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Friday, March 8
ESPN+, 2:30 pm ET, Anthony Yarde vs Travis Reeves, Daniel Dubois vs Razvan Cojanu, Liam Williams vs Joe Mullender, Johnny Garton vs Chris Jenkins. The 21-year-old Dubois is a rising prospect in the heavyweight division, currently 9-0 (8 KO) with a win over durable veteran Kevin Johnson last time out. Cojanu is another vet, one who has gotten a career boost from losing to Joseph Parker on short notice in May 2017. He’s in his window as an accepted Professional Opponent, having lost three in a row to Parker, Luis Ortiz, and Nathan Gorman. Williams-Mullender and Garton-Jenkins are British title fights at 160 and 147, respectively, and Yarde is a climbing light heavyweight. BLH will have live coverage.
DAZN, 3:00 pm ET, Daniele Scardina vs Henri Kekalainen, Vissia Trovato vs Erika Cruz Hernandez. A card from Milan, Italy. Scardina is a 26-year-old super middleweight, 15-0 (14 KO), facing an 11-5 club fighter from Finland. The women’s fight is for the vacant WBC “silver” title at 126, and there’s also a welterweight fight between Maxim Prodan and Steve Jamoye for an IBF trinket.
Telemundo, 11:35 pm ET, Saul Juarez vs Mario Andrade.
Saturday, March 9
FS1, 6:30 pm ET, Juan Carlos Payano vs Damien Vazquez, Eimantas Stanionis vs Sammy Figueroa. The main bout here is potentially interesting. Payano is a former bantamweight titleholder who was knocked out of the WBSS tournament last October in 70 seconds by Naoya Inoue. Vazquez is the younger brother of the great Israel Vazquez. Stanionis-Figueroa is basically a ShoBox-style matchup, with Stanionis, a 2016 Olympian from Lithuania, meant to be showcased. BLH will have live coverage.
DAZN, 7:00 pm ET, Dmitry Bivol vs Joe Smith Jr, Maurice Hooker vs Mikkel LesPierre, Callum Johnson vs Seanie Monaghan, Sergey Kuzmin vs Joey Dawejko. Bivol-Smith is for Bivol’s secondary (well, usually it would be, but as pointed out, they actually have no “super world” champion, so — well, it’s complicated) WBA “world” light heavyweight title, but more important is that Bivol is a top fighter at 175, and Smith is a powerful, potentially dangerous challenger. Hooker-LesPierre is for Hooker’s WBO 140-pound belt. Johnson is thought to be in line for a shot at the main event’s winner, provided he beats Monaghan as expected. BLH will have live coverage.
FOX, 8:00 pm ET, Shawn Porter vs Yordenis Ugas, Francisco Santana vs Abel Ramos, Efe Ajagba vs Amir Mansour. Porter defends the WBC welterweight title against Ugas in the main event, which is not a bad fight — Ugas has earned his shot by going on quite a run the last couple of years. Santana-Ramos was added to the card when Andrzej Fonfara retired and scrapped his scheduled bout with Edwin Rodriguez. Ajagba is a heavyweight prospect with big power, still best known for being the guy who Curtis Harper left the ring against in August of last year. BLH will have live coverage.