ESPN will have the return of the Russian Destroyer Artur Beterbiev from Moscow as Beterbiev defends his WBC and IBF light heavyweight titles against IBF mandatory Adam Deines on Saturday afternoon.
Beterbiev has knocked out all fifteen of his opponents and looked incredibly impressive with his unification victory over Oleksandr Gvozdyk in October 2019.
Beterbiev hasn't fought since with fights being postponed for Covid-19 (for Beterbiev and his scheduled opponent) and training injuries but is the prohibitive favorite against Germany's Deines, who appears to be one of those awful IBF mandatory challengers with no wins over a remotely qualified contender and lost his only fight against someone that you have heard of in a unanimous decision to China's Meng Fanlong.
Fanlong's win over Deines earned him the shot against Beterbiev, but travel and visa issues caused Fanlong to give the shot up due to his problems entering Russia.
Only in boxing can you lose an elimination fight and get the shot over the winner.
Not that Fanlong is deserving either of a title opportunity, but at least he defeated Deines!
This one could be very short.
DAZN also has a Saturday afternoon card with their bout from London with the WBO finally filling their cruiserweight title after lawsuits and postponements have left their title vacant for an astonishing twenty-one months!
The controversy started then when then-WBO champion Krzystof Glowacki lost his title to Mairis Bredis and stopped him in three rounds in arguably the worst refereed fight in years by Robert Byrd.
The WBO mandated a rematch, but the Breidis-Glowacki match was also a semi-final in the World Boxing Super Series, and Breidis decided to vacate the title to fight in the finals for a much larger purse.
After several delays, it's Glowacki fighting for his old championship against Lawrence Okolie, a promising and undefeated Briton.
Okolie has won 12 of his 15 wins by knockout, but none against top-ten opponents.
This is a pick 'em fight and I wouldn't be surprised if either fighter grabbed the WBO title.
DAZN returns in the evening from Dallas, Texas with a crosstown welterweight showdown with the best young prospect in the game stepping up against a former world champion with the winner possibly leaping into title contention.
Vergil Ortiz faces his toughest opponent in former WBO junior welterweight champion Maurice Hooker and with a win, Ortiz could receive a title shot against WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford, who will be in the building as a Hooker stablemate.
Ortiz has faced former title challenger Mauricio Herrera, former contender Antonio Orozco, and slick veteran Brad Solomon, but none of those fighters were in their prime as Hooker, who has fought just once since losing his junior welterweight title in a unification affair against Jose Ramirez.
Still, Hooker was stopped by Jose Ramirez and Ramirez is smaller and doesn't punch nearly as hard as Ortiz.
I think that is what this comes down to- How well does Hooker absorb Ortiz's punches?
My guess is that eventually, Hooker won't absorb them and Ortiz will take a step forward to the top of the division.
In the boxing challenge, I lead Ramon Malpica 28-25.
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