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Boxing


"The Americans’ struggles are symbolized by a drought: The last U.S. male boxer to win a Olympic gold was Andre Ward in 2004. Claressa Shields was the last U.S. woman boxer to win golds, in 2012 and 2016."

When will American Olympic boxing be worth watching again?

 
I watched the last three fists on the Canelo Alvarez card, while also watching the Georgia-Kentucky game, (where the #1 team in the country escaped with a 13-12 road win)

Caleb Plant took on 28-0, (21K) Trevor McCumby and nearly became knockout #22. Plant went down three times in the early going. Two were ruled as no being knockdowns but it looked to me as if a punch was involved. But instead of covering up or dancing away, Plant moved forward to deny McCumby space to gear up for a big punch. it was all infighting and Plant got the better of it. He also motioned for the crowd, which favored him to get loud. McCumby kept fighting but Plant's tactics seemed to take away his confidence and he got pretty beat up as the bout continued. Plante finally floored him just before the end of the 9th round. The referee stopped it with a few seconds left in the round but McCumby didn't complain and it looked as if continuing the fight into the 10 would simply have forced McCumby to absorb more punishment. It was a fascinating fight.

Erislandy Lara vs. Danny Garcia was not. They just pawed at each other and I found the Georgia game, which was coming down to a decision much more interesting. Nonetheless, I was able to see Garcia going down to one knee, perhaps voluntarily, in the 9th round to end the fight to a chorus of boos.

I remember Edgar Berlanga from his record streak of sixteen 1st round knockouts against has-beens and never-weres to open his professional career. He then had a streak of five straight decision wins over guys I've never heard of. Then he knocked out someone named Padraig McCrory, (the #30 super middleweight in the world). Canelo Alvarez said after the fight that people were complaining that he always fought older fighters so he decided to fight Jaime Munguia, (who he beat in 12 rounds in May) and now Berlanga, who he also beat in 12 rounds. I had thought Berlanga was a paper tiger who would go down easily and he was knocked down in the 3rd round but he stood up to Canelo's attack very well. In the early round, he seemed hesitant to let his right hand go for fear of Canelo's counter shots. But he survived them and returned to his aggressive tactics of his career-beginning streak, going toe-to-toe with Alvarez. from mid-fight on. Both fighters landed many shots but neither really hurt the other. After the fight they were nicked up a bit but otherwise unhurt. Canelo was the busier fighter, especially early, and the more accurate puncher. Per AP, "Alvarez landed 43.3% (201 of 464) of the punches he threw, while Berlanga connected on just 119 of 446 (26.7%). Alvarez also landed 49.1% (133 of 271) of his power punches." Per ESPN, the judges scored it "117-110, 118-109 and 118-109. ESPN scored it a 120-107 shutout." I had it 119-110, with two even rounds and one for Berlanga.

In a sense Berlanga was a winner because he performed well enough to be a contender in multiple decisions, (he's 6-1 with a 75 inch reach and was said to weight 190 pounds at the time of the fight). There'd bene a lot of trash talking both before and during the fight but afterwards, Berlanga told Alvarez that Canelo was hi hero and they hugged each other, which was good to see.
 
I saw that the Bivol-Beterbiev fight was scheduled for 6PM on ESPN+, (It's not even pay-per-view - what does that say about boxing?) but I assumed that was the beginning of the card so I spent the afternoon doing yardwork. I got in just as the sun was going down, flipped on ESPN plus and found the two great fighters were in the 11th round. AB was going hard after DB, who was mostly covering up or dancing away. I only saw the last half of the 11th round but B certainly won that and the 12th. The commentary said that DB looked like the winner . Apparently he had such a lead that he didn't feel he needed to win those rounds and AB needed the knock out. They showed round-by round punch totals to the end and Bivol had the advantage in most of them, especially the early-to-middle rounds. But the overall edge was only 128-122. After the fight the total punch count was 141-137 for DB but AB had throw more punches, 682-417, meaning Ab had landed 20% and DB 34%. They said he'd bene the aggressor throughout. That, apparently, was decisive: One judge had it 114-114 but the other two had it 115-113 and 116-112 for AB. Likely it was the first of a trilogy.
 
I checked in on the ESPN card tonight. Still another young lightweight star, Keyshawn Davis was fighting along with his younger brothers, Kelvin and Keon. All are undefeated, although this was Keon's debut. Big Brother is the little brother as Kelvin is a welterweight and Keon a 'super-welter', (junior middle). They all won, Keon defeating Jalen Moore, Boxrec's #1,543 junior middle in a four round decision. Keon took the occasion to announce that he's the next big thing in boxing. We'll see. Kelvin won an 8 rounder over one Yeis Solano, who is unranked by Boxrec. Solano ran and hid, hoping the boos of the crowd would convince Davis to come after him and he could land a counter punch. It didn't happen. Kelvin is the #68 welterweight in the world at 14-0. We may hear form him in the future. Keyshawn, the #10 lightweight is know 12=0 after knocking out #31 Gustano Lemos in two rounds. Lemos had ballooned up to 155 pounds after the weigh-in so Davis was facing a middleweight by the time the fight started. It made no difference and Davis knocked Lemos down three times. He didn't just knock him down but sent him sprawling, trying to rise on rubbery legs. The final time Lemos went flat on his back and the referee, trying to signal the fight was over, tripped over him and the only man standing was Davis, who looked ready for the superstars of a division that ahs several of them.

The most interesting preliminary was Abdullah Mason's wild two round knockout of Yohan Vasquez, who had a strange haircut - bald but with a thick coating of hair at the back of his head, which the commentator suggested was his landing spot. But it was Mason who landed first, being caught by a short left to the jaw in the first round as Mason was going for the early knockout. Then Mason, clear-eyed, got up and drilled Vasquez, who did, indeed, land on that thick coating of hair. He was wobbly-legged when he got up but again caught the 20 year old Abdullah with the short left and knocked him down again. Shocked but otherwise unhurt, Mason came out for the second round and ended it with a body shot. But that first round will be a round of the year candidate. Mason is still another promising lightweight. Isn't everybody?
 
Between Fb games, I checked in the DAZN card Saturday night. There were co-main events: Superflyweight Jesse 'Bam' Rodriguez from Texas vs. Mexican veteran Pedro Guevara and welterweight Jaren "Boots" Ennis vs. Karen, (I kid you not) Chukhadchian from the Ukraine. Bam 'bammed' Guevara with an uppercut in the third round and is now 21-0 with 14KOs and retains his WBC superfy title. There was talk about his working toward Inoue. The consensus was that he'll be better off trying to unify the title he has for now.

Ennis traded haymakers with Chukhadchian for 12 rounds. Neither man put a dent in the other, (Ennis scored a 5th round knockdown I missed), and Ennis won the decision by a large margin but otherwise didn't impress. It was his second win over the Ukrainian and apparently both fights were similar. He's now 33-0 with 29 knockouts, is the IBF champion and wants Crawford but the commentators didn't like his chances if he gets him.

The most remarkable thing in an otherwise unremarkable undercard was the upset of Khalil Coe, (9-0-1 with 7 KOs, #17 in the world at light heavyweight) but the "inactive" Manual Gallegos, who stood up to his shots and returned fire and KO'd Coe in the 9ths round. Coe looked good early but stopped using his jab and tried to knock out his open with every shot, only to see him still standing there.
 

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