Notebook: Heavyweight, light heavyweight final eliminators on Usyk-Joshua II
Esparza defense, Hooker-Cobbs added to Ortiz-McKinson card; Quick hits; Show and tell
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Heavyweight and light heavyweight title eliminators will highlight the undercard of the rematch between unified heavyweight titlist Oleksandr Usyk and former two-time titlist Anthony Joshua on Aug. 20 at the King Abdullah Sports City Arena in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Matchroom Boxing announced the bouts on Tuesday with the co-feature being the rescheduled IBF heavyweight title elimination fight between Filip Hrgovic and Zhang Zhilei, which Fight Freaks Unite reported last week would be on the card, and a WBC final light heavyweight eliminator between Callum Smith and Mathieu Bauderlique.
“I respect a fighter like Zhilei Zhang, especially as there were plenty of others who could have fought me and didn’t,” Hrgovic said. “The respect stays outside the ring, and it’ll be business as usual for me when I step in there and look to do what I do best — put people away.”
Zhang accepted the eliminator after several others ranked ahead of him in the IBF rankings turned down a fight with Hrgovic or were unavailable, including Luis Ortiz, Joseph Parker, Tony Yoka, Joe Joyce, Agit Kabayel, Andy Ruiz Jr., Murat Gassiev and Demsey McKean. The winner will be one of the mandatory challengers for the Usyk-Joshua II winner.
“There’s a huge amount at stake in this fight. I’m a fighter who belongs at the top of this division, and there’ll be no doubt about this when Zhang is dealt with and I go on to beat (the Usyk-Joshua winner),” Hrgovic said. “I’m entering my prime, and now is the perfect time to be putting myself up against the top fighters in this division. I will become the heavyweight champion of the world."
Hrgovic (14-0, 12 KOs), 30, of Croatia, and Zhang (24-0-1, 19 KOs), 39, a southpaw from China, were scheduled to fight on May 7 on the Canelo Alvarez-Dmitry Bivol undercard in Las Vegas but the fight was postponed when Hrgovic withdrew due to the death of his father.
“My team and I have been grinding every hour of every day for this fight,” Zhang said. “Hrgovic is going to be the toughest opponent in my professional career. A victory will secure me the IBF mandatory challenger position, which is why this fight is so important to me. I will be in the best shape I’ve ever been in.”
Former super middleweight champion Smith (28-1, 20 KOs), 32, of England, will face European champion Bauderlique (21-1, 12 KOs), 33, a southpaw from France, for the right to become a mandatory challenger for unified light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev.
Smith, who made his light heavyweight debut in his last fight with a massive second-round knockout of Lenin Castillo in September, will return to the site of his biggest victory. It was at the same venue where he knocked out countryman George Groves in the seventh round to win the WBA super middleweight title and vacant Ring magazine title in the final of the World Boxing Super Series in September 2018.
“The last time I was in Jeddah I was crowned the best super middleweight in the world, so I have fond memories of the place,” Smith said. “The whole experience was great, and the fans really got behind me, so I’m really looking forward to returning next month. I won’t come away this time as a world champion, but this is a tough fight on a great card and one which should set up a challenge at the No. 1 in the division.”
Among the other fights made official:
Junior featherweight Ramla Ali (6-0, 1 KO), 32, a Somalia native fighting out of England, will face Crystal Garcia Nova (10-2, 10 KOs), 22, of the Dominican Republic, in an eight-rounder that will make history as the first women’s boxing match in Saudi Arabia.
Cruiserweight Badou Jack (26-3-3, 16 KOs), 38, of Las Vegas, a former super middleweight and light heavyweight titlist, meets Richie Rivera (21-0, 16 KOs), 31, of Hartford, Connecticut, in a 10-rounder.
Former cruiserweight title challenger Andrew Tabiti (19-1, 15 KOs), 32, of Las Vegas, squares off with Miami-based Suriname native Tyrone Spong (14-0, 13 KOs), 36, in an eight-round heavyweight bout.
Ortiz-McKinson undercard set
Unified women’s flyweight champion Marlen Esparza (12-1, 1 KO), 32, of Houston, will defend her WBC/WBA and Ring magazine belts against mandatory challenger Eva Guzman in the co-feature of the Vergil Ortiz Jr.-Michael McKinson event on Aug. 6 (DAZN, 8 p.m. ET) at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, Golden Boy announced.
“I am ready for Eva Guzman,” said Esparza, who outpointed Naoko Fujoka on April 9 to unify titles. “All fights are serious business for me.”
Guzman (19-1-1, 11 KOs), 29, a southpaw from Venezuela, will be boxing in the United States for the first time.
“This is the opportunity I have been waiting for to prove I am the best,” Guzman said. “After this victory, the whole world will know I am the most dangerous fighter at 112 pounds.”
The card will also feature a 10-round welterweight bout between fighters coming off a knockout loss — former junior welterweight titlist Maurice Hooker (27-2-3, 18 KOs), 32, of Dallas and southpaw Blair “The Flair” Cobbs (15-1-1, 10 KOs), 32, of Las Vegas.
Hooker is 1-2 in his last three fights and coming off a seventh-round knockout to Ortiz in March 2021, also at Dickies Arena. The other loss was a sixth-round knockout to Jose Ramirez in a title unification bout in 2019 with a win over a journeyman in between the defeats.
Cobbs got knocked out by Alexis Rocha in the ninth round on March 19.
Opening the DAZN stream will be super middleweight Bektemir Melikuziev (9-1, 7 KOs), 26, an Uzbekistan native fighting out of Indio, California, against Sladan Janjanin (32-11, 24 KOs), 31, a Bosnia native fighting out of Boston, in an eight-rounder.
Before the main card, preliminary bouts will stream on DAZN and Golden Boy’s YouTube page, including a 10-round junior welterweight match between southpaw Alex Martin (17-4, 6 KOs), 33, of Chicago, who is coming off a decision loss on short notice to McKinson on March 19, against Hank Lundy (31-10-1, 14 KOs), 38, of Philadelphia.
Quick hits
Gennadiy Golovkin-promoted super middleweight Ali Akhmedov (18-1 14 KOs), 27, of Kazakhstan, will face former world title challenger Gabriel Rosado (26-15-1 15 KOs), 36, of Philadelphia, in a 10-round regional title bout on the undercard of Canelo Alvarez-Golovkin III on Sept. 17 (DAZN PPV) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. “Rosado is very experienced and has a history of fighting the best talents in this division which motivates me even more,” Akhmedov said. Rosado has lost three of his last four fights but usually makes opponents work hard for their win and is often in action fights. “This is an opportunity to do what I did against Bektemir (Melikuziev in a third-round knockout win in a big upset in June 2021) and put myself right back in world title contention.”
Showtime announced that it will stream two preliminary bouts from the Danny Garcia-Jose Benavidez Jr.-headlined card it will televise on Saturday (9 p.m. ET) from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The stream, available on the Showtime Boxing Facebook page and Showtime Sports YouTube channel (7 p.m. ET), will include a 10-round middleweight fight between three-time world title challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko (13-4, 10 KOs) and Joshua Conley (17-3-1, 11 KOs) and an eight-round junior middleweight bout between Vito Mielnicki Jr. (11-1, 7 KOs) and Jimmy Williams (18-8-2, 6 KOs).
Show and tell
After Gene Tunney upset fellow Hall of Famer Jack Dempsey via decision to win the heavyweight championship, and then did it again in the rematch (which included the infamous “long count”), Tunney made his second defense against Tom Heeney at Yankee Stadium and scored an 11th-round knockout to retain the title. It would be Tunney’s final fight as he would retire a few days later, fracturing the heavyweight title lineage until Max Schmeling became the recognized champion. Tunney-Heeney was on July 26, 1928 — 94 years ago on Tuesday. Here is the Tunney card from my complete set of 1947 D. Cummings & Son Famous Fighters. It’s a great 64-card set from Scotland and loaded with several other Hall of Famers, including Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson (his rookie card), Henry Armstrong, Dempsey, Jersey Joe Walcott, Max Baer, Georges Carpentier, Rocky Graziano, Tony Zale and Willie Pep.
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Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the quality of big fight cards in the past but I find the announced undercard for the Joshua vs Usyk rematch rather underwhelming.
The hype surrounding Hrgovic is also rather excessive for a heavyweight who has fought no top level opponents yet and still won’t have following the ZZ fight.
I’ve heard this all before when good amateur heavyweights have become professionals and so I don’t subscribe to the idea that he’s being avoided - the situation for the IBF eliminator was unfortunate and imo just bad timing with some already signed up to fights while others were injured (Joyce).
After the ZZ fight, which Hrgovic should win, if Hrgovic’s reps offer decent money then I’m sure a good established opponent will come forward and give Hrgovic the step up in class he desperately needs. If they don’t offer decent money then obviously Hrgovic will remain untested at top level.
Any rumblings if dazn will pick up the US portion of the AJ card? Or do you think it’s more wide open than just going to dazn? Thanks