The NBC Sports Fight Night Series did itself justice on Saturday night at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut.
The program presented three astonishing bouts. It was good, honest entertainment.
In the electrifying main event, Sergey Kovalev defeated Gabriel Campillo with a TKO in the third round. It was a very unexpected result.
Kovalev ended the evening early.
Campillo's lame performance was as useless as a fashionable blind man preaching the New Testament of the Holy Bible.
Campillo went down twice, and after the third fall, Referee Michael Ortega called off the fight.
It was Kovalev's most important fight to date. Kovalev is now champion of the light heavyweight division. In some circles it was an allegorical fight of experience against youth.
Nevertheless, it was Kovalev's 20th victory and 17 are by KO. At the end of the day he is a remarkable, unbeaten fighter.
Kovalev has well-suited experience in amateur fights which carries out into larger bouts.
Kovalev is good while Campillo is basically a bad fighter.
Kovalev is a fast starter while Campillo is a slow starter. "Handsome Man" Campillo is a former light heavyweight champion of the world. Kovalev is now the one with the title.
Kovalev isn't a typical European boxer. Kovalev has been to the US twice. He has also visited Argentina and Kazakhstan.
Kovalev is superbly talented with excellent fundamentals. For the audience in attendance, emotions ran deep like the North Atlantic.
In the stirring opening fight of the NBC program Curtis Stevens defeated Elvin Ayala with a KO in the first round. Stevens was fighting at 160 pounds for the first time.
He defeated Ayala with a very accurate and very sharp hook. His performance was less than ordinary.
Regarding Elvin Ayala as a professional is like convincing an alcoholic that his drinking is productive.
Stevens now has the NABF middleweight title. Fans stormed the stage at the end of the fight and security was needed.
After the fight, Stevens made the bold statement, "No one can take a shot at 160. I'm focused. I'm coming for war."
Shakespeare once said that virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. There are reasons why Stevens has become a champion but to describe his success would be like true poetry.
In the second fight of the program, Jimmy Williams defeated Noel Garcia with a third round KO in a welterweight fight scheduled for 4 rounds.
It was Williams' professional debut fight after a hearty amateur background. He was good and he came close to revealing the last pulse of Garcia's dying career.
This sanctioned fight was a solid test for Williams. Williams has a heavy-duty right hand and Garcia constantly tipped his head through the fight to avoid it.
This eventually opened room for an uppercut. In the end, Williams' arms were gloriously raised for the first time as a professional.
The entire program was difficult to watch from time to time, and not even I will know when a true contest will return.
Remove the competition in boxing and all one is left with is a vicious, yet vulnerable hysteria under the freedom of sport.
All the action came in harmony and left an impact on the vivacious audience in attendance.
No pain. No excuses. No contradictions this time. There will be time in the future for bigger and better games. Call your local operator and demand HBO at once.
