Notebook: Zepeda embraces chance to fight Arboleda in main event
Notebook: Zepeda embraces chance to fight Arboleda in main event
Usyk-Dubois update; Ramirez to defend on Fulton-Inoue card; Edwards defense set; another Mayweather exhibition; Parker back in action; Quick hits; Show and tell
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Lightweight contender William Zepeda, who was initially penciled in to box on the undercard of last Saturday’s Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia pay-per-view card, was thrilled to wind up in a main event a week later.
Indeed, Zepeda will defend his regional belt against Jaime Arboleda in a scheduled 12-rounder that tops the Golden Boy card on Saturday (DAZN, 8 p.m. ET) at the College Park Center on the campus of the University of Texas at Arlington in Arlington, Texas.
The original main event was to have been the highly anticipated bout between WBA “regular” welterweight titlist Eimantas Stanionis and mandatory challenger Vergil Ortiz Jr., but the fight was postponed on March 29 due to the recurrence of an Ortiz medial issue.
Golden Boy wanted to keep the card on the schedule and shifted Zepeda to the new main event.
“I am always preparing, and I was ready for this fight,” Zepeda said at his media workout this week. “I was lightly training already, at the ready to get the call. When I did, I was overjoyed, as I was excited to fight in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Champions are made by taking advantage of opportunities. When we defeated Joseph Diaz last year, my team and I trained hard to take advantage of the opportunity and it worked out perfectly for us.”
Zepeda (27-0, 23 KOs), 26, a powerful Mexican southpaw, scored his most significant win against Diaz in his last fight in October, cruising to a one-sided 12-round decision over the former junior lightweight titlist.
“Getting the opportunity to headline as the (A-side) red corner this time around is a blessing, and is the result of years of sacrifice, discipline, and hard work. We won't let the fans down this Saturday,” Zepeda said.
Arboleda (19-2, 14 KOs), 28, of Panama, has won three fights in a row since being stopped in the 11th round by Chris Colbert in an interim junior lightweight title bout in December 2020.
“There really isn't much more to say except that we are going to give fans a big show,” Arboleda said. “I come from a boxing family — my father, brothers, uncles and many other loved ones have dedicated their time to the sport, and I continue the family's legacy in boxing. We are going to show this Saturday that the Arboledas still have much to give to this very difficult sport.”
In the co-feature, featherweight Diego De La Hoya (24-1, 11 KOs), 28, of Mexico, who is Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya’s first cousin, will face Victor Morales (17-0-1, 8 KOs), 25, of Vancouver, Washington, in a 10-rounder.
Usyk-Dubois plans in works
Alex Krassyuk, the promoter of unified heavyweight titlist Oleksandr Usyk, is working to finalize Usyk’s WBA mandatory defense against “regular” titlist Daniel Dubois. He said on social media that the fight could take place this summer in Poland, which borders Usyk’s war-torn home country of Ukraine.
Usyk was planning to face lineal/WBC champion Tyson Fury on Saturday but those talks fell apart a few weeks ago when Usyk walked away due to Fury’s untenable demands related to terms of a rematch clause.
Once the fight was dead, the WBA ordered the overdue mandatory against Dubois.
Krassyuk posted to social media that he was meeting with Andrzej Wasilewski of Knockout Promotions, one of the leading promoters in Poland.
“Seeing my brother Andrzej Wasilewski to explore the opportunities for Usyk vs. Dubois in Poland this summer,” Krassyuk wrote.
Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs), a 36-year-old southpaw and the former undisputed cruiserweight champion, has been idle since winning a second consecutive unanimous decision over former two-time unified titlist Anthony Joshua in their rematch last August in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs), 25, of England, won the “regular” title by fourth-round knockout of Trevor Bryan in last June and made his first defense against Kevin Lerena in December on the Fury-Derek Chisora II undercard. Dubois was lucky to survive three knockdowns and a knee injury in the first round to stop Lerena in the third.
Ramirez to defend in Japan
Robeisy Ramirez will make his first defense of the WBO featherweight title against fellow southpaw Satoshi Shimizu in the co-feature of unified junior featherweight titlist Stephen Fulton’s defense against Japanese pound-for-pound star Naoya Inoue on July 25 (ESPN+), Top Rank announced early Thursday.
“Next stop, Japan,” Ramirez said. “I am happy to announce my quick return to the ring in what will be the first defense of my WBO world championship. Fighting is what I do best, titles are meant to be defended, and there’s no stopping ‘El Tren.’
Two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist Ramirez (12-1, 7 KOs), 29, won the vacant 126-pound belt by one-sided decision over former junior featherweight titlist Isaac Dogboe on April 1 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He scored a 12th-round knockdown and won 119-108, 118-109 and 117-110.
Shimizu (11-1, 10 KOs), 37, a 2008 and 2012 Japanese Olympian, has won three fights in a row since a sixth-round knockout to Joe Noynay in July 2019. This will be his first world tile opportunity.
Shimizu was a bronze medalist in the 2012 Olympics, defeating Dogboe in the tournament before losing to eventual gold medalist and former world title challenger Luke Campbell.
Edwards title defense
Sunny Edwards will defend the IBF flyweight title for the fourth time when he faces Andres Campos on June 10 (DAZN) at the OVO Arena Wembley in London, Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn announced on Wednesday.
“Sunny headlines in his first fight with us and with those massive unification fights on the horizon, he’ll be looking to shine against Andres, who can upset the odds in his first world title fight,” Hearn said.
Edwards (19-0, 4 KOs), 27, of England, will fight for the first time since signing with Matchroom Boxing in late Match and with a victory there is a good chance he will land a unification fight later in the year since Matchroom Boxing also promotes WBC titlist Julio Cesar Martinez and WBO titleholder Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez. All three fighters say they are interested in unifying.
Campos (15-0, 4 KOs), 26, of Chile, will fight outside of his home country for the third time and in England for the first time. He has faced a series of non-descript opponents since turning pro in 2018.
“Campos has been calling for a fight with me for a couple years now since I’ve been champion, which is strange to me,” Edwards said. “So, now I’m gonna cook him like sweet chili and send him back packing with his tail between his legs, the little Muppet.”
The card will also include two women’s world title bouts: Nina Hughes defending the WBA bantamweight belt against Shannon Courtenay and Cherneka Johnson defending the IBF junior featherweight title against Ellie Scotney.
Hughes (5-0, 2 KOs), 40, of England, will make her first defense against Courtenay (8-2, 3 KOs), 29, of England, who is seeking to regain the belt she once held.
Johnson (15-1, 6 KOs), 28, of Australia, will make her second defense against Scotney (6-0, 0 KOs), 25, of England, the former European champion.
Quick hits
Heavyweight Jared Anderson’s fight on July 1, his first pro bout in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio, will come against Zhan Kossobutskiy, a source with knowledge of the bout told Fight Freaks Unite on Wednesday. The fight, which will headline a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card, will also see Anderson (14-0, 14 KOs), 23, the 2021 Fight Freaks Unite prospect of the year, in his first main event. Kossobutskiy (19-0, 18 KOs), 34, a southpaw from Kazakhstan, will be fighting in the United States for the first time. He has faced mostly low-level opposition but two fights ago, in May 2022, he stopped former world title challenger Johann Duhaupas in the fifth round. Duhaupas has faced several name opponents and was stopped in the 11th round challenging then-WBC titlist Deontay Wilder in 2015.
Hall of Fame great Floyd Mayweather, 46, will take part in his seventh exhibition bout since retiring 50-0 in 2017. He is scheduled to face John Gotti III, the grandson of notorious gangster John Gotti, on June 11 at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida. Gotti, 30, of Oyster Bay, New York, is 5-1 in MMA and since turning pro in boxing in October is 2-0 with 1 KO. A news conference is scheduled for Thursday in Miami. Mayweather said the event, which will also feature musical performances, is dedicated to his longtime assistant, Marikit “Kitchie” Laurico, who recently died. Mayweather’s last exhibition was against MMA fighter/British reality TV star Aaron Chalmers on Feb. 25 in London.
Former WBO heavyweight titleholder Joseph Parker (31-3, 21 KOs), 31, of New Zealand, will face Australia’s Faiga Opelu (15-3-2, 11 KOs), 29, for the vacant Commonwealth title in the main event of a No Limit Boxing card on May 24 at Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne, Australia. Parker is seeking a second win in a row since being knocked out in the 11th round of a slugfest with Joe Joyce for the vacant WBO interim title in September. Junior middleweight Nikita Tszyu (5-0, 4 KOs), 25, the son of Hall of Famer Kostya Tszyu and younger brother of WBO interim junior middleweight titlist Tim Tszyu, will face Australian countryman Benjamin Bommber (5-0, 4 KOs), 21, in the six-round co-feature.
Gervonta Davis’ seventh-round knockout of Ryan Garcia on Showtime PPV in the year’s biggest fight this past Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas will be replayed on Showtime on Saturday (9 p.m. ET/PT), the network announced. Also, immediately following coverage of the bout, Showtime will debut the “All Access” epilogue episode that will review the buildup to the bout and the fight.
The WBO scheduled a purse bid for a junior welterweight title eliminator between Arnold Barboza Jr. (28-0, 10 KOs), 31, of Los Angeles, and Liam Paro (23-0, 14 KOs), 26, a southpaw from Australia. The organization sent their promoters, Top Rank and Matchroom Boxing, respectively, a letter informing them that the purse bid to determine promotional rights is scheduled to take place on Thursday at 11 a.m. ET at the WBO offices in San Juan. Minimum bid is $150,000. The winner of the fight would become the mandatory challenger for the winner of the June 11 bout between champion Josh Taylor and current mandatory Teofimo Lopez.
Undisputed women’s super middleweight champion Franchon Crews-Dezurn (8-1, 2 KOs), 35, of Baltimore, who was ordered earlier this month to make her WBC mandatory defense against Shadasia Green (12-0, 11 KOs), 33, of Paterson, New Jersey, was given a one-fight pass when the WBC rescinded the order after being made aware she was far down the road making a deal to face former WBO middleweight titlist Savannah Marshall (12-1, 10 KOs), 31, of England, in a fight announced this week as the co-feature on the card headlined by the Liam Smith-Chris Eubank Jr. middleweight rematch June 17 at AO Arena in Manchester, England. However, the WBC mandated that the Crews-Dezurn-Marshall winner must face Green next “without any intervening bouts,” including if Crews-Dezurn-Marshall has a rematch clause, according to the WBC letter issued on the matter.
Golden Boy announced is has signed middleweight prospect Eric Priest (9-0, 7 KOs), 24, of Los Angeles. Priest turned pro in 2020 after an amateur career of 60-plus bouts and a gold medal in the 2017 Kansas Golden Gloves tournament. He has gained experience training with fighters such as middleweight titlist Janibek Alimkhanuly, Tim Tszyu, Gabriel Rosado and Israil Madrimov. “I am beyond thrilled to have the opportunity to begin fighting under the Golden Boy banner,” said Priest, who is trained by Pedro Neme Jr. and Eddie Autry at Churchill Boxing Club in Santa Monica. “I’m ready to make noise in the middleweight division and believe Golden Boy is the right promotion to stand beside me on my way to the top. I believe I was born for this.”
Former WBC bantamweight titlist Nordine Oubaali (17-1, 12 KOs), 36, a southpaw from France, is ending a two-year retirement on Saturday when he will take on Ricardo Martinez (9-9, 6 KOs), a Nicaragua native fighting out of Spain, in eight-rounder in Douai, France. Oubaali, a 2008 and 2012 Olympian, has been out of the ring since losing his title by fourth-round knockout to Nonito Donaire in May 2021 in Carson, California, on Showtime.
Late Saturday result: Lukasz Rozanski (15-0, 14 KOs), 37, of Poland, crushed Alen Babic (11-1, 10 KOs), 32, of Croatia, in 2 minutes, 10 seconds to win the vacant WBC bridgerweight title at G2A Arena in Rzeszow, Poland. Oscar Rivas won the first bridgerweight belt (the 224-pound division the WBC created) by decision over Ryan Rozicki in October 2021 but his mandatory against Rozanski was postponed multiple times and then canceled after Rivas suffered a serious eye injury and was stripped.
Show and tell
James Toney had won world titles at middleweight and super middleweight but he was essentially on the boxing scrap heap by the early 2000s when he linked up with the late, great Hall of Fame promoter Dan Goossen, who took Toney on as a reclamation project and did a tremendous job garnering him publicity and guiding him back to the top. He got Toney a shot against undefeated IBF cruiserweight titlist Vassiliy Jirov, a 1996 Olympic gold medalist, in an HBO main event and that launched Toney into a series of lucrative and significant fights at heavyweight. I was ringside inside the theater at the Foxwoods resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut, to cover the fight for USA Today. I had attended the annual BWAA awards dinner the previous night in New York and then took the three-hour or so drive with Hall of Fame publicist “Uncle” Bill Caplan to Connecticut in the middle of the night, slept in on Saturday and then covered the great fight that night.
Toney-Jirov was absolutely sensational, one of the best fights I have been ringside for. It was voted as the fight of the year by the BWAA and remains is in the conversation as the best cruiserweight fight in history. They battled intensely from the opening bell in what appeared to be a very, very close fight. Toney trainer Freddie Roach bluntly told Toney before the 12th round that he had to put Jirov “on his ass” to win and Toney followed directions, flooring Jirov for a dramatic knockdown. In the end, Toney won the title by scores of 117-109, 117-109 and 116-110 though everybody but the judges had it much closer. HBO’s Harold Lederman had it 113-113. In the co-feature, Antonio Tarver easily outpointed Montell Griffin to win the vacant WBC and IBF light heavyweight titles Roy Jones Jr. had vacated. The card was on April 26, 2003 — 20 years ago on Wednesday. Here is very scarce site poster in my collection.
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Photos: Zepeda: Golden Boy; Usyk: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing
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If Sunny Edwards can mix up his punch selection like he mixes metaphors, Campos is in for a long night.