The Andy Ruiz-Anthony Joshua rematch will have the undercard starting in the morning and the main event should hit the ring from Saudi Arabia on DAZN around lunchtime.
The rematch of their fight from June when both fighters hit the deck in the third round before Ruiz pulled the stunning upset of Joshua off with a seventh-round knockout, winning the WBA, IBF, and WBO titles.
This is a fight that I'm back and forth about and is a difficult one to predict.
Ruiz has fast hands and if he's in shape and ready to go (which Ruiz hasn't always been able to do so), I can see Ruiz repeating his victory, taking his three titles to PBC and await the winner of the Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury rematch for the unified title.
Joshua is a heavy puncher and he did draw Ruiz as a late substitute for Jarrell Miller, who failed a PED test before the fight.
Joshua's more talented physically and likely the better boxer, but he has questions about his chin now and it remains to be seen how Joshua mentally handles returning from his first loss, especially in an immediate rematch against the person that knocked him out.
If Joshua is in good shape mentally, I think he rebounds and wins his titles back.
However, if he has doubts or isn't perfectly prepared, Ruiz is very capable of winning the rematch and sending almost total control (other than Tyson Fury) of the heavyweight division to Al Haymon's PBC.
The Ruiz-Joshua undercard will also be based in the heavyweight division with two fights of consequence that is likely to see the winners stay near the top of the contenders' list.
Former WBA champion Alexander Povetkin continues his comeback from his seventh-round KO loss to Anthony Joshua in 2018 as he fights Michael Hunter in a WBA eliminator.
Povetkin's first return fight earlier this year was a unanimous decision win over Hughie Fury, while Hunter won a unanimous decision over then-undefeated Sergei Kuzmin in September to qualify for the eliminator.
I am a lot more torn on this than I should be on the resume' because with Povetkin now 40 years of age, I can see Hunter outboxing him.
The winner should be involved in a fight for the WBA title, should it be vacated from whatever results occur from the Ruiz-Joshua affair.
The other fight sees the return of Dillian Whyte from his PED test controversy as he passed one test and failed another before his unanimous decision win over Oscar Rivas in July.
Whyte had worked his way into the top contender slot for the WBC but amid all the controversy Whyte has been removed from all four sanctioning bodies rankings.
Whyte will be pursuing some sort of legal action in the future, I'm sure, but is attempting to stay active against Poland's Marius Wach.
Wach was a one-time title challenger, losing a unanimous decision to Wladimir Klitschko, but has lost his last three fights and is past his prime.
We move to the evening with Top Rank providing a card for ESPN Plus and Showtime offering a PBC slate Saturday night.
Top Rank will have two titles from Puebla Mexico with the main event starring the Eveready bunny of boxing, Emanuel Navarrete defending his WBO junior featherweight title against Francisco Horta.
Navarrete will be fighting for the fifth time since upsetting Issac Dogboe in December 2018 against the unheralded Horta and will be a heavy favorite to retain his title.
IBF junior bantamweight champion Jerwin Ancajas defends his title against Miguel Gonzalez.
Ancajas was scheduled to fight Jonathan Rodriguez last month, but a visa issue for Rodriguez canceled the fight.
The light-hitting Gonzalez (8 KO's in 30 wins) seems to be tailor-made for Ancajas, who is looking for a spectacular victory as he awaits bigger fights in the division against WBC champion Juan Francisco Estrada, WBA champ Kai Yafai or WBO beltholder Kazuto Ioka.
Showtime's PBC card from their official home in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn will top the card with Jermall Charlo's WBC middleweight title defense against Australia's Dennis Hogan.
Charlo has beaten less than impressive competition since his move to middleweight and he was handed the WBC title after their ridiculous franchise champion designation for Canelo Alvarez.
Combine those facts with Charlo's close decision two fights ago over late-minute replacement Matt Korobov along with a dull decision over undersized Brandon Adams and you have to wonder just how good Charlo is.
Charlo does have what seems to be a perfect foil in Hogan, who is moving up from junior middleweight and giving away height, reach, and power against Charlo, but Hogan did fight very impressively as a sizable underdog in his last fight challenging Jaime Munguia for Munguia's WBO junior middleweight belt.
Hogan lost via majority decision, but most ( including me) thought that Hogan should have been the winner.
Hogan will need to improve on his career-best performance to upset Charlo in this one.
The co-feature from Showtime will pit the previously mentioned Matt Korobov in a middleweight crossroads bout against Chris Eubank Jr.
Eubank will be making his American debut and will be dropping from super middleweight to take this fight for one of the WBA's meaningless trinkets.
Eubank seems to be the physically larger fighter and he has the longer reach (two and a half inches) despite both standing 5'11,
Both fighters are top ten caliber fighters and both fighters have failed on their biggest stages, Korobov in losses to Andy Lee and Charlo, Eubank to George Groves and Billy Joe Saunders.
It'll be interesting to see which one can rise to the challenge.
Power punching David Lemieux is back in the ring from Montreal in a bout that is surprisingly not on an American outlet.
I'm surprised that Golden Boy (co-promoter) didn't find a way to stream the bout on DAZN, even if on a delay.
Lemieux had struggled for years trying to make 160 pounds and this fight will be his first at the super middleweight class.
The opponent will be Max Bursak, who was last seen against a top fighter in 2017 losing every round to Gilberto Ramirez in a challenge for the WBO super middleweight title then held by Ramirez.
In the boxing challenge, I lead Ramon Malpica 287-250.
WBA/IBF/WBO Heavyweight Titles. 12 Rds
Andy Ruiz vs Anthony Joshua
R.L: Ruiz KO 9
TRS: Joshua Unanimous Decision
Heavyweights. 12 Rds
Alexander Povetkin vs Michael Hunter
R.L: Povetkin KO 7
TRS: Povetkin KO 10
Heavyweights. 10 Rds
Dillian Whyte vs Marius Wach
R.L: Whyte KO 5
TRS: Whyte KO 7
WBO Junior Featherweight Title. 12 Rds
Emanuel Navarrete vs Francisco Horta
R.L: Navarrete Unanimous Decision
TRS: Navarrete KO 5
IBF Junior Bantamweight Title. 12 Rds
Jerwin Ancajas vs Miguel Gonzalez
R.L: Ancajas KO 8
TRS: Ancajas KO 6
WBC Middleweight Title. 12 Rds
Jermall Charlo vs Dennis Hogan
R.L: Charlo KO 4
TRS: Charlo Unanimous Decision
Middleweights. 12 Rds
Chris Eubank Jr vs Matt Korobov
Both: Eubank Unanimous Decision
Super Middleweights. 10 Rds
David Lemieux vs Max Bursak
R.L: Lemieux KO 3
TRS: Lemieux KO 4
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