By Rob Smith: The April 14th split site fight card between Brandon Rios (29-0-1, 22 KO’s) and Richard Abril (17-2-1, 8 KO’s) fighting in Las Vegas, and Juan Manuel Marquez (53-6-1, 39 KO’s) facing Sergiy Fedchenko (30-1, 13 KO’s) in Mexico, will be going for $44.95 on HBO pay-per-view, according to Dan Rafael.
As far as the fights that make it to television, it looks like the Mike Alvarado vs. Mauricio Herrera fight will make it on the telecast, and possibly Mercito Gesta vs. Oscar Cuero fight could make it as well. That’s of it as far as I can tell. The Fedchenko-Marquez fight will be for the interim WBO light welterweight crown, and it looks like it’s not going to be competitive. Fedchenko has never really done well against tier opposition before in the rare occasions that he’s fought anyone from the top tier.
I only see one top tier opponent, Kaizer Mabuza, on Fedchenko’s entire 10-year resume and Fedchenko was beaten by Mabuza. The rest of the wins seem to be 2nd and 3rd tier competition. Still, the WBO has the 30-year-oold Fedchenko ranked #5 for some reason, while the other sanctioning bodies don’t have him ranked at all in the top 15. I have Fedchenko ranked #50 in the light welterweight division and nowhere near the top 15. As such, the Marquez vs. Fedchenko fight looks to be a hopeless mismatch and it’s disappointing that Marquez will be facing this guy for the interim WBO strap. Alvarado would be a much better choice than Fedchenko for Marquez.
The Rios-Abril fight doesn’t look much better. Although Rios has done his job well in beating all the guys that he’s faced during his career, you can’t say the same thing about the 5’11” Abril. He’s another fighter with very little positive experience against top tier opposition. Abril has lost to Breidis Prescott and Hank Lundy in fights. The only win over a 1st tier fighter on Abril’s resume was his recent win over former WBA lightweight champion Miguel Acosta last October in a 12 round unanimous decision. Abril can’t punch and is mostly defensive fighter that likes the circle the ring and back away when his opponents come at him. He doesn’t have the offensive skills to beat Rios. This fight is also mismatch. Rios will easily win this fight, and it’s sad that Rios can’t fight someone better.
Overall, I see this as a rather less than appealing PPV card. It lacks competitive fights and big names in the undercard. At $44.95, I find it hard to see it worth this kind of money. If things were flipped around on the card with Rios facing Marquez, Abril fighting Alvarado, Gesta taking on Fedchenko, it might be something you could be tempted to pay $44.95 to see but not with the current matches.