The top fight of the weekend pits the holder of three of the four major heavyweight titles against the only fighter to hold all four of the cruiserweight titles at the same time as Anthony Joshua defends against his WBO mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk in a battle of 2012 Olympic gold medal winners (Joshua Super Heavyweight and Usyk Heavyweight) in London.
Joshua had planned to face Tyson Fury in a fight that would have resulted in all four titles being unified before the fight was kiboshed by an arbitrator's decision to force Fury into a contractual obligation for a third fight with Deontay Wilder, so fighting his mandatory contender in Usyk will allow Joshua to move to a Fury (should both men win their fights) fight without needing to worry about any organizational obligations.
Usyk has very impressive speed and skills and Joshua will always have the sector of being knocked out by Andy Ruiz and knocked down by other opponents, most notably Wladimir Klitschko but Usyk hasn't dazzled anyone in his two heavyweight wins over Chazz Witherspoon and Dereck Chisora.
The most likely result is the naturally bigger man breaking down the more naturally talented smaller man but I cannot get the Michael Spinks upset of Larry Holmes out of my thoughts.
Spinks, especially in their first fight as I thought Holmes won the rematch with Spinks officially winning, was able to avoid the jab, use enough awkward movement on the inside, and land a few punches and get away without getting hammered against Holmes and I can see Usyk having success with a similar strategy.
There are a few differences though.
Usyk is a little more of a classic boxer than Michael Spinks was and for all of the greatness of Larry Holmes, Holmes didn't possess the one-shot power of Anthony Joshua.
If there is a road to victory for Oleksandr Usyk, that is the most likely travel map.
Lawrence Okolie defends his WBO cruiserweight title for the first time against Dilan Prasovic as the co-feature from London.
Okolie impressively won the WBO title with a sixth-round knockout of Krzysztof Glowacki in his last fight and other than IBF champion Mairis Breidis is the best cruiserweight in the world.
It's not often that I can say this but I know nothing about Prasovic other than he is undefeated and is from Montenegro, not exactly known for developing boxing champions.
Callum Smith returns to the ring for the first time since his defeat to Canelo Alvarez last December and will be moving up to light heavyweight.
Smith suffered his first defeat against Alvarez and didn't really have a lot of options at 168 pounds, so moving up to 175 pounds might not have been a choice for the Briton as much as a forced decision.
Smith takes on veteran Lenin Castillo, who has lost both of his fights against top opponents in losing a decision to WBA champion Dmitry Bivol and another to Marcus Browne, who is the number one contender in the WBC rankings.
Castillo lost convincingly to both but did knock down Browne in his defeat, so should Smith be able to stop Castillo in his division debut, it would be a nice feather in his cap.
The other fight in the challenge will not be televised in America as former WBA and WBC middleweight Sergio Martinez continues his unlikely comeback against Brian Rose.
Martinez will fight for the first time since defeating Jussi Koivula by ninth-round stoppage last December and while Koivula's name was known for his loss to Conor Benn before losing to Martinez, Saturday's opponent is also recalled for a lopsided loss in Brian Rose, who was dominated in a 2014 challenge to then-WBO junior middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade, losing every round before being finished off in seven.
Martinez is 46 years old and I'm not really sure what the end game is for Martinez as he wasn't interested in fighting Gennady Golovkin in his prime, can't see him against Jermall Charlo or Demetrius Andrade and I don't see any seniors tour opponents that make sense either.
Still, give Martinez credit for his comeback as he isn't fighting MMA fighters or celebrities.
In the boxing challenge, I lead Ramon Malpica 125-110.
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