Boxing Challenge: Estrada Unifies, Valdez wins

    Top Rank and ESPN+'s card from Glendale, Arizona featured two excellent fights at the top of the card with plenty of action.

In the main event, Oscar Valdez won the interim WBO junior lightweight title by a seventh-round knockout over Liam Wilson.

Normally, I don't acknowledge interim titles but Valdez will become the full champion sometime in May when Emanuel Navarette fights for the WBO lightweight title and is unlikely to return to the division, so will vacate the title.

I had Valdez slightly ahead at the time of the stoppage (58-56) and I thought the stoppage was a little early but Valdez was in command of the fight and it was an understandable decision.

Both fighters sustained facial damage and Valdez's face blew up for the second fight in a row, so there are still questions about how long Valdez will hold up in the future.

In the pre-fight, both WBC junior lightweight champion O'Shaquie Foster and IBF featherweight king Luis Alberto Lopez each mentioned future challenges against Valdez, should he emerge victorious, each could be a possible opponent later this year.

In the co-feature, Seniesa Estrada survived a stern test from Yokasta Valle to add the IBF and WBO minimumweight titles to the WBA and WBC titles she owned previously to win a unanimous decision.

All three judges' scores were the same as mine, 97-93 for Estrada, who outboxed Valle from the southpaw stance for most of the fight but Valle's straighter punches often found a home and under different rules (twelve-round fights or three-minute rounds) Valle might have won the decision as she was the stronger fighter down the stretch.

I'd like to see a rematch but that might be a hard sell for Estrada, who entered the fight with extensive emotions towards Valle's trainer, Gloria Alvarado, and Valle's promoters, Golden Boy, for her previous connections with both, and she could decide to move up in weight to junior flyweight or flyweight.

Valle was the more aggressive fighter so the crowd did have pockets of boos after the fight but I thought Gloria Alvarado's postfight comments were a bit out of line when you consider the personal issues that were involved.

Women's boxing does need to tweak one major issue and while I have always said the two-minute rounds prevent knockouts, a case can be made for the two-minute rounds adding more excitement.

The WBC seems to be the holdup on moving to three-minute rounds as many of the stars of the sport are asking to happen but I think that the best compromise could be for championship fights to stay at two minutes but move them from ten to twelve rounds.

It isn't perfect but I think it would be reasonable.

Lightweight Raymond Muratalla looked a little flat in winning a unanimous decision over Xolisani Ndongeni by scores of 99-91, 98-92, and 97-93, with my score agreeing with the final score listed.

Muratalla did not look dazzling against Ndongeni, who fought well but was unable to hit hard enough to keep Muratalla off him and was fortunate to make the final bell as Muratalla turned up the pace in the latter rounds.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 32 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 32 Pts (4)
Vince Samano: 15 Pts (0) 

Boxing Challenge

  The boxing weekend is filled with matches in the boxing challenge on Saturday and even adds an intriguing battle of heavyweight prospects on Sunday for good measure!

The long-awaited debut on Amazon Prime for PBC takes place Saturday night and while I don't think the card is PPV-worthy, I do think it's a very solid card. 

In the main event, WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu will attempt to add the WBC title to his collection against Sebastian Fundora for that organization's vacant title.

All four of the sanctioning bodies have moved on from Jermell Charlo, so the WBC has decided to place their full title on the line since they have the chance to hop on the Tim Tszyu train earlier than they might have expected.

The fight was originally scheduled to be a non-title fight between Tszyu and former welterweight champion Keith Thurman as the WBO deemed Thurman unworthy of fighting for their title since "No Time" is chronically inactive in the ring, although not with his tongue, and had never fought at junior middleweight.

So when Thurman predictably pulled out of the fight, PBC inserted Fundora, who hasn't fought since being knocked out by Brian Mendoza last year, in his place and the WBC sanctioned it for their vacant title, ignoring the fact that Fundora and Serhii Bohachuk were fighting for that title already on the card.

Bohachuk was moved down the card to fight Brian Mendoza for the "interim" title, which questions why an interim title is needed when the actual title is decided on the same card but hey it's the WBC and it's business as always.

Tszyu-Fundora is a better fight than Tszyu-Thurman would have been and although Serhii Bohachuk was screwed over a bit, the card is better for the switch, and two titles are unified as well.

The WBA junior welterweight title is at stake in the co-feature as champion Rolando Romero defends for the first time since his controversial title win over Ismael Barroso was handed to him by referee Tony Weeks in a stoppage so awful that I struggle to remember a worse ending against Isaac Cruz.

Barroso was promised a shot at Romero after Barroso won the interim title when Romero was injured but Isaac Cruz is a bigger name, so of course Barroso is shoved aside.

Cruz has won three straight since his close loss to Gervonta Davis but he didn't look strong in his only fight of 2023, a split decision over Giovanni Cabrera.

This could be a wild fight with Romero's swipes and Cruz's aggressiveness but I could also see this ending in a lopsided affair for Cruz.

Either way, Romero will have to show more than he has in his career thus far for him to win this one in my opinion.

The middleweight division has become so weak that the WBA champion (and I say that loosely) Erislandy Lara is forty years old, hasn't fought in twenty-two months, hasn't faced a world-class opponent since 2019 (a draw against Brian Castano), hasn't beaten anyone of note since a 2017 decision over Terrell Gausha, and has never defeated a top ten middleweight.

For all of that, Lara is the FAVORITE against Australian challenger Michael Zerafa, who owns two wins of note, knocking out former WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn in nine rounds before losing the rematch, and a one-round knockout of Anthony Mundine, a former junior middleweight contender, who was almost forty-six at the time!

The less said about this as a "championship" fight the better.

The opener of the PPV will see Julio Cesar Martinez defend his WBC flyweight title against Angel Cordova.

Martinez has defended his title twice since losing to Roman Gonzalez at junior bantamweight but has been caught in limbo by several cancellations of a planned mandatory defense against McWilliams Arroyo.

The unbeaten Cordova enters the fight after his best win as a pro, a close decision win over former WBO light flyweight champion Angel Acosta last April.

Amazon is offering two fights to Prime members for free with the aforementioned minor junior middleweight title between Serhii Bohachuk and Brian Mendoza among them.

The title may be questionable but this fight isn't as Bohachuk's 23-1 record reads with all of his wins by knockout and his only loss is by knockout as well, an eighth-round KO to Brandon Adams.

Mendoza always comes to fight as shown by his knockout wins over former champion Jeison Rosario and his stunning come-from-behind knockout of Sebastian Fundora as well as his last fight, giving a very game effort in losing to Tim Tsyzu by unanimous decision.

This should be an action-packed fight for sure.

The other free fight is promising teenage middleweight Elijah Garcia against veteran Kyrone Davis.

Garcia was very impressive in stopping Armando Resendiz in eight rounds on the Canelo Alvarez-Jermell Charlo undercard last fall, while Davis is a veteran that most remember from taking a pounding for seven rounds from David Benavidez in 2021.

At the same time, DAZN and Golden Boy are in Inglewood, California with a world title main event as the oft-invisible WBA cruiserweight champion Arsen Goulamirian makes his American debut against former WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez.

Ramirez dominated Joe Smith in his cruiserweight debut in his return from his only career loss to Dmitry Bivol to qualify for this chance.

Goulamirian won his title in March 2018 and has defended his title four times, all in France and all against lesser contenders, so when you consider an unbeaten champion that has held his title for six years and yet he is an extremely unknown quantity.

In the co-feature, welterweight contender Alexis Rocha attempts to rebound from a devastating defeat against Fredrick Lawson.

Rocha took a severe beating from Giovanni Santillan last October and was stopped in six, losing his eventual mandatory shot at the WBO welterweight title either with Terence Crawford or in a fight for the vacant title if Crawford would give the title up.

Lawson was stopped in one round in his last outing against Vergil Ortiz in what was another terribly early stoppage by referee Tony Weeks in what will hopefully be the last time that Weeks ends a fight early.

Lawson is handpicked for Rocha's return to be successful, so if Rocha shows some struggles against Lawson, the Santillan fight may have caused damage to Rocha so he may not return to his previous level.

Peacock takes over on Sunday with a Boxxer-promoted battle of two unbeaten British heavyweights for the British and Commonwealth titles that will boost the victor up the ratings with Fabio Wardley fighting Fraser Clarke.

Wardley has fought more often (seventeen to eight), Clarke has the better victories with wins over veteran trial horses Mariusz Wach and Bogdan Dinu, both have wins over fellow Brit Nathan Gorman (the only two losses of Gorman's career), and Clarke was the better amateur, winning a bronze medal in the 2020 Olympics.

This seems to be a fifty-fifty fight because we don't know how either man will take a punch or how good either really is, so I'm looking forward to this one.

Boxing Challenge

WBO and Vacant WBC Junior Middleweight Titles. 12 Rds

Tim Tszyu vs Sebastian Fundora

Ramon Malpica: Tsyzu KO 8
TRS: Tsyzu KO 9

Vince Samano: Tsyzu KO 6

WBA Junior Welterweight Title. 12 Rds

Rolando Romero vs Isaac Cruz

R.L: Cruz KO 11
TRS: Cruz Unanimous Decision
V.S: Romero Unanimous Decision

WBA Middleweight Title. 12 Rds

Erislandy Lara vs Michael Zerafa

R.L: Lara Unanimous Decision
TRS: Lara KO 8
V.S: Zerafa Split Decision

WBC Flyweight Title. 12 Rds

Julio Cesar Martinez vs Angel Cordova

R.L: Martinez Unanimous Decision
TRS: Martinez Split Decision
V.S: Cordova Unanimous Decision

Junior Middleweights, 12 Rds

Serhii Bohachuk vs Brian Mendoza

R.L and TRS: Bohachuk Unanimous Decision
V.S: Mendoza Unanimous Decision

Middleweights. 10 Rds

Elijah Garcia vs Kyrone Davis

R.L: Garcia KO 8
TRS:
V.S:

WBA Cruiserweight Title. 12 Rds

Arsen Goulamirian vs Gilberto Ramirez

R.L and TRS: Ramirez Unanimous Decision
V.S: Ramirez Split Decision

Welterweights. 10 Rds

Alexis Rocha vs Fredrick Lawson

R.L: Rocha Unanimous Decision
TRS: Rocha KO 6
V.S: Lawson Unanimous Decision

Heavyweights. 12 Rds

Fabio Wardley vs Frazer Clarke

R.L: Wardley KO 8
TRS: Wardley KO 5
V.S: Clarke KO 4

Boxing Challenge

    After two tepid boxing weekends, this weekend is filled with fights, so many that I'm separating the Friday night card from the Saturday versions to preview.

ESPN+ and Top Rank have a very nice card for Friday from Glendale, Arizona with three challenge bouts with impact for the future.

In the main event, Oscar Valdez will meet Liam Wilson in a junior lightweight fight that technically isn't for a world title but could become one soon.

Valdez and Wilson have lost to WBO champion Emanuel Navarrete in excellent fights, and should Navarrete succeed in his match in May for the vacant WBO lightweight title against Denys Berinchyk, the winner of this fight for a minor WBO title would likely be promoted to the full championship, so there is plenty at stake here.

Both fighters accounted themselves well against Navarrete with Valdez losing a unanimous decision and Wilson losing by ninth-round knockout but has a case that he should have won after dropping Navarrete in the fourth round and Navarrete being given one of the more egregious long counts in recent memory allowing him to survive.

Wilson has won twice since his loss to Navarrete, while Valdez will be fighting for the first time after his defeat, so it'll be interesting to see how much Valdez has remaining in his return to the ring.

Style-wise, this should be an exciting battle, and on resume, Valdez has a huge edge with the key questions being- did Wilson merely catch lightning in a bottle against Navarrete, and did Valdez leave much of his remaining skills in the ring against Navarrete and may not be the same fighter from now on?

The co-feature will see the first women's bout in challenge history in a strawweight unification between WBA/WBC queen Seniesa Estrada and IBF/WBO boss Yokaska Valle.

I'm not the most knowledgeable women's boxing fan and we won't have an abundance of women's fights for the challenge but the top fights in the sport may be added in the future.

So, why now?

Because I love Seniesa Estrada's fighting style and enthusiasm for the sport, and she appears to be everything right with boxing- I like her. Sue me.

I've only seen a few fights of Valle but people more familiar with her than I am say that this is an excellent fight and far from a squash match for Estrada.

The other bout will pit talented lightweight contender Raymon Muratalla in a ten-rounder against Xolisani Ndongeni.

Muratalla has looked the part of a future champion in his two most recent wins, stopping Diego Torres and Jeremiah Nakathila while Ndongeni was stopped in eight in January by junior welterweight contender Arnold Barboza in his only outing against top competition.

It will be interesting to compare how Muratalla fares against Ndongeni against Barboza's performance against the native of South Africa.

Boxing Challenge

Junior Lightweights. 12 Rds 

Oscar Valdez vs Liam Wilson

Ramon Malpica: Valdez KO 8

TRS: Valdez Unanimous Decision

Vince Samano: Wilson Unanimous Decision

Women's Strawweight Unification 12 Rds

Seniesa Estrada vs Yokasta Valle

R.L and TRS: Estrada Unanimous Decision

V.S: Valle Unanimous Decision

Lightweights. 10 Rds

Raymond Muratalla vs Xolisani Ndongeni

R.L: Muratalla KO 9
TRS: Muratalla KO 6
V.S:  Ndongeni Unanimous Decision

Happy Anniversary

       Seventeen years.

I find it unbelievable that I have done this for seventeen years. 

Through changes in sports, teams, coverages, hobbies, real life, work schedules, and changes in the family, for the last seventeen years, TRS has been part of my life and it's hard to believe.

I haven't written quite as often over the last year, some due to the changes in my work schedule and also my changes in sports.

Baseball barely interests me anymore and I never thought I would write or say those words.

There have been several factors in why that occurred, ranging from the pandemic to the MLB takeover of the minors and their results changes to fan interaction, to their rule changes (I hate the extra innings rule and National League adopting the DH), and just to the general despicability of Rob Manfred.

I don't miss it as much as I would have ever thought.

My Devils interest has decreased a little but that's more because I've found that while I enjoyed watching the team every game, what I really enjoyed was sharing something with Rachel, when her interest declined, mine did as well without consciously knowing!

My Cavaliers' interest and viewing are high but I hardly watch college basketball because of the various problems in college sports with conference changes, lost rivalries, players leaving far too early, and less quality of the game all adding up due to a drop in interest.

I'm still a diehard Browns and Ohio State football fan and while Boxing has its problems, I still cannot pull myself away from the fight game.

The surprising new entry has been, thanks to Fred Landucci, English soccer and Newcastle United.

I have become such a fan of Newcastle that if I had anything to contribute, I would cover them here,

I don't know enough about the game to feel like I was adding anything and for the first time, I can enjoy watching my team and have fun rather than analyze the team.

Outside of sports, I still enjoy the cleaning out the inbox items, the occasional personal piece when the mood strikes me and I've always said when this becomes a grind, I'll stop doing it.

It's still fun for me, I don't always have the time as I once did.

Time to wrap up with the normal thanks to my family, friends, and anyone else who happens to stumble by and give TRS a chance.

It's gratifying when someone tells me that they enjoyed something that I have written and while only a few of you have been around since the beginning, I owe a lot to whomever reads this book of thoughts, memories, and opinions.

It's been an amazing seventeen years with people coming into my life that mean so much to me (and will very soon) and people leaving it as well, some of those dearly missed.

If you know me personally, I'm sure that you know that I struggle with positively looking at things but I'm in a place that is pretty good right now, and while I'll never be one of those "turn that frown upside down" people, I have many people and things around me to be very positive about.

Thanks for reading and onto year eighteen next year with more good news to come!

Forgotten Superstars: Steve Watson

      I've been watching old Denver Broncos games on YouTube (Remember it was the Broncos who were the team of my youth) as I do other things and it made me want to write about my favorite Bronco on offense from childhood- wide receiver Steve Watson.

The Broncos weren't always known for offense in the seventies and eighties.

In fact, when Sears sold the NFL jerseys in their catalog at that time, Denver was the only team to have a defensive player jersey (53 Randy Gradishar) as their representative, so the "Orange Crush" defense was the star of the team.

Still, Steve Watson took over the top receiving option from Haven Moses in his third season in 1981 and was the go-to pass catcher for Craig Morton as he ended his career and for the first formative years of John Elway as well.

Watson made the Broncos in 1979 as an undrafted free agent from Temple but only caught six passes in each of his first two seasons in Denver before his breakout season in 1981.

In 1981, the first season of Dan Reeves's coaching career and the final season of Craig Morton's quarterbacking career, Watson caught sixty passes for 1,244 yards and a league-leading thirteen receiving touchdowns as he made his only Pro Bowl in a breakout year.

Watson wouldn't be selected to another Pro Bowl but he continued to rack up receiving yards with 555 (in the nine-game strike season), 1,113, 1,170, and 915 in the following four seasons for the Broncos.

It was Steve Watson who was the go-to receiver for a developing John Elway as an intermediate threat and occasional long-ball target.

Watching these Denver games during a time when the football wasn't in the air as much as it is today, Watson's ability to get open deep as well as on shorter routes makes me think that he might have been more effective in today's game.

Watson's numbers dipped a little in 1986, catching forty-five passes for 699 yards and he played only five games in 1987, catching eleven passes in what would be his final season.

Watson finished his career with over six thousand receiving yards, three hundred fifty-seven catches, and a very good average of seventeen yards per catch.

I wonder if Watson had come along a few years later with his skills perhaps the Broncos would have won one of those lost Super Bowls under Dan Reeves as he would have given the team the bigger receiver that the team lacked with their quicker smaller pass catchers such as Vance Johnson and Mark Jackson.

And now, why Steve Watson was part of my childhood fandom.

You see, the local newspaper would every year or so mention Watson in the local sports section as his grandparents lived in Hagerstown.

That was the connection to Watson and I remember every time we made our weekly run for supplies, I tried to wear something Bronco-related on the remote chance that I would run into these people (remember this was in an era that wasn't easy to acquire items from a non-local team) who in my early teenaged mind would see me, talk to me, and make a connection with someone that knows a Denver Bronco!

In a shocking development, none of that would occur and I'm not a Broncos fan anymore but Steve Watson is still one of my favorite players and we welcome him to the Forgotten Superstars series. 

Browns sign D'onta Foreman

      I was hoping that the Cleveland Browns would add one more running back to their position group and I was pleased to see the signing of D'onta Foreman, formerly of the Chicago Bears.

The six-foot, two hundred and thirty-five pound Foreman will bring a bruising back that can run between the tackles and help with short yardage situations if Nick Chubb isn't ready for the early season portion of 2024.

The twenty-seven-year-old Foreman has played for four teams since Houston drafted him in the third round in the 2017 draft from Texas but his best seasons have been his most recent- 2022 with Carolina and last season with the Bears.

Foreman rushed for four hundred twenty-five yards and four scores in nine games with the Bears on one hundred nine carries last season, and rushed for over nine hundred yards in 2022, so he's a solid back that brings something to the Browns that Jerome Ford and Nyheim Hines both lack.

If Nick Chubb can return close to form. then Foreman will be a situational player but should there be anything that keeps that from occurring, Foreman could be a horse for the Browns or at least able to share time with Jerome Ford.

Ford was effective at times last season but his ability to carry the heaviest load is questionable.

I've liked Foreman as a back and thought he's been a bit underrated and underused in his career.

Sometimes in sports, there are players that you always think just need a chance and always hope it will be your team that provides that chance.

The Browns are giving one to D'onta Foreman. 

Browns sign Tyler Huntley

       The Cleveland Browns created a mild surprise by signing veteran quarterback Tyler Huntley to a one-year contract at the veteran minimum with incentives to be reached if he plays more often.

Huntley was a Pro Bowl selection in 2022 when he started four games for an injured Lamar Jackson and many of the top AFC quarterbacks were unable to play in the game, so the league dipped down to add Huntley to the roster.

The 6'1 Huntley was signed by Baltimore as an undrafted free agent in 2020  from Utah, and played all four of his professional seasons there, completing sixty-four percent of his passes for 1,957 yards, eight touchdowns, and seven interceptions in that time.

Huntley is more noted for running than passing, although his style does approximate DeShaun Watson as it did Lamar Jackson in Baltimore.

Now, the four-man quarterback room for training camp looks settled with Watson, Jameis Winston, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and Huntley with roughly the same skillset and style, although Winston is more of an outlier as with the bigger arm and lesser mobility compared to the others.

One could look at this in two different ways.

The first is that Watson and Winston are safe and the battle is between Thompson-Robinson and Huntley for the third spot as Winston is the veteran player that the Browns lacked behind Watson last year until they brought in Joe Flacco in case of injury to Watson.

The other possibility is that it's Watson in the top slot, Thompson-Robinson is locked into the third spot and the true battle is for the experienced veteran spot between Winston and Huntley with both players signed to one-year contracts.

Either scenario is possible and which one occurs may come down to how highly Andrew Berry and the Browns value Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who they drafted in the fifth round in the 2023 draft.

If the Browns are sold on DTR as their eventual backup, as they were last season, coming out of training camp,  and don't want to risk losing him then it could be Winston vs Huntley.

If the UCLA product's stock has dropped in their eyes and the Browns have learned from last year's experience seeing the need for a veteran and would be willing to risk losing him on waivers to keep three veterans, then it could be Thompson-Robinson vs Huntley.

In any event, the Browns signing of Tyler Huntley has placed a new variable on the quarterback situation.

A few days ago, things seemed to be cut and dried, now there will be a competition somewhere at quarterback- if only the participants knew who their opponent would be.