The weekend's biggest name fights in Glasgow, Scotland, as former undisputed junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor moves to the welterweight division against Ekow Essuman.
Taylor's star dimmed after his 2021 win over Jose Ramirez unified all four titles as Taylor began vacating titles, won a very controversial decision over Jack Catterall, and lost the WBO title (the only one he kept) to Teofimo Lopez. and lost a rematch to Catterall in his last fight last May.
Essuman has only one loss, but he's never fought above the European level, and he's thirty-six, so if Taylor doesn't win this one, he could be at the end of the line.
The co-feature will see the best heavyweight prospect, bomber Moses Itauma, take center stage.
Itauma looked devastating in his first-round destruction of Demsey McKean in December, and his opponent, Mike Balogun, was knocked out in two rounds in his only loss against former cruiserweight champion Murat Gassiev, so this could end early.
On Friday, a solid European lightweight fight comes from Doncaster, England, with veterans Maxi Hughes and Archie Sharp facing off in a crossroads battle.
Hughes bounced back from his loss to William Zepeda with a dominant, unanimous decision win over once-beaten Gary Cully in December, while Sharp lost for the first time last July to Ryan Garner in a battle of unbeatens.
The winner will move on to a bigger fight, perhaps even a title eliminator; the loser will slide back to English level status.
The previous three fights can be seen on DAZN, but the only world title bout of the week comes from ProBox as Angelo Leo defends his IBF featherweight title in Osaka, Japan, against Tomoki Kameda.
Leo pulled an upset last August when he won the title with a tenth-round upset of Luis Alberto Lopez, knocking Lopez cold.
Kameda is one of the seemingly ten thousand brothers of the Kameda family and once owned the WBO bantamweight title.
Kameda avenged a previous split decision defeat to Lerato Diamini with a split decision win of his own last August.
Boxing Challenge
V.S.: Essuman Unanimous Decision
Heavyweights 10 Rds
TRS: Itauma KO 2
V.S.: Balogun Unanimous Decision
V.S: Kameda KO 8
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