Just as styles make fights, a party is only as good as its host. Saturday night’s Matchroom Boxing card at Wintrust Arena in Chicago was supposed to be a coming-out party for Oleksandr Usyk (17-0, 13 KOs). The 2018 “fighter of the year” was making his long-awaited heavyweight debut, but his co-host Tyrone Spong left him hanging at the 25th hour after testing positive for a banned substance.
While the charismatic Ukranian did his part to put on a show for his 9,073 guests, Spong’s last-minute replacement Chazz Witherspoon (38-4, 29 KOs) looked as if he was forced to attend a mandatory work party before jetting out early with a seventh-round TKO.
While Usyk’s methodical fighting-style can be defined as either “surgical” or a bit “repetitive,” what can’t be denied is his world-class footwork inside the ring. Usyk’s movement makes him special, creating launch angles that tenderize his opponents like the over-matched Witherspoon, who looked very much like he had just stepped off a car lot. The jury is still out if Usyk can take a punch from the big boys but he clearly has a heavyweight personality that will put him in a big pay-per-view bout sooner than later.
Bivol dominates, wants Canelo
Light heavyweight world-title holder Dmitry Bivol, dominated Lenin Castillo for a unanimous win that at times seemed more like a sparring session.
“Maybe there are people who say, ‘You are a boring fighter,’ or something like this. But I try to win and I won,” Bivol said to ESPN. “Who wants to fight me? Who wants to try to beat me?”
Tales of the Tape | Dmitry Bivol
The uber-talented Russian (17-0, 11 KOs) controlled the ring against Castillo (20-3-1, 15 KOs), who didn’t seem like he wanted to engage but still got dropped in the sixth round. Bivol admitted that he needs better competition to show-off his many skills.
“I want to make my mark in boxing history and to do this you have to fight the best,” Bivol told ESPN, mentioning Canelo Alvarez. “Of course, I want to fight against the other champions but sometimes you cannot do it because they are busy, but we have had good fights and I am happy with that.”
KO leaves Patrick Day in a coma
Unfortunately, the one fight Saturday night everyone will be talking about for a while will be Charles Conwell’s brutal 10th round knockout of Patrick Day that has left the junior middleweight fighting for his life.
The New York-native and 2012 Golden Gloves champion never regained consciousness and suffered a seizure in the ambulance. At Northwestern Memorial Hospital, he went underwent brain surgery and was put in a medically-induced a coma to allow the swelling in his brain to go down. Prayers up for Patrick.
McCaskill wins slop fest
Jessica McCaskill (8-2, 3 KOs) retained her junior welterweight belts by majority decision against Erica Farias (26-4 10 KOs) in a heated, yet sloppy rematch where both fighters got points taken away.
“Felt like a WWE wrestling match but I just wanted to come out here and brawl,” McCaskill, a Chicago native told ESPN. “I wanted to put on a good show for the fans and I don’t feel like they got a lot of that. I apologize but I am glad we got the win. The first fight was a lot of brawling, banging, boxing and movement.”
