HITS and MISSES: Halloween Weekend Edition

HITS and MISSES: Halloween Weekend Edition

It was an absurdly busy weekend in boxing, so let’s get right to all the action.

Here are boxing’s biggest HITS and MISSES after Gervonta Davis vs. Leo Santa Cruz, Naoya Inoue vs. Jason Maloney, Oleksandr Usyk vs. Derek Chisora, Jaime Munguia vs. Tureano Johnson and so much more.

HIT: Gervonta Davis Breaks the Internet

Davis broke Leo Santa Cruz, then the Internet on Saturday night by delivering a savage uppercut to his opponent’s jaw in the sixth round of the main event of a Showtime pay-per-view card in San Antonio, Texas.

Davis, 24, received high praise for the spectacular one-punch KO from all over the world, including the likes of NBA superstar LeBron James, UFC megastar Conor McGregor and many other celebrities.

In a nutshell, his epic performance shows two very important things about “Tank”.

First, Davis is an excellent enough fighter to make good on his incredible promise. Davis was favored to beat Santa Cruz, but the 32-year-old had owned world titles in three divisions and appeared to be in prime form at the Alamodome.

Second, Davis is already drawing tons of attention, and it’s the right kind of attention, the kind that shows what an amazing fighter he is and how he really might be the next Floyd Mayweather.

MISS: Deontay Wilder’s ‘Heinous Accusations’ 

Ex-champ Deontay Wilder finally broke his silence about Tyson Fury choosing to move on to bigger and better things in his career other than the third fight against him that almost nobody wants or needs to see.

Wilder started by posting a bizarre rant via social media on Saturday in which he accused Fury of loading his gloves in both of their previous fights. Things only got worse from there, though, as Wilder went on to accuse his own ex-trainer Mark Breland of poisoning him during the second fight as well as tossing out several other wild accusations.

As noted by Yahoo’s Kevin Iole, Wilder’s “heinous accusations” are backed by no evidence but are evidence themselves that Wilder probably shouldn’t be boxing again anytime soon. Wilder is clearly in need of some kind of mental or emotional help. That, or he just needs to stop surrounding himself with the types of people who lead him down these dangerous and ridiculous ways of thinking.

HIT: Naoya Inoue and Jaime Munguia

Lebron and Conor might have loved watching Davis do his thing, but hardcore boxing fans had two other young boxing stars to get excited about, too.

It started on Friday night when ex-154-pound titleholder and new middleweight contender Jaime Munguia stopped a very game Tureano Johnson in the sixth round of a DAZN card at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California.

Munguia, 24, from Mexico, is still a work in progress. Heck, Munguia even still appears to be growing into his frame. But the rising Mexican star wins fights, and he does so in a fan-friendly style that should only help build him a larger and larger fan base for years to come.

Meanwhile, Naoya Inoue, from Japan, finally made his main event debut for his new promoter Bob Arum in the United States. “The Little Monster” walloped Jason Moloney in the seventh round on Saturday night in a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card at the MGM Grand Bubble in Las Vegas, Nevada.

After the fight, The Athletic’s Lance Pugmire hailed the undefeated World Boxing Super Series winner and unified bantamweight champion Inoue as “best fighter I’ve seen in years in person…he has the ability to be as popular as Manny Pacquiao.”

That’s incredibly high praise, and something that can’t be argued against at this point in his career. Inoue is already a pound-for-pound elite superstar. He’s still just 27, and he constantly seems to be getting better.

MISS: Too Much Boxing?

Is too much boxing going on at the same time a bad thing? Maybe in the past, I would have said that the idea was silly, but after experiencing Saturday in the McCarson household, I’m starting to think maybe there is such a thing as too much.

Boxing is one of the best sports in the world, but as the television networks and streaming platforms continue to proliferate faster than the alphabet gang can come up with names of titles, there might be a point where boxing is just punching itself in the face.

Covering combat sports is my full-time job, yet there seemed to be no way for even someone like me, who wanted to watch all the fights, had all the required cable packages and subscription services, and possessed the vested financial interest to do it could actually pull it off in real-time.

Maybe that’s just the way things are going. Content creators see 168 hours in each week and aim to fill every bit of it. But I’m not sure that’s a good thing, and I’m equally not able to understand how any regular fight fan out there was supposed to keep up with everything all at once.

HIT: Everything About Oleksandr Usyk vs. Derek Chisora

Former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk continued his march toward challenging for a heavyweight title by outworking veteran contender Derek Chisora over 12 rounds in the main event of a Matchroom Boxing card at Wembley Arena in London.

Usyk, 33, from Ukraine, hopes to follow in the footsteps of Evander Holyfield, the first undisputed cruiserweight champion in history and the only one to accomplish the same thing as a heavyweight. Like Holyfield, Usyk needs time to acclimate to the much bigger fighters in boxing’s glamour division, so Chisora seemed the perfect next opponent.

The fight itself was a fun battle, thanks largely to Usyk’s beautiful boxing and Chisora’s crafty pressure. Additionally, much had been made on social media before the fight about how much the two fighters love and respect each other.

That same thing continued after the fight when the two shared burgers that Chisora brought over to Usyk’s dressing room.

So, yeah, everything about Usyk vs. Chisora was awesome. Boxing could use as many heartwarming stories and brilliant sportsmen as possible.

Photo credit: Esther Lin / SHOWTIME

Check out more boxing news on video at the Boxing Channel 

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE