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Regis Prograis figures he may as well try to unify his division if none of his mandatories are willing to step up to the plate. The newly crowned WBC 140-pound champion from New Orleans recently became the focus of business politics, when a proposed fight with former champion Jose Ramirez fell through after Ramirez balked at the terms of the purse split,
Oscar De La Hoya believes Dmitry Bivol is part of a highly rarefied group of fighters. The Golden Boy head couldn’t help but be impressed with Bivol after the Russian champion dominated his charge, Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez, over 12 rounds to win a unanimous decision in their light heavyweight title bout in November in Abu Dhabi.
Mikaela Mayer thinks Alycia Baumgardner could be in for a rude awakening. Mayer, the former unified lightweight, has a hard time seeing Michigan’s Baumgardner garner the sort of publicity that their unification fight produced last October. Baumgardner defeated Mayer narrowly on points in a fight many believe was too close to call. That fight took place in London, on the undercard of the middleweight undisputed title match between Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall.
Jose Ramirez is tired of all the trashtalking going on between some of the top names in and around his weight class. Ramirez, the former unified 140-pound champion from Avenal, California, recently took aim at a score of highly talented – and garrulous – fighters, most notably Gervonta Davis, Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, and Teofimo Lopez.
Jose Ramirez refuses to view Regis Prograis as the be-all, end-all of the 140-pound division. The former unified 140-pound titlist from Avenal, California, found himself engulfed in controversy lately after he declined a title shot against New Orleans’ Prograis, the WBC champion, because he objected to the purse split, which was 65-35 in favor of Prograis.
Lawrence Okolie isn’t really interested in holding a grudge against his longtime—and now apparently former—promoter Eddie Hearn. The WBO cruiserweight titlist is set to make his debut with Boxxer on Sky Sports in a cruiserweight match against David Light on March 11 in London.
Anthony Joshua appears to be on the brink of making the biggest training change of his career ahead of his return to the ring. The former heavyweight champion from London is expected to start his training camp for his next fight in the United States, according to his promoter Eddie Hearn.
Regis Prograis doesn’t buy Jose Ramirez’s various alibis for not fighting. Prograis, the WBC 140-pound champion from New Orleans, and Ramirez, a former unified titlist, were projected to fight each other, but the fight fell through after Ramirez declined to move forward with the purse bid. Ramirez’s main issue was with the split, which was 65-35 in favor of Prograis, the champion. That split, in fact, was originally supposed to be 70-30, in line with the WBC’s title mandates, but Ramirez’s promoter, Top Rank, was able to to improve it in favor of their client. Still, that was not enough Ramirez, who also insisted that, as the bigger proven draw, the split should have been closer to 60-40.
Dmitry Bivol has been mostly blasé about defending his light heavyweight title against Canelo Alvarez again, but fighting him at 168 is apparently a different story. In a recent interview, Bivol, the WBA light heavyweight champion from Russia, offered a glimmer of enthusiasm toward the idea of fighting Alvarez at the super middleweight limit, where Alvarez owns all four belts.
The sooner Conor Benn accepts he will never be embraced as a boxing hero, the easier the next phase of his career will be, according to Chris Eubank Jr.