By Norm Frauenheim-

Half-empty, half-full is the best way to sum up a year stumbling toward the midpoint of a 12-month run that began amid lots of expectations.

The empty is for what didn’t happen. By now, we should be talking about the chances of the third step a Gennady Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez trilogy.

The full is for Terence Crawford, brilliant in his first welterweight appearance against Jeff Horn and yet seemingly still underrated.

Crawford was No. 1 in this corner’s pound-for-pound ratings last January 1. He still is, of course, especially after saying he wanted to take over the 147-pound division and then began to do just that with a June 9 debut that looked a lot like a take-off.

Crawford will have challengers. Lots of them. Vasiliy Lomachenko, still No. 1 on a lot of lists, is No. 2 on this one. Lomachenko is recovering from shoulder surgery after a surprisingly tough victory over Jorge Linares in a 135-pound title defense. Lomachenko was clever and tough, but the May 12 bout suggested that a move to 140 pounds might be unwise.

To wit: Mikey Garcia, No. 3 on this pound-for-pound list and awaiting an intriguing date against Robert Easter on July 28, hits a lot harder than Linares There’s already some talk about Garcia against powerful welterweight Errol Spence, No. 4 on this list and maybe Crawford’s greatest threat in a bout next year. More on that later and at a later date.

It’s hard to settle on who should be at No. 5. The guess here is that he will emerge from what didn’t happen during the first six months of 2018.

May came, went and left only more unsettling controversy in the wake of a Cinco De Mayo rematch scuttled by Canelo’s positive PED tests in February.

To use a word that has been overused for the last several months, it’s been tainted. I’m not talking about contaminated Mexican meat, or whether it had anything to do with Canelo’s testing positive for Clenbuterol. Anticipation for the rematch, postponed until Sept. 15, has been tainted by inevitable PED suspicions and mounting tension between the two fighters.

There are reports that GGG and Canelo dislike each so much that they won’t appear together on the same stage, or even perhaps in the same studio or ballroom, for a news conference.

That will sell the fight more than anything else can. Mutual contempt is more marketable these days than a high knockout ratio. There will be lots of dollars for just the chance to see lots of promised, over-the-top violence in this one.

Canelo was slow to enroll in voluntary drug testing. A stubborn GGG was slow to sign a deal until he apparently got the terms he wanted in negotiations that grew contentious once the two returned to the table. The fight was on, the fight was off, the fight was on. The roller coaster ride from now until opening bell on Sept. 15 still has a long way to go.

We’ll get there, hopefully with a decisive result instead of another draw in a bout that will allow GGG and Canelo to move on without ever having to share a room or a ring again. The year will make both of them wealthy, but the bet here is that Crawford will still own 2018.

By Bart Barry-

SAN ANTONIO – Almost exactly 300 miles north of here Saturday welterweight titlist Errol “The Truth” Spencer strolled through an overmatched Mexican named Carlos Ocampo at – let’s get this right – The Ford Center at The Star, in Frisco, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys’ practice field. No matter how highly one regards a prizefighter, nine hours is too much of a roundtrip drive to perform for an exhibition bout, and whatever fears any Texan had of missing out, anyway, got quelled in three minutes.

If you were to draw a circle with a 30-mile radius round the center of Dallas you’d enclose an area called the Metroplex. You’d include both Frisco and a region twice as populous as Los Angeles and 85-percent populous as New York City. You’d also be missing the country’s fourth-largest city, Houston, and its seventh-largest city, this one. Texas is not so much a boxing state, in other words, as an enormous one.

The not-particularly-believable 14,000-paid attendance figure bandied about before the gates even opened Saturday and all through Showtime’s broadcast would be a breathtaking occurrence in, say, Amarillo, but it’s less than breathtaking somewhere within a four-hour drive of 11-million people. Heaven help this column if that reads like an impeachment of Jerry Jones’ math; after all, the owner of America’s Team has his “world” headquarters within the Metroplex, and the principles and integrity of any NFL owner are above doubt. That written, there were some questions about the announced attendance for Manny Pacquiao’s two Cowboys Stadium tilts in 2010, and columnists often have long, selective memories.

However many Texans attended Saturday’s match those in attendance thrilled Errol Spence, and it was joyfilling to see a well-deserving object of affection enjoy such affection.

Let us not let that detract, though, from the fact Saturday’s mainevent sucked.

New rule: When the sacrificial b-side of a homecoming mismatch is seen nervously chewing his gumshield before walking to the ring, the match is immediately reduced to a four-round affair and the champion begins three points behind on official scorecards. Seems fair. These new mercy-feasting rules in no way endanger Spence’s undefeated record, presently or retroactively, and they give commentators some suspense worth shouting at.

Spence was fighter enough to feel ashamed of what happened Saturday and man enough to admit it. Spence wanted real contact; his style demands a certain quotient of mutual abuse to please, and had he known Ocampo would fold so quickly and completely The Truth surely would’ve holstered his best punches at least a round or two longer.

Spence has grown immensely since his first Texas prizefight five years ago in Our Lady of the Lake University Gym, five miles west of where this column happens. Frankly, the odds of Spence filling any arena back then were longer than Ocampo’s odds Saturday. Whisked by what would become the PBC from America’s worst Olympic boxing team – on which, admittedly, Spence was the best fighter – to mostly empty venues like nearby Cowboys Dancehall (neither a world headquarters nor those Cowboys) Spence looked destined howsoever unfairly to follow teammates like Terrell Gausha and Rau’shee Warren to the Sam Watson-less edges of Al Haymon’s roster, off-television.

But Spence had something few other PBC prospects did: A willingness to be hit in order to hit. Everything was rougher about Spence than his stablemates, starting with his accent. Spence was “country” – as they call it round here. His accent was obviously Texan. So was his likability. He was guileless outside the ring as he was inside it. He was such a departure from the promotional antics of the PBC’s signature asset, Adrien Broner, one quickly wondered how long Spence would stay in his managerial arrangement, illfitting as it appeared.

Then Spence went tangential and put himself on a new trajectory for a PBC fighter. Spence visited someone else’s country and won a title by knockout – otherwise known as the right way. Then he began using the names of reluctant PBC welterweights in interviews. Then he washed and wore a PBC mainstay. For this he was rewarded with an illfitting homecoming 50 miles north of his native DeSoto as the headliner of what often felt like an infomercial for America’s Team and its owner – unless you believe a 147-pound man wanted more desperately to be a professional football player than a champion prizefighter.

For goodness’ sake, let them have their fun!

Yes, well, fine – so long as there is boxing to write about. But there isn’t, is there, in large part because of dreadful matchmaking, the sort that makes most aficionados feel like suckers most of the time we open our minds to the PBC brand.

Some of this is Showtime’s fault, you say? Fair enough.

Boxing’s best network now has easy access to every fighter in the world unaligned with promoter Top Rank, which is most of them. Showtime has far too many available fighters and far too few available dates to be cowed into b-sides like Carlos Ocampo. And let us have no more loose talk about mandatories. Errol Spence wishes to be the world’s best welterweight, not merely the IBF’s, and if he’s debasing himself with mandatory challengers it’s because his handlers’ handling of their other welterweight titlists makes Spence worry his share of the welterweight title is his only leverage – which is absurd if true.

A twofight series with Terence Crawford on ESPN – fight 1 in Omaha, fight 2 in Arlington (not Frisco) – would make Spence a household name, regardless of outcomes. Then he could return to Showtime as the new face of the PBC, increasing the credibility of the both his management outfit and its sole remaining broadcast sponsor.

Or Spence can fight Yordenis Ugas or Qudratillo Abduqaxorov in December and Devon Alexander next May.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Follow all the action as Errol Spence Jr. defends the IBF Welterweight championship against fellow undefeated Carlos Ocampo.  The action kicks off at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT with a junior welterweight battle between Adrian Granados and former world champion Javier Fortuna.  In the co-feature Danny Roman defends the WBA Super Bantamweight title against Mosies Flores

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Round 1: Body shot from Spence..LEFT TO BODY AND DOWN GOES OCAMPO…HE DOES NOT GET UP FIGHT OVER

Round 1 Roman jabbing to body..Right to body..Lead right from Flores..Sweeping right..Counter jab and uppercut from Roman..Uppercut..Counter right from Flores..Counter left from Roman..Right from Flores..Counter left from Roman..Uppercut..Counter left..

Round 2 Roman lands a body shot..Nice left..Uppercut from Flores..Good exchange..Double left hook from Flores..Double left hook to body from Roman..Exchanging uppercut..Counter left hook to body from Roman..

Round 3 Jab from Flores…Combination from Roman..Sweeping left from Flores..

Round 4 Counter hook to the body from Roman..Nice combination..Flores lands to the head..Left to body..Bog right from Roman..Sharp right..Body shot from Flores..Counter to head from Roman

Round 5 Flores working body..Counter from Roman…Body shots…2 lefts to the body..left hook to the body..3 punch combination..left hook to the body..Right..left to body..Solid right..left uppercut

Round 6 Jab from Roman..Combination..Right from Flores..Left to body from Roman..Body work..right hurts Flores..

Round 7 Left uppercut, right hand and body punches from Roman

Round 8 Uppercut from Flores..Right from Flores..1-2 from Roman..Left uppercut..sharp jab..Lead right from Flores..Jab and left uppercut from Roman..trading lefts hook..uppercut from Flores

Round 9 Lead left and right from Flores..Jab from Roman..Right from Flores..Jab from Roman..3 left uppercuts..right from Flores..

Round 10 Both working the body..Left from Roman..Left hook..uppercut..short left hook to body..

Round 11 1-2 from Flores..Overhand right from Roman..Lead right to body..over hand right..Good body shot..lead right from Flores

Round 12 Over hand right from Roman..Working the body..jab..counter left from Flores..Right to body from Roman..Flores lands a short right..Counter..

Roman outlanded Flores 349-225.  174 head shots and 175 body shots for Roman

349-1004 for Roman…   225-1023 for Flores

116-112; 118-110; 120-108 for DANNY ROMAN

Round 1 Body work by Fortuna..Straight left..Flurry by Granados

Round 2 Straight left by Fortuna..Exchange on the ropes..Counter by Granados…Left uppercut from Fortuna..Sharp left counter..Left hook from Granados..

Round 3 Fortuna works the body..2 uppercuts from Granados..Granados working on inside..

Round 4 Left hook to body from Granados …Right from Fortuna…FORTUNA DOCKED A POINT FOR USING HIS HEAD..FORTUNA DOCKED ANOTHER POINT FOR HOLDING..Flurry from Fortuna makes Granados back up..Combination..FORTUNA IS PUSHED OUT OF THE RING AND HE HITS HEAD ON THE CAMERAMAN STAND..FORTUNA PLACED IN A NECK BRACE AND TAKEN OUT ON A STRETCHER..BOUT RULED A NO-CONTEST AT 2:50

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – There’s a long-held theory that negotiations are part of any fight. It’s a little early to pick a winner or loser in the agreement for Gennady Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez rematch.

Let’s just say the business picked up a badly-needed win. Meanwhile, there are plenty of reasons to anticipate many more twists and turns to what will finally be an opening bell in a sequel to last year’s controversial draw.

If there are hints in Wednesday’s succession of no deal to an agreement within about the time it takes to eat lunch, we can expect just about anything. Don’t miss the rules meeting. Brace for noisy debates about judges, the referee, or whether the gloves’ padding is made of horse hair or foam.

Everything will be contested, mostly because the only thing each of these corners really like about each other is the money they can generate.

There’s plenty of that and it’s why the rematch was always inevitable. Timing was really the key here. If there ever was urgency attached to doing a rematch, GGG-Canelo II was it.

If they waited until, say next year, after struggling against an emerging Billy Joe Saunders or against no-name Spike O’Sullivan, the potential money would have dwindled to a fraction of what it is now.

GGG and his promotional rep, Tom Loeffler, acted as if they knew that from the moment the rematch was in apparent jeopardy after news of Canelo’s two failed PED tests in February.

GGG, Loeffler and trainer Abel Sanchez acted proactively, carefully, and yet with an unwavering focus on securing a deal for a bout on the first good date, September 15.

In the wake of Canelo’s withdrawal from their initial date on May 5, there was controversy about GGG’s decision to fight anyway on Cinco de Mayo against overmatched Vanes Martirosyan at StubHub Center. The fight – a GGG victory in an overwhelming second round stoppage – was forgettable. In terms of his career and what it meant to his chances at more favorable terms in a Canelo rematch, however, it is huge.

The Martirosyan fight provided a forum for GGG to further question Canelo, who was not enrolled in VADA, the voluntary drug testing program attached to the WBC. It also provided GGG a forum to say he wanted more equitable terms.

A few days after Martirosyan, Canelo announced he had agreed to resume voluntary testing. Would that have happened without the criticism from GGG and fans that were amplified by the Martirosyan fight? No way.

Canelo was in a defensive posture, telling a skeptical public to trust that the positive tests were simply the result of eating tainted Mexican beef. But there’s no trust without verification. Overwhelming doubt expressed by fans before and after Martirosyan left Canelo and Golden Boy with no choice.

They were back in VADA.

Then, they were back at the table.

However, GGG also had let it be known he would not agree to the original terms, 70 percent for Canelo and 30 for GGG. He came to the table asking for 50-50. That was a good starting point, but that’s all it was. Canelo still ranks as the draw.

According to reports Wednesday, GGG first said no to a 42.5 percent in a deal that gave Canelo 57.5. GGG demanded 45 percent, take it or leave it.

Canelo promoter Oscar De La Hoya initially said no. About an hour later, however, they had a deal, although terms weren’t disclosed.

Not sure exactly what happened, but a guess is that HBO somehow got involved and saved what figures to be a pay-per-view moneymaker. Floyd Mayweather Jr.-versus- Manny Pacquiao in 2015, a record revenue setter, would probably not have happened without late involvement from Les Moonves, president and CEO of CBS, Showtime’s parent company.

Whatever happened, GGG is getting a big raise from a likely bigger total revenue pool than what he collected a year ago. In the process, he also appeared to grab the high ground in a contentious give-and-take that will continue to sell the rematch until Sept. 15.

But will that represent a GGG advantage at opening bell? Not sure about that one. Canelo has been mostly quiet. Not sure whether his relative silence represents anger or some self-doubt. Before the positive PED tests, I would have picked him to win the rematch. He’s younger and has shown he learns from adversity. He emerged from his one-sided-loss to Mayweather as a much better fighter.

Can he emerge once more? He’ll have to against a fighter and management team that has proven it can wage a patient, well-coordinated fight on both sides of the ropes.

By Jimmy Tobin-

It’s the smile, the mischief in it. There’s self-satisfaction there too, irrepressible, mocking. And something more sinister at work. A pleasure in cruelty perhaps? Even in the theatrical? A relish in the power to shape a moment according to one’s will maybe? To create a unity of the rapt thousands looking on? Yes, that’s certainly part of it. It is a conscious display, this smile, one understood by all—the crowd, the judges, the opponent—to signal one thing: that a beating is at hand.

***

Terence Crawford’s smile, like so much of the fighter, is charming in its menace. And like so much of the Omaha, Nebraska fighter, it was on display at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Saturday night where Crawford announced his arrival at welterweight by butchering Australian Jeff Horn in nine rounds. Crawford may find his ambition thwarted in his new division but if there was one message to take from watching him parse and punish Horn it was this: Crawford is not the welterweight who should be worried. And he is not.

That smile appeared in the third round when it became clear that all of Horn’s early success had been little more than the modest price of calculation, an allowance in the name of salting the meat. By the third round, Crawford found his range, appraised Horn’s rhythm, his power, his strength, and knew—like seemingly everyone save for Horn’s trainer, Glenn Rushton—that competition henceforth would bleed from the bout. Say what you will of Horn the fighter, of his disputed victory over Manny Pacquiao last year, he goes boisterously to his fate against everyone in the division not named Errol Spence. That may be an indictment of a division that even three years ago was considered as good as any in boxing; it may be a referendum on the merit of the fighters who once justified that esteem. Either way, in butchering Horn Crawford reminded us what divisional rankings cannot: that the distance between fighters on a list is anything but uniform.

Crawford was smiling in the ninth too, as he ripped double-hooks into Horn’s body, savoring the buckle and bend, the pain they produced. He was smiling again seconds later as referee Robert Byrd spared Horn, too tough for his health, the type of lingering abuse that ages fighters overnight.

Because Crawford is as good a finisher as you will find: patient, accurate, creative. Roman Gonzalez, also flawless in the pursuit of destruction, expressed a genuine appreciation for the person absorbing his punches, and that tangible intimacy kept his abuse sporting. But Crawford? Crawford is mean, irresistibly so. When he sets upon an opponent he isn’t exorcising demons, violence does not appear cathartic for him. No, Crawford is taxing opponents for their insolence, showing too those ungloved and uninteresting talking heads what he thinks of their criticisms. (Indeed he said as much when asked about his bullying of Horn, ostensibly saying that the people who questioned his strength needed to be reminded whose opinion the fighter actually credits.)

There is something Mayweather-like about Crawford (now the best American fighter in the world), in the way he first studies then disarms his opponents. But unlike the welterweight version of Mayweather, Crawford goes beyond merely establishing dominance, he imperils himself at his opponent’s expense. You do not hang around with “Bud”: if he thinks he can end you your daylights depend on convincing him otherwise. That may change at welterweight, where opponents are more stubbornly absorbent, but the strength and power Crawford displayed Saturday say otherwise.

There are some who will temper their enthusiasm for Crawford, noting that Horn was but one more hapless opponent heaped on the pile used to elevate Crawford’s accolades beyond his accomplishments. There is some truth to that, particularly given the model for developing fighters that flourished recently on HBO, where greatness was bestowed at the outset and opponents approved to preserve it. And really, did anyone save for Viktor Postol’s staunchest supporters expect Crawford to lose any of his thirty-three fights? There is something to be said for how you win, however, and in fighting the only opponents available to him Crawford has left little doubt of his excellence. Besides, any further fights below welterweight would only delay seeing Crawford challenged, which is precisely what those who have yet to embrace him need to see.

It would be interesting to hear who those same reluctant admirers would prefer Crawford face next. Because if the goal is to have Crawford prove himself there is but one name on that list. And while it might be interesting to watch Crawford chop Shawn Porter up, or hang the first stoppage loss on Danny Garcia, or show Keith Thurman the difference between a person who fights for a living and a fighter, the outcome of all of those fights would only move the bar on Crawford.

No, the fight for Crawford is with Errol Spence, and the time for that fight is now. No other opponent brings the same challenge, and scant others will teach us anything we don’t already know.

You can hear it already: “But the promotional issues, network alliances! Mandatory defenses! The fight could be BIGGER!” Stop. No one drawn to a bloodsport for the blood cares about the obstacles to this fight happening—those obstacles, however cutely worded, are only excuses long employed by promoters to deprive the public of what it wants. So fuck all that.

One imagines Spence when he looks at Crawford, sees a former lightweight coming for his crown. And Crawford, when he thinks of Spence, the strapping southpaw with the bricks in his fists? Don’t kid yourself—he probably smiles.

By Bart Barry-

Saturday on ESPN+ Nebraska’s Terence Crawford won his first welterweight title the right way. He beat to relenting titlist Jeff Horn, the Aussie who upset Manny Pacquiao in 2017.

Crawford is everything.

He came in our collective consciousness the right way – making his television debut on short notice in a higher weightclass, then winning his first title in another country. He understands fighting at its genetic level; he is good enough at fundamentals to find space enough between confrontational moments to ask himself what-if questions that reveal new options, some of which improve him (the route to better ideas, firstly, comes of having more ideas). He has a high physical IQ; he senses another man’s intentions at least as soon as those intentions get set. He keeps his personality out the way – he knows what it is and requires to be great at something and knows th’t he, like most of us, hasn’t the resources to make a great spokesman. He takes chances, hitting and getting hit early in matches, the faster to assess the men across from him. He is ambitious; much lesser talents than “Bud’s” have made gainful livings staying in one weightclass to gorge on smaller men.

And he is mean.

There are myriad socioeconomic factors that make Crawford the perfect concoction this moment locates him as, but not one of them needs excavation here.

(Been thinking a good bit about machine learning lately, and its contemporary sexed-up alias, artificial intelligence, and the more seriously one considers such things the quicker and more frequently he returns to Arthur Samuel’s checkers-playing program, nearly 60 years-old now, and an idea occasionally lost in contemporary celebrations of Samuel’s other remarkable ideas like alpha-beta pruning. The idea goes like this: The entirety of any piece’s relevant history in a game of checkers is contained in its current position on the board. Human minds have way, way more processing and storage power than Samuel’s hardware did, obviously, and likely way more processing power than even today’s liberal approximations assign them, but the metaphor is instructive just the same: Everything that made Terence Crawford what he is was cumulatively contained Saturday in the 26 1/2 minutes he spent unbelting Horn.)

There may be contentment or at least satisfaction in relating things Crawford did to their histories but not joy. Here’s joy: When Crawford stuck Horn to the body in round 8 and an instant later you chucklecoughed or whistled alone in a room. That moment for one, other moments for others, canceled the argument – no conditions, no comparisons, no reductions, no history.

We are blessed as aficionados right now to have at the highest level of our sport – a level shared by Crawford and Vasyl Lomachenko, hard stop – two men who cancel the argument for those of us who enjoy sports primarily for their making us present, not giving us identities (I’m someone who knows things) or outlets (helps me forget the ways others have wronged me) or income.

Crawford did so many things so well Saturday. He placed fast, precise combinations – middle knuckle of fist within a quarter’s radius of intended target – and converted possibilities to openings. He bullied the larger man, walking Horn backwards without once pleading backwards for official intervention; he took Horn’s initiative, to remind Crawford every second he was in a fight, not an athletic spectacle, and amplified it, ensuring Horn felt in every clinch Crawford’s sinews. No give, no defensiveness.

He remanded Horn to a corner every three minutes for 60 seconds of doubting his handlers’ expertise – yes, I will leap off this stool filled with positive thoughts, I promise I will, but in another minute or two, that guy you told me wasn’t my better is going to start hitting me again, not you, so thanks for the water, I guess?

He lashed Horn’s belly with left crosses and hooks and uppercuts no one hit Horn with before. Horn reacted like a man prepared to be hit in ways he didn’t prepare for, prepared to remind his body everything was all right with stiffening thoughts galore, but since you can’t outthink a feeling no amount of thinking could enduringly offset what painful signals Horn’s body sent in torrents.

This is where physical IQ trumps intellect in every fight; Bud Crawford probably couldn’t put it in a poem or a paragraph or a painting (nor could Horn), but in hot blood Crawford’s mind knew where to put his knuckle on Horn’s body to stop the flow of actionable thoughts to and from Horn’s brain, a brain, one must remember, roted to continue that flow of actionable thoughts no matter how torrential the signals bubbling up from his body. Horn didn’t interrupt Crawford’s thoughts but a fraction so often.

Crawford enjoyed Horn’s diminishment. He felt Horn relenting and smiled.

This is what makes men like Crawford (or Mayweather or Marquez or Hopkins) exceptional; where something like empathy for a man being stripped publicly of his dignity begins to drain others, such a stripping makes the purest fighters euphoric. It transcends professionalism: I’m not doing this because it’s my job, no, I’m doing this because I like hurting you. You can’t really teach this; for who that knew how to teach it could conscience doing so? Those who would say they can teach it mistake sadism and chance for a template.

Herein lies the distinction between Crawford and Lomachenko, the world’s two best fighters, ranked numbers 1 and 1: Where one senses Lomachenko learned to hurt men for glory’s sake, Crawford glories in hurting men.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Follow all the action live as Jeff Horn defends the WBO Welterweight Title against 3-division world champion Terence Crawford.  The action kicks off at 9:30 PM ET / 6:30 PM PT /11:30 AM in Brisbane with a lightweight battle between Jose Pedraza and Antonio Moran.

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Round 1: Left from Crawford…Right by Horn..Right hook from Crawford..Good exchange..Crawford lands a combination

Round 2 Left to body from Crawford..Straight left..Left from Horn

Round 3 Right Hook from Crawford..Exchange in middle of ring..Double jab..Right from Horn…Left from Crawford,,Hard left..Jab..Left..Jab…good left and a combination..Blood over right eye of Horn

Round 4 Left by Crawford

Round 5 Combinations from Crawford…Horn trying but not getting much done

Round 6 3 punch combination..Uppercut with the left hand.Good body shot..Hard body shot

Round 7 Double right from Horn..Inside left from Crawford..Lead left..Left to body..Left uppercut

Round 8  Crawford lands a left to the body..left hook..Left..3 huge shots wobbles Horn..Huge shots Rocks Horn at the bell

Round 9 Left from Crawford…left..big RIGHT AND A BIG LEFT AND DOWN GOES HORN...2 BIG LEFTS..HORN GOING BACK TO THE ROPES AND THE FIGHT IS STOPPED

Round 1 Left from Pedraza..Right drives Moran off balance..Moran lands a body shot..Combination..Left..Right from Pedraza..

Round 2  Blood from the bridge of nose from Moran..Uppercut from Pedraza..Moran landing combinations..Good exchange

Round 3 Pedraza lands a right

Round 4 Over hand right from Pedraza..Moran lands a right over the top..Hard right..Body shot..Nice left from Pedraza

Round 5 Lead right from Pedraza..jab and right

Round 6 Right from Pedraza…

Round 7 Right from Moran..Right..Hard body shot and combination from Pedraza..Jab from Moran..Pedraza landsa left to the body

Round 8 Body shot from Pedraza..Right..Hard left..Double drives Moran back

Round 9 Pedraza lands a short left on inside..uppercut..Sweeping left

Round 10 

96-94 ON ALL CARDS FOR JOSE PEDRAZA

Follow all the action as former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury makes his return after almost 3 years out of the ring when he takes on Sefer Seferi.  The action kicks off at 4:30 PM ET / 9:30 PM in the UK with the WBO Junior Welterweight title bout between undefeated fighters Terry Flanagan and Maurice Hooker.

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Round 1:Good jab from Fury

Round 2 Right from Seferi..Fury warned for too much clowning..Good right from Fury..Short right

Round 3  Right and left from Seferi..Right from Fury

Round 4 Body shot from Fury..Right from Seferi..Combination from Fury…Uppercut

Round 5 FIGHT STOPPED IN CORNER…WINNER VIA TKO—TYSON FURY

Round 1 Jab from Flanagan…Right from Hooker..Jab..Left..

Round 2 Left from Flanagan..Right from Hooker..Good left..Left to body from Flanagan..Right from Hooker..Good straight left from Flanagan..Right from Hooker

Round 3 Left from Flanagan..Left to body..Left..left

Round 4 Left from Flanagan..Right from Hooker…Right

Round 5 Good right from Hooker..Referee warns Flanagan for headbutts…Good left from Flanagan..2 rights from Hooker and another one..Body shot..body shot

Round 6 Right from Hooker..Body shot from Flanagan..Right from Hooker..Body shot from Flanagan

Round 7 Big left from Flanagan..Flangan is cut on forehead and around right eye..Straight left from Flanagan..Uppercut..Straight left..Big left..Good right and combination from Hooker..

Round 8 Good right from Hooker..Right..Good body shot..Right on ropes from Flanagan..Left..Combination and right from Hooker

Round 9 Good body shot from Flanagan..Combination from Hooker

Round 10 Left hook from Hooker..Left from Flanagan..Left from Flanagan

Round 11 Flanagan lands a body shot

Round 12 Flanagan lands a big flurry..Big uppercut from Hooker..Good left hook..Body shot..Good right..

115-113 Hooker…117-111 Flanagan…117-111 Hooker

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – Surprises came early for Jeff Horn. There was one on the scale Friday, more than 24 hours before the opening bell Saturday against pound-for-pound contender Terence Crawford.

Horn stepped on the scale once, then twice. First, he was a pound heavier than the welterweight limit at 148.

Off came the shorts and up came a long black curtain. Naked, Horn was back on the scale, but still a half-pound too heavy at 147.5 to defend the World Boxing Organization’s version of the welterweight title at the MGM Grand in an ESPN+ televised bout (6:30 p.m. PT/9:30 p.m. ET).

One more chance awaited. If he missed the weight a third time, however, he was out, an ex-champ before the heavily-favored Crawford would ever have a chance to turn him into one.

But after a warm shower and a trip to the bathroom, Horn was back 45 minutes later. No problem. No penalty. He even kept his shorts, along with his belt, this time, making weight without a digit to spare. The Australian was at 147-even. Crawford was at 146.5 in his first and only trip to the scale for his welterweight debut.

What exactly happened, however, wasn’t clear. The Queenslander from Brisbane didn’t blame the extra weight on a bit too much Vegemite on his morning muffin. He questioned the scale.

`We tested on the official set from Top Rank and my weight was fine,’’ Horn told Australian media moments after making the weight. “I think there was something up their sleeve because Crawford was just under the weight and I was just over. We thought we’d calibrated our scales to the correct weight, but they’ve tricked us. There was a bit of play with the scales.’’

Three fighters on the undercard also missed weight by small margins. The weigh-in drama, intentional or not, didn’t appear to rattle Horn, however. If anything, it emboldened him.

“I could see, face-to-face with Terence, he was a bit rattled,’’ said Horn, who will make a second defense of the belt he took from Manny Pacquiao Down Under in a controversial stunner last July. “He’s shaking. I’m calm. I’m fine. I think they think I’m a bit mentally weaker than I actually am. This stuff’s all part of it, I know it.”

Horn believes there’s a bit of play with the betting odds, too. Horn says he is surprised that Crawford is so heavily favored at minus-950.

“I’m the bigger fighter,’’ said Horn (18-0-1, 12 KOs), whose contract filed with the Nevada Athletic Commission includes a $500,000 purse. Horn’s final check is expected to be $1.25 million.

Crawford’s contract with the Commission lists a $1.75 million check. He’s expected to wind up with $3 million.

The difference in size is said to be Horn’s biggest, perhaps only advantage against the multi-dimensional Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs), a former lightweight and junior-welterweight champion. The weigh-in left a question about whether Horn would try to maximize his advantage in size by adding as much weight as possible in the hours before opening bell.

“I expect to him to be about 70 kilos,’’ Horn trainer Glenn Rushton said.

That’s 154.3 pounds, if you believe the scale.

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – Despite mounting doubts about his reflexes, speed and durability, there’s still plenty of power in Manny Pacquiao’s name. Celebrity is the last thing to go these days. But don’t mistake Terence Crawford for Pacquiao. Crawford doesn’t have any of Pacquiao’s celebrity. He’s not exactly the nice guy Pacquiao is, either.

Not that Crawford cares.

For now, at least, Crawford is not seeking Pacquiao’s kind of global celebrity or personal likability. It sounds as if another wicked stoppage would be enough. And that’s exactly what Crawford is pursuing Saturday night at the MGM Grand in his welterweight debut against Jeff Horn, once an unknown Aussie who is in Las Vegas this week because of his controversial decision over Pacquiao in Brisbane nearly a year ago.

“I’m not Manny Pacquiao,’’ Crawford said Thursday at a news conference in a matter-of-fact tone. “I’m bigger. I’m stronger.

“I’m in my prime. And that’s gonna show, come Saturday. A lot of people are comparing how he pushed around Pacquiao. But that’s not me.’’

Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs), who is ranked No.2 behind Vasiliy Lomachenko in most pound-for-pound debates, is heavily favored – minus-950 at Vegas books late Thursday — to take the 147-pound belt that Horn (18-0-1, 12 KOs) took from Pacquiao last July. Some foresee the ESPN+ featured bout (6:30 pm PT/9:30 pm ET) as a showcase for the world’s next dominant welterweight. Errol Spence might have something to say about that. But more on him at a later date.

“We’re here to take over at 147,’’ Crawford trainer Brian McIntryre said. “Jeff just happens to be there, happens to be the first victim.’’

But there’s a theory that Horn’s size, rugged strength and bullish tactics will make the Top Rank-promoted Crawford regret that he decided to venture into a heavier division.

“We think Top Rank erred,’’ Horn promoter Dean Lonergan said. “We think Top Rank put Crawford in against the wrong guy.’’

It’s a matter of record that Top Rank put Pacquiao in against the wrong guy last summer. In a long, bruising 12 rounds Down Under last July, Horn punished Pacquiao in ways that nobody has. But it was a different Pacquiao. The Filipino Senator looked tentative. The fighter in all of those Bruce Lee-like poses from a decade ago look like a shrunken version of who and what he had been. He sure didn’t look like himself and it’s safe to safe he didn’t look anything like the Crawford Horn figures to see Saturday.

It’s as if we’re only beginning to see Crawford’s many dimensions, including an evident like for the brutal task of breaking down an opponent. There’s a mean streak in eyes that elicit their damage with hands that Crawford delivers with equal speed and accuracy. Right or left doesn’t matter. Crawford uses both, leads with either in an almost seamless switch, with lethal precision. Then, he smiles. It’s a deadly combo.

Yeah, Horn is bigger. Crawford is shorter by about an inch, a listed 5-foot-8 to Horn’s 5-9, which was more than three inches taller than Pacquiao (5-5 ½). The more significant tale on the tape, however, is in reach. The shorter Crawford has that advantage by two inches, 70 to Horn’s 68, in an edge that figures to multiply very quickly with a two-handed attack.

By Bart Barry-

Three fights happen across nine timezones Saturday in a crescendo of sorts before boxing’s summer ritual ends much of our fun. Going least essential to most, Tyson Fury returns against someone named Sefer Seferi in England, Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares finally rematch in Los Angeles, and Jeff Horn defends his fraction of the world’s welterweight championship against Terence Crawford in Las Vegas. If none of these events is great or particularly consequential, none is bad either, and all three should entertain.

This was going to be a piece about how much better than the rest of us a gay novelist can describe the movements of a man’s body – for glancing through a lens of avarice – then a glance at next week’s docket undid those plans. As we round the bend and race towards our seasonless sport’s annual doldrums wisdom advises against spending boxingless ideas the week before three compelling things happen. Fear not, though, an attempt to explore and celebrate a sexualized description of the male form will happen at least before GolovCanelo 2 does.

MGM Grand becomes Hornet’s Nest Northern Hemisphere this week as Aussie hoards ascend on Las Vegas, one hopes, to see their man defend his WBO title against one of today’s two best fighters. This marks Terence Crawford’s debut at 147 pounds, and it’s not a particularly easy one mainly for this reason: Horn’s first prizefight happened against a man who weighed 154 1/2 pounds, while Crawford’s first opponent weighed 138.

This three-weightclasses difference might mean less if Horn were a boxer or a slugger – since Crawford could slug his way through a long cutie or use defense and footwork to dissuade a onetrick puncher. But Horn’s a volume guy, a physical one, who expects to get hit often by men who likely punch harder than, if not accurately as, Crawford. The angles and stanceswitching tricks Crawford uses to disarm then attack smaller men mightn’t make much difference to Horn. So long as some part of Crawford is somewhere in front of Horn, regardless which part is in front of the other, expect Horn to hit that part. Horn cuts easily, and Crawford is very good at what he does, so there’s little chance Horn makes it to the closing bell, and even littler chance Vegas judges give him what doubtful benefits judges do in Brisbane, but the match should be fun.

The competing priorities of ESPN’s app launch and < $5.99 pay-per-view price (if you combine “Nature Boy”, noticeably better than “Andre the Giant”, for an adult anyway, with Horn-Crawford, you’re paying 95-percent less than you paid for Crawford-Postol) leave only one worry, which returns, as usual, to commentary. If ESPN plays it straight, tempering the crew’s admiration for Crawford with investigative stories about Horn’s having a father, all will be fine, regardless of outcome. But if ESPN has already decided Crawford must win because promoter Top Rank promised he would and having the world’s two best fighters on the network overwhelms every other consideration, things could go staggeringly sideways, the way they did when Horn narrowly upset Manny Pacquiao and widely upset Teddy Atlas.

Nothing so untoward will happen on Showtime when boxing’s best broadcast team covers Santa Cruz-Mares 2, a rematch no one considers anymore essential but everyone has a reasonable expectation will be safe and busy as their first match. Neither man has suffered an unavenged loss in the nearly three years since their first fight, but their promotional and managerial situation precludes either man from maintaining professional momentum. Santa Cruz now fights every eight months – a rate of activity at which Mares gazes lustfully. After PBC paid ESPN to televise the men’s first scrap, aficionados suspected the delay that followed was attributable to PBC’s having to save up to buy another broadcaster for the rematch, but evidently we were wrong. Santa Cruz would return six months later to beatdown Kiko Martinez and Mares would go underground for 16 months.

Much as both men rely on activity the more active fighter will win Saturday, and that should be Santa Cruz. The gloves will look too big and the rounds will meld together, but the match will have action enough for someone to mistake it for 2018’s fight of the year, until at least July.

That leaves only the return of boxing’s clown king, Tyson Fury, on a Saturday afternoon card illegally streaming from Manchester. It has been 2 1/2 years since England’s enormous lunatic decisioned Wladimir Klitschko and everything has changed about the heavyweight division except Fury. There have been suspensions and cancellations and rehabilitations and protestations, but Fury is unbowed, genuine and loony as he was ages ago when he became heavyweight champion of the world. He’s either out of shape or in the shape of his life for his return against an unknown man with whom he hopes to log rounds. He is publicly vulnerable in a way one does not expect a 6-foot-9 and 247-274-pound professional fighter to be, and so he wins fans’ forgiveness for being likable. He is capable of decisioning any man in the world, too, including Anthony Joshua, and likely as not to denude Deontay Wilder, 120-108, if ever PBC’s poverty forces such an encounter.

Frankly Wilder-Fury is the fight we deserve, whatever better match we happen to want, a reasonable man who fights crazy against a crazy man who fights reasonable, and both men grasp their division is about spectacle much as merit – while AJ’s dignity precludes his being less or more than a rolemodel, however little boxing fans honestly ever want such a thing.

Writing of which, let’s see if we can collect some clicks in this, our new, legalized-sports-betting country:

Crawford stops Horn on cuts in round 11.

Santa Cruz decisions Mares 115-113, 113-115, 115-113.

Fury TKOs Seferi with a somersault punch in round 7.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

By Norm Frauenheim-

Stalled negotiations for a Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin rematch are diverting attention and headlines away from two intriguing fights – Abner Mares-Leo Santa Cruz II in Los Angeles and Terence Crawford’s welterweight debut against Jeff Horn in Las Vegas, both on June 9.

It reminds me of an old line: The only thing killing boxing is boxing. It is the flaw, the proverbial glass jaw, that always seems to undercut a chaotic business that just can’t get out of its own way.

Television ratings have been promising this year, especially on ESPN. There’s an audience of young fans in America’s changing demographics. There’s looming interest in Crawford, Mikey Garcia, Vasiliy Lomachenko, Santa Cruz, Mares, Oscar Valdez Jr., Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder.

But today the business is being held hostage by talk that has been about percentages. According to various reports, GGG wants an equitable split, 50-50, since Canelo’s positive PED tests and subsequent withdrawal from a rematch that was supposed to happen on May 5. Canelo’s Golden Boy reps are reportedly standing by numbers they said were the terms of the initial deal, 65 percent for Canelo and 35 for GGG.

Those are numbers that are interesting only if you’re shopping for a new mortgage. Fans, I suspect, only want to know there’s a date and place for an opening bell.

In the here and now, who knows. There has only been a chilling silence for the last week. As I write this, there have been no reports talks have resumed.

I keep thinking back to GGG’s comment a couple of days before his swift, second-round stoppage of Vanes Martirosyan on May 5 at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. Then, he said there was only a 10 percent chance that a rematch of their controversial draw last September would happen.

Then, it sounded like an opening line in re-setting the table for a new deal in the controversial wake of the Canelo PED controversy, which includes an ongoing, Nevada Athletic Commission-imposed suspension that will end in mid-August. Now, it sounds like a prediction,

I can only hope he’s wrong. At the time, there appears to be some sympathy for his attempt to get more favorable terms. Fifty-fifty looks unlikely. Canelo still ranks as the bigger draw and becomes more of one because of the controversy that now surrounds him.

But a better deal for GGG only seems fair, especially after the cancellation of the May 5 bout. GGG had no hand in the cancellation and, in fact, fought for a reported $1 million guarantee against Martirosyan on the same day. GGG’s promotional rep, Tom Loeffler of K-2, suggested that the Nevada Commission should have levied a fine against Canelo in addition to the suspension. The Commission said a fine was not possible, because Canelo’s positive PED tests in February were not related to a fight that had already happened in the state.

Still, Loeffler said damage had been done to GGG. The only way to get some of it back is through negotiations. Thus far, however, Golden Boy has yet to buy any of it. Hard to know where it goes next, if anywhere.

No rematch is a loss for just about everybody. Hardcore fans will eventually move on to Crawford, Lomachenko, Garcia, Santa Cruz, Mares, Valdez, Joshua and Wilder. But causal fans will again have another reason to stay away.

Meanwhile, no deal for a sequel on September 15 is reason to wonder whether there will ever be a rematch. GGG has bigger global footprint than Canelo. The Kazak fighter, whose pro career started in Germany and includes stops in Monaco, could go to Tokyo for good money against Ryota Murata.

There are also opportunities for Canelo, although the rumored one is bound to get only boos. Spike O’Sullivan? Really? Arguments over a proposed purse split are more interesting.

Billy Joe Saunders also has been mentioned. But both GGG and Canelo need to be careful about the emerging UK middleweight. Saunders has a chance to beat both. GGG has begun to display some wear and tear. At 27, Canelo continues to fight in spurts. Fatigue just might be part of his genetic make-up.

But it’ll get him beat, just as surely as time will eventually beat GGG, who will be 37 next April.

A year or two from now, GGG and Canelo could come back to talk with a loss or two between them and a lot less on the table.

The time is now.

By Bart Barry-

I was up before dawn Friday morning to begin the day for 20 minutes before I remembered I was up to watch my first live event on ESPN+, boxing’s newest app: Japan’s Naoya Inoue versus England’s Jamie McDonnell for yet another historic title attempt, this time at bantamweight. Such historic offerings happen no worse than monthly in our sport anymore, though history must record May and ESPN as twice-historic for their two historic broadcasts.

At great risk to my credibility as a surveyor of historic happenings, I must concede I do not recall before seeing McDonnell in a prizefighting ring. Which is to write my first impression of him was indeed a pathetic one. This is troubling because in order for me to certify Inoue as a historic talent I should first see him ply his wares against a competent opponent if not a historic one.

Call it stubbornly unfashionable but an undefeated puncher blasting his way through a boxer titlist in six or fewer punches heralds, for me, great matchmaking much as great punching. Time will tell how wrong I am about Inoue.

The ESPN+ app itself has a pleasantly lowbudget feel to it; my favorite part of Friday’s telecast was when some visionary made the decision to stop promoting upcoming mismatches flummery and simply go to a blank screen with a mainevent start time at the bottom. Would that we had more such honesty; we’ve run through our contingency material and welcome you, dear viewer, to set an alarm and go do something better with your time.

And now, dear writer, you may do the very same . . .

*

I am not a Philip Roth scholar or interested in being mistaken for one. I flatter myself to believe he influenced me during the year or so I read nearly all his works in 2003 or 2004. I later read his later works as they came out, thinking, I’m sure inappropriately, “The Plot Against America” was his worst novel since “Portnoy’s Complaint” (though “Our Gang” was proper dreadful, too) – and nearly every other of the novels he published after 2004, “Everyman” and “Exit Ghost” and “Indignation” and “The Humbling”, were excavation vehicles for incomplete scenes from his masterwork, “Sabbath’s Theater”.

That is the work of Roth I return to and return to for its relentlessness, for its boundless pleasure in offending, for its desecration of everything it encounters. Its arc is a parabola. I’m sure when I first read it, when it was about sex and sex and sex, I didn’t believe a writer could sustain such a pace for 30 pages much less 300 (years later, when I returned to it, I read death and death and death).

Here’s my favorite passage in all American literature, presented without context but deliciously offensive for those familiar with what precedes it:

“It couldn’t have ended otherwise. Final proof that life is perfect. Knows where it’s going every inch of the way. No, human life must not be extinguished. No one could come up with anything like it again.”

There’s not a Zuckerman-narrated novel I didn’t enjoy, though if pressed for a Roth book to rate immediately behind Sabbath, I’d probably choose “Operation Shylock” for its originality. I’m not a Jew or a misogynist or a feminist or whatever other political identify makes one cheer or boo Roth. I enjoyed Roth’s books as an American, and for me he is the quintessential American author of the last 40 years. He began with a tight ethno-religious identity and transcended it, first-person to third-. And that maneuver, first-person to third-, is the technique I enjoy most of his: First-person introduces an informality that permits the narrator later intrude on his story whenever he wishes, however formal its third-person progression.

At his worst Roth is political and screechy, a parody of himself recognized by itself, a product of the idealism of his times – at his worst, he just can’t help himself. The rest and best of the time he is mock heroic; Zuckerman behind drunken Jaga in “The Anatomy Lesson”, Mickey Sabbath as he “passeth the time, pretending to think without punctuation, the way J. Joyce pretended people thought . . .” Serious literature done by a writer whose narrators made you laugh at them.

Where does Roth rate in the canon of literary blah, blah, blah? Who, for heaven’s sake, cares! One should rate what he reads according to what joy it brings him, and to hell with every single other consideration.

Are you able to return to an author’s words and enjoy them more than once? Then you’ve found your version of great literature. Ranking art against itself is an empty, academic game, a game Roth subjected a character to when he wished torture that character a wee bit, like he did, and often, to Coleman Silk in “The Human Stain” – Rage!

Roth went gracefully, not tragically, when his time came. He stopped writing almost a decade before he passed, absolving his obituarists any cookiecutter lamentations about how much more he had to give. He wrote what he had, justified his gifts, and brought joy to his readers. It could have ended otherwise, but thankfully it did not.

*

Thus far in 2018 Showtime and ESPN are the two indispensable networks for aficionados. ESPN+ certainly is not that yet but might become so. Eddie Hearn’s DAZN is not likely to become indispensable this year, but it might. Which makes one premium network glaringly dispensable, does it not?

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

By Norm Frauenheim-

I kept reminding myself of that fundamental Thursday after hearing that President Trump pardoned Jack Johnson, who a century ago served 10 months in federal prison for transporting a white woman across state lines “for immoral purposes.” It was a conviction rooted in that era’s racism.

A pardon was the right thing to do, and maybe that’s where we should leave it. Yet, there is skepticism, here and elsewhere, because of the timing. Trump issued the pardon at precisely the same time African-American activists are criticizing him and the National Football League, which this week announced it would fine teams with players who continue to protest by taking a knee during the national anthem.

Last year, Trump noisily ripped players who refused to stand for the anthem, urging owners to fire them. Critics see the NFL’s move this week as acquiescence. Trump praised the NFL for a policy that would allow players to stay in the locker room during the anthem. Trump also said, almost in an aside, that players not willing to stand for the anthem maybe “shouldn’t be in the country.’’

The NFL decision sets the stage for another long season of discontent, full of further charges that Trump is a racist. On the same day that the debate re-ignited, however, Trump pardoned Johnson, the original name in a compelling history of African-American athletes, including Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali, John Carlos and Tommie Smith.

Today, however, Trump has a counter he didn’t have a few days ago. He pardoned Johnson.

Barack Obama could have, should have, and yet history’s first African-American president didn’t issue the overdue order for reasons that have never been very clear.

One was repeated Thursday in the New York Times, which reported that “the Obama administration passed on pardoning Johnson, citing in part allegations of domestic violence against women.’’

Huh? When have there ever been pardons for allegations? If there were, Trump would have already pardoned himself multiple times. Maybe, century-old allegations are more a matter for archaeologists and historians than current law.

Guess here is that the Obama administration decided it didn’t want to waste time or money on a pardon for a historical figure in a sport that – even in good times — has been a guilty pleasure for some and an outrage for others.

But the pardon was necessary. The Mann Act was no allegation. It was the racist law that put Johnson behind bars for crossing state lines with a woman named Belle Schreiber, who had worked as a prostitute and had dated the heavyweight champion.

Arizona Senator John McCain knew it was a wrong that had to be acknowledged when he and New York Representative Peter King introduced a resolution a decade ago to pardon Johnson, who 100 years earlier – 1908 – sparked a furious search for The Great White Hope after he won the heavyweight title in a victory over Canadian Tommy Burns in Sydney Australia. Two years later — 1910, he beat the designated Great White Hope, American Jim Jeffries, in Reno. In 1913, the Mann Act was the only Great White Hope that could stop Johnson. He was convicted by an all-white jury, left the country and returned in 1920, only to wind up in jail for nearly a year.

“Mr. Johnson’s conviction was motivated by nothing more than the color of his skin,” McCain and King said in a statement about 10 years ago. “As such, it not only injured his family, but also our nation as a whole.”

About a decade later, there is profound irony that McCain’s long and worthy pursuit of the pardon would finally end with Trump granting it. Enmity between Trump and the ailing McCain is hardly a secret these days.

But I suspect the ailing McCain, a boxer during his days at the Naval Academy, welcomes the pardon more than he would an apology from the Trump administration for the ghoulish joke about him dying a few weeks ago. There also has never been an apology from Trump himself for his mocking dismissal of McCain’s experience as a Viet Nam prisoner-of-war. Early in the last presidential campaign, Trump said he preferred people “who weren’t captured.’’

Yet, McCain has a win, thanks to a president he doesn’t like. The contempt is mutual. But, again, boxing and politics also mean that your worst enemy can sometimes be your best friend. Just be sure to protect yourself. All the time.

By Bart Barry-

One doesn’t know when the urge to experimentalism will strike but one learns indulge it until he learns not to (many efforts before he learns to indulge it once more, in the doubly helical way of creative and open systems). Saturday’s aficionado’s buffet – Lee Selby versus Josh Warrington and Gary Russell versus Joseph Diaz, for featherweight titles, and Adonis Stevenson versus Badou Jack for the light heavyweight championship – present a clean enough roster to explore biases and their possible origins.

This column happens in a coffeeshop as it has for a number of years now, ever since I discovered making the process a reward itself was more sustainable than making the process a thing that merits reward; a decade of Sunday morning procrastinations followed by struggles followed by coffeeshop rewards accidentally gave way to an obvious solution that became such only once it happened accidentally. Then a minor epiphany followed: It’s more fun, if not demonstrably better, to write in a loud and bustling place, and to allow the noises and bustles seep in the column, than run the fool’s errand of sealing your system off – what happens when one’s weekly fears shift from being blocked to being bored.

There are echoes and architectural debates and orders and gossiping happening all round – “flood zones” gets articulated but won’t be used – the workaday wanderings of a mind that spent 25 senseless minutes on haploid cells before sending himself northwards to one of the five coffeeshops of the Sunday morning circuit. The irony of exchanging, or having exchanged for us, immortality for rapid improvement, to become fitter, though alas no more adaptable, than bacteria, sets itself outside of irony for preceding irony by a few hundred million years.

No segue. No bridge.

I didn’t care who would win Warrington-Selby for at least a round. Then it became apparent via observation and commentary Warrington was the shorter busier guy, the volume-puncher to Selby’s boxer, and I began to favor Warrington. I’ve been the shorter busier guy far more often than the taller craftier one, and I initially cheer for whomever reminds me of myself, like you do, though not quite inflexibly as Roy Jones does.

Whither the ancient journalistic ideal of unbias? I’m no longer sure it exists or ever did; bias precedes interest a bit like friction precedes motion. Until we have a thought to prove or disprove, I suspect, we’re daydreaming.

No sooner was Selby bleeding from beside both eyes then I began rooting for Selby in the same halfhearted way I rooted for Warrington. Then Selby and Warrington bled together as different arms and legs of the same general body and I began to root for a fair decision, to root halfheartedly for prizefighting itself, until the decision got read. Then I took a nap.

No segue.

I didn’t care who would win Russell-Diaz for a round and a half. I believed Russell was way overrated when HBO hardsold him to us 6 1/2 years ago the same way I believed Vasyl Lomachenko was way overrated when HBO hardsold him to us four years ago. Then they fought, and by virtue of Lomachenko’s victory Lomachenko could no longer be overrated as Russell.

I interviewed Jose Ramirez six years ago for The Ring magazine and wondered if the California-born U.S. Olympian with a last name ending in ‘z’ mightn’t be Diaz until I spent a few minutes looking that up Sunday morning (since I stopped caring if he was, a minute into round 2 Saturday night). The guy I interviewed was too polished by half, too entrepreneurial, too much about branding, to show what composure Diaz showed 30 seconds into Russell’s flashassault on his gloves Saturday.

I’m so tired of hearing about handspeed, Russell’s or anyone else’s. Maybe because I can’t relate. Maybe because I think it’s an unimaginative way to describe a prizefighter – one doesn’t cultivate handspeed any more than he cultivates height or eyecolor.

Russell’s hometown crowd’s cheering his brief show of exhausting ineffectiveness in round 2 made me cheer against him. Then Diaz’s aggressive reply made me stop caring if Diaz was the young branding executive I spoke with in 2012. I continued to cheer for Diaz until the ninth or 10th round, when by virtue of Russell’s not wilting, howsoever many Diaz bodyshots made Russell’s narrow waste crinkle, I decided Russell was doing something very clever to disarm Diaz. The final round I cheered for suspense, and therefore Diaz, but I didn’t mind the decision.

And I admire Russell for giving himself a C+ and being vulnerable about what vulnerable knuckles keep him inactive. While we lament a talent wasted by indolence Russell finds solace and pride in concealed deficiencies overcome.

No bridge.

I didn’t care who would win Stevenson-Jack for its entirety – an acknowledged disinterest influenced in part by the hour when the match’s opening bell rang. At times I wanted the 40-year-old southpaw to do something reckless and violent with his left hand and end the fight because the fight was not entertaining most of its duration. Later I wanted Jack to wearout the old man and end Stevenson’s deeply unsatisfactory reign as world’s lineal light heavyweight champion.

I wanted to cheer for Stevenson because he won his title the right way, lest we forget, mowerstrapping a talented champion favored to outclass him easily, and because Stevenson has a certain roguish charisma, but finally I couldn’t because Stevenson is neither talented nor active enough to bias me. Stevenson obviously received the draw like a victory, not because he thought he won the fight, unconscious as he was when it ended, but because he got to leave the Canadian ring with his title, ensuring one more championsized purse.

Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev, today, form a pair of prizefighters that stands further from a once-desired rivalry than anyone does.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Follow all the action as Adonis Stevenson defends the WBC Light Heavyweight title against Badou Jack.  The action begins around 11 PM ET / 8 PM PT

NO BROWSER REFRESH NEEDED.  THE PAGE WILL UPDATE AUTOMATICALLY 

Round 1: Stevenson lands a left

Round 2 Straight left from Stevenson..Left..Jack lands a jab..

Round 3 Jack lands a right to the body.  Another..Stevenson lands..Right from Jack..left from Stevenson..

Round 4 Right from Jack..right to body..Right to body..jab..Right..Left uppercut from Stevenson..

Round 5 Left hook from Jack..Right and left to body from Stevenson..Uppercut..Right uppercut from Jack..Right..Stevenson works on the inside

Round 6 Left to body from Stevenson..Lead uppercut and right hook..Counter right from Jack..Sweeping left from Stevenson..right to body..Straight left..Right uppercut from Jack..2 left hooks from Jack..Right from Stevenson

Round 7 Good right Jack..Counter right from Stevenson..Right from Jack..Good right

Round 8 Jab from Stevenson..Left..Jab from Jack..Jack warned for a low blow..Short left from Stevenson..Quick combination from Jack..right…left from Stevenson..2 rights from Jack

Round 9 Short right to body from Jack..Left from Stevenson..Left and right snaps Stevenson head back..Right from Jack

Round 10 Left hook from Jack..Right uppercut.Right..Stevenson lands a couple shots

Round 11 Stevenson lands a body shot..Left hook from Jack..right to body..Jack backpedaling..2 rights from Jack..Right hook from Stevenson..Right from Jack..Body shot..Left uppercut from Stevenson..Jab and combination from Jack..

Round 12 Good uppercut from Jack..Lead left from Stevenson..Uppercut on inside from Jack..Right hook from Stevenson..Jack lands a right to the body..Over hand right..

115-113 JACK; 114-114 TWICE —DRAW

Follow all the action as Gary Russell Jr. defends the WBC Featherweight title against Joseph Diaz, Jr in a battle of former U.S Olympians.  The action begins at 10:05 Et / 7:05 PT

NO BROWSER REFRESH NEEDED.  THE PAGE WILL UPDATE AUTOMATICALLY 

Round 1: Double jab from Russell..Jab to body..Diaz lands a left to body

Round 2 Right hook from Russell..Jab from Diaz…Good left..3 punch combination..Body shot from Russell..Left uppercut on inside…Diaz lands a right to the body Combination to the body..right to the head..Left to head..Left to body..left to jaw..Double left hand..body shot

Round 3 Left uppercut in inside from Russell..Counter left from Diaz..Lopping left from Russell..Counter left from Diaz….Body shot..Nice left..

Round 4 Combination from Diaz..Nice body shot and another..Right from Russell…Right to body from Diaz..Left to jaw from Russell..

Round 5 Jab from Russell..Left from Diaz..Good combination..Right to the body..Counter left..Good body shots and nice uppercut

Round 6 Combination from Russell..Left from Diaz..Right to the body..Nice combination..Left..Body work from Russell..Double right from Diaz..Double jab and over hand left…Counter right from Russell..Combination..

Round 7 Jab..from Russell..1-2…

Round 8 Left hook from Russell…Left to body..Nice left from Diaz..Jab from Russell..Left from Diaz..Double right from Diaz..

Round 9 Double jab from Russell

Round 10 Counter left from Diaz..Left to body..Double left hand..Ripping combination from Russell..Good counter from Diaz..

Round 11 Russell pot shotting..Body shots from Diaz..2 rights from Russell..body and head from Diaz..uppercuts exchanged on the inside..Left cross from Russell

Follow all the action as Lee Selby defends the IBF Featherweight title against Josh Warrington from Leeds, England.  The action kicks off at 5 PM ET / 2 PM ET / 10 PM in Great Britain

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Round 1: Trading left hands..Right from Warrington

Round 2 Good jab from Selby..2 good rights from Warrington..Selby is cut over the left eye..Hard left and right from Warrington…Good left hook to body from Selby..Good right from Selby..Right and left bucked Warrington..Cut caused by accidental clash of heads.

Round 3 Straight right from Warrington..Right..Right and left uppercut from Selby..Left hook..Good right..Right

Round 4 Good left from Selby…Double left from Warrington…Sneaky right from Warrington..Good left lead..2 body shots…Good left hook..Right from Selby

Round 5 Jab from Warrington..Straight right from Selby..Left from Warrington..Solid right..Good left hook from Selby…1-2..Good left from Warrington

Round 6  Good right from Selby..Good right…Right from Warrington..Left and right to the head..Good right..Doctor checking on cut as Selby is now cut around his right eye..Great combination from Warrington..

Round 7 Good body shot from Selby..Good body shot from Warrington..3 punch combination from Selby..Jab from Warrington..Good left to body from Selby…

Round 8 Good jab from Warrington..Good right from Selby…Nice right..Good left hook and another..Good right from Warrington

Round 9 Good uppercut from Selby..Right to body from Warrington..Good right..Left hook..Nice left hook in close..Right hand..Good work inside..3 punch combination..

Round 10  Good right from Warrington…

Round 11 Jab and right over the top from Warrington…Good right at the bell

Round 12 Good right from Warrington..Good right from Selby…Right to head from Warrington..Good right..Good left from Selby..

115-113 FOR SELBY….116-112 WARRINGTON…115-113 WARRINGTON

By Norm Frauenheim-

Canelo Alvarez’ enrollment this week in VADA, voluntary drug testing, represents relief for a nervous business still counting on big bucks from a rematch with Gennady Golovkin.

But don’t misinterpret it as a deal.

That would be foolishly premature, way too simple, especially after a contentious few weeks after the May 5 date was scrubbed in the turbulent wake of news that Canelo had tested positive twice for a banned substance.

The rematch is still very possible, probably likely. But circumstances have changed, all of which could have a significant impact on negotiations for a proposed Sept. 15 rematch of the controversial GGG-Canelo draw last September. The door on talks re-opened with Canelo’s tweet Tuesday that he’s back in the VADA program. But the table looks like a very different place from the day when the cancelled May sequel was announced on Jan 29.

GGG, whose evident frustration at the judging in last year’s draw morphed into obvious anger at Canelo’s after the PED controversy in February, said repeatedly before his stoppage of Vanes Martirosyan May 5 that he wanted more equitable terms.

That starts with money, of course. Ends there, too. There’s nothing to discuss without it. Canelo promoter Oscar De La Hoya was quoted in media reports that Canelo decided to re-join VADA for his fans. For the money, too. Where else is he going to get a chance at $50 million?

That’s was the potential for his final purse last September for a fight that did a reported 1.3 million pay-per-view buys. According to media speculation before the bout, the PPV number would have had to have been 1.5 million for Canelo to get the $50 million max. It not clear whether he did. But he got close enough to want to take another bite at about that, far and away, makes the most sense. And dollars.

This time around, however, it fair to guess that Canelo is going to want a bigger share. Based roughly on guarantees — $5 million for Canelo and $ 3 million for GGG — filed in contracts with the Nevada Athletic Commission last September, the final split of revenue was 62.5 percent for Canelo and 37.5 percent for GGG.

It’ll be no surprise if GGG demands a 50-50 split. The first fight, after all, was a draw. On the scorecards, it was demonstrably 50-50. In the court of public opinion, meanwhile, it’s still a debate, also an ongoing sales pitch for the rematch.

Then, there’s controversy surrounding Canelo’s PED tests for clenbuterol, a banned substance he says he got from unknowingly eating contaminated Mexican beef. GGG doesn’t believe him. Turns out, neither do a lot of fans, who expressed their skepticism throughout media reports of GGG’s decision to fight on Cinco De Mayo anyway, against Martirosyan, a late stand-in at StubHub Center.

The bout was panned by many in the media. Martirosyan was gone, knocked out and flat on the canvas, before the end of the second round. But the argument about Canelo and why he had not re-enrolled in VADA lingered.

Unintended or not, a forgettable fight provided a forum for criticism of Canelo in social and mainstream media. It grew, putting pressure on Canelo to do Tuesday what had to be done if the rematch was to have any chance at happening.

It’s a mystery as to why he didn’t enroll in VADA earlier. It’s a mystery, too, as to why he didn’t hold a news conference in late February to just say that he, like anybody else, sometimes gets a meal off the back of a taco truck. He ate one with some tainted meat. No crime there. A lot of people would not have believed him. A lot of people never will. But some would have.

Now, however, Canelo finds himself with a burden of proof he has never had to shoulder. The skepticism expressed about him over the last couple of months is perhaps symptomatic of an erosion in faith from fans whose unquestioned loyalty gave him leverage in negotiations. He could always say he was the draw. He still is, but maybe not by the margin he once had.

What happens within that margin figures to decide when and where – maybe even if — this rematch happens.

By Jimmy Tobin-

When Ukranian Vasyl “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko entered the ring at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night he did so as a nearly -1400 betting favorite. Those odds, near criminal, were soon rendered absurd. Across the ring, Venezuela’s Jorge “El Nino de Oro” Linares stood at the pinnacle of his career. For years Linares had traversed the globe, refurbishing himself, grinding his way back to relevance after a pair of brutal stoppages nearly extinguished him. Linares fought on this and that opponent’s turf, off television, away from the bright lights he was supposed to occupy fixedly nearly a decade ago—all this to stand cornered in what looked very much like a cashout well-earned.

He met the end those odds predicted, did Linares, but not in the manner they implied. Linares was subducted by Lomachenko, like the ocean’s crust rolled over by its continental counterpoint, and the result of their collision was fittingly volcanic. Lomachenko and Linares produced as compelling a prizefight as the year is likely to offer, one whose finish, sudden and satisfying, was both apropos and unexpected. In the tenth, Lomachenko shanked Linares with a left hook best discerned by the agony in its aftermath. Try as he might, Linares could not beat the count; unable to straighten himself, the fight ended with him stuck in a bow, a gesture he had every right to take.

You have what you wanted now, don’t you? You who have long wanted to see Lomachenko challenged, who have gnashed your teeth and cramped your thumbs fighting against the “Hi-Tech” hyperbole. Because Lomachenko looked appreciably human against Linares. Those confounding angles of his? Linares had an answer for them, mirroring Lomachenko’s pivots and firing straight shots as soon as he set his feet. The volume, those cascades of punches both throwaway and evil that Lomachenko uses to plague and punish? Linares met them in kind, knowing—as any opponent must—that Lomachenko’s chin cannot securely be hidden in such activity, and daring—as few opponents do—to find it.

Linares tagged Lomachenko with some consistency, but never more cleanly than he did in the sixth, when his right hand speared an arrogantly lackadaisical Lomachenko square in the face and spilled him for the first time in his professional career.

And it was here that you too got what you wanted, didn’t you? You who have bided your time while Lomachenko dismissed opponents uninspiring and outgunned, while you waited for him to prove himself deserving of the present if not historical—or mythical—accolades those paid to fawn over him have shoveled tirelessly. He earned enough of those Saturday to stop wondering about his grit, his champion’s comportment. Lomachenko is a fighter; it took three divisions and a significant size disadvantage to prove it—it also only took twelve fights.

Because there is nothing Lomachenko failed to deliver Saturday night. If you thought Linares hit him too frequently, too hard, then you are forced to concede that Lomachenko can take a lightweight punch. If you saw him slip, parry, roll with many of the punches Linares was credited for landing, well, all the better. Did you wonder how he would react when hurt? Linares showed you in the sixth—because Lomachenko was indeed hurt by that right hand, evidenced both by how uncharacteristically hurried he was in proving otherwise and how he fought the seventh.

He learned from it too, acknowledging his miscalculation afterward: “I knew about this punch, but I thought I already did what I needed to do. I was wrong and he caught me,” before adding, “He’s [Linares] a great fighter and he gave me one more lesson in boxing.” Post-lesson, Lomachenko adjusted his range and took the fight inside to first unseam and then hepatectomize his most dangerous opponent yet.

Was Saturday not confirmation of Lomachenko’s championship mettle? Is not getting up from a knockdown to win by stoppage what champions do? And would you not rather a fighter get caught for his pursuit of the knockout, than have him skirt the perimeter of peril, eschewing drama for dominance and the excuses such (even artful) preservation demands of a man who fights for a living?

The fight was reminiscent of last year’s rumble between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko, where the victor’s vulnerability served primarily to further ratify him, and the loser, through his valiance, his agency in that ratification, earned greater accolades than he had garnered in any victory; where we learned the winner is not flawless, no, but that he is something better: a fighter who will calibrate his performance to the stakes, and in doing show why boxing, at its finest, knows no rival.

That does not make Lomachenko a historically great fighter (yet), and anyone with the time and interest could find a way to begrime his winning titles in three divisions quicker than any fighter in history. Such is the nature of boxing, such is the nature of its fans. The talk, spouted by manager Egis Klimas, of Lomachenko moving to junior welterweight should be tempered for now, especially considering the qualifier Klimas offered for the move: that Lomachenko won’t be at his best until he is challenged. Linares provided that challenge, teaching Lomachenko the perils of physics (that moving up in weight inevitably brings a fighter closer to his ceiling). Mikey Garcia could deliver that message with greater force, and so long as both Lomachenko and Garcia prowl the lightweight division both have unfinished business there—and both twiddle their thumbs with any other opponent.

But for perhaps the first time since his third bout, when he dismantled Gary Russell Jr., the answer to the question of what we want from Lomachenko is “more of the same.” This column once remarked of Lomachenko that he is a fighter who “in the minds of aficionados live primarily in the future.” Saturday the future arrived.

By Bart Barry-

Ukrainian prizefighter Vasyl Lomachenko and his promoter Top Rank accomplished something pretty extraordinary Saturday when Lomachenko stopped lightweight champion Jorge Linares with a liver shot in the 10th round of a primetime ESPN match at Madison Square Garden. They justified a mountainous pile of euphoric forecasting and premature acclaim so high as to appear unjustifiable. Top Rank did this by putting its star in a fight he could lose – scorecards were a split draw after nine rounds – and Lomachenko did this by riding the moment to a transcendent version of himself.

In one punch Lomachenko indicted most of our current era’s best fighters but especially what prizefighter The Ring currently ranks world’s best. That punch was one Lomachenko took, too, from the middle knuckle of Linares’ right fist square on his pretty nose. It was a punch only a larger champion might deliver a fighter of Lomachenko’s talent and craft. It showed, in one moment at midfight, how much margin-for-error disappears when a man’s courage and ambition command him fight progressively larger men. And it showed the Gennady Golovkin reign for the fraud it has been.

I leaped from my seat and cried at my elderly Mexican companion, “¡Ya, vamos a ver que realmente es (now we’re going to see what he really is)! ¡Ya, vamos a ver!” It was a moment both feral and euphoric – finally a favored, celebrated fighter (other than Roman Gonzalez) in a nationally televised fight intentionally challenging himself enough to be dropped. Finally!

Lomachenko rose too quickly, his pride damaged much as his balance, but got through the round abetted in part by Linares’ hesitation – for which Lomachenko deserved much credit as Linares’ previous vanquishers. Lomachenko fought from that moment forward like he was in a fight, not a danceoff or freestyle floor routine. He surpassed himself, too, he accomplished what he’d taken on faith to that point: If circumstances render my routine inadequate, I will respond creatively and it will be glorious. It was.

He finished Linares with boxing’s version of a southpaw encryption key: 2-2-3-1-6-1-6-3-1-4: cross, cross, hook, jab, left uppercut, jab, up-jab, left uppercut, hook, jab, left hook. What should Linares have done differently? Who the hell knows? None of that can be trained for because there’s no history of it. Lomachenko himself did not expect the combination; his left hook to Linares’ body (when the palm faces up, it’s not a cross, whatever latterday purists may tell you) was the first punch in a threestrike combo Lomachenko raced past Linares’ collapsing form. Lomachenko observed Linares on the canvas and pumped his fist with the realization he’d touched the button, inaccessible usually to a southpaw, and Linares couldn’t possibly be conditioned enough to recuperate from it in the 10th round. He wasn’t. Linares didn’t beat the count so much as get unwilted by referee Ricky Gonzalez’s helping him to his feet.

Lomachenko justified the anticipatory hype about him Saturday in a way few modern athletes do. What usually happens, instead, is television promoters, scripts written by boxing promoters, get themselves in front of each story by calling everything they see greatness – across the dial on Saturday Night Fights, a telecast missing only its Just for Men spots, the names Mike Tyson and Tommy Hearns were invoked in the same minute of a 122-pound comain – cynically certain audiences will forgive decades of hyperbole in the event some athlete actually becomes what telecommentators say every other athlete will be. For it is better to call 100 Danny Jacobses elite than call the next Muhammad Ali only above-average.

Which leads to a few recent thoughts about contemporary television commentary. Watching a series of highlights from Tiger Woods’ round 3 at The Players Championship after reading an interesting essay on metamodernism led me to reconsider the role of live sports commentary and entertain the possibility it is becoming more an expression of sincerity than cynicism. For the last two decades its formula has sounded like: You, dear viewer, wish to believe you are extraordinary and unique and consequently curate only what else is extraordinary and unique, and so allow us to tell you everything you watch on our network is extraordinary and unique. That 6-4-3 doubleplay you just saw? Only the seventh time since 2012 a second baseman of Lithuanian descent has assisted a Dominican-born shortstop in ending a scoreless inning on a Tuesday. Historic!

But now, as a generation of secondstring actors, ironists and models makes its historic way off the world’s stage, congratulating itself on historic journalism, television commentary is infiltrated by something professionally sincere. As in:

We are looking for someone to help promote the Tiger Woods brand by accepting applications from energetic public speakers who know how to cheer like drunks in the gallery do.

Why, I have a degree in communications and I love Tiger – I just didn’t think I could get paid for it. I’m in!

There’s no longer a pretense of objectivity, which is oddly refreshing. It’s a performance that requires energy more than skill. Saturday’s ESPN team rehashed the same story of Lomachenko’s dance classes for at least its 83rd public iteration but did so with a fanatic’s sincerity. As Lomachenko, a southpaw, endeavored to keep his front foot outside his orthodox opponent’s – something you learn in boxing just after jab-cross and before hook – the onus fell upon Timothy Bradley and Mark Kriegel to join this pedestrian thing to the legendmaking decision Lomachenko’s dad took to make his son’s footwork the best in all sport, and Bradley and Kriegel were not cowed by the challenge. Even while the fight was tied Bradley assured us Lomachenko was something never before seen while Kriegel reiterated father-son dynamics once more for whatever male viewers are neither fathers nor sons.

Then Lomachenko did something excellent, and it all felt pretty good.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Follow all the action from ringside at Madison Square Garden as Jorge Linares defends the WBA Lightweight title against 2 division world champion and reigning Fighter of The Year Vasyl Lomanchenko.  The action kicks off at 8 PM ET / 5 PM PT with a welterweight bout featuring undefeated Carlos Adames taking in Alejandro Barrera

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Round 1: Lots of feeling out,,Left from Lomachenko..Right from Linares..Left to body from Lomachenko..Left from Linares..

Round 2 Left from Linares..Hard body shot..3 punch combo from Lomachenko..left on inside..Right from Linares..Body shot..Combination from Lomachenko..

Round 3 Right to body from Linares..Right hook from Lomachenko..Left from Linares..Uppercut from Lomachenko..

Round 4 Combination from Linares…Uooercut from Lomachenko..Right hook from Linares..Right from Linares..Combination from Lomachenko..Uppercut..Straight left..

Round 5 Left to body from Lomachenko..3 punch combination..combination from Linares..Hard jab from Lomachenko..Straight left..Combination finsiged off by a hard right

Round 6 Linares warned for a low blow..rippimh 5 punch combination from Linares..left hook..HUGE COUNTER RIGHT AND DOWN GOES LOMACHENKO

Round 7 Right from Linares..Right hook from Lomachenko..Right from Linares..Combination..Left from Lomachenko

Round 8 Uppercut from Lomachenko…Uppercut and right hook inside..Hard jab..

Round 9 Uppercut from Lomachenko..Hard right from Linares..Right to body..Counter right

Round 10 Body and head shots from Linares..Right hook from Lomachenko..good jab..Right from Linares..BIG COMBINATION..BIDY SHOT..DOWN GOES LINARES…FIGHT OVER

Round 1 Right from Adames..Right from Barrera..Jab..Left drives Barrera Back..hard left.Straight right..

Round 2 Left from Adames..Hard left..Right from Barrera..4 punch combination..Trading body shot..Left to body from Adames..Good right..2 Body shots..right to body from Barrera…Left buckles Barrera…Right

Round 3 Left to body from Barrera..Uppercut..Left to body..Good right from Adames…Good right from Barrera..Left from Adames..Left from Barrera

Round 4 Right from Adames..Flush right..Uppercut..Left to body from Barrera…Hard right from Adames…Good counter right

Round 5 Body work from Adames..2 more body shots..Straight right….Left to body from Barrera..Hard left from Adames..Right to body..1-2 ..Right drives Barrera into ropes..another ripping right

Round 6 Left from Adames..3 punch combination from Barrera..Jab..Adames switching southpaw..

Round 7 Left to body from Adames..Left to body from Adames..Left to body from Barrera..Jab from Adames..Good right from Barrera..Trading body shots on the inside..Combination that is punctuated by a right from Barrera

Round 8 Both are trading heavy shots..Barrera coming forward..Left from Adames..Hard left off the ropes…Right cross..Head combination…Hard right from Barrera

Round 9 Barrera lands 5 shots on the ropes..Good left from Adames..Good counter right..Jab..

Round 10 Left/body-right from Adames..Right from Barrera..Body work from both..Body from Barrera..Counter right..Left and right from Adames..

98-92, 97-93 and 96-94 for ADAMES

By Norm Frauenheim-

Vasiliy Lomachenko-Jorge Linares Saturday at New York’s Madison Square Garden is an opportunity to reset the table on a year that began amid promise and yet has been muddied by the May 5 cancellation of Gennady Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez and the continuing controversy over when — or if — Canelo will enroll in VADA, the voluntary testing procedure that appears to be fundamental to any chance of reaching an agreement for a rematch in September.

There’s no controversy about Lomachenko-Linares. There’s just intrigue, anticipation and the pound-for-pound argument.

Lomachenko’s bid for a third title at a third weight, 135 pounds, is the first half of a 2018 debate about a further claim on the pound-for-pound’s mythical title. At the end of 2017, Lomachenko, a former featherweight and junior-lightweight champion, held a slight edge in the various polls and among the voters.

But Terence Crawford was always in the hunt. Still is.

Crawford, a former lightweight and junior-welterweight champ, will deliver his bid next month, June 9 at Las Vegas MGM Grand, in his first bout at 147 pounds against Australian Jeff Horn.

Guess here: Both Lomachenko and Crawford will prevail.

The real question rests in who will have looked better in their first fight at a heavier weight.

It’s a debate that figures to continue for a while. Lomachenko and Crawford are the same age. They’re both 30.

Lomachenko (10-1, 8 KOs) possesses an unprecedented array of angles in his variety of punches. For the ringside aficionado, there is a cutting-edge style to what Lomachenko does with his gloved hands.

In Crawford, there’s ruthlessness matched by ambidextrous hands quick to strike from just about anywhere.

Both Top Rank-promoted fighters are fascinating to watch. Take your pick and be prepared to change it over the next few years. They figure to energize the pound-for-pound debate no matter what happens with GGG-Canelo.

Saturday is the opening salvo. Linares (44-3, 27 KOs), the World Boxing Association’s 135-pound belt holder, says he is not fooled by all that has been said about the creatively-dangerous Lomachenko.

“I am going to prove that Lomachenko is not an invincible fighter,’’ Linares said this week during the promotional build-up to the main event on the ESPN-televised card (8 p.m. ET).

Linares, who is an inch taller and has a 3 1/2 -inch advantage in reach, is promising to take Lomachenko into later rounds. But the cutting-edge adjective so often applied to Lomachenko might to be more than just a rhetorical embellishment of what Lomachenko does to Linares. Linares has suffered bad cuts in at least three bouts, including successive losses to Antonio DeMarco and Sergio Thompson in 2011 and 2012. Lomachenko’s many angles can put a real razor-like affect into that cutting edge.

We’ll see.

Then, we’ll see Crawford.

Bart Barry-

A genuine pursuit of greatness is not exasperating. It may be breathtaking or ridiculous or sobering or exhilarating, but it may not be exasperating. What many of us sensed late Saturday night and early Sunday morning was exasperation: This was not the best you could do with the resources allotted you, so stop telling us it was.

Let this be a warning to Ukrainian prodigy Vasyl Lomachenko. If after you decimate limited men in American arenas you tell us in broken English you will fight anyone, you should mean it because eventually we will know if you didn’t. We now know it about Gennady Golovkin. We hope not to learn it about Lomachenko. But there are enough similarities between the men’s backgrounds, ascents and sources of popularity, and limited enough evidence of Lomachenko’s true ambition, to worry a bit.

I don’t know what’s going to happen Saturday when Lomachenko makes fists with Venezuelan lightweight champion Jorge Linares, a former prodigy, and was unsure enough to check betting odds before even typing this sentence. Oddsmakers have a professional obligation to weigh reality against publicity in a way the rest of us do not, and they’re not often seduced. Evidently they’re unconvinced by Linares’ recent farmleague showings and remember his being slapjiggled by Juan Carlos Salgado and bled by Antonio DeMarco and gaffherringed by Sergio Thompson.

Linares is The Ring’s lightweight champion, and that is meaningful, and he’s the most accomplished unsuspended fighter in the Golden Boy Promotions stable, which says little and even less when he’s only a nominal part of that stable. Linares has benefited greatly from HBO’s Canelo-retention moves – though still less than Danny Jacobs has benefited from the network’s AJ-capture gambit (though even Linares and Jacobs must’ve watched Saturday’s midnight snack with jaws agape at what lengths the network now goes for any fighter whose father once sang “Be Glorious, our free Motherland”) – but years before Canelo was a glimmer in Oscar De La Hoya’s eye HBO was hardselling Linares as the Golden Boy’s goldenest successor.

He surely wasn’t that. Now Linares is a hardened professional more than a gorgeous usurper and a tactician whose ferocious mien benefits appropriately from what rehabfare composes his diet for years and years after his each knockout loss. But here’s the thing: Linares is sorta precious the same way Lomachenko is sorta precious, and watching them punch one another should be fun. And Linares has been a 135-pound fighter punching and being punched by other 135-pound fighters five years longer than Lomachenko.

Lomachenko is way nearer his prime than Linares is, but if Linares is able to land a punch – and he may not be, according to Juan Carlos Salgado – he will strike Lomachenko with a quotient of force and accuracy Lomachenko has not yet felt. It is doubtful Lomachenko will next melt; Orlando Salido was about big as Linares when Salido made war on Lomachenko’s codpiece four years ago, and Lomachenko did not complain during or after. But he didn’t dance, either, did he?

There’s something frontrunnerish about what prizefighters come from the former Soviet Union – if they don’t quite fade in later rounds they’re neither known for their comebacks. If they know they’re superior when the first bell rings, they may be jab-and-grapplers (Wlad Klitschko) or tigers (Golovkin) or sociopaths (Sergey Kovalev) or performance artists (Lomachenko), but once their actual noses get punched by actual equals who actually know how, they let caution preside. Or as the kids might put it: They. Are. Not. Reckless.

Yes, comrades, I know there are deep cultural reasons for this, attributable to Lenin or Stalin or Collectivization or Glasnost, but before we virtuesignal about atrocities leading to cautiousness we might also, or at least coincidentally, consider Cold War bogeymen making for great modern marketing. All the guys mentioned above were considered great before they did anything to prove it. While boxing historians will someday marvel at Floyd Mayweather’s handicapping his way to an historic-looking resume they might also marvel at the way this era’s fighters from the former Soviet Union didn’t even have to bother.

In this sense Golovkin’s obliteration of Vanes Martirosyan on Saturday marks GGG’s signature win – seeing the middleweight titlist tear apart an unretired junior-middleweight sub reminded us all why we have whatever strong feelings we do about Golovkin’s reign. Those who believe Golovkin is way more than he actually is now tell themselves fairytales that begin like: “In his 40 previous fights Vanes Martirosyan had never been stopped . . .” The rest of us wonder how the fight even got licensed. Then we talk past one another and write for those who already agree with us.

To date Lomachenko has benefited from this dynamic but that might soon change. As he gets taken literally by his promoter and moved up in weight commensurate to his stated ambitions Lomachenko may soon find his accomplishments outpacing their praise. Top Rank, after all, just spent a dozen years promoting Manny Pacquiao; they know what it looks like when a man climbs weightclasses in pursuit of greatness, and they know there was an Erik Morales for every David Diaz, and they know we know the difference. They also know when they make real fights these days they get an extraordinary platform in primetime, and when they make balderdash they get remanded to an app. Lomachenko-Linares gets you 8-10 pm ET on ESPN, and less than Lomachenko-Linares gets you anytime on WiFi.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Follow all the action as world Middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin depends his title against Vanes Martirosyan.  The action kicks off at 11 PM ET / 8 PM PT with the 1st ever Female bout on HBO as Cecilia Braekhus takes on Kali Reis in a welterweight title bout.

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Round 1: Jab from Martirosyan..Left hook from Golovkin..hard left from Martirosyan

Round 2 Hard right from Golovkin..Hard uppercut..Right from Martirosyan..Hard left hook from Golovkin..3 lefts and DOWN GOES MARTIROSYAN..HE DOES NOT GET UP …FIGHT OVER

Round 1 Reis lands a left hook…

Round 2 Reis lands a combination..Solid right from Braekhus

Round 3 Good right from Braekhus..Reis lands a right..Good right from Braekhus..

Round 4 Good combination from Braekhus..

Round 5 Combination and left from Braekhus..

Round 6 Brakehus lands a good left hook..Good right from Reis..Reis bleeding from the nose..Good right from Reis

Round 7 BIG RIGHT AND DOWN GOES BRAEKHUS…

Round 8 Good left hook from Braekhus..quick left hook on the inside.Body shots..1-2..Good right from Braekhus…Big right from Reis drives Braekhus back

Round 9 Good right from Reis..Right

Round 10 Good right from Braekhus..Uppercut..Body shot from Reis..Good right from Braekhus..

Braekhus outlanded Reis 115-78

97-92, 96-93 TWICE FOR CECILIA BRAEKHUS

Follow All the action as former world champions, Tony Bellew and David Haye meet in a heavyweight rematch.  The show begins at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT / 6 PM UK time with a 5 fight undercard featuring the IBF Bantamweight title bout between Paul Butler and Emmanuel Rodriguez.  Also 2 more title fights as Martin J Ward Battles James Tennyson for the EBU, Commonwealth and WBA International Super Featherweight title and a Commonwealth Heavyweight title bout between 2016 Olympic Silver Medal Winner Joe Joyce and Lenroy Thomas.

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Round 1: Jab from Haye..Good jab from bellew..Right hand..Good right from Haye

Round 2  Right from Bellew..Combination from Haye..Right to body..Right..Right from Bellew

Round 3 Right from Haye..Body shot from bellew…HUGE COUNTER RIGHT AND DOWN GOES HAYE…BIG LEFT HOOK AND DOWN GOES HAYE AGAIN

Round 4 Big right from Bellew..2 huge rights.Big right..Right from Haye…

Round 5 Combination from Haye..BIG RIGHT AND DOWN GOES HAYE..BIG RIGHT AND LEFT ON THE ROPES AND THE FIGHT IS STOPPED

Round 1 Right from Ryder..Working on the inside..Body shot from Cox

Round 2 BIG RIGHT TO THE HEAD AND DOWN GOES COX.  HE GETS UP AT 10 AND THE FIGHT IS STOPPED

Round 1: Good body shot from Butler..BIG LEFT HOOK AND DOWN GOES BUTLER..BIG COMBINATION AND DOWN GOES BUTLER..Good uppercut

Round 2 Butler lands a combination..jab from Rodriguez..Right Hand..

Round 3 Butler lands a right to the body..Rodriguez lands a right..Combination..Blood from the nose of Butler..Right from Rodriguez

Round 4 Combination from Rodriguez..Right drives Butler off-balance..right over the top

Round 5 Butler lands a combination to the body..Jab from Rodriguez..Good jab

Round 6 Jab from Rodriguez..Good left hook..Good right hurts Butler

Round 7 Body shot from Butler..Right from Rodriguez..1-2 from Rodriguez..Right hand..Jab..Right from Butler

Round 8  Left from Rodriguez…Butler lands a jab

Round 9  Uppercut from Rodriguez..

Round 10 Body shot from Rodriguez..Swelling around the right eye of Butler

Round 11 Rodriguez jabbing and moving..coasting

Round 12 Body shot from Rodriguez

120-106 twice and 118-108 for RODRIGUEZ

Round 1 Thomas lands a left to the body..Combination from Joyce…Good body shot..Big right..RIGHT AND LEFT TO BODY AND DOWN GOES THOMAS AT THE BELL

Round 2 Left from Joyce..BIG COMBINATION AND 2 CRUSH RIGHTS..DOWN GOES THOMAS…Joyce lands 9 heavy..Body and head shots..2 good body shots from Thomas..LEFT TO THE CHIN AND DOWN GOES THOMAS..HE DOES NOT BEAT THE COUNT..FIGHT IS OVER

Round 1: Good body shot from Buatsi..Left to the body..Right to body..another body shot..Jab..left to body

Round 2 Left hook from Buatsi..Double jab..3 punch combination that ended with a body shot..Right from Cuevas..Left..Good right from Buatsi

Round 3 Nice left hook/right hand from Cuevas..Good right hook..Left hook drives Cuevas to the ropes..@ good rights..Uppercut and left to body

Round 4 Cuevas lands an uppercut on inside..Good right from Buatsi..Short right hand counter from Cuevas..Long right from Buatsi

Round 5 Buatsi LANDS A BIG COMBINATION,,CUEVAS IS HURT…FIGHT STOPPED

Round 1 Right from Ward..Jab to body

Round 2 Ward lands a left hook..Good body shot..Nice left from Tennyson..Jab from Ward..Left..Good left hook..Body shot..DOWN GOES TENNYSON…

Round 3 Good counter left hook from Ward..3 hard body shots..Tennyson bleeding from the nose. Good uppercut from Ward..4 more body shots..Good left hook from Tennyson snaps Ward’s head back..Counter right..Short uppercut on the inside

Round 4 Ward lands a left to the body..Sharp right..Right from Tennyson..right from Ward..Hard uppercut from Tennyson shakes Ward..Body shot..Good left..Heavy right..Hard jab..Big left at the bell

Round 5 Right to body from Tennyson..Right..Body shot from Ward..HUGE 3 PUNCH COMBINATION AND DOWN GOES WARD..HUGE UPPERCUT AND DOWN GOES WARD AND THE FIGHT IS STOPPED

By Norm Frauenheim-

LOS ANGELES – Gennady Golovkin smiled. Said thanks. He might have kissed a few babies, too.

The middleweight, best known for his GGG acronym, did everything he had to Friday at a hotel just a few miles of roadwork from the LAX runways. Oh yeah, he made weight, too.

GGG (37-0-1, 27 KOs) was supposed to be at 160 pounds and that’s exactly what he was, not a digital fraction over or under the mandatory for a defense of two of his titles, the WBC and WBA, against Vanes Martirosyan on HBO (9 p.m. PT/11 p.m. ET) Saturday at StubHub down the freeway in Carson.

Martirosyan (36-3-1 21 KO), a huge underdog from nearby Glendale Calif, was at 159.6 pounds for his first bout at middleweight.

There were no missteps on the scale or anywhere else from Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) in a moment that was as political as it was pugilistic. It was almost as if GGG wanted to let the contrast with his original opponent, suspended Canelo Alvarez, say it all.

For weeks, GGG has been saying plenty to the media about his contempt for Canelo, who tested positive twice for a banned substance and then withdrew from what would have been a rich Cinco de Mayo rematch of last September’s controversial draw in Las Vegas. At the weigh-in, however, GGG only had a couple of words, which he repeated after the ritual weigh-in and nose-to-nose pose for the photographers in a jammed ballroom.

“Thank you, thank you,’’ he said to the crowd, which included lots of fans wearing shirts and caps saying Mexicans For GGG.

The thanks came in the wake of further news that casts a shadow on whether there will be a Sept. 15 rematch with Canelo, whose six-month suspension from the Nevada Commission will end in mid-August. Before the thanks, GGG said Canelo was bad for boxing in an interview with ESPN and BoxingScene. He told Yahoo that, at best, there was only a 10 percent chance of the rematch happening. If he beats Martirosyan as expected, no telling what he’ll say at the post-fight news conference. May be, he’s only negotiating. If so, the negotiations have a long, perhaps rocky way to go.

For now, it sounds as if GGG is no rush to get the rematch, even though it would – far and away – represent his biggest payday. According to contracts filed with the California Commission Friday, GGG’s guarantee for Saturday is $1 million.

It’s believed he will get more, perhaps three times as much, after percentages are included for a card that promoters began to put together just two-and-a-half weeks ago. Whatever his final take is, however, it will be a fraction of what he and Canelo made in September.

According to various sources, Canelo collected $50 million. GGG, who can tie Bernard Hopkins’ record for 20 successive title defenses Saturday, got less than that. There are conflicting reports, but whatever it was, it was several multiples more than what he’ll see for fighting Martirosyan, a former junior middleweight whose guarantee for Saturday is $225,000.

Saturday night televised card will also include an HBO first. Welterweights Cecilia Braekhus and Kali Reis will be the first women to appear in a co-main event.

By Norm Frauenheim-

CARSON, Calif. — Going the distance with Gennady Golovkin is a dead end.

That, at least, is big part of the sales pitch for GGG’s starring role in a Cinco De Mayo bout that is still an annual rite despite Canelo Alvarez’ withdrawal and subsequent six-month suspension for two positive PED tests in February.

The Fiesta has moved west, from Las Vegas to StubHub Center at Carson, Calif. The opponent has changed too, Vanes Martiroysan instead of Canelo. But, make no mistake, the story is about GGG, who is a little bit older and angrier than the friendly face who once was known for saying “Big Drama Show.’’

The GGG smile is still there. But mention Canelo and a grin once considered cute suddenly looks menacing. He has no patience for the rival middleweight. He doesn’t believe Canelo when he says he tested positive for Clenbuterol because of eating meat the Mexican says he didn’t know was tainted with the banned substance.

Inevitably, the Canelo question has been asked. There really is no other question, at least not in the two-and-half weeks promoters had to stage the HBO bout at a new location and against a different opponent. Time has been a challenge, also the biggest one of all for GGG, a fighter entering middle age and furiously pursuing a legacy. In Canelo, perhaps, he sees a fighter who has stood in his way, first with judging that he called “terrible” in a Las Vegas draw last September and now with a PED suspension.

There are moments when GGG’s frustration flares. These days, it’s as if it is always there, a little bit like that grin was. And, for the most part, still is. Hard to blame him. He’s 36, an age when most fighters are beginning to exit their prime. He doesn’t want to be kept waiting for any reason. He can’t afford it. Finances are just one factor.

According to multiple sources, he is guaranteed close to $3 million for Martirosyan, a capable junior middleweight who is moving up to 160 pounds after a couple of years of inactivity. That’s a fraction of the $15 million GGG reportedly got for last September’s draw. There were reports he could have collected $20 million for a rematch originally scheduled for Saturday. Now, there’s talk that the Canelo rematch will happen on September 15.

But most of that talk is coming from Canelo’s Golden Boy promoters. GGG continues to throw cold water on the possibility. He did so again this week when he told Yahoo there was only a 10 percent chance the rematch will happen. Guess here: He’s already negotiating. He wants to make Canelo pay, both financially and in the ring.

In the ring, at least, the rematch has emerged as the one fight fans want to see, in part because GGG seems to be saying that he intends to punish Canelo in what would be defining moment for the Kazak.

That brings us back to what GGG promoter Tom Loeffler and trainer Abel Sanchez have been saying about him.

“Once you go twelve rounds with Golovkin, you are never going to be the same,’’ Sanchez said Monday during an international conference call.

It was a comment that Sanchez made when asked about Danny Jacobs, who won a decision over Polish middleweight Maciej Sulecki in Brooklyn last Saturday. Jacobs is 2-0 since losing a 12-round unanimous decision to GGG in March 2017. Sanchez said he has seen a decline in Jacobs since the 12-round battle with GGG.

“It’s not only Jacobs,’’ Sanchez said. “If you go back to (David) Lemieux, to (Curtis) Stevens, to (Dominic) Wade, to Willie Monroe, they are never the same. (Martin) Murray, also. They are never the same after they go rounds with Gennady.’’

The danger in all of this, however, is that GGG often looks as is if he’s not exactly who he was anymore, either. He took a lot of punches against Jacobs in a bout that some thought Jacobs won. Bruising, often an early symptom of aging in a fighter, has been evident.

Against Martirosyan, GGG is expected to win easily. But Martirosyan, who fought at the 2004 Olympics when GGG won a silver medal, is clever. He knows his way around the ring. He might not win, which is another way of saying he doesn’t have much to lose.

Going the distance against GGG would be victory for Martirosyan. But don’t expect it, not in a bout that looks a lot like the first step in his angry plan to add Canelo to a Sanchez list that already includes Jacobs, Lemieux, Stevens, Wade, Monroe and Murray.

By Bart Barry-

Saturday on an HBO telecast from Brooklyn middleweight mandatory challenger Danny “Miracle Man” Jacobs dropped and decisioned Polish junior middleweight Maciej “Certainly Top 10, Maybe Top 5” Sulecki. Before that American heavyweight contender Jarell “Big Baby” Miller didn’t drop but did decision French journeyman Johann Duhaupas. Watching the 24 rounds felt heavy, damp, soggy even, like the card wasn’t primarily intended to entertain but to portend entertaining happenings some other time.

Twas another mediocre broadcast for HBO, but writing that feels bullying, unseemly, beneath oneself – uninsightful because anyone who already doesn’t know it anyway feels it. This column has lacked charity for boxing’s former heart and soul for sometime now, and since its writer isn’t sure such ungraciousness be merited, he needs err to the bonhomous side of the truth on occasion. Let’s try and make this that occasion.

Closing arguments are set to happen today in the Department of Justice’s case against a merger between communications company AT&T and media company Time Warner, parent to HBO, parent to HBO Sports, parent to the World Championship After Dark family or whatever brandnames boxing currently hides under (c’mon now, keep it gracious). These last two years of merging and not merging have to have hamstrung HBO’s coverage of our sport and serve to emphasize the importance of corporate continuity howsoever much business selfhelp literature still fetishizes disruption. Some clarity from a federal government that, under any other executive leadership of the last halfcentury or so, would’ve rubberstamped such a merger – does it obviously harm consumers in the next three months? well, in that case, 30,000 layoffs down the road is just the market god’s way – must be welcomed by those who operate within budgetary constraints. The case against the merger looks arbitrary and spiteful, of course, but it may set an unintentional precedent of asking how a corporate merger benefits customers and employees, not solely shareholders, rather than applying an eroding threshold of how much it harms them.

None of that helps HBO Sports’ nearterm outlook. If the merger gets blocked, a return to business-as-usual sees HBO continue to reexamine its relationship with our beloved sport, writing of erosion, under a new set of assumptions about how essential boxing is (we know boxing is in a bit of a renaissance right now, but the old data in the old bulletpoints of the old slideshows upon which old executives of old media companies make their decisions, why, those are probably partying like it’s 2014). If the merger happens, which even in our current war-is-peace moment still appears probable, HBO must immediately set about the task of seducing its new master, and does anyone think Danny Jacobs or Maciej Sulecki or Jarell Miller or Johann Duhaupas (or Vanes Martirosyan) composes a compelling case for more money?

Nobody does, no. Even those who would pay these guys whatever they were paid see them as a way to bring Anthony Joshua to HBO, or barring that, as a promotional tool for the GolovCanelo rematch that won’t happen Saturday. It’s the only obvious reason you pay the Miracle Man to fight the last weekend in April against a fortunately unknuckled Polish junior middleweight like Sulecki: To ensure by contrast a captive audience for the fifth installment of GolovCanelo 24/7. Untethered from that nearly nothing about Saturday’s broadcast makes sense much less resonates.

Jarell Miller is not very good; there’s not imagination enough in the known universe to call a 300-pound man who doesn’t hurt people compelling. “Oh, but he’s really active and his chest protrudes more than his belly!” – not a recommended bulletpoint for HBO Sports’ first presentation to AT&T management.

Danny Jacobs is a b-level talent with an interesting story that is now threadbare. He’s a cool guy you cheer for when he’s an underdog, but if you have to squint to see nextlevel talent against a tailormade b-side like Sulecki there isn’t nextlevel talent. “He went rounds with GGG!” – a mark of excellence solely within the ranks (measurably reduced since September) of an alternate reality that insists Golovkin is a historic talent. Anyway, when a unanimous-decision loss to Gennady Golovkin is the second-best victory of a prizefighting career begun in 2007 its bearer is not the future of the middleweight division.

Perhaps, then, Vanes “Former U.S. Olympian” Martirosyan is.

No.

A controversial and surprising conclusion, that, I know, but one written by a man who wears with understandable pride this distinction: I attended Martirosyan’s pro debut 13 years ago. That evening at Fort McDowell Casino the man then known as “The Nightmare” had Freddie Roach in his corner but couldn’t stop a 4-3-1 Texas trialhorse named Jesse Orta, foretelling a mildly disappointing career mildly full of mild disappointments.

Saturday Martirosyan becomes the third non-middleweight of the last four men to challenge middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin who is so dominant no middleweight will face him. Surely then, you’re thinking, if the most feared puncher in the history of the middleweight division hasn’t been fighting too-frightened middleweights he must’ve spent the last two years decimating light heavyweights or at least super middleweights? Why, no, actually. Golovkin’s reign of terror at 160 pounds has been perpetrated on two light-middleweights, and get this, a welterweight – 154, 154, 147 – a streak broken by an aforementioned victory over Jacobs inconclusive enough to be part of Jacobs promotions ever since.

But as this column nominally sought a philanthropic spirit towards HBO Sports’ prospects, let us end with a clarifying question about future budgetary items: How do the purses of HBO’s mainevent b-sides, Sulecki and Martirosyan, compare with the stipends paid for those events to Jim Lampley, Max Kellerman, Roy Jones and Harold Lederman?

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Follow all the action ringside from The Liacouras Center in Philadelphia as Jessie Magdaleno defends the WBO Super Bantamweight title against Isaac Dogboe.  The action kicks off at 7 PM ET with a heavyweight bout featuring Philadelphian’s Bryant Jennings and Joey Dawejko.  The co-feature will pit super middleweights Jesse Hart against Demond Nicholson

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Round 1 Dogboe working the body..Left to body from Magdaleno..counter left..LEFT AND BIG COMBINATION..DOWN GOES DOGBOE..Straight left drives Digboe back..Straight left wobbles Dogboe..Hard combination

Round 2 Right from Dogboe..Flush right..Body shot..

Round 3 Body shot from Dogboe..Left to body from Magdaleno..Combination..Body shot from Dogboe

Round 4 Left from Dogboe..Right..left to body..Hard combination..Jab from Magdaleno..Straight right..Right..Jab from Magdaleno

Round 5 HUGE COUNTER RIGHT AND DOWN GOES MAGDALENO,,Dogboe all over Magdaleno.. Magdaleno lands a hard right hook.  Dogboe swarming and landing all over the ring

Round 6 Straight right from Dogboe…Right hook from Magdaleno..Left from Dogboe..left from Magdaleno..Hard right from Dogboe

Round 7 Action heating up again..Magdaleno lands a left,,right from Dogboe,,another right..Straight right..Right..left and an uppercut..Good counter left from Magdaleno..Straight left

Round 8  Right from Dogboe..Counter left from Magdaleno..Left..right hook

Round 9 Body shot from Magdaleno..Right from Dogboe..Hard left from Magdaleno..Left from Digboe..Left from Magdaleno

Round 10 Right hook from Magdaleno..left..Hard right from Dogboe..Hard flurry on ropes..Another flush right..Right and right to body..Left from Magdaleno

Round 11 Left to body from Magdalwno.right from Dogboe…HARD BODY SHOT AND DOWN GOES MAGDALENO…4 hard body shots from Dogboe…HUGE BODY SHOT AND DOWN GOES MAGDALENO…FIGHT IS OVER

Round 1 Left to body from Nicholason..right from Hart..Right from Nicholson..Jab..Jan from Hart..Uppercut..Huge right wobbles Hart at the bell

Round 2 Counter right from Nicholason..Hard jab..Uppercut from Hart..

Round 3  Uppercut from Hart..RIGHT HAND AND DOWN GOES NICHOLSON..Uppercut from Hart..Jab..2 left hooks..RIGHT OVER TOP AND DOWN GOES NICHOLSON..2 hard rights

Round 4  Hart land a left on the inside.  Straight right..Triple left hook..2 body shots..Right from Nicholson

Round 5 Jab from Nicholson..Right from Hart…Clipping right

Round 6 Left from Nicholson….2 Hard lefts from Hart..2 rights..Uppercut from Nicholson and another

Round 7 Jab from Hart…6 HUGE PUNCHES AND DOWN GOES NICHOLSON..THE FIGHT IS STOPPED

Round 1 Jennings jabbing..Right from Dawejko..Right to body from Jennings..Left to body from Dawejko..Right from Jennings..

Round 2 Jab from Jennings..Right …Right from Dawejko..Right to body from Jennings..Jab from Dawejko..Jab..Dawejko warned for low blow..Flush right from Jennings

Round 3 Jennings jabbing..Dawejko lands a left to body and a right..Uppercut..Left hook and combination from Jennings..Left to body from Dawejko..

Round 4 Right from Dawejko..Jab..Left hook from Jennings..Right to body from Dawejko..jab.2 body shots from Jennings….hard right..Left to body from Dawejko..Trading body shots..Jennings lands a low blow//2 lefts from Dawejko …Right from Jennings

Round 5 Jab from Jennings..Left from Dawejko..Body shot from Jennings..Combinaton..Left hook from Dawejko..3 jabs..Jab from Jennings..Body shot..Hard right

Round 6 Left to body from Dawejko..Quick combination from Jennings

Round 7 2 body shots from Dawejko..Body/Uppercut from Jennings..Right to body from Dawejko..Body work..Uppercut from Jennings..Straight to body

Round 8 3 Punch combination from Jennings..left to body from Dawejko..Blood from Nostril of Dawejko..

Round 9 Right to body from Dawejko..Left to body..Flush right from Jennings..2 body shots from Dawejko

Round 10 Left to body from Jennings..Left to body from Dawejko..3 hook from Jennings..Body work from Dawejko..Right from Jennings..Left hook..Combination

JENNINGS WINS 98-92 ON ALL CARDS