Don’t forget this fight is tonight.
This is one of those fights that somehow simultaneously deserves the lack of attention it is getting while also deserving so much more attention than it is getting. Let me explain. On one hand, neither newly minted WBO junior welterweight titleholder Maurice Hooker (24-0-3, 16 KOs) nor popular Oklahoma City challenger Alex Saucedo (28-0, 18 KOs) have done a whole lot to start to draw fans in on a national scale. Yet on the other hand, both men are talented, unbeaten young fighters both coming off their most notable performance meeting for a legitimate world title belt on ESPN in a bout that is likely to be a good one. It is hard to beat that.
Dallas born titleholder Maurice “Might Mo” Hooker has had quite the rollercoaster run since entering the public eye five fights ago. This seems contradictory to the fact that Hooker is unbeaten in that stretch while claiming a world title, but it is true. The now 29 year old received his breakthrough in support of an Andre Ward tune up on HBO by scoring a beautiful first round knockout over Ty Barnett. He parlayed this into a winnable looking step up against Darley Perez on the PPV undercard of Ward’s first fight with Sergey Kovalev and promptly shit the bed by losing the majority of the rounds. The judges saved Maurice Hooker, however, with a controversial draw decision verdict.
Mighty Mo returned three months later hidden down in Mexico against a twenty loss fighter before returning to Dallas and headlining a local show against unbeaten but untested Courtney Jackson. Both bouts turned back shut out wins. Somehow this low key stretch qualified Hooker to travel to the UK to take on Terry Flanagan for the vacant WBO junior welterweight title. The Manchester man had dropped his WBO lightweight title unbeaten to move up for the opportunity. I don’t want to oversell Terry Flanagan though. He was a weak titleholder who had a weak reign and was moving up in weight. Yet, Hooker had disappointed so dramatically in the Perez fight before vanishing that he was the clear underdog anyway. Because Maurice Hooker apparently only fights counter to expectations, however, he of course went on to put in an outstanding performance on his way to widely outboxing Flanagan to pick up the belt out of no where.
There was initially talk of Hooker joining the World Boxing Super Series, but ol’ Uncle Bob made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. He is instead defending tonight in Oklahoma City against local favorite son and all out brawler Alex Saucedo. Saucedo’s story is shorter than Hooker’s already pretty short one. The Mexican born, Oklahoma raised fighter came up on Top Rank undercard’s against low level opposition for some time before dropping to junior welterweight early last year. From there he still only took baby steps up, but with the Top Rank/ESPN deal people were able to see his preliminary fights for the first time.
It was clear Saucedo was an action oriented fighter first on those broadcasts. Nothing could have prepared us for what was to come though. In June Saucedo absolutely stole the show along with veteran Australian brawler Leonard Zappavigna on a Zurdo Ramirez undercard. Both the atmosphere in Oklahoma City and the fight itself were absolutely sensational. After a couple fun but relatively sane rounds, Alex dropped “Lenny Z” to the roar of the crowd in the third only to be fighting for his absolute life in a shocking reversal the very next round. The local favorite was badly hurt multiple times while simultaneously having the skin on his face completely swapped out for blood and more blood. Somehow not only did Saucedo survive, but he came out and rallied back to score a seventh round finish that should not be scored TKO7, but “TKOHOW?”. There hasn’t been a clearly better fight this year and there might not be another one. In a month or so when the conversation heats up, we won’t be able to talk Fight of the Year without at least considering Alex Saudedo and Lenny Zappavigna.
Those two stories come together to give us the fight that is both understandably not generating hype and probably a fight that should be generating hype. The only win near world level for either guy is Terry Flanagan. As I said Terry was an uninspiring champion, plus he remains entirely an unknown stateside. With almost empty resumes, why should anyone get excited about this one? We should look forward to it because it is a real matchup between two young, unbeaten fighters that will almost certainly be a good fight. If it isn’t, good on Mighty Mo Hooker for imposing an outside boxing game and sweeping the rounds, but that isn’t happening. Alex Saucedo is one of those guys that is so easy to hit that I don’t think any fighters at 140 are going to be able to resist repeatedly punching him in the face. When they hit him, however, the challenger is going to be eating them and winging back aggressively. That is who he is.
There is a real belt on the line. These guys are young and unbeaten. The fight will likely be excellent. There really should be more buzz for this one. Unfortunately, one of its limiting factors is the time slot. Initially this was supposed to be an ESPN+ broadcast. Top Rank and ESPN worked out a deal to air the main event live, however. That is great in theory, but the time slot available after the NBA slate tonight was midnight Eastern. That is not great. I don’t think many people on the east coast are going to stay up for this one, unfortunately.
Capping the ESPN+ prelim is another solid matchup of unbeatens between “The Mean Machine” Egidijus Kavaliauskas (20-0, 16 KOs) and Nicaraguan prospect Roberto Arriaza (17-0, 14 KOs). In fact, this one is a title eliminator for an opportunity to become the mandatory challenger for welterweight superstar and fellow Top Rank fighter Terence “Bud” Crawford. That probably won’t end well for the winner, but Kavaliauskas-Arriaza itself has me intrigued. Both men are unbeaten, come forward punchers who both have looked like future challengers in some fights and a little flat in others. They’ve also been operating in such different scenes that it is difficult for me to evaluate them in against one another. I’m confident it will be an active fight, but I have no idea how it’ll play out. One guy could blow the other out quickly, dominate over the duration, or it could be even all the way through. All outcomes are on the table. I rarely feel that way about matchups where I have seen both guys multiple times and I’m excited that I do.
Former titleholder Jonathan Guzman and fun brawler Cletus Seldin both compete on the ESPN+ broadcast as well. That portion of the show is listed for 6:30 PM Eastern. The ESPN televised main event will go on at midnight, for better or worse.
