Tonight's international action doesn't look to be the greatest but there is quite a bit of it across a number of divisions.

Arguably the best of the bouts comes at Flyweight where unified WBA “super “ and WBO champion Juan Francisco Estrada (32-2, 23) defends his title against former champion Hernan Marquez (39-5-1, 28). In some ways this could end up being a massive disappointment, afterall Marquez has been through more wars than most, but he may still have the power to make this one semi-interesting with the excellent Estrada. This could be disappointing or it could be a FOTY contender, just depends on how much the 27 year old Marquez has left in the tank.

Staying in Mexico fans will get the chance to see WBC female Super Flyweight champion Zulina Munoz (44-1-2, 27) defend her title against former IBF female Flyweight champion Gabriela Bouvier (12-5-1, 2). It's hard to see Munoz losing here if we're being honest.

There a few mismatches at the world level tonight, one of which comes from the UK where the genuinely talented Fedor Chudinov (13-0, 10) faces big under-dog Frank Buglioni (17-1-1, 13). Whilst Chudinov is a bit of an unknown to some fans he is a monstrous puncher, as seen by his 2014 KO of the Year contender against Ben McCulloch, and given Buglioni's weak defense this could be over quickly and in spectacular fashion.

Arguably the most disappointing bout of the weekend, at least at the top level, comes at Heavyweight where WBC champion Deontay Wilder (34-0, 33) defends his title against Frenchman Johann Duhaupas (32-2, 20). The bout was essentially made after Wilder's team left it too late to sign a good opponent and were left scrambling looking for someone. Saying that Duhaupas did beat Manuel Charr last time out and has a few under-rated qualities, though shouldn't have anything to test “the champ”.

Another bout of some interest comes from Italy where former 2-weight world champion Paulie Malignaggi (33-7, 7) is expected to end his career with a bout against the limited Laszlo Fazekas (27-21-1, 17). This looks to be a mismatch but Malignaggi is 1-3 in his last 4 and has taken a lot of recent damage with many now considering him shot. It would be a big upset if Fazekas won but it's looking more likely than a win for Duhaupas against Wilder.

This weekend we had a busy weekend in world boxing, especially on Saturday which featured a host of major bouts involving both top male fighters and top female fighters.

The most notable bout was a male world title fight in the US that pitted two unbeaten fighters against each other in a contest that had genuine intrigue. Both men had their share of backers, both had their share of doubters and both went in with questions to answer. As it turned out the defending WBO Lightweight champion Terence Crawford (24-0, 17) was the one who was more able to answer the doubters than his Cuban opponent Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-1, 16).

The bout between Crawford and Gamboa was interesting from the moment it was signed with people asking how would Crawford cope with a man quicker than himself and how would Gamboa cope with the size disadvantage against Crawford. At the end of the day however Gamboa's problem wasn't actually the size difference but was his recklessness which saw him getting dropped 4 times with the referee finally waving off the contest after a monster uppercut sent Gamboa down hard in the 9th round. The result, the first loss of Gamboa's career, saw Crawford proclaimed as an American star though in honesty he still has some way to go to live up to that sort of praise.

Crawford wasn't the only man retaining his world title as Mexico's Oswaldo Novoa (14-3-1, 9) retained his WBC Minimumweight title, also for the first time. Novoa was taking on the challenge of Nicaragua's Alcides Martinez (12-3-8-1, 6) and managed to do as he wished against an over-matched and under-qualified challenger who was mercifully saved by his corner who refused to let him take too much of a beating. For Novoa, who won the title by stopping Xiong Zhao Zhong earlier this year, this was a perfect home coming though won't have been the best preparation for looms ahead of him, a likely mandatory defence against Thailand's talented and unbeaten Wanheng Menayothin.

In a third male "world" title bout we did see a new champion crowned as Darleys Perez (30-1, 19), himself a former Yuriorkis Gamboa victim, picked up the WBA "interim" Lightweight title. Perez was battling against the little known and unbeaten Argenis Lopez (19-1, 7) and managed to secure himself the belt with a clear decision on foreign soil. Sadly despite the win it seems to be a result that tells us more about the loser than the winner and Perez did little to convince the top Lightweights that he's a real threat to them. In fact the key think Perez did was secure himself a bigger payday when he returns to the ring to defend his "world" title.

On the same show as Perez's victory home town fans got to see Dahiana Santana (33-6, 14) successfully claim the WBA interim female Featherweight title as she clearly out pointed Colombian foe Francia Elena Bravo (16-4-2, 9). Santana is a former IBF champion at the same weigh though seemed to set her focus on getting herself a bout with WBA regular champion Edith Soledad Matthysse. A bout between Matthysse and Santana is a bout that would be a lot more competitive than the records of the fighters would suggest and in fact we'd rather look forward to that one if it could be made.

Back in Mexico, on the same card as the Novoa/Martinez card, there was two other female bouts. The most notable of those saw the highly skilled Zulina Munoz (42-1-2, 27) defending her WBC female Super Flyweight title against the over-matched Renata Domsodi (12-5, 5) who was stopped in the 6th round. Munoz, arguably the only fighter who would give Naoko Fujioka a real test, was in charge from the off and Domsodi really didn't belong in there with her. In the other female contest Yazmin Rivas (30-8-0-4, 9) claimed the WBC female Bantamweight title as she over-came Alesia Graf (26-5, 11) via 10 round decision to record her biggest victory. 

(Image courtesy of Top Rank)

Whilst this Saturday is basically revolving around Russian's and Filipino's for us there are numerous fights, around the globes, with some value, including several world title fights and numerous female world title fights.

Of those fights the most notable is in the US and headlines the show that will also see Matt Korobov fighting against Jose Uzcategui. The bout in question is a WBO Lightweight title fight between Terence Crawford (23-0, 16), the reigning champion, and Cuban sensation Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16). Both men have identical records on paper but a lot separate them with Gamboa having been out of the ring for over a year and being the naturally smaller man. It really is a great match up and one that will see the winner really elevating themselves in the world of boxing.

One of the other male "World title" bouts will see Darleys Perez (29-1, 19), himself a former Gamboa opponent, facing off against the lesser known Argenis Lopez (19-0-0-1, 7) for the interim WBA Lightweight title. Perez suffered his sole professional defeat at the hands of Gamboa in a genuine stinker of a bout last year and since then has only beaten a very poor opponent that has some how qualified him for this bout. As for the unbeaten Lopez this is his first bout of note and it's hard to really rate his chances here.

The only other male world title bout is in Mexico where WBC Minimumweight champion Oswaldo Novoa (13-4-1, 8) will be defending his title against Nicaragua's Alcides Martinez (12-2-8-1, 6). Novoa came to the attention of the boxing world earlier this year when he beat up and stopped Xiong Zhao Zhong in very impressive fashion to claim the WBC world title, this will be his first defence of that title. As for Martinez this will be his big chance to make a name for himself though he is being given no chance at all of scoring the upset, similarly like Novoa. From what we understand the winner of this contest will be facing Thailand's unbeaten Wanheng Menayothin in a mandatory later this year or very early next year.

Whilst the three male world title bouts are the most notable bouts there are actually a host of notable female bouts. 

One of those female bouts is on the same show as the Perez/Lopez bout as Dahiana Santana (33-6, 14) will be battling against Francia Elena Bravo (16-3-2, 9). It's hard to see anything but a Santana win here but we really don't rate her very highly and view her record as a padded one more than a genuine one with a lot of her recent opponents being very limited.

The better female bouts are in Mexico with the most interesting of those being a WBC female Super Flyweight title fight between defending champion Zulina Munoz (41-1-2, 26) and Hungarian challenger Renata Domsodi (12-4, 5). Munoz is the only fighter at Super Flyweight that we think could test the exceptional Naoko Fujioka though even then we'd have to favour the Japanese fighter. With that in mind we don't imagine Munoz, a talented, experienced and battle hardened fighter, will struggle much with the 35 year old Domsodi.

Another of the female title fights will see Yazmin Rivas (29-8-0-4, 9) taking on the talented Alesia Graf (26-4, 11) in a battle for the WBC female Bantamweight title. Graf is the only fighter to have beaten the aforementioned Munoz and we'd be shocked if she didn't give Rivas a very tough contest here. We certainly expect this to be a better bout than the bout for the interim version of the same title which will see Jessica Gonzalez (4-1-0-3) taking on Yulihan Luna Avila (10-1, 1).

Back to male action for a moment, we're expecting to see the big punching Ilunga Makabu (16-1, 15) taking on former world champion Glen Johnson (54-18-2, 37). Johnson, a true veteran, has been stopped just once in his 74 fight career but we honestly fear for him here against Makabu who looks like a future world champion.

(Image courtesy of Top Rank)

One of the big complaints we've made this year is that there was a real lack of big time action. We're two months in to the year and we could count the number of significant fights on one hand, we could then use the other hand to count how many genuinely good fighter we've had. Honestly it's been an awful start to the boxing year.

Thankfully March seems to kick off the boxing for 2014. It may be late but it is much, much better than never. Unfortunately however the sheer number of high quality fights make it almost a given that you will be missing something this weekend.

The first notable fight, and the one featured in the small image, is one of several female contests of interest and takes place in Australia as the hard hitting Diana Prazak (12-2, 8) attempts to make the first defense of her WBC female Super Featherweight title. Prazak will be fighting fellow compatriot Shannon O'Connell (8-2, 5) in a bout that has all the ingredients to be a fire cracked. 

O'Connell is best known to use for her close fight with Korea's Hyun-Mi Choi last year whilst Prazak announced herself last year by stopping Frida Wallberg and unfortunately ending Wallberg's career in the process. Although it's a female fight it could be the best of the day.

The O'Connell/Prazak bout isn't the only major female bout of the day and in Germany we get another as the highly popular Chrstina Hammer (16-0, 8) defends her WBO female Middleweight title against fellow German Jessica Balogun (23-2, 11). Whilst the Prazak/O'Connell bout looks like a fantastic match up, this one is unfortunately a huge mismatch and it's hard to see anything other than an easy defense for the talented Hammer.

On the same card in Germany their is a WBO Super Middleweight title fight as Robert Steiglitz (46-3, 26) battles Arthur Abraham (38-4, 28) for the third time in less than 18 months. Although the men are 1-1 it seems that Abraham's career is in free fall and we'd be shocked if Steiglitz doesn't retain his title again here.

The Stieglitz/Abraham trilogy isn't the only world title fight in Europe as Scotland's Ricky Burns (36-2-1, 11) tries to put poor back-to-back performance behind him and defend his WBO Lightweight title against America's unbeaten Terence Crawford (22-0, 16) in what looks like one of the nights most interesting match ups. We'd favour Crawford here though it's certainly his toughest bout to date and Burns, for the faults he has shown in recent bouts, has shown that he's not got any quit in him. Unfortunately we have the feeling this could end up being either a total dud or controversial with fans on both sides of the Atlantic being unsatisfied by either the action or the result.

Staying in Britain there is another major contest involving a Brit as James DeGale (17-1, 11) battles the unbeaten Gevorg Khatchikian (20-0, 8) in what looks to be a semi-final eliminator to fight Sakio Bika for the WBC Super Middleweight title. The winner of DeGale/Khatchikian is likely to need to beat another top contender to get a world title fight but this is a big step towards one.

Across the Atlantic the action comes just as thick and fast.

The highlight bout state side sees Vasyl Lomachenko (1-0, 1) fighting grizzled Mexican veteran Orlando Salido (40-12-2-1, 28) for the WBO Featherweight title. A victory for Lomachenko gets him into the record books for fewest professional bouts before winning a world title (in regards to men, the actual record is held by the aforementioned Choi who won a WBA title on her debut) though this is far from a foregone conclusion and it should prove to be one of the most enthralling and anticipated bouts of the year.

On the same card as Lomachenko/Salido we get a major non-title fight as former WBC Middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (47-1-1-1, 32) takes on the under-rated Brian Vera (23-7, 14) for the second time. The two men fought last year with Chavez being given a highly debatable victory over Vera. Although Chavez had his excuses for his performances it does sound like he means business this time and is expected to "show up" this time around.

Going south, down the American continent, we get another major female bout in Mexico. Strangely this is another major rematch as Zulina Munoz (40-1-2, 26) attempts to avenge her sole defeat. Munoz, the current WBC female Super Flyweight champion, is unbeaten in over 6 years, since she dropped a decision to Alesia Graf (26-3, 11) this time Munoz is more experienced, wiser and more mature as well as the home fighter. The Mexican champion has ti be favoured here.

Finally, in Argentina, we get one more female world title fight. Like the Hammer/Balogun fight this one is also a mismatch as WBC Lightweight champion Erica Anabella Farias (18-0, 9), one of the premier pound-for-pound female fighters on the planet, defends her title against Maria Eugenia Lopez (8-7-2). To call this a mismatch is little more than stating the obvious, unfortunately however we do sometimes need to state the obvious. A win for Farias however sets up a fight with Belgium's excellent Delfine Persoon in what should be considered a female super-fight.