Today seem to be more about those prospects than any really credible challenger, though that's far from a bad thing, in fact that's a good thing. A new generation of talent is on show, as opposed to recycled former challengers and has beens.
The most experienced of the notable prospects in action today is American Deontay Wilder (29-0, 29). Despite having 29 fights and being world ranked we still consider Wilder a prospect and he's still fighting opponents that prospects fight against, in this case the limited Nicolai Firtha (21-10-1, 8).
With just 49 rounds of professional action behind him it's hard to say what we know about Wilder other than that he's tall and rangy. His record makes him look like a huge puncher though his opponents would all have been finished by most promising Heavyweights, maybe not as quickly but just as easily.
Against Firtha we hope to see Wilder taken beyond the fourth round but with 4 stoppages on his record Firtha isn't the most durable opponent out there and will know he's being brought in to lose, a role he is likely willing to play to.
Whilst Wilder is the most developed prospect in action the biggest hype arguably lies with Englishman Anthony Joshua (1-0, 1) who returns to the ring just 3 weeks after his debut. Joshua, who defeated the completely unknown but totally outclassed Emanuele Leo on debut, will be facing fellow Brit Paul Butlin (14-19, 3) this time around in what should be a more testing contest for the Olympic champion.
It's hard to see Joshua losing here but we'd like to see some improvement in his defense and maybe even his offensive technique here as he looked athletically gifted against Leo but technically not as good as you'd expect from an Olympic champion.
A third promising prospect in the division is also in action as Swedish southpaw Otto Wallin (2-0, 2) takes on Hungarian Gabor Farkas (6-28-6, 3). Wallin, a member of the Sauerland stable is seen as a dark horse and has been getting rave reviews after sparring some of the stable's other top Heavyweights. It'd not be a shock at all if he stopped Farkas here despite the fact Farkas has gone the distance in his last five contests.
Aside from the three promising fighters we've already mentioned their will also be action in Russia courtesy of Apti Davtaev (2-0, 2) a Russian 24 year old who takes on the fragile Vyacheslav Shcherbakov (3-15-1, 2). On paper this looks like a good test for Davtaev however Shcherbakov has suffered 14 stoppage loses in his 19 bout career.
In the US we have five bouts, with one of them being the aforementioned Wilder/Firtha contest.
Two of those four remainings contests take place in Massachusetts where we expect to see Donnie Palmer (1-0-1, 1) and Julian Pollard (3-0, 3) in action though neither man have yet to have their opponents announced.
The final two bouts both take place in North Dakota. One of these will be former amateur stand out LaRon Mitchell (2-0, 2) taking on debutant Richard Smith (0-0). Whilst the other will be female action as the wonderfully named debutant Sonya Three Fox (0-0) battles Taren Pennell (1-1) in what will be be Pennell's first bout for more than a year.