Saturday, February 19, 2022

Boxing Challenge

   The boxing weekend features four fights and two title eliminators but the biggest of the four is for nothing but pride and bragging rights and goes to show that if the matchup is right- the interest is there and it doesn't matter if the fighters are in their prime or not.

The British grudge match that has taken years to make and with each fighter far past their best will finally take place as former WBA and IBF junior welterweight champion Amir Khan will duel with former IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook in a fight that an entire nation has wanted to see for years.

The faded former champions have talked about this fight for years but only now with both near the end of their career has a deal been signed.

Khan is the faster and smoother boxer while Brook is the stronger fighter, bigger puncher, and has the better chin.

Khan has been stopped in four of his five losses, often in spectacular manner (Bredis Prescott and Canelo Alvarez), while Brook has been stopped in his last three losses but all were later round stoppages where Brook was just worn down (Terence Crawford) or couldn't continue through injury to his orbital bone (Gennady Golovkin and Errol Spence).

If this is a boxing match, Khan likely wins pretty easily, if Brook makes it a firefight I like Brook's chances to notch a spectacular knockout.

The winner might be able to grab another payday against Britain's current welterweight star Conor Benn and the loser will have an excellent chance of announcing his retirement.

DAZN will offer two fights from Tijuana, Mexico with the main event pitting undefeated former WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia in the latest of unsatisfying matchups since his move to middleweights against undefeated and untested against world class opponents, D'Mitrus Ballard.

Ballard is undefeated, as mentioned, but has fought no one close to the quality of Munguia and doesn't hold a victory over even top thirty level competition, so unless Ballard is going to have a coming out party in Mexico, this seems to be a very one-sided affair in the making.

The co-feature is one to watch with undefeated lightweight banger William Zepeda in action.

Zepeda has notched 22 knockouts in his 24 wins and his win last July over undefeated and highly-touted Hector Tanajara was as an impressive win from a prospect that I watched last year.

Zepeda faces journeyman Luis Viedas in a stay busy fight for Zepeda, who may be the lightweight version of Jaron "Boots" Ennis for lightweight champions and contenders.

Speaking of lightweights, ESPN+ will have the streaming rights to a WBC eliminator between former three-division champion Jorge Linares and Zaur Abdullaev from Russia.

Linares lost a decision in his last fight against Devin Haney, but wobbled Haney badly in the tenth round in an attempt to win the WBC title.

Abdullaev's only defeat was to Haney via a lopsided decision but Abdullaev is entering this fight after his biggest career victory- a unanimous decision over former WBC champion Dejan Zlaticanin.

Boxing Challenge

Welterweights. 12 Rds
Amir Khan vs Kell Brook
R.L; Khan KO 9
TRS: Brook KO 6
V.S: Khan Unanimous Decision

Middleweights 12 Rds
Jaime Munguia vs D'Mitrus Ballard
R.L: Munguia KO 5
TRS: Munguia KO 8
V.S: Ballard Unanimous Decision

Lightweights. 10 Rds
William Zepeda vs Luis Viedas
R.L: Zepeda Unanimous Decision
TRS: Zepeda KO 5
V.S:  Zepeda KO 3

Lightweights. 12 Rds
Jorge Linares vs Zaur Abdullaev
All: Linares Unanimous Decision





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