Saturday night's Boxing After Dark on HBO features a main event bout between middleweights Edison Miranda and Willie Gibbs and a super featherweight showdown between undefeated "American Boy" Jason Litzau and Mexican-American Jose Andres Hernandez, live from Miami. Both fights are ten round affairs.
Miranda, of course, is still gunning for Arthur Abraham, who defeated him in September in controversial fashion, as most decisions are. For now, though, he has to tackle dangerous Philadelphia product Willie "The Gladiator" Gibbs, owner of a 20-1 career record with 16 knockouts.
Most are predicting this as a step above a showcase for Miranda, who is indeed a fighter with some wicked power (23 KOs over his 26-1 career), but I'm certain Gibbs has other ideas. It's one of those fights where I can seriously see the upset coming through. Miranda is looking ahead to Abraham, if he can get him again, and Gibbs is simply a stepping stone.
The opening bout of the televised portion of the card sees Litzau looking to make his mark on HBO. Fighting out of St. Paul, Minnesota, Litzau is 20-0 with 18 knockouts. He is 23 years old, trained and managed by Bob Van Syckle, and has yet to notch a standout win.
Hernandez, 30, is 21-3 with 13 knockouts, so he's the obvious fall guy in this situation. He's never been in the ring with a marquee fighter. I have no idea what to expect out of this fight, but the setup is meant to be a Litzau KO.
Not televised will be former golden boy Joel Julio taking on Francisco Campas (20-8-1) in further efforts to regain his status after being manhandled by Carlos Quintana this summer. Julio won a split decision over journeyman Cosme Rivera in late October, and Julio really needs an impressive victory right now.
We'll be here Saturday night with live, round-by-round coverage of the two BAD fights, and hopefully we'll get some word on how Julio looks in his fight, too. We hope you'll join us in two days time.