I think that depends. Loma was very good but he was not the same. The announcers talked about it during the fight, but he did not throw the right hook, the right uppercut, and he did not do that side step, except during the 11th. I also never saw him slap Pedraza's guard down like he typically does. This fight had a lot of very Loma-like qualities; the speed, the footwork, the movement. But there was also a lot going on that was unlike what we are used to seeing from Loma, from what makes him the best P4P boxer today. He needs to either ge that shoulder healthy, or if it is healthy, re-gain confidence in throwing off that side. I think there are legit questions about Loma's health, and how that shoulder can hold up. It would take an act of God to get Garcia and Loma in the ring together though.
Some other notes: Loma-Pedraza did HUGE numbers for ESPN. Averaged 1.865M viewers over the length of the broadcast, with the main event averaging over 2M viewers. HBO went out with a whimper. Averaged just 276,000 viewers, and peaked during the opening fight. Sad. Lomachenko will be back in April, headlining a card either on ESPN or ESPN+. I'd guess Richard Commey is his likely opponent. Top Rank wants to push Teofimo Lopez pretty aggressively after his insane KO, even talking about a Lopez-Pedraza fight in the 2nd half of 2019. I'd be careful there if I was Top Rank.
David Lemieux off of the Canelo undercard tomorrow. Was supposed to fight Tureano Johnson, but Lemieux was again having issues making weight, and had to go to the hospital for dehydration.
Tonight: 10 PM ET, ESPN+: Gilberto Ramirez vs. Jesse Hart Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez defends his WBO super middleweight title against Jesse Hart in a rematch main event from Corpus Christi, Texas. Ramirez (38-0, 25 KO) defeated Hart (25-1, 21 KO) by decision in Sept. 2017, with Hart climbing off the canvas in the second round to give the champion all he could handle over the course of the 12-round distance. It wound up a close, competitive, and often-exciting fight, and the same is expected of this rematch. Since beating Hart, Ramirez has defended twice this year against fringe contenders, while Hart has gone 3-0 against a slate of middling opposition himself. The eyes have pretty clearly been on pitting these two again in the time since they first fought. Tonight’s show also has a handful of prospects in action, including junior welterweight Arnold Barboza Jr (19-0, 7 KO) and featherweight Mikaela Mayer (8-0, 4 KO).
Barboza-Lopez up first. Barboza is a pretty big prospect, not far away from some notable fights if he comes through tonight well.
Tonight: 8PM ET, streaming on DAZN: Canelo Alvarez vs. Rocky Fielding, Tevin Farmer vs. Francisco Fonseca, Katie Taylor-Eva Washington, Sadam Ali vs. Maurico Herrera. Madison Square Garden plays host to Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez for the first time, as the two-division world champion moves up to super middleweight to challenge Rocky Fielding for the WBA “world” title. Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KO) is making his DAZN debut tonight, too, the first fight of an 11-bout, $365 million deal. He’s the heavy favorite despite moving up in weight, with Fielding (27-1, 15 KO) seen as a relatively safe opponent. But Fielding does have a significant natural height advantage, and we’ll have to see how Canelo’s power translates against a full-fledged 168-pound fighter. You never know — they fight the fights for a reason. Also on the card, Tevin Farmer (27-4-1, 6 KO) defends his IBF super featherweight title against Francisco Fonseca (22-1-1, 16 KO); Katie Taylor (11-0, 5 KO) defends her WBA and IBF lightweight titles against Eva Wahlstrom (22-0-1, 3 KO); Sadam Ali (26-2, 14 KO) takes on Mauricio Herrera (24-7, 7 KO) in a welterweight contest; and lightweight prospect Ryan Garcia (16-0, 13 KO) faces Braulio Rodriguez (19-3, 17 KO).
There's not an easy place to find a list of upcoming fights for them, unfortunately. They've got Canelo today, next week is Dillian Whyte-Dereck Chisora (winner likely fights Anthony Joshua next year), and then Eddie Hearn talked about some of their early 2019 plans here: http://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/...xing-outlines-2019-plans-other-fights-chasing
DAZN card is on the air. Looks like Ryan Garcia got bumped up and will be the first fight on the broadcast momentarily. Got a big time fanbase for a young prospect.
100-90, 99-91, 98-92 for Sadam Ali. That'll be it for Herrera's career, I'd imagine. Been a good one.
Good interview with Danny Jacobs there. Impossible not to like him. Canelo-Jacobs in May would be super fun.