Showtime will air two very competitive feature fights this Saturday from the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The main event bout features WBC World Featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez defending his title as an underdog against Gary Russell Jr. Now, Gonzalez is paying out at +160 and Russell Jr. is paying out at -185.
Gonzalez has more than sixty fights to his name, and he has three world championship reigns in two weight classes (bantamweight and featherweight), so his pro experience is considerably more than Russell’s. For his part, Russell touts a major amateur background that gives him elite technique, but Russell found out in his lone pro loss against Vasyl Lomachenko that he still has a lot of work to do in order to rise in the professional ranks.
Gonzalez is 33 years old, and he first won the featherweight title back in July of 2011. Gonzalez defended the belt several times before losing it to fellow countryman Ponce De Leon. Considering that you had to go back to 2006 for Gonzalez’ bantamweight title run, it was easy to write of Gonzalez after the loss to de Leon, however he bounced back strong. He won two fights in a row to earn a shot at the WBC heatherweight he once held that was now in the hands of Abner Mares. In August of 2013 he dispatched Mares in the first round and he has defended the belt twice since, including a gritty stoppage of Jorge Arce in October of 2014.
At super welterweight, undefeated Jernell Charlo (25-0) is a -240 favorite to take the 10-rounder from Vanes Martirosyan, who returns at +180. Similar to the first fight reviewed, Charlo is favored over an opponent with more experience and a higher level of opposition throughout his career. Martirosyan is 35-1-1 overall, with his loss coming to Demetrious Andrade via split decision and his draw coming against Erislandy Lara.
The loss to Andrade was Martirosyan’s first attempt at a world title, and his two matches since saw him capture and hold the WBO Inter-Continental title. This is certainly a match that could put the winner in a world title match, with the big money bout with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez potentially the biggest prize of all.
