The Knockout of the Year...and what it means for the heavyweight division
Plus: sanctioning body nonsense!
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Ok, look. I wasn’t super excited for Dillian Whyte vs Alexander Povetkin. It was the biggest fight since boxing’s return, sure, but it seemed like Povetkin was being thrown in to Eddie Hearn’s backyard to help Whyte build some momentum before his eventual fight with Tyson Fury.
For four rounds, it looked like we were headed in that direction. Whyte dropped the 40-year-old Povetkin twice in round four and the end of the fight seemed mere seconds away.
And, well, it was.
Povetkin nailed Whyte with a left uppercut straight from hell and knocked him out cold. With one punch, he transformed the heavyweight pecking order and sent shockwaves through the division. It was the best win of his career and sets him up for a likely rematch with Whyte sometime in December.
If ever there was a reminder that anything can happen when you throw two big guys in a ring and ask them to punch each other in the face, it was this. Whyte was (and still is, honestly) the best active fighter never to challenge for a world title. He was knocked out by Anthony Joshua in the fight before Joshua won his first title, and all he’d done in the ensuing five years was earn 11 straight wins over solid competition. He’d been absolutely screwed by the WBC, having been the heavyweight mandatory challenger for over 1,000 days (!!!) without ever getting a title shot. Now that looks as distant as it’s ever been.
By the way, Whyte’s loss does potentially pave the way toward a Fury-Joshua fight sometime next year. There’s still a lot to get through before we get that fight, but it does feel slightly more realistic with Whyte temporarily out of the picture.
Povetkin, who’s been around in the division forever but never really earned a signature win, finally gets to put a top-five name on his résumé. The Russian was knocked out in title challenges against Wladimir Klitschko and Joshua, but a draw with Michael Hunter is the only other blemish on his record. If he beats Whyte again — I’d still expect Whyte to be favored in the rematch based on how suddenly the fight ended — he’ll be set up for another massive fight in the sport’s glamour division. And it doesn’t hurt to have a highlight clip like that when you’re trying to sell a fight.
The heavyweight rankings probably look like this pretty universally right now:
Tyson Fury
Anthony Joshua
Deontay Wilder
Andy Ruiz Jr.
Alexander Povetkin
For the first time in a decade, MMA’s light heavyweight division makes no sense
The biggest MMA news of the week came outside the cage, when Jon Jones announced he’d vacated his 205-pound title and is now set for a move to heavyweight. It means someone not named Jones or Daniel Cormier will hold the title for the first time since 2011 when Dominic Reyes and Jan Blachowicz meet at UFC 253 next month.
It also immediately put the spotlight on Ryan Bader, who was set to defend his Bellator light heavyweight title on Friday night (Bellator is the biggest MMA promotion outside the UFC). Bader, who was previously in the UFC and beat some of the biggest names in the division, was dropping back to defend his belt for the first time since 2017. Coming into the fight, some wondered if he was now the best light heavyweight in the world.
That narrative was squashed before it really got off the ground, courtesy of a Vadim Nemkov head kick that Bader never saw coming. Bader, who also holds the Bellator heavyweight strap, hadn’t fought at 205 for three years and looked slow all night. At heavyweight, he’d been able to use his elite speed and athleticism to overwhelm his slower opponents, but he looked a step behind against Nemkov. He’ll likely go back to heavyweight after this fight.
Nemkov will be a tough out, and he’s already racked up a number of wins against solid opposition in Bellator. A fight with UFC vet Corey Anderson is likely to be next and would be a very intriguing matchup.
Meanwhile, no one is arguing Nemkov is the top guy at 205. That title will go to the winner of Reyes-Blachowicz, but either way, it’s a weird time for the division. For what it’s worth, I thought Reyes beat Jones when they met in February and would love to see the rematch.
Sanctioning body nonsense of the week
Boxing’s sanctioning bodies are doing their best to destroy the sport, so I figured I’d at least point out what’s going on. I’m not even going to touch the Dillian Whyte situation, which is saying a lot.
Last week, David Benavidez missed weight ahead of his WBC super middleweight title defense against Roamer Alexis Angulo. Benavidez then knocked Angulo out, leaving the title vacant. Normally, the two highest ranked fighters would fight for the vacant title (the rankings themselves are mired with all sorts of issues, but again, there’s only so much time and space).
Avni Yildirim is the WBC #1 at 168 pounds. Yildirim challenged for the then-vacant title in 2019, losing a controversial technical decision to Anthony Dirrell. He then failed a drug test, but the WBC decided that, for some reason, that was okay.
I mean, really? He had to pay a fine to the WBC, but was let off the hook other than that. What does that sound like to you?
Anyways, fast forward to last week, when the title became vacant. Fighters suddenly came out of the woodwork to ask for the title shot before it was ultimately granted to, wait for it…Canelo Alvarez, boxing’s biggest star. Now, Canelo wasn’t even ranked at 168 pounds by the WBC, but he somehow earns the shot at Yildirim for the vacant belt. The reason? The WBC wants to keep Canelo in their good graces, and giving him a shot at a title belt he’s almost guaranteed to win sounds like a pretty solid way to do it.
The plot thickens, even from there. Alvarez has a deal for his fights to stream on DAZN, but the streaming service has to approve each of his opponents. And later in the week, BoxingScene reported that DAZN will not approve Alvarez-Yildirim. So, either something weird happens again, or the WBC has to find another way to involve Canelo in its tangled web of alleged title belts.
Elsewhere in the squared circle…
Katie Taylor and Delfine Persoon picked up exactly where they left off in their first fight, engaging in a 10-round firefight that could have gone either way in the Whyte-Povetkin co-feature. Taylor ended up with a close unanimous decision (98-93, 96-94, 96-94) that Persoon didn’t really take issue with and left the undefeated Taylor as the undisputed lightweight champion. It could’ve gone either way, but 98-93 was just an awful scorecard. Persoon has an incredible, awkward style where she marches forward and throws punches knowing most of them won’t land. Taylor’s elite technical boxing ability only got her so far before she gave in and engaged in a slugfest with Persoon. In June 2019, Taylor edged out a majority decision against Persoon in a fight that looked very similar.
Shawn Porter, last seen giving Errol Spence Jr. everything he could handle in a 2019 fight of the year contender, returned to action with a win over the previously unbeaten Sebastian Formella. It was clear from the opening bell that Porter was simply levels above Formella and it didn’t turn out to be a very interesting fight. Still, Porter won by three scores of 120-108 and is primed for a big-time welterweight fight in his next outing.
Speaking of big-time knockouts, Joe Smith Jr. pulled off a pretty decent one in his light heavyweight title eliminator against Eleider Alvarez. Smith came forward and hounded Alvarez for the entire fight before he landed a right left combination that sent Alvarez through the ropes and ultimately ended the fight. Smith, known for sending Bernard Hopkins into retirement in similar fashion, earns a shot at the vacant WBO title.
Elsewhere in the cage…
Former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar moved down to the 135-pound bantamweight division and earned his first win since 2018, eking out a split-decision victory over Pedro Munhoz (48-47, 46-49, 48-47). Edgar, who was also a title challenger at 145 pounds, had long resisted moving down to bantamweight. But he made weight and looked good against Munhoz, a top-five fighter in the division. He’ll certainly be in line for a significant fight his next time out.
Shana Dobson pulled off one of the biggest UFC upsets ever, closing as high as +900 before she knocked out Mariya Agapova.
Speaking of upsets, Trevin Jones was a +400 underdog and looked like he was milliseconds away from being stopped in the first round of his UFC bout with Timur Valiev. All he did was come back out and land a right hook that sent Valiev down to finish the fight.
And finally, the fighter nickname of the week
Look, there were a lot to choose from this week, but I’m a sucker for the cheesy ones. Ryan “Darth” Bader takes the cake this time.
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That’s it! See you next time.