It is Canelo-Saunders fight day!!!!!!

Plenty on the big event and a bunch of notes

ARLINGTON, Texas — I’ve been to plenty of energy-filled weigh-ins that have drawn thousands of fans for big fights over the years but there was something very special about the one on Friday for the Canelo Alvarez-Billy Joe Saunders super middleweight title unification fight.

They meet in easily the biggest bout of the year so far on Saturday (DAZN, 8 p.m. ET) at AT&T Stadium, which will rock with a United States indoor boxing attendance record crowd of about 70,000.

But 5,000 — the maximum allowed — turned out for the weigh-in and it was a site for sore eyes. I have not been to a fight in 14 months due to the coronavirus pandemic and it was truly wonderful to see a big crowd on hand in front of the stadium on a very hot afternoon.

I must say that I got a little emotional when I arrived and saw that many enthusiastic boxing fans together after such a long break.

I’ve been busy here in Arlington covering the fight this week for The Ring magazine website RingTV.com.

You can read my story on the exciting weigh-in here: https://www.ringtv.com/621539-public-canelo-saunders-weigh-in-event-restores-sense-of-normalcy-to-boxing/#.YJXnr5hNwIo.twitter

I also wrote a Canelo-Saunders notebook with a variety of items, including Canelo explaining the circumstances under which a third fight with Gennadiy Golovkin could happen;  details on how the fight will break the United States indoor boxing attendance record; a look at the judges and referee for the fight; and the wild story Canelo revealed about negotiating for the release of his kidnapped brother during fight week for his 2018 bout against Rocky Fielding. Please read that piece here: https://www.ringtv.com/621519-canelo-saunders-notebook-alvarez-open-to-golovkin-trilogy-at-168-pounds/#.YJVfyLP7gwY.twitter

It’s a fight so, of course, there has been snippiness between the fighters. So, when Saunders taunted Canelo about his 2018 failed drug tests that got him suspended for six months and forced his rematch with Gennadiy Golovkin to be rescheduled, Alvarez gave it right back to Saunders, who had has own issues with performance-enhancing drugs. I wrote about that back and forth here: https://www.ringtv.com/621504-canelo-alvarez-billy-joe-saunders-is-the-least-vindicated-person-who-should-be-talking-about-doping/

Saunders thinks that some of Canelo’s opponents are just happy to get the fight and the paycheck to face him and do not truly try win the fight. Saunders, confident as could be, insisted that he is here to win, not just for the money. Please read that story here: https://www.ringtv.com/621490-billy-joe-saunders-says-hes-not-fighting-canelo-just-for-a-payday/

Of course, the issue of the size of the ring, which became a fight week controversy, was settled the other day. They’ll fight in a ring that is 22 feet-by-22 feet inside the ropes. You can read my story on the resolution here: https://www.ringtv.com/621484-ring-size-flap-smoothed-out-canelo-and-saunders-will-be-in-22x22-space-saturday/

Mannix podcast appearance

My pal Chris Mannix, the DAZN broadcaster and Sports Illustrated writer, is also on hand for Canelo-Saunders and on Thursday we found an empty conference room at the fight hotel and I joined him on his podcast. We looked back at last week’s Andy Ruiz-Chris Arreola heavyweight fight, the Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua situation and, obviously, a whole about Canelo-Saunders. After my appearance, Chris also had an excellent interview with the great Roy Jones Jr. Give it a listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-canelo-saunders/id1176276029?i=1000520596786

Verdejo indicted

It comes as little surprise but a federal grand jury on Thursday indicted former lightweight contender Felix Verdejo and an accomplice for the murder of Verdejo’s mistress, Keishla Rodriguez, 27, who was pregnant with his unborn child. The case is eligible for the death penalty, although prosecutors have not said if they will seek it against the 27-year-old Puerto Rican.

The indictment also named Luis Antonio Cadiz-Martinez as the alleged accomplice. They were indicted for carjacking resulting in death, kidnapping resulting in death and killing an unborn child. Verdejo turned himself in to police on Sunday 

“Keishla Rodriguez-Ortiz was taken from a family that loved her, and she and her child were denied the most fundamental right of life, and the joy of knowing what that life could have been,” United States Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow in a statement. “We hope that this process brings some measure of solace to Keishla’s family.”

During a meeting with Rodriguez, at which she was supposedly going to provide Verdejo with results of a pregnancy test, Verdejo allegedly punched her in the face, injected her with a syringe filled with an unknown substance, bound her arms and feet with wire, tied a heavy block to and drove to the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge and threw her off it into the water. Verdejo allegedly also  shot her falling body with a pistol. Her body was found in a lagoon on May 1.

The indictment says that Verdejo and Cadiz-Martinez not only committed premeditated murder but that they killed Rodriguez in “an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner in that it involved serious physical abuse to the victim.”

Rivas-Jennings postponed

The WBC’s first-ever bridgerweight title fight has been postponed.

Colombian Oscar Rivas (27-1, 19 KOs) and Philadelphia’s Bryant Jennings (24-4, 14 KOs), both longtime heavyweight contenders, who decided to compete in the WBC’s newly created 224-pound division, were supposed to meet for the inaugural belt on June 18 in Rivas’ adopted hometown of Montreal in an ESPN+ main event. Rivas promoter Yvon Michel told Fight Freaks Unite that the postponement was because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Montreal Public Health has refused to allow public to the event and the restrictions to hold the event without public were too prohibitive,” Michel said. “There is a third wave of Covid running in Canada right now and even if the pandemic seems to be relatively in control we were told the situation is still fragile.”

Michel said he likely could have put the fight on in July but to be safe he plans to move it to September. Michel said Rivas had no problem having the bout delayed until then but that Jennings’ team said it would consider having him take a summer tune-up fight on a Top Rank card first.

“We are not against that,” Michel said. “We will see what they will say but this event in September here in Montreal would be a great success.”

The fight will be a rematch of Rivas’ 12th-round knockout of Jennings in January 2019.

Promoter Zabala Sr. dies

Promoter Felix “Tuto” Zabala died on Thursday after a long illness, his family announced. He was 83.

Zabala, a boxing stalwart for decades on the Florida boxing scene, fled Cuba after the communist regime of Fidel Castro overthrew the government and went to Jamaica before eventually settling with his family in Puerto Rico, where he began promoting boxing shows and managing fighters.

In 1980, he moved to Miami and continued promoting fights, including a memorable bout in which Miguel “Happy” Lora, whom Zabala promoted, outpointed Daniel Zaragoza to win the WBC bantamweight title at Miami’s Tamiami Fairgrounds Auditorium.

Zabala, a 1990 inductee into the Florida Boxing Hall of Fame, also promoted Puerto Rican star and former three-division world champion Wilfredo Vazquez Sr. during the 1990s and secured a deal with Spanish-language network Telemundo to promote cards regularly, a deal that continues today under the guidance of his son, Felix “Tutico” Zabala Jr. of All Star Boxing.

In January 2001, Zabala Sr.’s career ended due to a stroke that left him homebound. He is survived by his son, two daughters and nine grandchildren.

Quick hits

The women’s junior lightweight unification fight between England’s Terri Harper (11-0-1, 6 KOs) and Hyun-Mi Choi (18-0-1, 4 KOs), of South Korea, has been postponed. They were due to meet May 15 (DAZN in the U.S., Sky Sports in the U.K.) at AO Arena in Manchester, England, but Harper suffered a hand injury in sparring and will have surgery with the hopes the fight is rescheduled later this year. “Absolutely devastated to announce that in my last spar of camp I have damaged my hand again. Heartbroken is not the word,” Harper said. The show will go ahead with light heavyweight contender Joshua Buatsi (13-0, 11 KOs), 28, of England, against Daniel Blenda Dos Santos (15-0, 8 KOs), 30, of France, moving up to the main event from the co-feature.

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Former cruiserweight world title challenger Dmitry Kudryashov (24-3, 23 KOs) and Evgeny Romanov (15-0, 11 KOs), both 35, of Russia, will meet on May 21 in Khimki, Russia, in the first-ever title elimination fight in the WBC’s newly created 224-pound bridgerweight division, organizers announced. The winner will become the mandatory challenger for the winner of the postponed first title bout between Oscar Rivas and Bryant Jennings.

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Flyweight titlist Junto Nakatani (21-0, 16 KOs), of Japan, and former junior flyweight titlist Angel “Tito” Acosta (22-2, 21 KOs), who were due to meet on May 29 in Osaka, Japan, have had their fight postponed because Japan recently declared a state of emergency to prevent the continuing spread of Covid-19 in some areas of the country, including Osaka. So, the fight was one of several that were supposed to take place this month but have been postponed.

Show and tell

After the past 14 months at home it was a beautiful thing to gather with some of my boxing friends — all of us whom have tested negative for Covid-19 and some who have been vaccinated — for dinner in the fight hotel bubble restaurant on Thursday night. Along with me are former junior welterweight titlist Chris Algieri and manager Keith Connolly (standing) along with BoxingScene writer Keith Idec, heavyweight contender Adam Kownacki and Mike Coppinger of The Athletic.

More show and tell

If I was coming all the way to Texas for the big fight you know damn well I am not leaving without some fight stuff. So, of course, I picked up some Canelo-Saunders posters for my collection. That said, it continually pisses me off that Matchroom Boxing no longer produces programs, which is a shame considering how significant the fight is and how big of a crowd will be on hand.

Weigh-in photo: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing; Rivas photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank