The second part of an amazing weekend of fights comes on Saturday with wonderful action taking place in the US and Puerto Rico whilst a notable supporting bout is set to take place in Slovenia of all places. On paper the most exciting match up comes in San Juan, Puerto Rico where WBO Super Featherweight champion Orlando Salido (42-12-2-1, 29) defends his title against former champion Roman Martinez (28-2-2, 17). Salido won the title last year in an up-and-down affair with Terdsak Kokietgym and will be hoping to have an easier time with Salido however the odds are that this will ignite in to complete slugfest with both men taking a lot of damage before one eventually stops the other. A really good supporting bout on this card will see Jose A Gonzalez (23-1, 18) returning to the ring for his second bout since his loss against Ricky Burns in May 2013. Gonzalez, who looked really talented against Burns, will be fighting interesting Ugandan Sharif Bogere (26-1, 18), who suffered his only loss to Richar Abril. This essentially two class guys fighting for their chance to get another world title bout and it's hard to have any complaints about the match up. Although we think the Salido/Martinez bout is going to be the bout of the day it's certainly not the highest profile contest of the day. That belongs to the controversial catchweight bout bout between Danny Garcia (29-0, 17) and Lamont Peterson (33-2-1, 17). Between them the men hold the WBC, WBA “super” and IBF Light Welterweight titles yet rather than unifying the crown they are fighting the contest at 143lbs. Notably Peterson will be stripped of his IBF title if he loses, giving a huge opportunity to Chinese slugger Ik Yang if that happens. What should have been a great bout for the Light Welterweight division remains a very interesting bout but one that should really have been for the gold. One bout on this card that was supposed to be for the gold was a WBO Middleweight title bout between hard hitting Irishman Andy Lee (34-2, 24), the defending champion, and unbeaten American Peter Quillin (31-0, 22). Quillin enters this bout as a former champion who vacated his belt last year, rather than face Russian Matt Korobov. Lee took the Korobov bout and stopped the Russian to claim the title and now we've essentially gone full circle with Quillin get the first shot at Lee. Again there is a bad taste about this bout politically, but in the ring it should be enjoyable and explosive. Unfortunately however this bout has now been made a non-title bout following Quillin missing the weight In supporting bouts we'll get the chance to see a several promising and unbeaten fighters including Light Welterweight contender Viktor Postol (26-0, 11), who fights Jake Giuericeo (17-2-1, 4) in a stay busy contest, the touted Felix Diaz (16-0, 8), who takes on the once beaten Gabriel Bracero (23-1, 4) in an interesting looking match up, and the very highly regarded Errol Spence Jr (15-0, 12), who takes on Samuel Vargas (20-1-1, 10) in a bout that looks good on paper but in reality should be a mismatch. A second US card is again piled with prospects. The most interesting bout, other than the main event which actually features a Filipino, will feature Mexican Olympian Oscar Valdez (14-0, 13). Valdez will be fighting against Jose Ramirez (25-5, 15) in what looks a good bout until you realise Ramirez was stopped by the then debuting Vasyl Lomachenko and has since been stopped by Abner Mares, and will stepping up to Super Featherweight for this bout. Another bout that looks good on paper will see Russian destroyer Oleksandr Gvozdyk (5-0, 4) battle against Rowland Bryant (18-5, 12). On paper this looks like a really good test for the Russian but Bryant has lost 4 of his last 6 and shouldn't really push Gvozdyk. Whilst it is a mismatch we would say a stoppage by the Russian should be considered impressive considering his lack of professional experience. Yet another prospect we're excited about on this card is Lithuanian powerhouse Egidijus Kavaliauskas (9-0, 8), who will be up against Arman Ovsepyan (14-4, 11) in what looks likely to be another very impressive performance form the Oxnard based European fighter. Sadly we've struggled to get excited about Brazilian Esquiva Falcao (7-0, 5) who is really talented but has been matched horribly here as he takes on Omar Rojas (3-2, 1) in what appears to be an horrific mismatch. Falcao, a nemesis of Ryota Murata's, is so much better than Rojas that this bout should be disappointing to the the fighter as well as fans. As for the bout in Slovenia, that will see former IBF Welterweight champion Jan Zaveck (34-3, 19) battling against Belgian based Armenian Sasha Yengoyan (31-1-1, 21). This bout, for the WBF Light Middleweight title, as good a WBF title bout as you're likely to see and really could have been for the European title considering the ability of the two men in it. Whilst neither man is a “star” we do like both and it's hard to dislike either. This may not get the attention of some of the other bouts but it could be a very interesting contest all the same. (Image courtesy of notifight.com)
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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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