With Danny Jacobs’s surprise move to Matchroom Boxing and HBO, the much anticipated November 4th heavyweight title clash between Deontay Wilder and Luis Ortiz was in need of a new co-feature. Enter Shawn Porter. The popular former welterweight titleholder will not be matched super soft either as he will meet always underrated Adrian Granados.
This is one of the biggest cards left on the 2017 calendar. Shawn Porter (27-2-1, 17 KOs) last fought in April, stopping Andre Berto in the ninth round of a foul filled fight in his first fight back from a very narrow points defeat to top welterweight Keith Thurman. Despite his 18-5-2 (12 KOs) record, Adrian Granados is only a few rounds from being undefeated. All seven of his non-wins were either extremely close fights or downright controversial decisions. Porter will be favored here somewhat big, but Granados can fight.
Top junior welterweight prospect Sergey Lipinets (12-0, 10 KOs) will fight for his first world title when he goes for Terence Crawford’s recently vacated IBF title against Japanese fighter Akihiro Kondo (29-6-1, 16 KOs). Kondo is a pretty ridiculous title challenger given his poor resume and the Russian raised prospect should roll.
Prior to the broadcast and streamed online will be a heavyweight fight between Bermane Stiverne (25-2-1, 21 KOs) and Dominic Breazeale (18-1, 16 KOs). The Wilder/Ortiz main event winner will likely be ordered to fight the winner of this fight, so let’s hope for a Breazeale win to avoid the possibility of a completely pointless rematch of Wilder’s one sided decision win over Stiverne. Not that Dominic Breazeale is likely to give a much better showing, but at least it is a fresh match.
Showtime will have the call at 9 PM Eastern on November 4th from the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn. Wilder/Ortiz is one of the best fights that can be made in boxing and this is a reasonably good undercard to go with it.
