HITS and MISSES from Another Huge Weekend of Boxing

HITS and MISSES from Another Huge Weekend of Boxing

Some of boxing’s best fighters were on display over the weekend, including pound-for-pound star Terence Crawford making the third defense of his WBO welterweight title against Egidijus Kavaliauskas in the main event of a Top Rank on ESPN card in New York.

Additionally, lightweight terror Teofimo Lopez took a stab at winning his first world title against dangerous IBF lightweight champion Richard Commey in the co-main event, and welterweight prospect Vergil Ortiz Jr. attempted to finish off his impressive 2019 run by defeating Brad Solomon on a separate card featured in DAZN.

Once again, it’s time to name the biggest hits and misses of another huge weekend in boxing.

HIT: Teofimo Lopez Jr.’s Takeover Being Revealed in Full Measure

Super-charged lightweight talent Teofimo Lopez Jr. completely dismantled Richard Commey on Saturday night in the co-feature of the Terence Crawford-Egidijus Kavaliauskas card at Madison Square Garden.

With all eyes in the sporting world pointed sharply toward the Heisman Trophy ceremony just 15-minutes down the street where LSU’s Joe Burrow was awarded college football’s highest honor, Lopez was striking his own metaphorical pose of sorts after stopping Commey for the IBF lightweight title in just two rounds.

Lopez had certainly looked like generational talent as he worked his way up the ranks, but nobody really knew what might happen when he stepped in against a fighter as exceptional and accomplished as Commey.

But the 22-year-old from Brooklyn proved beyond doubt the elite status he holds among his peers. Now, the world awaits a superfight between Lopez and unified champion Vasyl Lomachenko that would potentially crown the first undisputed champion in the division since Pernell Whitaker accomplished the feat almost 30 years ago.

I say potentially because I don’t think anyone has really decided yet how to interpret the WBC Franchise belt the sanctioning body created earlier this year that Lomachenko wears in comparison to the belt Devin Haney now possesses

MISS: Michael Conlan’s Shortsighted Strategy in Olympic Grudge Match 

Top Rank seems to envision a bright future for 28-year-old featherweight contender Michael Conlan, but seeing the undefeated prospect rise through the rankings has left me to question whether he’s more John Duddy than Carl Frampton.

Duddy was a fun professional prizefighter, but one who left his chin out too much to ever seriously compete for a world title. Frampton, on the other hand, is smackdab in the middle of enjoying one of the greatest professional fighting careers of any Irish fighter to date.

Sure, Conlan avenged his controversial 2016 Olympic loss to amateur rival Vladimir Nikitin, 29, from Russia, on Saturday night on the undercard of Crawford-Kavaliauskas by scoring a wide unanimous decision victory.

The problem, though, is that Conlan consistently puts himself into vulnerable situations by trying to trade punches with his opponents rather than boxing them. It might win him some fans right now, but that strategy is sure to falter once he moves up to face top-level opposition for one simple reason: He’s not very good at it.

HIT: Terence Crawford’s Single-Minded Mean Streak to Stop Mean Machine

It’s one thing for an elite fighter like pound-for-pound star Terence Crawford to bolster fantastic boxing skills and the amazing propensity to be just as effective from both the orthodox and southpaw stances, but it’s quite another thing for the welterweight to carry a chip on his shoulder the size of a bowling ball.

When Crawford faces his opponents, one gets the sense that just beating them isn’t quite good enough. He often becomes a fierce and aggressive stalker, and this special trait is something that helped him already achieve historically important credentials such as becoming the lineal lightweight champion in 2016, undisputed junior welterweight champion just a year later, and WBO welterweight champion since June 2018.

Crawford’s patented single-minded mean streak mindset also helped overcome the bigger-than-expected challenge Egidijus Kavaliauskas presented him on Saturday. Kavaliauskas, 31, from Lithuania, was truly the “Mean Machine” his handlers at Top Rank had promoted him to be, even going so far as to hurt Crawford early in the fight.

But Crawford, as it turns out, is the meanest machine of all. The 32-year-old knocked down Kavaliauskas three times total (once in the seventh and twice in the ninth) on his way to scoring an impressive ninth-round stoppage win.

MISS: Top Rank Not Getting Middleweight Prospect Edgar Berlanga More Rounds

Twenty-two-year-old middleweight prospect Edgar Berlanga scored his 13th straight first-round knockout when the Brooklynite stopped Cesar Nunez at 2:45 of round one on the Crawford-Kavaliauskas undercard.

Berlanga appears to be a fighter worth keeping an eye on right now. After all, just about everyone in boxing loves knockout punchers, and make that double for those of them that hail from historically important U.S. boxing hotbeds like Brooklyn.

But is Berlanga really the next great middleweight (or super middleweight) power puncher? Or has he just not been matched tough enough quite yet for us to tell?

Far be it from me (well, mostly) to question the methods of Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum and arguably boxing’s top matchmaker Brad Goodman, but it seems like finding just one opponent in 13 tries that could give Berlanga more than three-minutes or less of work shouldn’t be too big an ask.

Not even Gennady Golovkin, the last great middleweight terror, or Deontay Wilder, arguably the hardest puncher in boxing history, scored as many first-round knockouts during the early parts of their careers, and that was probably best for them in long run.

HIT: Vergil Ortiz Jr Cementing His Status as Boxing’s Top Prospect 

Welterweight prospect Vergil Ortiz Jr. again showed why most people see the 21-year-old Texan as one of the brightest prospects in boxing by stopping Brad Solomon in just five rounds at Fantasy Spring Casino in Indio, California.

Ortiz had already won all 14 of his professional fights by knockout, including step-up bouts earlier this year against Mauricio Herrera and Antonio Orozco.

While Golden Boy Promotions usually isn’t considered as being in the same league as Top Rank in the matchmaking department, it did seem important for the development of Ortiz to be matched up against a mover like Solomon.

Sure, Ortiz had already tracked down the crafty Herrera, but once the Dallas-native starts competing for world titles he’ll find it more important than ever to have his footwork down pat so he can do the things he wants to do.

Overall, Ortiz enjoyed a great 2019 campaign, going 3-0 with 3 KOs. More importantly, he solidified his status as one of the top prospects in the sport, perhaps even next year’s Teofimo Lopez: a fighter transforming talent into making good on a world title opportunity.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams for Top Rank

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel 

To comment on this post in The Fight Forum CLICK HERE