TWENTY HOURS, THREE CONTINENTS: A MARATHON SATURDAY OF BOXING ACTION
From Brisbane to Monte Carlo and then finishing off in San Antonio, we are quite literally going globetrotting this Saturday with close to 20 hours of straight boxing across three action-packed cards in three completely different parts of the world.
First up is Jai Opetaia’s IBF & Ring Magazine World Cruiserweight Title defence in Australia, and that’s where we’ll start.
Undoubtedly one of, if not the most avoided world champions in boxing right now, since becoming world champion back in July 2022, Jai Opetaia’s reign has been a frustrating one through no fault of his own.
Impressive wins over the likes of Mairis Briedis, Jordan Thompson and David Nyika have kept the momentum going, but he is still yet to land the big unification clash he craves, with none of the other champions at 200lbs showing real interest in fighting him.
On Saturday, he’s on mandatory duties again, this time against the undefeated German Huseyin Cinkara.
With a record of 23–0 with 19 stoppages, on paper Cinkara looks a legitimate contender, but when you go through his record, it tells a fairly different story.
Now 40 years old, he’s never fought anyone anywhere near the calibre of Opetaia, or debatably anyone near the calibre Opetaia has faced since becoming world champion.
The most recognisable name on his CV is Armend Xhoxhaj, a man whom Chris Billam-Smith emphatically stopped back in 2022 and who Cinkara stopped inside two rounds last year.
Apart from that, though, his résumé is fairly underwhelming.
To his credit, he’s fought his way into the mandatory position to challenge Opetaia, so we must give him credit for that. However, this should be another early night for Jai, who’s only been taken past the sixth round by Mairis Briedis in his past nine fights.
Understandably, Opetaia is likely to be going into this fight angry due to the champions at cruiser not stepping up to fight him, so expect an explosive performance from the Aussie and expect him to do the job inside the first few rounds as he looks to eventually book a unification clash in 2026, or potentially move up to heavyweight.
On the undercard, former WBO World Bantamweight champion Jason Moloney looks to bounce back to winning ways after two straight defeats against Herlan Gomez, whilst heavyweight sensation Teremoana Jr will be aiming to make it nine stoppage wins from nine fights as a professional when he faces German Montes of Mexico.
We now head west to the bright lights of Monaco as Matchroom Boxing returns to Monte Carlo for a cracker of a card headlined by a brilliant European Super-Bantamweight clash between Shabaz Masoud and Peter McGrail.
A fight that was originally scheduled for June but didn’t go ahead due to an injury sustained by Masoud, the pair finally get it on this weekend in what promises to be a boxing spectacle.
Now 14–0, Masoud has had plenty of eyes on him since debuting on the Hughie Fury vs Sam Sexton card back in 2018.
After a busy start to his career with seven fights in the first 18 months, he’s fought just seven times in six years, with COVID partly to blame for that inactivity.
When he’s stepped up, though, he’s done it and done it very well.
An impressive stoppage win over Jack Bateson back in 2022 and then an even more impressive victory over Liam Davies last time out show that he’s lived up to the potential he displayed early on.
His opponent on Saturday night, Peter McGrail, has had a whirlwind few years — and that’s probably playing it down.
Since turning pro after a disastrous draw in the Tokyo Olympics, which saw him lose out in the first round to the highly ranked Chatchai Butdee, the ‘Scouse Lomachenko’, as he’s affectionately known to some boxing fans, has more than impressed in his 13-fight professional career but has suffered adversity along the way.
8–0 in his first eight contests, he suffered a shock stoppage defeat to Ja’Rico O’Quinn two years ago, but solid victories over quality domestic opposition like Marc Leach, Brad Foster, Rhys Edwards and, most recently, everyone’s favourite Romanian, Ionut Baluta, have put him in good standing for the toughest test of his career to date against Masoud.
To the fight, and it’s a really tricky one to pick.
Both, technically, are beautiful on the eye, but something which may play a big part in this fight is the size difference.
Masoud is the bigger man and has a six-inch reach advantage which, for the lighter weights, is enormous.
McGrail is going to have to be the aggressor, but with that comes more risk.
It’s also a battle of the stances, with Masoud a classic orthodox boxer and McGrail a tricky southpaw.
Both lads’ power is massively underrated, so both probably won’t want to sit in the pocket and slug this one out. It’ll be a chess match from the first bell — one purists will fantasise over.
Who’ll win? It’s honestly as 50/50 a domestic clash as you’re likely to see, but one thing is certain: the winner will almost certainly book themselves an eliminator or final eliminator for one of Naoya Inoue’s world titles in 2026.
Now for a look at the undercard, and it’s a belter.
Two fights really stand out.
Firstly, Conah Walker vs Pat McCormack.
Two men who absolutely love a tear-up, it’s near-enough impossible for this to not be fight of the night.
British champion Walker has built up a reputation for being one of the most relentless fighters on the domestic circuit, and with solid victories over the likes of Lewis Ritson, Harry Scarff and Liam Taylor in his last three fights, it’s easy to see why.
McCormack, on the other hand, has long been thought of as a future world champion.
An Olympic silver medallist in Tokyo, he’s eight wins from eight fights as a pro with six stoppages, so he has shown more than enough to suggest that the hype is real.
In Walker, though, he comes up against something he is yet to have seen as a professional.
A tough, durable, relentless opponent who won’t give him time to think — it’s the perfect test and measuring stick for McCormack at this stage of his career.
If he beats Walker, it’s a statement. If he stops Walker, it’s one heck of a statement. And as for Walker, if he adds the scalp of McCormack to his growing CV, he’ll continue his impressive rise to the top.
The welterweight division is absolutely booming domestically and globally with the likes of Jack Catterall, Lewis Crocker and Conor Benn, so whoever is victorious here will certainly have their eye on those sorts of names heading into 2026.
The second standout fight is the clash between two-time Olympic medallist and now IBF World Lightweight champion Beatriz Ferreira and the undefeated Turk Elif Nur Turhan.
Undoubtedly one of the best female fighters on the planet right now, Ferreira became a world champion in just her fifth professional contest and now defends the belt for a fourth time this Saturday night.
Her opponent, Elif Nur Turhan, burst onto the world stage when stopping home-town favourite Shauna Browne in Belfast earlier this year.
She once again upset the home favourite when stopping Rima Ayadi in France in August, and that form has earned her a shot at the IBF world title.
One thing about these two ladies is that they both like to fight on the front foot — which can only mean one thing: fireworks.
Yes, Ferreira has the amateur pedigree, so she has it in her to play it safe and probably outbox Turhan, but knowing what the Brazilian is like, she’d much rather entertain the fans — and entertainment is exactly what we will get.
Also on the undercard, Sean McComb defends his IBF European Super-Lightweight title against the undefeated Hugo Micallef, whilst Johnny Fisher will be aiming to bounce back from a disappointing stoppage defeat to Dave Allen with a win over undefeated Slovakian Ivan Balaz.
Just when you thought that was enough boxing for your Saturday, PBC has other ideas with a fantastic card in Texas.
Headlining it is the always-entertaining Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz against Lamont Roach Jr, who was unfortunate not to claim the scalp of Gervonta Davis in his last fight.
Pitbull’s résumé speaks for itself. He was the last man to defeat the now WBA World Welterweight champion Rolly Romero, and two of his three defeats have come at the highest level — similar to his opponent on Saturday, Lamont Roach Jr.
The reigning WBA World Super-Featherweight champion, Roach steps up two weight classes to face Pitbull as he looks to prove himself as one of the pound-for-pound best fighters on the planet.
As previously mentioned, he was wrongly denied the scalp of Gervonta Davis in his last fight, having scored what appeared to be a legitimate knockdown that was not ruled as such — a moment which would have given him the points decision victory.
Roach will look to box here and Cruz will look to pressure, which means the styles could clash. But if Roach feels solid at 140lbs and doesn’t feel like the smaller man, it could certainly make for an interesting fight.
The undercard has been marred this week by, once again, a world champion returning an adverse finding from a VADA test — this time WBO & IBF World Middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly, who was set to face WBA champion Erislandy Lara in a 160lbs unification.
Due to the adverse finding, that fight is now off, with Lara instead facing Johan Gonzalez, who has won 34 of his 36 victories by stoppage — a more than legitimate opponent on just a few days’ notice.
The fight between Lara and Janibek was set to be chief support to Pitbull vs Roach; however, that spot has now been taken by the WBC World Super-Featherweight clash between O’Shaquie Foster and Stephen Fulton.
Two naturally gifted boxers, similar to Masoud vs McGrail, this fight will likely be a chess match, but it does have the potential to get wild — especially if either fighter is dominating the contest and forces the other to take risks.
It probably won’t be fight of the night, but it will set up an intriguing unification clash between either fighter and the winner of Dickens vs Tsutsumi or the winner of Navarrete vs Nunez.
A quite breathtaking 20 hours or so of boxing — so get all your jobs done in the morning and plant yourself on the sofa for an absolute marathon of boxing action.
Don’t forget to head over to our partners Tenex Casino for the latest odds on all of the action this Saturday. Check them out HERE.