Busy weekend...so here we go...

So at the start of the week I said it was a busy week for prospects, and have mentioned the excellent Lateef “Power” Kayode, who fights today (Friday) an Willie “Big Bang” Casey, though a host of other prospects are fighting so lets have a brief look at those.

Prenice Brewer is someone I've written about for helium recently and now it seems like he's ready to go 10 rounds for the first time in 17 fights. Brewer is 16-0-1 as a professional having debuted way back in 2006 as a fresh faced 18 year old though what singles him out as one to watch is his amateur background which saw winning the 2005 National Golden Gloves (125lbs) as just a 17 year old. Having drawn his debut he's now on a 16 fight winning streak and promoted by “Rumble Time Promotions” (who also promote Deandre Latimore). Brewer faces Patrick Lopez (19-2 with 11KO's) from Venezuela in a significant step up in class. Although the fights meant to be a 10 round test for Prenice, his lack of punch could see him in trouble against a tough and experienced opponent. The step up maybe a bit too far for now, though Prenice is skilled and slick and more skilled than Lopez. A great test and a good example of intelligent match making, in a sink or swim fight.

As fans will learn I'm a big fan of the Cruiserweight division, I've done several pieces on Cruisers for this column in the past few months (Kayode, Rakhim Chakhkiev, Carlos Negron all got a full entry and Matty Askin got a solid mention) and here's another. Jeremiah Graziano (12-0 all wins by KO with 10 of those in the opening round and 2 in the 2nd round) looks to make it 13 in a row. At 23 he's a young fighter and has been a pro for less than 2 years and only picked up the sport in '06 where he was a solid and exciting to watch amateur. Known as “Whyson” (White Tyson) the Kansas native has been shown to be all out aggression so far and it almost cost him against Josh Harris (Graziano was put down very early before stopping Harris soon afterwards). For fight 13 Graziano is facing by far his stiffest test to date in Jose Luis Herrera (16-7 with all wins by KO and 6 of his losses also, by KO). If one thing is sure is that this one won't be going the scheduled 8 rounds. Kayode has previously stopped Herrera so this will allow us to see how good the two are compared to each other. Graziano headlines a card in Kansas where he seems to have a large local following.

One I'm personally interested in is Jermell Charlo a Golden Boy Promotions prospect, the first to fight since Danny Jacobs was beaten last week. Charlo is unbeaten in 12 (12-0 with 6KO's) and young at just 20 but is completely untested and Quinton Whitaker (7-6) isn't expected to test him. If Golden Boy keep giving Charlo nothing fights then starts to think he's ready for a title fight they really need to have someone tell them to wake up. I'll let Charlo off for now, but they need to give him some solid tests, he's been a pro for almost 3 years now so why can't he start fighting guys around his level?

Omar Figueroa is in a similar position, also aged 20 and unbeaten (10-0 (8)), who turned pro in summer '08 but is facing a much tougher test in Kanat Kartenbayev (10-4-2) a former EU-EE title contender. Omar should win this but don't expect him to have a short and easy night.

Fridays most interesting fight is Chris Avalos v Christopher Martin this really is a fight that's worth watching, 2 young unbeaten fighters. Martin is arguably the slightly better boxer but Avalos is the better puncher. This is THE fight of Friday and is the main event of the Kayode fight. The winner will be one of the hottest “little men” in the US and surely in line for a title fight whilst the loser will have time to rebuild.

Saturday is much less interesting the St Louis card (including Alexander v Kotelnik) aside theirs little of major quality. At the start of the week Gennady Golovkin was scheduled to fight and Roman Gonzalez was also meant to fight but their both off. Sadam Ali (8-0 (4))is still down to fight and is worth catching if you're in Brooklyn as he's looking very exciting and keeping very busy at the moment. He's really one to watch.

Also on the Brooklyn card is Lennox Allen, a Guyana born Super Middleweight who fights the very solid Darnell Boone, a fighter who fights up and comers over and over. Allen (12-0(7)) gets a fight that sees him measured up against Craig McEwan, Brandon Gonzales, Edwin Rodriguez and Erislandy Lara. A victory will see Allen making a good statement to the division even if most have yet to see him.

One more fight to add, a Cruiserweight battle between unbeaten fighters is on the St Louis under card. Ryan Coyne fights the veteran Warren Browning, although it's hard to call a 28 year old or a 35 year old a prospect it's still an interesting battle folks.