Notebook: Haney moving up to 140 to challenge Prograis
Wood to defend featherweight title vs. Warrington; Beterbiev-Smith postponed; Boxing Social appearance; Verdejo guilty of murder; Buatsi-Azeez date set; Quick hits; Show and tell
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While undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney has made the decision to move up in weight to challenge WBC junior welterweight titlist Regis Prograis, he also petitioned the WBC to allow him to keep the lightweight title until after the Prograis fight so he can decide which division he wants to remain in.
Prograis-Haney has been agreed to and although the date and site are not finalized, a source with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite that the target is Oct. 28 (DAZN) in Las Vegas.
On Tuesday, the WBC made its ruling on Haney’s petition following a vote of the organization’s board of governors. The WBC announced that it has granted Haney's petition to challenge Prograis for the 140-pound belt and will designate Haney as “champion in recess” at lightweight.
“It’s a perfect time (to move up). I’m a free agent. I’m able to go up and fight for a new belt at 140 and, hopefully, God willing, I’m able to keep my belts at 135 as well,” Haney said on Friday night during an interview on the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ card about his decision to fight Prograis, but before the WBC issued its ruling. “I want to fight the best fighters in the world. You name them, I’ve been asking to fight them.
“I called Regis out before he even fought his last fight. I said I wanted to fight Regis. That’s the fight I wanted and here we are. We’re making it because it’s a great fight for boxing and it’s a chance for me to become two-division champion. I think I might be a little bigger than him.”
The WBC also said it will order lightweight mandatory challenger Shakur Stevenson and the organization’s next highest available contender to meet for the vacant title.
Stevenson (20-0, 10 KOs), a former featherweight and junior lightweight titleholder, became the WBC lightweight mandatory challenger via dominating sixth-round knockout of then-unbeaten Shuichiro Yoshino in a final eliminator on April 8.
Further, the WBC said that after Haney faces Prograis, he will have to choose between remaining at 135 or 140 pounds “on a timetable that the WBC would order.” If Haney decides to return to lightweight within that timetable, the WBC would order a mandatory fight between Haney and the winner of Stevenson-TBA on a 50-50 split (if there’s a purse bid).
Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) became a promotional and broadcast free agent following his unanimous decision win over Vasiliy Lomachenko on May 20 in the final bout of his co-promotional deal with Top Rank and Lou DiBella.
The fight would be the second for Prograis since signing a three-fight contract with Matchroom Boxing. Prograis (29-1, 24 KOs) made the first defense of his second title reign in his first fight of the deal on June 17, winning a split decision in a desultory bout against Danielito Zorrilla.
“I feel like I’ll be much more comfortable in the ring at 140,” Haney said. “It’s been a long time coming for me to go up to fight at 140. I’ve been at 135 since I was an amateur. I still can make the weight but I want to become two-division champion. That’s my goal right now.”
Haney said that after the Prograis fight he will consider returning to lightweight.
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Wood-Warrington is on
Nottingham, England’s Leigh Wood will defend the WBA featherweight title against former two-time titlist Josh Warrington, of Leeds, England, on neutral turf at the Utilita Arena in Sheffield on Oct. 7 (DAZN), Matchroom Boxing announced on Tuesday.
The fight was announced a few days after the WBA granted Wood a special permit to bypass for one fight his mandatory defense obligation to Othabek Kholmatov, whose side opposed the granting of the permit but was overruled.
According to the letter signing off on Wood-Warrington that the WBA sent to both camps, a copy of which was obtained by Fight Freaks Unite, the special permit was granted but under the following conditions:
The Wood-Warrington winner (or Wood if the fight is a draw) must face Kholmatov in a mandatory defense within 120 days of the fight.
Kholmatov (11-0, 10 KOs), 25, of Uzbekistan, is authorized to fight an interim bout against an opponent approved by WBA.
Wood (27-3, 16 KOs), 35, regained the title in May by handily outpointing Mauricio Lara in an immediate rematch of Lara’s seventh-round knockout to take the title in February.
Right after Wood beat Lara, he and Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn began to beat the drum for a fight with former titlist Warrington (31-2-1, 8 KOs), 32, who is also with Matchroom.
“I’m extremely excited for October 7,” Wood said. “In terms of the followings we’ve got, the football clubs and the cities, this is arguably the biggest British rivalry in the sport. For me, it doesn’t really get any bigger. Our styles will gel and that should make for a very exciting and entertaining fight. It should go down in British history.
“Josh has some great wins on his record and is obviously a two-time world champion, but this is a fight that he cannot lose. He’s never really been in a boring fight, but neither have I. This fight will be all-action and the fans should be in for a great night.”
Warrington is just 1-2-1 in his last four bouts, including a knockout loss and technical draw with Lara, a title win over Kiko Martinez and, in his last fight, a majority decision loss that cost him the IBF title against Luis Alberto Lopez in December.
“This is a big fight,” Warrington said. “It doesn’t get much better than a domestic dust up for a world title. I’m obsessed in becoming a three-time world champion, to get back on top and that is going to show on the night. I will bring an army of fans to Sheffield and the atmosphere will be special. Leigh has had a good run and put some good wins together but I just don’t believe he can live with me. I hope he thinks my best days are behind me.”
Beterbiev-Smith postponed
Three-belt light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev underwent surgery for a bone infection in his jaw on Sunday, causing a mandatory defense against former super middleweight champion Callum Smith to be postponed, Top Rank announced.
The bout was scheduled to headline a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card on Aug. 19 at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City, Canada.
According to Top Rank, Beterbiev got the infection as a byproduct of having had to have a tooth extracted and underwent surgery in his adopted hometown of Montreal.
There is no set date for the fight to be rescheduled but Top Rank said it probably will be in November.
“It’s a real blow that we received when we heard the news. Artur absolutely wanted to fight, but the surgical intervention being obligatory, the postponement of the fight became inevitable,” said Camille Estephan of Eye of the Tiger, the Canadian co-promoter of the show.
Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KOs), 38, a Russia native, has made seven title defenses and is boxing's only world champion with a 100 percent knockout ratio. He is coming off an exciting brawl with England’s Anthony Yarde, whom he knocked out in the eighth round in January.
Smith (29-1, 21 KOs), 33, of England, has won both of his fights since moving up to light heavyweight following a near-shut out loss that cost him the WBA super middleweight title to Canelo Alvarez in their 2020 title fight in which Alvarez also won the vacant WBC title.
Boxing Social appearance
I joined my pals at Boxing Social to dissect in detail Terence Crawford’s overwhelming victory against Errol Spence Jr. to become the undisputed welterweight champion. We talked about a variety of things related to the fight as well as some other boxing news. Check out the video here:
Verdejo found guilty
Once-promising lightweight Felix Verdejo, 30, of Puerto Rico, was found guilty on Friday for the April 2021 murder of his 27-year-old mistress, Keishla Rodriguez, and their unborn child by a jury in San Juan.
The verdict was read following a 25-week trial in which Verdejo was convicted on one charge of kidnapping that leads to a death and one count of causing the death of an unborn child.
Verdejo (27-2, 17 KOs), a 2012 Olympian, boxed professionally from 2012 to 2020. His career ended with his arrest. He faces up to life in prison.
Luis Antonio Cadiz, Verdejo’s friend, who was also charged in the case and awaits sentencing, pleaded guilty last year after reaching a plea deal in which he testified against Verdejo, who had pressured Rodriguez to get an abortion before killing her.
Cadiz testified that before killing Rodriguez, Verdejo punched her and injected her with what he thought was heroin. Then they tied her limbs to a cement block and threw her off a bridge.
During the trial, a pathologist testified that Rodriguez was still alive when she was thrown into the water from the bridge. It was Cadiz who said he made an anonymous call to 911 days later to give authorities the location of her body.
Quick hits
British countrymen Joshua Buatsi (17-0, 13 KOs) and Dan Azeez (20-0, 13 KOs) will met in a WBA light heavyweight final eliminator headlining a Boxxer card Oct. 21 in London, a source with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite. They were originally ticketed to meet Aug. 19, which Boxxer announced but never did anything else on before it was quietly postponed. The winner becomes mandatory for titlist Dmitry Bivol. Buatsi, 30, is coming off a near-shutout 10-round decision against Pawel Stepien on May 6 in Buatsi’s first fight in a year and first since leaving Matchroom Boxing and signing with Boxxer. Azeez, 33, stopped Thomas Faure in the 12th round in his home country of France for the vacant European title in March and then won an eight-round decision over sub-.500 foe Khalid Graidia in a stay-busy fight July 15.
Golden Boy is in the process of finalizing a fight between lightweight contender William Zepeda (28-0, 24 KOs), 27, of Mexico, and fellow southpaw Mercito Gesta (34-3-3, 17 KOs), 35, a San Diego-based Filipino, for Sept. 16 (DAZN) at a site to be determined in California, a source with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite. Zepeda blitzed fringe contender Jaime Arboleda in the second round in his last fight in April. Gesta, a former world title challenger, outpointed former junior lightweight titlist Joseph Diaz Jr. in an upset in March. Zepeda also owns a win over Diaz.
Social media influencer turned boxer KSI and Tommy Fury, who is coming off a February win over Jake Paul, will meet in a cruiserweight bout on Oct. 14 (DAZN PPV) at AO Arena in Manchester, England. Cruiserweight Logan Paul, Jake’s older brother, will face an opponent to be named in the co-feature of the MF & DAZN: X Series event. “The man that defeated the once undefeated Jake Paul is now my opponent and I can’t wait to silence all the doubters that believe I have no chance,” KSI said. “After this fight, you’ll understand that I truly am that guy.” Said Fury, the half-brother of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury: “I’ve already beaten Jake Paul and so all that is left for me to do is send this man to sleep. I’ll do that inside four rounds. This is easy money.”
Overtime’s first OTX card on Friday (DAZN, 7 p.m. ET) at OTE Arena in Atlanta, which is topped by Oklahoma City native Elijah Pierce (17-2, 14 KOs), 26, in an eight-rounder against Mike Plania (28-2, 15 KOs), 26, of the Philippines, has a few wrinkles planned. OTX will use an “overtime round.” In the event of a draw, there will be an additional winner takes all round. Also, OTX is offering a KO bonus for every fight. A KO in any round is rewarded, but there is a multiplier effect if the KO is in the first or last round “to create a more compelling fight for fans from start to finish,” according to OTX. Further, bouts will be contested in an 18x18-foot ring instead of the standard 20x20 in an effort to boost the action.
Top Rank made official what Fight Freaks Unite reported last month: ESPN+ will have live coverage of a world title doubleheader Sept. 18 from Ariake Arena in Tokyo, where WBC/WBA junior flyweight champion Kenshiro Teraji (21-1, 13 KOs), 31, of Japan, will defend against former strawweight and unified junior flyweight titlist Hekkie Budler (35-4, 11 KOs), 35, of South Africa. Also, WBO junior bantamweight titlist Junto Nakatani (25-0, 19 KOs), 25, of Japan, defends against Argi Cortes (25-3-2, 10 KOs), 28, of Mexico. The stream will also include two eight-rounders: junior featherweight Tenshin Nasukawa (1-0, 1 KO), 24, the 42-0 Japanese kickboxing superstar, against Juan Flores Aceves (9-0, 7 KOs), 23, of Mexico, and Los Angeles junior flyweight Anthony Olascuaga (5-1, 3 KOs), 24, trying to rebound from a knockout loss to Teraji against former title challenger Giemel Magramo (28-3, 23 KOs), 28, of the Philippines.
The WBO issued a ruling Monday in which it denied the request from junior welterweight contender Arnold Barboza Jr. (28-0, 10 KOs), 31, of Los Angeles, to be named the organization’s mandatory challenger for champion Teofimo Lopez, who won the belt by decision over Josh Taylor on June 10. In the ruling, the WBO said Lopez is in a voluntary period and can defend against any of the WBO’s top 15 at 140 pounds.
Show and tell
Japanese pound-for-pound star Naoya Inoue’s most recent two wins were big-time victories. First, he pummeled Paul Butler into a one-sided 11th-round knockout in December to take the WBO bantamweight title and unify it with his three belts to become the first four-belt undisputed champion in division history as well as the first undisputed 118-pound champion in 50 years. Inoue then vacated all the belts and moved up to junior featherweight, where he challenged WBC/WBO titleholder Stephen Fulton last week and dominated him in a surprisingly one-sided beatdown en route to an eighth-round knockout. When I was in Las Vegas last week covering Errol Spence Jr.-Terence Crawford, so too was one of my longtime boxing friends, who had covered both Inoue fights in Tokyo and brought me a bunch of Japanese programs for my collection, including from both Inoue bouts.
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Photos: Stevenson, Haney, Prograis/WBC; Beterbiev: Mark Robinson/Top Rank
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