Cleaning out the Inbox - Passings

 It's time for the tributes that pay our respects to persons that have recently left us but will never be forgotten as we start with a longtime favorite.

Goodbye to Fred Hickman at the age of 66.

Hickman worked for several networks including ESPN and the YES Network in sports as well as working in news for smaller stations including WDVM in Hagerstown.

However, to most sports fans, it will be Hickman's tenure with CNN and especially his team with the late Nick Charles on CNN's nightly sports wrapup program "Sports Tonight" that brings a smile to their face.

CNN's Sports Tonight aired at 11:00 PM and 2:00 AM dueling with ESPN's Sportscenter for the audience and while it only occasionally won a rating battle, I always preferred Hickman and Charles (as well as Vince Cellini and Bob Lorenz along with Headline News's Van Earl Wright) to the ESPN personalities, although I enjoyed most of their anchors as well with two exceptions!

Hickman and Charles hosted the show on the first day that CNN bounced off the satellite in 1980 and would team for most of the next twenty-one years (Hickman left for Detroit in 1984-85) before Hickman left CNN for good in 2001 to help with the beginning of the YES! network with broadcasts of Yankees and Nets games.

Hickman always seemed so professional with his delivery but his love of sports still came through to the viewer and that's a difficult line to walk.

Too detached and one can seem as if they lack the passion for the games that they report about but if too emotional and it's easy to look out of control as more of a fan than a broadcaster.

Fred Hickman and Nick Charles both walked that line so well with Sports Tonight.

Goodbye to Dave Butz at the age of 72.

A defensive tackle, Butz was drafted fifth overall by the then-St. Louis Cardinals in 1973 from Purdue but would spend the following fourteen seasons in Washington after being signed as a rare free agent of the time by George Allen.

A clause in the contract that Butz signed as a rookie with the Cardinals allowed him to become a free agent with Allen quickly signing him for Washington.

However, the rules of the time forced the signing team to pay compensation and the Cardinals would receive Washington's first-rounder in 1977 and their first and second-round selections in 1978.

Butz would make All-Pro in 1983 (with a career-high of eleven and a half sacks) and 1984 and won two Super Bowls in Washington as the bulwark of their interior defensive line.

Goodbye to Brent Moss at the age of 50.

Moss, along with Terrell Fletcher, began Wisconsin's running back tradition under Barry Alvarez and led the Badgers to a shared Big Ten title in 1993 and a victory over UCLA in the Rose Bowl with Moss winning the game MVP after rushing for 158 yards and two scores

Moss rushed for over 1,600 yards in 1993 with sixteen touchdowns in the 1993 season as he won the Big Ten player of the year award.

Moss would be suspended by Alvarez midway through the 1994 season for cocaine possession, wouldn't be drafted in 1995, and would carry only twenty-two times in the NFL, all for the Rams in 1995.

Goodbye to Chuck Carr at the age of 55.

Carr was a member of the original Florida Marlins in 1993 after being selected from the Mets in the expansion draft and would finish fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting for 1993.

Carr stole 58 bases for the 1993 Marlins, which led the National League and followed up with 31 steals in 1994.

Carr finished his career with Houston in 1997 when he homered off John Smoltz in the NLDS in what would be the final at-bat of his career.  

Boxing Challenge: Janibek, Edwards retain titles

 Only two bouts in the boxing challenge this weekend and next weekend will be even lighter as rival promoters kept cards on the November 19th date to not challenge the expected Errol Spence-Terence Crawford superfight that was unable to reach an agreement between the two camps.

Saturday night from Las Vegas, Top Rank, and ESPN+ offered the first championship defense of the so-called "Boogieman" Janibek Alimkhanuly's WBO middleweight title that he was promoted to after Demetrius Andrade vacated the championship to move to 168 pounds rather than face Alimkhanuly.

Alimkhanuly retained his title by unanimous decision over unheralded Briton Denzel Bentley but he looked far from a champion that anyone is avoiding in defeating Bentley, who had been knocked out in three rounds by the best fighter that he had faced in Felix Cash.

Alimkhanuly won handily (116-112 x 2 and 118-110, which seemed a bit harsh to Bentley) with my score of 116-112 giving Bentley a few of the middle rounds when he took advantage of Alimkhanuly's taking a few rounds off.

Bentley put up a good performance in a fight that he was brought in to make Alimkhanuly look spectacular but never was a serious threat to Alimkhanuly, who finished strongly and hurt Bentley in the final round.

Perhaps Alimkhanuly overlooked Bentley and took him lightly but after wins over former minor champions Hassem N'Dam and Rob Brant and a blowout win over another Brit in Danny Dignum. it was understandable to expect a better performance.

Alimkhanuly doesn't appear likely to have a unification fight in his future against WBA and IBF champion Gennady Golvokin (both are countrymen) or WBC titleholder Jermall Charlo (PBC) but Jaime Munguia (Golden Boy) can have the fight whenever he wishes.

However, Munguia's promoter has been reticent in Munguia accepting the opportunity against Andrade and I haven't seen signs that they are in any hurry for their man to fight anyone that will hold their hands up and fight back., which would eliminate Alimkhanuly as well.

One thing is certain, Alimhanuly's performance didn't scare anyone away- if there was anyone interested in fighting him to start with.

On Friday from Sheffield, England, Sunny Edwards held off the late-round comeback of former WBA and IBF light flyweight champion Felix Alvarado to win a close unanimous decision to retain his IBF flyweight title.

Edwards used his smooth boxing skills to frustrate the constantly in-motion Alvarado in winning most of the early and middle rounds to build a huge lead on the scorecards before he tired after the eighth round as the bodywork and aggression began to pay dividends for Alvarado as he swept through those rounds to hammer the tiring champion.

However, Alvarado's comeback wasn't enough to overcome the number of rounds that Edwards had earned earlier in the bout with Edwards winning by scores of 116-112 and 115-113 x 2 (same as my card).

Edwards had been calling for WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez in recent months but has changed his tune since Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez gave up his WBC junior bantamweight title to return to the flyweight division, where Rodriguez is preparing to face Cristian Gonzalez for the WBO 112 pound championship that was vacated by Junto Nakatani last month.

However, both Martinez and Rodriguez are promoted by Eddie Hearn and Matchroom, and Edwards along with his brother Charlie, a former flyweight king, have feuded with Hearn in the past.

Edwards is promoted by Probellum, which means that Edwards couldn't enter the United States for a fight due to the sanctions against Probellum's former benefactor Daniel Kinahan, and could make a difficult fight to sign even harder.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 188 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 162 Pts (4)

Vince Samano: 152 Pts (0)

Browns sunk in Miami, lose 39-17

  The Cleveland Browns season of hope essentially ended on Sunday in Miami s the Miami Dolphins punished the Browns run defense for 195 yards and pushed them off the field as Miami grabbed a 39-17 victory on an over 100-degree day in South Florida.

Jacoby Brissett threw for 212 yards and a touchdown with Donovan Peoples-Jones his main target with five catches for ninety-nine yards.

Cleveland drops to 3-6 on the season and will travel to Buffalo next Sunday.

Brownie Bits

1) Before we dig into the loss, toss away any playoff hopes now.

Considering the final two games before DeShaun Watson's return are at Buffalo and Tampa Bay at home, winning both to reach the circled amount of five wins in the Jacoby Brissett zone.

It's not happening and while I'd take a surprise in winning both, I've seen little from this team to have hopes that could happen.

2) Kevin Stefanki's in-game playcalling continues to baffle me.

Stefanski's planned first drive (or more depending on the number of plays involved) is usually a pretty strong set and the Browns scored a touchdown on their first drive against Miami.

3) It is the disjointed decisions thereafter that mark the questions that I have.

For example, Amari Cooper after a great game against the Bengals will have only three passes to him.

Cooper caught all three for a mere thirty-two yards.

4) Compare that to the targets of backup tight end Pharoah Brown, who is known for his blocking and not his pass-catching and was thrown to five tines, catching two for thirteen yards.

5) As other teams have done, yet another squad uses a game against the Browns to turn into a ground game bully as the Dolphins rushed for 195 yards and two touchdowns.

When teams use backs such as Jeffrey Wilson and Rakeen Mostert to batter you, you have a severe problem.

6) The Browns under Andrew Berry and Paul DePodesta have made it pretty clear that they don't value defensive tackles and linebackers as highly as other positions.

To a certain degree that's understandable as under a salary cap, a team can't be super at every position but the Browns are getting below-average production at these positions and their weakness at those spots is why the opponents are punishing the Browns run defense or lack thereof.

7) This makes me think of this- Will Berry/DePodesta admit in the off-season that perhaps their decision to devalue these positions and bargain shop (with the exception of the 2021 second-round drafting of Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah) for cheap alternatives hasn't worked out as planned?

Or will they double down and rather than try to upgrade, continue to stay with their position and hope for the best?

8) The defense was terrible as besides the 39 points allowed, Cleveland didn't force a Miami punt throughout the game and only made one stop on fourth down.

No excuses for that terrible performance.

9) I can't hammer Kevin Stefanski for not using Nick Chubb enough (eleven carries, sixty-three yards, and one touchdown) as the Browns trailed most of the game and needed to score quickly but I can about his lack of use for Kareem Hunt, who carried six times for nine yards but was thrown to only one time.

Wasn't the advantage of having Hunt around due to the various ways that he could be used in the passing game?

10) Offensive line issues were easy to see in this game as Wyatt Teller attempted to return after a two-game absence with a calf injury but didn't take long to discover that the calf was not in strong enough condition for Teller to play.

The Dolphins sacked Jacoby Brissett three times and pressured him constantly as Jedrick Wills and Jack Conklin struggled with the speed rushes of newly acquired Bradley Chubb and veteran Melvin Ingram.

I know this is a better run-blocking line than pass-blocking but Wills has disappointed in his last two seasons and Conklin seems to be breaking down at the end of a fine career.

11) This seems like someone has made mistakes in either team building, banking on the wrong coaches, or errors in talent evaluations.

No one is perfect and mistakes will always occur but the Browns sold the premise of being an elite team that was close enough to justify the three first-round selections etc package to land DeShaun Watson despite the baggage that arrived with him from Houston.

The flaws of this team don't make a strong case that the premise was a correct one.

Someone will likely pay for those errors unless DeShaun Watson gives the Browns a super-sized jolt over those final six games.

Back Soon

 Due to a trip, I won't have coverage of Ohio State's thrashing of Indiana as I was away and didn't see the game.

I will try to catch up on the boxing weekend and the Browns against Miami over the next day or so.

Thanks for reading.

PPM

    Another PPM  as the stretch run begins for conference title races and NFL teams cope with bye weeks.

Last Week: 7-10

Overall: 97-60

College 

Ohio State over Indiana 45-14

Texas Tech over Kansas 31-28

Bowling Green over Kent State 20-17

Georgia Southern over Louisiana 37-31

LSU over Arkansas 27-17

Houston over Temple 41-24

N.C. State over Boston College 30-17

Middle Tennessee State over Charlotte 26-21

Boise State over Nevada 28-21

Oregon State over California 30-14

Games of the Week

Alabama over Ole Miss 45-35

Tulane over Central Florida 27-20

Texas over TCU 50-45

NFL

Dolphins over Browns 24-17

Steelers over Saints 20-15

49ers over Chargers 27-21

Games of the Week

Bills over Vikings 35-24

Seahawks over Buccaneers 21-20

Boxing Challenge

  The boxing weekend is rather light this weekend but two championships will be defended, one each on Friday and Saturday.

Friday's fight is on Fite TV, which mostly caters to MMA and pro wrestling, which I don't subscribe to, from Sheffield, England as Sunny Edwards defends his IBF flyweight title against former IBF light flyweight champion Felix Alvarado.

The undefeated Edwards is a very smooth boxer that lacks power with only four knockouts in his eighteen wins and will be making his third defense of the title that he won in  April 2021 from Moruti Mthalane.

Alvarado vacated his light flyweight title in order to move up and take a shot at Edwards and he has the punching power that Edwards doesn't with 33 knockouts in his thirty-eight wins.

It's a close fight and either fighter winning would not be an upset but I lean toward Edwards by a shade.

Saturday on ESPN, Janibek Alimkhanuly makes the first defense of his WBO middleweight belt against Denzel Bentley in Las Vegas.

Alimkhanuly won the organization's interim title with a second-round knockout of an overmatched Danny Dignum and was promoted to the full championship when champion Demetrius Andrade vacated the title to move to super middleweight rather than face Alimkhanuly.

Alimkhanuly notched impressive wins over former contenders Hassan N'Dam and Rob Brant before wiping out Dignum and he is thought of as a coming star in a weak division.

Denzel Bentley is a former British champion with a loss to the most notable opponent of his career when he was knocked out in three rounds by Felix Cash in April 2021.

The undefeated Cash is a nice fighter but he is nowhere near the talent of Alimkhanuly and I fear that Alimkhanuly will be in another mismatch against an overwhelmed British opponent.

Boxing Challenge

IBF Flyweight Title. 12 Rds 

Sunny Edwards vs Felix Alvarado

Ramon Malpica and TRS: Edwards Unanimous Decision

Vince Samano: Alvarado Unanimous Decision

WBO Middleweight Title. 12 Rds

Janibek Alimkhanuly vs Denzel Bentley

R.L: Alimkhanuly Unanimous Decision
TRS: Alimkhanuly KO 2

V.S.:  Bentley Unanimous Decision

Boxing Challenge: Bivol Zips by Zurdo

   In the most important fight of the weekend, Dmitry Bivol easily outpointed former WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez to retain his WBA light heavyweight title by unanimous decision in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Bivol won almost all the middle rounds after the first four rounds were split evenly between the two and capped off the fight with an excellent round twelve.

Ramirez did have some success hitting the body of Bivol but more often was far too slow and plodding for the slick Bivol, who used a basic jab and right hand to keep Ramirez away and was never threatened by his foe.

I scored it for Bivol 116-112, which was a little closer than the judges at 118-110 and 117-111 times two but I could easily see the fight wider for Bivol, if you give Bivol one or two of the early rounds that I gave Ramirez.

Bivol stated that he wants a unification fight with Artur Beterbiev for all four world titles and such a fight would rank among the best fights that could be made in the sport with the smooth boxer/puncher in Bivol against the feared bomber in Beterbiev, who has knocked out every opponent in his career.

Beterbiev has a WBO mandatory commitment against Anthony Yarde in January and such a fight couldn't take place until the summer of 2023 but hopefully, the fight can be signed.

The co-feature saw a strange ending as Shavkat Rakhimov won the vacant IBF junior lightweight title with a ninth-round knockout of Zelfa Barrett to fill the title vacated by Joe Cordina, who needed surgery for an injury.

Both fighters signed a contract before the fight that agreed for the winner to fight Cordina when he is physically able to return.

Barrett stormed out of the gates and dominated the first four rounds blending boxing off the jab and whipping power punches on Rakhimov like he had spent his training camp watching Emanuel Steward teaching at the Kronk gym.

Barrett knocked Rakhimov down with an uppercut in the third round and appeared to be on his way to a mild upset but like a speed horse running at a distance, Barrett started declining in the fifth and Rakhimov began to slowly grind Barrett down in the middle rounds.

In the ninth, Barrett either suffered a leg injury or simply had nothing left as Rakhimov's pressure sent Barrett gamely but ineffectively around the ring, and even though the punches may not have been the cause as much as Barrett's legs, Rakhimov scored two knockdowns before the Barrett corner tossed in the towel of surrender.

Rahkimov-Cordina is a very interesting fight and in a division that now lacks Shakur Stevenson, could be in a position to establish themselves at the top of the division with WBA champion Hector Garcia and the winners of the two bouts to fill the vacancies left by Stevenson (WBC O'Shaquie Foster vs Rey Vargas and WBO Oscar Valdez vs Emanuel Navarrete).

The evening card from Showtime from Minneapolis ends with a sad note as the main event has taken a tragic turn.

Minor Super Middleweight champion David Morrell dominated his top-rated challenger Aidos Yerbossynuly over eleven rounds and delivered a beating, although entering the final round, Morrell had yet to score a knockdown.

Morrell had busted open Yerbossynuly's nose early in the fight, causing impressive bleeding that stained the trunks of each man with a pink hue and while Morrell was too much for Yerbossynuly, Yerbossynuly never stopped trying and never stopped coming forward, and when he ran into a straight left that knocked him down a few seconds into the round, Tony Weeks perhaps should have stopped the fight then and there, considering the state of the scorecards (I gave Yerbossynuly only of the eleven rounds) and how much punishment Yerbossynuly had taken.

Perhaps the corner could have stopped it considering Zelfa Barrett's corner earlier in the day stopped the fight to protect their man who had taken many fewer punches to the head.

Instead, the fight continued with Morrell landing at will in search of the knockout he promised and Yerbossynuly trying to grab and hold to make it to the final bell.

Tony Weeks deducted a point from Yerbossynuly for holding but allowed the fight to continue with Morrell continuing to land with impunity and Yerbossynuly taking shot after shot before a right floored Yerbossynuly again with Weeks ending the fight.

Dan Rafael is reporting, as of this writing, that Yerbossynuly is hospitalized and in a medically induced coma and I just feel that it didn't have to be this way.

The corner and the referee are employed to protect the fighter from themselves, and this is the type of fight that tragedy often occurs- a fight that doesn't see many knockdowns from a fighter that is a good but not spectacular power puncher against an opponent that is overmatched in talent but not in heart and results in a sustained beating to the head.

Hopefully, Yerbossynuly will be okay, although he should certainly retire.

As for Morrell, he won his eighth fight, the seventh by KO, and adds an impressive victory over the best opponent of his career but I'm not sure what's next for the Cuban.

Morrell isn't going to prove anything by dominating fighters of the class of Yerbossynuly but with Canelo Alvarez out for a few months with hand surgery, and others ahead of Morrell on the mandatory list, Morrell may be forced to fight these types of fights and maybe hope that eventually, he could face one of the David Benavidez-Caleb Plant combatants.

Ironically, Morrell might be more likely to face the loser of that fight scheduled for early 2023 as the winner will not be likely to risk a shot at Canelo Alvarez against the high-risk low-reward Morrell.

The co-feature saw a mild upset as late replacement Brian Mendoza knocked out former WBA and IBF junior middleweight champion Jeison Rosario in the fifth round of a middleweight ten-rounder.

Mendoza replaced the very talented prospect Yoelvis Gomez and maybe for Rosario's sake, that was a fortunate development.

Rosario has always had issues with taking punches with all three of his defeats entering the fight by stoppage and he had shown a tendency to crumble under body blows but still on pedigree Mendoza's chance was to catch Rosario and hope he wilted.

And that's exactly what happened as Mendoza worked the body and dropped Rosario in the second with Rosario barely surviving the stanza and even though Rosario courageously fought back, it seemed like the fight was Mendoza's to win- he would do just that with an uppercut in the fifth that ended the fight and Rosario's career as he announced his retirement following the fight.

That's likely a good idea as Rosario's punch resistance isn't going to improve as he fights more.

Mendoza will appear more on PBC cards after a solid win and I wouldn't be surprised to see him against former WBA and IBF junior middleweight champion Julian Williams, who lost his titles to Rosario and won a fight on the YouTube streamed undercard.

On the YouTube undercard, former contenders Andre Dirrell and Yunieski Gonzalez squared off in a light heavyweight bout that proved to be a good battle.

I wrote in the preview that fights like these can be quite fun with two veterans that perhaps don't have the skills and the legs that they once have but losing those attributes can make their fights more entertaining than in their prime.

Dirrell at 39 and Gonzalez at 37 were matched properly and the result was a back-and-forth fight that saw each man have their peaks with Gonzalez starting fast, Dirrell turning the tide in the middle rounds before Gonzalez hurt Dirrell in the ninth round.

That took a lot from Gonzalez and Dirrell ripped Gonzalez in the tenth and scored the stoppage with Gonzalez taking punches along the ropes

Dirrell was cut early in the fight and over Dirrell's career, he has often found a way to lose in strange ways that haven't always been the most courageous.

That's not the case in this one as Dirrell fought hard and found a way to win but I'm afraid that this win might have earned him a fight against a younger fighter looking to make his name and that wouldn't end well for Dirrell...

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 185 Pts (4) 

Ramon Malpica: 158 Pts (4)

Vince Samano: 152 Pts (4)