Notebook: Barrios, Figueroa, Stanionis on Canelo-Munguia PPV
Benavidez apologizes for being drunk on DAZN; Torrez stepping up; Nicolson wants homecoming defense; Quick hits; Show and tell
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Mario Barrios, Brandon Figueroa and Eimantas Stanionis will defend their belts on the undercard of undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez’s defense against Jaime Munguia, Premier Boxing Champions announced on Tuesday.
Besides the highly anticipated main event, their fights will serve as the other three bouts on PBC’s second show in its partnership Prime Video on May 4 (Prime Video PPV, DAZN PPV, PPV.com, 8 p.m. ET) — Cinco de Mayo weekend — at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Barrios will defend the WBC interim welterweight title against Fabian Maidana in the co-feature. Barrios (28-2, 18 KOs), 28, of San Antonio, won the vacant interim belt in his last fight in on Sept. 30, when he outpointed former titlist Yordenis Ugas via lopsided decision on the undercard of Alvarez’s defense against Jermell Charlo.
Barrios has won two fights in a row since back-to-back losses, when he lost the WBA “regular” junior welterweight via 11th-round knockout to Gervonta Davis in June 2021 followed by a wide decision loss when he moved up to welterweight to face Keith Thurman in February 2022.
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“Fabian Maidana is a tough warrior like me, so the fans are definitely in for an exciting fight,” Barrios said. “Defending my title is priority No. 1, and I’m going to do it with intelligence and bad intentions. Everyone knows that when I step into the ring, I leave it all in there. This will be no different.”
Maidana (22-2, 16 KOs), 31, of Argentina, who is the younger brother of retired former junior welterweight and welterweight titlist Marcos Maidana, has won four fights in a row and will be taking a big step up in opposition in his first scheduled 12-rounder.
“We come to win and give our best to the Mecca of boxing, Las Vegas,” Maidana said. “The world knows my brother beat (according to many) Floyd Mayweather on Cinco de Mayo, and I plan to do the same against Barrios. I’m fighting for my people in Argentina, and I’m coming to win.”
Confirming a Fight Freaks Unite report, former unified junior featherweight titlist Figueroa will defend the WBC interim featherweight title against former junior featherweight titlist Jesse Magdaleno.
Figueroa (24-1-1, 18 KOs), 27, of Weslaco, Texas, won the vacant interim 126-pound belt in his last fight via unanimous decision over former titlist Mark Magsayo last March and will be ending a 14-month layoff.
“I’ve been staying ready, just patiently waiting for my opportunity, and now I can’t wait to get back in the ring,” Figueroa said. “Magdaleno is a great fighter and he’s a former world champion for a reason. I know I have to be at my best. I’m just hungry to get back into the ring and keep boxing exciting with my fights and my fighting style.”
Magdaleno (29-2, 18 KOs), 32, a Las Vegas southpaw, is coming off a one-sided unanimous decision loss to Raymond Ford, the newly crowned WBA featherweight titlist, in a nontitle bout last April.
“There are people who think I’m an underdog against Figueroa, but I’d remind those people of one thing,” Magdaleno said. “I was an underdog when I became world champion for the first time, and I’m ready to do it again. On May 4 you will hear ‘and the new!’”
In the opener, Stanionis will make his first WBA “regular” welterweight title defense against Gabriel Maestre.
Stanionis (14-0, 9 KOs), 29, a 2016 Olympian from Lithuania, won the secondary belt from Radzhab Butaev via hard-fought split decision in April 2022 and has not fought since. He had a mandatory fight with Vergil Ortiz Jr. scheduled but it was postponed twice and then ultimately canceled.
“I’m so excited to get back in the ring,” Stanionis said. “I feel like a kid in a candy store who gets to choose any kind of candy he wants. This is especially exciting for me because I am a big fan of Canelo Alvarez. I love watching his fights and as a kid, I dreamed of fighting on Cinco de Mayo in front of all those great Mexican fans. It motivates me even more to give them a great fight.
“I know that Gabriel Maestre is tough and has power. We fought in the amateurs and I know it’s a great matchup of styles. I’m going to bring the action and so will he. You can definitely expect fireworks.”
Maestre (6-0-1, 5 KOs), 37, a two-time Olympian for his home country of Venezuela, is coming off a second-round destruction of unbeaten prospect Travon Marshall in August. Before that he knocked out former welterweight and junior welterweight titlist Devon Alexander in the third round but only has seven fights in his five-year pro career.
“I’ve wanted to fight Stanionis for years and get revenge from our amateur match,” Maestre said. “It was a tough, close fight and I’m ready to face him again. We are ready for a great fight and to leave the ring with my hand raised.”
Benavidez incident
When David Benavidez, the WBC interim super middleweight titlist and clear No. 1 contender in the division to undisputed champion Canelo Alvarez, was interviewed during the DAZN card on Saturday night in Las Vegas, he was very obviously intoxicated.
Benavidez, who was there to support super middleweight and training stablemate Diego Pacheco, slurred his words throughout the interview and had a glassy look in his eyes.
Embarrassed by the situation, Benavidez apologized the next day with a post on Instagram.
“I just want to take this time to apologize to all my fans and to the people that seen me last night drunk,” Benavidez wrote. “I had one too many drinks and made a complete fool of myself smh (shaking my head). This will never happen again.”
Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs), 27, of Phoenix, has twice been stripped of the full WBC 168-pound title for outside the ring issues. He was stripped for failing a random drug test for cocaine and serving a suspension in 2018. After regaining the title, he was stripped again the day before a 2020 defense against Roamer Alexis Angulo for being overweight.
While he has been chasing Alvarez to no avail, Benavidez is going to give light heavyweight a try against former champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk (20-1, 16 KOs), 36, a Ukraine native fighting out of Oxnard, California, for the vacant WBC interim title at 175 pounds. The bout is being planned for a PBC on Prime pay-per-view card likely to be headlined by WBA lightweight titlist Gervonta Davis against Frank Martin on June 15 or June 22 at a site to be determined. Sources have told Fight Freaks Unite that possible locations include Atlanta and Houston.
Torrez to face Moore
After being babied by Top Rank through his first nine fights, heavyweight Richard Torrez Jr. is taking at least a small step up in class for his next bout.
Torres will face fellow undefeated Brandon Moore in an eight-rounder in the opening bout of a main card tripleheader on May 18 (ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET) at Pechanga Arena in San Diego, Top Rank announced on Tuesday.
“Richard Torrez Jr. is one of the most explosive and powerful young heavyweights I’ve seen, and he’s in for a big test against Brandon Moore,” Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said. “These are two unbeaten, skilled big men and a great addition to an already loaded card at Pechanga Arena San Diego.”
Emanuel Navarrete and Denys Berinchyk fight for the vacant WBO lightweight title in the main event and Giovani Santillan and Brian Norman Jr. meet in the 12-round co-feature between undefeated welterweights.
The southpaw Torrez (9-0, 9 KOs), 24, the 2020 U.S. Olympic silver medalist from Tulare, California, notched a first-round knockout of Don Haynesworth on March 29 on the Oscar Valdez-Liam Wilson undercard. The 6-foot-2, 235-pound Torrez has notched five first-round KOs as a pro.
The 6-6, 240-pound Moore (14-0, 8 KOs), 30, of Lakeland, Florida, who signed with Top Rank last year, is coming off an eight-round shutout decision over Helaman Olguin on March 2.
One Round with George
My longtime pal George Jakovic, a former HBO boxing producer, who does his own thing now, asked me to do an interview with him on his YouTube channel. I said sure and thought we were going to discuss current events. Turned out he wanted to talk to me about my career and some memorable moments from it. So we did that. Check it out. I told some good stories, including about the beginning of my career and the most memorable interview I have conduced:
Boxing News appearance
I joined my friends at Boxing News to discuss various topics: Reflections on Tim Tszyu-Sebastian Fundora and a possible rematch; the latest on the PBC schedule; Devin Haney’s upcoming fight with Ryan Garcia; next month’s Vasiliy Lomachenko-George Kambosos Jr. and Tyson Fury-Oleksandr Usyk fights; latest on Anthony Joshua and Filip Hrgovic-Daniel Dubois for the IBF heavyweight; the “5 on 5” fights; and more. Check out the video here:
Nicolson seeks homecoming defense
Newly crowned WBC women’s featherweight titlist Skye Nicolson hopes to have her first defense at home in Australia.
“It would be a dream come true to fight in Australia, especially in Brisbane or the Gold Coast. I’m a Queensland girl through and through,” said Nicolson, who represented her country at the 2020 Olympics. “To bring the world title to my home country and fight in front of all my family and friends would be amazing and the start of a really special journey. I’m a true blue Aussie and it would mean absolutely everything to me.”
Nicolson (10-0, 1 KO), 28, pitched a near-shutout — 100-90, 100-90 and 99-91 — against the entirely ineffective Sarah Mahfoud (14-2, 3 KOs), 34, of Denmark, to win the vacant belt on the Matchroom Boxing card headlined by Richardson Hitchins-Gustavo Lemos on Saturday night at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas.
Nicolson limited Mahfoud to just 36 landed punches, according to CompuBox. Mahfoud’s only previous loss was a decision that cost her the IBF title against Amanda Serrano in a 2022 unification fight.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said he plans to get the ball rolling to bring Nicolson’s first defense to Australia.
“I now need to speak to people in Australia because she needs that homecoming defense quite quickly,” Hearn said. “Skye barely broke sweat in there. She was very impressive and loads more to come from her. I didn’t give Mahfoud a round, but one judge did.
“I think you’re only seeing 20 percent of Skye Nicolson. I’ve seen her train and I’ve watched her spar where she’s hurting girls repeatedly. But how can you criticize her when she’s beating the No. 2-ranked featherweight in the world in a mismatch?”
Quick hits
Top Rank announced Tuesday it has signed featherweight Arnold Khegai (21-1-1, 13 KOs), 32, a Los Angeles-based Ukraine native, to a multi-fight promotional agreement and he will debut with the company this summer. “Arnold Khegai is one of the very best featherweights in the world, and he deserves an opportunity to prove himself at the championship level,” Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said. Khegai, who is ranked No.1 by the WBO and No. 3 by the IBF, has won five in a row since a decision loss to Stephen Fulton, who would go on to become a unified junior featherweight titlist, in a 2020 junior featherweight bout. “Signing with Top Rank is a huge milestone in my career, and I'm grateful to Bob Arum for this opportunity,” Khegai said. “I'm ready to fight for any of the belts at featherweight. I want to show the world who I am.”
Former unified junior featherweight titlist Marlon Tapales (37-4, 19 KOs), 32, a Filipino southpaw, will fight Nattapong Jankaew (12-3, 8 KOs), 27, of Thailand, in a 10-rounder on May 10 at the Midas Hotel and Casino in Manila, Philippines, Viva Promotions announced. The bout will be the first for Tapales, also a former bantamweight titlist, since he put up his IBF and WBA belts against WBC/WBO champion Naoya Inoue in an undisputed title fight on Dec. 26 and got knocked out in the 10th round. “I learned a lot from my last fight,” Tapales said. “I will work hard to become a world champion again.” In the co-feature, former WBC interim bantamweight titlist Reymart Gaballo (27-1, 22 KOs), 27, of the Philippines, faces Mexico’s Kenbun Torres (13-5, 9 KOs), 35, of Mexico, in a 10-rounder.
Eye of the Tiger announced that super middleweight Erik Bazinyan has been dealing with sinusitis in recent days, causing the company to postpone its April 11 card he was supposed to headline against Shakeel Phinn at the Cabaret du Casino de Montreal in Montreal. The card has been rescheduled for May 2 at the same venue and will still stream on ESPN+ in the U.S. “We waited a few days before making the decision, hoping that his antibiotics would help him recover, but unfortunately, that's not the case, and he's still too unwell,” EOTT general manager Antonin Decarie said. “However, we are relieved to be able to offer boxing fans this long-awaited fight within a reasonable timeframe.”
Bakhram Murtazaliev (22-0, 16 KOs), 31, of Russia, stopped Jack Culcay (33-5, 14 KOs), 38, of Germany, in the 11th round to win the vacant IBF junior middleweight title Saturday in Falkansee, Germany. It was a close, action-packed fight that Murtazaliev led 96-94 and an unrealistic 99-91 at the time of the stoppage while Culcay led 96-95 on one card. In the 11th, Murtazaliev took it out of the judges’ hands as he badly rocked Culcay before finally flooring him with a left hook. Culcay rose but was unsteady and referee Timo Habighorst stopped it at 2 minutes, 50 seconds. Murtazaliev, who is with Main Events, boxed on the Agon Sports card because Culcay’s promoter won a purse bid. Murtazaliev was mandatory for Jermell Charlo but took multiple step-aside deals that allowed him to fight others and unify the division. But when he vacated the IBF belt hours before a November purse bid Murtazaliev was ordered to face Culcay for the vacant title.
Show and tell
Anthony Joshua won the super heavyweight Olympic gold medal for Great Britain in front of the home crowd at the 2012 London Olympics and became a national superstar. To most it was not a matter of if Joshua would go on to win a heavyweight world title as a professional but when. That is always the expectation for the super heavyweight gold medalist. Joshua was under a microscope from the moment he turned pro with Matchroom Boxing in 2013 and he moved to 15-0 in December 2015 when he knocked out Dillian Whyte in the seventh round of an exciting but one-sided British and Commonwealth title fight to avenge a 2009 amateur loss. A month later, Charles Martin won the vacant IBF heavyweight title without landing a meaningful punch. In the third round, Vyacheslav Glazkov fell without being hit with a right knee injury. He was unable to continue, giving Martin a TKO victory and the belt.
That set the stage for Martin to cash in for millions to travel to The O2 in London for his first defense against Joshua, whose team was very nervous. They were not sure of AJ was ready for that kind of fight yet, but they simply could not pass up the title shot. It turned out they had no need to worry. Joshua destroyed Martin, knocking him down twice with right hands in the second round for a knockout to win his first world title. Joshua would go on to be a two-time three-belt unified titleholder and remains one of the biggest stars in boxing. But that first title victory took place on April 9, 2016 — eight years ago on Tuesday. Here is a program in my collection.
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Photos: Barrios and Benavidez: Ryan Hafey/PBC; Nicolson: Melina Pizano/Matchroom Boxing
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I actually quite enjoy listening to drunk guys talk about fighting.
Benevidez has nothing to apologize for, he doesn't have a fight scheduled, he was there to support his bro and DAZN decided to ask him about work. Any of you guys have a few drinks on your nights off? He was wasted, obviously, but he didn't say anything embarrassing or act a fool, I don't even remember that he cursed. Breaking news: grown man has a few drinks. Don't we have bigger things to worry about in boxing?