Jamel Herring (20-2) pulled of a nice upset i his last fight when he beat Masayuki Ito with a close but clear decision. Now he faces another tough challenge when he takes on unbeaten Lamont Roach jr (19-0-1). The fight is considered to be a close to 50/50 affair with Herring being the slight favourite. Roach jr is coming of 3 consecutive victories since he had the toughest fight of his career when he had to settle for a draw against Orlando Cruz. That might have been just a bad night for him as Cruz is not considered anywhere near the top fighters in the division. It might also not have been a bad night for him but perhaps simply an indicator of his talent level. You would have to wonder that if Cruz would have been up against one of the top fighters in the division, would he even make it the full distance and hear the final bell? Against Roach jr, he not only heard the final bell but one judge had him winning the fight. Herring himself has also had some struggles in his 2 career defeats against Denis Shafikov and Ladarius Miller. Since then he has built himself up real good and shown serious improvements in his last fights. He trains alongside Terence Crawford and that might be one of the biggest factors of his sudden improvement.