Boxing News Roundup (May 4, 2019): Canelo-Jacobs weigh-in ruckus, next for Teofimo Lopez, more

Miss anything on Friday? We’re here to catch you up on everything going on in boxing for the day.

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Hey, it’s Canelo-Jacobs Fight Week still, but good news: it is now officially Canelo-Jacobs Fight Day!

Friday’s weigh-in was going pretty much as normal until the end, when Canelo and Jacobs got into a bit off a dust-up, though they were quickly pulled apart by the surrounding entourages. Here’s the video if, somehow, you still haven’t seen it:

I know it’s all a little tired for most of us, but I’m telling you plain and clear: this injected a level of life into this promotion that was sincerely lacking in the days, weeks, and months before. Being honest, there wasn’t a ton of buzz here. This created a good amount on Friday evening.

Eddie Hearn, Jacobs’ promoter, said he felt Canelo was “rattled” here, but admits he’s not sure if that’s good or bad news for Jacobs.

All of this will be worth it for Canelo and Jacobs: they’re making monster money on Saturday night.

Our staffers made their picks for Canelo-Jacobs, and also for Beterbiev-Kalajdzic, which airs Saturday night on ESPN. Everyone for that card made weight, too.

We’ll have full live coverage of Canelo-Jacobs starting at 6 pm ET on Saturday. Sign up for DAZN to watch the fights! We’ll also have skeleton coverage for Beterbiev-Kalajdzic starting at 6:30 pm ET.

Quick Hits

Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images

• Late last night, Teofimo Lopez’s next fight was confirmed, as he’ll face Masayoshi Nakatani in an IBF lightweight eliminator on July 19 on ESPN. It may be a sideways step for Lopez, but this is how the IBF rankings shook out right now for an eliminator. Nakatani is unbeaten (18-0, 12 KO) and has held the regional OPBF title for over five years.
• Boxing doesn’t end tomorrow when Canelo-Jacobs does. In fact, next weekend is another busy one with a lot of good fights, including a 122-pound title rematch between Emanuel Navarrete and Isaac Dogboe. Dogboe says he’s going to “set the record straight” after his upset loss to Navarrete in December.
• Oscar De La Hoya was asked about Dana White getting into boxing, which the UFC President has been threatening to do for a while. De La Hoya simply says “good luck.”
• Chris Algieri popped up twice in a day, which is the first time in a while that’s happened. Along with being an active fighter, he’s Daniel Jacobs’ nutritionist, and he broke down the Canelo-Jacobs fight. His next fight was also announced: he’ll face Tommy Coyle on the Joshua-Ruiz card on June 1, which should be a nice little action matchup on that show.
• You know that Tyson Fury-Tom Schwarz card nobody’s really looking forward to watching but will definitely watch on June 15? The silver lining was that we were going to see a solid light heavyweight matchup between Eleider Alvarez and Jesse Hart, and now we’re not, as Alvarez is out with a foot injury.
• Showtime’s June 29 card in Houston is official, as Jermall Charlo will face Brandon Adams in the main event, and Marcus Browne will face faded former light heavyweight champ Jean Pascal in the co-feature. Showtime is having a largely miserable year getting good matchups from PBC, and this is another card that features two fights on top that aren’t going to rev anyone’s engine. It’s one thing giving these fights to FOX and FS1, which PBC has largely done this year, too, but Showtime is a premium cable channel with a monthly price tag, and people who subscribe to Showtime for boxing are not getting their money’s worth this year.
• Luke Campbell and Devin Haney have agreed to terms for a July 27 fight, which will be for the vacant WBC lightweight title if the WBC approve it. Campbell is the No. 1 contender and was mandatory challenger, while Haney is ranked No. 3.
• Unbeaten cruiserweights Richard Riakporhe and Chris Billam-Smith will meet on the July 20 Whyte-Rivas card in London. It seems a potentially lame matchup based on the actual content of their records, but Travelelin Lad tells us not to overlook Billam-Smith, whom he feels could present some stylistic problems for Riakporhe.

Reminder: There will be no Boxing News Roundup for May 5, as we’ll be dealing with all the post-fight fallout from Canelo-Jacobs and Beterbiev-Kalajdzic. There will be a full weekend Results Roundup on Sunday morning at 6 am ET, and then the News Roundup returns as normal on Monday overnight.