July 9: Las Vegas (ESPN) Carlos Takam vs. Jerry Forrest, 10 rounds, heavyweights Carlos Castro vs. Cesar Juarez, 10 rounds, junior featherweights Fred Wilson Jr. vs. Donte Stubbs, 6 rounds, middleweights Robin Sirwan Safar vs. DeShon Webster, 8 rounds, cruiserweights Peter Cortez vs. Corey Champion, 4 rounds, welterweights Joshafat Ortiz vs. Joshua Orta, 6 rounds, junior lightweights
ESPN, 8:00 pm ET, Carlos Takam vs Jerry Forrest, Carlos Castro vs Cesar Juarez. Another adjusted main event, as this was supposed to be Big Baby Miller’s return, but then, y’know, he Big Baby Miller’d again. Forrest is a decent opponent type of fighter — he really should have gotten a win over “top prospect” Jermaine Franklin on ShoBox — and I think he’s halfway dangerous here against Takam, a solid veteran fighter and another decent short notice get. Castro is an unbeaten 122-pounder, a little old as a prospect at 26, but has some skills. Juarez is a “young veteran” type at 28. He was decently competitive still with Ryosuke Iwasa last year, but at the end of the year was really given what’s for by Angelo Leo. We’ll see if Juarez is starting to go washed or if Leo is just as good as he looked that night. We’ll also see prospects Joshafat Ortiz and Joshua Orta square off in a six-round lightweight fight, and Fred Wilson Jr takes on Donte Stubbs in a six-round middleweight bout. Stubbs just fought on ESPN on June 30, losing to Isiah Jones, who had himself turned around from a June 16 loss on ESPN. Stubbs will look to do to Wilson what Jones did to him, basically
Main Card (ESPN, 9:00 pm ET) Mikaela Mayer (12-0, 5 KO) vs Helen Joseph (17-4-1, 10 KO), junior lightweights, 10 rounds Clay Collard (7-2-3, 2 KO) vs LT Nelson (5-3, 4 KO), middleweights, 6 rounds Ruben Cervera (11-2, 10 KO) vs Clay Burns (9-8-2, 4 KO), lightweights, 6 rounds Javier Martinez (debut) vs Jonathan Burrs (2-1, 0 KO), middleweights, 4 rounds Honestly, there's not much here. Clay Collard is fun as hell though.
Sorry, just saw this. I still haven’t given up complete hope on Verdejo in the main, and it’s a decent matchup for him.
This is one of the better ESPN cards since the hiatus. Tuesday, July 21 ESPN, 8:00 pm ET, Oscar Valdez vs Jayson Velez. This is a packed card in terms of quantity, and a lot of reasons to tune in. Along with a decent Valdez-Velez main event at 130, we’ve got 168-pound prospect Edgar Berlanga, former 122-pound titlist Isaac Dogboe, heavyweight prospect Guido Vianello, ESPY winner Kim Clavel, and more. Valdez is fighting to maintain a slot in line to face WBC titleholder Miguel Berchelt sooner than later. This is also the only Top Rank show this week, as they’re not running on Thursday (Major League Baseball is taking over ESPN that night) and are also taking the final week of July off before gearing up for August cards. Oscar Valdez (27-0, 21 KO) vs Jayson Velez (29-6-1, 21 KO), junior lightweights, 10 rounds Edgar Berlanga (13-0, 13 KO) vs Eric Moon (11-2, 6 KO), super middleweights, 8 rounds Kim Clavel (11-0, 2 KO) vs Natalie Gonzalez (6-0, 1 KO), junior flyweights, 8 rounds Elvis Rodriguez (7-0-1, 7 KO) vs Dennis Okoth (4-3-1, 2 KO), junior welterweights, 6 rounds Isaac Dogboe (20-2, 14 KO) vs Chris Avalos (27-7, 20 KO), featherweights, 8 rounds
me being behind and having every fight spoiled for me is an extremely underrated and hilarious aspect of it this thread.
Credit to Showtime, who had been basically doing the bare minimum boxing wise the last year or so. This is a nice schedule for the year.