Another week, another series of fights scheduled for the near future. Most prominently, we have a date for a rematch of one of the biggest and most bizarre robberies of the year. Ryota Murata will attempt to avenge his lie of a defeat against Hassan N’Dam on October 22nd in Japan for the same fake, but still important WBA “world title” that was on the line last time. We also have the first confirmed GGG/Canelo PPV undercard fight, plus more.
As a boxing fans, there are certain expectations of some level of corruption. If a money fighter is competing at home, there is always a chance he could get a win on scorecards that maybe wasn’t really earned. This has happened so many times that it is now an established trope of sorts. What isn’t expected, however, is the reverse. The rising money fighter does not get robbed at home in his biggest fight to date.
Yet, this is what happened to 2012 Olympic gold medalist Ryota Murata (12-1, 9 KOs) when he met Hassan N’Dam (36-2, 21 KOs) this past May in Tokyo. Despite dropping N’Dam and clearly winning the bulk of the rounds, Murata did get the decision. Now the rematch is on. Like the first fight, this will be contested for what is called the “WBA middleweight world title,” but it is an illegitimate belt. Gennady Golovkin owns the real WBA title, which they sometimes call the “super” title. This is still important, however, as the WBA often orders these conflicting titles to be unified, meaning the winner of this rematch may become a GGG mandatory challenger sooner rather than later.
Speaking of Golovkin, his upcoming mega fight with Canelo Alvarez on September 16th finally has its first official undercard bout. As has been rumored, 22 year old prospect Diego De La Hoya (19-0, 9 KOs) will be stepping up to meet fellow unbeaten pro and recent title holder Randy Caballero (24-0, 14 KOs). Caballero won his belt in 2014, but he lost it on the scales and has only fought twice since. While this might not be the glamour fight that for some reason fight fans still dream about for PPV undercards, for my money it is an excellent matchup between two young prospects.
Another rumored fight for that card is junior welterweight contender Antonio Orozco (26-0, 17 KOs) making a lateral at best move against Mexican domestic level opponent Roberto Ortiz (35-1-2, 26 KOs). Despite seeing it listed anywhere, I can’t find any confirmation that it is happening. Hopefully it own’t. It is not a good fight as Orozco will win easily.
Finally, Yuriorkis Gamboa (26-2, 17 KOs) will return from his recent stoppage defeat against Alexis Reyes (15-2-1, 7 KOs) in Mexico on October 12th and sort of prospect Maurice Hooker (22-0-3, 16 KOs) will fight fellow unbeaten Courtney Jackson (17-0, 10 KOs) in Dallas one week later on the nineteenth. I don’t expect US television for either of these fights, but they exist nonetheless.
