This coming Saturday is set to be a hectic day for American boxing fans who get treat to 3 separate shows, split across 3 channels.
For us the most exciting bout of the day, at least on paper, comes from Canada and is aired on USA Fox where we get Puncher Vs Boxer for the IBF Middleweight title. The puncher, is Canada's very own David Lemieux (33-2, 31), who is a very popular and heavy handed puncher with a pretty boy face. The boxer is former WBO champion Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam (31-1, 18), a Cameroonian based in France, a very talented boxer-mover with shaky chin. This bout really does have the hall marks of a must watch and looks like to be thoroughly entertaining. The chief under-card bout here is also an interesting looking contest, as former world title challengers collide. The bout will see the exciting Dierry Jean (28-1, 20) take on the under-rated Jerry Belmontes (19-6, 5) in what is really a must win bout for both men if they are looking to get themselves another world title fight in the foreseeable future. In Oakland we'll see a show featuring one of the sports most talented, but least exciting, fighters. The bout in question is the return to the ring of unbeaten American Andre Ward (27-0, 14) who takes on former world title challenger Paul Smith (35-5, 20) of the UK. It's hard to be too excited about this one considering Smith has lost his last two bouts to Arthur Abraham and Ward has been in active for more than 18 months, in fact Ward has only fought twice in the last 3 years. Despite that it's good to see Ward back in action and the sport has missed someone of his his ability. Notably this show will be aired on BET in America. The third show is in Las Vegas with a bout that has really excited some American fans. The contest that stands out here will see former world champions colliding as the enigmatic Adrien Broner (30-1, 22) takes on the strong and rough Shawn Porter (25-1, 16) in a catchweight bout. The catchweight, and subsequent rehydration limit, are expected to favour Broner, however the 3-weight former world champion hasn't looked great recently and Porter will know that his career really depends on a good performance here. We suspect Broner will win but we don't expect this to be a thriller as many fans seem to be hoping for.
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Much of today's most notable and most exciting comes from Canada where fans are in for a treat, in fact they are in for one of the best shows this year with 3 genuinely notable bouts and 2 lesser quality support bouts. As well as the Canadian show we also have notable action in Mexico with several interesting contests. We'll start with Canada where the main event is a blockbuster Light Heavyweight bout between the thunderously hard hiting Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1, 23) and tough Canadian based Haitian Jean Pascal (29-2-1-1, 17). Kovalev will be defending the WBA “Super” , IBF and WBO titles in his first bout since he convincingly defeated Bernard Hopkins last year and this could be his second big win. As for Pascal he needs a good win here if he's to remain a big fighter fighter, especially after his farcical contest with Roberto Bolonti last time out and his terrible unexciting contest with Lucian Buta last January. A brilliant support bout will see former Cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham (28-6, 13) battle against unbeaten Heavyweight hopeful Vyacheslav Glazkov (19-0-1, 12) who has been really been unconvincing in recent contests. Glazkov needs a good performance to remain relevant whilst Cunningham will be hoping to move one fight closer to a potential mega-payday which he is well due before his retirement. The second big support bout will see Vasily Lepikhin (17-0, 9) battle against Isaac Chilemba (23-2-2, 10) in a really well match Light Heavyweight bout. The winner here may well be the next opponent for the Kovalev/Pascal winner and it wouldn't be a surprise for this contest to be a very competitive bout. In a supporting under-card bout Nadjib Mohammedi (36-3, 22), another top Light Heavyweight contender, will take on Lee Campbell (8-1, 4) in a stay busy fight whilst former Light Welterweight title challenger Dierry Jean (27-1, 19) takes on Carlos Manuel Reyes (25-3-1, 17) in what should be an easy win for Jean. In Tijuana, Mexico fans will get the chance to see former world IBF Super Flyweight champion Juan Carlos Sanchez Jr (19-3-1, 9) battle against the highly experienced Luis Melendez (41-9-1, 30), himself a former world title challenger. This could be an good contest but Sanchez Jr should be too fresh for the 35 year old Melendez. On the same card Yazmin Rivas (31-8-0-4, 9) looks to defend her WBC female Bantamweight title against the little known Celina Salazar (6-1-2, 1). On a second Mexican card, held in México, fan will see heavy handed Bantamweight contender Julio Ceja (28-1, 26) battle against former world title challenger Oscar Blanquet (32-9-1, 23), who enters this bout on a run of 5 successive losses including a loss to Akira Yaegashi and a stoppage to Roman Gonzalez. (Image courtesy of fightnetwork.com) This past Saturday was the biggest day in boxing so far this year. It may not have been the greatest day of boxing but it was certainly full of notably fighters. For us the most interesting contest was the WBO Super Featherweight title fight between the very highly regarded Mikey Garcia (34-0, 28) and Mexican veteran Juan Carlos Burgos (30-2-2, 20). Garcia, although dominant over-all, wasn't as impressive as we'd have expected. Fair enough it was partly due to Burgos knowing how to survive though on this performance any dreams that Garcia has of fighting Pacquiao are a long way from reality. Garcia's talented for sure but we're not sure if he's actually one of the top 2 guys in his division. He looks small at Super Featherweight and his punch resistance doesn't seems that impressive. Another champion who retained his title was WBO Cruiserweight kingpin Marco Huck (37-2-1, 26) who stopped the tough Firat Arslan (33-7-2, 21) in very impressive fashion. Arslan had controversially been beaten by Huck last year but this was a much better showing from Huck who has now requested to be considered a WBO super champion, an honour rarely bestowed on a fighter. The final world champion who retained his title was Lamont Peterson (32-2-1, 16) who retained his claim as the IBF Light Welterweight champion. Peterson, one of the most fortunate fighters on the planet, managed to over-come the previously unbeaten Dierry Jean (25-1, 17). This bout certainly had it's entertaining moments early on but Jean's lack of world class power gave him little chance to beat the well schooled Peterson, who was fighting for the first time since being steam rolled by Lucas Martin Matthysse. As well as the trio of title bouts there was also a selection of other interesting bouts. These included Jermell Charlo (23-0, 11) dominating former Gennady Golovkin foe Gabriel Rosado (21-8-0-1, 12), British Heavyweight David Price (16-2, 14) stopping late replacement Istvan Ruzsinszky (12-10-1, 8) inside a round, Bryant Jennings (18-0, 10) stopping Artur Szpilka (16-1, 12) and most notably Brazilian Olympian Yamaguchi Falcao (0-0-0-1) being involved in a double disqualification with Martin Fidel Rios (10-0-2-1, 4). As with most weekends the most notable action is in the US this Saturday, though it's given a good run from a show in Germany and there's also notable action in Brazil and Italy as we get a day to remember, thankfully hiding the fact that Asian action is quiet still. The most notable single bout is in New York as WBO Super Featherweight champion Mikey Garcia (33-0, 28) looks to make the first defense of his title. The unbeaten Garcia, who some regard as the best fighter at 130lbs, will be taking on the very talented Juan Carlos Burgos (30-1-2, 20). To many Burgos is the man who should have the WBO belt around his waist though he was robbed by judges when he faced Roman Martinez, the man eventually dethroned by Garcia. To us this is a significant bout though unfortunately it sounds like it will be Garcia's last one at 130lbs. On the same card as the Garcia/Burgos bout is a big Heavyweight clash between Poland's unbeaten Artur Szpilka (16-0, 12) and highly touted American Bryant Jennings (17-0, 9). Whilst the Garcia/Burgos is the main event we thing this Heavyweight clash has the potential to be the better bout to watch. On a separate US card we get another world title fight as IBF Light Welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (31-2-1, 16) takes on the unbeaten Dierry Jean (25-0, 17). Whilst we will admit that Peterson is the luckiest champion on the planet he should still have a bit too much experienced for Jean, however a victory for Jean would see him throw his name into the big conversations at 140lbs. A secondary bout on this card sees the unbeaten Jermell Charlo (22-0, 11) take on former Gennady Golovkin victim Gabriel Rosado (21-7, 3). Rodado, dubbed a "good boy" by Golovkin, is the toughest test on paper for the young Charlo who some stateside are tipping a future world champion at either Light Middleweight or Middleweight. As well as the two world title bouts Stateside there is also one in Germany as WBO Cruiserweight kingpin Marco Huck (36-2-1, 25) looks to defend his title against Firat Arslan (33-6-2, 21). This is a rematch of a controversial contest from last year in a bout that many felt Arslan deserved to take the victory in, though Huck retained with somewhat "nice" unanimous decision. This promises to be a really entertaining battle, as every Huck bout is, though it's going to be something that cuts his career short. Staying with the German card there is another interesting Heavyweight clash as Britain's David Price (15-2, 13) returns for the first time since back-to-back losses to Tony Thompson. Price will be expected to score an easy victory over Konstantin Airich (19-7-2, 15) but he will know that if he loses again that's his career over. Not far from Germany, in Italy, there is a very good looking European Lightweight title fight between Emiliano Marsili (27-0-1, 12), the defending champion, and Pasquale Di Silvio (17-5-1, 5). Although this bout is only for the European title it's fair to suggest that the winner will feel that they deserve a world title fight and in a division that features Masayoshi Nakatani and Masao Nakamura it's fair to suggest that these two will also feel that they are deserving of a world title fight in the near future. We think we're on the verge of a very interesting period in the Lightweight division. In Brazil fans get the first chance to see the very talented Yamaguchi Falcao (0-0) fight as a professional. The former amateur standout will be fighting unbeaten Argentinian Martin Fidel Rios (10-0-2, 4) in what will serve as an excellent introduction to the professional ranks for one of the two Falcao brothers. Yamaguchi's brother Esquiva, best known for fighting Ryota Murata in the 2012 Olympic final, is set to make his debut in just as few weeks as well. |
InternationalWe know that not every fight involves an Asian fighter but a lot of fights do affect Asian fighter. As a result we've decided to add this new section to Asian boxing where we look at selected International bouts. Archives
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