Boxing Challenge: Spence TKO's Ugas

 Errol Spence shined in his latest "can you top this" with WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford as Spence dominated most of his fight with Yordenis Ugas and won the WBA crown held by Ugas when the doctor ruled that Ugas was unable to continue due to a closed right eye in the tenth round in Arlington, Texas.

In the victory, Spence retained his WBC and IBF titles to add to the WBA belt that he won here from Ugas.

Spence never knocked Ugas down but his heavy shots moved the Cuban around the ring and despite a brave effort on the part of Ugas, he committed what seems to be an awful mistake with the decision to stand and slug with the powerful Spence rather than use his physical skills to box Spence from the outside.

Still, for all of the domination by Spence, Ugas did land his share and punches and almost scored the first knockdown against Spence in his career.

Ugas landed a right hand that visibly stunned Spence and knocked his mouthpiece out.

As a jarred Spence looked down for the mouthpiece, the opportunistic Ugas jumped on Spence (very legal) with a combination of punches that sent Spence bouncing off the ropes, which should have been scored a knockdown as the ropes helped Spence remain on his feet.

Ugas attempted to land more punches but the always corrupt/inept Lawrence Cole decided then to rinse the mouthpiece but first walked Spence to the wrong corner before arriving at Spence's corner for the rinse buying Spence a few extra badly needed seconds to get things straight.

By the time action resumed, Spence was back in control of his faculties, and Ugas's best chance of an upset had passed.

Spence pounded Ugas badly in the eighth (two judges would score the round 10-8 for Spence) and the eye swelling began to increase rapidly for the soon-to-be former champion, who was found to have had suffered an orbital fracture around his right eye.

And then after the fight, the words that fight fans have been waiting for years were finally uttered as Spence stated that he wanted Terence Crawford next.

Hopefully, that fight can be made for the fall and once and all decide just which of the two is the true top welterweight of this era.

The preliminary bouts were all fights that were lopsided affairs and if all were right with boxing, the three losers would consider leaving the sport with their best days behind them.

Isaac Cruz rebounded from his close decision loss to Gervonta Davis with a five-round annihilation of washed-up Yuriorkis Gamboa.

Punch resistance has never been a strong suit of Gamboa even at his peak but his chin and legs are finished with this game as Cruz shook the veteran with every punch landed and dropped Gamboa in the second, third, fourth, and fifth rounds, before the fight ended with Gamboa against the ropes in the fifth round.

The fight likely could have been stopped two rounds before and no one would have complained a bit.

Promising lightweight Jose Valenzuela scored the biggest win of his young career with one left hook that sent former WBC junior lightweight champion Francisco Vargas down and out in the first round.

Vargas had taken his share of punishment in some terrific fights but at this stage, Vargas is a spent fuse.

As for Valenzuela, he appears to be a very promising prospect with big things ahead of him.

Welterweight Cody Crowley scored a unanimous decision over shopworn Josesito Lopez in a ten-rounder.

I haven't watched the fight of this writing...

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 63 Pts (7)

Vince Samano: 55 Pts (5)

Ramon Malpica: 52 Pts (6)

Boxing Challenge: Haney decisions Gamboa

   Devin Haney didn't prove anything unexpected in his unanimous decision win over Yuriorkis Gamboa, but he did retain his WBC lightweight title in a dominant fashion in Hollywood, Florida.

Haney landed more and connected with some heavy shots but never seemed close to ending the fight by stoppage and never knocked down Gamboa, who had been stopped in the final round of his previous fight by Gervonta Davis.

Haney hadn't fought in close to a year (two days shy) after shoulder surgery and the inactivity did show, as, despite his effectiveness in the bout, Haney didn't land as many punches as in past fights.

Gamboa tried his best against Haney and even threw more punches than the far younger man, but at 38 Gamboa appears to be finished as a serious challenge to the best fighters in the division.

I scored Haney a 120-107 winner, winning every round with Gamboa losing a point in the eleventh round for holding.

Devin Haney is a very talented young fighter, but he seems to be a step ahead of where he should be in his career.

Haney has not lost a round in his last two fights, but both went the entire twelve round distance, he scored only one knockdown in those rounds (against Alberto Santiago), and with Gamboa's history of being knocked down (and three times out), it's not unreasonable to begin to wonder about Haney's power a little.

Haney certainly belongs in the lightweight discussion with Teofimo Lopez, Vasyl Lomachenko (should he decide to remain in the division), Gervonta Davis, the winner of next month's Ryan Garcia-Luke Campbell fight, and maybe Jorge Linares, but he'll need to begin to fight better opponents soon.

Haney's resume' doesn't have any standouts and should Garcia defeat Campbell, Haney will have the weakest opposition of any of the four standout young fighters in the division.

Hopefully, Haney will be facing a stern test in his next outing.

In Los Angeles, (Full Van Earl Wright here) heavyweight Luis "King Kong" Ortiz returned to the ring for the first time since his second of his two knockout losses to Deontay Wilder in what seemed to be an incredibly awful Fox main event from PBC.

Sadly, it was as awful as expected as Ortiz stopped Alexander Flores in 45 seconds in what appeared to be a glancing shot at best.

I say glancing because I didn't really see a punch, the two came together and Flores fell to the floor unable to beat the count.

Ortiz officially landed three punches in the win, but proved nothing about what he has remaining in his career.
Flores had been stopped early in both of his losses which happened to be the two fighters that you may have heard of (Joseph Parker and Charles Martin), but this was just beyond awful and a pathetic excuse for a main event on FS1, let alone network television.

An absolute joke.

Ramon Malpica and I each added three points on the day in the boxing challenge to move our totals to 156-147.

The Browns are on bye, so the next post will be the sloppy, but easy win by Ohio State over Rutgers.

I may do a smaller version of a recap as I really hate those squash match recaps sometimes.

Boxing Challenge: Davis Stops Gamboa in 12th

The three-fight Showtime card from Atlanta turned out to be fun, interesting and disappointing as the broadcast moved forward.

In the main event, Gervonta Davis picked up a minor title in his lightweight debut as he stopped veteran Yuriorkis Gamboa, but didn't look as impressive as most expected him to against an opponent in his late 30's and had been dropped in double figures over his career.

Gamboa was reported to have fought through a torn Achilles tendon that he suffered in the second round and if that is true, that is a tremendous show of courage from the Cuban.
Still, Davis knocked Gamboa down in the second, where Gamboa is thought to have injured his Achilles, eighth, and again in the final round, when referee Jack Reiss ended the fight with Gamboa on the floor.
Davis dominated Gamboa ( I had Davis winning 109-97 after eleven rounds), but all things considered including taking two attempts to make the weight limit, the evening had to be somewhat disappointing for Davis and his team on the overall.
Davis has drawn strong crowds for his three fights this season (over 36,000 at three venues) against less than sturdy competition, so he has shown a fanbase, but with a resume' so soft that his second-best career win might be this one over the faded Gamboa, Davis is talented, but remains unproven and combined with a lack of dedication to training/making weight, I still wonder about the viability of Davis against the elite of the division such as Vasyl Lomachenko, Teofimo Lopez, and Devin Haney.
Davis shouldn't have to worry about those three as they aren't affiliated with PBC and PBC is planning on taking Davis to pay per view next time against WBA junior lightweight champion and fellow protectee Leo Santa Cruz in a fight that should see the larger Davis as a prohibitive favorite in a pairing that few want to see.

The co-main was the fun fight of the evening as veteran light heavyweights Jean Pascal and Badou Jack slugged it out for twelve rounds for Pascal's minor title in what was a tale of two fights.
The early rounds were controlled by Pascal, who scored a knockdown in the fourth round, while the late rounds were dominated by Jack, who notched a knockdown of his own in the twelfth round, just missing finishing off the tiring Pascal, who gamely held onto the final bell and retained his minor belt via split decision.
I thought Jack's late rally slightly outweighed the early work of Pascal as I scored it 114-112 for Jack, but it certainly was close enough to go either way.
A rematch would be a good idea considering the ages of the fighters (Pascal 37 Jack 36), the quality of this fight and the lack of other light heavyweight contenders other than Marcus Browne (Pascal defeated Browne and Jack lost to Browne this year) who are connected with PBC makes a rematch very likely.

Journeyman Lionell Thompson made his move down in weight from light heavyweight to super middleweight a surprising success as the underdog upset former IBF champ Jose Uzcategui via unanimous decision.
Thompson scored a flash knockdown late in the first but was deducted a point for holding in the fourth to even the playing field.
Thompson managed to land enough jabs to keep Uzcategui at bay and pull off the victory, 95-93 on my scorecard.
Uzcategui continued against Thompson what he started in his title losing effort against Caleb Plant by giving away points via flash knockdowns and not throwing enough punches until late in the fight.

In the boxing challenge, I scored four points to Ramon Malpica's two on the card (the difference being the Pascal win) to boost my lead to 323-287.

Boxing Challenge: Davis dominates homecoming

The Showtime portion of the weekend looked to be the weaker of the two events and it lived up to expectations as both the main event and the top supporting bout both ended in two uncompetitive rounds from Baltimore.

Gervonta "Tank" Davis rolled his treads over an overmatched Ricardo Nunez in two rounds to retain his WBA junior lightweight championship.
Some questioned referee Harvey Dock's stoppage, but I thought it was fine, Nunez was about out on his feet and unless he slipped on Ted DiBiase's mysterious loaded black glove, Nunez wasn't going to threaten Davis on this night, or likely any night.
Davis, who did what you would hope he would against a huge underdog, then called out Tevin Farmer for a unification fight, carried out the IBF title belt that he lost on the scales, claimed he was the IBF champion and said he hoped to make a Farmer fight before the end of the year.

Here are my problems with that:
One, Davis lost that title due to his own actions and that belt should have stayed in his trophy case (When a champion loses a championship, they do keep the physical belt, which is how Davis possessed an IBF title to display)
Two: Fans still learning the sport are often confused by the excessive amount of championships as it is, no need to confuse them on who the champion is.
Three: Jim Gray, who did mention Tevin Farmer, didn't correct the Davis claim to the viewers, which would have been as simple as saying "this is the title that you lost by missing weight, which Tevin Farmer now holds".
Coming on the heels of Fox/PBC not listing Terence Crawford as a welterweight champion on the Thurman-Pacquiao fight, again this looks like PBC propaganda.
And finally-Four: As much as I would like to see Davis vs Farmer and that's a fight that I think Davis would win, PBC and Floyd Mayweather (Davis' Promoters) have shown almost no exertion in making fights with other promoters as we have seen with Top Rank, Golden Boy, and Matchroom and nothing I've seen so far makes me think they'll start now.
I really get annoyed when fighters from all promoters call guys out for fights that are unlikely to occur, but it REALLY bugs me when PBC guys use this tactic as they have been the largest impediment to signing inter-promotional big fights.

I'd like to see Davis-Farmer next, but it's more likely that we'll see Davis against another Nunez type in his next fight.
Much as PBC can ice Terence Crawford from their top welterweights, Top Rank can do the same to Davis with their top fighters at lightweight and junior lightweight.
The state of boxing today, ladies and gentlemen.

The undercard was underwhelming as aging Yuriorkis Gamboa swatted aside a badly shot Roman "Rocky" Martinez in two rounds in a lightweight match of two former champions at lower weights.
Gamboa knocked Martinez down in the second and finished him off with a right hand later in the round.
Martinez looked nowhere near his old self and needs to step away from the game before he gets hurt.
Gamboa, who scored his first KO in five years, will likely return in a fight that will be used to build a younger fighter's resume.

In the first fight, lightweight Ladarius Miller won a controversial split decision over Jezreel Corrales in a less than memorable and very awkward fight that if remembered at all, will be recalled only for the awful decision by referee Brent Bozell to deduct a point from Corrales for holding with 40 seconds remaining in the fight.
That deduction cost Corrales a draw as one of the two cards for Miller saw Miller win 95-94.
I had Corrales a 95-94 winner after the lost point, so I wouldn't scream robbery by the judges, but the Bozell decision clearly cost Corrales on his record.

Speaking of Maryland's judges and referees, Maryland is beginning to host higher-level boxing cards
far more often than in the past and yet on far too many occasions, their referees and judges are shown to be not up to the task.
If Maryland is going to stage bigger and better fights, they need to improve the quality of their officials, either by licensing top officials from other states or training better ones here.

Finally, it was nice to see veteran Barry Tompkins back with the main crew announcing for Showtime.
I'm not a hater of Mauro Ranallo, but not a fan either of his forced puns and pop culture takes along with his Gus Johnson-like tendency to inject exciting commentary when there is often no reason to
do so, but Tompkins is a much better fit for boxing telecasts than Ranallo, who seems to be far smoother for his other gigs with mixed martial arts and pro wrestling.
Showtime has the best production and the best two color commentators in the sport with Al Bernstein and Paulie Malignaggi and it would be nice to see more of Tompkins, who does blow by blow for Showtime's ShoBox series, and has been the voice of so many famous boxing highlights from his time on HBO and ESPN, on the main offerings on the network.

In the boxing challenge, I added four (Two each from Davis and Gamboa) to two for Ramon Malpica (Two from Davis) to extend my lead to 198-173.

Boxing Challenge: The Krusher is back!

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored four points on the three-bout card from New York City by HBO.
The challenge is now 183-167.

In the main event, Sergey Kovalev claimed the final light heavyweight title that Andre Ward vacated after their second fight with a second round shellacking of Vyacheslav Shabranskyy to win the WBO version of the light heavyweight title.
Kovalev looked like the "Krusher" of old as he dropped the made to order Shabranskyy twice in the first and then again in the second before finishing the show.
Kovalev was impressive in the win but didn't prove much against limited opposition.
Kovalev does have options for his next fight against Sullivan Barrera (promoted by Main Events) or mandatory WBO contender Oleksandr Gvozdyk, either of whom would be likely show how much Kovalev has left after his two fight series with Andre Ward.

Sullivan Barrera won a lopsided decision over Felix Valera in the co-feature that was a rough and dirty fight as Valera lost three points to low blows.
Both fighters were dropped in the first round and Barrera was cut, but the deducted points made the fight far more lopsided on the scorecards than it actually was.
I had Barrera a 97-90 winner.

In the opener, late substitute Yuriorkis Gamboa won a majority decision over Jason Sosa.
I didn't see the fight as the robbery that so many did, but Sosa knocked Gamboa down in the seventh and a point deduction on Gamboa, should have cemented the bout for Sosa.
I had Sosa a 96-92 winner on my card.
The "win" will likely earn Gamboa another decent payday down the road and considering the cards, Sosa shouldn't lose too much either..

Lemieux crunches Stevens-Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica and I each earned four points over the weekend in the boxing challenge on a three fight weekend.
I lead the challenge 26-24..

On the HBO stage,fight fans were thrilled and bored on the two fight card.

The thrills came from the expected slugfest between middleweight bombers David Lemieux and Curtis Stevens.
For two and a half rounds,it was all you could want from a fight until Lemieux shook off a Stevens right hand and replied with a left hook that nearly sent Stevens out of the ring and did send him down and out cold in the third round.
Stevens was carried out of the ring on a stretcher and taken to the hospital,where his test results were fine.
What a fight and Lemieux's hook has given his stoppage the lead for knockout of the year.
This KO was so vicious that it is going to be very difficult for Stevens to retain contending status and he may never be the same fighter again.
As far Lemieux,he might have made himself the likely opponent for Canelo Alvarez,assuming Alvarez defeats Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and would wish for another fight before (Or instead of) Gennady Golovkin.
Ramon and I each scored two points for the Lemieux knockout.

Ramon and I each scored a point for the tedious comeback win of Yuriorkis Gamboa,who was reluctant to engage against journeyman Rene Alvarado on his way to a unanimous decision win.
Alvarado scored a flash knockdown on Gamboa in the 10th in the only remotely interesting portion of the fight.
I scored Gamboa a 97-92 winner.

In a non-televised junior middleweight fight from Germany,Demetrius Andrade started quickly,slowed in the middle before hitting the gas late and winning a split decision over Jack Culcay for a lesser title.
The judge that scored the bout for Culcay must have been asleep or scored the fight before it started.
Simply an atrocious scorecard.
Andrade might be the best talent in the division,if he would just fight more often.
The win sets Andrade up for as the mandatory contender for WBA champion Erislandy Lara.
I had Andrade a 117-111 winner and Ramon and I each added one point in the challenge.

I'll be talking about these three fights and a preview of Gennady Golovkin-Daniel Jacobs next weekend on Monday night in the latest edition of Fightheads....