WHEN: Sept. 20
HOW TO WATCH: Showtime, 10:30 p.m. ET
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: To see if a Showtime main event in his hometown is too distracting for the 21-year-old Dutchover.
An undefeated lightweight, Dutchover is young. While the success of guys like Teofimo Lopez and Devin Haney has jaded us in terms of what to expect from young boxers in their early 20s, consider that before his first televised fight in May, Dutchover decided that to get serious about his training camp, he would stop bringing his phone to training, and did what he could to avoid looking at it until midday. He won that fight by knockout, his 10th in the 13 fights he has won. The point of the phone story? To note that at his age, he can get distracted. That is going to be important, seeing as though he is fighting in his hometown of Midland, Texas, on Friday in the main event of a ShoBox card.
Opposing Dutchover is Mattice. The 29-year-old is 14-1 and loss to Will Madera in February. Most people think he deserved to lose a decision to Zhora Hamazaryan in their first fight, and their rematch ended in a draw. Mattice is a decent puncher -- he has stopped 10 of his opponents -- but could not stop Angel Sarinana, a 10-9 fighter who has been stopped four times as a professional, in his most recent fight in May.
Dutchover is the better prospect -- there is a reason he gets the hometown showcase -- and should win the fight, but headlining a Showtime card so close to home can provide more distractions than any cell phone, no matter who you have in your contacts. We will see if the 21-year-old is mature enough to avoid them and get the win, or if Mattice can catch Dutchover unprepared.
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WHAT: Peter Quillin vs. Alfredo Angulo, Super Middleweights
WHEN: Sept. 21
HOW TO WATCH: Fox Sports 1, 10:30 p.m. ET
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: To see if Angulo, in the twilight of his career, can rise up to become something more than the exciting fighter who sells tickets, excites the crowd and loses.
Chances are you have not thought about “El Perro” for a while. Yes, the former HBO standout who lost to Kermit Cintron, James Kirkland, Erislandy Lara and a young Canelo Alvarez is getting a main event slot against Quillin, this after Caleb Truax’s Achilles injury forced him out of the fight. Angulo is 1-2 since 2016, with losses to Sergio Mora and Freddy Hernandez, and has not beaten a fighter with less than 10 losses since 2012. To be honest, Angulo was never that good. He dropped Lara twice in a fight he ultimately lost by 10th-round stoppage. He went toe to toe with Kirkland in a great fight that he lost by sixth-round stoppage. His best win was probably a stoppage of Gabe Rosado, though he did win a vacant title in 2009. Why did HBO keep putting him on with some of its biggest stars? Because Angulo tended to put on fun, all-action fights, and he tended to lose them. At 37, what can Angulo do to reverse the course of his career and actually beat someone like Quillin instead of just selling tickets and providing a bit of excitement? He started training with Abel Sanchez around 2018 and moved up to 168 pounds. Angulo claims that working with Sanchez has made him significantly better and that he now feels he has 10 years of boxing left in him.
The 36-year-old Quillin is no spring chicken. However, while the biggest names on Angulo’s resume are guys to whom he lost, Quillin has beaten the biggest names on his, having defeated Winky Wright, Hassan Ndam and Gabriel Rosado; and while he sunk into a dark place following a 2015 defeat -- it remains his only professional loss -- to Daniel Jacobs, Quillin has recently been on a tear. After being away from the ring for two years, he returned to the ring in 2017 and beat Dashon Johnson. He then beat J’Leon Love and took the first two rounds against Truax before an accidental headbutt ended the fight in a no-contest.
Quillin should easily win this fight, as he has always been superior Angulo. However, maybe with a new trainer and a new weight class, Angulo will be able to do more than be who he has been in the past: a guy who sells tickets, fights hard and loses.
* * *
WHAT: Chris Colbert vs. Miguel Beltran Jr., Lightweights
WHEN: Sept. 21
HOW TO WATCH: Fox Sports 1, 10:30 p.m. ET
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: Because Colbert needs to look good to make up for his lack of knockout power and the Olympic marketing background for which he opted not to try.
At 22, Brooklyn’s “Primetime” Colbert -- apparently, he took his nickname to pay homage to Deion Sanders, not because he needed to separate himself from late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert -- is 12-0 and coming off a win over Alberto Mercado. As he tells it, with a 103-3 record as an amateur, he qualified for the Olympic Trials but did not want to get involved with politics present in the amateur system: “They had their eye on who they wanted to be their Olympian, and I wasn’t about to wait.” Instead, he decided to turn pro. He was convinced the Olympic team wanted Shakur Stevenson and would not give him a fair shot.
This fight is going to be a big step up for him. While Beltran has essentially been going win-loss-win-loss since 2012, he has fought for the WBO super featherweight title against Roman “Rocky” Martinez and is coming off a decision loss to Yuriorkis Gamboa. Yes, he has seven losses, but his professional experience dwarfs Colbert’s. He has been stopped only twice, so it would be surprising if someone with Colbert’s lack of power could prevent him from seeing the final bell.
As a professional, Stevenson is taking on the big names and making a huge name for himself based in large part on his Olympic silver medal. Colbert did not try to go to the Olympics because he felt unwanted. Void of that marketing opportunity, he needs to win and look good against a veteran opponent on Fox Sports 1. Otherwise, he will quickly realize that, just like Olympic committees, promoters and networks tend to favor certain guys; and unfortunately for Colbert, those guys usually have knockout power and highly marketable Olympic backgrounds.
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WHAT: Thomas Dulorme vs. Terrel Williams, Welterweights
WHEN: Sept. 21
HOW TO WATCH: Fox Sports 1, 10:30 p.m. ET
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: Because after putting Prichard Colon in a coma, Williams keeps fighting to keep his name out of the mud and to force fighters into the ring with him.
Right now, Williams is most famous for one unfortunate event: He gave Colon brain damage. While there is no way to determine what punch did it -- Colon’s family sued the promoters of the fight and ringside doctors, not Williams -- he was hitting Colon with rabbit punches throughout the fight. Once Colon was seriously injured, Williams became known as a dirty fighter. That reputation made it difficult for him to secure good fights. Three wins against lesser known opponents later, Williams is 18-0 with 13 knockouts.
This is an important fight for Williams, because Dulorme has been in the ring with some of the best of the best. He has beaten Demarcus “Chop Chop” Corley, Francisco Figueroa, Henry Lundy and Karim Mayfield, and he has lost to Terence Crawford, Luis Carlos Abregu and Yordenis Ugas. In 2018, he fought Jessie Vargas to a draw in a bout Dulorme was convinced he won.
Obviously, Williams needs a win to keep his career on track, but more than that, he needs a win to make sure guys are going to have to get in the ring with him. If he keeps winning, he might be able to get his name associated with championships and success, rather than rabbit punches and an unfortunate injury.
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WHAT: Joseph Diaz Jr. vs. Jesus Cuadro, Junior Lightweights
WHEN: Sept. 21
HOW TO WATCH: Facebook Watch, 10 p.m. ET
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: Because Diaz deserves more, but it will be up to him to prove it.
Diaz deserves far better than to be facing an 18-5 Venezuelan in Mexico in a fight that is going to air on Facebook. After all, he was a 2012 Olympian and holds a 30-1 record as a professional, with wins over Andrew “El Chango” Cancio. His sole loss came at the incredibly fast hands of Gary Russell Jr. In fact, he has recently been linked to a fight with Tevin Farmer after they got into a confrontation in May, and to a rematch with Cancio, who now holds the WBA super featherweight title. These are the types of opponents Diaz should be fighting.
Cuadro is 18-5 with 14 knockouts but has beaten exactly two fighters with records over .500. Those fighters were 1-0 and 3-2. Cuadro does have one thing going for him: While he has fought guys like Diego Magdaleno, Roman Andreev and Ricardo Nunez, he has never been stopped as a professional fighter. Unless he lands a huge, lucky shot, he is not going to win, but he is also not going to lay down in the first round.
Simply put, Diaz is above this fight, but against a guy who is not going to go down unless he can put a serious hurting on him, “JoJo” is going to have to prove it.