Before Tony Harrison takes on Bryant Perrella atop an April 17th PBC on FOX show, unbeaten cruiserweights Efetobor Apochi and Deon Nicholson will duke it out on the FS1 prelims in a WBA eliminator. The pair sit at #6 and #5, respectively, in the rankings.
The Barrientes brothers, Angel and Chavez, will also be in action.
Former amateur standout Apochi (10-0, 10 KO), 33, ended a yearlong layoff last November with a three-round walloping of Joe Jones. He also boasts a 2019 finish of the derailed Earl Newman, who fell to Nicholson (14-0, 13 KO) next time out to give “The Equalizer” the biggest win of his career. Both men are in their 30s and appear equally untested, making this a nice matchup that seems virtually guaranteed to end inside the distance.
As far as the current WBA title picture, neither “super” champion Arsen Goulamirian nor freshly upgraded “world” champ Ryad Merhy have fought since 2019. Merhy allegedly has to fight #1 Yuniel Dorticos next, but BoxRec says he’s fighting an eight-rounder against TBA next month, so who knows who the winner of this will actually end up fighting.
Between that and the main event, there’ll be at least two well-matched fights on the card, which makes it that much more obnoxious that it’ll get buried by Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren and Demetrius Andrade vs. Liam Williams.