The sport of Boxing is no stranger to tournament style
competition. While many likely associate the idea of Boxing being contested
under tournament style formats with the amateur ranks with several tournaments
taking place yearly and of course, Olympic competition occurring every four
years, the professional side of the sport has seen its share of tournament
concepts as well. While many of these tournaments have served a purpose of
unifying world championships in a given weight division, often accompanied by
significant elements of hype by the respective promoters and television
networks involved, there have also been reality television style competitions
such as The Contender and The Next Great Champ series that did serve as a way
to introduce several fighters to a more casual audience and in the case of
Sergio Mora, the winner of The Contender's first season, an eventual world
champion, who since retirement has gone on to become one of the sport's
respected expert commentators.
At last year's annual World Boxing Council (WBC)
convention a new unique tournament concept was introduced known as The World
Cup Boxing Series (WCBS), which would consist of a mini tournament concept with
four fighters being selected to compete in two bouts with the winners of those
two fights meeting in the tournament final. While those of us who grew up in
the New York area of the United States as this observer did, likely associate
the WCBS abbreviation that this tournament coincidentally has, with the call
letters of both the ViacomCBS owned television and radio networks of the same
abbreviation based in New York City, this tournament concept is unique in that
it offers a straight-forward approach that in theory, would not have a long,
drawn-out process to complete and would hopefully be absent of any
complications and turmoil that has often reared it’s head in previous
tournament concepts.
The debut of the World Cup Boxing Series tournament
would/will take place in the talent-deep 135lb. Lightweight division with the
winner of the two bouts earning the WBC's Latino Lightweight championship.
Although some will likely criticize the WBC, at times justifiably for its
practice of developing and awarding championship belts of various labels and distinctions,
while the WBC Latino championship is one that can get lost in the mix of the
various regional championships that are associated with the sanctioning
organization, the bigger aspect is that the winner of this tournament will
likely be moved up in the WBC's world Lightweight rankings.
On February 24th, the debut of the World Cup
Boxing Series began in Obregon, Sonora, MX. In the first semi-final bout, Isai Hernandez faced Irving
Castillo. An important thing to keep in mind in addition to both of these
tournament bouts being scheduled for eight rounds is that all four of these
fighters who were selected to participate in this tournament are at the prospect
level of the sport, which gives this tournament concept a real sense of it
being a development tool to gage talent that may be on the verge of contender
status and/or fighters that have not been able to benefit from television
exposure before. Not unlike a concept premium sports cable network ESPN in some
ways pioneered when they began broadcasting the sport in 1980 and awarded ESPN
branded championship belts to the winners of tournaments they held on their
network featuring fighters who at that time were at similar stages as the four
fighters competing in this tournament being promoted by soon to be inducted
Hall of Famer Roy Jones' RJJ Boxing, who’s events are streamed on the Ultimate
Fighting Championship’s (UFC) MMA promotion's digital subscription-based combat
sports network UFC Fight Pass.
The Hernandez-Castillo
bout saw Castillo begin the fight by using his 5’5 frame to keep the 5’2
Hernandez at distance where the shorter Hernandez had trouble getting his
punches off due to being kept on the outside. As the fight progressed, Hernandez
was able to force the combat on the inside. This resulted in an at times ugly
fight to watch as both fighters had periods of effectiveness, but neither of
them were able to stand out clearly from the other, which can be attributed to
the height difference between the two and a bad clashing of styles. Ultimately,
Castillo was able to get the nod of two of three official judges in earning an
eight round majority decision to move on to the final of the tournament.
As for
who Irving Castillo will be facing in the final, coincidentally, the main event
of the card in Sonora, MX, featured the second semi-final bout between Luis
Torres and Rodolfo Flores. From the opening bell Torres stalked Flores with an
almost systematic confidence. The difference in punching power also appeared
early on as Torres frequently knocked Flores off balance when he would land cleaning.
To his credit, Flores had a fighter’s instinct and tried to fight back and
impose his will on Torres. What resulted in the second round however, was Flores
becoming over aggressive and being knocked down with a short right hook to the
head. Torres would score a second knockdown of Flores in round three with a
flurry of punches, but then would be deducted a point moments later when he threw
Flores to the canvas as he attempted to finish the fight after Flores had gotten
up from the second knockdown. A point deduction that would prove to be insignificant
as Torres would continue his attack and ultimately be able to force a stoppage
of the fight in the fourth round.
This now
sets up the finals between Luis Torres and Irving Castillo, which will tentatively
take place on June 2nd on another RJJ Boxing promoted card. If everything
goes as planned, which unfortunately due to a variety of circumstances
including, but not limited to an ongoing global epidemic is never a sure thing,
it will be interesting to see what will be next for the World Cup Boxing Series
after this inaugural Lightweight tournament.
“And
That’s The Boxing Truth.”
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