20 year old unbeaten super middleweight prospect David Benavidez (17-0, 16 KOs) is taking a huge step up against veteran former title challenger Rogelio “Porky” Medina (37-7, 31 KOs) on a special Saturday night edition of PBC on FS1 come May 20th. Featherweights Jorge Lara (28-0-2, 20 KOs) and Mario Briones fight in the co-feature (28-5-2, 22 KOs).
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On a date to be determined, Callum Smith and Anthony Dirrell will be fighting for the WBC super middleweight title that Badou Jack vacated when he moved to light heavyweight. The winner of Benavidez/Medina becomes the new champion’s first mandatory challenger. Beyond the title picture implications, this is a really interesting fight with high action potential that I am very much looking forward to.
For David Benavidez this is a gigantic step up. Porky Medina is not top ten super middleweight, but he is probably among the 20 or so best. Benavidez has not fought anyone near that level. The 20 year old power punching prospect has only even been past the second round a grand total of four times.
Rogelio Medina has been in deep more times than David Benavidez has as much as seen the second round. Having been in with current top fighters like James DeGale, Badou Jack, and Gilberto Ramirez plus then unbeaten prospects like J’eon Love, Jose Uzcategui, and Jonathan Gonzales, the experience gap here is about as big as I have ever scene in a non-mismatch. Benavidez is a good prospect, however, so he can’t be written off on an experience gap alone. Both are come forward power punchers too. There is nothing not to like here for a PBC on FS1 main event.
In the co-feature, unbeaten featherweight prospect Jorge Lara returns against Mario Briones. Lara is coming off an impressive first round blitzing of former top fighter Fernando Montiel. Montiel was coming off a respectable showing in a world title fight, so the first round blitzkrieg executed by Lara was really unexpected. Briones has reliably lost at lower than Lara’s level, most recently in a wide decision loss to since busted prospect Miguel Flores, and he figures to lose here too.
