Sergey Kovalev has thrown us a curve ball. The expectation has been for a while that The Krusher would be defending against Marcus Browne this summer, but now it is being reported that Eleider Alvarez has been signed on instead. We also have return dates for Dillian Whyte, Erickson Lubin, Joe Joyce, and a quality ShoBox as well.
- Former blue chip, can’t miss prospect Erickson Lubin (18-1, 13 KOs) is returning from his shocking first round knockout loss to Jermell Charlo last October in two weeks time. He will be competing off television on PBC on FOX’s April 28th undercard. As would be expected in this situation, Lubin will be in soft against unknown Mexican Oscar Cortez (26-3, 14 KOs). Everyone, including myself, was about as high on Lubin as people ever are on prospects. It will be interesting to watch him put his career back together after the shockingly quick loss.
- 2016 Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist Joe Joyce (3-0, 3 KOs) will continue to build his professional career on the May 5th undercard of Tony Bellew and David Haye’s rematch. Joyce, the man basically everyone thought should have won gold, will be fighting for the Commonwealth belt against Jamaican heavyweight Lenroy Thomas (24-4-1, 10 KOs) as he continues to fight good competition relative to a traditional early stage prospect. Joyce is already 32 so this makes sense.
- Highly touted Floyd Mayweather Sr trained lightweight prospect Devin Haney (18-0, 12 KOs), 19, is finally choosing to get some exposure in the sport on ShoBox on May 11th in a real nice step up fight against Mason Menard (33-2, 24 KOs). That is a pretty great ShoBox main event. The show will be a quadruple header also featuring series alumni Glenn Dezurn (9-1-1, 6 KOs) against Josh Greer (16-1-1, 8 KOs) at super bantamweight, newcomers Alvin Varmall Jr (15-0-1, 12 KOs) and Charles Foster (15-0, 8 KOs) at light heavyweight, and finally busted former super bantamweight prospect Adam Lopez (16-2-2, 8 KOs) returning to test unbeaten but unknown Ukrainian Arnold Khegai (11-0-1, 8 KOs) in the opener.
- Dillian Whyte (23-1, 17 KOs) has his return date set for July 21st. He does not yet have an official opponent, but all expectations are that the popular British heavyweight contender will find himself in with Kubrat Pulev (25-1, 13 KOs). The IBF has mandated this fight for number one contender status and the right to meet divisional cash cow Anthony Joshua. Of course, Pulev was already once Joshua’s mandatory and ended up dropping out of that fight, so it isn’t a given that he will take this opportunity. He was reportedly hurt then, however, and I can’t see him passing up the most lucrative path available to him in the division.
- Reports have been breaking that Sergey Kovalev (32-2-1, 28 KOs) will no longer be facing Marcus Browne in defense of his WBO title this summer, but instead has signed dangerous Montreal based contender Eleider Alvarez (23-0, 11 KOs). The implication here seems to be that Browne’s recent domestic violence related legal woes have caused the change. There has been no direct confirmation of this, however, and Browne is currently threatening legal retaliation. Either outcome makes for an excellent HBO main event and is fine by me. July seems to be the target month for the fight.
