This week in boxing doesn’t feature a major American card, but it will give us two midsized US shows on weekdays as well as a pretty big show from Japan that will have US television distribution for once. Francisco Vargas returns on Golden Boy on ESPN while Jamal James makes an appearance on PBC on FS1. Ryota Murata and Daigo Higa are in action in Japan.
Thursday, April 12th
Francisco Vargas (24-1-2, 17 KOs) v Rod Salka (24-4, 4 KOs), junior lightweights & Jonathan Navarro (13-0, 7 KOs) v Shoki Sakai (23-7-2, 13 KOs), junior welterweights – California – Golden Boy on ESPN – ESPN2, 10 PM Eastern
Former top junior lightweight Francisco Vargas returns here for the second time from his first career loss against Miguel Berchelt. Conversely, Rod Salka is famous for being one of the most overmatched fighters booked against an elite fighter in recent memory when he was pulled up significantly in weight to be knocked out by Danny Garcia three and half years ago. Salka probably cannot win this fight either, but at least he is in at an appropriate weight against an opponent who may not be at his best any longer. Francisco Vargas needs to win this one emphatically if the potential win is to help continue to restore his reputation. Earlier prelims begin at 8:30 PM Eastern on watchespn.com if interested.
Friday, April 13th
Jamal James (22-1, 10 KOs) v Abel Ramos (18-2-2, 13 KOs), welterweights & Edner Cherry (36-7-2, 19 KOs) v Dennis Galarza (16-2, 9 KOs), junior welterweights – Minnesota – PBC on FS1, 9 PM Eastern
Jamal James is now a headliner following his surprising body shot stoppage of former welterweight contender Diego Chaves. His loss to Yordenis Ugas no longer looks bad either as the Cuban continues to surge up the welterweight rankings. Abel Ramos is known for putting on an exciting and competitive fight with Ivan Baranchyk, but this is likely too tall of an ask here. Co-main event fighter Edner Cherry has had a weird few years. In 2015, he was considered many to have beaten then titleholder Jose Pedraza, but Pedraza got a wide decision instead. Most recently he got a win over Omar Douglas. That was the inverse of the Pedraza fight, however, and Cherry probably should have taken a loss. Dennis Galarza is simply a get well tuneup for Cherry as inactivity has been a problem.
Sunday, April 15th
Ryota Murata (13-1, 10 KOs) v Emanuele Blandamura (27-2, 5 KOs), middleweights & Daigo Higa (15-0, 15 KOs) v Cristofer Rosales (26-3, 12 KOs), WBC flyweight title – Japan – Top Rank on ESPN – ESPN2, 8 AM Eastern
Japanese Olympic gold medalist and secondary middleweight titleholder Ryota Murata returns this weekend with a victory lap sort of defense following his two fights with Hassan N’Dam. 38 year old Italian non-contender Emanuele Blandamura poses little threat here. The good news that the co-main event is an intriguing fight. Nicaraguan flyweght Cristofer Rosales was soundly outboced against Andrew Selby in the UK a couple years ago, but he has picked up a few lowkey quality wins to earn his way back into a title shot. Unfortunately for him, exciting Japanese slugger Daigo Higa and his perfect knockout percentage stands in his way. The bad news here is that this fight is unlikely to make the Top Rank organized American broadcast given that Arum and company only have promotional interest in Murata. Still, one to track down after. Higa has become a fighter I am always excited to watch.
