LA’s Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (13-0, 11 KOs) highlights a live Fox Sports 2 card on Tuesday by battling Ohio’s Paul Parker (7-0). The two cruiserweights will engage in a ten round battle on a night which will also see Washington’s D’Mitrius Ballard (8-0, 7 KOs) face Mexico’s Josue Obando (11-5, 9 KOs) in a six round light heavyweight battle and Washington’s Lamont Roach Jr. (7-0, 3 KOs) battle Texan Christian Santibanez (3-4, 2 KOs).
Shabransky throws punches like a howitzer. His destruction of Garrett Wilson, for instance, was a thudding affair, with Wilson ending up on the mat on numerous occasions. Parker himself has won his last two fights by knockout and is clearly looking for the opportunity to show just how capable he is of climbing the rungs of the cruiserweight ladder.
As for the light heavyweights – Ballard may not have the fastest hands in the division, but he does have the power to drop an opponent with a body shot. That says a lot in the heavy handed light heavyweight world. Ballard’s opponent, Obando, has a shaky record and is clearly seeing himself in the role of opponent here.
Lightweight Roach has a decorated amateur record walking in and is clearly looking to improve upon his 7-0 professional resume when he steps through the ropes to face Santibanez, a man who has lost more fights than he’s won. Soft spoken and pleasant, Roach may be a fighter to keep an eye on. He’s serious about the fight game – and can hit as well as move.
For those not in the know, Fox Sports 1 and Golden Boy Promotions ended their relationship several weeks ago. It’s been decided that the network would now play host to yet another planet of Al Haymon’s Premiere Boxing Champions solar system. Haymon is coming across more and more like a man coming as close as he can to operating a monopoly. Golden Boy, on the other hand, has made it clear that they will be taking their business elsewhere.
At the moment, however, no other host network has been named. The Shabranksy-Parker card will air live Tuesday starting at 8 PM Eastern Time. In a sign of the times, Fox Sports has moved the card from Fox Sports 1 to Fox Sports 2 to make room for Women’s World Cup coverage. The fights will also be aired live on Fox Deportes from Philadelphia’s 2300 Arena.
