The world title defense is from San Diego, as Top Rank and ESPN near the end of their agreement, with Emanuel Navarrete defending his WBO junior lightweight title against Charly Suarez.
Navarrete is a heavy favorite after stopping Oscar Valdez in the sixth round last December, while the unbeaten Suarez, who is thirty-six, has fought no one of world-class ilk.
The co-feature is for the IBF interim lightweight title, which I rarely give recognition, but with champion Vasyl Lomachenko idle for a year and may not fight again, this title is merited.
Should Lomachenko retire, the winner of the Raymond Muratalla-Zaur Abdullaev match will be promoted to full champion, and should he return to the ring, it will be against the victor.
Muratalla knocked out Jesus Campos in two rounds last November and holds a win over Tevin Farmer.
Abdullaev lost his only fight to Devin Haney in 2019 but owns solid wins over former champions Jorge Linares and Roger Gutierrez and title challenger Dejan Zlaticanin.
Muratalla is the better of the two, and I think he'll get the nod here.
The day starts with DAZN from Nottingham, England, and a match of two former champions who didn't lose their titles in the ring, at junior lightweight.
Former champions Anthony Cacace (IBF Junior Lightweight) and Leigh Wood (WBA Featherweight) face off in what should be an entertaining scrap.
Cacace won his title last year in an upset stoppage of Joe Cordina but chose to defend against Josh Warrington (winning via decision) rather than face mandatory challenger Eduardo Nunez, causing it to be taken away.
Wood hasn't fought since his knockout of Josh Warrington in October 2023, vacating his title after the victory.
This should be a very good fight.
ProBox is back in their Florida home with an IBF junior middleweight eliminator and veteran bomber Erickson Lubin meeting unbeaten Ardreal Holmes.
Lubin has knocked out many, has been stopped in both of his losses, and has a victory (a controversial one over contender Jesus Ramos) in his last fight in October 2023.
The unbeaten Holmes is a tall boxer who doesn't hit hard (six knockouts in his seventeen wins), but he should keep Lubin on the outside.
The question here is, can Holmes hit Lubin hard enough to keep him off him?
The victor will become the mandatory challenger for IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev.
The next two fights currently do not have American TV/Streaming but are important matches.
From the boxing hotbed of Malabo, Guinea, a WBC final eliminator at welterweight between Souleymane Cissokho and Egidijus Kavaliauskas.
The winner will become mandatory for WBC champion Mario Barrios, a mediocre champion who plans to next face forty-six-year-old Manny Pacquiao.
The unbeaten Cissokho hasn't fought above the European level of opponents but owns good wins over Keiron Conway, Roberto Valenzuela, and Isaias Lucero from that level.
Kavaliauskas is the better-known of the two from his title challenge of Terence Crawford in 2019 and his loss to Vergil Ortiz in 2021.
Neither man has fought since late 2023, and it likely comes down to Kavaliauskas's aggression versus the skills from distance of Cissokho.
From Japan, we have a rematch of the great junior bantamweight unification fight between Fernando Martinez and Kazuto Ioka from last July.
Martinez won a unanimous decision, but only the WBA title is still owned by him, as he gave up the IBF title to take the more lucrative paycheck for an Ioka rematch.
The winner will hold the only title not held by the winner of the upcoming three-title unification between Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez and Phumelele Cafu.
Boxing Challenge
V.S: Suarez Unanimous Decision
TRS: Muratalla KO 8
V.S: Abdullaev Unanimous Decision
TRS: Holmes Unanimous Decision
V.S: Holmes KO 6
V.S: Ioka KO 8
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