Big night? Oh yeah, a real big night! And the UK...and the US

We've already looked at how big Saturday is in Germany but it's not all for the Germans both the UK and the US have a great day in store. The UK has a number of fascinating fights, which is headlined by a European Lightweight title fight. Then of course we are off to one of the craziest nights in US boxing this year.

Firstly the UK fight sees Gavin "The Rock" Rees (35-1, 16) a former WBA Light Welterweight champion defending the European Lightweight title against "Dirty" Derry Matthews (29-5, 15). Whilst I personally favour Rees to win Matthews has been on a sensational run as of late and has won 8 of his last 9 (including out pointing both Scott Lawton and Choi Tseveenpurev). Both men are flawed but they are both hugely entertaining and well worth a watch.

In the US it's a matter of "where do we start?"
Lets start with Atlantic City and with the deep card headlined by Middleweight champion Sergio Gabriel Martinez (47-2-2, 26) facing off against unbeaten British fighter "Dazzling" Darren Barker (23-0, 14). In the past I've been critical of Barker who has been "guilty" of talking himself up though it's that same talking, as well as a lack of challenger for Martinez and good management from Matchroom Sports that have helped to land Barker the biggest chance of his professional career. Martinez is a huge favourite whilst Barker is being given the chance to really put himself on the boxing map.

The same card has an exciting rematch between Andy Lee (26-1, 19) and Brian Vera (19-5, 12). Vera previously stopped Lee to give the Irishman his first professional loss, and now a few fights on Lee attempts to avenge it. The undercard includes a number of prospects including Isaac Chilemba, Alex Perez, Sean Monaghan, Steve Martinez, Magomed Abdusalamov (a heavyweight power puncher) and J'Leon Love.

At the same sort of time Las Vegas has an equally interesting card with a number of good looking fights. The headline act there is a WBC Super Bantamweight title bout in which under-rated Japanese fighter Toshiaki Nishioka (38-4-3, 24) defends his title against the legendary Rafael Marquez (40-6, 36). I'm favouring Nishioka here but it should be both technical, exciting and entertaining. Whilst both men are highly skilled they are also powerful and fun.
The same card also brings to America the ultra talented Roman "El Chocolatito" Gonzalez (29-0, 24) of Nicaragua who defends his WBA Light Flyweight title against Omar Soto (22-7-2, 15). I'd expect Gonzalez to defend his title with relative ease, though hopefully it'll be a good enough fight to help alert the boxing world to Gonzalez.
This same card also includes some top unbeaten fighters including the excellent Christopher Martin and Yoshihiro Kamegai.

Where ever you turn you are promised some amazing fights.

Big night? Oh yeah, a real big night! Firstly Germany

When we think of big nights in boxing we generally seem to talk about 1 big fight. For example this year we've had "big nights" including Wladimir Klitschko v David Haye, Shane Mosley v Manny Pacquiao and most recently Floyd Mayweather v Victor Ortiz. The problem with these being regarded as "big nights" is that we suffer big time if the main fight end up as a bit of a flop and sadly all 3 have. This coming Saturday however is that other kind of "big night", the one we simply can't lose on thanks to quality fights happening literally everywhere you look.

If we turn our attention to Germany first we have an enthralling card, just look at the highlights below:
Steve Cunningham v Yoan Pablo Hernandez (IBF Cruiserweight title)
Grzegorz Proksa v Sebastian Sylvester (European Middleweight title)
Karo Murat v Gabriel Campillo (IBF Light Heavyweight Eliminator)
The card also features Dustin Dirks and Edmund Gerber. Can we just say that this is a great card before breaking down the actual matches?

Cunninham v Hernandez is a real toss up for me. Over the last 5 years Cunningham has been one of the premier Cruiserweights, he's beaten the likes of Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, Marco Huck, Wayne Braithwaite and Troy Ross whilst suffering to, pretty controversial losses to Wlodarczyk and Tomasz Adamek. Hernandez however has been one of the emerging talents of the division with size, power, skill and youth all coming together. The 26 year old originally of Cuba is a 6'4" southpaw who is taking his first step up since suffering a reverse to Wayne Braithwaite back in 2008 and Hernandez has certainly improved since then. This bout is a genuine toss up.

Proska v Sylvester is another toss up, though I've got to favour the Pole who is coming into the bout on the back of 10 straight early wins. Whilst Sylvester is a clever fighter his work rate (or rather lack of) can be costly, and in fact it was with his recent loss to Daniel Geale. Although Proska at 5'8" is tiny for a middleweight he's actually taller than the former IBF world champion and this bout could well be the most entertaining of the night. Sylvester is fighting for his career whilst Proska is fighting to keep his unbeaten record.

I the other fight of the card (Murat v Campillo) I think we have the "second chance" saloon for both men. Campillo is arguably the most under-rated fighter in the Light Heavyweight division, a slippery, skilled, intelligent fighter who was completely robbed of his WBA title in January  2010 by Beibut Shumenov. Murat is a good fighter, and already holds a controversial win over Campillo (a majority decision back in 2008) but he's never really been able to take that leap into the next level. I fancy this one to be controversial probably with Murat winning another hotly contested decision.

We shall be looking at the other noteworthy cards over the following few days just to show you how great Saturday is going to be!