The ESPN+ card from Stockton, California will have two of those title tilts with the main event consisting of a WBO middleweight title defense for Janibek Alimkhanuly against Canada's Steven Butler.
Alimkhanuly was receiving lots of hype before an expected squash match against England's Denzel Bentley last November.
Alimkhanuly looked very mortal in winning a unanimous decision that was far more competitive than anyone expected against Bentley and the question now is this- Was Alimkhanuly overrated or is Bentley a better boxer than anyone anticipated?
I'm not sure the answer comes against Steven Butler, who has been knocked out in all three of his losses, one of which came in a five-round KO defeat in an attempt to win the WBA middleweight title from Ryota Murata in 2019, and who appears perfectly aligned for Alimkhanuly to score a victory that might return Alimkhanuly to the exciting status that he held before the Bentley match.
The co-feature is the best match of the weekend as Australia's Jason Moloney and Vincent Astrolabio of the Philippines will vie for one of the four bantamweight belts, the WBO in this case, that was vacated by Naoya Inoue.
Moloney has won four straight since his seventh-round knockout loss when challenging Inoue in 2020, while Astrolabio came out of nowhere when he upset former champion Guillermo Rigondeaux via decision in February 2022 and then a brutal beatdown in six rounds on Showtime of Nikolai Potapov last November.
The winner of this one will rank at the top of the division for now (I rate either over new WBA champion Takuma Inoue) as the WBC (Nonito Donaire vs Alejandro Santiago) and IBF (Emmanuel Rodriguez vs Melvin Lopez) have yet to fill their championship voids.
This should be the fight of the weekend.
On Showtime from Las Vegas, a world title will be given as Rolando Romero will battle Ismael Barroso for the vacant WBA junior welterweight title.
Alberto Puello won the title vacated by Josh Taylor last August with a split-decision win over Batyr Akhmedov and was scheduled to defend against Romero, who hasn't fought since his knockout loss to Gervonta Davis, but failed a test for PEDs and was stripped of the championship.
Ismael Barroso was the next available contender and who really knows what the Venezuelan will bring to the ring at 40 years of age and after losses against his best opponents, including a ninth-round loss to Batyr Akhmedov.
Rolando Romero can punch but he's very crude (although very entertaining) and he makes me think that he might be one of those fighters that could catch anyone and beat them and anyone is capable of catching him and taking him out.
The co-feature will determine the mandatory contender for the Romero-Barroso victor as Batry Akhmedov will face Kenneth Sims.
Akhmedov has lost two split decisions that he might have deserved in both cases to Alberto Puello and Mario Barrios and under those conditions, I would have given Akhmedov the fight vs Rolando Romero on this card and placed Ismael Barroso against Kenneth Sims, considering Akhmedov has a KO win over Barroso.
Sims was a highly decorated amateur and the one-time prospect that had been a disappointing pro until a surprising upset over prospect Elvis Rodriguez in Las Vegas at the Top Rank "Bubble".
Sims has won three more fights since defeating Rodriguez and will have a chance to move into a mandatory challenger spot with a win.
Akhmedov is the stronger fighter, while Sims is the smoother boxer, this one comes down to whether can Sims box and move away from Akhmedov for twelve rounds.
Boxing Challenge
TRS: AlimkhanulyKO 5
Vince Samano: Alimkhanuly KO 7
TRS: Astrolabio Split Decision
V.S: Astrolabio Unanimous Decision
TRS: Romero KO 9
V.S: Sims Unanimous Decision
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