A pretty big heavyweight fight that has been rumored for some time now is coming to the United Kingdom. Plus, we have a pair of eliminators, the return of an action fighter, and more. The 2018 boxing calendar is continuing to fill in quite nicely.
- Sergiy Derevyanchenko (11-0, 9 KOs) has been a last minute addition to the quickly approaching January 20th card headlined by Errol Spence Jr and Lamont Peterson. He will be in soft off television, but the idea behind the fight is exciting anyway. It is being reported that Derevyanchenko is being lined up for a show down with Demetrius Andrade in the spring and that this is a tune up. That would be an excellent matchup. It is a slightly confusing one with their promotional situations, but maybe it will make sense as a title eliminator or something along those lines.
- Action friendly Yoshihiro Kamegai (27-4-2, 24 KOs) is now returning January 27th on the undercard of Jorge Linares’s HBO televised defense against Mercito Gesta, but it won’t make the broadcast. His opponent will be one loss prospect Daquan Arnett (16-1, 9 KOs). Whether or not Kamegai struggles here may tell us if these wars and the recent beating Miguel Cotto put on him are taking their toll, but we will have to rely on eye witness reports.
- Yordenis Ugas (20-3, 9 KOs) will get a well earned chance to move towards a title fight as he competes in a #2 spot eliminator for the IBF on February 10th. His opponent will be “The New” Ray Robinson (24-2, 12 KOs). The Cuban Olympic medalist has resurrected what was briefly considered to be a busted career with a five fight winning streak against good competition. Ray Robinson himself is on a 13 fight win streak too. This will take place on the Mikey Garcia v Sergey Lipinets card, but it is unclear whether or not Showtime will televise it. Dan Rafael of ESPN says “it is under consideration.” I hope it gets aired in some form.
- Top Rank’s February 16th card headlined by the vacant lightweight title fight between Ray Beltran and Paulus Moses is rounding out. “Mean Machine” Egidijus Kavaliauskas (18-0, 15 KOs) is set to take a big step up against former secondary titleholder David Avanesyan (23-2-1, 11 KOs) in the co-main event. That’s an interesting fight. Top prospects and Olympic medalists Shakur Stevenson (4-0, 2 KOs) and Robson Conceicao (5-0, 4 KOs) as well as heavyweight contender Bryant Jennings (21-2, 12 KOs) will all be in action against soft competition too.
- An interesting fight is happening in Paris on March 10th. Brian Castano (14-0, 10 KOs) will travel from Argentina to defend his secondary junior middleweight world title against former European titlist Cedric Vitu (46-2, 19 KOs) in Vitu’s hometown. The Argentinian is a really underrated talent in the division. He is also mandated to fight for Erislandy Lara’s belt next should he prevail here as expected. Castano already has a little name value in France too thanks to his win over talented Frenchman Michel Soro in July.
- March 24th is now officially the date for the long rumored showdown between top heavyweight contenders Dillian Whyte (22-1, 16 KOs) and Lucas Browne (25-0, 22 KOs). This is the exact sort of fight between two top ten guys without belts that the heavyweight does not deliver on enough. It also should be noted that stylistically this looks like a pretty good fight too. Whyte will have homefield advantage over the Australian at the 02 Arena in England.
- Amir Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) will return to the sport after a near two year lay off on April 21st in the first fight under his contract with Matchroom. His opponent has yet to be named. I would normally expect this to be a pretty soft touch. It probably will be too, but in recent years Khan has only wanted big fights so I am at least a little curious to see who Hearn trots out for what will likely be a tune up. The show will take place in Liverpool at the Echo Arena.
