Sunday, July 7
FS1, 4:00 pm ET: Portrait of a Fighter: Caleb Plant. A special look at IBF super middleweight titleholder Caleb “Sweethands” Plant, who returns on July 20 on FOX, facing Mike Lee in the featured bout before the Pacquiao-Thurman PPV. Plant has an interesting background and story and is a real good fighter, someone you should learn more about if you haven’t yet. Worth tuning in.
Thursday, July 11
DAZN, 1:30 pm ET, Emanuele Blandamura vs Marcus Morrison, Fabio Turchi vs Tommy McCarthy. One of these Matchroom shows from Italy, and since what else am I doing on a Thursday afternoon, we’ll be here. Turchi could be a player at cruiserweight, while Blandamura is an aging European-level fighter at 160. BLH will have live coverage.
DAZN, 3:00 pm ET, Vargas-Kameda press conference. Fellas will talk about their fights coming on the weekend.
Friday, July 12
ESPN+, 7:00 am ET, Rob Brant vs Ryota Murata II. Brant heads over to Japan to defend his WBA “world” middleweight title against Murata in a rematch. One of the more interesting fights of the weekend for sure — for Murata, it’s obviously a chance at revenge, for Brant a chance to firmly establish himself as a top fighter at 160. It also — at the moment — looks as though Ken Shiro vs Jonathan Taconing and Joe Noynay vs Satoshi Shimizu WILL air on the ESPN+ stream. BLH will have live coverage.
ESPN+, 3:00 pm ET, Jazza Dickens vs Nathaniel May. This show was supposed to feature Rocky Fielding and Martin Murray in separate bouts, too, but may not. Terry Flanagan is also in action.
ESPN+, 3:00 pm ET, Stevenson-Manzanilla weigh-in. You won’t believe it but these fellas are going to take off most of their clothes and get weighed.
Channel 5 (UK), 4:00 pm ET, Amir Khan vs Billy Dib. Channel 5 has live coverage of Amir Khan’s fight in Saudi Arabia, with the card also featuring Hughie Fury against mega-washed Samuel Peter. This is an absurd event but there’s going to be a lot more interest in this than Jazza Dickens so this is what we’ll have coverage of in the afternoon. BLH will have live coverage.
DAZN, 4:00 pm ET, Vargas-Kameda weigh-in. You won’t believe it but these fellas are going to take off most of their clothes and get weighed.
UFC Fight Pass, 8:00 pm ET, Greg Vendetti vs Michael Anderson. A Murphys Boxing show from Massachusetts. Vendetti is a junior middleweight who’s generally pretty fun to watch, but a clear third-tier fighter. He took a crack against Michel Soro last December in France and was ripped in two, but before that beat Yoshihiro Kamegai and after beat Alan Zavala. Plenty of prospects on the card, too.
SHO, 10:00 pm ET, Jermaine Franklin vs Jerry Forrest. ShoBox is back with at tripleheader from Tacoma, also featuring Otto Wallin vs BJ Flores and Giovanni Mioletti vs Luis Porozo. BLH will have live coverage.
Saturday, July 13
ESPN+, 2:45 pm ET, Daniel Dubois vs Nathan Gorman. A big fight for the British heavyweight title, pitting a pair of legitimate prospects. I think this fight has a good shot at stealing the show this weekend, honestly. Joe Joyce faces Bryant Jennings in another heavyweight matchup on the show. BLH will have live coverage.
ESPN+, 7:00 pm ET, Stevenson-Manzanilla prelims. Early fights from Newark, with Vijender Singh maybe back in action as part of the show. We’ll see! He’s going to lead to Top Rank conquering India! BLH will have live coverage.
DAZN, 7:00 pm ET, Vargas-Kameda prelims. Plenty of prospects in action in Carson, California, including Rocky Hernandez, who is creating quite a buzz. BLH will have live coverage.
FS1, 8:00 pm ET, Jamal James vs Antonio DeMarco. The fight most likely to fall by the wayside for everyone this weekend, as it’s competing against cards on ESPN and DAZN and, well, it is what it is. These three-card nights are ridiculous but it’s a brave new world. Content content content! Welterweight James is right on the cusp of contention and he’s with the right team, politically, for his division, but DeMarco is always dangerous, at least early. The show will also feature Robert Helenius vs Gerald Washington and Karlos Balderas. With ESPN not starting until 10:30 pm ET, we should be able to dedicate proper live coverage to all three main cards on Saturday, though at the expense of some hot streaming prelim action elsewhere. BLH will have live coverage.
DAZN, 9:00 pm ET, Rey Vargas vs Tomoki Kameda. Diego De La Hoya faces Ronny Rios in a featherweight co-feature. Vargas-Kameda could be really interesting. Vargas has staked his claim as the top fighter at 122 right now, while Kameda is a former titleholder at 118 and has quietly won five straight after back-to-back losses to Jamie McDonnell. BLH will have live coverage.
ESPN, 10:30 pm ET, Shakur Stevenson vs Alberto Guevara. Well, I mean, it’s probably not going to be the most watched ESPN fight, but Stevenson is graduating from co-features to main events. Stevenson was originally supposed to face Hairon Socarras, then Franklin Manzanilla, now Guevara on about a week’s notice. Joshua Greer Jr returns in the IBF bantamweight eliminator co-feature against Nikolai Potapov. BLH will have live coverage.