I always call the WBO that because I refused to even recognize it for years until finally knuckling under in 2017.
The biggest fight of the weekend is for free on ESPN from Lincoln, Nebraska as arguably the top fighter in the world defends his WBO welterweight title with Terence Crawford attempting to fend off Jose Benavidez
Crawford will be making the first defense of the title that he won from Jeff Horn via stoppage where he won every round from the Australian to lift the belt from him.
Benavidez, the brother of the recently stripped WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez (Cocaine is a terrible drug, folks) was a top-notch amateur but has basically talked his way into the fight after taking 18 months before returning for two fights earlier this year against average competition.
Benavidez possesses just one win against top competition in a 2014 decision win over Mauricio Herrera that I had Herrera winning by three points.
The media work for this one might wind up being far better than the bout, but Benavidez is plenty talented and if motivated could make this interesting.
In the co-feature, Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson faces his toughest test in last-minute replacement Viorel Simion of Romania.
Stevenson, who has not shown a lot of sting on his punches, faces a far better opponent in Simion than the unavailable Duarn Vue.
Simion has only lost twice and both to world champions in Lee Selby and Scott Quigg, so he's experienced at the top level but hasn't fought since April of 2017.
Stevenson will be fighting at junior lightweight in this fight rather than his usual featherweight to placate Simion's weight for taking the fight on short notice.
On DAZN, the World Boxing Super Series returns Saturday afternoon from Russia with the first fight of the cruiserweight tournament and another in the bantamweight version.
In the bantamweight version, Zolani Tete defends his WBO title against Mikhail Aloyan.
Tete will be making the third defense of his title against Aloyan, who we know next to nothing about as a professional he has had just four fights with all of them going the distance.
What we do know about Aloyan is that he has won two Olympic medals (a silver and a bronze) and even was able to keep one of them as the silver was stripped for failing a PED trip, so he comes with an amateur pedigree that is very strong.
This one comes with so many question marks that who really knows what's going to happen.
On the same card, the cruiserweight division starts their tournament with Andrew Tabiti against Ruslan Fayfer in another fight with a ton of questions, the first of which is- Why are these doing the cruiserweights AGAIN??
Going back to the cruisers isn't going to unify any titles with last year's win by Oleksandr Usyk giving him all four titles, once you get past the top three seeds (Mairis Breidis, who gave Usyk all he wanted, the exciting Yunier Dorticos and former IBF champ Krzysztof Glowacki), the next five seeds have a combined two wins against anyone once ranked in the top 20 ( I say this because Mateusz Maternak beat former unified cruiser champ Jean-Marc Mormeck in 2014 when Mormeck was 42!!) and have more question marks than Frank Gorshin's tailor.
Andrew Tabiti owns the one win over a top opponent of late with his decision over a fading, but not finished Steve Cunningham and is trained by Floyd Mayweather Sr.
Tabiti has strong hand speed and looks the part of a champion, but as with any prospect, he needs to be tested in a step up and again who knows if he will receive one from undefeated Ruslan Fayfer, who has fought nothing but Euro's that are unknown to anyone.
I love the World Boxing Super Series and I think most of these questionable cruiserweight selections will be weeded out after round one, so the semis should be much improved over the opening round, but there had to be other divisions that not only would have been more interesting and more competitive to match up.
Golden Boy Promotions will have one of their Facebook Live cards, that likely few will watch as it's at the same time as Terence Crawford-Jose Benavidez and I just cannot imagine very many fans passing that card up in favor of Angel Acosta's WBO junior flyweight title defense against Abraham Rodriguez.
Acosta has just one loss and it's a good one- a unanimous decision to the Japanese star Kosei Tanaka, who we mentioned a few weeks ago for his great title-winning performance over Sho Kimura.
Rodriguez is a heavy underdog with his two fights this season being a loss to a 6-2 fighter and a decision win over one with a record of 4-9.
In the boxing challenge, I lead Ramon Malpica 159-136.
WBO Welterweight Title. 12 Rds
Terence Crawford vs Jose Benavidez
R.L: Crawford Unanimous Decision
TRS: Crawford KO 10
Jr, Lightweights 10 Rds
Shakur Stevenson vs Viorel Simion
R.L: Stevenson KO 8
TRS: Stevenson Unanimous Decision
WBO Bantamweight Title/World Boxing Super Series Quarter-Final
Zolani Tete vs Mikhael Aloyan
R.L: Tete KO 5
TRS: Tete Unanimous Decision
World Boxing Super Series Cruiserweight Quarter-Final
Andrew Tabiti vs Ruslan Fayfer
R.L: Tabiti KO 7
TRS: Tabiti KO 4
WBO Junior Flyweight Title. 12 Rds
Angel Acosta vs Abraham Rodriguez
R.L: Acosta KO 10
TRS: Acosta KO 6
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