Conceição seeks to make Martinez pay for broken dishes

Brazil’s Robson Conceicao won’t be looking for who did it, but who will pay for it this Saturday night against undefeated Xavier Martinez in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he returns to the ring after a controversial loss to Oscar Valdez last September for the Super Featherweight world championship.

A gold medalist at Rio 2016, Robson will have a solid test against the Californian Martinez, who according to some betting lines is a slight favorite to contend for victory in the main event of the Top Rank evening that will be broadcast in the Latin American territory.

Neither of the protagonists had any problems at the scales on Friday, registering 129.6 pounds in the case of the contender and 129.4 for the undefeated fighter. Who did have setbacks was the Mexican René Téllez, who could not make weight and his fight against the Puerto Rican Luis Meléndez fell. The Aztec had weighed 137 pounds and the Puerto Rican 131.5 pounds. The fight was scheduled at 132. Now Téllez will face Giovani Cabrera in the main card, while Delante Johnson will face Xavier Madrid due to the change that caused the cancellation of the fight between Téllez and Meléndez.

Conceicao comes from losing to Oscar Valdez for the World Boxing Council Super Featherweight championship, and although he asked for a rematch because of the competitive nature of the fight, in the end he was denied the possibility of going straight to that fight and will have to look for a resounding victory over Martinez to raise his hand again.

Xavier, on the other hand, comes from beating fighters like Claudio Marrero and Juan Carlos Burgos, both by points. Prior to that, he had accumulated seven consecutive knockouts. Undoubtedly, this will be the toughest test the Californian has faced so far.

On the same bill, the grandson of Muhammad Ali, Nico Ali, will be back, looking for his fourth victory as a professional and will debut a new corner to face Jeremiah Yeager in a four-round bout at 163 pounds.