When to Watch: Friday, August 8 at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time (6:30 p.m. BST)

Why to Watch: There isn’t much going on this week. But even if the schedule were packed, this fight would be one to monitor.

Not because Mirco Cuello is a can’t-miss prospect at 126lbs. But rather because the prospect may be suspect, and every step forward that he takes from here will reveal whether he still has room to grow or if his ceiling is nearing.

Cuello, 15-0 (12 KOs), is a 24-year-old from Argentina who is ranked first at featherweight by the WBA, eighth by the WBO and 13th by the WBA. He’d been developing against other unbeaten fighters or foes with otherwise decent records, blasting out the 13-0 Michel Da Silva in one round in 2022 and doing the same to the 12-0 Leivy Frias in early 2023. That year also brought wins over the 14-1 Flecher Silva (KO6), the 23-3 Antonio Guzman (TKO1) and the 13-0-1 Rudy Garcia (UD10).

In Cuello’s sole appearance of 2024, he outpointed Sulaiman Segawa in March, the same quality measuring stick who troubled Bruce Carrington six months later.

So given that Cuello is promoted by Sampson Lewkowicz, he landed on the February 1 undercard of his stablemate David Benavidez’s victory over David Morrell. It was a good spotlight. But he didn’t exactly shine under that spotlight against the 22-1-1 Christian Olivo.

Cuello was dropped in the second round and behind on the scorecards going into the 10th and final round. He pulled out the win, dropping Olivo twice and stopping him with a minute to go.

That made Cuello the mandatory contender to WBA titleholder Nick Ball. But it’s fair to wonder if he’s ready. Heck, it’s fair to wonder if he’ll ever be ready.

Then again, there are many good and even great fighters who had difficult outings earlier in their careers. Or maybe Cuello was rusty after 10 months away. We can ask questions about Cuello given what happened last. We’ll be looking for answers while seeing how he performs next.

Next is an event at the Benina Martyrs Stadium in Benghazi, Libya. Cuello’s opponent is Sergio Rios Jimenez, 19-0 (7 KOs), a 24-year-old from Mexico whose sole sanctioning body ranking has him positioned 15th by the WBA.

Only two of Jimenez’s 19 victories have come against opponents who have won more than they lost. The last such opponent was nearly four years ago, when Jimenez outpointed the 14-11-3 Ricardo Roman. Jimenez’s past four outings came against foes who were 10-23-1, 8-10, 13-23-3 and 24-27.

Also on this show is a WBA elimination bout between light heavyweights Albert Ramirez, 21-0 (18 KOs), ranked third by the WBA, WBC and WBO and fourth by the IBF, and the rhythmically named Jerome Pampellone, 19-2 (12 KOs), slotted ninth by the WBA. 

The primary WBA title at 175lbs belongs to Dmitry Bivol, who also has the IBF and WBO belts and the lineal championship. David Benavidez has the WBA’s secondary “regular” belt and is the WBC titleholder. 

The card is also scheduled to feature male lightweight Sofiane Oumiham, 6-0 (3 KOs), who took home silver medals in the 2016 and 2024 Olympics, against Francisco Fonseca, 36-4-2 (29 KOs), perhaps best known for losses to Gervonta Davis (KO8 on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor) and Ryan Garcia (TKO1).

Filling out the rest of the show are bouts involving cruiserweight Mike Perez, 31-3-1 (22 KOs), and junior lightweight Josue Francisco Aguero, 13-0 (7 KOs).

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.