This Week In Boxing: January 10–11
Claressa Shields looks to make history, Jaime Munguia begins a new chapter of his career, and a top prospect in action.
Yes, the return of This Week In Boxing. This is how it all started. If you’re in our world famous chat, you follow us on twitter, see the GIFs or listen to the podcast. It all started off this series and in 2020 I’m going to do my best to make sure it never leaves.
Friday January 10th, 2020
From Ocean Resort Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA
Main Card: 6:00 PM PT, 9:00 pm ET, 2:00 AM GMT
TV: Showtime (US)
🏅Claressa Shields 9(2) — 0 vs. Ivana Habazin 20(7) — 3
10 rounds
vacant WBC World Female Super Welter Title
vacant WBO World Female Super Welter Title
An undisputed champion with two Olympic golds, the self-proclaimed GWOAT endeavors to become boxing’s fastest 3-division champion.
Just a year ago Claressa Shields had what could be viewed as a game-changing fight for women’s boxing. On the back of a tremendous build and promotion for her fight with Christina Hammer, Shields turned in a performance that transcended what was previously thought of as a “great performance” by a female fighter. For 10 rounds Shields put on an elite display of crisp counter punching and elusive head movement that blurred the gender line.
The important thing was that it was also a radical departure from the Shields we’d seen in the past. Prior to the Hammer fight Shields looked like a volume puncher who swarmed and would use her superior speed to basically cover up any need for defense. The new and improved version of Shields under John David Jackson legitimately looks like she could match what Ronda Rousey brought to the UFC.
The important thing is that Shields needs to be consistent with what she showed in her last fight. Ivana Habazin is an accomplished world champion and a skilled fighter. Meanwhile Shields is dropping down in weight weight again in search of another title. She continues to stack the deck against herself hoping to find an even greater challenge.
Jaron Ennis 24(22) — 0 vs. Bakhtiyar Eyubov 14(12) — 1–1
10 rounds
welterweight division
Blue-chip prospect Jaron Ennis faces a once-beaten Kazakh, once seen as a promising prospect himself with power and aggression to spare. Promotional issues slowed Boots’ rise, but he’ll have to be at his sharpest here because thus far despite ShoBox’s investment in him he is swimming upstream.
🏅Alicia Napoleon-Espinosa 12(7) — 1 vs Elin Cederroos 7(4) — 0
10 rounds
WBA World Female Super Middle Title
IBF World Female Super Middle Title
Not going to sit here and act like experts of women’s boxing.
But with a single loss to separate them, Napoleon-Espinosa and Cederroos come together to unify the WBA and IBF 168 pound belts. Napolean-Espinosa has been clashing with Shields on Twitter and she’s expected to get a shot at Claressa’s 160 pound belts later in the year if she can win here.
Saturday January 11th, 2020
From Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Main Card: 6:00 PM PT, 9:00 PM ET, 2:00 AM GMT
Undercard: 4:00 PM PT, 7:00 PM ET, 12:00 AM GMT
Online: DAZN
Jaime Munguia 34(27) — 0 vs. Gary O’Sullivan 30(21) — 3
12 rounds
middleweight division
At long last Jaime Munguia moves up to middleweight. Initially this was supposed to happen back in May of 2018 when he was being considered as a replacement opponent for Gennady Golovkin after Canelo’s whole clenbuterol fiasco. The Munguia-Golovkin fight didn’t happen and hindsight tells us it was a great move for Munguia. So far he’s thoroughly disappointed in showing off the kind of skill that would land him in the same sentences as Golovkin and Canelo.
In fact, part of the disappointment from Munguia comes from the fact that his first moment in the spotlight was being seen as an opponent for one of the two best middleweights in the world. Since the fight didn’t happen it gave way to this fantasy scenario where fans saw Munguia being some great B-side opponent for Canelo in a huge all Mexican showdown in Mexico.
When you consider huge fights against Canelo and Golovkin and then look at what Munguia has done in the ring it doesn’t line up. His best win was over a faded and massively undersized Sadam Ali. Munguia’s fights with Liam Smith, Dennis Hogan, and Takeshi Inoue were all wins albeit incredibly tough fights and two were close enough to call the other way.
When you consider the type of fights Munguia has been fantasy booked into and then look at his accomplishments thus far, it can definitely make him look like a far bigger disappointment than he actually is.
There are two saving graces for Munguia at this point in his career. First is that he’s 23 years old. He’s got a lot of tread on the tire and if he can tighten up his defense he can buy himself more time to grow into what his handlers see in him or at least to the point where they can cash out in a big way.
The second thing is that while this isn’t exactly translating into ticket sales and fan attention, he’s a fun fighter. He’s been in plenty of entertaining fights thus far and his defense is such that it doesn’t look likely he’s gonna be in any bad fights anytime soon.
As for Saturday’s fight, this is a tough one. Spike O’Sullivan is a tough guy who comes to fight. Sure he got face planted by David Lemieux, but let’s not forget Lemieux is one of the legitimate one punch guys in the sport. If you want a good Spike fight to watch where you can see what he brings to the ring check out what he did with Chris Eubank Jr.
🏅Franchon Crews-Dezurn 6(2) — 1 vs Alejandra Jimenez 12(9) — 0–1
10 rounds
WBC World Female Super Middle Title
WBO World Female Super Middle Title
Again, not going to pretend like an expert on women’s boxing. Shields gets all the attention at this point, but fights like this one will go a long way in bringing the sport out of the shadows.
Alejandra’s Mexican background and uncommon record of knockouts may provide her a platform to popularity if she can just keep winning. But she’ll first have to wrest the unified WBC and WBO 168 pound belts from Franchon (who hasn’t lost since a debutante battle with Claressa Shields).
Crews-Dezurn doesn’t mean to look past Jimenez, but she’s made it no secret that the Shields rematch is her true end-game. Coach Barry Hunter and her promoter Bernard Hopkins both laud her work ethic and are fully behind her.
From Mark G. Etess Arena, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Atlantic City
Main Card: 7:00 PM PT, 10:00 PM ET, 3:00 AM GMT
Undercard: 3:30 PM PT, 6:30 PM ET, 11:30 PM GMT (ESPN+)
TV: ESPN (US)
Jesse Hart 26(21) — 2 vs. Joe Smith Jr. 24(20) — 3
10 rounds
light heavyweight division
A division can freeze if the contenders are chasing a single big name. But now the light heavyweight division has a lot of top guys facing off to establish themselves and fill the void left by Andre Ward, Sergey Kovalev, and Adonis Stevenson.
Jesse Hart’s had serious chin questions in the past getting dropped by journeyman Dashon Johnson and Gilberto Ramirez. He can now answer them against Joe Smith, who knocked Hopkins out of the ring and stopped Fonfara in 1 round as a 25–1 underdog.
A vacant WBO title bout approaches with Hart ranked #3. Joe Smith fell short against Barrera and Bivol, but proved as dangerous as ever hurting both. We have a perfect crossroads clash here where the winner could be catapulted into a title shot and the loser left grasping for answers.
Not to mention, Hart wants to punish Smith for the horrific way he retired his idol, Hopkins. While Smith wants to make Hart respect him as much as he does Bernard.
Steven Nelson 15(12) — 0 vs. Cem Kilic 14(9) — 0
10 rounds
super middleweight division
You know that great feeling when a fight falls through, but you get something comparable or even better instead? Like what happened with AJ-Miller and Kovalev-Browne? Undefeated 168 pound prospects Steven Nelson and Cem Kilic were set to clash hidden on an ESPN+ undercard. With Rob Brant injured, they’ve been called up to take his place co-maining on regular ESPN.
This is the exact fight that so many say we need more of. Bomac-trained Nelson believes this will parallel stablemate Crawford accepting a short-notice HBO fight with Prescott, McGirt believes his protege, Kilic, is peaking in skill and power for this. Whether the winner (and loser) is someone worth keeping an eye on going forward, we’ll find out on Saturday.
Joseph Adorno 14 (12) — 0 vs. Hector Garcia 14 (8) — 7–3
8 rounds
lightweight division
One of Top Rank’s biggest hopes is just 20 years old. “Blessed hands” has been noted for his power in both. A 178–22 amateur record is already impressive, but the 65 knockouts in that span more so. Puerto Rican roots and a mean left-hook have already drawn comparisons to Miguel Cotto. A step-up is expected in the near future and a world of opportunity awaits if his power continues to hold up.
And Garcia brings an interesting quantity to the table. His record (as is the case with many Mexican fighters) betrays his ruggedness. The man from Tijuana was thrown to the wolves rather than built up. But in a majority decision loss, he gave hell to Joe Noynay, who hasn’t lost since and knocked off an undefeated Olympian.
Sonny Conto 5(4) — 0 vs. Curtis Head 5(3) — 4
4 rounds
heavyweight division
Top Rank spent years ignoring the heavyweight division and putting in a marginal effort with Andy Ruiz Jr. As the heavyweight division has regained a lot of its momentum Top Rank is back in the mix and Sonny Conto is one of their long-term projects. There hasn’t been much to look at with Conto that translates to championship success and at this point it would be premature anyway to overly praise him given his opposition is not to test him but to season him, however he is someone Top Rank sees as a guy who could make money and be a name at heavyweight.
Xander Zayas 2 (2) — 0 vs. Corey Champion 1 (1) — 1
4 rounds
welterweight division
Bob Arum told the 17 year old Puerto-Rican blue-chip that he’d be challenging a champion in no-time. This isn’t exactly what he may have expected, but the eyes of a hopeful nation will be no less focused. A 118–14 amateur record and 11 national tournament wins led Zayas into being Top Rank’s youngest ever signing at 16. He’s one to watch if he turns out to be a fraction as good as his countrymen believe.
Jeremy Adorno 3 (1) — 0 vs. Fernando Ibarra De Anda 2 (0) — 2
4 rounds
super bantamweight division
A member of team USA with a 106–17 record, the younger Adorno brother “Magic Hands” is just getting started. This will be his latest chance to step out of his brother’s shadow and prove he has more to show with Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico behind him.
