TV Picks for July 18-19: Usyk-Dubois II, Barrios-Pacquiao, Bam-Cafu

Among those awaiting the winner of Usyk-Dubois II are secondary titleholders Agit Kabayel, Joseph Parker and Kubrat Pulev; plus contenders Efe Ajagba, Martin Bakole, Lawrence Okolie, Frank Sanchez and Fabio Wardley, and top prospect Moses Itauma. Even the three former top heavyweights – Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder – may seek a shot at the winner. 

Their eyes, and ours, will be on Wembley Stadium in London, England, as Usyk and Dubois face off again.

Usyk, 23-0 (14 KOs), is the WBA, WBC and WBO titleholder and lineal heavyweight champion. Over the past 13 years, he earned Olympic gold at heavyweight – the amateur equivalent to cruiserweight – in 2012, and has since become one of the best professional boxers of this generation. Usyk won the undisputed cruiserweight championship and the undisputed heavyweight championship, has beaten a “who’s who” in each of those weight classes, and triumphed while on the road, often in hostile territory.

Usyk first fought Dubois in August 2023 in Poland, as close to a homecoming fight as Usyk could get given the ongoing war in his neighboring homeland.

Usyk stopped Dubois in the ninth round. But what most people still talk about to this day took place in the fifth round: Dubois put Usyk on the canvas with what some felt was a legal body shot on the beltline, while others (including the referee) saw it as an accidental foul that veered low. To this day, replay footage hasn’t settled the debate. For those who believe it was a legal blow, they note that Usyk remained on the canvas for some time and argue that Dubois was robbed of a victory. 

It’s wholly plausible that Usyk could have responded differently and beaten the count had the ref not called it a low blow. It’s also possible that he might not have. And even if Usyk had beaten the count, he wouldn’t have received the benefit of the nearly four minutes of recovery time, first on the mat and then on his feet, before the fight resumed.

In May 2024, Usyk defeated WBC titleholder Tyson Fury via split decision for the undisputed championship. Dubois was waiting as his mandatory for the IBF belt, but Usyk was contractually obligated for a Fury rematch. Despite vacating the IBF title, Usyk remained (and remains) the one true king and retained with wider scores against Fury when they met again this past December.

Dubois, 22-2 (21 KOs), is a 27-year-old from London who was on the rise, suffered two significant defeats, and has since improved and rebuilt. Dubois has the IBF world title and the attention of his home country. If he wins this rematch with Usyk, the 6-foot-5 Dubois will be the undisputed champion and the next huge heavyweight star from the U.K.

Dubois was unfairly criticized following his 10th-round loss to Joe Joyce in 2020; Dubois went down to one knee and listened to the referee’s count after suffering a fractured eye socket. Dubois bounced back with four wins, which brought him to the 2023 loss to Usyk.

Two setbacks can derail a fighter or signify that he’s nearing his ceiling. Dubois was still young and malleable. He and his team worked on fixing his flaws and improving his strengths. 

Their work has been evident: Dubois has taken out Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic and, for his first IBF defense, he drubbed Anthony Joshua in front of a huge crowd in Wembley Stadium. Now Dubois is back at Wembley for this rematch with Usyk. He’s already quite the success story. Will he be able to provide this story with its fairy-tale ending?

The chief supporting bout features a heavyweight bout between former cruiserweights Lawrence Okolie and Kevin Lerena. 

Okolie, 21-1 (16 KOs), held the WBO cruiserweight title from 2021 until 2023, moved up to bridgerweight to win the WBC belt; and subsequently made the jump to heavyweight, packing a massive 260lbs onto his 6-foot-5 frame for a one-round drubbing of the 18-1 Hussein Muhamed last December.

Lerena, 31-3 (15 KOs), is a 6-foot-1 former cruiserweight contender and current bridgerweight titleholder who has visited heavyweight before. In 2022, he knocked out Bogdan Dinu, outpointed Mariusz Wach, and lost a competitive three-rounder battle with Daniel Dubois. He tried heavyweight again at the start of 2024, losing a competitive decision to Justis Huni. 

Also on this show is a light heavyweight bout between unbeaten prospects Daniel Lapin, 11-0 (4 KOs), and Lewis Edmondson, 11-0 (3 KOs).

More Fights to Watch

Friday, July 18: Gurgen Hovhannisyan vs. Chris Thomas (DAZN)

The broadcast begins at 9 p.m. Eastern Time (Saturday, 2 a.m. BST).

Hovhannisyan, 8-0 (7 KOs), is a 27-year-old heavyweight prospect from Armenia who works with respected trainer Joe Goossen in California. He is not yet ranked by any of the four major sanctioning bodies. This will be Hovhannisyan’s second fight of 2025. In April, he scored a fifth-round knockout over the 11-3 Dajuan Calloway, who himself was coming off an upset two-round stoppage of the 10-0 Thomas Carty. 

Sharing the marquee with him at the Caribe Royale Orlando in Florida is Thomas, 15-1-2 (10 KOs).

Hovhannisyan, who stands 6-foot-7 and came in at 297lbs for the Calloway bout, will have significant advantages in height and weight – and activity – against Thomas.

Thomas, a 27-year-old from New Jersey, is listed at 5-foot-11 and is far from a natural heavyweight. He fought as low as 156lbs as recently as 2017, was at 178lbs in a 2020 bout, and then spent more than five years out of the ring. Thomas’ sole bout since returning was in February, when he came in at nearly 225lbs and fought to a six-round draw against the 4-1 Dominique Mayfield.

Saturday, July 19: Mario Barrios vs. Manny Pacquiao (Pay-per-view available via Prime Video, PPV.com and traditional cable and satellite TV providers)

The main PPV broadcast begins at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (Saturday, 1 a.m. BST).

A preliminary undercard will stream on Amazon’s Prime Video service, free for both subscribers and nonsubscribers, starting at 5:30 p.m. ET (10:30 p.m. BST). 

Barrios, 29-2-1 (18 KOs), is the WBC welterweight titleholder, one of four men who had secondary belts and then were upgraded as the previous undisputed champion, Terence Crawford, made his way out of the division.

Barrios, a 30-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, has been described by some as the most vulnerable of the three remaining titleholders for the returning Pacquiao to choose from. (The other options would’ve been WBO titleholder Brian Norman Jnr and unified IBF/WBA titleholder Jaron “Boots” Ennis, who recently vacated the IBF belt and is headed north to junior middleweight.)

Part of that conclusion about Barrios may be due to his two losses – an 11th-round stoppage against Gervonta “Tank” Davis in 2021 at junior welterweight, followed immediately by a wide unanimous decision defeat to Keith Thurman at welterweight in 2022. Barrios also didn’t impress in his last performance, a draw with Abel Ramos last November on the undercard of Jake Paul-Mike Tyson. Barrios was dropped in the sixth round of that bout.

But on his best night, in September 2023, Barrios took a clear decision over Yordenis Ugas to win the interim WBC title. Ugas, of course, is the man who sent Pacquiao into retirement in 2021. After the Ugas fight, Barrios unanimously outpointed Fabian Madiana in May 2024 and then took on Ramos.” 

Pacquiao should need no introduction, and his list of accomplishments is too long to go in depth here. Needless to say, the 46-year-old icon from General Santos City in the Philippines was deservingly inducted in June into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. However, it’s also important to note that Pacquiao was eligible for induction because he last fought in 2021. 

That year, Pacquiao was supposed to take on Errol Spence Jnr, but Spence had an eye injury and Ugas stepped in. Losing to someone as great as Spence might not have convinced Pacquiao to hang his gloves up unless he took a beating. 

Ugas is a good fighter, but Pacquiao recognized from his decision loss to Ugas that his body just could no longer do what he needed it to do: perform anywhere near the way that led him to world titles and/or championship recognition in eight weight classes (112, 122, 126, 130, 135, 140, 147 and 154), including being the lineal champ at flyweight, featherweight, junior lightweight, junior welterweight and welterweight.

Pacquiao was still good enough in July 2019 to give Keith Thurman his first pro defeat. In Pacquiao’s next outing, against Ugas in August 2021, age and wear and tear had finally caught up. The loss dropped Pacquiao to 62-8-2 (39 KOs).

Pacquiao has participated in a couple of exhibitions in the intervening years but hasn’t shown any signs that he has paused Father Time, never mind that he can turn back the clock. By virtue of his past alone, and the money that is made when he fights, Pacquiao was granted this title shot against Barrios at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Will he pull off a miracle against Barrios on Saturday night? Or will Barrios serve as the Hector Camacho to Pacquiao’s Sugar Ray Leonard?

The pay-per-view features three fights: the rematch between junior middleweight titleholder Sebastian Fundora and Tim Tszyu, the rematch between junior welterweights Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz and Angel Fierro, and a featherweight bout between Brandon Figueroa and Joet Gonzalez.

Fundora, 22-1-1 (14 KOs), won the WBC and WBO titles from Tszyu in March 2024 in a bloodsoaked fight that saw Fundora fighting through a gushing nose while Tszyu spent 10 rounds dealing with a nasty gash opened up by his head accidentally leaning into the point of Fundora’s elbow. After spending nearly a year trying to sign a big fight for his first defense, Fundora moved on from waiting on Errol Spence Jnr and instead stopped Chordale Booker in four rounds this past March. Fundora vacated the WBO title in order to make this rematch with Tszyu.

Tszyu, 25-2 (18 KOs), did not have a good 2024. After losing to Fundora in a fight that his corner could have and should have stopped early enough for it to be a “no contest,” Tszyu then signed to take on Vergil Ortiz Jnr, only to have to pull out because his cut had not healed enough. When Tszyu did return, it was in October against IBF titleholder Bakhram Murtazaliev. Tszyu was absolutely battered, dropped four times en route to a third-round TKO loss. In his only fight so far in 2025, Tszyu took a confidence booster, taking out Joey Spencer in four rounds in April.

Cruz, 27-3-1 (18 KOs), is a fan-friendly former junior welterweight titleholder who took the WBA belt from Rolando Romero in 2024 but lost it to Jose Valenzuela about four months later. He met Fierro this past February on the undercard of David Benavidez-David Morrell. What seemed to be going mostly Cruz’s way at first turned into a competitive firefight, one that Cruz won via unanimous decision, and one that was more than entertaining enough to merit this immediate sequel. Fierro is now 23-3-2 (18 KOs).

Figueroa, 25-2-1 (19 KOs), is a former junior featherweight and featherweight titleholder who lost both of those belts to Stephen Fulton. That second Fulton fight was Figueroa’s last appearance, also on the undercard of Benavidez-Morrell, and was far clearer in Fulton’s favor than their first go-around. Figueroa will seek to rebound against Gonzalez, 27-4 (15 KOs), a solid fighter who is often the bridesmaid but never the bride. 

Gonzalez’s defeats all came by decision, unanimous losses to Shakur Stevenson and Emanuel Navarrete in title fights in 2019 and 2021, respectively; Isaac Dogboe via split decision in 2022; and Luis Alberto Lopez via unanimous decision in a 2023 title fight. Gonzalez then spent nearly a year and a half away before returning this past March, winning a split decision against the 22-1-1 Arnold Khegai.

The free preliminary show includes three more bouts: former featherweight titleholder Gary Russell Jnr, 31-2 (18 KOs), vs. Hugo Castaneda, 15-2-1 (11 KOs), in a lightweight bout; Alan David Picasso, 31-0-1 (17 KOs), who is the WBC’s No. 1 contender at 122lbs, vs. Kyonosuke Kameda, 15-4-2 (9 KOs); and former featherweight titleholder Mark Magsayo, 27-2 (18 KOs), who dethroned Russell in 2022, vs. Jorge Mata Cuellar, 21-2-2 (13 KOs), in a junior lightweight bout.

Saturday, July 19: Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs. Phumelele Cafu (DAZN)

The broadcast begins at 7 p.m. Eastern Time (midnight BST).

Rodriguez, 21-0 (14 KOs), is the WBC titleholder and lineal champion at junior bantamweight, a pound-for-pound talent who is scheduled for two separate unification bouts in 2025 – this one against Cafu and another in November against Fernando Martinez – to firm up his claim to the throne. The 25-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, then could be headed toward dream matches at bantamweight and above against the likes of Junto Nakatani or even Naoya Inoue.

Cafu, 11-0-3 (8 KOs), is a 26-year-old from South Africa who owns the WBO junior bantamweight world title. Cafu earned that title by fighting outside of his home country for the first time as a professional boxer, traveling to Japan last October to challenge Kosei Tanaka. Cafu won by the narrowest of split decisions, two judges seeing it 114-113 his way, the other giving Tanaka a 114-113 nod. Cafu’s fifth-round knockdown of Tanaka proved to be the difference.

The fight is taking place at The Ford Center at The Star, a stadium in Frisco, Texas, that serves as the practice facility for the Dallas Cowboys.

The co-feature pits undefeated super middleweight Diego Pacheco in what could be a stiff test against once-beaten Trevor McCumby.

Pacheco, 23-0 (18 KOs), is young at 24 years old but ranked by all four sanctioning bodies, including No. 1 with the WBO and No. 3 with the WBC. He still needs more seasoning against better competition, having only recently begun to step up his level of opposition. Pacheco dispatched Maciej Sulecki with body shots in the sixth round last August and won a unanimous decision over the 20-0 Steven Nelson this past January.

McCumby, 28-1 (21 KOs), had been untested himself despite being in the paid ranks since 2010. (He did test positive for a banned performance-enhancing drug in 2017 and spent four and a half years away from the sport between November 2018 and May 2023.) In McCumby’s last outing in September 2024, he impressed in defeat, giving Caleb Plant trouble with his aggression and heavy hands. Plant stopped McCumby in the ninth round, but McCumby showed enough to pique interest about how he and other contenders at 168lbs would fare against each other.

Also on this show: Austin “Ammo” Williams, 18-1 (12 KOs), was originally expecting to face Etinosa Oliha, 21-0 (9 KOs), in an IBF middleweight elimination bout. Oliha had to pull out with an injury and a new opponent has not yet been named. Williams has won two straight since getting stopped in the 11th round by Hamzah Sheeraz in June 2024.

A pair of Olympians are scheduled for separate junior middleweight fights on the undercard. Omari Jones, 2-0 (2 KOs), who took home bronze for the U.S. in 2024, will face Alfredo Rodolfo Blanco, 24-14 (11 KOs). India’s Nishant Dev, 2-0 (1 KO), a Paris Olympics light middleweight quarterfinalist, will meet LaQuan Evans, 5-5 (2 KOs).

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.