A lot of news involving very big names in the sport is starting to leak out concerning their plans for the first half of 2018. While none of this is official, it looks like we have a good lead on the next fights for Manny Pacquiao, Danny Jacobs, Jarrell Miller, and more. We also have firm, official fights for Amir Khan, Miguel Berchelt, and others too.
- With powerful bantamweight titleholder Zolani Tete withdrawing from his title defense against the ageless Omar Narvaez and rising 20 year heavyweight sensation Daniel Dubois opting out from Frank Warren’s planned February 10th show as well, the British promoter has opted to cancel the entire card. Both men will have their fights rescheduled when possible.
- Speaking of canceled February 10th title fights, as previously reported Cristian Mijares will not be challenging Miguel Berchelt (32-1, 28 KOs) for his WBC junior lightweight crown. Instead, little known and entirely undeserving Filipino Carlo Magali (23-9, 12 KOs) has stepped in last minute. This defense for Berchelt was always supposed to be an easy, stay busy sort of fight, but at least Mijares was a credible opponent even though he was never going to win. Magal should be washed away in a round or two. BeIN Sports will have the fight in the US.
- Golden Boy’s ESPN2 card on March 9th now has been filled out. In its main event, super bantamweight contender Ronny Rios (29-2, 13 KO) will fight Armenian Azat Hovhannisyan (14-2, 10 KOs). Rios has won one bounce back fight since losing his HBO broadcast title shot to Rey Vargas in August while Hovhannisyan has won seven straight. One of Golden Boy’s better young prospects, 20 year old Alexis Rocha (10-0, 7 KOs), will be in action in the co-main event. Despite their different last names, Rios and Rocha are actually brothers. Alexis does not have an opponent as of yet.
- I wrote a little while about about the rumors concerning the idea that Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KOs) could potentially return on the undercard of Terence Crawford’s April 14th welterweight title shot against Jeff Horn, making the show big enough to be Top Rank’s first PPV with ESPN. News coming out over the last few days points to this coming to fruition. Unfortunately, I also had expressed concern that his opponent would be the shell of Mike Alvarado (38-4, 26 KOs) and this seems like it will also be true. Pacquiao versus Alvarado is a disgraceful fight. Manny is definitely diminished at 39, but Alvarado is a journeyman at best now. He might be on a winning streak, but he has looked atrocious in barely scraping by poor opposition. Manny Pacquiao would finish him within a couple rounds for his first stoppage in nearly a decade.
- We now have Amir Khan’s (31-4, 19 KOs) opponent for his April 21st return and first fight under Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom banners. It seems that Hearn’s philosophy of a soft touch has unequivocally triumphed over Khan’s years of insistence of only major fights as Canadian non-contender Phil Lo Greco (28-3-1, 15 KOs) has gotten the call. This is very much an intentional mismatch designed to give Amir an opportunity to shake of some rust. Do not expected a competitive second in this one.
- Also already announced for April 21st is a Showtime card headlined by Adrien Broner and Omar Figueroa. It looks like Gervonta “Tank” Davis (19-0, 18 KOs) will be making his return on that show as well. If so, Tank will be looking to reclaim his old IBF junior lightweight belt that he lost on the scales last time out on the undercard of last year’s Mayweather/McGregor PPV. That night Davis not only failed to make weight, but he also fought a very strange fight and won on a borderline illegal shot. It wasn’t his finest night. Fortunately for him, it looks like his bounce back opponent will be former Australian world titleholder Billy Dib (43-4, 24 KOs). Dib held the IBF featherweight title for a little over a year starting in 2012, but he remains to this day one of the weakest titleholders of all time in my view. His reign was a joke and he has lost without being particularly competitive to even B level fighters that he has met.
- Finally, all signs are pointing to the return of Danny Jacobs (33-2, 29 KOs) on April 28th. His opponent is reportedly all but finalized to be the recently surging Irishman Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan (27-2, 19 KOs). O’Sullivan is coming off an impressive upset stoppage of Antoine Douglas on HBO, but a Jacobs fight seems very unlikely to end as well for him. This would be the “Miracle Man’s” second fight back since his close and competitive loss to divisional king Gennady Golovkin. HBO will air this show, assuming it happens.
- Heavyweight contender Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller (20-0-1, 18 KOs) will most likely have the co-main event slot. Eddie Hearn, who will be promoting this under his Matchroom USA banner, is keeping Miller busy for a potential shot at divisional cash cow Anthony Joshua. Early talk is that Miller’s most likely opponent is unbeaten, but completely untested fellow American Trevor Bryan (19-0, 13 KOs) of upstate NY. There is some murmuring about a potential fight with Alexander Povetkin in an eliminator situation, but I see no chance of that actually happening.
