Cleaning out the Inbox

    The inbox cleaning starts with The Athletic's celebration of the 35th anniversary of the release of Tecmo Bowl for the original Nintendo.

Super Tecmo Bowl was a better game since it included every team (Tecmo Bowl did not) than the original but there's always a special place for the groundbreaker in any field!

The Athletic picks the best players from the original game, and Bo Jackson is included!

The Athletic wrote this article before the college basketball season on then-new Texas Tech basketball coach Grant McCasland.

My college basketball interest has waned through the years, so I didn't know very much about McCasland, who was hired away from North Texas after winning 135 games for the Mean Green and last season's NIT championship. Still, the article is fascinating on the Red Raider coach.

Texas Tech finished dead last in the Big 12 last season but in their first season under McCasland, the Red Raiders are 16-5 and appear headed to the NCAA tournament.

FanBuzz writes of the legality of the famous Happy Gilmore putt that won Gilmore the fictional Tour Championship and broke the hearts of Shooter McGavin fans everywhere.

The article discusses the situation involved, the film ruling by the rules of golf, and whether Gilmore should have been forced to take the shot then and there.

After all, those are the rules- I didn't write them.

The Athletic writes of the making of the film Slap Shot and of the parallels between the real-life Johnstown Jets that inspired the "Charlestown Chiefs" in the film.

The article covers the screenplay, the film, and just how much of the film is pretty dead-on compared to the stories of the actual team!

And yes, that includes the Hanson Brothers!

Boxing Challenge: Berlanga stops McCrory in Six

    Edgar Berlanga injected a powerful dose into a flagging career with a sixth-round knockout of Padraig McCrory in their super middleweight clash in Orlando Florida.

A dirty, foul-filled affair saw infractions from both fighters throughout with each combatant doing their fair share to contribute to the mess. 

I had Berlanga slightly ahead after five rounds but the fight wasn't exactly thrilling before the sixth round other than the elbows, low blows, and even an attempted bite by McCrory.

Both fighters landed well in the sixth but it was Berlanga's punches that were the harder connections and dropped McCrory along the ropes with his corner quickly throwing in the towel of surrender.

Berlanga predictably called out Canelo Alvarez after the fight but honestly Berlanga is nowhere near being prepared for such a challenge, and his team and promoter Eddie Hearn are likely hoping to take the big chance rather than a smaller purse for a fight against Jaime Munguia that they may have a slightly better chance to win but would still be the underdog in such a pairing.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 26 Pts (1)

Ramon Malpica; 26 Pts (2)
Vince Samano: 14 Pts (0) 

Boxing Challenge: Nakatani, Inoue score KO's

    Two bantamweight titles were at stake Saturday in Tokyo and when the evening was over, one title was retained and the other had a new owner with the stage possibly set for a Japanese superfight in the division shortly.

Junto Nakatani made his first fight at 118 pounds a winning one as Nakatani won the WBC title with a sixth-round knockout of Alejandro Santiago.

Santiago had upset Nonito Donaire to win the then-vacant title last year and was regarded as one of the most vulnerable champions in the sport.

Nakatani won the race to fight Santiago first and dominated the champion, winning every round, despite a game effort.

Nakatani dropped Santiago twice in the sixth round to close the show with Santiago being saved by the referee after the second knockdown.

A Nakatani-Takuma Inoue unification fight for the WBA and WBC titles would be a massive event in Japan and I would make Nakatani a prohibitive favorite in such a bout.

Inoue retained his WBA title in the final fight of the card with a vicious body shot in the ninth round that crumbled former IBF junior bantamweight champion Jerwin Ancajas.

The shot from the previously light punching Inoue ended a fight that I scored even at the end of eight and was held mostly at close range with effective infighting from both men.

An Inoue-Nakatani unification match might depend on whether or not Inoue's camp wants to take the chance of losing to another fighter before cashing in on a lucrative Nakatani bout.

Inoue doesn't seem to be of the level of Nakatani, so the more prudent decision may be to try Nakatani now while the money is highest and maybe before Nakatani settles in at the weight.

In the other title fight on the slate, Kosei Tanaka outgunned the gritty Christina Bacasegua by a unanimous decision to win the WBO junior bantamweight title that Junto Nakatani vacated earlier this year.

Bacasegua won some early rounds but after suffering a slice from a clash of heads, the technical skills of Tanaka took over and controlled the second half of the fight, including a knockdown when Bacasegua's glove touched the mat in round eight.

Tanaka won 117-110 on my card, which was the same as one card with the others giving Tanaka edges of 116-111 and 119-108.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 25 Pts (4) 

Ramon Malpica: 24 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 14 pts (2) 

Boxing Challenge

 A three-fight early morning card from Tokyo heads the boxing challenge with each match holding a championship in the balance.

Junto Nakatani vacated his WBO junior bantamweight title and will be moving up to bantamweight to try for the WBC bantamweight championship held by Alejandro Santiago in the main event.

Santiago upset Nonito Donaire for the vacant title last year and will make his first defense against Nakatani, who won a decision over Argi Cortes in his last fight.

Another bantamweight title is at stake with WBA champion Takuma Inoue defending against former IBF junior bantamweight champion Jerwin Ancajas.

Inoue, the brother of Naoya Inoue, won the vacant title last April over veteran Liborio Solis while Ancajas defended his 115-pound title nine times before losing the title and rematch to Fernando Martinez.

The WBO junior bantamweight title vacated by Junto Nakatani will be filled as Kosei Tanaka attempts to win a title in his fourth weight class against Christian Bacasequa.

Tanaka was knocked out in the eighth round by Kazuto Ioka in an attempt to win this title in 2020 and has won four fights since that defeat.

Bacasequa is a heavy underdog with a pedestrian record and fewer quality opponents on his resume.

Saturday night from Matchroom/DAZN with super middleweight Edgar Berlanga battling Padraig McCrory in Orlando, Florida.

Berlanga knocked Jason Quigley down four times last June in winning a unanimous decision, while the unbeaten McCrory has defeated some European-level fighters but is unknown at the world level.

I've questioned Berlanga in the past and McCrory is a question mark entering this bout himself, so I wouldn't be surprised by anything that happens in this fight.

Boxing Challenge

WBC Bantamweight Title. 12 Rds

Alejandro Santiago vs Junto Nakatani 

Ramon Malpica: Nakatani KO 8

TRS: Nakatani KO 10

Vince Samano: Nakatani Unanimous Decision

WBA Bantamweight Title. 12 Rds

Takuma Inoue vs Jerwin Ancajas

R.L: Inoue Unanimous Decision

TRS & V.S: Ancajas Unanimous Decision

Vacant WBO Junior Bantamweight Title. 12 Rds

Kosei Tanaka vs Christian Bacasegua

R.L and TRS: Tanaka Unanimous Decision

V.S: Tanaka KO 6

Super Middleweights. 12 Rds

Edgar Berlanga vs Padraig McCrory

R.L: Berlanga KO 7

TRS: Berlanga Unanimous Decision

V.S: McCrory Unanimous Decision  

Boxing Challenge: Foster defeats Nova, Nontshinga regains title

     O'Shaquie Foster cemented his strong final rounds with a round twelve knockdown of Abraham Nova in winning a split decision to retain his WBC junior lightweight title in New York City.

Nova managed to have his moments but Foster swept the final four rounds and punctuated the win when he dropped Nova along the ropes.

Nova wasn't in serious difficulty but the knockdown was a clean one.

Foster won on two cards of 116-111 with Nova winning on the dissenting opinion 114-113.

I had Foster the victor at 115-112.

Foster's win continued his recent run of good form and despite the defeat, Nova proved himself worthy of a future title or title eliminator.

In Oaxaca, Mexico, Sivenathi Nontshinga avenged his loss last year to Adrien Curiel and regained the IBF light flyweight title that he lost to Curiel.

Curiel bullied Nontshinga for the first seven rounds, building a lead on the scorecards on aggression and volume but Nontshinga began to turn the tide in the eighth and badly stung Curiel late in the ninth round.

Curiel was never able to recover and Nontshinga finished the show in the tenth to regain the title.

I haven't seen the Mauricio Lara- Daniel Lugo fight which ended in a majority decision draw.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 21 Pts (1) 

Ramon Malpica: 19 Pts (1)

Vince Samano: 12 Pts (2) 

Boxing Challenge

 The boxing challenge is based on Friday this week after the Tyson Fury-Oleksandr Usyk card scheduled for Saturday was postponed after Fury suffered a cut in training.

There is a world title at risk on the ESPN/Top Rank card from New York as recent Top Rank signee O'Shaquie Foster will defend his WBC junior lightweight title against Abraham "Super" Nova.

Foster won his title last year on a PBC card in upsetting WBC featherweight champion Rey Vargas and then defended it on a Matchroom show against mandatory challenger Rocky Hernandez by saving his title by stopping Hernandez in the final round with Foster behind on two of the three cards entering the last stanza.

Nova has lost only once but was punished in that loss against his best opponent, Robiesy Ramirez, who stopped Nova in five rounds.

Nova has won twice since then but who knows if Nova is of world-class status?

I kinda hope so, as Nova can make fun fights, has some personality with his traveling mascot, and would be entertaining as a world champion.

The other two challenge fights are from DAZN/Matchroom with a rematch for the IBF junior flyweight title as Adrian Curiel attempts to duplicate his November upset of  Sivenathi Nontshinga.

Curiel had only four knockouts in his then-twenty-three victories as a heavy underdog to Nontshinga in Monaco but landed a crushing right hand in the second round to win the title surprisingly.

The co-feature is an interesting fight at junior lightweight as former minor featherweight champion Mauricio Lara attempts to start his comeback against Daniel Lugo.

Lara, who looked like a buzzsaw in cutting through Josh Warrington and Leigh Wood in impressive knockout wins, missed weight for his rematch vs Wood and looked very slow in losing a clear decision to Wood.

Lara will be facing an unknown in Lugo, who has an impressive record of 27-2 but has fought many fighters with losing records, so Lugo will have questions to answer against Lara.

Boxing Challenge

WBC Junior Lightweight Title. 12 Rds

O'Shaquie Foster vs Abraham Nova

All; Foster Unanimous Decision

IBF Junior Flyweight Title.12 Rds

Adrian Curiel vs Sivenathi Nontshinga

R.L & TRS: Curiel Unanimous Decision

V.S: Nontshinga Unanimous Decision

Junior Lightweights. 10 Rds

Mauricio Lara vs Daniel Lugo

R.L: Lara Unanimous Decision

TRS: Lara KO 6

V.S: Lugo Unanimous Decision 

Cleaning out the Inbox: Passings

   The tributes never stop here at TRS and it always seems to have so many to say goodbye to.

Goodbye to Rich Caster at the age of 75.

A three-time Pro Bowler for the New York Jets, Caster would later play for the Oilers, Redskins, and the Saints in his thirteen-year career.

Caster caught 322 passes in his career, forty-five of those for touchdowns, usually as a pass-receiving tight end after the Jets selected him in the second round in 1970.

Caster was part of the Jets' bizarre 1977 decision to flip positions with Jerome Barkum moving Caster to WR and Barkum to TE and watching two productive players statistically plummet with Caster being traded to Houston after the season.

Caster's son Max is currently a professional wrestler for AEW.

Goodbye to Jimy Williams at the age of 80.

Williams managed the Blue Jays, Red Sox, and Astros for eleven seasons and coached for several teams, most notably as the third base coach for Bobby Cox's powerhouse Atlanta Braves.

It was Williams who waved home Sid Bream to barely beat the throw from Barry Bonds in game seven of the 1992 NLCS which sent Atlanta to the World Series over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

I met Williams once in Hagerstown, where he was visiting his son, Shawn, who was managing the Lakewood Blue Claws at the time.

Williams signed a few cards and was nice enough but when Brad Adams asked Williams for a picture with him, Williams wrinkled up his face and said "Nah, I'm not gonna do that" and walked away!

Goodbye to Earl Cuerton at the age of 66.

A long-time backup big man for parts of sixteen seasons in the NBA, Cureton was known for his willingness to bang on the boards and won a world championship with Philadelphia in 1983.

Cuerton played for seven NBA teams and spent several years playing actively in Europe before transitioning to life off the floor where he was an assistant in the WNBA , led the Long Beach Jame to the ABA title in 2004, served as a strength coach with the Raptors, and as a commentator for the Pistons and his alma mater-Detroit Mercy.

Goodbye to Brant Alyea at the age of 83.

Alyea homered off the first pitch that he saw in the big leagues as he drove a Rudy May offering in 1965 over the wall for the Washington Senators.

Alyea's best season was in 1970 with the Twins, when he hit .291 with sixteen homers and sixty-one RBI.

After retirement, Alyea was the supervisor of the crap tables at the Tropicana Hotel in Atlantic City.

Goodbye to Alonzo Johnson at the age of 60.

A two-time All-American linebacker for the Florida Gators in 1984 and 85, Johnson was expected to be a first-round draft pick in the 1986 draft before rumors of drug issues caused him to fall into the second round where he was part of the first draft of Buddy Ryan with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Johnson started nine games as a rookie, grabbing three interceptions and adding one sack but entered rehab in the off-season and would play only three games in the 1987 season.

Johnson would never play professional football again.