There are no really huge fights being signed to report on this time around, but we still have a title bout and another with world title implications. Plus, we have how Golden Boy is going to use a couple of their ESPN2 dates and supposed the retirement fight for an absolute legend.
- We are supposedly saying goodbye to Roy Jones Jr (65-9, 47 KOs) the fighter come February 8th. Roy, 49, will be returning home to Pensacola, Florida to take on journeyman Scott Sigmon (30-11-1, 16 KOs) at cruiserweight. The former legend still wins on this level and there is no real issue with him fighting on it, but unfortunately the wins at the journeyman level give him the confidence to step up to world level and there he gets hurt. I hope this really is the end. Of note, Sigmon weighed in as a middleweight two fights ago and has been stopped five times.
- Top Rank’s March 17th ESPN show headlined by Jose Ramirez and Amir Imam competing for a vacant junior welterweight title has its co-main event. Ukrainian lightweight contender Oleksandr Gvozdyk (14-0, 12 KOs) will likely pick up his fifteenth win against almost guaranteed to be overmatched Frenchman Mehdi Amar (34-5-2, 16 KOs). The fight will be for an interim version of the WBC belt for some reason too with the winner (aka Gvozdyk) being supposedly guaranteed a shot at the winner of Adonis Stevenson’s upcoming defense against Badou Jack. Given that the WBC has enforced a mandatory challenger at light heavyweight in nearly half a decade now, we’ll see.
- Golden Boy will hand one of their ESPN dates off to Miguel Cotto promotions on March 24th. In Cotto’s main event, rising Puerto Rican super flyweight Jose Martinez (20-0-1, 13 KOs) meets Alejandro Santiago (15-2-3, 7 KOs) of Mexico in a rematch of the draw on Martinez’s record. Their first fight took place in November of 2016 and both men are undefeated since. This isn’t a bad main event at all by the low standards of Golden Boy’s ESPN series.
- Japanese middleweight star Ryota Murata (13-1, 10 KOs) will make the first defense of his secondary title on April 15th on home. It isn’t anything to get excited about though. Italian European titleholder Emanuele Blandamura (27-2, 5 KOs) will be his opponent. Blandamura has already proven himself well below world level the two times he has tried to step up. This is a victory lap defense for Murata. Usually I expect Japanese stars to stay in Japan and make their money, but given that Murata is the only Japanese middleweight of note it will be interesting to see where he takes his career.
- Thursday, April 19th will feature another Cotto Promotions card taking the place of a Golden Boy on ESPN. That card will feature the return of Gabriel Rosado (24-11, 14 KOs) in the main event. Rosado was born and raised in Philadelphia, but he is ethnically Puerto Rican and will be making his island debut. He doesn’t have an opponent yet. Jose Lopez (19-2-1, 14 KOs) and Abner Cotto (22-3, 11 KOs) will fight in the co-main event according to the press release, but they have been two weight classes apart and I am skeptical.
