Keith “One Time” Thurman, nicknamed for how often he fights, potentially has yet another return date. We’ll see how that goes. We also have the undercard for Errol Spence Jr’s upcoming title defense against Mexican prospect Carlos Ocampo, the return of Joe Smith Jr, and more.
- First, Errol Spence Jr’s first title defense June 16th on Showtime now has it’s co-main event in the form of Daniel Roman (24-2-1, 9 KOs) defending his WBA super bantamweight title against Moises Flores (25-0, 17 KOs). This will be Roman’s second title defense since winning it in Japan from Shun Kubo last September. As for Flores, you might remember him from getting knocked out slightly after the end of the first round by Guillermo Rigondeaux last June. The fight was eventually ruled a no contest and he accordingly still has an undefeated record to bring to this title opportunity.
- The same show will be a tripleheader opened by the return of Adrian Granados (18-6-2, 12 KOs) against recent Dominican lightweight title challenger Javier Fortuna (33-2-1, 23 KOs). Granados has been in many close fights that could have but didn’t go his way, though most recently he lost clearly to a top fighter in Shawn Porter. Fortuna maybe should be coming off a career best win over lightweight titleholder Robert Easter Jr as I did score the fight for him even though the judges did not, but it wouldn’t have made him a champion as he missed weight for the fight. He is moving up to 140 here in response.
- Former unified super flyweight titleholder Cristian Mijares (59-8-2, 27 KOs) says he is retiring at age 36 following one last fight on the very same June 16th. His opponent will be faded former super bantamweight titleholder Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. (24-7-1, 19 KOs). Mijares has been campaigning at lightweight and isn’t a world level contender there by any means, but he is also an extended winning streak and has been rumored for a lightweight title shot against Miguel Berchelt. I am glad he doesn’t appear to be heading in that direction as I think he gets worked over pretty easily, but it is surprising for him to not be based on the likely decent payday and one last opportunity for glory.
- June 30th will mark the return of light heavyweight contender Joe Smith Jr (23-2, 19 KOs), but not in a big fight. The 28 year old will take on nearly 40 year old regional fighter Melvin Russell (11-4-2, 7 KOs) in a by the book get well fight. Smith will be nearly a year out of the ring come fight night following his one sided (after the first round) beating from the hands of Sullivan Barrera on HBO last July in which Smith suffered a broken jaw that he has needed to recover from. This will be a local show and unlikely to get any real broadcast or exposure.
- WBA titleholder and inactive top welterweight Keith Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs) reportedly has a targeted return date of August 4th. No opponent has accompanied the rumor, but it will assuredly be far from world level opposition. Thurman last fought in March of last year and picked up a huge welterweight title unification win over Danny Garcia. He spent extended time out of the ring due to an elbow injury before attempting to return in May. Another injury in the form of a hand bruise put the kibosh on that. At this point it is easy to be skeptical about any Thurman return date, but this is what is being reported now.
- Finally, IBF super bantamweight titleholder Ryosuke Iwasa (25-2, 16 KOs) will defend his belt on August 16th against mandatory challenger TJ Doheny (19-0, 14 KOs). Doheny, an Australian based Irishmen, is a decent prospect and very capable of winning the belt off a titleholder that I see as relatively weak for the distinction in Iwasa. The titleholder will have home field advantage in Japan for the fight though and that may come into play.
