Top Rank’s major April 19th ESPN card headlined by Terence Crawford’s welterweight title shot against Jeff Horn will not be a pay per view doubleheader featuring Manny Pacquiao in the co-feature. We might be getting a better fight for free on ESPN, however, as recent Top Rank signee Artur Beterbiev is being lined up for a really intriguing defense instead. We also have Errol Spence Jr’s next title defense and more.
- Frank Warren’s April 14th show headlined by both Billy Joe Saunders’s title defense against Martin Murray and Terry Flanagan’s defense against Maurice Hooker has picked up some notable undercard names. Top British prospects Anthony Yarde (15-0, 14 KOs) and Daniel Dubois (7-0, 7 KOs) have both been added to a show that also already includes unbeaten British titleholder Darryl Williams and controversial once beaten prospect Ohara Davies. Neither Yarde nor Dubois have opponents yet, but this is set to be one of the more loaded Frank Warren shows in recent years.
- There has long been talk now of Manny Pacquiao joining the show headlined by Jeff Horn’s April 19th ESPN title defense against divisional debutante and pound for pound elite Terence Crawford, but thankfully those plans are off as Pacquiao is offended at the idea of being on an undercard. I say thankfully both because the Filipino legend was likely to be matched with a beyond shot Mike Alvarado and his name would also have elevated the show to pay per view status. Neither of those ideas were appealing to me.
- What is appealing is the potential replacement fight. New Top Rank signee Artur Beterbiev (12-0, 12 KOs) is in discussion to defend his IBF light heavyweight in the co-feature instead. Not only is Beterbiev a great, powerful fighter who I am excited to see more active, but better yet he may find himself in against top PBC light heavyweight prospect Marcus Browne (21-0, 16 KOs). I am skeptical that this makes sense for Top Rank given how talented Browne is without him being a mandatory though. Plus, Top Rank and PBC rarely work together. I hope to be wrong in this case and see the fight come through.
- As expected, Errol Spence Jr’s (23-0, 20 KOs) next title defense will be on June 16th against mandatory challenger Carlos Ocampo (22-0, 13 KOs) of Mexico. Showtime will televise from Spence’s hometown of Dallas, Texas. Ocampo is actually a decent young prospect, but he is not likely to be competitive here. There are many levels to this sport and Ocampo doesn’t figure to be ready for this spotlight. No word on an undercard as of yet.
- No date for this one yet, but new WBA flyweight titleholder Artem Dalakian (16-0, 11 KOs) has his next defense lined up in the form of his new mandatory challenger and former WBA secondary titleholder from Thailand Sirichai Thaiyen (49-3, 24 KOs). That is a relatively soft fist defense for the Ukrainian coming off his career best performance over Brian Viloria. Thaiyen has a couple okay wins over decent Japanese regional fighters, but he was soundly trounced in five the one time he stepped up to world level against Juan Carlos Reveco.
