If you’re a boxing fan you know to tune in when Vasiliy Lomachenko, Canelo, Tyson Fury, and the other big names are fighting. You also know that you don’t want to miss top prospects like Vergil Ortiz, Jaron Ennis, and Teofimo Lopez. But many boxers fight deep on undercards or on more obscure streaming platforms whose fights are consistently more entertaining than a lot of the big name fighters. Here are eight such fighters and the reason you should watch them:
Serhii Bohachuk – Bohachuk is a lanky Ukrainian junior middleweight in Manny Robles’ stable. Though he looks like he has the length to fight at distance, he prefers to come right at you and stand in range and outpunch you. He doesn’t have concussive one punch knockout power, but everything he throws comes out straight and does damage. Bohachuk hasn’t fought stiff competition yet, but he has dismantled everyone who has shared a ring with him. Fighting under Tom Loeffler’s 360 Promotions banner, his fights to this point have been streamed on Youtube for free. Bohachuck is ready to step up the competition and we think he will eventually be among the top 154 pounders in the world.
Ilunga Makabu – “Junior” has been around for quite a while and has dropped or stopped 27 of his 29 opponents. A typical Makabu fight has Junior hurting his opponent with a left hand that he uses in about every way you can, followed by Makabu either getting hurt or being gassed and absorbing some punishment only to come back and turn the tables. Somehow he was passed over for both seasons of WBSS cruiserweight tournaments but he’ll be a great opponent for whoever comes out victorious. His signing with Don King last year makes us nervous that he’ll spend time on the shelf, but so far he has been kept busy.
Julio Ceja – Though Ceja is 0-2-1 in his last 3 fights, we’ll tune in whenever he gets in the ring again. The lightweight has had a long career fighting in Mexico before recently taking some bigger paydays in the U.S. Both of his 2019 outings were all out wars against Guillermo Rigondeaux and Brandon Figueroa. Ceja will come right at you and give you plenty of chances to stop him, but you’ll have to walk through some serious fire to do it.
Alen Babic – It would be hard for anyone to project a high ceiling for a bouncer starting his professional boxing career at the age of 28 as an undersized heavyweight. But that’s not what this list is about. Babic did have a fairly extensive amateur career but you’d never know it by the way he fights. He’s a free swinging slugger who invokes Jack Dempsey and Joe Frazier and says he knows no other way. He has called out his much higher regarded countryman Filip Hrgovic and fights in the same Matchroom stable on DAZN so we hope that’s a fight we eventually get to see. We don’t think Babic will reach the higher echelon of the heavyweight division, but we really don’t care either. We’ll watch him every step of the way.
Angel Acosta – All but 1 of Acosta’s 23 fights have ended by knockout, a rare feat for fighters in the lower weight classes. He’ll stand and bang with you and is more than willing to trade left hooks even though he has been caught and stopped by them. You can watch him on DAZN fighting under the Golden Boy banner. In addition to providing guaranteed action, we think Acosta is the most talented active Puerto Rican fighter.
Pedro Taduran – Taduran is under the radar for a couple of reasons. He doesn’t fight on a large platform, so you have to look to find his fights. And he fights at 105 pounds and many fans don’t often venture into the lower weight classes for good action. But you’d be making a mistake to skip a Taduran fight. The pressure fighter got off the deck to stop the favored Samuel Salva last year and then fought to a draw in an abbreviated 4 round war against Daniel Valladares. Fighters seem to age quickly at the lighter weights but Taduran has already fought the very best and he’s only 23 and seems to be getting better.
Ginjiro Shigeoka – Like Taduran, Shigeoka fights at 105 pounds. But he’s not a pressure fighter, he’s a puncher. He’ll stay at range and look to land a fight ending shot. The 20 year old Japanese fighter has been moved very quickly and after only 5 fights against strong competition, he can’t be far away from challenging the fighters at the top of the division. Last time out against Rey Loreto he was caught clean and stunned but recovered to get the stoppage.
Ali Akhmedov – Akhmedov is a stablemate and protege of Gennadiy Golovkin. The super middleweight comes straight at you and looks to break you down and do damage. He has been moved fairly conservatively to this point but his fights are good to watch. He’s been on the shelf for a year now as he seems to be relegated to fighting on GGG undercards and that is a bit of a concern.