Notebook: Spectacle of Usyk-Fury 2 fight week has begun
Akhmadaliev presses WBA; Keyshawn to challenge Berinchyk for 135 title; new Opetaia foe very familiar to him; Jonas-Price unification bout set; more Mike Tyson on Netflix; Quick hits; Show and tell
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The tried but true “grand arrivals” for fight week have never been as over the top as on Tuesday night in Riyadh Saudi Arabia, where Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk made the kind of memorable entrances befitting such a mega fight.
There was a jumbo jet parked on BLVD Runway in front of a temporary stage and glitzy lights with media and dignitaries on the scene as first Fury, with a big shaggy beard, and then Usyk, immaculately dressed, exited the plane and descended down the steep red-carpeted stairs. As each made their way down the steps, fire burst from launchers on the ground.
It was quite the spectacle, which is what many expect when they meet in a rematch for the lineal and unified heavyweight championship in the main event of a Riyadh Season card on Saturday (DAZN PPV, 11 a.m. ET, $39.95 in U.S., £24.99 in U.K., $19.99 or its local currency equivalent elsewhere) at Kingdom Arena.
It was seven months earlier, on May 18, at the same venue, where Usyk won a split decision — it would have been a draw had he not knocked Fury down in the overwhelming ninth round — against Fury in a sensational battle for the ages.
Usyk retained his three belts and took Fury’s WBC title to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion in 25 years and the first in the four-belt era, although he was forced to vacate the IBF title soon after due to a mandatory obligation he would not make. The reason was because a deal was already in place for a rematch with Fury worth tens of millions of dollars more than facing the mandatory challenger, Daniel Dubois, whom Usyk already dominated and knocked out in a 2023 unified title defense.
So, after such a brutal and scintillating first fight, they are back for the sequel, with Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs), 36, of England, confident he will be come champion again and exact revenge on the smaller man.
“I’m going to knock him out. I’m going to give Turki (Alalshikh) what I promised him in May, a cooked rabbit (Usyk) in his kitchen. That’s my promise,” Fury said upon his arrival.
Fury, who has said he has not spoken to wife Paris in three months during his training, was his usual boisterous self.
“I’m the only show in town, ‘The Gypsy King,’” Fury said. “This time around everything is pretty much the same. It’s the biggest event of my life, so in that regard it’s pretty much the same. From one biggest event to the next biggest event. I’m looking forward to putting on a show as always.”
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There has been much discussion during the lead up that Fury, who weighed 262 pounds for the May fight to 223½ for Usyk, would come in heavier, wanting to be closer to what he weighed when he knocked out Deontay Wilder in their rematch (273) and third fight (277).
“A lot of my weight is in my beard,” Fury joked. “It’s giving me strength like Sampson.”
His favorite part of the fight week he said would be after the fight.
“My favorite moment will be getting my hand raised on Saturday night,” Fury said, adding, “And the new!”
Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs), 37, a southpaw from Ukraine, and the former undisputed cruiserweight champion and a 2012 Olympic gold medalist, said he was not concerned about Fury’s knockout prediction. After all, Usyk is the one who nearly scored one in the first fight, not Fury.
“It’s only talk. Listen, we will see,” Usyk said. “Whatever happens is God’s will. It will be a great fight. I feel good. I feel I win. I feel really good at my weight at 222 pounds. I feel good. I don’t feel too heavy, I don’t feel too light. I feel perfect.”
Whatever happens, Usyk said he believes the rematch will be another memorable fight.
“This is a big opportunity for me, for my country, and for the young people that look up to me and Tyson,” Usyk said. “This is history. I want people 15 years later to remember when I fought and beat Tyson Fury twice in Riyadh.”
Usyk-Fury II lineup
Heavyweights: Oleksandr Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) vs. Tyson Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs), rematch, 12 rounds, for Usyk’s lineal/WBC/WBO/WBA title
Junior middleweights: Serhii Bohachuk (24-2, 23 KOs) vs. Ishmael Davis (13-1, 6 KOs), WBC final eliminator, 12 rounds
Heavyweights: Moses Itauma (10-0, 8 KOs) vs. Demsey McKean (22-1, 14 KOs), 10 rounds
Junior featherweights: Peter McGrail (10-1, 6 KOs) vs. Rhys Edwards (16-0, 4 KOs), 10 rounds
Heavyweights: Johnny Fisher (12-0, 11 KOs) vs. David Allen (23-6-2, 18 KOs), 10 rounds
Featherweights: Isaac Lowe (25-2-3, 8 KOs) vs. Lee McGregor (14-1-1, 11 KOs), 10 rounds
Light heavyweights: Daniel Lapin (10-0, 4 KOs) vs. Dylan Colin (14-0, 4 KOs), 10 rounds,
Heavyweights: Andrii Novytskyi (13-0, 10 KOs) vs. Edgar Ramirez (10-1-1, 4 KOs), 10 rounds
Junior lightweights: Mohammed Alakel (1-0, 0 KOs) vs. Joshua Ocampo (18-33-5, 6 KOs), 6 rounds
Akhmadaliev presses WBA
In the wake of Murodjon Akhmadaliev scoring three knockdowns and knocking out Ricardo Espinoza in the third round to win the vacant WBA interim junior featherweight title on Saturday in Monte Carlo, Monaco, he and promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing strongly called on undisputed champion Naoya Inoue to fight Akhmadaliev.
Akhmadaliev was already Inoue’s due mandatory challenger and the fight had previously been ordered, but the WBA allowed Japanese pound-for-pound superstar Inoue (28-0, 25 KOs), 31, to bypass him twice.
First, the WBA granted Inoue an exception to make an optional defense against TJ Doheny in September and then it did not push back when Inoue made a fight with WBO/IBF mandatory Sam Goodman, even though the WBA defense was due first.
Inoue-Goodman was scheduled for Dec. 24 but Goodman suffered a cut over his left eye in sparring on Saturday and the bout has been delayed until Jan. 24. If Inoue wins, the plan is for co-promoter Top Rank to bring him to Las Vegas to defend his belts in April.
It’s an open secret that Mexican contender Alan David Picasso (31-0-1, 17 KOs), 24, is the opponent Inoue’s team is planning to fight, and Picasso stayed on track with an easy third-round knockout of last-minute substitute opponent Yehison Cuello on the Jaime Munguia-Bruno Surace undercard on Saturday night.
But Akhmadaliev’s team is pressing WBA president Gilberto Mendoza to assure them that Akhmadaliev (13-1, 10 KOs), 30, a former unified titleholder and a 2016 Olympic bronze medalist from Uzbekistan, will get the title shot after Goodman.
On Sunday, Akhmadaliev attorney Patrick English sent Mendoza a letter via email pressing the issue and referenced an interview Mendoza gave to BoxingScene’s Lance Pugmire over the week at the WBA annual convention in Orlando, Florida.
“In that interview you express that the WBA will finally enforce its rules and that after the Goodman bout Mr. Inoue will be required to fight Mr. Akhmadaliev, who has been designated as interim champion and who (Saturday) night defeated Mr. Espinoza,” English wrote in the letter. “I write because promises have been made in the past; indeed there was a resolution (ordering the mandatory fight) which sadly was not adhered to.
“We have shown great patience in this matter, more perhaps than we should. Assuming the Goodman bout actually takes place as scheduled, it has been announced that Inoue's next bout will be in the United States. We respectfully but firmly insist that the WBA rules be adhered to and that Mr. Inoue be compelled to fight his long overdue mandatory against Mr. Akhmadaliev. If the Goodman bout should be further delayed, then Mr. Inoue's next bout (should be against Akhmadaliev). We have no interest in any step aside. The mandatory is overdue and we insist that it be honored.”
Keyshawn to fight for title
Top Rank has not announced it yet, but rising lightweight contender and 2020 U.S. Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn Davis will challenge Denys Berinchyk for his WBO title on Feb.14, sources with knowledge of the details told Fight Freaks Unite.
The fight will headline a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card (ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN+) at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.
In his first hometown fight as a pro in Norfolk, Virginia, on Nov. 8, Davis (12-0, 8 KOs), 25, who was the 2022 Fight Freaks Unite prospect of the year, looked sensational destroying Gustavo Lemos, viewed by most as a step up in opposition, via second-round knockout. Lemos came into the fight way overweight at 141½ pounds for a 135-pound bout, but Davis went through with it anyway.
The expectation was that if Davis won he would challenge for a world title next. In the days before drilling Lemos, Davis said he and Berinchyk had direct messaged each other on social media and talked about making a fight between them.
Berinchyk (19-0, 9 KOs), 36, a 2012 Olympic silver medalist from Ukraine, will be making his first title defense. He won a split decision over WBO junior lightweight titlist Emanuel Navarrete, who moved up for the title opportunity, to claim the vacant belt on May 18 in San Diego.
The co-feature of the card, according to sources, will be a junior middleweight bout between up-and-comer Xander Zayas (20-0, 12 KOs), 22, of Sunrise, Florida, who is Puerto Rican and a popular draw in New York, against Slawa Spomer (20-0, 11 KOs), 32, of Germany.
Opetaia defends vs. Nyika
Lineal/IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia will now face a man very familiar to him in David Nyika.
Opetaia will make his fifth lineal defense and second IBF defense against Nyika, who he has sparred countless rounds with, on Jan. 8 (DAZN) at Gold Coast Convention Centre in Broadbeach, Australia, Opetaia’s home region, Opetaia co-promoter Tasman Fighters announced on Tuesday.
Opetaia (26-0, 20 KOs), 29, an Australian southpaw, was scheduled for a mandatory defense against Germany’s Huseiyn Cinkara (22-0, 18 KOs), 39, but he dropped out last week due to ligament damage in his ankle that will sidelined him for the next three months.
Nyika (10-0, 9 KOs), 29, a 2020 Olympic bronze medalist from New Zealand, who lives in Australia, accepted the fight on three weeks’ notice and was excited about it when they met the media to announce it.
“This is the fight I’ve always wanted,” Nyika said. “Jai has an incredible arsenal. He’s very precise. He’s got plenty of dog. He’s always fit. I’m just gonna have to turn up and do what I do.
“Ever since we started sparring I just knew he was the guy to beat. I knew he was the guy to aim for. Like he said, there are a lot of guys out there who want to beat him but I don’t think there is anyone out there with the kind of intel that I have.”
Opetaia, who would like a three-belt unification fight with WBO/WBA titlist Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez in 2025, spoke highly of Nyika.
“He’s a good fighter. We’ve done a lot of (sparring) rounds together and they’ve been competitive rounds, so it’s exciting, especially a couple of boys from our neck of the woods headlining fighting for a world title,” Opetaia said. “It’s massive for Australia, for the Polynesians, for New Zealand boxing. It’s huge. I want to be at the forefront of this stuff, making history. But we’ve got a job to do Jan. 8, so I’m pumped to get it done.”
Rafael with Iole
I joined my longtime ringside colleague Kevin Iole, who I have sat next to on press row probably for more fights than anyone else in my nearly 25 years of covering boxing, on his YouTube channel on Tuesday. Our topic of discussion was the rematch between unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and former champion Tyson Fury, which takes place on Saturday (DAZN PPV) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Check out the video here:
Jonas-Price unification
Natasha Jonas, the WBC/IBF women’s welterweight titleholder, and Lauren Price, who holds the WBA title and is also the Ring magazine champion, will meet to unify their titles on March 7 (Peacock in U.S., Sky Sports in U.K.) at famed Royal Albert Hall in London on the eve of International Women’s Day, Boxxer announced.
The fight, billed “Unstoppable,” was expected as long as Jonas and Price came through their bouts this past Saturday in Liverpool, England, Jonas’ hometown, which they did.
In the main event, Jonas (16-2-1, 9 KOs), a 40-year-old southpaw and the first woman to represent Great Britain in boxing when she competed in the 2012 Olympics, routed Ivana Habazin — 100-90, 99-91 and 99-92 — in their unification fight to retain the IBF belt and win the WBC title. Jonas previously unified titles at junior middleweight.
On the undercard, Price (8-0, 2 KOs), 30, a southpaw from Wales, who was a 2020 British Olympic gold medalist and the first Welsh boxer to win Olympic gold, blew away overmatched Bexcy Mateus, knocking her down in the first and second round before scoring a third-round stoppage.
Boxxer is planning to make the Jonas-Price card all female bouts.
“It’s an honor to be headlining this incredible all-women’s event at such an iconic venue. It shows how far women’s boxing has come,” Jonas said. “Throughout my career, I have broken down barriers and achieved what people said I couldn’t, and there is still a lot more to come. Lauren Price has a lot of hype around her but I believe this fight is going to be a step too far for her.
“I’ve been in big fights, I’ve fought world champions and Olympic medalists, but she’s never faced anyone like me as a pro.”
Price, a decade younger than Jonas, begged to differ.
“I have a lot of respect for Natasha Jonas and what she has achieved in the sport, but she has the belts that I want,” Price said. “When I turned professional after becoming Olympic champion, I wanted to create greatness. This fight, a big all-British unification clash, Wales versus England, will help cement my legacy and show that I am No. 1 in the division. I believe I’m too young, too quick and too good for Natasha Jonas and I will be bringing the belts back home to Wales with me.”
More Tyson on Netflix
Netflix, which last month streamed the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson blockbuster event, announced it is producing a three-part, three-hour documentary series chronicling the life of former undisputed heavyweight champion Tyson “from his meteoric rise as the ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’ to his personal struggles — including a period of incarceration and widely publicized struggles — and eventual redemption, this series will explore the man behind the gloves.”
Hall of Fame broadcaster Jim Gray, who has covered Tyson for decades, mainly when he was at Showtime, which was Tyson’s longtime broadcaster, is one of the executive producers on the project, which is not yet titled and does not have a set release date.
“Having an opportunity to share my story through the reflective lens of my growth and maturity in a multi-part documentary on Netflix will be a challenging journey, yet a very welcoming one,” Tyson said. “Most people are too scared to look at their lives objectively, wanting to paint themselves as the hero of their own story. But if we are truly objective, we know we can never be the hero in our own story. We have to be able to face the man in the mirror, taking the good with the bad to give a full account of our contributions in this life.”
Quick hits
Junior featherweight and 2020 British Olympian Peter McGrail (10-1, 6 KOs), 28, will face late replacement Rhys Edwards (16-0, 4 KOs), 24, of Wales, in a 10-rounder on the Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury II undercard on Saturday (DAZN PPV, $39.99) at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. McGrail was due to challenge European champion Dennis McCann (16-0-1, 8 KOs), 23, of England, but he tested positive for a banned substance in a random Voluntary Anti-Doping Association test and was dropped from the bout last week. McGrail said he was confident a replacement would be round and happy to still be on the show. “Well, fight plans change. We just remained focused,” McGrail said. “I believe in my team, his excellency Turki Alalshikh, and everyone else involved. Queensberry, Matchroom, I had belief in them that they were going to get a replacement and that’s what happened. I stayed focused on the job.”
Per the California State Athletic Commission, official purses for the Golden Boy/DAZN card this past Saturday night in Ontario: Alexis Rocha $200,000, Raul Curiel $100,000; Charles Conwell $150,000, Gerardo Vergara $40,000; John “Scrappy” Ramirez $30,000, Ephraim Bui $12,500; Marlen Esparza $50,000, Arley Mucino $22,500; Victor Morales $50,000, Ivan Guardado $15,000; Jorge Chavez $12,500, Ruben Casero $4,000; Ricardo Ruvalcaba $8,000, Jabin Chollet $7,000; Gael Cabrera $5,000, Garen Diagan $3,500; Joshua Garcia $7,200, Uhlices Avelino-Reyes $4,000; Fabian Guzman $2,500, Travis Floyd $2,000; Javier Meza $2,500, David Music $3,500.
Matchroom Boxing announced Tuesday that it has signed lightweight prospect Harley Mederos (7-0, 6 KOs), 24, of Brooklyn, New York, to a promotional agreement. Mederos, who is managed by Keith Connolly, has been somewhat inactive, fighting just twice this year and once in 2023. Mederos, who has appeared on previous Matchroom cards but without a promotional deal, is expected to have his first fight of the agreement on the Diego Pacheco-Steven Nelson undercard on Jan. 25 (DAZN) at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Show and tell
Manny Pacquiao, who earlier this month was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, will not just be any old Hall of Famer. Pacquiao (62-8-2, 39 KOs) will be among the best of the best Hall of Famers. He has prodigious achievements as boxing’s only eight-division champion, the oldest to win a welterweight title at age 40, three time BWAA fighter of the year, BWAA 2000s fighter of the decade, and was half of easily the richest fight in history against Floyd Mayweather in 2015. He is obviously the greatest boxer from the Philippines, Asia’s greatest fighter, and in the conversation for best southpaw of all time. And his resume is littered with wins over the numerous top fighters of his time, including fellow Hall of Famers Oscar De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton, Juan Manuel Marquez (2-1-1), Marco Antonio Barrera (2-0), Erik Morales (2-1), Timothy Bradley Jr. (2-1 with the loss literally one of the top 5 worse decisions in boxing history), and Shane Mosley. On Tuesday, Pacquiao, who is looking to return to the ring, turned 46, so happy birthday to the legend!
Here is Pacquiao’s somewhat scarce rookie card in my collection. It is part of a panel of four cards on thin card stock that was inside the February 1999 issue of the monthly Japanese “World Boxing” magazine and meant to be cut out. Mine is still part of the complete panel and attached to the issue. From 1996 to 1999 each issue contained a four-card panel. The set consists of 45 panels and 180 cards. Each panel typically featured two Japanese boxers, a retired legend and one active non-Japanese boxer. The set is tremendous and filled with stars of the time and retired legends. Besides Pacquiao, the set includes cards of fighters such as Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Salvador Sanchez, Ricardo Lopez, Lennox Lewis, Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad, Bernard Hopkins, Erik Morales, Kostya Tszyu, Johnny Tapia and many more. The Pacquiao rookie is by far and away the key card in the set.
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Photos: Usyk and Akhmadaliev: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing; Opetaia-Nyika: Tasman Fighters; Davis-Lemos: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Tyson: Getty Images for Netflix
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Itauma vs McKean might steal the show!
Don’t see how Fury wins this one. Coming in bigger is a huge mistake. Usyk will just find angles and make his life hell in the later rounds.
Opetaia nyika will be a interesting fight and a tough fight for opetaia