HBO has fleshed out its programming a bit better for the remainder of the calendar year with two Boxing After Dark cards announced at tonight’s super flyweight show. On October 21st, Jezreel Corrales will defend his WBA junior lightweight belt against Puerto Rican prospect Alberto Machado while, in bigger news, Sergey Kovalev returns November 25th against Vyacheslav Shabranskyy.
This will be Sergey Kovalev’s (30-2-1, 26 KOs) first fight back from his consecutive losses to Andre Ward. It will be very interesting to see where Krusher Kovalev is at mentally at this point his his career, especially given that he has talked a bit about retiring in recent weeks. As an opponent, Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (19-1, 16 KOs) is one that makes sense. He is a come forward, aggressive fighter who is good enough to be credible but probably not good enough to win given that his style will feed into Kovalev’s. The card will take place at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.
Jezreel Corrales (22-1, 8 KOs) will be making the third defense of his title against unbeaten Puerto Rican prospect Aberto Machado (18-0, 15 KOs). This is a bit of a weird HBO main event as Machado is completely unproven and only mildly hyped, but Jezreel Corrales pleased on his HBO debut against Robinson Castellanos so here we are. The Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY will play host here.
No undercard fights have been announced for either bill.
