Zuffa Boxing announced during last Sunday’s Jai Opetaia vs Brandon Glanton broadcast that their next installment would land on Easter Sunday, April 5th, with Andres Cortes vs Eridson Garcia in the main event. They’ve now revealed the rest of the lineup, which features Mark Magsayo vs Feargal McCrory and Azat Hovhannisyan vs Eduardo Baez.
Cortes (24-0, 13 KO), formerly of Top Rank, has spent the last few years hovering around the edge of title contention with solid wins over Xavier Martinez, Abraham Nova, and other capable sub-elites. The Dominican Republic’s Garcia (23-1, 14 KO) may not have the sort of name Cortes was chasing, but he’s far from a gimme; his current six-fight winning streak includes a one-sided decision over William Foster III and, most recently, an upset of undefeated Japanese prospect Taiga Imanaga in Riyadh.
Both men regularly compete at 130, but as Zuffa doesn’t bother with junior/super divisions, they’ll fight at 135.
Former featherweight titlist Magsayo (28-2, 18 KO) is looking to regain some momentum at 135 after a planned eliminator against Michael Magnesi fell through. McCrory (17-1, 9 KO), returning to lightweight after a brief stint at 130, lost wide to Lamont Roach Jr in his biggest fight to date and hasn’t seen action since beating Keenan Carbajal last March.
“Crazy A” Hovhannisyan (22-6, 17 KO) looks to be on the way out after a Fight of the Year knockout loss to Luis Nery and subsequent decision losses to Alan Picasso and Sebastian Hernandez Reyes. All three of those men are highly capable fighters, to be fair, and Baez (25-7-2, 10 KO) historically falls short against solid competition.
