Floyd Mayweather Jr’s August twenty fourth exhibition rematch with John Gotti III is a joke, as is Victor Ortiz’s comeback in opposition to 13-5 Rodrigo Damian Coria within the co-feature. There shall be one high quality combat, although, as WBC no. 1 tremendous bantamweight Alan Picasso will meet Azat Hovhannisyan for the “silver” title and, presumably, a shot at Naoya Inoue.
Picasso (28-0, 16 KO) has been on the cusp of a title shot for what looks like ages, however by no means managed to finagle himself into a correct eliminator; he obtained the order to face Ra’eese Aleem in a semifinal final yr, just for Aleem to take the IBF route and combat Sam Goodman as an alternative.
He’s handed the attention check thus far, most notably in a January win over Erik Ruiz that noticed him combat by means of a rib damage to safe a unanimous determination. That stated, he’s in for a large step up at school in opposition to all-action contender Hovhannisyan (21-4, 17 KO). “Loopy A” was half of 2023’s Ring Journal Battle of the 12 months in opposition to Luis Nery, weathering Nery’s early onslaught and seemingly breaking “Pantera” down earlier than struggling a violent comeback knockout.
If Hovhannisyan’s physique and thoughts are nonetheless ship-shape after that warfare, the 23-year-old Picasso is in for a trial by hearth. I’ll be shocked if this doesn’t produce some type of “X of the 12 months.”
