Fight Week Preview
Following up on the mega fight from last week we get a pretty intriguing week of boxing. A mid-week card and two cards to fill up our Saturday.
The action kicks off in a familiar site, the Whitesands Event Center in Plant City, Florida as the PROBOX TV Series continues on. In the main event former world title challenger Pablo Cesar Cano, 34-8-1 (24), who has shared the ring with Paulie Mlaignaggi, and Shane Mosley and has wins over Ashley Rheophane and Mauricio Herrera and has a first-round KO of Jorge Linares returns to the ring and battles Brooklyn, NY native Zachary Ochoa, 21-3 (7) in a ten round main event. Ochoa is looking to bounce back from a two-fight losing streak. In his last two outings, he dropped a close decision to world title challenger Juan Jose Velasco and then was stopped by Brandun Lee last April on the undercard of Spence-Ugas.
Also on the card are undefeated prospects Omar Salcido of Mexico who puts his shiny 17-0 (12) record on the line against Jose Nunez, 15-0-2 (7) in a battle of unbeaten Super Featherweight.
Lightweight Canadian KO artist Trevor Thonson, who has 8 KO's in 8 pro fights, also returns and will battle Williw Shaw, 14-5 (10) who has been the distance with prospects like Omar Juarez and Joseue Vargas.
The action then moves to the UK on Saturday as we have a fan-friendly can't-miss scrap between "Leigh-That" Leigh Wood, 27-3 (16), who battles Josh Warrington, 31-2-1 (8), for Wood's WBA Super Featherweight world title. Wood won the belt in his rematch with Mauricio Lara in May after being stopped by Lara in February. Warrington held the IBF featherweight title from 2018-19 and in 2022. He lost his belt to Luis Alberto Lopez in late 2022 in a very close and competitive Fight of the Year type scrap. He has not fought since. The undercard features Hopet Price, 11-0 (4), in a battle of unbeatable prospects as he battles Connor Coghill, 14-0 (1), in a fight, that is almost certainly going the distance. Also, Kieron Conway19-3-1(4), bounced back nicely from his points loss to Austin Williams by outpointing Jorge Silva on the Wood-Lara I undercard. He will battle Linus Udofia 18-1 (9) in a 12-round affair. Udofia dropped a hotly contested split decision to Denzel Bentley for the British Middleweight belt in May.
On the evening's final card, we got an intriguing fan-friendly slugfest between two former light heavyweight world champions as former WBO Light Heavyweight champ Joe Smith Jr, 28-4 (22) battles Gilberto Ramirez, 44-1 (30) meet-up at the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas in a cruiserweight fight. Each combatant looks to rebound from an L in their previous fight. Ramirez dropped a decision to Dmitri Bviol in Abu Dhabi last year before barely missing weight and having his only fight thus far in 2023 canceled. Smith Jr. of Mastic, New York, was destroyed by Artur Beterbiev at the Mecca of Boxing last June. The co-main event is an intriguing middleweight fight between Bektemir Melikuziev, 12-1 (9), against Alantez Fox, 28-4-1 (13), who looks to bounce back from a controversial loss to Canadian Erik Bazinyan. Melikuziev has won five in a row since his stunning KO loss to Gabe Rosado in 2021, including his last win, a UD victory over Rosado in April. The card also features prospect Rajon Chance of New Jersey, Tristian Kalkreuth, and Darius Fulghum.
