HBO and Showtime went head-to-head this weekend with a pair of good boxing telecasts featuring name fighters. The Showtime card featured Adrien “The Problem” Broner coming back from a loss to Shawn Porter and he looked pretty good against little-known Khabib Allakhverdiev. The fight was stopped at the 2:23 mark of the 12th and final round and Broner (31-2, 23 KO’s) was successful in looking good in front of his hometown Cincinnati fans.
Fighting for a 140-lb title, Broner showed the hand speed that he was famous for early in his career, but not so much of the power. Allakhverdiev (19-2, 9 KO’s) was able to get his right hand in on Broner’s jaw repeatedly, but wasn’t able to mount a consistent attack that would turn rounds in his favor. InTheCorner.net gave Broner all but two rounds and he would have easily won decision had it gone to the final bell.
Prior to that fight, Jose Pedraza (21-0, 12 KO’s) was given a decision victory to successfully defend his super featherweight title, but Edner Cherry probably should have been named the new champion. It was a close, competitive fight and one judge scored it 116-112 for Cherry (34-7-2, 19 KO’s), but the other two turned in scores of 117-111 for Pedraza.
On HBO, Viktor Postol put Lucas Matthysse down for the count in round 10 to win a super lightweight belt. Postol (28-0, 12 KO’s) was a heavy underdog but he outboxed Matthysse (37-4, 34 KO’s) and ended up landing the more damaging punches.
And in another 140-lb bout, Antonio Orozco improved to 23-0 (15 KO’s) with a unanimous decision over Humberto Soto. Soto (65-9-2, 35 KO’s), the former super lightweight kingpin, lost by wide margins despite Orozco having a point deducted for a low blow in round nine. Official scores were 98-91, 97-92 and 97-92.
