Notebook: On the road again, headed for Las Vegas to cover Pacquiao-Ugas

DAZN slowdown; Fury's good news; Matchroom signing; more

Aug 18, 2021

Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, I have only been to one fight card.

In May, I traveled to Dallas to cover the Canelo Alvarez-Billy Joe Saunders event for The Ring magazine’s website and print edition. It was a tremendous fight week and the event was terrific. It was also great to be with so many of the boxing people I hadn’t seen for so long and to see boxing fans in person once again.

It was my first trip of any kind since the pandemic began and now I am geared up for my second one. I am on assignment this week once again for my friends at The Ring to cover the Manny Pacquiao-Yordenis Ugas event that will take place on Saturday (Fox Sports PPV, 9 p.m. ET) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

I have made well over 100 trips to Las Vegas in my 21 years on the boxing beat but this is the longest I have gone without going there. My last trip to Las Vegas was for the last legitimately big fight that took place there — the heavyweight championship rematch between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder at the MGM Grand in February 2020, so I am looking forward to being back there.

Like most of you, I was disappointed when unified welterweight titlist Errol Spence Jr. was forced out of the fight with Pacquiao on short notice because of a torn retina, but Ugas is still a legitimate opponent and a top welterweight. He should make for a good fight with Pacquiao even if he does not have the kind of name recognition or fan base that Spence has.

I will be in Las Vegas beginning on Wednesday and will be at the pre-fight news conference in the afternoon. My coverage will appear on The Ring website throughout the week, but I will also send out newsletters with links to those stories and any other notable boxing stuff that may come up this week.

I hope you are enjoying the Fight Freaks Unite newsletter and that you will also read the Pacquiao-Ugas coverage at RingTV.com. And, by the way, if there are things you’d like to see in the newsletter by all means use the comments section below to let me know what you want to see more of. Thank you for reading.

Guerrero serious about comeback

For the first story of my Pacquiao-Ugas coverage for The Ring, I wrote about Robert Guerrero’s continuation of his comeback.

Two-division world titleholder Guerrero and Victor Ortiz, who won a welterweight world title, were among boxing’s best fighters in the early 2010s. They were prime time players in the fight world.

Now, a decade after their heydays, but still with recognizable names to fight fans, the southpaws are set to come off long layoffs and meet in the 10-round welterweight co-feature of the Pacquiao-Ugas welterweight world title fight.

Neither are top contenders any longer but they have both been in many fan friendly fights and Guerrero expects this one to be another one of them.

I spoke at length with the 38-year-old Guerrero about his decision to come out of retirement in late 2018, what he thinks about the fight with Ortiz and what he still hopes to accomplish in a career that began 20 years ago. Please read that piece on The Ring website here: https://www.ringtv.com/625770-robert-guerrero-serious-about-comeback-including-fight-with-victor-ortiz/

DAZN slowdown

DAZN’s boxing plans, at least for events in the United States, have ground to a halt.

With the completion of Saturday’s Golden Boy card headlined by welterweight Vergil Ortiz Jr., the streaming service has no American cards on its schedule from either of its two in-house promoters, Golden Boy and Matchroom Boxing.

Matchroom Boxing, which hasn’t had a U.S. show since Devin Haney’s lightweight title defense against Jorge Linares on May 29, had always planned to not do any U.S. shows in June or July, but was planning one for Aug. 28, which obviously is not happening.

According to sources, DAZN is not going to schedule any American shows until it knows what unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez is going to do next.

After negotiations between Alvarez and PBC for an undisputed title fight with Caleb Plant on Fox Sports pay-per-view on Sept. 18 (the Mexican Independence Day weekend Alvarez wanted to fight on) went south, the two sides have been back in talks for the fight to take place in November or perhaps even in December, according to a source.

Until DAZN knows whether Alvarez will be back on its platform in the fall, it has not committed to a fall U.S. schedule. Obviously, DAZN’s budget will be dramatically different if Alvarez is on DAZN this fall or if he is elsewhere.

There are two American dates, however, that Hearn is working on, according to sources, even if not set in stone. One is Sept. 18 on the West Coast. That undercard would likely include the already-agreed to mandatory fight between junior flyweight titlist Elwin Soto and Jonathan Gonzalez.

There is also a probable October show headlined by the rubber match between junior bantamweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada and former champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez.

One fight that would surely land on one of those dates is unified junior featherweight titlist Murodjon Akhmadaliev’s mandatory defense against the Golden Boy-promoted Ronny Rios. Matchroom Boxing controls the fight, having won a purse bid in May and initially indicating it would put the fight on in August.

DAZN has also talked with Hearn about a fight between former junior welterweight titleholders Mikey Garcia and Regis Prograis that both fighters are interested in. Hearn is interested in doing the fight, but he doesn’t have a promotional deal with either fighter and it would be up to DAZN if it wants to spend the money on that fight.

Golden Boy has no set DAZN dates either, although there have been conversations about a possible significant fall lightweight fight between Ryan Garcia, who has deemed himself ready to fight again after taking a mental health break earlier in the year, and Joseph Diaz Jr., as well as a potential top-notch fight between light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol (who works with Hearn) and the Golden Boy-promoted top contender Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, who is an undefeated former super middleweight titlist.

Good news for Fury

Good news for heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and wife Paris.

Their newborn daughter, Athena, is out of intensive care and will soon be going home from the hospital, Fury said in a video he posted to his Twitter account on Monday in which he was holding the baby and giving her a bottle.

The baby, one of their six children, was suffering an ailment that was not made public over the past few weeks since her birth.

“Just here feeding my little girl. Out of the ICU, on the mend,” Fury said in the video. “She'll be going home soon. Thank you to God and thank you to all of the doctors and nurses out there.”

Fury is due back in the ring for his delayed third fight with former titlist Deontay Wilder on Oct. 9 on pay-per-view in Las Vegas. It was scheduled for July 24 but postponed when Fury came down with Covid-19.

Wood signs with Matchroom

Leigh Wood has signed a multi-fight promotional contract with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, Hearn announced on Tuesday.

Wood (25-2, 15 KOs), 33, of England, knocked out China’s Xu Can (18-3, 3 KOs) in the 12th round to impressively win the WBA’s secondary featherweight title in an upset on July 31 in Brentwood, England.

In doing so, Wood became only the second boxer from Nottingham, England, to win a world title, joining super middleweight great Carl Froch, who was ringside for Wood’s victory.

“I’m really excited to be working with Matchroom, who in my opinion are leading the way in professional boxing,” said Wood, who is managed by Dave Coldwell. “I’m confident that they can deliver and help me achieve my dream on the biggest stage in boxing. Winning the WBA title at ‘Fight Camp’ was just the beginning for me. I want all of the big fights out there. I said I wanted the Emanuel Navarrete fight because he’s explosive like me; that’ll be absolute fireworks. Let’s unify the division. My best years are definitely ahead of me.”

Hearn said he will do his best to deliver major fights to Wood and was pleased to sign him.

“The featherweight division is on fire right now in the U.K. and there are some huge unification fights out there also,” Hearn said. “We have the platform (DAZN) to box Leigh anywhere in the world but I’d love to land him a big fight at the City Ground next year.”

Quick hits

Top Rank is penciling in middleweight Nico Ali Walsh’s second professional fight for the undercard of the Jamel Herring-Shakur Stevenson junior lightweight title fight on ESPN on Oct. 23 in Atlanta, a source with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite. Ali Walsh (1-0, 1 KO), 21, of Las Vegas, who is the grandson of Muhammad Ali, made his pro debut Saturday night with a first-round knockout victory over Jordan Weeks.

The fight between undisputed junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor (18-0, 13 KO), of Scotland, who unified all four major titles via unanimous decision over Jose Ramirez on May 22, and mandatory challenger Jack Catterall (26-0, 13 KOs), a southpaw from England, who stepped aside to allow Taylor-Ramirez, will take place Dec. 18 at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland, a source with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite. Initially, Top Rank targeted either Nov. 20 or Nov. 27, for Taylor’s homecoming fight but could not make the dates work with the venue. The card will be one of the shows Top Rank plans to put on in the United Kingdom in support of its recent deal with Sky Sports, which will carry Taylor-Catterall in prime time while it will stream on ESPN+ in the afternoon/early evening in the United States. It will be Taylor’s first fight in Scotland since May 2019, when he outpointed Ivan Baranchyk to claim the IBF 140-pound title in the World Boxing Super Series he eventually won.

The WBA, under immense pressure to reduce the number of titles it hands out, has said it will work to do so and announced on Wednesday that it notified secondary junior featherweight titlist Brandon Figueroa that he will be stripped of his belt once he steps into the ring to meet Stephan Fulton in their Sept. 18 unification fight. Figueroa, who is also the WBC titleholder, meets WBO counterpart Stephen Fulton in a Showtime main event at the Park MGM in Las Vegas. “Due to WBO restrictions, Figueroa’s WBA title cannot be at stake during that fight,” the WBA wrote. “According to WBA Rule C-10 10 ‘Unsanctioned Fights,’ a WBA champion or an officially recognized contender who participates in a fight without the approval or sanction of the championships committee may lose his title or recognized status. As a result, Figueroa’s title will be vacant as of September 18.”

Junior middleweight Jesus Ramos Jr. (16-0, 14 KOs) will face Brian Mendoza (19-1, 13 KOs) in a 10-rounder that will top a PBC on Fox card Sept. 5 (8 p.m. ET) at The Armory in Minneapolis, PBC announced. Also on the tripleheader will be two additional 10-rounders: lightweight Starling Castillo (15-0, 12 KOs) versus former world title challenger Juan Carlos Burgos (34-5-2, 21 KOs) in the co-feature and middleweight Armando Resendiz (12-0, 8 KOs) against Marcos Hernandez (14-4-2, 3 KOs).

Promoter Lou DiBella, who owns two minor league baseball teams, was forced to cancel a card scheduled for Aug. 26 on FITE at The Diamond, the home stadium of his Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels in Richmond, Virginia. DiBella said he had to call of the event because of fighters coming down with Covid-19 and injuries that left him with several broken fights and very short notice to find enough replacements. “I really wanted to put on a show at the ballpark but I want it to be a quality event for the fans and the city and with all the issues we just couldn’t do that,” DiBella said. “Hopefully, we can do a show there next summer.” The card was due to be headlined by heavyweight Stephan Shaw (14-0, 10 KOs) versus Robert Simms (11-3, 3 KOs) in a 10-rounder.

Show and tell

Heavyweight legends Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier will be linked forever in history because of their all-time great trilogy that produced two of the best fights in boxing history, the first and third fights, which were both for the heavyweight championship. I am super excited to have recently added this card to my collection. It’s from the 2010 Ringside Round One product, which was a comprehensive boxing set that included current fighters and retired greats. This is a rare double memorabilia card that includes a piece of training-worn Ali trunks and a piece of a fight-worn Frazier robe. It’s also the rarer gold version, which was limited to only 10 copies. The cards from the set are the same size a normal trading card but thicker.

Pacquiao photo: Ryan Hafey/PBC; Guerrero photo: Team Guerrero; Wood photo: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing

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