Forget the silly main event, let's discuss the PPV undercard.

Martinez vs. Salido II and Jack vs. Groves - who are you picking in these ones?

Rocky will be favored to retain, and St. George to obtain - but I don't know.

I heavily favored Salido the first time and if you subtract the knockdowns and point deductions it was a razor's edge. He was fresh off defeating Lomachenko (followed by a triumph in a grueling war against the underrated Terdsak Jandaeng, which may have taken a heavier toll on him than believed and had some impact on his punch resistance versus Martinez) while Martinez was was a fight removed from being fed to Mikey Garcia. Maybe last time was a fluke, a bad night for Salido and great one for Martinez. Or, conversely, maybe the Puerto Rican just has the Mexican's numero.

As for Badou Jack - he rebounded from the Edwards shock admirably. Escalera and Sierra aren't great coups, both fairly average fighters, but they're both dangerous considering his recently having been chinned, and he dominated them both. Then he popped the cherry of Dirrell, whom most expected to walk through Jack. His rise to become champ was a sicker punch to most fans (99% of whom quickly wrote him off as joke fodder after Edwards) so it would be foolish to overlook him in his 1st defense - ESPECIALLY given how poor Groves has looked In the wake of the Froch rivalry. He was given too much trouble by Rebrasse and Douglin to say he's a lock to steal Jack's green belt. Also worth noting: they have have a common opponent in Francisco Sierra and netted the same result (TKO6) but Groves struggled a bit more with him.

 

...oh, and what's the deal with Vanes Martirosyan vs. Ishe Smith, anyway? Not part of the PPV? Honestly we have seen worse fights included on many a PPV card in recent years...hell, even as co-features. The winner springboards into possibly another chance at some version of a slice of the 154lb pie. Despite the (unfair) reputation of Smith and the fact that Martirosyan has been in a couple of stinkers as well (ie Lara) my gut feeling is this one could actually be pretty good. Both will throw a high volume and should be hungry to keep their grasp on relevance.

It probably is best if they leave it off the PPV (even though equal or worse fights have been featured on many PPV cards in recent years like I said; this is an opportunity to cull the worthy from the not quite) but it deserves better than going totally un-televised. Maybe on Showtime or Sho Xterm before the PPV? Too important to be a dark match.

 

Martinez has lots of wear & tear on him, too. He also should have about half as many losses as Salido, given all the gifts he got (incl. three in a row comprising the entirety of his 2nd WBO 130lb title reign, getting undeserved nods over Beltran Jr., Burgos, and Magdaleno)

As for Martirosyan vs. Smith, not such a sure thing. Many have managed to outbox Vanes (Lara, Andrade, Charlo) or give him problems with sheer work rate (Kassim Ouma, for instance, who is every bit as feather-fisted as Smith, but managed to drop Martirosyan...or Willie Nelson, against whom Martirosyan went life & death). He also has only scored two stoppages of his last eight opponents going back four years, and if you really break it down has never stopped anyone on even the fringe contender tier in spite of his puncher's reputation from the amateurs (plus the way he fights). Smith, meanwhile, is teak-tough, never stopped in 34 bouts, and has outpointed the likes of Davis Estrada, Randall Bailey, Cecil McCalla, Anthony Bonsante, Alfonso Gomez, Pawel Wolak, and K9 Bundrage - honestly better than Martirosyan's seven best victories (Nelson, Greene, Ouma, Lowry, Tsurkan, Medina, Gutierrez ...and Martirosyan's eighth-best is Davis, a common opponent with Smith, both netting the exact same result of TKO2) - plus he was robbed against Sergio Mora and Fernando Guerrero. If you give him the official verdict in both of those, his resume blows Martirosyan's away.

 

Wow, further playing the PR vs. Mexico angle. Very clever. This will do better (in terms of gate & buys) than people expect, and for once it'll be the undercard that sells it.