We have our first truly busy boxing weekend in some time coming up. Friday brings two cards of note, one of which is headlined by a world title bout in the early morning hours Eastern time. Saturday features a UK show headlined by a nice prospect set up, a PBC on FOX show, and light heavyweight title fight on HBO that I’m really looking forward to. This is going to be a lot to cover.
Friday, August 3rd
Billy Dib (43-4, 24 KOs) v Tevin Farmer (25-4-1, 5 KOs), vacant IBF junior lightweight title – Sydney, Australia – ESPN+, 6:15 AM Eastern
Multiple reports have indicated the ESPN+ will air this vacant IBF title fight. They haven’t put an official time up for it yet, but their press release says 6:15 AM so I am going with that. Note that that is AM, as in in the morning, due to the fight being in Australia. Don’t worry too much about getting up for it though. Farmer’s a talented fighter and will be a solid titleholder when this is done, but he isn’t the kind of guy who goes and makes an exciting fight. He needs it to come to him. BIlly Dib is a dreadfully boring fighter in all fights. I don’t expect this one to entertain much. Prospects Brock Jarvis and Tim Tszyu, son of Kostya Tszyu, also compete on this card and it looks like they are likely to make the ESPN+ broadcast too.
Ladarius Miller (16-1, 5 KOs) v Dennis Galarza (16-3, 9 KOs), lightweights & Cesar Miguel Barrionuevo (34-3-2, 24 KOs) v Abel Ramos (20-3-2, 15 KOs), welterweights & Juan Heraldez (13-0, 8 KOs) v Kevin Watts (12-2, 5 KOs), junior welterweights – Las Vegas, Nevada – PBC on BounceTV, 9 PM Eastern
PBC gets some of their midtier guys work on BounceTV. This is a fine card of boxing, albeit one without a lot of immediate term world level implications. Still, all these guys can fight and are well matched. PBC could use many more cards like this to keep their large and inactive roster going. At least they’ve finally stopped wasting better guys like Robert Easter Jr on these lightly viewed, low budget broadcasts.
Saturday, August 4th
Joe Cordina (7-0, 6 KOs) v Sean Dodd (15-3-1, 3 KOs), lightweights & Daniyar Yeleussinov (2-0, 1 KO) v Gabor Gorbics (24-11, 14 KOs), welterweights – Cardiff, Wales – Sky Action (UK), 3:30 PM Eastern
This is a nice bit of matchmaking by Matchroom. Joe Cordina is an Olympic prospect with some real world level potential making his first step up to British level against well marked regional contender Sean Dodd. We’ll get a nice appraisal of Cordina after this fight. If he’s going to be an elite guy, he should handle Dodd. Super prospect Daniyar Yeleussinov is also in action. If you don’t know the name yet, he’s a Kazakh two time Olympian including wining 2016 gold without losing a round in the tournament.
Devon Alexander (27-4-1, 14 KOs) v Andre Berto (31-5, 24 KOs), welterweights & Peter Quillin (33-1-1, 23 KOs) v J’Leon Love (24-1-1, 13 KOs), super middleweights & Sergey Lipinets (13-1, 10 KOs) v Erick Bone (20-5, 8 KOs), welterweights – Uniondale, New York – PBC on FOX, 7:30 PM Eastern (Prelims on FS2 at 5:30)
I’ve made fun of this card a lot since it was rumored originally, but to be honest I am kind of looking forward to it. Sure, Alexander v Berto probably would have peaked as an interesting fight close to a decade ago now, but it still is likely to be an entertaining bout. Probably moreso now even as Devon was involved in stinkers sometimes back then. Quillin and Love meet for the right to cling to relevancy longer in the co-main event. This is a really, really important fight in both men’s careers. In the opener, recent junior welterweight titleholder Segey Lipinets moves up to the full welterweight limit. This isn’t going to be a bad watch. In addition, Fox Sports 2 is airing preliminary bouts starting at 5:30. Marcus Browne is headlining that portion of the show and I suspect Luis Collazo is his co-feature. Contender Richard Commeny and prospects in Brandon Figueroa and Gary Russell Jr’s two younger brothers are also in action and could make TV. Gary Antuanne Russell is a prospect I am extremely high on and hope to see.
Sergey Kovalev (32-2-1, 28 KOs) v Eleider Alvarez (23-0, 11 KOs), WBO light heavyweight title & Dmitry Bivol (13-0, 11 KOs) v Isaac Chilemba (25-5-2, 10 KOs), WBA light heavyweight title – Atlantic City, New Jersey – HBO, 10 PM Eastern
An excellent HBO light heavyweight title doubleheader both caps and headlines the weekend. Kovalev and Alvarez is an excellent fight in which either man can win. Eleider is a very talented Colombian while I do believe Sergey is likely on the downside of his career at 35. He showed some holes against Igor Milkhalkin that a fighter of Alvarez’s level could certainly exploit. Isaac Chilemba is a super tricky, underrated title contender in the co-feature. He’s probably a little past his best though. Bivol is a super talented guy and should still roll here. Hopefully this sets up Bivol, assuming he wins as expected, versus the winner. Now that would be a special matchup.
