Boxing Challenge

     This weekend's bouts in the boxing challenge aren't exactly filled with compelling matchups but they could be important for a few contenders that will need to post victories.

On Pay Per View, Trevor Bryan defends his WBA minor heavyweight title against England's Daniel DuBois in Miami.

The minor title isn't important (the fight was ordered when DuBois's "interim" title was removed and Bryan was forced to face DuBois.) but what is important is that the winner of this fight will become the mandatory challenger in the WBA for the winner of the Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua rematch, which means a shot at the real championship eventually and the payday that comes with that opportunity.

Bryan, who is the poster child for the ridiculousness of the minor "world" titles, has struggled through defenses against a shot Bermane Stiverne (in what was an entertaining fight, if not for the title designation) and a split decision in his last fight against unknown Jonathan Guidry and is a solid underdog against DuBois, who was a highly-touted prospect after explosive knockouts over soft opposition in the UK before a tenth round knockout loss in a brutal battle against Joe Joyce (in a fight that placed Joyce in the rotation as the mandatory challenger for the WBO) that saw DuBois suffer a broken orbital bone.

DuBois has knocked out two more soft touches since the Joyce loss and unless his punch resistance has weakened from the war against Joe Joyce, is a favorite over Bryan based on the talent that he is thought to possess.

The DAZN-Golden Boy card from Anaheim is pretty blah and the main event is equally milquetoast at super middleweight division catchweight between undefeated middleweight Jaime Munguia and non-descript Brit Jimmy Kelly in the latest of the squash match tour that Munguia has traveled since vacating his WBO junior middleweight championship.

I'm not sure who to blame for whatever this is that Munguia is doing with his career, whether it's Munguia himself, his manager, promoter Oscar De La Hoya, or whomever but these fights cannot be helpful to the fighter and it definitely isn't helping him in anyone else's eyes either.

As for Kelly, he is coming off an upset win over 28-0 Kanat Islam in February but the only other fight of note was a decision defeat to Dennis Hogan in 2018, and he will need a career-best effort to trouble Munguia.

ESPN-Top Rank is in New York for the latest for super middleweight prospect Edgar Berlanga in a ten-rounder against veteran Roamer Alexis Angulo.

Berlanga stopped his first sixteen opponents in the first round but has been taken the distance in his last three fights including being knocked down two fights ago by Marcelo Cocares.

Berlanga looked a little better in his most recent appearance in a decision win over veteran Steve Rolls but also tired in the later rounds and allowed the Canadian to rally on the scorecards.

Berlanga needs an impressive performance against another durable veteran in Angulo, it will be interesting to see if Berlanga attempts to increase his aggression and tries to score a knockout against a boxer that lasted ten rounds before being stopped in a 2020 fight against David Benavidez and lasted until the final bell in a title challenge against then-WBO champion Gilberto Ramirez in his only two losses.

This is a step up for Berlanga and Angulo should provide a stern test.

Boxing Challenge

Heavyweights. 12 Rds

Trevor Bryan vs Daniel DuBois

Ramon Malpica: DuBois KO 7

TRS: DuBois KO 2

Vince Samano: DuBois KO 3

Super Middleweights 12 Rds

Jaime Munguia vs Jimmy Kelly

R.L; Munguia KO 5
TRS: Munguia KO 7
V.S: Munguia KO 10

Super Middleweights. 10 Rds

Edgar Berlanga vs Roamer Alexis Angulo

R.L; Berlanga Split Decision

TRS: Berlanga Unanimous Decision
V.S: Angulo Unanimous Decision 

Boxing Challenge: Kyoguchi Bloodies Bermudez

    Hiroto Kyoguchi used an impressive offensive arsenal to batter and rip open the skin of Esteban Bermudez for eight rounds before various cuts on the brave Bermudez forced the fight to be stopped in the eighth round in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Kyoguchi retained his WBA light flyweight title in the main event of the  Matchroom/DAZN card that was his mandatory defense against Bermudez, who became the top contender and winner of a now-defunct minor title after an upset victory over Carlos Canizales last year.

Bermudez bled from the mouth and nose in the first round and would sustain a cut over his right eye from Kyoguchi's punches and a slice along his hairline from an early-round clash of heads and showed a tremendous amount of courage in fighting through what announcer Corey Erdman called a "Crimson Mask", which made me laugh as I remembered Gordon Solie using that term when someone was bleeding on the old "Georgia Championship Wrestling" show on WTBS.

Kyoguchi landed right uppercut after right uppercut that couldn't miss Bermudez and with much of the fight held at close range, the champion won almost every exchange despite the toughness of Bermudez but it was never easy work for Kyoguchi, who won almost every round despite losing a point in the sixth round for head clashes, which seemed like a poor decision by the referee as both fighters were charging into each other and another point lost in the seventh round.

The seventh-round cost Kyoguchi a knockdown as Bermudez was on his way to the floor when the champion landed two punches to the back of the head and after the deserved deduction, Kyoguchi had watched a 10-8 round turn into a 9-9 round on the scorecards.

Kyoguchi left his corner in a rage to start round eight and with a violent volley drove Bermudez back into the ropes and the referee determined the challenger unable to continue less than half a minute into the eighth round.

The best fight that can be made in the light flyweight division right now would be an all-Japanese unification fight with the talented WBC champion Ken Shiro in what would be a guaranteed all-action encounter.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 101 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica: 86 Pts (1)
Vince Samano: 82 Pts (0)

Boxing Challenge

    Tonight on DAZN,  the best fighter under 112 pounds defends his title against his mandatory challenger as the WBA continues to chip away at their multiple title mess one division at a time.

Hiroto Kyoguchi defends against Esteban Bermudez for Kygoguchi's WBA light flyweight championship, as Bermudez's minor title will be eliminated.

Bermudez knocked out heavily favored Carlos Canizales last May to win the minor belt and earn the resulting title shot for the title.

Kyoguchi is one of the most fun fighters in the world to watch and has the potential for two super fights in his home country against fellow citizens Ken Shiro, who holds the WBC light flyweight title in a unification fight or move up one division to flyweight against WBO champion Junto Nakatani in what would be an excellent action bout.

Kyoguchi is favored to retain his title but a knockout win would impress the American television audience watching for the first time.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: Kyoguchi Unanimous Decision

TRS: Kyoguchi KO 9

Vince Samano: Bermudez Unanimous Decision

Boxing Challenge: Inoue Destroys Donaire in Two!

  The highly anticipated rematch of the 2019 fight of the year ended quickly in Saitama Japna as Naoya Inoue knocked Nonito Donaire down each in of the first two rounds and closed the show in round two to keep his WBA and IBF bantamweight titles and add the WBC version of the championship to his coffers with the knockout win.

Donaire had won both of his fights after losing a unanimous but very competitive decision to Inoue, winning the WBC title along with defending against his mandatory challenger and all the while chasing the Inoue rematch, while Inoue had defeated Jason Moloney and two lesser rated contenders in the interim.

Donaire landed the biggest shot early when he appeared to stun Inoue with a left hook but with seconds remaining in the opening round, Inoue landed a right hand that dropped Donaire to the canvas, and had there been even a few more seconds remaining in the round, Inoue may have finished his opponent in the initial round.

Donaire fought bravely in the second round and tried to fire counters against the charging "Monster" but again the right hand of Inoue landed and drove Donaire back into the ropes with Inoue chasing him and landed one final right that dropped Donaire to his back.

Donaire was too proud to be counted out and beat the count of the referee but was not fit to continue as
the referee ended the fight.

The 39-year-old deserves credit for that and I'm still not sure that he isn't the second-best bantamweight in the world even after this blitz from Inoue.

As for the Monster, he called for newly crowned WBO champion Paul Butler after the fight to fully unify the division, and while I understand why Inoue wants to fully unify for historical purposes and support him in doing so, I don't think anyone outside of Butler that thinks that Butler has a snowball's chance in the tropics of holding off the Monster for more than a few rounds.

After the expected annihilation of Butler, I don't see anyone in the bantamweight division that has a remote chance against Inoue other than maybe former WBO champion John Riel Casimero, who was stripped of the title before a scheduled fight with Butler and had a unification fight with Inoue canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Inoue could either face one of the two future Hall of Famers that currently reside in the 115-pound division, WBA champion Juan Francisco Estrada or Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez but both would likely not have the strength to beat Inoue and would essentially be given a gold watch and one final large payday in such a fight.

WBC 115-pound champion Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez has the talent level but he just moved up to 115 pounds and doesn't have the needed experience yet to make another leap so quickly against Inoue.

Inoue could move up to junior featherweight and a fight against either WBC and WBO champion Stephen Fulton or WBA/ IBF champion MJ Akhmadaliev would have some appeal-especially if Fulton is able to get his wish for the full unification at 122 pounds against Akhmadaliev.

Fulton seems to match up well with Inoue but his fight against the similarly aggressive Brandon Figueroa was very close and Inoue is a different level of boxer than Figueroa.

A unified bantamweight champion against a unified junior featherweight king might be the biggest fight under featherweight in decades- IF promotional interests can work together to get a contract signed.

No matter what the future holds for Naoya Inoue, this victory over Nonito Donaire cements him at or near the top of the pound-for-pound list, and with several interesting fights in his future, the force that is known as the Monster should be around for quite some time.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 99 Pts (1) 

Ramon Malpica: 85 Pts (2)

Vince Samano: 82 Pts (1)

Boxing Challenge

     Early Tuesday morning, the two fighters responsible for the 2019 fight of the year will step into the same ring in Saitama, Japan for the second time against one another two and a half years later for the rarest of all bouts- a rematch that involves division unification with another championship at stake that was not in the first match yet the same titles are on the table from the first fight.

In the interim between their epic first fight, Nonito Donaire, who most thought had made his final career stand in a tremendous effort in losing via unanimous decision to Naoya Inoue, knocked out Nordine Oubaali in four rounds to win the WBC bantamweight title and defended in against countryman Reymart Gaballo with a fourth-round knockout and made a second fight a more attractive pairing by going out and earning it.

Naoya Inoye has defended his WBA and IBF titles three times but only once against a top challenger in a seventh-round knockout of Andrew Moloney, and even though Inoue has fought three times since to Donaire's two, Donaire's opponents were of better quality and maybe even more impressive outing than that of the "Monster".

And despite Inoue winning the first fight and scoring the fight's only knockdown, it can be argued that the younger fighter took the more severe beating as Inoue exited the fight with a broken orbital bone and a broken nose with Donaire- but with all of that going in Donaire's favor, the decision was unanimous and unquestioned.

Inoue is still in his prime at 29 and no matter how often the 39-year-old Donaire turns back the clock in an unexpected manner, sooner or later the clock catches all men.

So the question is can Donaire do anything different or improve on what worked in their first fight?

If he can, it could set up the left hook that finished Oubaali and Gaballo and pull an upset for the ages but you would have to be a sentimentalist to pick Donaire in this one.

However, some fighters are fated to fight well against others no matter when in their career the fights take place and Nonito Donaire seems to be in that niche with Naoya Inoue.

This should be another good one from Saitama Tuesday morning.

Boxing Challenge

Unification WBA/IBF- WBC Bantamweight Titles. 12 Rds 

Naoya Inoue vs Nonito Donaire

R.L: Inoue KO 9

TRS and V.S: Inoue Unanimous Decision

Boxing Challenge:Fulton Routs Roman, Cordina Crushes Ogawa

   Entering the PBC on Showtime card from Minneapolis on Saturday evening, two things seemed to be all but certain- Stephen Fulton's defense of his WBC and WBO junior featherweight titles against former WBA and IBF champion Danny Roman would be a close and exciting fight and David Morrell would look impressive in his super middleweight minor title defense against a seemingly overmatched Kalvin Henderson.

Morrell lived up to expectations but the Fulton-Roman pairing did not as Fulton outboxed and controlled Roman as no fighter had previously on his way to an easy unanimous decision to retain his two championships.

Fulton outboxed and outpunched Roman and never allowed the veteran to get into any type of rhythm by using a dominant jab and excellent counterpunches to smack Roman as he attempted fruitlessly to generate any offense with an inside attack.

Two judges saw a shutout for Fulton at 120-108 with the other arbiter giving Roman one round at 119-109.

I gave Roman two rounds for a 118-110 score for Fulton, who followed his majority decision win over Brandon Figueroa that many thought Figueroa won in a close fight with the best performance of his career against a former champion that only lost his titles by a borderline decision.

Fulton might begin to receive some consideration for entry in the pound for pound rankings after this impressive performance but Fulton is looking for bigger game- becoming an undisputed champion and called for WBA and IBF champion M.J Akhmadaliev, who defeated Roman to win those titles and has a scheduled defense in three weeks against mandatory challenger Ronny Rios.

That may be a difficult match to sign as Akhmadaliev is contracted to Matchroom and DAZN and Matchroom and PBC are seldom able to cross paths to make top fights but Eddie Hearn has been more willing to allow his fighters to fight elsewhere if the fight is important enough or could make the fighter more money, so there is a little hope.

A fight that would be easier to put together would be a rematch with Brandon Figueroa and most would love to see that considering the excellent action of the first fight, the closeness and that many gave Figueroa the edge.

If Fulton can't have Akhmadaliev, Figueroa would be an excellent consolation prize for boxing fans.

As for the co-feature, David Morrell bullied and bashed gritty but overmatched Kalvin Henderson on his way to a fourth-round knockout to retain his minor belt.

Morrell is now 7-0 with six knockouts but his competition hasn't been impressive although Morrell's performances certainly have been.

No knockdowns scored but Morrell trapped Henderson along the ropes and delivered punishment throughout with Henderson unable to do more than throw an occasional counter right to try to keep Morrell from swarming him.

Morrell certainly is talented and I'm very interested to see how he stacks up against better foes but fights against David Benavidez or against the winner of a rumored Caleb Plant-Anthony Dirrell fight would see the Cuban against a much-improved opponent and could prove to be more than he can handle unless he is a very special fighter.

One thing is certain though- Morrell is getting nothing but television exposure out of these glorified pummellings and if you are going to advertise your fighter as a 'champion', his "title defenses" can at least be against someone that can remotely give him a challenge.

Earlier in the day, a world title did change hands from Cardiff Wales as former Olympian Joe Cordina electrified his home crowd and Kenichi Ogawa with one overhand right that Ogawa never saw to take Ogawa's IBF junior lightweight championship via second-round knockout.

Ogawa hit the canvas very hard and was only able to move to all fours before the fight was rightfully concluded.

Cordina's victory may have been worth even more than winning the IBF title as he could parlay his win into a unification fight with WBC and WBO champion Shakur Stevenson, who has publically stated that he wishes to unify the division before an eventual move to 135 pounds.

Stevenson tweeted his congratulations and gave Cordina compliments from knowing him in the past with the interesting addendum that Stevenson would travel to Great Britain to face Cordina in a unification fight.

I believe Stevenson when he says this because he was willing to travel to the UK when he was at featherweight for a potential match with Josh Warrington which came very close to taking place, so I do believe Stevenson is serious about fighting on the road.

Joe Cordina may never have a better chance to become a star than in a unification fight with a star of Shakur Stevenson's status and to possibly have that fight in his home country, is almost too much to ask for and it all started with one overhand right.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 98 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 83 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 81 Pts (3)

Boxing Challenge: Haney Handles Kambosos

    On a day that saw two young champions take a step toward stardom, Devin Haney and Stephen Fulton made the move upward with the best performances of their careers.

I'll be writing about the Showtime and DAZN cards in the next post in order to concentrate on Devin Haney's road victory over George Kambosos to unify all four championships in the lightweight division and hopefully stuff the WBC "franchise" championship into the trash for causing this mess to begin to with.

Haney's easy unanimous decision win by scores of 118-110 and 1160-112 (X2) (my score was 117-111 for Haney) may not have been the most aesthetically pleasing triumph in history for those watching and sitting through what has an excellent case for the worst pre-fight broadcast in boxing television history from ESPN but Haney's win was exactly what was needed to win against Kambosos and to do so by such control that the expected to be raucous Australian crowd was silenced for most of the bout.

Haney's offense was as basic as one could imagine but the Haney jab and one-two combination combined with just enough movement to avoid any punches were able to confound Kambosos, who rarely found his target and didn't resemble the tiger that invaded New York City to upset Teofimo Lopez last fall.

Kambosos wasn't nearly aggressive enough to trouble Haney as his wild right hand seldom hit the mark and even though Kambosos would land only one less power punch than Haney landed, the Haney jab was more than enough to carry the day and win a decision without dispute from even the most fervent Kambosos supporter.

Haney is contractually obligated to give Kambosos a rematch in the fall and again in Australia but few seem excited about a second bout considering this one wasn't either exciting or competitive.

Still, there is an obligation and Kambosos will almost surely activate that clause as he's unlikely to ever receive better terms down the road with another sizable paycheck and again fighting at home but he had both of those in this fight, and other than the paycheck those advantages didn't help him very much at all.

Haney established himself as a star with a great performance on the biggest stage of his career and should he defeat Kambosos in their rematch, Haney will hold the cards in the division with all four titles and with his move to Top Rank before the Kambosos match, Haney will have several big fights that would be relatively easy to make.

First on the list would have to be multiple division champion Vasyl Lomachenko, who would have been the person in the ring with Kambosos with both sides agreeing to a deal before Lomachenko stayed in his home country of Ukraine to defend against the recent invasion by Russia.

Assuming Lomachenko's issues in his native land will eventually be settled, Lomachenko would likely receive the first chance under the circumstances with the only question being whether or not Lomachenko would take a tuneup fight first or move straight to Haney.

The conqueror of Lomachenko and the surprising loser to Kambosos, Teofimo Lopez, has been rumored to be moving north to the junior welterweight division even before his win over Lomachenko and had he not lost to Kambosos, a pairing of the unified lightweight champion (disregarding the franchise issues) against the then unified junior welterweight kingpin Josh Taylor (Taylor has since been stripped of the WBA title for refusing to fight their mandatory challenger, the unbeaten, untested, and unknown Dominican Alberto Puello for a small purse after few were interested in bidding for the fight via purse bid) would have been very attractive before the luster was removed by Lopez's defeat.

Could Lopez be tempted to stay at lightweight for a full four title attempt against Haney, who Lopez had taunted via social media and tagged him with the term "Email champion" that only would go away after Haney's win this weekend?

The WBA still has a minor title in the division and despite the title meaning little, the fighter holding it certainly does with Gervonta Davis as the beltholder.

Davis has been criticized for his relatively weak competition and there are questions about when Davis's contract with Mayweather Promotions expires with some reports stating that it ended last week with Davis's knockout of Rolando Romero and yet others reporting that Davis has one year remaining on his contract.

Mayweather refuses to do business with Bob Arum and Top Rank, so a Haney-Davis fight would seem to be a long shot with the best hope coming from the WBA deciding that the time is right to end their lightweight mess and order Haney vs Davis and hope for the best- Don't hold your breath waiting for that to occur.

Ryan Garcia would be another big fight and his association with Golden Boy wouldn't be a hindrance to challenging Haney as Golden Boy has worked with Top Rank on several occasions.

And one other possibility with Top Rank eventually could be WBC and WBO junior lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson, should Haney hold off his challengers and Stevenson rises after his goal of unifying the junior lightweight division.

I'm not sure that I would pick Haney against all of those fighters but I'm not sure I'd wager against him either and after this win, Haney now owns the best resume' of the young stars in the division.

Devin Haney is the Email champ no more.

In the other two boxing challenge affairs from Melbourne, Jason Moloney stopped Aston Palicte in the third round of a ten rounder between two former world title challengers in a crossroads fight.

Moloney knocked Palicte down and quickly finished him off with seconds remaining in the round.

Moloney will likely hang around in the lower half of the top ten and likely appear in a title eliminator soon, while Palicte looked weaker in his new weight division and might be better suited to return to junior bantamweight.

Lucas Browne shocked Junior Fa with a first-round knockout in their ten rounder and juiced-up what appeared to be a fading career.

Browne had been stopped by Paul Gallen and David Allen in his previous four bouts and looked to be overmatched against Fa, who entered the fight with only one loss, a distance fight with former WBO champion Joseph Parker and had never shown signs of a weak chin.

Browne landed a huge right hand to drop Fa, who never was able to get his legs back under him after rising and Browne finished him off with a right hand that could have been close to being to the back of the head of Fa.

It wasn't an obvious foul but there may be enough evidence there to support a rematch that would likely give both fighters a solid purse perhaps on the Haney-Kambosos rematch card.

I'll be back with the review of the Showtime/PBC card and a world title explosively changing hands from Wales on DAZN.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 95 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica; 78 Pts (1)

Vince Samano: 78 Pts (1)