By Jim Calfa: Blair Cobbs (15-0-1, 10 battles Alexis Rocha (18-0-1, 12 KOs) in the main event, and Michael McKinson 21-0, 2 KOs) faces substitute opponent Jesus Antonio Perez (24-3, 18 KOs) in the co-feature bout this Saturday night on March 19th live on DAZN at USC’s Galen Center in Los Angeles.
It’s early for Cobbs to be fighting in headliner spots because he looks very flawed at this stage in his career and not ready for this kind of attention put on him.
Cobbs, 32, and Rocha have been elevated to the main event from their former placement in the chief support bout following Vergil Ortiz Jr pulling out of his fight this Saturday night against #4 WBO McKinson due to a kid & muscle ailment that resulted in him being briefly hospitalized.
Mckinson will be slid down from the headliner spot to fight the capable Jesus Antonio Perez in the co-feature. That should be an interesting fight to watch because Perez can punch and he’s going to be looking to unload on the defensively-minded McKinson.
While it’s obviously a disappointment for McKinson to lose out on high visibility headliner against the unbeaten welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr. (18-0, 18 KOs), at least he’s still fighting on the card in a good spot that will allow him to showcase his talent against the durable Perez.
It would have been nice if Golden Boy Promotions had accepted Blair Cobbs’ offer to fight the highly ranked McKinson in the main event because it’s a fight that would have given him a chance to earn a high ranking.
The way things are now, Cobbs doesn’t have nearly as much to gain fighting Rocha because he’s a fringe contender with a #10 IBF ranking at 147. If Cobbs had fought #4 WBO McKinson, he could have earned a top-five ranking potentially, and been on the doorstep of a title shot against WBO 147-lb champion Terence Crawford.
In an interesting undercard fight, light heavyweight prospect Bektemir “Bully” Melikuziev (8-1, 6 KOs) faces the heavy-handed David Zegarra (34-7, 21 KOs) on the steamed portion of the DAZN broadcast in a 10 round fight. This fight has knockout written all over it.
Bektemir, 25, will be looking to pick up his second consecutive victory since losing to Gabe Rosado by a third-round knockout in June 2021. In that fight, Bektemir got a little careless in the third round and was stopped.
Undercard fights:
Evan Sanchez vs. Alejandro Munera
Bektemir “Bully” Melikuziev vs. David Zegarra
Azat “Crazy A” Hovhannisyan vs. Victor Ruiz
Alex Rincon vs. Luis Sanchez
John Ramirez vs. Roberto Pucheta
Miguel Gaona vs. Gilberto Aguilar
Delis Kaleiopu vs. Manuel Lara
Alejandro Reyes vs. Daniel Evangelista Jr.
Ramla Ali vs. Shelly Barnett