Notebook: Jake Paul to fight Chavez Jr.; Zurdo to defend in co-feature
Shakur-Zepeda set for July 12; Nakatani, Nishida to unify at bantamweight; Kovalev scores TKO in farewell bout; DAZN offers PPV bundle; Eubank Jr. shows generous side; Quick hits; Show and tell
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Jake Paul first tried to make a fight with unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez but at the last minute Alvarez opted to go in a different direction and will fight Williams Scull on May 3 in an undisputed title fight.
Then Paul was deep in talks with lightweight titlist Gervonta Davis for an exhibition bout, but when Davis escaped with an extremely controversial draw with Lamont Roach on March 1, he exercised his right to an immediate rematch that will take place this summer.
That left Paul to go to Plan C — a 10-round cruiserweight bout against long-faded former middleweight titlist Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions announced on Friday.
The fight will headline a DAZN PPV card on June 28 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. MVP will put on the event with Golden Boy, which has the co-feature in WBO/WBA cruiserweight titlist Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez defending against mandatory challenger and former two-time titlist Yuniel Dorticos.
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The bout will be Paul’s first since November, when the YouTube star and social media influencer turned boxer won a lopsided eight-round decision over legendary former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who exited a nearly 20-year retirement for a worldwide blockbuster on Netflix.
Paul (11-1, 7 KOs), 28, of Puerto Rico, was very upset when Alvarez blew off their deal to take the Scull fight and now in Chavez he will face what amounts to Alvarez’s leftovers. Alvarez cruised to a 120-108 decision over Chavez in a heavily hyped 2017 super middleweight bout.
“Five years ago, I stepped into the ring for my pro debut after a single amateur fight, and every fight since has been a step towards becoming world champion,” Paul said. “I just defeated the baddest man on the planet, and now I’m going against a former champion who conman Canelo couldn’t finish. Chavez Jr. is Mexican, but I, ‘El Gallo De Dorado,’ have the will and heart of the great Mexican fighters. I will knock out Julio.”
Including Chavez’s loss to Alvarez, he is just 4-4 in his last eight bouts, including an eight-round decision loss to former UFC star Anderson Silva in 2021, and been largely irrelevant while also dealing with numerous personal issues. Paul outpointed Silva over eight rounds in 2022.
Chavez (54-6-1, 34 KOs), 39, of Mexico, has won two fights in a row since losing to Silva, including a six-round decision over former UFC fighter Uriah Hall on the Paul-Mike Perry undercard last July, positioning him for a possible future fight with Paul he now has.
“Jake Paul, you don’t play boxing,” Chavez posted to social media. “I am not some YouTuber or UFC fighter or beating up old retired boxers. I am a real former boxing world champion and on June 28 you will find out what it is like to be in with a real Mexican.”
Chavez said despite all of his personal issues over the past few years, he is in a good place now.
“First of all, I will show what I can do now that everything is in the right place in my life — mentally and physically,” Chavez said. “I feel rejuvenated and 10 years younger. Second, I want to thank MVP for taking the risk of fighting me. Unfortunately for their ‘Problem Child,’ they’re going to have a big problem this June, one they won’t know how to resolve. Hopefully, when I beat him, people won’t underestimate this win.”
Ramirez (47-1, 30 KOs), 33, a Mexican southpaw, retained the WBA title for the first time and won the WBO belt via dominating decision over Chris Billam-Smith in November. Dorticos, the WBA mandatory challenger, agreed to step aside to allow the unification fight with the promise he would get the first shot at the winner.
“I know I need to get past this opponent to stay on track in my journey toward greatness and ultimately to become the undisputed champion,” Ramirez said. “I’ve been training non-stop and feel sharper than ever as I continue to grow and mature in the sport. The goal hasn’t changed. I’m locked in, and I’m proud to be featured on this card alongside Jake Paul and my good friend Julio César Chavez Jr.”
Since losing the IBF cruiserweight belt by majority decision to Mairis Briedis in September 2020, “The KO Doctor” Dorticos (27-2, 25 KOs), 39, a Cuba native fighting out of Miami, has fought just three times, most recently a first-round knockout of journeyman Alan Campa last June.
“My goal is to become a three-time world champion, and now by fighting ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez I have been granted the chance to accomplish my goals,” Dorticos said.
Shakur-Zepeda agreed to
WBC lightweight titlist Shakur Stevenson and interim titleholder and mandatory challenger William Zepeda will square off on July 12 at a venue to be announced in New York on a Ring magazine-branded card that will also mark the launch of a television program “Inside The Ring,” Turki Alalshikh, the Saudi Arabian official, who also owns The Ring, announced on the publication’s website.
Zepeda promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy confirmed the fight was made in a social media post on Thursday, writing, “Zepeda vs. Shakur is on!!!!!!”
Stevenson responded to De La Hoya’s post with, “Checkmate.”
The fight is an intriguing one, matching Stevenson’s superb boxing skills, defense and speed against fellow southpaw Zepeda, who relies on intense pressure, a vaunted body attack and heavy punching.
The WBC ordered a purse bid for the bout on April 7 and gave the sides 30 days to make a deal but they came to an agreement well before the purse bid would have been held May 6.
De La Hoya initially accused Stevenson of pulling out of the fight, but that was not true.
Stevenson and Zepeda were on course to fight last year but injuries to both of them delayed the schedule. While Stevenson was sidelined recovering from wrist surgery, Zepeda (33-0, 27 KOs), 28, of Mexico, won the vacant interim title via split decision over Tevin Farmer in November. Zepeda won a majority decision over Farmer in their immediate rematch on March 29.
Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs), 27, of Newark, New Jersey, who has won titles in three divisions, has defended the lightweight title twice, most recently on the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol II undercard on Feb. 22 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He scored a ninth-round knockout of late replacement Josh Padley, who filled in on four days’ notice after Floyd Schofield dropped out due to illness.
Nakatani-Nishida unification
WBC bantamweight titlist Junto Nakatani and Ryosuke Nishida, who holds the IBF belt, will meet in a rare all-Japanese unification fight, Teiken Promotions announced. The bout will headline a bantamweight tripleheader on June 8 (ESPN+ in the U.S.) at Ariake Arena in Tokyo.
Nakatani (30-0, 23 KOs), 27, a southpaw, who has also won world titles at flyweight and junior bantamweight and has cracked the lower part of many pound-for-pound lists, moved up to bantamweight in February 2024 and knocked out Alexandro Santiago in the sixth round of a wipeout to claim the belt.
He has made three defenses, all by knockout inside six rounds, most recently crushing then-undefeated David Cuellar in the third round on Feb. 24.
Nishida (10-0, 2 KOs), 28, who is also a southpaw, outpointed Emmanuel Rodriguez to win his belt in May 2024 and has made one defense, a seventh-round knockout of Anuchai Donsua on Dec. 15.
In the June 8 co-feature, former kickboxing star Tenshin Nasukawa (6-0, 2 KOs), 26, of Japan, will fight fellow southpaw Victor Santillan (14-1, 5 KOs), 29, of the Dominican Republic. Nasukawa is coming off his most significant win, a hard-fought decision against former WBO bantamweight titlist Jason Moloney on the Nakatani-Cuellar undercard.
Also, 2021 world amateur championships gold medalist Tomoya Tsuboi (1-0, 1 KO), 29, of Japan, will face Van Thao Tran (18-1, 10 KOs), 32, in a 10-round regional title bout.
Kovalev wins farewell
In what cruiserweight Sergey Kovalev said would be the final fight of his 16-year career, the once fearsome three-time and former unified light heavyweight titleholder and longtime pound-for-pound list entrant, scored two knockdowns and stopped former cruiserweight title challenger Artur Mann in the seventh round of the main event of an IBA Night of Champions card on Friday in his native Chelyabinsk, Russia.
Kovalev (36-5-1, 30 KOs), 41, dropped Mann to his rear end with a clean left hook late in the second round. He tried to test Mann at the start of the third and went after him, peppering him with several punches, but Man got in a few shots of his own and made it into a fight.
However, Mann (22-5, 13 KOs), 34, of Germany, also suffered a nasty cut over his right eye from a stiff jab in the third round.
In the seventh round, Kovalev, who took his share of blows, landed another hard left hook that floored Mann for the second time. Mann, with blood streaming down his face from the cut eye, got up quickly but his corner stepped onto the ring apron and the referee stopped it at 52 seconds.
Kovalev, who has lived for many years in the United States, was having his first hometown fight since he stopped Anthony Yarde in the 11th round of a light heavyweight mandatory title defense in August 2019.
In his prime, Kovalev shut out Bernard Hopkins to unify three titles and twice knocked out a prime Jean Pascal on his turf in Montreal. He would lose the unified title by heavily disputed decision in his first fight with Andre Ward in 2016, which many viewed as being for pound-for-pound supremacy. Ward stopped him in the 2017 rematch, which began Kovalev’s steady decline, including a massive 11th-round knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez that cost him the WBO title in 2019.
Kovalev bounced back from a dreadful performance in his previous fight last May on the Tyson Fury-Oleksandr I undercard in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he got knocked down and lost a clear decision to Robin Safar.
DAZN PPV bundle
There are back-to-back DAZN pay-per-view cards on May 2 and May 3 with each priced at $59.99, but given the price tag there are probably many fight fans unwilling to buy both. But DAZN announced that while each can still be purchased separately, it is offering a bundle — both cards for $89.99 in the United States. Prices vary by market.
The May 2 card, which will take place in New York’s Times Square, is a significant tripleheader of Ryan Garcia versus Rolando Romero for the vacant WBA “regular” welterweight title; Devin Haney against Jose Ramirez as they each move up to welterweight; and lineal/WBO junior welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez defending against unbeaten mandatory challenger Arnold Barboza.
The following night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, lineal and three-belt super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez will face IBF titlist William Scull to crown the undisputed champion in the main event.
Other notable bouts on the card include the super middleweight rematch between Bruno Surace and Jaime Munguia; a heavyweight fight between contenders Efe Ajagba and Martin Bakole; and WBC cruiserweight titlist Badou Jack defending against former titlist Noel Mikaelian.
Eubank’s generosity
When the original date for the Chris Eubank Jr.-Conor Benn fight on Oct. 8, 2022 was canceled during fight week because of Benn’s failed drug test, the pay-per-view card at The O2 in London was canceled.
With no fights, none of the boxers on the card made any money and were also out thousands of dollars spent on training camps.
Even though the cancellation was not Eubank’s fault, and he was out a seven-figure payday and his camp expenses, he said he always felt bad for the undercard fighters. This week, with the all-British middleweight bad-blood rivalry fight with Benn finally taking place on April 26 (DAZN PPV) at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, Eubank said he sent thousands of dollars out of his own pocket to fighters from the 2022 undercard.
“After my first scheduled bout with Conor Benn got cancelled (promoter) Eddie Hearn & Matchroom Boxing never compensated anyone for their training camps, which never sat well with me,” Eubank posted to social media this week. “So here’s a little something to help out the undercard fighters that were left out of pocket.”
He included a photo (see below) of the payouts he made to fighters from the show, adding, “Few boxers didn’t want to give me their bank details… maybe they will now.”
Eubank had said during one of the announcement news conference for next week’s fight that he would use £50,000 from his upcoming purse to go toward the undercard fighters from 2022.
Some of those fighters thanked Eubank in social media posts.
Light heavyweight Lyndon Arthur, who will fight Anthony Yarde on the April 26 card, posted to social media, “Gotta respect Eubank — he actually paid what he said he would off the undercard from the 1st one.”
Ellie Scotney, who went on to become a unified women’s junior featherweight titlist, also posted about it: “Shout out to Chris Eubank Jr. Just checked my eu-BANK statement and Chris was as good as his word. Thank you!”
Hagler-Hearns anniversary
The 40th anniversary of the legendary three-round shootout between middleweight champion Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns was on Tuesday. On April 15, 1985, at the Caesars Palace outdoor stadium in Las Vegas, the Hall of Famers waged one of the greatest and most memorable action fights in boxing history with the first round the greatest opening round ever. On this special edition podcast, TJ and discussed the fight with a pair of Hall of Fame broadcasters who were ringside to call the action — Al Bernstein, who was the analyst for the closed circuit broadcast, and Barry Tompkins, who handled the blow-by-blow for the HBO delayed broadcast.
We had a blast getting their thoughts on the epic fight and they had a few great nuggets I had never heard about before even though I have obsessed over this fight and the 1980s “Four Kings” fights. The audio podcast is available on all the usual platforms, as our shows always are, but we also put this one on the Big Fight Weekend YouTube channel, so check it out the video below and subscribe to the channel.
Quick hits
Weights from Sheffield, England, for the Matchroom Boxing card Saturday (DAZN, 2 p.m. ET): Dalton Smith 139.5 pounds, Mathieu Germain 139.2; Josh Warrington 131.6, Asad Asif Khan 130.6; Josh Padley 133.8, Marko Cvetanovic 134.7; Ryan Kelly 153.3, Caoimhin Agyarko 153.6; Giorgio Visioli 133.3, Kane Baker 135.2; Leli Buttigieg 164.7, Grant Dennis 164.4; Joe Howarth 137.7, Mario Valenzuela Portillo 136.4.
Weights from Oceanside, California, for the Golden Boy card Saturday (DAZN, 8 p.m. ET): Gabriela Fundora 111 pounds, Marilyn Badillo 111.6 (for Fundora’s undisputed women’s flyweight title); Charles Conwell 153, Jorge Perez 153.2; Tristan Kalkreuth 206.8, Felix Valera 205.4; Ruslan Abdullaev 139.6, Jino Rodrigo 139.8; Joel Iriarte 146.2, Marcos Jimenez 145.8; Jorge Chavez 122, Brandon Douglas 121; Joshua Edwards 221.2, Larry Gonzales 292.8; Samuel Torres 149.8, Marc Misiura 151; Oleksandr Gvozdyk 179.4, Anthony Hollaway 179; Dalis Kaleiopu 132.8, Mykell Gamble 131.6.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn announced on Friday that he has signed Team Great Britain amateur heavyweight standout Leo Atang, 18, to “a long-term promotional deal” and that he will make his pro debut later this year. Trained by Ashley Martin out of the Legions ABC in his home city of York, Atang is a five-time national champion and won the World Boxing Under-19 world championships last year. He will be managed by former flyweight titlist Sunny Edwards, who had his biggest fights when Matchroom promoted him. “It’s a dream come true to sign with Matchroom,” Atang said. “I cannot wait to get started. More importantly, I just want to get in the ring and show the whole world what I am all about.”
Lightweight Ashton Sylve (11-1, 9 KOs), 21, of Long Beach, California, will return for a 10-rounder against Nicolas Polanco (22-8-1, 13 KOs), 35, of the Dominican Republic, in the main event of a Yah Promotions card on April 26 (BLK Prime PPV) at the Gateway Center in Atlanta. Sylve, a former amateur standout Most Valuable Promotions heavily hyped as a prospect, is coming off an extraordinarily violent knockout loss. He had won every round and was dominating Lucas Bahdi before Bahdi brutally knocked him out in the sixth round for the 2024 knockout of the year.
Show and tell
Evander Holyfield was 28 and coming off of having drilled Buster Douglas in the third round to win the undisputed heavyweight title. Former champion George Foreman was 42 and had gone 24-0 with 23 KOs in the four years since exiting a decade in retirement when he landed the title shot against Holyfield in a bout dubbed “Battle of the Ages” — part outright hype and also a nod to the 14-year age gap. It was a massive mainstream co-promotion between Main Events and Top Rank and the first-ever modern pay-per-view fight with the launch of TVKO, the original name for HBO PPV.
While Holyfield would win a clear unanimous decision — 117-110, 116-111 and 115-112 — it was a very good fight and Foreman, despite the naysayers due to his age and the lesser opposition he had faced during his comeback, proved he was still a quality heavyweight. The fight was a smash hit commercially, generating 1.4 million PPV buys at a time when there were only about 16.5 million addressable homes. The fight took place on April 19, 1991 — 34 years ago on Saturday. Here is a site poster in my collection.
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Photos: Nakatani-Nishida: Naoki Fukuda; Kovalev-Mann: Screen shot; Eubank payouts: Eubank social media; Smith-Germain: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing; Fundora-Badillo: Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy
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I feel bad for Zepeda. The onus for making an entertaining fight is going to be entirely on him. While Shakur likely just potshots and half steps his way to another boring decision victory. BTW, why is Eubank/Benn also a PPV in the USA? That's three DAZN PPVS in a week's time. FireStick Boyz got no choice, but to go for a Threepeat. Boxing is forever run by Dummies.
Jake Paul is a genius. I mean, he’s also kind of an asshole, but damn did he figure out how to make money. He hasn’t bet wrong yet on his opponents.