The former brief king of the heavyweight division is returning from his mental health break from the sport. Tyson Fury is back and we now know the date plus a world title fight for his undercard. We also have a potential new May 5th opponent for Gennady Golovkin and a pair of Golden Boy on ESPN cards that have been announced as well.
- First, Golden Boy still wants to have a Cinco de Mayo weekend card even without Canelo in action and they have found one for May 4th using their Golden Boy on ESPN series. 19 year old rising star Ryan Garcia (14-0, 13 KOs) will be taking a solid step up in the main event against competent Puerto Rican veteran Jayson Velez (26-4-1, 18 KOs). This is a really nice and risky test for a 19 year old. Garcia looks special, but Velez is a seasoned pro. Spike O’Sullivan (27-2, 19 KOs), who is no longer a candidate to replace Canelo the following night, will be in the co-main event against an opponent to be named. Another hot prospect in Alexis Rocha (11-0, 8 KOs) will open the show. Even if the two undercards fights end up being nothing walkovers, this is one of the best Golden Boy on ESPN lineups there have been.
- The Gennady Golovkin May 5th replacement opponent sweepstakes continues. Sergiy Derevyanchenko and his team continue to push the IBF to enforce his mandatory status and prevent GGG from fighting anyone before him if he wants to keep his IBF belt, but no ruling has been made there yet. Still allowed to line up another opponent and openly having no interest in fighting Sergiy on short notice, GGG’s team’s latest name in the Golovkin sweepstakes is Vanes Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KO). Vanes is a junior middleweight and will not have fought in just shy of two years come fight night, but they clearly are looking for a barely live body at best here.
- As nice as Golden Boy’s May 4th ESPN card is shaping up, the May 17th edition that they have announced is equally not as nice. Apparently this one is going to be headlined by Filipino lightweight Romero Duno (16-1, 14 KOs) against Mexico’s Gilberto Gonzalez (26-4, 22 KOs). Neither of these men have any name value at all and Gonzalez is coming off a loss. Duno’s only claim to fame is upsetting then unbeaten Christian Gonzalez on LA Fight Club Live, but that is the smallest boxing show there is. For him to follow that with being the A-side to an ESPN2 card is not good. He might be a decent prospect at least though and still is only 22.
- ESPN’s Dan Rafael has clarified a point I have been confused on with Showtime’s May 19th show. Adonis Stevenson will indeed be headlining against Badou Jack in Montreal as expected. That makes sense. What didn’t make sense would be that Gary Russell Jr and JoJo Diaz would be on their undercard as it seemed like was being announced. That is a headlining fight too and one that makes little sense in Canada. Instead of that set up, the show is actually going to be a split site doubleheader with Russell and Diaz main eventing their own show from Maryland. That is a much more logical setup for the show.
- The return of The Gypsy King is set for June 9th. Former unified and lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) is ending his mental health sabbatical and returning to the ring. He doesn’t have an opponent yet, but it will certainly be a soft touch given that he has been mentally unstable, fat, and will have been out of the ring for over two and a half years by the fight. He also won’t need a good opponent to sell his comeback bout either as the hype is going to be big for this one.
- Lastly, Fury’s comeback show will feature the vacant WBO junior welterweight title fight between former lightweight titleholder Terry Flanagan (33-0, 13 KOs) and Maurice Hooker (23-0-3, 16 KOs) on its undercard as well. This fight was supposed to be in April on a Billy Joe Saunders undercard, but that show was canceled when the middleweight titleholder was injured and unable to compete. This is honestly a pretty garbage title fight, but it is easier to stomach as an undercard bout on a big show.
