Saturday Shows in Monte Carlo and Atlantic City Top This Week’s Fight Card

Thanksgiving week is typically a slow week in boxing and this year is no exception. Indeed, there isn’t a single show this week in California, a rarity. (The marathon MMA show on Saturday at the Inglewood Forum topped by the novelty fight between 40-something MMA legends Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz is outside our domain, but we’re compelled to note that advance sales have been sluggish. Golden Boy, the event’s promoter, recently whacked ten bucks off the pay-per-view price, reducing the tariff to $39.99.)

Slow doesn’t mean dead, however, and there are two boxing shows on Saturday that will command our attention.

Matchroom Boxing honcho Eddie Hearn and his live-streaming partner DAZN are in Monte Carlo where Kal Yafai (pictured) risks his WBA 115-pound world title against Mexico’s Israel Gonzalez. An Englishman of Yemeni extraction and one of three fighting brothers, the undefeated Yafai (24-0, 15 KOs) will be making his fourth title defense. Gonzalez (23-2, 10 KOs) previously fought for the IBF version of this title. He was outclassed and eventually stopped by Jerwin Ancajas.

Yafai-Gonzalez is one of four bouts on the main portion of the show. The others, all slated for 12 rounds, are a cruiserweight affair (Denis Lebedev vs Mike Wilson), a heavyweight affair (Michael Hunter vs Alexander Ustinov) and a light heavyweight contest (Frank Buglioni vs Fanlong Meng).

A former IBF and WBA world cruiserweight champion, Denis Lebedev is getting long in the tooth – he turned 39 in August – but he’s still formidable. He’s 9-1 with one no-decision since attracting international attention with a brutal one-punch knockout of Roy Jones Jr. in 2011. The lone defeat came at the hands of fellow Russian Murat Gassiev, a split decision that could have gone the other way.

Hearn unearthed Mike Wilson in Medford, Oregon, where he had been fighting on shows at the county fairgrounds that he and his wife promoted. He’s 19-0 with eight knockouts over less than stellar opposition (and that’s being diplomatic).

Wilson, 35, is a big news story in Medford. “He’ll be competing in the same ring as world renowned boxers like Manny Pacquiao, Sugar Ray Robinson and the great Muhammed (sic) Ali,” gushed a writer for the NBC affiliate, referencing three boxers who never fought in Monte Carlo.

At six-foot-three, Wilson will have a four-inch height advantage, but by all indications he will swing for the fences rather than trying to out-box Lebedev. “You can’t hit a home run if you don’t get up to home plate,” he told a reporter for the local paper.

Michael Hunter (15-1, 10 KOs) is the son of the late Mike “The Bounty” Hunter, a leading heavyweight contender circa 1990. In his lone defeat he went 12 rounds with Oleksandr Usyk and had a few good moments along the way, albeit he was fortunate to last the distance. Following that fight, his trainer Kevin Henry said that henceforth he would compete only as a heavyweight and early returns have been positive. In his last outing, the Las Vegas native TKOed Martin Ilunga at London’s venerable York Hall.

Ustinov (34-2, 25 KOs), who turns 41 in January, has been a pro boxer since 2005 (and before that a champion kickboxer). Standing six-foot-seven, he figures to come in around 285 pounds. His best win came in 2013 when he won a lopsided decision over 40-year-old David Tua on Tua’s turf in New Zealand. That earned him something called the WBA Pan African Heavyweight Title. Tua never fought again.

Frank Buglioni (23-3-1, 16 KOs) scored a big upset in 2016 when he knocked out previously undefeated Hosea Burton in the 12^th round to claim the British light heavyweight title. Buglioni had previously fought for the WBA super middleweight title, losing by decision to Fedor Chudinov. He has won two straight since suffering a shocking defeat to Callum Johnson who bounced him out in the opening round.

The 30-year-old Meng, a southpaw, began his pro career in Connecticut and most recently fought in Sloan, Iowa. The well-traveled Chinaman, a 2012 Olympian, is undefeated (13-0, 8 KOs) but has answered the bell for only 51 rounds as a pro and is moving up in class.

ATLANTIC CITY

When the smoke clears in Monte Carlo, the scene will shift to the Hard Rock Hotel in Atlantic City (formerly the Trump Taj Mahal) where Kathy Duva’s Main Events will present an 8-bout card topped by Dimitry Bivol’s WBA world light heavyweight title defense against former unified 175-pound champion Jean Pascal. Bivol (14-0, 11 KOs) will be making the third defense of the title he won with a first round knockout of Australia’s Trent Broadhurst in Monte Carlo.

It’s a very attractive pairing. Lame duck HBO will televise.

Bivol, reportedly 218-15 as an amateur, has been on the fast track since turning pro in November of 2015. Pascal, at age 36, is near the end of the trail, but don’t count out the Haiti-born Canadian who warrants serious consideration when he becomes eligible for admission into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Pascal is 33-5-1 (20 KOs). He’s lost three of his last seven, but those defeats were to Sergey Kovalev (twice) and Eleider Alvarez. His two losses prior to that came at the hands of future Hall of Famers Carl Froch and Bernard Hopkins in their second meeting (their first encounter ended in a draw). Based on his experience and “strength of schedule,” he will be a tough nut for Bivol to crack, notwithstanding the fact that he is past his prime.

In the semi-windup, Bivol’s teammate Sergey Kuzmin (13-0, 10 KOs) takes on LaRon Mitchell. A 38-year-old southpaw, Mitchell (16-1, 14 KOs) juggles his boxing career with his regular job as an elementary school physical education teacher in Oakland. In his last bout, he lost a split decision to journeyman Rodney Hernandez in an 8-round match at Sacramento.

The undercard, indeed the entire show, has an Eastern European flavor. Three young boxers from amateur boxing hotbed Uzbekistan will display their wares in preliminary bouts.

TSS feature writer Bernard Fernandez will be ringside in Atlantic City and TSS will keep you abreast of the action with a running tally of the undercard results before the TV portion of the show begins.

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