Saturday brings four major boxing cards with some long-awaited returns, close matchups and opportunities for fighters to test their level before engaging in bigger and better things.
In what looks on paper to be a 50-50 fight, junior middleweight contenders Erickson Lubin and Sebastian Fundora will meet in Atlanta with a chance to get closer to a title fight (Showtime, 10 p.m. ET). At stake is a bout against the winner of the Brian Castano-Jermell Charlo bout for the 154-pound undisputed championship, scheduled for May 14. Lubin is the better fighter, but Fundora has height and reach advantages and an uppercut that can end the fight at any moment.
In Japan, Gennadiy Golovkin returns after a 16-month layoff to face Ryota Murata in a middleweight unification bout (DAZN, 5 a.m. ET). Murata last fought in December 2019, but he’ll be competing at home with more than 30,000 fans at the Super Arena in Saitama. A win for Golovkin will guarantee him a trilogy fight against Canelo Alvarez, if Alvarez does his part by beating Dmitry Bivol on May 7. The fight against Murata provides Golovkin with an opportunity to get ready for what could be the biggest fight of his career.
Another title fight will occur in Costa Mesa, California, when unified junior lightweight champion Mikaela Mayer defends her belts against former featherweight champ Jennifer Han in the main event of a Top Rank card (ESPN/ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET). Mayer is coming off the best win of her career against Maiva Hamadouche, and a victory this weekend can set up more unification fights before she moves up to the 135-pound division, where the two best women fighters in the world, Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, reside. While Han is the more experienced fighter, can she derail Mayer’s trajectory to the top?
Lastly, the long overdue return of lightweight sensation Ryan Garcia is finally here (DAZN, 9 p.m. ET). And while his opponent, Emmanuel Tagoe, is not a top-level fighter, this bout will be a good test for Garcia in his first outing since defeating Luke Campbell in January 2021. He has taken time off to address his mental health and recover from surgery on his right hand. Is Garcia still the fast, powerful and exciting fighter who earned the title of ESPN’s fighter of the year in 2017?
Let’s take a look at the four main events this weekend.
Source: www.espn.com