Random thoughts: 2021 could be year of the undisputed world champion
Fury/AJ/Wilder conspiracies; Taylor talk; documentaries abound
Some random boxing thoughts…
It’s a beautiful thing for boxing to be able to answer this question with no need to explain anything: Who is the junior welterweight world champion? The response is simple because there is only one correct answer: Josh Taylor, following his exciting and close decision win over Jose Ramirez to unify the four major belts to become the undisputed champion last Saturday.
Boxing would be a lot better off if there was such clarity in more divisions. Thankfully, Taylor could be just the first of multiple undisputed champions to be crowned this year.
The Canelo Alvarez (three belts) and Caleb Plant (one) camps are in talks for them to meet for all four super middleweight titles in September in what would be an enormous event. Unless Plant prices himself out it should not be a hard fight to make as both fighters have said time and again how much they want it. It’s the only fight in the division that even makes sense for either guy.
On July 17, barring a draw, Jermell Charlo (three belts) and Brian Castano (one) will meet for the undisputed junior middleweight title on Showtime. And, yes, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua could still meet at the end of the year to unify the four heavyweight belts if they get through their summer interim fights.
I hope once the pandemic makes having crowds around the world possible and international travel easier that we will see another edition of the World Boxing Super Series. There were issues with the past tournaments but, by and large, they have delivered on their promise of quality fights with deep fields. The WBSS made it possible for Oleksandr Usyk to become the undisputed champ at cruiserweight and paved the way for Taylor to do so at junior welterweight since he was able to win his tournament final by unifying two belts, which led him to the Ramirez fight.
Speaking of Taylor, although he is likely to next make a mandatory defense against Jack Catterall there has been much conjecture about a possible move up to welterweight to challenge Top Rank stablemate and titleholder Terence Crawford, which, of course, is an interesting fight. But for my money, I would much prefer to see Taylor stick around at 140 pounds and await the arrival soon of another Top Rank stablemate, unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez, if Lopez handles his mandatory defense against George Kambosos on June 19. Taylor-Lopez would be an outstanding fight. And I would also love to see Taylor face Regis Prograis in a rematch of their tremendous unification fight in 2019 in the WBSS final.
There have been a lot of conspiracy theories about what really happened to the now-scuttled August undisputed heavyweight title fight between Fury and Joshua. The most amusing one I’ve heard is that Fury really didn’t want the fight and all along planed to fight Deontay Wilder for the third time. That is absurd because why would he want to fight for a fraction of the money he would make against Joshua (nine figures) and have it not be for the undisputed title? Makes zero sense.
Beyond that, after Wilder won his arbitration case against Fury to force the third fight next there were those who called foul because the deal for the fight was wrapped up in just a few days. If it took months to make the Fury-AJ deal so how could it only take a few days to wrap up Fury-Wilder III? I will tell those dummies how: Once it was clear Fury had no choice but to face Wilder again, per the arbitration ruling, it was easy because the terms for the third fight (60-40 in Fury’s favor) were already laid out in the rematch clause in the contract that governed the second fight in February 2020, which is what arbitration ruling enforced.
All I can say is props to Manny Pacquiao for his willingness, at age 42 but still an excellent fighter, to face Errol Spence Jr. Pacquiao is taking on a guy who is basically two generations past when Pacquiao was at his absolute best. Their Aug. 21 fight is going to be a big pay-per-view.
Here’s a fight I’d pay to see: young gun welterweights Jaron Ennis and Vergil Ortiz Jr. mixing it up.
If you like boxing documentaries 2021 is shaping up like a fantastic year. ABC this week aired part 1 of “Mike Tyson: The Knockout,” a two-part, four-hour documentary on the former heavyweight champ. Showtime debuts the four-part, four-hour “The Kings” documentary on June 6, which will examine the all-time great four-man rivalry between the 1980s “four kings” Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns. And in September, PBS will air the four-part, eight-hour “Muhammad Ali,” the latest documentary from renowned filmmaker Ken Burns.
I’m extremely interested in the Showtime PPV fight between Gervonta Davis and Mario Barrios on June 26.
Sneaky good fight on the schedule: Erickson Lubin vs. Jeison Rosario in a junior middleweight title eliminator on the Davis-Barrios PPV.
I’ve got no real issue with Gennadiy Golovkin setting up a unification fight with Ryota Murata for the end of the year with each having an interim bout first, but I’d much rather see GGG have a unification fight with Demetrius Andrade, a far superior opponent than Murata.
Quick hits
Per the California State Athletic Commission, contract purses for Saturday night’s Showtime card: Nordine Oubaali $216,540, Nonito Donaire $144,360. The main event purses are derived from TGB Promotions winning the purse bid in January 2020 for $401,000. Per WBC rules, 10 percent of the winning bid ($40,100) goes to the winner on top of their cut of the purse bid. Subriel Matias $50k, Batyrzhan Jukembayev $50k; Gary Antuanne Russell $65k, Jovanie Santiago $50k; Alejandro Santiago $10k, Juan Medina $7k; Luis Salazar $10k, Kevin Johnson $10k; Atif Oberlton $6k, Larry Pryor $4k; Rey Diaz $3k, Sergio Gonzalez $3,500.
Weights from Carson, Calif., for Saturday night’s PBC/Showtime card: Nordine Oubaali 117.6 pounds, Nonito Donaire 117.6 (for Oubaali’s WBC bantamweight title); Subriel Matias 139.6, Batyr Jukembayev 139.8 (IBF junior welterweight eliminator); Gary Antuanne Russell 137.2, Jovanie Santiago 140.
Weights from Las Vegas for Saturday’s Matchroom card on DAZN: Devin Haney 135 pounds, Jorge Linares 134 (for Haney’s WBC lightweight title); Chantelle Cameron 139.2, Melissa Hernandez 136.2 (for Cameron’s WBC women’s junior welterweight title); Jason Quigley 159.4, Shane Mosley Jr. 160; Martin J. Ward 129.6, Azinga Fuzile 129.2 (IBF junior lightweight eliminator); Khalil Coe 176.2, Nathaniel Todd 179; Reshat Mati 145.8, Ryan Pino 146.8; Ramla Ali 124, Mikayla Nebel 124.6; Amari Jones 153.6, Jonathan Burrs 153.
Photo: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing
Do you know the purses of the DAZN card; Dan?
Great column. How do the guys making 4 or low figures make a living? 3k for getting punched in the face a few times a year hardly seems sustainable when you’ve gotta pay a promoter and corner guys.