The boxing weekend is in Las Vegas for an incredibly weak PBC pay-per-view on Amazon Prime.
The main event will have a WBA/WBC/WBO (the IBF recently stripped their title) Super Middleweight title defense by Canelo Alvarez against Edgar Berlanga, who is somehow the number one contender in the WBA ratings.
Alvarez retained his titles in his last fight via a unanimous decision over Jaime Munguia in May while the unbeaten Berlanga knocked out Padraig McCrory in six rounds in February, scoring his first knockout in six fights since his heralded seventeen first-round knockouts to begin his career.
Berlanga has never beaten a top-ten fighter in the division, although he does have a few wins over fringe contenders, Jason Quigley, Roamer Angulo. Marcelo Coceres (who knocked Berlanga down), and Steve Rolls.
None of those wins have prepared Berlanga for Alvarez though and for all the ballyhoo about Berlanga's punching power, he hasn't carried it with him when he fought better opponents and now he's facing arguably the best chin in the game?
Not a recipe for victory.
The main event isn't really PPV-worthy other than seeing the top star in the sport in action but the undercard is even worse.
The co-main event is uninspiring as Erislandy Lara defends the WBA middleweight title against former junior welterweight and welterweight champion Danny Garcia.
Lara is in the midst of perhaps the least distinguished middleweight title reign ever with win after win over non-entities, while Garcia has never fought as a middleweight at all, hasn't fought in over two years, and only once in the last four, so there isn't much to be excited about here.
The only glimmer of hope that I have is that with both on their last legs, perhaps the fight might be entertaining but I wouldn't bet on it.
Caleb Plant and Trevor McCumby battle for one of these minor WBA titles that they were supposed to be eliminating at super middleweight in a fight that would be fine on free television but isn't really up to snuff as the third fight on a pay-per-view.
Plant showed heart in his knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez and in his last fight, a unanimous decision loss to David Benavidez but his resume' was light despite a title reign as IBF champion and he hasn't fought for eighteen months.
However Plant's resume' looks like Sugar Ray Robinson's compared to that of the unbeaten McCumby, who notched his best wins against journeymen Christopher Pearson and Donovan George.
I've never thought of Plant as an elite fighter but he's a top-ten-level boxer and while I can't say that McCumby will never reach that level, he hasn't faced anyone of that ilk yet, so he'll have to prove it to me.
The other challenge fight is on the free portion of the show as former WBC and WBO junior featherweight champion Stephen Fulton returns to the ring against Carlos Castro in a featherweight ten-rounder.
Fulton has been off since last July's full title unification match against Naoya Inoue when Inoue stopped Fulton in the eighth round in Tokyo handing Fulton his first defeat.
Previous to the Inoue loss, Fulton had two impressive wins, unifying the WBC and WBO titles via a close decision to Brandon Figueroa in a terrific battle and then an easy decision victory over another former unified champion in Danny Roman.
Castro has lost against his best two opponents, losing a split decision that could have been given to either fighter, to Luis Nery, and being stopped in six by Brandon Figueroa but he's a solid fighter that should test Fulton after his long layoff.
Boxing Challenge
Vince Samano: Alvarez Unanimous Decision
TRS: Plant KO 10
V.S: McCumby KO 9
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