In the backyard of Matchroom Boxing leader Eddie Hearn, the rematch between Kid Galahad and James Dickens ended very much as their first fight did in 2013-Galahad controlling the fight, busting Dickens up, and winning via late-round stoppage when the Dickens corner refused to allow their man to come out for the 12th and final round.
The result meant that Dickens lasted exactly one round longer than in their first round, suffered a beating so bad that not even myself, who almost always would say with one round to go why not try for a miracle, could say the corner was wrong in concluding the fight.
The beating that Galahad gave to Dickens was the type of beating that can end in tragedy as a prolonged pounding from an average puncher is far worse neurologically than a more spectacular knockout and with Dickens neither having strong power or shown any indications of landing any miracle bomb, I completely understand why the fight was waved off.
The win gave Galahad the IBF featherweight title that Josh Warrington vacated rather than fight Galahad in a rematch of their 2019 affair that Warrington won a close split decision and could set a match against countryman Leigh Wood, who upset Xu Can last weekend and who lost to Dickens which allowed Dickens to qualify for the vacant title fight.
Galahad would make sense for Wood with both fighting for Matchroom or the winner of the Josh Warrington-Mauricio Lara rematch with both being strong fights for the UK crowd.
Galahad is a fighter that is far from unbeatable but at the same time will give anyone in the division a rough evening because he is solid enough to not make mistakes and avoid firefights against bigger punchers.
As for Dickens, he is clearly a cut below the world-class level and I'm just befuddled after watching Leigh Wood take apart Xu Can on how did Dickens defeat Wood in 2020?
In the boxing challenge, I scored two points for the Galahad win with Ramon Malpica picking Dickens to win.
Belfast, Northern Ireland was the site for two lower-weight battles that showed two fighters that are ready to test themselves at a higher level of competition after wins over their best foes to date.
In the main event, former Irish Olympian Michael Conlan won a unanimous decision over former IBF junior featherweight champion T.J. Doheny.
It was a workmanlike performance from Conlan, who scored the only knockdown with a fourth-round body shot, but not a spectacular one in winning a WBA minor title.
Conlan was able to bust up Doheny around the eyes with swelling and while Doheny was aggressively trying to land punches, he simply didn't land enough to worry Conlan, who won on scores of 119-108 and two cards of 116-111, which gave more credit to Doheny than I did in scoring it 118-109 for Conlan.
For Conlan, it does give him a minor WBA title, but the WBA champion Leo Santa Cruz hasn't fought in the division in two and a half years and counting and fights for PBC to make that fight unlikely.
WBC champion Gary Russell fights once a year against his mandatory, which Conlan won't be due his worthless WBA title, the other newly crowned WBA minor beltholder Leigh Wood would make sense as would today's winner of the vacant IBF title fight between Kid Galahad and James Dickens but all three of those fighters are promoted by Matchroom
Conlan's best option may be fellow Top Rank promotee, Emanuel Navarette, for his WBO title, but I don't like Conlan's chances in that fight either.
I think Conlan could win a title depending on the champion that he challenges but it also wouldn't surprise me to see him as a Rocky Juarez type- good enough to be a top ten fighter but not good enough to be elite.
In the co-feature, two former amateur stars risked their undefeated records in the bantamweight division as England's Lee McGregor faced France's Vincent LeGrand.
McGregor was slightly favored as the naturally bigger man with LeGrand moving up from flyweight for the fight but it was LeGrand scoring the first knockdown with a second-round combination that seemed to surprise McGregor.
After three rounds, Legrand had built a four-point lead on my card (30-26) and seemed to be controlling the fighter against the larger man.
Then in the final minute of the fourth round, McGregor landed a left hook to LeGrand's body.
LeGrand dropped to a knee, took the ten count after spitting his mouthpiece out and the fight was over.
Body shots are tough to take and you never really know how much a fighter has been deflated from one but it sure didn't appear that LeGrand gave a lot of thought to even trying to continue.
For McGregor, it's a solid win over an undefeated fighter with a strong amateur background but losing the first three rounds and maybe even the fourth up until the conclusion against a smaller fighter does cause a little concern when McGregor starts to fight contenders of his own size.
In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored three points to move the total to 103-93.
The boxing challenge starts early with a card from Northern Ireland on Friday and then moves to the UK and Minneapolis for Saturday fights.
Friday from Belfast will fill yet another of the WBA bauble belts and a European championship that I am very interested in watching.
I have been a bit disappointed in the pro career of touted former Olympian Michael Conlan, who has bounced between the junior featherweight and featherweight divisions but he'll be fighting for another WBA trinket at featherweight against former IBF junior featherweight champion T.J. Doheny in an all-Irish battle.
Conlan is the bigger puncher, although he's not a huge banger and is the naturally larger man.
Doheny lost his title to Daniel Roman by majority decision in a unification fight in April 2019 but somehow qualifies for this "title" shot after losing an eight-round decision to Ionet Baluta in March 2020- the same Baluta that Conlan defeated by majority decision in his last fight.
The much more interesting fight to me is the co-feature for the European bantamweight title between Lee McGregor and Vincent LeGrand.
Both fighters are undefeated, but England's McGregor is the bigger man as LeGrand has spent most of his career at flyweight.
McGregor stopped Karim Guerfi in one round, which was a solid win at the Euro level and is a stablemate of Josh Taylor and could be an opponent for Naoya Inoue with a win.
LeGrand of France has a strong amateur background and is highly thought of by Vincent Samano, who consistently gives him votes in the TRS boxing rankings.
This one may be the one fight that I'm looking forward to most this week.
Saturday Matchroom and DAZN return to Eddie Hearn's backyard for another fight camp with the main event deciding who owns the vacant IBF featherweight championship as Kid Galahad faces James Dickens in a rematch of their 2013 fight with Galahad stopping Dickens in the tenth round.
Galahad lost a split decision to Josh Warrington for this title in June 2019, but after defeating Claudio Marrero to again become Warrington's mandatory challenger, Warrington decided to vacate the title rather than face Galahad again.
Dickens has won eight fights in a row with the biggest being the fight before last in a majority decision over Leigh Wood, the upset winner last weekend of Xu Can for a WBA minor title.
The winner of this one should almost certainly (Matchroom promotes all three) face Wood in yet another All-British battle.
Fox finishes the boxing weekend Saturday night from Minneapolis with a welterweight fight between Eimantis Stanonis and veteran Luis Collazo, who claims he will be retiring win or lose after the fight.
Collazo has fought seven former or current world champions in his career but at forty years old is a bit past his prime.
Stanonis has been fast-tracked and was very impressive in a win over former world title challenger Thomas Dulorme in April.
Another welterweight fight for another WBA minor title will pit Argentine Gabriel Maestre against late replacement Mykal Fox,
Originally Canadian amateur star Cody Crowley was scheduled to face Mastre but was forced to bow out after testing positive for Covid.
Maestre, a two-time former Olympian, is only 3-0 and is 35 years of age but one of his three wins is a knockout of former contender Diego Chaves.
Fox lost his last fight to Lucas Santamaria and is coming in on fairly short notice but Fox is very tall for a welterweight and will try to use that to his best advantage.
The aforementioned Santamaria will open the card against shopworn former junior welterweight and welterweight champion Devon Alexander.
Alexander is 2-4-1 since losing his IBF title to Shawn Porter in 2013 and hasn't won since 2017, so this is a must-win for Alexander if he wants to go anywhere in his latest comeback.
I lead Ramon Malpica 100-90 in the Boxing challenge,
When the New Jersey Devils signed Dougie Hamilton and Jonathan Bernier, Tom Fitzgerald stated that the Devils had one final position that the team planned to upgrade- a forward that could play on either of the top two lines.
Fitzgerald signed Tomas Tatar from the Montreal Canadiens as that forward and while Tatar has been productive, there are a few questions about the veteran winger.
Tatar has scored twenty goals or more in six of his eight seasons with a seventh with 19 but scored only ten last season with Montreal with twenty assists in fifty games for Montreal.
The downside for Montreal's run to the Eastern Conference finals for Tatar?
He played in only five games, finishing with only one assist.
Tatar isn't a bad defensive player according to the hockey metrics (don't ask me), his goal scoring has been consistent, and he's not an ancient player as he turns 31 in December.
Well, it seems that Montreal's coaching staff with head coach Dominque Ducharme had soured on Tatar when they replaced the Claude Julien staff in the middle of last season.
That's not uncommon as sometimes returning players aren't a good fit with new staff as the Devils saw last season with Will Butcher with the Lindy Ruff staff and it also doesn't have to be an attitude issue.
Tatar was coveted by several teams, which shows a lot of teams realize that Tatar was miscast in Montreal, not a malcontent or having fading skills and this may have come down to the New Jersey cap space as Tatar was clearly the best remaining free agent after the initial smoke cleared.
Tatar was signed to a two-year contract worth 4.5 million for each season, so the cost is fair and it could be a very nice bargain for a player that generally can be counted on for twenty to twenty-five goals a season.
The final thing that I really liked about Tatar was his strength in five-on-five play as he scored eight of his ten at even strength and if you add his previous two seasons in Tatar scored thirty-five of his forty-seven were scored at five on five.
I like this signing as it seems to address the team's largest need at the time and not with a choking level contract.
New Jersey also retained right-winger Yegor Sharangovich to a two-year contract for a combined four million.
Sharangovich finished with sixteen goals and fourteen assists in his rookie season last year and will be a restricted free agent after the 2022-23 season.
The Cleveland Cavaliers had a few goals in free agency and the trade market in the off-season to try to improve the team to one that could contend for one of the last playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.
I'm not saying I'm buying that, but a similar idea worked for the Atlanta Hawks last season so anything can happen but the chances of it happening improved when the Cavaliers retained restricted free agent center Jarrett Allen with a five-year contract worth one hundred million dollars.
Allen was essentially stolen as the Cavaliers helped Houston and Brooklyn work with the cap enough to make their James Harden deal and received Allen and the recently traded (to Minnesota) Taurean Prince for their help.
Allen's addition made Andre Drummond superfluous and he established himself as a solid foundational player as he averaged thirteen points and ten rebounds (actually 9.9) in 51 games as a Cavalier.
The 6'10 Allen protects the rim, shoots a high percentage ( 60 percent), runs the floor well, and although he doesn't shoot the three as the modern pivot does, Allen is at least smart enough to know what he doesn't do well and not force shots that he cannot make.
The question was raised before free agency began about the Cavaliers signing Allen and after drafting Evan Mobley from USC third overall, was could you put the two on the floor together at the same time.
I think that they can and the Cavaliers must agree.
Allen's skills as a more conventional (old school) center should allow Mobley, who plays the modern big man game to roam the floor as the power forward using his versatile skill set, so the two should mesh well together.
There are no guarantees that happens but there are few guarantees in any game!
Twenty million is far from inexpensive, but considering the forward steps in Allen's game and that he's only twenty-two, this is a market-value contract, and to re-sign with a bad team, it's fair.
The Cavaliers do have a glut of sorts at four and five with some tweeners that aren't true power forwards or centers with Allen, Mobley, Larry Nance Jr, and the fading Kevin Love, who should be bought out of his remaining contract or risk continuing his divisiveness in the locker room.
Combined with younger players at the end of the bench in Dean Wade and Lamar Stevens, it's not difficult to see that there may not be enough playing time to pass around with the roster in its current form.
The Cavaliers have made a decision on the core group of players that will take them back to the playoffs. Darius Garland, Isaac Okoro, Evan Mobley, and now Jarrett Allen will hopefully be part of the next playoff team.
You may have noticed that I didn't include Collin Sexton in the group and there is a reason for that.
Known best for his roles as "Murray Slaughter" on the Mary Tyler Moore Show and as "Captain Merril Stubing" on The Love Boat. McLeod was a fixture on American television throughout the 1970s and mid-1980s.
McLeod was a character actor in television and film before getting his big break in 1970 as the caustic newswriter Murray Slaughter who delighted in slicing Ted Baxter and Sue Ann Nivens.
McLeod actually auditioned for Ed Asner's role of Lou Grant but he felt that it was a better fit in the role Murray, which he landed.
McLeod never seemed to be a leading man type but was just that with the Love Boat because the stories often centered around the guest stars which made McLeod the glue that held the show together rather than the person the show revolved around.
Grodin's career spanned several decades in films with his best-known leading man role in 1972's The Heartbreak Kid and the role of his career as Jonathan "the Duke" Mardukas in 1988's "Midnight Run" with Robert DeNiro.
Midnight Run is one of those classic films that for its genre' is just about the perfect film and for as great as DeNiro is, it's Grodin in the role of his life that carries the film.
I don't think any actor, even those usually superior to Grodin, could have pulled off the role of the Duke better than Grodin and that's about as high a compliment that can be given.
Beatty is remembered by many for his roles in the 1970s films Network, All the President's Men, Superman-The Movie, and the famous scene in Deliverance where Beatty's character is raped in front of his fellow rafters by a demented mountain man.
Beatty transitioned in the 1980s to more comedic roles in films such as Back to School, The Toy, and my favorite role, as chicken kingpin Clyde Torkel in Stroker Ace, another in the many Burt Reynolds headed films that proved entertaining and strong at the box office if not classically written.
Beatty also was nominated for an Emmy in 1979 for his role as a father of a son killed in Vietnam by American Soldiers in a made for TV film entitled Friendly Fire with Carol Burnett, which went against type for Burnett at a time when Vietnam was still a touchy subject for American television.
Golonka is perhaps best remembered as "Millie" who was the girlfriend of "Howard Sprague" during the final season of the Andy Griffith Show and transitioned to the love interest of Ken Berry's "Sam Jones" during the run of the Griffith spinoff "Mayberry RFD".
To me, Golonka is memorable to her voice work as in Debbie in the 1973 Hanna-Barbera cartoon "Speed Buggy", which is been mentioned by me here on several occasions!
Williams is best known to generations for two different roles-to an older generation, Williams will always be "Linc" from the ABC series "The Mod Squad" and to a later generation Williams is remembered as Prince's father in the somewhat autobiographical "Purple Rain".
Williams found work as a guesting character actor over the final few decades of his career, but would never reach the heights of Mod Squad, which was a show based under three young undercover detectives used in order to relate better to the "groovy kids" of the time in which Williams was almost 30 years old when the series started playing someone closer to twenty.
Once again, better known as a character actor in recent years Robinson was a key part of two very funny eighties comedies on NBC- Night Court and Buffalo Bill.
Night Court brought Robinson his biggest acclaim as "Mac" Harry Anderson's wise-cracking court reporter, but Buffalo Bill stands out to this day as one of the top comedies that never made it big.
Robinson's "Newdell" as an intimidating makeup man that was the only person in the studio that the bullying star "Bill Bittinger" would back down from was part of a wonderful ensemble cast that I thought was better than Night Court, which was also very good.
I still have plenty of passings to catch up on, but a recent one was worthy of a full post in my opinion.
"Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff's passing at the age of 71, is yet another loss of professional wrestling's stars of yesterday, but to fans of 1980s wrestling, Paul Orndorff was a special performer even in an era that held arguably the highest number of top grapplers in the history of the business.
Orndoff played college football at the University of Tampa and was drafted in round 12 of the 1973 draft by the New Orleans Saints as a running back.
Paul Orndorff had established himself as a top babyface and heel during stints in the Mid-South territory and on national television on WTBS as part of the Georgia Championship Wrestling promotion, but his top work was yet to come.
In 1983, Orndorff left Georgia as a babyface to move to the WWF as a heel to be managed by the Grand Wizard, who would pass away before Orndorff's debut.
Orndorff would be managed by Roddy Piper after the Wizard's passing as Vince McMahon initially brought Piper in as a manager believing him to be too small to be a main event heel.
Dubbed "Mr.Wonderful" by Piper, Orndorff would challenge Hulk Hogan for Hogan's newly won title in 1984 before one of the more memorable angles of his career in teaming with Piper against Hogan and Mr.T at the first Wrestlemania.
Orndorff would lose that match when Cowboy Bob Orton missed with a cast shot off the top rope and hit Orndorff instead causing him to be pinned.
Orndorff would turn to the fan-favorite side after Piper blamed him for the loss and not Orton which led to a feud with Piper and Orton before Orndorff slid down the cards as a babyface
Orndorff would then make the biggest money of his career when he turned on Hulk Hogan during a televised tag match against John Studd and King Kong Bundy and would lead to six months of huge crowds including an outdoor show in Toronto at Exhibition Stadium that drew over 60,000 fans to the then-home of the Blue Jays and CFL Argonauts.
The blowoff would be a memorable steel cage match on Saturday Night's Main Event where "video evidence" was shown to prove that both men hit the floor leaving the cage at the same time to force the match to continue where Hogan would retain his championship.
Those matches were the last for Orndorff at the top of the card, although he would continue with the WWF for another year and would have two different stints with WCW.
After his WCW time in the ring was complete, Orndoff would work as a road agent and as a trainer at WCW's "Power Plant" training school and would have one final moment behind the scenes as Orndorff beat up the much larger "Vader" (Leon White) in a locker room encounter.
What I liked so much about Paul Orndorff was the intensity and realism that he brought to the ring.
Orndorff came off as a real athlete and as mentioned above, Orndorff's intensity as a heel might have been unmatched by any of his peers.
For all of the theatrics that comes with the world of professional wrestling, the ability to put the fan into a state of "suspension of disbelief" was one that most in the business wanted to possess.
Paul Orndorff looked like a fellow that was legitimately angry and didn't have any interest in playing along with the show, which wasn't often the case in the oft-cartoonlike WWF in the 80s.
His punches looked strong and I always loved how he kicked and stomped his opponent with such anger and bad intentions.
It was very easy to believe that Paul Orndorff really was pissed off at his opponent, wanted to beat the hell out of him, and that he would like to have the opportunity to pound on those fans that booed him so much!
My two favorite Paul Orndorff matches were not ones that were classic main events but were television "enhancement" matches that symbolized what Paul Orndorff was all about.
The first was in 1984, not long after Orndorff arrived in the WWF.
It was the transition period between the old All-Star Wrestling and the production values that were to come over the next few years and Orndorff is angry about the fans calling him "Paula".
Orndorff is scheduled against Rudy Diamond, a somewhat scrawny preliminary wrestler, and the fans immediately go after Orndorff with the Paula chant.
Orndorff goes into angry mode and Diamond leaves the ring to walk back to the dressing room.
Orndorff talks to the referee a bit and Diamond comes out wearing a black t-shirt with Paula printed on the front.
Orndorff loses his mind and Diamond literally tries to run away, which is something that not even the lowest wrestlers did, and Orndorff hammers Diamond with a back suplex that looks nasty even today as Diamond's neck hit the mat very awkwardly among other moves before easily winning.
This is a contender for my favorite television squash match ever!
The other match is against Lanny Poffo, who was a level above the Rudy Diamonds of the world. but still usually lost on television and the match takes place shortly after Orndorff's turn on Hulk Hogan.
Poffo, complete with 80s perm, in his role as poet, takes the ring announcer's microphone and gives a catchy poem about Orndorff to cheers from the fans.
Then the sounds of "Real American" ring out as Orndorff was using the theme music for Hulk Hogan as he "claimed" that Hogan's theme was written for him and stolen from him by Hogan and here comes Orndorff with manager Bobby Heenan.
Complete with a stoic face that makes even a "smart mark" stay away from him, Orndorff stomps down the aisle and Poffo is in trouble.
Normally, Poffo would offer an offensive move or two in his role as one of the better enhancement talents, but not in this one as Orndorff tears into him as soon as he hits the ring, suplexes him outside the ring in an era where that isn't done very often, almost decapitates him with a clothesline before finishing Poffo off with a piledriver.
The entire match was incredibly effective in having Orndorff get "over" as a heel (and give Poffo credit for doing his job well) and made me at the time wonder "Damn, did Lanny Poffo do something to tick Orndorff off before this match?"- Suspension of disbelief, indeed.
Orndorff wasn't used quite as well in his days in WCW, although he was usually in the upper-middle of the card, and didn't have many world titles matches, although he did hold the television title and the tag team title with Paul Roma as the team named "Pretty Wonderful".
My favorite WCW memory of Orndorff was this almost operatic theme that he used. Hilarious.
Paul Orndorff's ability to seem real was almost unmatched and at his peak, Orndorff was one of the best wrestlers in the world and very few wrestling fans in the 1980s ever forgot what they saw from "Mr.Wonderful in the ring.
