The major action takes place in Russia. It's here that we get the biggest fight of the night as Wladimir Klitschko (60-3, 51) battles Alexander Povetkin (26-0, 18). The bout, which saw a staggering purse bid from Russian backer Vlad Hrunov to host it in Russia, sees Klitschko defending the IBF, WBO, WBA "Super" and Ring Magazine titles against the unbeaten Russian, himself the WBA "regular" champion.
The Klitschko/Povetkin bout not only has huge sums of money and a host of titles at stake but also a number of major sub-stories. These have seen politics mentioned with Ukraine/Russian affairs brought in to the media, a story about Dereck Chisora being part of team Povetkin to check the handwraps of Klitschko and various other stories, including various other fighters. It's one of those fights that "really is that big".
Amazingly the Klitschko/Povetkin fight isn't the only Heavyweight clash on the card with former world champion Ruslan Chagaev (31-2-1, 20) back in the hunt for another world title fight himself. Chagaev will face Jovo Pudar (30-3, 17), the little known Serbian who holds the PABA title. We expect the PABA Heavyweight title to be on the line here, and whoever wins will likely be boosted up the WBA rankings. With Pudar ranked #6 and Chagaev ranked #7 it would seem likely that the winner could move in to the top 5, if not the top 3.
With both Klitschko and Povetkin being Olympic Gold medal winners it seems only fitting to look at the most recent Olympic Super Heavyweight Gold medal winner Anthony Joshua (0-0) next. Joshua will make his professional debut this weekend in Britain as he takes on unbeaten Italian Emanuele Leo (8-0, 3) in one of 3 British based clashes. Although Leo looks like a good opponent on paper for the 23 year old Joshua it does need to be said that Leo himself is more of a natural Cruiserweight than Heavyweight and will likely not have the firepower to keep the very strong Joshua away from him.
The other bouts in Britain see Tom Little (3-1) fighting Carl Baker (9-7, 6) and AJ Carter (2-0, 1) taking on the tough Moses Matovu (4-31-4) in what will be the toughest test of his career so far.
Back in Mainland Europe Belgian youngster Herve Hubeaux (14-1, 7) will attempt to defend his WBC Youth Intercontinental Heavyweight title. Unfortunately the 21 year old has yet to have an opponent announced though a third fight with Toni Visic would not be ruled out completely with them men 1-1 against each other.
We're also expecting action in Germany as the unbeaten Aziz Baran (2-0, 2) battled "professional loser" Martin Stensky (0-27), a man who has been stopped 26 times in 27 bouts.
The action continues across the Atlantic with Heavyweight action through the US.
In Louisiana we appear to have a trio of bouts with Greek Thanasis Michaloudis (3-0, 3) putting his unbeaten record on the line against the debuting Jonathan Williams (0-0), Terrance Dumas (3-0, 2) hoping to extend his winning run as he battles Shelton Richardson (0-2) and the fringe contender Danny Batchelder (27-9-1, 13) takes on Wesley Barbier (5-1-2, 2). It's hard to see anything but a trio of wins for Michaloudis, Dumas and Batchelder unfortunate though hopefully the action will be decent.
In Indiana we get another trio og bouts with former world title challenger Bert Cooper (38-25, 31) fighting Curt Allan (8-1-1, 3) in what could, finally be Cooper's final bout, whilst Alexis Santos (11-0, 10) fights a yet to be named opponent and Jeremiah Williams (1-9) clashes with Justin Novaria (1-13, 2).
The final bout we're aware of takes placein Connecticut as the debuting Solomon Maye (0-0) is scheduled to fight Randy Smith (1-1).