O’Sullivan, Nova headline August 23rd Fight Pass show

Photo By Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images

Nova is ranked in the WBA super featherweight top 10

UFC Fight Pass subscribers will get some ethically questionable entertainment on Friday, August 23rd thanks to Murphy’s Boxing, which returns to Encore Boston Harbor Casino with a couple of familiar faces in tow. The main event pits fan-favorite middleweight puncher Spike O’Sullivan against Argentina’s Diego Adrian Marocchi, while unbeaten super featherweight Abraham Nova faces Mexican veteran Miguel Beltran Jr.

O’Sullivan (30-3, 21 KO) has won two straight since getting crunched by David Lemieux on the Canelo-Golovkin II pay-per-view, beating Gabor Gorbics on points and finishing Khiary Gray in six this past March. Marocchi (18-4-1, 14 KO) might be a full Salka; he’s 42 years old, ranked 589th at super welterweight by BoxRec, got TKO’d by a 4-0 fighter in his most recent fight last November, and has a 2017 split decision loss to 2-12 Hector Alejandro Videla on his record.

With the spotlight on boxing’s inherent danger after the deaths of Maxim Dadashev and Hugo Santillan, this is an uncomfortable mismatch to say the least.

Nova (15-0, 11 KO) has a slightly more reasonable opponent in Beltran (33-7, 22 KO), though not by much. The latter lost wide to Yuriorkis Gamboa in November and his only notable achievement was fighting “Rocky” Martinez to a split decision in a 2012 bid for the vacant WBO super featherweight belt.

So, yeah, garbage. Go watch the Vladimir Shishkin-DeAndre Ware ShoBox tripleheader instead.