Carlos Toro's Boxing Newsletter #5
The latest on Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua & Deontay Wilder, Plus A Report From Showtime's May 15 Card, An Early-Look Interview With Javier Martinez, Plus More!
By Carlos Toro
Twitter: @CarlosToroMedia
Is Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua Actually Happening? The Latest On The Super Fight:
Author’s Note: This section was written right before reports of a judge overseeing the arbitration between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder for a third fight ruled that a third fight must happen. If true, it throws the planned fight between Fury and Anthony Joshua into jeopardy. According to Chris McKenna of the Daily Star, judge Daniel Weinstein ruled that the fight must take place by September 15. This comes after Wilder continued pursuing a contractually obligated third fight against Fury after Fury beat him in their rematch in February 2020.
Wilder then exercised his rematch clause for a third bout taking place last summer, but the fight fell through due to the pandemic. Negotiations to make the third fight happen continued months later but went nowhere. As such, arbitration began to resolve the issue and the hope, from Wilder’s side, was that the ruling would be that he had a legal right to fight Fury a third time next and to make sure that fight is enforced.
Such arbitration was going to impact this fight depending on the result, but there was no way to predict with any certainty how it would go. Unless Fury and Wilder’s camps can work out something that would allow Fury to fight Joshua next, there’s little to no hope in seeing that fight in August. Fury vs. Wilder 3 seems to be much more likely to happen next than Fury vs. Joshua. But expecting Wilder to step aside after going through all that effort to enforce the trilogy bout against Fury, it would make little sense on WIlder’s side to suddenly go out and let Fury vs. Joshua happen.
As of this writing, there’s no official confirmation as to who Fury’s next opponent will be or when he’ll fight again.
This is an ongoing story with more details sure to come very soon and in a future newsletter. Still, it is worth noting the details that came from this past weekend when Fury posted a video on social media saying that the fight against Joshua is on for August 14 in Saudi Arabia.
Original Story:
For the first time in what seems to be weeks, the mega fight between heavyweight champions Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua seems to be close to becoming a reality.
Over the weekend, Fury, the WBC heavyweight titleholder, posted a video on social media where he seemingly confirmed that the fight against Joshua is a done deal. Not surprisingly, the fight will take place on August 14 in Saudi Arabia at a venue yet to be announced.
It should be noted that Fury’s video is not in any way an official announcement of the fight being confirmed, but it is so far, the biggest endorsement of its confirmation since both sides reportedly agreed to terms weeks ago.
“Hey there, Tyson Fury, the Gypsy King, here. I got some massive news for you all. I just got off the phone from Prince Khalid from Saudi Arabia. He told me the fight is 100 percent done. August 14, 2021, summertime. All eyes on the world will be on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and I cannot wait - repeat, wait - to smash Anthony Joshua on the biggest stage of all times. This is going to be the biggest sporting event to grace the planet Earth. Do not miss it. All eyes on us,” Fury said.
Though the fight was agreed upon, there were several key aspects of the fight that still needed to be sorted out, primarily a site and a site fee that would satisfy all parties as well as dealing with any logistical obstacles that come with the coronavirus pandemic.
One of the primary reasons Saudi Arabia is reportedly chosen as the site for this event is the fact that the site fee to host was too good to pass up, topping around $150 million. No other location would have been able to offer that from a site fee alone.
Although one would think that the United Kingdom would be a more suitable place to host it, it’s an incredibly unreliable region for such a big fight. The United Kingdom has had some issues opening up fully with the pandemic still at large. Last December, the UK was able to allow Matchroom Boxing to hold events with a very limited crowd capacity, but that soon went away in January when the British Boxing Board of Control shut down the sport in the UK for that month.
The UK is slowly starting to open up again with boxing promotions slowly working their way towards holding shows with fans again, but August wouldn’t be enough time for England to fully open up. Had this fight been made pre-pandemic, holding the fight in front of more than 80,000 fans at Wembley Stadium would have been a more realistic option to consider.
It’s the same situation with Las Vegas. The state of Nevada has been slow to open its door back to fan-attended events (at least compared to Florida and Texas) and Top Rank had been working hard with the Nevada State Athletic Commission since last summer to allow fans back in. However, progress was slow and doing the fight in Las Vegas with anything less than a sold out T-Mobile Arena (where ticket prices would have been expensive) or a packed Allegiant Stadium would have been a financial disaster.
Saudi Arabia fills in that financial pitfall a superfight like this would have filled because of that nine-figure site fee. In working with the country’s officials, camps for both Fury and Joshua can help craft COVID-19 protocols that would ensure the fight being made which takes care of those potential logistical issues.
Joshua and Hearn have also worked intimately with Saudi Arabia for Joshua’s rematch against Andy Ruiz Jr. in late 2019. According to Dan Rafael, the same Saudi Arabia group that put together the deal with Hearn to make Joshua vs. Ruiz 2 in the country, is the same group that is involved with putting Fury vs. Joshua together.
In terms of broadcast deals, it’s likely that ESPN would handle the U.S. broadcast distribution via pay-per-view with the UK showing the fight as a joint BT Sports and Sky Sports pay-per-view. As for DAZN, the streaming platform might be handling broadcast distribution for the rest of the world.
As for the fight itself, Fury and Joshua’s encounter would crown the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis from 1999 to 2000. An undisputed champion at heavyweight has slowly been building up for years, but most thought it would be Deontay Wilder who would face Joshua as the WBC champion.
That all changed when Fury beat Wilder in their rematch in February 2020, turning Fury into the first heavyweight in history to have held the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF world titles at one point in their careers.
At first, it was assumed that Fury and Wilder would have a third fight, but it got canned once the pandemic began shutting down the sport. An arduous negotiation period late last year to make the third fight happen went nowhere, with mediation now overlooking how the negotiations broke down and if Wilder is due for another fight against Fury.
Even when everything appears headed in the right direction for Fury vs. Joshua being made, the possibility of Fury vs. Wilder 3 still looms large and depending on how things go, the trilogy bout might supersede the undisputed heavyweight title bout.
Let’s assume that the mediation results in Fury vs. Wilder 3 being made next. If Fury is ordered to fight Wilder, where does that leave Joshua then? There is always a title defense against former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, who is the mandatory challenger to Joshua’s WBO title.
An impromptu and unofficial four-man tournament between the aforementioned fighters could still result in an undisputed champion being crowned. It just likely won’t happen in 2021 and instead 2022 would be the target date for that unification.
Once it started becoming apparent that Fury and Wilder would not get a fight deal done last year, Fury’s attention turned to Joshua and making arguably the most highly-anticipated all-British boxing fight in history possible.
Months ago, both sides agreed to terms on a two-fight series, but the main issue with that is the assumption from many that the fight was a done deal when in reality, it was nowhere near done. Most of the details were ironed out by that point, but what little was left to negotiate was heavily dependent on how the coronavirus pandemic progressed and if countries remained shut down as a result.
In fact, negotiations were so drawn out, that several people that are involved with the fight, especially from the Fury side, doubted that the fight was even happening. Eddie Hearn, who promoted Joshua, was vocal and transparent over many aspects of the negotiation process but even he admitted at one point that it has been a rough process to go through.
Skepticism on this fight actually being done was expected and understandable. Years ago, Wilder and Joshua “agreed to terms” on a superfight that went nowhere. In addition, a fight like these would have needed all three major promoters (Hearn, Frank Warren and Bob Arum) to be on the same page. For weeks, not only did they look like they weren’t on the same page, they looked like they weren’t in the same book, with Hearn being the one to constantly insist that the fight was happening.
With the anticipation for this fight being so high, the fight being “announced” without all contracts being signed has become a common thing to see in recent weeks, almost creating a “Boy Cries Wolf” situation.
At first, it was thought the fight would take place either in June or July, then perhaps August 7. A minor obstacle with August 7 would have been the fact that Joshua’s trainer, Robert McCracken, is also involved with Team GB’s boxing team for the Tokyo Olympics, which would still be running on August 7. Hearn said that won’t stop the fight from happening on August 7 if need be, it represented another obstacle in a fight that has been called a done deal for weeks when in reality it hasn’t.
Should the fight be made, it would be one of the biggest heavyweight fights of the 21st century and all signs point to this fight finally being made. However, should something horrific and unforeseen occur to prevent this from happening, it will be looked at as one of the biggest missed opportunities the sport has had to regain mainstream attention in its modern history.
Brandon Figueroa Shines Through On Boxing’s Best Show Of 2021 Thus Far:
Showtime kicked off its recently-announced nine-event boxing schedule with what could perhaps end up as the best show of the year, at least from an in-ring perspective.
The May 15 Showtime Championship Boxing card was the first Showtime-televised event during the pandemic with a crowd, taking place at Dignity Health Sports Park. The site has been a homeground for many of the sport’s best fights, but this most recent event had a tripleheader where all three fights could end up being in the top 20 best fights of 2021 when it's all said and done.
The night ended with Brandon Figureroa knocking out Luis Nery in the seventh round of an exciting fight to become the new WBC super bantamweight champion. The fight was tantalizing on paper due to both fighters’ fighting styles. Nery was a tremendous puncher, but the knock on him was whether or not his ferocious power at bantamweight fully translated to super bantamweight. Figueroa was a tall, strong and aggressive volume puncher but somewhat untested when it comes to fighting elite super bantamweights.
Everything about that main event pointed to be an exciting world title bout and it delivered. Figueroa was aggressive in the early portion of the fight, throwing more than 250 punches in the first three rounds. However, Nery was able to move out of harm’s way for most of the first half with timely footwork and left-hand punching, which was connecting well at times.
However, Figueroa continued to play the aggressor and his volume punching eventually became too much for Nery to handle. Nery struggled to box while moving backwards and it was a well-timed body shot from Figueroa in the seventh round (amazingly only his 11th body shot landed in the entire fight) put Nery out of commission and handed him his first pro loss.
The winner of the main event not only got to walk away as the WBC champion, but also got a unification fight against WBO titleholder Stephen Fulton Jr. for a Showtime card on September 11.
Figueroa not only proved himself to be a top super bantamweight with the win, but also a real threat to some of the division’s very best (Fulton, Murodjon Akhmadaliev and Daniel Roman). Credit should also go to Figueroa’s trainer Joel Diaz, who crafted a tremendous gameplan for Figueroa to beat Nery with: put a lot of pressure, force Nery to box him instead of slugging it out and wait until he breaks down to go in for the knockout punch.
Figueroa’s growth from a talented prospect to a world champion should be commended, especially when not everyone saw a top tier world champion boxer in Figueroa years ago. After a tremendous performance against Nery, there’s no question that Figueroa is the real deal when it comes to the 122-pound division, which has quickly morphed into one of boxing’s best weight classes.
The winner of Fulton vs. Figueroa would hold two of the four sanctioning world titles at that weight. Akhmadaliev holds the other two (WBA “Super” and IBF) and in a perfect world, Akhmadaliev would fight the Fulton vs. Figueroa winner to crown an undisputed champion in the division.
Of course, these things are much easier said than done, but it doesn’t mean the division isn’t must-watch. In the meantime, super bantamweight has a lot of great fighters and fights to enjoy, one of which even took place in the co-main event of the May 15 show.
Roman scored a 10-round unanimous decision victory over Ricardo Espinoza in another exciting fight. At first, Espinoza kept up with the energetic style Roman brought to the table, but Espinoza was landing cleaner punches and created a bit of pressure.
However, Roman took over in the second half of the fight where he excels at and broke down Espinoza in the last few rounds. Roman adjusted to Espinoza’s style, connected with some clean uppercuts and worked around the early aggression he dealt with.
The win kept Roman’s name as the best super bantamweight to not hold a title and unfortunately for him, that’s going to stay that way for some time.
Roman had been adamant for more than a year over getting a rematch against Akhmadaliev, who beat him in January 2020 to win the WBA and IBF titles. No rematch was made and Roman had to settle for a fight against Juan Carlos Payano last September. Even still, a fight against Akhmadaliev was nowhere in sight.
Akhmadaliev returned to the ring in early April with a win over Ryosuke Iwasa, but now Akhmadaliev is likely fighting mandatory challenger Ronny Rios next. With Figueroa and Fulton now set to fight each other, it meant that Roman couldn’t even fight for either the WBC or WBO title.
The 31-year-old Roman was notably upset throughout the buildup to this event over not being in line for a shot at any title at super bantamweight. He still believes he’s due for a rematch against Akhmadaliev and that the entire division still has to run through him.
If were it not for a couple of judges seeing two close rounds differently when Akhmadaliev and Roman fought, Roman would still be a unified champion and the king of the division.
It is a shame that Roman is the odd man out, but super bantamweight still has a number of great fights left for him to be made even in the confines of PBC against Nery and rising star Raeese Aleem.
The opening bout of the card saw Mayweather Promotions’ super featherweight prospect Xavier Martinez continue to excel in his progression and show growth with an impressive victory over Juan Carlos Burgos.
Martinez was coming off a win over veteran contender Claudio Marrero, but Martinez was dropped twice in the eighth round by Marrero. That round was a hard lesson that Martinez learned about not falling asleep at the wheel. In the buildup to the fight against Burgos, Martinez told Carlos Toro Media that fight showed he can fight through adversity in a fight and that he was going to keep the foot on the gas pedal.
The 23-year-old Martinez stayed true to his word and threw 891 punches in 10 rounds to get a unanimous decision win against Burgos. The two traded a lot of punches on the inside with barely a clinch in sight, setting the night for what was going to be a thrilling night of boxing.
Martinez was also hit a lot by Burgos and even if the action was exciting, it’s not the kind of fight a young fighter should go through too much, lest he wanted his career to be shortened somewhat by all the constant in-ring wars.
There’s no doubt Martinez should be viewed as a contender now at 130 pounds. When it comes to getting a title shot, that’s a different story. All but one titleholder at super featherweight fights for either PBC or Mayweather Promotions and that one champion (Gervonta Davis) is moving up to junior welterweight this summer to fight Mario Barrios on pay-per-view.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t fights for Martinez to have and continue his progression. There’s still room to grow and develop his boxing ability and tighten up his defense. There’s a lot to love about Martinez. He’s an exciting fighter who recognizes he can still improve and shows improvement with each fight.
Until he gets those title fights, putting him in with experienced opponents and growing his popularity is a solid plan for now. If Martinez can keep having the same type of fights he had against Burgos, he will quickly rise to become one of the super featherweight division’s must-see attractions.
Results From The May 15 Showtime Championship Boxing card from Dignity Health Sports Park:
Brandon Figueroa defeated Luis Nery by KO, round 7 to win the WBC Super Bantamweight title
Daniel Roman defeated Ricardo Espinoza by unanimous decision (98-92, 98-92, 97-93)
Xavier Martinez defeated Juan Carlos Burgos by unanimous decision (99-91, 99-91, 99-91)
(Off-TV) Jose Valenzuela defeated Nelson Hampton by KO, round 1
(Off-TV) Gabriela Fundora defeated Jazmin Valverde by unanimous decision (40-35, 40-35, 39-36)
(Off-TV) Justin Cardon defeated James De Herrera by KO, round 1
Several Fights Announced For This Summer:
The past week has been a great sign of what is to come in the future. A number of exciting fights have been confirmed from a variety of promotions.
Over on the PBC side of things, promoter Sampson Lewkowicz announced that he has received signed contracts from junior middleweight contenders Sebastian Fundora and Sergio Garcia for a fight at a later date to be announced, said to air on FOX TV.
This would be a potentially quick turnaround for Fundora, who is coming off a phenomenal win over Jorge Cota on May 1 on the Andy Ruiz Jr. vs. Chris Arreola PPV card. Since boxing’s return during the pandemic, Fundora has been one of the junior middleweight division’s best-looking rising contenders, scoring wins over Nathaniel Gallimore, Habib Ahmed and now Cota.
Over the course of his last few fights, Fundora has shed his prospect status and his label of being a gimmick fighter as a 6’7 junior middleweight. Fundora has shown great power in both hands despite his tall and lanky frame. His boxing has noticeably improved in the past couple of fights and is quickly becoming a star in a division filled with a lot of fighters.
Although Garcia is not well-known in the United States, he will most likely be Fundora’s toughest challenge. Since late 2018, Garcia has faced a number of decent challenges as the European 154-pound champion. Perhaps his biggest win in that time frame was an impressive outing against British contender Ted Cheeseman in 2019.
Garcia is a skillful boxer who may not possess a lot of knockout power (just 14 KO wins in 33 fights), but he more than makes up for it in outclassing his opposition from a number of different ways.
Fundora has already proven he win in a slugfest, but hasn’t truly shown the ability to win a chess match against a very tough contender and that’s what Garcia brings to the table. The fight airing on FOX would be a massive push for Fundora (should he win) to start a run towards a world title. PBC will have control over all four belts in a couple of months with Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano fighting later this summer to crown an undisputed champion.
Even if Fundora doesn’t get an immediate title shot, the winner of his fight against Garcia will likely have the public clamoring for him to have a title opportunity sometime in the near future.
Top Rank announced a couple of solid matchups to support one of their June cards in Las Vegas. The first one will have WBO super featherweight champion Mikaela Mayer defend her title against Erica Farias as the co-main event to the June 19 Top Rank on ESPN card.
It will be Mayer’s first title defense since she won the belt last October and is the latest chapter of what could be a great period for the women’s super featherweight division.
Matchroom Boxing has promotional control over the other three champions at super featherweight (Maiva Hamadouche, Hyun-Mi Choi and Terri Harper), but there’s always the possibility of Top Rank and Matchroom working together to make unification fights happen.
The issue would be the timing of things. Matchroom previously had Harper and Choi fight in a unification on May 15, but Harper suffered an injury in camp earlier this month and was forced to withdraw from the fight.
There’s no telling when any of Matchroom’s champions will fight, but if Mayer is victorious in June, there’s no reason to think that both promotional entities can’t sit down and get any sort of unification involving Mayer done.
The other intriguing fight Top Rank announced was a featherweight bout between Adam Lopez and Isaac Dogboe. That fight will be on the ESPN+ undercard of that same June 19 card.
Lopez is a solid featherweight contender who's likely best remembered by his loss against current super featherweight champion Oscar Valdez in 2019. Lopez was stopped by Valdez, but not before Lopez scored a knockdown in the second round of their fight. Since then, Lopez scored two wins against Luis Coria and Jason Sanchez on Top Rank’s Bubble at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
This is a make-or-break fight for Lopez, who is looking to make a run at a world title should he beat Dogboe.
The same could be said for Dogboe, who hasn’t had much to show off at featherweight. He’s only had one fight since his two-fight losing streak against Emanuel Navarrete, both for the WBO super bantamweight title.
Dogboe is coming off an eight-round TKO win against Chris Avalos last July and at one point was linked to a fight against Michael Conlan. However, Dogboe is still somewhat unproven as a featherweight. Although beating Lopez won’t exactly prove he’s an elite 126-pounder, it will go a long way into showing he is more than a credible threat to anyone in the division. Even if he is undersized at featherweight, Dogboe still has much of the same heart and power that propelled him to a 122-pound world title run in 2018.
As for Matchroom Boxing, the British company announced the signing of European cruiserweight champion Tommy McCarthy. This comes just days after McCarthy retained his title with a sixth-round KO win against Alexandru Jur.
But the biggest piece of news that comes from the signing is the announcement that he will fight Chris Billam-Smith later this year for the European, British and Commonwealth titles. The winner of that fight will likely be given a push for a potential world title run in a division that has seen some new blood be injected in the form of newly-crowned WBO champion Lawrence Okolie.
The significance of a fight that will have the aforementioned three titles on the line at the same time is somewhat important. Domestic and European titles are still seen in relatively high regard in some boxing circles in the United Kingdom and they are sometimes used as a catapult for a fighter to challenge for a world title soon.
The last time a fight had this many titles on the line was last year’s Joe Joyce vs. Daniel Dubois bout at heavyweight, which Joyce won. Coming out of that fight, many agree that Joyce was more than ready to fight for a world title as a contender by virtue of beating Dubois.
One can argue that the same logic applies, albeit in a lesser form. The cruiserweight division still has a lot of tough champions, mainly Okolie, Mairis Briedis and Ilunga Makabu. Very few would favor the McCarthy vs. Billam-Smith winner against any of the current champions, but the winner could take a massive step forward in their path to become a world champion.
Weekend Recap:
Aside from the Showtime card, May 15 did have a pair of interesting events, primarily in Europe. The most noteworthy of these cards was a Matchroom Boxing on DAZN card from Manchester.
Initially, the event was going to have a women’s super featherweight title unification between Terri Harper and Hyun-Mi Choi where the winner would have the WBC and WBA titles. However, that got scrapped when Harper suffered an injury during camp earlier this month.
That left rising light heavyweight prospect Joshua Buatsi to fight Daniel Dos Santos in the main event.
The fight amounted to what was another squash match for Buatsi, who easily knocked out Dos Santos in the fourth round with a devastating right hand. Dos Santos was out for a couple of minutes, but then recovered and got back up on his feet.
While it was great seeing Buatsi shine, it was against another overmatched opponent. The fight should be Buatsi’s last against these type of opponents and a serious effort should be made for him to fight credible world-ranked opponents and veterans soon.
Most of the undercard featured a number of European title bouts and the best one of the bunch also featured the biggest upset of the night. Jason Cunningham, who came into the fight on relatively short notice, defeated Gamal Yafai by unanimous decision to become the new European super bantamweight champion.
The action between the two was hard hitting and almost never took a moment to take a breather. Cunningham excelled in the first half of the fight, dropping Yafai three times. Afterwards, Yafai’s pressure and relentless punching got the better of Cunningham a couple of times. Still, Cunningham was able to outbox and outwork Yafai in the championship rounds to secure the win. The scorecards, (114-111, 114-111, 115-110) were closer than the fight indicated. I personally scored it 116-109 for Cunningham.
Over in Germany, the ongoing saga between Christopher Lovejoy and promoter Don King raged on with Lovejoy fighting Mahmoud Charr behind King’s back. King alleged that Lovejoy still has an exclusive promotional agreement with him and threatened a lawsuit if Lovejoy went forward with the fight.
Lovejoy ignored a cease-and-desist letter from King’s legal team weeks ago and King also claimed that Lovejoy filed for bankruptcy in California before departing for Germany to try and stop his promoter from taking action.
The status of said lawsuit still remains up in the air after Lovejoy fought Charr. As for the fight itself, it was about as bad as one would expect.
After a pedestrian-at-best first round, Charr tagged Lovejoy with a pair of jabs and seemingly hurt him. Charr then dropped Lovejoy about a minute into the second round and Lovejoy did not get back up.
Lovejoy was unbeaten in 19 fights with all 19 wins coming by knockout. As impressive as that sounds, none of Lovejoy’s 19 fights were against a credible opponent. In fact, looking at his resume, Lovejoy’s opponents were the farthest thing from credible.
Charr was Lovejoy’s best opponent and Charr hasn’t fought since late 2017. The 36-year-old Charr was also never a true, elite heavyweight, having been unsuccessful in his lone world title challenge in 2014 against Vitali Klitschko. Charr did capture a secondary WBA heavyweight title in late 2017 against Alexander Ustinov, but no one considered Charr a true world champion.
On May 14, there were a number of interesting fight results across the world. In Poland, Michal Cieslak stopped Yuri Kashinsky in the first round of an IBF cruiserweight title eliminator. Cieslak is now on a two-fight wins streak since he lost to WBC champion Ilunga Makabu in January 2020 and could provide a solid challenge to IBF champion Mairis Briedis should that fight ever happen.
In Tennessee, former featherweight champion Heather Hardy suffered an upset decision loss to Jessica Camara even after Hardy dropped Camara in the first round. Hardy has not looked great in her last two fights in the boxing ring as she also was thoroughly outboxed by Amanda Serrano in 2019. Hardy is slowly approaching the end of her career, so there’s no telling what is next for Hardy if she even thought about that. The card also featured Melissa St. Vil, who scored a solid decision win against former world champion Olivia Gerula, and Tennessee native Tyler Tomlin improved his record to 11-0 with a win over Tyrone Luckey.
In Mexico, Denilson Jair Valtierra got the biggest win of his career on a Boxeo Telemundo card against Emanuel Lopez, stopping him after three rounds.
Results From Around The World Of Boxing, May 14-15 (Results From Boxrec):
May 15, 2021: Hilton, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada:
Mathieu Germain defeated Steve Claggett by split decision
Clovis Drolet defeated Jordan McCue by TKO, round 2
Bree Howling defeated Erika Jeanette Hernandez by majority decision
Alexandre Gaumont defeated Mikhail Miller by unanimous decision
Kenny Chery defeated Mathieu Duguay by majority decision
May 15, 2021: Box Gym, Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany:
Manuel Charr defeated Christopher Lovejoy by KO, round 2
Viktor Vykhryst defeated Jacek Krzysztof Piatek by KO, round 1
Volkan Gokcek defeated Giorgi Mtchedlidze by TKO, round 2
Christian Hammer defeated Patryk Kowoll by TKO, round 3
Mohammed Bekdash defeated Mindia Nozadze by TKO, round 1
Branimir Malencia defeated Norbert Magyar by TKO, round 2
May 15, 2021: Manchester Arena, Manchester, Lancashire, United Kingdom:
Joshua Buatsi defeated Daniel Dos Santos by TKO, round 4 to retain the WBA International Light Heavyweight Title
Lerrone Richards defeated Giovanni De Carolis by unanimous decision to win the EBU European Super Middleweight Title
Jason Cunningham defeated Gamal Yafai by unanimous decision to win the EBU European Super Bantamweight Title
Tommy McCarthy defeated Alexandru Jur by KO, round 6 to retain the EBU European Cruiserweight Title
Dalton Smith defeated Lee Appleyard by TKO, round 6 to win the BBBofC English Junior Welterweight Title
Solomon Dacres defeated Mladen Manev by points
Ellis Hopkins defeated Borislava Goranova by points
May 15, 2021: Dignity Health Sports Park, Carson, California, United States:
Brandon Figueroa defeated Luis Nery by KO, round 7 to win the WBC Super Bantamweight Title
Daniel Roman defeated Ricardo Espinoza by unanimous decision
Xavier Martinez defeated Juan Carlos Burgos by unanimous decision
Jose Valenzuela defeated Nelson Hampton by KO, round 1
Gabriela Fundora defeated Jazmin Valverde by unanimous decision
Justin Cardon defeated James De Herrera by KO, round 1
May 14, 2021: Auditorio Blackberry, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico:
Denilson Jair Valtierra defeated Emanuel Lopez by KO, round 3 to retain the WBC Latino Light Title
May 14, 2021: Transcolor, ul. Szeligowska 48, Szeligi, Poland:
Michal Cieslak defeated Yury Kashinsky by TKO, round 1
Lukasz Stanioch defeated Robert Talarek by unanimous decision to win the WBC Francophone Super Middleweight Title
Nikodem Jezewski defeated Vladimir Reznicek by unanimous decision
Maksim Hardzeika defeated Daniel Rutkowski by majority decision
Ewa Piatkowska defeated Judy Waguthii by unanimous decision
May 14, 2021: Embassy Suites Nashville SE, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, United States:
Jessica Camara defeated Heather Hardy by unanimous decision
Melissa St Vil defeated Olivia Gerula by unanimous decision
Tyler Tomlin defeated Tyrone Luckey by RTD, round 3
Kelsey Wickstrum defeated Stevie Jane Coleman by majority decision
Javier Martinez Exclusive First-Look Interview:
I recently sat down with unbeaten prospect Javier Martinez, who will fight on the ESPN+ undercard of the May 22 Top Rank card from Las Vegas. Martinez is 3-0 as a pro and we spoke on him signing with Top Rank Boxing, being snubbed from the Olympic team as a starter, his prediction for Jose Ramirez vs. Josh Taylor and more: