Notebook: Lomachenko-Commey bringing boxing back to MSG main arena

Ronny Rios geared up for 2nd title shot; Malik Scott speaks on Wilder; Tito Trinidad tribute; Quick hits; Show and tell

Nov 01, 2021

Former lightweight titleholders Vasiliy Lomachenko and Richard Commey will square off on Dec. 11 in the main event of a card that will welcome boxing back to the main arena at Madison Square Garden in New York for the first time in two years, Top Rank announced on Monday.

The 12-round fight, long expected, will headline a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card (ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN+, 9 p.m. ET) in a time slot and at a site that has become tradition for Top Rank and the network: Immediately following the presentation of college football’s Heisman Trophy a few blocks away in Manhattan.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic there has not been a boxing event at the MSG main arena since Terence Crawford’s welterweight title defense against Egidijus “Mean Machine” Kavaliauskas on Dec. 14, 2019.

“It is only fitting that the great Lomachenko headlines boxing’s highly anticipated return to Madison Square Garden,” Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said. “However, Richard Commey can never be counted out, as he’s a tough fighter who carries huge power in both hands.”

Former pound-for-pound king Lomachenko (15-2, 11 KOs), 33, a southpaw from Ukraine, who has won world titles from featherweight to lightweight, will be fighting for the second time since losing his unified lightweight crown by decision to Teofimo Lopez in their unification fight in October 2020.

Lomachenko, coming off shoulder surgery following the Lopez fight, rebounded for a superb performance in a ninth-round knockout of Japanese contender Masayoshi Nakatani in June.

“It is always special when I fight at Madison Square Garden, where so many great moments in my career have taken place,” said Lomachenko, who is 4-0 in fights in the main arena and smaller Hulu Theater. “Richard Commey is a former world champion, an opponent I will not underestimate. I expect the best version of Commey, and I will be prepared for whatever he brings on Dec. 11.”

Commey (30-3, 27 KOs), 34, of Ghana, lost his world title by second-round knockout to Lopez at MSG on the Crawford- Kavaliauskas card and has won his only fight since, a sixth-round knockout of Jackson Marinez in February in Las Vegas.

“Ever since the Lopez fight, all I have thought about is becoming a two-time world champion,” Commey said. “This fight against Lomachenko will get me one step closer to my goal. I know that most people consider me the underdog, but I am aiming to prove them all wrong and make Ghana proud once again.”

In the co-feature, blue chip heavyweight prospect Jared Anderson (10-0, 10 KOs), 21, of Toledo, Ohio, will fight in his first scheduled 10-rounder against Oleksandr Teslenko (17-1, 13 KOs), 29, a Ukraine native fighting out of Montreal. The fight was initially ticketed for the Crawford-Shawn Porter undercard on Nov. 20 but moved to Dec. 11.

“I’ve made my mark in Las Vegas over the last two years and now it’s time to steal the show in my Madison Square Garden debut,” Anderson said. “The ‘Mecca of Boxing’ holds so much history and I can’t wait to add my name to list of legends who’ve fought there.”

Anderson is coming off an impressive second-round knockout of previously undefeated Vladimir Tereshkin on Oct. 9 in Las Vegas on the undercard of the third fight between heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, with whom Anderson spars regularly, and Deontay Wilder.

Also on the card will be junior middleweight prospect Xander Zayas and middleweight Nico Ali Walsh, the grandson of Muhammad Ali.

Zayas (11-0, 8 KOs), 19, a Puerto Rican from Plantation, Florida, will be in a six- or eight-round bout and Ali Walsh (2-0, 2 KOs), 21, of Las Vegas, will have a four-rounder. Their opponents are to be determined.

“Jared Anderson is a future heavyweight champion, but I expect Teslenko to be his toughest challenge to date,” Arum said. “I also can’t wait to see what Xander and Nico do next, as they are two of the most charismatic and exciting young fighters in the sport.”

Rios ready for title shot

Ronny Rios has had one world title shot already, losing a unanimous decision to then-junior featherweight titlist Rey Vargas in 2017, and it’s taken him time to work his way to another one. He doesn’t intend to lose this time.

“I go into every fight with nothing to lose and everything to gain,” Rios said at his recent media day. “I don't care about the hype or the negativity. I am just going in there to get the job done and I am having fun with it.”

Rios (33-3, 16 KOs), 31, of Santa Ana, California, is a mandatory challenger for unified titlist Murodjon “MJ” Akhmadaliev (9-0, 7 KOs), 26, of Uzbekistan, and will face him in a long overdue bout on Nov. 19 (DAZN) at SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire, on the undercard of middleweight titlist Demetrius Andrade’s defense against Jason Quigley.

“Obviously, I have the experience. I have been doing this for such a long time,” said Rios, who has won four fights in a row. “I am going to go out there, execute it, and whatever people have to say, let them say it. It doesn't affect me. I am in full ‘camp life’ mode.

“You can't over think these fights anymore. A lot of people don’t know and fighters don’t talk about what goes on behind closed doors. The mental battles we face with doubt and nerves, all that stuff can start to creep up. Now, for me, it's whatever. I have nothing to lose. This next fight I have everything to gain. The game plan is to win. That is all that matters.”

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Scott speaks on Wilder

Malik Scott, who trains former heavyweight titlist Deontay Wilder, has been in daily touch with him in the wake of his 11th-round knockout loss in his third fight with heavyweight champion Tyson Fury on Oct. 9 that will go down as an all-time classic and is the clear front runner for fight of the year honors.

Scott said Wilder is in good spirits, has had surgery on his broken right hand and is aiming for a spring return. I had a lengthy interview with Scott, who spoke about Wilder’s comeback plans, his thoughts on the third fight with Fury and how Scott has implemented some of the training philosophies he learned from the late, great trainer Emanuel Steward, who was one of Scott’s mentors. I wrote about all of it for World Boxing News. Please read that story here: https://www.worldboxingnews.net/2021/10/31/deontay-wilder-comeback-malik-scott/amp

Trinidad tribute

The new issue of Ring magazine is a special tribute to the great Felix Trinidad, the three-division champion, Hall of Famer and one of the best fighters in the rich history of Puerto Rican boxing.

He won world titles at welterweight, junior middleweight and middleweight. But it was a spectacular thee-fight run at junior middleweight in 2000, in which he won a world title against David Reid, defended it against solid mandatory challenge Mamadou Thiam and then unified two titles with an epic 12th-round knockout of Fernando Vargas in arguably the greatest junior middleweight title fight in history, that went a long way to cementing Trinidad’s legacy. The issue is filled with stories chronicling his career. I wrote the piece on his brief but memorable storm through the junior middleweight division. The print magazine is not out yet, but the digital version of issue is available on The Ring website (only $1.99 a month). You can read my piece on Trinidad at 154 pounds here: https://www.ringtv.com/article/war-at-154/

Quick hits

Top Rank is in the process of finalizing a fight between former unified junior welterweight titlist Jose Ramirez (26-1, 17 KOs), 29, of Avenal, California, and contender Jose Pedraza (29-3, 14 KOs), 32, of Puerto Rico, for Feb. 5 (ESPN+) at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California, Ramirez’s home region, Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti told Fight Freaks Unite. The junior welterweight bout will be the first for Ramirez since the two knockdowns he suffered proved to be the difference in a 114-112 loss to Josh Taylor for the undisputed 140-pound title in May. Pedraza, a former lightweight and junior lightweight titlist, has won three in a row since a decision loss to Jose Zepeda 14 months ago.

Matchroom Boxing on Monday won a WBA purse bid for the right to promote the bout between secondary featherweight titlist Leigh Wood (25-2, 15 KOs) and mandatory challenger Michael Conlan (16-0, 8 KOs), who was one of the 11 interim titleholders the WBA stripped recently in an effort to reduce the number of belts it sanctions. Matchroom, which promotes Wood, bid $1,566,666 to beat the only other bid of $1,210,000 made by Conlan promoter Top Rank. Wood is entitled to 55 percent ($861,666.30) of the winning offer and Conlan gets 45 percent ($704,999.70). Matchroom did not specify a date it plans to put on the fight but listed three possible sites: Wood’s hometown of Nottingham, England; Conlan’s hometown of Belfast, Northern Ireland; or New York. Matchroom Boxing has 20 days to return signed contracts to the WBA.

Show and tell

George Foreman was 45 years old and coming off a loss to Tommy Morrison 17 months earlier, but he was a star and convinced HBO to green light a fight with new heavyweight champion Michael Moorer, who had lifted the crown from Evander Holyfield seven months earlier. Moorer was the betting favorite when they met at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas but Foreman had the crowd on his side. Moorer dominated the entire fight — that is until, as legendary HBO broadcaster Jim Lampley exclaimed in perhaps his most memorable call: “It happened! It happened!” What had happened was that Moorer for some reason decided to stand right in front of the old, slow Foreman in the 10th round and got laid out with one short, but extremely devastating right hand that flattened him in the center of the ring.

Referee Joe Cortez counted Moorer out and Foreman, wearing the same trunks that he had worn when he lost the heavyweight title to Muhammad Ali in “The Rumble in the Jungle” 20 years earlier, almost to the day, knelt in prayer in a neutral corner. Big George had become the oldest fighter to win a world title in boxing history (a record eventually broken by Bernard Hopkins) in a monumental upset and one of the most unforgettable moments in boxing history. That fight was on Nov. 5, 1994 — 27 years ago on Friday. Here is a mint program from the fight in my collection.

Rios photo: Golden Boy; Wilder/Scott photo: Ryan Hafey/PBC; Trinidad graphic: The Ring

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