You cannot hit a home run every time out. We boxing fans have grown accustomed these last months, to great and stacked cards put on by Saudi money man Turki Alalshikh. From to to bottom, these cards have been absolutely awesome, and we have had great, indeed excellent value for money as a result.
Now here comes some criticism, the kind Alalshikh has perhaps never been on the receiving end of before. The recently announced May 3 card in Riyadh, topped by Canelo Alvarez defending his WBC/WBA/WBO/Ring Magazine super middleweight titles against IBF champ William Scull, has not pleased the fans, many of them, anyway.
The full line-up is as follows:
Canelo Vs. Scull
Bruno Surace-Jaime Munguia II
Martin Bakole-Efe Ajagba
Badou Jack-Ryan Rozicki
Marco Verde-Michel Polina
Brayan Leon-Aaron Guerro.
Okay, this is no ‘Knockout Chaos’ card, nor is it up there with the ‘Day of Reckoning’ card Turki put on. But not all fight cards can be 100 percent winners, can they? And though Canelo-Scull is no super-fight, it is for all the belts, and Canelo we know will go into a genuine super-fight in September, this against Terence Crawford. Canelo could have done what Crawford is doing, and sat out the spring and summer months and just gone into the September fight that will take place in Vegas. We are instead going to see Canelo box his Riyadh debut, and though Scull is a pretty big underdog here, he is no stiff.
As for the remainder of the card, the return fight between Surace and Munguia is a good fight, a very interesting rematch of a fight. Can the previously little-known Frenchman repeat the stunning KO win he scored over Mexico’s Munguia, or will Munguia get his revenge? Again, a solid fight, and one that could go either way. Heavyweights Bakole and Ajagba could give us a heck of a fun fight. Bakole has to make amends for his roll of the dice gamble against Joe Parker, that as we saw, didn’t go well for Bakole. Hopefully now motivated like never before, Bakole should turn up for the Ajagba fight in far better condition than he was for the short-notice affair with Parker. Ajagba we know can bang, and again, this one could be very lively.
Badou Jack is often in fun fights himself, and against his WBC mandatory, Jack will meet Ryan Rozicki, in what could prove to be a real slugfest. Closing out the show (for now, there could possibly be an additional fight or two added to the card), will be Verde-Polina and Leon-Guerro. Not too much is expected from these two fights, granted.
But really, is the May 3 card “garbage,” as one fan wrote on social media? Is it really “horrible,” as another fan wrote?
If the P-P-V price stays the same, this at £19.99 here in the UK, we cannot really moan and groan about this card, can we? Canelo is arguably the biggest star in boxing today, while three of the undercard fights are arguably 50-50 fights.
What do YOU think of the May 3 card; has Turki dropped the ball with this one or not?
