Eddie Hearn has received some important ink on paper from Anthony Joshua, the WBO and IBF have ordered fights, Jermell Charlo could be in serious legal trouble, and more.
- Re-signed – First and most importantly, three belt unified heavyweight titleholder Anthony Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs) has extended his deal with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing for another three years. While this was seen as more or less a foregone conclusion, it is still a big deal. If Anthony Joshua isn’t the biggest, most marketable star in the sport, he’s second. AJ is worth a lot of money and where he goes will matter in a big way until that is no longer true. Joshua also extended his broadcast deal with Sky Sports in the UK. For my fellow Americans, this also likely means that DAZN will be the home of the heavyweight titleholder’s fights going forward. That wasn’t in the announcement, however, so American broadcast deals could still be up in there. With Hearn’s need to satisfy DAZN, however, I imagine that will end up being the case.
- Hooker-Saucedo – As has been expected since Maurice Hooker (24-0-3, 16 KOs) declined to participate in the second season of the World Boxing Super Series, the WBO has ordered him to defend his new junior welterweight title against action friendly contender Alex Saucedo (28-0, 18 KOs). This was a much easier deal to make when Hooker was solely promoted by Roc Nation as it would clear end up as a Top Rank on ESPN main event, but the new titleholder has signed a co-promotional deal with Matchroom USA, a promoter with a conflicting broadcast deal on soon to be launched DAZN. Whether the two giant promoters can negotiate this or not remains unclear, but I suspect that fight will happen on one network or another. A purse bid will be ordered in a couple weeks if necessary.
- Charlo in Trouble – In a bit of unfortunate news, junior middleweight titleholder and rising PBC star Jermell Charlo (31-0, 15 KOs) has reportedly been arrested on domestic violence charge. Allegedly he choked his then girlfriend and held here against a fence or railing. This is a felony count of domestic violence too, so this could very much derail his promising career if proven to be true in a court of law. The actual incident occurred back in May when Charlo was initially arrested, but somehow it stayed out of the news until now. The first hearing in the case will be in a few days on the 1st. Jermell is denying the charges as would be expected.
- Vacating – Now former unified light flyweight titleholder Hekkie Budler (32-3, 10 KOs) has vacated the IBF belt, leaving him with the WBA version. The reason for this decision was the purse bid for the IBF mandatory defense against power punching South American Felix Alvarado (33-2, 29 KOs). This would be a dangerous fight. With the bid coming back at only $25,000, that would mean Budler would be making less than $20k for the fight even at a 75 percent split in his favor. Instead of taking a tough fight for little money, Budler is instead giving up the belt. Filipino fringe contender Randy Petalcorin (29-2-1, 22 KOs) will now be ordered to fight Alvarado for the vacant title should both sides accept.
- Carousel – Lastly, we have a heavier IBF issue. The sanctioning body has been trying to put former heavyweight title challenger Kubrat Pulev (25-1, 13 KOs) into a title eliminator ever since he withdrew from his shot at Anthony Joshua a while back, but it isn’t going well. Dillian Whyte and Jarrell Miller both declined to participate when an upstart promoter won the purse bid and planned to place the fight in Pulev’s native Bulgaria. Will the third time be the charm? Hughie Fury’s (21-1, 11 KOs) chance is up next. We’ll see how that one plays it. Both men have failed in their sole title opportunities. Pulev was stopped by Wladimir Klitschko in five after putting on what was widely viewed as an uncharacteristically reckless performance against the all-time great in 2014 while Fury basically ran from Joseph Parker in an awful non-fight last September.
