The championship fight. The pinnacle of achievement across combat sports for centuries. A premiere attraction that draws millions every year. But not all title matches are created equally.
So which title matches every week are the ones to watch? We’ll look over every title fight from across the combat sports landscape and give you the five best based on five criteria:
- Competitiveness: Is this an even matchup? Or just a warm body to throw at a champion? It’s a title fight, so we want the best possible at that division in that promotion.
- Excitement: How exciting will this fight be? A clash of two elite talents throwing everything they have at each other in an attempt to win the gold? Or a half-dead plod-fest devoid of action or risk?
- Juice: A sort of catch-all term for all the factors behind the matchup. Is there a story leading up to the match? A true rivalry? Do the fighters dislike each other? Were the circumstances leading to the fight extraordinary, or was it just a promoter putting two names against each other?
- Prestige: Applies to the belt itself, but also to the fighter wearing it. Is this a long-tenured champion defending? Is this an interim title or one that was vacated? Has the champion increased the prestige of the title or is this a fight that will increase the prestige of it?
- Viewing Ease: We all don’t mind suffering for our art (or hobbies), but sometimes paying twenty dollars for a choppy stream, or searching your cable plan for a channel you’re pretty sure was just invented three days ago in the 6000s isn’t the best of times. How easy and stress-free is this bout to watch?
So here are your five best gold options for the weekend.
1. WBA World Welterweight Championship: Keith Thurman (c) (26-0) vs. Shawn Porter (26-1-1)
When/Where: Saturday, 9:00pm, CBS
Competitiveness: 5
Excitement: 4
Juice: 4: Honestly, the biggest story about this fight is that it’s finally goddamned happening. Delay after delay and we finally get it.
Prestige: 5
Viewing Ease: 5: Primetime on CBS doesn’t get much easier. Anyone’s great aunt could find this, and the network production values just add to it.
Total: 23
2. Glory Lightweight Championship: Robin van Roosmalen (c) (47-14-3) vs. Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong (110-29-5)
When/Where: Saturday, 4:00pm, ESPN3/WatchESPN
Competitiveness: 5
Excitement: 3
Juice: 5: The juice behind this is simple, but effective. This is a rematch of their last fight, where, shall we say, RVR’s victory was a little, ahem, disputed. So as is the case in “robberies”, RVR is looking to prove he’s truly the better fighter and Sittichai is looking for a belt that most claim he should already own.
Prestige: 5: Though Glory is a relatively new promotion and doesn’t have nearly the historical significance of K-1, the Glory Lightweight belt has become the premiere championship in all of kickboxing. It’s Heavyweight title is right behind it, only due to the lack of challengers Rico has had.
Viewing Ease: 4: Would be a 3 if it was just the ESPN3 stream, but the replay on ESPN2 keeps it up.
Total: 22
3. Bellator Lightweight Championship: Michael Chandler (14-3) vs. Patricky Freire (16-7)
When/Where: Friday, 8:00pm, ESPN Deportes/Spike
Competitiveness: 5
Excitement: 5: With one exception you’ll see below, this should be the best actual fight of the lot. They’re impossible to have a boring fight.
Juice: 2
Prestige: 2: The title that was vacated by Will Brooks, who beat Chandler twice, to go to the UFC, doesn’t have much steam behind it. Hopefully the winner can build it back up. There was a time where I would have put Bellator’s lightweight division at the top right up against the UFC’s. They’re in a dismal position right now.
Viewing Ease: 5
Total: 19
4. Legacy FC Bantamweight Championship: Manny Vazquez (c) (9-1) vs. Steven Peterson (13-4)
When/Where: Friday, 10:00pm, AXS
Competitiveness: 5
Excitement: 5: This could easily be your best fight of the entire weekend, title or not. Vazquez and Peterson are two of the most talented and exciting bantamweights in the entire world, and they’re under the same banner and fighting each other. I’ve had my eye on both of these guys for a while and they’ll make an excellent addition for whichever big league promotion willing to call them up.
Juice: 1
Prestige: 1
Viewing Ease: 4
Total: 16
5. IBF World Heavyweight Championship: Anthony Joshua (c) (16-0) vs. Dominic Breazeale (17-0)
When/Where: Saturday, 5:15pm, Showtime
Competitiveness: 2: Breazeale is talking strong, but this is a step for getting Joshua into the Wilder/Klitschko/Fury tier.
Excitement: 4
Juice: 1
Prestige: 4: For the first time in decades, we’re entering a big, big age of heavyweight boxing. Joshua is a big part of that.
Viewing Ease: 4
Total: 15
Honorable Mention: Interim Glory Light Heavyweight Championship: Mourad Bouzidi (71-23-3) vs. Zack Mwekassa (14-3)
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