Notebook: Tszyu eyes history in front of special guest on special date
Braekhus back in action; Benavidez signs new promotional deal; new opponent for Navarrete with Valdez injured; Quick hits; Show and tell
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Junior middleweight contender Tim Tszyu will have a special guest at ringside on a special date next month when he attempts to wrest the undisputed world title from Jermell Charlo.
They will square off on Jan. 28 (Showtime) at Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Hall of Fame former undisputed junior welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu, Tim’s father, will be on hand watching to see if his son can give the family two undisputed champions.
“My father will be in attendance for the fight. It will be good,” Tim Tszyu said on Wednesday in a virtual press conference to kick off the promotion. “He hasn’t been to any of my fights for logistical reasons since my first fight. To have people who have been there and done that, it brings a cool energy.”
The date is also meaningful. It will be 28 years to the day since Kostya Tszyu won his first world title, a sixth-round knockout of Jake Rodriguez on Jan. 28, 1995 at the MGM Grand, which is just down the street from Mandalay Bay.
He later became the undisputed 140-pound champion during the three-belt era in 2001 on Showtime, where he had most of his biggest fights, including when he memorably knocked out Zab Judah in the second round to retain his two belts and take Judah’s, also at the MGM Grand.
Now it will be his son, the WBO mandatory challenger, who will also go for history on Showtime. Tim Tszyu made his Showtime and American debut in March in Minneapolis in a unanimous decision over former title challenger Terrell Gausha after stepping aside to allow Charlo to have a rematch of a previous draw with Brian Castano to crown the undisputed 154-pound champion.
Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs), 32, of Houston, knocked out Castano in the 10th-round of the hard-fought rematch last May in a fight of the year contender to become the first four-belt undisputed junior middleweight champion. Tszyu wasted no time pressing for his shot.
“Tim could have certainly said that he’d like to fight a couple more times in the U.S. and work his way up to Jermell. But he didn’t do that, very much in the spirit of his father, who took on all comers, who took on tough fight after tough fight in some of the most iconic fights in Showtime history,” Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza said. “Tim is following in his footsteps. He demanded this fight. He wanted this fight and he didn’t waste any time looking for tune-ups. Now, you have two of the top fighters in the division looking to go at each other.”
Tszyu has the cool, confident demeanor of his father.
“There’s going to be a new king of the division on Jan. 28,” he said to Charlo. “I can promise non-stop action. Keep those belts shiny because I’m coming to grab them.
“This fight has been a long time in the making for me. I’ve been chasing this, so I’m glad that it’s finally come. I’m excited to get this opportunity. Christmas and all of that doesn’t matter right now. There’s only one task in mind. I came to America for a purpose. Not to just come here for the fight. My plan is for victory. I came here to adapt a bit earlier and I’ll be 100 percent ready on Jan. 28.”
Tszyu (21-0, 15 KOs), 28, of Australia, arrived in Los Angeles about two weeks ago to train and plans to shift his camp to Las Vegas at the end of December.
“When I first was told about the date, I didn’t realize that was the same date my father fought for his first world title,” Tszyu said. “I don’t usually believe in fate. I think destiny and fate is something that you have to work for. For me, I feel like it doesn’t matter about the bloodline. It’s about what you yourself put into it. I’ve been eyeing this fight for two years now. It’s been in the back of my mind and I’ve been studying and obsessing over it. I’ve been pushing for this hard. This is the test that I need in my career. This is it for me, kill or be killed.”
Braekhus returns
Former longtime undisputed women’s welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus (36-2, 9 KOs), 41, of Norway, will end a 21-month layoff in a six-rounder against Marisa Joana Portillo (19-15-3, 4 KOs), 34, of Argentina on the undercard of the Golden Boy show on Saturday (DAZN, 9 p.m. ET) at Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.
Braekhus, who is moving up to junior middleweight, has been out of the ring since March 2021, when he dropped a second straight decision to Jessica McCaskill, who took the undisputed title from her in their first fight in August 2020.
“I’m very excited to return to the ring this Saturday night and especially fighting in Los Angeles for the third time,” Braekhus said. “This is a new weight class for me after spending my whole career at welterweight and I’m anxious to make my mark quickly towards world title fights.”
Braekhus won her first world title in 2009, became undisputed in 2014 and made 25 overall defenses, which ties her with heavyweight legend Joe Louis for most consecutive title defenses in any weight class, male or female.
New deal for Benavidez
David Benavidez, a former two-time WBC super middleweight titlist and current WBC interim titleholder, and promoter Sampson Lewkowicz announced they have extended their promotional deal.
“I feel great re-signing with Sampson,” Benavidez said. “I’m happy to continue with him and very appreciative for his help building my career from nearly the beginning.”
Lewkowicz added, “I’m very happy to be able to continue this journey. David is in line for many big fights that will define his legacy as one of the greats and I’m very proud to be his promoter and for all he has already done and all he will do in the near future.”
Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs), 25, of Phoenix, was 21 when he became the youngest-ever super middleweight titlist in 2017.
He is set to defend the interim belt for the first time against former titleholder Caleb Plant on a date to be determined in March with the winner being a mandatory challenger for undisputed 168-pound champion Canelo Alvarez.
“(Sampson) was the first to believe in David. Now, everyone wants to sign him,” said Jose Benavidez Sr., David’s father and trainer. “The reason we got those belts is because of the work he put in. We’re super exited to continue this journey and to be able to get these big fights.”
Injured Valdez out vs. Navarrete
Barely a week after the vacant WBO junior lightweight title bout between former featherweight and junior lightweight titlist Oscar Valdez and reigning WBO featherweight titlist Emanuel Navarrete was set for Feb. 3, Valdez suffered an undisclosed training injury that forced him to withdraw from the fight, according to Top Rank.
Valdez (30-1, 23 KOs), 31, of Mexico, whose last fight in April was a lopsided decision loss to Shakur Stevenson in a junior lightweight unification fight, was due to return this fall but was also sidelined due to an injury. The two injuries are not related, according to Team Valdez.
Navarrete (36-1, 30 KOs), 27, of Mexico, instead is being lined up to face Liam Wilson (11-1, 7 KOs), 26, of Australia, for the vacant title on the same date in the main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. The fight would be Wilson’s first outside of Australia.
The Navarrete-Wilson winner would face Valdez next, according to Top Rank.
The WBO and WBC titles became vacant when Stevenson failed to make weight the 130-pound weight limit for a defense against Robson Conceicao on Sept. 23.
The Feb 3 co-feature will be a 10-round junior welterweight bout between Arnold Barboza (27-0, 10 KOs), 31, of Los Angeles, and Puerto Rico’s Jose Pedraza (29-4-1, 14 KOs), 33, a former lightweight and junior lightweight titlist.
Quick hits
The Ohio State Athletic Commission on Tuesday denied the protest from Cleveland junior welterweight Montana Love, who was seeking to have his sixth-round disqualification against Australia’s Stevie Spark on Nov. 12 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland overturned. Spark’s victory will stand. He dropped Love in the second round of a very close fight before it ended in chaos. In the sixth round, Love suffered a bad cut from an accidental head but and the fight was nearly stopped. Moments later, Love (18-1-1, 9 KOs), 27, pushed Spark (16-2, 14 KOs), 26, over the top rope and out of the ring onto the arena floor as referee David Fields tried to break them apart along the ropes. Love continued to push Spark, who was fortunate not be injured when he landed, and Fields DQ’d him in the main event of the Matchroom Boxing card on DAZN.
As Top Rank works on its early 2023 ESPN schedule, one card is penciled in for March 18 (against the NCAA men’s basketball tournament) at a site to be determined that would have featherweight contender Robeisy Ramirez in the main event and junior middleweight prospect Xander Zayas in the co-feature. No opponents yet. Ramirez (11-1, 7 KOs), 28, the two-time Olympic gold medalist from Cuba, knocked out Jose Matias Romero in his last fight in October and is on the verge of a world title fight. Zayas (15-0, 10 KOs), a 20-year-old Puerto Rican from Sunrise, Florida, scored a shutout eight-round decision over Alexis Salazar on Saturday night’s Teofimo Lopez-Sandor Martin undercard at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Promoter Frank Warren made official on Wednesday what has been expected for weeks, that WBA flyweight titlist Artem Dalakian will make his mandatory defense against David Jimenez on the Artur Beterbiev-Anthony Yarde card on Jan. 28 (ESPN+ in the U.S., BT Sport in the U.K.) at the OVO Arena Wembley in London. Dalakian (21-0, 15 KOs), 35, of Ukraine, will be making his sixth defense and first since a ninth-round knockout of Luis Concepcion in November 2021. Jimenez (12-0, 9 KOs), 30, of Costa Rica, won a majority decision over Ricardo Sandoval in a title eliminator on the Ryan Garcia-Javier Fortuna undercard on July 16 to become the mandatory challenger.
The WBO agreed this week to a seven-day extension for the purse bid for the fight between cruiserweight titlist Lawrence Okolie (18-0, 14 KOs), 29, of England, and mandatory challenger David Light (20-0, 12 KOs), 31, of New Zealand. It was slated for Wednesday but now is scheduled for Dec. 22 at 10 a.m. ET at the WBO offices in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Okolie’s lawyer and Light’s manager both requested the postponement, although Okolie promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing objected. He and Okolie have been at odds for months.
The WBA at its convention this week in Orlando decided to reinstate Russian and Belarusian boxers in its rankings following their removal soon after Russia’s illegal and unproved invasion of Ukraine in February. “The athletes are not soldiers or part of the government, so they have nothing to do with the war against Ukraine or any ongoing conflict,” the WBA said in a statement. “However, it was determined that any fighter who speaks out in favor of the war or is involved in it will be removed immediately. For the sake of the sport and in favor of the careers of the fighters, they will be able to return to the rankings and fight for WBA titles.”
Show and tell
Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins, the former middleweight and light heavyweight champion, was 51 years old and coming off a nearly two-year layoff following a shutout decision loss to Sergey Kovalev in a three-belt unification fight. Hopkins had set various age-related records, including as the oldest fighter to win a world title (twice) and the oldest fighter to unify belts. But he wanted one more fight so he could go out on his own terms. He would have liked to fight for a light heavyweight title or even drop down for a title shot at super middleweight, but none of the titleholders were available on his schedule of wanting to box before the end of the year and before his 52nd birthday in January.
Hopkins and I had a close relationship despite some very rocky times years earlier and when we were in London for Gennadiy Golovkin-Kell Brook — he as an HBO commentator, me covering it for ESPN — we ran into each other one morning at the hotel and BHop invited me to breakfast because he wanted to talk about his career and get my opinion on who he should fight in his finale. It was at that breakfast overlooking the River Thames that I wound up serving as the unofficial matchmaker for his last bout, which was dubbed “The Final 1.” He told me what he was looking for in an opponent — a legitimate guy, first and foremost — and I came up with Joe Smith Jr., who had recently emerged as a contender. Hopkins liked my idea and the fight with Smith was made. It did not go well for Hopkins, who was competitive until the eighth round when, just as HBO broadcaster Jim Lampley was telling the story of my breakfast with Hopkins and how Smith became the opponent, Smith landed a wicked four-punch combination that ejected Hopkins from the ring and onto the floor for the knockout at The Forum in Inglewood, California, where I was ringside. And with that, the legendary 28-year career of Hopkins came to a memorable end. Smith would go on to win a light heavyweight world title and Hopkins indeed retired. The fight was on Dec. 17, 2016 — six years ago on Saturday. Here is a scarce site poster in my collection.
Tszyu and Benavidez photos: Esther Lin/Showtime; Braekhus photo: Melina Pizano/Matchroom Boxing; Valdez photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank
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Just the facts man I like that..... i am glad that Love did not get his way in the complain about his last fight and loss.