cruiserweight finals between Gassiev and Usyk from Saudi Arabia!

It's a good thing that the WBSS came through because as noted above, for the second week in a row, no American television outlet picked up the cruiserweight semi-final, but one of the big three did have time and money to put together a slop card of squash matches for your viewing "entertainment".
Last week, it was Golden Boy and HBO wasting my time after a great cruiserweight bout and this week, it was the turn of Top Rank and ESPN to set up what some call showcase bouts and what I prefer to call squash matches on national television.

Don't get me wrong, I can live with squash matches occasionally, if that's what it takes to keep a fighter active and if the fighters in question (this time they are Gilberto Ramirez and Jerwin Ancajas) want to fight four times a year, a squash match once a year isn't so bad.
What you don't want to see is when fighters fall into the PBC trap, when you fight once a year to 18 months and then every other fight is a squash match (Yeah, I'm talking to you,Keith Thurman), Top Rank actually has promoters that know the game, so it may not be the case this time, but it never hurts to keep an eye on all of them- calling it straight without bias.

In the main event from Corpus Christi Texas, Gilberto Ramirez defended his WBO super middleweight title with a sixth round stoppage of Ghana's Habib Ahmed, who came in as a somewhat late substitution, but without one notable name on his record and as an unknown quantity,
I had Ramirez winning every round before the stoppage, which seemed inevitable, once we saw what Ahmed had, which was not nearly enough to trouble the talented Ramirez.
Ahmed tried, but was out of his league against the physically larger and stronger Ramirez and when referee Lawrence Cole doing his typically awful job refereeing (Cole is the worst part of watching boxing from Texas and the story that could be written just on the Cole family in Texas boxing, I'm getting mad/ill thinking about it) and allowing Ahmed to get his head rolling around his shoulders like a bobblehead with a broken spring from Ramirez right hands, it took Ahmed's corner physically bullying their way past another member of the Texas boxing commission (no word on HIS relation to the Cole family) to toss in the towel before the seemingly disappointed Cole (I guess he was waiting to see Ahmed be hit and do the Ric Flair flip over the turnbuckle before calling this disaster off) finally ended the fight.
Ramirez does have some options for his 2018 campaign, he could rematch Jesse Hart, which would be OK after their great first fight, or he could see who wins the World Boxing Super Series (The WBA champ will come out of the tourney whether it is current champ George Groves or the bracket winner) at Super Middleweight (As exciting as the Cruisers have been, entering the semis, the 168 first rounders were relatively tame) or he could even think about moving to 175.
The other champs at 168 are with PBC (IBF Caleb Truax and WBC David Benavidez) and might not be able to be made although Ramirez-Benavidez might be my favorite fight to be made at the weight class if I could make just one.

In the other squash, er co-feature, IBF junior bantamweight champion Jerwin Ancajas continued his move up the 115-pound division with a 10th round knockout of Israel Gonzalez.
I had Ancajas winning every round and was never threatened in the slightest by Gonzalez
The worst part of this fight?
It wasn't Gonzalez, who like Ahmed against Ramirez tried to win, but was outclassed, it was the announcing table, who used the name Manny Pacquiao more than the name Jerwin Ancajas.
I know that they are both from the Phillippines, Pacquiao is the childhood hero of Ancajas and is involved with his management/promotional team, but man was it overdone.
I get that you are trying to make a connection, but let's keep in mind to make the name Jerwin Ancajas remembered as well and not the lazy take of "Friend of and fights like Manny".
Ancajas was still impressive in victory and I would like to see him tested against the elite of the division.

In Japan, Daigo Higa retained his WBC flyweight with a first-round KO of former world champ Moises Fuentes with one hit to the body (although not one hit straight to the heart, Rolling Stones fans).
I'm a rider of the Higa bandwagon and I'd love to see him against some of the contenders at 115 as well.


In the boxing challenge, I regained the lead from Ramon Malpica at 14-12 after I scored seven points to Ramon's 4 this weekend.
I scored 2 points each from wins by Gassiev, Higa, Ancajas and one point from Ramirez.
Ramon scored 2 points from Higa's win with 1 each from wins by Ramirez and Ancajas.

Boxing Challenge: KO,close one and a snoozer

Three different fights of equal significance on this Saturday from Texas, California, and Manchester England with all of them with different results.

Let's start in San Antonio, Texas at the Alamodome for a World Boxing Super Series quarterfinal in their cruiserweight tournament with minor titleholder Yunier Dorticos defending his belt with a vicious second-round knockout of Dmitry Kudryashov, that saw the Russian native on the floor with his eyes rolling in his head after eating a booming right hand.
This bout looked to be the most interesting first-round cruiserweight final and for the round and a half that it lasted-it was as both fighters landed their fair share of crunching punches.
In the end, it was the more versatile Dorticos that was able to close the show.
Dorticos moves in the tournament to the semi-finals against the winner of IBF champion Murat Gassiev against Krzysztof Wlodarczyk in Newark, New Jersey next month.

Two questions that I'm going to answer-one has been asked to me and one that I'm asking rhetorically.
The first is why don't I recognize Dorticos as the WBA champion?
It's because, despite Denis Lebedev's loss to the aforementioned Gassiev last year, the WBA still recognizes Lebedev as their "super" champion and in divisions that the WBA has 2 or even 3 champions, I only recognize that champion as the WBA champion.

The better question is why did the WBSS put a fight between a Cuban and a Russian without a local hook in San Antonio, Texas, and expect it to draw?
I don't know what the attendance numbers, but I wonder why this match was selected for this location?
Another issue is the WBSS stream on their website, which so many have complained about as being so fuzzy.
I believe I have the solution-the pomp and circumstance that the WBSS attempts to add to their events includes a dazzling light show that uses a ring of lights that surrounds the ring in a form that resembles the Roman Colosseum.
It adds attractiveness to the show and I like it-Until the fight begins.
They don't turn off those lights and it just plays havoc with the picture (and pixels) and you get a less than desirable picture on your PC.

In Inglewood, California, WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares retained his championship with a split decision win over Britain's former Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell.
Linares scored a knockdown in the second round that also cut Campbell and that knockdown allowed Linares the win as had he not scored that knockdown the fight would have been a draw on a card that Linares won on by one point.
Linares looked so impressive in the first three rounds that I was talking to Fred and said I expected Linares to finish Campbell in the middle rounds.
However, I was wrong as Campbell began to battle back by not allowing Linares to move inside on the rangy Briton and beginning to trouble Linares on the scorecards as well.
Linares put things back together in winning the final two rounds to win on my card 115-112 (7-5 in rounds minus a point for Campbell on the knockdown).
I thought I'd see better work from Linares, but it could have been the style of Campbell that made Linares more hesitant than usual.
I'll wait until his next start before proclaiming Linares in decline, but that fight will be one that might help determine just that.

In the first fight of the day, New Zealand's Joseph Parker kept his WBO heavyweight belt with a tedious majority decision over a less than combative Hughie Fury of England.
Parker, who has put together three less than impressive albeit victorious efforts in winning his title and defending it twice, did at least come forward and try to engage, which is more than I could say for Fury, who did little except move, grab and jab with an occasional right hand in a less than meritorious performance.
The fight was awkward and hard to judge as neither fighter did much offensively, but Parker did enough to win a contest that won't be fondly remembered by almost anyone.
I scored Parker a 117-111 winner (9-3).
I'm not sure what Parker has next as Fury was his mandatory defense, so he now has time for an optional defense or pursues Anthony Joshua or the Deontay Wilder-Luis Ortiz winner.
The WBO ratings are a real mess. Fury at number one has been disposed of, number two contender Christian Hammer has one notable victory in the last four years (a KO over soft jawed former Olympic bronze medalist David Price),third-rated Kubrat Pulev is fighting Joshua, fourth-ranked Tom Schwartz is undefeated, but against a resume' that makes Hammer's look like the opponents of Larry Holmes and number five contender Dominic Breazeale is fighting Bermane Stiverne in a WBC eliminator.
What a mess indeed...

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored four points on day-two from the KO win by Yunier Dorticos and one each from the wins by Jorge Linares and Joseph Parker.
I lead the challenge 134-122.

For more on these and other boxing talk-Listen to me and Ramon on Fightheads Monday at 8 EST at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fightheads or call in to talk to us at 646-787-1746