Notebook: Mayer-Ryan rematch set; Norman defends on card
Officials for title fights on PPV show; Teofimo Lopez update; Zepeda-Farmer rematch in works; purse bid results; Quick hits; Show and tell
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WBO women’s welterweight titlist Mikaela Mayer and former titleholder Sandy Ryan will square ff in an immediate rematch of their dramatic first fight that Mayer won to claim a title in a second division.
The rematch, which Top Rank announced on Thursday, confirming a previous Fight Freaks Unite report, will headline a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card on March 29 (ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET) at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas
WBO welterweight titlist Brian Norman will return from injury to make his postponed first defense against Derrieck Cuevas in the co-feature.
“The rivalry between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan is one of the fiercest we’ve seen in recent years, and both are determined to put it to rest once and for all,” Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said. “Brian Norman Jr. faces a tough first defense, but I’m confident he’ll rise to the occasion and prove he belongs at the top.”
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Mayer, a former unified junior lightweight titleholder, and Ryan put on a tremendous battle when they met on Sept. 27 in New York. Mayer won a majority decision to take the title from Ryan, who was making her third defense, in a non-stop thriller. She won 97-93 and 96-94 while one judge scored it 95-95.
“I’ve never been one to shy away from challenges,” Mayer said. “I could have taken my belt and moved on, but it was a highly entertaining fight, and if this is what the fans want, then that’s what I’ll give them. I have stayed in the gym and am getting better every day. It will be worse for Sandy this time, but regardless, expect another action-packed fight.”
The fight took place to the backdrop of significant tension between them because Mayer (20-2, 5 KOs), 34, a 2016 U.S. Olympian fighting out of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was upset when she found out that her longtime assistant trainer, Kay Koroma, had begun helping train Ryan without either of them telling her. She felt betrayed, felling as though she may eventually fight Ryan. She fired Koroma and replaced him with Kofi Jantuah.
Marring the fight but adding to the intrigue was a strange incident on the day of the fight. When Ryan (7-2-1, 3 KOs), 31, of England, left her hotel to go to the arena, an unidentified man waiting for her outside threw an open can of red paint at her, soaking her in it before running to a car and driving off. Ryan accused Mayer’s team of orchestrating the attack, which Mayer denied.
“As crazy as this sounds, after what happened last time in New York, I am actually looking forward to returning to the U.S.,” Ryan said. “I’ve had some remarkable, history-making fights here already, so the opportunity to come back and showcase my talent while headlining in the fight capital of the world is amazing.
“This time, I will be fully prepared for whatever comes my way. I’m not making any excuses, but after what happened before the fight last time, I did fight in anger, and it clearly affected my performance. But it was a great fight and did great numbers for ESPN, so that’s why Mayer had to take this rematch. It's the biggest fight for both of us, and everyone wants to see it again. On March 29, the world will see a focused, determined, and talented fighter in the shape of her life, and I will reclaim my world title.”
Norman and Cuevas we scheduled to fight on Nov. 8, but Norman injured his left hand and was forced to postpone the bout.
“Fighting for a championship belt is every fighter’s dream, so I know Cuevas is training as hard as possible for this fight,” Norman said. “He is a tough competitor who brings everything he has to win this fight. That said, as the WBO champion, I can guarantee a spectacular performance.”
Atlanta native Norman (26-0, 20 KOs), 24, is coming off his biggest win in May, when he knocked out unbeaten and heavily favored Giovani Santillan in the 10th round to win the vacant interim belt in San Diego, Santillan’s hometown. In August, Norman was elevated to full titlist when Terence Crawford vacated to move up to junior middleweight.
Cuevas (27-1-1, 19 KOs), 30, of Puerto Rico, has won four fights in a row by knockout.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to fight in Las Vegas for a world title,” Cuevas said, “That’s the dream of every fighter. I respect Norman, but a new champion will be crowned.”
In the top fight on the ESPN+ preliminaries, featherweight up-and-comer Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (14-0, 8 KOs), 27, of Brooklyn, New York, will fight Jose Enrique Vivas (23-3, 12 KOs), 30, of Mexico, in a WBC title eliminator.
“Bruce Carrington is close to a world title shot, and this fight is his chance to cement his place in line,” Arum said.
Benavidez-Morrell officials
The Nevada State Athletic Commission at its monthly meeting on Tuesday assigned the officials to work the two world title bouts on the PBC Prime Video PPV card on Saturday (Prime Video PPV, PPV.COM, 8 p.m. ET, $79.99) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
For the main event between WBC interim light heavyweight titlist David Benavidez and WBA “regular” titlist David Morrell, Thomas Taylor will serve as the referee (and be paid $3,500) while the judges will be Tim Cheatham, Patricia Morse Jarman and Steve Weisfeld (each of whom will earn $2,750).
For the co-feature, a rematch between WBC featherweight titlist Brandon Figueroa and Stephen Fulton, who first fought in a 2021 junior featherweight title unification bout that Fulton won by majority decision, the referee will be Harvey Dock (who will make $2,500) and the judges will be Max De Luca, David Sutherland and Zachary Young (who will each make $2,200).
All of the officials were unanimously approved in a vote by the commission.
Taylor will be refereeing his first Morrell fight but is very familiar with Benavidez as it will be his third consecutive fight of his and fourth overall.
Dock will be in his first fight as a referee for both Figueroa and Fulton.
David Benavidez interview
If you missed the recent podcast episode that included my one-on-one interview with WBC interim light heavyweight titlist David Benavidez ahead of his showdown with WBA “regular” titlist David Morrell on Saturday, we broke it out separately and you can listen to it here. Give it a listen, a review, and also subscribe to get an alert when the next episode is available. New shows every Thursday and Sunday night (and occasional special episodes like this one).
Teofimo mandatory order
The WBO ruled this week that junior welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez, who is also the lineal champion, must next make his mandatory defense against the winner of vacant interim title bout between Jack Catterall and Arnold Barboza Jr. within 180 days after their bout on Feb. 15 (DAZN) in Manchester, England.
The interim title bout was approved due to Lopez’s uncertain schedule, having turned down various dates and opponents offered by Top Rank and having not made a mandatory defense in since winning the title 19 months ago.
“Lopez must discharge his mandatory obligation against the winner of Catterall-Barboza within 180 days after their bout to terminate interim status and ensure a single WBO junior welterweight champion,” WBO president Gustavo Olivieri said.
Although the WBO does occasionally permit interim title fights, it has typically tried to have full titleholder and interim titleholder meet as quickly as possible to consolidate the title.
The order comes at a time when Lopez’s new managers, Keith Connolly and Mike Borao, are, with Top Rank’s approval, negotiating a three-fight deal for Lopez with Turki Alalshikh that included a possible unification fight next against IBF titlist Richardson Hitchins. But based on the WBO order, that wouldn’t be next.
Ultimately, Alalshikh is interested in Lopez facing the winner of the Devin Haney-Ryan Garcia rematch being planned for October, although each has to win interim bouts in May.
Zepeda-Farmer II plans
Plans are in the works for WBC interim lightweight titlist William Zepeda to face Tevin Farmer in an immediate rematch of their entertaining and close fight that took place on Nov. 16 on the “Latino Night” card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, according to Golden Boy.
If Zepeda-Farmer II is finalized, Golden Boy said it is targeting March 29 (DAZN) in Cancun, Mexico.
Zepeda defeated fellow southpaw and former junior lightweight titlist Farmer via split decision — 95-94 twice for Zepeda, 95-94 for Farmer — to win the vacant interim belt made available due to titleholder Shakur Stevenson’s injury.
While Zepeda remains Stevenson’s mandatory challenger, Stevenson is healed and first will fight Floyd Schofield on the Riyadh Season card on Feb. 22.
Zepeda was supposed to be Stevenson’s Feb. 22 opponent but he injured his left hand against Farmer and would not be quite ready for that date, so the rematch is likely next.
Zepeda (32-0, 27 KOs), 28, had his hands full with Farmer. He did not seem to have any respect for Farmer’s power and continually marched forward until he paid the price for it in the fourth round when Farmer landed a perfect overhand left and Zepeda went down with a minute left.
Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs), 34, of Philadelphia, landed sharp lefts time and again and was extremely disappointed to lose the close call.
YouTube interview
Host Aliyah Orozco and I talked about several boxing topics, including David Benavidez-David Morrell, the Stephen Fulton-Figueroa rematch on the card as well as the possible Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford fight, the latest on the Ryan Garcia-Devin Haney rematch plans and what fight I would love to see more than any other. Check out the video here:
Quick hits
Yl2 Management won rights to an all-French IBF super middleweight title eliminator between Christian Mbilli (28-0, 23 KOs), 29, who is based in Montreal, and European champion Kevin Lele Sadjo (24-0, 21 KOs), 34. It offered $878,000 at Thursday’s purse bid. Mbilli co-promoter Eye of the Tiger was the only other bidder at $766,520. Mbilli is entitled to the lion’s share of a 60-40 split ($526,800-$351,200). The have 90 days to stage the fight. The winner will be mandatory for William Scull (23-0, 9 KOs).
ProBox on Tuesday won a purse bid for the IBF junior middleweight final eliminator between Orlando, Florida’s Erickson Lubin (26-2, 18 KOs), 29, and fellow southpaw Ardreal Holmes Jr. (17-0, 6 KOs), 30, of Flint, Michigan, with a bid of $225,000. Salita Promotions, Holmes’ promoter, was the only other bidder and offered $220,000. Lubin is entitled to 60 percent ($135,000) and Holmes 40 percent ($90k). ProBox has 90 days to put on the fight, whose winner will be the mandatory challenger for titleholder Bakhram Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs).
Former bantamweight and junior featherweight titlist Luis Nery (35-2, 27 KOs), 30, a Mexican southpaw, will face Kyonosuke Kameda (15-3-2, 9 KOs), 26, of Japan, in a 10-rounder at a contract weight of 124 pounds on Zanfer Promotions’ card on Feb.22 at a site in Mexico to be announced. The fight will be the first for Nery since May, when he scored a first-round knockdown against undisputed junior featherweight champion Naoya Inoue, the first knockdown of his career, at the Tokyo Dome, but otherwise was dominated and knocked out in the sixth round. It will be Kameda’s first fight outside of Japan.
Among the non-televised bouts on the David Benavidez-David Morrell card on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas will be middleweight Jose Benavidez Jr. (28-3-1, 19 KOs), 32, of Phoenix, who is David’s older brother, against Danny Rosenberger (20-9-4, 10 KOs), 34, of Youngstown, Ohio, in an eight-round middleweight bout and highly-touted Mayweather Promotions’ prospect Curmel Moton (6-0, 5 KOs), 18, of Las Vegas, against Miami-based Cuba native Frank Zaldivar (5-1, 3 KOs), 28, in an eight-round lightweight bout.
Featherweight contender Arnold Khegai will face former title challenger Joet Gonzalez in the 10-round headliner on the ProBox TV card March 8 at Thunder Studios in Long Beach, California. Khegai (22-1-1, 14 KOs), 32, a Los Angeles-based Ukrainian, who is promoted by Top Rank, has won six in a row since a decision loss to Stephen Fulton in 2020. Gonzalez (26-4, 15 KOs), 31, of Los Angeles, is 3-4 in his last seven, dropping decisions to Shakur Stevenson, Emanuel Navarrete and Luis Alberto Lopez in world title bouts. In the co-feature, light heavyweight “Hot Rod” Radivoje Kaladjzic (29-3, 21 KOs), 33, a Serbia native based in Saint Petersburg, Florida, will fight Mickael Diallo (21-1-2, 18 KOs), 33, of France. Kaladjzic is coming off a decision loss to David Morrell for the vacant WBA “regular” title in August.
Former WBC heavyweight titlist Oliver McCall (60-14, 39 KOs), who is 59, will face Gary Cobia (3-4, 1 KOs), 52, who has not fought since 2015, in an ill-advised six-rounder on the Country Box on card Tuesday night in Nashville. McCall, who had not fought since 2019, returned in November and stopped 54-year-old Stacey Frazier (16-22 going into the fight) in the second-round of a scheduled four-rounder on a Country Box card at the same location.
Show and tell
The legendary Julio Cesar Chavez was 89-0-1 and had made 12 defenses of the WBC junior welterweight title during his five-year reign when, as a 15-to-1 favorite, he was matched with Frankie Randall. The fight headlined a Don King-promoted card on SET PPV (the old name for Showtime PPV) that marked the first sports event at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena, which would become one of the most iconic boxing venues in the world.
Randall, riding a steady jab, two point deductions and a knockdown, fought the fight of his life and Chavez did not in the massive upset. Referee Richard Steele took two points from Chavez, in the seventh round and 11th round, for low blows. Also in the 11th round, Randall had his biggest moment when he dropped Chavez to his rear end in the center of the ring with a right hand. It was the first time Chavez had ever been knocked down and it sealed Randall’s title-winning split decision, 116-111 and 114-113 for Randall and 114-113 for Chavez. The historic fight, on a card that also included Felix Trinidad’s welterweight title defense against Hector Camacho, took place on Jan. 29, 1994 — 31 years ago on Wednesday. Here is a program from the fight in my collection, although the Azumah Nelson-James Leija fight pictured on the cover did not take place.
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Photos: Mayer-Ryan and Lopez: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Zepeda-Farmer: Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy
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A point deduction in a technical split decision was the difference in the second fight. Third fight was held in Mexico.
I’ll never forget it, the Randall-Chavez fight did not start until 12:50 am eastern time that night. I’m happy to this day that I stayed up to watch it on ppv.