Saturday night at the Wintrust Arena, Chicago, Illinois Matchroom Boxing hosted a triple header on DAZN featuring former Cruiserweight kingpin and consensus top five rated pound for pound fighter Oleksandr Usyk making his heavyweight debut against Chazz Witherspoon, WBA light heavyweight title holder Dmitry Bivol defending his title against Lenin Castillo and unified super lightweight champion Jessica McCaskill taking on Erica Anabella Farias in rematch of their 2018 contest.
In the main event Oleksandr Usyk dominated Chazz Witherspoon with superior boxing ability and footwork that kept Witherspoon from generating any offense of his own. There were several moments when Usyk pinned Witherspoon on the ropes while throwing combinations that left Chazz with no other option but cover up and weather the storm. It would be the story of the fight until a tired and outclassed Witherspoon decided to retire on his stool at the end of round seven.
With the win Oleksandr Usyk improves to 17-0(13) while Chazz Witherspoon now stands at 38-4(29).
This fight left us little to nothing in terms of what we can expect from Usyk as a heavyweight, the only thing I could take away from the performance is Usyk needs to start quicker and set down more on his punches if he is to be successful against top tier opposition. It would be unfair to criticize his performance against Witherspoon considering Usyk had been preparing for a totally different fighter in Tyrone Sprong. We can only hope as fans that his next bout is against a more notable opponent who can provide some answers to those questions.
The co-feature between Dmitry Bivol and Lenin Castillo was a one sided affair with Bivol controlling every minute of the fight. There was a knockdown scored by Bivol in round six that surprised Castillo more than hurt him. While the contest was a shut out performance for Bivol fans were unhappy with his not seeking a KO finish. In my opinion Bivol is by far the most talented fighter at light heavyweight but criticism is mounting due to his lack of killer instinct and could hurt his marketability.
With the win Dmitry Bivol improves to 17-0 (11) Lennon Castillo now stands at 20-3 (15), hopefully we see Bivol against a top name in his next bout or he makes the move to super middleweight to take on champions in that division.
When Jessica McCaskill and Erica Anabella Farias stepped into the ring it was for unsettled business which took place in their first meeting at this same venue on October 6th 2018. On that night the less experienced McCaskill defeated Farias to unify the women’s WBA and WBC super-lightweight championships.
This fight was rough and ugly filled with fouls and holding, both fighters were deducted points for their infractions. The end result was a majority decision in favor of McCaskill by scores of 94-94, 97-91 and 96-92.
When super welterweights Charles Conwell and Patrick Day faced off fans were excited to see if Conwell could progress to the next level by keeping his undefeated record intact while facing a slick well-schooled fighter like Day. It was a dominate performance for Conwell that was marred by tragedy when Day suffered a tenth round stoppage loss he never regained consciousness from. He was taken from the venue by ambulance and underwent emergency surgery. With the win Charles Conwell improved to 11-0 (8) while Day now stands at 17-4-1 (6).
As of the moment as I type this Day is in a medically induced coma, myself and everyone else from the Talkin Boxing with Billy C show and the Daily Sports Inc. Wish Patrick Day a full recovery
In Undercard action
Super Middleweight-Anthony Sims Jr 20-0(18) def. Morgan Fitch 19-4-1(8) via TKO 6
Super Bantamweight-TJ Doheny 22-1(16) def. Jesus Martinez 26-10(13) via UD 8
Super Lightweight- Movladdin Biyarslanov 5-0(4) def. Tyrome Jones 4-6-1(1) via UD 6
Super Featherweight- Otha Jones III 4-0(1) def. Eric Manriquez 7-9-1(3) via MD
