A full day of boxing on Saturday. Two championship fights, Navarrete vs Suarez for Navarrete's WBO junior lightweight title and Muratalla vs Abdullaev for the vacant IBF lightweight interim title. Hopefully, better fights than last week's.
May 10: San Diego (ESPN/ESPN+)
- Title fight: Emanuel Navarrete vs. Charly Suarez, 12 rounds, for Navarrete's WBO junior lightweight title
- Title fight: Raymond Muratalla vs. Zaur Abdullaev, 12 rounds, for the vacant IBF lightweight interim title
- Sammy Contreras vs. Dyllon Cervantes, 4 rounds, junior welterweights
- Andres Cortes vs. Salvador Jimenez, 10 rounds, junior lightweights
- Giovanni Santillan vs. Angel Beltran, 10 rounds, welterweights
- Perla Bazaldua vs. Mona Ward, 4 rounds, women's junior bantamweights
- Albert Gonzalez vs. Jose Guardado, 10 rounds, featherweights
- Alan Garcia vs. Cristian Medina Garcia, 8 rounds, lightweights
- Sebastian Hernandez vs. Azat Hovhannisyan, 8 rounds, junior featherweights
May 10: Malabo, Equatorial Guinea
- Souleymane Cissokho vs. Egidijus Kavaliauskas, 12 rounds, welterweights
- Nico Ali Walsh vs. Ebenezer Sowah, 6 rounds, middleweights
May 10: Nottingham, England (DAZN)
- Anthony Cacace vs. Leigh Wood, 12 rounds, junior lightweights
- Liam Davies vs. Kurt Walker, 12 rounds, featherweights
- Ezra Taylor vs. Troy Jones, 10 rounds, light heavyweights
- Owen Cooper vs. Chris Kongo, 10 rounds, welterweights
- Sam Noakes vs. TBA, 8 rounds, lightweights
- Lewis Williams vs. TBA, 6 rounds, heavyweights
- Nico Leivars vs. TBA, 6 rounds, junior featherweights
May 10: Kissimmee, Florida
- Erickson Lubin vs. Ardreal Holmes Jr., 12 rounds, junior middleweights
- Nazarena Romero vs. Mayelli Flores Rosquero, 10 rounds, women's junior featherweights
Yes anything would be better than the first two cards the Sunday title fights were damn good. Navarette has never been in a boring fight as he only knows how to attack with his chin available to be struck if you can time his aggression.
In England Cacae vs Wood could be an all action fight if Wood still can bring the energy he had before he lost his title. This card has many White prospect fights too.
PS somebody with sense needs to get the ear of Ali's grandson as he is now fighting in Equatorial Guinea. The only thing I ever heard from that country is a new outbreak of a tropical disease or a military coup. His grandson will be punchy without a pot to piss in if he keeps up fighting in these locals with the quality of opponents he is fighting.
PS2 I looked it up and Zaur Abduellev is an ethnic Armenian so that's another White fighter in action. I assumed he was one of the endless conveyer belt of lower weight class Eurasian Muslims. His family must have Russified their surname X generations ago. He will need to win this one convincingly as I guess he is the B side opponent as this is promoted in San Diego against an ethnic Mexican or possible Mexican national.
On Saturday during the late afternoon Cacae vs Wood had the potential to be a barn burner if Wood still could bring the heat that he had when the he was the WBA featherweight champion but too many wars have sapped his punch resistance and ability to deliver fast and powerful counterpunches. In the end Cacae brought too much power and a stout chin to the fight and aside from solo punches it was largely one way traffic with the Wood corner throwing the towel in the final round with Woods wobbling around the ring trying to survive to the bell.
Cacae similar to Wood is 36 years old but is surprisingly spry and at his peak abilities. While only his off brand title was on the line he should be in the mix for mainstream title fight at some point this year as time is of the essence for a boxer in this age range.
I missed the prospect fights less the end of a bout that was the semifinal of the main event.
In the semifinal bout of the ESPN card Zaur Abdulalev just never got into 2nd gear let alone 3rd or 4th gear less one brief moment where he wobbled Muratalla and he lost a wide and fairly obvious decision. He was too measured and seemed to be looking for the perfect counterpunch. The hand speed difference could have been a factor, this will be a hard road back to this point as this was his second bite of the apple.
As a I speculated Emanuel Navarrete survived another war with a bad cut stopping the fight but similar to a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western hero he gave more lead than he took and largely had the better of the exchanges against his Filipino opponent.
He could have a rematch with the Filipino challenger as the video review was inconclusive whether he was cut with a headbutt or a punch and after the cut the action was wild similar to any of the westerns from the Spaghetti Western era.
https://ringmagazine.com/en/news/fernando-martinez-beats-kazuto-ioka-result-tokyoPS 3 White Argentine Fernando Martinez defended his 115 pound title in Japan early this morning with a tight bruising decision where he got off the canvas to outbox his challenger who is a former champion himself. I didn't know about this bout and just read the results off the wire reports.
