We have five significant cards this weekend, four of which are on Saturday. Showtime and HBO will be airing fights, as will Sky in the UK. Two other cards come from Mexico and we also have a Thursday night Golden Boy on ESPN. It is a moderately busy week going forward. Deontay Wilder’s title defense headlines.
Thursday, November 2nd
Jesus Soto Karass (28-12-4, 18 KOs) v Juan Carlos Abreu (19-3-1, 18 KOs), welterweights & Ryan Garcia (11-0, 10 KOs) v Cesar Alan Valenzuela (14-5-1, 5 KOs), junior lightweights – California – Golden Boy on ESPN – ESPN2, 11 PM Eastern
Karass is 0-4-1 since the summer of 2013. Abreu has only won one of his last four. Aesthetically this will probably be a watchable fight as both these guys are come forward fighters. In terms of its validity as a television main event, however, it is terrible. Ryan Garcia is a good 19 year old prospect in the co-feature.
Saturday, November 4th
Jhonny Gonzalez (64-10, 54 KOs) v Irving Berry (23-6-2, 10 KOs), junior lightweights & Misael Rodriguez (4-0, 3 KOs) v TBA, middleweights – Mexico – Televisa
Good old Jhonny Gonzalez keeps going. Here he is looking for his seventh straight win at age 36. He is still fighting pretty good competition too, just not quite world class. Irving Berry keeps with that trend. Mexican Olympian turned pro prospect Misael Rodriguez will be featured on the show as well.
Dmitry Bivol (11-0, 9 KOs) v Trent Broadhurst (20-1, 12 KOs), WBA light heavyweight title & Jamie McDonnell (29-2-1, 13 KOs) v Liborio Solis (25-5-1, 11 KOs), WBA bantamweight title & Dereck Chisora (27-7, 19 KOs) v Agit Kabayel (16-0, 12 KOs), heavyweights & Scott Quigg (33-1-2, 24 KOs) v Oleg Yefimovych (29-2-1, 16 KOs), featherweights – Monaco – HBO, Sky 5:45 PM Eastern
HBO only has the main event stateside. For an HBO fight, it is one of the worst I have seen. I get and appreciate the strategy of locking down promotionally open divisions like light heavyweight, but this is a mismatch and Bivol doesn’t have any name value either no matter how good he is. He is really good though. McDonell/Solis is a rematch of a robbery. Chisora/Kabayel is for the European title and a really great test for the undefeated German. Quigg/Yefimovych is pretty uninspiring on paper, but I guess Quigg needs to re-establish himself.
Deontay Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs) v Bermane Stiverne (25-2-1, 21 KOs), WBC heavyweight title & Shawn Porter (27-2-1, 17 KOs) v Adrian Granados (18-5-2, 12 KOs), welterweights & Sergey Lipinets (12-0, 10 KOs) v Akihiro Kondo (29-6-1, 19 KOs), IBF junior welterweight title & Dominic Breazeale (18-1, 16 KOs) v Eric Molina (26-4, 19 KOs), heavyweights – Showtime, 9 PM Eastern
We all know this is a pointless rematch, but if Wilder still wants the WBC belt then he has to fight his mandatories. Porter/Granados might be one people are sleeping on as Adrian Granados is a better fighter than people realize. Lipinets/Kondo is probably a mismatch for a Terence Crawford vacated belt. Breazeale/Molina is probably going to be a super fun heavyweight fight. It is being stashed on Sho Extreme before the main card.
Luis Nery (24-0, 18 KOs) v Arthur Villanueva (31-2, 17 KOs), bantamweights & Emanuel Navarrete (22-1, 19 KOs) v Jeson Umbal (16-5, 11 KOs), junior lightweights & Jose Zepeda (27-1, 22 KOs) v Abner Lopez (25-7, 21 KOs) – Mexico – BeIN Sports En Español, 11 PM Eastern
This is a pretty great domestic card in Tijuana. Nery is of course the WBC titlist and my top ranked bantamweight, but he failed a drug test in his win and it remains to be seen if he will be stripped. This is a non-title 10 rounder. Villanueva is a pretty good fringe contender, but Nery should roll here if his head is in the game. Navarrete is a promising prospect and Zepeda is a former title challenger.
