The Golden Boy on ESPN wheels keep on churning with their announcement of cards on October 19th and November 2nd. First, Gabriel Rosado and Glen Tapia will meet in a bit of a gatekeepers brawl and then Jesus Soto Karass will face a must win fight against Juan Carlos Abreu. At this point these are pretty typical Golden Boy on ESPN style bookings.
The October 19th card is definitely the better of the two. Gabe Rosado (23-11, 13 KOs) may have a bit of an inflated reputation as an action fighter, but he has been in some good fights. Glen Tapia (23-4, 15 KOs) can only possibly be in good fights because he attacks and has little defense. Rosado has lost his last two and Tapia his last three, but all to real good fighters. This is a likely entertaining bout between two men in a must win situation. It has no divisional relevance at this point, but you can’t really expect that out of this series.
Co-main eventing the card is Alejandro Barrera (29-3, 18 KOs) against Keandre Gibson (17-1-1, 7 KOs). This too is a well matched contest. Both guys have failed against higher level competition, but both guys are coming off a respectable win over Denis Dauti and Eddie Gomez respectively.
The November 2nd card doesn’t have an undercard bout yet, so maybe that can redeem it, but Jesus Soto Karass (28-12-4, 18 KOs) versus Juan Carlos Abreu (19-3-1, 18 KOs) is a pretty mediocre main event. Karass, the name fighter here, hasn’t won a fight against a man with two arms in nearly five years now. Abreu has failed against a couple okay but not exactly inspiring prospects. This too could be a decent fight too though, making it in a way the poor man’s version of the Rosado/Tapia fight. It isn’t excellent ideal to be the poor man’s version of something that is thoroughly average already, but at least there is that.
