Caleb Plant won all the early rounds and took advantage of an off-balance Jose Uzcategui twice to score flash knockdowns that gave him an insurmountable lead on the scorecards before using the boxing version of the "Four Corners" (Phil Ford was unavailable for comment) to run out the clock, upset Uzcategui and take away the IBF super-middleweight title.
Uzcategui won the final five rounds on my scorecard, but the knockdowns put him so far behind Plant that he won those rounds mainly due to desperate aggression.
Even though Uzcategui knew he needed a knockout to win, he still didn't move his hands enough to seriously hurt Plant, who protected his lead with holding, grabbing, and clutching a frustrated Uzcategui.
Plant's win and performance came as a surprise to me ( I had Plant a 115-111 winner) and I'm still not sold on him in the long run as he seems to be a very beatable champion.
However, he has plenty of room to improve, isn't in an overwhelmingly strong division, and fights for the PBC, which means he'll likely be matched very carefully until an eventual mandatory bout.
My guess is that if Anthony Dirrell (PBC) wins the vacant WBC title over Avni Yildrim, they'll build for a Plant-Dirrell fight in the usual PBC manner in which both fighters will fight two showcase fights and take a year to eighteen months to build for a fight that few are hungering for anyway.
As for Uzcategui, a fighter that was highly thought of by many and avoided by many as well, this was a very disappointing outing and he'll have to start over because he still won't be a likely opponent for top fighters because of his ability when he's at his best.
This was still a setback for Uzcategui, who had a national showcase and the ability to fight fighters from any promotional unit or network and whether due to overconfidence or a lack of preparation, came up lacking on a night that he could have made a huge statement.
In the co-feature, Brandon Figueroa was very impressive in a three-round crushing of Moises Flores in a junior featherweight eliminator.
Figueroa punished Flores from the opening bell and sent him to the floor with a left hook in the third round.
Flores rose but was hit with a volley of punches that culminated with a right hand that dropped Flores into a corner where the referee called off the bout.
Figueroa will now be the mandatory contender for WBA champion Danny Roman in what should be an interesting mix of styles and a very good matchup.
I slightly favor Roman in that one, but it's very close between the pair.
Ramon Malpica and I each start the 2019 boxing challenge with one point for the Brandon Figueroa victory.
It's time for a brand new year in the boxing challenge as I take on Ramon Malpica in picking the best fights in boxing.
I've won three challenges in a row after dropping the initial challenge to Ramon, so I'm looking to make it four.
The two fights are Sunday night on FS1 and the PBC with one being the first world championship fight of the year.
The main event has the improving IBF super middleweight champion Jose Uzcategui in a mandatory defense against Caleb Plant.
Uzcategui delivers exciting fights in an attacking style and disposing of Plant in front of a national television audience could be the beginning of a big year for the big punching Venezuelan, who can move around the big three promoters/networks without a formal affiliation and could fight any of the other champions at the weight (Gilberto Ramirez WBO/Top Rank, Callum Smith WBA/Matchroom/DAZN and the winner of the vacant WBC title fight pairing Anthony Dirrell PBC and Avni Yildrim unaffiliated).
While I really like Uzcategui against the marginally qualified and tedious to watch Plant, who has one win of note (a decision win over the shopworn Porky Medina), I'm a little cautious with this one.
PBC has often featured Plant on their broadcasts in preliminary bouts so they have a small investment in him, he's a noted mover (I'd say runner, but hey it's a new year) and this being on a PBC card, I have a bad feeling that this is going to be far closer on the cards than it might be in the ring.
In other words, I could see a scenario where Uzcategui wins ten of twelve rounds, chases Plant all evening and the house fighter wins a ridiculous decision complete with his girlfriend (PBC reporter Jordan Hardy dates Plant) interviewing him as the crowd boos loudly.
I hope that doesn't happen.
The other challenge bout will be a WBA junior featherweight eliminator between undefeated prospect Brandon Figueroa and former world title challenge Moises Flores.
Both fighters have defeated former contender Oscar Escandon, with Figueroa looking very impressive in stopping Escandon in his last outing in September.
Flores lost a decision to WBA champion Danny Roman last June and a win here would set him up for a rematch.
Former WBA champion Guillermo Rigondeaux returns in a non-challenge bout against trialhorse Giovanni Delgado on the card in his PBC debut.
Rigondeaux hasn't fought since his first loss in December 2017 to Vasyl Lomachenko.
IBF Super Middleweight Title. 12 Rds
Jose Uzcategui vs Caleb Plant
R.L: Uzcategui KO 10
TRS; Uzcategui Unanimous Decision
2019 didn't get off to a great start with two passings already on January 2nd.
Goodbye to Bob Einstein, who passed at the age of 76.
The comic was known best in recent times for his character on "Curb Your Enthusiasm", but to me, Einstein, the older brother to actor Albert Brooks, will always be "Super Dave" Osborne, the stuntman that never found the stunt that he could pull off successfully on three different programs "Bizarre", "SuperDave" and most recently "SuperDave Spiketacular".
I loved Super Dave and I could never stop laughing at those shows.
They hold up well and I think it's because all of us know "that guy" that jabbers and jowls about what they are going to do and what they have done and yet are just too inept to do almost anything.
Einstein was also a writer for many programs in the 60s and 70s with an Emmy for best writer for the Smothers Brothers show in 1968 and a Cable Ace award for the SuperDave show on Showtime in the 80s, but he'll always be Super Dave in my memories.
Goodbye to Gene Okerlund also at the age of 76.
"Mean Gene" was the main interviewer for the Midwest-based AWA before moving to his greatest fame with the WWF before wrapping his full-time career up with WCW.
Okerlund would make occasional appearances with the WWE after their purchase of the WCW.
Okerlund was dubbed "Mean Gene" by either Hulk Hogan or Jesse Ventura, depending on the source you read or whom you talked to of Hogan or Ventura.
I never thought Okerlund was all that great at calling the action in the ring, but few were able to match his ability doing interviews and promos with the stars.
Okerlund had a manner of speech and body language that the viewer could snicker at as he played the straight man or the smart-lipped counterpuncher to the heels that almost slipped by them and you and as they would turn to confront Okerlund, he would smoothly change the subject.
Gene Okerlund might not have been the best wrestling announcer of his time, but with the possible exception of Jim Ross, he certainly was the most known by the mainstream fan and best remembered as well.
Goodbye to Ben Coleman at the age of 57.
Coleman was the starting center on the only ACC Tournament championship team that Lefty Driesell ever coached in 1984 and averaged 15 points and eight rebounds in his two seasons as a Terrapin.
Coleman arrived after two years with Minnesota and his transfer to College Park enabled the Terrapins to replace Buck Williams as the undersized (in height) yet burly center against the larger centers such as Ralph Sampson, Brad Daugherty etc that populated the league.
In the game below, Coleman scored 26 points in an upset over Daugherty, Michael Jordan, and North Carolina in 1983.
Coleman would play for four NBA teams and spent time playing in Europe in his pro career.
Goodbye to Jerry Buchek at the age of 76 as Lefty Koch sends word.
The light hitting second baseman spent time with the Mets and Cardinals from 1961-68, never hitting higher than .247, although he did hit 14 homers as a Met in 1967.
Buchek was a member of the 1964 world champion Cardinals, singling in his only plate appearance and scored the first run in Busch Memorial Stadium in 1966.
Goodbye to Kwamie Lassiter at the age of 49.
Lassiter spent time with the Chargers and Rams but was best remembered for his time with the Arizona Cardinals from 1995-2002.
In the 1998 season finale' and the Cardinals needing a win over the Chargers to clinch their first (non-strike) playoff spot in 22 years, Lassiter intercepted four passes in a 16-13 Cardinal win.
Goodbye to Alexis Smirnoff at the age of 71.
Smirnoff was never quite the level of "Russian" star as Ivan Koloff or Nikolai Volkoff during the same time period but was a solid middle to upper card wrestler that spent time in the WWF, AWA and many various NWA promotions.
My best Smirnoff memory was in the dying days of Verne Gagne's AWA, which was only kept alive by a contract with ESPN and resulted in the AWA being populated by recent graduates of their wrestling school, veterans who were winding down their careers and veterans who were on the blacklist with WWF and WCW.
Smirnoff was in the second of the three tiers and arrived in a tag team with a gentleman named Gordienko, who the promotion never bothered to give a first name and pushed them as the "best Russian team in the world", despite their matches taking place at the same speed as a slug in the sunshine.
The funniest part was their post-match interviews that featured Gordienko speaking the same answer to every question "You know why we're here".
Gordienko said this so much, that you had to think this was going to eventually mean something, although considering the AWA at the time, that something would have likely meant either nothing or nothing of importance.
Sadly, there are no clips of these on YouTube, so you'll have to settle for a match instead and for the record- We never were told just why they were there.
Finally, Goodbye to Verna Bloom at the age of 80.
Bloom was a character actress that appeared in High Plains Drifter, but will best be remembered as "Marion Wormer", the drunken wife of the dean of Faber College in Animal House that slept with Eric"Otter" Stratton.
The Cleveland Browns pondered, gave several interviews to candidates both inside and outside the organization, thought even more and then decided that their man might not have been the interim head coach, but was on the staff currently as the Browns hired offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens to take over for the 2019 season.
The 44-year-old Kitchens coached the second half of the season as the offensive coordinator and seems to have impressed enough people in Berea to retain the job in his audition, even over the actual head coach of those games in Gregg Williams.
Kitchens spent the previous eleven years with Bruce Arians with the Arizona Cardinals as at various times he coached tight ends, running backs and quarterbacks with his time with veteran Carson Palmer coinciding with the three year run of the Cardinals as a title contender (as I wrote yesterday about in our post on Kliff Kingsbury and the Cardinals).
Kitchens will become only the second current head coach in the league to be promoted to their job without a full season as a coordinator (Kansas City's Andy Reid was hired in his first job in Philadelphia from being Brett Favre's quarterback coach in Green Bay).
It appears the main major selling points for Kitchens were the emergence of Baker Mayfield, who threw 19 of his 27 touchdown passes with Kitchens calling the plays after appearing to begin to fall into a funk under Hue Jackson after his initial success and therefore his relationship with Mayfield, who seems to have made a connection with Kitchens, both on the field and off- most recently when Kitchens defended Mayfield over a sideline "celebration" which cost him a fine and Mayfield's actions towards Jackson in the final home game.
The former Alabama quarterback showed promise as a play-caller and the Browns will hopefully retain him in calling the plays, although a veteran coordinator is almost an imperative on both sides of the ball, especially with the defense.
The Browns will be looking for an almost entirely new defensive staff after Gregg Williams and many assistants including thankfully special teams coach Amos Jones were released yesterday.
It appears that only two of the 2018 Browns defensive assistants will be with the team next season as defensive backs coach Dwayne Walker was mentioned as being retained and defensive line coach Clyde Simmons was not mentioned as staying but was not on the list of the coaches that were relieved of their duties either.
Gregg Williams was a pleasant surprise as a head coach and I wouldn't have been upset to see him given the full-time position, but much like Freddie Kitchens and frankly many candidates in this year's coaching silly season, I'm not jumping for joy or throwing items around the room either.
This was not a great year to hire a proven coach as the only one available ( Bruce Arians counts, but the Browns clearly weren't interested) was Mike McCarthy and I was definitely not excited about hiring McCarthy.
I can also understand and agree with the decision to allow Williams to pursue other opportunities.
Williams defense was second in forced turnovers last season, but finished 24 against the run and 29th against the pass and combined with the only natural issues that would come up with Williams suddenly being the subordinate to Kitchens, it was best for everyone that the parting of the ways took place.
On the overall, I'm fine with the hiring of Freddie Kitchens.
Is it risky? Sure, but as noted only Mike McCarthy and maybe Adam Gase were candidates with an experienced background that would be considered more than a retread, so it's not like they passed up a terrific proven winner.
The Browns are like several other teams that are trying something different and not all of these coaches are going to hit it big.
Some will succeed, others won't and that's part of the business.
Now, we move to hiring coordinators and then the really fun part- improving this roster and seeing if the seemingly open window in the AFC North can be leaped through...
A little over a month after being fired at Texas Tech, Kliff Kingsbury has arrived in the NFL via a brief detour with the USC Trojans as the Arizona Cardinals hired Kingsbury as their new head coach.
Looking at a 35-40 record over a six-run with the Red Raiders, one couldn't be blamed for wondering just what was the interest in Kingsbury all about and why on earth an NFL team is hiring someone that couldn't win in Lubbock.
The answer is this- Kliff Kingsbury has enough positives to override a few concerns.
First off, While I understood why Texas Tech felt it had to relieve Kingsbury of his duties, this could backfire on the Red Raiders.
Texas Tech has always been a tough place to win consistently due to in-state competition for recruiting, the tradition at other schools and the isolated location in West Texas, so even though Kingsbury didn't win, Tech is on the verge (in my opinion) of making a move because Kingsbury's last team began to show signs of developing a defense, which in the Big 12 goes quite a distance and Tech's late-season fade was mainly due to an injury to freshman quarterback Alan Bowman, who was injured against Oklahoma in a game that saw Tech slug it out on even terms in a 51-46 loss.
Tech might be sitting on a big year in 2019 and had an alum such as Kingsbury stayed, he may have become entrenched at the school for years.
Kingsbury's offenses always scored tons of points with talent that wasn't nearly as strong as the better teams in his conference and his work with Patrick Mahomes was outstanding.
I loved Mahomes coming out of Texas Tech and I had him ranked as my top ranked QB when many shrugged him off as another Big 12 system QB ( BTW- If I'm going to get hammered for not liking Baker Mayfield coming out, I want the credit for being dead-on about Mahomes. Fair is fair).
Much of that was due to the work and refinement that Mahomes received from Kingsbury, who also worked with Baker Mayfield (before his transfer), Davis Webb (Giants draftee) and as offensive coordinator, Kingsbury helped Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M) and Case Keenum (Houston) to excellent college careers and in the case of Keenum. a decent NFL career.
Kingsbury will work with Josh Rosen, who struggled in his Cardinal debut after being selected by them in the first round last year and hope that he is able to hit it off with the former UCLA Bruin as this only works if Kingsbury develops Rosen or is able to last long enough to be involved with a replacement a few years down the road and that won't be easy as the Cardinals are far from bowling one over with offensive talent.
David Johnson had a mildly disappointing 2018 season after returning from an injury that cost Johnson all but one game in 2017 and Josh Rosen's top receiving target was 35 years old Larry Fitzgerald.
Head coaching hires in the NFL is similar to imagining slot cars moving around a track.
For a lap or two, offensive backgrounds are preferred and then it can become defensive, only to emerge with teams wanting experienced hands with head coaching or high-level assistant resume's and the current lap shows team wanting younger coaches with what is currently considered to be "innovative" playcalling or systems.
Kliff Kingsbury fits that mold right now and on his resume', I wouldn't think that he would be a particularly attractive candidate for a power five college job, let alone the NFL, but the time is right for his skills to receive a chance, that chance might have not been available five years from now and it wasn't five years ago either.
One other factor to consider to those wondering just how on Earth, all of this occurred in a month.
It's the Arizona Cardinals.
Remember with the exception of one miracle run for a 9-7 team with a Hall of Fame passer (Kurt Warner) that saw them reach their only Super Bowl, a strong three year run under Bruce Arians and three more years under Don Coryell (in 1974-76!), this is a franchise that has generally been rotten under the Bidwill family for the last 50 plus years!
One could make a real argument that the Cardinals over the last 50 years have been the NFC version of the "New" Browns along with the Detroit Lions for sustained mediocrity.
The Bidwill's have hired coaches with track records (Gene Stallings,Buddy Ryan and Dennis Green), In-house "players" coaches (Dave McGinnis), veteran defensive coaches (Vince Tobin), young coaches (Steve Wilks), offensive flavors of the time (Ken Whisenhunt), offensive line coaches (Joe Bugel and Jim Hanifan), college coaches (Don Coryell) and even legends from the past (Bud Wilkinson) and with the exception of the short term blips on the radar, the Cardinals haven't been able to be successful.
Will Kliff Kingsbury take his place in the Cardinals graveyard of failed head coaching experiments?
Or have the Cardinals finally found their long term answer through taking a chance on the next big thing in football innovation?
It'll be interesting to see.
Back later with the Browns hiring of Freddie Kitchens as their new head coach.
The Cleveland Indians have been criticized for their inaction as far as improving their roster in preparation for the 2019 season and that criticism doesn't likely go away after a minor deal with the New York Mets.
The Indians added catcher Kevin Plawecki from the Mets in return for minor league infielder Sam Haggerty and pitcher Walker Lockett as Cleveland looks to build up a catching corps weakened by the trade of Yan Gomes to Washington.
A one time upper-level prospect, Plawecki has struggled to hit in the big leagues, although he has shown flashes of decent power in his major league appearances with 14 homers in 700 at-bats over four seasons.
Plawecki has struggled to make decent contact in his Big Apple chances as he hit .210 last season and carries a career average of a mere .218.
Plawecki is a decent defensive catcher and threw out 16 of 70 attempted theft attempts last season.
Plawecki could be either the backup to Roberto Perez or should Eric Haase force the issue, the soon to be 28 years old, Plawecki could be the starter and standby mitt in AAA Columbus.
In either event, it doesn't figure impact the Tribe very much, but occasionally a player that was touted and somewhat disappointed does go for the proverbial fresh start and turn things around, so one can hope for that.
The Indians had recently acquired Walker Lockett from the Padres in November, so Lockett never even was a "Hi Corbett" Indian.
Lockett was ripped in four late-season starts in San Diego with a record of 0-3 with an ERA of over nine, so he was likely an arm that was acquired as a hired gun for AA Akron or AAA Columbus after a 5-8 season with a 4.79 ERA for the Padres AAA affiliate in the West Texas town of El Paso. Sam Haggerty hit .243 with four homers in 87 games for AA Akron and stole 24 bases.
I wouldn't label Haggerty a prospect, but with the ability to play second, third and short, Haggerty is the type of player that can hang around AA and AAA for a long time.
