Traditionally the PBC on FS1 series has brought us smaller, prospect oriented Tuesday night main events. This week that changes in a big way with a Saturday night show featuring a WBC super middleweight title eliminator between top PBC prospect David Benavidez and longtime contender Rogelio “Porky” Media. In a very busy weekend of fights, do not forget to watch this one.
When Porky Medina (37-7, 31 KOs) was brought in as a 2014 Shobox main event opponent for top Mayweather Promotions prospect J’Leon Love, he was expected to do what he had been doing. Medina was supposed to stiffly test the prospect, but Love was supposed to ultimately scrape out a tough win over the Mexican gate keeper. Medina had other ideas and he blasted Love out in three. Over the following year and a half Medina took three easy fights, clearly sitting on the Love upset and hoping to parlay it into a title shot. He succeeded when he booked an IBF shot at James DeGale for last April.
Medina was a pretty huge underdog in that bout, but he gave a great account of himself. He threw over 1100 punches in the fight, an astonishing number for any weight class, let alone super middleweight. Whenever the fight was in the center of the ring DeGale could predictably control his less well skilled challenger, but Medina moved the fight to the ropes whenever possible and did great work there. While the three official judges rendered a somewhere wide decision for DeGale, media scores were consistently in the range of 115-113 Medina to 115-113 DeGale. The bout, which was supposed to be an easy defense, ended up as close as it could be.
No one is sleeping on Porky Medina any longer. Saturday night he will be functioning poetically in both of his two roles in the sport at the same time: His old one as prospect checker and his new one as world title contender.
David Benavidez (17-0, 16 KOs) is definitely being matched beyond his years here. While this is a tremendous opportunity to jump start his career at world title level, Porky Medina is an absolutely huge ask for a 20 year old kid. Benavidez is not a normal twenty year old prospect, however. Coming from a deep boxing family, David Benavidez has been working with gloves on since his early childhood. He is also already a four year pro haven taken up the Mexican tradition of turning pro at sixteen rather than having an extensive amateur career. He is a big super middleweight who has show both real power coming forward and the ability to fight well backing up if need be. That ability could be key as Medina tries to force everyone back.
Despite Benavidez’s status as a relatively big time prospect here, I am having a hard time picking him. I’d like to think Haymon would not be exposing him to Medina if he was not confident that Benavidez would triump, but to me this is just too big of a step up to take in one fight. I like Medina here by late stoppage.
The co-featured bout pits unbeaten featherweight prospect Jorge Lara (28-0-2, 20 KOs) against trial horse Mario Briones (28-5-2, 21 KOs). Lara is coming off a potential star making performance in a dominant KO1 over former three division champion Fernando Montiel on the Berto/Ortiz undercard. Briones most recently was used as a win for Diego De La Hoya in a fight in which Briones did not manage to win a round. As much as those two results make this fight look like a big mismatch, Lara’s resume really just that one round deep. First round KOs are by nature tough to use to get a read on a fighter. This fight will help us determine if Lara is for real or not.
The card will begin at 10 PM on FS1. The Showtime card should be over, but this will unfortunately go head to head with the HBO show. Set your DVRs now.
