Boxing Challenge

 The boxing weekend is light again with only two fights between Friday and Saturday.

ESPN starts Friday night with Emmanuel Navarrete moving up from junior featherweight to face Ruben Villa for the WBO featherweight title that was vacated by Shakur Stevenson.

Navarrete upset Issac Dogboe in December 2018 and quickly rattled off five successful defenses of the WBO junior featherweight championship before deciding to move up when Stevenson decided to move to 130 pounds and the junior lightweight division.

The original opponent for the vacant title was expected to be Jessie Magdaleno, who was also a former WBO junior featherweight champion having dropped his title to Dogboe in his only loss, but after the negotiations to make that fight fell through and Top Rank won the WBO's purse bid for the fight, Magdaleno refused to fight for the portion of the purse assigned to him by the WBO.

The next challenger in line was Ruben Villa, who accepted the bout against Navarrete quickly.

Villa is a talented and smooth boxer that is undefeated in eighteen fights but has only scored five knockouts in his career.

Villa is very skilled and could pull this upset, but the key will be this- Can Villa's lack of power be enough to gain the respect of the stronger Navarrete and keep him at bay?

Something tells me Villa is a very live underdog in this one.

The other bout is a stay busy fight for Liam Williams, who had risen to the top of the WBO middleweight ratings before the WBO's rule that a champion of theirs moving to a new division is automatically installed as the number one contender in their new division.

Jaime Munguia's vacating of the WBO junior middleweight title and his decision to campaign in the middleweight division hurt Williams standing, but the Briton is still in position for an eventual title shot

Williams is still second in the rankings, so he just needs to keep winning and he'll get that shot.

Williams defends his British middleweight title against Andrew Robinson, who upset 41-0 Damian Jonak in April 2019 in Jonak's native Poland.

Robinson followed up with a knockout win over a 1-5 fighter in September 2019 and has been inactive since.

In the boxing challenge, I lead Ramon Malpica 129-118.

Vacant WBO Featherweight Title.12 Rds

Emmanuel Navarrete vs Ruben Villa

R.L: Navarrete KO 7

TRS: Villa Unanimous Decision

Middleweights. 12 Rds

Liam Williams vs Andrew Robinson

R.L: Williams Unanimous Decision
TRS: Williams KO 8