Top Rank’s relationship with the sports media giant’s streaming service ESPN+ delivers its first home grown card this Saturday night. It will be headlined by two world title fights in the super flyweight division and is absolutely worth your $5 even if the idea of paying for yet another outlet is annoying. We also have Naoya Inoue’s bantamweight debut at home in Japan and a solid PBC on FS1 as well.
Friday, May 26th
Jamie McDonnell (29-2-1, 13 KOs) v Naoya Inoue (15-0, 13 KOs), bantamweights & Ken Shiro (12-0, 6 KOs) v Ganigan Lopez (29-7, 18 KOs), WBC light flyweight title – Tokyo, Japan
Japanese boxing brings us a pretty great card on Friday night. 25 year old Japanese star and pound for pound elite talent Naoya “Monster” Inoue makes his bantamweight debut against a very credible talent in England’s Jamie McDonnell in the main event. This will be billed and marketed as a world title fight, but Ryan Burnett is the WBA’s titleholder so ignore that. The winner will get a lesser version of his belt. Thankfully the winner will also very likely enter the World Boxing Super Series tournament with Burnett in the fall so that should be cleared up by the event’s conclusion next spring. The co-main event is a quality world title rematch of a very close and entertaining first fight from just a few days over a year ago in which Ken Shiro won by a majority decision. There is nothing to complain about here except the usual concerns about US distribution or the lack thereof. You’ll have to get creative.
UPDATE: Good news, everyone! ESPN+ has picked up the broadcast. It will air live Friday morning at 7 AM Eastern.
Saturday, May 27th
Eddie Ramirez (17-1, 11 KOs) v Argenis Mendez (24-5-1, 12 KOs), junior welterweights & Tugstsogt Nyambayar (9-0, 8 KOs) v Oscar Escandon (25-3, 17 KOs), featherweights – Biloxi, Mississippi – PBC on FS1, 9 PM Eastern
I like this PBC on FS1 card. Eddie Ramirez seemed like a rising contender and potential star for the company, but he was upset in one by former titleholder Antonio DeMarco late last year. To bring him back against another former titleholder and good fighter in Argenis Mendez is a bold test, though the Dominican is being pulled up in weight here. That’s a good main event for the series, but I especially like the co-feature. Big time 25 year old Mongolian prospect and Olympic silver medalist Tugstsogt Nyambayar, King Tug for American tongues, is taking a huge step up here against former secondary titleholder and real contender Oscar Escandon. I am really intrigued by this matchup as it seems a little soon for King Tug. That makes it exciting for us fight fans.
Jerwin Ancajas (29-1, 20 KOs) v Jonas Sultan (14-3, 9 KOs), IBF super flyweight title & Khalid Yafai (23-0, 14 KOs) v David Carmona (21-5-5, 9 KOs), WBA super flyweight title – Fresno, California – Top Rank on ESPN – ESPN+, 9:30 PM Eastern (6:30 prelims)
Top Rank is putting on their own Super Fly card here with some assistance from Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing. There is some historical significance to the all-Filipino title fight as two men from the Philippines have not met one another for a world title since 1925. It is also a sneaky good fight as both Ancajas and Sultan are two of the most underrated men in the sport. Ancajas might just be a truly elite talent while Sultan’s pedestrian record hides the fact that he is coming off two consecutive significant wins over real good fighters to earn this shot. If it is a mismatch, it is because Ancajas is really that good. The co-main event is harder to read. Yafai is a good titleholder and Carmona has both performed better than most against Naoya Inoue and nearly upset Carlos Cuadras, but he also has lost three of four and was upset in two by a more high regional level fighter in Daniel Lozano. He’s used to be capable of making a fight out of a matchup like this, but is he still? Highly regarded Russian prospect Alexander Besputin (9-0, 7 KOs) highlights the prelim portion of the broadcast.
