2016 Olympic champion Robson Conceicao is scheduled to face unbeaten Xavier Martinez Saturday night on ESPN+.
Robson Conceicao (16-1, 8 KOs) vs. Xavier Martinez (17-0, 11 KOs)
- Date: Saturday, Jan. 29
- Time: 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT (main event later in show)
- Where: Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Tulsa, Oklahoma
- TV/Stream: ESPN+
- Cost: $6.99 per month or $69.99 annually
- Division: Junior lightweight
- Weights: Conceicao 129.5, Martinez 129.5
- At stake: No titles
- Pound-for-pound ranking: None
- Odds: NA
- Also on the card: Rene Tellez vs. Luis Melendez, junior lightweights
- Prediction: Conceicao UD
- Background: Conceicao, a 2016 Olympic gold medalist from Brazil, is in rebuilding mode. The slick 33-year-old fell short in his bid to take the WBC title from Oscar Valdez in September, starting strongly but fading in the second half of the fight to lose a unanimous decision. That was Conceicao’s first shot at a major belt. He didn’t select a pushover in his comeback fight. Martinez, a 24-year-old boxer-puncher from Sacramento, California, is on a nice run of victories over quality opponents. That includes a one-sided decision over rugged veteran Juan Carlos Burgos in a wild, toe-to-toe brawl in May of last year, which is his most-recent outing. He got up from two knockdowns to outpoint Claudio Marrero in his previous fight. A victory in what is being billed as a title eliminator would be a big step for the winner. Conceicao and Martinez are ranked Nos. 3 and 14 by the WBC, respectively. Nico Ali Walsh, Muhammad Ali’s grandson, is fighting on the card.
