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Joshua Buatsi is ready to show what he learnt during his first camp with Virgil Hunter when he faces Daniel Dos Santos in Manchester on Saturday night. The first lesson, he said was about treating a fight like robbing a house.
Talks for an undisputed world super middleweight title fight between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Caleb Plant are already under way with Eddie Hearn leading the negotiations on behalf of Alvarez. The Mexican’s victory over Billy Joe Saunders in Texas last weekend, which saw him add the WBO title to the WBC and WBA titles he already held, was the last of his short-term contract with Hearn’s Matchroom group.
August 14 will be the date of the undisputed heavyweight title fight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, although Fury’s contract remains unsigned. Both Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren, promoters for the two world champions, both confirmed the date the fight will take place in Saudi Arabia on Thursday. The delay to announcing the fight officially has been down to firming up guarantees around the site fee for the fight, believed to be $150 million.
After a disappointing night for Billy Joe Saunders, his management team, MTK Global put a positive gloss on things. “He went into the lion’s den and dared to be great in front of 70,000 fans,” said a post on Twitter. “You’re still one of the best fighters in the world. You will be back.”
On a cold January day in 2019, I sat in the empty Ingle gym in Sheffield with Billy Joe Saunders and he told me he feared that his big opportunity would never come. In 2018 he had signed to face Gennady Golovkin in Kazakhstan, but the fight never came off, he then lost his WBO title outside the ring, having been refused a license in Massachusetts after he tested positive for oxilofrine, a stimulant that, according to WADA rules, was only banned during in-competition testing. On top of that, he had also received the second-largest fine in history from the British Boxing Board of Control for a notorious social media video.
Joseph Parker recovered from a knockdown after just seven seconds to earn a split decision over Derek Chisora in their 12-round heavyweight clash in Manchester. It was a close fight. Chisora dominated early, as he forced Parker, the former WBO champion, back to the ropes and kept the pressure on. But from midway, Parker took charge, as the increasingly tired Chisora struggled to get close.
Katie Taylor was given a serious fright by Natasha Jonas and needed an excellent finish to retain her undisputed world lightweight title via a unanimous, but narrow, decision in Manchester.
At the Manchester Arena in Manchester, lightweight prospect Campbell Hatton (2-0, 0 KOs), who is the son of Manchester legend Ricky Hatton, looked a lot better in his second outing with a four round decision over Levi Dunn (0-5).
At the Manchester Arena in Manchester, Chris Eubank Jr showed some nice touches but was content to go the full ten rounds in his first fight with Roy Jones Jr in his corner, as he earned a comfortable unanimous decision over Marcus Morrison.
Dmitry Bivol made a successful seventh defense of his WBA light-heavyweight title but did nothing to greatly boost his reputation as he was taken the distance by Craig Richards in Manchester. The Russian claimed a unanimous decision and two of the judges scores were probably generous to the Londoner, but this was risk-free stuff from Bivol, who had gone the full 12 rounds in his previous four defenses.