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Thursday, Sept. 5
Facebook/RingTV, 10:00 pm ET, Azat Hovhannisyan vs Franklin Manzanilla. A couple of former title challengers, both losing their 122-pound title fights to Rey Vargas, Hovhannisyan in May 2018 and Manzanilla in February of this year. Manzanilla can crack, as he’s 18-5 (17 KO), and his KOs aren’t just against scrubs, either — he stopped Julio Ceja in 2018. Hovhannisyan has won three straight by stoppage since his loss to Vargas, beating Jesus Martinez, Lolito Sonsona, and Glenn Porras in October, February, and June. Both guys are really more fringe contender than serious contender, but fringe contenders get world title fights all the time. Usually we’d have live coverage for this one, but I’m off this week since this is literally the only notable TV card of the week.
Things pick up big again NEXT week, with Fury-Wallin, Navarrete-Elorde, and Pedraza-Zepeda on ESPN+, two DAZN cards on Friday and Saturday where we’ll get Haney-Abdullaev, Roman-Akhmadaliev, Hardy-Serrano, Munguia-Allotey, and Garcia-Sparrow, and more.