Friday, April 20, 2018

Boxing Challenge

The boxing weekend adds six fights to the boxing challenge with three from across the pond and all of those available on live stream if you have the right streams.

The best fight of the weekend is live Saturday afternoon from Belfast, Northern Ireland as two former champions in multiple divisions face off as Carl Frampton battles Nonito Donaire in what should be an action fight.
The winner will be the mandatory contender for WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez and I expect that to be Frampton, who is not only the younger and fresher fighter of the two, he is also the one with the more impressive performances at 126 pounds.
The co-feature will pit talented WBO bantamweight champ Zolani Tete against former flyweight and junior bantamweight champ Omar Narvaez.
These fights are available on Showtime's Facebook and YouTube pages.

Amir Khan returns to action after a long layoff in Liverpool England against Canadian journeyman Phil LoGreco.
This is a squash match, but an understandable one considering Khan hasn't fought since his devastating knockout loss almost two years to Canelo Alvarez.
This fight is available on the new ESPN+ App.

Showtime televises a three-bout card of interesting, yet not necessarily evenly matched fights.
The main event has the most difficult fight to pick as the mercurial Adrien Broner battles Jessie Vargas in a welterweight fight.
Broner tends to disappoint constantly, but due to his outrageous behavior continues to receive opportunity after opportunity on strong platforms.
I would hate to see just how much we would see of Broner if he actually won one of these fights in an impressive manner.
Vargas did knock out current junior middleweight champion Sadam Ali a few years back and almost did the same to Timothy Bradley, but has fought just once in the last 18 months against journeyman Aaron Herrera.
I can see this going either way in a decent fight to watch and I can see it being dull as well with the inconsistent careers of both fighters.
I don't think it is up to snuff as a Showtime level main event, but they can't all be winners, can they?

Jermall Charlo continues his rise up the middleweight ladder and among some observers pound for pound lists against yet another overmatched opponent in the co-feature for another one of those wonderful interim titles when the champion is still active-AKA cash grab for a sanctioning fee.
At least, Hugo Centeno has two functional legs unlike Charlo's other middleweight opponent in Jorge Heiland, but Centeno like Heiland lacks a win against a top 15 level fighter and seems to be a level or two below Charlo.
Centeno is coming off an entertaining third-round knockout of talented Immanuel Aleem, but that is Centeno's best win and Aleem still had quite a way to go before reaching even fringe contender status.
Charlo may turn out to be what some think that he is or could be, but it's going to more than a close decision over Austin Trout and an impressive KO of Julian Williams to prove it to me and he is not going to prove anything to me with wins over the likes of Jorge Heiland and Hugo Centeno.

The curtain-jerker has former IBF junior lightweight champ Gervonta Davis against Jesus Cuellar.
Davis lost his title on the scales before his last fight an unimpressive stoppage of unknown Francisco Fonseca, while Cuellar was on a strong run at featherweight before a split decision loss to Abner Mares in December of 2016.
The fight for a minor title might be entertaining, but I think the bigger and stronger Davis should physically wear down the naturally smaller Cuellar.

I lead Ramon Malpica in the boxing challenge 61-48..

Featherweights. 12 Rds
Carl Frampton vs Nonito Donaire
Both: Frampton Unanimous Decision

WBO Bantamweight Title 12 Rds
Zolani Tete vs Omar Narvaez
R.L: Tete Unanimous Decision
TRS: Tete KO 8

Welterweights 12 Rds
Amir Khan vs Phil LoGreco
R.L: Khan Unanimous Decision
TRS: Khan KO 7

Welterweights. 12 Rds
Adrien Broner vs Jessie Vargas
R.L: Vargas Unanimous Decision
TRS: Broner Unanimous Decision

Middleweights.12 Rds
Jermall Charlo vs Hugo Centeno
R.L: Charlo KO 7
TRS; Charlo KO 5

Junior Lightweights 12 Rds
Gervonta Davis vs Jesus Cuellar
R.L: Davis KO 8
TRS: Davis KO 10


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