Jai Opetaia successfully defended his IBF and Ring cruiserweight titles on Wednesday from the Gold Coast Convention Centre in Australia. It was a short and entertaining slugfest that saw Opetaia end things in explosive fashion in the fourth round.
HIGHLIGHTS | Jai Opetaia vs. David Nyika
It's part of what is a rather lean boxing schedule to begin 2025. While January isn't generally the busiest of months for the sport, this year it seems even leaner than usual. Looking at the calendar you see that Naoya Inoue's rescheduled bout against Sam Goodman takes place on the 24th (a Friday) and then a Matchroom show from Las Vegas on DAZN the following day that has Diego Pacheco-Steve Nelson topping the bill. In-between there's a couple of developmental cards on various platforms.
It got me curious, so I decided to go back the past five years and see what was scheduled for the opening month from 2020 to 2024. To make this clear, I'm only talking about cards that are featured on the likes of ESPN, DAZN, pay-per-view and Showtime and Fox (when they were still in the boxing business) that usually took place on weekends.
So here's a look at the recent past January's...
2020
- ESPN had two Top Rank cards. While DAZN had a card that featured Jaime Munguia's bout against Spike O' Sullivan. And then for Super Bowl week that year they did a card that featured various title fights (Demetrius Andrade-Luke Keelers, Tevin Farmer-Joseph Diaz and Danny Roman-Murodjon Akhmadaliev) from Miami. Fox televised a show from Philadelphia that had Julian Williams making a homecoming against Jeison Rosario.
2021
- DAZN had Ryan Garcia-Luke Campbell on the day after New Years. Showtime aired the bout between Stephen Fulton and Angelo Leo. While Fox had the battle of Caleb's, Plant and Truax at the end of the month. It has to be mentioned that this was still in the throes of Covid, where boxing cards were more difficult to schedule.
2022
On the first day of the year, Fox distributed a pay-per-view card featuring a cadre of heavyweights, with the main event being Luis Ortiz-Charles Martin. ESPN had a card spotlighting Joe Smith in the middle of the month, and then ended it with a card featuring Robson Conceicao-Xavier Martinez. Showtime aired the bout between Gary Russell and Mark Magsayo.
Showtime Sports
2023
Tank Davis faced Hector Luis Garcia on Showtime Pay-Per-View on the first Saturday of the year. The following week ESPN broadcast the heavyweight match-up between Efe Ajagbe and Stephen Shaw. DAZN had Liam Smith-Callum Smith. ESPN+ streamed Artur Beterbiev-Anthony Yarde, while DAZN had a Golden Boy card featuring Alexis Roach to end the month.
Mikey Williams/Top Rank
2024
Last year DAZN featured Vergil Ortiz's return to the ring against Frederick Lawson to begin the year. Then ESPN had Beterbiev-Callum Smith. To end this month, DAZN had Munguia-John Ryder.
So there you have it. It's clear that the powers-that-be in the sport would rather not schedule any of their major events in the opening month. Perhaps it's because they don't want to go against the NFL playoffs (where the opening weekends now have games on Saturday's) and my guess is that many modern day boxers simply don't want to train through the Christmas holidays and probably need more time to get into fighting form.
KEY
In terms of the upcoming schedule, Top Rank announced on Tuesday that on February 14 that rising contender, Keyshawn Davis, will get his first world title opportunity as he will face WBO lightweight champion, Denys Baranchyk, from the Theater at Madison Square Garden. All the ESPN platforms will be broadcasting this event.
Top Rank
“Keyshawn Davis has everything it takes to be a modern-day great, but he must first defeat an unbeaten, determined Ukrainian champion in Denys Berinchyk. This has all the makings of a lightweight classic in New York City,” said Top Rank Chairman Bob Arum. “Xander Zayas is facing a tough, undefeated kid in Slawa Spomer, an excellent test for our Puerto Rican star as he nears a world title shot. And with Vito Mielnicki Jr. facing unbeaten Irishman Connor Coyle, we have a sensational tripleheader in store for the fans at The Theater at Madison Square Garden and watching live on ESPN.”
3KR
This week on the 2025 debut of 'the 3 Knockdown Rule', Hall-of-Famer, Tim Bradley joined Mario Lopez and I in a fun and animated discussion on all things boxing:
THE 3 KNOCKDOWN RULE EPISODE 70 | TIM BRADLEY INTERVIEW
To subscribe on your preferred podcast platform, hit the Linktree:
3knockdownrule - Listen on YouTube, Spotify - Linktree
