The main event features former junior welterweight and welterweight champion Danny Garcia in his first fight in almost eighteen months making his foray into the junior middleweight division against Jose Benavidez, the brother of super middleweight contender David Benavidez.
Garcia lost that fight by a clear decision to Errol Spence, which means his last victory was a decision win over Ivan Redkach in January 2020, which was before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Garcia has lost only three times and two of those losses could be argued ( decision losses to Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter). However, it can be argued that Garcia won two fights that could be argued as well to Mauricio Herrera and Lamont Peterson.
Still, Garcia doesn't own a win over a top fighter in their prime in the last seven years, dating back to that majority decision win over Lamont Peterson, so Garcia has been matched very well since then with wins over fading former stars such as Paulie Malignaggi, Brandon Rios, and Robert Guerrero, and over fighters that were clearly not in Garcia's class such as Samuel Vargas, Adrian Granados, and the above mentioned Ivan Redkach.
Benavidez also is moving up in weight and in his last fight after a three-year layoff following his only career loss to Terence Crawford, struggled to a draw against Francisco Torres last November.
Benavidez was wounded in a leg in 2016 and when you watch him fight now, it's easy to see how his movement and athleticism have been affected by the injury, and even though Benavidez will have the height advantage, I wonder if he can cope with any movement from Garcia.
The co-feature crossroads fight at heavyweight between Adam Kownacki and Ali Eren Demirezen could see the winner have a chance at a bigger fight on the PBC side as PBC isn't loaded in the division and will need to find fights for Deontay Wilder, the Andy Ruiz-Luis Ortiz winner, or undefeated Frank Sanchez in the future.
Kownacki had been intelligently moved by PBC and after wins over one-time title challenger Gerald Washington, former contender Chris Arreola, and former IBF champion Charles Martin, Kownacki was position to become a mandatory challenger before a shocking fourth-round knockout loss on the eve of the Covid-19 pandemic to thought to be washed up Robert Helenius in a WBA eliminator.
The rematch last October saw Helenius stop Kownacki again in the sixth round and drop Kownacki outside the top fifteen placing him in a must-win position against Demirezen, who fought for Turkey in the 2016 Olympics.
Demirezen has lost only once, to his best opponent in a decision loss to once-beaten Efe Ajagba in 2019, but is coming off the best win of his career in knocking out Gerald Washington in eight rounds on New Year's Day.
I'm interested in this one to see just how much Kownacki has lost from the two knockout defeats to Robert Helenius.
Is this a case of a fighter that fought an opponent that just was equipped to beat him or has Kownacki seen his best days and is transitioning to opponent status rather than contender?
The opener is a very interesting fight with undefeated junior welterweight Gary Antuanne Russell taking on former IBF junior lightweight and lightweight champion Rances Barthelemy.
Russell won his biggest fight in his most recent outing with a final-round knockout of former WBC champion Viktor Postol and even though the stoppage was controversial (and in my opinion should not have happened), Russell was ahead on the scorecards and would have been a deserving winner in any case.
Russell has stopped all fifteen of his opponents and a win would keep him firmly in contention in the deepest division in boxing.
Barthelemy is a two-time champion and has only a loss (a decision loss to Kiryl Relikh in 2018) in his career but his last good win was over Relikh in 2017 in a very controversial fight that most thought Relikh won and caused a rematch to be mandated with Relikh winning easily.
Since 2018, Barthelemy has won three fights against journeymen and drew with former lightweight champion Robert Easter in what rates as arguably the worst fight of the last fifty years, so who knows what Barthelemy will bring to this fight.
Still, Barthelemy is somewhat of a name that will look good on Russell's resume, and should Russell score a stoppage, it would be a second consecutive impressive win over a veteran former world champion.
Boxing Challenge
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