Former titleholders Pedraza, Commey seek to shake off losses and stay relevant

Heavyweight prospect Anderson returns in co-feature

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Junior welterweights Jose “Sniper” Pedraza and Richard Commey are both vastly experienced former lightweight titleholders who have both faced top-notch competition for years.

With so many fights against quality opponents it means inevitable losses and they are both looking to shake off defeats with the hope of moving back toward a shot at a world title.

They will do battle in what appears on paper to be a 50-50 fight in the 10-round main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card on Saturday (ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN+, 10:30 p.m. ET) at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Commey (30-4, 27 KOs), 35, of Ghana, who is moving up in weight, has lost two of his last three fights. There was a resounding second-round knockout to Teofimo Lopez that cost him his world title in December 2019, followed by an impressive sixth-round knockout of Jackson Marinez in February 2021. But then Commey got knocked down, beat up and lost a one-sided decision to three-division champion and former pound-for-pound king Vasiliy Lomachenko in December.

“It’s very important (to beat Pedraza) because I lost my last fight in December,” Commey said at the pre-fight news conference on Thursday. “It’s an opportunity to get back to winning ways, and this is my first fight at 140. I just want to announce myself.”

Pedraza (29-4, 14 KOs), 33, of Puerto Rico, who also won a junior lightweight title, saw a three-fight winning streak come to a halt on March 4 when he lost a unanimous decision — 116-112 on all three scorecards — to former unified junior welterweight titlist Jose Ramirez.

He is in the same boat as Commey when it comes to needing a win to keep himself from being relegated to opponent status.

“Same as Richard, I'm coming off a loss,” Pedraza said. “I'm looking for a big win and to stay among the top names in the division.”

Commey believes his biggest issue in the loss to Lomachenko was an inactive schedule. He was coming off a 10-month layoff and fighting for only the second time in two full years.

“I wasn’t very active going into that fight. I stayed away for too long, and I feel like I was rusty,” Commey said. “It is what it is. It happened. We share the same opponent twice (Lomachenko and Ray Beltran). It's a good fight and I'm looking forward to it.

“I’ve been back in the gym since I got back from Ghana in March. I always train hard and work on myself because I know boxing is not an easy sport. You have to be ready before you get in the ring, so I always make sure I'm 100 percent ready.”

Pedraza, who got dropped by Lomachenko twice in the 11th round and lost a wide decision in their lightweight title unification fight in 2018, believes his success will hinge on simply throwing more punches than he did against Ramirez.

“I believe I need to be more active, to be more offensive in this fight,” Pedraza said. “A big win on Saturday against a great fighter like Richard Commey will put me a step closer to a world title opportunity. That's what we’re looking for.

“He has a strong right hand. He's a strong fighter that punches hard with both hands, and we have that in the game plan, so we’re going to be working on that. I'm expecting a tough fight against a strong fighter.”

Anderson back in action

Jared Anderson, widely viewed as the No. 1 American heavyweight prospect, is back in action after an eight-month layoff due to hand surgery.

The 6-foot-4, 241-pound Anderson (11-0, 11 KOs), 22, of Toledo, Ohio, will face the 6-4, 230-pound Miljan Rovcanin (24-2, 16 KOs), 28, of Serbia, in the eight-round co-feature.

Most expect massive favorite Anderson to win by early knockout. The BetUS line over-under is a mere 1.5 rounds.

The injury cost Anderson a chance to partake in his third training camp with heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and a spot on his undercard in April when he knocked out Dillian Whyte in a mega event that drew 94,000 to Wembley Stadium in London.

“It definitely would have been a pretty big deal,” Anderson told Fight Freaks Unite about missing that card. “I’m a firm believer everything happens for a reason, so I think it just wasn’t my time. I’m gonna keep faith, keep my head down, keep striving for greatness and just keep doing what I got to do. I’m winning and it’s working.”

As it relates to Fury, whom Anderson is friendly with, he does not buy his retirement talk and believes he will indeed return to face Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed title.

“Chances are slim and none that he’s done,” Anderson said. “Tyson wins (against Usyk). Easily. Better fighter.”

As for his own career, Anderson said he continues to put in the necessary work to improve and hopes to soon face bigger names.

“I’ve gotten better every fight and I continue to do that,” he said. “If I had to grade myself on improvement I’d say a B. I believe I’ve gotten better every fight.”

Then he called out unbeaten contender Filip Hrgovic, who edged Zhang Zhilei on the Usyk-Anthony Joshua undercard last Saturday to become the IBF mandatory challenger.

“I would love to fight anybody. Filip Hrgovic, I definitely want to fight him,” Anderson said. “I don’t know why I haven’t been able to get that fight yet but whenever it happens it happens. I’m handling the task at hand, the people in front of me. It’s all I can do right now.”

Rovcanin has won five fights in a row since a third-round knockout loss to undefeated Agit Kabayel in 2018. His opposition has extremely poor with most opponents sporting sub-.500 records.

Also on the telecast: Tulare, California, heavyweight Richard Torrez Jr. (2-0, 2 KOs), 23, a southpaw who claimed the super heavyweight Olympic silver medal at last summer’s Tokyo Games, faces Marco Antonio Canedo (4-2, 2 KOs), 31, of Mexico, in a six-rounder.

The preliminary bouts will stream exclusively on ESPN+ beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Photos: Mikey Williams/Top Rank

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