As the boxing world has largely stopped spinning this holiday season, there are still tidbits of news trickling out here and there. Among them are some quality fights for the first parts of 2018. We have an HBO light heavyweight title doubleheader, the return of Miguel Berchelt, a potential Carl Frampton fight, and more.
- On February 4th, WBC flyweight titleholder Daigo Higa (14-0, 14 KOs) and his perfect knockout percentage will defend his belt against former world titleholder Moises Fuentes (25-4-1, 14 KOs) at home in Japan. Higa is an exciting young power puncher always worth turning into, but he is getting a second hand opponent here in Fuentes. The Mexican title challenger has lost two of three including a fifth round stoppage at the quick hands of Higa’s countryman Kosei Tanaka last New Year’s Eve.
- Miguel Berchelt (32-1, 28 KOs) will defend his WBC junior lightweight title on February 10th against longtime top fighter Cristian Mijares (58-8-2, 26 KOs). Years ago Mijares was a force down at super flyweight, but he’s never gotten a belt above that weight. Though he has quietly been on a nice winning streak on the domestic level in Mexico, Mijares looks to have little chance against Berchelt. This is a weak defense. Curiously, and maybe because of that, HBO is not mentioned in any of the news concerning the announcement of this fight. They could be skipping this Miguel Berchelt defense.
- Sergey Kovalev (31-2-1, 27 KOs) returns on March 3rd to defend his recently reclaimed WBO light heavyweight title against Russian fringe contender Igor Mikhalkin (21-1, 9 KOs). Mikhalkin is a talented fighter and a good boxing on the European level, but he figures to be trounced here. At the very least, Mikhalkin figures to last longer than Vyacheslav Shabranskyy did in November.
- More interestingly in the co-main event, blue chip prospect and WBA light heavyweight title owner Dmitry Bivol (12-0, 10 KOs) is going to defend against surging Cuban contender Sullivan Barrera (21-1, 14 KOs). Now that is a great fight. Reportedly Barrera has turned down matchups with Sergey Kovalev twice now, but I don’t suspect he is going to find Bivol to be a much easier opponent. This is one of the better fights that can be made at light heavyweight and it is the real main event of the March 3rd HBO broadcast.
- Finally, and this isn’t official, but there has been a fair amount of talk that April 4th will bring the once pound for pound elite Nonito Donaire (38-4, 24 KOs) to Northern Ireland to meet recent world titleholder Carl Frampton (24-1, 14 KOs). Donaire, no longer with Top Rank and now with Ringstar, is in a position where a move like this would make sense. Frank Warren would be hard pressed to bring a bigger name across the Atlantic too. If the fight happens, and it looks like it will, then reportedly Showtime is looking to televise.
