Fightful Boxing Newsletter (8/29/2019): Kovalev Beats Yarde, Will He Face Canelo, Boxing TV Ratings

Fightful Boxing Newsletter (8/29/2019) Table Of Contents:

1. Sergey Kovalev vs. Anthony Yarde Results; Will We See Canelo vs. Kovalev Next? (Page 1)
2. Boxing Television Viewership Through July vs. Prior Years (Page 2)
3. Peltz Boxing To Celebrate 50 Years With Philadelphia Show In October (Page 3)
4. Fightful Boxing Rankings August 29, 2019 (Pages 4-5)
5. PBC on FS1, DAZN Results (Page 6)

Sergey Kovalev vs. Anthony Yarde Results; Will We See Canelo vs. Kovalev Next?

For weeks, the idea of Sergey Kovalev facing Canelo Alvarez next has always been an interesting one, mainly for the purpose of seeing Alvarez jump from middleweight all the way to light heavyweight.

Yet instead, Kovalev ended up fighting Anthony Yarde, but now a potential Kovalev vs. Alvarez seems almost like a sure thing after Kovalev knocked out Yarde. Kovalev returned to his home country for a fight for the first time since 2016 and survived a massive scare in the eighth round to eventually knock out Yarde in the 11th round to retain his WBO light heavyweight title.

The story heading into the fight was the bizarre training regimen that Yarde had, mainly the lack of any sparring whatsoever. Yarde wasn’t someone who has experience facing top level competition and barely had any amateur experience. The fact that he had no sparring was a gamble pretty much everyone predicted would backfire and it did.

After Yarde was able to seriously hurt Kovalev in the eighth round and nearly stopped him, Yarde quickly gassed out and barely able to put up a fight for the remainder of the fight, resulting it Kovalev landing a hard left jab to knock him out.

There are plenty of takeaways from this fight for both fighters. For Yarde, one can clearly see why Yarde holds a lot of promise in many people’s eyes, but his many, many deficiencies were shown. For starters, the idea of not sparring before a fight should never be considered again. Secondly, Yarde has to work on his stamina, footwork and defense, all factors in Yarde losing the fight.

But perhaps most important of all is the need for Yarde to get more experience in the ring, whether it be from fighting other top caliber opponents or from sparring. With Yarde having more pro fights than amateur fights, he is still extremely green in the ring and that was evident in the fight against Kovalev. While Yarde may end up being a world champion in the end, he never faced anyone that could prepare for such a fight.

Despite all of that, he was potentially seconds away from beating Kovalev, which is something to be admired and if one were to look at Yarde after the fight, they can see that this fight taught him a lot about being a pro boxer and going about preparing for the big fights. Whether or not he applies what he learned in that fight for the future is an entirely different question.

Now Kovalev must potentially deal with less than 10 weeks in order to face Alvarez. As it stands, the current round of negotiations have Alvarez’s camp aiming to have the fight take place on November 2. From the Kovalev camp’s viewpoint, November 2 wouldn’t be much of an issue, but it is hard to ignore the fact that Kovalev will have virtually zero rest time and prepare for one of the biggest fights of his career.

What will get Kovalev to defend his title in the span of less than three complete months is the fact that the amount of money he will get will be tremendous at this stage of his career. Though the amount of money offered by Golden Boy Promotions might not have changed too much from what was offered in their first round of negotiations, the dynamics of those finances have changed.

No longer does a fight over Yarde loom over Kovalev’s head and that means no step-aside fee (which I could estimate being in the high six figures or low seven figures) will be paid to both Yarde and promoter Frank Warren. This opens up some more money to be paid directly to Kovalev’s camp which will further entice him to take the challenge against Alvarez.

It’s really all a legacy fight for Alvarez. He’s already punched his ticket into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the fight against Kovalev would simply be him trying to get another championship in another weight class, which would make it three divisional titles (although everyone from Alvarez to DAZN to Golden Boy Promotions will claim four divisions but that is because Alvarez holds a secondary title at super middleweight).

Though this fight is not set in stone, the feeling between both sides is that the second round of negotiations will go much smoother than the first time. November 2 is the date being thrown around, but don’t be surprised if the fight was pushed back until later in the month if talks stall for a bit.

Briefly talking about the card in Chelyabinsk (which apparently drew a crowd of 7500 according to the ESPN+ broadcast), the three-fight main card on ESPN+ was a solid event that featured a cruiserweight bout between Ilunga Makabu and Aleksei Papin that ended up being one of the more entertaining fights of the week. Makabu, the WBC Silver champion, has now made a strong case to be the best cruiserweight contender in the world today, but he won’t get a title shot until 2020 due to the timing of the World Boxing Super Series and Krzysztof Glowacki getting a shot at the tournament winner immediately afterwards.

Top Rank on ESPN+ August 24 Results:

• Sergey Kovalev defeated Anthony Yarde by KO, round 11, 2:04 to retain the WBO light heavyweight title (Fightful had Kovalev winning 97-93 at the time of the stoppage): At first, Yarde’s speed kept him in the fight through the opening four rounds as Kovalev was still trying to figure him out. Kovalev then utilized his jab to throw off Yarde’s rhythm and Yarde didn’t have an answer for it throughout the entire fight. It wasn’t until the seventh round where Yarde would piece together a string of hard body shots that not only hurt Kovalev but almost stopped him entirely in what would have been a major comeback. Yarde, however, was not able to use his momentum to win the fight and started to get tired out by the time the ninth round began. After trainer Buddy McGirt threatened to stop the fight if Kovalev didn’t do anything to get back into the fight, Kovalev worked the jab once more and Yarde was still unable to defend well against it. Once the 11th round began, Yarde was gasping for air and barely able to stay vertical. Kovalev then would score a big left jab around two minutes into the round and knock Yarde out to win the fight. Though Kovalev won a majority of the rounds, he does not look like the same fighter that he was in February in the rematch against Eleider Alvarez where Kovalev looked nearly unbeatable inside the division.
• Ilunga Makabu defeated Aleksei Papin by majority decision (114-114, 115-113, 115-113) to retain the WBC Silver cruiserweight title (Fightful had Makabu winning 116-111): This fight was all action from the beginning. Papin, a former kickboxing champion, started off well with a series of shots that briefly stunned Makabu in round three, but Makabu responded with a couple of uppercuts. Papin struggled to maintain his stamina for very long, but he did kept throwing punches and was taking a lot of punishment and stayed vertical. The seventh round was the best on the entire main card with both boxers having several hard exchanges of power punches with neither man going down. Makabu hurt Papin late in the 11th round and finally scored a knockdown in the 12th round to secure the win. The 114-114 score was actually read as 113-113 by the Russian ring announcer, who said the correct score in Russian but said 113-113 in English by mistake. The scores were far closer than what the fight indicated, but regardless, Makabu is now arguably the best contender at cruiserweight and should get a world title shot in 2020 and should be considered a potential top five cruiserweight in the world with the departures of Oleksandr Usyk and Murat Gassiev to the heavyweight division.
• Evgeny Romanov defeated Dario German Balmaceda by TKO, round 1, 2:33: Not much to say here except Romanov easily beat Balmaceda thanks to two knockdowns in the first round, resulting in the stoppage. This was a complete mismatch, even on paper. Romanov’s an unbeaten heavyweight prospect while Balmaceda came into the fight with a 19-17-2 record and has fought all the way down at super middleweight. No one learned anything from watching this fight but this was Romanov’s third fight in the past six months so at least he is keeping busy.

Boxing Television Viewership Through July vs. Prior Years:

A couple of years ago, the battle for boxing television supremacy in the United States market was one between two premium cable channels: HBO and Showtime.

But with HBO’s exit from boxing in late 2018 and the rise of online streaming taking over some of the biggest fights in the sport, the television landscape has changed considerably. Joining Showtime in the competition for the top spot are FOX and ESPN, which have made waves with several major fights on their respective schedule.

Yet even as television continues to be a primary source for media consumption and boxing’s efforts to re-enter the collective mainstream sports conscious, it’s interesting to take a look at how those three networks have performed in recent years. In the cases for Showtime, looking at the past four years does show an interesting trend while for FOX and ESPN, a look at their last two years, which is when they truly started to re-invest their resources in boxing, does show which network is performing the best.

With the year not being over, the following stats below take a look at what the aforementioned three networks have performed from January to July in the years analyzed.

Below is the average viewership of every live “Showtime: Championship Boxing” and “Showtime Boxing: Special Edition” from January to July every year from 2016-2019:

Showtime Boxing 2019:

• Gervonta Davis vs. Hugo Ruiz (February 9): 429,000
• Erislandy Lara vs. Brian Castano (March 2): 487,000
• Claressa Shields vs. Christina Hammer (April 13): 339,000
• Robert Easter Jr. vs. Rances Barthelemy (April 27): 312,000
• Deontay Wilder vs. Dominic Breazeale (May 18): 791,000
• Jermall Charlo vs. Brandon Adams (June 29): 379,000
• Gervonta Davis vs. Ricardo Nunez (July 27): 553,000
• Average (7 Events): 470,000

Showtime Boxing 2018

• Claressa Shields vs. Tori Nelson (January 12): 320,000
• Errol Spence Jr. vs. Lamont Peterson (January 20): 637,000
• Danny Garcia vs. Brandon Rios (February 17): 516,000
• Deontay Wilder vs. Luis Ortiz (March 3): 1,055,000
• Mikey Garcia vs. Sergey Lipinets (March 10): 618,000
• Anthony Joshua vs. Joseph Parker (March 31): 346,000
• Erislandy Lara vs. Jarrett Hurd (April 7): 490,000
• Adrien Broner vs. Jessie Vargas (April 21): 782,000
• Adonis Stevenson vs. Badou Jack (May 19): 535,000
• Leo Santa Cruz vs. Abner Mares 2 (June 9): 600,000
• Errol Spence Jr. vs. Carlos Ocampo (June 16): 683,000
• Claressa Shields vs. Hanna Gabriels (June 22): 376,000
• Mikey Garcia vs. Robert Easter (July 28): 680,000
• Average (13 Events): 587,538

Showtime Boxing 2017

• James DeGale vs. Badou Jack (January 14): 454,000
• Carl Frampton vs. Leo Santa Cruz 2 (January 28): 587,000
• Adrien Broner vs. Adrian Granados (February 18): 779,000
• Shawn Porter vs. Andre Berto (April 22): 468,000
• Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko (April 29): 659,000
• Gervonta Davis vs. Liam Walsh (May 20): 228,000
• Gary Russell Jr. vs. Oscar Escandon (May 20): 481,000
• Kell Brook vs. Errol Spence Jr. (May 27): 291,000
• Adonis Stevenson vs. Andrzej Fonfara 2 (June 3): 390,000
• Mikey Garcia vs. Adrien Broner (July 29): 881,000
• Average (10 Events): 521,800

Showtime Boxing 2016

• Deontay Wilder vs. Artur Szpilka (January 16): 500,000
• Leo Santa Cruz vs. Kiko Martinez (February 27): 297,000
• Julian Williams vs. Marcello Matano (March 5): 311,000
• Charles Martin vs. Anthony Joshua (April 9): 275,000
• Gary Russell Jr. vs. Patrick Hyland (April 16): 295,000
• James DeGale vs. Rogelio Medina (April 30): 342,000
• Erislanda Lara vs. Vanes Martirosyan (May 21): 491,000
• Ruslan Provodnikov vs. John Molina Jr. (June 11): 465,000
• Anthony Joshua vs. Dominic Breazeale (June 25): 289,000
• Leo Santa Cruz vs. Carl Frampton (July 30): 480,000
• Average (10 Events): 374,500

Below is the average viewership of every live “Top Rank on ESPN” card from January to July every year from 2018-2019:

Top Rank On ESPN 2019:

• Richard Commey vs. Isa Chaniev (February 2): 880,000
• Jose Ramirez vs. Jose Zepeda (February 10): 655,000
• Rob Brant vs. Khasan Baysangurov (February 15): 704,000
• Kubrat Pulev vs. Bogdan Dinu (March 23): 469,000
• Oleksandr Gvozdyk vs. Doudou Ngumbu (March 30): 655,000
• Artur Beterbiev vs. Radivoje Kalajdzic (May 4): 480,000
• Miguel Berchelt vs. Miguel Roman (May 11): 740,000
• Masayuki Ito vs. Jamel Herring (May 25): 556,000
• Oscar Valdez vs. Jason Sanchez (June 8): 799,000
• Richard Commey vs. Raymundo Beltran (June 28): 490,000
• Shakur Stevenson vs. Alberto Guevara (July 13): 530,000
• Average (11 Events): 632,545

Top Rank On ESPN 2018

• Gilberto Ramirez vs. Habib Ahmed (February 3): 741,000
• Raymundo Beltran vs. Paulus Moses (February 16): 703,000
• Oscar Valdez vs. Scott Quigg (March 10): 1,100,000
• Jose Ramirez vs. Amir Imam (March 17): 488,000
• Jessie Magdaleno vs. Isaac Dogboe (April 28): 701,000
• Jorge Linares vs. Vasiliy Lomachenko (May 12): 1,024,000
• Gilberto Ramirez vs. Roamer Alexis Angulo (June 30): 632,000
• Egidijus Kavaliauskas vs. Juan Carlos Abreu (July 7): 534,000
• Regis Prograis vs. Juan Jose Velasco (July 14): 518,000
• Average (9 Events): 715,666

Below is the average viewership of every live “PBC On FOX” card from January to July every year from 2018-2019

PBC On FOX 2019

• Keith Thurman vs. Josesito Lopez (January 26): 1,980,000
• Leo Santa Cruz vs. Rafael Rivera (February 16): 1,376,000
• Shawn Porter vs. Yordenis Ugas (March 9): 1,628,000
• Danny Garcia vs. Adrian Granados (April 20): 1,082,000
• Jarrett Hurd vs. Julian Williams (May 11): 1,385,000
• Jermall Charlo vs. Jorge Cota Prelims (June 23): 836,000
• Jermall Charlo vs. Jorge Cota (June 23): 1,211,000
• Caleb Plant vs. Mike Lee (July 20): 923,000
• Average (8 Events): 1,295,875

PBC On FOX 2018

• Devon Alexander vs. Victor Ortiz (February 17): 1,136,000
• Josesito Lopez vs. Miguel Cruz (April 28): 839,000
• Andre Berto vs. Devon Alexander (August 4): 1,193,000
• Average (3 Events): 1,056,000

A few interesting notes on the data collected:

1. ESPN’s television numbers may have decreased year-to-year, but it’s interesting to not that it didn’t have the benefit of having Terence Crawford and Vasiliy Lomachenko fight on lineal television this year as they fought on pay-per-view and ESPN+, respectively. It’s becoming abundantly clear that ESPN has actually doubled down on boxing programming with more television cards and getting broadcast rights to stream many boxing cards from around the world, whether it would be from the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan or Kazakhstan. What’s also clear is that putting on the best boxing cards on television isn’t exactly ESPN’s top priority with Top Rank and instead diverted some of its attention to ESPN+, which already has more than two million subscribers.
2. FOX getting a good portion of PBC’s roster has bolstered its viewership year-to-year with solid, compelling matchups. With the absence of UFC on FOX and FS1, boxing overtook UFC programming on those two channels, giving PBC plenty of opportunities to have multiple boxing cards per month.
3. Some of FOX’s biggest success on PBC has come from strong marketing campaigns and promotional work that was done on the backbone of the network’s relationship with the NFL. The most-watched boxing card of 2019 averaged nearly two million viewers in January, right in the heart of the NFL Playoffs and the promotion took place in the second half of the NFL regular season. There’s also the fact that the Errol Spence Jr. vs. Mikey Garcia pay-per-view in March performed fairly well in terms of buyrate thanks to FOX investing in pre-fight programming on the main channel as well as having the Dallas Cowboys, whose stadium was used to host the fight, help in promoting the fight.
4. With FOX taking away many of PBC’s biggest stars, including the welterweight division, Showtime has underperformed compared to previous years. Showtime does have the benefit of retaining Gervonta Davis, who is quickly started to become a fairly solid television draw when fighting in the United States, and Deontay Wilder, who is starting to make a case as one of boxing’s best draws in the United States. It will be interesting to see what Showtime will have scheduled for the remainder of the year given that there isn’t much to look forward to aside from Claressa Shields facing Ivana Habazin in October.

Peltz Boxing To Celebrate 50 Years With Philadelphia Show In October:

Fightful.com was sent the following on Peltz Boxing celebrating its 50th anniversary with a boxing card at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia in October.

J Russell Peltz was 22 years old when he promoted his first boxing card 50 years ago at the legendary Blue Horizon. On Oct. 4, Peltz will celebrate half a century as a boxing promoter with a card at the 2300 Arena that will reflect his reputation for promoting Philly vs. Philly, no-quarters-given bouts.

The eight-fight card, promoted by Raging Babe, will feature junior welterweight Victor Padilla, of Berlin, NJ, by way of Vieques, Puerto Rico, in the main event. Padilla, who is promoted by DiBella Entertainment, is undefeated in five fights, all by way of knockout, and is considered by Peltz and others to be a future world champion. Peltz will serve as matchmaker for the event.

It has been nearly 20 years since Peltz received the Long and Meritorious Service award from the Boxing Writers Association of America and Philadelphia Sportswriters Association, followed in 2004 by his induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. While others might have considered retirement, Peltz has gone on to promote more than 150 additional events, bringing his total number of promoted shows to nearly 1,000. He has promoted or co-promoted more than 40 world championship fights.

After starting his career as sports editor of the Temple News–the daily student newspaper at Temple University–and then on the sports copy desk at the Evening and Sunday Bulletin, Peltz traded in his typewriter for the roller coaster that is professional boxing. He was dubbed “The Boy Wonder,” when he sold out the 1,346-seat Blue Horizon in his first event on Sept. 30, 1969, a night that featured a middleweight main event between Bennie Briscoe, of Philadelphia, and Tito Marshall, of Panama. The standing-room-only crowd was 1,606.

In more recent years, he’s taken Michelle Rosado (aka Raging Babe) under his wing, mentoring her and showing her the ins and outs of the boxing business with his unique brand of tough love.

“I can think of no one better to promote my 50th Anniversary Celebration,” said Peltz. “I have been able to sit in the passenger seat the last couple years while Michelle drove and I’m excited to share this special event with her. It seems like yesterday I was sitting outside the Blue Horizon in North Philly, selling tickets out of my car for my first card after the box office closed for the day. From there to the old Arena in West Philly, then to The Spectrum in South Philly, it’s been quite a ride. Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Europe, South America, the Orient–I cannot believe it’s been half a century.”

Rosado: “It’s an honor to put on this card with and for Russell’s 50th. He has been an incredible mentor and friend, and I think I have looked forward to this celebration of his legacy even more than he has.”

Fightful Boxing Rankings August 29, 2019:

The Fightful Boxing Rankings are compiled by lead boxing writer Carlos Toro.

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Fightful Boxing Rankings:

Pound-for-pound

1. Vasiliy Lomachenko
2. Naoya Inoue
3. Terence Crawford
4. Canelo Alvarez
5. Oleksandr Usyk
6. Gennadiy Golovkin
7. Juan Francisco Estrada
8. Errol Spence Jr.
9. Kosei Tanaka
10. Manny Pacquiao

Heavyweight

1. Tyson Fury
2. Deontay Wilder
3. Andy Ruiz Jr.
4. Anthony Joshua
5. Dillian Whyte
6. Luis Ortiz
7. Kubrat Pulev
8. Oscar Rivas
9. Adam Kownacki
10. Michael Hunter

Cruiserweight

1. Beibut Shumenov
2. Mairis Briedis
3. Yuniel Dorticos
4. Krzysztof Glowacki
5. Kevin Lerena
6. Ilunga Makabu
7. Firat Arslan
8. Marco Huck
9. Lawrence Okolie
10. Thabiso Mchunu

Light heavyweight

1. Dmitry Bivol
2. Gilberto Ramirez
3. Oleksandr Gvozdyk
4. Sergey Kovalev
5. Artur Beterbiev
6. Jean Pascal
7. Eleider Alvarez
8. Marcus Browne
9. Badou Jack
10. Jesse Hart

Super middleweight

1. Canelo Alvarez
2. Callum Smith
3. Caleb Plant
4. David Benavidez
5. Billy Joe Saunders
6. John Ryder
7. Anthony Dirrell
8. Chris Eubank Jr.
9. Avni Yildirim
10. Caleb Truax

Middleweight

1. Canelo Alvarez
2. Gennadiy Golovkin
3. Demetrius Andrade
4. Daniel Jacobs
5. Jermall Charlo
6. Ryota Murata
7. Sergiy Derevyanchenko
8. Matt Korobov
9. Kamil Szeremeta
10. Jeff Horn

Junior middleweight

1. Julian Williams
2. Jarrett Hurd
3. Erislandy Lara
4. Brian Castano
5. Tony Harrison
6. Jermell Charlo
7. Jaime Munguia
8. Liam Smith
9. Kell Brook
10. Michel Soro

Welterweight

1. Terrence Crawford
2. Errol Spence Jr.
3. Manny Pacquiao
4. Shawn Porter
5. Danny Garcia
6. Keith Thurman
7. Mikey Garcia
8. Sergey Lipinets
9. Yordenis Ugas
10. David Avanesyan

The rest of the rankings are in the next page.

Junior welterweight

1. Regis Prograis
2. Jose Ramirez
3. Josh Taylor
4. Ivan Baranchyk
5. Maurice Hooker
6. Kiryl Relikh
7. Jack Catterall
8. Jono Carroll
9. Viktor Postol
10. Pablo Cesar Cano

Lightweight

1. Vasiliy Lomachenko
2. Teofimo Lopez
3. Richard Commey
4. Jose Pedraza
5. Robert Easter Jr.
6. Devin Haney
7. Luke Campbell
8. Anthony Crolla
9. Rances Barthelemy
10. Zaur Abdullaev

Super featherweight

1. Gervonta Davis
2. Miguel Berchelt
3. Tevin Farmer
4. Andrew Cancio
5. Jamel Herring
6. Joseph Diaz Jr.

7. Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov

8. Alberto Machado

9. Miguel Roman
10. Masayuki Ito

Featherweight

1. Leo Santa Cruz
2. Gary Russell Jr.
3. Oscar Valdez
4. Shakur Stevenson
5. Josh Warrington
6. Carl Frampton
7. Can Xu
8. Jessie Magdaleno
9. Tugstsogt Nyambayar
10. Jesus Rojas

Super bantamweight

1. Daniel Roman
2. Emanuel Navarrete
3. Rey Vargas
4. Guillermo Rigondeaux
5. Ryan Burnett
6. Brandon Figueroa
7. Isaac Dogboe
8. TJ Doheny​​​​​​
9. Ryosuke Iwasa
10. Stephen Fulton

Bantamweight

1. Naoya Inoue
2. Luis Nery
3. Nonito Donaire
4. Zolani Tete
5. Nordine Oubaali
6. John Riel Casimero
7. Emmanuel Rodriguez
8. Juan Carlos Payano
9. Richard Espinoza
10. Jason Moloney

Super Flyweight

1. Juan Francisco Estrada
2. Roman Gonzalez
3. Donnie Nietes
4. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai
5. Jerwin Ancajas
6. Kal Yafai
7. Kazuto Ioka
8. Aston Palicte
9. Carlos Cuadras
10. Andrew Moloney

Flyweight

1. Kosei Tanaka
2. Artem Dalakian
3. Charlie Edwards
4. Moruti Mthalane
5. Ryoichi Taguchi
6. Daigo Higa
7. Cristofer Rosales
8. Julio Cesar Martinez
9. Andrew Selby
10. Wulan Tuolehazi

Light flyweight/Minimumweight

1. Wanheng Menayothin
2. Hiroto Kyoguchi
3. Ken Shiro
4. Elwin Soto
5. Carlos Canizales
6. Angel Acosta
7. Hekkie Budler
8. Wilfredo Mendez
9. Felix Alvarado
10. Knockout CP Freshmart

PBC on FS1, DAZN Results:

Brandon Figueroa’s latest fight ended up being a complete one-sided victory for him.

Fighting just 30 minutes away from his hometown of Weslaco, Texas, Figueroa dominated Javier Chacon, knocking him out in the fourth round to retain his interim WBA super bantamweight title. The fight headlined the August 24 edition of PBC on FS1 from Edinburg, Figueroa’s first as a main event fighter on national television.

From the start, Figueroa sought to break down Chacon with nonstop body shots and found immediate success. Chacon barely threw any punches in the fight as he was forced to consistently defend against the younger Figueroa’s work rate. A little more than halfway through the fourth round, Figueroa scored a right uppercut and several punches to the body, sending Chacon to the canvas and unable to get up and beat the count.

It was Figueroa’s first defense of the title since beating Yonfrez Parejo in eight rounds to win the belt back in April on the undercard of Danny Garcia vs. Adrian Granados in April.

Although Figueroa may have the WBA’s interim title, a fight against the WBA’s full champion, Daniel Roman, may not be possible anytime soon. Roman is currently defending his unified WBA and IBF titles against mandatory challenger Murodjon Akhmadaliev on September 13 at Madison Square Garden. Roman also has an IBF mandatory challenger in Ryosuke Iwasa waiting in the wings as well as a potential unification against WBC champion Rey Vargas.

As for when he could possibly face some of the other top fighters and champions at super bantamweight, Figueroa told Fightful prior to August 24 that he hopes to get a big fight in 2020.

PBC on FS1/FS2 August 24 Results:

• Brandon Figueroa defeated Javier Chacon by KO, round 4, 2:00
• Darwin Price defeated Aaron Herrera by TKO, round 2, 2:58
• Stephen Fulton defeated Isaac Avelar by KO, round 6, 1:26
• Jaime Arboleda defeated Victor Betancourt by TKO, round 1, 2:32
• Omar Juarez defeated Gino de la Paz by TKO, round 1, 1:40
• Raymond Guajardo defeated McArio DelCastillo by TKO, round 1, 2:29
• Cesar Cantu defeated Eddie Hines by unanimous decision (40-36, 40-36, 40-36)
• Sean Garcia defeated Nestor Robledo by unanimous decision (40-36, 40-36, 40-36)
• Damien Vazquez and Josue Morales fight to a majority draw (57-57, 57-57, 58-56)

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Juan Francisco Estrada’s first WBC super flyweight title defense was a resounding success.

Returning to his home country of Mexico, Estrada put on a show, dropping Dewayne Beamon twice in the second round and later stopping him in the ninth round to retain his 115-pound title. The fight, which headlined a Matchroom Boxing on DAZN event, took place in Estrada’s birthplace of Sonora.

Starting off, Beamon showed he would not be intimidated by Estrada or by the pro-Estrada Mexican crowd. In the first round, Beamon landed several left hands as he constantly moved around the ring, avoiding Estrada’s combinations.

The second round was where it all turned around for Estrada. After Beamon briefly staggered Estrada, Beamon became too aggressive and got caught with a left hand, sending him to the canvas. Beamon got back up, but was quickly knocked down again due to a left hook to the body thrown by the Mexican.

Estrada continued his assault on Beamon by landing numerous short combinations in the third round, but Beamon still remained agile and willing to trade punches with the champion at times in the following rounds. Once the fifth round began, Beamon looked to be the aggressor as Estrada proceeded to step back and tried to take his challenger out with counter punches. But as the fight progressed, Beamon was able to keep Estrada in check, turning in several competitive, close rounds, gaining more confidence with each passing round.

The champion managed to hurt Beamon late in the eighth round with a three-punch combination and had him struggling to stay vertical. Beamon did manage to answer back with a straight right hand with just seconds remaining in the seventh round, but it ended being the last big punch he landed for the remainder of the fight. After getting hit with numerous right hands in the eighth round, Beamon was stopped less than a minute into the ninth round thanks to a furious combination from Estrada.

As for what is next for Estrada, he is certainly going to look to secure a world title unification with WBA champion Kal Yafai as both are promoted by Matchroom Boxing. Previously, Estrada said there are plans in place for the two unify their belts on the undercard of the December 7 card in Saudi Arabia headlined by the rematch between Andy Ruiz Jr. and Anthony Joshua.

Matchroom Boxing on DAZN August 24 Results:

• Juan Francisco Estrada defeated Dewayne Beamon by TKO, round 9, 0:51
• Filip Hrgovic defeated Mario Heredia by TKO, round 3, 0:43
• Liam Smith defeated Mario Lozado by TKO, round 7, 1:02
• Alexis Espino defeated Oscar Soto by TKO, round 3 1:49