Ramon Malpica leads me in the challenge 8-7 entering this weekend.
The best fight of the weekend is in Sochi,Russia and unifies two more cruiserweight titles in the second semi-final of the World Boxing Super Series in the Cruiserweight division after Oleksandr Usyk unified his WBO title with the WBC belt last week with an exciting majority decision win over Mairis Breidis to move to the finals of the tournament.
IBF Champion Murat Gassiev defends against newly promoted WBA champ Yunier Dorticos to unify the other two titles and ensure that the finals of the tournament will determine who will walk away with all four world titles as well as the Muhammad Ali trophy and the bonus money.
This could be a short fight and it should be filled with big bombs flying from both sides with two champions with huge knockout power.
Gassiev should already have the WBA belt, but for some ridiculous reason, his challenge of WBA champ Denis Lebedev (It also filled the vacant IBF title) was allowed by the WBA to not be for their title, despite Gassiev being in their top five at the time,but the WBA promoted Dorticos from "Regular" champion to full champion with the inactive Lebedev demoted to "Champion in Recess".
The IBF only allows unifications with the full champions not the "regular, interim. extra crispy, kids meal version", so this move meant that the tournament was going to result in a true champion with the tournament winner mandated to fight Lebedev next by the WBA, which would be OK with me, but the tournament winner is likely to vacate and move to heavyweight anyway, which makes it irrelevant.
This would shock me if this was anything but a fight without action and likely an explosive ending.
ESPN and Top Rank features two world title bouts from Corpus Christi, Texas Saturday night.
Gilberto Ramirez defends his WBO super middleweight title against Ghana's undefeated and unknown Habib Ahmed in what amounts to a showcase bout as promoter Bob Arum has begun talk of Ramirez fighting the winner of the World Boxing Super Series super middleweight tournament sometime in the fall.
Ramirez is coming off his biggest win, an exciting decision over Jesse Hart on ESPN (Hart's ring return can be seen on ESPN News Saturday night before the main show), so a win for him is a must.
IBF junior bantamweight champion Jerwin Ancajas may not be part of the packed HBO picture at his weight class, but talent wise, Ancajas doesn't have to take a backseat to any of the better-known names in the division.
Ancajas wiped out Jamie Conlan (brother of touted prospect Mick) in his last defense and will be favored to do so against Israel Gonzalez.
On Sunday in Japan, WBC flyweight champ Daigo Higa defends his title against Moises Fuentes.
I wrote about Higa being the next big star that you've never heard of with 14 wins all by knockout and he faces off against Fuentes, who is a former world champion at the 105-pound class, which is known as either minimumweight or strawweight depending on the sanctioning body of your choice.
Fuentes will come to fight, but Higa might be the latest great small warrior that you may not see the best of until later in his career.
Look around on YouTube for this one.
WBA-IBF Cruiserweight Title Unification/World Boxing Super Series Semi-Final. 12 Rds
Yunier Dorticos vs Murat Gassiev
R.L: Dorticos KO 7
TRS: Gassiev KO 8
WBO Super Middleweight Title. 12 Rds
Gilberto Ramirez vs Habib Ahmed
Both: Ramirez Unanimous Decision
IBF Junior Bantamweight Title. 12 Rds
Jerwin Ancajas vs Israel Gonzalez
R.L: Ancajas Unanimous Decision
TRS: Ancajas KO 6
WBC Flyweight Title. 12 Rds
Daigo Higa vs Moises Fuentes
R.L: Higa KO 4
TRS: Higa KO 3
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