Before hometown hero and WBO No. 1 featherweight contender Shakur Stevenson headlines against Alberto Guevara at Newark’s Prudential Center on Saturday evening (ESPN and ESPN Deportes, 10:30 p.m.
Saturday night at the Park Theater, Las Vegas, Rob “Bravo” Brant (24-1-0 16KOs), pulled off a major upset over hot middleweight prospect Ryota Murata (14-2-0 11KOs).
Rob Brant came into the ring a heavy underdog. He left it a champion. Brant, from St. Paul, Minn., toppled Ryota Murata by unanimous decision to win the WBA middleweight title in front of 2,782 fans at the MGM’s Park Theater in Las Vegas.
The middleweight division might have itself a new star. It certainly has a new champion, as Rob Brant of St. Pauls in Minnesota is the new WBA “regular” champ.
We still await confirmation of former middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin’s next fight, and the new network he will fight on. As fans know, HBO is getting out of the boxing business, and GGG, who fought on the cable network, needs a new home.
ESPN+ (10:30 p.m. ET)
• Ryota Murata 159.2 lbs vs. Rob Brant 158.4 lbs
(Murata’s WBA Middleweight world title – 12 Rounds).
There has been a lot of talk about future big-name opponents for WBA middleweight champion Ryota Murata. For now, he’s focused on the task at hand, Saturday’s title defense against Rob “Bravo” Brant at MGM’s Park Theater in Las Vegas.
Ryota Murata, one of Japan’s most revered sporting heroes, is ready to make his debut as a Las Vegas headliner.
Murata (14-1, 11 KOs), a 2012 Olympic gold medalist, will defend his WBA middleweight title against Rob “Bravo” Brant (23-1, 16 KOs), Saturday at MGM’s Park Theater.
With his first defense of his WBA ‘regular’ middleweight title successfully out of the way after stopping 38-year-old Italian Emanuele Blandamura (27-3, 5 KOs) in the 8th round last Sunday, Ryota Murata (14-1, 11 KOs) is now targeting IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) for a unification fight later this year.
WBA World middleweight champion Ryota Murata (14-1, 11 KOs) was victorious in his first title defense in stopping the light-hitting 38-year-old contender Emanuele Blandamura (27-3, 5 KOs) in the 8th round on Sunday night in a mismatch televised on ESPN and ESPN Deportes from Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan.