Miss anything on Tuesday? Sure, probably. Catch up!
Top Stories
HBO Sports is out of the boxing game, but they didn’t let the passing of Harold Lederman, who worked for the network for 32 years, go without one of their excellent video tributes, which is above.
The day’s big story was the report that PBC are looking at making a Mikey Garcia vs Danny Garcia fight, possibly for August 31 in Los Angeles on FOX pay-per-view. I like the matchup and Mikey going right back into the fire, some of you see it as a cash grab/cash-out scenario. I can see that, and I can also see just plain not wanting to see Mikey fight at welterweight again since he was so utterly bad at it the first time.
Wilder-Breazeale is the big fight for this weekend. Deontay Wilder held his media workout, but Showtime’s official quotes release didn’t include him saying for the 3000th time that he wants to kill a guy in the ring, which is probably the single most tiresome bit in boxing. As for Breazeale, he’s talking about getting revenge for their out-of-ring issues in the past. We also looked at Saturday’s Wilder-Breazeale matchup. Paulie Malignaggi also broke down the fight for Showtime.
We brought back the division-by-division rankings, which will be posted each Tuesday at Noon ET. On Wednesday, we’ll have Inoue-Rodriguez and Taylor-Baranchyk previews coming at Noon ET and 5 pm ET, respectively.
Quick Hits
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- Callum Smith finally has his June 1 opponent, and as many had expected ever since the WBA quietly threw him into the 168-pound rankings, Hassan N’dam will be across the ring in New York.
- A July 27 DAZN show is coming together, which will feature Maurice Hooker, Murat Gassiev, and possibly Tevin Farmer.
- Tyson Fury believes the big fights with Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder can happen. I do, too, especially when Bob Arum has succeeded in making the truly and completely likable Fury into the biggest mainstream attraction in all of sports, starting with his June 15 fight against Tom Schwarz behind a $5 app paywall.
- Michael Conlan and Bob Arum talked about Conlan’s Aug. 3 fight with Vladimir Nikitin in Belfast, which will stream live in the U.S. on ESPN+.
- Another Belfast star, featherweight Carl Frampton, is planning an August return that will hopefully lead to a title shot this winter, most likely against Oscar Valdez.
- Matt Korobov’s team are going to file a protest in Virginia after his draw with Immanuwel Aleem this past weekend. It won’t go anywhere, but they should file it, the result was ridiculous.
- The June 1 PBC show on FS1 will include FS2 prelims featuring Jhack Tepora and Marlon Tapales. The main card will be headlined by Devon Alexander vs Ivan Redkach. The show is going up against Joshua-Ruiz, and also features Hugo Centeno Jr vs Willie Monroe Jr and Onoriode Ehwarieme vs Rodney Moore (not that one), who replaces Rodney Hernandez. Just had to get a heavyweight Rodney in there.
- Julian Williams knows he has a target on his back now, and he’s ready for the pressures of being a titleholder.
- Billy Joe Saunders, who unless he faints in the ring against Shefat Isufi will probably become a two-weight titleholder on Saturday, likes the sound of “two-weight titleholder.” Well, he said champion, obviously.