Two relatively small time cards that will air on CBS Sports Network were announced over the past few days, First on June 10th in Iowa (yes, Iowa) Roc Nation promoted junior welterweight contender Maurice Hooker returns against little known Mexican power puncher Abdiel Ramirez. On June 23rd Mike Lee returns at home in Chicago. His opponent is yet to be determined, but I can say with certainty that it will not be a top fighter.
Maurice Hooker (22-0-3, 16 KOs) was fairly recently a prospect with a measure of hype after scoring a dramatic TKO1 over fringe contender Ty Barnett on the Andre Ward/Alexander Brand undercard. This performance landed him a slot last November on the Andre Ward/Sergei Kovalev PPV against former world title challenger Darleys Perez. Hooker was very fortunate to escape that night unbeaten as the judges’ decision to score the fight a draw is widely considered a poor one. Darleys Perez should have that win. Hooker has fought once since having beaten a very faded and undersized version of former featherweight world titlist Cristobal Cruz way up at welterweight, four weight classes and twenty one pounds above Cruz’s optimal weight. Needless to say, Hooker scored a shut out.
Abdiel Ramirez (23-1-1, 21 KOs) is a complete unknown coming out of Mexico for the first time. His record suggest power, he largely fights opponents with decent records themselves, and he is unbeaten in five years. He also briefly held a minor WBC belt in 2012 if that is your thing. Ramirez is almost certainly a better opponent than a 2017 welterweight Cristobal Cruz, but it does seem that Roc Nation is choosing to bring Hooker back up to near the top levels of the division very slowly. Hooker should be favored here by a wide margin.
One loss featherweights Daniel Franco (15-1-3, 10 KOs) and Jose Haro (13-1-1, 7 KOs) also meet on the televised card. They are not and will likely not ever be top fighters, but it is a fight to watch on TV.
The June 23rd card is much less developed at this point. Light heavyweight Mike Lee’s (19-0, 10 KOs) claim to fame seems to be just that he is a white Notre Dame graduate which seems ridiculous, but it carried him to a Subway commercial. He is not a real prospect, but as long as he fights he will draw some eye balls. He doesn’t have an opponent yet even though faded former light heavyweight contender Donovan George (25-7-2, 22 KOs) is also on the card without an opponent.
If that name sounds familiar, George lost to Edwin Rodriguez on HBO in 2011 on the Segio Martinez/Matthew Macklin undercard and also main evented in Montreal in a title eliminator KO loss to Adonis Stevenson. He has lost his last three to a trio in which the best opponent by far was Sean Monaghan. Yet, he is still too good to be Mike Lee’s opponent. That about sums everything you need to know about Mike Lee up as a professional fighter.
