We've had a relatively quiet month or so though thankfully it does end with a flurry of notable bouts.

On paper the two stand out bouts are set to take place in California and feature 4 Mexican fighters in bouts that both promise a lot of action.

The “lesser” of those bouts will see Hugo Ruiz (35-2, 31) take on Julio Ceja (29-1, 26) in a bout for the WBC “interim” Super Bantamweight title. Of the two men Ruiz is the more experienced and the more tested, having had a run as the WBA “interim” Bantamweight champion and having fought several notable fighters, including Koki Kameda. Ceja on the other hand is a fast rising youngster who, at just 22, appears to have been around for years. For many Ceja's stand out bout was a loss, in the UK, to Jamie McDonnell though he has improved since then. This looks like it's got the ingredients to be a FOTY contender.

The “bigger” bout sees the unbeaten Leo Santa Cruz (30-0-1, 17) battle against the once beaten Abner Mares (29-1-1, 15) in a bout for the WBC “Diamond” Featherweight title. Cruz is stepping up to 126lbs for this bout though should fill in to the weight comfortably given his frame. For Mares this is the first significant bout since he was stopped, in just 175 seconds by Jhonny Gonzalez more than 2 years ago. Sadly this fight, which looked like an amazing one 30 months ago, now seems likely to fall short of expectation with both fighters looking poor in recent bouts.

A couple of notable under-card bouts here will feature fast rising Argentinian brothers Brian Carlos Castano (9-0, 8), who faces Jonathan Batista (14-6, 7), and Alan Emmanuel Castano (8-0, 5), who faces Tom Howard (8-4, 4). Whilst both of these are mismatches we do suggest keeping an eye on both of the unbeaten men who will likely go to title level over the coming years.

Staying in California, albeit on a different show, fans will get two notable bouts.

The headliner here will be a rematch between former multi-weight world champions as Shane Mosley (47-9-1-1, 39) battles Ricardo Mayorga (31-8-1-1, 25). Given that the men have a combined age of 84 and have rally failed to score a win of note in years this really resembles a farcical cash grab.

The other bout of note is a female world title bout as Yulihan Alejandra Luna Avila (12-2, 1) defends her IBF female Super Bantamweight title against Maureen Shea (24-2, 12). We'd really not be shocked by this one outshining the supposedly bigger bout, at least in terms of action.

The remaining action of note comes from Ukraine where two talented fighters have caught out eye.

One of those is Cruiserweight sensation Oleksandr Usyk (7-0, 7), who looks to extend his perfect record against Johnny Muller (19-4-2, 13). Usyk looks almost ready to challenge for a world title and we'd not be shocked at all if his next bout is for a major belt. For Muller he's been picked to be the next victim and we can't see him doing anything to really trouble the 2012 Olympic gold medal winner.

The other is Denys Berinchyk (0-0) who makes his long awaited professional debut against Tarik Madni (19-8-1, 1). On paper it's a tricky debut for Berinchyk but given his amateur pedigree it's hard to see anything but a a win for the 2012 Olympic, and 2011 World Amateur, Silver medal winner. With out trying to sound too over-the-top this kid has the potential to be moved very quickly as an amateur and it'd be a huge surprise if he's not looking at world title fights in the next 24 months.

This past Saturday was an amazing day for boxing fans with a fantastic show in the US. The show, one of the best of the year, at least on paper, was thoroughly interesting but sadly not always the most entertaining.

The show, at least the televised portion of it, kicked off with an enthralling WBO Bantamweight title fight that saw Tomoki Kameda successfully defending his title and leaving an excellent impression on US fans. The fight, which ended when Tomoki landed a brutal body shot to Pungluang Sor Singyu, should have been impressive enough to impress US audiences in to wanting to see more of Tomoki.

Following the all-Asian show starter we then had the fight of the night as Mauricio Herrera (21-4, 7) took a majority decision over Johan Perez (19-2-1, 13) and claimed the WBA interim Light Welterweight title. The fight, which was action packed through out, swung several times as the two men unloaded shots on each other in a high paced and highly skilled contest that was genuinely enjoyable. 

The action from the Herrera/Perez was great to watch but neither guy had the power to really hurt the other and as a result it never looked like we were going to get a stoppage, though Perez was rocked very late in the fight. In the contest that followed however there was no chance the contest was going to go the distance as all action Francisco Vargas (20-0-1, 14) stopped the hard hitting but very shop worn Juan Manuel Lopez (34-4, 31). Lopez was rocked hard in the second round before being dismantled in round 3 by a very sharp Vargas who seemed to announce himself on the world stage. Sadly for Lopez this was another painful loss and it seems time that he called quits on his career before he ends up with serious long term health issues.

Sadly the excitement all vanished in the very next fight as Abner Mares (27-1-1, 14) put on a controlled but dull performance to over-come Jonathan Oquendo (24-4, 16). This was Mares first bout since being blasted out in a round by Jhonny Gonzalez and although that set back was a bad one the tactics Mares used in this fight really were disappointing for the most part.

In the main event of the show fans saw the hugely popular though very divisive Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (44-1-1, 31) take a highly disputed split decision over Cuba's Erislandy Lara (19-2-2, 12). The bout saw Lara boxing and moving for vast parts of the fight whilst Alvarez stalked with mixed results. The men both felt their tactics had seen them controlling the bout though in all honesty no one truly "controlled" it with plenty of rounds that could be debated. Sadly one judge managed to see the fight 117-111 to Alvarez, a result that simply didn't make sense, despite the numerous close rounds. Each man seemed to clearly win 4 rounds with their tactics whilst the remaining 4 were up for debate. The only thing that the fight really told us is that whilst both men were evenly matched Canelo struggles with movers and Lara struggles with body shots.

Sadly the 117-111 card in the Alvarez/Lara fight as well as the draw card in the Herrera/Perez fight and a card of 58-56 to Pungluang, prior to the stoppage, all leave major question marks about judges and we wonder if they were watching the same fights as our selves

Prior to the American card fans also had the chance to watch some fights from the UK. These including a bout with Super Featherweight contender Stephen Smith (20-1, 12) who looked terrible against journeyman Pedro Navarrete (28-19-3, 17). Navarrete is better than his record indicated but Smith really was awful and if he's thinking about fighting Takashi Miura he probably needs to think again or he'll end up badly beaten.

On the same British card we had a trio of Olympic medal winners including Super Heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (7-0, 7), who stopped veteran Matt Skelton (28-9, 23) in a bout that saw Skelton looking his 47 years of age, and Luke Campbell (6-0, 4) who sadly looked lacking in his decision victory over the brave Craig Woodruff (5-4, 2).

The main action on the British show was in the Cruiserweight as we had two bouts of note. The first saw former WBO Light Heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (28-1, 14) make light work of the limited but fun Alejandro Emilio Valori (15-5, 11) whilst the second saw the big mouthed Tony Bellew (22-2-1, 14) stopping Brazil's Julio Cesar Dos Santos (26-3, 23). Both the visitors came with the intention of scoring a KO but neither had the ability against the more well known British fighters who are now set to face each other, in fact they almost had an impromptu fight last night, suggesting that neither man had had to work hard enough to score their wins.

(Image courtesy of Golden Boy Promotions)