Boxing Challenge

The boxing challenge this weekend gives boxing fans a huge gift in one of the best fights that the game has to offer as WBA lightweight champion (and WBC champion in waiting) Jorge Linares defends his title against WBO junior lightweight champion and our top-rated fighter pound for pound Vasyl Lomachenko at Madison Square Garden.

This battle between our top-rated fighters at two weight divisions took some making with two promoters involved, but in the end, ESPN did some time slot maneuvers to allow this fight to take place.
It truly matches two of the best fighters in the world and with the exception of Mikey Garcia (TRS 2), the winner will clearly have the claim for the best lightweight in the world.
Linares certainly has the talent and power to give Lomachenko his toughest fight since his only loss (a very controversial one) to Orlando Salido, but Linares can be hit and he cuts very easily.
Lomachenko continues to move up after starting his career at featherweight and for all of his extremely talented skills, sooner or later he will hit the wall where he changes over from great to very good (think Roman Gonzalez for an example).
I don't think this will happen this time, but with the best opponent he has ever faced and at a weight that he hasn't fought at before, Lomachenko will be tested.
This should be one worth seeing and with an eight o'clock start for the card, you should be able to catch it live  (Fred Landucci will be DVRing it with his graphing the craziness in Harrisburg tonight).

The reason it is starting at eight EST?
Linares' promoter Golden Boy has an HBO card and didn't want to have one of their fighters on one network against their offering on another.
The main event there shows WBO junior middleweight champion Sadam Ali (TRS 4) making his first defense against Jaime Munguia.
Ali upset Miguel Cotto to win the belt in his last fight and was scheduled to face mandatory contender Liam Smith tonight before Smith fell out with an illness.
Late substitute Munguia is undefeated with what looks to be huge power (28-0 24 KO) but has faced anyone of note, let alone someone of world title caliber.
The interesting part of this fight is that Ali is a true 147 pounder, not a junior middle and was knocked out in his only loss by Jessie Vargas, who is not a huge puncher and Munguia, although untested, appears to be a big hitter and fears no one.
How do I know that? Munguia was going to be the person that fought Gennady Golovkin before he was not sanctioned for the fight having the limited record and never having fought at middleweight, yet still wanted the fight.
If you don't fear Gennady Golovkin, you are either extremely confident in your talent or very deluded.

Rey Vargas (TRS #2) defends his WBC junior featherweight title against Azat Hovannisyan in the HBO opener.
Vargas has looked strong of late in moving up the 122-pound ladder, but Hovannisyan walked right through the respected Ronny Rios in his last fight stopping him in six after Vargas had decisioned Rios in their fight a few months before and could be a live dog in this fight.
This could be a very interesting fight.

I added one more fight to the challenge that you might have to find on YouTube without American TV as former world title challenger Hughie Fury returns after his decision loss to Joseph Parker to challenge for the British heavyweight title against Sam Sexton.
Sexton is on a nine-fight winning streak including an upset win last time out over undefeated Gary Cornish who entered the fight at 24-0, but six of those nine wins were over fighters with losing records including this gem over Tomas Mrazek who is 10-51-6!
That's right- 51 losses and he still is sanctioned to fight?
The Sexton-Fury bout is in Bolton.England.

I lead Ramon Malpica in the boxing challenge 81-67.

WBA Lightweight Title 12 Rds
Jorge Linares vs Vasyl Lomachenko
R.L: Lomachenko Unanimous Decision
TRS: Lomachenko TKO 8

WBO Junior Middleweight Title. 12 Rds
Sadam Ali vs Jaime Munguia
R.L: Ali Unanimous Decision
TRS: Munguia KO 9

WBC Junior Featherweight Title. 12 Rds
Rey Vargas vs Azat Hovannisyan
R.L: Vargas KO 8
TRS: Vargas Unanimous Decision

Heavyweights. 12 Rds
Sam Sexton vs Hughie Fury
Both: Fury Unanimous Decision

May Minor League System Update!

As we near mid-May, I promised an occasional update on my minor leaguers that I drafted.
I'll also add the players that I drafted before this past draft after my picks as well.

2018-# 1
Luis Robert OF Chicago White Sox- missed time with a wrist injury, playing in Arizona, expected to start at High A Winston-Salem soon.

2018 #2
Heliot Ramos OF San Francisco-  .212 3 HR 10 RBI at Low A Augusta.
Has struggled overall, but has had two really strong weeks.
The problem is what he has done otherwise.

2018 #3
Jesus Luzardo P Oakland 2-1 in 3 starts 1.23 ERA 25 K's in 14.2 innings at High A Stockton
                                          1-0 in 3 starts 3.00 ERA 19 K's in 15 innings at AA Midland.
Looking like the pitching steal of the draft in the first month in a half.
Luzardo looked to moved aggressively starting at High A after never being above short season.
Was so dominant that he was quickly promoted to AA Midland.
Hitters hit just .120 against him in High A and only .218 at AA.

2018 #4
Adrian Morejon P San Diego 1-3 in 6 starts 3.68 ERA 30 K's in 29.1 innings at High A Lake Elsinore
Morejon at 19 was aggressively moved and is holding his own if not excelling.
Hitters are only hitting .231 against him, so the numbers aren't bad, just pales next to Luzardo...

2018 #5
Jhailyn Ortiz OF Philadelphia .158 1 HR 5 RBI in 57 at bats at Low A Lakewood-
Ortiz was striking out as I expected (25 whiffs in 57 at-bats) before being injured and placed on the DL after diving for a ball here at the beautiful Muni and its lovely outfield surface.
Not sure how much time he'll miss, but should he miss another month, it'll be interesting to see if he's returned to short-season Williamsport (Where he tore up the NY-Penn League in 2017) to gain some confidence or back to Lakewood.

2018 #5A
William Contreras C Atlanta .232 2 HR 4 RBI in 56 at bats at Low A Rome
Contreras just arrived in Rome two weeks ago after a spring training injury.
Small sample, but have to like the two homers early.

The rest of my system as follows- If a draft pick number appears to be out of order, I either released that player, traded him or lost him in the expansion draft

2017 #1
Eloy Jimenez OF Chicago White Sox .341 7 HR 24 RBI in 85 at bats at AA Birmingham.
Jimenez won't be in Birmingham much longer, the question is this-is he headed for AAA Charlotte or the big club in Chicago.
Jimenez has posted an OPS of 1.064 and looks to be the massive bat among many on a White Sox team that could be a contender for a while in a few years.

2017 #2
Juan Soto OF Washington  .373 5 HR 24 RBI in 59 at bats at Low A Hagerstown
                                            .371 7 HR 18 RBI in 62 at bats at High A Potomac
                                            .400 1 HR   4 RBI in 5 at bats at AA Harrisburg
As terrific as Jimenez has been and he has done it at a higher level, Juan Soto is just crushing the ball.
Was likely started softly in Low A Hagerstown, but at only 19, looked like a major leaguer in the SAL- the old line of a man among boys applies and the Carolina League looked to be a better challenge.
Soto only jacked things up there to far exceed those expectations to the point of having to be moved to AA, where he only homered on his first night there.
Soto notched a combined OPS of 1,275 between Hagerstown and Potomac.
The parent club may very well consider letting Bryce Harper walk if his asking price is too high in the off-season or decide to give him what he wants and combine Harper with Soto for the next few years.
If that happens-Watch out...

2017 #4
Tristan McKenzie P Cleveland
McKenzie is still in Arizona with forearm soreness.
They supposedly aren't serious and he is expected to debut soon.
His 2017 numbers would have made him a lock to start at AA Akron, he might make a start or two back at High A Lynchburg before moving up.

2016 # 3
Brady Aiken P Cleveland
Aiken is also in Arizona, but after a bad 2018 might be running out of chances.
Haven't heard anything about an assignment soon

2016 #4
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 3B Toronto .396 5 HR 36 RBI at AA New Hampshire
Yep, 396 for a 19-year-old in AA and only 12 strikeouts? Unreal and an OPS over 1,100!
The question here again as with Eloy Jimenez, does Vlad Jr go to AAA Buffalo or straight to Toronto?
I drafted Guerrero before he had ever played a pro game, so high reward here!
Yes, I could have a lineup of draftees of Jimenez, Soto, and Guerrero- And that's before we see how Luis Robert plays.

2016 #5
Phil Bickford P Milwaukee
Bickford missed time last year with a drug suspension (Marijuana) and a broken hand and hasn't pitched this season despite not being listed on anyone's DL.
It's too bad that he might be tossing a career away because when he sees the mound, he gets batters out- Like Aiken, I'm running out of patience.

2016 #6
Justus Sheffield P New York Yankees 1-2 in 5 starts 2.25 ERA 39 K's in 28 innings at AA Trenton
                                                              0-1 in 4.2 innings in only start at AAA Scranton
Sheffield was solid, but unspectacular in 2017 in Trenton, but it still was a surprise when he was returned there.
Sheffield didn't pout, pitched very well and earned his AAA promotion.

Pre-2016 Draftees

Christian Arroyo 3B Tampa Bay .212 1 HR 8 RBI in 53 at bats at AAA Durham.
Arroyo has struggled in his 1st season in the Rays organization, Still just 22 (23 later in the month), but his struggles might make him a cut for me at season's end.

Austin Meadows OF Pittsburgh .276 1 HR 10 RBI in 98 at bats at AAA Indianapolis.
Meadows bat has been pretty average in his AAA tenure (parts of three seasons) and has had trouble staying healthy.
I would like to see what he would do with an injury-free year, but that hasn't happened yet- Starting to get a little concerned.

Tyler Beede P San Francisco 1-3 in 5 starts 5.63 ERA 26 K's in 24 innings at AAA Sacramento
                                                0-1 in 2 starts 8.22 ERA in 7.2 innings for San Francisco
Beede looks to have had his chance and didn't take advantage of it-Barring a strong turnaround, Beede could be finished with me and maybe even the Giants.

Grant Holmes P Oakland
Holmes suffered a rotator cuff injury in spring training and may miss the season.
Holmes will likely be released by me before the next draft.


                                           

Cleaning out the inbox

The inbox cleaning continues with a few notes that accumulated over the last month plus and we try to catch up.

The SWC Roundup is doing a weekly series called "Know Your Program" and started with the Houston Cougars.
The series will eventually cover every division I football program in Texas and is a great history for fans of a particular program to reflect on or even learn about a program's past for a new fan.
When it comes to the Cougars, I'm a little bit of both, so there were lots of new things that I learned from the article.
It includes all sorts of facts and stories and the Roundup's picks for the program's "Mount Rushmore".
I'm sure I'll have the Texas Tech version for a future "inbox" when the Red Raiders are added to the series.

ArizonaSports.com has an oral history of the original USFL Arizona Wranglers, which is the 1983 version and not the 1984 team that went to the USFL championship game.
The author talks to players, coaches and front office members and covers the team's origin, training camp and various memories of the season- on and off the field.
It's always interesting to read oral histories as they read like you are just sitting down and are having a conversation with a bunch of people talking about the subject, especially on defunct leagues which makes you want to kick back and enjoy the war stories.

The Athletic does a where are they now feature on former Boise State quarterback Jared Zabransky, who was the Boise passer that led the Broncos to that well-remembered Fiesta Bowl win over Adrian Peterson and the Oklahoma Sooners.
Zabransky talks about his EA sports cover on NCAA Football (I miss that game!), what he is up to today and of course the Fiesta Bowl.

Another where are they now page comes from the San Antonio Express-News on former Loyola Chicago gunner Alfredrick Hughes, who Spurs fans call the biggest bust in Spurs history, who was the 14th pick in the 1985 draft.
San Antonio picked Hughes over Karl Malone, Joe Dumars, Terry Porter and A.C Green.
Hughes was back in the news when Loyola-Chicago made the final four as the most recent star for the Ramblers in the 80's, so his one year in Texas averaging five points a game brought back some old scars for Spurs fans.

The Cincinnati Enquirer notes the new head coach at Western Carolina is now Mark Prosser, son of former Xavier and Wake Forest coach the late Skip Prosser.
I've written before about being such a fan of Skip Prosser and I'm sure I'll be a fan of Mark Prosser's teams as well.
The Catamounts went 13-19 last season in the Southern Conference under then-coach Larry Hunter, who passed away last week following a stroke.

During the tournament. I found an old story from Staten Island's local newspaper about the loss that Mike Krzyzewski still stews about and it's not from an NCAA tournament, ACC tournament or an old loss to North Carolina or Maryland.
It goes back to Coach K's third season at Duke, when the Bill Foster recruits like Gene Banks and Kenny Dennard that had kept the Blue Devils respectable in the first year of his reign had left, his second team finished 11-17 and his first big recruiting class (Johnny Dawkins, Mark Alarie and a guy you might have seen on television named Jay Bilas) were all freshmen.
That bunch would take Duke to the NCAA Finals in four years, but on this January 1983 night, it was Duke losing to Wagner 84-77 AT Cameron Indoor Stadium!!
It gets worse the more that you read.
Wagner entered that game off a FIFTY point loss to UNLV and rolled into Durham with a record of 2-7!
You would think that Wagner's win revitalized their season, but you would be wrong as the Seahawks finished the season at 10-18 with Krzyzewski's squad ending the season with another record of  11-17.
Wagner wouldn't be remembered for anything for a while until it graduated Ian McArdle over thirty years later.

Rolling into ?-Cavaliers polish off Raptors

The Cleveland Cavaliers outscored the listless Toronto Raptors by twelve points in both the second and third quarters to waltz to a 128-93 win in the fourth game of the Eastern Conference semi-finals to clinch the series four games to zero.
LeBron James scored 29 points and Kevin Love added 23 more to lead all five of the Cleveland starters in double-figure scoring on the game.

Cleveland will have at least four days off with the Philadelphia win over Boston pushing that series to at least five games, so until that series reaches its end, it is unknown when game one of the Eastern finals will be played, although the series will begin at either Boston or Philadelphia.

Swashbucklings

1) The Cavaliers shot 59 percent for the game, which tied an all-time team mark for best percentage in the playoffs and most teams aren't going to lose many games when they shoot that well, especially one with LeBron James.

2) What I really loved (no pun intended) from this series was the sudden return to form of Kevin Love to the player that was so dynamic in Minnesota and was of such value that the Cavaliers felt that Andrew Wiggins and his talent and potential were more than a fair return.
This Kevin Love wasn't afraid to drive to the hoop or post up and bang the boards hard and showed such versatility that Love was the type of offensive force that eases LeBron James' use a bit (and anything helps there) and opens up the offense far more than the forward that sometimes just grazes around and fires up an occasional three.

3) Have to love the balanced scoring with the starters all scoring at least 12 points.
You aren't going to receive those type of numbers every night of course, but it's nice to see what can happen when the shots are dropping and even if you get remotely close to that production, this team can be tough to defeat- Western Conference champion or not.

4) One bad note- Tyronn Lue inserted Cedi Osman in the game in the first half and not Rodney Hood in his usual rotation spot.
Hood is reported to have refused to play in the fourth quarter garbage time as a result of that decision as Sam Amico reports.
I'm sure LeBron James will personally make his displeasure known to Hood, but what will this mean for the future of Hood?
Hood came to Cleveland with a questionable attitude resume' and we all assumed that being on a winner with the best player in the world in the locker room would straighten that out as it has in the past in Cleveland, resulting in a productive player.
It appears that Hood is still a work in progress and being a restricted free agent at the end of the playoffs, could this give the front office some pause in matching any potential offers from suitors for Hood?
And could this give those suitors pause? I'd wonder if a guy has an attitude playing with LeBron James, what is he going to do with my club?
It'll be interesting to see if the team suspends Hood or just slaps him with a fine, but bank on some type of punishment involved.

5) Demar DeRozan was thrown out of the game in the second half for a flagrant 2 foul on Jordan Clarkson and finished with a quiet 13 points on the game.
Combine that with Kyle Lowry's mere five points in 30 minutes and you have the recipe for a blowout.
Toronto made moves to compete with the Cavaliers last off-season and those allowed them to win 58 games and become the top seed, but the Raptors didn't improve themselves for the postseason and when your top stars play passively and almost intimidated, it becomes very difficult to win against the really good teams in the playoffs.
Toronto may have come to the realization that one or both of their two core stars might need to go in order to step forward over the long haul.

6) So the results of this were a mild surprise to even me.
Many were predicting Toronto to win after the LeBron centered series against the Pacers with the struggles of that series for everyone not named James.
I picked Cleveland in six, although I had a feeling that it would be five, but didn't expect four at all.
Still, I'm still reluctant to assume that the run of strong play will continue for sure.
Boston is playing without Kyrie Irving, so that would not hurt a series win, while the Sixers (Down 3-1 to Boston) are very talented and could cause major problems for the Cavaliers, but with such a young team, Philadelphia is taking a maiden voyage with each playoff step and that could be a huge advantage for Cleveland, should Philadelphia run the table and advance.

7) So we wait.
Fearless predictions- I'll take the Cavaliers over Boston in six or Philadelphia in five.
Neither of these series are walkovers, but short of a relapse to the play in the series against the Pacers,
I like the Cavaliers to return to the NBA Finals.

Cleaning out the inbox-Passings

Finally, with some time to remove a few things from the inbox, I decided to concentrate on some recent passings of note.
I did not add the death of former Ohio State football coach Earle Bruce because I want to do a bigger piece when the time for those types of posts are easier to come by.

We start with the passing of "Number One" Paul Jones at the age of 75.
Jones was a top wrestler in the 60's and 70's, mainly in the Mid-Atlantic and Florida territories, but to most fans, Jones is remembered as the ineffectual manager for the Crockett promotions in the mid-1980's that spent most of his time sending wrestlers to battle "the Boogie Woogie Man" Jimmy Valiant.
It's too bad because Jones was quite a star as both the top babyface and top heel for Mid-Atlantic Wrestling and Championship Wrestling From Florida.
Jones' best run was a little before my time as a fan even through the magazines, but a brief run that I remember through those magazines as a masked wrestler in Florida as "Mr.Florida" and for an angle as Mr. Florida when manager Sir Oliver Humperdink "accidentally shoved a cigar in his eye".
Jones time as a manager saw him as a dandy running around in a white tuxedo then as the leader of the "Army" where he cut his mustache short and resembled a bizarre mix of Adolf Hitler with the mustache and the "brown shirt" uniform of Benito Mussolini and finally in this Johnny Cash "Man in Black" getup where he managed Warlord and Barbarian as the "Powers of Pain in a feud against the Road Warriors that ended prematurely when (in real life) the Warlord and Barbarian left the NWA for the WWF rather than do a series of scaffold matches where they at over 300 pounds each would drop to the mat from a high scaffold.
Then Jones began using the name for himself as announcer David Crockett stated in the first program without his team- "Paul Jones is Powers of Pain".
Every once in a great while through the years, I'd send Ryan an email or a phone message stating that that "Paul Jones is Powers of Pain".
Jones is also known for attending the same high school at the same time as football coach Jimmy Johnson and the late rock star Janis Joplin and for the claim that Jones took the virginity of Ms.Joplin.


Another former wrestler turned manager passed away recently as Johnny Valiant passed away at the age of 71 after being hit by a vehicle in Pittsburgh.
Valiant was part of the Valiant Brothers with the aforementioned Jimmy Valiant in the 1970's and later a third brother Jerry Valiant and was a two-time WWWF tag team titleholder as part of the "brother" act.
Again as with Paul Jones, most fans will be more likely to remember Valiant as a WWF manager in the 1980's, most notably with Brutus Beefcake at first and then managed Beefcake and Greg Valentine "The Dream Team" to the federation's tag team titles.
I always thought Valiant was funny and effective in the role as a manager and occasional commentator but was overshadowed by Bobby Heenan and to a lesser extent Jimmy Hart in the company.
Valiant was good on the mic, could take a nice bump in the ring and pretty good as a color commentator as well, his misfortune was to be in the company at the same time as Heenan, who was simply even better than Valiant at those skills and Valiant was lost in the shuffle.


Former Southern California Sun running back James McAlister passed away at the age of 66 after battling cancer.
McAlister was a multi-talented athlete, who paired with his high school teammate Kermit Johnson at running back to play together at UCLA and with the WFL's Sun before both left the team on the eve of the league's only playoff season in 1974, when the duo (and tackle Booker Brown) when they had not received their game checks.
McAlister is also remembered for his famous Sports Illustrated cover of an up-close shot of his face inside his helmet at UCLA in 1971 but also uncorked the longest leap of 1973 in the long jump in the world, so McAlister was at the world-class level in two sports.
After leaving the WFL, McAlister would spend three seasons in the NFL with the Eagles and Patriots and his son Chris would become an All-Pro cornerback for the Baltimore Ravens.
It was ironic for me, as I was in the middle of a replay season for the Sun in my PC football league and McAlister was on my mind during that time on how best to use him in the game.


Three passings were brought to my attention by Lefty Koch, who seems to always be passing me information that I missed.
Thanks to Lefty for sending me the following three notices.

The all-time scorer in the history of the Philadelphia 76ers passed away at the age of 81 as Hal Greer passed on in Arizona.
Greer leading the Sixers in scoring is saying something for his skills as a player for a franchise that has employed Wilt Chamberlain, Charles Barkley, Julius Erving and Allen Iverson.
Greer spent his first five years with Syracuse before the team moved to Philadelphia in 1963 and spent his entire career with the franchise before retiring in 1973.
Greer played his college ball at Marshall and I remember when we visited Huntington last year crossing "Hal Greer Boulevard".
Greer was named as one of the league's 50 greatest players in 1996 and was the first player ever to have his number retired by the 76ers.


Vic Bubas, the father of Duke basketball, passed away at the age of 91 in Richmond, VA.
Bubas was an assistant under Everett Case at the ACC's first basketball powerhouse at N.C. State before taking the head job at Duke from 1959 to 1969, compiling a record of 212-67, winning four ACC tournaments in the days that only the ACC tournament winner went to the big dance and made the final four three times before retiring young at the age of 42, never coaching again.
Bubas moved into administration at Duke before becoming the first commissioner of the Sun Belt conference in 1976.


Robert "the Tank" Holmes, a bulldozing fullback for three teams in the AFL before moving to Canada, passed away there at the age of 72.
Holmes' peak was in his first two years with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1968 and 69 as part of their only world championship team in rushing for just under 1,500 yards in those seasons.
Holmes would barely top 1,000 yards over the remaining five years with the Chiefs, Chargers, and Oilers before finishing his career in the CFL with Saskatchewan.

We finish with the loss of Jhoon Rhee at the age of 86.
If you are over the age of 40 and live in range of Washington DC television stations, it doesn't take more than to say "Nobody Bothers Me" to someone of a similar age to respond with " Nobody Bother Me Either"!
The Taekwondo commercials by Jhoon Rhee are known so well because of the snappy jingle "Call USA-1000" (written and sung by E-Street Band member Nils Lofgren in return for a small sum and a lifetime membership) and catchphrases mainly because there were so few stations then and those Jhoon Rhee commercials seemed to play every 15 minutes on WDCA, which was the only station that showed syndication shows (Star Trek, a lot!) kids shows (Captain 20
)and was the only place that you could watch the Orioles, Bullets, and Capitals to go with lots of ACC basketball.
Throughout all of that programming was the familiar refrain of  "Nobody Bothers Me".
Over 40 years later, I bet people that never threw a kick in their life knows that commercial, jingle and the master of taekwondo that started them all.

Still plenty of inbox cleaning to do, but we have made progress- more coming soon!

Boxing Challenge: GGG returns, Bellew finishes Haye.

Gennady Golovkin's return to action didn't last as long as it takes to bake a potato. but the ending was spectacular as ever as Golovkin retained his three middleweight titles with a second-round crushing of Vanes Martirosyan in Carson, California.
The IBF didn't sanction the fight as a title defense, although the title would have been ruled vacant had Martirosyan won, but Golovkin took a punch or two in the first before the finishing in the second that left Martirosyan prone on the floor.

The less said the better about this one, now the speculation begins whether Golovkin will face Canelo Alvarez in September.
If Golovkin wants to keep the IBF title, he will have to face Sergey Dereyvanchenko next and Golovkin has claimed for years that he wants all four belts and being stripped of one is a step back for that goal.
However, the dollars aren't even in the same universe for that fight compared to the Canelo rematch, but I don't think we will see that rematch in September anyway.
I cannot imagine that Golden Boy Promotions will have their cash cow fight Golovkin off a one-year layoff and what I think will happen will see Canelo's comeback against a softer opponent, most likely Spike O'Sullivan with Golovkin taking care of his IBF mandatory in Dereyvanchenko-possibly even on the same card.
To me, that makes sense and covers bases for both parties- Canelo gets a fight to chip the rust off and GGG gets to keep a title belt (or attempt to).

In London, Tony Bellew looks to have finally finished the career of David Haye with a fifth-round knockout in their rematch of Bellew's win in 2017.
Bellew knocked Haye down twice in the third before finishing Haye off in the fifth.
I had Bellew winning every round, although Haye was throwing punches, it appeared to me that he couldn't sit down on his punches and the Achilles injury that he suffered in the first fight didn't appear to be healed as he was forced to throw his punches off the front foot.
Bellew was calling for Andre Ward after the fight (No thanks), but a better fight might be Bellew against the Oleksandr Usyk-Murat Gassiev winner for the unified cruiserweight title.
Bellew left the division as the WBC's "Champion in Emeritus" which means he can cash in a title shot whenever he asks for it, so that could happen.

On the Bellew-Haye undercard, Emmanuel Rodriguez knocked Paul Butler down in the first and cruised to a unanimous decision to win the vacant IBF bantamweight title.
Only Rodriguez could win the title as Butler failed to make the weight and I had Rodriguez a 119-108 winner.

On Friday on ESPN, highly touted prospect (much of it on social media by himself) Ryan Garcia took a step up in competition against former world title challenger Jayson Velez and won a unanimous decision.
Garcia looked strong early but visibly weakened later in his first time going ten rounds against the tough but smaller Velez.
I had Garcia a 98-92 winner, but I'm not sure what the hurry is with Golden Boy pushing Garcia so quickly and these calls for fighters like Gervonta Davis would be a huge mistake for Garcia.
Garcia needs a few more fights against fighters that are on a similar level to Velez before anyone should even think about a title challenge or a fight against a top five level opponent.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored six points on the weekend.
Ramon received two points each from wins by Emmanuel Rodriguez and Gennady Golovkin and one each from Ryan Garcia and Tony Bellew.
My six came from two-point wins from Golovkin. Rodriguez and Garcia.
I lead the challenge 81-67.

LeBron-Again- Cavaliers cut down Raptors at the buzzer

The Cleveland Cavaliers had allowed the Toronto Raptors to crawl back into game three with a fourth quarter that bordered on obtuse and with eight seconds to go, Toronto's OG Anunoby's three-pointer tied the game with Cleveland using its final timeout.

Cleveland to the surprise of Hubie Brown at the announcer's table decided to throw the ball in from the far end of the court rather than half court.
It turned out to be exactly what the situation called for as Toronto somehow allowed the one man that could beat them in this scenario to get the ball and do just that as LeBron James took the inbounds pass, dribbled up the floor, tossed up an off-balance shot off one foot and banked it home to pandemonium in Cleveland for a 105-103 win and a 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
James led Cleveland with 38 points with Kevin Love stepping up again with a 21 point, 18 rebound game and Kyle Korver scoring 18 to support the King in his efforts.
Game four is Monday in Cleveland with the Cavaliers having a chance to close the show and eliminate the Raptors, who have to be shaking their head and wondering what they have to do to defeat LeBron James four times in a row without a slip-up.

Swashbucklings

1) Tell me, just try to tell me that LeBron James isn't coming back to Cleveland.
Well, if he isn't, he is going full speed ahead in his final days and with a recklessness that borders on unsafe at times, James is playing like a player that is making a stand and one that wants to attract players to Cleveland, rather than one promoting himself to others.
At least I hope.

2) Tell me why Toronto even allowed the ball to get to LeBron, to begin with.
They didn't double-team him off the ball, didn't try to trap him or even press him until he hit the frontcourt with a head of steam.
The degree of difficulty was extremely high with eight seconds remaining as it was, but even using one of those tactics might have made that shot close to impossible.
Those decisions allowed the greatest player in the game a chance to beat you and anytime you open that window...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmTpuTSkDWk

3) Kevin Love played well on the stat sheet, but Love also played well in the third quarter when James rested, scoring seven points without him and keeping the Cavaliers ahead by double-digits before the Raptors rally in the final period.
However. Love wouldn't take a shot in the fourth quarter, this offense still runs best with Love as the second option, not with LeBron and four extras.

4) Don't forget why the buzzer beater was needed though, missed free throws by LeBron James (I think I can overlook it) and Jeff Green to allow the tying three-pointer hit by OG Anunoby to tie the game.
It is a quibble in a victory, but it can be huge in a defeat.

5) Want to know another reason Toronto is struggling?
When you can't play your star at all in the fourth quarter because he's a liability and you rally from 14 down entering the quarter, that says a lot for your star.
Demar DeRozan disappeared from the game with eight points and Toronto played better without him?
That's not just something for Toronto to think about before Monday, it might be something to think about in the off-season.

6) So, that just about wraps this series up.
The question is now is does the series last four, five or six games?
I can see Toronto scraping together a win Monday and game five in Toronto, but I think that's the limit.
It would be better for the Cavaliers to end this series and save the legs, especially with Boston leading Philadelphia 3-0, but this series essentially ended in Cleveland last night..