The Boxing Challenge is back for the weekend with four bouts on DAZN, two of those four from the World Boxing Super Series and one from Las Vegas on ESPN+.
Two of those bouts will be part of the re-shuffling of the middleweight division.
ESPN+ brings over Japan's Ryota Murata and his minor title to defend against Minnesota's Rob Brant.
A Murata victory might mean a fight with Gennady Golovkin next in Japan, while Brant lost two fights ago in the super middleweight bracket of the World Boxing Super Series to Jurgen Braehmer before dropping back to 160 with a win over 12-11 Colby Courter.
Considering Brant's loss to Braehmer was his only fight against a top 20 level fighter and only a win over Louis Rose gives him a win over a top 100 fighter, it's not unfair to wonder why Brant is even in this fight.
Murata's resume isn't exactly one that is bulky with only a win (should have been two wins) over Hassan N'Dam against anyone of world-class, so this isn't as lopsided as you would think to enter the bout.
DAZN offers two cards with four challenge bouts on Saturday.
In Boston, Demetrius Andrade will face Walter Kautondokwa of Ghana for the vacant WBO middleweight title.
Why the vacant title?
Billy Joe Saunders was stripped of the title recently for failing a PED test and then stripping us of an interesting Saunders-Andrade bout.
Considering Kautondokwa has fought zero notable opponents and the talented if inactive Andrade should be considered an almost sure thing -if such a thing can be considered such in boxing.
The other challenge fight on the card has Tevin Farmer making his first defense of his IBF junior lightweight title against James Tennyson from Britain.
The slick Farmer is going to give anyone trouble style-wise and Tennyson is a fighter that I've never seen fight and is on a six-fight winning streak, but he has arguably the worst loss that I have ever seen for someone challenging for a title.
Tennyson was stopped in two by then 2-64-5 Pavel Senkovs in 2013 and it's going to take a lot of research to find a title contender with a loss that awful!!!
The card also features an IBF eliminator between Toka Kahn-Clary and Kid Galahad along with the return of Scott Quigg in an eight-round staying busy bout.
DAZN also will broadcast two more tournament entries from the bantamweight and cruiserweight divisions from the not exactly known for being a boxing hot spot in Orlando Florida.
The cruiserweight bout features power punching and second seed Yunier Dorticos matches up with Mateusz Masternak.
Dorticos is returning off his exciting loss to Murat Gassiev in what might be the best fight that the WBSS has made yet should be a huge favorite over Masternak.
The winner will face Andrew Tabiti in the semi-finals in a bout that I hope is more entertaining than Tabiti's quarter-final stinker over Ruslan Fayfer.
The bantamweight fight has much more potential as talented IBF champion Emmanuel Rodriguez faces his mandatory contender Jason Moloney of Australia.
Both fighters are undefeated with one name on their resume'- Rodriguez with Paul Butler from his title win and Moloney with a win over former junior bantamweight champ Kohei Kono.
This looks like an interesting fight, but I was really impressed by Rodriguez in his win over Butler.
The winner faces the "Monster" Naoya Inoue in the semi-finals.
In the boxing challenge, I lead Ramon Malpica 167-143
Middleweights. 12 Rds
Ryota Murata vs Rob Brant
R.L: Murata KO 7
TRS: Murata Unanimous Decision
Vacant WBO Middleweight Title. 12 Rds
Demetrius Andrade vs Walter Kautondokwa
R.L: Andrade KO 5
TRS: Andrade Unanimous Decision
IBF Jr. Lightweight Title. 12 Rds
Tevin Farmer vs James Tennyson
Both: Farmer Unanimous Decision
IBF Bantamweight Title/ World Boxing Super Series Quarter-Final. 12 Rds
Emmanuel Rodriguez vs Jason Moloney
Both: Rodriguez Unanimous Decision
Cruiserweights. 12 Rds
Yunier Dorticos vs Mateusz Masternak
R.L: Dorticos KO 3
TRS: Dorticos KO 5
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