By: William Holmes
Three fights will be featured on Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions’ (PBC) debut on the Fox network.
The vacant WBC title will be on the line in the main event of the evening as former junior welterweight world champion Danny Garcia faces Robert Guerrero. Sammy Vasquez will take on Aron Martinez in the welterweight division in the co-feature of the night, and heavyweights Dominic Breazeale and Amir Mansour will open up the night’s telecast.
The Staples Center in Los Angeles, California will be the host site for the fight. The following is a preview of all three televised bouts.
Amir Mansour (21-1-1) vs. Dominic Breazeale (16-0); Heavyweights
The first fight of the night should be an explosive one, as Dominic Breazeale has fourteen wins by stoppage, including four of his past five fights, while Mansour has sixteen wins by stoppage, but only two of his past five fights resulted in a stoppage win.
Breazeale has the better amateur background as he competed for the United States in the 2012 Olympics. Mansour does not have a notable amateur background, but has been competing as a professional since 1997, and had a substantial break in his career due to serving a lengthy prison sentence.
Breazeale has the advantage in age as he is thirteen years younger than his opponent. He also has a six inch height advantage and a seven and a half inch reach advantage. Mansour, despite being forty three, is always in excellent shape.
Breazeale has fought five times in 2014 and three times in 2015 and has steadily faced increasingly stiffer competition as his career progresses. He has beaten the likes of Fred Kassi, Yasmany Consuegra, Victor Bisbal, and Nagy Aguilera.
Mansour’s last fight was a split draw with Gerald Washington in which he showed an incredible amount of heart and an iron chin. His only loss was to Steve Cunningham, who was able to get the decision victory despite getting knocked down twice. Mansour has beaten the likes of Fred Kassi, Joey Dawejko, and Kelvin Price.
This will be the first real test of Breazeale’s chin as Mansour has considerable power and has stopped an opponent, Fred Kassi, that Breazeale took to a decision. Breazeale has the better boxing pedigree and the age to win a decision, but Breazeale chin will have to withstand the power of Mansour if he hopes to win the fight.
Sammy Vasquez (20-0) vs. Aron Martinez (20-4-1); Welterweights
Undefeated Sammy Vasquez is a former specialist for the US Army National Guard and a veteran of the Iraq war. He will be five years younger than his opponent Aron Martinez, who is thirty four, and he will have about a one inch height advantage on Martinez. Vasquez and Martinez have about the same reach.
Vasquez was a semi finalist of the 2012 US Olympic boxing trials and his amateur losses during the trials were to Errol Spence and Amir Imam. Martinez does not have a notable amateur background.
Vasquez has decent power and has stopped fourteen of his opponents, including three of his past five fights. Martinez, in comparison, has very little power and has only stopped four of his opponents. He has also lost three of his past five fights.
Vasquez’s notable victories include Jose Lopez, Wale Omotoso, Emmanuel Lartei Lartey, and James Stevenson.
Martinez, despite having the worse record, has faced by far stiffer competition. His biggest victory happened in his last fight when he upset Devon Alexander with scores of 97-93, 97-93, and 96-94. His other notable victory was over Prenice Brewer. He has lost to the likes of Robert Guerrero, by split decision which some felt Martinez should have won, Josesito Lopez, and Jessie Vargas.
Martinez is a tough gatekeeper and an opponent no contender should look past. Vasquez has the pedigree to beat Martinez, but he has to be able to withstand Martinez’s pressure in order to win the match.
Danny Garcia (31-0) vs. Robert Guerrero (33-3-1); WBC Welterweight Title
The main event of the evening will be between Danny Garcia and Robert Guerrero for the WBC Welterweight title.
Garcia is five years younger than his opponent at twenty seven years old. They have a similar height, but Guerrero will have about an inch and half reach advantage.
They also have similar knockout ratios. They both have eighteen knockouts, though Garcia has only won two of his past fights by stoppage and Guerrero has not had a single stoppage victory in his past five bouts.
They both had successful amateur careers. Garcia was a 2006 US National Champion while Guerrero won the bronze medal at the US National Championships as a bantamweight.
Garcia has had a successful professional career and has faced some solid opponents. He has defeated the likes of Paulie Malignaggi, Lamont Peterson, Mauricio Herrera, Lucas Matthysse, Zab Judah, Erik Morales, Amir Khan, Kendall Holt, Nate Campbell, and Ashley Theophane. However, his wins over Holt and Theophane were by split decision and many felt he lost his fights to Lamont Peterson and Mauricio Herrera.
Guerrero’s first world title came in the featherweight division when he defeated Eric Aiken, but he has since grown into the welterweight division. He has defeated the likes of Jason Litzau, Joel Casamayor, Michael Katsidis, Selcuk Aydin, Andre Berto, and Aron Martinez. Two of his notable losses were to Keith Thurman and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Guerrero will likely have a majority of the fans in attendance cheering him on due to his Mexican heritage. On paper, Garcia should win and outbox Guerrero, but if Guerrero can weather Garcia’s early surge and take him into the later rounds he could pull off the mild upset. Garcia does tend to fade late into fights.
