On Saturday night Main Events Promotions will be presenting a card on HBO, live from Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. The main headline of the card will be a light heavyweight bout between 2 undefeated fighters, as the WBO Light Heavyweight Champion, Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev will be squaring off against Cedric Agnew. Also on the undercard will be a couple junior welterweights with Karim Mayfield stepping into the ring to fight 1 of the up and coming fighters in the world, Thomas Dulorme.
Sergey Kovalev is a hard hitting rising fighter that has not been a pro for even 5 years yet despite his age of 30. He will be stepping into the ring with an undefeated record of 23-0-1 with 21 KOs. He has swept through his last couple fights in impressive fashion by stopping Gabriel Campillo, Cornelius White, and Nathan Cleverly all by the 4th round. He hopes that yet another dominating win will not only gain some attention and buzz, but also get him a bigger payday.
Cedric Agnew is a 27 year old light heavyweight from Chicago, Illinois that will be coming into the fight also with an undefeated record of 26-0, but only 13 KOs. He has not faced the level of competition that Kovalev has faced. However, his last fight against Yusef Mack was impressive as he won pretty easily by unanimous decision. He doesn’t have big knockout power, so that may hurt him against the heavy-handed Kovalev, but he has shown enough skill that he should put up a good fight on Saturday.
The man known as “Krusher” is starting to build a pretty good following within the hardcore fans of the sport. The dream matchup of him vs. fellow lightweight champion, Adonis Stevenson may never happen now that Stevenson is with Al Haymon, but they have provided some good entertainment on social media with their back and forth. Agnew is a bit of an unknown, so you always have to be weary of that, but from what I know of Kovalev, he will do what he does, go in, hit hard and see how much punishment you can withstand. For that reason alone, I’m going with Kovalev by 4th round stoppage.
In the main undercard fight, we’ll see Karim Mayfield, the former well-known sparring partner of Manny Pacquiao. The 33 year old will be coming in with an undefeated record of 18-0-1 with 11 KOs. His biggest win of his career was against Mauricio Herrera about a year and a half ago. Yes, the same Herrera that pushed Danny Garcia to the limit a couple weeks ago and arguably beat him. Mayfield will be trying to not be a stepping stone for his opponents as anytime you are an older veteran that has never been a world champion and is facing a younger fighter; you have to wonder if you are trying to be used.
Thomas Dulorme is a 24 year old exciting fighter who enters Saturday night with a 24-1 record with 14 KOs. His only blemish was when he stepped his competition level way up a year and half ago to fight, a then 33-1, Luis Carlos Abregu, in a fight he was winning on all 3 cards after 6 rounds, despite being knocked down in round 3. He was then knocked down in round 7 and his corner threw in the towel. Since then he has not faced a serious challenge until now. Mayfield will arguably be his best opponent and we will now see if he is more ready to make that next step in his career.
Boxing can be a very political sport. Not only outside the ring with how fights are made, but also inside the ring with how results just happen to end up the way people want it to end. The 1 equalizer is power and I don’t know if Mayfield can stop what I think may happen to him Saturday. As I said earlier, anytime you have a young fighter facing a fighter that is in the latter half of his career, you have to believe they would rather have the young guy come out on top. More than looking at the result of this one, I want to see if I can see the progression of Dulorme and if he can prove he is the real deal. I’m with him to win by unanimous decision.
Both fights should be entertaining on Saturday night. Kovalev trying to put on an impressive show, Agnew trying to shock the world and suddenly become very known, Dulorme trying to prove he is ready, and Mayfield trying to show he should be in consideration for a world title opportunity. . It all makes for an interesting night of boxing and with next week being a slightly down week for boxing, this will be the last big taste for fans before the Pacquiao-Bradley fight on April 12th, so while you can, enjoy the fights.