Watch some awesome boxing highlights from this past weekend.
UFC 246 obviously hoarded all of the attention this weekend, but there was plenty of boxing on Friday and Saturday that was worth keeping an eye on, and we certainly didn’t have a shortage of highlights.
Uzbek prospect Shohjahon Ergashev (17-0, 15 KOs) co-headlined Friday’s ShoBox card against Adrian Estrella (29-5, 24 KOs), and he only needed a round to put his foe away. This body shot was so devastating that Estrella was violently shaking his head and moving his whole body trying to make the pain go away. His liver fully destroyed, Estrella was done in 92 seconds and there was never a chance he’d beat the count.
The biggest fight on Saturday was a PBC on FOX main event between unified WBC/IBF junior middleweight champion Julian Williams (27-2-1, 16 KOs) defending his titles against Jeison Rosario (20-1-1, 14 KOs). This was a hometown defense in Philadelphia for “J-Rock” and he was garnering -3000 odds to Rosario’s +1500. Squash match, right? WRONG!
Rosario badly hurt Williams in the fifth round and had him on skates with an onslaught of punches. Williams fell down after trying to hold for dear life, but it was not ruled a knockdown. A huge right uppercut by Rosario rocked Williams’ head back, he was out on his feet, and the referee stopped the fight (much to the displeasure of Philly fans). We have a new unified champion and it may hold up at the end of 2020 as boxing’s Upset of the Year.
Last but not least, former WBO light heavyweight champion Eleider Alvarez (25-1, 13 KOs) returned to action for the first time since losing his title to Sergey Kovalev last February. In the Top Rank on ESPN main event, the Canadian-Colombian engaged in a pretty ugly fight against the hard-hitting Michael Seals (27-3, 24 KOs). In round seven, Alvarez uncorked a right hand that melted Seals, who protested the stoppage afterward like he wasn’t totally out of it. One-hitter quitter.
Alvarez is now very much in line to fight for the WBO belt again, which was vacated by Canelo Alvarez after he KO’d Kovalev back in November.