Fight Week: Nestor Bravo to face Will Madera; Galal Yafai set to climb another rung

Fight Week: Nestor Bravo is scheduled to face Will Madera while fast-rising Galal Yafai is set to climb another rung this weekend.

FIGHT WEEK

Junior welterweight contender Nestor Bravo is scheduled to face Will Madera on Friday in Orlando, Florida. On Saturday, 112-pound contender Galal Yafai will take on Tommy Frank in Birmingham, England.

NESTOR BRAVO (21-0, 15 KOs)
VS. WILL MADERA (17-2-3, 10 KOs)

  • Date: Friday, Aug. 18
  • Time: 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT (main event later in show)
  • Where: Caribe Royale Orlando, Orlando, Florida
  • TV/Stream: DAZN
  • Division: Junior welterweight (140 pounds)
  • At stake: No major titles
  • Odds: NA
  • Pound-for-pound: None
  • Also on the card: Damian Lescaille vs. Hugo Noriega, welterweights
  • Prediction: Bravo UD
  • Background: Bravo, a 29-year-old junior welterweight contender, enters the ring for the first time since a no-contest against Jair Valtierra that was stopped in the fourth round after Bravo was cut by a clash of heads in February. The Orlando-based Puerto Rican has otherwise dominated marginal opposition as he has worked his way up the rankings. Madera probably is a step up in opposition for Bravo. The 32-year-old New Yorker has lost his biggest fights – against Felix Verdejo in 2020 (TKO 1) and Brandun Lee (UD) this past August but he has demonstrated solid ability. We’ll have a better idea of how good Bravo is after this fight.

 

GALAL YAFAI (4-0, 3 KOs)
VS. TOMMY FRANK (15-3-1, 3 KOs)

  • Date: Saturday, Aug. 19
  • Time: 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT (main event later in show)
  • Where: Utilita Arena, Birmingham, England
  • TV/Stream: DAZN
  • Division: Flyweight (112 pounds)
  • At stake: No major titles
  • Odds: Yafai 16-1 favorite (average of multiple outlets
  • Pound-for-pound: None
  • Also on the card: Cyrus Pattinson vs. Conah Walker, welterweights; Jordan Flynn vs. Kane Baker, junior lightweights; Solomon Dacres vs. Chris Thompson, heavyweights
  • Prediction: Yafai KO 7
  • Background: Yafai, the 2020 Olympic champion from Birmingham and younger brother of Kal and Gamal Yafai, is being fast-tracked toward a title shot. The 30-year-old southpaw is coming off a fourth-round knockout of Moises Calleros in April. That followed a scare, a split decision victory over Gohan Garcia in November. Yafai is ranked by all four major sanctioning bodies, No. 10 by both the IBF and WBO. Frank, from Sheffield, is coming off a 10th-round knockout loss to Jay Harris but he’s a solid, experienced boxer. His low knockout ratio is evidence that he’s a light puncher.

 

ALSO FIGHTING THIS WEEK

FRIDAY

  • Kurt Scoby vs. Narciso Carmona, junior welterweights, Atlanta (DAZN)