Javier Fortuna vs. Carlos Ivan Velásquez

Haymon vs. GBP!

Touted amateur vs. touted amateur!

Midweek world title bout!



This is the main event of a PBC on FS1 card on Tuesday.

Fortuna is the incumbent WBA 130lb champion, and the heavy betting favorite at 1/14, and the "house fighter", and the name you have likely actually heard of. This isn't a soft touch defense, however. As much as Fortuna is hailed for his amateur credentials, Velásquez's may be even better. He represented Puerto Rico at the Athens Olympics in 2004, and holds many notable victories including Nehomar Cermeno, Daniel Brizuela, and Yuriorkis Gamboa.

In the pros, too, Fortuna has been hardly inspiring with his form compared with Velásquez's - just subject to greater exposure and more hype. Fortuna looked very poor against Patrick Hyland in an ugly fight, drew with Luis Franco in a stinker, and got a gift over Bryan Vasquez to obtain his title. Velásquez hasn't made a lot of noise in the pros (or gotten many opportunities to do so) and lost to Rico Ramos via TKO10 in his one big step up to date - but he did drop Ramos en route. He also may have dropped the iron-chinned Juan "Fenix" Ruiz in his last bout, a shutout in a 6-rounder. All three judges scored it 60-53, but I can't find a single article to corroborate the extra point being from a knockdown rather than a point deducted from Ruiz for a foul. Ruiz, for the record, has the p4p best chin in boxing right now and I'm not exaggerating.

Velásquez has 4" of height on Fortuna, who is five years his junior.

 

:conf I watched some of it, seemed close...and lots of posters whose opinions I respect thought Vasquez earned the nod.

 

I've also never been impressed with Fortuna and have been anticipating him getting exposed since the Hyland fight. He has moderate speed and power but is defensively lacking and his offense is sloppy with a lot of bad leftover amateur habits.