ESPN and Top Rank will have the free television audience with the return of Vasyl Lomachenko against Masayoshi Takatani.
Lomachenko, a three-division champion, lost his three lightweight titles in his last fight in a surprising upset to Teofimo Lopez after a slow start saw him fall behind on the cards.
Lomachenko did charge down the stretch in winning most of the late rounds to lose a close decision to Lopez, but Lomachenko did show a sign or two of an aging body that has suffered several injuries over the last few years and Nakatani looks to be a good litmus test of how much Lomachenko lost over recent years.
Nakatani took Lopez the twelve-round distance in Lopez's last fight before the Lomachenko upset and since knocked Felix Verdejo out in the ninth round after falling behind on the scorecards.
This should be a showcase fight for Lomachenko's return, but Nakatani's recent loss to Lopez does add an interesting variable to grade the performance of Lomachenko against the man that defeated him.
The co-feature is of interest with former minor middleweight beltholder Rob Brant against undefeated Janibek Alimkhanuly.
Brant is known for his upset of current WBA champion Ryota Murata, but was finished in two rounds in their July 2019 rematch and has notched one win since that defeat.
Alimkhanuly is an undefeated former Olympian that is making his first jump against contender-level fighters, very similar to last week's attempt by Beketmir Melikuziev, and it'll be interesting to see how he fares against Brant.
PBC is on pay per view with their main event pitting WBA junior lightweight champion Gervonta Davis against minor junior welterweight champion Mario Barrios.
Davis does very good numbers on pay per view and he collects these minor WBA titles like I collect Topps baseball cards, so for Davis and PBC, it made sense for a Davis-Barrios match.
Barrios impressively won his last fight against an overmatched and undeserving Ryan Karl, but in the fight before against Batyr Akhmedov, he was very fortunate to win a decision that many (including me feel he didn't deserve) and with that win as his only one over strong competition, who knows what Barrios will bring to the ring.
Davis isn't the biggest lightweight and will be giving away even more against Barrios.
If Barrios is a legitimate title-level junior welterweight, this could be a very good matchup but if he's not-another Davis squash match is on the books.
The co-feature would receive my nod for the most likely to be entertaining and perhaps shortest fight of the weekend in a title eliminator at junior middleweight.
Erickson Lubin and Jeison Rosario have plenty in common with both possessing strong punching power, questionable chins, knockout losses to Jermell Charlo and Rosario is a former champion as well to make this arguably the hardest fight to select.
Lubin has won his last five fights since he was knocked by Charlo in one round in 2017 against good, not great opponents, while Rosario is making his return from losing his WBA and IBF titles to Charlo via eighth-round KO in his last fight.
Lubin has tried to add some boxing ability to his game and while that may lessen the excitement a little, should Lubin be able to do that even at times, that may be enough to give him the edge.
DAZN is live from Mexico with the exciting Julio Cesar Martinez defending his WBC flyweight championship against Joel Cordova in what is a stay-busy fight.
Martinez has been rumored to be considering moving up to the talent-rich junior bantamweight division and with Cordova's pedestrian 12-4-2 record and only three knockouts, I don't see this as a competitive matchup.
Sunday night on Fox, PBC appears to be playing out the string with their agreement with the network due to expire at the end of the year with another less than thrilling offering.
The main event is another WBA minor title defense, this one by Cuban David Morrell, who, after only four fights, owns a minor title.
Morrell does own a win over then 22-0 Lennox Allen and opponent Mario Cazares is 12-0.
The rub with Cazares is that only two of his wins are over fighters with winning records (and one of those was 9-8) and his entire body of work is his upset decision over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr by six-round technical decision when the fight was stopped on a headbutt.
Unless Cazares is better than expected, this one shapes up to be a showcase for Morrell.
In the boxing challenge, I lead Ramon Malpica 87-81 and this is a good time to refresh the boxing challenge rules.
If you pick the winner of the fight- for example, Valdez over Berchelt- One point
If you pick how it happened- Valdez by KO or correct decision (Unanimous, Split, or Majority)-One Point
If you pick the correct round of knockout- Valdez KO 7, one bonus point.
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