Weekend Boxing Results, Apr. 1

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No Questions Answered as Freak Injury Gives Gvozdyk Fifth Round TKO over Ngumbu

In a fight that was supposed to tell us if Oleksandr Gvozdyk had mentally recovered from almost killing Adonis Stevenson just a few months ago, Doudou Ngumbu's freak leg injury insured that we wouldn’t learn anything from the bout. Ngumbu was getting handily beaten, until in the fifth round he moved away from Gvodzyk along the ropes and collapsed in pain, grabbing his calf. The referee let him take a bit of time, but when he got up it was clear he couldn’t continue so the fight was stopped. Officially, Oleksandr Gvozdyk scored a fifth-round TKO to defend his WBC light heavyweight title.

Gvodzyk has many options at light heavyweight, including unification matchups with Artur Beterbiev or Sergey Kovalev that would be easy to make as all three men fight on ESPN; however, the question of whether Gvozdyk is still the finisher he was before the Adonis Stevenson fight remains. And against world class opponents like Beterbiev or Kovalev, he will need that killer instinct.

Egidijus ‘Mean Machine’ Kavaliauskas Holds on to Possible Shot at Crawford with Disappointing Majority Draw

If the point of putting Egidijus Kavaliauskas on an ESPN undercard was to build a buzz around the undefeated Lithuanian that would get people excited about the prospect of him fighting Terence Crawford, that didn’t happen. In fact, “Mean Machine” came incredibly close to losing to Ray Robinson in what was ultimately a dull and uninspired effort.

On one judge’s scorecard, Robinson won 97-93, but the two other judges scored the bout 95-95. With the bout in Robinson’s hometown of Philadelphia, Kavaliauskas should have showed more of a desire to hurt Robinson, but thought he was cruising in the fight and complained after that the judges had robbed him of a victory.

Still, while he didn’t show anything against Robinson to excite fans about his chances in the matchup, Kavaliauskas didn’t lose, so he believes he is still in line for a shot at Crawford. Interestingly, Ray Robinson also believes that because he didn’t lose either, he deserves a shot at Crawford. However, Robinson has another reason he thinks he could win that fight, he’s the last person to beat Crawford in the amateurs.

Of course, fans don’t care about either of these guys fighting Crawford, because fans are still holding out hope that Crawford will fight Errol Spence Jr. next. Saturday night was likely supposed to change that, instead it further cemented it.

Liam Smith Stops Sam Eggington in Five

Liam Smith may never be good enough to beat the elite fighters in the 154-pound weight class, but he was more than good enough to beat Sam Eggington. Eggington boxed well early on, but Smith was too strong and consistently landed the harder, more thudding punches. In the fifth round, although Eggington was never especially hurt, the referee couldn’t watch him cornered and eating more and more hard shots, so he stepped in and called an end to the bout.

What this does for Smith’s career is unclear. With the victory, he won the WBC silver light middleweight title, which doesn’t mean a whole lot. More than likely he will be used as a stepping stone for another 154-pounder who thinks he’s a future champion. What happens in that fight will likely determine Liam “Beefy” Smith’s legacy.

Final Round Knockdown Earns Fitzgerald Decision over Fowler

Scott Fitzgerald beat Anthony Fowler via a split decision, 94-96, 95-94, 95-94. That means, the big difference in the fight was Fitzgerald’s knockdown in the 10th and final round. This was an interesting match, with both men’s careers mirroring the other’s and a ton of trash talk and bad blood. For Fitzgerald, his struggles with making 154 pounds at the weigh-in added another issue for him and cast further doubts about how much of a contender he will be in the weight class going forward. Still, because of the personal nature of the fight this had to feel great for Fitzgerald, who moved his record to 13-0 with nine knockouts.

Ryan Garcia Stops Jose Lopez in Two

Ryan Garcia scored another easy knockout win this weekend, when he battered and knocked down Jose Lopez in such a violent way that Lopez’s corner opted to stop the fight. The second-round TKO win moved the viral star slash lightweight contender to 18-0 with 15 knockouts.

After the fight, Garcia claimed he was now ready for a world title shot. Supposedly, Garcia told ESPN’s Steve Kim that Tevin Farmer was the champion he was most likely to fight next, which would make sense seeing how Farmer is the least risky shot to a world title belt. However, on Twitter the feud between Garcia and Gervonta Davis heated up.

Davis responded to a fan’s question about a potential Garcia-Davis matchup by tweeting “You wanna see a cold case”, which prompted Garcia to respond “stay focused Gervontaaa I’m coming for youuu.” Davis struck back by saying “Mayweather vs Oscar part 3 but a little different...I’m going for the knock out” to which Garcia quickly pointed out “It would actually be part 2 Oscar never got the rematch, I understand you aren’t the sharpest of the bunch mate!”

Garcia was technically correct, though some of Davis’ fans argued Gervonta was making the point that Canelo’s loss to Floyd, was in a way Oscar’s second loss to Floyd. It was a stretch -- and one Davis corrected by tweeting “lol I meant part two” -- but Garcia is a Mexican-American from California calling people “mate” so the whole exchange made little sense, really.

Eventually, Davis shot back with “Sharp enough to fuck you up if Golden Boy ever have the balls to put you in front of me!” to which Garcia responded, “On the biggest stage the biggest event of the world I will lay you flat and ask you to get me a flat white after.”

As far as I can tell, a flat white is a coffee from Starbucks. Hopefully I’m wrong, because if not, “Kingry” that’s an atrocious comeback, mate.

It was a fun back-and-forth, but that fight is not going to happen anytime soon. There is too much money to be made by building up both men against lesser opponents to have the fight now, but in the future, it could be a good one.

Kash Ali Earns First Loss after Biting David Price

Kash Ali, a formerly undefeated heavyweight boxer from the U.K., earned his first loss as a professional this weekend, when he was disqualified from a bout against David Price, for tackling and biting Price in the stomach.

Ali was pelted with trash and beer cans as he was escorted out of the arena but was apologetic afterward, saying “I think just the build-up to the fight- It’s my first time boxing on a big stage, I was so pumped up I just wanted to fight. The street mentality just kicked in, it was stupid. As mad as it sounds, when I ended up on top of him, boxing went out the window. I just thought, ‘This is a fight now.’ Stupid. I’ve got nothing else to say, just it was out of order and I apologize to him.”

Price rejected this idea, as he claimed that Ali had also bit him in the third round of the match. He also rejected the idea of fighting Ali in a rematch, declaring “I don’t want to share the ring with an animal like that.”

Mike Tyson will always be the GOAT of biting in boxing, having famously bit Evander Holyfield’s ear off, as well as having bitten Lennox Lewis on the thigh during their weigh in scuffle. Vinny Paz bit a guy who he said robbed him, a few years back. And, one of Jermain Taylor’s frequent run ins with the law was after he bit a woman. A Guardian article from 1934 speaks of British flyweight champion Jackie Brown having bit a man on the street supposedly for calling him a “cheese champion,” and being sentenced to four months of hard labor for it.

After this weekend, we can add Kash Ali to the long list of boxing’s biters.