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)

It seems that every week we end up talking about the judges as opposed to the fighters and fights. Disappointingly this has happened again this weekend after American referee Vic Drakulich stole the headlines and destroyed what looked to be a great, but rough and tough, fight.

The fight in question was a cracking Welterweight contest between former Lightweight champion Brandon Rios (32-2-1, 23) and former interim Welterweight champion Diego Gabriel Chaves (23-2, 19). The fighters in the ring were certainly bending the rules, both men,but the fight, for what it was worth, was certainly entertaining with both men landing bombs on each other. Sadly Drakulich managed to deducted 2 points from Chaves and a point from Rios before disqualifying Chaves, in round 9, for what appeared to have been a mystery foul only visible to himself and Rios.

Prior to the controversial disqualification Chaves was winning, by a point, on 2 of the cards with and with just a round and a half left it appears that Drakulich's behaviour bailed out Rios who have suffered a third successive defeat had he not been saved. By saved we don't just mean the DQ but also the 2 deductions when in reality only 1 was legitimate. In all honesty however it was a rough and dirty fight that the referee never managed to get on top of. Heads were colliding through out, each man was swearing at the other and various minor fouls seemed to occur almost incidentally as they took lumps out of each other.

Annoyingly Drakulich's decision following some poor judging in the card's chief support bout, which some how had an American fighter winning a near shut out in a bout everyone could see was close. That bout, between Jessie Vargas and Anton Novikov, should have all 3 judges brought in for review just like Drakulich should be for his horrible job here.

The only other international bout of note saw talented contender Isaac Chilemba (23-2-2, 10) make light work of Cory Cummings (17-7-1, 13) as Chilemba attempted to make a statement to the top fighters in the 175lb weight class. The win was an expected one from Chilemba though not one that will put him amongst the mix by it's self.

(Image courtesy of TopRank.com)

This Saturday is a hectic day in Asia but it's highlight is possibly in the US.

The most notable bout of the day, and easily the most exciting on paper, is a a Welterweight bout in the USA which will see former Lightweight world title holder Brandon Rios (31-2-1, 23) battle against former WBA interim Welterweight champion Diego Gabriel Chaves (23-1, 19). The bout pits two big puncher against each other though both have very different styles with Rios being a marauding pressure fighter whilst Chaves is a more skilled boxer. Despite the differences in style both are exciting and together they should make for a complete slug-fest with power shots being the order of the day from both men. Sadly there is one downside with this fight, it's that Chaves has had an interrupted preparation with visa issues almost forcing him out of the bout. We'd suggest that if you see just one fight this weekend make it this one.

In a Light Heavyweight bout Isaac Chilemba (22-2-2, 9) will be looking to help move himself to a title fight as he takes on the heavy handed but relatively unknown Cory Cummings (17-6-1, 13). Chilemba is a tricky fighter with the potential to be world class and he should be able to dominate Cummings with skill but the power of Cummings could keep this interesting, at least for  few rounds.

(Image courtesy of Top Rank)