Sometimes boxing seems to be without reason, structure or logic. Fights often occur with no direction afterward, as opposed to traditional sports which build towards the best meeting the best.

Overtime Boxing, an upstart promotion, returns Friday, April 19, at 8:00 PM EST, from the OTE Arena in Atlanta, Georgia – and the selling point is a tournament. 

OTX has gone heavily into creating short narrative content, shareable on social media, that gives a brief bio on fighters within their promotion. The entity also is looking to encourage action, with knockout bonuses and an overtime round if there is a draw. In a sport that often doesn’t innovate, Overtime is trying new things. 

This week’s star of the show is the OTX Tournament which enters the first round of battles. Kurt Scoby versus Dakota Linger will be the main attraction, and there are two 10-round fights, with Francisco Veron (13-0-1, 10 KOs) against Angel Ruiz (18-2-1, 13 KOs) and Brandon Adams (23-3,15 KOs) taking on Ismael Villarreal, both at junior middleweight. 

BoxingScene spoke to Brendan Segalas, the matchmaker for OTX Boxing, who shared his excitement about some of the match-ups and the format. 

“This is an eight-man, single elimination-style tournament,” explained Segalas. “Each of these fighters deserves a lot of credit in entering the OTX tournament – they know they are going to be in tough in each round of the tournament, but they understand the payoff is going to be great.”

Veron recently fought Jahi Tucker to a draw on a Top Rank undercard which served as only the second fight he has taken in the United States. He will face Ruiz, who retired Luis Collazo on ProBox TV last April, but he hasn’t fought since. Vernon is an Argentinian puncher, who is now based out of Florida, with an undefeated record, and is viewed as a dark horse on his side of the bracket. The bout serves as an interesting test for both. 

“Veron is a 2020 Argentinian Olympian with a lot of length and an off-kilter, pressure style,” Segalas explained. “Ruiz is a southpaw from Tijuana and unsurprisingly likes to walk down his opponents. He’s always in phenomenal shape and carries some sneaky pop. Argentina vs Mexico – this is an all-action fight between two high-level guys.”

Adams (23-3, 15 KOs) hasn’t fought since his March 2021 knockout of Serhii Bohachuk, who is now the interim WBC junior middleweight world champion. He faces Villarreal (13-2, 9 KOs) who is coming off a tough loss to Callum Walsh last year. 

“Brandon Adams is a tremendous talent who stopped the recently crowned WBC interim world champion Serhii Bohachuk,” stated Segalas. “Unfortunately he’s been tremendously inactive and he’s going up against a rugged opponent in Ismael Villarreal, who will not give you the breathing room to shake off the ring rust. A case can be made for either guy.”

Lucas Ketelle is a proud member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and author of ‘Inside The Ropes of Boxing’ (available on Amazon). Contact him on X @LukieBoxing