The upcoming week is pretty light in the sport of boxing. Thankfully, it at least features one big show on Showtime highlighted by two world title fights. One is a unification bout and the other is a rematch of the biggest upset of 2017. It isn’t an amazing week, but we could do much worse as fight fans.
Friday, April 6th
Marlen Esparza (4-0) v Laetizia Campana (2-4), female super flyweights & Hector Tanajara (12-0, 5 KOs) v Hector Suarez (12-5-1, 6 KOs), junior lightweights & Aidar Sharibayev (7-0, 6 KOs) v Enrique Tinoco (16-5-4, 12 KOs), featherweights – California – Estrella TV – LA Fight Club Live, 10 PM Eastern
This is a maybe a little better than a typical LA Fight Club show, but it still is far from a must watch. It is what it is.
Saturday, April 7th
Erislandy Lara (25-2-2, 14 KOs) v Jarrett Hurd (21-0, 15 KOs), WBA & IBF junior middleweight titles & Caleb Truax (29-3-2, 18 KOs) v James DeGale (23-2-1, 14 KOs), IBF super middleweight title & Julian Williams (24-1-1, 15 KOs) v Nathaniel Gallimore (20-1-1, 17 KOs), junior middleweights – Nevada – Showtime, 10 PM Eastern
The main event here is an interesting stylistic matchup. Erislandy Lara is treated with much more deference and respect in the rankings than Jarrett Hurd, but at the same time he has spent the latest part of his career fighting substandard competition while Hurd has notched a couple nice wins. Caleb Truax’s upset win over James DeGale late last year was one of the feel good stories of 2017 and the rematch is definitely an interesting one. The opener is also a solid matchup between a pair of guys looking to elevate themselves to the world level scene at 154 lbs. All in all, this is a good show on a weekend otherwise devoid of them.
