Booking Round Up: Povetkin, Charlo, Lebedev, Yamanaka, and more get fights

While no major fights have been announced in the past week or so, there has been a plentiful assortment of fights involving top fighters that have been announced against lesser competition. So far we have a title fight in Japan, a pair of Russian cards, and a pair of title eliminators in the States.

On the first of July in Russia, top heavyweight Alexander Povetkin (31-1, 23 KOs) returns for a soft touch against little known Ukranian Andriy Rudenko (31-2, 19 KOs). Recent former junior welterweight titlist Eduard Troyanovsky (25-1, 22 KOs) will also return from his first loss on the same bill against Italian former title challenger Michell Di Rocco (41-2, 18 KOs).

A week and a half later on July 10th, Denis Lebedev (29-3, 22 KOs) also returns in Russia to defend his WBA cruiserweight title against Australian Mark Flanagan (22-4, 15 KOs). Much like the two fights on the other Russian card, this does not figure to be competitive.

Shinsuke Yamanaka (27-0-2, 19 KOs), a man many have ranked just insider their pound for pound top ten, returns August 15th in Japan to defend his WBC bantamweight belt against undefeated, 22 year old Mexican challenger Luis Nery (23-0, 17 KOs).

Finally, a pair of title eliminators in the United States are in play, but they are not yet finalized. First underrated Argentinian middleweight Jorge Sebastian Heiland (28-4-2, 15 KOs) will likely be matched with new middleweight Jermall Charlo (25-0, 19 KOs) in a WBC eliminator. This is reportedly being targeted as the Broner/Garcia co-feature.

Less sure to happen is rumored IBF welterweight eliminator Konstantin Ponomarev (32-0, 13 KOs) versus Carlos Ocampo (21-0, 12 KOs). This would be a well matched fight, but the winner would also become Errol Spence’s mandatory. Ponomarev and his team have already once turned down a fight with Spence when the IBF wanted to put them in an eliminator together prior to Spence beating Kell Brook for his belt. Maybe the title opportunity will change the equation, but up to now it has appeared that team Ponomarev want nothing to do with Errol Spence Jr.