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Spence Makes A Case For Best At 147

Errol Spence Jr. now holds three of the four major world titles after tonight, as he stopped Yordenis Ugas in the tenth round as Ugas’ eye was swollen up like a balloon, and the doctor ringside had seen enough. This performance is one of the most impressive of Spence’s career as Ugas has been viewed as a boogeyman of the division and more so, Spence can safely say he has the most impressive resume at 147 lbs. 

Spence is an action fighter, who put 40,000 people in the seats to see him fight, and did the major promotional duty of the pay-per-view as well. Beyond being a superstar in the sport, Spence is loyal to his community, and that essentially is a big part of why he is so beloved there. 

In this bout, we saw all aspects of Spence’s game, Spence boxed, and in the later rounds bullied Ugas, as Ugas was landing great counter punches, but didn’t feel comfortable throwing the volume that Spence was throwing. In short, despite getting buzzed by Ugas, Spence wanted it more than Ugas and took the fight out of him, something we haven’t seen since Ugas had a career resurgence. 

This was a masterpiece by Spence. Spence might not be vocal on the internet, but he sure is memorable when he fights, now we just need the fight with Terence Crawford, so we can crown a king of the era.

undercard

Lightweight Isaac Cruz rocked former world champion Yurorkis Gamboa with seemingly the first right hand he threw, the fight continued to go downhill for the legend, Gamboa, as he was hurt in the second round and dropped. I lost count of the times Gamboa was dropped, but it just feels awkward how the young eat the old in boxing. Though I talk about showing compassion for Gamboa the ref didn’t, and though Gamboa was stopped, Cruz’s great performance was in the shadow of seeing Gamboa at 40-years-old, being a shell of who he once was. 

Cruz looked like a relentless pitbull, no wonder pitbull is his nickname, and now we hope to see him against another highly ranked world title contender after he just had a great fight with Gervonta “Tank” Davis. 

Lightweight Jose Valenzuela got a first-round KO over former world champion Francisco Vargas. It was a good win for Valenzuela’s resume, but also somewhat sad to see an aging former champion knocked out quickly, and badly with a left hook from the southpaw stance. 

I hope Valenzuela vs. Cruz happens in the future, as it is two young fighters in a compelling fight. 

In the PPV opener, undefeated welterweight Cody Crowley defeated game veteran Josesito Lopez via a ten-round decision, even dropping “The Riverside Rocky” in round seven. Crowley, an aggressive southpaw, appeared to use his youth to defeat Lopez, who looked like a similarly styled pressure, but just older. The biggest x-factor in this fight was age, and Crowley was younger. Both guys make great TV fights, and Crowley vs. Stanionis would be a fun bout that I would love to see headline a Showtime card.

Lopez is 37-years-old and has given a lot to the sport, and Crowley’s ability to bully Lopez around in the fight might be a sign that the times are a-changing. 

In a career-defining win, Eimantas Stanionis won an odd split-decision over Radzhab Butaev in one of the most action-packed bouts of the evening. Stanionis, a former Olympian, who has not gotten the praise of other welterweight contenders, put forth a dominant one-sided boxing lesson, as he landed the cleaner punches all night long. Butaev lost a point in the 11th for pushing Stanionis down as well. Stanionis should have won the fight outright – I don’t see how you could score this bout for Butaev. 

Stanionis is now the WBA world welterweight champion. 

Undercard opener on Showtime Sports’ YouTube page saw 140 lber Brandun Lee get a ten-round unanimous decision over game veteran Zachary Ochoa. Lee, a big puncher, saw some frustration with Ochoa who provided more of a moving target as Ochoa was impressive in being a difficult veteran for the young fighter. The firepower of Lee won the fight, but Ochoa gave Lee some problems. 

I felt the fight was close, as the fight had a lot of swing rounds – it just wasn’t entertaining persay, it was more so sport. Both fighters showed their flaws and strengths which speaks to a good evenly matched fight that both can learn from. 

Angel Barrientes won a majority decision over a veteran fighter from the Dallas area on the undercard. 

Light heavyweight Darius Fulghum, who won the Olympic Trials at heavyweight in 2019, got a fourth-round KO, and Vito Mielnicki Jr, a 154 lbs fighter, got an eight-round decision on the undercard.

Benn Gets KO Win

Welterweight Conor Benn made quick work of veteran Chris Van Heerden stopping him in two rounds. Benn’s right hand landed in the second round and it was a game-changer as Van Heerden never recovered fully. The power is real, the star is real, but is he a true world-class contender, and a potential best-in-the-generation fighter – I am not sure. 

Benn has serious upside, he is fast and explosive, both of which not common for European fighters, let alone U.K. ones, and has a style that can attract fans who don’t always watch boxing. 

It is clear Benn is Matchroom Boxing’s next star, as Katie Taylor and Anthony Joshua now have a shelf life being at the end of their career, and Benn offers more excitement than a hugely successful U.K. fighter, Kell Brook. Do I think Benn competes with Jaron “Boots” Ennis or Vergil Ortiz? No. Do I think he is fun to watch? Yes.

Benn is living his gimmick as he seems to be looking to fight Amir Khan, an aging popular fighter, who would create a lot of buzz and excitement, but with very little risk to Benn.

Benn is a guy, who could become a U.K. legend, but just needs time and needs to wait for some of these current legends to move up or away from welterweight before going for a run at the top of the division. That being said, Benn is going to sell a lot of tickets for a lot of years, and will probably be in a fight of the year. 

undercard

The rematch of a regional banger saw Chris Billam-Smith stop Tommy McCarthy in eight rounds. The bout was about what you expect from a cruiserweight bout action-packed, and forgettable after five minutes, which sums up most cruiserweight bouts not involving fighters with the name Holyfield, Usyk, or Qawi. 

Campbell Hatton won a decision on the undercard, he has to improve to get to the world level as this fight felt like a step backward in his development.

Alycia Baumgardner made the first defense of her 130 lbs world title and should be primed to face WBA champion, Hyun Mi Choi, as Baumgardner is eventually going to face the other unified world champion in her division, Mikaela Mayer. I just hope this doesn’t drag on, the talking stuff between Mayer and Baumgardner because both are exciting and would crown a true champion of the division.

Cruiserweight Jordan Thompson got a second-round KO, and is an emerging U.K. guy

Watch This Fight

I queued this fight up between Sam Gilley and Drew Brown, round eight of their bout, which is one of the best rounds I have seen all year. 

Club Shows

Featherweight Ruben Villa rebounded from his first career loss in a world title fight to WBO champion, Emanuel Navarrete, came back after an 18-month layoff to look as good as ever, stopping his opponent in nine rounds. Villa was systematic and cerebal in his approach as he mental broke an aggressive fighter, and then broke him physically. Villa has elements of future hall-of-famer Vasyl Lomachenko, I hope to see him against a top-rated opponent soon. 

Gavin Gwynne got a 12-round decision to become BBBofC lightweight world champion, a regional U.K. belt. He is a viable opponent for a top-15 lightweight in the future.

Lightweight prospect “Tito” Mercado continues to be an interesting contender, and now has a four-fight first-round KO streak, knocked out all of his opponents, and has never gone past the second round. 

On the same card, Sacramento, Ca’s lightweight Cain Sandoval got another impressive KO. Sandoval’s name has been mentioned amongst many high-profile boxing camps as of late.

Coming off the KO of Trey Lippe Morrison, Mike Balogun, an undefeated former NFL player turned boxer picked up a second-round KO as the main event of a DiBella show on UFC Fight Pass.

The co-main of this card saw Ja’Rico O’Quinn beat former world title challenger and at one time Bay Area fighter Jobert Alvarez.

Albert Bell won once again at home, we hope to see him in a world title fight, he deserves a national or world-level opponent at this point, as he keeps winning. 

Friend of ITRBoxing.com and coach of Soul City Boxing Gym, Roshawn Jones won last night and had an inspirational message to the youth after his fight.

Sacramento’s Joeshon James got off the deck to win his fight in Mexico. As an amateur, James fought world-ranked fighters at nationals – he is back in action at the DoubleTree in Sacramento, Ca, next month. 

Demichael Harris got a first-round KO win on a club show.

MMA in 500 Words Or Less

Bellator In San Jose

The king rematches Patricio “Pitbull” Freire who defeated A.J. McKee, an undefeated homegrown Bellator fighter, who became world champion by defeating him at one of the company’s major events last year in what seemed to be a changing of the guard for the new star, McKee.

The bout and decision left room for debate and now will more than likely set up a third bout between these two – though it is a bit scary how little both of these bouts have impacted the world at large since both fighters were pretty good in their own way. Pitbull is now 5-0 in rematches, a hell of a stat. His brother also holds the lightweight title at Bellator as well. 

The co-main saw Vadim Nemkov and Corey Anderson’s bout end in a no-contest, as Nemkov was cut by a headbutt in the third round and unable to continue. What made it feel awful was the fact that Anderson was winning the whole fight until the time of the foul, so a no-decision verdict felt like the wrong outcome.

Aaron Pico won via a knockout as seen above, the story of his career has been, to win a fight than have a major setback, this was as good of a performance as he has ever had, and now he needs to continue to the top of the division. The feeling with MMA media was that Pico has evolved, but also, it might be Pico has been humbled as he was looked to be the next star of Bellator, and has not become that at all. 

UFC

Belal Muhammad got his revenge defeating Vicente Luque via a five-round decision. In the first fight, Luque knocked out Muhammad. 

Caio Borralho got a bizarre technical decision win over Gadzhi Omargadzhiev, in which I have no clue what happened, but Borralho won.

Welterweight Andre Fialho, a fighter, who stood out to me when I used to go to Bellator shows fought on this UFC card and got a big KO win.