By Ryan Burton
BoxingScene.com has been advised that veteran heavyweight Ronald "The American Dream" Johnson (15-1) will return to the ring on June 15th when he faces Saul Farah (69-23-3) for the vacant world heavyweight title of the Global Boxing Organization (GBO). The fight takes place in Davao, Philippines.
The fight card is being dubbed as the "Thrilla in Davao" as it will be the first time international heavyweight boxing returns to the Philippines since the "Thrilla in Manilla" in 1975 when Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier clashed in the Araneta Coliseum.
Johnson, who previously held the WBC North American light heavyweight title was originally scheduled to face Wu Zhiyu of China. Zhiyu pulled out of the fight because of injury.
The 33-year-old Ohio native has promoted several of his own fights over the past few years. He has been out of the ring his July, 2017 unanimous decision victory over Sergio Ramirez.
Farah, who is a native of Bolivia, has won 4 fights in a row and has won 6 of his past 7 fights. The 36-year-old has fought most of his fights in his homeland and will be facing an American for only the third time in his career.
The fight card will have a total of 6 fights and will feature several Filipino fighters.
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