The USC Galen Center in Los Angeles, California hosts Showtime boxing this Saturday, December 10th for an eight fight boxing card that features two world title fights in the main event slots. In Super Welterweight 12 round action, IBF world champion Jermall Charlo (24-0) defends his belt against Julian Williams (22-0-1). Right now the lines at the sports books are razor thin, as Williams is paying back at +105 to Charlo’s -125. There is no over under posted as of yet. Charlo is making the third defense of the belt he won back in September of 2015 when he defeated veteran Corneliuas Bundrage by TKO in the third round. At 26 years old, Charlo is just coming into his own. He has already successfully defended the title twice, beating Wilky Campfort and Austin Trout. Campfort is 32 years old and Trout is 33, while Bundrage was already in his 40’s when Charlo beat him, so in Williams he is facing his first opponent he does not have the advantage of youth and athleticism over. Williams, who fights out of Philadelphia and carries that city’s fighting history very close to his heart, also brings hunger and fire as well as technique to the fight. The WBA Featherweight world title will be contested between champion Jesus Andres Cuellar (28-1) and Abner Mares (29-2-1) in another bout that has a very competitive line at the sports books. Right now Cuellar is favored at -155 with the comeback on Mares at +135. Fireworks are expected, though both men have been off for more than a year. We last saw Cuellar in December of 2015 when he successfully defended the WBA world featherweight title against Johnathan Oquendo. Culler first grabbed an interim version of the WBA belt back in august of 2013 so he has been a part of the world title picture gong on 3 years. He defended the interinm belt several times including a blasting of Puerto Rico’s Juan Manuel Lopez in two rounds. He upgraded the interim belt to a full world title in June of 2015 when he stopped veteran Vic Darchinyan in eight rounds. as for mares, we have not seen him since his loss to Leo Santa Cruz in August of 2015. The former three weight class world champion Mares is looking to prove he is still relevant in today’s title picture with this fight, but he is returning to fight over 30 years old and he has a lot of ring time logged against top guys. The card is promoted by Ruchard Schaefer and his Ringstar Sports and features eight fights in all. With up and coming names like Sergey Lipinets (10-0), Erickson Lubin (16-0) and Hugo Centeno Jr (24-1) on the card, there is a good chance more lines will pop up at the sports books.
