Boxing Challenge:Machado upsets Corrales

The boxing challenge for the weekend starts in Verona, New York with two bouts from HBO that had varying intensities.

In the main event, Alberto Machado won the WBA junior lightweight title from Jezreel Corrales (TRS #3) when Machado landed a left hand while eating one from Corrales, dropping
Corrales and surviving himself.
The eighth round knockout allowed Machado to win a title that Corrales could not retain after missing weight by multiple pounds at the weigh-in.
WBA rules stated that after an agreement to keep the fight going that if Machado won, he would become champion and the title would become vacant with a Corrales win.
Machado had won just one round on my card (the sixth, where he should have been given a 10-8 round for a knockdown that was not called) before the abrupt victory.
The lean Machado will be an interesting addition to the 130 pound title picture with WBC champ Miguel Berchelt as a possible opponent should he defeat the gritty veteran Orlando Salido in December or the IBF champion (decided on the same card in December as Tevin Farmer faces Kenichi Ogawa for the title that Gervonta Davis sacrificed on the scale in August) for the slot of best in the division other than WBO champion Vasyl Lomachenko.

The co-feature saw the return of Demetrius Andrade (TRS #3 at junior middle) moving up to middleweight against undefeated and untested Alantez Fox.
In a bout that rivaled any Guillermo Rigondeaux or Erislandy Lara fight for boredom, Andrade won every round on my card, but the seventh and took a unanimous decision.
Fox scored a knockdown in the seventh that really was a tangled foot issue.
I scored Andrade a 118-109 winner and I hope we see him against better challengers next time out.

HBO showed a good bantamweight bout on tape delay from Belfast, Northern Ireland as Ryan Burnett unified his IBF title with the WBA belt with a unanimous decision over Zhanat Zhakiyanov (TRS #3).
I scored Burnett a 117-111 winner after the fight was even after six rounds, but saw Burnett dominate the second half of the fight.
I'm sure we will see Burnett debut in the next edition of the TRS ratings.

In the final quarter-final of the World Boxing Super Series, Murat Gassiev (TRS #2) retained his IBF cruiserweight title in Newark, New Jersey with a body shot in round three that dropped Krzysztof Wlodarczyk for the count.
Gassiev pushed Wlodarczyk around the ring and from the opening bell, the verdict was clear that Gassiev could pick his round of victory,
Gassiev moves to the semi-finals against Yunier Dorticos in what should be a thrilling battle early in 2018 and might be establishing the early leader for 2018 fight of the year.
Next Saturday will have the final quarter-final in the super middleweights between Jurgen Brahmer and Rob Brant and following that, I'll have a look and some thoughts about the initial round of the WBSS.

From Tokyo for a minor title, Ryota Murata avenged one of the worst decisions in 2017 when Hassan N'Dam could not answer the bell for round eight in their middleweight fight.
I had Murata ahead on the cards and dominated the fight seen live on ESPN2 at 7;30 AM.
My issue is why the WBA made this for their "regular" title, when the organization that claims they want to reduce their titles, could have swallowed this one when Gennady Golovkin defeated Daniel Jacobs in March?
There is a manner to force a fight between the champion and a top challenger- it's called being the number one contender and that doesn't mean they are a champion too.

In an untelevised bout in the challenge, Daigo Higa (TRS #3) retained his WBC flyweight title with a seventh round knockout of Thomas Massson on the Murata-N'Dam undercard.
Higa has won by KO in all 14 of his pro bouts.

In the Boxing Challenge-

I earned three points for the Murat Gassiev win (a bonus point for getting the round correct), two points for the Daigo Higa KO win, one point for the wins by Ryan Burnett , Demetrius Andrade, and Ryota Murata and I missed on Alberto Machado's victory.

Ramon added two points for Gassiev's win and one each for the Andrade and Higa wins while missing on Machado,Murat and Burnett's wins.

The Challenge now stands at 154-137.
Don't forget to listen to Fightheads Monday at 8 EST for talk about these and other boxing issues!!

Bouncing the wrong way

Watching this card on Bounce TV is just mind numbing.
Let's start with an apology-things have been a little off at the home office and I've been sleeping a lot and as a result,I forgot to do the boxing challenge with Ramon Malpica for the PBC on Bounce card.
Yuck..

Bounce (we talked a little about it on Fightheads) is one of those digital channels that network local television owns now and they have a contract with PBC to show their product,
The announcers are decent enough with Fran Charles as the blow by blow man and on this night former junior middleweight champion Austin Trout as the analyst.
Charles is better than the other PBC announcers in calling the action such as Mauro Ranallo,Scott Hanson or Brian Custer and Trout is nothing special,but far from terrible either.
My issues with Bounce feature two big ones and one that ranges across the PBC platform.
First:These digital channels just don't look as good as "regular" channels do.
Lots of "tiling" and breakups during what seemed like every round really got annoying.
Far too many technical problems that I hope can be partially fixed before the next Bounce card in March...
Second: Several times in the middle of ROUNDS of the main event,the network would cut to a commercial!
Now occasionally,these things happen,but multiple (and the number wasn't two) times,the fight was in the ring and we were then treated to commercials.
That has to stop as well...
Third: PBC advertises their shows for two hours (this one 9-11 EST),but has three fights on the card-one of ten rounds and two twelve round world title fights.
There is no way if all of those fights go the distance (as in this case,they did),you squeeze in a two hour block.
This show lasted 3;15,which isn't bad if you advertise a three hour block,but awful for a two.
I'm not complaining at all about a three hour show,but advertise it as such..

The main event saw Robert Easter retain his IBF lightweight title with a lopsided unanimous decision over Luis Cruz.
Easter dropped Cruz in each of the final three rounds,but was unable to finish the gritty Cruz bringing the fight to the scorecards.
I had Easter an easy 119-106 winner,but despite the talent that Easter possesses,he didn't impress me as much as I expected against an outmatched opponent.
Easter seems to me to be unable to decide if he is a long range boxer or a walk 'em down puncher.
Until he makes that decision,I would hesitate to move Easter up our TRS rankings,which had Easter ranked 5th at lightweight...

A mild upset came in the co-feature as Zhanat Zhakiyanov upset Rau'shee Warren to lift the WBA bantamweight title via a split decision.
Zhakiyanov dominated the final eight rounds,but had put himself far behind on the scorecards after Warren knocked him down twice in round one and controlled the following round as well.
Thereafter,Zhakiyanov bullied and outpunched Warren and earned the win on my scorecard 113-112.
Warren entered the fight ranked 2nd at 118 pounds in the TRS ratings with Zhakiyanov rated fifth,but all of his points came from one voter (not me),so credit to him for having the new champ in our ratings.
Look for a shakeup at bantamweight in April!!

The opening fight featured former United States Olympian Terrell Gausha decision Luis Hernandez,but didn't look great doing it and Hernandez knocked Gausha down in the third round.
I scored Gausha a 97-92
winner,but looks to have a vulnerable chin that could see him derailed against tougher competition than the journeyman Hernandez.