Matchroom and DAZN's main event may have the biggest bout of the weekend with the smallest participants as the IBF and WBO flyweight titles will be unified as England's Sunny Edwards takes on Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez in Glendale, Arizona.
The smooth-boxing Edwards is a light hitter with only four knockouts in his twenty wins but he's extremely effective with what he does. If he is given credit from American judges who don't always favor a slick mover, Edwards could be the victor.
Rodriguez looked phenomenal in 2022 with wins over Carlos Cuadras and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. Still, he didn't impress in beating Cristian Gonzalez in April by unanimous decision, suffering a broken jaw in the process.
Rodriguez throws a lot of punches which is usually the most effective style against boxers, so this is a close fight to call.
But I have a feeling that Edwards is going to outbox Rodriguez and then get mildly shafted for his lack of aggression by the judges.
The co-feature is a WBA eliminator at junior featherweight with former champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev battling Kevin Gonazlez.
Akhmadaliev held the WBA and IBF titles before sleepwalking through much of the fight with a late rally falling short in April, losing his titles via split decision to Marlon Tapales and costing him a huge payday against Naoya Inoue.
The unbeaten Gonzalez has fought once outside of his native Mexico, his last win by unanimous decision over Jose Sammartin, and will be the underdog assuming Akhmadaliev is motivated entering the bout.
Minneapolis is the site for the final card for Showtime Championship Boxing as the pay cable network is ending its sports department at the end of the year.
The main event is the super middleweight no one wants to face- even the feared David Benavidez isn't interested in fighting the talented but still untested David Morrell, who defends his minor title against another opponent who likely has little chance in Sena Agbeko.
Morrell has impressively blown all of his competition and even though much of it has been second-tier level and below, the wins have been strong enough to want to see Morrell against better competition.
Morrell isn't likely to get that improved opposition against Agbeko, who lost almost every round against his best opponent Vladimir Shishkin.
The co-feature will be a rematch between Chris Colbert and Jose Valenzuela.
The two fought in March with Colbert winning 95-94 despite being knocked down and most people giving Valenzuela the edge.
Neither have fought since, so who knows what their current form will be.
The opener will be a rematch from eleven years ago as welterweights Robert Guerrero and Andre Berto hook up after their fun battle in 2012.
Guerrero won a unanimous decision, knocking Berto down twice, but Berto had his moments as well as the fight continued.
Guerrero's win over Berto allowed him the chance to cash a sizable check in his following fight against Floyd Mayweather and while I don't know that anyone was hungering to see the rematch, I'd rather see the two face each other in an evenly matched affair than get battered by younger fighters.
Boxing Challenge
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