REAL COMBAT MEDIA WEEKLY BOXING REPORT – “Split Decision Edition“
By Zo Crooks,Real Combat Media Chicago Boxing Correspondent
Welcome to the Real Combat Media Boxing weekly edition of “Split Decision”. This week will feature a recap of fights from the Adrien Broner vs Shawn Porter PBC card on NBC, to Floyd “Money” Mayweather, Errol Spence Jr., Keith Thurman, Deontay Wilder, Paulie Malignaggi and so on. We are going to also cover the return of Andre “SOG” Ward and Sunday’s PBC card on CBS featuring Rances Barthelemy and Sammy Vazquez. It’s been a busy week in the fight game so let’s go!!!!!
First and foremost before we get started I want to wish all a Happy Father’s Day!!!!
Shawn Porter gave his dad and trainer Kenny Porter a great Father’s Day gift Saturday night on NBC on primtime television by defeating fellow Ohio native Adrien Broner by unanimous decision. Porter (26-1-1 16 KOs) came out applying the pressure early and often and was clearly the more aggressive fighter. Broner (30-2-22 KOs) spent most of the bout moving and tying up Porter. For some reason Broner seemed like he was trying to time Porter but couldn’t and he failed to make the proper adjustments to win the fight. He also didn’t let his hands go enough. Broner did drop Porter in the 12th and final round with a left hook. However that wasn’t enough!
One thing for sure is AB can really sell a fight! Leading up to the bought Broner was in rare form. He did everything from interrupting Porter’s media day workout to embarrassing the Porter family on stage at the press conference. I don’t know if AB antics put a strain on his friendship with Shawn Porter at this point, but if it did I can truly understand. After the fight Kenny Porter and Broner had a tense moment in the corner when he came over to shake hands with the Porters. It seem like Kenny didn’t forget all that ish AB was talking leading up to the fight!!!!!
What’s next for AB? Only Broner can answer this question. We can all make assumptions and criticize him but only he knows what he has to do and commit himself to doing it! He has the talent to come back from this but again it is totally up to him!
Was Porter auditioning for a fight with Money May? After the fight Shawn and his father Kenny Porter both called out Money Mayweather. They are seriously looking at Money May as their next potential opponent as Kenny refenced Mayweather to “the boy up the street or big bro”. We will find out if his audition against Broner was good enough to land him that spot in the near future.
I’ve said if before and I will say it again, Errol Spence Jr. is Da Truth!!! The DeSoto Texas southpaw looked amazing as he picked up his 17th win of his professional career against Philip Lo Greco. Spence landed some beautiful shots from different angles to bring the fight to an early end in the 3rd round. Lo Greco was a replacement for Roberto Garcia who pulled out of the fight for personal reason. It didn’t matter who Spence fought that night. He was on point. The results would’ve been the same….#Mandown. After the fight Spence called out Keith “One Time” Thurman. Mayweather mentioned during the week that he would want Spence to fight Thurman on his undercard coming up in September. Spence is up for the challenge.
Thurman responded to his thoughts on Mayweather, Spence and Khan. On Mayweather: “I just want a chance to showcase my skills and my talent against the man who is claiming to be TBE.” On Mayweather suggesting he fight Spence on his next undercard: “It was highly disrespectul. The boy is what…16 and 0, 15 maybe 16 and 0 tonight? He hasn’t fought one B-class opponent…” On Khan: “I believe Amir doesn’t have the chin to take the punching power, I think he has the legs to run backwards for however many rounds until he hits the blue canvas, I would be interested in seeing that hand speed up close….He didn’t talk about me after the fight, he talked about Floyd but when one of you guys came and ask him so more questions then he decided to say my name out of his mouth and for some reason his coach wanted to talk junk too….if I had to I’d knock both of them out.”
Speaking of Money May he has stated that his next opponent will be, either Karim Mayfield or Andre Berto. When Dan Rafael of ESPN asked Floyd if he was serious, Floyd responded, “Pacquiao fought Algeri so why not?” Whether he is trolling us or not, we just have to wait and see who he decides to lace them up with.
Andre “SOG” Ward is back!!!!!!!!! After nearly a 2 year absence from the sport Ward (28-0-15 KOs) took on Paul Smith (35-6-20 KOs) Saturday in his hometown of Oakland, CA. at the Oracle Arena. The atmosphere was electric as Stephen Curry carried the belt for Ward with his entourage entering the ring that night. England’s native Smith corner threw in the towel in the ninth round. Ward looked good in return and his first fight under Jay Z’s Roc Nation banner. The fight was held at a catchweight of 172 but Smith came in over at 176.4 which cost Smith 20 percent of his purse ($45,000) by the California Athletic State Commission. However from my understanding Ward gave the money back in a class move. I will have to check into myself but I will let you know the details on that later. Anyway I am just glad to see him back in action. The boxing world missed dude!
Paulie Malignaggi was in full effect as usual Saturday afternoon. I got a chance to interview Paulie and he was vibrant as ever. I asked him about Manny Pacquiao’s shoulder injury and he went all in! Here is the link ( T Street Controversy Live) to see the interview as well as others that I conducted. Trust me it is a can’t miss!
Deontay Wilder was also in the building. I thought that I had seen two Deontays but it was his younger brother Marcellus Wilder who is an amateur boxer himself. He campaigns at cruiserweight and is long and ranger like his brother. Deontay is focused on unifying the belts in the heavyweight division. He is well on his way!
PBC showcased another great card on Sunday afternoon. In the main event Rances Barthelemy (23-0) dominated Antonio DeMarco (31-5-1) over ten rounds of action. Switching from a southpaw stance to a conventional right-hand stance throughout the bout, Barthelemy dropped DeMarco with a big left hand in fourth. Barthelemy, a Cuba defector, resides in Las Vegas and won all 10 rounds on the judges score cards despite being deducted a point by referee Kenny Bayless for a low blow in the ninth round.
In the co-feature of Sunday’s event Sammy Vasquez took on Wale Omotoso in a welterweight bout. Vasquez (19-0-13 KOs) is a veteran of the National Guard and did two tours in Iraq, won the early rounds of the fight behind a great jab and body shots. Omotoso (25-2-21 KOs) begin to pick up the pace in the middle rounds while catching Vasquez with some nice shots of his own. Still Vasquez put on a great performance on his way to a unanimous victory.
Also on that card I seen someone to watch out for….Please be on the lookout for a cruiserweight name Andrew Tabiti! Look him up if you haven’t seen him. Trust me he has the goods! His record is (10-0-10 KOs).
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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