Showtime Boxing 2 World Title Fights – This Saturday, April 16th, Showtime Boxing is at the Foxwoods Resort in Connecticut with an interesting eight-fight card featuring two title fights to top off the event.
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The IBF Superfeatherweight title fight between Jose Pedraza (21-0) and Stephen Smith (23-1) has a very tight line that sees the Puerto Rican fighter Pedraza only slightly favored over the Brit Smith.
For Pedraza, this will be the second defense of the title he won in June of last year on Showtime when he decisioned tough Russian Andrey Klimov to go home with the belt. His title defense in October against Khabib Allakhverdiev was on Showtime as well, so you can see that Pedraza is the network’s fighter.
Smith comes from a rugged fighting family that boasts a quartet of fighting brothers. Liam is the WBO’s Light Middleweight champion, and Paul and Callum are also in the world title picture. Smith has not fought in the United States before, so he is stepping out of his comfort zone for this fight and deserves credit for that.
Also on the plate is the WBC Featherweight title encounter between Gary Russell Jr (26-1) and Patrick Hyland (31-1). Russell Jr is the fighter to watch in this one, and he is entering the fight a massive favorite. Back in 2013 and 2014, Russell Jr’s name was mentioned alongside those of Keith Thurman and Terence Crawford as a trio of young up and coming fighters that were world-title bound.
In June of 2014, Russell Jr fought for the WBO World title and came up short against Vasyl Lomachenko. Lomachenko was 1-1 at the time, but his incredible amateur background meant he walked into the pros as one of the most elite fighters in the world already. Russell Jr came up just short, actually earning a draw on one of the judges cards. In March of 2015 Russell Jr won the WBC title with a win over long in the tooth veteran Jhonny Gonzalez (57-8), but he has not fought since. Hyland is known as a hard and tough fighter and he has a sterling record, but he is not expected to be on Russell Jr’s technical level.
Showtime Boxing 2 World Title Fights
The live event features eight bouts in all. Included on the undercard is former Light Heavyweight world champion Chad Dawson (33-4), as he looks to continue his comeback against Cornelius White (23-4). The undercard also counts on undefeated ladies welterweight Shelly Vincent (16-0) as she faces Elizabeth Anderson (4-7) in a six round bout. Popular, once-beaten Ryan Kielczewski (24-1) is scheduled for an eight rounder against TBA for now.
The Showtime broadcast is scheduled to start at 11PM Eastern Standard time, a late start arranged to avoid the Barclays Center fights featuring Errol Spence Jr vs Chris Algieri that will air at prime time on NBC. The current odds for the card appear below, and no over/under lines are featured as of yet either.
Super Featherweight 12 rounds –
Stephen Smith +155
Jose Pedraza -175
Featherweight 12 rounds –
Patrick Hyland +3000
Gary Russell Jr -7000
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