Boxing Challenge: Garcia dominates Benavidez

       The Saturday PBC card from Barclays Center in Brooklyn won't go down as the greatest event ever but it will be remembered for two controversial decisions that rank as some of the worst in 2022.

In the main event, Danny Garcia seemed to have easily outpointed Jose Benavidez in his return from an eighteen-month layoff before a decision that was surprisingly close on the scorecards.

My score was 119-109 for Garcia, which seemed to be close to how most watchers saw the fight but the actual judges scored Garcia a much closer winner at 117-111, 116-112, and a downright nutty 114-114.

Garcia looked sharp and even though he never hurt Benavidez, he outboxed him and was far too skilled for the much slower fighter, who was relegated to the occasional counter right hand for his only success against Garcia.

How much of Garcia's outing was due to his layoff to recharge his batteries or was it that the once-promising Benavidez simply has been unable to recover his ability from a gunshot wound that damaged his leg, won't be known until his next outing, which could be against former WBC junior middleweight champion Tony Harrison, who was mentioned during the fight, or against former welterweight champion Keith Thurman, who handed Garcia his first defeat via split decision in 2017 and was mentioned by Garcia at the post-fight press conference as his next fight.

The co-feature was expected to be an action fight and it lived up to those thoughts as Turkey's Ali Eren Demirezen handed Adam Kownacki his third defeat in a row and hopefully will make Kownacki consider retirement.

Demirezen controlled the second half of the fight, wearing down Kownacki as he cut him over the left eye.

Demirezen will likely slide into a title eliminator soon and could win should he be paired with someone that will stand and trade with him but anyone with movement will give the former Olympian major issues.

The best and most controversial fight of the evening was the opener when junior welterweight contender Gary Antuanne Russell was receiving all that he wanted from former IBF junior lightweight and lightweight champion Rances Barthelemy before a very questionable sixth-round stoppage by referee Shada Murdaugh.

Barthelemy isn't known for his thrilling contests or for engaging in toe to toe action but the Cuban did both in this one as he stung Russell in both the first and fourth rounds and led on my card after five rounds 48-47.

Russell was leading on all three official cards though and crunched Barthelemy with a leaping left hook in the sixth to send him to the canvas.

Barthelemy immediately rose and didn't stagger around like a hurt fighter yet referee Murdaugh called off the fight, robbing Russell of a possible convincing win, Barthelemy a chance to ride out the storm, and viewers of a surprisingly entertaining battle.

A rematch would seem to be in order, and even though Russell may have been solving Barthelemy's style, I'm not sure I'd be interested if I handled Russell.

I might figure that my fighter showed heart, ring smarts, and learned some things against a good opponent and move on to bigger things but PBC isn't loaded in the junior welterweight division, although the promotion will have the recently vacated WBA title in their stable with the paper championship being filled next month and the winner of Batyr Akhmedov-Alberto Puello (Akhmedov is a solid favorite in my opinion)  could be in the future for Russell.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 137 Pts (4)

Ramon Malpica: 115 Pts (2)

Vince Samano:111 Pts  (2) 

Boxing Challenge

  The July boxing calendar concludes with a Showtime card from PBC's home base at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn New York.

The main event features former junior welterweight and welterweight champion Danny Garcia in his first fight in almost eighteen months making his foray into the junior middleweight division against Jose Benavidez, the brother of super middleweight contender David Benavidez.

Garcia lost that fight by a clear decision to Errol Spence, which means his last victory was a decision win over Ivan Redkach in January 2020, which was before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Garcia has lost only three times and two of those losses could be argued ( decision losses to Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter). However, it can be argued that Garcia won two fights that could be argued as well to Mauricio Herrera and Lamont Peterson.

Still, Garcia doesn't own a win over a top fighter in their prime in the last seven years, dating back to that majority decision win over Lamont Peterson, so Garcia has been matched very well since then with wins over fading former stars such as Paulie Malignaggi, Brandon Rios, and Robert Guerrero, and over fighters that were clearly not in Garcia's class such as Samuel Vargas, Adrian Granados, and the above mentioned Ivan Redkach.

Benavidez also is moving up in weight and in his last fight after a three-year layoff following his only career loss to Terence Crawford, struggled to a draw against Francisco Torres last November.

Benavidez was wounded in a leg in 2016 and when you watch him fight now, it's easy to see how his movement and athleticism have been affected by the injury, and even though Benavidez will have the height advantage, I wonder if he can cope with any movement from Garcia.

The co-feature crossroads fight at heavyweight between Adam Kownacki and Ali Eren Demirezen could see the winner have a chance at a bigger fight on the PBC side as PBC isn't loaded in the division and will need to find fights for Deontay Wilder, the Andy Ruiz-Luis Ortiz winner, or undefeated Frank Sanchez in the future.

Kownacki had been intelligently moved by PBC and after wins over one-time title challenger Gerald Washington, former contender Chris Arreola, and former IBF champion Charles Martin, Kownacki was position to become a mandatory challenger before a shocking fourth-round knockout loss on the eve of the Covid-19 pandemic to thought to be washed up Robert Helenius in a WBA eliminator.

The rematch last October saw Helenius stop Kownacki again in the sixth round and drop Kownacki outside the top fifteen placing him in a must-win position against Demirezen, who fought for Turkey in the 2016 Olympics.

Demirezen has lost only once, to his best opponent in a decision loss to once-beaten Efe Ajagba in 2019, but is coming off the best win of his career in knocking out Gerald Washington in eight rounds on New Year's Day.

I'm interested in this one to see just how much Kownacki has lost from the two knockout defeats to Robert Helenius.

Is this a case of a fighter that fought an opponent that just was equipped to beat him or has Kownacki seen his best days and is transitioning to opponent status rather than contender?

The opener is a very interesting fight with undefeated junior welterweight Gary Antuanne Russell taking on former IBF junior lightweight and lightweight champion Rances Barthelemy.

Russell won his biggest fight in his most recent outing with a final-round knockout of former WBC champion Viktor Postol and even though the stoppage was controversial (and in my opinion should not have happened), Russell was ahead on the scorecards and would have been a deserving winner in any case.

Russell has stopped all fifteen of his opponents and a win would keep him firmly in contention in the deepest division in boxing.

Barthelemy is a two-time champion and has only a loss (a decision loss to Kiryl Relikh in 2018) in his career but his last good win was over Relikh in 2017 in a very controversial fight that most thought Relikh won and caused a rematch to be mandated with Relikh winning easily.

Since 2018, Barthelemy has won three fights against journeymen and drew with former lightweight champion Robert Easter in what rates as arguably the worst fight of the last fifty years, so who knows what Barthelemy will bring to this fight.

Still, Barthelemy is somewhat of a name that will look good on Russell's resume, and should Russell score a stoppage, it would be a second consecutive impressive win over a veteran former world champion.

Boxing Challenge

Junior Middleweights. 12 Rds

Danny Garcia vs Jose Benavidez

Ramon Malpica and TRS: Garcia Unanimous Decision

Vince Samano: Benavidez Split Decision

Heavyweights.10 Rds

Adam Kownacki vs Ali Eren Demirezen

R.L: Kownacki Unanimous Decision

TRS: Demirezen KO 10

V.S: Demirezen KO 8

Junior Wellterweights. 10 Rds

Gary Antuanne Russell vs Rances Barthelemy

R.L and V.S: Russell Unanimous Decision

TRS: Russell KO 8 

Cleaning out the Inbox: Passings

   We return with a mostly non-sports version of tributes to some recently passed notables.

Goodbye to Paul Sorvino at the age of 83.

Sorvino, the father of Oscar winner Mira Sorvino, played many roles in his long career but the most remembered is as mobster Paulie Cicero in the classic film "Goodfellas" in 1990.

Paulie Cicero was played to perfection by Sorvino, playing him with empathy yet without mercy and Sorvino's casting was simply perfect as well as his performance- visual without being hokey, Sorvino's Cicero could have never been played by anyone else.

Sorvino spent most of his career as a dramatic actor in supporting roles such as "Nixon" playing Henry Kissinger but occasionally turned up in comedic roles such as Bruce Willis's father in "Moonlighting" and more recently Jeff Garlin's father in "The Goldbergs".

Sorvino also was terrific as stoic manager Gus Panas in "Mr. 3000" in 2004 and would find success with voiceover work as he did in "Hey Arnold, the movie" as the bad guy "Mr.Scheck".

However, what made me a Paul Sorvino fan more than anything he performed, occurred in 2018.

Mira Sorvino had been essentially blacklisted from Hollywood by Harvey Weinstein after rejecting his sexual advances and when Sorvino found out about it and was asked by TMZ about Weinstein, he responded with the type of emotion that every caring father would respond in such a situation.

Goodbye to Larry Storch at the age of 99.

Storch is best known for his Emmy-nominated in "F- Troop" in the mid-60s but I'll remember him more for his various guest-starring roles in various comedies of the sixties and seventies, game show appearances, and his roles on Saturday morning television of the age.

Storch voiced many (and I mean MANY) characters on animated programming including Muhammad Ali (really) and starred with F Troop castmate Forrest Tucker on the "Real Ghost Busters" in a live-action Saturday morning program on CBS.

Storch also was known for his stage performances, released a few albums, and started his career as a comedian, so there weren't many entertainment genres that Storch didn't hit at one time or another during his career. 

Goodbye to Tony Dow at the age of 77.

Dow was the earnest older brother, Wally, to the title character in Leave it to Beaver for the run of the series from 1957 to 1963 and was known as one of the nicer people in Hollywood.

Dow's Wally became a stereotype of the American teenager during the show's tenure and while "Beaver" became a staple of syndicated television, it wasn't a big smash during its first-run period as it never finished in the top thirty programs in any of its six seasons.

Dow continued acting but also worked as a director, producer, and visual effects supervisor on various programs as well as bringing Wally Cleaver back for a four-season run with "The New Leave it to Beaver" in the mid-1980s.

Goodbye to Hank Goldberg at the age of 82.

The long-time handicapper for horse racing and football for ESPN, Goldberg moved to ESPN after serving as the color commentator on the Miami Dolphins radio network from 1978 to 1992.

Goldberg entered the handicapping business under the tutelage of Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder and it was Goldberg that was the ghostwriter for Snyder's popular newspaper column of the day and his researcher for Snyder's bits on the NFL Today.

Goodbye to Johnny Egan at the age of 83.

A pass-first point guard, Egan was the shortest player in the league at a listed six feet even and was selected in two expansion drafts in three years.

Egan was taken by Milwaukee in the 1968 expansion draft and two seasons later was tabbed by the Cavaliers in the 1970 version of expansion.

Egan begged his way out of Cleveland and was traded to the then-San Diego Rockets two months into the Cavaliers first season.

Egan would move with the Rockets to Houston, where he would become the team's head coach midway through the 1973-74 season and would hold the job for four seasons, making the playoffs once where the Rockets won their first playoff series in franchise history in a three-game mini-series win over the New York Knicks.

Cleaning out the Inbox

  Time for another inbox cleaning as we lead off with Alison Kosik of CNN explaining how companies are using "Shrinkflation" to keep the offers high.

The term is used when a company subtly changes the amount of product in a container without announcing the decrease to the public.

Of course, containers have to list the amount of product inside but they don't have to say when their particular unit has decreased in amount.

Even the same decrease can make a difference in profit margin for the manufacturer, so this happens far more often than one would think.

Jeff Heimberger sends this note of an orange lobster found on its way to a Red Lobster restaurant.

We often seem to make note of these rare lobsters when they are caught in the wild and the orange color looks very similar to how the lobster looks after it has been cooked.

I'm not sure how orange ranks on the list of color scarcity but "Cheddar" will be living its life in the Myrtle Beach SC aquarium.

Newsweek writes of a recent finding of a fully intact Burger King behind a wall of a mall store in Concord, Delaware.

The "Time Capsule" Burger King looks to me to be an early nineties franchise and the mall hopes to be leasing the space soon.

The article has lots of pictures of the abandoned BK and while the store is intact, it has been used by a maintenance crew that runs hoses through the store to water plants inside the operating mall.

The Athletic writes of comedian Richard Lewis and his massive Ohio State football fandom.

Lewis, who starred in his own sitcom "Anything but Love" with Jamie Lee Curtis for four seasons from 1989-92, is currently appearing with friend Larry David in "Curb Your Enthusiasm" on HBO for its upcoming twelfth season and is an OSU graduate from the class of 1969.

Weather.com tells of recent damage to the James Webb Space telescope from micrometeorites.

NASA had known from the start of the project that micrometeorite damage was unavoidable but hoped it would be minimal and not happen so quickly.

The damage to one mirror on the lower right side of the telescope cannot be corrected but hasn't been an insurmountable problem thus far for the Webb, which has the ability to see 'back into time' with pictures of stars and systems never before seen in human history. 

Boxing Challenge: Dogboe nips Gonzalez

      Isaac Dogboe grabbed the final two rounds with the fight even on two cards entering the ninth round and earned a split decision over Joet Gonzalez in the main event of an ESPN+/Top Rank card from Hinckley, Minnesota.

With the victory, Dogboe won a regional title (and shiny belt) but more importantly, moved into position for an eventual opportunity against WBC featherweight champion Rey Vargas or WBO champion Emanuel Navarrete, who owns two wins over Dogboe and one over Gonzalez.

Dogboe started quickly in winning the first three rounds and looked to be on his way to a comfortable decision win before Gonzalez began to rally in the middle rounds with his highlight coming when he wobbled Dogboe with a right hand in the fourth that came the closest to scoring a knockdown from either fighter.

My card was dead even after eight rounds as Gonzalez had been the more accurate puncher with Dogboe throwing more in a good but not great battle.

Dogboe turned up his attack in the ninth and won the final two rounds to win the fight on my scorecard 96-94 and that was the same as both judges that chose Dogboe scored the fight with the Gonzalez judge scoring the exact score for the Californian.

The fight was very close and 96-94 for either fighter is a very reasonable scorecard and although a rematch would make little sense for Dogboe, I wouldn't be against one happening, and I'd wager you could see one a year or two down the road after Dogboe receives his chance at a championship.

I'd think that Dogboe might prefer a chance against Vargas rather than a third try at Navarrete, who owns both of the career losses for Dogboe but an attempt against Vargas comes with the difficulty of Top Rank working with the promoter of Vargas, which is PBC.

As for Gonzalez, the defeat may hurt him a small bit for a short time but close losses against world-class fighters don't tend to hold fighters back over the long haul as long as they remain active and work their way back through the division.

In the co-feature, undefeated lightweight Giovanni Cabrera won a convincing unanimous decision and may have erased the prospect status for good of the once-trumpeted Gabriel Flores, who has now lost two of his last three, and his win sandwiched in between the losses was very close.

Cabrera dropped Flores with the first punch that he threw in the first round as a straight left crashed Flores to the floor.

Cabrera would score another knockdown later in the round with Flores being very fortunate to reach the end of the opening stanza.

Flores won the fourth round (the only one that he won on my scorecard)  and seemed to possibly win the fifth before Cabrera knocked him down again late in the round and deflated Flores for the remainder of the bout.

If Cabrera would have been a harder puncher (only seven knockouts in his twenty wins entering Saturday), Flores could have been seriously injured as he was strafed with blows throughout and was cut and dealt with severe swelling on and under his left eye.

Flores showed plenty of heart in surviving to the end as he did in his first loss to Lopez but the appeal that he once had as the youngest fighter that Top Rank ever signed to a promotional agreement has been extinguished and at minimum, Flores will have to be rebuilt and matched very carefully for his next few fights as he has taken far too much punishment for such a young fighter in his last three matches.

As for Cabrera, he will make a move up in competition in the division soon, maybe against someone like Jeremiah Nakathila, and a win would move him into the top ten in the division.

At 28, Cabrera will need to stay active as he may not have the time to wait for those types of fights.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 133 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica: 113 Pts (2)

Vince Samano: 109 Pts (2) 

Boxing Challenge

     The boxing weekend is relatively sparse this week with one card from Hinckley, Minnesota on ESPN+ with two very intriguing 50/50 fights at the top of the card.

The main event is a WBO eliminator at featherweight with two-time title challenger Joet Gonzalez squaring off against former WBO junior featherweight champion Isaac Dogboe.

Gonzalez lost a lopsided decision to Shakur Stevenson for the then-vacant WBO title, and a closer but clear decision loss for the same bet to Emanuel Navarrete last October, taking a severe pounding in the process.

Since the loss to Navarrete, Gonzalez returned with an impressive ninth-round stoppage of Jeo Santisma in March, looking nonetheless for wear.

Dogboe looked headed for potential stardom when he stripped highly thought of champion Jessie Magdaleno of his WBO 122-pound title by brutal eleventh-round knockout in 2018 and after a title defense that ended with Dogboe scoring a first-round KO, Dogboe was favored over Emanuel Navarrete but lost his title and the rematch (decision and final round knockout) in consecutive fights.

Dogboe has all won all three of his fights since rising to featherweight against solid but not outstanding opponents (Chris Avalos, Adam Lopez, and Christopher Diaz) and hasn't looked like the same fighter that plowed over Magdaleno so impressively.

I lean toward Gonzalez slightly as the naturally larger fighter and the more versatile of the two but I could easily see Dogboe winning as well in what could be a very entertaining battle.

The co-feature is just as interesting with a lightweight battle between unbeaten Giovanni Cabrera and the once heavily-touted and once-beaten prospect Gabriel Flores.

Flores was the youngest boxer ever signed by Top Rank when the Arum bunch signed him at the age of sixteen and seemed to be steaming his way to contender status when Flores stopped former title challenger Jayson Velez in six rounds in early 2021.

However, Flores took a fearful battering last September against Luis Lopez in losing a decision that saw many calling for the Flores corner to stop the fight in the late rounds to save the young prospect from the prolonged punishment that Lopez would dish out.

Flores returned in March and barely squeaked out a majority decision over Abraham Montoya that was heavily jeered by the fans in Flores's hometown of Fresno with Flores barely able to be heard over the boos in his post-fight interview.

The undefeated Cabrera has looked strong in his two 2022 wins, including a decision win over power-punching Rene Tellez Giron that was a mild upset.

Neither of the two is a strong puncher with Cabrera scoring only seven knockouts in his twenty wins and Flores scoring seven in his twenty-one victories, so this looks very likely to go the ten-round distance.

This may not be a card with the biggest stakes in these two fights but they are two well-matched fights without a strong favorite in either bout and should be an entertaining evening of boxing.

Boxing Challenge

Featherweights 12 Rds 

Joet Gonzalez vs Isaac Dogboe

Ramon Malpica and TRS: Gonzalez Unanimous Decision

Vince Samano: Gonzalez Split Decision

Lightweights. 10 Rds

Giovanni Cabrera vs Gabriel Flores

All: Cabrera Unanimous Decision 

Browns sign Josh Rosen

     The Cleveland Browns signed an interesting player on Thursday when the team signed Josh Rosen after the former first-round pick tried out in front of the brass at Berea earlier in the day.

Rosen was part of the 2018 quarterback crop and was the fourth quarterback taken, tenth overall, by the Arizona Cardinals behind Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, and Josh Allen.

Rosen would start thirteen games for the Cardinals as a rookie, throwing eleven touchdowns and fourteen interceptions as the Cardinals finished 3-13, fired coach Steve Wilks after his first season, own the first pick in the 2019 draft, and hire Kliff Kingsbury as their new head coach.

Kingsbury would install an entirely new offensive system and with the intention of drafting Kyler Murray of Oklahoma with the top overall selection, the Cardinals decided to trade Rosen to Miami for the Dolphins 2019 second-rounder and a fifth-round pick in 2020.

Rosen would play in six games for the Dolphins, starting three and losing all three starts after throwing only one touchdown with five interceptions.

Rosen made four appearances for the Falcons last season in garbage time, throwing two interceptions among eleven passes.

I liked Rosen when he declared for the draft in 2018 and had him as my third-rated QB behind Darnold and Allen because I really liked his arm and how he threw the football but I did have questions about a perceived lack of love for football and a history of concussions at UCLA.

I'm not sure that Rosen's style suits what the Browns may want to run but Cleveland needed to have the fourth arm in camp and a veteran to perhaps be the third quarterback when the inevitable DeShaun Watson suspension is announced and maybe Rosen could have a small edge over Joshua Dobbs in the event that Jacoby Brissett would be injured but that would be an absolutely disastrous situation.

In best case scenario, Rosen comes into camp, serves as a backup quarterback, does so in a team-first manner, and maybe places himself into consideration for a team's second-string slot in 2023.

Still, it's nothing to get excited about in signing Rosen but I'm also intrigued when young quarterbacks that have been given no support by a bad team and flame out receive chances with other teams because one wonders if the player was poorly evaluated, was he ruined because of a rotten organization, and could the player be capable of revitalizing his career in a better situation?

And how often are the Cleveland Browns the better situation for players in the last twenty-plus years?