Next week’s Canelo Alvarez vs Jermell Charlo show has a pretty robust undercard by current standards. Sadly, today’s release of the full bout sheet reveals that said depth doesn’t extend to the pre-PPV portion.
At the top sits Canelo training partner Frank Sanchez (22-0, 15 KO), who fights his second straight joke of an opponent in Scott Alexander (17-5-2, 9 KO). Alexander lasted less than 120 seconds against Zhilei Zhang two fights back, so while he’s a slightly warmer body than Daniel Martz, he’s yet another dud in Sanchez’s bafflingly bad post-Ajagba run.
Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela (27-3-1, 16 KO) also returns to action for his second straight Canelo card, having previously won a questionable and potentially corrupt decision over Stevie Spark. He faces what looks like an easier assignment in Colombia’s Yeis Gabriel (15-0, 10 KO, who hasn’t fought in nearly two years after dropping a split decision to Alberto Palmetta.
Oleksandr Gvozdyk (19-1, 15 KO), who stopped Ricards Bolotniks on Canelo-Ryder, takes a step backwards on the comeback trail against Brazil’s Isaac Rodrigues (28-4, 22 KO). Rodrigues is 38 and managed to take three cumulative rounds on the scorecards in a February loss to Richard Rivera.
Terrell Gausha (23-3-1, 12 KO) also stays busy in a middleweight bout with KeAndre Leatherwood (23-8-1, 13 KO), his second appearance since a surprisingly competitive loss to Tim Tszyu last year.
I get that they can’t all be winners, but NSAC needs to seriously consider axing Sanchez-Alexander at minimum. This goes beyond unappealing into the realm of appalling.