Can Abdullah Mason overcome his chin concerns against Manuel James?

Featherweight pro Abdullah Mason will face Manuel James next month on Valentine’s Day, February 14, at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Chin Check

It’s a step back for the 20-year-old Mason (16-0, 14 KOs), who struggled in his last fight against Yohan Vasquez, dropping him twice in the first round on Nov. 8 in Norfolk, Virginia.

Mason vs. James will fight on the Dennis Berinchik vs. Keyshawn Davis undercard. They will fight on an ESPN+ streamed preliminary card, not on ESPN’s main card. Co-headlining the card is undefeated junior middleweight Xander Zaias (20-0, 12 KOs) taking on Slava Spomer (20-0, 11 KOs) in a 10-round bout.

Top Rank isn’t taking any chances with Mason, so they’ve opted for a soft puncher in James (16-2-1, 11 KOs), who is coming off a big ten-round unanimous decision loss to the former WBA light heavyweight champion in September. 14 last year.

It’s been a busy year for the 5’9″ southpaw from Mason 2024, fighting four times and knocking them all out. Ahead of his latest fight against Vasquez (26-6, 21 KOs), a 30-year-old native of the Dominican Republic, Mason talked about a 2025 world title fight.

However, after Vasquez caught him multiple times with left hooks in their fight last November, Mason stopped talking about a world title fight. Now he knows he needs more time before he’s ready, and he may never get there if his beard keeps betraying him. Floyd Schofield Sr. revealed that his son had injured Mason in sparring.

Mason needs to be less aggressive and pick his spots when he starts his offense. He doesn’t have the beard to fight the way he does, going all out for knockouts.

Manuel Jaimes Challenge

James, 24, looked slow and weak in the loss to Rollie Romero, so he’s not a threat to Mason. As long as Abdullah doesn’t leave himself open with repeated uppercuts, he should be able to defeat James without any problems. It will be interesting to see if he can knock him out as he showed a good chin in the fight against Raleigh.

If Mason moves up from lightweight, he will have a lot of trouble fighting at 140 or 147 if his punching ability doesn’t improve.