REAL COMBAT MEDIA WEEKLY BOXING REPORT – “Split Decision Edition“
By Zo Crooks,Real Combat Media Chicago Boxing Correspondent
Welcome to another weekly edition of the Real Combat Media Boxing Weekly Report “Split Decision”. Every week we try our best to keep you up to date with the boxing world on a weekly basis. Last week things kind of slowed down from the previous weeks before. We still got some good action from Timothy Bradley and Jesse Vargas as well as some good ole controversy from that fight as well as Dominic Wade’s split decision over Sam Soliman! Also Shane Mosley Jr. display of hands, Oscar De La Hoya decision, Floyd Mayweather news, and previews of upcoming bouts and events.
Timothy Bradley should listen to Lauryn Hill sometimes…..especially when she says, “It can all be so simple, but you rather make it hard!” Saturday’s HBO main event featuring Bradley vs Jesse Vargas was crazy! Bradley was aggressive all night. The shorter man with the shorter reach kept coming forward pushing Vargas back the whole night. He looked good but had he just boxed Vargas all night it would’ve been an easier fight. That is until the 12th and final round. With 21 seconds left in the fight, Vargas caught Bradley with a hard right that buckled his knees! Vargas tried to capitalize but Bradley held on. Then with 8 seconds left, referee Pat Russell stepped in and stopped the fight. Vargas thought he won the fight by stoppage. Russell said that he thought he heard the bell ring, but that was the 10 second mark clap that sounds at the end of the round. Horrible mistake on the part of Russell. Make no mistake about it Bradley was winning the fight. I had Vargas only winning 3 rounds. Vargas needed a knockout to win but even if the ref didn’t stop it, he wasn’t going to get it. Bradley is a true veteran and would’ve made a veteran move to prevent losing if need be like take a knee like he did against Ruslan Provodnikov.
What’s next for both Bradley and Vargas?….Well Vargas called for an immediate rematch after the fight believing that he could have won the fight. I don’t know man…maybe go back to Roy Jones as well for his training. He brought in Erik Morales to train him for this fight and for some reason he didn’t let his hands go nor make the necessary adjustments until it was too late. The fight was entertaining enough for a rematch though. This was Vargas first loss.
As for Bradley a logical opponent for him next would be Floyd Mayweather. Bradley has earned the right to share the squared circle with Money Mayweather. The problem is Bradley is with Top Rank and HBO so making the fight wont be easy at all.
Great win for Bradley but is his fights cursed lately? From the first fight with Manny Pacquiao in which Bradley was awarded the decision (I had Pac Man winning the first), to his draw with Diego Chavez last December, to the end of this fight with Vargas! Something strange is happening in his fights lately. That’s entertaining enough for me to watch what is going to happen in his upcoming bouts…lol.
That WBO Belt though!!!! Money Mayweather is holding that belt after he told everybody on May 2nd to “Strap me up” following his easy work of Pacquiao. Friday is the deadline by the WBO for Mayweather to pay his sanctioning fees for the belt and to vacate his two junior middleweight alphabet belts, because the WBO prohibits fighters from holding titles in multiple weight classes at the same time. If Mayweather doesn’t comply, he will be stripped and Bradley will be the full title holder.
In the co main event on HBO everyone got a chance to see Oscar Valdez. The Mexican Olympian one of boxing’s hottest prospects. Valdez took on fellow Mexican southpaw Ruben Tamayo in a ten round featherweight bout. Valdez has skills and looked great. Although he suffered his first knockdown at the end of the first, which was more a trip than a knockdown. Other than that he dominated the entire fight. He is going to improve with time. This time next year we might be looking at a title holder.
The original co main event to Bradley vs Vargas was cancelled. The fight was scheduled to feature junior welterweight Ray Beltran vs Humberto Soto. First it was cancelled due to Beltran’s failed drug test for steroids. Then Beltran was replaced with Jose Felix Jr., but that too was canceled because Soto suffered a knee injury. The bout was totally replaced by the Valdez vs Tamayo bout.
Dominic Wade barely escaped with a victory over Sam Soliman. Many observers believed that Soliman was robbed! Washington D.C. native Wade remained undefeated (18-0, 12 KOs) with a split decision victory over Soliman (44-13, 1 NC, 18 KOs). The fight was hard to score, but a controversial knockdown of Soliman in the fourth round could have been the difference. To me Soliman landed the cleaner punches but still a tough fight to score!
Julian Pollard won an inaugural BKB heavyweight title. Pollard won a 7 round decision over Rodney Hernandez. The fight wasn’t easy for Pollard at all. He landed some hard shots all night but Hernandez took it and kept coming.
Shane Mosley Jr. scored his first knockout in his BKB match. Mosley Jr. handled his business in 51 seconds of the first round against Jason Kelly of Boston. After dropping Kelly with a short right hand, Mosley finished the job on a combination followed by an overhand right. The apple don’t fall too far from the tree!
Oscar De La Hoya decided to stay retired. Oscar took to social media via Facebook to announce that he wont be making a comeback. Hmmmm….ok.
Floyd Mayweather has yet to announce his next opponent for his upcoming September bout. That shouldn’t surprise anyone, however just last week he was saying names like Karim Mayfield and Andre Berto. Berto hasn’t taken the calling out too lightly. In fact, Berto has fired shots at Floyd on some personal ish! It’s crazy. Even going so far as to imply that Floyd is somewhat stalking him and playing games on the phone. WOW!
Speaking of Money Mayweather…congrats on your ESPY nomination for “Best Fighter of the Year”. Mayweather vies for his 7th ESPY award for “Best Fighter”. Well deserved champ!
Word on the street is that Kell Brook vs Brandon Rios is close. Brook revealed that Rios is likely to be his opponent on Sepetember 12th but is hopeful that Mayweather steps in. In other words if and when Mayweather calls Brook, Rios can replaced with the quickness. Mayweather got more POWER than Ghost…(James St. Patrick from the Starz series Power! I recommend you check that show out on Saturday nights!).
AB gone wild! After losing to Shawn Porter last weekend in Vegas, Adrien Broner seems to be having a meltdown or a mental lapse or something!!!! He uploaded a photo of himself on Instagram holding a gun. I feel sorry for him in a sense. Real talk! He needs to refocus, retool and release! Change may be needed at this point.
Speaking of AB and Shawn Porter…there have been rumblings of a rematch on Mayweather’s undercard on September 12th. No comment….
Its going to be quiet in the boxing world this week. Nothing major shaking this upcoming weekend except for the holiday (4th of July). However next weekend July 11th the PBC returns, this time on ESPN featuring Keith “One Time” Thurman vs Louis Collazo in 12 rounds of welterweight action. Also that night on HBO, Mauricio Herrera will take on “Hammerin” Hank Lundy in a 10 round junior welterweight bout.
This concludes my weekly edition of Split Decision. Please email me your questions or comments to [email protected]. Every week I will answer a few questions in this column. Thank you…follow me onTwitter @Zomanystylez.
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