Showtime, which is reportedly ending its boxing program at the end of the year, travels to Australia for the first title defense for WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu against Brian Mendoza.
Tsyzu was promoted as the full WBO champion when Jermell Charlo was stripped of the title when he chose the more lucrative purse to challenge Canelo Alvarez rather than Tsyzu, the mandatory challenger and whom Charlo had dropped out of a scheduled fight with a hand injury.
Tszyu has kept busy rather than wait for Charlo and has fought twice this year with a ninth-round knockout of former WBC champion Tony Harrison and a first-round blitz of Carlos Ocampo to his credit.
Mendoza appeared to be only a fringe contender until last November when he knocked former WBA and IBF champion Jeison Rosario in five rounds but Rosario has never been known for his chin and retired after the fight.
The Rosario win was enough to earn Mendoza a chance against unbeaten and popular Sebastian Fundora, who was the WBC's top contender and assuming Fundora continued to win, would have been a future mandatory for Jermell Charlo.
For six rounds of their April fight, Fundora dominated Mendoza and then in round seven, Mendoza countered a lazy uppercut from Fundora with a left hook and right hand that dropped Fundora for the count to give Mendoza the minor WBC title that Fundora held but more importantly the eventual chance against Charlo.
However, rather than wait for the chronically inactive Charlo's future plans, Mendoza decided to accept a world title fight against Tszyu, and while Mendoza is a deserved big underdog, his recent history has shown that Mendoza will have a puncher's chance.
ESPN and Top Rank will be in Rosenberg, Texas for what might be the most anonymous title unification match that I can ever remember as WBO middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly tackles newly crowned IBF boss Vincent Gualtieri.
Gualtieri had never fought anyone near title caliber but between the weak middleweight division, an unbeaten record, and a lack of interest by others, was installed into one of the spots for the IBF title vacated by Gennady Golovkin against Esquiva Falcao in Germany in July.
Falcao was better known and the favorite but Gualtieri used a combination of low blows, a knockdown, a called knockdown that shouldn't have been called, and borderline tactics to win the title via unanimous decision.
Alimkhanuly has been compared to Gennady Golovkin as similar to Golovkin's early HBO days as in far too dangerous to fight for the low money that top fighters would earn for fighting him.
Alimkhanuly didn't look dynamite in his first defense last November in a decision win over Denzel Bentley but looked much better in May when he stopped veteran Steven Butler in two rounds.
As far as unification fights go, this one is pretty uninspiring but give Top Rank credit for getting their fighter, who doesn't have many in-division options currently, an opportunity to become a unified champion to help build a brand and Gualtieri who has even fewer options than Alimkhanuly deserves a kudo as well for taking a bigger payday than he would receive at home and the chance to become a unified champion as well.
I would have bet money after seeing Gualtieri wiggle past Falcao that Gualtieri would follow a familiar path traveled by European champions of defenses against limited fighters in front of what I'll call "friendly" judges.
Give Gualtieri credit for not doing that and taking his best shot.
WBO Junior Middleweight Title. 12 Rds
Tim Tszyu vs Brian Mendoza
Ramon Malpica; Tszyu KO 9
TRS: Tszyu KO 6
Vince Samano: Mendoza KO 8
Unification IBF-WBO Middleweight Titles. 12 Rds
Vincent Gualtieri vs Janibek Alimkhanuly
R.L: Alimkhanuly KO 5
TRS: Alimkhanuly KO 8
V.S: Alimkhanuly Unanimous Decision
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