The co-feature pits Yoelvis Gomez against PBC veteran Jorge Cota in a ten rounder at junior middleweight.
The Cuban bomber, Gomez, has stopped all five of his opponents and has fought only seven rounds in his brief career but I have been so impressed by his wins over lesser competition with Gomez that I picked him as my breakout fighter of the year for 2022.
Gomez crushed journeyman Clay Collard in just one round and while Collard is just a limited veteran, it was how easily Gomez disposed of him that made the win so impressive.
Cota is often used by PBC as a gatekeeper for young fighters (losses to Sebastian Fundora) and Jeison Rosario) and as a safe opponent for their better fighters to stay busy against when such a fight is needed as in his losses to Jermell Charlo (in-between his loss and win against Tony Harrison) and Erickson Lubin.
Cota is a much better opponent than Gomez has faced thus far but Cota was stopped in four or fewer rounds in three of his four losses and if Gomez is as good as I think he could be, he'll take Cota out in less than six.
At the same time as the Showtime card, Top Rank and ESPN will televise two top fighters in their divisions, one fighting for yet another silly "interim" "title" and a former champion returning to the ring after a lopsided drubbing that cost him his championship.
In the main event, the WBO has a mess with their middleweight title when Demetrius Andrade didn't want to face his mandatory contender, Janibek Alimkhanuly, for low money and a fighter that is thought to be a coming star.
Andrade then moved to 168 for an interim title fight of his own against England's Zack Parker before suffering a training injury to postpone the fight.
In the interim (get it?), the WBO announced that since Canelo Alvarez's loss to Dmitry Bivol that Alvarez had decided that his next few fights would be in the division, and an interim title at super-middleweight wasn't needed but Andrade would be given time to either agree to fight Alimkhanuly or vacate his title at 160, which then created an interim title at 160 for Alimkhanuly to fight England's Danny Dignum to battle for.
(Takes a deep breath).
Alimkhanuly was very impressive in 2021 in mowing down two former WBA minor belt holders (Hassan N'Dam and Rob Brant) both in eight rounds and has been compared by some to Gennady Golovkin.
The undefeated Dignum from the UK has a draw against his best opponent in Andrey Sirotkin and doesn't have an abundance of power, so it appears that Dignum will have to far exceed expectations to pull what would be a huge upset off against Alimkhanuly.
The co-feature will offer the return of former WBO junior lightweight champion Jamel Herring in a fairly tough test in his lightweight comeback fight against Jamaine Ortiz.
Herring was dominated last October in losing his championship to Shakur Stevenson as Stevenson stopped Herring in ten rounds but Stevenson is going to control many champions in that matter before his career is over, so such a loss is certainly no shame but at 36, it certainly isn't unfair to wonder how much Herring has remaining in his gas tank and he will be tested by the 15-0-1 Ortiz.
Ortiz battled back from two knockdowns against then-undefeated Joseph Adorno to salvage a draw before defeating talented Nahir Albright by unanimous decision in February, so this isn't a soft touch for Herring as he begins to campaign at lightweight.
The day begins from London with Matchroom/DAZN as their main event is a WBA light heavyweight eliminator between countrymen Joshua Butasi and Craig Richards.
I don't see the need for the WBA to hold another eliminator in the division considering that they held one last week when Gilberto Ramirez finished Dominic Boesel in four rounds but this fight is a solid one on its own merits.
The undefeated Buatsi will face his toughest foe in Richards, who gave Dmitry Bivol a surprisingly tough fight last year as an unheralded opponent.
Richards lost a unanimous decision but on two of the cards, lost by only one and two points to Bivol.
Boxing Challenge
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