By Jake Donovan
The July 20 Fox Sports Pay Per View lineup is locked and truly loaded.
With the evening being split over two platforms—a preceding Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Fox primetime show prior to the Fox PPV—there was confusion over which fights would land in support to Keith Thurman’s welterweight title defense versus Manny Pacquiao. That matter was cleared up during the most recent edition of Inside PBC Boxing Wednesday evening on FS1.
The evening’s two televised main events have long been established. Thurman-Pacquiao will top the July 20 PPV show at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, with the same venue playing host to the lead-in PBC on Fox show headlined by unbeaten super middleweight titlist Caleb Plant making his first defense versus undefeated challenger Mike Lee.
Three PPV supporting bouts have been formally announced by PBC, all of which have been previously reported by BoxingScene.com as landing on the show in one form or another.
In the evening’s chief support, unbeaten former lightweight titlist Omar Figueroa (28-0-1, 19KOs) will take on veteran welterweight contender Yordenis Ugas (23-4, 11KOs) in a scheduled 12-round welterweight battle.
Both boxers are coming off of separate Fox-televised bouts earlier this year. Figueroa outlasted John Molina Jr. in a 10-round decision this past February. Three weeks later, Ugas came up just short in a bid to unseat reigning welterweight titlist Shawn Porter atop a March 9 edition of PBC on Fox.
Molina Jr. will join Figueroa on the July 20 undercard, in a separate welterweight battle as he faces former 140-pound titlist Sergey Lipinets. Molina Jr. (30-8, 24KOs) was considered twice unlucky in his loss to Figueroa, having to agree to a last-minute modified weight due to his undisciplined foe once again showing up heavy, then coming up well short on wide scorecards that didn’t at all reflect the in-ring action.
Weight should not be an issue versus the always-professional Lipinets (15-1, 11KOs), who is coming off a career-best win in scoring a 10th round stoppage of former two-division titlist Lamont Peterson. Their March 24 bout—which headlined on FS1—ranks among the best fights of 2019 to date.
Opening the four-fight telecast is a battle between former bantamweight titlists. Unbeaten knockout artist Luis Nery (29-0, 23KOs) will take on two-time Dominican Republic Olympian and resurgent contender Juan Carlos Payano. The bout is currently slated for 10 rounds, although there exists the possibility of an upgrade as their high placement among the World Boxing Association (WBA) could result in a secondary title being at stake.
Nery’s title reign was shortlived, knocking out Japan’s Shinsuke Yamanaka in Aug. 2017, only to have tested positive for a banned substance. The testing anomaly was attributed to contaminated meat ingestion, but his alibi proved irrelevant at the scales ahead of their March 2018 rematch, where Nery showed up a beefy five pounds over the limit.
The unbeaten Tijuana (Mex.) native has since resurfaced with PBC, making his debut earlier this year on Fox Sports’ first-ever PPV when he knocked out McJoe Arroyo in four rounds this past March. The bout aired in supporting capacity to Errol Spence’s 12-round whitewash of Mikey Garcia in their PPV-headlining battle of unbeaten pound-for-pound entrants.
Payano (21-2, 9KOs) held a bantamweight title for nearly two years, but only made one successful defense of the belt he claimed in a Sept. 2014 win over the excellent Anselmo Moreno. A 12-round win over three-time U.S. Olympian Rau’Shee Warren in Aug. 2015 was the last time he’d leave the ring as champ, losing to Warren in their June 2016 rematch.
The 35-year old southpaw has since won four of his last five starts, including a wide 10-round win over previously unbeaten Damien Vazquez this past March. The victory helped him rebound from a savage one-punch 1st round knockout loss to Naoya Inoue last October.
In the main event, Thurman (29-0, 22KOs) looks to make the fifth defense of his welterweight title he’s held since a March 2015 win over Robert Guerrero in the first-ever PBC-branded event. The fight took place at this very arena, where Pacquiao (61-7-2, 39KOs) has endured many highs and a few lows in his storied career.
Both are coming off wins in January—Pacquiao outpointing former four-division titlist Adrien Broner at MGM Grand atop a Showtime PPV, one week prior to Thurman ending a 22-month ring hiatus with. 12-round win over Josesito Lopez in a PBC on Fox main event which stands as the most watched fight of 2019 thus far.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
