by Ten rounds looking forward to this weekend’s Frank Martin-Michel Rivera fight…
10. David Avanesyan’s sixth-round knockout of Terence Crawford went as I expected. Avanesyan was competitive early on. But Crawford, a notoriously slow starter, launched into the third, slowing Avanesyan with faded body shots before finally catching him upstairs with a fight-ending uppercut-hook combination. It was a solid win for Crawford and a good paycheck (apparently $10 million), but the question now is, can Crawford reinvigorate talks with Errol Spence Jr.? There is some skepticism within the industry, with insiders noting that not only do the issues that scuttled negotiations in October still exist, but there is now a healthy mistrust between Crawford and Al Haymon, Spence’s adviser. . Perhaps Crawford, without an eight-figure offer to fall back on this time around, will be more eager to strike a deal.
9. Dmitry Bivol is in position to land a rematch with Canelo Alvarez next, and in an interview with IF this week, Bivol made it clear that he would like the fight at a new weight. Bivol, who beat Alvarez at 175 pounds last May, says he’s ready to drop down to 168 and face Alvarez at super middleweight.
“I think it’s much more interesting to fight 168,” Bivol says. “And why? Because after the fight, first he said, ‘Maybe that’s not my weight class.’ And secondly, I want to be motivated too. I don’t want to be motivated just by the money for this fight. I want the motivation to be the belts. I can do 168, because now my weight, it’s around 187, maybe 185. Why not?It will be a new experience for me and no excuse for the weight.
8. Speaking of Bivol, I asked him about his fun exchange with Jermall Charlo, the middleweight champion who challenged Bivol to a fight when the two crossed paths in the Regis Prograis-Jose Zepeda fight last month. .
“To be honest, it was kind of funny,” Bivol says. “It was…I don’t know what it was, to be honest.” When I try to remember our conversation, I don’t know what it was. I was confused because I didn’t want to fight him first. I just met him and saw him, we were talking and I said to him, ‘You look great. You are 160 years old, but you are tall. And he just starts asking me, ‘Do you want to beat me? Do you want to fight me?’ So I said, ‘I don’t want to fight you, but it’s interesting, maybe we could fight. But why? For a belt? I want to fight you if you have a belt, and in what weight class?’ It was a fun conversation, to be honest.
7. Conor Benn’s last statement was a big nothing. Benn, the disgraced former welterweight contender who repeatedly tested positive for a banned substance ahead of a scheduled showdown with Chris Eubank in September, posted on social media that “my team has proven my innocence and the truth will come out. soon”. If Benn, who tested positive for clomiphene, a female fertility drug, has evidence to back it up, great. At this point, I would settle for a reasonable explanation. But to say he’s proven that doesn’t make sense.
6. Naoya Inoue heads to 122 pounds after completely unifying the 118-pound division with an 11th-round knockout victory over Paul Butler on Tuesday. Can he do the same at super bantamweight? The division has two title holders, Stephen Fulton and MJ Akhmadaliev sharing the belts. Fulton, who will at least temporarily drop to 126lbs in his next fight for a rematch with Brandon Figueroa, has expressed interest, but it seems unlikely that Fulton will travel to Japan, where both fighters are expected to earn the most money. money. Akhmadaliev is much more likely to leave, but he’s been on the board since June with a hand injury and must defend his titles first in a mandatory defense against Marlon Tapales. If Akhmadaliev can get through Tapales, an Akhmadaliev-Inoue fight is a massive event next year.
5. I’m kind of on the torrent of criticism that’s been thrown at Teofimo Lopez since his narrow victory over Sandor Martin last week, especially the criticism coming from the fighters. It certainly wasn’t Lopez’s best performance, but any fighter with anything to say about how Lopez looked like Martin should have to fight Martin, an incredibly tough opponent who has now made two of the top fighters look bad (Lopez , Mikey Garcia).
4. Like IF reported last week, Adrien Broner and Ivan Redkach will square off in a non-title 147-pound bout in February. BLK Prime, the young pay-per-view provider, made the announcement over the weekend. This announcement, however, was met with great skepticism after Broner, looking considerably overweight, made an appearance at the press conference. “Broner’s got a stomach on him,” Prograis observed in an interview with FightHype. For what it’s worth, while Redkach intends to train as if Broner’s fight is happening, several members of his team have said IF they don’t believe this fight will happen, at least not in February.
3. Manny Pacquiao has expressed a desire to return to boxing to face one of the top welterweights. After watching Pacquiao’s exhibition debut against influencer and MMA fighter DK Yoo over the weekend, it’s clear that would be a mistake. Pacquaio, who weighed in at 160 pounds for the fight, towered over Yoo but looked like a shell of the Hall of Fame fighter he once was. Pacquiao, who turns 44 on Saturday, is certainly free to continue his exhibition tour, and there is rumor that he could have another, possibly in the Middle East, early next year. But his days of competing in traditional boxing are over.
2. You must be impressed with Ebanie Bridges, the 118-pound titleholder who defended her belt with an eighth-round knockout of Australian rival Shannon O’Connell last weekend. Bridges, who spent much of his career considered a gimmick, beat O’Connell in that fight, ending it with a flurry of punches that forced the referee to intervene. Bridges leans into the attention to her appearance, regularly wearing lingerie for weigh-ins. But she knows how to fight. Eddie Hearn, who recently signed Nina Hughes, another 118-pound champion, hopes to make unification fights for Bridges next year. There’s also a compelling rematch with Shannon Courtenay, who handed Bridges her first professional loss last year.
1. Happy belated birthday to Bob Arum who turned 91 last week and spent last weekend at ringside for the entire Lopez-Martin card. Arum admitted that he was much less involved in the day-to-day with Top Rank than he was before. “They kick me out when they want me to do an interview,” Arum told me last month. But he still loves the job and has no intention of leaving it any time soon. “They consult me about certain fights,” says Arum. “Is it hard work? No, it’s not hard work. That’s why when people say to me, ‘Why don’t you retire?’, I say, ‘Retire from what?’ I really don’t work.
