Whew!
Honestly, I've missed boxing the most during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Both the Cavaliers and Devils were lousy and once they started canceling games to ruin my trips for the season, baseball continued to really piss me off with their actions towards the minors and now Rob Manfred's shoving a very flawed concept down the throats of the fans- I found I was living OK without it.
But boxing isn't seasonal, for me, it's been a consistent part of my everyday life and I've found that I missed it more than the rest.
Anyway, Bob Arum and Top Rank are the first to return and the ESPN platform is hungry to show something live, so Top Rank is going to have an aggressive return with cards on Tuesday's and Thursday's for each of the next five weeks.
Each of the shows will be from Las Vegas, except for a June 27th Saturday card from Mexico City.
They won't be top fights, but you will see top fighters as they attempt to crack the lesions of inactivity and in the final week, Jamel Herring will be defending his WBO junior lightweight title.
Some of the fights wouldn't normally be of the caliber for the boxing challenge, but with the dearth of sports action, I'm going to include them to have things to write about.
We start with Tuesday's main event with WBO featherweight champion Shakur Stevenson in a non-title event at junior lightweight against Felix Carabello.
The former Olympic silver medalist looked tremendous in his last fight against bitter rival Joet Gonzalez to win the vacant title and it was Stevenson, who was the last fighter to be affected by Covid-19 as his first title defense against Miguel Marriaga in New York was literally hours away before the card was canceled.
Stevenson will be fighting for the huge exposure that is expected and he should look very good against Caraballo, who appears to be overmatched and hasn't fought against a world-class level opponent, let alone one with the ability of Stevenson.
Thursday's card will feature Jessie Magdaleno in a junior lightweight fight against Yenifel Vincente.
Magdaleno, who lost his WBO junior featherweight title in April 2018 to Issac Dogboe by eleventh round knockout, has looked better in his two comeback fights at featherweight in wins over Rico Ramos and Rafael Rivera.
Vincente is a tough veteran that is a cut below Magdaleno, but has never been stopped in his four defeats and should give Magdaleno some steady work.
The co-feature pits Adam Lopez facing Luis Coria in a featherweight battle.
Lopez was a last-minute replacement against undefeated and former WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez in November and gave the bigger Valdez all he wanted in dropping Valdez in the second round and leading on my card after six rounds before Valdez stopped Lopez in the seventh in what I thought was a premature ending much to the relief of Valdez and Top Rank, who had to be sweating a bit at the thought of their planned Valdez challenge of WBC junior lightweight champion Miguel Berchelt flying out the window.
Lopez drops back to featherweight for this one against Coria, who despite a 12-2 record, has faced two fighters with winning records and is 1-1 against them with the loss against a 10-9 fighter.
Still, Coria's November 2018 to the best fighter on his resume' 17-3 Thomas Valdez was a close split decision loss, so he may give Lopez a tussle.
We return to the boxing challenge from hiatus with a lead over Ramon Malpica 45-40.
Junior Lightweights. 10 Rds
Shakur Stevenson vs Felix Caraballo
R.L: Stevenson Unanimous Decision
TRS: Stevenson KO 6
Junior Lightweights. 10 Rds
Jessie Magdaleno vs Yenifel Vincente
Both: Magdaleno Unanimous Decision
Featherweights. 10 Rds
Adam Lopez vs Luis Coria
Both: Lopez Unanimous Decision
No comments:
Post a Comment