The Weekend Bulletin

A quick snapshot at the weekend that was.

Biggest Upset: Rene Alvarado +450 over Andrew Cancio

Notable New Champions:

• Glory Women’s Super Bantamweight Championship: Tiffany van Soest
• Cage Warriors Middleweight Championship: Nathias Frederick
• Legacy Fighting Alliance Flyweight Championship: Brandon Royval
• Cage Fury Fighting Championship Light Heavyweight Championship: Mike Rhodes
• WBA International Junior Middleweight Championship: Anthony Fowler
• WBA Continental Americas Welterweight Championship: Rashidi Ellis
• WBA Super World Junior Lightweight Championship: Leo Santa Cruz
• WBA World Junior Lightweight Championship: Rene Alvarado
• Ring of Combat Middleweight Championship: Jhonoven Pati
• Interim Ring of Combat Featherweight Championship: Tim Dooling
• Fight To Win Women’s Masters Bantamweight Championship: Jena Bishop
• Fight To Win Masters Black Belt Featherweight Championship: Jordan Gomez

A Few Storylines Going Forward:

1. The Carousel Circles On: I’ve long talked about the Glory Women’s Bantamweight/Super Bantamweight carousel of Anissa Meksen, Tiffany van Soest, and Jady Menezes going round and round for the title. It was a solid possibility that it would be ground to a halt with a third victory of van Soest by Meksen. HOWEVA! Tiffany Timebomb overcame her biggest challenge to date and finally slayed her longtime dragon, defeating Meksen, albeit by pretty questionable judging. Around and around we go!
2. Robbing Ryder: It’s been a minute since we had a good, old-fashioned robbery, but that’s exactly what we had Saturday afternoon. Every outlet I’ve seen had it at least FOR John Ryder, some had it a draw, and even a trickle or two had Callum Smith by a nail, but didn’t feel great about it. But THOSE scorecards?! Are you kidding me? Robberies happen all the time, but I don’t know why the judges chose this one. Matchup with Canelo awaiting, maybe?
3. A Tale of Two Knockouts: When Rene Alvarado and Andrew Cancio tussled almost four years ago, it ended with Alvarado on his wallet and TKO’d in the eighth round. Here, now, it was Alvarado that just kept coming, just kept swinging, just kept landing, and until Cancio’s corner did the right thing and saved their fighter. And, at last, on his 40th professional fight, Alvarado is a world champion. Meanwhile, Deontay Wilder did not keep coming, he did not throw, and he did not land. He was getting buried in points, losing badly, probably should have been losing by more. And then…boom. All it takes is one, and nobody in boxing has a harder killshot than The Bronze Bomber. It’ll make highlight reels until he’s long gone, but I worry about if Wilder is neglecting his overall game and just focusing on his right hand.