Notebook: Canelo-Bivol undercard takes shape, including addition of Hrgovic-Zhang
Kambosos, Haney trade barbs as they try to close deal; Quick hits; Show and tell
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Junior welterweight Montana Love will face Gabriel Valenzuela in the co-feature and heavyweights Filip Hrgovic and Zhang Zhilei will square off in an IBF title eliminator in a pair of bouts Matchroom Boxing announced will take place on the undercard of the Canelo Alvarez-Dmitry Bivol fight on May 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The scheduled 12-round bouts will be part of the DAZN PPV card headlined by undisputed super middleweight champion and pound-for-pound king Alvarez challenging WBA light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol.
“Montana Love is ready for big fights now and in Gabriel Valenzuela, he’s got a huge test of his ambitions at the very top level,” Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said. “Gabriel will lay everything on the line and will have the Mexican fans roaring him on, so Montana will need to produce his best.”
Love (17-0-1, 9 KOs), 27, a southpaw from Cleveland, will be fighting for the second time since signing with Matchroom Boxing. He made his debut under the company’s banner on Dec. 4, also in Las Vegas, and blasted out Carlos Diaz in the third round on the Devin Haney-Joseph Diaz Jr. undercard.
“Nothing changes on May 7,” Love said of Valenzuela. “He’s just another body in the way.”
Valenzuela (25-2-1, 15 KOs), 27, of Mexico, is riding a 15-fight winning streak since an eight-round draw in 2018.
“I’m so proud to be sharing a spot on the card with such a great champion, Canelo Alvarez,” Valenzuela said. “We’re prepared for this and training very hard for this fight against Montana Love. He’s a tough opponent but we’re going to come very hard to get the victory. That night Mexico is coming with everything we have.”
Hrgovic (14-0, 12 KOs), 29, who was a 2016 Olympic super heavyweight bronze medalist for Croatia, will face Chinese southpaw Zhang (23-0-1, 18 KOs), 38, a 2008 Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist and 2012 Olympian, for the right to become one of the mandatory challengers for unified titleholder Oleksandr Usyk.
“I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for more than year,” Hrgovic. “Finally, I have an opponent willing to face me for the chance to fight for the IBF world title. So many fighters turned down this challenge so credit to Zhang for being brave enough to accept. I know he’s a good opponent. He won silver at the Olympics so that means he’s a good boxer, but he is too slow on his feet, and I believe I have better the qualities. My speed, stamina and footwork will be too much for him. I will break him down and I will beat him.
“I’m now only one fight away from my dream of boxing for a world title and nothing is going to stop me. Canelo is the face of boxing and I’m excited to get this opportunity on such a big show. I’m ready to show the whole world that ‘El Animal’ is coming.”
The fight came about only after several others ranked ahead of Zhang in the IBF rankings turned down the fight or were unavailable to face Hrgovic in the eliminator, including Luis Ortiz, Joseph Parker, Tony Yoka, Joe Joyce, Agit Kabayel, Andy Ruiz, Murat Gassiev and Demsey McKean.
Kalle Sauerland of Wasserman Boxing, Hrgovic’s co-promoter, was pleased Zhang finally accepted when so many others declined to face Hrgovic.
“Finally, we’ve found an opponent willing to accept the challenge,” Sauerland said. “Having gone through the IBF rankings twice, Zhang has stepped up to face Filip Hrgovic. We now have ‘El Animal’ versus ‘Big Bang’ for a shot at the biggest prize in boxing.”
Ultimately, Hearn, who co-promotes Hrgovic and promotes Zhang, won a purse bid with an offer of $650,000 to easily beat the only other offer of $410,000 from ProBox Promotions. Hrgovic is entitled to 60 percent ($390,000) and Zhang ($260,000) gets 20 percent.
“I am very happy that this fight is going to happen,” Zhang said. “I’ve been waiting on an opportunity. Now it’s here and I’m not going to let it pass. When no one else from the top 15 (in the IBF rankings) wanted to face Hrgovic, I told myself I had to do it for me and for the sport of boxing. This is the most important fight of my whole career. I’m all in.”
Kambosos, Haney trash talk
With unified lightweight world champion George Kambosos Jr. turning his attention to finalizing a fight with WBC titleholder Devin Haney for the undisputed championship, the trash talk between the two has heated up.
When Haney retained his 135-pound title against Joseph Diaz Jr. on Dec. 4 in Las Vegas, Kambosos was ringside just one week after he had dethroned Teofimo Lopez and taken his belts in their fight of the year candidate. Kambosos and Haney were cordial and respectful toward each other and said in a joint interview they wanted to face each other next.
But then Kambosos’ team instead reached agreement for a fight with former unified champion Vasiliy Lomachenko, also the former pound-for-pound king.
However, Lomachenko bowed out of the fight, which had not yet been signed, on Sunday in order to remain his home country of Ukraine and fight along with his countrymen against the Russian invaders.
Now Haney has the same offer Lomachenko accepted in front of him for the fight on June 5 (June 4 United States time) at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia, Kambosos’ home country.
Kambosos taunted Haney on social media on Tuesday, telling him, “You were offered it months ago & you played around. In the meantime the great man Vasiliy Lomachenko made it very simple to do anything to make it happen & it was a done deal. But Loma now has a bigger fight at the moment, which I totally respect, so let’s see how much of your word is true.
“When the gate is closed the little dog barks and is full of energy but let’s see when the gate is fully open if the little dog still has the same bark and energy!!! Tick tock.”
Haney shot back (along with another raunchy post): “My energy will forever b the same… you were forced into his position let’s not confuse the people!”
While Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs), 28, and Haney (27-0, 15 KOs), 23, of Las Vegas, were engaging in their back and forth, Kambosos also had a message for Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs).
“I respect your decision and I totally understand and I pray for you and your country,” Kambosos wrote to Lomachenko about withdrawing from the fight. “Please stay safe and once I wipe the floor with Devin, we will make this fight between two real champions. God bless.”
Quick hits
The WBO on Tuesday scheduled a purse bid for March 28 at its offices in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for the vacant WBO interim middleweight title bout between Janibek Alimkhanuly (11-0, 7 KOs), 28, a Kazakhstan native fighting out of Oxnard, California, and Danny Dignum (14-0-1, 8 KOs), 29, of England. Top Rank, Alimkhanuly’s promoter, and Lee Eaton of MTK Global, Dignum’s promoter, could still make a deal before the bids are unsealed. However, it was Top Rank that notified the WBO on Tuesday that they could not make a deal and requested the purse bid be scheduled. Minimum bid is $200,000.
Promoter Don King won a purse bid on Monday for the fight between WBA “regular” heavyweight titlist Trevor Bryan (22-0, 15 KOs), 32, a Schenectady, New York native, and mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois (17-1, 16 KOs), 24, of England. King, who promotes Bryan, bid $3,116,001 to beat an offer of $2,503,000 from Queensberry Promotions, which promotes Dubois. Bryan is entitles to 55 percent ($1,713,800.55) and Dubois 45 percent ($1,402,200.45). King gave June 18 as the fight date with possible sites being London, South Florida or New York. He has 20 days from Monday to send signed contracts to the WBA.
Premier Boxing Champions announced that middleweight prospect Joey Spencer will be in action in one of the non-televised bouts on the Tim Tszyu-Terrell Gausha Showtime card on Saturday night at The Armory in Minneapolis. Linden, Michigan, native Spencer (14-0, 10 KOs), 21, will face Las Vegas-based Ravshan Hudaynazarov (19-4, 14 KOs), 37, of Uzbekistan, in an eight-rounder.
Show and tell
Joel Casamayor was the lineal lightweight champion, albeit coming off a split decision win over Jose Armando Santa Cruz that I was ringside for and is, in my view one of the worst outright robberies I have ever witnessed. Katsidis was on the rise, an undefeated Australian brawler in his second fight in the United States and holder of an interim belt. They met in the main event of an underrated gem that headlined an HBO “Boxing After Dark” card at the Morongo Casino in Cabazon, California.
The expectations were for a good fight but it was better than that. They turned in a dramatic fight of the year candidate filled with back-and-forth action. It started fast, with Casamayor dropping Katsidis twice in the first round, and never let up. Katsidis fought his way back into the bout and was beginning to wear Casamayor down when he knocked him out of the ring and onto the apron with a body shot in the sixth round. Katsidis led on two scorecards heading into the 10th round when Casamayor knocked Katsidis down with a left he never saw. Katsidis, with his big heart, continued, but after eating another flush shot, the referee waved it off. The forgotten classic was on March 22, 2008 — 14 years ago on Tuesday. Here is an extremely limited HBO poster for the fight in collection.
Haney photo: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing
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Casamayor vs Katsidis was such a great fight. I remember the Bob Popa and Lennox Lewis commentary. So electric. If that had been on ESPN in prime time there would be a whole lot more boxing fans around.
Well the Hrgovic vs Zhang fight will take up all of 5 minutes or so - may as well have just made Hrgovic the mandatory.
The thing about Hrgovic is that he’s arrived at this position without being properly tested - this could backfire on him at some point.