Terence Crawford, the undefeated pound-for-pound king, will challenge Israil Madrimov for the WBA super welterweight title in the main event of an August 3 show at the BMO Stadium in Inglewood, California.
The event is part of the Saudi-backed Riyadh Season initiative, which has transformed matchmaking in boxing over the past two years. Turki Alalshikh, the face of the Saudi movement that has invigorated the sport, has made this event his first stateside, and clearly, he’s aiming high with the lineup.
In addition to the main event, a world title fight with the always-entertaining Isaac Cruz against Jose Valenzuela has some explosive potential. Tim Tszyu is ready to step back into the ring after losing a bloody brawl with Sebastian Fundora that cost him his WBO 154-pound title and had him miss out on adding the WBA version of the belt. The undefeated Vergil Ortiz Jr. will be his opponent, provided he defeats Thomas Dulorme on Saturday and escapes without injury.
The Saudis love the heavyweight bouts, so it is no surprise to see the big guys in action on the first American card in Riyadh Season. Former heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz returns to the ring to face Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller in a battle of traditionally heavy heavyweights.
The promising David Morrell is making the move to light heavyweight. He is one of the most explosive young punchers in the sport. The 26-year-old Cuban is 10-0 with 9 KOs. Radivoje Kalajdzic will be Morrell’s foe in what he hopes to be more than a showcase for a fighter who likely fashions himself as a future challenger of the winner of the upcoming Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol unification bout.
Andy Cruz, another strong Cuban fighter, faces Antonio Moran to round out a main card that might be the biggest in over 40 years of boxing fandom and definitely in the 17 years I’ve covered the sport.
In addition to the star-studded card, Riyadh Season and the WBA announced an agreement that could lead to more cross-promotional fights. There will be several strong boxing cards between now and August 3. We have Canelo Alvarez facing Jaime Munguia on May 4. Naoya Inoue faces Luis Nery in a battle for the undisputed junior featherweight championship on May 6. Vasiliy Lomachenko takes on George Kambosos Jr. for the vacant IBF lightweight title on May 11. Oleksandr Usyk faces Tyson Fury for the undisputed heavyweight titles on May 18. Later in the day, Emanuel Navarrete will fight Denys Berinchyk for the vacant WBO lightweight title. The aforementioned clash between Beterbiev and Bivol happens on June 1. Deontay Wilder will trade blows with Zhilei Zhang on the same card in a crucial heavyweight fight. Filip Hrgovic and Daniel DuBois will likely fight for the soon-to-be-vacated IBF heavyweight titles in the co-main event on June 1. On June 15, Subriel Mattias defends his IBF junior welterweight title in Puerto Rico against Liam Paro. Later in the day, Gervonta Davis returns to defend his title against Frank Martin, while David Benavidez moves up to light heavyweight to face Oleksandr Gvozdyk. On June 29, Teofimo Lopez will defend his title against Steve Claggett, and on the same evening, Juan Francisco Estrada will defend his WBC junior bantamweight title against Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez. Last but not least, Jake Paul will face Mike Tyson on July 20 in Arlington, Texas, in the first-ever live sports event on Netflix.
In short, boxing is back in a significant way, and 2024 could be a banner year for the sport.
