Three Punch Combo: The Fight That Could Steal the Show This Weekend and More

THREE PUNCH COMBO — Boxing returns to DAZN on Saturday with a massive card from The Ford Center at the Star in Frisco, TX. This venue, which serves as the indoor practice facility for the Dallas Cowboys, will play host to a significant welterweight bout when Mikey Garcia (39-1, 30 KO’s) returns to the ring to face Jessie Vargas (29-2-2, 11 KO’s). Also on the docket is a much anticipated 115-pound title fight between champion Khalid Yafai (26-0, 15 KO’s) and former pound for pound king Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (48-2, 40 KO’s). While I love both of these contests, it is another title fight on this card that I think may steal the show.

Fresh off his destruction in December of Cristofer Rosales to capture the WBC flyweight crown, Julio Cesar Martinez (15-1, 12 KO’s) returns to the ring to make his first title defense against the undefeated Jay Harris (17-0, 9 KO’s).  Given their respective styles, we are all but guaranteed to see non-stop action from the opening bell to whenever the contest concludes.

As I have previously noted in these pages, Martinez is an absolute non-stop pressure fighter who rarely takes his foot off the gas. Possessing above average hand speed and heavy-handed power, he simply looks to break his opposition down with his combination of pressure and power. And thus far it has worked to the tune of him becoming a world champion in just 16 fights.

One difference between Martinez and other pressure fighters is the way that Martinez uses angles to find ways to land precision power shots. He will often switch fluidly between the orthodox and southpaw stances to create these angles.

Like many other pressure fighters, Martinez has a tendency to abandon defense for his own offense. He actually takes it to the extreme, often coming forward with his hands down along with no head movement. At some point, he is going to pay for this lack of attention to defense. Could it come against Harris?

After a short but solid amateur career, Harris turned pro at 23 in 2013 and has moved along steadily. He is coming off his two best wins against former world title challenger Angel Moreno and former amateur standout Paddy Barnes. In each of those fights, Harris showed steady progression and seems well poised for that next big step-up in competition.

Harris is a traditional boxer-puncher by trade but has shown tendencies to get into firefights. He is technically sound and likes to work behind a solid left jab to set up his power punching combinations. Harris possesses decent hand speed and, like Martinez, can be a solid accurate puncher.

In the aforementioned fight against Barnes, Harris showed some solid power in his left hook. He knocked Barnes down twice with the left hooks to the body, the second of which finished him off in the fourth round.

Martinez is going to bring the fight to Harris. But I think Harris is skilled enough to provide resistance and give back as good as he gets. If I am right, this is going to be one fan-friendly fight that could ultimately compete for fight of the year.

Some Thoughts on the Judging of McKenna-Mimoune

For those not familiar, MTK Global is running eight-man single elimination tournaments across several different weight classes in the UK with the winner in each weight class being awarded a lucrative management contract. This past Friday in London saw the semi-finals in both the featherweight and 140- pound divisions. And as so often happens in boxing, one of the contests, a 140-pound bout between Tyrone McKenna (21-1-1, 6 KO’s) and Mohamed Mimoune (22-4, 3 KO’s), ended in a controversial decision. McKenna was the beneficiary, winning the ten-round fight on all three cards.

My card sided with Mimoune. I had the fight 96-94 in his favor. However, unlike the commentators and many on social media, I was far from outraged that McKenna was given the nod.

This may sound overly simplistic, but we need to keep in mind that fights are scored on a round by round basis. Each round is its own separate entity. And sometimes a round is won big by a fighter but scored just 10-9 in their favor without knockdowns. This would be the same score if that same fighter had just edged out that round.

In the case of McKenna-Mimoune, we saw Mimoune take control of the fight late and win many of those later rounds by a substantial margin. To be honest he completely dominated those rounds.

But in the early going, there were many close rounds that were hard to score. McKenna seemed to edge a couple and some were frankly a coin flip. If the judges sided with McKenna for those close rounds, and it appears they did just that, then there is a clear path to him getting the decision.

For me, this was somewhat reminiscent of Foreman-Briggs which I also thought was not a robbery. Maybe the scoring system in boxing needs to be changed but that is a topic for another day. I don’t think given the scoring system in place for this sport that the McKenna-Mimoune decision was all that outrageous.

What’s Next For Emanuel Navarrete?

This past Saturday, on the undercard of Wilder-Fury II, 122-pound champion Emanuel Navarrete (31-1, 27 KO’s) stopped tough Jeo Santisima (19-3, 16 KO’s) in the eleventh round. It was Navarrete’s fifth title defense in less than a year. So, what is next for the popular and busy Navarrete?

First off, I think we have seen the last of Navarrete at 122. It was well documented during the PPV broadcast that Navarrete was struggling to make the weight. In addition, there are political boundaries that need to be crossed in order to make any big fights for Navarrete at 122. So, a move north to featherweight is seemingly inevitable.

Top Rank, which co-promotes Navarrete, does have a champion at featherweight in Shakur Stevenson. But Stevenson is a prized young fighter and there is no way Top Rank puts him anywhere near Navarrete. Not in a few months or even a few years. And as with the 122-pound division, there are political boundaries standing in the way of putting Navarrete in with the other featherweight champions at this time.

So, with no immediate title fight realistically available for Navarrete at featherweight, I think Top Rank looks to put him in with a ranked contender. And I think the most logical option is Christopher Diaz (25-2, 16 KO’s) who is also tied in with Top Rank.

Diaz himself was once a highly-thought-of young fighter but an upset loss to Masayuki Ito for a 130-pound title belt in 2018 sent Diaz’s career sideways. He dropped down to featherweight after that loss where he has two wins sandwiched around a one-sided loss on points in a ten-round contest with the aforementioned Stevenson.

Diaz needs a jolt to his career and, frankly, Top Rank is probably nearing the end of the road with him. So, this can be viewed as a final opportunity for Diaz and a fight I think he jumps at if offered. And it’s an easy sell to the fans as Diaz on paper would certainly represent the best opponent for Navarrete since his two fights with Isaac Dogboe.

I think it’s very likely that we see this fight on a Top Rank platform sometime this spring or summer.

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