A few more fights have been added to the boxing schedule going forward and one long known one has picked up major American television distribution with HBO. We have a Golden Boy on ESPN, a PBC on FS1, Sadam Ali’s first title defense, and more. 2018 is the year that keeps on giving.
- To start, HBO has surprisingly picked up March 24th’s heavyweight fight between Dillian Whyte (22-1, 16 KOs) and Lucas Browne (25-0, 22 KOs) from the UK. This definitely an important fight for the division, but it is division HBO has little investment in and a fight between two men with no name value in the states. What this likely signals is HBO’s interest in once again trying to sign British heavyweight star Anthony Joshua in the future. Dillian Whyte is, like Joshua, promoted by Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, so it makes sense to do this to get in his good graces.
- Golden Boy’s April 12th ESPN date now has its main event. Recent former junior lightweight titleholder and action star Francisco Vargas (24-1-2, 17 KOs) will main event. That is a really big name for their generally lower tier ESPN series, so credit where it is due to Golden Boy here for that. His opponent will be Rod Salka (24-4, 4 KOs). Yes, that Rod Salka. Boxing fans certainly remember in 2014 when the Pennsylvania fighter was pulled up to welterweight for one of the most farcical mismatches in recent boxing history against Danny Garcia. Salka won’t win this one either, but at least he will be at a proper weight.
- Resurgent PBC welterweight Jamal James (22-1, 10 KOs) will headlined a PBC on FS1 show the very next night on the 13th against Arizona’s Abel Ramos (18-2-2, 13 KOs). James is coming off a very surprising dominant stoppage win over former contender Brian Chaves. His one loss was to Yordenis Ugas, but as Ugas continues to storm his way up the divisional ladder, that one doesn’t look that bad anymore. Ramos put in a decent performance against Ivan Baranchyk about a year ago now in defeat, but he will be an underdog here. Edner Cherry (36-7-2, 19 KOs) and Dennis Galarza (16-2, 9 KOs) will meet in the co-main event.
- Jessie Magdaleno’s title defense against Isaac Dogboe on April 28th now has its undercard set. In the co-main event, super middleweight contender Jesse Hart (23-1, 19 KOs) will meet Demond Nicholson (18-2-1, 17 KOs) while heavyweight Bryant Jennings (22-2, 13 KOs) will take on Joey Dawejko (19-4-4, 11 KOs). Both of those fights are stay busy mismatches though, unfortunately.
- Finally, it looks like Golden Boy will be teaming up with Frank Warren for Sadam Ali’s (26-1, 14 KOs) first junior middleweight title defense on May 12th. The British promoter will be bringing former title challenger Liam Smith (26-1-1, 14 KOs) and his almost identical record stateside for the WBO shot. Ali’s stock has hugely risen following his domination of Miguel Cotto in the Puerto Rican legend’s final fight while Smith is coming off a (sort of) successful two fight series with Liam Williams to get the opportunity here. HBO will broadcast and pair the fight with the free replay of the GGG versus Canelo PPV rematch the weekend before.
