Matchroom Boxing
David Avanesyan handed Josh Kelly his first professional loss tonight in London, stopping Kelly in the sixth round to retain the European welterweight title. Related
The 32-year-old Avanesayan (27-3-1, 15 KO) will now surely be looking to figure a way into the world title mix. Errol Spence (WBC and IBF) looks set to face Yordenis Ugas (WBA), and Terence Crawford (WBO) might get Manny Pacquiao or Shawn Porter, but there’s always the WBA’s “world” welterweight title, which is currently vacant, and you never know, maybe Crawford doesn’t get Pacquiao or Porter, at which point Avanesyan probably becomes as good an option as anyone available.
Maybe Ryan Garcia didn’t answer
every question with today’s knockout win over Luke Campbell in Dallas, but it’s hard to say he didn’t answer a fair amount of them, and at the very least, it’s probably time to stop writing him off as an “Instagram boxer” or some sort of total fraud.
Garcia (21-0, 18 KO) came off the canvas in the second round to roar back and end the night in the seventh, finishing Campbell (20-4, 16 KO) with a wicked liver shot that put Campbell down for the count. Related
Boxing Twitter was highly engaged with this one on both sides of the pond. The Brits, of course, were rooting hard for the 33-year-old Campbell to win, and so were many Americans, to be fair, as the 22-year-old Garcia is a star bigger than his record coming into this fight, and maybe comes out a star bigger than his record still, which breeds some contempt and whatnot, of course.