Sebastian Fundora vs. Tim Tszyu, Jesse Rodriguez return among under the radar fights to watch this weekend

This weekend features a loaded schedule on the boxing calendar, with some big names dominating the headlines. Manny Pacquiao ends his retirement on Saturday as he looks to capture the WBC welterweight title from Mario Barrios, and earlier in the day, WBC, WBO and WBA heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk will rematch IBF champ Daniel Dubois in a clash to crown an undisputed heavyweight champion.

But there are more than just those two fights on the schedule, with full undercards and even another card headlined by a world championship unification.

With so many fights going down on Saturday, we took a look to identify the four best fights to keep an eye on outside of Pacquiao vs. Barrios and Usyk vs. Dubois. Let’s take a look at our choices for fights to watch this Saturday.

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez (c) vs Phumelela Cafu (c), unified junior bantamweight title: It’s always worth noting when a top 10 pound-for-pound fighter will be in action, and that’s the case as CBS Sports No. 6 Rodriguez looks to unify his WBC junior bantamweight title with Cafu’s WBO belt. Rodriguez has proven to be a fantastic fighter, not only in talent but in watchability. This DAZN headliner got put in a bad spot, with the card sandwiched between the undisputed heavyweight title fight and the return of Pacquiao. As such, Rodriguez is getting lost in the shuffle.

Rodriguez is an understandably heavy favorite at -2500 given Cafu’s very strange professional record. Cafu is undefeated in 14 professional bouts, but three of those fights have ended in a draw and two wins were by split decision, making him undefeated but without making a clear case for a win in more than a third of his professional fights. Cafu traveled to Japan in his most recent fight, winning his belt by taking a split decision over Kosei Tanaka. That was Cafu’s first fight outside of South Africa and now he heads to America to face Rodriguez in a unification battle.

Sebastian Fundora (c) vs. Tim Tszyu, WBC junior middleweight title: For all the big names and big fights this weekend, Fundora vs. Tszyu on the Barrios vs. Pacquiao undercard may be the one that has fans talking the longest. Fundora beat Tszyu by split decision in their March 2024 fight. That fight was a bloody war that was thrown together on 11 days’ notice when Keith Thurman pulled out of his planned bout with Tszyu. While Tszyu got off to a fast start that night, a Fundora elbow in the second round opened a nasty cut that bled into Tszyu’s eyes the rest of the fight.

While Tszyu was able to get a constant stream of blood running from Fundora’s nose, a bloody nose doesn’t affect a fight the same way blood in the eyes does and it clearly affected Tszyu going forward. Tszyu still landed good shots on the towering Fundora for the rest of the fight, but Fundora’s jab was enough to win him the fight in the end. The rematch promises fireworks and Tszyu will certainly be looking for revenge.

Lawrence Okolie vs. Kevin Lerena, heavyweights: The undercard for Usyk vs. Dubois isn’t filled with fights that demand attention, but former cruiserweight champ Okolie vs. Lerena should be interesting. Okolie’s lone pro loss came by majority decision against Chris Billam-Smith in 2023. He followed that loss with a move to heavyweight, where he has picked up a pair of victories. Lerena wasn’t highly regarded when he fought Dubois in 2022, but he dropped Dubois three times in the opening round before Dubois stormed back to score a third-round stoppage. Lerena is in the “opponent” role for Okolie here, but he has shown the potential to pull off an upset before.

Lasha Guruli vs. James Francis, junior welterweights: From the “one for the future” column, Guruli won bronze at the 2024 Olympics and has a promising style for a professional. Guruli’s defensive instincts are sharp, and he is able to use that to score with clean punches. After facing a 6-0 fighter in his pro debut, Guruli now faces 7-1 Francis as he looks to move along in the early stages of his career.