If you’re of a certain age, you might remember spending your Saturday watching the likes Matthew Saad Muhammad and Danny “Little Red” Lopez on network TV, as they engaged in one impossibly exciting shootout after another.
ESPN & ESPN Deportes (10 p.m. ET)
• Miguel Berchelt 130 lbs vs Francisco Vargas 130 lbs
(Berchelt’s WBC Super Featherweight world title – 12 Rounds)
• Emanuel Navarrete 121.6 lbs vs Isaac Dogboe 121.4 lbs
(Navarrete’s WBO Junior Featherweight world title – 12 Rounds).
Two world title rematches and four blood-and-guts warriors are coming to Tucson Arena Saturday evening for “Twice as Nice,” one of the year’s most highly anticipated cards (ESPN and ESPN Deportes, 10 p.m
The Teofimo Express Rolls On! Teofimo Lopez (11-0, 9 KOs) showed why, at age 21, he is the sport’s fastest rising star, knocking out Mason Menard with a right hand at only 44 seconds of the opening round.
WBA lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko wanted to unify lightweight world titles. After 12 rounds, he got his wish, although WBO champion Jose Pedraza sure didn’t make it easy and halted Lomachenko’s eight-bout knockout streak in the process.
WBO junior featherweight champion, Isaac ‘Royal Storm’ Dogboe and the man he defends the world title against tonight at Madison Square Garden in New York, Emanuel ‘Vaquero’ Navarrete both made the required weights on Friday morning to set the stage for another Ghana versus Mexico clash in the ring.
• Vasiliy Lomachenko 134.4 lbs vs. Jose Pedraza 134.2 lbs
(Lomachenko’s WBA and Pedraza’s WBO Lightweight world titles – 12 Rounds)
• Isaac Dogboe 120.8 lbs vs Emanuel Navarrete 122 lbs
(Dogboe’s WBO Junior Featherweight world title – 12 Rounds).
Lomachenko vs. Pedraza LIVE on Saturday at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden and broadcast on ESPN at 9 p.m. ET
Isaac ‘Royal Storm’ Dogboe landed back in Ghana to a heroic welcome that brought the newly commissioned Terminal 3 of the Kotoka International Airport in Accra to a standstill on Monday night, so much many who were there just to welcome their own arrivals could not help but also join in the hailing of the country’s only reigning world boxing champion.
Hidenori Otake proved no match for Isaac ‘Royal Storm’ Dogboe who sent out a strong warning to other contenders in the junior featherweight division with a devastating round one destruction of the Japanese veteran for a first successful defence of his WBO world title at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona on Saturday night.