The weekend is approaching, and from Friday to Sunday it will be “fight-o-clock” somewhere in the world. Every Thursday, The Ring will bring you the most up-to-date information on the most relevant fights you need to see in this week-at-a-glance, one-stop enhanced fight schedule. A quick checklist for the cognoscenti, a useful nuts-and-bolts guide for the boxing neophyte is what we’re aiming at.
Here are this week’s most relevant fights:
Thursday, February 2 – Montreal Casino, Montreal
Erik Bazinyan vs. Alantez Fox – super middleweight – 10 rounds
The unbeaten Bazinyan, a 10-year veteran, aims to become Armenia’s next big thing sometime this year, and a win over the 6-foot-4 Fox will probably put him on the road to a world title bout very soon.
Also on this card:
Yves Ulysse Jr. vs. Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela – junior welterweight – 10 rounds
Alexandre Gaumont vs. Carlos Gallego Montijo – middleweight – 6 rounds
Christopher Guerrero vs. Edwin Villarreal – junior middleweight – 6 rounds
Avery Martin-Duval vs. Eduardo Mota Garcia – lightweight – 6 rounds
Wilkens Mathieu vs. Zsolt Birkas – super middleweight – 6 rounds
Where to watch it: ESPN+
Friday, February 3 – Desert Diamond Arena, Glendale, Ariz.
Emanuel Navarrete vs. Liam Wilson – junior lightweight – 12 rounds
Fan-favorite Navarrete will be trying to capture a 130-pound belt after being a two-division champ at 122 and 126, and Australia’s Liam Wilson is the heavy underdog in this one.
Also on this card:
Arnold Barboza vs. Jose Pedraza – junior welterweight – 10 rounds
Richard Torrez Jr. vs. James Bryant – heavyweight – 6 rounds
Andres Cortes vs. Luis Melendez – junior lightweight – 10 rounds
Xavier Martinez vs. Yohan Vasquez – junior lightweight – 10 rounds
Lindolfo Delgado vs. Clarence Booth – junior welterweight – 8 rounds
Emiliano Vargas vs. Francisco Duque – lightweight – 4 rounds
Nico Ali Walsh vs. Eduardo Ayala – middleweight – 6 rounds
Where to watch it: ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN+
Saturday, February 4 – Asociacion Bo. Diaz Velez, San Lorenzo, Argentina
Jose Rosa vs. Didier Castillo – junior welterweight – 10 rounds
Rodrigo Ruiz vs. Mickel Diaz – junior featherweight – 10 rounds
Daniela Bermudez vs. Lilian Silva – junior lightweight – 8 rounds
The return of former pound-for-pound entrant Bermudez, on the same night in which her nemesis Amanda Serrano is back in action, should be interesting enough to check this out if you can.
Where to watch it: TyC Sports, TyC Sports Play
Saturday, February 4 – Madison Square Garden Theater, New York
Amanda Serrano vs. Erika Cruz – featherweight – 10 rounds
Serrano, our Ring champ and one of the world’s best-ever female boxers, will see action in a fight for all the marbles in the 126-pound division against WBA titlist Cruz-Hernandez, in what is shaping up as a grudge match that could even spark a trilogy one day. One of the biggest Mexico vs Puerto Rico matchups in the history of women’s boxing, and at the world’s biggest boxing stage. Can’t ask for more than that!
Alycia Baumgardner vs. Elhem Mekhaled – junior lightweight – 10 rounds
Baumgardner made her long-overdue landing in the pound-for-pound ratings with her Ring championship-winning effort against Mikaela Mayer last year, and she’ll defend all of her belts against fellow once-beaten Mekhaled as the co-main event of a star-studded undercard featuring some of women’s boxing’s most promising talents.
Also on this card:
Richardson Hitchins vs. John Bauza – junior welterweight -10 rounds
Shadasia Green vs. Elin Cederroos – women’s super middleweight -10 rounds
Skye Nicolson vs. Tania Alvarez – women’s featherweight -10 rounds
Ramla Ali vs. Avril Mathie – women’s junior featherweight -10 rounds
Yankiel Rivera vs. Fernando Diaz – flyweight -8 rounds
Aaron Aponte vs. Joshua David Rivera – junior welterweight -8 rounds
Harley Mederos vs. Julio Madera, 6 rounds, lightweights
Where to watch it: DAZN
Saturday, February 4 – Lum Color Phoenix Center, Ontario, Calif.
Ernesto Mercado vs. Jose Angulo – junior welterweight – 8 rounds
Raul Lizarraga vs. Ryan Adams – middleweight – 8 rounds
Diego M. Morilla has written for The Ring since 2013. He has also written for HBO.com, ESPN.com and many other magazines, websites, newspapers and outlets since 1993. He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and an elector for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He has won two first-place awards in the BWAA’s annual writing contest, and he is the moderator of The Ring’s Women’s Ratings Panel. He served as copy editor for the second era of The Ring en Español (2018-2020) and is currently a writer and editor for RingTV.com.
