Boxing Preview: Lines Up For Friday (Tonight) and Saturday Night’s Fights

Lopez vs ColemanThe Golden Boy Promotions boxing card scheduled for this Friday night, March 20th in Indio, California will air on Fox Sports 1 and features a welterweight main event where veteran Alfonso Gomez is a slight underdog at (+150) to Japan’s Yoshihiro Kamegai, who is returning at (-190). Popular Alfonso Gomez returns at 34 years old for perhaps one last run. Or Maybe he is here to cash a check, because he had to get up after being floored twice to win a unanimous decision in his last fight, back in July of 2014. Prior to that, he took all of 2013 off after back to back losses, to Shawn Porter and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. In Kamegai, he faces a solid fighter who is still adjusting to international competition, where he is (2-2-1) in fights away from his native Japan. One of those losses came when he dropped a twelve round UD to Robert Guerrero, and he has a win in December over Oscar Godoy that came on the undercard of Devon Alexander and Amir Khan’s fight, so he has been getting exposure and he has been getting big fights The second bout expected to air has veteran featherweight Jesus Navarro a big underdog (+1700) when he faces Ronny Rios, who is returning at (-5100). Rios, at (23-1) overall is coming off the first defeat of his career as he took a loss to surging Robinson Castellanos (19-10) last October where he was dropped in the second round and stopped in the 5th round. Navarro is (22-9) overall, but he has sixteen KO’s in those twenty two wins, so he will be looking to re-touch Rios chin in this one. In Germany on Saturday the 21st of March sees the WBA World Light Heavyweight title on the line as champion Juergen Braehmer is a big favorite (-1700) over Robin Krasniqi, who return at (+800). Now, Sergey Kovalev owns the WBA’s “Super” World title, but Braehmer holds the only major belt not in the Russian’s hands, so the winner of this fight could be in the mix for a showdown with the feared Russian. Krasniqi has an outstanding (43-3) record which is even better looking when you consider he started his career (1-2). His lone significant loss came in his first world title bid back in April of 2013, when he dropped a unanimous decision to Nathan Cleverly. The two fighters have an intertwining story, as Braehmer held the WBO World title, winning it in 2009 and he was stripped of that title after three defenses for pulling out of a fight with Nathan Cleverly three days prior. Perhaps Krasniqi can use that as motivation in some way, but he has been rated the #2 Light Heavyweight in Germany behind Braehmer for a while now. On the undercard, Russian Heavyweight Denis Boytsov is a big favorite (-2300) over Brazilian trial horse Irineu Costa Junior, who comes back on (+1100). Boystsov is looking for his third win in a row after losing his first career bout back in November of 2013 to Alex Leapai. At (35-1) he has to feel close to a title shot, as Leapai parlayed his victory into a world title fight against Wladimir Klitschko in his next outing. Costa (16-3) is big and sturdy, and he has gone (0-3) facing David Price, Joseph Parker and Christian Hammer doing well and giving those prospects rounds, and that is what he is here to do against Boytsov. The Sauerland Events promoted card has several other twelve round bouts and minor titles on the line, so more lines could pop up at the books for this one. None of the matches have an over/under available, and the card will air in Germany on SAT1.

Written by Miguel

Leave a Reply

MMA Odds and Ends for Friday: Noons vs. Cabral Added To UFC FN 67

UFC Fight Night 62 Weigh-in Results for ‘Maia vs LaFlare’ in Rio