Notebook: Thurman-Barrios PPV card official and participants begin to hype it up

Christmas Day PBC card; Top Rank and featherweight contender Lopez agree to new deal; WBO rules on Casimero; Khan-Brook U.S. rights; Quick hits; Show and tell

Dec 23, 2021

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Former unified welterweight world titlist Keith Thurman, who is ending a 2½-year layoff, and Mario Barrios will meet in their 12-round main event of a Premier Boxing Champions card on Feb. 5 (Fox Sports PPV) at Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, PBC announced this week.

On its Fox card this past Saturday, PBC unveiled the fights on the pay-per-view but didn’t announce the site or get into much detail.

Because of the pandemic and injuries, Thurman (29-1, 22 KOs), 33, of Clearwater, Florida, has been idle since losing a decision and his welterweight belt to Manny Pacquiao in July 2019. Thurman also did not fight at all in 2018 and was limited to one fight in 2017 and one in 2016, also mainly due to injuries.

“It’s been a long time coming for my return to the ring, and I can’t wait to compete again,” Thurman said. “In 2022, I will remind the world of boxing that Keith 'One Time' Thurman is a fighter not to forget. I look not to the past nor to the future, I'm back now, and I'm ready to fight. I dream big, and now is the time to make that dream a reality. Get ready, because I’m putting in the work to put on a show against Mario Barrios on Feb. 5 on pay-per-view. It’s begun and my time is now.”

Barrios (26-1, 17 KOs), 26, of San Antonio, is moving up in weight and, like Thurman, also coming off his first loss. On June 26, Gervonta Davis knocked him out in the 11th round to take his secondary junior welterweight belt.

“I’m excited to be making my welterweight debut against a great fighter and former world champion like Keith Thurman,” Barrios said. “A lot of fighters wouldn’t take this fight, but that’s why I wanted it. Both of us like to throw a lot of bombs and I believe this will be an all-out war. The fans know I’m a warrior and that I don’t back down from any challenge.”

The other three bouts are scheduled 10-rounders.

In the co-feature, featherweight titlist Leo Santa Cruz (37-2-1, 19 KOs), 33, of Rosemead, California, will engage in a nontitle bout with Keenan Carbajal (23-2-1, 15 KOs), 30, of Phoenix.

In Santa Cruz’s last fight in October 2020, he lost his junior lightweight title by brutal sixth-round knockout to Davis and is returning to featherweight.

“I’m excited to be back after (more than) a year out of the ring,” Santa Cruz said. “I’m looking forward to giving the fans a great fight and hopefully everyone will enjoy my fight and a great night of boxing.”

Carbajal, the nephew of Hall of Famer Michael Carbajal, has won 18 fights in a row since dropping a six-rounder in 2015, but is also taking a huge step up in competition.

“This is my introduction to the world, and like the Phoenix, I will rise to the occasion,” Carbajal said. “I’m preparing to be at my very best and give everything I’ve got against a great champion in Leo Santa Cruz.”

Former welterweight world title challengers Abel Ramos (27-4-2, 21 KOs), 30, of Casa Grande, Arizona, and Josesito Lopez (38-8, 21 KOs), 37, of Riverside, California, both hope a win will propel them closer to another title opportunity.

“I’m excited to start off the year with a big fight,” said Ramos, who dropped a split to decision to Yordenis Ugas for a vacant belt two fights ago in September 2020. “Josesito is a very good fighter and I expect this fight to be a war.”

Lopez has faces a slew of top opponents but usually lost when stepping up, including to Canelo Alvarez in a junior middleweight title fight, Thurman in a welterweight title fight, Marcos Maidana, Andre Berto and Jessie Vargas. He owns an upset knockout of Victor Ortiz that put him on the map.

“I’m extremely motivated and ready to take on my next assignment,” Lopez said. “I’m expecting a tough challenge from Ramos, but I'm more than ready to display my skills and prove that I’m one of the best fighters in the world.”

In the opener, former bantamweight and junior featherweight titlist Luis Nery (31-1, 24 KOs), 27, a Mexican southpaw, will look to rebound from losing his junior featherweight belt by seventh-round knockout to Brandon Figueroa in his first defense in his last fight on May 15. He will face Carlos Castro (27-0, 12 KOs), 27, of Phoenix.

“I didn’t want any easy fights, and I asked for the best ranked opponent I could get,” Nery said. “Castro has a great record and is ranked highly. A win over Castro puts me back in the world title mix and that’s where I’m looking to be.”

Castro notched his biggest win on Aug. 21, when he knocked out former title challenger Oscar Escandon on the Manny Pacquiao-Ugas undercard.

“I’m super excited for this upcoming fight,” Castro said. “I’m going to show everyone why I deserve my high ranking and earn a shot at the world champions.”

PBC on Christmas Day

Roseland, New Jersey, welterweight Vito Mielnicki Jr. is not one of those boxers who would prefer to lay off training during the holiday season. Instead he embraced it in preparation for a rare Christmas Day fight card.

Mielnicki (9-1, 6 KOs) will face Nicholas DeLomba (16-3, 5 KOs) in the 10-round main event of the Premier Boxing Champions card on Saturday (Fox and Fox Deportes, 8 p.m. ET) at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

“I’m blessed to be back here fighting on Christmas Day in my home state at Prudential Center,” Mielnicki said. “We’re ready to put on a show for everyone on Christmas. This is going to be a great gift for everyone. We’re going to give you a great night of action.

“This is a dream come true for me. There’s no other way I’d rather spend Christmas. I’m living the dream at 19-years-old. I can’t wait to perform in front of a huge audience on Fox. I’m really excited to be able to fight in front of my home fans in the state of New Jersey. This is my toughest opponent to date, and I’m expecting a tough fight.”

Mielnicki is aiming for his second win in a row since an upset eight-round majority decision loss to James Martin on April 17.

DeLomba, 31, of Cranston, Rhode Island, was at first hesitant about fighting on Christmas Day fight because he wanted to be with his son. But he got the OK from 5-year-old Nicholas Jr.

“The first thing I did was ask him, ‘Do you mind if daddy fights on Christmas day? Daddy will get you whatever you want,” DeLomba said. “Now he’s telling everyone, ‘My daddy is fighting on Fox!’ It made me feel so much more comfortable.”

DeLomba is coming off a long layoff, having not boxed since a shutout 10-round decision loss to prospect Richard Hitchins in February 2020.

In the co-feature, middleweight Joey Spencer (13-0, 9 KOs), 21, of Union City, California, will face Mexico native Limberth Ponce (18-4, 11 KOs), 30, of Rock Island, Illinois, in an eight-rounder.

New Top Rank deal for Lopez

Featherweight Luis Alberto Lopez (24-2, 13 KOs), 28, of Mexico, has signed a new multi-year promotional contract with Top Rank, the company announced on Thursday.

The announcement comes three weeks after Lopez became the mandatory challenger for IBF titlist Kiko Martinez. Lopez traveled to the home turf of Isaac Lowe and knocked him out in the seventh round of a title eliminator Dec. 3 at York Hall in London. It was the third win of a productive 2021 for Lopez, who in his previous bout battered prospect Gabriel Flores Jr. in a near-shutout decision win at junior lightweight on Sept. 10.

“There are few more entertaining warriors in boxing than Luis Alberto Lopez, and he earned a new promotional contract and a shot at the title with a sensational year,” Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said.

Lopez was appreciative of the new deal.

“I am thankful to Bob Arum, (matchmaker) Brad Goodman, and everybody at Top Rank. 2022 is the year I achieve my dream of becoming a world champion,” Lopez said. “Kiko Martinez is a great champion, but he is the man standing in my way. Next year, I will bring that IBF title home to Mexicali.”

WBO’s Casimero ruling

WBO bantamweight titlist John Riel Casimero (31-4, 21 KOs), 32, of the Philippines, who withdrew from his mandatory defense versus Paul Butler the day before the Dec. 11 fight in Dubai because he said he had to go to the hospital due to gastritis, has delivered the medical paperwork detailing the visit, as the WBO ordered in it’s “show cause” letter in which he had to explain why he should not be stripped of the title.

Having received and letter and paperwork, the WBO has issued a detailed ruling on the situation.

“There is no controversy as to the cause of Casimero’s physical impediment to engaging in the WBO Bantamweight Mandatory Championship Bout against Paul Butler per the medical documents furnished to the WBO,” the WBO wrote. “In essence, all the supportive evidence concluded that Casimero’s diagnosis was Viral Gastritis. Furthermore, these findings were rendered by duly licensed physicians and certified by the respective medical institutions. Therefore, we deem it unnecessary to challenge these findings through independent medical reviews.”

According to the resolution, the WBO has given Butler promoter Probellum, which holds the promotional rights to the bout because it won a purse bid, 15 days to notify the organization if it plans to reschedule the fight.

If the fight is rescheduled, the WBO put conditions on Casimero and Butler. If Casimero misses the weigh-in, as he did earlier this month, he will be stripped of the title. If he suffers an injury, declines to fight or does not go through with the bout for any reason he will also be stripped.

And if Butler does not attend the weigh-in, suffers an injury, declines to fight or does not go through with the bout for any reason the WBO will withdraw his mandatory status and the next leading available contender in the WBO’s 118-pound rankings will be given a shot at the title.

Quick hits

While the fight between British rivals and former world titleholders Amir Khan and Kell Brook, which is contracted for 149 pounds and scheduled for Feb. 19 at the AO Arena in Manchester, England, headlines a Sky Box Office pay-per-view in the United Kingdom, it will stream live on ESPN+ in the United States, sources with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite. Khan (34-5, 21 KOs), 34, a former unified junior welterweight titlist, and former welterweight titleholder Brook (39-3, 27 KOs), 35, have danced around each other for years until finally agreeing to meet when they are both at the end of their careers and neither has another bigger possible bout.

Probellum announced it has signed cruiserweight contender Noel Mikaelian (25-2, 11 KOs), 31, an Armenia native fighting out of Germany, who is best known for his participation in the second season of the World Boxing Super Series. In the November 2018 quarterfinals of the tournament in Chicago, he lost a unanimous decision to Mairis Breidis, who is now the reigning champion. Mikaelian (formerly known as Gevor) has won two bouts since. “I believe this will be a significant step in my development as a fighter, and I’m really looking forward to starting 2022 in a positive way, under the guidance of Probellum,” Mikaelian said.

Show and tell

For the decades I have collected boxing stuff, my main focus has always been a three-headed monster: posters, programs and cards, and they still are. But several years ago I began dabbling in tickets. I have put together and nice batch of more than 750 tickets, mostly from fights in recent years (although I do have some nice older ones also), including from bouts involving Canelo Alvarez, Gennadiy Golovkin, Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, Anthony Joshua, Wladimir Klitschko, Manny Pacquiao, Terence Crawford, Errol Spence Jr., Vasiliy Lomachenko and many others. Here are two of the latest additions: full tickets from Lomachenko’s dominating decision victory over fellow former lightweight titleholder Richard Commey on Dec. 11 at New York’s Madison Square Garden and unified light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev’s blood-soaked ninth-round knockout of Marcus Browne on Dec. 17 at Montreal’s Bell Centre. Ticket collecting from current fights has become more difficult because many arenas predominantly use digital tickets rather than physical ones, and if physical tickets are produced they are fairly limited.

Mielnicki photo: Andrew Maclean/HBSE; Casimero photo: Sean Michael Ham/PBC

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