Sherdog’s Weekend Boxing Preview

What: Ricardo Espinoza vs. Ricardo Nunez, Bantamweights

When: March 1
How to Watch: Telemundo 11:30 ET
Why You Should Care: To see how Espinoza’s pretty, but padded record stacks up against Nunez’s very real, very ugly resume.

At first glance, you would think that Ricardo Espinoza is a great fighter and Ricardo Nunez is garbage. After all, Espinoza is 22-2 with nineteen knockouts while Nunez is 29-8 and has already been knocked out four times. But, when you look a little bit closer at the two fighter’s resumes, things begin to get muddled.

See, Espinoza is 22-2, on a twelve-fight win streak including having stopped 11 of those 12 opponents. But, outside of his most recent victory over Yeison Vargas, Espinoza’s opponents have been pathetic. He has very recently beaten guys with 7-8, 3-18, 1-5, 0-3, and 0-33 records (seriously). Having Espinoza face those fighters is embarrassing, if not borderline amoral.

Look at Nunez’s record, and suddenly, his eight losses don’t look so bad. He’s fought guys like Carlos Cuadras, and the combined record of the eight fighters who have beaten him at the time of the fight was 157-25-3. Without even looking at the fighters he has beaten (many of whom had very good records) it is clear that while Nunez’s record isn’t pretty, it’s because he’s actually fought capable opponents.

Is Ricardo Espinoza as good as his padded record makes you think he is at first glance, or is Ricardo Nunez a good fighter whose record indicates only that he’s faced top notch competition? There’s only one way to find out, and on Friday we will.

What: Brian Castano vs. Erislandy Lara, Junior Middleweights

When: March 2
How to Watch: Showtime 9:00 p.m. ET
Why You Should Care: To see if Erislandy Lara can prove he’s still elite, or if Brian Castano will show the world he’s Argentina’s next big thing.

Not long ago, boxing fans were hypothesizing Erislandy Lara as the man who would end GGG’s middleweight reign, despite never having fought at middleweight, with the main rationale behind this stance that he really beat Canelo Alvarez but boxing politics got in the way of the decision. But after suffering a disheartening split decision loss to Jarrett Hurd in ESPN’s 2018 Fight of the Year, Lara (who has traditionally been viewed as a boring fighter) finds himself a forgotten man in the new streaming based reality of boxing in 2019.

But it wouldn’t take much to relinquish interest in him. Brian Castano is an undefeated 29-year-old Argentinean. Although he has knocked out eleven of his fifteen opponents, he has never faced a fighter who can box as well as Erislandy Lara can (though it should be noted he beat Errol Spence Jr. as an amateur, so he has dealt with slick Southpaws before). So, while Lara is attempting to reestablish himself as one of boxing’s elite and possibly line himself up for a huge streaming deal and a shot at a guy like Jaime Munguia, Castano is looking to follow in Marcos Maidana’s footsteps and become a hard-hitting, pressuring, Argentinean cash cow of a knockout artist.

Erislandy Lara used to be boxing’s most dangerous man, avoided by all who saw little reward and an incredibly high risk in facing the former Cuban amateur standout. Saturday night, we’ll see if he can become that man again by winning the WBA “Regular” 154 lb title, or if Brian Castano will send him to the land of Guillermo Rigondeaux, elite Cubans we used to think could be great, but stopped caring about a long time ago.

What: Luis Ortiz vs. Christian Hammer, Heavyweights

When: March 2
How to Watch: Showtime 9:00 p.m. ET
Why You Should Care: Because Luis Ortiz has found himself right back in the hunt for heavyweight champion of the world, as long as his age doesn’t betray him.

When Joe Joyce’s team declined to fight him a few weeks ago, Luis Ortiz looked like the odd man out in the heavyweight division. That was a huge problem for “King Kong,” seeing how he is listed as 39 years old but possibly older given the history of Cuban athletes lying about their age. But with Deontay Wilder not fighting Tyson Fury next, and Anthony Joshua expressing a willingness to fight Ortiz if he can’t get a bout with Wilder or Fury after he fights Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller, Luis Ortiz has become a hot commodity just in time.

As long as he doesn’t lose. Christian Hammer is 24-5, with losses to guys like Tyson Fury, Alexander Povetkin, and Mariusz Wach. In those five losses, he has been stopped three times, which bodes well for Ortiz’s prefight claims that “Christian Hammer won’t go the distance with me”, and the fact that the better Ortiz looks the more realistic it is that he’ll get a fight against one of the three marquee names in heavyweight boxing.

But fighters get old overnight, and old fighters get old even faster than that. Luis Ortiz has lost once as a professional, to Deontay Wilder in a fight where he had “The Bronze Bomber” reeling and on the edge of getting knocked out. Now, it seems he has a chance to avenge that loss or beat the guy everyone thinks is the best heavyweight in the world. He just has to get by Christian Hammer first, which he should do easily. As long as the old fighter doesn’t get old overnight.

What: Bryan De Gracia vs. Eduardo Ramirez, Featherweights

When: March 2
How to Watch: Showtime 9:00 p.m. ET
Why You Should Care: To see which fighter takes advantage of the sudden TV spotlight they find themselves in.

De Gracia-Ramirez is a very good fight, that has suddenly entered the spotlight. While the super featherweight fight between Ricardo Nunez and Edner Cherry was supposed to lead Showtime’s boxing coverage, Cherry had to withdraw from the fight due to a medical issue which led to De Gracia-Ramirez taking their spot.

Bryan De Gracia is from Panama, 24-1-1 with 20 knockouts his lone loss was a decision to fellow Panamanian Jorge Sanchez. However, De Gracia has never fought outside of Panama before, and this fight will take place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Eduardo Ramirez hails from Sinaloa Mexico, is 21-1 and only lost to “Lightning” Lee Selby in England. He has never been stopped, but has only stopped eight of his opponents, so will likely not provide much firepower to the bout.

One fighter will take advantage of the spotlight, and one will waste the opportunity of their lives. The only question is, which fighter will be which?

What: Jordan Gill vs. Emmanuel Dominguez, Featherweights

When: March 2
How to Watch: DAZN 2:00 p.m. ET
Why You Should Care: Everything has gone right for Jordan Gill, and everything has gone wrong for Emmanuel Dominguez. On Saturday, we’ll see if that trend will continue or if Dominguez can reverse it.

This week, Jordan Gill told Sporting News “I’m enjoying boxing so much at the moment and the last year has been quite an experience for me. I’m learning in the gym every single day, I’m taking part in good fights, and my fights are also being shown live on Sky which means that people want to watch me. Everything seems to be in place for me to push on now and that’s what I want to do.”

Yes, while his career may not have taken off immediately, the 22-0 24-year-old now finds himself enjoying boxing, fighting on primetime British television, and in line for some big fights at featherweight. Right now, everything’s going right for Jordan Gill. But one slip-up would change that completely.

Emmanuel Dominguez, on the other hand, isn’t in a great place at all. A professional fighter beginning at age seventeen. Dominguez is only one year older than Gill but is already being treated like a washed-up journeyman. Hailing from Aguascalientes Mexico, Dominguez is 24-7 with sixteen knockouts, and has only ever been stopped by Emannuel Navarrete (the man last seen destroying Isaac Dogboe on ESPN). However, he has lost two of his last five fights and has only fought three times outside of Mexico.

Jordan Gill is in a great place right now, undefeated, happy and on his way to becoming famous. Emmanuel Dominguez is a floundering, struggling, stepping stone desperate to turn his career around. We’ll see if Gill can keep living the good life, or if Dominguez can reverse the roles completely.