From Las Vegas, PBC brings the biggest fight of the week as Deontay Wilder defends his WBC heavyweight title in a rematch against Luis Ortiz, of a fight that saw Ortiz badly hurt Wilder and was within seconds of lifting Wilder's crown before Wilder survived and stopped Ortiz in the tenth round.
Their first fight might have been the final stand for Ortiz, who is listed at forty but could be closer to fifty, and he has looked less than sharp in his wins against lesser competition, so you have to favor Wilder with the first fight win and the best one-punch power in the game.
However, Ortiz isn't overmatched against the often-wild and wide open Wilder and should Wilder decide that he wants an early KO, Ortiz is more than capable of testing the still-questioned chin of Wilder.
Everything in this points to Wilder, but if Ortiz has anything left at all, he is more than capable of jeopardizing Wilder's rematch with Tyson Fury.
The undercard is a strong one from PBC with two world title fights and a match between two of the top five bantamweights in the world.
The co-feature matches Leo Santa Cruz fighting for the vacant WBA junior lightweight title in yet another "title" essentially handed to the Haymon-backed Santa Cruz, this time against Miguel Flores.
Santa Cruz, who has beaten one top fighter that was in their prime (Carl Frampton, who split two fights against Santa Cruz) and after you add Santa Cruz's two wins over Abner Mares, who was still a good fighter, but past his best days when he was matched against Santa Cruz you have reached the end of his world-class opponents.
The fact that this is for the WBA title is a joke as Flores is 2-2 since February 2017 with stoppage losses to Dat Nguyen and Chris Avalos (neither of whom are even in the top 25) with the wins over one fighter with an 11-7 record and the other with a record of 21-14.
I'll never understand how and why Leo Santa Cruz has gotten so many breaks in boxing and a free pass essentially from many of the boxing press, but he's clearly comfortable being protected by the blanket provided by Mr. Al Haymon.
The other two fights on the pay per view carry the undercard, which they better considering another lousy Leo Santa Cruz fight, and have interesting fights that have a favorite, yet in both the underdog has a chance of winning.
Brandon Figueroa defends his minor junior featherweight title against former WBC champion Julio Ceja.
Figueroa punches well and would match pretty well against any of the three champions (Daniel Roman holds the WBA and IBF titles) in the division
Ceja has lost two in a row but is coming off a somewhat controversial loss to Guillermo Rigondeaux in the eighth round when leading on my scorecard, Ceja was dropped, rose and referee Russell Mora stopped the fight with one second remaining in the round.
Should Ceja enter this one with the same type of performance, he'll be the first serious test of Figueroa's career.
The opener could be the fight that steals the show as two former bantamweight champions faceoff in a WBC eliminator to become the mandatory challenger for their champion Nordine Oubaali.
Luis Nery is rated by some to be in the top ten pound for pound in the boxing and never lost his WBC title in the ring after twice defeating long-time champion Shinsuke Yamanaka to win that title.
The undefeated Nery was stripped for failing a PED test (same drug as Canelo Alvarez) and has been battling back from that ever since.
Nery's opponent is former IBF champion, Emmanuel Rodriguez, who lost his first fight in May when he was knocked out in two rounds by Naoya Inoue in the semi-finals of the WBSS after fighting well for the first round.
I lean towards Nery, but Rodriguez could give Nery all that he wants.
When you consider that Naoya Inoue has now signed with Top Rank and with Nery part of the PBC,
Inoue-Nery might be the next great fight that boxing fans miss out on with the boxing cold war in the dead of winter.
DAZN streams the other three fights during Saturday from different times and locations.
Saturday afternoon's fight will be live from Liverpool England as WBA super-middleweight champion Callum Smith defends his title against mandatory contender John Ryder in an all-British title fight.
Smith, who is regarded as the best in the 168-pound division, has been rumored as a possible opponent for Canelo Alvarez and is a prohibitive favorite against Ryder, who lost his biggest fight to Rocky Fielding, who failed so miserably last year against Alvarez.
Later in the evening, Golden Boy takes over with two of the lower WBA titles from Indio, California.
Andrew Cancio, who should be the "real" WBA champion that traces back to the ridiculous decision to take the real title away from Alberto Machado (who Cancio dethroned) to give to Gervonta Davis, who despite being the superior fighter, shouldn't have been handed the title. faces Rene Alvarado in a rematch of their 2015 fight.
Cancio stopped Alvarado in eight rounds then and Cancio has improved since then, so he is the clear favorite.
The other minor title fight takes place in the featherweight division as Xu Can defends against Manny Robles.
Can pulled a surprise with his unanimous decision over Jesus Rojas in January and then defeated Shun Kubo by a sixth-round stoppage in his home country of China in May.
The undefeated Robles takes a step up in competition in this one but impressed me when I watched his split decision win over Rigoberto Hermosillo in May.
In the boxing challenge, I lead Ramon Malpica 271-241
WBC Heavyweight Title.12 Rds
Deontay Wilder vs Luis Ortiz
R.L: Ortiz KO 7
TRS: Wilder KO 8
Vacant WBA Junior Lightweight Title.12 Rds
Leo Santa Cruz vs Miguel Flores
Both: Santa Cruz Unanimous Decision
Junior Featherweights,12 Rds
Brandon Figueroa vs Julio Ceja
R.L: Figueroa Unanimous Decision
TRS: Figueroa KO 10
Featherweights 12 Rds
Luis Nery vs Emmanuel Rodriguez
R.L: Nery KO 9
TRS: Nery KO 7
WBA Super Middleweight Title. 12 Rds
Callum Smith vs John Ryder
R.L: Smith KO 8
TRS: Smith KO 5
Junior Lightweights 12 Rds
Andrew Cancio vs Rene Alvarado
R.L: Cancio Unanimous Decision
TRS: Cancio KO 8
Featherweights 12 Rds
Xu Can vs Manny Robles
Both: Can Unanimous Decision
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