As expected, the rumored Top Rank/ESPN television deal is indeed real. With tomorrow night’s Manny Pacquiao and Jeff Horn fight kicking it off, two more cards have been announced for August. The first is a weak fight pitting Vasyl Lomachenko against clearly overmatched Miguel Marriaga on August 5th, but the second card really delivers. On the August 19th show, Terence “Bud” Crawford and Julius Indongo will fight for the exceedingly rare full title unification of a division. It doesn’t get better than all four belts on the line in one fight.
Colombia’s Miguel Marriaga (25-2, 21 KOs) is a pretty good fighter. He gave a great effort in April against highly talented WBO featherweight titlist Oscar Valdez in a spirited defeat. That fight was a little closer than the relatively wide cards suggest. None of this matters, however, as moving up to take on a fighter many consider the top pound for pound in the sport is another beast entirely.
Vasyl Lomachenko (8-1, 6 KOs) will be able to do whatever he wants with Marriaga. As a two time Olympic gold medalist with nearly four hundred amateur wins against one loss and a professional world title in his third pro fight, a pretty good fighter stands no chance against the Ukrainian master technician. Reportedly Top Rank worked to secure a rematch with Orlando Salido, but the Mexican brawler backed out late in negotiations leaving Arum and company scrambling to come up with this fight.
Lightweight contender Ray Beltran (33-7-1, 21 KOs) makes a relatively quick return on the undercard against former two time junior lightweight title challenger Bryan Vasquez (35-2, 19 KOs) as well. Beltran is coming off his May knockout of the year candidate victory over Jonathan Maicielo on HBO. Top Rank wants bigger fights, but it seems Beltran is being positioned here as an option for a Lomachenko lightweight debut if nothing better can be secured.
The card is slated for 10 PM on ESPN August 5th at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles.
Like Lomachenko, Terence “Bud” Crawford (31-0, 22 KOs) has placed himself in the pound for pound discussion with his own great performances. Crawford is a master technician who pretty consistently takes a couple rounds to study his opponent and then thoroughly works them over round by round from there on. Here he is getting the exact fight he wanted and one I am excited to see as well.
Namibia’s Julius Indongo (22-0, 11 KOs) is the true Cinderella story of recent years in boxing. He traveled to Russia as a little considered mandatory challenger to face rising Russian star Eduard Troyanovsky and out of no where blasted him out in one to win his first belt. Next three division Scottish titlist Ricky Burns identified Indongo as a potentially weak belt holder that he could use to unify with. Burns brought him to Scotland in April only to be routed by wide decision. Julius Indongo went from complete unknown to a unified junior welterweight titlist in two fights and four months. It is amazing story already, but the challenge dramatically steepens come August 15th.
Ukrainian super prospect and emerging light heavyweight contender Oleksandr Gvozdyk (13-0, 11 KOs) will fight a to be determined opponent on the televised undercard. Beneath that bout on the bill, a bevy of name fighters will also compete as Bryant Jennings (19-2, 10 KOs), Dillian Whyte, (20-1, 15 KOs), Shakur Stevenson (2-0, 1 KO), and Nicholas Walters (26-1, 21 KOs) will all have fights. If these contests are not televised directly, hopefully Top Rank and ESPN stream them online at the very least.
This card will also air on 10 PM on ESPN, this time on August 19th and near Crawford’s home from the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.
