Boxing wins and losses: The heavyweight merry-go-round
Co-promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren, and their benefactor His Excellency Turki Alarusik, will hold a press conference in London this Monday to announce the opening act for the Beterbiev vs. Bivol show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 1st. There was little surprise when it was announced. The match results have already been leaked.
For boxing enthusiasts, the Beterbiev-Bivol fight is so enticing that it doesn’t need an enticing undercard. The two undefeated light heavyweights will face off against all four belts involved in a contest that has oddsmakers on the fence. It’s a true “pick” fight, with prevailing odds being the only barometer that matters.
But Beterbiev vs. Bivol has been given a nice undercard, and stands in stark contrast to Saturday’s $69.99 (U.S.) pay-per-view of Haney vs. Garcia in Brooklyn. The event featured an undercard that, in the words of pseudonymous boxing writer Chris Williams, was “an absolute dumpster fire.
The two heavyweight bouts leading up to Beterbiev vs. Bivol, Hrgovic vs. Dubois and Wilder vs. Chang, would have been standalone main events before the intrusion of Saudi money.
Hrgovic-Dubois
Filip Hrgovic (17-0, 13 KOs) and Daniel Dubois (20-2, 19 KOs) fought on the same card in Riyadh last December. Hrgovic, a Croatian, was given a softer, Australia’s Mark de Mori, whom he defeated in the opening round. Dubois, from London, bounced back after losing to Oleksandr Usyk by stopping the overweight Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller in 10 rounds.
There is also an outside possibility that the Hrgovic vs. Dubois match could be sanctioned by the IBF for the world heavyweight title.
The May 18th showdown between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury has a rematch clause. The IBF is next in line in the unified heavyweight championship rotation system, and the IBF has made it clear that the winner of Usyk vs. Fury must fulfill IBF obligations before the intervention bout.
The most likely prediction is that the winner of Usyk vs. Fury will relinquish the IBF belt. In that case, Hrgovic and Dubois could fight for the vacant title, but the more likely scenario is for the organization to leave the title vacant and the winner to fight Anthony Joshua.
Wilder Chan
A fight between Deontay Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KOs) and Jirayi Zhang (26-2-1, 21 KOs) is coming as both the 38-year-old Wilder and Zhang, who turns 41 in May, are approaching. , it will be a battle at a crossroads. The end of the road and the loser are demoted to the ranks of the established (unless it’s a close and interesting fight). In fact, Wilder has hinted that this may be his last rodeo.
Both lost to Joseph Parker.
Wilder last fought on a card that included Hrgovic and Dubois, but was soundly defeated by the man he was expected to defeat. It’s a quick reversal for Zhang, who opposed Parker on March 8 and lost by majority vote.
other battles
One of the other two matches could be the focus of the June 1st event.
Raymond Ford (15-0-1, 8 KOs) and Nick Ball (19-0-1, 11 KOs) will face off in a 12-round featherweight bout. Ford, of New Jersey, will defend the WBA world title he won with a 12-round upset of Otabek Khormatov in an early contender for Fight of the Year. Liverpool’s ‘Wrecking’ Ball, a relentless 5ft 2in tall spark plug, lost his title fight against Rey Vargas to a draw despite winning in the late rounds and scoring two knockdowns. I had to settle for that.
Hamza Silas (19-0, 15 KOs) takes on fellow undefeated Austin “Amo” Williams (16-0, 11 KOs) in a 12-round middleweight bout. Sheeras, an East Londoner who is the son of a former professional cricketer, was training at California’s Tengoose Boxing Gym for his latest bout but is unknown in the United States. He is riding the skein of 13 consecutive knockouts, and if he can overcome that hurdle, he is guaranteed a date with WBO titleholder Janibek Alimkanuri.
forgotten heavyweight
“He’s been undefeated for seven years and is the guy no one wants to fight,” ring announcer Michael Buffer exclaimed in his introduction. Buffer was referring to Michael Hunter, who faced off against opponent Artem Suslenkov across the ring.
The scene took place last Saturday in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. This was Hunter’s second fight in three weeks. On March 23, at a show in Zapopan, Mexico, the 46-year-old scored a fifth-round stoppage on Meatball.
The second-generation ‘Bounty Hunter’, whose only loss before last weekend was in 12 rounds to Oleksandr Usyk, TKOed otherwise undefeated Martin Bacall at the Road to London in 2018. Since then, I have been doing my best. Aside from sparring, the last two bouts have included a low-budget card opponent in Mexico and a few one-round bouts at the Las Vegas Hustle, an entry into the fledgling and largely invisible Pro Combat League. It is the sum total of his activities. – 1 and a half years.
Hunter’s chances for another big-money fight went awry in Tashkent, when he lost a boring unanimous decision to the extraordinary Sasurenkov in his first 10-round fight. The judges’ scores have not been announced.
This match is not listed on boxrec. As Jake Donovan points out, the popular website will not acknowledge a fight that took place under the auspices of a corrupt commission. (Another match that I can’t find on boxrec for the same reason is Nico Ali Walsh vs. 9-2-1 Frenchman Noel Lafargue in 6 rounds in the African country of Guinea on December 16, 2023.) It was a split decision, which you can find on YouTube, but according to boxrec, the official record keeper of boxing, that never happened.
anderson mahey redux
The only thing missing from last Saturday’s Jared Anderson vs. Riyad Mahy match in Corpus Christi, Texas, was the ghost of Robert Walsberg.
Roger Weisberg, also known as Valsberg, was the French referee who disqualified Ingemar Johansson from the heavyweight final at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics for a no-try in her match against Ed Sanders of Los Angeles. Walsberg threw Johansson out of the ring after two rounds, and Johansson was stripped of his silver medal. Needless to say, the Swede redeemed himself after turning pro by defeating Floyd Patterson in the first of three fights.
Murray reportedly threw just 144 punches and landed 34 in 10 rounds. These dismal numbers still struck many onlookers as too high. (This reporter has always maintained that his widely cited CompuBox numbers should be considered approximations.)
Whatever the true numbers were, it was an embarrassing performance from Marley, who actually showed that he had very quick hands in the few instances where he actually threw a punch. With apologies to the feisty lightweight Delphine Persoon, American boxing promoters should think twice before inviting another Belgian boxer to our country.
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