Tag: lee selby

Richardson Hitchins vs. Gustavo Lemos: Date, time, how to watch, background

Richardson Hitchins vs. Gustavo Lemos: Date, time, how to watch, background.

Richardson Hitchins is scheduled to face fellow unbeaten 140-pound contender Gustavo Lemos on Saturday in Las Vegas.

RICHARDSON HITCHINS (17-0, 7 KOs)
VS. GUSTAVO LEMOS (29-0, 19 KOs)

Richardson Hitchins (left) and Gustavo Lemos enter their fight Saturday with perfect records.  Ed Mulholland / Matchroom
  • Date: Saturday, April 6
  • Time: 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT (main event later in show)
  • Where: Fontainebleau Las Vegas, Las Vegas
  • TV/Stream: DAZN
  • Division: Junior welterweight (140 pounds)
  • At stake: No major titles
  • Pound-for-pound: None
  • Odds: Hitchins 5-1 favorite (average of multiple outlets)
  • Significance (up to five stars): ***
  • Also on the card: Diego Pacheco vs. Shawn McCalman, super middleweights; Skye Nicolson vs. Sarah Mahfoud, featherweights (for vacant WBC title); Galal Yafai vs. Agustin Mauro Gauto, flyweights; Marc Castro vs. Abraham Montoya, junior lightweights
  • Background: Hitchins is a 2016 U.S. Olympian and a rising young 140-pound contender from New York City. The 26-year-old, an excellent technician, is coming off the biggest victory of his career: a near-shutout decision over former three-time world title challenger Jose Zepeda on Sept. 23. Hitchins is ranked in the Top 3 in three of the four major sanctioning bodies, No. 2 by the WBC. Lemos is best known for his fifth-round knockout of one-time 126-pound titleholder Lee Selby at 135 pounds in March 2022, which sent the aging Welshman into retirement. The IBF’s No. 7-ranked 140-pounder also is on a run of 10 consecutive knockouts. However, he has faced no one else of note. And the 28-year-old resident of Buenos Aires has never fought outside of his native country, which makes it difficult to gauge the threat to Hitchins he will pose on Saturday.

[lawrence-related id=41308]

Fight Week: Richardson Hitchins to face unbeaten Argentine Gustavo Daniel Lemos

Fight Week: Richardson Hitchins is scheduled to face fellow unbeaten 140-pound contender Gustavo Daniel Lemos of Argentina on Saturday.

FIGHT WEEK

Richardson Hitchins is scheduled to face fellow unbeaten 140-pound contender Gustavo Daniel Lemos on Saturday in Las Vegas.

RICHARDSON HITCHINS (17-0, 7 KOs)
VS. GUSTAVO DANIEL LEMOS (29-0, 19 KOs)

  • Date: Saturday, April 6
  • Time: 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT (main event later in show)
  • Where: Fontainebleau Las Vegas, Las Vegas
  • TV/Stream: DAZN
  • Division: Junior welterweight (140 pounds)
  • At stake: No major titles
  • Pound-for-pound: None
  • Odds: Hitchins 5-1 favorite (average of multiple outlets)
  • Significance (up to five stars): ***
  • Also on the card: Diego Pacheco vs. Shawn McCalman, super middleweights; Skye Nicolson vs. Sarah Mahfoud, featherweights (for vacant WBC title); Galal Yafai vs. Agustin Mauro Gauto, flyweights; Marc Castro vs. Abraham Montoya, junior lightweights
  • Background: Hitchins is a 2016 U.S. Olympian and a rising young 140-pound contender from New York City. The 26-year-old, an excellent technician, is coming off the biggest victory of his career: a near-shutout decision over former three-time world title challenger Jose Zepeda on Sept. 23. Hitchins is ranked in the Top 3 in three of the four major sanctioning bodies, No. 2 by the WBC. Lemos is best known for his fifth-round knockout of one-time 126-pound titleholder Lee Selby at 135 pounds in March 2022, which sent the aging Welshman into retirement. The IBF’s No. 7-ranked 140-pounder also is on a run of 10 consecutive knockouts. However, he has faced no one else of note. And the 28-year-old resident of Buenos Aires has never fought outside of his native country, which makes it difficult to gauge the threat to Hitchins he will pose on Saturday.

ALSO FIGHTING THIS WEEK

THURSDAY

  • Tito Sanchez vs. Erik Ruiz, junior featherweights, Indio, California (DAZN)
  • Jordan Panthen vs. Ravshan Hudaynazarov, junior middleweights, Costa Mesa, California (TrillerTV+)

FRIDAY

  • Ernesto Mercado vs. Deiner Berrio, junior welterweights, Houston (DAZN)

SATURDAY

  • Bakhram Murtazaliev vs. Jack Culcay, junior middleweights (for vacant IBF title), Falkansee, Germany (no TV in U.S.)
  • Richie Rivera vs. Mathew Obinna, light heavyweights, Uncasville, Connecticut (StarBoxing.TV)

Derek Chisora weighs in 38.5 heavier than Oleksandr Usyk

Derek Chisora weighed in 38.5 heavier than Oleksandr Usyk for their fight Saturday in London.

Cruiserweight-turned-heavyweight Oleksandr Usyk on Friday weighed in at 217 pounds for Saturday’s fight against Derek Chisora at Wembley Arena in London (DAZN).

That’s two pounds more than he weighed for his heavyweight debut against Chazz Witherspoon a year ago, which the former unified 200-pound champion won by seventh-round knockout.

Still, Usyk will be at a distinct weight disadvantage against Chisora, who weighed 255.5. That’s the longtime contender’s lightest weight since he was stopped by Dillian Whyte in 2018.

“That’s exactly the shape I aimed for,” Usyk told Sky Sports. “It could have been a bit more, but it’s still good. “It’s important to make a good statement on Saturday to avoid hesitation from my opponents in the future.

“Now people say they don’t believe me, they don’t trust me. On Saturday I will make my statement for the heavyweights.”

Chisora (32-9, 23 KOs) wore face and body paint for the weigh-in in the spirit of Halloween, including the word “war” painted on his chest.

That appears to be the attitude he will take into the ring.

“I would rather him knock me out, than me do nothing,” Chisora said. “Either I will knock him out or he will quit on his stool. That’s what we’re going for.”

On the undercard, George Kambosos Jr. and Lee Selby both weighed 134 for their lightweight fight.

[lawrence-related id=15059,14033,9758]

Derek Chisora weighs in 38.5 heavier than Oleksandr Usyk

Derek Chisora weighed in 38.5 heavier than Oleksandr Usyk for their fight Saturday in London.

Cruiserweight-turned-heavyweight Oleksandr Usyk on Friday weighed in at 217 pounds for Saturday’s fight against Derek Chisora at Wembley Arena in London (DAZN).

That’s two pounds more than he weighed for his heavyweight debut against Chazz Witherspoon a year ago, which the former unified 200-pound champion won by seventh-round knockout.

Still, Usyk will be at a distinct weight disadvantage against Chisora, who weighed 255.5. That’s the longtime contender’s lightest weight since he was stopped by Dillian Whyte in 2018.

“That’s exactly the shape I aimed for,” Usyk told Sky Sports. “It could have been a bit more, but it’s still good. “It’s important to make a good statement on Saturday to avoid hesitation from my opponents in the future.

“Now people say they don’t believe me, they don’t trust me. On Saturday I will make my statement for the heavyweights.”

Chisora (32-9, 23 KOs) wore face and body paint for the weigh-in in the spirit of Halloween, including the word “war” painted on his chest.

That appears to be the attitude he will take into the ring.

“I would rather him knock me out, than me do nothing,” Chisora said. “Either I will knock him out or he will quit on his stool. That’s what we’re going for.”

On the undercard, George Kambosos Jr. and Lee Selby both weighed 134 for their lightweight fight.

[lawrence-related id=15059,14033,9758]

Teofimo Lopez Jr.’s manager: He’ll probably stay at 135, fight by March

Teofimo Lopez Jr.’s manager believes the new undisputed champ will stay at 135 pounds and fight again by March.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on DAZN.com.

***

Teofimo Lopez Jr.’s victory over Vasiliy Lomachenko on Saturday was tipped by some to be his last before moving up in weight.

The 23-year-old had even been quoted as claiming as such himself, though on Monday his manager David McWater said that wasn’t definite just yet.

“Teofimo says a lot of stuff,” McWater told Bad Left Hook. “He was 134.4 the morning of the weigh-in and had three liters of water and three meals the day before.

“With Perfecting Athletes (a South Florida-based outfit specializing in helping fighters make weight safely) on our side, it’s a whole different game. We might move up, but my guess is the next fight is a defense.”

McWater does not expect that defense to be a rematch with the Ukrainian, who was favored to defeat his younger opponent but was ultimately beaten at his own game.

“I can’t imagine a rematch,” McWater told the website. “Older guy never wins a rematch. If they fight again, Teofimo would hurt him badly. …

“[And] I don’t think Loma brings enough viewers to the table to pay both guys.”

If Lopez sticks around to defend his collection of title belts and a Lomachenko rematch is unlikely, then who?

On Monday, it was confirmed that the winner of the Lee Selby vs. George Kambosos bout on Oct. 31 will being recognized as mandatory challenger by the IBF, and McWater admitted the conventional route is very appealing.

“Yeah, I could see us fighting Selby or Kambosos,” McWater said. “They both have big fan bases in their countries.

“I can tell you exactly what he would say: ‘I’m a fighter, I need to fight.’ He’s not going to take long layoffs if he can help it. March 2021 at the latest.”

One possible reason Lopez would wait to move up to 140 is that the championships will be tied up for the foreseeable future.

Jose Ramirez and Josh Taylor are poised for a unification showdown of their own next year, limiting Lopez’s options if he wants a big bout in his junior welterweight debut.

McWater agreed that timing is why a divisional switch probably isn’t the right move, at least not just yet.

“For me, I would want to move up if we got the winner of the Jose Ramirez-Josh Taylor fight,” he continued. “Other than that, I think more exciting fights are at 135.”

[lawrence-related id=14860,14851,14842,14823,14821,14817,14814,14776]

 

Teofimo Lopez Jr.’s manager: He’ll probably stay at 135, fight by March

Teofimo Lopez Jr.’s manager believes the new undisputed champ will stay at 135 pounds and fight again by March.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on DAZN.com.

***

Teofimo Lopez Jr.’s victory over Vasiliy Lomachenko on Saturday was tipped by some to be his last before moving up in weight.

The 23-year-old had even been quoted as claiming as such himself, though on Monday his manager David McWater said that wasn’t definite just yet.

“Teofimo says a lot of stuff,” McWater told Bad Left Hook. “He was 134.4 the morning of the weigh-in and had three liters of water and three meals the day before.

“With Perfecting Athletes (a South Florida-based outfit specializing in helping fighters make weight safely) on our side, it’s a whole different game. We might move up, but my guess is the next fight is a defense.”

McWater does not expect that defense to be a rematch with the Ukrainian, who was favored to defeat his younger opponent but was ultimately beaten at his own game.

“I can’t imagine a rematch,” McWater told the website. “Older guy never wins a rematch. If they fight again, Teofimo would hurt him badly. …

“[And] I don’t think Loma brings enough viewers to the table to pay both guys.”

If Lopez sticks around to defend his collection of title belts and a Lomachenko rematch is unlikely, then who?

On Monday, it was confirmed that the winner of the Lee Selby vs. George Kambosos bout on Oct. 31 will being recognized as mandatory challenger by the IBF, and McWater admitted the conventional route is very appealing.

“Yeah, I could see us fighting Selby or Kambosos,” McWater said. “They both have big fan bases in their countries.

“I can tell you exactly what he would say: ‘I’m a fighter, I need to fight.’ He’s not going to take long layoffs if he can help it. March 2021 at the latest.”

One possible reason Lopez would wait to move up to 140 is that the championships will be tied up for the foreseeable future.

Jose Ramirez and Josh Taylor are poised for a unification showdown of their own next year, limiting Lopez’s options if he wants a big bout in his junior welterweight debut.

McWater agreed that timing is why a divisional switch probably isn’t the right move, at least not just yet.

“For me, I would want to move up if we got the winner of the Jose Ramirez-Josh Taylor fight,” he continued. “Other than that, I think more exciting fights are at 135.”

[lawrence-related id=14860,14851,14842,14823,14821,14817,14814,14776]

 

George Kambosos Jr., Lee Selby fighting for shot at Teofimo Lopez

George Kambosos Jr. and Lee Selby are scheduled to fight in a lightweight title eliminator on Oct. 31.

One of Teofimo Lopez Jr.’s mandatory challengers is about to emerge.

George Kambosos Jr. is scheduled to fight Lee Selby in an IBF lightweight title eliminator on the Oleksandr Usyk-Derek Chisora card on Oct. 31. The site of the show has not been finalized.

The IBF has Kambosos ranked No. 3, Selby No. 4. The Nos. 1 and 2 slots are vacant.

Kambosos (18-0, 10 KOs) traveled from his home in Australia to fight American Mickey Bey this past December at Madison Square Garden and emerged with a split-decision victory, which set up the fight with Selby.

Lopez outpointed Vasiliy Lomachenko to become undisputed 135-pound champ last Saturday.

“Beating Lee Selby means everything to me,” Kambosos said. “I’m hungry, focused and have trained like a man possessed to handle business on October 31st. This is a young man’s sport and Lopez proved that against Lomachenko when he became the unified lightweight world champion. and I will prove it once again against Lee Selby.

“This hungry young lion will become mandatory, that is my complete focus, this is why I have sacrificed so much and then you best believe that ‘Ferocious Kambosos’ will be primed and ready to take all the belts off another hungry, young lion in Teofimo Lopez. Let’s see who the real king of the jungle is.”

Selby (28-2, 9 KOs) is coming off a majority-decision victory over Ricky Burns in October of last year. That was his second consecutive win since losing his featherweight title to Josh Warrington by a split decision in 2018.

“He’s very confident in himself,” the Welshman said. “If you listened to him talk, you’d think he’s the next Muhammad Ali, which he’s not. Looking at his record, it’s difficult to gauge how good he really is. His best win came against Mickey Bey when he was past his best at 36 and inactive. The rest of his record is padded.

“This fight has been a long time coming, and I’m glad we’re just over a week away now. I’m one step away from a shot at the IBF lightweight world title and my dream of becoming Wales’ first ever two-weight world champion.”

Usyk (17-0, 13 KOs), the former unified cruiserweight titleholder, faces his first significant test at heavyweight against longtime contender Chisora (32-9, 23 KOs).

George Kambosos Jr., Lee Selby fighting for shot at Teofimo Lopez

George Kambosos Jr. and Lee Selby are scheduled to fight in a lightweight title eliminator on Oct. 31.

One of Teofimo Lopez Jr.’s mandatory challengers is about to emerge.

George Kambosos Jr. is scheduled to fight Lee Selby in an IBF lightweight title eliminator on the Oleksandr Usyk-Derek Chisora card on Oct. 31. The site of the show has not been finalized.

The IBF has Kambosos ranked No. 3, Selby No. 4. The Nos. 1 and 2 slots are vacant.

Kambosos (18-0, 10 KOs) traveled from his home in Australia to fight American Mickey Bey this past December at Madison Square Garden and emerged with a split-decision victory, which set up the fight with Selby.

Lopez outpointed Vasiliy Lomachenko to become undisputed 135-pound champ last Saturday.

“Beating Lee Selby means everything to me,” Kambosos said. “I’m hungry, focused and have trained like a man possessed to handle business on October 31st. This is a young man’s sport and Lopez proved that against Lomachenko when he became the unified lightweight world champion. and I will prove it once again against Lee Selby.

“This hungry young lion will become mandatory, that is my complete focus, this is why I have sacrificed so much and then you best believe that ‘Ferocious Kambosos’ will be primed and ready to take all the belts off another hungry, young lion in Teofimo Lopez. Let’s see who the real king of the jungle is.”

Selby (28-2, 9 KOs) is coming off a majority-decision victory over Ricky Burns in October of last year. That was his second consecutive win since losing his featherweight title to Josh Warrington by a split decision in 2018.

“He’s very confident in himself,” the Welshman said. “If you listened to him talk, you’d think he’s the next Muhammad Ali, which he’s not. Looking at his record, it’s difficult to gauge how good he really is. His best win came against Mickey Bey when he was past his best at 36 and inactive. The rest of his record is padded.

“This fight has been a long time coming, and I’m glad we’re just over a week away now. I’m one step away from a shot at the IBF lightweight world title and my dream of becoming Wales’ first ever two-weight world champion.”

Usyk (17-0, 13 KOs), the former unified cruiserweight titleholder, faces his first significant test at heavyweight against longtime contender Chisora (32-9, 23 KOs).

British boxing authorities cancel all cards through May

The British Boxing Board of Control canceled all scheduled cards through the end of May because of the coronavirus pandemic.

More fights are off.

The British Boxing Board of Control canceled all scheduled cards through the end of May because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to talkSPORT.

That includes the May 2 heavyweight fight between Dillian Whyte and Alexander Povetkin, which has tentatively been pushed back to July 4 at Manchester Arena. Katie Taylor was scheduled to defend her lightweight titles against Amanda Serrano on that card.

Also, a lightweight title eliminator between Lee Selby and Geroge Kambosos Jr. scheduled for May 9 in Cardiff, Wales has been pushed back to July 11.

The heavyweight fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Dereck Chisora, which was postponed and rescheduled for May 23 in London, is off again. Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing reportedly is working on a new date.

And Hearn told talkSPORT that the Anthony Joshua-Kubrat Pulev title fight scheduled for June 20 at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is unlikely to happen on that date. He said July 25 is a possibility .

“Every sport is looking at their calendar but nobody knows when [it will resume],” Hearn said. “We all hope we can return to some kind of boxing in June, whether that is behind closed doors at first, whether that is back in small hall shows, and then we hope we can get to the bigger stuff by the end of June, early July. But we are completely guessing.”

As for Joshua-Pulev, Hearn said: “We have looked at alternative dates for everything without knowing anything concrete. We have ongoing conversations with Tottenham to say that if the Premier League extends and does get played in June then we’ll be pushed back.

“We do have a date of July 25 held at Spurs as well, which is more realistic. It is five weeks after June 20. But we haven’t gone on sale with that, we haven’t made an official announcement in terms of seat details and on-sale dates, so we have got less pressure on that. There is more pressure for Anthony to fight twice this year.

“… I know there is a bigger picture going on but everybody in sport, eveybody in business right now, needs to be working on a solution, the outcome, what happens when we get through this because it is going to be a horrifically messy time for all businesses, all sports, everything, when we do come out the other side.

“The world won’t be the same again and, in a lot of cases, we will have to start from scratch.”

Lee Selby hopes to become first Welshman to win titles in two divisions

Lee Selby hopes his fight against George Kambosos on May 9 will lead to a shot at winning a title in a second division.

Former featherweight champion Lee Selby is going home and back to the roots of his first title pursuit.

This time he’s two weight classes heavier and  six years older. He has more experience and a few more scars. But home and ambition haven’t changed a whole lot.

“It’s great to be boxing back at home in Cardiff after six years boxing all over the U.K. and U.S.,” the 33-year-old Selby (28-2, 9 KOs) said. “I’m one step away now from a shot at the IBF lightweight world title and my dream of becoming Wales’ first ever two-weight world champion.’’

The homecoming and renewed title pursuit are set for May 9 on DAZN against 26-year-old Australian George Kambosos at Motorpoint Arena in a lightweight eliminator announced this week by Matchroom Boxing.

The winner moves into position for a mandatory shot at the belt held by Teofimo Lopez, who this spring is expected to fight Vasiliy Lomachenko, No. 1 in Boxing Junkie’s pound-for-pound poll.

The bout, Selby’s first in Wales in six years, will be his third since he moved up the scale to 135 pounds after losing his featherweight title to Josh Warrington by a split decision in May 2018.

Kambosos (18-0, 10 KOs), Manny Pacquiao’s sparring partner a year ago, is coming off a notable victory, a split decision over former lightweight champion Mickey Bey on Dec. 14 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Said Kambosos: “I’m excited for a fight of this magnitude and look forward to retiring Lee Selby in his hometown with a dominating and punishing performance in addition to gaining all of the U.K. supporters that will get behind me toward winning my world title.”