In a weekend where the sport is barely turning, here are a few items of note that have blown across the wasteland like a tumbleweed in a desert.
- 2016 Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist Joe Joyce of the UK has his pro debut set for October 20th. He will face Ian Lewinson (12-3-1, 8 KOs), a pretty solid opponent for a first professional fight. The card will broadcast on Dave in the UK and it looks like this fight will function as its main event.
- According to Dan Rafael, HBO is looking at an October 21st show at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY headlined by a Demitrius Andrade (24-0, 16 KOs) WBA junior middleweight title defense. This makes sense as the network is really hurting for fighters if it wants to stay in the boxing business, but no further details have emerged.
- Leo Santa Cruz (33-1-1, 18 KOs) is claiming he might go to 130 lbs following his upcoming fight with Chris Avalos. This is an odd suggestion as this card ostensibly exists to set up the sanctioning body mandated rematch between he and Abner Mares, but I guess he would be dropping the belt if he did choose to move up anyway.
- Mikey Garcia (37-0, 30 KOs) has said that he is looking to fight again before the end of the year. He would like to unify at lightweight with Jorge Linares, but he doesn’t believe that is possible due to Linares’s late September fight date. Accordingly Garcia is looking for the best fight he can find at 135 or 140 and then will want to unify next year.
- Sergey Lipinets (12-0, 10 KO) and Akihiro Kondo (29-6-1, 16 KOs) have been ordered by the IBF to meet for the junior welterweight crown already vacated by Terence Crawford. Kondo is not a top fighter and does not deserve a title shot, but boxing is going to boxing whenever possible.
- Antonio Margarito (41-8, 27 KOs) won a fight this weekend, but I will cover that on Under the Radar this week. Afterwards he has been calling out Miguel Cotto to complete their trilogy for Cotto’s retirement fight in December. Let’s hope this does not happen.
