The biggest (literally) fight of the weekend is from Britain and surprisingly on HBO, who bought the fight between Dillian Whyte and Lucas Browne, that mainly looks like a purchase to appease Eddie Hearn as the "Network of Champions" attempt to bring Anthony Joshua to their network at the conclusion of his deal with Showtime.
I won't argue as I'm all for seeing more and more of the European fights televised here, but let's be honest-if Whyte vs Browne was promoted by anyone other than Eddie Hearn, there is no way that HBO is buying this fight.
It still is interesting though as Whyte is the number one contender to WBC champ Deontay Wilder after his wars with Dereck Chisora (a win) and Anthony Joshua (a loss), but was downright dull in his last fight-a decision win over Robert Helenius and Browne would have been in line for a title shot at Anthony Joshua after his minor title KO over Ruslan Chagaev in 2016 had he not failed his drug test for clenbuterol (the same drug Canelo Alvarez recently tested positive for) and then another failed test before a scheduled bout vs Shannon Briggs in which again would have put him in line for Joshua with a victory over the elderly Briggs.
This could be a fun fight or a dull one-I know that covers the spectrum, but it is heavyweight boxing and one never knows just what you'll get.
I added three more fights all from the WBA, my least favorite of the four sanctioning bodies.
In one of their lower title fights, Tyron Zeuge defends his 168-pound "belt" in a rematch against Issac Ekpo in a rematch of their bout that saw Zeuge win a five round decision after being cut open by a head butt.
Neither Zeuge nor Ekpo has a name on their resume of note, other than Zeuge's decision over Paul Smith, who won't be confused with his brother Liam, let alone a top super middleweight, so both have questions to answer.
The WBA is supposedly reducing their silly lower titles, but yet they are filling vacancies for them.
When Murat Gassiev stopped Yunier Dorticos in a great fight, the "regular" title at cruiserweight could have been retired.
Instead, we get this classic battle between two guys that I've never seen fight (I did look them up on YouTube clips), rarely heard of and with one exception all of the fights from both fighters have been held in either France or Belgium, neither are exactly overflowing with top boxers period, let alone cruiserweights.
Ryad Merhy of Belgium and Arsen Goulamirian of France have no names that resemble fringe contenders, let alone world class ones and the only name that you'll recognize on either record is Mitch Williams and no, it's not the former Phillies closer, so you wouldn't recognize him either.
Both guys are undefeated, so they have that going for them, but even though the WBA has Murat Gassiev as its champion and Denis Lebedev as its "champion in recess", they feel the need to have another champion (more likely another sanctioning fee), but to pick these two unproven fighters is an unfunny joke from an organization that is its own unfunny joke.
The WBA has an eliminator at junior middleweight on the same card as Michel Soro battles John Vera for a title shot against the winner of next month's Erislandy Lara-Jarrett Hurd title unification bout.
I have at least seen these guys fight as Vera is promoted by Roy Jones and I've seen him on Jones-promoted shows on CBS Sports Network and BeIN Sports Network against some lower level competition.
Soro does have a win over Glen Tapia (before Tapia's career was destroyed by some bad beatings), a split decision loss to Brian Castano and draw with Antoine Douglas (before Douglas had his career destroyed by a bad beating against Avtandil Khurtsidze), so he has fought a few decent fighters.
I'm not sure the winner is deserving of being a mandatory contender, but compared to the cruiserweight "title" contenders, this looks like the equal of running the gauntlet for a title shot.
Heavyweights. 12 Rds
Dillian Whyte vs Lucas Browne
Both: Whyte Unanimous Decision
Super Middleweights. 12 Rds
Tyron Zeuge vs Issac Ekpo
Both: Zeuge Unanimous Decision
Cruiserweights. 12 Rds
Ryad Merhy vs Arsen Goulamirian
R.L: Merhy Unanimous Decision
TRS: Goulamirian Unanimous Decision
Junior Middleweights. 12 Rds
Michel Soro vs John Vera
R.L: Vera Unanimous Decision
TRS: Soro Unanimous Decision
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