The most important fights this weekend are both with ESPN from Philadelphia from Top Rank with Oleksandr Gvozdyk defending his WBC light heavyweight champion for the first time against Doudou Ngumbu.
Gvozdyk won his championship with his brutal eleventh round knockout of Adonis Stevenson that not only won Gvozdyk his title but cost Stevenson his career and nearly his life.
Ngumbu has lost to all the name opponents on his resume and shouldn't be a threat to defeat Gvozdyk, but the interesting portion to watch could be how Gvozdyk reacts if he has Ngumbu hurt and in trouble- did the severe injuries that Stevenson suffered taken away the instinct to finish an injured fighter from the new champion?
No disrespect intended, but similar traumatic events changed the style (and therefore career) of fighters such as Emile Griffith and Ray Mancini, so it would not be a surprise to see that happen with Gvozdyk.
It's a good decision to try to figure out if anything has changed with a matchup with an opponent that he is likely to have a chance to finish off and one that is likely to be defeated, even if the champion lets him off the hook.
The co-feature matches welterweights Egid Kavaliauskas against Ray Robinson (minus the sugar) with Kavaliauskas putting a mandatory summer title shot against WBO champion Terence Crawford in danger, should he lose.
Kavaliauskas shouldn't be in trouble against Robinson, who lasted seven rounds with Yordenis Ugas in his last fight, but should get some needed rounds of work.
Kavaliauskas really isn't ready for Crawford, but with the dearth of contenders on the Top Rank side in the division for Crawford and being the top WBO contender, I suppose that you take the fight that's offered to you.
The other two fights take place in Indio, California brought to you from Golden Boy Promotions with the saga of prospect and social media star Ryan Garcia in the top spot as Garcia battles Jose Lopez as Garcia attempts to place his ring work front and center for the time being and shove his out of the ring drama off to the side.
Garcia really struggled in his second to last fight against Carlos Morales and since then has notched a victory on the Canelo Alvarez-Rocky Fielding undercard and underloaded more drama than a soap opera from the 20-year-old prospect.
Lopez has lost two of his last four, so he's not expected to be a threat to Garcia, but he's good enough to put some pressure on Garcia and should the outside of the ring theatrics affect Garcia any, could be a problem.
The best fight of the weekend though is the co-feature as WBO light flyweight champion Angel Acosta defends against Ganigan Lopez.
This appears to be possibly one of those "Puerto Rico (Acosta) vs Mexico (Lopez) fights " that the boxing media and myself too, always love to rave about and usually makes great fights.
Acosta has lost just once to the talented Kosei Tanaka by decision and all 19 of his wins are by stoppage while Lopez was once the WBC champion in the division before losing it to another talented champion from Japan in Ken Shiro, dropping the title via majority decision before losing via second-round knockout in the rematch.
Acosta's the younger fighter by nine years, has 23 fewer fights and Lopez appears to be slowing down with the mileage odometer closer to the end than the beginning, so Acosta deserves to be favored, but how many times have we seen aging Latino fighters summon an amazing stand in a fight that you would suspect they are overmatched in?
The Top Rank card may have the bigger and more important card, but the Acosta-Lopez fight from Golden Boy would be my choice for the best fight of the weekend.
In the boxing challenge, I lead Ramon Malpica 66-60
WBC Light Heavyweight Title. 12 Rds
Oleksandr Gvozdyk vs Doudou Ngumbu
R.L: Gvozdyk KO 9
TRS: Gvozdyk KO 8
Welterweights. 12 Rds
Egid Kavaliauskas vs Ray Robinson
R.L: Kavaliauskas KO 5
TRS:Kavaliauskas KO 7
Lightweights. 10 Rds
Ryan Garcia vs Jose Lopez
R.L: Garcia KO 6
TRS; Garcia KO 4
WBO Light Flyweight Title. 12 Rds
Angel Acosta vs Ganigan Lopez
R.L: Acosta Unanimous Decision
TRS: Acosta KO 6
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