Toka Kahn-Clary vs. Jonathan De Jusús Pérez Morillo II

Headlining a CES Boxing show airing on UFC FightPass on Thursday night.

It has been over half a decade since their last meeting, on the Timothy Bradley vs. Jessie Vargas undercard (Kahn-Clary beat Pérez by KO in 6. It was actually pretty competitive while it lasted, though).

More so than having any sort of loose ends needing to be tied up in their rivalry, this is a rust-shaker for the popular southpaw New Englander - who is now fourteen months inactive (meaning he was twiddling his thumbs just as long before the widespread impact of Covid-19 hit, as since). To be fair, he was lined up to face Abraham Nova on ESPN in the co-feature to Moloney vs. Báez - only to withdraw at the last minute to lead a BLM rally in Providence at the height of the George Floyd protests. (Avery Sparrow came in on late notice and lost a close decision to Nova)

Besides each other, they have a single opponent in common:

Irvin Nathaniel "The Boxing Dentist" González, Jr. (Pérez lost by KO-3 n 20018, and Kahn-Clary won a wide UD last year in that most recent outing)

While the heavy-handed Colombian did score one upset after the Kahn-Clary loss (over Gamalier "Baby Bird" Rodríguez, coming fresh off his unsuccessful challenge for Vasyl Lomachenko's featherweight title) he is on a 4-12 skid thereafter...now ten months rusty himself.

Eh, probably a one-sided repeat outcome...but it is something to tide us until the big Halloweekend fight bonanza (Gassiev vs. Seferi; Usyk vs. Chisora/Selby vs. Kambosos/McCarthy vs. Laggoune; Inoue vs. Moloney/Brodnicką vs. Mayer; Davis vs. LSC/Barrios vs. Karl + Rougarou + Magdaleno all on Saturday, plus the highly anticipated pro debut of Kazakh amateur star Bekzat Nurdauletov on Sunday) - because there ain't shit else between now and Samhain.

 

Yeah no doubt, the fact that he got rid of Popeye in half as long as TKC did (granted Pérez had seen a few miles of bad road in between) suggests as much.