Despite the holiday season being upon us, fights are still being made for the first quarter of 2018. We have dates and opponents for several top fighters including the return of Danny Jacobs from his first loss, Marcus Browne, Dillian Whyte, Adam Kownacki, and more.
- Showtime’s January 20th show has added rising light heavyweight Marcus Browne (20-0, 15 KOs) against Canadian based 35 year old Francy Ntetu (17-1, 4 KOs). It isn’t a sexy fight and I do wish they did better with the rising contender here, but Ntetu did hold his own against David Benavidez in the summer of 2016 for what that is worth. The stoppage there was one of the stranger ones you’ll see.
- That’s not all. The show has been expanded into a four fight bill with the return of Polish heavyweight Adam Kownacki (16-0, 13 KOs) for the first time since he dominated contender Artur Szpilka in the summer. He will meet Iago Kiladze (26-1, 18 KOs), a recent former cruiserweight with an entirely empty record from the Republic of Georgia. He is a terrible opponent on paper.
- Exciting British cruiserweight and eventual heavyweight prospect Lawrence Okolie (7-0, 6 KOs) gets his first headline show on February 3rd in a nice little test against fellow prospect Isaac Chamberlain (9-0, 4 KOs). This is a weak Sky headliner, but a good prospect match anyway. Fellow prospect Ted Cheeseman (12-0, 8 KOs) gets a great test against high level journeyman Carson Jones (40-12-3, 30 KOs) too. Other major Hearn prospects will be in action as well.
- The previously announced rematch between WBC super middleweight titleholder David Benavidez and Ronald Gavril has been pushed down to co-main event status on February 17th. This is because Danny Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs) will be making his return against Brandon Rios (34-3-1, 25 KOs) in the Showtime main event. Rios has proven himself below this level, but he should bring his fight and I honestly expected Garcia to return against much worse. This is what it is here.
- March 17th’s Top Rank on ESPN featuring the previously announced vacant WBC junior welterweight title fight between Jose Ramirez and Amir Imam is starting to put its undercard together. None of them have opponents yet, but unbeaten contenders Christopher Diaz (22-0, 14 KOs) and Felix Verdejo (23-0, 15 KOs) as well as rising Olympic prospects Michael Conlan (5-0, 4 KOs) and Teofimo Lopez (7-0, 6 KOs) will all be in action. That is a really talented lineup.
- Finally, British heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte (22-1, 16 KOs) will be competing on March 24th on Sky Sports. Early rumors say his opponent will be Australian Lucas Browne (25-0, 22 KOs) in what would be a good fight, but for now Browne is saying it isn’t done yet. I hope it comes through.
