Terence “Bud” Crawford officially has a new date for his welterweight title shot against Jeff Horn following the postponement caused by his hand injury. We also have a new tentative date for Manny Pacquiao’s and Lucas Matthysse’s summer battle, some news on a potential Jose Ramirez versus Regis Prograis showdown, and more.
- Roy Jones Jr promotions has another BeIN Sports card scheduled for April 20th. In house 19 year old bantamweight prospect Max Ornelas (10-0-1, 4 KOs) will meet fellow Jones Jr promoted fighter Tony Lopez (12-3, 4 KOs) in the main event.
- 19 year old Golden Boy prodigy Ryan Garcia (14-0, 13 KOs) is tentatively slated to fight next on the May 5th HBO PPV headlined by the highly anticipated rematch between Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez. This is likely contingent on that fight still happening as planned, however. If Canelo is removed thanks to his failed drug tests, then it seems unlikely that Golden Boy would be involved at all. I don’t think the fight will ultimately be impacted, however, and fully expect to see Ryan Garcia in action. No opponent has been mentioned as of yet. I wouldn’t get your hopes up for a good one either.
- These are early rumors at this point, but Zurdo Ramirez (37-0, 25 KOs) is being tentatively targeted to defend his super middleweight title in Texas on June 30th. Preliminary talk puts British regional titleholder Rocky Fielding (26-1, 14 KOs) in as his opponent. That would be a really disappointing title defense on the heals of Zurdo’s last soft touch against unknown Ghanaian Habib Ahmed. Fielding is a fine fighter, but he is not particularly likely to be competitive with the top handful of guys in the division.
- The fight hasn’t actually been announced yet, but reports are that Manny Pacquiao’s (59-7-2, 38 KOs) summer fight with Lucas Matthysse (39-4, 36 KOs) is now going to happen on July 8th. The fight is expected to be announced on April 11th. Top Rank’s Bob Arum has been on record of saying that if this fight actually happens that it will be broadcast on ESPN, but Manny Pacquiao and his team have also been claiming that he is no longer under contract with them. Golden Boy, who promote Lucas Matthysse, will unquestionably be involved and that fact may bring HBO into the picture. Either way, if this is happening it is because of some money coming in from Malaysia where the fight would take place.
- The WBC seems to be declining Bob Arum’s request for new junior welterweight titleholder Jose Ramirez (22-0, 16 KOs) and mandatory title challenger Regis Prograis (21-0, 18 KOs) to take separate interim bouts before facing one another. The Wold Boxing Council has declared that with Prograis holding an “interim” version of the title, the two men must meet so that there is only one titleholder in the division on behalf of the sanctioning body. I get why Arum would want to work some promotional magic to make this fight worth more as it is quite dangerous for his new young titleholder, but I am selfish and want to see it now anyway. Good on the WBC.
