We had an awesome card from Frisco, TX this weekend that showed off new prospects and an old lion roared. ESPN really is doing an awesome job building these cards, and I hope they keep it up! Here is a recap of the fights from this weekend.

Saturday February 2 – ESPN+

In the ESPN main event of the prelims, WBO Featherweight Champion Oscar Valdez made his return stopping challenger Carmine Tommasone in the 7th round. As I predicted it took him a few rounds to get going but once he did he was able to nail the challenger with a massive uppercut. Tommasone could not beat the count and Valdez had his 5th defense of the title. Tommasone was a softer touch but it seemed to be the perfect fight to return to after 11 months.

After the knockout Carmine proposed to his girlfriend and had an all time awkward kiss.

Try and get that one out of your head kids.

I would like to see Valdez next against IBF Champion Josh Warrington in a unification bout.

*Highlights of the fight are here.

In the co main event we had the continued rise of uber prospect Teofimo Lopez. He is something to behold and really beat the crap out of Diego Magdaleno until it was mercifully stopped in the 7th. The stoppage came at the hands of another KO of the year candidate for him.

The Knockdowns never needed to happen (no matter how entertaining they were) because the corner or the ref could have stopped this fight many times before this. Magdaleno was being destroyed all night and probably took years off his career here.

After the stoppage Lopez did his trademark celebration and Magdaleno’s corner took major offense. Lopez’s brashness is a storyline to watch moving forward with this superstar on the rise.

I hope to see him fight Jose Pedraza next.

*Highlights of the fight are here.

In our ESPN+ Main Event we had the rematch between WBO Light Heavy Weight Champion Eleider “Storm” Alvarez and former Champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev. The title in this one flip flopped with the “Krusher” winning by scores of 116-112, 116-112, and 120-108. Kovalev regained his title and looked very good boxing his way around the man they call “Storm.” I thought he absolutely was on another level in the first fight and showed that here by coming in with the correct conditioning.

Alvarez was disappointing and did not pull the trigger all night, which allowed Kovalev to pile up the points. I would say we need a third fight between these two, but it really does seem like the first fight was a fluke.

I would rather see Kovalev fight IBF Champion Artur Beterbiev (who coincidentally just signed with ESPN). Of course if he does not go to jail.

*Highlights of the fight can be found here.

*My pound for pound rankings can be found here.