Giants Hot Stove

With all that has been going on of late, I have been lacking the time to catch up on the San Francisco Giants actions at the Winter Meetings.
I still have plenty from the inbox and still other things that I wish to write about soon, but before I fell too far behind, I wanted to finish this.

The San Francisco Giants biggest loss occurred after the Winter Meetings when Madison Bumgarner signed with fellow NL West member Arizona.
Bumgarner signed a five-year contract in Arizona worth 85 million choosing it over a four-year agreement to stay with the Giants that was competitive in dollars, but lacked the extra year that the Diamondbacks were willing to offer.

The Giants signed two pitchers to one-year contracts in an attempt to strike gold with pitchers that have disappointed in their chances in the majors.

Soon to be 30 year old Tyler Anderson started five games for the Rockies last season and didn't pitch well in his twenty innings as he finished with a record of 0-3 and an ERA of 11.76.
Anderson did strike out 23 in those innings if you are looking for a silver lining, but there isn't a lot of silver in those numbers.
After those five starts, Anderson was demoted to AAA Albuquerque, but his season was over, due to continuing knee problems.
Anderson was taken by Colorado 20th overall in the first round of the 2011 draft and Anderson has a career record of 18-24 with an ERA of 4.69.
Anderson will receive 1.75 million in base salary with a chance to take home another 850,000 dollars in bonuses.

Kevin Gausman will turn 29 before the season starts and the former 2012 first-rounder by Baltimore is the more interesting pitcher of the two signees.
Gausman split last season between Atlanta and Cincinnati, combining for a record of 3-9 between the two teams with an ERA of 5.72.
Gausman made 17 starts with all but one for the Braves, but also made 14 relief appearances for the Reds after he was claimed from the waiver wire.
Gausman was a disappointment for Baltimore, who took him fourth overall in 2012 from LSU, but still won 11 games in 2017 for the Orioles and combined for another ten wins between Baltimore and Atlanta in 2018.
Gausman's career numbers are 47-63 with an ERA of 4.30 and still throws in the mid-90s and if you are looking for the type of candidate for revitalization in a pitchers ballpark such as Oracle Park, Kevin Gausman could have the type of arm that might be a good fit.
Gausman is far more expensive than Anderson at nine million with a few performance bonuses, but Gausman is durable and doesn't miss starts, so I'm more comfortable at the cost for the former LSU Tiger.

There aren't many deals that are made to save "cap space" in baseball, since there isn't a true cap, just a "luxury tax", but give the Giants credit for making a trade that gained them a solid prospect for taking on salary.
The Anaheim Angels needed to save some cash for their signing of third baseman Anthony Rendon from the Nationals and considering that Rendon would be replacing Zack Cosart as the regular third baseman and Cozart was going to be making 12.6 million to sit behind Rendon, it only made sense for the Angels to try to find a place for Cozart.
The Giants became that place as they took Cozart and that 12.6 million commitment for 2020 in a trade to help the Angels out a bit.

It was not out of the goodness of their heart though as the Angels added their 2019 first-round pick in shortstop Will Wilson to the deal.
Wilson was the 15th overall pick from N.C. State, where Wilson hit .339 and 15 homers along with being named the ACC defender of the year.
Wilson was paid a signing bonus of 3.5 million by the Angels, so the Giants essentially added a first-round player for paying the final season of Cozart's overpaid contract.
The righthanded hitting Wilson hit  .275 with five homers in 46 games for Orem of the Pioneer League and considering his college experience, my guess is that he'll be assigned to High A San Jose, although he could go to Low A Augusta to start the 2020 season.


As for Zack Cozart, the Angels signed him to a three year, thirty-eight million dollar contract after the 2017 season.
Cozart had his best season in 2017 for the Cincinnati Reds, hitting .297 with 24 homers, but in two seasons in Anaheim Cozart hit only .190 with five homers in 96 games and last season Cozart played only 38 games without hitting a homer with a tiny average of  .124.
Cozart injured his left shoulder in 2018 and reaggravated it in 2019, undergoing surgery on the shoulder in both years.
At 34 and with injury problems, the Giants likely will either use him as a backup or could also decide that Wilson is more than enough of a return and release Cozart.

The Giants sent right-handed pitcher Garrett Williams to the Angels as the "return".
The 25-year-old Williams appeared in 29 games with 20 starts for AA Richmond last year finishing with a 7-8 record and an ERA of  3.60 in his second season with the Flying Squirrels.

Moving to the Giants in the Rule 5 Draft, the Giants took one player in the major league portion and another in the AAA portion.

In the major draft, San Francisco tabbed righthander Dany Jimenez from the Toronto Blue Jays.
Jimenez is a 26-year-old righthander that split last season between the Blue Jays High A affiliate at Dunedin and then was promoted to AA New Hampshire.
Jimenez blossomed after the promotion with tremendous numbers of  2-2 with a 1.87 ERA with six saves and striking out 46 in 33 innings.
Jimenez sits in the mid to high 90's and has an excellent slider, but there are concerns about his command.
The selection of Jimenez is the second rule five pitcher in two years that San Francisco took from Toronto after picking Travis Bergen from the Blue Jays last year.
Bergen appeared in 21 games for the Giants before they offered him back to Toronto for $50,000, which the Blue Jays paid for his return.
Jimenez will have to stay on the Giants roster all season or the Blue Jays will have the chance to return him to Toronto for that fifty thousand dollar sum.


In the AAA half, the Giants picked catcher Bryan Torres from the Brewers organization.
The 22-year-old backstop hit .283 last season for the Rocky Mountain Vibes of the Pioneer League without a homer in 67 games.
The Caguas, Puerto Rico product stole a surprising twenty-one bases for the Vibes, which is a huge number for a catcher period, let alone in 67 games.
Could the Giants be considering a position change for Torres?
It's not often that a catcher has this type of speed and staying behind the plate is a good way to lose some of that speed fairly quickly.
I would imagine that Torres would be assigned to Low A Augusta, but should the Giants decide to change his position, Torres could be left behind in extended spring training to start the 2020 season.

Still so much more to catch up on, so stay tuned and enjoy the Holiday festivities,

Boxing Challenge: Rising Sun Edition

The Monday morning card from Yokohama, Japan didn't bring forth any surprises,  but it did bring some strong performances from the four favorites in their victories.

In the main event, minor middleweight beltholder Ryota Murata delivered a highlight film knockout of Steven Butler in the fifth round.
Give Butler credit-for an unproven fighter that had somehow risen to the top spot in the WBO rankings (Butler passed up a title shot against Demetrius Andrade to fight Murata), he tried hard, engaged, and won the first two rounds on my scorecard.
However, Murata was too big and strong for the Canadian and his superior power soon had Butler retreating and it seemed that the question was how does Murata win the fight rather than if he wins.
One crunching right sent Butler falling to the floor with the referee ending the fight without a count.
I'd like to see Murata against better fighters in 2020, but it appears as it'll be a contractually obligated third fight with Rob Brant and possibly Brazil's Esquiva Falcao, whom Murata defeated to win his gold medal at the 2012 Olympics.
Neither of those excites me very much, but that's the state of boxing today.

Moruti Mthalane defended his IBF Flyweight title with a ninth-round knockout of Akira Yaegashi.
Yaegashi, a former champion in three divisions, fought gamely but was to be outgunned by Mthalane, who turned up the heat in the seventh and eighth rounds before the stoppage late in the ninth when a battered Yaegashi wobbled to the ropes followed by the referee stepping in to end the fight.
The 37-year-old Mthalane doesn't appear to be your usual fighter of his age and even though I'm not sure where the money would come from for this, a mini-tournament between the four flyweight champions (Mthalane, Artem Dalakian WBA, Julio Cesar Martinez WBC, and Kosei Tanaka WBO) might be as much action as boxing could offer in three fights.

Ken Shiro kept his WBC junior flyweight title after knocking late substitute Randy Petalcorin out in the fourth round.
Petalcorin won the first two rounds off his back foot, but Shiro found the weak spot of Petalcorin in the third when three body shots produced three knockdowns.
The fight likely should have ended in the corner, but the fight continued into the fourth for a short time- which was the first time that Shiro again landed to the body and that ended the fight.
Petalcorin was a replacement for IBF champion Felix Alvarado, which lost the division a unification fight.
Shiro-Alvarado would be a good fight, but the biggest fight would be another unification fight against WBA champ Hiroto Kyoguchi in an all-Japanese unification event.

The comeback for former multi-divisional champion and a top pound for pound contender Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez began with an eight-round fight against Diomel Diocos.
Gonzalez had fought only once since his stunning KO loss to Srisket Sor Rungvisai in 2017, so this was a chance to get some work against Diocos, a journeyman that had only been stopped once in his career against the then-undefeated bomber Daigo Higa.
Gonzalez wouldn't work for many rounds as he finished Diocos in two, which was an impressive result, considering the solid chin of the opponent and the time spent away from the ring by Gonzalez.
Gonzalez still might need another fight to be ready for a potential title challenge, but he doesn't look to be outmatched by any of the champions at 115 pounds.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored seven points on the evening to move the overall numbers to 319-285.

Cavaliers trade Jordan Clarkson to Utah, Dante Exum to Cleveland

The Cleveland Cavaliers traded Jordan Clarkson to the Utah Jazz for Dante Exum and two future second-round selections Monday night.

The 6'4 Clarkson is averaging 14.6 points off the bench for Cleveland in a sixth-man role and recently scored 33 points against Memphis on Friday night, so this could have been a sell-high situation on the 27-year-old former Missouri Tiger.
Clarkson will be a free agent at the end of the season, so Cleveland did well in getting something for him before an injury could have occurred that would have reduced his value.
Clarkson is shooting thirty-seven percent from the field and with Utah missing Mike Conley from their lineup due to hamstring issues, Clarkson should enter the lineup and receive starter-level minutes for the Jazz.

Cleveland's second-round picks obtained will be arriving from San Antonio (2022) and Golden State (2023) as the Cavaliers continue to add second-round draft picks, which rarely result in players but are often shuffled around in trades or used to take European players that will seldom play in the league but can still have value in having their rights moved around in trades.
The Cavaliers also traded four future second-rounders in the draft-day trade that allowed them to select Kevin Porter, so this allows them to recoup two of them immediately.

Dante Exum is an interesting player that was very highly thought of at one time but has seen his star dim.
Exum is averaging just two points a game in eleven games and at just 24 would appear to be a bust.
The Jazz selected Exum with the fifth overall pick in the 2014 draft and Exum has spent the last five years with Utah after being drafted from Australia.
Exum has suffered many injuries since turning pro, which includes a torn ACL that cost him the 2015-16 season and a shoulder injury along with a patella tendon injury that would limit Exum to only 56 games over the two seasons before this one.

Exum. the son of former North Carolina big man Cecil Exum was compared by some (Ok only Chad Ford)  to Kobe Bryant entering the year he was drafted, has been anything but as his shooting has been far from special and his many injuries listed above.
One thing that Exum that could excel with is his defensive game as he has a long wingspan for his size and is dedicated at that end of the floor, so at worst he's going to help as a rotational defensive player.
Exum is under contract for the remainder of this season and for the 2020-21 campaign, so he will have time to prove himself with the Cavaliers.

On the whole, I'm kinda "meh" with this trade.
Dante Exum is a candidate for a fresh environment and he would not be the first player that picked up his game after being a disappointment in his first pro stop.
I understand the second-rounders as a need after trading the four in the Kevin Porter trade, but I'm never excited with round two picks moving around in trades.
It always feels like you are moving around junk bonds to me.
I'm not sure that Jordan Clarkson could have fetched more than this from another team, but it feels a bit light to me for now.

Back later with yesterday's fights from Yokohama, Japan.

Indians sign Cesar Hernandez

The Cleveland Indians continued their running in place for the 2020 season as the Wahoos signed second baseman Cesar Hernandez to a one year contract to supplant long-time starter, Jason Kipnis, who was allowed to depart via free agency.

Hernandez agreed to the 6.5 million deal and should be a one year bridge for the Indians as they expect prospect Nolan Jones to settle in as the third baseman by 2021 with current starter Jose Ramirez shifting to second to accommodate Jones.
Hernandez batted .279 with 14 homers, 71 RBI and nine steals for the Philadelphia Phillies last season as their regular second baseman.
Hernandez hit 31 doubles, which along with the 71 RBI, were career highs, but it appears that the 29 years old ( Hernandez will turn 30 in May) has lost a step as his stolen base total tumbled from 19 to 9 and since he led the league in triples in 2016, those totals have dropped as well.
Hernandez is a switch-hitter (Kipnis is a lefthanded swinger) but hits righties best with 13 of his 14 home runs against righthanders.

Hernandez committed twelve errors last season in 157 games and had some notable early-season problems, but Hernandez isn't awful with the glove although he won't remind anyone of an elite defender.
Hernandez does have superior range to the slowing Kipnis and even though on the overall, Hernandez has a little less power than Kipnis, he'll at least equal his offensive numbers.

Cesar Hernandez wouldn't be my idea of a long-term stalwart at second but under these conditions where the Indians have a long term direction and require a one year bridge, Hernandez would fit the Indians needs of a decent second baseman without a long-term contract and semi-reasonable in cost.
In other words- about the best that you could hope for from a stopgap player.

Bullied by Baltimore, Browns bounced 31-15

The Cleveland Browns played 28 excellent minutes in the first half and suddenly bad clock management, inaccurate passing and a shocking inability to cover Mark Andrews allowed the Baltimore Ravens to score two touchdowns in the final two minutes without any timeouts to turn a 6-0 lead into a 14-6 deficit.
Baltimore dominated from there and took a 31-15 win to clinch home field in the playoffs for Baltimore and another losing season for Cleveland.
Baker Mayfield threw both of the Browns touchdowns but finished with under 200 yards passing for the afternoon.
The now 6-9 Browns will finish their disappointing season next Sunday in Cincinnati against the one victory Bengals.

Brownie Bits

1)  The key to this game was those two minutes when the Browns allowed Baltimore to score two touchdowns in the final two minutes without any timeouts remaining.
Both drives covered lots of yardage, weren't caused by a fluky turnover and were essentially caused by an inability to cover Baker Mayfield's best friend in the tight end, Mark Andrews.

2) On both touchdowns, Andrews was so wide open that the problem had to be either a blown coverage or a miscue by Damarious Randall.
The first saw no Browns even remotely around Andrews and I'm not sure I couldn't have run into the end zone.
The second saw Browns players around Andrews, but Randall watched the ball fly over his head without even a jump and Mack Wilson was behind Andrews like he was attempting to protect the Dawg Pound.

3) Why did Baltimore have time for the second touchdown?
Because Freddie Kitchens called three pass plays (all incomplete) and allowed a team with no timeouts to conserve clock.
I'm understanding of the first two passes, but a simple draw on third down would have taken the clock down to nil and Baltimore would have likely kneeled.
Inept.

4) And then the setup for the first touchdown.
With the Browns having a 3rd and 1, Kareem Hunt is hit for a loss of eight yards.
Kitchens said the plan was to try for a big play and then go for it on fourth and one.
Ok, I might buy the big play portion, but why Hunt throwing the ball rather than Baker Mayfield?
Hunt may be a more accurate passer. but he is still a running back and to make that play work, he has fake the run and be able to stop behind the line and then throw.
The play is set up for a big play, but the pure schematics of the play make sizable losses possible.
If you were counting on a 4th and one, why a play that could result in a loss?

5) I'm trying hard to not mention more inaccurate passing from Baker Mayfield.
So, I'll just leave these two numbers here- 5.8 yards per pass attempt and a season passer rating of 79.7.
That rating places him a solid 31st of 32 passers ahead of only the quarterback that the Browns will face next week- Andy Dalton.

6) The other passers in the first round of the Mayfield draft and their ratings?
Lamar Jackson (3rd), Josh Allen (22nd), Sam Darnold (23rd) and Josh Rosen ( hasn't thrown enough passes to qualify), so the numbers are mixed.
Even putting Jackson aside, Allen is taking his team to the postseason and Darnold has gone .500 since returning from illness with a team that has Robby Anderson as its top weapon with 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
Baker Mayfield? 19 touchdowns and 18 interceptions with a team with Odell Beckham, Jarvis Landry, and Kareem Hunt as receivers and Nick Chubb running the ball.
I'm not giving up hope, but Mayfield's performance this year is what I expected when the Browns selected him with last season being the surprise.

7) I still cannot explain the decision to try for a two-point conversion in the fourth quarter.
The Browns have cut the lead to 24-15 on Baker Mayfield's pass to Odell Beckham (a well-thrown ball, by the way) and an Austin Seibert extra point cuts the lead to eight.
That's a touchdown and two-point conversion to tie the game with eight minutes remaining, but still one possession.
Instead, the Browns go for the two, fail and are down nine points with two possessions needed to lead.
It was irrelevant as Baltimore would kick a field goal in their next drive, but it's just bad coaching at that point in the game and I've yet to see any reason that you would try for two when you know with a failure that you will need two possessions.
I know Austin Seibert missed an extra point earlier, so it was not guaranteed, but you have to cut that to one score in that situation.

8) The Ravens did a nice job in controlling Nick Chubb as he finished with only 45 yards on 15 attempts, but once again the Browns had large periods where they didn't involve Chubb in the offense.
Seven carries in the first half that saw them leading 6-0 for most of the half?
Not enough.

9) Baker Mayfield wasn't sacked, so that's a positive for the offensive line, but he was still pressured plenty of times off the edge and Greg Robinson had a very bad day at left tackle.
The Browns should use their first-rounder on a tackle, get the best veteran tackle that they can add through free agency and draft another tackle early on the third day of the draft.
That's the number need for this team.

10) The Browns were eliminated from playoff contention.
The Browns needed three things to happen (as well as a win over Baltimore) to stay alive.
The needs were Titans and Steelers losses and a Colts win and just as last week, all the other teams lost and the Browns could have stepped up with a win.
Just as last week in Arizona, everything happened but a Browns win.

11) The Browns 6-9 record is the same as three other teams (Atlanta, Denver, New York Jets).
There are five teams with seven wins currently (Oakland, Chicago, Dallas, Indianapolis, and Tampa Bay), so a win could drop the Browns even farther down the line.
Currently, the Browns would pick between 10th and 13th depending on tie-breakers, but a win could see the Browns picking as high as 18th with a 7-9 record.
Of the 6-9 teams, Atlanta will play at Tampa Bay, Denver will host Oakland, and the Jets will visit Buffalo.
Should the Browns lose to Cincinnati, they could fall into the area of the tenth pick.

Boxing Challenge

A special boxing challenge from Yokohama Japan from ESPN+ takes place at 4 AM with three of the top Japanese boxers in two title fights and a former pound for pound favorite returning to the ring.

The main event pairs middleweight Ryota Murata defending his minor title against Steven Butler of Canada.
Murata looked great in July in avenging his surprising loss to Rob Brant with a two-round pummelling of the Minnesota native.
Murata means big crowds in Japan and a victory could perhaps see some top middleweights ( even though all four champions at the weight aren't affiliated with Top Rank) interested in a large purse to fight Murata in Japan.
Canada's Butler is taking a major bounce up the competition ladder against Murata, who is the best opponent that he has fought, gave up the WBO's mandatory position for their champion Demetrius
Andrade to take on Murata.

WBC light flyweight champion Ken Shiro defends his title against Randy Petalcorin of the Philippines.
The exciting Shiro is the latest at 16-0 from Japan to dominate the light flyweight division.
Petalcorin lost in his last fight to IBF champion Felix Alvarado in seven, but steps in as a replacement for Alvarado in the fight that was initially planned to be a title unification fight.

Moruti Mthalane will put his IBF flyweight championship up and against Akira Yaegashi.
Yaegashi has held the minimum, light flyweight, and flyweight titles in the past, but has fought only twice in the two and a half years since losing in one round to Milan Melindo.
Mthalane of South Africa will be facing the best fighter of his career in the third defense of his title.

Eight rounders usually don't make the boxing challenge, but when you have a fighter that once held a top-five position in the pound for pound rankings, you notice and make exceptions.
Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez returns after a 15-month layoff following a fifth-round KO of Moises Fuentes.
The Fuentes fight is the only fight for Gonzalez since his stunning knockout loss to Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in August 2017, so Gonzalez has fought just once in twenty-eight months.
Opponent Diomel Diocos is a journeyman at 14-5-3 but has only been stopped once by Daigo Higa, who once was one of the most exciting stars in the lower weight divisions.


Middleweights. 12 Rds
Ryota Murata vs Stephen Butler
R.L:  Murata KO 9
TRS: Murata KO 6

WBC Jr.Flyweight Title. 12 Rds
Ken Shiro vs Randy Petalcorin
R.L: Shiro Unanimous Decision
TRS: Shiro KO 8

IBF Flyweight Title. 12 Rds
Moruti Mthalane vs Akira Yaegashi
Both: Mthalane Unanimous Decision

Junior Bantamweights. 8 Rds
Roman Gonzalez vs Dionel Diocos
R.L: Gonzalez KO 6
TRS: Gonzalez Unanimous Decision

Boxing Challenge: Charlo rallies past Harrison

The rematch between Tony Harrison and Jermell Charlo appeared to be the opposite of their first fight.
Charlo seemed to have won their first battle and the judges saw it differently-scoring for Harrison.
In the rematch, other than a second-round flash knockdown, it was Harrison appearing to be winning and yet the judges had Charlo leading on the scorecards.

However, this time the fighter that didn't deserve to be ahead made sure that his hand was raised as Jermall Charlo dropped Tony Harrison twice in the eleventh round, survived California Athletic Commission members entering the ring after the second knockdown and win back the WBC junior middleweight title that he lost one year ago.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Charlo fight without a small dab of controversy somewhere and this one was more than the CAA entry, it arrived from referee Jack Reiss, who gave every chance for Harrison to survive the two knockdowns when it could have been arguably easy to end the fight and instead ended it just as Harrison seemed to be regaining his senses a bit.
I didn't think it was an awful stoppage by Reiss, but it seemed like he tried to allow Harrison the opportunity to fight through adversity as a champion should and just as he was turning the tide, the hassock was placed in his way to trip over.

I had Harrison up by two points entering the eleven and had he avoided the second-round knockdown in a round that he was winning (giving Charlo a 10-8 round in a round that was going to be scored 10-9 for Harrison), could have had the fight well in hand on my scorecard with two rounds to go.
That takes nothing away from Charlo, who took advantage of Harrison moving less than in their initial faceoff and caught him to take away much of the controversy that was looming from the judges, but while I would think a third fight is eventually in order, I would think that a three belt unification is next for Charlo with WBA/IBF champion Julian Williams, while it wouldn't be a bad thing for Harrison to pair with another former champion Jarrett Hurd and attempt to avenge Hurd's past win over Harrison.
Those two fights together would give the Charlo-Williams winner a natural opponent for their first defense and one capable of winning the three titles.
PBC is deep at 154, but I'm not sure there is a standout among Charlo, Williams, Hurd, Harrison, Erislandy Lara, and Erickson Lubin.
However, it's a unique situation as it seems that almost any of these fighters are capable of beating the others, can make interesting fights with almost any combination, and the victorious champion may come down to the style that suits a particular fighter, not that any of this group is above the others overall.

However, the Charlo brothers don't make themselves easy to root for and this win wasn't an exception as Charlo commented that he "dominated" (he didn't) and that he was off to bigger and better things (which is reasonable but could have been far more gracious in victory).
The Charlo brothers have so much to prove ( between them they have only Jermall's win over Julian Williams over a top guy) still, but when you only want to fight once or twice a year and only one is against a Harrison type (lower end of the top ten ), the chances of becoming a true star dim.
It's tough to claim "Lions Only" when the best opponents are usually a notch or two lower on the food chain.

The PBC delivered a fun night of boxing on Fox with the other challenge bout as heavyweight prospect Efe Ajagba knocked out trialhorse Iago Kiladze in a surprisingly captivating scrap in five rounds.
The power-punching former Nigerian Olympian dropped Kiladze in the second and appeared to be on his way to be knocking Kiladze out for the fourth time in his last five fights in the third round as Kiladze was rolling around the ring as if he was wearing roller skates.
Ajagba backed off as if he was expecting either Kiladze to drop to the floor or the referee to move in and end the fight.
Neither of those happened and as Ajagba moved forward to finish what seemed to be a foe on his last legs, Kiladze launched a right hand that sent Ajagba crashing down to the canvas!
Ajagba didn't appear seriously hurt, but it was enough to allow Kiladze to survive the round and the following fourth.
Ajagba knocked Kiladze down again in the fifth round with a right that sent Kiladze crumpling to the mat that could have seen the end of the fight, but Kiladze continued and still attempted to fire those counter rights to keep Ajagba honest, but as he was trapped along the ropes it was the corner of Kiladze that jumped to the apron and allow their man to end the fight honorably and on his feet.
Give Kiladze credit for making such a strong attempt at winning and Ajagba continues his learning curve as a prospect.
Ajagba has plenty of power, but he is still very raw and after being knocked down by a blown-up cruiserweight, it's not an unreasonable concern to wonder about the eventual quality of his chin when he starts taking shots from contenders rather than journeymen.

The other fight on the entertaining PBC evening wasn't a boxing challenge event, but it allowed me to watch one of my most enjoyable things in boxing- An unknown fighter brought in as an enhancement talent to lose to a hot prospect doesn't and pulls an upset that not only is fun to watch but dismays the promotion as well.
Former U.S. Olympian Karlos Balderas was stopped in six rounds by Mexico's Rene Tellez Giron in a fight that was notable for several reasons other than the obvious upset.
The fight was often spent toe to toe that saw both fighters score well, but Balderas seemed to be the stronger and bigger boxer for the first two and three-quarters rounds.
Near the end of the third, Giron's left hook dropped onto the jaw of Balderas and sent him flying to the ring surface in what seemed to be a spectacular KO.
Surprisingly, Balderas was able to get up, but he was clearly buzzed and the fight should have been called as referee Joe Corona asked Balderas to walk to him (he couldn't), Balderas stumbled backward.
Corona instead allowed the fight to continue and the bell shortly clanged saving Balderas, who gained even more time when he drilled Giron extremely low early in the next round.

Here's my problem with the non-stoppage- it can be argued that Corona heard the thump sound on the mat to indicate there were ten seconds or less in the round and that allowing Balderas to continue and give him the minute between rounds to recover was appropriate.
That would be a fair argument and even a good one- If that standard was usually followed by referees that far more often stop fights in that situation than allow the fight to continue.
However, it usually isn't used properly and fights are ended and in all honesty, if the situations were reversed and it was Giron in that spot and not the heavily PBC invested Balderas, do you really believe that Giron would have been allowed the chance to continue?
I doubt it.

Balderas (with the aid of the low blow) did manage to recover and exchange pretty evenly for the next few rounds of the eight-rounder with Giron.
I still had Giron well ahead on the cards and, with this being boxing, I was already wondering just Giron was going to be screwed on the scorecards against the better-connected fighter when yet another left hook smacked against Balderas and sent him to the floor again.
This time, Corona decided to end the fight and the upset was complete.
The other fun part about watching these types of upsets?
If you watch enough boxing, you have to be familiar with the "face of PBC" Sam Walton ( no, not THAT Sam Walton), who appears in someone's corner for every PBC fight and for PBC fighters in their rare inter-promotional fights, as a one-man support squad,
At first, when Al Haymon appeared on the scene with Floyd Mayweather at HBO and began to accumulate power in the sport, I thought Walton WAS Al Haymon!
That is how often you see the face of Sam Walton when you view PBC events and when you have the chance to see Sam's head down and face frowning, it's a sight to see!

From London, heavyweight prospect Daniel DuBois knocked out Kyotaro Fujimoto in the second round of their scheduled ten rounder.
DuBois knocked Fujimoto down with a jab in the second and after Fujimoto managed to get up, DuBois ended the fight quickly with a piledriving right hand that was over before Fujimoto hit the floor.
DuBois didn't prove much in this squash match other than that he might be ready to see an increase in resistance from his opponents.
There are plenty of questions that DuBois needs to answer as he rises up the rankings, but the power isn't one of those.

In a WBO eliminator, middleweight Liam Williams impressively disposed of Alantez Fox in five rounds in what might put him eventually in the path of WBO beltholder Demetrius Andrade.
Williams won every round against the 6'4 Fox, cutting him early, knocking him down in the fourth, before badly hurting Fox in the fifth.
The desperate Fox was penalized a point for holding but was soon sent wobbling into the ropes and the fight was stopped thereafter.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored five points on the day to change the season numbers to 312-276.