Top Rank on ESPN+ Presents Murata vs. Brant Preview

Top Rank Boxing returns to Sin City this Saturday night with a nine bout card headlined by Ryota Murata vs. Rob Brant for the WBA Middleweight World Title. The event will emanate from the Park Theater within the Park MGM Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The action will kick off on ESPN+ at 10:30 pm ET.

The main event of the evening will feature Ryota Murata (14-1, 11 KOs) making the second defense of his WBA World Middleweight title against Rob Brant (23-1, 16KOs). Murata has held the title since October 2017 when he was victorious over Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam in a rematch of their May 2017 encounter which N’Dam N’Jikam took by split decision. Murata’s opponent, Rob Brant, enters this fight on the heels of a first round knockout of Colby Courter back in March of this year prior to which he suffered the only setback of his career-a unanimous decision loss to Juergen Braehmer in October 2017.

The co-feature of this card will pit Maxim Dadashev (11-0, 10 KOs), as he makes the first defense of his NABF Super Lightweight Title, against ring veteran Antonio DeMarco (33-6-1, 24 KOs). This contest will mark Dadashev’s first title defense since he earned the then vacant title by way of a tenth round TKO of Darleys Perez back in June. DeMarco enters this contest on a two fight win streak-a unanimous decision over Luis Solis in February 2017 and a first round knockout of Eddie Ramirez in October 2017. It should be noted, however, that DeMarco was on the wrong side of three consecutive unanimous decisions prior to those victories albeit in the form of top level contenders that included Omar Figueroa Jr. and Jessie Vargas. It will be interesting to see if DeMarco will have any ring rust to shake off after a one year layoff but his ring experience, if nothing more, should prove to be a formidable test for Dadashev.

Make sure to catch all of the action tomorrow night on ESPN+ and return to The Weigh-In: Your Home For Combat Sports for a complete recap of all the action!

-Steve Ward

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Jesse Hart Interview

Luis Cortes caught up with Philadelphia's Jesse Hart (23-1, 19 KOs) yesterday afternoon at Joe Hand Boxing Gym in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia. Hart is preparing to fight Maryland's Demond Nicholson (18-2-1, 17 KOs) for the vacant NABF Super Middleweight Title.

Check out Luis Cortes' Bonus Round interview with Jesse Hart on both SoundCloud and iTunes:

Bonus Round - Jesse Hart Interview with Luis Cortes on SoundCloud

Bonus Round - Jesse Hart Interview with Luis Cortes on iTunes

This fight is part of a nine bout card that will take place on Saturday, April 28th at the Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University. The card is being promoted by Top Rank Boxing and Peltz Boxing Promotions, and is headlined by a super bantamweight title fight between Jessie Magdaleno (25-0, 18 KOs) and Isaac Dogboe (18-0, 12 KOs). The boxing card also features a number of other popular Philadelphia area fighters including, Joey Dawejko, Bryant Jennings, Christian Carto, Joseph Adorno, and Marcel Rivers. Three fights on the card will air on ESPN.

Tickets for this exciting night of boxing can be purchased over the phone by calling Peltz Boxing Promotions at 215-765-0922.

-Luis A. Cortes III

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Raymundo Beltran vs. Paulus Moses

On Friday, February 16th, lightweights, Raymundo Beltran (34-7-1, 21 KOs) and Paulus Moses (40-3, 25 KOs) will fight for the vacant WBO World Lightweight Title at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada. Beltran, who resides in Phoenix, Arizona, is coming off of five straight victories, with his most recent coming by way of majority decision over Costa Rica's Bryan Vasquez (35-3, 19 KOs) on August 5, 2017.

The twelve round main event is part of an eight fight card that is promoted by Top Rank and televised on ESPN/ESPN Deportes. The card also features an exciting NABF Welterweight Title bout between Egidijus Kavaliauskas (18-0, 15 KOs) and David Avanesyan (23-2-1, 11 KOs). Kavaliauskas, a Lithuanian who now fights out of Oxnard, California, has won his last three fights by knockout. This will be the first defense of his NABF title since capturing it on September 22nd of last year with a victory over veteran, Mexican fighter, Mahonry Montes (34-7-1, 23 KOs). His opponent, David Avanesyan, is a former WBA World Welterweight Champion, who captured this title with a unanimous decision victory over Shane Mosley (49-10-1, 41 KOs) in 2016. Since then, Avanesyan suffered a unanimous decision loss to Lamont Peterson (35-4-1, 17 KOs) last February, and defeated Serge Ambomo (6-5, 2 KOs) in a tune up fight in December.

Former Olympian, and boxing prospect Shakur Stevenson (4-0, 2 KOs) of Newark, New Jersey will face Texas' Juan Tapia (8-1, 3 KOs) in an eight round, featherweight bout. This will be Stevenson's first eight round contest as a professional, his previous four victories were six round contests. Philadelphia heavyweight, Bryant Jennings (21-2, 12 KOs) will also return to the ring after a short layoff. The former contender last fought in December at Madison Square Garden, when he decisively defeated Don Haynesworth (13-2-1, 11 KOs) via TKO in the third of eight rounds. He will face Akhror Muralimov (16-3, 13 KOs) in an eight round match.

The card also features the following bouts:

Robson Conceicao (5-0, 4 KOs) vs. Jayro Duran (11-4, 10 KOs) - eight rounds, junior lightweights

Alexander Besputin (8-0, 6 KOs) vs. TBA - eight rounds, welterweights

Sagadat Rakhmankul (Pro Debut) vs. Noel Esqueda (8-4-2, 6 KOs) - four rounds, junior middleweights

Ricardo Lucio Galvan (1-0, 1 KO) vs. TBA - four rounds, featherweights

MW

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