Terence Crawford and Top Rank renew their vows, next week’s big PPV gets another outlet, George Groves and Callum Smith go to DAZN, and more.
- Crawford Extends – Top two pound for pound fighter Terence “Bud” Crawford has signed an extension with Top Rank. They will remain his promoter for the foreseeable future. For many boxing fans, this is a disappointing development. Basically all the other elite welterweight talent is locked up with Al Haymon and PBC. The concern is that by reupping with Bob Arum, Crawford has shut himself out of almost all possible megafights at the weight. While I get that reaction for sure, I also don’t see how the Omaha star could possibly cut ties with the American promotional giant after all the two parties have built together. Top Rank has put Crawford in the position to become the in demand, ultra elite fighter that he is. They also haven’t failed in getting him the kind of opponents he has wanted so far, so why would he doubt them now?
- GGG-Canelo II Stream – Add one more option to your decision of how to watch next week’s blockbuster PPV card headlined by the highly anticipated rematch between Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez. Golden Boy will be streaming the show online on its Ring Magazine site. The show will cost $84.95 which is steep, but that is also apparently what ordering the HBO PPV via traditional methods will also cost. This stream will not be the HBO broadcast, however, but instead the international feed that Golden Boy is producing. As has been previously reported, the fight will also be played in about 450 movie theaters nationwide for much cheaper too. Attending in person at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas is an option as well, of course, but it isn’t a particularly realistic one for most people so these options exist to compliment it.
- Groves-Smith US TV – Soon to be launched streaming service DAZN picked up the US rights to the World Boxing Super Series season two in a big move a couple months ago now. To compliment that, they’ve also just secured the rights for the season one super middleweight tournament final and world title fight between George Groves and Callum Smith on September 28th in Saudia Arabia. This is very good news for American boxing fans as tragically none of season one was readily and widely available beyond obscure channels or last second online streams. The stream will begin at 4 PM Eastern. DAZN itself launches September 10th with its first boxing card coming six days before this fight in the form of Anthony Joshua’s title defense against Alexander Povetkin.
- Valdez Returns – Featherweight titleholder Oscar Valdez is back in training camp. The exciting young fighter suffered a badly broken jaw early in his excellent title defense against Scott Quigg back in March. As a result of the injury, he spent about two months with his jaw wired shut. Not being able to eat solid food for an extended period of time is bad for anyone, but especially so for an elite athlete like Valdez. Nevertheless, the young titleholder has apparently been given a clean bill of health and is looking to get back in the ring either at the very end of this year or the very beginning of 2019. I don’t imagine Arum and company will put him in too tough for his return fight, but then again Valdez’s style can sometimes make exciting fights out of what look like gimmes anyway.
