Now that was a weekend, eh?
Though only the latter’s main pay-per-view event moved the needle on a mainstream basis, the fight cards staged in Wales and Las Vegas provided a full Saturday’s worth of compelling violence.
The Tuesday morning crew got together in the aftermath to pore through the notebook scribbles and compile them into a mildly coherent collection of early-week conclusions, etc.
And with that, we begin an 11-count:
11. Yes, Joe Cordina is the goods. To those unfamiliar with the uber-skilled 130-pounder before he tried to regain the IBF’s title, welcome to the party. The 31-year-old from Cardiff had already scored one of 2022’s best KOs against Kenichi Ogawa, but he boosted his brand tenfold with a gritty, exciting, and comprehensively compelling defeat of Freddie Roach pupil Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov.
10. Yes, he should get a big fight. No offense to IBO champ and fellow UK resident Anthony Cacace, but Cordina has bigger fish to fry in his weight class and beyond. A unification with high-profile WBO claimant Emanuel Navarrete would be a treat and let me be the first to suggest he climb the ladder another five pounds and toss his hat into the ring for a date with Gervonta Davis.
9. Speaking of UK champions. Kudos to 29-year-old welterweight Sandy Ryan, who filled out the Cordina-Rakhimov show with an interesting and active 10-round win over Marie Pier Houle that netted her the vacant WBO title most recently held by Jessica McCaskill. It was the latest act in a 13-month reinvention for Ryan, who’d suffered her lone defeat in March 2022 but has won three in a row since.
8. Farewell to a middleweight “King.” He was never a champion and only once had a chance to be one, but Gabriel Rosado was a real pro in a game full of phony ones. A dull as dirt 10-round loss to former KO victim Bektemir Melikuziev wasn’t an ideal exit, but it did give a last high-profile star turn to a guy who’s been doing it for 17 years and always gave a good accounting of himself. Good luck with what’s next.
7. Hello to a super middleweight boss. The WBA “world” title he professes to hold isn’t worth the plastic and baubles with which it’s festooned, but David Morrell was impressive in a one-round blast out of fringe middleweight contender Yamaguchi Falcao. The beaten man took several too many shots before collapsing to the floor but it’s certainly no fault of the bigger, stronger Morrell.
6. Here’s hoping he’ll meet an old boss. Now that his interim job is done, how nice would it be if Morrell actually got what he claimed to have wanted in the aftermath of the Falcao win? His callout of David Benavidez provides a tasty option if neither man is able to attract Canelo Alvarez’s attention. “I’m the real monster,” he said, “and I’m ready to prove it in the ring.”
5. “Magic Man” sees smoke and mirrors. Count Antonio Tarver among those who believe the sport is leaning toward social media to create new stars rather than the traditional means like the Olympics and TV networks. “You can still do it that way but that don’t cater to their agenda,” he said, “which is to go away from the scientific form of boxing and make it more of a farce so everyone can join in.”
4. On that topic, the Commish chimes in. “Boxing fans are starving for heroes and major fights,” ex-New York State Athletic Commission boss Randy Gordon said. “They were not getting Errol Spence vs. Terence Crawford. They were not getting Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk. So over the last few years they’ve latched onto Gervonta Davis and his bad-guy image and punching power. … It was a mega-fight made not as much in the ring as on social media.”
3. Things that make you go “holy mole-y.” His Saturday effort was respectable, but the post-weekend claims that a training camp mole played a role in his downfall are simply a bad look for Ryan Garcia. No one here is claiming – and no one should – that the body shot Davis landed was not legit. But it’s hard to not wonder if Garcia’s choice to stay down was a business decision to avoid an even worse ending.
2. Davis didn’t really need a mole: Garcia remains charismatic and compelling in the aftermath of loss No. 1, but short of landing a decisive shot early on he had no real shot. “In a close enough fight between a skilled body puncher and an opponent who focuses upstairs,” ex-HBO mic man Jim Lampley said, “the body puncher will far more often win. Body punches do more damage.”
1. The lightweights are red hot. Next month’s Haney-Lomachenko fight was already interesting enough, but it means even more now that Davis is on the horizon as a subsequent opponent for the winner. But the most compelling fight out there for him down the road seems to be with fellow unbeaten operator Shakur Stevenson. Can Shakur out-skill him? Can Davis catch up to him? Can you not be intrigued?
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This week’s title-fight schedule:
No title fights scheduled.
Last week’s picks: 0-1 (LOSS: Rakhimov)
2023 picks record: 11-4 (73.3 percent)
Overall picks record: 1,261-412 (75.4 percent)
NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body’s full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA “world championships” are only included if no “super champion” exists in the weight class.
Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.