The Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York hosts the year’s last card fro broadcaster HBO this Saturday, December 19th. The main event bout sees high-level Heavyweight action as undefeated Luis Ortiz (23-0) takes on Bryant Jennings (19-1). The bout is a defense by Ortiz of his interim WBA Heavyweight title, and Ortiz is currently coming in a (-165) favorite at the Sport books, with the return on Jennings coming in at (+145). Th match does not have an over/under line posted as of yet, but if anyone is going to win by KO it is the aggressive Ortiz, who goes by the nickname “The Real King Kong” and has 20 KO’s in his 23 wins. Jennings is much more of a technique oriented boxer, and he re-affirmed that by going the distance in his last outing against Wladimir Klitschko. Klitschko called Jennings a “future champion” after the fight, and Jennings was able to show a wide array of skill. This is one of three world titles the WBA has issued, as Russia’s Ruslan Chagaev and Australia’s Lucas Browne are scheduled to meet for the full WBO World title in March of 2016, and Tyson Fury captured the WBO’s “Super” World title from Wladimir Klitschko this past November. With Fury out of the question due to his planned re-match with Klitschko, and with the Browne-Chagaev showdown 3 months away, it is unclear what will come next for the winner, as it really appears as if the WBA is just grabbing sanctioning fees with now shame. The card also features the return of Nicholas Walters, the former Super Featherweight Champion who remains undefeated at (26-0) as he faces the challenge of Jason Sosa (18-1-3). Walters is a big (-1375) favorite over Sosa, who is retuning at (+900). Also on the card is former world champion Yuriorkis Gamboa of Cuba, who returns in a 10 round Lightweight bout at 10 rounds. gamboa, who is (24-1) is a huge (-4500) favorite at the sport books, with WIlliams Jr returning at (+1500). Both Walters and Gamboa are in feature fights that they are supposed to win, as both are among the highest skilled fighters in their weight classes but both have faced some setbacks. For Walters, who was a hot name in boxing after his KO win over Nonito Donaire a little while back, he lost his world title becuae he failed to make weight and the big fight and major payday he was hoping for never materialized. It will be intersting to see if Walters struggles with the weight for this fight. For Gamboa, he lost his world title to Terrence Crawford, and he has been inconsistent in his boxing since. gamboa is one of a group of Cuban amateur champions that included Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara who defected to turn pro. All three have attained world titles, but all have a reputation for being hard to deal with. Gamboa adds to his own problems with problems on the domestic front in the past, and he badly needs a good win to remain releveant.
