ESPN+ and Top Rank have a very nice card for Friday from Glendale, Arizona with three challenge bouts with impact for the future.
In the main event, Oscar Valdez will meet Liam Wilson in a junior lightweight fight that technically isn't for a world title but could become one soon.
Valdez and Wilson have lost to WBO champion Emanuel Navarrete in excellent fights, and should Navarrete succeed in his match in May for the vacant WBO lightweight title against Denys Berinchyk, the winner of this fight for a minor WBO title would likely be promoted to the full championship, so there is plenty at stake here.
Both fighters accounted themselves well against Navarrete with Valdez losing a unanimous decision and Wilson losing by ninth-round knockout but has a case that he should have won after dropping Navarrete in the fourth round and Navarrete being given one of the more egregious long counts in recent memory allowing him to survive.
Wilson has won twice since his loss to Navarrete, while Valdez will be fighting for the first time after his defeat, so it'll be interesting to see how much Valdez has remaining in his return to the ring.
Style-wise, this should be an exciting battle, and on resume, Valdez has a huge edge with the key questions being- did Wilson merely catch lightning in a bottle against Navarrete, and did Valdez leave much of his remaining skills in the ring against Navarrete and may not be the same fighter from now on?
The co-feature will see the first women's bout in challenge history in a strawweight unification between WBA/WBC queen Seniesa Estrada and IBF/WBO boss Yokaska Valle.
I'm not the most knowledgeable women's boxing fan and we won't have an abundance of women's fights for the challenge but the top fights in the sport may be added in the future.
So, why now?
Because I love Seniesa Estrada's fighting style and enthusiasm for the sport, and she appears to be everything right with boxing- I like her. Sue me.
I've only seen a few fights of Valle but people more familiar with her than I am say that this is an excellent fight and far from a squash match for Estrada.
The other bout will pit talented lightweight contender Raymon Muratalla in a ten-rounder against Xolisani Ndongeni.
Muratalla has looked the part of a future champion in his two most recent wins, stopping Diego Torres and Jeremiah Nakathila while Ndongeni was stopped in eight in January by junior welterweight contender Arnold Barboza in his only outing against top competition.
It will be interesting to compare how Muratalla fares against Ndongeni against Barboza's performance against the native of South Africa.
Boxing Challenge
TRS: Muratalla KO 6
V.S: Ndongeni Unanimous Decision
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