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Friday, Jan. 17
SHO, 10:00 pm ET, Vladimir Shishkin vs Ulises Sierra, Shohjahon Ergashev vs Adrian Estrella, Ja’Rico O’Quinn vs Oscar Vasquez. Another ShoBox tripleheader. Hey, the more ShoBox we get — even if the cards aren’t super great — the better, in my opinion. Shishkin is a terrific prospect at 168, and Ergashev a very good prospect at worst at 140. O’Quinn is a junior bantamweight from Detroit looking to make a mark for a wider audience. BLH will have live coverage.
Saturday, Jan. 18
FS1, 6:30 pm ET, Thomas LaManna vs Jorge Cota, Vito Mielnicki Jr vs Preston Wilson, Romuel Cruz vs Jerrod Miner. The PBC prelims kick off at 6:30 with LaManna-Cota a 10-rounder at 154 as the featured bout, a pair of veterans looking for a win. Mielnicki is a 17-year-old welterweight, and Cruz a 26-year-old Puerto Rican junior featherweight. BLH will have live coverage.
ESPN+, 7:00 pm ET, Alvarez-Seals prelims. Christopher Diaz will be in action, plus Jonathan Guzman and Abraham Nova and heavyweight Jared Anderson, along with a Victor Bisbal-Devin Vargas fight. Bisbal was originally going to fight Agit Kabayel, or that was the idea anyway. BLH will have live coverage.
FOX, 8:00 pm ET, Julian Williams vs Jeison Rosario, Chris Colbert vs Jezreel Corrales, Joey Spencer vs Erik Spring. This isn’t exactly the fight anyone wanted for J-Rock’s first defense, but it’s not the worst fight in the world or anything. Rosario has an OK record with decent wins over Justin DeLoach and Jamontay Clark, but he struggled with Jorge Cota last April and was stopped in six by Nathaniel Gallimore in 2017. Colbert-Corrales is the more interesting fight here; Colbert is a colorful, entertaining prospect, but Corrales still has spoiler abilities in this sort of matchup. Spencer is a 19-year-old middleweight that PBC really like. BLH will have live coverage.
ESPN, 10:00 pm ET, Eleider Alvarez vs Michael Seals, Felix Verdejo vs Manuel Rey Rojas. Alvarez-Seals isn’t a bad fight as Alvarez looks to bounce back and Seals looks to bust through at 37. Seals is pretty much always fun, the guy comes to war. Verdejo, now 26, feels like he’s about 32. He wasn’t exactly thrilling last April against Bryan Vasquez and there are serious doubts about how badly he really wants this. The talent’s always been there, the desire more of a question. The idea appears to be to keep him in relatively easy enough fights that maybe he’ll wake up one day with the mentality that matches his gifts. The good news is that even if the FOX card floats over into the time slot for this show, everyone will be able to see both main events. BLH will have live coverage.