Boxing Challenge: Helenius stuns Kownacki, Carroll surprises Quigg

Photo: Michael Owens Getty Images

Two surprising upsets on a boxing Saturday salvaged what didn't look to be an exciting weekend for the sport.

PBC suffered the big loss in their heavyweight main event on Fox as undefeated and heavily favored Adam Kownacki was stopped in the fourth round by Finland's Robert Helenius in a WBA title eliminator.
Kownacki had appeared many times on PBC televised cards and with victories over top twenty level heavyweights such as Charles Martin, Gerald Washington, and Chris Arreola, Kownacki was being built for an eventual in-house challenge of then-WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.
Kownacki had been offered the chance to replace Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller last year in the "Andy Ruiz" role as last-minute challenger to Anthony Joshua and turned it down.
Ruiz would accept the call to win Joshua's three titles as well as a massive payday for the rematch,
as Kownacki was reported to be the next optional defense for Wilder after his obligations for rematches against Luis Ortiz and Tyson Fury were fulfilled.

Kownacki appeared to have another suitable opponent in Helenius, who fit the bill of Kownacki's last opponent in Chris Arreola- somewhat of a name in the division, as he had been around for a decade, wasn't going to run from Kownacki, would land enough punches to make an entertaining match, but not enough to derail the title train and would be durable enough to last a while, if not the distance.
For three rounds, the fight was going to plan as both fighters landing heavy punches with Kownacki landing more and doing more damage going into the fourth.
Helenius started the fourth round with a right hand that dropped Kownacki to a knee, but referee Robert Fields ruled the knockdown a slip.
It seemed pretty obvious to me that the knockdown was a legitimate one and Helenius, who seemed spent at the end of the third round, sensed that this might be his only opportunity to grab the upset and jumped on it as he landed a big right and following up with a left hook that knocked Kownacki down along the ropes.
A dazed Kownacki got up but in serious trouble as Helenius followed up with a compilation of punches and avoided the desperate counters of Kownacki, which forced Robert Fields to end the fight.

For Kownacki, PBC will likely try to rebuild him against the same level of fighter that he previously faced or perhaps they will decide to select him as the increased opponent level for one of their two undercard victors before Kownacki could lose again and lose even more stature.
For Helenius, suddenly he's first in line for Anthony Joshua only two fights after being knocked out by Gerald Washington.
Helenius was once one of the better prospects in the division after wins over Lamon Brewster, Sam Peter, and Sergei Liahovich- IN 2011!
Helenius' career began to stall after he "won" one of the worst decisions you'll see over Dereck Chisora in December 2011 with promotional problems and fought just five times against lesser opponents until a stunning loss in April 2016 to, future Deontay Wilder enhancement talent, Johann Duhaupas sent him out of contention with his only name opponents, before the Kownacki win, both defeating Helenius in Dillian Whyte and Gerald Washington.
Give Helenius plenty of credit for his upset win, considering his track record, it's ridiculous to have him in line for a mandatory shot and this fight should not have been an eliminator or at least it should have been an eliminator to reach a final eliminator.
That title shot will be well over a year away though as Kubrat Pulev will be next with either the fight to unify all titles with Tyson Fury or WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk following, so Helenius is either three or four fights away from that shot.
One would think that Helenius would like to stay busy during that time, but more than likely he'll take few chances on losing the title shot and payday.

The other two fights ended as expected with Efe Ajagba and Frank Sanchez continuing their undefeated streak with victories.
Ajagba stopped Razvan Cojanu in nine rounds in a fight that saw Conaju occasionally land right hands but was outgunned by the power jab and right hand of the undefeated Ajagba.
Ajagba knocked Cojanu down in the eighth round and might have finished him with more time in the round.
The die was cast and when Cojanu took a knee in the ninth after taking punishment, the fight was stopped.
I like Ajagba's offensive skills, especially the jab and I think he could be a quality heavyweight in time, but he's been vulnerable to getting hit with right hands in his last two fights and I wonder about his resistance to punches when he fights the next level of heavyweights.

As for Frank Sanchez, he won every round against trialhorse Joey Dawejko in winning a unanimous decision.
Despite the dominance of Sanchez, he never stepped up the pace against Dawejko, was content to box from the outside, and didn't seem interested in taking any chances against the durable, but slow Dawejko.
Sanchez is going to be a heavyweight that few are going to want to fight and even fewer are going to want to watch him fight in lopsided bouts until he faces better competition as he progresses to contender status.

The Helenius upset of Adam Kownacki might have been a bigger deal in boxing's big picture, but another upset occurred Saturday in the UK as Jono Carroll stopped former WBA junior featherweight champion, Scott Quigg in the eleventh round in Manchester.
Carroll consistently beat Quigg to the punch, walked down Quigg with harder punches to lead 99-91 on my card as he entered the eleventh round when Carroll hurt Quigg with combinations that had a badly hurt Quigg trapped along the ropes when Quigg's trainer Joe Gallagher threw in the towel to stop the fight.
The win was the biggest of the Irishman's career and combined with his very competitive defeat to then-IBF champion Tevin Farmer, Carroll should move up in the IBF ratings in which he was rated ninth entering this fight.
As for Quigg, he should consider this the right time to retire as he showed very little in his first try at junior lightweight after being out of the ring for sixteen months and since Quigg cannot make the featherweight limit, his chances for future success seem bleak.

In the Boxing Challenge, I scored four points to Ramon Malpica's three to stretch my lead to 45-40.
The difference was the Frank Sanchez unanimous decision rather than a knockout.

Boxing Challenge

Willie Soke said in Bad Santa that "They all can't be winners can they?" and in March, boxing has just enough to keep us going even through some uninspiring shows.

Normally, I would not include all three fights on the PBC-Fox cards because they aren't really important, but since it's a slow week, I will.
The all-heavyweight card isn't really impressive in importance, so I suppose we will have to hope for the show being impressive in action with the main event pitting Adam Kownacki against Robert Helenius in a WBA eliminator that might see the winner eventually fight one of that organization's 300 beltholders.
Kownacki had been built for an eventual title shot against Deontay Wilder with a recent win streak over the standard PBC heavyweights such as Chris Arreola, Gerald Washington, and Charles Martin.
Wilder's loss to Tyson Fury scuttled that hope (unless Wilder wins their third fight) and Kownacki appears stuck in neutral with PBC having no other top contenders to fight.
Hence the entrance from stage left of Helenius, who lost to Gerald Washington in his last fight.
PBC makes little sense sometimes as they gave us an awful co-feature on the Fury-Wilder II undercard in Charles Martin-Gerald Washington, left Kownacki off the card after he had beaten both of the pair, and Helenius gets the fight on network television coming off a loss to the loser of the lousy PPV co-main event.
This could be a fun fight to watch as Kownacki's fights usually are and Helenius is likely to slug with Kownacki, but that doesn't mean that it deserves to be the top fight on network prime time television.

The undercard fights aren't thrilling either as two PBC undefeated heavyweights take a small step up in competition without being overmatched too soon.
Efe Ajagba faces Razvan Cojanu and Frank Sanchez is matched with Joey Dawejko.
Ajagba didn't look quite as strong in his last win against a similar level of fighter in Iago Kiladze in stopping Kiladze in five rounds, but Conaju has lasted only two rounds in each of his toughest tests against Luis Ortiz and undefeated Daniel Dubois, so this looks to be tailor-made for Ajagba to look strong.
However, Kiladze landed a lot of right hands against Ajagba and knocked him down in the third round, so there is a small bit of intrigue in this one.

Undefeated Cuban prospect Frank Sanchez takes the larger leap forward against journeyman Joey Dawejko.
Sanchez hasn't been remotely tested yet and while Dawejko is a trialhorse, he's willing to swap punches and when placed at his level, Dawejko will last rounds as he has only been stopped once- by Charles Martin in 2013.
If Sanchez can stop Dawejko, Sanchez would stamp himself as someone to keep an eye on.

The other fight is an afternoon fight from Great Britain from Matchroom/DAZN as former WBA junior featherweight champion Scott Quigg moves to junior lightweight against former title challenge Jono Carroll.
Quigg hasn't fought in seventeen months and that fight was the only one since his loss to Oscar Valdez in a challenge for the WBO featherweight title.
In that attempt, Quigg missed weight badly, fought anyway and broke the jaw of Valdez in the defeat.
Carroll lost a unanimous decision to then-champion Tevin Farmer last year as he challenged for Farmer's IBF junior lightweight title.
I thought the fight was far closer than it was scored by the official judges and had Carroll ahead until Farmer's late rally won him the decision.
Carroll's the bigger fighter, so this could be interesting, but this bout comes down to Scott Quigg.
What does Quigg have left in desire and how well does he punch at 130 pounds?
The answer to those questions will decide the winner.

I lead Ramon Malpica in the boxing challenge 41-37.

Heavyweights.12 Rds
Adam Kownacki vs Robert Helenius
R.L: Kownacki KO 7
TRS: Kownacki KO 9

Heavyweights 10 Rds
Efe Ajagba vs Razvan Cojanu
R.L: Ajagba KO 3
TRS: Ajagba KO 2

Heavyweights. 10 Rds
Frank Sanchez vs Joey Dawejko
R.L: Sanchez KO 8
TRS: Sanchez Unanimous Decision

Junior Lightweights. 12 Rds
Scott Quigg vs Jono Carroll
R.L: Quigg KO 8
TRS: Quigg Unanimous Decision

PPM

The XFL season hits its halfway point as the 2020 PPM  continues to march on!

Last Week: 2-2
Overall: 186-85

Houston over Seattle 25-13
Dallas over New York 18-9
D.C. over St.Louis 20-18
Los Angeles over Tampa Bay 16-13

Running Uphill

I've been battling a bit of a cold/illness this week and even though I've been working through it, I haven't felt overly motivated to write.

There hasn't been a lot of news other than the damn Coronavirus, and certainly, nothing to carry its own post, so just to keep my writing chops semi-sharp- Here we go with a few thoughts.

The Cleveland Browns are apparently not going to re-sign Joe Schobert and will allow him to leave via free agency.
Schobert's representatives met with the Browns and couldn't come to an agreement with Schobert's wish to be paid around ten million per year more than the Andrew Berry-led front office was willing to pay.
I understand the Browns not wanting to pay that kind of money for Schobert, who is a good, not great linebacker, but if the Browns decide to keep the oft-injured Christian Kirksey at nine million per
year ( and at that price, I hope they release him as well), I would question this move far more than moving on from both players.
The Browns will be opening a hole at linebacker and I can argue that creating a space for a cheaper and lesser player will not help the Browns. but I can see why they could be moving away at the money that he is asking for.

The "Coronavirus" hasn't been around locally and hopefully, it will not find its way here, but it could have an impact on me even if it never shows up.
MLB has sent memos to all of their teams recommending that players refrain from signing autographs and contact with fans, due to the virus.
I understand the nervousness with their investments (although most people don't have the luxury of not being around people at their job.) but being around young players as minor league baseball is populated with, I think I know them a little bit and I'll say this- There will be players refusing to sign/interact long after the hysteria has passed.
It'll be a reason to avoid people that may be legitimate now, but won't be for the entire season.

Another thought on this.
Spring Training is in full swing, and teams in Florida and Arizona have already implemented this policy.
I would imagine that a major chunk of the people that go south for pre-season is going for the interaction with the players.
These visitors are not always autograph seekers, people that want to talk with the players, get a picture, etc. in an atmosphere that even the biggest stars are more relaxed and willing to engage with the ticket-buyers.
Those people that buy tickets, stay in hotels and eat in local restaurants could be less likely to return next season as they could be afraid that there could be another health scare that takes away the fun from the trip and the expense with airfare, hotel, food, etc.
It'll be interesting to see how exhibition attendance declines over the final few weeks of the spring (I don't think it'll be major as these trips are most already paid for), but I'll be really intrigued to watch next season's attendance.

A really interesting show that I watched the first two episodes is "Dispatches from Elsewhere" on AMC.
I've never even watched one episode of AMC's huge hits such as "Breaking Bad", "Mad Men", "The Walking Dead" or "Better Call Saul", but I was watching a movie on AMC, saw a promo for the show and I decided to give the first two episodes a chance.
Jason Segel, of Freaks and Geeks fame, is one of the two actors that I knew along with Sally Field and it's an interesting concept that's hard to explain with only two episodes to figure out the "rules" of the show.
Jump on board and give it a chance to see what you think.

Wrapping up with the new Topps Heritage Baseball card set.
Heritage is the only major league set that I buy each year and this year is the one that I have been waiting for as finally, it is the time for the set to emulate my beloved 1971 set!
If you've been here for a while, you may remember that I finally finished the 1971 set a few years back and it is cemented as a star of my collection.
In other words, short of the type of emergency that would be financially crippling, that set isn't going anywhere for a long time.
This year's Heritage set looks great, although Topps continues its habit of placing too many stars in their "Short Print" portion of the set.
I understand the argument that lesser players as the SP cards might make it less collectible, but there could be a better mix involved.
I usually buy a "base" set of 400 cards and only buy the SP's of the Indians, Giants, and Pirates players, but this year, I'm going to try to collect all the SP's- not just for the value, but because I like them so much!

Cleaning out the inbox- Passings

We return to pay our respects to people (and others) that have recently passed on and give tribute to their achievements.

Goodbye to Tony Fernandez at the age of 57.
Fernandez won four Gold Gloves and made five All-Stars in a career spent mostly with Toronto before bouncing around the league in the later stages of his career, but in Cleveland will always be remembered for his one season with the 1997 Indians where the then-35-year-old Fernandez would hit the highest of peak and the bottomless pit of the low in the Indians postseason.
Fernandez sent the underdog Indians to the World Series when his home run in the top of the eleventh broke a tie in Baltimore in game six of the 1997 ALCS.
The 1997 Indians gave the Orioles some payback for the previous season when the heavily favored Tribe lost in the ALDS to the Orioles, so the upset gave each team a win in the back to back postseason series with the better team losing both times.
Fernandez would hit the depths in the World Series against the then-Florida Marlins when his error in the bottom of the eleventh in game seven contributed to the Marlins winning the game along with the series.


Goodbye to Jimmy Thunder at the age of 54.
The Samoan from New Zealand, Thunder never challenged for the heavyweight title but is well remembered for his many appearances in the U.S. in the mid to late 90s, often on the USA Network's Tuesday Night Fights.
Thunder defeated two former champions in Trevor Berbick and Tony Tubbs and lost to three others-Tim Witherspoon, Chris Byrd, and John Ruiz, but will be best remembered for his Tuesday Night Fights first-round knockout of Crawford Grimsley in which Thunder knocked Grimsley cold with the first punch that he threw.
The entire fight from bell to finish was thirteen seconds and that included the count!
I always thought Thunder resembled "Piston Honda" one of the various competitors in the video game "Mike Tyson's Punch Out".


Goodbye to A.P. Indy at the age of 31 with Joe Plum sending me the word.
The winner of the Belmont Stakes and the Breeders Cup Classic in 1992 as a three-year-old, A.P. Indy was named Horse of the Year and was retired to stud at the end of his three-year-old season.
The son of 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, A.P. Indy's time in the 1992 Belmont tied Easy Goer for the second-fastest Belmont ever behind only Secretariat as he ran down My Memoirs and Pine Bluff in the long stretch at Belmont Park to earn the victory.
Arguably the most successful stallion in America during his time, A.P. Indy sired 88 Graded Stakes Winners and 12 champions including 2003 Horse of the Year Mineshaft, 2006 Preakness winner Bernadini and 2007 Belmont winner Rags to Riches.
For more on A.P. Indy along with some beautiful pictures of the champion late in his life, the Blood-Horse wrote this wonderful article last year.


Goodbye to Nesby Glasgow at the age of 62.
Glasgow played for the Washington Huskies Rose Bowl champions in 1977 and intercepted a pass in the waning seconds of the 1978 Rose Bowl that clinched Washington's 27-20 win over Michigan.
Glasgow was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in 1979 and would play for the Colts in Baltimore and Indianapolis through 1987.
Glasgow was waived by the Colts and was claimed by the Seahawks, where Glasgow would play the final five seasons of his career until his retirement following the 1992 season.

Goodbye to Johnny Antonelli at the age of 89.
Antonelli was the final "Bonus Baby" signed by the Boston Braves to have major league success, but he found his most successful seasons at the Polo Grounds with the lamented (by me anyway) New York Giants.
Antonelli spent time in Boston, but rarely pitched in Beantown and joined the Braves in Milwaukee after a two-year stint in the military, finishing with a 12-12 record but with an ERA of 3.12 that finished fifth in the National League.
This caught the eye of Leo Durocher and the Giants, who were returning Willie Mays to their lineup after his military term, and traded Bobby Thomson as in "Shot heard round the world' fame to Milwaukee as part of a six-player trade to land Antonelli.
Antonelli paid immediate dividends as he won twenty-one games, made his first All-Star team, led the National League in ERA and shutouts and was the top starter for the eventual World Champions.
Antonelli would make the All-Star team every season from 1956-59, which bridged the move to San Francisco from New York and in his final year with the Giants Antonelli would transition to "fireman" which is what teams called their closer in those days and finished with eleven saves.
Antonelli's arm was going bad though and was traded to Cleveland after the 1960 season with Willie Kirkland for Harvey Kuenn, who had been acquired the previous year for Rocky Colavito.
Antonelli was so bad in Cleveland that he was traded to the Braves after only eleven games and after nine more bad appearances in Milwaukee, Antonelli decided to retire.

Poisoned! Vipers Shutout Defenders 25-0

After losing their first game to a winless team, the D.C. Defenders looked to reverse course against the only remaining team without a victory, the Tampa Bay Vipers.

Instead, the road to redemption was blocked as the winless Vipers closed that exit in a 25-0 Tampa Bay win.
The Defenders finished with a pitiful 107 yards of total offense in falling to 2-2 on the season.
D.C dropped out of first after a win by St.Louis and with a win by New York earlier in the weekend, the Defenders are now in a tie for second.
The Defenders' chances for a division title could be on the line next Sunday at Audi Field as the Defenders host the first-place Nighthawks.

Defensive Deflections

1) I know the fifth game seems to be early to proclaim that a game is a "must-win", but if the Defenders want to win a division title, it could be.
D.C hosts first place St.Louis and are currently behind the Nighthawks by one game.
Win next week and move into a tie for first, lose it and fall two behind with five to go.
Not insurmountable, but behind the eight ball for sure.

2) I'm not sure what happened to this team in two weeks.
They looked like (along with undefeated Houston) to be the best team in the league and just crushed in back to back games to winless teams?
Befuddled.

3) Pep Hamilton wasn't a coach that I was excited about in picking my team, but the cameras and microphones don't him any favors.
Hamilton gives off the vibe that "Michael Scott" vibe that seems oblivious to the chaos around him and has no idea what to do about it.
Hamilton's calm and while I'm not saying he has to go crazy, a little outward emotion may help.

4) Here's Hamilton at his worst.
Midway in the second quarter, Cardale Jones throws a deep ball to Malachi Dupre on a third down.
Dupre is ruled out of bounds on the catch, which was a good call, but it was worth a review.
The officials look at it and rule that Dupre was out of bounds and kicker Ty Rausa enters for a field goal attempt.
Rausa lines up and just as he kicks the ball, Pep Hamilton has used one of his two timeouts to "review the play".
We know this because the cameras catch all this, Hamilton asks for a review that has been completed, so back comes Rausa for another try.
Kick Blocked.

5) Someone trying to stop the run might be a nice idea as well.
Tampa Bay's starting running backs DeVone Smith and Jacques Patrick each rushed over 100 yards on the evening as the Vipers finished with 266 yards rushing.
D.C. had no clue for the Viper running game, which wasn't overwhelming anyone in their previous three games.

6) Not that they were any better against the pass as Tampa Bay's backup Taylor Cornelius completed 24 of his 31 throws for over 200 yards and a touchdown.
The pass rush didn't register a sack and allowed Cornelius to have as much time as he needed in the pocket.
Other than a nifty interception by Rakim Moore,  I can't come up with anything nice to say about the defense.

7) Cardale Jones continued to struggle as he completed only nine of twenty-two passes for 72 yards and an interception.
The offensive line hasn't given him a lot of time to throw and the communication issues continued in the loss, but some of the inaccuracy has to go to Jones, who overthrew Rashad Ross in the second quarter on what would have easily been a long touchdown and could have shaken some of the mildew off the offense.

8) This was a painful game to watch and for a team with this much talent (for the level) to be demolished like this two weeks in a row is very concerning.
It does seem that (other than Houston) home field is immensely important in the XFL and the Defenders will bounce back next Sunday at home.
If they don't- the playoffs may not be out of hand, but the division title could be.

Boxing Challenge:Chocolatito Regains Title, Garcia, Martinez win

Saturday night from Frisco, Texas, Matchroom Boxing, and DAZN assembled an excellent card of boxing and one that will be difficult to match this year.

When you have a three-division champion winning in his return, an excellent action championship fight, a future star moving up the ladder and a former heavyweight champion ending his fight vis knockout, it's a great night.

However, none of those fights are the story of the night as that honor belongs to Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez, who won the WBA junior bantamweight title from Kal Yafai by a ninth-round knockout.
Gonzalez had fought only twice, both against lower-level competition, since his stunning fourth-round knockout loss to Srisaket Sor Rungvisai.
The knockout defeat for Gonzalez was the second in a row to Rungvisai, who had defeated Gonzalez via a decision in their first fight in which finished in the conversation for fight of the year with most scoring Gonzalez as a decisive winner and combined with knee surgery since, many wondered how much that Gonzalez had lost from the supremely skilled fighter that was so dominant at junior flyweight and flyweight and was still elite at junior bantamweight, if not quite the same at the higher weight.
Despite five successful defenses of his WBA title, Yafai was looked at as the third best fighter in the division at best behind WBC champion Juan Francisco Estrada and Rungvisai with some ranking him fourth or fifth behind IBF champion Jerwin Ancajas and/or WBO Kazuto Ioka, as Yafai didn't have a standout win and had scored just one knockout in his defenses.
Yafai was clearly the bigger and taller man and he may have been able to fight off the jab, using his range to keep Gonzalez off him and maybe won a decision, but instead despite his corner's protestations, decided to fight on the inside and try to grind down the veteran.
The grinding process worked well- for Gonzalez, who gradually pounded Yafai and dominated the sixth and seventh before knocking Yafai down late in the eighth round.
The clock saved Yafai in the eighth, but it would not in the ninth as Gonzalez knocked Yafai down with a crushing right within the first few seconds with the referee waving the battle off immediately.

Gonzalez winning was a surprise only due to his circumstances, not his ability and it was one of those nights in boxing that you don't see very often- a great fighter summoning up an unexpected effort to make the viewers remember how great he once was and that he might have more than a bit remaining.
I had Gonzalez leading 78-73 going into the ninth, so it was more than just hurting a fighter and finishing him off and I'll be interested to see "Chocolatito" 's next fight as he has just entered a triangle of exciting 115 pounders with Estrada and Rungvisai with each fighter having scores to settle- Gonzalez holds a win over Estrada (at flyweight), Estrada has defeated Rungvisai, and Rungvisai owns two wins over Gonzalez, so any pairing of the three will have an instant storyline and all should be action fights.

Roman Gonzalez may have won fighter of the night, but the fight of the night had to be Julio Cesar Martinez's unanimous decision victory over Jay Harris.
Martinez retained his WBC flyweight title in a fight that saw Harris fight bravely but was just a bit overmatched against the talented champion.
The fight was often held toe to toe with both fighters landing strong shots, but Martinez landed the bigger shots and more often, bloodying Harris from the nose and swelling the face of the Welshman for the second half of the fight.
Martinez landed a hard left to the body in the tenth that dropped Harris and looked like the end of the fight was near, but Harris managed to grit his way through and last the distance.
Martinez won on my scorecard 116-111 and I'd love to match him against any of the three other champions in the flyweight division, but don't rule out Harris either.
I'm not sure Harris beats any of the other champions in a strong division, but when fighters move up in weight or retire, I think he might be in the mix.

For four rounds of the main event, Jessie Vargas was on his way to a huge upset over Mikey Garcia.
I thought Vargas won three of the first four, the other round was close and just as I started to think upset, Garcia struck with a barrage of right hands that knocked Vargas down and swung the fight his way.
Garcia tried to end the fight in the sixth and seventh with a strong attack against a shaken Vargas, but Vargas rode out the storm and when Garcia put the car into neutral for the final four rounds, content to win a decision, that's what Garcia got- a unanimous decision that thrilled few and proved only that Garcia is capable of defeating top ten welterweights, but not the best of the division.
I scored Garcia a 116-111 winner, but I didn't find him overly impressive in victory and for all of his technical skills, Garcia's workmanlike style hasn't dazzled me since his days at 126 and 130 pounds.
Many things in life, we get paid for things that we are good at, not always things that we love.
Mikey Garcia doesn't seem to have the passion that truly great fighters have and sometimes watchers of the sport have to realize that we may want the passion for greatness more than the men that fight do.

Israil Madrimov entered a junior middleweight eliminator with the reputation of a future star and he did nothing to disprove that with a dismantling of Charlie Navarro in six rounds.
The 40-year-old Navarro isn't at the level of a title eliminator and he gave little resistance to Madrimov, who toyed with Navarro as he would with a novice before two sixth-round knockdowns ended the fight.
Madrimov's next fight will be tougher as he'll face someone in a final eliminator that could see him face recently crowned WBA/IBF champion Jeison Rosario or Julian Williams, should Williams win their contractually obligated rematch.

Former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker survived a cut to stop trialhorse Shawndell Winters in five rounds.
Winters gave a game effort, but the naturally smaller fighter could never sting Parker and earn his respect.
Parker knocked Winters down late in the third round with the bell saving Winters and Winters showed plenty of heart in getting through the fourth, but was unable to survive the bigger puncher's fifth-round combination that sent him to the floor and ended the fight.
Parker could be facing British veteran Dereck Chisora next, who he was scheduled to fight last year before falling out due to a spider bite or even WBC top contender Dillian Whyte in a rematch of their terrific 2018 fight that was won by Whyte by unanimous decision.
Whyte could be reluctant to face Parker with a title shot on the line, but a rematch could be another battle.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica eight to seven with the Roman Gonzalez win as the difference in the week.
I lead the challenge 41-37.