The long-awaited debut on Amazon Prime for PBC takes place Saturday night and while I don't think the card is PPV-worthy, I do think it's a very solid card.
In the main event, WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu will attempt to add the WBC title to his collection against Sebastian Fundora for that organization's vacant title.
All four of the sanctioning bodies have moved on from Jermell Charlo, so the WBC has decided to place their full title on the line since they have the chance to hop on the Tim Tszyu train earlier than they might have expected.
The fight was originally scheduled to be a non-title fight between Tszyu and former welterweight champion Keith Thurman as the WBO deemed Thurman unworthy of fighting for their title since "No Time" is chronically inactive in the ring, although not with his tongue, and had never fought at junior middleweight.
So when Thurman predictably pulled out of the fight, PBC inserted Fundora, who hasn't fought since being knocked out by Brian Mendoza last year, in his place and the WBC sanctioned it for their vacant title, ignoring the fact that Fundora and Serhii Bohachuk were fighting for that title already on the card.
Bohachuk was moved down the card to fight Brian Mendoza for the "interim" title, which questions why an interim title is needed when the actual title is decided on the same card but hey it's the WBC and it's business as always.
Tszyu-Fundora is a better fight than Tszyu-Thurman would have been and although Serhii Bohachuk was screwed over a bit, the card is better for the switch, and two titles are unified as well.
The WBA junior welterweight title is at stake in the co-feature as champion Rolando Romero defends for the first time since his controversial title win over Ismael Barroso was handed to him by referee Tony Weeks in a stoppage so awful that I struggle to remember a worse ending against Isaac Cruz.
Barroso was promised a shot at Romero after Barroso won the interim title when Romero was injured but Isaac Cruz is a bigger name, so of course Barroso is shoved aside.
Cruz has won three straight since his close loss to Gervonta Davis but he didn't look strong in his only fight of 2023, a split decision over Giovanni Cabrera.
This could be a wild fight with Romero's swipes and Cruz's aggressiveness but I could also see this ending in a lopsided affair for Cruz.
Either way, Romero will have to show more than he has in his career thus far for him to win this one in my opinion.
The middleweight division has become so weak that the WBA champion (and I say that loosely) Erislandy Lara is forty years old, hasn't fought in twenty-two months, hasn't faced a world-class opponent since 2019 (a draw against Brian Castano), hasn't beaten anyone of note since a 2017 decision over Terrell Gausha, and has never defeated a top ten middleweight.
For all of that, Lara is the FAVORITE against Australian challenger Michael Zerafa, who owns two wins of note, knocking out former WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn in nine rounds before losing the rematch, and a one-round knockout of Anthony Mundine, a former junior middleweight contender, who was almost forty-six at the time!
The less said about this as a "championship" fight the better.
The opener of the PPV will see Julio Cesar Martinez defend his WBC flyweight title against Angel Cordova.
Martinez has defended his title twice since losing to Roman Gonzalez at junior bantamweight but has been caught in limbo by several cancellations of a planned mandatory defense against McWilliams Arroyo.
The unbeaten Cordova enters the fight after his best win as a pro, a close decision win over former WBO light flyweight champion Angel Acosta last April.
Amazon is offering two fights to Prime members for free with the aforementioned minor junior middleweight title between Serhii Bohachuk and Brian Mendoza among them.
The title may be questionable but this fight isn't as Bohachuk's 23-1 record reads with all of his wins by knockout and his only loss is by knockout as well, an eighth-round KO to Brandon Adams.
Mendoza always comes to fight as shown by his knockout wins over former champion Jeison Rosario and his stunning come-from-behind knockout of Sebastian Fundora as well as his last fight, giving a very game effort in losing to Tim Tsyzu by unanimous decision.
This should be an action-packed fight for sure.
The other free fight is promising teenage middleweight Elijah Garcia against veteran Kyrone Davis.
Garcia was very impressive in stopping Armando Resendiz in eight rounds on the Canelo Alvarez-Jermell Charlo undercard last fall, while Davis is a veteran that most remember from taking a pounding for seven rounds from David Benavidez in 2021.
At the same time, DAZN and Golden Boy are in Inglewood, California with a world title main event as the oft-invisible WBA cruiserweight champion Arsen Goulamirian makes his American debut against former WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez.
Ramirez dominated Joe Smith in his cruiserweight debut in his return from his only career loss to Dmitry Bivol to qualify for this chance.
Goulamirian won his title in March 2018 and has defended his title four times, all in France and all against lesser contenders, so when you consider an unbeaten champion that has held his title for six years and yet he is an extremely unknown quantity.
In the co-feature, welterweight contender Alexis Rocha attempts to rebound from a devastating defeat against Fredrick Lawson.
Rocha took a severe beating from Giovanni Santillan last October and was stopped in six, losing his eventual mandatory shot at the WBO welterweight title either with Terence Crawford or in a fight for the vacant title if Crawford would give the title up.
Lawson was stopped in one round in his last outing against Vergil Ortiz in what was another terribly early stoppage by referee Tony Weeks in what will hopefully be the last time that Weeks ends a fight early.
Lawson is handpicked for Rocha's return to be successful, so if Rocha shows some struggles against Lawson, the Santillan fight may have caused damage to Rocha so he may not return to his previous level.
Peacock takes over on Sunday with a Boxxer-promoted battle of two unbeaten British heavyweights for the British and Commonwealth titles that will boost the victor up the ratings with Fabio Wardley fighting Fraser Clarke.
Wardley has fought more often (seventeen to eight), Clarke has the better victories with wins over veteran trial horses Mariusz Wach and Bogdan Dinu, both have wins over fellow Brit Nathan Gorman (the only two losses of Gorman's career), and Clarke was the better amateur, winning a bronze medal in the 2020 Olympics.
This seems to be a fifty-fifty fight because we don't know how either man will take a punch or how good either really is, so I'm looking forward to this one.
Boxing Challenge
TRS: Tsyzu KO 9
TRS: Cruz Unanimous Decision
V.S: Romero Unanimous Decision
TRS: Lara KO 8
V.S: Zerafa Split Decision
TRS: Martinez Split Decision
V.S: Cordova Unanimous Decision
V.S: Mendoza Unanimous Decision
TRS:
V.S:
V.S: Ramirez Split Decision
TRS: Rocha KO 6
V.S: Lawson Unanimous Decision
TRS: Wardley KO 5
V.S: Clarke KO 4
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