The main event will offer Emanuel Navarrete moving up to junior lightweight to attempt to claim the WBO 130-pound title that was recently vacated by Shakur Stevenson.
Navarrete is currently the WBO champion at featherweight but is expected to officially turn in that championship after this fight, a fight that he is heavily favored to win over Australia's Liam Wilson.
The controversy is two-scaled as Wilson accused the scales of being rigged with a claim that he was barely under the weight limit and twenty minutes later for the official weigh-in, Wilson made the limit by four pounds.
The inference there is that Navarrete was once again struggling to make weight and this allowed him to do so.
The other controversy is Wilson, who at 14-1 has never fought, let alone beaten a world-class fighter, receiving a shot at the vacant title at all.
At first, the opponent for Navarrete was former featherweight and junior lightweight champion Oscar Valdez, which would have been an excellent action fight between two fighters promoted by Top Rank.
The problem with this is that the WBO's top contender, Archie Sharp of England, wasn't involved at all despite Sharp's claim that he was available for the vacant title match.
Now, if the statement is that Oscar Valdez is a more deserving title challenger than Sharp based on their resume', I'm fine with that statement.
And if you like Navarrete-Valdez better than Navarrete-Sharp as an action fight, I'm fine with that too as Sharp is a more mobile boxer while Valdez would have been more likely to meet Navarrete in the middle of the ring and swap power shots.
However, if Valdez is more deserving via the ratings than Sharp, why is Sharp rated first?
And how can you fill a vacant title without your top contender that claims he is available and ready to participate?
SO when Valdez was injured in training and Sharp stated that he was prepared to step in for the injured Valdez, it appeared that the right thing was going to occur.
Instead, the choice was the third-rated Wilson and Top Rank was announcing that should Navarrete win, his first title defense will be against Valdez, not Sharp.
In boxing as in life, things are often not fair.
The co-feature may not have a championship on the line but two top ten contenders in a loaded division at junior welterweight will slug it out for what could lead to a title shot for the victor.
Undefeated contender Arnold Barboza and former junior lightweight and lightweight champion Jose Pedraza should be an excellent style mix and the winner would be deserving of a title shot or at least an eliminator against another contender.
Barboza has been aiming for a shot at former lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez and his constant verbal barbs at Lopez has been cited as the reason that Lopez chose Sandor Martin for his most recent bout rather than Barboza.
Pedraza would be the biggest victory for Barboza, as his most recognizable names currently are a past his prime Mike Alvarado and former title challenger Alex Saucedo.
Pedraza drew with Richard Commey last August and dropped a decision to former WBC and WBO junior welterweight champion Jose Ramirez in the fight before that but in his previous fight, Pedraza stopped undefeated prospect, Julian Rodriguez in eight rounds.
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