Notebook: Madrimov cleared, title fight back on Joshua-Ngannou PPV
Ennis defense headed for purse bid; Hitchins-Lemos undercard set; TR signs prospect; Rocha return scheduled; Quick hits; Show and tell
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Junior middleweight contender Israil Madrimov was medically cleared on Tuesday and his fight with Magomed Kurbanov for the vacant WBA junior middleweight title is back on.
It will take place on the “Knockout Chaos” card headlined by the Anthony Joshua-Francis Ngannou heavyweight fight on Friday (PPV.com, 1 p.m. ET, $69.99) at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
On Saturday, Robert Smith, the general secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control, the regulator that has been brought into Saudi Arabia to oversee the events there, notified show promoter Queensberry Promotions and others involved that Madrimov had an issue with a pre-fight brain scan and the fight was off.
“Following consideration of Mr. Madrimov's scan report supplied to the BBBC, the Board’s medical panel have advised that he can not be permitted to box in Saudi Arabia on the 8th March 2024,” Smith wrote in an email obtained by Fight Freaks Unite.
When that happened, Madrimov had a second scan performed and the initial scan was also sent to be evaluated for opinions by other experts.
As it turned out, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation, the initial scan was misread and, combined with the second scan being evaluated, Madrimov was cleared to fight.
According to an email obtained by Fight Freaks Unite, Madrimov’s MRIs from Feb. 24 and March 2 were both examined by three experts: a retired neurosurgeon, who also previously worked for the BBBofC; an active neurosurgeon, who is a BBBofC medical officer and part of its neuro panel; and a professor of neuro radiology with extensive experience reviewing MRI brain scans for boxers.
According to the email, “The above 3 experts have expressed the following opinion: Based upon the above information from an MRI brain scan perspective Israil Madrimov may be permitted to box.”
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The WBA sanctioned the fight between Madrimov (9-0-1, 6 KOs), 29, of Uzbekistan, and Kurbanov (25-0, 13 KOs), 28, of Russia, after it stripped Jermell Charlo and re-classified him as a “champion in recess” on Feb. 29. That was expected and Madrimov and Kurbanov had already agreed to fight and were training.
Charlo, who became the first four-belt undisputed junior middleweight champion when he knocked out Brian Castano in the 10th round to unify the division in May 2022 in a rematch of their draw, never defended the undisputed crown and between being stripped or vacating no longer holds any of the four sanctioning body titles.
The WBA stripped him because his last fight was at 168 pounds, where he lost a one-sided decision challenging undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez in September; he has not made it clear if he will ever fight again at 154 pounds; and he is also sidelined while dealing with legal issues. One of the conditions of the WBA approving Madrimov-Kurbanov for the title was that the winner is obligated to defend against Charlo (35-2-1, 19 KOs), 33, of Houston, when he returns — if he wants the title opportunity.
I interviewed Francis Ngannou this week for our podcast ahead of his fight with Anthony Joshua on Friday. The interview is on the full episode but also here as a stand-along show. Listen, review, and subscribe for an alert when the next episode is available. New shows every Thursday and Sunday night.
Hitchins-Lemos undercard set
Matchroom Boxing on Tuesday announced the undercard for the event headlined by junior welterweight contenders Richardson Hitchins and Gustavo Daniel Lemos, who will meet in an IBF title eliminator in the main event at the recently opened Fontainebleau in Las Vegas on April 6 (DAZN) for the right to become the mandatory challenger for Subriel Matias.
In addition to the previously announced co-feature of super middleweight Diego Pacheco, the 2023 Fight Freaks prospect of the year, taking on Shawn McCalman in a 12-rounder, three additional bouts were made official:
Featherweight Skye Nicolson (9-0, 1 KO), 28, an Australian southpaw and 2020 Olympian, will face Sarah Mahfoud (14-1, 3 KOs), 34, of Denmark, for the vacant WBC women’s featherweight title, which Amanda Serrano relinquished due to the WBC’s decision to not allow women’s title bouts to be scheduled for 12 three-minute rounds. Mahfoud held the IBF title before losing it to Serrano by decision in a September 2022 unification fight.
Flyweight Galal Yafai (6-0, 4 KOs), 31, a 2020 Olympic gold medalist from England, is being moved quickly and will take on Agustin Mauro Gauto (21-1, 15 KOs), 26, of Argentina, who has won four fights in a row, in a 10-rounder.
Junior lightweight prospect Marc Castro (11-0, 8 KOs), 24, of Fresno, California, will face Abraham Montoya (22-5-1, 14 KOs), 29, of Mexico, in his second scheduled 10-rounder. Montoya has won two fights in a row and in 2018 won a 10-round split decision against Luis Alberto Lopez, who is now the reigning IBF featherweight titleholder.
Ennis-Crowley purse bid
The IBF on Tuesday scheduled a purse bid for the fight between welterweight titlist Jaron “Boots” Ennis and mandatory challenger Cody Crowley. The order for them to meet was made Jan. 30 and when they did not make a deal by the deadline the IBF scheduled the purse bid for March 19 at its offices in Springfield, New Jersey, and via video conference.
The sides could still make a deal up to 15 minutes before bids are unsealed but Crowley’s side has already said multiple times, including to Fight Freaks Unite, they are not interested in the fight, having already turned down an offer from PBC for $600,000. Promoters wishing to bid must pay a non-refundable $5,000 fee.
Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs), 26, of Philadelphia, was elevated from interim titleholder status in November when undisputed champion and pound-for-pound king Terence Crawford was stripped of the IBF belt for declining to face Ennis a mandated bout.
Ennis defended the interim belt for the first time via 10th-round knockout of Roiman Villa in July.
Crowley (22-0, 9 KOs), 30, a Canadian southpaw, who would be a significant underdog against Ennis, has boxed just once in each of the past four years and is coming off a 12-round majority decision against former title challenger Abel Ramos last March in his only fight of 2023.
Top Rank signs ‘Kid Kansas’
Top Rank announced it has signed lightweight prospect Alan “Kid Kansas” Garcia, a 21-year-old from Ulysses, Kansas, who the company has had on two of its previous cards and liked.
Garcia (11-0, 9 KOs) will have the first bout of new deal on March 29 (ESPN+) on the undercard of the Oscar Valdez-Liam Wilson junior lightweight bout at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
“Alan Garcia is a sensational young talent with world championship potential,” Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said. “He has everything it takes, in and out of the ring, to be a superstar in the sport.”
Garcia, who lives and trains in Los Angeles, is a stablemate of Yokasta Valle, who will fight Seniesa Estrada in unification fight for the undisputed women’s strawweight title, also on the March 29 card. He is trained and managed by Gloria Alvarado, who also trains Valle.
“It is a dream come true to sign with Bob Arum and Top Rank,” Garcia said. “They have developed countless legendary fighters. I trust that (Hall of Fame matchmaker) Brad Goodman will get me the right fights, and I will work tirelessly to become Top Rank’s next world champion. I can’t wait to fight March 29 and continue my march towards a world title.”
Garcia, who began boxing at age 7, claimed silver medals at the 2016 and 2017 U.S. Junior Olympics and won a 2018 Junior Golden Gloves title. He turned pro in September 2020 and went 4-0 in Mexico before fighting in the U.S. He impressed Top Rank brass with a win on the Teofimo Lopez-Jamaine Ortiz undercard in Las Vegas last month with a first-round body shot knockout of Tomas Ornelas.
Quick hits
Welterweight contender Alexis Rocha (23-2, 15 KOs), 26, a southpaw from Sana Ana, California, who suffered a rough sixth-round upset knockout loss to Giovani Santillan in October, will return to face Fredrick Lawson (30-4, 22 KOs), 34, a Ghana native fighting out of Chicago, on Golden Boy’s card on March 30 (DAZN) headlined by WBA cruiserweight titlist Arsen Goulamirian’s defense against Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez at YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California, a source with knowledge of the bout, which hasn’t been announced yet, told Fight Freaks Unite. Lawson is also coming off a loss. He was he stopped by Vergil Ortiz Jr. in the first round in January on a universally criticized and extremely quick stoppage by referee Tony Weeks.
The WBA featherweight title eliminator between Victor Morales (19-0-1, 9 KOs), 26, of Vancouver, Washington, and Luis Reynaldo Nunez (19-0, 13 KOs), 24, of the Dominican Republic, has been postponed. The bout was supposed to be on the William Zepeda-Maxi Hughes IBF/WBA lightweight eliminator on the Golden Boy card on March 16 (DAZN) at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. However, Morales has been ill, causing the fight to be postponed with no new date set yet, a source with knowledge of the development told Fight Freaks Unite.
Former heavyweight contender Adam Kownacki (20-5, 15 KOs), 34, of Brooklyn, New York, likely saw his career come to an end on Saturday when he suffered his fifth consecutive loss (four by KO) when he returned to his native Poland and was quickly stopped in the first round. Poland’s Kacper Meyna (12-1, 8 KOs), 24, needed just 45 seconds to blow out Kownacki on Saturday in Koszalin. Kownacki could not survive the opening barrage before it was stopped.
Show and tell
Undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, boxing’s biggest star, has faced a who’s who of his time in one major event after another and won world titles in four weight classes. When he was on the way up, Alvarez was considered an excellent prospect, but nobody could have known he would stamp himself as a legend and future Hall of Famer. In 2010, he began to live up to the hype when he handily defeated a pair of former world titleholders in back-to-back fights. He drilled former welterweight champion Carlos Baldomir in the sixth round in his second fight in the United States and followed with a near-shutout of former junior welterweight titlist Lovemore Ndou in Mexico.
Those wins set up Alvarez, then 20, for his first shot at a world title when he met Matthew Hatton (Ricky’s younger brother) for the vacant WBC junior middleweight belt in an HBO main event at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Alvarez won by shutout decision, 119-108 on all three scorecards, although he lost a point for a hitting on the break in the seventh round. The fight was on March 5, 2011 — 13 years ago on Tuesday. Here is a very limited HBO poster from the fight in my collection.
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Photos: Madrimov: Meg Oliphant/Matchroom Boxing; Ennis: Ryan Hafey/PBC
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The WBA are creating another mess at 168lb. With no sign of them ordering a title consolidation, Berlanga has somehow leapfrogged Mbilli as mandatory. How will all of this be resolved?
The first 13 weeks of 2024 would have featured over 20 World Title fights in our sports 17 weight divisions - a tremendous first quarter to the year that should be acknowledged and celebrated by boxing's fans & followers 👍🏻🥊