Friday, March 8, 2019

Cleaning out the inbox-Passings

It's been a bad few days for passings and we have enough from the sports world to fill a post with two from pro wrestling and one each from baseball, football, and hockey.

The biggest name comes from pro wrestling with the passing of
King Kong Bundy at the age of 61.
Bundy's time is best remembered for his angle with Hulk Hogan where Bundy "injured" the ribs of Hogan (as pictured above) and built to a steel cage match as the main event of Wrestlemania II.
Bundy was a headliner in several territories before his biggest success in the WWF, where part of his gimmick was demanding a five-count because a "three count wasn't enough" to demoralize his opponents.
I seem to remember some promotion doing this, but I'm not sure about this, but I've always thought that a way to really build Bundy as a star/title contender, etc, would have been for him to receive a three count from the referee against the champion, but have the champion "kick out" at four and due to Bundy's demand for a five count, the title would not change hands, yet Bundy could claim a three count over the champion.
Bundy also wrestled a series of matches against Andre the Giant after Bundy "injured" his ribs in what was Andre's last big feud before his heel turn against Hulk Hogan, replaced the jailed Ken Patera as John Studd's tag team partner and then there was the Wrestlemania 3 match with Bundy crushing "little person" Little Beaver with an elbow drop after a body slam, which to Beaver must have felt like he was thrown off a roof.

Bundy to me is best remembered for two personal stories.
The first of which is his LJN toy figure, where that line was made of these molded rubber figures that did nothing in moves but they were somewhat flexible-Not Bundy's.
The Bundy figure felt like it weighed five pounds, had zero movements and the damn thing felt like a brick!
In all seriousness, if you threw the King Kong Bundy figure at someone or something, it would have done some damage!

The other memory came in the mid-'90s when Cherie was working with a lady that was a few years younger than us that went to the same high school, which put her in the perfect age group to have attended high school with me and my brother.
We were eating dinner and somehow Shane's name came up and she said that they called him "King Kong Bundy" because he wore this Bundy t-shirt all the time.
I don't even remember the shirt, let alone how often he wore it, but when Bundy's name comes up, I often smile thinking of that story and wondering why I don't remember that shirt- haha!


Goodbye to "The Destroyer" Dick Beyer at the age of 88.
Beyer might not have had the same name recognition if you are under 60 as King Kong Bundy, but Beyer made his name known as well during a career that saw him as one of the American stars that helped to establish pro wrestling in Japan.
Known as the Destroyer in most places, but as "Doctor X" in the Midwestern-based AWA, won the company's world championship, which considering that the main star was also the promoter in Verne Gagne, was not something given to just anyone.
The Destroyer was a much bigger star in Japan, where in the early 60s, 70 million people watched him battle with the original Japanese wrestling star Rikidozan on television.
Beyer was beloved in his home area of Buffalo, as the glowing article above in the Buffalo News shows for his charity work and time coaching various sports in high school and children,


Goodbye to "Terrible Ted" Lindsay at the age of 93- Thanks to Jeff Heimberger for the note.
Lindsay scored over 800 points in his career, mainly spent with Detroit, and was known for his toughness and "rule stretching" play.
The league created rules against kneeing and elbowing mainly due to the aggressive play of Lindsay and Gordie Howe with the Wings.
Detroit won four cups with Lindsay, who entered the hockey hall of fame in 1966 and Lindsay would both coach and hold the general manager position for Detroit in the 1970s as well as the NBC color commentator on their Game of the Week series before rejoining the Wings management team.


Goodbye to Jack Gregory at the age of 74.
Gregory played for the Browns before being traded to the Giants and returned to the Browns for his final season to finish his career, which ran from 1967 thru 1979.
Even though Gregory spent his share of time in Cleveland, I remember him best as a Giant, who acquired him from Cleveland with Freddie Summers (a name that will pop up in regular inbox cleaning next time out) before the 1972 season for the Giants first and second-round draft picks.
Gregory was the best defender on the terrible Giants teams of the seventies and was unofficially credited with 65 sacks with the Giants, 18.5 of those coming in his first season of 1972 in New York.
Sacks were not an official statistic in the NFL during Gregory's career, which is why his numbers will be unofficial.

Goodbye to John Romano at the age of 84. Thanks to Lefty Koch for the note.
Romano spent all but the final 24 games of his career (Cardinals) with the White Sox and Indians before his career ended at 32.
Romano hit 124 homers from 1960-66 with those two teams and might have had a case as the top power-hitting catcher in the American League in those seasons.
Romano's best seasons were as an Indian before being the main asset given up by Cleveland in the three-way trade with Chicago and Kansas City that returned Rocky Colavito to the Indians in 1965.

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Browns release Jamie Collins

With the free agency signing period nearing, the Cleveland Browns already owned plenty of salary cap space and they created more with the release of veteran linebacker Jamie Collins.

The 29-year-old Collins was traded for in the middle of the 2016 season and given a four-year contract worth over ten million dollars a season after the 2016 campaign by then head of football operations Sashi Brown.

Collins played every game last season posting over 70 solo tackles, thirteen of those for loss, four sacks, and an interception- solid numbers, but nothing spectacular from a player receiving over ten million dollars for those statistics.
Collins had also shown questionable effort at times and on a team on the upswing, John Dorsey simply will not tolerate those types of problems.
The Browns will save nine million dollars on the cap by releasing Collins as the major part of his contract was frontloaded against the cap.
Collins would have counted as eleven and a half million against the cap for the Browns, had he started the season.

The Browns can't be criticized for not wanting to pay Collins such a large amount of money all things considered, but the team certainly has to add help at linebacker now with only Joe Schobert returning as a starter and one not coming off an injury as Christian Kirksey will continue to recover from his season-ending hamstring injury.
Cleveland and their abundant cap space have been connected to both of the standout free agent linebackers available in rumors as both Baltimore's C.J. Mosley and Minnesota's Anthony Barr could be objects of the Browns interest.
Both Mosley and Barr would bring an aspect of their game that the Browns could use as Barr is the superior pass rusher and slightly better in pass coverage, while Mosley is far better against the run, has been the most consistent performer and has the advantage of weakening a division rival as well as experience in the division.
Barr could bring the pass rushing ability off the rush that the Browns paid for yet never received from Jamie Collins opposite Myles Garrett, but Mosley brings the capability of covering the entire field in the run game and is the type of player that brings respect both in the locker room and from the opposition.
I'd be fine with either, but if forced to choose between the two and assuming the price is similar, I'd slightly lean towards Mosley.
The Browns have also been rumored to have shown interest in the draft's top linebacker in LSU's Devin White, although White may have taken himself out of availability for Cleveland at pick number 17 after a tremendous combine workout series.

The Browns have been flying all over Twitter last night with unnamed rumors from established NFL writers so there could be something in the works- If that's the case, I'll be here with some thoughts, of course.

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Minor League Fantasy Draft- Round One- Joey Bart

(Jared Ravich/MiLB.com)
Last year, I wrote about my various draft selections in my minor league fantasy draft and followed them throughout the season.
Now, I know that someone's fantasy sports team are as interesting to others as other people's little league teams or pictures of their kids or pets (General rule of thumb- those are all things to be passionate about when you are involved and no problems with that, but unless you are in that league, no one else really cares) and I won't bore you with my team in the season, etc ,but since I write about minor league baseball throughout the season, I do make an exception for my minor players because I think it's just fun to follow.

Last season, I lost a heartbreaking championship series that that literally came down to the final at-bat of the week on Sunday Night Baseball before I was defeated.
That loss meant I was picking 11th in the draft and I released six players to possess six picks in this year's draft.
There were a few players that I really liked, but I doubted that they would be available to me at 11.
I noted last year, with my 5th round pick of Atlanta's William Contreras, that the hardest positions to draft and develop players at are catcher and shortstop as young players often start at those positions and are moved to other spots for various reasons.

I was interested in one player more than most though for not only the above reason but because my catching position on my team could use an upgrade and this player would likely be fast-tracked to the big leagues faster than usual.
I talked to a team (Memphis Redbirds) picking at the top of the round to see the cost and the response was to flip first rounders would be a major league pitcher off my roster.
Given the choice of two, I chose Cleveland's Shane Bieber to trade and the deal was finished.

I quickly tabbed Joey Bart of the Giants to address the catching position.
Bart was the second overall choice last year in the draft out of Georgia Tech, where he hit .361 and 16 homers for the Yellow Jackets in 56 games, but was also named the ACC player of the year and the ACC defensive player of the year.
The latter is important because it means that Bart is skilled enough behind the plate that he'll stay there, where his bat is so much more valuable to the Giants and fantasy owners.
The 6'3 Bart played his 2018 minor season at short-season Salem-Keizer, where Bart hit .298 with 13 homers in 45 games with the Volcanoes.
Bart is noted to have 30 homer power potential and should stay behind the plate.
The main worry is this- Making contact and Bart could strike out a lot.
For my purposes, a strikeout is no different than any other type of out, so that's not an issue.
Bart's ceiling- He could develop into the best hitting catcher in the game, hitting .280 with 30 homers.
Bart's floor- He hits .230 with 15 homers with strong defense, which doesn't help me but would keep him in the lineup as the Giants everyday backstop,


Shane Bieber is a promising young pitcher, but I added him as a waiver claim, so as a result I had little invested in him and even though I think Bieber is going to have a nice season, the chance to add what could be an elite catcher should things work out perfectly made the cost reasonable and gamble worth taking.
It's a while before my second rounder comes up, but I'll offer some thoughts on him after the selection.

Monday, March 4, 2019

Hotshots breakdowns cost in Legends loss

The Arizona Hotshots made mistakes on special teams and a very poor decision on offense and at the end of the night, found themselves defeated by the only team in the AAF that had yet to win when Younghoe Koo's 33 yard field goal with 1;03 remaining gave the Atlanta Legends a 14-11 win in Tempe.

Jhurell Pressley ran for 110 yards for the Hotshots on the ground with Rashan Ross catching four passes including the only Arizona touchdown.
With the defeat, Arizona fell to 2-2 on the season and is now tied for first in the AAF West with San Antonio.
It is the Commanders from San Antonio that Arizona will host Sunday in Tempe in a battle that will decide who will lead the division at the halfway point of the league's first season.

Hot off the Grill

1) John Wolford clearly wasn't healthy and it showed with the way he threw the football.
A lot of Wolford's passes fluttered a bit and until the fourth quarter, didn't feel comfortable in the pocket.
Still, considering Trevor Knight's struggles in week three relieving Wolford against Salt Lake, I can understand why Rick Neuheisel played Wolford.

2) Still, in the fourth quarter, Wolford stepped up with two drives that should have, in hindsight, been enough to at least force overtime.
Wolford took the Hotshots down the field and even though the drive leveled out, Arizona was still in field goal range for a field goal that would have cut the lead to 11-6.
Nick Folk missed from 40 yards and the score remained 11-3.

3) Wolford wasn't finished and threw his best ball of the night with a lofting pass to Rashad Ross for a twenty-yard touchdown pass.
Wolford then threw a bullet for the game-tying two-point conversion to Marquis Bundy to tie the game at eleven.

4) The game wasn't all good for Rashad Ross, who basically gave Atlanta their first two points for the first safety in AAF history when he took a swing pass at the four and then tried to make something out of nothing as he reversed field and gave ground, but was tackled in the end zone by former Browns safety Ed Reynolds.
Reynolds was a player that I always thought would have been an excellent special teamer in the NFL and maybe even a good tackling safety if surrounded by talent that had more athletic talent than Reynolds (I.E,-He needs to have faster players around him).

5) The Hotshots miss Steven Johnson, who was such a factor on defense in their first two games, but they have gotten nice games from Nyles Morgan (seven tackles) and Carl Bradford (six tackles and the only Arizona sack) and the linebackers will be the best unit in the league when Johnson returns/

6) Arizona's defense also allowed them to stay in this game with first half holds that saw Atlanta miss a field goal, a goal-line stop, and stopping a fake field goal.
All of those points on the board and this game isn't even close/

7) Arizona has apparently broken up the backfield by committee and has committed to Jhurell Pressley.
Pressley carried 14 times for 110 yards, while the other two backs (Justin Stockton and Tim Cook) carried for just six times between them.

8) Former Oregon Duck and Saskatchewan Roughrider Erick Dargan finished with eleven tackles on the game from his safety position and watching Dargan play does make me wonder the impact on the CFL that the AAF and maybe the XFL will have on the Canadian game?
Dargan didn't play in Canada in 2018, but he played very well in this game, will players of his type stick around?

9) Nick Folk is one of the few players in this league with a few years of NFL experience and you expect him to be a solid kicker.
Folk's 40-yard miss did not cost the Hotshots the game, only a chance for overtime, but in a league that is struggling with the quarterback play, the kickers are going to become a large factor in wins and losses- Folk needs to come through.

10) Finally, the Hotshots are 2-2, 1-1 at home and on the road.
San Antonio is the other 2-2 team and they have struggled to score points other than a loss at Orlando.
The Commanders have scored 11 and 12 points in their two road games, so if the Hotshots can get a lead, they are likely to hold it.
This is a big one as the Hotshots will rematch the Commanders in San Antonio just two weeks following this encounter with a road game at undefeated Orlando in between, so this game is almost a must win.
Let's see who comes out to play in Tempe on Sunday.

Sunday, March 3, 2019

Boxing Challenge: Lara and Castano even at the end

The Barclays Center may have been generously listed as half-filled and only may have been actually attended by half of that number, but the main event on Showtime was a pretty solid fight as former WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara battled Argentina's Brian Castano to a draw for Castano's minor title.

Lara won most of the early rounds on my card, three of the first four before Castano won four of the next six with a solid body attack and didn't allow Lara to move away from Castano's swarming attack, although Lara had his moments as well.
The fight was even after ten rounds and could have easily gone either way in both the eleventh and twelfth rounds with both fighters scoring well.
I gave Lara both rounds by a close margin and as a result the fight at 115-113.
The scores were very fair with each fighter earning a winning card of 7-5 in rounds with the deciding card scoring the fight even at 6-6.
The once-thoroughbred like legs of Lara have slowed from his prime and the resulting fighter is a more exciting fighter to watch, but one that currently allows opponents that previously would not have been competitive against Lara to suddenly have success against him.
Castano may not be an elite fighter, but he certainly proved himself to be qualified and I might even lean his way in a possible rematch against the 35-year-old Lara.

The other fight didn't prove anything that we didn't know as heavyweight contender Luis Ortiz dominated Christian Hammer in winning a unanimous decision.
Ortiz won on my card 99-91 and other than Ortiz staying busy and Hammer showing a strong chin, very little was accomplished in what appears to be the last Showtime Championship Boxing card for a while, although the network does have a few ShoBox cards scheduled.

Ramon Malpica and I earned one point in the boxing challenge, where Ramon keeps a one point lead at 42-41.


Saturday, March 2, 2019

Eusebio Pedroza and the fight that never happened

Salvador Sanchez has become the "James Dean" of boxing after his death from an auto accident in 1982 and deservedly so.
Sanchez defeated about every great fighter that you could face in defending his WBC featherweight title including Hall of Famers Danny "Little Red" Lopez, Wilfredo Gomez and Azumah Nelson, future champion Juan LaPorte and fighters that had championship ability but came along at the wrong time such as Ruben Castillo and Patrick Ford, but there was one fighter that Sanchez did not face and even though this man wasn't nearly smooth or as classically smooth as Salvador Sanchez, most observers believe that a Salvador Sanchez-Eusebio Pedroza fight would have been a pick-em fight.

Eusebio Pedroza passed away yesterday at 61 from cancer and despite holding the record for featherweight title defenses with 19 successful defenses of his WBA title, entering the boxing hall of fame and many appearances on American television, never seemed to receive the credit that he deserved.
Even though a Sanchez-Pedroza fight was so intriguing to consider and which fighter had the edge, to the best of my knowledge, such a fight was never seriously close to occurring and that fight ranks near the top of my "Best fights that never happened, but could/should have".
Remember, while boxing fans gripe about the four world titles today (myself included), even in the two title era, title unifications rarely happened.
Right off the top of my head, the unification fights that happened in the first half of the 80s during Pedroza and Sanchez's reigns were Michael Spinks-Dwight Muhammad Qawi at light heavyweight, Marvin Hagler's middleweight titles were still unified from the 70s, Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns at welterweight and that was pretty much the slate of unification fights.
In other words, they usually had to be such a big fight that plenty of money was to be made and that meant closed-circuit television or at least HBO in a time where HBO usually only put fights of mainstream interest on their platform- as well known as both fighters were to the American audience, a fight between the two wasn't big enough to reach that level, but was too big for the networks and with Pedroza being promoted by Bob Arum and Sanchez was part of the Don King team, it was caught in the too big to be small and too small to be big trap, which sounds very familiar to the current boxing fan.

The success of Pedroza was surprising when he won the WBA featherweight title in 1978 with a 13th round knockout of Cecilio Lastra when you consider that his previous title challenge at bantamweight ended with a second-round knockout at the hands of Alfonso Zamora.
Even though Zamora ranks as one of the biggest punchers in boxing history, a questionable chin at bantamweight generally doesn't improve at featherweight, so one wouldn't have been questioned had an observer wondered about Pedroza's long term possibilities.

What we didn't know about the lanky (5'8 is taller at 126 pounds) Panamanian was these two factors that would stand out when watching his title defenses.
One of these was that Pedroza "stretched the rules" which like countryman Roberto Duran could be considered "dirty" and the other played along with that factor as Pedroza was a very underrated fighter inside for a fighter that had the build of a boxer that would be better suited to box from long range.
Watching the "Tactics" of Pedroza on television made Pedroza almost a pro wrestling type heel as a fighter that fans watched with hopes that he would be defeated and usually not speaking English is a disadvantage in attracting viewers, but I always thought for Pedroza it was an advantage because he came off so arrogant and almost regal.
Sometimes, when you say nothing it can mean more than saying a lot, and Pedroza used his lack of English to intimidate opponents despite not possessing classic KO power.

Pedroza racked up wins over quality fighters as well with wins over Hall of Famer Ruben Olivares (although Olivares was close to used up by that time), champions Royal Kobayashi, Jorge Lujan, Juan LaPorte, and Rocky Lockridge, and a draw against undefeated Olympian Bernard Taylor, but for all of those wins with the LaPorte win with the two victories over Lockridge looming largest of wins, it was his win over Patrick Ford that might be Pedroza's command performance.
Guyana's Ford had taken Salvador Sanchez to the brink of defeat just six months before in losing a majority decision (the Sanchez-Ford fight also saw one of the most ridiculous cards that I have ever seen- 148-139 for Sanchez) and was thought to be either a live underdog or even a mild favorite to dethrone Pedroza, who had looked very vulnerable in squeaking by Lockridge via a split decision in their first fight.
Instead, Pedroza won every round on two cards, lost just one round on the third in an outing so dominant that Ford's career was essentially broken (Ford would fight just five more times, finishing 3-2, losing to a fighter with an 8-8-1 record and his wins were over opponents with records of 4-4, 6-3 and 1-1) in defeat.

The win over Ford saw Pedroza (who appeared on US television for the first time against Lockridge) begin to upgrade his competition even more as his wins over Laporte, Lockridge II, Lujan, and the Bernard Taylor draw all came after that fight.
Even comparing the two Lockridge wins, Pedroza seems much more in charge and confident in the second, which was after the Ford win, and perhaps that was when Pedroza truly felt that he was a great fighter.

Still, the signs were there for a decline, the close escapes vs Lockridge (unanimous but by one point on two cards), LaPorte (Pedroza fouled LaPorte constantly) and the draw vs Taylor had Pedroza positioned as a great champion that was ready to fall and the team behind Ireland's Barry McGuigan paid Pedroza one million dollars, an all-time featherweight record to give McGuigan the home-court advantage.
The decision was a good call for McGuigan, who dropped Pedroza in the seventh round on his way to a unanimous decision.
Pedroza collected his dollars and took over a year off before a leap to the lightweight division where he lost to Edgar Castro by split decision and after the loss, Pedroza retired for five years before a four-fight comeback in which he won three of four against mediocre competition.

For as great as Eusebio Pedroza was as a champion, it's still the unanswered question- Who would have won had he entered the ring against Salvador Sanchez?
What makes the fight intriguing is that Sanchez wasn't as effective when forced to lead as was shown in his split decision win over Pat Cowdell, who stayed in a fight that he had no business being in by simply refusing to throw first and Pedroza had a two-inch height and a half inch reach advantage and may have been able to force Sanchez to enter the trenches, whereas noted, Pedroza may have pulled everything out of his backpack, roughed Sanchez up as he had never been roughed up in past fights and won a close and likely controversial decision.

Still, something makes me think Sanchez pulls this out and I see it playing out as such-Sanchez does manage to be the aggressor much as he did against Wilfredo Gomez, builds a lead, frustrates Pedroza enough that Pedroza begins the fouling tactics and loses a few points to even out a middle-round rally before the bully begins to accept the outcome with Sanchez winning the later rounds to win the fairly close, but unanimous decision.
I would not say that's the only outcome, just a guess at the most likely one.

Eusebio Pedroza was a great champion and one not always appreciated during his time, but as so many fighters are, would be better remembered after retirement than during his reign.
And again as boxing so often gives its fans, remembered almost as much for the fight that never happened as the fights that actually happened. 

Friday, March 1, 2019

Boxing Challenge

The boxing challenge is very light this week with two fights on Showtime, which is a card that isn't up to the usual quality of the network and shows a sign of what could be an issue in the future.

The main event offers the return of former WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara against Brian Castano of Argentina, who holds one of the WBA's minor titles.
Lara, who lost a narrow split decision last year to Jarrett Hurd in a title unifying match, was unusually entertaining in his fight with Hurd and it'll be interesting to see if that was Lara engaging offensively against Hurd was a sign of an aging fighter without the legs to fight in the style that he once had excelled in or did Lara choose to fight in such a manner because he thought it gave him the best chance to win.
Castano lacks a win over a top ten contender with his only win over even a fringe contender, an unimpressive split decision over Michel Soro last July.
However, Castano was a highly rated amateur with victories over Errol Spence and Sergey Dereyvanchenko and appears to have a background that one would at least think could give Lara a run for his money, should the Hurd fight prove to be the last stand for the Cuban as an elite fighter.

I'm not sure Lara-Castano is a true Showtime-level main event, but I'm definitely sure that the co-feature lacks that panache' with a top-five heavyweight in a stay busy fight.
Luis "King Kong" Ortiz is a top-five heavyweight that almost knocked out WBC champion Deontay Wilder before being stopped himself in a great fight and will be fighting for the third time since that loss (Wilder has fought only once), but isn't taking any chances with another fight against a marginal fringe contender in Christian Hammer.
Hammer has losses to Tyson Fury, Alexander Povetkin, and Marius Wach, in other words, so each time the competition increased to the world-class level, Hammer gets knocked out.
This one really shows the dip in quality of late and gives me pause enough to write this- Does PBC and Al Haymon have a deep enough bench to give two partners in Showtime and Fox the type of boxing that both deserve?

The Showtime season is off to a slow start (to be generous) with Gervonta Davis one round crushing of smaller and overmatched Hugo Ruiz and even though Ruiz was a late substitution, I think the original fight vs Abner Mares was the same type of fight vs a smaller and outgunned opponent for Davis, although the more established Mares might have lasted a few more rounds, leading up to Lara-Castano after the Saturday card no fights are on their schedule until mid-April and that is a female fight (I'm not a fan of ladies boxing) of note between Clarissa Shields and Christina Hammer.

Fox has been showing name fighters from the promotion thus far with Keith Thurman and Leo Santa Cruz, but both were against essentially showcase opponents, although Josesito Lopez badly hurt Thurman in a strong effort to the point of making one wonder-if Thurman had been facing a top ten opponent, would he have survived?
Next week's WBC welterweight title bout with Shawn Porter against Yordanis Ugas is a more competitive fight and Danny Garcia's April fight against Adrian Granados could be another showcase fight, although Granados has exceeded expectations in the past when seemingly overmatched.
PBC has increased the quality of cards for FS1 with two main events already in the books (Caleb Plant-Jose Uzcategui and Anthony Dirrell-Avni Yildirim) and two others scheduled for March (Lamont Peterson-Sergey Lipinets) and April (Peter Quillin-Caleb Truax) that are of equal to better quality than what Showtime has been receiving thus far.

What makes this worse for boxing fans is that Showtime has the best announcing crew ( I'm not a huge Mauro Ranallo fan, but he is not terrible when he keeps the canned puns to himself and Al Bernstein with Paulie Malignaggi are the best color commentators in the game) and the best production as well, so it is missed when their program isn't getting the best fights.
The involvement of Fox (who has the worst blow by blow man arguably in decades in Chris Myers) in boxing can be a good thing as a network presence can attract new fans, but hopefully, their rise won't mean the beginning of demise at Showtime.

In the Boxing Challenge, Ramon Malpica leads me 41-40.

Junior Middleweights. 12 Rds
Erislandy Lara vs Brian Castano
Both; Lara Unanimous Decision

Heavyweights.12 Rds
Luis Ortiz vs Christian Hammer
R.L.: Ortiz KO 5
TRS: Ortiz KO 3



Boxing Challenge

 WBC Junior Welterweight Title. 12 Rds Dalton Smith vs Alberto Puello Ramon Malpica and TRS: Smith Unanimous Decision Vince Samano: Unificat...