Thursday night gives fight fans a rare midweek event with four action-packed fights set to take place in Miami ahead of Super Bowl LIV. While it may not be the main event, it sure is getting the most attention online as Jake Paul prepares to battle AnEsonGib on the undercard of a three-title fight event from the Magic City.
The action goes down from Meridian at Island Gardens in Miami and the main card streams live on DAZN at 9 p.m. ET with prelims at 7 p.m. In the main event, Demetrius Andrade puts the WBO middleweight title on the line against Luke Keeler. Tevin Farmer attempts to defend his IBF junior lightweight belt against Joseph Diaz Jr. and Daniel Roman defends his WBA and IBF junior featherweight belts against Murodjon Akhmadaliev.
Get ready for Thursday night's showdown in Miami by subscribing to our podcast -- State of Combat with Brian Campbell -- where we take an in-depth look at the world of boxing each week, including a recap of Garcia vs. Redkach and preview of Andrade-Keeler.
Demetrius Andrade vs. Luke Keeler viewing information
Date: Jan. 30 | Start time: 9 p.m. ET (Prelims at 7 p.m. ET)
Location: Meridian at Island Gardens -- Miami
Stream: DAZN
Let's take a look at the top fights on the card.
WBO middleweight championship -- Demetrius Andrade (c) -4000 vs. Luke Keeler +1800: Andrade (28-0, 17 KO) is the biggest favorite on the card by a massive margin. He currently sits at -4000 to pick up the win at MGM. Andrade is a skilled fighter who has not picked up "big star" momentum between a difficult -- and often unfriendly to watch -- style and a lack of promotion to get truly "big" fights. Instead, for most of his career, he has feasted on fighters like Keeler, who can best be described as "capable second-tier opposition." In October 2017, Andrade moved up from junior middleweight, where he'd been a world champion, to middleweight. After one fight to test the waters, he battled Walter Kautondokwa in October 2018 to capture the then-vacant WBO title. He has successfully defended the title twice since and now looks for a third successful defense against Keeler.
Keeler (17-2-1, 5 KO) has spoken of the fight with supreme confidence. He has predicted victory and repeatedly called Andrade "delusional" while daring the champ to "stand and fight" rather than fight at his notably slow pace. One only needs look at Keeler's lack of knockouts since 2014 to see that Andrade may well not need to worry about standing in front of Keeler should he decide to do so. Keeler has enough skills to beat many of the non-elite fighters in the division but genuinely looks overmatched on paper heading into this fight. Prediction: Andrade via KO8
IBF junior lightweight championship -- Tevin Farmer (c) -225 vs. Joseph Diaz Jr. +175: Farmer (30-4-1, 6 KO) started his career with a 7-4 record, which isn't usually the sign of a future world champion. But after deciding to be serious about boxing, he turned things around and began a lengthy winning streak that saw him eventually rise to the spot of world title challenger. A robbery split decision loss in his first title fight against Kenichi Ogawa was erased from the record books after Ogawa tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. One fight later, he fought for the same vacant IBF title and took a decision win over Billy Dib to become a world champion.
Diaz Jr. (30-1, 15 KO) was a 2012 Olympian for the United States and got the expected "top prospect" treatment on the come up. Diaz was handled gently while building a 26-0 record before facing off with Gary Russell Jr. for the WBC featherweight title. Russell outworked Diaz, handing him his first loss as a professional as Diaz's career hit a new stage -- one where losses were a distinct possibility against the top end of the boxing world. With four straight victories and having moved up in weight, Diaz now looks to face down Farmer in a second attempt to pick up a world title. Prediction: Farmer via UD
WBA & IBF junior featherweight championships -- Daniel Roman (c) +200 vs. Murodjon Akhmadaliev -250: On paper, this fight is extremely similar to Farmer vs. Diaz. Roman (27-2-1, 10 KO) had a rough start to his pro career but battled his way up the ranks before capturing a secondary WBA junior featherweight title with a TKO of Shun Kubo. After defending the belt multiple times, Roman faced WBA and IBF champ T.J. Doheny, winning a tremendous fight to become unified world champ.
Akhmadaliev (7-0, 6 KO) is the Olympic prospect, having won the bronze in 2016. He hasn't been slowly brought along, fighting just seven times before being put in with Roman, a talented unified champion. Akhmadaliev has shown good power and the kind of boxing skills you'd expect from an accomplished amateur so far while running through lower tier opposition. Prediction: Akhmadaliev via KO5
Jake Paul -175 vs. AnEsonGib +138: The odds here are close and Gib has shown in white collar boxing matches that he has a bit of dog in him. That said, all available training footage shows Paul looking like someone who knows a bit about how to throw a punch while Gib looks every bit a "YouTube boxer." There's also a clear athletic deficit for Gib with Paul, like his brother, a bit more of a physical specimen. Prediction: Paul via TKO2
