The Don Haskins Convention Center in El Paso, Texas hosts the latest “Premier Boxing Channel” broadcast on CBS this Saturday, and the main event features champion Carl Frampton (20-0) defending his IBF World Super Bantamweight title against Alejandro Gonzalez Jr (25-1-2). The match sees Frampton, the #1 ranked Super Bantamweight in the world (boxrec.com) a wide favorite at (-4500), with the comeback on Gonzalez paying (+2250). In many ways, this is the biggest fight of Frampton’s career. Signing on with “PBC” he is stepping outside of England and his comfort zone to go to the Texas-Mexican border to fight a Mexican fighter who is the son of a former World Champion, so he may perhaps feel what his opponents have felt fighting him in England. The added international attention has also created talk of a showdown with Cuba’s super-stud Guillermo Rigondeaux (15-0), and British rival and WBA World titlist Scott Quigg also represents a jump to bigger paydays for Frampton. Gonzalez Jr has already put in a lot of ring time for a 22 year old and he has held a WBC Youth Silver-level belt, but he is not nearly as polished as Frampton. Many of his opponents have been fighters with weaker records or even fighters making their debuts and he has never been scheduled for a bout at twelve rounds before. He experienced the first loss of his career in April of 2014 and he has won three fights since. All three of those were eight rounders and the combined record of all three trial-horse opponents was (40-29-7), so this is in sharp contrast to Frampton, whose resume since 2012 features a solid level of competition. The other big feature on the card is set to air on Showtime and it features Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (48-2-1) taking on Marcos Reyes (33-2) in a Super Middleweight 10-rounder. Chavez Jr has come in the favorite at the sport books, paying (-1200), with Reyes coming back at (+775). All eyes will be on Chavez Jr. for this fight, as the second generation star is looking to basically re-start his career. Over the last three years he has gone (2-2) , and the inactivity is partially due to a suspension for smoking pot and a drawn out contract dispute with ex-promoter Top Rank. A former world champion at Middleweight, Chavez Jr also battled weight problems in his two wins, both against Brian Vera. For his last outing, in April of this year, he returned as a Light Heavyweight to face rugged Andrzej Fonfara, who pounded him most of the fight, eventually dropping Chavez and getting him to quit. Now Chavez returns as a Super middleweight in what he is stating is his best and true weight class. Reyes is a hungry fighter who absorbed the first meaningful loss of his career last October, when he lost to Abraham Han on the undercard of the Gennady Golovkin vs Marco Antonio Rubio bout at the StubHub Center. Though Chavez’ name is sullied with his inconsistencies the last few years, a win here for Reyes would be a big career boost. The live event also features a duel of undefeated Super Flyweights as McJoe Arroyo (16-0) faces Arthur Villanueva (27-0) as the seek to gain the vacant IBF World title. Also of interest is the continued comeback of Heavyweight Chris Arreola (36-4) as he faces Fred Kassi (18-3) in a scheduled ten round bout. This would give Arreola a second win in a row since he lost to Bermane Stiverne in May of 2014 in a failed bid to win the vacant WBC World title. The books may post lines for additional fights especially if the Showtime and CBS broadcasts both have supporting fights airing.
