So as we close out the summer we've gone through a bit of a hiatus heading into September. But looking ahead to the fall schedule there's plenty going on at junior middleweight which is one of the deeper divisions in boxing. It's chock full of well-established names and fan-friendly fighters. You can basically put all the champions and contenders in a hat, pull out two names, and you're bound to come up with a good fight.
Here's a look at what's taking place at 154 in the next few months...
- So the top ranked fighter in this weight class is Terence Crawford, who if you haven't heard is facing Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez on September 13 in Las Vegas. For all intents and purposes, his days as a junior middleweight are over. Ranked number two by Ring is the battle hardened, Vergil Ortiz (who has victories over Serhii Bohachuk and Israil Madrimov), whose name has been brandied about a lot the past couple of weeks.
He and newly minted WBO belt-holder, Xander Zayas, went back-and-forth on Twitter, and it was reported that Golden Boy Promotions (which handles Ortiz) and Top Rank (who represents Zayas) were in preliminary talks for an early December pay-per-view showdown. But really, that seemed to be a lot of posturing as it's pretty clear Zayas is going to get the obligatory soft title defense in Puerto Rico to kick off his reign as a champion. And lets be honest, Zayas-Ortiz is a very good fight -- but not one that will move the needle on pay-per-view.
https://snac.com/blogs/k-9-kims-corner/another-side-of-the-steet
All this came after Golden Boy tried to strike a deal for Ortiz to face either Jermell Charlo and then Keith Thurman that ended leading to nothing. So with that, it was announced last week that Ortiz would be facing contender, Erickson Lubin on November 8 in Ft. Worth, Texas. It's a solid fight, Lubin is ranked 7th in by Ring Magazine. But some have theorized that Ortiz and his camp went through the machinations of attempting to lure Zayas into a fight knowing that they would really land at Lubin, as a way to justify this selection.
Speaking of Thurman, whose bravado is only matched by his inactivity the past several years, he has somehow found himself in the mix here. Being a recognizable name and someone who was one of the original pillars of the PBC has value, he landed the assignment of facing Fundora, who has possession of the WBC strap. This bout will take place on October 25 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. This event will be an Amazon Prime pay-per-view event, because well, gosh darnit that's what they do.
Not to be Buzz Killington but why not have Ortiz (who is currently the WBC interim champion at 154) face Fundora? What's the point of being an 'interim champion' if you're not going to go after the 'real' champion? And that's a fight that probably has more commercial value to it than Ortiz-Lubin and Fundora-Thurman. My guess is that if you ran a poll of which fight you'd most like to see in this division it would be Fundora-Ortiz.
But remember, what you fans really want doesn't matter. OK, maybe I am being Buzz Killington. But it's the truth. The late, great Jay Larkin taught me years ago that boxing is a business dressed up as a sport. And the belief is that Fundora-Ortiz at the moment doesn't generate enough money for either side to roll the dice.
Top Rank
Then you have Zayas, who at age 22 is by far the youngest of the champions at '54. He captured the vacant WBO belt back on July 26 by scoring a clear decision over Jorge 'Chino' Garcia. As I mentioned before, he'll be given a title defense back on the island as soon as Top Rank finalizes whatever television deals they have. But you wonder given his frame (5'10) and age how much longer he'll be in this weight class.
Finally, you have IBF titlist, Bakhram 'the Boogeyman' Murtazaliev, who still hasn't been able to get anyone inside the ring with him since his third round TKO of Tim Tszyu last October. He was in line to face his mandatory, Lubin, till he decided to face Ortiz.
PBC
As of now, nothing is set for Murtazaliev but I'm beginning to think that the likes of Mike McCallum and Terry Norris would have ducked him back in the day.
