We have some major fight booking news out of the United Kingdom. If only major meant good. Billy Joe Saunders has his next title defense set up, Terry Flanagan has a date for his vacant title shot, the Super Fly 2 tripleheader is complete, and more.
- When Mikey Garcia’s shot at a fourth world title against Sergey Lipinets was postponed due to an injury to the champion, a lot of undercard fights lost their home too. Chief among them was a welterweight contender battle between Ray Robinson (24-2, 12 KOs) and surging Cuban Yordenis Ugas (20-3, 9 KOs). Thankfully, this context has only been postponed one week. Originally it was supposed to happen on February 10th, but now it will take place on the 17th on the undercard of Danny Garcia versus Brandon Rios.
- HBO’s Super Fly sequel card picked up its third fight for February 24th, but it unexpectedly isn’t in the super flyweight division. Instead, titleholder Donnie Nietes (40-1-4, 24 KOs) will defend his IBF flyweight belt against Juan Carlos Reveco (39-3, 19 KOs). Despite not fitting the theme exactly, this is still an excellent addition. I have Nietes and Reveco both ranked in the top 5 at 112 pounds. I also like the idea of expanding the concept. It would be absolutely amazing if HBO ran a quarterly card under the Super Fly moniker that featured title fights from 108, 112, and 115.
- April 14th is bringing a pretty uninspiring world title doubleheader in the UK. In its main event, Billy Joe Saunders (26-0, 12 KOs) will defend his WBO middleweight title for the fourth time when he meets fellow countryman Martin Murray (36-4-1, 14 KOs). A few years ago Murray could fight on the world level reasonably well, but those days feel long past at this point. Saunders is coming off a domination of David Lemieux and is taking a step down here. I don’t think this will be competitive or interesting to watch.
- The co-main event is even worse in some ways. In it Terry Flanagan (33-0, 13 KOs will be moving up to fight for the vacant WBO junior welterweight title against Maurice Hooker (23-0-3, 16 KOs). Why Hooker is in a title fight, I have no idea. He has no notable wins and three fights ago was extremely fortunate to get a draw against Darleys Perez in a fight that everyone with eyes thought Perez clearly won. Flanagan wasn’t exactly a captivating lightweight titleholder either. It doesn’t get much less appealing than this in terms of world title fights.
