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Promoter Top Rank announced its next two main events late Thursday night in its new partnership with ESPN. The basic-cable network will air a super featherweight title bout between champion Vasyl Lomachenko and Miguel Marriaga on August 5. Two weeks later, ESPN will broadcast a full 140-pound championship unification fight that'll match Terence Crawford against Julius Indongo.
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However, after much discussion, Salido ultimately rejected an offer of $720,000, and Top Rank moved on to Marriaga for Lomachenko's third title defense.
"When the financial requests were met suddenly there were other issues like a hand problem, which led to a weight problem, which led to Marriaga. Funny how that happens," Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti said. "So we moved on to trying to secure the best possible opponent at the time, and Miguel Marriaga stepped up to the plate as did [previous Lomachenko opponents] Jason Sosa and Rocky Martinez in the past."
"When the financial requests were met suddenly there were other issues like a hand problem, which led to a weight problem, which led to Marriaga. Funny how that happens," Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti said. "So we moved on to trying to secure the best possible opponent at the time, and Miguel Marriaga stepped up to the plate as did [previous Lomachenko opponents] Jason Sosa and Rocky Martinez in the past."
The co-feature will pit former two-time lightweight title challenger Raymundo Beltran (33-7-1, 21 KOs), 35, a Mexico native fighting out of Phoenix, and former interim junior lightweight titlist Bryan Vasquez (35-2, 19 KOs), 29, of Costa Rica, in a 10-round lightweight fight.
In the Crawford-Indongo co-feature, light heavyweight contender Oleksandr Gvozdyk (13-0, 11 KOs), 30, a 2012 Olympic bronze medalist from *******, will face an opponent to be determined in a 10-rounder.
The undercard will also feature several name fighters against opponents to be determined: newly signed Top Rank heavyweight Bryant Jennings (19-2, 10 KOs), 32, of Philadelphia, a former title challenger returning from a 20-month layoff; British heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte, (20-1, 15 KOs), 29, who is coming off a split-decision win against Dereck Chisora in a wild 2016 fight of the year contender in December; 2016 U.S. Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson (2-0, 1 KO), 20, of Newark, New Jersey; and Walters (26-1, 21 KOs), 31, of Jamaica, fighting for the first time since Lomachenko made him quit in the seventh round of a one-sided junior lightweight world title fight in November.
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