Notebook: Junior lightweight Chris Colbert hopes to next face Leo Santa Cruz

Ramirez return in works; amateur standout Fulghum going pro

After Chris Colbert retained his interim junior lightweight belt by lopsided decision over late replacement Tugstsogt “King Tug” Nyambayar on Saturday night in the Showtime main event at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, he arrived at his post-fight news conference and revealed who he would like to fight next.

Brooklyn, New York’s Colbert would like to tangle with Leo Santa Cruz and have the fight in his hometown at Barclays Center, where he has fought four times on undercards, including his 2015 professional debut.

“Me versus Leo Santa Cruz,” Colbert said. “He’s got a tremendous fan base. He’s a hell of a champion, four-division world champion, and I’m a future world champion, so why not? Let’s make it happen.”

The 32-year-old Santa Cruz (37-2-1, 19 KOs), who has won world titles from bantamweight to junior lightweight, lives in Southern California and was ringside for Colbert’s fight. Like Colbert, Santa Cruz is with Premier Boxing Champions.

Santa Cruz is coming off a devastating sixth-round knockout loss to Gervonta Davis this past October in San Antonio in a fight that was at the junior lightweight limit of 130 pounds but had Davis’ 135-pound title and Santa Cruz’s 130-pound belts both at stake. Santa Cruz also still holds a featherweight title, although it is doubtful he will ever fight at 126 pounds again.

“I take off my hat to him and there’s no disrespect coming from me,” Colbert said of Santa Cruz. “But I think me and him would be a hell of a fight and that’s something the fans would love to see.”

Santa Cruz has fought once at Barclays Center, where he suffered his first loss — a majority decision to Carl Frampton in a 2016 fight of the year contender that cost him a featherweight title that he regained by winning the immediate rematch.

Colbert (16-0, 6 KOs), 24, outpointed Nyambayar (12-2, 9 KOs), 29, who replaced injured Yuriorkis Gamboa on about 10 days’ notice, by scores of 118-110, 118-110 and 117-111.

Ramirez comeback plans

Former unified junior welterweight world titlist Jose Ramirez (26-1, 17 KOs), 28, of Avenal, California, who lost a unanimous decision to Josh Taylor in their highly competitive undisputed world title fight on May 22, likely will be back in action to headline a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card in November, manager Rick Mirigian told Fight Freaks Unite.

“He’s staying at 140 and the plan is to have him come back in November and have him fight a high-end guy and go from there,” Mirigian said, adding that he is in talks with Top Rank on the specifics.

Besides also promoting Taylor and Ramirez, Top Rank has a deep stable of fighters at 140 pounds it could offer to Ramirez as an opponent, including contenders Jose Pedraza, Arnold Barboza Jr. and Jose Zepeda, who lost a disputed decision in a world title challenge against Ramirez in 2019.

Mirigian also manages junior welterweight prospect Lindolfo Delgado (12-0, 11 KOs), 26, a 2016 Mexican Olympian, who  made his Top Rank debut in a one-sided eight-round decision win over Salvador Briceno on June 19 on the Naoya Inoue-Michael Dasmarinas undercard.

Mirigian said Delgado will be back in September, likely on the undercard of junior lightweight titlist Oscar Valdez’s defense against Robson Conceicao, which will take place in Tucson, Arizona, where Mexico’s Valdez grew up.

Fulghum going pro

Darius Fulghum, 24, of Houston, the No. 1-ranked amateur heavyweight in the United States, is going pro.

Fulghum has signed with managers Sam Jones and Adam Morallee of S-JAM Boxing, who also manage heavyweight contender Joe Joyce. Fulghum will make his debut on a date to be determined in the fall, Jones told Fight Freaks Unite.

Jones said Fulghum will fight as a professional light heavyweight.

According to Jones, Fulghum is “a genuine star in the making with world class potential. (He) was set on going to the Olympics until Covid pushed back his qualifier. Then they later cancelled his qualifier, which was his only chance to qualify.”

Among Fulghum’s amateur accolades was a gold medal at the 2018 National Golden Gloves as well as first-place finishes at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials and 2019 Last Chance Qualifier. He also is a 2019 graduate of Prairie View A&M with a degree in nursing.

“Myself and Adam are so excited to sign Darius to S-JAM,” Jones said. “I’ve been in regular contact with him for about two years now so to finally get it done was absolutely fantastic. I genuinely believe we’ve signed the total package and a future superstar. We’re going to talk to every promoter. He’s a promoter’s dream. He’s intelligent, he can talk, he’s articulate and the key thing is he can seriously fight. He can punch with either hand.

“He’s going to box at light heavyweight. He’s been boxing way above his weight in the amateurs and became No. 1 in the USA so what he’s going to do at his actual weight with small gloves is going to be scary. He’s been sparring (Top Rank heavyweight prospect) Jared Anderson on a regular basis, so that should give the fans an insight on how strong he is. He can be a slick boxer but he can brawl and go toe to toe if, or when it’s needed. His name is Darius ‘DFG’ Fulghum — the DFG meaning ‘destined for greatness.’”

Quick hits

Cruiserweight world champion Mairis Briedis (27-1, 19 KOs), 36, of Latvia, announced on social media that he plans to move up to heavyweight. In September, Briedis won a majority decision over Yunier Dorticos to take his title in the final of the second-season World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight tournament in a fight that had been long delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Briedis’ lone loss came by majority decision in a title unification fight against Oleksandr Usyk in January 2018 in the semifinals of the first-season WBSS cruiserweight tournament.

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Former welterweight and junior welterweight titlist Devon Alexander will return to the ring after a 25-month layoff on July 31 in a preliminary bout on the Premier Boxing Champions card on Fox headlined by the Michael Coffie-Gerald Washington heavyweight bout at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Alexander (27-6-1, 14 KOs), 34, of St. Louis, will face Lucas Santamaria (11-2-1, 7 KOs), 23, of Garden Grove, California, who is coming off a 10-round decision loss to prospect Paul Kroll in October. Alexander, a southpaw, has lost his last two fights, a 12-round split decision to former welterweight titlist Andre Berto in August 2018 and a sixth-round knockout to Ivan Redkach in June 2019.

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Former unified cruiserweight world titlist Murat Gassiev returns to action for his second fight at heavyweight on July 22 at Dynamo Arena on Moscow. Gassiev is due to face Erkan Teper in a 10-rounder. Gassiev (27-1, 20 KOs), 27, of Russia, lost a decision to Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed cruiserweight title in the World Boxing Super Series final in 2018 and then moved up in weight. After a series of delays and injuries, Gassiev made his heavyweight debut in a first-round knockout of Nuri Seferi in October. Teper (21-3, 13 KOs), 39, of Germany, has won two in a row since an eighth-round knockout loss to Robert Helenius in September 2018.

Show and tell

When heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey (188 pounds) met Georges Carpentier (172 pounds), the light heavyweight champion, who was moving up in weight, it was a massive event dubbed “The Fight of the Century.” Dempsey was the biggest sports star in the United States besides Babe Ruth and France’s Carpentier, who had fought from flyweight to heavyweight, was a huge star in Europe.

The future Hall of Famers fought in Jersey City, New Jersey, at a stadium built just for the event and drew a crowd of about 90,000. It was the largest crowd ever for a fight at that time and the biggest crowd for any sports event in U.S. history to that point. It was such an enormous fight that it drew the first seven-figure gate in boxing history, generating $1,789,238 in ticket sales. That’s $26,906,330 adjusted for inflation.

It also was the first fight to be broadcast on radio. Dempsey retained the title by fourth-round knockout in a fight that was on July 2, 1921 — 100 years ago this past Thursday.

Here are stickers of each from the 1967 Panini set from Italy in my collection.

Colbert-Nyambayar photo: Sean Michael Ham/PBC; Ramirez-Taylor photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Fulghum photo: USA Boxing