Pablo César Cano García vs. Ruslan Madiyev

Headlining an ESPN show on Thursday at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas - providing both national TV audiences and citizens of Sin City a little "Kazakhstani vs. Mexican" hors d'œuvre before the main course of Gennady Golovkin vs. Saúl Álvarez II down the strip a couple of nights later.

Madiyev is riding a confidence high, coming off a sizable leap up in class in his first 10-rounder (jumping straight from 6 and skipping 8-rounders) wherein he comfortably outpointed a Tijuana banger named Jesús Antonio "Ricky" Pérez entering 21-0 (17) on the Golovkin vs. Martirosyan undercard. He was molded initially by Abel Sánchez but is now trained full-time by Maksim Golovkin, the less famous brother operating in the shadows but said in almost mythic whispersr to have a keener brain for boxing (and more natural talent for it, before deciding to sit on the sidelines and defer the spotlight) than Gennady himself. Along with coach Max, Murat Gassiev, and fellow unbeaten prospect Ali Akhmedov (among the better up and coming light heavyweights, if you haven't heard him hyped up by myself or others ) he is part of the "Kazaq Kliq" - known for training hard in Big Bear and partying even harder, roaming around the SoCal coast cruising for food, thrills, chicks, and social media group selfie photo ops. Inside the ring, the influence of his country's number one boxer is self-evident in his cerebral yet offense-emphasized stalking & rocking style and dedication to body-punching, although he is a much greener version with plenty left to learn - and not blessed with as much p4p thunder in his fists.

Cano, for his part, is only three years Madiyev's elder but in terms of ring tread could be considered double his age. Indeed, he turned pro a dozen a years ago (compare with Madiev's five on the job). Stylistically a shrunken down version of Gilberto Ramírez Sánchez (or a blown-up Léodegario Santa Cruz, take your pick), he is a workhorse not overly burdened with speed nor power (though he is heavy-handed) nor guile - just a durable, high-volume, non-risk-averse classic Mexican. His peak, however, came several years ago when, in the span of thirteen months, he picked up arguably his pair of career greatest official victories (over Johan Pérez & Ashley Theophane) as well as suffering two defeats to superstar names in which most fans believe he was robbed (against Paulie Malignaggi & Shane Mosley). His stock, despite the losses, was highest at this period but would soon begin to sputter, with Cano never quite able to capitalize on any momentum. A cuts TKO loss to Fernando Angulo was followed by nice bounce-back wins over Jorge Silva and Juan Carlos Abreu...but the latter was overturned when Cano failed a drug test and reverted to an eyesore NC on his record (along with a suspension forcing him to seek his next assignment back home across the border in Tlalnepantla). Another win, another loss. A pretty good win squeaked out over Mauricio Herrera by SD, which could have put him on the right track toward a title shot...and then Fidel Maldonado gets off the canvas to squeak by him via SD and pull the rug out from under him. Currently he is coming off a knockout loss to Marcelino Nicolás López, last October. He's taller, longer and has oodles more experience than Madiyev - but this will still be an uphill battle, and for him a crossroads with a wrong turn here meaning contention is going to forever elude his grasp.

 

The deep undercard will stream on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app from 6:30pm EST, while the main card is airing on ESPN2 from 8pm EST.

I may or may not be around to do a RBR - my girlfriend has never been to Fenway so apparently we're seeing the Red Sox that night.

 

No. I married my ex in early 2012, wouldn't call six and a half years ago all that recently. Why?

 

Yeah my exhaustive search for any extant nickname (which involved sifting through dozens of pages of Google results for his name in Cyrillic) finally culminated in me just shrugging and deciding to use whatever you had coined in your spotlight thread on him...only to discover that you'd never bothered making one.

 

@CST80

I went to check the Golovkin vs. Martirosyan thread for your RBR scoring of Madiev vs. Pérez and was shocked to discover that you

a) didn't apparently even bother watching/scoring the undercard (or, tbf, it just wasn't televised anywhere or streamed) and

b) THIS:

I hope you've binged both seasons in the last four months..?

 

Instagram stories. (the ones that fade after 24 hours...those boys are wild, I tells ya... )

 

The co-main event, btw, is Marciela Cornejo vs. Franchon Rebecca Monich Crews, a battle of 31 year old super middleweights gunning for the interim WBC ladies' title.

Cornejo, pictured below, in addition to being a majestically sumptuous goddess (I would eat a bushel of her earwax or navel lint just to lick the sweat off that side-boob ) is a former WBC middleweight women's champion.

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Crews is best remembered as Claressa Shields' pro debut opponent.

 

Oh and "Monster" Can Xu makes his US debut on this card.

 

Madiev really hasn't looked to be a prodigious hitter at lightweight or light welter. I'd say the chances of a pure KO are slim to none. Cuts bringing about the ending (whether TKO/TD/NC) are on the table, though, absolutely.

 

Addendum: slim to none unless Cano's mandible is just spiderwebbed to **** at this point, which I guess we'll know if the average-thumping Madiev rips through him like a hot knife through butter and scores a KO1 or something.