The week in fights features a super sized, five fight PBC on FS1 show Friday night as the appetizer before Top Rank on ESPN brings the main course on Saturday night in the form of a world title doubleheader.
Friday, August 24th
Jamal James (23-1, 10 KOs) v Mahonry Montes (35-7-1, 24 KOs), welterweights & Willie Monroe Jr (22-3, 6 KOs) v Immanuwel Aleem (18-1-1, 11 KOs), middleweights & Jamontay Clark (13-0, 7 KOs) v Jeison Rosario (15-1-1, 11 KOs), junior middleweights & Eimantas Stanionis (6-0, 5 KOs) v Levan Ghvamichava (18-3-1, 13 KOs), welterweights & Efe Ajagba (5-0, 5 KOs) v Curtis Harper (13-5, 5 KOs), heavyweights – Minneapolis, Minnesota – PBC on FS1, 8 PM Eastern
PBC returns to FS1 Friday night with this five fight, three hour behemoth of a card. The main event is one of the least interesting fights on it though as Jamal James continues his rise back up as a contender, only he’s taking a step down from his last few fights. Willie Monroe and Immanuwel Aleem is a good old fashioned relevancy eliminator at middleweight, so I like that As is Jamontay Clark and Jeison Rosario one division up, but on a lower level. Jamontay Clark should have a loss on his record too, but he got a poor decision against Ivan Golub. My favorite fight on the card is Olympic gold medalist Eimantas Stanionis taking a huge leap up in class against series staple and fringe contender Levan Ghvamichava. “The White Wolf” isn’t a welterweight title contender, but he’s a far cry from the club fighters and journeymen Stanionis has been fighting. He’s a hell of seventh pro fight for anyone. Explosive and high ceiling Nigerian heavyweight prospect Efe Ajagba opens the show as well.
Saturday, August 25th
Ray Beltran (35-7-1, 21 KOs) v Jose Pedraza (24-1, 12 KOs), WBO lightweight title & Isaac Dogboe (19-0, 13 KOs) v Hidenori Otake (31-2-3, 14 KOs), WBO super bantamweight title – Glendale, Arizona – Top Rank on ESPN, 10:30 PM Eastern
Top Rank on ESPN main events the weekend with a world title doubleheader. Ray Beltran may be the black sheep titleholder of the division right now, but he’s well matched here with former junior lightweight titlist Jose Pedraza both in terms of competitiveness and likely quality of action. This should be a good fight. I will almost certainly be the Puerto Rican’s best shot at becoming an unlikely two division titleholder too so I really expect him to bring it here. The winner likely gets a career high payday against pound for pound king Vasyl Lomachenko in December as well. There is a lot on the line for both men even by the normal high stakes standard of a title fight. Isaac Dogboe’s defense against Japanese fringe contender Hidenori Otake is likely a mismatch, but such is the case for first defenses for young fighters most of the time these days. At least Dogboe is never boring. ESPN+ prelim action begins three hours earlier at 7:30 and features the likes of Olympic gold medalist Robson Conceciao, Felix Verdejo conqueror Antonio Lozada Jr, Arnold Barboza fresh off his victory over Mike Reed, and more.
