Notebook: Estrada to defend 115 title vs. Cortes before 'Chocolatito' trilogy fight

Lomachenko hits L.A. for training camp; Serrano-Mahfoud unification fight added to Joyce-Parker undercard; Quick hits; Show and tell

Aug 17, 2022

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Junior bantamweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada, who is aiming for a trilogy fight with four-division champion and former pound-for-pound king Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez in December, will first defend the lineal title and WBC “franchise” belt on Sept. 3 (DAZN) in his hometown of Hermosillo, Mexico, Zanfer Promotions announced on Tuesday.

“I am ready to make this defense,” Estrada said in translated remarks. “I am fully recovered from any injuries and very focused for this fight, which will be a war. Argi Cortes is a very good fighter, with a very good corner, and we are going to give the fans a great fight because I am sure that we will both have an excellent preparation.”

Estrada (42-3, 28 KOs), 32, will face Argi Cortes (23-2-2, 10 KOs), 27, of Mexico, whose only losses came in back-to-back four-round bouts in 2014 and 2015. He will be taking an enormous step up in competition against Estrada, a likely Hall of Famer and a regular on most pound-for-pound lists.

“We know the quality of ‘Gallo’ Estrada but we also know what we have to do to beat him,” Cortes said in translated comments. “I agree that it will be a great fight. I respect Estrada, but on Sept. 3 I will surprise the boxing world with my victory.”

Estrada will be boxing for the first time since he won a highly controversial split decision over Gonzalez in their rematch in Dallas in March 2021 in a strong fight of the year contender. With that victory, Estrada unified the WBC and WBA belts, but he later vacated the WBC 115-pound title and was given the “franchise” belt. Last week, he was stripped of the WBA title for failing to respond to the organization’s inquiries if he would make the mandatory defense that was due against “regular” titlist Joshua Franco.

A victory over Cortes, who is trained by Hall of Famer Ignacio “Nacho” Beristain, would pave Estrada’s way for a probable third fight with Gonzalez in December, sources told Fight Freaks Unite.

The third fight between Estrada and Gonzalez was initially ticketed for this past October but postponed when Gonzalez came down with Covid-19. It was then scheduled for March 5 in San Diego but called off six weeks beforehand when Estrada pulled out after contracting Covid-19.

Gonzalez (51-3, 41 KOs), 35, of Nicaragua, instead faced late replacement Julio Cesar Martinez, the WBC flyweight titlist, who moved up for the fight, and dominated him in a lopsided decision win.

In their first meeting in 2012, Gonzalez and Estrada produced a barnburner in which Gonzalez won a decision to retain his junior flyweight title.

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The Sept. 3 card will also include two other world title bouts:

Erika Cruz (14-1, 3 KOs), 32, of Mexico, will defend the WBA women’s featherweight title for the second time in a rematch with Jelena Mrdjenovich (41-11-2, 19 KOs, 40, of Canada, the woman from whom she took the belt by seventh-round technical decision in April 2021. Mrdjenovich, who has not fought since the loss, was unable to continue due to an accidental head butt.
Hector Flores (20-0-4, 10 KOs), 29, of Mexico, will face Sivenathi Nontshinga (10-0, 9 KOs), 23, of South Africa, for the vacant IBF junior flyweight title. They will vie for the 108-pound belt Felix Alvarado vacated in March to move up in weight.
Also, junior lightweight Eduardo “Rocky” Hernandez (32-1, 29 KOs), 24, of Mexico, will defend his regional belt against 24-year-old countryman Irvin Turrubiartes (24-0-1, 15 KOs).

Lomachenko arrives in U.S.

Three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko, the former pound-for-pound king, is back on American soil to begin training in earnest for a fall ring return and then a possible shot the undisputed lightweight title.

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs), a 34-year-old southpaw from Ukraine, touched down in Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon.

He has spent the last several months serving in a territorial defense battalion in Ukraine as his country fights off the invasion from neighboring Russia. Lomachenko was slated to challenge then-unified lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. in his home country of Australia in June but bowed out in mid-March before the fight was formally announced in order to remain in Ukraine defending his country.

Kambosos faced WBC titlist Devin Haney instead and lost a lopsided decision in a fight for the undisputed 135-pound championship.

In early July, Lomachenko informed Top Rank that he had decided to return to boxing and would be ready for a fall fight. Although he has no set date, Lomachenko’s return against an opponent to be determined will likely take place in late October.

“I pray every day for Ukraine, for the people and stop the war,” Lomachenko said upon his arrival. “When I came back to Ukraine, I believe it was the second day of war. Your mind changes because you see a different life. It’s a different life. Nobody knows what happened on this day. It's very bad. It’s very bad for the world. I've prepared for this moment, and I need this chance. I need this fight (for) undisputed. Undisputed world champion.”

If Lomachenko wins his return fight and Haney retains the undisputed title in a rematch with Kambosos it is likely Haney-Lomachenko would happen in spring 2023. Haney-Kambosos II is being planned for Oct. 15 in Melbourne, Australia at the famed Rod Laver Stadium — home of the tennis Australian Open — where it will be Oct. 16 Australia time.

Haney-Kambosos II is slated to be announced early next week, sources with knowledge of the schedule told Fight Freaks Unite.

Since a unanimous decision loss in a three-belt unification fight with Teofimo Lopez in October 2020, after which Lomachenko had surgery on a shoulder that was injured going into the fight, he has won two fights in a row in dominating performances. He scored a ninth-round knockout of Masayoshi Nakatani in June 2021 followed by a one-sided decision over former world titleholder Richard Commey in December.

Serrano unification on Joyce-Parker

Amanda Serrano, who holds the WBC and WBO women’s featherweight belts, will fight IBF counterpart Sarah Mahfoud in a three-belt unification fight on the undercard of the high-profile heavyweight fight between Joe Joyce and Joseph Parker on Sept. 24 at the AO Arena in Manchester, England, Queensberry Promotions announced on Monday after making a deal with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions, which promotes Serrano.

The card is on BT Sport Box Office in the United Kingdom. In the United States, it will stream on ESPN+, sources with knowledge of the deal, which has not yet been announced, told Fight Freaks Unite.

“I am so excited over the prospect of fighting in the U.K.,” Serrano said. “It has been on my to-do list for a long time with the amazing fans, who really get behind the sport, as well as the huge growth in women's boxing. To be fighting in the biggest arena on a big heavyweight night will make it an amazing occasion.”

Serrano (42-2-1, 30 KOs), 33, a Puerto Rican fighting out of Brooklyn, New York, is coming off a close split decision loss in an instant classic slugfest in a showdown with undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor at sold-out Madison Square Garden in New York on April 30.

When plans for an immediate rematch fell through, Serrano, who has won world titles in a women’s record seven divisions from junior bantamweight to junior welterweight, elected to return to featherweight and will face Mahfoud (11-0, 3 KOs), 32, of Denmark, who will be making her second defense.

“This is an amazing opportunity for me against one of the biggest stars in the sport of (women’s) boxing,” Mahfoud said. “It will be an experience like no other. It will be my first fight outside of Denmark and I cannot think of a better place to fully introduce myself and my talent to the wider world than beating Amanda Serrano in Manchester.”

Quick hits

The IBF on Tuesday notified its registered promoters that a purse bid for a light heavyweight title eliminator between Joshua Buatsi (16-0, 13 KOs), 29, of England, and former champion Jean Pascal (36-6-1, 20 KOs), 39, of Montreal, has been scheduled for Aug. 30 at 12 p.m. ET at its offices in Springfield, New Jersey and via Zoom. The IBF ordered the fight July 22 but the sides failed to make a deal by the deadline, so the auction was scheduled, although they could make a deal up to 15 minutes before bids are unsealed. The winner of the fight would become a mandatory challenger for three-belt champion Artur Beterbiev. Promoters must pay a $5,000 nonrefundable participation fee to take part in bidding. The winning bidder must put up 20 percent of the winning bid — 10 percent at the purse bid and 10 percent within five business days following the auction.

Show and tell

I have every single credential to cover fights that I have been issued in my career but there is only one that hangs prominently in my office. It is from the very first boxing card I ever covered. I was nearing the end a 3 1/2-year run (1993 to 1996) as a sports writer at The Saratogian, the very small daily newspaper in Saratoga Springs, New York, which is about 25 minutes from where I grew up. A boxing event was scheduled for the Saratoga City Center, which was about two blocks from the newspaper office. I could see it from the window by my desk. Every August the city fills with horse racing fans for the annual thoroughbred meet at Saratoga Racetrack and those visitors are looking for things to do in the evening after the races are done for the day. When a boxing card was scheduled I asked the sports editor if I could have the assignment to cover it. He said yes and the rest is, as they say, history.

Former welterweight and junior welterweight titlist Buddy McGirt — now in the Hall of Fame — was playing out the string of his career and headlined against George Heckley, who was billed as the New England middleweight champion, in a junior middleweight fight. To make a long story short, although the card was mostly forgettable (including heavyweight Peter McNeeley’s disqualification win on the undercard) I had an absolute blast being at the first boxing event I ever attended. It culminated with McGirt nailing Heckley with an uppercut in the 10th and final round that sent blood flying (from his nose, I think). It sprayed ringside and one large, stray drop landed dead-smack in the middle of my white notebook paper, where I had been taking notes.

Yes, this is disgusting, but it’s the truth: The blood hitting my notebook as the crowd was going wild in the most exciting moment of the fight sent a shiver down my spine. That singular moment changed my life. I have been obsessed with boxing since. Four years later I was the national boxing reporter at USA Today before moving on to ESPN for 15 years. Here is that first boxing credential from McGirt-Heckley, which took place on Aug. 12, 1996 — 26 years ago last week. If you are interested in the more detailed version of the punch that changed my life you can read the piece I wrote on it for ESPN in 2011 by clicking on the underlined portion of this sentence.

Estrada-Cortes photo: Zanfer Promotions; Lomachenko photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank

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