Premier Boxing Champions 2015: Fight Card and TV Schedule for September 6
Boxing fans still getting set for the September 12 bout between Floyd Mayweather and Andre Berto will have their appetites whetted on Saturday night with a Premier Boxing Champions event headlined by Anthony Dirrell taking on Marco Antonio Rubio.
The Al Haymon-organized promotion has helped bring in a wide audience, with the most recent event providing stellar ratings on ESPN.
The Dirrell-Rubio showdown should attract an even larger audience since it will be airing on CBS. Both fighters come into this bout off a loss, though Rubio would seem to have more on the line since he was knocked out by Gennady Golovkin.
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Here's all the pre-fight information needed to prepare for an excellent evening of boxing.
Fight Card
| Anthony Dirrell vs. Marco Antonio Rubio | Super Middleweight |
| WBA Bantamweight Title: Jamie McDonnell (c) vs.Tomoki Kameda | Bantamweight |
| Daiki Kameda vs. Victor Ruiz | Bantamweight |
| Miguel Flores vs. Carlos Padilla | Featherweight |
| Mario Barrios vs. Jose Cen Torres | Super Featherweight |
| Jeremy Longoria vs. Jesse Anguiano | Super Featherweight |
| Alberto Navarro vs. Anibal Resendez | Lightweight |
| Ricky Edwards vs. Marco Antonio Solis | Lightweight |
| Ryan Karl vs. Malcolm Terry | Welterweight |
| Robert Vela vs. Cesar Martinez | Lightweight |
| Rickie Gutierrez vs. Theo Johnson | Super Featherweight |
| Raymond Guzman vs. Robert Serna | Super Middleweight |
When: Saturday, Sept. 6
Watch: CBS
Start Time: 4 p.m. ET
Where: American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas
Jamie McDonnell and Tomoki Kameda has the potential to be something special. This is the second match between these two in four months, after McDonnell handed Kameda his first career loss thanks to a unanimous decision.
Kameda came out of the gate strong in the May bout, knocking McDonnell down in the third round, but the WBA bantamweight champion rebounded with stellar precision on his striking and movement to avoid big hits in the later rounds.
Kameda has already told the world what his strategy will be this time around during an interview with BoxingScene.com:
"I will look to prepare shots to score points and be victorious. If the knockout comes, I will take it. Most important is to get the victory and we will do what we have to do to win. I will not let him back in the fight later on. This time I will start strong and finish him and not let off the gas until I am champion again.
"
That's going to be good news for McDonnell. He's most comfortable waiting for an opening to come, though he isn't afraid to start swinging if that's how the fight goes.
Per CompuBox on Twitter, McDonnell threw nearly twice as many punches as Kameda in the first bout but wasn't nearly as accurate:
Those stats do show how well-conditioned McDonnell is, to hit the mat and throw 868 punches without wearing down in a 12-round fight, but he has to be more on point to knock off the quicker Kameda.
Kameda's ideal path to victory will come in being relentless. He is at a size disadvantage—McDonnell has a six-inch reach advantage, per BoxRec.com—but his speed and ability to close gaps quickly is what allowed him to score an early knockdown in the first fight.
McDonnell has more ways to win because he has long limbs, but Kameda is more accurate with his striking and has that one-punch knockout ability to drop anyone.
Following that battle will be Dirrell and Rubio, who come into this fight looking to reignite their careers. Rubio has more tread on the tires as the older boxer (35) with 67 professional fights under his belt.
Dirrell has been a tremendous story for the sport of boxing, telling Bleacher Report's Kelsey McCarson that things he's dealt with in the ring pale in comparison to his real-world battles:
"I already won the biggest fight of my career against cancer. It’s just tremendous for me to even be here to be able to talk to [Bleacher Report] about my future and my boxing career. Most people who have cancer can’t really do anything afterwards, but God has blessed me and I keep on getting blessed. And I’m going to take full advantage of these blessings and go in there and get a victory.
"
However, there is cause for concern for Dirrell coming into this bout with Rubio. He was not on point in a sluggish decision loss against Badou Jack in April that cost him the WBC super middleweight title.
The most discouraging thing about Dirrell's loss against Jack is how he seemed to wear down at the end. Jack nailed him with a strong two-punch combination in the ninth round that left Dirrell wobbly, and he was never able to recover.
Rubio isn't exactly riding a wave of momentum. Before getting knocked out by Golovkin, the Mexican star was unable to make weight and wouldn't have been awarded the WBC middleweight title even if he had won.
That doesn't bode well for Rubio coming into this bout, as he was bigger than Golovkin in that fight and still couldn't avoid being dropped to the canvas.
Rubio is moving up to 168 pounds for Saturday's showdown, a weight class that Dirrell has already won a championship in. Dirrell has more natural strength, punching power and agility than Rubio.
It also doesn't help that Rubio's best chance for a victory is by knockout, since he's historically not fared well when leaving things up the judges. He has 59 career wins, 51 by knockout, but is a pedestrian 8-3-1 when going the distance.
Everything is set up for Dirrell to get back in the win column on Saturday. He's the more-skilled fighter, has a better track record of success in fights that end via stoppage or at the judges' table and needs to bounce back.
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