Pick It: Danny Garcia vs. Jose Benavidez (Saturday, Showtime, 9:00 PM EST) - It’s been awhile since 34-year old former lineal Jr. welterweight champion and welterweight beltholder Danny Garcia (36-3, 21 KO) last stepped in a ring. He’s hoping for a better result in his Jr. middleweight debut.
Sky Sports is officially on board with the Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua rematch. The UK-based platform formally announced its plans to present the WBA/IBF/WBO/IBO heavyweight title fight, which will take place August 20 at Jeddah Superdome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The event will air live on Sky Sports Box Office, with the pre-fight price point set at £26.95.
LOS ANGELES – Soon after Ryan Garcia rocked and dropped Javier Fortuna three times and scored a sixth-round knockout, fans at the Crypto.com Arena started chanting “we want Tank! we want Tank! we want Tank!” in unison.
Eddie Hearn does not believe there was anything misleading about Anthony Joshua’s recent career pledge to DAZN, even though the platform will not be streaming his upcoming and arguably most important fight to date.
Pick It: #2 Srisaket Sor Rungvisai vs. #9 Jesse Rodriguez (Saturday, DAZN, 8:00 PM EST) - This is the card of the week and, even with the late loss of Julio Cesar Martinez-McWilliams Arroyo II, one of the best cards of the year so far in 2022. In the main event, 22-year old Jesse Rodriguez (15-0, 10 KO) defends a WBC belt against former lineal Jr. bantamweight king Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (50-5-1, 43 KO).
Artur Beterbiev’s power surge in the ring was met with a ratings spike among home viewers. The June 18 edition of Top Rank Boxing on ESPN fired on all cylinders, including a main event where an average of 912,000 viewers tuned in for Beterbiev’s second-round, technical knockout of Joe Smith Jr. Beterbiev defended his unified lineal/WBC/IBF light heavyweight championship while violently snatching Smith’s WBO title in Saturday’s headliner at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater in New York City.
Thanks to a strong lead-in, more viewers watched the co-feature of ESPN’s boxing broadcast Saturday night than its main event. Nielsen Media Research released numbers Tuesday that showed an average of 632,000 watched unbeaten Puerto Rican prospect Henry Lebron’s unanimous-decision defeat of Luis Lebron in an eight-round junior lightweight fight that opened ESPN’s telecast just after 11 p.m. ET from Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater in New York. An average of 784,000 watched the beginning of this boxing telecast, but that appears to be due in large part to ESPN’s previous program.
Former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua has officially departed from longtime broadcaster Sky Sports. On Monday, the boxer officially announced an exclusive long-term deal with streaming service DAZN.
Devin Haney and George Kambosos Jr. didn’t exactly produce 12 scintillating rounds of action, but they did deliver the viewing audience ESPN executives sought from their lightweight title unification fight.
Pick It: World Champion George Kambosos vs. TBRB #4 Devin Haney (Saturday, ESPN, 10:00 PM EST) - Being honest, the three best fights over the next few days are all must-see. This one gets the top spot because it will have an event atmosphere that dwarfs its peers.