Fightful Boxing Newsletter (5/9): Canelo-Jacobs Results, DAZN Subscriptions, Anthony Joshua

Fightful Boxing Newsletter (5/9) Table Of Contents:

1. Canelo Alvarez vs. Daniel Jacobs Results/Latest On DAZN Subscriptions (Page 1)
2. Andy Ruiz Chosen As Anthony Joshua’s New Opponent (Page 2)
3. WBC Orders Vasiliy Lomachenko vs. Luke Campbell For Vacant Lightweight Title (Page 3)
4. Gennadiy Golovkin Picks Johnathon Banks As New Trainer After Abel Sanchez Split (Page 4)
5. Top Rank Boxing on ESPN: Beterbiev vs. Kalajdzic Results (Page 5)
6. What If There Were Boxing Cards Made Entirely Of Promotion vs. Promotion Fights? (Page 6)

Canelo Alvarez vs. Daniel Jacobs Results/Latest On DAZN Subscriptions:

The busiest boxing weekend of the year ended with Canelo Alvarez, the sport’s biggest star, walking away with three of the four major middleweight titles.

Alvarez, fighting in his first Cinco De Mayo weekend fight since 2017, defeated Daniel Jacobs with a fairly close unanimous decision to take home the unified WBA “Super,” WBC and IBF 160-pound titles on DAZN’s biggest test of the year.

The fight was meant to be DAZN’s biggest event since being released in the United States last September and making way for what could be the start of a potential revolution in the American boxing broadcast market. Needless to say, a low viewership and subscriber base could have been disastrous for DAZN and those working with Perform Group, the entity that operates the platform.

The streaming service sent out a press release stating that more than 1.2 million people worldwide watched live on DAZN across the company’s eight current markets. In addition to the United States, home to the vast majority of the viewership, the fight was also available to DAZN subscribers in Austria, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland.

Although the company did not announce how many of those 1.2 million views came from inside the United States, a couple of reports from Mike Coppinger, Dan Rafael and Lance Pugmire state that at least 600,000 people in the United States watched the fight. That number beats the average viewership of the Top Rank on ESPN card that was taking place at the same time on television, which was at around 480,000.

Alvarez defeated Jacobs by unanimous decision to unify the WBA “Super,” WBC and IBF middleweight titles in the main event of the card taking place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The fight was Alvarez’s second in his 11-fight deal with the streaming service with the first one taking place last December when he knocked out Rocky Fielding to become the new WBA “Regular” super middleweight champion. DAZN did not release viewership numbers for that fight, but at the time, the app jumped to the top slot across iOS and Android as the No. 1 free app for the first time in the United States.

If we’re being honest, 600,000 is a decent enough of a number for a new streaming service whose main attraction is boxing, a niche sport in the broader landscape of American pro sports. Attracting that number in a matter of less than eight months is respectable, but the number is nothing revolutionary and definitely not what DAZN hopes to just have down the line. The company is still confident that it can reach at least a million subscribers soon enough (although an argument can be made that DAZN simply can’t afford to be anything but 100 percent confident in the product given everything that they have invested in).

Where does DAZN go from here? Well the obvious answer is that DAZN wants to have a trilogy fight between Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin for Mexican Independence Day Weekend in mid-September since that is the fight most casual fans and even non-fans will gravitate towards to the most, at least in theory.

While a third fight between the two middleweight stars will certainly grab some attention, the problem here is that DAZN is getting the third fight and not the first and by now, a lot of people wouldn’t mind seeing that fight, but it is under subject to diminishing return. DAZN is hoping the history the two fighters have and the nature of the first two fights would be enough to drive in a surplus of subscriptions. But the one caveat to that will have to depend on a heavy promotion, that was sorely lacking in the second fight.

Of course nothing is certain in this world and assuming for a moment that Canelo vs. Golovkin 3 doesn’t happen in September, Canelo’s camp will have to look towards other options for his next fight. Although Alvarez holds three of the four major titles at 160 pounds, Oscar De La Hoya has opened the possibility of Alvarez going to either 168 or 175 pounds in the future, even as soon as his next fight.

“Canelo has many options as you know. There’s nobody that he doesn’t want to face, but he has many options and that’s the wonderful part about being the man in the sport of boxing. It’s that everyone wants to fight him, whether it’s at 175, whether it’s at 160 or 168, he has many challenges. There’s one thing about Canelo that he never shies away from and that is a challenge,” De La Hoya said.

According to De La Hoya, Alvarez wants to become the undisputed middleweight champion, which means he has one title to collect and that is the WBO belt currently being held by Demetrius Andrade. When asked if Andrade is the next man in line to face Alvarez, De La Hoya did say that he is one of several names that are being considered, but picking the right opponent for Alvarez depends on a number of circumstances.

So if Alvarez doesn’t fight Andrade next fight, then what are some other names the Mexican star can face next? De La Hoya said a third fight against Golovkin is in play as well as a return to super middleweight and face WBA “Super” champion Callum Smith or even go as far up as light heavyweight and face WBO champion Sergey Kovalev. De La Hoya did not disclosed which name is more likely to face Alvarez next, but did reiterate that Alvarez is not afraid of any challenge.

“I’m not saying [Andrade] is a top contender for [Canelo’s] next fight. Canelo’s wishes has always been to unify all the belts, but there’s different scenarios that can take place. You remember the days in which a fighter loses a world title and you have to work your way back up. A Golovkin is knocking on Canelo’s door. He was right here knocking on his door. Demetrius Andrade is right here watching Canelo and he’s knocking on his door. Smith is knocking on his door. Kovalev is knocking on his door. We want to create the right scenario. First thing is first, he has to rest up and then we’ll huddle up and make decisions as a team. But one thing about Canelo is that he never shies away from a challenge. That’s for sure,” De La Hoya said.

• Canelo Alvarez defeated Daniel Jacobs by decision (115-113, 115-113, 116-112) to win the unified WBA “Super,” WBC and IBF Middleweight Titles: This was more of a chess match than a explosion of punches between two knockout artists. Both men used the first few rounds to find their range and establish a rhythm, but it was Alvarez who defended well against Jacobs’ early punches. Alvarez landed several shots upstairs that hurt Jacobs at various points, but Jacobs managed to avoid the knockdown. As the fight wore on, Jacobs tried different methods to break through Alvarez’s defense, including switching to a southpaw stance throughout the second half of the fight. Jacobs had success landing clean punches in the last few rounds and closed the gap on the scorecards, but not enough to walk away with three of the four major middleweight titles.
• Vergil Ortiz Jr. defeated Mauricio Herrera by KO, round 3, 0:29: Ortiz landed a vicious right hand that had Herrera knocked out standing less than 30 seconds into the third round. The fight was mostly one-sided as Herrera kept getting hit with power punches from Ortiz from the start of the bout. The unbeaten Ortiz sent Herrera to the canvas at the end of the second round with a combination of punches that almost took Herrera out entirely. From the start of the third round, Ortiz hurt Herrera with another series of punches that led to the knockout.
• Joseph Diaz Jr. defeated Freddy Fonseca by TKO, round 7, 2:07 to win the WBA Gold Super Featherweight title: Diaz punished Fonseca throughout the entire fight, dropping his opponent in the sixth round, followed by Fonseca’s corner throwing in the towel late in the seventh round. This was Diaz’s second straight fight at 130 pounds after unsuccessfully challenging for Gary Russell Jr.’s WBC 126-pound title in 2018 and then missing weight for a WBA “Regular” featherweight title fight against Jesus Rojas later that year. Although Diaz captured the WBA Gold title and could position himself to face either “Regular” champion Andrew Cancio in the future or against “Super” champion Gervonta Davis, Diaz called out IBF titleholder Tevin Farmer to a fight after the two sides had a heated exchange after the undercard press conference during fight week.
• Lamont Roach Jr. defeated Jonathan Oquendo by unanimous decision (97-92, 97-92, 96-93) to become the Unified WBO International and NABO Super Featherweight champion: Roach escaped some early troubles from Jonathan Oquendo to win a 10-round decision to walk away with the WBO International and NABO super featherweight titles. Roach, who outboxed Oquendo in the last few rounds, won with scores of 97-92, 96-93 and 96-93.
• Anthony Young defeated Sadam Ali by TKO, round 3, 2:38 to win the USNBC Silver Welterweight Title: Young made his presence known from the start of the fight when he landed a series of punches upstairs that hurt Ali. Ali was able to recover in the second round, but was easily overwhelmed in the third round. In the third round, Young worked the body and punished Ali, who spent most of the round hunched over and favoring his ribs. Young then unloaded on Ali in the corner, causing a stoppage of the fight and giving Young the biggest win of his career.
• John Ryder defeated Bilal Akkawy by TKO, round 3, 2:12 to win the Interim WBA Super Middleweight Title: Ryder dropped Akkawy twice in the third round, severely hurting Akkawy in the process. Late in the round, Ryder pressured Akkawy to the ropes and landed a series of punches that forced the referee to step in and stop the contest. With the win, Ryder could potentially get a big title fight in the future, possibly against Alvarez, who also holds the WBA’s “Regular” title at 168 pounds, or Callum Smith, the WBA’s “Super” champion who has not fought since winning the title when he defeated George Groves last year.
• Aram Avagyan defeated Francisco Esparza by unanimous decision (97-92, 96-93, 96-93) to retain the WBC International Silver Featherweight Title: Avagyan recovered from a second-round knockdown after getting hit by a left hook from Esparza followed by a right cross. Avagyan would outbox Esparza for most of the remainder of the fight and won the bout.
• Alexis Espino defeated Billy Wagner by unanimous decision (39-35, 39-35, 39-34): Quick four-round match that saw Espino dominate Wagner, overpowering him with multiple hooks upstairs and dropped Wagner in the fight. The lone blemish on Espino’s performance was him getting a point deducted for hitting Wagner while he is down.

Andy Ruiz Chosen As Anthony Joshua’s New Opponent:

After weeks of speculation and back-and-forth with numerous boxers, Matchroom Boxing has chosen Andy Ruiz Jr. to be Anthony Joshua’s opponent for their June 1 main event fight at Madison Square Garden.

For those still unaware, Joshua, the unified WBA “Super,” WBO and IBF heavyweight champion and British superstar, was going to fight undefeated New York native Jarrell Miller on a Matchroom Boxing card that will be streamed on DAZN, but Miller failed a number of drug tests in March, testing positive for HGH, EPO and GW1516. As such, Miller was taken out of the fight after the New York State Athletic Commission refused to license him for the fight.

As such, Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s promoter, set out to search a number of heavyweights from all over in order to save the main event and the card itself. The initial list of candidates had several notable heavyweights, but none of them were Ruiz. From that list, fighters such as Luis Ortiz, Adam Kownacki, Manuel Charr, Trevor Bryan, Michael Hunter among others were either considered for the fight or had some form of negotiations before it fell through.

Ruiz was never initially considered for the fight, but after beating Alexander Dimitrenko on April 20, Ruiz called out both Joshua and WBC champion Deontay Wilder, hoping to eventually get a title shot. That was enough to pique Hearn’s interest to the point where he eventually become one of the two finalists considered to be Joshua’s replacement opponent alongside Hunter.

In the end, Ruiz was chosen for a number of reasons. Firstly, Ruiz has been a heavyweight longer than Hunter and does present an interesting challenge to the much bigger and longer Joshua.

At first glance, it seemed like Ruiz really stands no shot at beating Joshua based on his physical appearance. Ruiz doesn’t have the impressive physique the unified champion has, but those who have seen Ruiz fight know that his skillset is far more impressive than what he looks like. Ruiz is not exactly a tall heavyweight, but he more than makes up for that with his ability to punish fighters on the inside with deceptively-fast combinations. The build-up to this fight will mainly focus on convincing the non-hardcore fans that Ruiz is a credible threat to Joshua. Part of the logic behind that stems from the fact that Ruiz had a very close fight against Joseph Parker for the then-vacant WBO heavyweight title back in 2016. Given that Parker is the only fighter to have ever taken Joshua to the distance, the idea that Ruiz can do the same holds some merit, at least in the promoter’s eyes.

However, styles make fights and given how Joshua’s physical gifts translate well into the boxing ring, it’s abundantly clear what the gameplan should be for the British champion to walk away with the titles: keep moving back while working the jab and use the eight-inch reach to score points and win rounds. The key for Ruiz will be his ability to take the fight to the inside as early as possible.

But there’s another reason why Ruiz was chosen over Hunter in the end. With the fight taking place in New York City, a place with a huge Hispanic population, the idea that Ruiz, one of the top Hispanic heavyweights today, could drawn in some extra ticket sales is certainly a sound one. Ticket sales for the event are still going strong, with most of the tickets at the 200, 300 and 400 level sold out. Although the 100 level tickets are still aplenty at the venue’s website, expect a decent walk-up heading to the event. To say that Ruiz bringing in enough Hispanics to ultimately have an attendance of at least 17,000 wouldn’t be that farfetched.

The rest of the card remains intact for the most part with undercard being one of the deepest in the sport so far this year. The biggest fight of the undercard (though there’s no word about this being the co-main event, but it should be) is a bout between pound-for-pound stars Katie Taylor and Delfine Persoon to crown the first-ever women’s undisputed champion.

As far as the rest of the undercard is concerned, expect at least two more world title fights to be announced for the card. The first one is WBA “Super” super middleweight champion Callum Smith defending his title against Hassan N’Dam, though that fight hasn’t been finalized. Based on rumors and N’Dam, a former secondary middleweight titlist, being placed in the WBA 168-pound rankings out of nowhere pretty much cements that title fight happening on June 1.

The fourth title fight on the card is one between WBA super flyweight champion Kal Yafai and mandatory challenger Norbelto Jimenez. This fight has also not been formally announced and it isn’t a 100 percent guarantee that the fight will land on the Joshua-Ruiz card and instead be on its own card in the United Kingdom.

A number of fights had already been announced or at least publicly stated will happen on the June 1 show. Junior welterweight contender Chris Algieri will defend his WBO International title against Tommy Coyle on the undercard with the idea that Algieri is being groomed for an eventual shot at WBO world champion Maurice Hooker either towards the end of 2019 or early 2020. Lastly, undefeated prospect Austin Williams will be on the undercard, likely as one of the first fights on the DAZN undercard or serve as the one or two fights that would be exclusive on social media.

Ultimately, what this card will prove is the true drawing power of Joshua in the United States. Aside from a fight against Dillian Whyte, Wilder, Oleksandr Usyk or Tyson Fury, no heavyweight was going to get people’s attention towards the fight more than they already have when Miller was Joshua’s opponent. Assuming DAZN’s subscription count in the United States is roughly 600,000 heading to June 1, I would think that an increase of at least 100,000 subscribers for that show and the June 8 card headlined by Gennadiy Golovkin vs. Steve Rolls would be considered solid growth as the platform will look to continue putting major fights for the next few months.

WBC Orders Vasiliy Lomachenko vs. Luke Campbell For Vacant Lightweight Title:

The WBC has made a major announcement regarding its vacant lightweight world title.

After it was announced that Mikey Garcia was vacating the belt and being moved to Emeritus champion, it was expected that mandatory challenger Luke Campbell would get a shot at the title, but his opponent was unclear. That all changed when the WBC announced that it has ordered Campbell to face unified WBA and WBO lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko.

Campbell had been the mandatory challenger since September 2018 when he defeated Yvan Mendy in a title eliminator. Although Campbell was the No. 1 contender for the WBC title that Garcia had, Campbell was never going to get a shot at the title until summer 2019 at the earliest.

Garcia, who had held the title since January 2017, moved up to welterweight to challenge IBF champion Errol Spence Jr. in a Fox pay-per-view event in March. Garcia would go on to lose the fight and weeks later, announced that he was going to vacate the title as he is not planning on fighting at lightweight in his next fight.

Lomachenko, who had been looking to unify the entire division, became the unified champion last December when he defeated Jose Pedraza to win his WBO title. Originally, Lomachenko was supposed to face IBF champion Richard Commey on April 12, but Commey suffered an injury during his title win in February, leaving him unable to fight Lomachenko. Instead, Lomachenko faced Anthony Crolla, the mandatory challenger to his WBA title, and won the bout when he knocked out Crolla in the fourth round.

For weeks, speculation as to who would be facing Campbell for the title was running rampant with no clear indication of whether or not the challenger would be announced before or after the new WBC rankings come out. The three names that were mentioned were Zaur Abdullaev, Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez.

Well the WBC eliminated all doubts and announced every contender that was rumored to fight Campbell will have a tournament to become the new mandatory challenger.

The four-man tournament will feature the fighters ranked No. 2 to No. 5 in the WBC lightweight rankings as of this writing. The matchups ordered are as follows: Zaur Abdullaev (No. 2) vs. Devin Haney (No. 3) and Teofimo Lopez (No. 4) vs. Javier Fortuna (No. 5). The winners of those two fights would then face off in a final eliminator.

While this plan is all well and good, it’s highly unlikely that this will go off without a hitch. Tournaments from sanctioning bodies rarely start and finish as originally planned.

Top Rank’s Bob Arum, who promotes Lopez, has told a number of media outlets that Lopez will not ultimately figure into the WBC’s plans and instead will go for a previously reported IBF lightweight title eliminator against Masayoshi Nakatani on July 19 at the MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. The fight, which would headline a Top Rank card on an ESPN platform, would crown a mandatory challenger to Commey’s title.

This obviously throws off the WBC eliminator tournament it had planned to do, but the simple solution would be to replace him with the next highest-ranked available contender to take over Lopez’s spot which would actually be Mendy, followed by Pedraza.

What’s interesting about this whole issue was Matchroom Boxing’s mentality prior to the announcement. The company had essentially ironed out a deal to have Campbell and Haney, who signed a promotional deal with Matchroom recently, fight for the vacant title, but that was done without the WBC’s blessing. Since the WBC never approved that fight to be for a lightweight world title, Matchroom Boxing isn’t overly ecstatic with the end result, but at the very least they are going to have at least one of its fighters (Campbell) fight for the title.

The interesting part will be whether or not ESPN or DAZN gets the U.S. broadcast rights to the fight. It’s not a guarantee, but for all intents and purposes, ESPN will more than likely get the rights, potentially ironing out a similar deal to that of Lomachenko’s fight against Crolla, another Matchroom Boxing fighter. The other thing that is at play is the location of the fight.

This fight between Lomachenko and Campbell has a good chance of landing in the United Kingdom. Lomachenko had never really considered fighting there, but was in love with the atmosphere when he visited there to watch Oleksandr Usyk knock out Tony Bellew to retain the undisputed cruiserweight title last November.

Gennadiy Golovkin Picks Johnathon Banks As New Trainer After Abel Sanchez Split:

Ahead of his fight against Steve Rolls in June on a new broadcast platform, Gennadiy Golovkin will also have a new trainer by his side.

The former middleweight champion has announced that Johnathon Banks will be training Golovkin moving forward. The two will work together as Golovkin is preparing for his next fight against Steve Rolls on June 8.

The move comes less than two weeks after it was announced that Golovkin will no longer be working alongside long-time trainer Abel Sanchez. Banks, a disciple of the late Emanuel Steward, has trained a number of reputable fighters, most notably former unified heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and current undisputed women’s welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus.

Banks also had a lengthy career as a boxer, competing from 2004 to 2014 as both a cruiserweight and heavyweight. Banks once held the IBO cruiserweight title and previously challenged for the IBF world title, facing the likes of Tomasz Adamek and Antonio Tarver throughout his career.

Back on April 24, Golovkin announced on social media that he has split with longtime trainer Abel Sanchez after several years of working together. Golovkin made the announcement on social media, which can be seen below.

“I would like to announce that I have made a major decision for myself and for my career. I want to build on what I have already achieved and continue to better myself. Therefore, I will not be training with Abel Sanchez. This was not an easy decision for me and it is not a reflection on Abel’s professional abilities. He is a great trainer, a loyal trainer, and a Hall of Fame trainer. I will be announcing my new trainer at a later date. But today, I want to thank Abel for the lessons he taught me in boxing.”

Sanchez also released a statement confirming the news, but his side of the story painted a much less amicable split with Golovkin. Sanchez claimed that Golovkin insisted on a new compensation schedule that Sanchez found insulting and led to the end of their relationship.

“FYI, as of today, I will no longer be working with Gennady Golovkin. After a great 9 year run, records set, and equaled, developing a Hall of Fame career and making it possible to sign a 6-fight $100 million contract with DAZN, he proposed and insisted on an insulting new trainer compensation schedule. My dignity and honor does not allow me to be screwed like that, it’s unfortunate being greedy, being ungrateful and no ethics, honor or integrity will end this relationship.”

Golovkin and Sanchez have worked together for the better part of the 2010s, winning multiple middleweight world titles together. The last two years of Golovkin’s career have been one of professional highs and lows. After Golovkin defeated Daniel Jacobs in March 2017, he would go on to fight Canelo Alvarez to a draw later that year. Golovkin bounced back from that draw to knock out Vanes Martirosyan on May 5, 2018 and would go on to lose a majority decision to Alvarez in their rematch last September.

Top Rank Boxing on ESPN: Beterbiev vs. Kalajdzic Results:

Although it may seem somewhat counter-intuitive to run a boxing show on ESPN at the same time as a Canelo Alvarez fight on Cinco De Mayo weekend, there are plenty of positive takeaways from the May 4 Top Rank card from the Stockton Arena in Stockton, California.

In terms of the boxers taking part on the main card, IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and IBF super flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas performed well in their respective title defenses, both of which ended with stoppage victories.

Beterbiev continued his impressive knockout streak in his return to Top Rank and in a loaded light heavyweight roster that the company has, his win over Radivoje Kalajdzic will get fans interested in potential matchups against the likes of Sergey Kovalev, Gilberto Ramirez and Oleksandr Gvozdyk.

As for Ancajas, the 115-pound champion regained a lot of momentum by having arguably the best performance of his entire title run against Ryuichi Funai. Ancajas has almost been seen as an afterthought in the division due to lackluster wins against lesser talent but his dominant win will surely put him in the conversation for potential title unifications down the road.

The other big takeaway is the attendance figure of the card, which ended up being 10,105, an impressive number in the United States. It wasn’t the two world champions who were responsible for that number, but in fact it was Gabriel Flores Jr. Flores is an unbeaten prospect who is from the area and helped draw in a majority of those 10,000 fans. The local promotion should be commended for their impressive work on capitalizing on their local stars and packing an arena like it did on May 4. It is perhaps the best example of when promoters are at their best and able to do incredible work with the fighters they have available. It’s hard to see Flores’ ceiling as far as world title contenders are concerned, but the highly successful attendance does give Top Rank a potential hidden gem to work with whenever they are in California.

A similar case can be seen with WBC junior welterweight champion Jose Ramirez, who is from Fresno, California. Ramirez is in a similar state where he can draw in more than 10,000 fans to his fights whenever they take place in Fresno. In this day age where the focus on boxing is more concentrated on behind-the-scene politics and television rights, the art of promoting is a bit of a lost art as Rick Mirigian told me recently when we discussed how impressive using a local fighter, who is still a prospect, to turn in more than 10,000 people attending your card.

According to Showbuzz Daily, the entire telecast averaged 480,000 viewers and drew a 0.32 rating. The card, running at the same time as the Canelo Alvarez vs. Daniel Jacobs main card on DAZN, was headlined by Artur Beterbiev vs. Radivoje Kalajdzic for the IBF light heavyweight title. The ESPN card also drew a 0.13 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which is good for 52nd on cable for the day. The event was also competing with the NBA Playoff game between the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets, which averaged more than seven million viewers.

The viewership were only slightly higher than Top Rank’s least-viewed card on ESPN of 2019, which was the March 23 card that averaged 469,000 viewers. On that card, Kubrat Pulev defeated Bogdan Dinu in a heavyweight matchup. The May 4 card’s viewership numbers were lower than the March 30 card, which averaged 655,000 viewers.

May 4 Top Rank on ESPN results:

Artur Beterbiev defeated Radivoje Kalajdzic by KO, round 5 to retain the IBF Light Heavyweight Title: Beterbiev got off to a strong start, dropping Kalajdzic late in the third round with a straight left hand followed by a series of punches that forced Kalajdzic to drop to one knee. Kalajdzic recovered and in the fourth round, the two fighters traded big power shots with both men landing solid punches on each other. At the start of the fifth round, Beterbiev peppered Kalajdzic with more punches upstairs and as soon as Kalajdzic went to the ropes, referee Dan Stell stepped in to end the fight.

Gabriel Flores Jr. defeated Eduardo Pereira dos Reis by KO, round 3: Flores was easily the biggest start of the night in Stockton and the main reason the event drew more than 10,000 fans into the Stockton Arena. Flores landed a thunderous left hook early in the third round that immediately knocked Reis out, sending the crowd into a frenzy and celebrating Flores’ successful return to his hometown. With the win, Flores now moves to 13-0 as a pro with six knockout victories.

Jerwin Ancajas defeated Ryuichi Funai by KO, round 7 to retain the IBF Super Flyweight Title: The fight was mostly one-sided as Ancajas’ sharp left hand disrupted Funai’s attempts to get any offense going in the early portion of the fight. The fight really started to turn in Ancajas’ favor in the fourth round when he landed a series of punches that hurt Funai and pushed him back. This opened up the door for Ancajas to constantly punish his Japanese opponent for the remainder of the fight as Funai’s face bruised, battered and dealing with a cut. Right as the seventh round began, a ringside physician took a look at Funai and ruled that he is not able to continue fighting, awarding Ancajas the victory.

What If There Were Boxing Cards Made Entirely Of Promotion vs. Promotion Fights?:

Over the weekend, Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn made an interesting proposition during the Canelo Alvarez vs. Daniel Jacobs post-fight press conference. He suggested a boxing card that would be filled with fights involving Matchroom Boxing boxers and Golden Boy Promotions boxers, giving examples such as Jaime Munguia vs. Jessie Vargas and Tevin Farmer vs. Joseph Diaz Jr. as potential matchups.

Well that got me thinking. What if that same concept can be applied to various other companies from all over the world? I then took the concept of inter-promotional fight cards and applied to companies such as Matchroom Boxing in the UK and USA, Top Rank Boxing, Teiken Promotions in Japan plus others and made a 6-8 card filled with potential dream matches.

For this hypothetical scenario, I also included PBC as its own entity even though it is not a promotional company in the same breath as Top Rank and Matchroom Boxing, but with PBC’s extensive roster, it wouldn’t be interesting leaving them out of the equation.

For the following cards, the boxers that are being considered are either promoted directly by their respective company, have signed a co-promotional deal with said company or have had a lengthy history with the company and still actively fights on cards from those companies.

Matchroom Boxing vs. PBC:

• Anthony Joshua (Matchroom) vs. Deontay Wilder (PBC): Undisputed WBA “Super,” WBO, WBC and IBF heavyweight titles
• Callum Smith (Matchroom) vs. David Benavidez (PBC): WBA “Super” super middleweight title
• Demetrius Andrade (Matchroom) vs. Jermall Charlo (PBC): WBO middleweight title
• Maurice Hooker (Matchroom) vs. Mikey Garcia (PBC): WBO junior welterweight title
• Tevin Farmer (Matchroom) vs. Gervonta Davis (PBC): Unified WBA and IBF “Super” super featherweight titles
• Dmitry Bivol (Matchroom) vs. Marcus Browne (PBC): WBA light heavyweight title
• Oleksandr Usyk (Matchroom) vs. Luis Ortiz (PBC)
• Daniel Roman (Matchroom) vs. Luis Nery (PBC): Unified WBA and IBF super bantamweight titles

Matchroom Boxing vs. Top Rank:

• Anthony Joshua (Matchroom) vs. Tyson Fury (Top Rank): Unified WBA “Super,” WBO, IBF and Lineal heavyweight titles
• Devin Haney (Matchroom) vs. Teofimo Lopez (Top Rank)
• Maurice Hooker (Matchroom) vs. Jose Ramirez (Top Rank): Unified WBO and WBC junior welterweight titles
• Katie Taylor (Matchroom) vs. Mikaela Mayer (Top Rank): Unified WBA, WBO and IBF Female lightweight titles
• Luke Campbell (Matchroom) vs. Vasiliy Lomachenko (Top Rank): Unified WBA, WBC and WBO lightweight titles
• Dmitry Bivol (Matchroom) vs. Sergey Kovalev (Top Rank): Unified WBA and WBO light heavyweight titles
• Kal Yafai (Matchroom) vs. Jerwin Ancajas (Top Rank): Unified WBA and IBF super flyweight titles
• Daniel Roman (Matchroom) vs. Isaac Dogboe (Top Rank): Unified WBA and IBF super bantamweight titles

Top Rank vs. PBC:

• Terence Crawford (Top Rank) vs. Errol Spence Jr. (PBC): Unified WBO and IBF welterweight titles
• Tyson Fury (Top Rank) vs. Deontay Wilder (PBC): WBC and Lineal heavyweight titles
• Sergey Kovalev (Top Rank) vs. Marcus Browne (PBC): WBO light heavyweight title
• Jose Ramirez (Top Rank) vs. Mikey Garcia (PBC): WBC junior welterweight title
• Oscar Valdez (Top Rank) vs. Leo Santa Cruz (PBC): Unified WBO and WBA “Super” featherweight titles
• Josh Warrington (Top Rank) vs. Gary Russell Jr. (PBC): Unified IBF and WBC featherweight titles
• Rob Brant (Top Rank) vs. Jermall Charlo (PBC): WBA “Regular” middleweight title
• Masayuki Ito (Top Rank) vs. Gervonta Davis (PBC): Unified WBA “Super” and WBO super featherweight titles

Teiken Promotions vs. PBC

• Ryota Murata (Teiken) vs. Jermall Charlo (PBC): Interim WBC middleweight title
• Masayuki Ito (Teiken) vs. Gervonta Davis (PBC): Unified WBA “Super” and WBO super featherweight titles
• Kenichi Ogawa (Teiken) vs. Abner Mares (PBC)
• Takuma Inoue (Teiken) vs. Rau’Shee Warren (PBC): Interim WBC bantamweight title
• Ryosuke Iwasa (Teiken) vs. Brandon Figueroa: Interim WBA super bantamweight title
• Jorge Linares (Teiken) vs. Mikey Garcia (PBC)

Golden Boy Promotions vs. PBC:

• Canelo Alvarez (GBP) vs. Jermall Charlo (PBC): Unified WBA “Super,” WBC and IBF middleweight titles
• Jaime Munguia (GBP) vs. Jarrett Hurd (PBC): Unified WBA “Super,” WBO and IBF junior middleweight titles
• Andrew Cancio (GBP) vs. Gervonta Davis (PBC): WBA super featherweight title
• Xu Can (GBP) vs. Leo Santa Cruz (PBC): WBA featherweight title
• Rey Vargas (GBP) vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux (PBC): WBC super bantamweight title
• Diego De La Hoya (GBP) vs. Brandon Figueroa (PBC): Interim WBA super bantamweight title

Golden Boy Promotions vs. Top Rank:

• Canelo Alvarez (GBP) vs. Rob Brant (Top Rank): Unified WBA, WBC and IBF middleweight titles
• Joseph Diaz Jr. (GBP) vs. Masayuki Ito (Top Rank): WBO super featherweight title
• Andrew Cancio (GBP) vs. Jamel Herring (Top Rank): WBA “Regular” featherweight title
• Eduardo “Rocky” Hernandez (GBP) vs. Teofimo Lopez (Top Rank)
• Ryan Garcia (GBP) vs. Jose Pedraza (Top Rank)
• Lamont Roach Jr. (GBP) vs. Jamel Herring (Top Rank)

What are your dream inter-promotional cards? Sound off in the comments section below.