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Welcome to WWBB where I try to supply casual boxing fans with the least they need to know to stay engaged with the action taking place in the world of professional boxing. As always, for legit content, I recommend following Dan Rafeal on Twitter (@DanRafael1), or his podcast Big Fight Weekend, along with Chris Mannix on Boxing. But if you don’t have time for all of that I’ve got you covered. We have two HUGE fights coming up fast so let’s get to it.
Saturday August 20th - Oleksander Usyk vs Anthony Joshua
This rematch for three of the heavyweight belts is taking place in the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia. It is being broadcast on DAZN streaming and ring walks are scheduled for 4pm EST which is very convenient for fight fans in the states.
I’m not an Anthony Joshua fan. Ever since Andy Ruiz got his fat ass off the mat to KO AJ in a huge upset to win the championship, Joshua has looked tentative to me. Sure he outpointed an even fatter Ruiz to get his titles back, but then quickly got bullied around the ring by Usyk, a much smaller opponent, losing his belts yet again.
This wasn’t an upset anywhere near the order of Ruiz. Usyk is a P4P ranked and highly skilled opponent. And he is from Ukraine. His fellow countryman Vasilly Lomachenko just skipped a championship bout of his own in favor of killing Russians with his bare hands. And former heavyweight champion of the world Vitali Klitschoko is the current mayor of Kyiv leading the resistance against Valdimir Putin.
My point being, I’m not sure it's a great idea for anyone to be fighting a Ukrainian these days.
Still, Joshua is the much bigger man and has switched trainers promising to be more aggressive this time around. I’ll believe it when I see it. Ever since Ruiz Jr. smashed him over the head with a deep dish pizza, AJ has looked tentative and afraid to let those hands go. Besides, any fighter who’s theme song is Sweet Caroline is just begging for an ass-kicking. The smart play is Usyk by decision. Personally, I’ll take Usyk by stoppage before the 11th round or sooner. This might be the end of the road for Anthony Joshua.
In related news, Tyson Fury will destroy whoever wins this fight and own all four belts.
Saturday September 17th - Canelo Alvarez vs Gennady Golovkin
Finally, we get the rubber match in this brutal rivalry. GGG won the first match but it was called a draw due to a crooked judge. Canelo won the second in a tightly-contested battle that could have been scored either way. They meet again four years later at T-Moble arena in Las Vegas. It will be broadcast on DAZN PPV. Ringwalk expected 11 pm EST.
GGG is now 40 years old and will be moving up in weight against a still-in-his-prime Canelo Alverez, who is himself coming off an upset loss to Dimitry Bivol. Saul is -500 to win and that may be a conservative line. GGG has been showing his age in recent fights and it would take an historic effort to dethrone the P4P king. As we have seen before in Vegas, beating Alvarez on the scorecards probably isn’t in the cards so Gennady is going to have to stop him. This is a very risky strategy for a fighter with as many miles on him as Golovkin.
As much as I would like to see GGG get this win,or at least make it interesting, I think he gets dropped for the first time in his hall of fame career and most likely by a savage body shot from Canelo.
The co-feature is also worth your attention as rising superstar Jesse Rodriguez faces Israel Gonzalas. Nice to see a young fighter get exposure on such a big stage. Boxing needs more of this.
Casual fans are welcome to stop reading now.
A deeper dive:
Saturday August 13th: Teofimo Lopez returns to a new weight class after dropping his belts in a shocking upset to George “Ferocious” Kambosis last fall. (ESPN / ESPN+).
August 27th: Toledo’s up and coming heavyweight contender Jared Anderson fights on a card featuring Jose Pedraza vs Richard Commey (ESPN / ESPN+).
Sunday September 4th: Super fatso and former World Champion Andy Ruiz Jr. will be taking on 43-year old Luis “King Kong” Ortiz in a FOX PPV event. Why on earth is this a PPV event ? Oh, I have the answer to this one; because I’m the sucker that’s buying it. Bet all the chicken wings on Ruiz Jr.
Saturday September 23rd: Super bad-ass Shakur Stevenson returns to ESPN to mop the ring with some tomato can in his hometown of Newark, NJ. It’s a stay busy fight for the young champion while he waits for his next major opponent to emerge.
Colin Gawel covers boxing for Pencilstorm. He wrote this at Colin’s Coffee.