ESPN+ To Stream September 8 Boxing Card From Australia
ESPN is looking to get more involved in the Australian boxing market and has announced that its ESPN+ streaming service will broadcast an upcoming card from Australia.
The card, headlined by Tim Tszyu vs. Marcos Jesus Cornejo in a junior middleweight fight, will take place at Bendigo Stadium in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia on September 8. The top two fights on the card are confirmed to be shown on ESPN+, the streaming service which broadcasts sporting events in the United States, starting on 7 a.m. ET.
Tszyu, the son of Hall of Famer Kostya Tszyu, will be fighting for the fourth time in 2018. Tszyu currently holds the WBC Asian Boxing Council Continental junior middleweight title, a title he has held since 2017. The 23-year-old Tszyu will fight an opponent in Cornejo who sports a 19-3 record and challenged for the vacant WBC Youth middleweight title against Christian Mbilli back in May.
In the co-main event, unbeaten super flyweight contender Andrew Moloney defending his WBA Oceania super flyweight title against former world champion Luis Concepcion. Moloney, the twin brother to Jason Moloney who the mandatory challenger to the IBF bantamweight title, is currently ranked in the top 15 in all four major governing bodies. A win over Concepcion will likely put Moloney in a position to challenge for either the WBA and WBC titles as both organizations has Moloney ranked in the top 5.
Concepcion was the WBA super flyweight champion in 2016, but was stripped of the title after failing to make weight the day before a title defense against Khalid Yafai. Concepcion would then go on to lose to Yafai, crowning Yafai as the new WBA champion. The 32-year-old Concepcion previously held the interim WBA flyweight title from 2009 to 2010.
This will be the second time Tszyu is fighting on ESPN+ as he fought on the August 3 card in New South Wales, Australia, headlined by Tevin Farmer vs. Billy Dib for the IBF super featherweight title.