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Steve KimESPN
With boxing set to resume in the United States in the month of June, Top Rank has put forth an early summer schedule of bouts, the majority of which will take place at the MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas, and will be televised on ESPN platforms.
“The goal was to start out with really good, competitive fights, with names that people are familiar with, who have been on ESPN shows,” Bob Arum, the head of Top Rank, told ESPN on Saturday.
Arum also said that they eschewed title fights for the first couple of weeks to make things easier in terms of logistics.
These cards will be staged with no live audiences and special guidelines that have been put in place by the Nevada Athletic Commission.
“This is a sensible way to push ahead,” said Arum.” Hopefully the fights will be good — I know they will be — but you’ve got to make sure all the procedures are safe and so forth. Hopefully what we’re doing will serve as a template for other promoters to put on shows.
Arum continued, “Hopefully, we will have demonstrated to the authorities, based on these Nevada protocols, that they work.”
Here is the rundown of the featured bouts on the upcoming events:
June 9:
Shakur Stevenson (13-0, 7 KOs) vs Felix Caraballo (13-1-2, 9 KOs): Stevenson, the current WBO featherweight champion, was scheduled to make the first defense of his belt on March 14 against Miguel Marriaga at the Theater at Madison Square Garden before that event was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. This bout is a non-title affair for Stevenson, a 2016 Olympic silver medalist.
Mikaela Mayer (12-0, 5 KOs) vs Helen Joseph (17-4-2, 10 KOs): The undefeated Mayer, who represented America in the 2016 Olympics, is pining for a title shot by the end of 2020, and in Joseph, who hails from Nigeria, she is facing her toughest test to date as a professional.
June 11:
Jessie Magdaleno (27-1, 18 KOs) vs Yenifel Vicente (36-4-2, 28 KOs): Like Stevenson, Magdaleno was scheduled to fight on March 14 in New York. The former WBO 122 pound champion has notched victories over Rico Ramos and Rafael Rivera since losing his title to Isaac Dogboe in 2018. He is now competing in the featherweight division. Vicente, who hails from the Dominican Republic, has won 11 of his last 12 bouts.
Adam Lopez (13-2, 6 KOs) vs Luis Coria (12-2, 7 KOs): Lopez gained notoriety last Thanksgiving weekend by agreeing to face Oscar Valdez at the 11th hour (as his originally scheduled opponent failed to make weight) and put up a strong performance — even dropping Valdez early in the bout — before getting stopped in the seventh. Coria was originally supposed to be his opponent that weekend at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
June 16:
Joshua Greer Jr. (22-1-1, 12 KOs) vs Mike Plania (23-1, 12 KOs): Greer, a native of Chicago, is looking for a title shot in the bantamweight division. Ranked No. 1 by the WBO, and second in the IBF (ESPN has him ranked 10th), it’s just a matter of time before he fights for a major belt. But he has to get past Plania of the Philippines, who comes in with an eight-fight winning streak.
Giovanni Santillan (25-0, 15 KOs) vs Antonio Demarco (33-8-1, 24 KOs): Santillan is an unbeaten southpaw, who just recently signed a co-promotional deal with Top Rank. He makes his debut with the company by facing the well-seasoned Demarco, who at one time was the WBC lightweight champion after rallying back to defeat the highly regarded Jorge Linares in 2011. During his career, he has battled the likes of Edwin Valero, Adrien Broner and Jessie Vargas, among others.
June 18:
Jose Pedraza (26-3, 13 KOs) vs Mikkel LesPierre (22-1-1, 10 KOs): Pedraza is a fighter looking to rebound after getting out-pointed by Jose Zepeda back in September over 10 rounds. He briefly held the WBO lightweight title after defeating Ray Beltran in the summer of 2018, but then lost that belt to Vasiliy Lomachenko later that year. In March of 2019, LesPierre challenged WBO junior welterweight titlist Maurice Hooker and dropped a unanimous decision.
Gabe Flores Jr. (17-0, 6 KOs) vs Josec Ruiz (21-2-3, 14 KOs): Flores, who is steadily developing his skills, in 2016 became the youngest boxer to ever sign with Top Rank at the age of 16. Still just 20 years old, he is now looking to develop his physical maturity to go along with his boxing acumen. Ruiz comes into this contest having won seven consecutive outings, five of them by stoppage.
June 20 (TV Azteca Studios in Mexico City, Mexico)
Emanuel Navarete (31-1, 27 KOs) vs Uriel Lopez (13-13-1, 6 KOs): Navarrete is the defending WBO 122 pound champion, but this will be a 10-round non-title affair. Since defeating Dogboe for the belt in December of 2018, he has become one of the most active world-class boxers in the world. He put in four title defenses in 2019, and on the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder II undercard on February 22, he halted Jeo Santisima in 11 rounds.
June 23:
Andrew Moloney (21-0, 14 KOs) vs Joshua Franco (16-1-2, 8 KOs): One half of the Moloney duo from Australia, Andrew, holds a version of the WBA 115 pound title. He had been scheduled to fight in Tulsa, Oklahoma on April 17 before that event was cancelled. In Franco, he’s facing a solid fighter who never shies away from a skirmish. He engaged in a memorable three-fight set against Oscar Negrete, where he walked away with a split-decision victory and two draws.
Christopher Diaz (25-2, 16 KOs) and Jason Sanchez (15-1, 8 KOs): Diaz bounced back from his loss to Stevenson in April of 2019, by defeating Adeilson Dos Santos on January 18 to kick off his 2020 campaign. Last year Sanchez gained valuable experience by going the distance against Valdez, who at the time was the WBO champion at 126. After that defeat, he came back to beat Dos Santos, knocking him out in four rounds.