Roundup (June 8, 2019): GGG-Rolls, Valdez-Sanchez, Judah’s return spoiled, more
Saturday’s fights are set, Zab Judah’s comeback is probably over, and more.
Miss anything Friday? Catch up!
Top Stories
Saturday night’s main events are set, as the fighters made weight in New York and Reno for the DAZN and ESPN cards coming your way tomorrow night. Gennadiy Golovkin and Steve Rolls looked in good shape in New York, and Oscar Valdez and Jason Sanchez are set in Reno.
We also had our staff picks for both Golovkin-Rolls and Valdez-Sanchez. We have them both sweeps for the favorites, but we said the same about Joshua-Ruiz and Hurd-Williams so what the shit do we know?
Golovkin feels like a tiger, by the way.
We’ll have live coverage for both shows tomorrow night. DAZN starts at 7 pm ET with the main card starting at 9 pm ET, while Top Rank starts at 7:30 pm ET on ESPN+, main card at 10 pm ET on ESPN.
Quick Hits
- We did have a fight on Friday night, as Zab Judah attempted a comeback at 41, in what was his first serious fight since 2013. It didn’t go great, as Cletus Seldin stopped him in the 11th round of a one-sided fight. There’s just nothing much left in Zab physically, and it’s probably time for him to hang up the gloves for good. Maybe a farewell showcase in Brooklyn, or if he wants to travel around touching up club fighters, I guess there’s that, but at even a low second-tier level, he’s clearly done now.
- Andy Ruiz Jr says he wants $50 million to fight Anthony Joshua in the UK. As I said in the thread, Ruiz is making the rounds and having the time of his life, he can say whatever wild shit he wants right now.
- Sergey Kovalev and Anthony Yarde aren’t fighting on June 29 in Russia, per the original plan, and the fight is now headed to a June 11 purse bid.
- Bob Arum doesn’t think you can sell a Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua fight in the US at this point. This man has pretty recently put Doudou Ngumbu and Bogdan Dinu in ESPN main events so he’s keenly aware of what doesn’t sell, I say we listen to him.
- Amir Khan wants a fair shot against Terence Crawford. Please, Amir, stop.
- PBC confirmed their previously reported Aug. 3 main event on FOX in Brooklyn, as Adam Kownacki will face Chris Arreola at Barclays Center in what should be a goddamn blast for as long as it lasts. The card will also feature Andre Berto vs Miguel Cruz and Marcus Browne vs Jean Pascal.
- Erislandy Lara will face Canelo Alvarez’s brother Ramon in a FOX main event on Aug. 31. The show will also feature a rematch between Peter Quillin and Caleb Truax, whose April fight in Minneapolis ended early in a no-contest.
- The Golden Boy card for July 13 on DAZN is official, with Rey Vargas to face Tomoki Kameda, Diego De La Hoya taking on Ronny Rios, Joet Gonzalez vs Manuel “Tino” Avila, and returns for Eduardo “Rocky” Hernandez, Alexis Rocha, and more.
- Gervonta Davis is excited to bring a world title fight home to Baltimore on July 27.
- Anthony Fowler and Dalton Smith are set to return on Matchroom’s July 6 show in Manchester.
- We don’t get a lot of fundamentally nice stories in boxing, but here’s one: Christopher Pearson, a former prospect who lost a couple fights and wound up a free agent, has turned a May upset of Yamaguchi Falcao on a Golden Boy show into a new deal with Golden Boy.