There has been a flurry of activity in terms of making fights or securing broadcast rights over the last week or so. We have Showtime buying up British featherweight fights, world title undercard fights, the potential return of Chocolatito, and even more than that. Read on for all the information available.
- First, Friday’s PBC on FS1 has been expanded to a five fight, three hour broadcast. This isn’t because of anything exciting though. Jamal James and Adel Ramos still meet in the main event with Edner Cherry and Dennis Galarza supporting, but three prospect fights will now be featured as well. The broadcast now also features super featherweights Austin Dulay (11-0, 8 KOs) and Chris Colbert (7-0, 2 KOs) over eight rounds, welterweights Sebastian Fundora (8-0, 4 KOs) and Veshawn Owens (9-0, 9 KOs) also over eight, and 18 year old junior middleweight prospect Joey Spencer (1-0, 1 KO) against Ousmane Sylla (1-2, 1 KOs) in a four rounder.
- Showtime has secured the US rights for a pair of big British featherweight fights. The first of which comes in the form of Carl Frampton (24-1,14 KOs) meeting Nonito Donaire (38-4, 24 KOs) for an interim WBO belt on April 21st. Donaire is above his best weight, past his prime, and a big underdog here, but I still like the fight. If nothing else, it will be really neat as a hardcore fan to see Frampton and Donaire in the ring with one another. Showtime will air the fight on its Facebook page and Youtube channel. They will also simply be re-broadcasting the UK’s Box Nation feed.
- The May 5th highly anticipated British heavyweight rematch between Tony Bellew and David Haye has added a world title undercard fight between bantamweights Emmanuel “Manny” Rodriguez (17-0, 12 KOs) and Paul Butler (26-1, 14 KOs) for the vacant IBF belt. This is a well matched fight that will help round out what is an increasingly compelling show. Joe Joyce will also be in action.
- Bellew v Haye 2 was not supposed to be the biggest fight on May 5th, of course, as Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez were slated to rematch on that date as well. With Alvarez out, however, Golovkin remains in search of an opponent. He hasn’t found that yet, but he has found an undercard fight if the show goes through. Reportedly, Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (46-2, 38 KOs) will return from his first uncontroversial and stoppage loss against credible contender Pedro Guevara (30-3-1, 17 KOs). Guevara will be moving up from flyweight, but Chocolatito should probably be fighting down at flyweight anyway. Guevara’s three losses have all been narrow to top fighters and he has wins over the likes of top flyweights Akira Yaegashi and Ganigan Lopez. He will be a stiff test for Chocolatito’s return if this card still goes through.
- Hot Dominican prospect and recent Top Rank signee Carlos Adames (13-0, 11 KOs) has secured the much coveted co-main event slot on the highly anticipated May 12th ESPN showdown between pound for pound elites Vasyl Lomachenko and Jorge Linares. Adames has an impressive resume with wins over former titleholders and Olympians already in his young career. I like his opponent in Alejandro Barrera (29-4, 18 KOs) too. It isn’t Barrera is a world beater, but we have seen him basically be an equal to known middling fighters Eddie Gomez and KeAndre Gibson over the last year on Golden Boy shows. He will be an excellent barometer for Adames.
- In what was at least a surprise to me, Gary Russell Jr’s (28-1, 17 KOs) annual WBC featherweight title defense against Golden Boy emerging contender Joseph “JoJo” Diaz (26-0, 14 KOs) has been added as the co-main event of Adonis Stevenson’s May 19th light heavyweight title fight against Badou Jack in Montreal. I fully expected this fight to headline its own show, but it is not. This addition immediately makes the Canadian card arguably the best on the schedule going forward. These are two great fights.
- Also on May 19th will be the second of Showtime’s UK featherweight fight acquisitions. This stream will show Lee Selby’s (21-1, 9 KOs) IBF title defense against rising local star Josh Warrington (26-0, 6 KOs). Like the Frampton/Donaire fight, this will be a simulcast of the Box Nation show streamed to Facebook and Youtube. Hopefully this means Showtime has interest in getting the winner in the mix with their talented pool of fighters at the weight via PBC.
- June 19th will be the date for Artem Dalakian’s (16-0, 11 KOs) first WBA flyweight title defense since winning the vacant belt over Brian Viloria in February. He will be fighting at home in Ukraine against Sirichai Thaiyen (49-3, 24 KOs) of Thailand. This is a relatively soft first defense for the Ukrainian. 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.
- Faded 33 year old former longtime cruiserweight titleholder Marco Huck (40-5-1, 27 KOs) is moving to heavyweight going forward. I can’t see this ending well at all for Huck, but his June 16th divisional re-debut should be fine against 41 year old Turkish non-factor Yakup Saglam (40-4-1, 37 KOs). Saglam has been soundly defeated the pair of times he has stepped up. Huck fought at heavyweight once before and nearly won a belt in a narrow, fun fight against Alexander Povetkin back in 2012, but that was back in his prime. It would be a shock to see Huck competitive against top heavyweights in 2018 and beyond.
- Finally, Manny Pacquiao’s July 15th fight with Lucas Matthysse has its first undercard bout in the form of a vacant IBF flyweight title fight between South African former titleholder Moruti Mthalane (35-2, 24 KOs) and Muhammad Waseem (8-0, 6 KOs) of Pakistan. Mthalane formerly held this belt before dropping it without losing a fight thanks to inactivity, but he is also 36 now which is ancient for flyweight. Waseem was a top amateur who has struggled in his pro career not in the ring, but in terms of finding money to train to get into the ring. Hopefully he finds the funding for this camp as this is a big opportunity and an interesting fight.
