Friday night on ESPN2, Golden Boy on ESPN returns with a less than ideal main event. Unbeaten, but also unheralded bantamweight Oscar Negrete was supposed to be the B-side face former titlist Randy Caballero, but with Cabellero’s injury he instead is facing late replacement journeyman Sergio Frias. There are good prospects and at least one better fight on the bill, but Golden Boy is still listing this fight as the main event.
Oscar Negrete (16-0, 6 KOs) is a Colombian who has fought all but the first three fights of his career out of California or Las Vegas. His best win would be his most recent one against Victor Ruiz, a fringe contender who did in 2015 win an upset eight round decision to thwart former Japanese two division world titlist Daika Kameda’s comeback bid. That is it though. All of Negrete’s other wins are over pure journeymen and club fighters.
Sergio Frias (19-6-2, 10 KOs) is no better. He is coming off a second round stoppage of a beyond shot Vic Darchinyan, but otherwise his other 18 wins are entirely empty. In fact, only two of those wins came against fighters with winning records and one of those guys was 3-2. The only intrigue in watching this fight will come from determining how far above this level Negrete really is.
Better is the collection of talent on the undercard, but Golden Boy is not making entirely clear what the match order will be beyond the co-main event. This fight will feature lightweight prospect Ryan Martin (18-0, 11 KOs) taking a lateral fight against Marcos Jimenez (22-7, 15 KOs). The talented 24 year old has bounced around deep on an odd mixture of Loeffler HBO, PBC, and Golden Boy cards. A good showing here could really bring stability to his promotional situation.
Significant 21 year old Golden Boy super featherweight prospect Lamont Roach Jr (13-0, 5 KOs) is also in action, but I believe this fight is more likely to make the WatchESPN.com streamed preliminary bouts than the main card on ESPN2.
Hopefully also on that stream will be what for my money is the most interesting fight on the card when Keandre Gibson (16-1, 7 KOs) returns from his first loss against the well traveled Dennis Dauti (14-2, 7 KOs). Gibson was a promising prospect perhaps fed too much too soon against real contender Antonio Orozco, but Dauti can fight a bit and won’t necessarily be a super easy bounce back.
The card will take place at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California and the main show will air on ESPN2 at 10 PM Eastern while the WatchESPN.com preliminary portion of the card begins at 8:30.
