DAZN and Matchroom will showcase the return of arguably the top junior bantamweight in the world with a tuneup fight before his third fight against his bitter career rival.
Juan Francisco Estrada faces Argi Cortes in Hermosillo, Mexico in Estrada's first fight since his narrow and somewhat controversial split decision win over Roman Gonzalez in March 2021.
Since then, Estrada has twice watched his third fight against Gonzalez fall victim to cancellation with first Gonzalez and then Estrada testing positive for Covid-19 before a scheduled bout.
Estrada owned the WBA and WBC titles after his win over Gonzalez and now owns neither with only the ridiculous WBC "Franchise" title in his current trophy case.
Estrada vacated the WBC title in order to face Gonzalez rather than the mandatory challenger, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, and recently returned the WBA version in order to fight Gonzalez rather than their mandatory challenger, Joshua Franco, who would be promoted to the full WBA champion from his previous minor title status.
With the rematch agreed to, Estrada only needs to not suffer a cut or a loss to delay a Gonzalez fight that would reportedly take place before the end of the year, against Cortes, who has an impressive record of 23-2-2 but has never faced a top ten contender, let alone a fighter of Estrada's talent.
The Sunday PPV from the PBC has four interesting fights and for a PPV (and I am saying this for all companies) a strong undercard of various interests.
The heavyweight main event could be entertaining or ugly, depending on what versions of veteran big boys Andy Ruiz and Luis Ortiz appear for their Los Angeles WBC title eliminator.
Ruiz, who knocked out Anthony Joshua in seven rounds in 2019 to win three of the world titles before losing the rematch via decision in the same year, has fought only once since winning a decision in an action fight over Chris Arreola in May 2021 that saw Ruiz suffer a knockdown at the hands of Arreola.
Ortiz last fought on New Year's Day with a sixth-round knockout of former IBF champion Charles Martin but was knocked down by Martin in the first and fourth rounds before scoring two knockdowns in the sixth round to end the fight.
Ortiz, who is listed as 43 but is rumored to be far older, could be ripe for the picking as Martin isn't a big puncher but still scored two knockdowns which could show that Ortiz is showing vulnerability in taking punches as he ages.
That might depend on the condition of Ruiz, who has been an excellent heavyweight when he enters fights in shape and very average when he doesn't.
I like this fight and it could turn into a toe to toe slugfest with both fighters willing to trade in what could be their last chance to have a chance at a final title shot as this is a semi-final eliminator for the WBC title, currently held by Tyson Fury.
The other fights are intriguing as well starting with the co-feature with Isaac Cruz facing Eduardo Ramirez in a WBC lightweight eliminator.
Cruz gave undefeated Gervonta Davis all that Davis wanted last December with Davis winning a close unanimous decision in the toughest fight of Tank's career.
Cruz returned in April as the latest young buck to knock out the husk of Yuriorkis Gamboa in five rounds on the Errol Spence-Yordenis Ugas undercard and will be a heavy favorite against Ramirez, who is on a five-fight winning streak since a 2019 decision loss to Claudio Marrero.
Ramirez is a natural featherweight and has fought most of his career at 126 pounds, so can he stand up to the power of Cruz, who is the naturally larger fighter and is known as a big hitter in the 135-pound division?
Former three-division champion Abner Mares makes his return to the ring after a four-year absence since losing his rematch to WBA featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz in September 2018.
Mares, who once held the IBF bantamweight and WBC titles at junior feather and featherweight, suffered a second detached retina in 2019 while training for a fight against Gervonta Davis, which he may have been fortunate to avoid fighting, and has been retired since, working as a commentator for Showtime, usually while wearing sunglasses which makes me wonder about the wisdom of this comeback at the age of 36.
Mares faces Miguel Flores, who has lost two of his last three fights including a lopsided unanimous decision loss to Leo Santa Cruz in November 2019, a fifth-round KO loss to the aforementioned Eduardo Ramirez, and struggled to a split decision win over Diuhl Olquin in June 2021, who currently holds a record of 15-25-5.
If Mares is unable to look strong against Flores, I would have serious doubts about any future success in his comeback.
The opener is very interesting with a very promising prospect in lightweight Jose Valenzuela battling former WBA junior lightweight champion Jezreel Corrales in a ten-rounder.
Valenzuela crushed former junior lightweight champion, Francisco Vargas, in one round in April and faces another former 130-pound division champion in Corrales, who has won three straight since a decision defeat to Chris Colbert in 2020.
Corrales enters the fight after a unanimous decision in his native Panama over 27-0 Miguel Maduano, so Corrales still has some fight left in him but will it be enough to hold off the talented Valenzuela?
Editors Note: Jezreel Corrales has dropped out of this fight due to visa issues.
He was replaced by Edwin De Los Santos of the Dominican Republic, who holds a 14-1 record with 13 knockouts and knocked out undefeated Luis Acosta in two rounds in his last fight in March.
Boxing Challenge
Vince Samano: Estrada Unanimous Decision
TRS: Ruiz KO 10
V.S: Ortiz Unanimous Decision
V.S.: Cruz KO 6
TRS: Mares Unanimous Decision
V.S: Flores KO 8
TRS: Valenzuela KO 5
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