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Wilder vs. Zhang: Fight reported on June 1 in Saudi Arabia

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Wilder vs. Zhang: Fight reported on June 1 in Saudi Arabia

The heavyweight clash between Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang is “finalized” for June 1 in Saudi Arabia. according to Mike Coppinger of ESPN.com. The fight will take place on the Beterbiev vs Bivol undercard.

Raise your hand if you expected, say, November, the first half of 2024 to end with an official heavyweight fight between the remnants of Joseph Parker.

Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KO) is coming off an absolutely terrible performance in his defeat to Parker last December in Saudi Arabia, where the former WBC titleholder looked like a passive shell of his former, terrifying self, spending 12 rounds seemingly unable to fight firing shots.

Since then, the question has arisen whether Wilder, now 38, even wants to fight again, but for the money he is being paid to fight in Saudi Arabia, even if he doesn’t, he will. Parker won a deserved wide decision over Wilder and even scored 12-0 on one card.

Zhang (26-2-1, 21 KO) will be coming off a close loss to Parker on March 8, during which Parker won the interim WBO title after the “Massive Bang.” The 40-year-old South Chinese dropped Parker twice but didn’t have enough fuel to win over 12 rounds, and Parker earned – again deservedly – a majority decision in the fight.

On paper, Wilder vs. Zhang may be a can’t-miss fight between two brutally ponderous punchers, but it will only become a positive for this fight if Wilder actually lands the punches this time. Zhang isn’t as slippery and cunning as Parker, but Wilder still has something to prove after this performance, because it’s not like Wilder has never fought heavyweights in the past who can box and move a little. It’s kind of a breakthrough for Wilder in terms of reputation, and Zhang is 40, so it’s a breakthrough for him too. These two guys need to win this fight to get to where they – perhaps in Wilder’s case – want to be.

There was talk of an immediate Parker vs. Zhang rematch since Zhang supposedly had that option in the fight contract, but even contractual rematches are only worth what someone pays to put them on, and the Saudis control the heavyweight division at this point. The thing is: if they didn’t want Parker vs Zhang 2, it wouldn’t have happened.

The same will apply to the Fury vs. Usyk rematch that has been discussed – if their fight does happen and ends on May 18, and the Saudis believe that after the most money goes into, say, Fury vs. Joshua, they will push for it to happen happened no matter what and you can probably expect boxing’s sanctioning bodies to follow the money.

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Analysis

Eddie Hearn still intends to fight Chris Eubank Jr against Conor Benn

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Eddie Hearn still intends to fight Chris Eubank Jr against Conor Benn

Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn is yet to give up on his dream of creating a version of Eubank vs Benn for this generation, despite facing several hurdles in previous attempts. Chris Eubank Jr has openly stated that he is still interested in fighting Conor Benn, and Eddie Hearn is behind it and expects that they may be able to arrange it in the first quarter of 2025.

Hearn in Eubank Jr included Benn on his hit list

“Chris Eubank Jr means one thing, it starts with an ‘m’, ends with a ‘y’ and has a ‘one’ in the middle. It’s written “money”, that’s all he cares about. He doesn’t care about the legacy, he doesn’t care about the championship, he wants the money. And the monks are supposed to fight Conor Benn.

“So, Chris Eubank Jr, you can talk about this fight, talk about that fight, but if you want the money, let’s play. And we will play in the first quarter of 2025.”

About Benn’s current situation

“Just as. We are waiting for the decision, he is settling matters with his lawyers. “Hopefully he will be ready to fight at the end of this year, but no doubt in early 2025, and he is ready to go straight into a money fight with Chris Eubank.”

On Eubank we also ask about Billy Joe Saunders and ask if we will ever see him back in the ring

“I hope so. Billy Joe is an amazing fighter, but each day that passes makes this less likely… that’s a long time out of the ring, but Billy’s biggest problem is that it’s a double-edged sword – he’ll want to say “well, give me a date and give me a plan” , and we’ll want to say, or someone else will say, “well, you have to show us that you’re eight or nine weeks miniature,” because I don’t want to book a venue, book everything and you’ll come to training.

“Like he probably couldn’t concentrate without a date, without an opponent, like a lot of fighters. So I’d love to see Billy go away and spend seven or eight weeks before camp at his actual camp and come back and say, “Listen, I’m here, let’s go.”

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Analysis

Hurd vs Rosario: Free live stream, round by round, start time

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Hurd vs Rosario: Free live stream, round by round, start time

Results:


It’s another Wednesday night ProBox and we have live coverage from Bad Left Hook! Tonight, Jarrett Hurd and Jeison Rosario meet in the ProBox TV main event, which will be a 10-round middleweight bout.

The show starts at 8pm EST, so join us for the full live coverage in the comments section below!

Hurd (25-3, 17 KO) was the unified 154-pound champion, winning back-to-back fights over Tony Harrison, Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara, earning him a reputation as an action fighter with deadly power. A surprising loss to Julian “J-Rock” Williams in 2019 showed that earlier battles had taken their toll, with the theory supported by subsequent decision defeats to Luis Arias and stoppage to Armando Resendiz.

Rosario (24-4-1, 18 KO) was also the junior middleweight champion, defeating J-Rock Williams via 5th round TKO in Williams’ first defense of the Hurd belts. Rosario then lost his first title defense to Jermell Charlo by KO-8, lost again the next time by KO-6 to Erickson Lubin, and lost his only significant fight since against Brian Mendoza in 2022, also by knockout.

Without disregarding their significant achievements from 4-5 years ago, both men have clearly seen their best moments in recent performances. But either one or two wins could separate him from another significant shot at the wide-open middleweight division, and both fighters have enough value to lend a hand revive the reputation of tonight’s winner.

You can join us in the comments below for live coverage and commentary, and watch the live stream for FREE! with this video:

Main card (ProBox TV, 8 p.m. ET)

  • Jarrett Hurd (25-3, 17 KO) vs. Jeison Rosario (24-4-1, 18 KO), middleweight, 10 rounds
  • Michael Angeletti (11-0, 7 KO) vs. Geraldo Valdez (16-1, 11 KO), bantamweight, 10 rounds
  • Iwan Dyczko (13-0, 12 KO) vs. Craig Lewis (15-7-1, 8 KO), heavyweight, 8 rounds
  • Dominic Valle (9-0, 7 KO) vs. Kevin Piedrahita (9-2, 8 KO), super featherweight, 8 rounds

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Analysis

Stevenson vs. Cordina leads the undercard on the Beterbiev-Bivol show

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Stevenson vs. Cordina leads the undercard on the Beterbiev-Bivol show

Shakur Stevenson will officially face Joe Cordina in an undercard fight on October 1. 12 in Riyad gala, the main character of which was the long-awaited clash between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.

Stevenson (22-0, 10 KO) will soon return to the ring after a July 6 decision victory over Artem Harutyunyan, which was his last win in the top division. He has an obligation to win the WBC lightweight title against William Zepeda, but that is currently scheduled for February. Meanwhile, Cordina (17-1, 9 KO) will be looking to return in style after losing her IBF super featherweight title to Anthony Cacace in May.

Also on the card:

  • 34-year-old Chris Eubank Jr (33-3, 24 KO) begins his sixth or seventh restart in his career with a fight against Kamil Szeremeta (25-2-2, 8 KO), who had a 10-round draw in February last year in Poland and seems to have never really recovered from back-to-back losses to Gennady Golovkin and Jaime Munguia during the season 2020–2021.
  • Fabio Wardley (17-0-1, 16 KO) and Frazer Clarke (8-0-1, 6 KO) will meet again in a rematch for Wardley’s British and Commonwealth titles in a very appropriate setting for the British national belts.
  • Jai Opetaia (25-0, 19 KO) will defend his IBF cruiserweight title against Jack Massey (22-2, 12 KO). Massey will likely be the second-best opponent of Opetaa’s career after a mighty win over Isaac Chamberlain in June, but Opetaia will still be the main favorite.
  • Ben Whittaker (8-0, 5 KO) will face Liam Cameron (23-6, 10 KO), who gave Lyndon Arthur a good run after his June defeat.
  • Skye Nicolson (11-0, 1 KO) will defend her WBC featherweight title against Raven Chapman (9-0, 2 KO). Nicolson will be rightly favored, but this is as good a fight as there is for Skye.

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