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Jake Paul had the combat sports world buzzing after his latest victory on Sunday night. Paul defeated former UFC champion Tyron Woodley by split decision in Cleveland, moving to 4-0 as a professional boxer and raising his profile as a fighter once again. Paul, despite tweeting that he’s a “retired boxer” on Monday, is expected to return to the ring later on this year, but is his biggest challenge at this point finding the right opponent? He’s clearly a draw in the pay-per-view space, but staying there will require the right balance of appeal and challenge in an opponent.

While this weekend saw the boxing world’s attention turn towards spectacle, Teofimo Lopez — one of the sport’s most promising young champions — will make his debut in the pay-per-view space this October against George Kambosos. The fight for Lopez’s four belts will take place on a Tuesday night at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, as Triller faced numerous challenges in rescheduling the event after Lopez contracting COVID-19 earlier this summer. The IBF has mandated that both fighters be vaccinated with hopes of avoiding another delay to this bout. So is this the direction boxing is heading? And if so, is it good for the sport?

On Saturday Josh Warrington hopes to rebound in a rematch against Mauricio Lara following a shock ninth-round knockout loss. Warrington still has title aspirations, but is a win enough to get him back on track? Before Warrington enters the ring, Katie Taylor makes another defense of her undisputed lightweight championship on the undercard. After Amanda Serrano’s win on Sunday, does Taylor have something to prove in terms of pound-for-pound supremacy?

Marc Raimondi, Mike Coppinger, Ben Baby, Mike Rothstein and Nick Parkinson separate what’s real and what’s not.


Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley was a win for the sport of boxing

Raimondi: I was sitting on press row, floor level at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland on Sunday night for the Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley fight. During the undercard, a young spectator — he couldn’t have been more than 16 years old — came over to the reporters seated there and asked, flashing a $10 bill, if he could buy a bottle of water from one of us. The concessions stands, he said, did not take cash and he did not own a credit card. A few minutes later, a baby-faced, 21-year-old YouTuber who goes by the handle ConnorTV sauntered over with his father to ask if we had a USB-C cord he could use to charge his video camera.

For nearly a decade, I have covered combat sports as a full-time living. The first fight I ever covered was in 2006. I’ve been at fights in dozens of cities, countries and a few different continents. And Paul vs. Woodley had by far the youngest crowd I have ever seen in MMA or boxing. ConnorTV told me this was his first boxing show and he had started gaining interest in combat sports because of Paul, the YouTube-sensation-turned prizefighter.

It might be difficult for some of us who have been around for a while to understand, but what Paul and his team are saying is true. He really is bringing younger eyes to boxing and there’s no way to see that other than it being a win for the sport. So, I will say “real” to this statement, absolutely.

There’s another key here that must be mentioned. The crowd in Cleveland did not fill in for the main event between Paul and Woodley or the co-feature, which pitted pound-for-pound women’s great Amanda Serrano against Yamileth Mercado. That would be the norm for a boxing card of this magnitude. No, the arena was almost full for the prelim fight between Charles Conwell and Juan Carlos Rubio at 7 p.m. local time.

By the time Tommy Fury walked out to open the pay-per-view portion of the proceedings, the crowd was large enough to give him an enormous pop. Fury had never even fought in the United States before, but he was positioned as a star by Showtime, Paul and his team last week. And he was treated as such. Of course, his family name and status as a former cast member of Love Island in the United Kingdom didn’t hurt. But normally, at that point in a boxing show, the venue is half full at best and there is little interest in the fights in the ring.

Paul brought a young and captive audience to Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on Sunday night — young men and women. His main event fight with Woodley was not the best presentation of boxing possible. Both are neophytes in that world and, frankly, it just did not at all look like a high-level fight. But the fans there treated it like it was. And they were brought to their feet by the likes of Fury, Cleveland prospect Montana Love and Serrano.

Half the battle in entertainment is just getting people in the door and get eyes on the product. Say what you will about Paul, but there were plenty of teenagers and young 20-somethings who left the building Sunday night entertained by a night of boxing. For a sport with a fanbase that skews on the older side, that’s a win. Regardless of how you feel about Paul, his personality and his antics.


Mandated vaccination for fighters is good for boxing

Baby: Real. Big fights are already a risky proposition. All it takes is an injury and a fight is either scrapped or devalued (see Pacquiao-Ugas). And a fighter contracting COVID-19 and delaying a fight could be have serious financial repercussions — a situation that a vaccine can mitigate in short order, or outright prevent. Look at what happened with Triller in regards to Lopez-Kambosos. After winning the purse bid, Triller was left holding the bag when Lopez tested positive for COVID-19 just days out from the fight. Now the IBF has stated that both Lopez and Kambosos will need to be vaccinated ahead of their bout in October.

A quick glance at major sports and big companies should tell people all they need to know: When big money is involved, vaccines are required. Sure, there might be a legitimate reason someone doesn’t want the vaccine under specific circumstances, but the larger debate over vaccinations is often thrown out when that becomes a threat to profit margins.

It’s worth noting that Lopez also took a potential long-term financial hit as well. Initially, Triller was selling the pay-per-view with a price tag that reached $60. After the postponement, the price dropped to $20 for a one-time purchase, the fight will be on a Tuesday instead of a Saturday, and the venue went from inside Miami’s Marlins Park to the side theater at Madison Square Garden.

It’s a branding hit and a career heat check that Lopez could have avoided if he didn’t contract COVID-19 and fought Kambosos in June. Instead, he’s relegated to a mid-week card with significant questions about his drawing power moving forward.


Even with his KO streak over, Edgar Berlanga is still must-see TV

Coppinger: Real. Even in his first fight that went the distance — his first time even experiencing Round 2, for that matter — Berlanga proved his power is genuine with four knockdowns over eight rounds. Nicholson was his toughest foe on paper, and as the competition continues to stiffen, the knockouts will be harder to come by.

Still, Berlanga will always present danger in the ring, making him must-see TV. If he wants to maintain that status, he’ll need a KO of Marcelo Esteban Coceres on Oct. 9. He’ll return on Dec. 11 if all goes well, before another fight in March. If he can get back to knocking opponents out, the June fight, which is expected to be a major step up in competition and promotion, could be the bout that catapults him to stardom.

There are already plans underway to match him with a former champion on the Puerto Rican Parade Weekend in New York next summer.

One thing is clear: Berlanga knows how to market himself outside the ring.


Katie Taylor is the most entertaining fighter in women’s boxing

Rothstein: Not real. Amanda Serrano — who fought Sunday night — remains the most entertaining fighter in the sport. The best? That remains to be seen. But the way she fights is incredibly watchable. That’s not to dismiss Katie Taylor, who is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. She beat Jessica McCaskill. She beat Delfine Persoon twice. She has really good speed and stamina. But from a pure entertainment factor, no one surpasses Serrano.

The reality is a fight between Serrano and Taylor, as long as Taylor beats Jennifer Han this weekend, is the fight to make. Serrano told me last month she wanted to unify her division first before taking the fight against Taylor, but at this point it might be worth it to fight Taylor next.

Women’s boxing could use a superfight like that, and it would be an incredibly entertaining fight between two of the best in the sport.


Josh Warrington will regain his title contender status with a win over Mauricio Lara

Parkinson: Real, providing Warrington’s promoter Eddie Hearn can convince Gary Russell Jr to defend his WBC world featherweight title against Warrington in the next six months.

Warrington (30-1, 7 KOs) feels aggrieved that the first defeat of his career — a shock ninth-round stoppage loss to unheralded Mexican Mauricio Lara in February — would be so costly. Warrington, 30, went into the fight with Lara, which was supposed to be a warm-up for a bigger assignment this summer, as ESPN’s No 1 featherweight. But that defeat, after he decided to voluntarily give up the IBF world featherweight title in January so he could pick his own fights, has left Warrington out of reach for a title shot. The Leeds boxer trails in the governing bodies’ rankings: He is No 6 with the WBC, and does not feature at all in the other three bodies’ lists of contenders.

Warrington has watched with frustration at how his English rival Kid Galahad went straight into an IBF world title eliminator, after losing by split decision to him for the IBF world title in Galahad’s previous fight in June 2019. Warrington feels that victory over Lara should catapult him back into title contention, perhaps occupying one of the IBF’s top two spots, which are currently vacant.

However, Warrington has no interest in a rematch with Galahad — it was one of the reasons he vacated the IBF belt at the start of the year. He’s more likely to pursue a title shot with one of the division’s other champions: Russell Jr. or Emanuel Navarrete. ESPN’s Mike Coppinger recently reported that Los Angeles-based Navarrete (34-1, 29 KOs) has agreed terms with Joet Gonzalez for a defense of his WBO featherweight title on Oct. 16, which rules out Navarrete for Warrington until 2022.

But Russell would be available for this year, and as he has not fought since February 2020, it would stand to reason that he would be receptive to offers. Russell (31-1, 18 KOs), 33, a 2008 U.S. Olympian, has not been a busy fighter, after making one appearance per year from 2015 to 2020. He has yet to announce an opponent for 2021 and would be Warrington’s best hope — and first choice — for a title fight.

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Springer’s 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

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Springer's 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

George Springer had a career-high seven RBIs, including his ninth grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays celebrated Canada Day by beating the Yankees 12-5 on Tuesday and closing within one game of American League East-leading New York.

The seven RBIs are tied for the second most by any Blue Jays player in a home game, behind Edwin Encarnación (nine RBIs in 2015), according to ESPN Research.

Andrés Giménez had a go-ahead, three-run homer for the Blue Jays, who overcame a 2-0 deficit against Max Fried. After the Yankees tied the score 4-4 in the seventh, Toronto broke open the game in the bottom half against a reeling Yankees bullpen.

Springer went 3-for-4, starting the comeback with a solo homer in the fourth against Fried and boosting the lead to 9-5 with the slam off Luke Weaver after Ernie Clement‘s go-ahead single off shortstop Anthony Volpe‘s glove. Springer has 13 homers this season.

Toronto won the first two games of the four-game series and closed within one game of the Yankees for the first time since before play on April 20.

New York went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, dropping to 3-for-24 in the series, while the Blue Jays were 5-for-7. After going 13-14 in June, the Yankees fell to 10-14 against AL East rivals.

The Associate Press contributed to this report.

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Astros’ Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

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Astros' Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

DENVER — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez has experienced a setback in his recovery from a broken right hand and will see a specialist.

Astros general manager Dana Brown said Alvarez felt pain when he arrived Tuesday at the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he had a workout a day earlier. Alvarez also took batting practice Saturday at Daikin Park.

He will be shut down until he’s evaluated by the specialist.

“It’s a tough time going through this with Yordan, but I know that he’s still feeling pain and the soreness in his hand,” Brown said before Tuesday night’s series opener at Colorado, which the Astros won 6-5. “We’re not going to try to push it or force him through anything. We’re just going to allow him to heal and get a little bit more answers as to what steps we take next.”

Alvarez has been sidelined for nearly two months. The injury was initially diagnosed as a muscle strain, but when Alvarez felt pain again while hitting in late May, imaging revealed a small fracture.

The 28-year-old outfielder, who has hit 31 homers or more in each of the past four seasons, had been eyeing a return as soon as this weekend at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it’s uncertain when he’ll play.

“We felt like he was close because he had felt so good of late,” Brown said, “but this is certainly news that we didn’t want.”

Also Tuesday, the Astros officially placed shortstop Jeremy Peña on the 10-day injured list with a fractured rib and recalled infielder Shay Whitcomb from Triple-A Sugar Land.

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Ohtani’s 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

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Ohtani's 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

Shohei Ohtani reached 30 homers for the fifth straight season, hitting a fourth-inning drive after fouling a pitch off the plate umpire, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox 6-1 on Tuesday night.

Ohtani fouled the ball off Alan Porter’s right knee in the fourth. Ohtani checked on the umpire and stood by watching until Parker got up under his own power. The three-time MVP then hit a 408-foot shot to center, snapping an 0-for-6 skid and extending the lead to 6-1. He tied Cody Bellinger in 2019 for most home runs before the All-Star break in Dodgers history; Bellinger won National League MVP that year.

Ohtani joined Seattle‘s Cal Raleigh (33) and Aaron Judge of the Yankees (30) as players with at least 30 homers by the All-Star break; it marks the fifth season that three players have reached the 30-homer threshold before the break (2019, 1998, 1994, 1969).

As for Ohtani, this is his third season hitting at least 30 home runs before the break, tying Ken Griffey Jr. for third most in MLB history (Judge and Mark McGwire each did so for four seasons).

During the seventh-inning stretch, Ohtani walked over and checked on Porter again before leading off.

Los Angeles scored its most runs this season in support of Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-6), staking the Japanese right-hander to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

The Dodgers won for the 13th time in 16 games and opened a season-high, eight-game NL West lead. They are 16-5 (.762 win percentage) since June 8, the best record in MLB during that span.

Every run Tuesday night was scored with two outs.

Yamamoto allowed one run and three hits in seven innings, struck out eight and walked one.

White Sox rookie Shane Smith (3-6) got two quick outs in the first before walking Will Smith and Max Muncy back-to-back. Teoscar Hernández followed with an RBI single, Andy Pages hit a run-scoring double and Michael Conforto had a two-run single.

Chicago’s lone run came on Lenyn Sosa‘s RBI single in the third.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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