This weekend's boxing schedule. It is a loaded weekend of boxing. Alvarez vs Scull is for all 4 super middleweight titles, and Inoue vs Cardenas for Inoue's jr. featherweight title.
May 2: New York City (DAZN PPV)
- Ryan Garcia vs. Rolando "Rolly" Romero, 12 rounds, welterweights
- Devin Haney vs. Jose Ramirez, 12 rounds, welterweights
- Title fight: Teofimo Lopez Jr. vs. Arnold Barboza Jr., 12 rounds, for Lopez's WBO junior welterweight title
- Levale Whittington vs. Reito Tsutsumi, 6 rounds, featherweights
May 3: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (DAZN PPV)
- Title fight: Canelo Alvarez vs. William Scull, 12 rounds, for Alvarez's WBC, WBO and WBA super middleweight titles and Scull's IBF super middleweight title
- Title fight: Badou Jack vs. Norair Mikaeljan, 12 rounds, for Jack's WBC cruiserweight title
- Jaime Munguia vs. Bruno Surace, 10 rounds, super middleweights
- Martin Bakole vs. Efe Ajagba, 10 rounds, heavyweights
- Brayan Leon vs. Aaron Rocha Guerrero, 8 rounds, light heavyweights
- Marco Verde vs. Michel Galvan Polina, 4 rounds, middleweights
May 4: Las Vegas (ESPN/ESPN+)
- Title fight: Naoya Inoue vs. Ramon Cardenas, 12 rounds, for Inoue's undisputed junior featherweight championship
- Title fight: Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez, 12 rounds, for Espinoza's WBO featherweight title
- Rohan Polanco vs. Fabian Maidana, 10 rounds, welterweights
- Emiliano Vargas vs. Juan Leon, 8 rounds, junior welterweights
- Ra'eese Aleem vs. Rudy Garcia, 10 rounds, featherweights
- Mikito Nakano vs. Pedro Marquez, 10 rounds, featherweights
- Art Barrera Jr. vs. Juan Carlos Guerra, 6 rounds, junior middleweights
- Patrick O'Connor vs. Marcus Smith, 4 rounds, cruiserweights
I have never seen a weekend like this in 40+years of watching boxing.
I remember when a big PPV was on a Saturday night and ABC would have a non marquee champion defending his crown that afternoon and then after the fight ABC would do a preview of the PPV but this isn't that this is two stacked cards back to back and then a "normal" card headlined by the best sub 126 pound fighter in the world.
The first card is the equivalent of a town square fight card where X blocks of the most dense city in the United States is blocked off for the ring and viewing by the fans and for security reasons for the fighters and boxing dignitaries. All for no site fees and no fees for watching the fight live.
If I didn't know any better I would be thinking I was watching a remake of this comedy....
PS the fight card from last weekend was uploaded for the public by the Saudi promoters all fights including the opening bouts of the Eubank vs Benn feud...
Updating the Friday card and in strange start time (around 6pm) Lopez easily beat the more limited Barbosa at times this looked like a sparring session with Barbosa mainly hitting air and Lopez peppering his slower more mechanical opponent.
Also concerning the audience it seemed like connected people had ringside seats as I saw a 2020's version of Heidi Klum at ringside but regular fans didn't have direct view of the ring and had to watch the large monitors in the square or the rare fan who had a bird's eye view because they worked in a store or paid for a 5 dollar latte and stood on their seat in a store near the square.
Continuing the update on the card from last night and Ryan Garcia slept walked his way to an obvious points defeat to the on paper thoroughly beatable Rolly Romero. He just never got in gear and the fight looked like a sparring session less the violent knockdown which was similar to Garcia hitting the deck against Luke Campbell.
I recall many boxers and other athletes in violent sports taking a leave of absence and being calmer and seeming shot when they had to crank it up a gear at critical point in their bout. This could be the case for Garcia, his rebuild might be a tough long haul off of the way he looked last night.
On Saturday night we had the second PPV card and it was back to back lead balloon cards.
In the semifinal bout Noel “Dark Horse” Mikaelian seemed to fade down the stretch against 41 year old Swedish Mulatto Badou Jack and lost a majority decision. The fight seemed to be in the balance late in the fight but it was Jack with the stamina to win the championship rounds and not the younger Armenian. The short camp for Mikaelian could have been a factor in the bout.
In the main event Canelo Alvarez had to learn a new Afro-Cuban dance as William Scull was in the ring to move and flick soft jabs and pose. Alvarez didn't do much more because he didn't want to expose himself charging in but he seemed slightly too measured for my tastes. He did whip in powerful body shots but very little head shots as Scull never exposed his skull. In the end it was a wide decision for Alvarez less one judge who must have thought he was scoring a dance contest as he had it 7 rounds to 5 for Alvarez.
PS2 I listen to the Paulie Malignaggi podcast and he brought up the possibility of Ryan Garcia having his hormones out of whack doing to the fact he fought clean or at least cleaner. This is a distinct possibility as he looked fatter than the Haney fight and similar to various stars in the big 4 leagues that have comeback clean his physical reflexes didn't look the same.