Notebook: Figueroa-Magsayo to headline Showtime tripleheader
Benavidez-Plant undercard update; Showtime Boxing podcast appearance; bridgerweight title fight purse bid results; Quick hits; Show and tell
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Featherweights Brandon Figueroa and Mark Magsayo will square off in the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions tripleheader on March 4 (Showtime, 9 p.m. ET) at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California, PBC and the network announced.
Figueroa and Magsayo will fight for the vacant WBC interim featherweight belt, which was made available because full titleholder Rey Vargas is moving up to junior lightweight to challenge O’Shaquie Foster for the vacant WBC junior lightweight title in the PBC Showtime main event on Feb. 11 at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
If Vargas elects to remain at 130 pounds it would make the Figueroa-Magsayo winner the full titlist. If Vargas returns to 126 he would be mandated to face the March 4 winner.
There are also two 10-round middleweight bouts scheduled for the broadcast: former unified junior middleweight champion Jarrett Hurd against Armando Resendiz and Amilcar Vidal versus Elijah Garcia.
After Figueroa (22-1-1, 17 KOs), 26, of Weslaco, Texas, lost a disputed majority decision to Stephen Fulton in their action-packed junior featherweight unification fight in a 2021 fight of the year candidate, Figueroa moved up to featherweight and knocked out Carlos Castro in the sixth round of a title eliminator last July.
“I can’t wait to get back in the ring to do what I love,” Figueroa said. “I want to fight the best, so I’m very motivated to be up against a former champion at featherweight like Magsayo. I’m confident that we’re going to give the fans a great fight because neither of us like to take a step back. This is my chance to really show what I’m capable of at 126 pounds and I’m just eager to dominate and prove it to the world.”
The Freddie Roach-trained Magsayo (24-1, 16 KOs), 27, of the Philippines, narrowly outpointed Gary Russell Jr. by split decision to take his WBC featherweight title last January and then dropped a split decision in his first defense, losing the title to Vargas in July.
“Figueroa and I both like to move forward, so everyone knows exactly what kind of fight this will be,” Magsayo said. “My goals are to give the fans the action they love and to regain my place in this division. I’m ready to face anyone they put in front of me.”
Hurd (24-2, 16 KOs), 32, of Accokeek, Maryland, won a split decision over Erislandy Lara thanks to a knockdown in the final round to unify junior middleweight titles in the 2018 fight of the year. But Hurd lost the belts to Julian Williams two fights later in May 2019 and has fought just twice since, going 1-1.
He is coming off an upset split decision loss to Luis Arias in June 2021 at middleweight and has dealt with injuries and took time off following the untimely death of his father.
“I’m in a new weight class and I’m looking to dominate like I did at 154 pounds. I can’t wait to show everyone what I’ve been working on in the gym and display my talents on March 4,” Hurd said. “I know Resendiz is going to make the most of this opportunity, but I’m ready to make a big statement of my own.”
Resendiz (13-1, 9 KOs), 23, a Mexico native fighting out of Los Angeles, will be taking a major step up in opposition.
“I’ve been preparing very hard to take full advantage of the opportunity that I have in this fight,” Resendiz said. “I have a great team with (trainer) Manny Robles and Edgar Jasso in my corner and I know that they are getting the best out of my abilities. We’re all working toward the same goal and it’s going to result in a great fight for the fans.”
Vidal (16-0, 12 KOs), a Uruguay native based in Las Vegas, has gotten exposure on Showtime’s “ShoBox” series and now moves onto “Showtime Championship Boxing,” the networks top boxing series.
“I am very happy to be back on Showtime for my fourth fight in the U.S.,” Vidal said. “I’ve already beaten two undefeated fighters in America and I’m confident this will be the third time I take another fighter’s 0.”
Garcia (13-0, 11 KOs), 19, a southpaw from Phoenix, won four fights in a 2022 and is moving quickly as a prospect.
“This fight is going to be a gateway for me,” Garcia said. “This is a great matchup on a big stage, and that just means more eyes and attention on me. I’m only 19 and I’m taking on an older undefeated fighter with more fights than I have. That just shows what kind of fighter I am. A win is going to open a lot of doors for me and soon everyone is gonna know what I can do.”
Benavidez-Plant undercard
The televised undercard for the PBC Showtime PPV card headlined by the super middleweight showdown between WBC interim titlist David Benavidez and former IBF titleholder Caleb Plant has not been formally announced, but multiple sources have outlined for Fight Freaks Unite what the other three bouts on the main card are slated to be on March 25 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas — although PBC has been known to change things up before anything is made official.
Welterweight contender Cody Crowley, who has looked sharp in two notable wins in his last two fights, has signed to face Abel Ramos in a WBC title eliminator.
Crowley (21-0, 9 KOs), 29, a southpaw from Peterborough, Canada, handed Kudratillo Abdukakhorov his first loss by decision in December 2021 and followed up with an even more dominating decision win over Josesito Lopez on the Errol Spence Jr.-Yordenis Ugas undercard last April.
Ramos (27-5-2, 21 KOs), 31, of Casa Grande, Arizona, is 1-2 in his last three, losing a split decision to Ugas for the vacant WBA “regular” welterweight title in September 2020, stopping former lightweight titlist Omar Figueroa Jr. in the sixth round in May 2021 and dropping a 10-round decision to Luke Santamaria last February.
In another bout planned for the PPV, Jesus Ramos (19-0, 15 KOs), 21, a southpaw from Casa Grande, Arizona (and also Abel’s nephew) will take on Joey Spencer (16-0, 10 KOs), 22, of Union City, California, in a 10-round clash of prospects. Ramos is viewed by many as one of the boxing elite up-and-comers.
A lightweight bout between Chris Colbert and Jose Valenzuela is also on tap.
Colbert (16-1, 6 KOs), 26, of Brooklyn, New York, was stripped of the WBA interim junior lightweight title when the organization got rid of all of its interim titles in August 2021, after which Colbert was placed in a mandatory title shot position. But before he got the title fight, he fought in front of his hometown fans against Hector Luis Garcia last February and got knocked down in a wide decision loss that was one of the biggest upsets of 2022.
Valenzuela (12-1, 8 KOs), 23, a Mexican southpaw, who is based in Seattle, where he trains with Benavidez, was a hot prospect before getting dropped twice and shockingly knocked out by Edwin De Los Santos in the third round on the Andy Ruiz Jr.-Luis Ortiz undercard in September.
Showtime Boxing podcast appearance
My longtime pals Eric Raskin and Kieran Mulvaney invited me to join them on the Showtime Boxing podcast this week. We discussed the latest on Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia, Tyson Fury-Oleksandr Usyk, the glut of PPV, boxing’s best prospects and more. Give it a listen here: https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/showtime-boxing?selected=CBS1335379134 or just click on the show in the Raskin post below and enjoy!
Bridgerweight title bout
Andrzej Wasilewsky of KnockOut Promotions won a WBC purse bid on Tuesday in Mexico City for the right to promote the vacant bridgerweight world title bout between Alen Babic and Lukasz Rozanski.
Wasilewsky, Rozanski’s promoter, bid $425,000 to beat an offer of $350,000 from Babic promoter Matchroom Boxing. Babic and Rozanski will evenly split 90 percent of the winning bid, $191,250 apiece, with remaining 10 percent ($42,500) being held by the WBC to give to the winner as a bonus.
The WBC recently ordered all-out brawler Babic (11-0, 10 KOs), 32, of Croatia, and Rozanski (14-0, 13 KOs), 37, of Poland, to meet for the vacant belt after Oscar Rivas, the first titleholder in the newly created 224-pound division, was stripped and given “in recess” status because he will be sidelined indefinitely due to a detached retina.
When the sides did not make a deal, the purse bid was held.
The Babic-Rozanski winner will be obligated to make two mandatory defenses. Rozanski had been slated to face Rivas in a mandatory fight before Rivas was injured.
Quick hits
The WBO on Monday ordered strawweight titlist Melvin Jerusalem and mandatory challenger Oscar Collazo to fight next. It sent Shinji Fukamachi of Kameda Promotions, Jerusalem’s promoter, and Golden Boy’s Eric Gomez, Collazo’s promoter, a letter notifying them that they have 15 days to make a deal or a purse bid will be scheduled with a minimum bid of $80,000. If either side does not want to negotiate they can request an immediate purse bid. Jerusalem (20-2, 12 KOs), 28, of the Philippines, won the 105-pound title by second-round knockout of Masataka Taniguchi on Jan. 6 in Japan. Collazo (6-0, 4 KOs), 26, a Puerto Rican southpaw, became the mandatory challenger with a fifth-round knockout of Yudel Reyes on Saturday on the Alexis Rocha-George Ashie card in Inglewood, California.
Former women’s featherweight titlist Heather Hardy (23-2, 4 KOs), 41, of Brooklyn, New York, will face Brazil’s Taynna Cardoso (5-1, 1 KO), 34, in an eight-round junior lightweight bout that will top a Feb. 23 Boxing Insider card at Sony Hall in New York’s Times Square. Hardy is dedicating the fight to the memory of her late trainer Hector Roca, who was well known in the New York boxing community and died recently. “Very grateful to DiBella Entertainment and Boxing Insider for going out of their way to ensure me a slot on this show that will be honoring my late trainer, mentor, and papa, Hector Roca,” Hardy said. “The day before he died, we sat in his hospital room, me on the corner of the bed. He put his hand over mine and said, ‘Baby, they all think you past your prime, but you didn’t hit it yet. This is going to be your year.’ I’m ready and exited to start 2023 off right, here in front of all my NYC fans for papa.”
The Eye of the Tiger card headlined by a 10-round super middleweight bout between Armenia native and Quebec-based Erik Bazinyan (28-0, 21 KOs) and Alantez Fox, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, will stream live on ESPN+ on Thursday (7 p.m. ET) from Casino de Montreal in Montreal, Top Rank, which has a deal for U.S. rights to EOTT events, announced. In the co-feature, Montreal junior welterweight Yves Ulysse Jr. (22-2, 12 KOs) will face Mexico’s Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela (25-3-1, 15 KOs) in a 10-rounder. Four additional bouts will also be on the stream.
Show and tell
Roy Jones Jr. handily outpointed Bernard Hopkins in 1993 to win the vacant IBF middleweight title but by the early 2000s that was ancient history. Jones was the dominating pound-for-pound king and the undisputed light heavyweight champion and Hopkins was the undisputed middleweight champion and also one of the top fighters in the world pound-for-pound. A rematch was one of the most in-demand fights in boxing and HBO, which worked with both of them, did everything it could to facilitate it. At one point, believing it would get done, HBO programmed a Jones title defense against Glen Kelly and a Hopkins defense against Carl Daniels on a split-site telecast.
In the first fight of the broadcast, Hopkins dominated and knocked out Daniels in the 10th round at the Sovereign Center in Reading, Pennsylvania, in a fight I was ringside to cover for USA Today. In the second fight, Jones destroyed Glen Kelly via one-sided seventh-round knockout in Miami, where he famously put his hands behind his back and bobbed side to side like a chicken before launching the final punch from behind his back for what I picked as the KO of the year.
The real fireworks took place in between bouts when Jones and Hopkins joined Larry Merchant for a joint interview, Merchant in the ring with Hopkins and Jones via satellite. They proceeded to argue about deal points for the possible rematch, including the purse split. Hopkins demanded 50-50 and Jones concluded the segment with his memorable rant of “60-40 and I’ll kick your ass” before going out and drilling Kelly. Ultimately, they were both too stubborn to figure out how to split the money when they were still at their best, and the rematch didn’t happen until 2010, way past its sell-by date as Hopkins was in decline and Jones was completely shot. But their doubleheader with the promise of the eventual showdown and the memorable between-fights joint interview took place on Feb. 2, 2002 — 21 years ago on Thursday. Here is the HBO poster in my collection.
Crowley photo: Ryan Hafey/PBC
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Dan any 1911 T9 Turkey Red cards in your collection??
Hurd v Resen could it turn into a fight sure that is always the chance in the ring for something good to happen like that. Got the age dif of ten years, got a kid with a decent corner stepping up and a guy who if I remember right has not shown in the ring lately. Not going to go back and watch film on it but sure it is a match up with possibilities. Not two guys who are on my radar at the moment but hope that will change once they meet. looking more foreward to the kid to show in there and get a new up and coming fighter to follow for a while if I had anything to say about it, but I dont beyound see how things shake out.