The Weekend Bulletin

A quick snapshot at the weekend that was.

Biggest Upset: Elwin Soto +650 over Angel Acosta

Notable New Champions:

• WBO World Junior Flyweight Champion: Elwin Soto
• Bellator Middleweight Champion: Rafael Lovato Jr.
• Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship Lightweight Champion: Johnny Bedford
• WBC International Junior Welterweight Championship: Tyrone McKenna

A Few Storylines Going Forward:

1. Not A Fluke: Andrew Cancio has gone from journeyman to entrenched champion, proving it was no fluke in his first defeat of Alberto Machado, by running it back and doing it all over again. There won’t be a third contest, at least not for a while, so all hail the champion.
2. Bare Knuckle Here To Stay: By many sites’ metrics, the bout between former world boxing champion Paulie Malignaggi and Conor McGregor lacky/friend/training partner Artem Lobov garnered more interest, casually, and clicks, then a star-studded Glory card featuring three title fights, a UFC card featuring the Korean Zombie, and three huge boxing cards. Having a world champion like Paulie legitmized BKFC, and I dare to say that it’s here to stay.
3. Zombie: In your heeeeaaaddd, Zombieeeeeee. As I’ll say in my Fighters of the Week about Chan Sung Jung: Despite the knockout of Dennis Bermudez in his return from military service, he busted his ass, but took that last-second knockout from Yair Rodriguez, and going in, I didn’t know the Korean Zombie we were going to get. Was he going to be an fight of the night guy who would give it all, but come up on the losing end, or would he rediscover the form he used to have, and be an entertaining winner? Well, on Saturday night, we had our answer. Jung took less than a minute to eliminate Moicano, faster than even Brian Ortega and Jose Aldo could, his only other losses. It’s clear that Jung is back in the title picture, and while it’s crowded, KZ’s story and popularity is an easy sell.
4. Vive la France: In front of the Paris faithful, both French Glory champions, Cedric Doumbe and Anissa Meksen delivered breathtaking performances in front of their home-country fans, defending their titles with gusto and entrenching themselves as absolute forces in the kickboxing world.