Notebook: Triller fails to pay Kovalev, Pulev brothers for May 14 fights, per sources

Conlan to fight Marriaga in Belfast homecoming; Ioka-Nietes II official; British Olympic silver medalist Ben Whittaker set for pro debut; Quick hits; Show and tell

Jun 02, 2022

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Triller, which has been beset by problems since it entered the boxing business in November 2020, has another one to add to the list: the company still has not paid Sergey Kovalev and brothers Tervel and Kubrat Pulev for the featured bouts they had on a Triller Fight Club pay-per-view card on May 14, according to multiple sources.

The money owed to heavyweight Jerry Forrest, who lost a unanimous decision to Kubrat Pulev in the 10-round co-feature at The Forum in Inglewood, California, and his promoter, DiBella Entertainment, has only been partially paid, according to sources.

Kovalev, a former three-time light heavyweight world titlist, returned from a 2½-year layoff, moved up to cruiserweight and won a 10-round unanimous decision over Tervel Pulev in the main event of TrillerVerz 5, which had a full card of boxing matches and performances by various rap acts, including Cypress Hill and Onyx in the featured “rap battle.”

Unexpectedly, the four featured fighters and their promoters, who had entered into provision of service agreements with Triller for the bouts, were not paid on fight night or by wire transfers in the days following the event, sources said.

According to sources, new Triller Fight Club president David Tetreault asked representatives for the fighters to allow the payments to be delayed for as long as 75 days until eventually settling on a deadline of May 31, but the money still had not been paid by Tuesday’s deadline.

Please check out the full story with more details at Big Fight Weekend: https://bigfightweekend.com/news/sources-triller-fails-to-pay-kovalev-pulev-brothers-for-may-14-fights/

Conlan to face Marriaga

Two weeks ago featherweight contender Michael Conlan revealed via social media that he would return to action in his hometown of Belfast, Northern Ireland on Aug. 6 during the city’s annual Feile an Phobail festival.

On Wednesday, Top Rank made the event official and unveiled Conlan’s opponent for the 10-round bout: former three-time world title challenger Miguel Marriaga.

They will square off at The SSE Arena in the main event of a card that will stream live in the United States on ESPN+.

“There is no place like home, and we are thrilled that Mick will get another chance to perform in front of the tremendous Belfast fans,” Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said in announcing the fight. “With a win over a solid opponent like Marriaga, he’ll once again be contending for a featherweight world title in short order.”

Conlan (16-1, 8 KOs), 30, will be fighting for the first time since his epic battle challenging WBA “regular” titlist Leigh Wood on March 12 in Wood’s hometown of Nottingham, England. Conlan knocked Wood down in the first round, Wood dropped Conlan in the 11th round and the fight concluded with Conlan, who was narrowly ahead on all three scorecards, getting knocked clear out of the ring in a 12th-round knockout loss of what was an electrifying fight.

“I’m very excited to be back fighting in my beloved Belfast,” Conlan said. “Miguel is a great fighter, and together we'll give the fans a memorable night at The SSE Arena. This bout will get me straight back in the mix for world titles, and I’m relishing the task at hand.”

Conlan, a two-time Irish Olympian, will be fighting in Belfast for the fourth time and for the third time headlining during Feile an Phobail.

“The road back for Michael starts with Miguel Marriaga,” said Jamie Conlan, Michael’s brother and CEO of Conlan Boxing. “Miguel is a dangerous man and one of the biggest punchers in the division who has mixed it up at the very top. Aug. 6 will be another electric night in the city in what is becoming an annual Irish boxing tradition with Michael's fight night at the Feile festival. The goal remains the same. Michael Conlan will be Ireland’s next world champion.”

“The Scorpion” Marriaga (30-5, 28 KOs), 35, of Colombia, suffered three of his losses in world title fights: decisions in featherweight title bouts against Nicholas Walters in 2015 and Oscar Valdez in 2017, and a seventh-round knockout loss to Vasiliy Lomachenko in a 2017 bid for a junior lightweight belt.

Marriaga is 5-2 since losing to Lomachenko and coming off a 10-round decision loss to Eduardo Ramirez in a junior lightweight bout on the Gervonta Davis-Isaac Cruz undercard in December in Los Angeles.

Ioka-Nietes rematch official

Kazuto Ioka will have a hometown defense of his WBO junior bantamweight title in a rematch with nemesis Donnie Nietes on July 13 at the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Probellum announced, making the long-expected fight official.

In December 2018, Nietes won a split decision over Ioka in Macau, China to claim the vacant WBO title.

Nietes (43-1-6, 23 KOs), 40, who has won world titles in four divisions from strawweight to junior bantamweight, eventually relinquished the title and Ioka returned from the loss to knock out Filipino countryman Aston Palicte in the 10th round to win the vacant belt in June 2019.

Ioka (28-2, 15 KOs), 33, has made four successful defenses as he heads into his sequel with Nietes, who retired for 2½ years after beating Ioka. Nietes returned in April 2021 and is 1-0-1 since returning. He is coming off a 10-round split draw with former title challenger Norbelto Jimenez in December.

“This was the fight I wanted the most and I am incredibly eager to win back my world title,” Nietes said. “I have been in training since February for this fight but I really stepped up my levels when I knew it was confirmed. This rematch makes me excited and when I vacated the title in 2018 it was always in my mind that I would, one day, win it back. On July 13, that dream will become a reality.”

Whittaker debut set

Light heavyweight Ben Whittaker, 24, of England, who claimed a silver medal at last summer’s delayed Tokyo Olympics, will make his much-anticipated professional debut on July 2 at AO Arena in Manchester, England, Boxxer announced.

Whittaker’s debut will come against an opponent to be named on the undercard of the Hughie Fury-Michael Hunter WBA eliminator for the right to challenge for the “regular” title and be televised on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom.

“Everything that's happened so far has led me to this and I have been waiting my whole life for this moment,” said Whittaker, who is trained by SugarHill Steward, the trainer of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. “I am just so excited to get in the ring and show you all what you already know I can do. I am counting down the days.”

Whittaker is managed by former unified heavyweight titlist Anthony Joshua’s 258 MGT.

Quick hits

Heavyweight Elvis Garcia (12-0, 9 KOs), 32, of Mexico, has tested positive for a banned substance in a random test conducted by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association and has withdrawn from a scheduled eight-rounder against Alante Green (10-0-1, 7 KOs), 29, of Cleveland, that was supposed to be the co-feature of Showtime’s “ShoBox” tripleheader June 10 at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York, coinciding with the International Boxing Hall of Fame weekend. Garcia knew he would be dropped from the fight and pulled himself out, manager Peter Bokolas told Fight Freaks Unite, adding that Garcia took tainted supplements he bought from a street vendor in Tijuana to save money. Green will now face George Arias (17-0, 7 KOs), 30, of Bronx, New York, in the new co-feature. Arias was scheduled for an untelevised bout and will move up the card.

Roger Gutierrez (26-3-1, 20 KOs), 27, will defend the WBA junior lightweight title for the second time when he meets mandatory challenger Hector Garcia (15-0, 10 KOs), 30, a southpaw from the Dominican Republic, on July 10 as part of the WBA’s charity KO Drugs Festival in Caracas, Venezuela, Gutierrez’s home country, according to Gutierrez promoter Golden Boy. Gutierrez dropped Rene Alvarado three times en route to a unanimous decision to win the 130-poud belt in January 2021 in Dallas in a rematch of a 2017 Alvarado victory in a nontitle fight. Gutierrez then outpointed Alvarado again in August in Frisco, Texas, to retain the title. Garcia earned the shot thanks to a lopsided upset decision over Chris Colbert, who had been Gutierrez’s mandatory challenger, on Feb. 26 in Las Vegas.

Puerto Rican junior middleweight hot prospect Xander Zayas (13-0, 9 KOs), 19, of Sunrise, Florida, has been forced to withdraw from his fight with Ravshan Hudaynazarov (19-5, 14 KOs) on June 11 at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York due to a non-Covid-related viral infection. The 10-rounder was slated to serve as the co-feature of the Edgar Berlanga-Roamer Alexis Angulo fight on ESPN on the eve of New York’s annual Puerto Rican Day parade. Moving up the card into the co-feature slot will be an eight-round all-Puerto Rican junior lightweight bout between southpaw Henry Lebron (15-0, 10 KOs), 24, and Luis Lebron (18-3-1, 11 KOs), 28, who are not related.

Show and tell

Two of the best known names in the heavyweight division during their time were former champions Evander Holyfield, a true legend and Hall of Famer, and Hasim Rahman. They were paired in an HBO main event that was a WBA title elimination fight I covered at ringside at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Holyfield was coming off a dreadful draw with John Ruiz in their third WBA heavyweight title bout in an unsuccessful bid to regain that belt. Rahman was coming off losing the heavyweight championship by knockout to Lennox Lewis in their rematch seven months earlier. But Holyfield and Rahman had big enough names that the fight drew an excited crowd for an important bout.

Holyfield generally outboxed Rahman, but the key moment was an accidental head butt during the seventh round that left Rahman with a massive and grotesque hematoma over his left eye. It literally looked like he had another head growing out of his head. The swelling was so severe that the fight was stopped midway through the eighth round and sent to the scorecards for a technical decision. Holyfield won the split decision with two judges scoring it 69-64 and one judge giving it to Rahman 67-66. While Holyfield would fight for nearly another decade the victory over Rahman was the last big win of his career. The fight was on June 1, 2002 — 20 years ago on Wednesday. Here is a tremendously rare site poster in my collection that originally hung in a light box on the famed Atlantic City boardwalk during fight week.

Kovalev photo: Getty; Whittaker photo: Boxxer

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