Another Golden Boy on ESPN show is here this Saturday night on ESPN2. Former top prospect and US Olympian Sadam Ali makes his return to the spotlight for this first time since his loss to Jessie Vargas. He will be matched with Venezuala’s Johan Perez in what really isn’t a bad matchup. The card won’t air until midnight, however, making it technically a Sunday show for those on the East Coast.
When Sadam Ali (24-1, 14 KOs) stopped Argentina’s Luis Carlos Abregu in 2014, it looked like confirmation that he was successfully transitioning from top prospect to top contender. After all, Abregu’s only loss was to a real top fighter in Timothy Bradley and he had just dethroned another top prospect in Puerto Rico’s Thomas Dulorme in recent boxing history. It was a good win.
Yet, the first time Ali was asked to step up to the next level in a 2016 vacant title fight against Jessie Vargas, he was soundly outlcassed and stopped in nine. To make matters worse, Vargas was largely considered a soft puncher going into the bout too. Suddenly it was very unclear whether or not Sadam Ali could truly become a world class operator in the ring. He has won twice since that night, but both fights were against notably poor opposition buried deep on undercards. This is a stop back up both in quality of opponent and in the intensity of the spot light.
Venezuelan fringe contender Johan Perez (22-3-2, 15 KOs) has a pretty interesting resume. He holds wins over competent fighters like Frank Galarza, Yoshihiro Kamegai, and an old Paul Spadafora. A couple of his losses aren’t bad either. For example, Perez lost to Pablo Cesar Cano via technical decision in a near dead even fight when cuts ended things prematurely. He also lost a majority, not unanimous decision to Mauricio Herrera when Herrera was still a really good fighter.
Unfortunately, that January 2015 majority decision for Perez may have been his apex. He is 3-1-1 since then, but two of those wins came against atrocious fighters. The loss was his first stoppage defeat and the draw was against an 18-14 fighters. Maybe three years ago Perez would have really given Ali some issues, but he seems past it. The talent gap would always be there too. Sadam Ali should take this by a somewhat easy decision, but it is hard to say where he is at mentally.
Either way, this is a reasonably good main event by the lowered standards of a Golden Boy on ESPN branded card. Welterweights Eddie Gomez (20-2, 11 KOs) and Alejandro Barrera (28-3, 18 KOs) meet in the co-feature. It is not a super compelling fight, but then again it is the undercard fight of a Golden Boy on ESPN show.
This card is airing at midnight Eastern time on ESPN2, making it technically a Sunday morning show. WatchESPN.com prelims are listed as starting at 7:30. There are not a ton of fights on this card, so that implies to me that we are getting it on tape delay when the show airs at midnight. Or maybe the listed time for the prelims is just wrong. Regardless, the late air date prevents the show from going head to head with Garcia/Broner at least.
