By Chris Williams: Bob Arum will begin putting on boxing events for his Top Rank promotional company starting in June involving Shakur Stevenson, Jose Ramirez, and Teofimo Lopez on ESPN and ESPN+. These will be fights that will take place without an audience, and they’re not expected to be the tremendous matches that fans are hoping to see in the summer
Arum wants to stage the fight cards in Las Vegas, Nevada, being that it’s easier to get hotels for the fighters. Bringing back boxing events in June could give Arum and his Top Rank company an edge over his competition, as they don’t plan on putting on cards until July.
Arum states that there won’t be any events with live crowds for the entire summer. He’s predicting that fans won’t be allowed to attend live boxing events until the last quarter of 2020. What this means is that there won’t be any big fights put on like Vasily Lomachenko vs. Teofimo Lopez.
That’s a contest that people were hoping to take place in the summer, but it’s not going to be able to happen without fans. The loss of the gate revenue would be too much to make up with the pay-per-view sales.
Arum talks June fights
“We are coming back in June,” Arum said ESPN. “These will be shows that will be on ESPN and ESPN+. “They’ll all be top fighters, really top fights,” Arum said. “Will there be a [Tyson] Fury-[Deontay] Wilder? No. But they’ll be some of our top fighters, like Jose Ramirez, he’ll be in the mix, various others, Teofimo [Lopez], Shakur [Stevenson],” said Arum.
“For the rest of the summer, there won’t be a crowd,” Arum said. “I don’t anticipate — now, I don’t know — being able to do fights with any kind of crowd ’til the fourth quarter [of 2020].”
As far as Arum’s comment about him putting on “top fights,” that view is in the eye of the beholder. Arum has already admitted that he WON’T be staging the Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder 3 contest in June.
Likewise, we’re probably not going to see WBO featherweight champion Shakur Stevenson take on IBF champion Josh Warrington in a unification match or WBA/WBC/WBO lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko battle IBF belt-holder Teofimo Lopez in a unification.
Fans want to see these fights in the summer:
- Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury 3
- Jose Ramirez vs. Josh Taylor
- Vasiliy Lomachenko vs. Teofimo Lopez
- Oscar Valdez vs. Miguel Berchelt
- Shakur Stevenson vs. Gary Russell Jr.
- Jamel Herring vs. Leo Santa Cruz or Gervonta Davis
Ramirez vs. Postol = NOT a great fight
The fight that Arum is talking about when he says he’ll be staging a “Top” match is WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Jose Ramirez (25-0, 17 KOs) making his defense against his WBC mandatory Viktor Postol (31-2, 12 KOs).
While Arum might view that fight as a “top fight,” the American fans aren’t all that thrilled at this match. Postol is 36-years-old and has lost two out of his last five fights since 2016. That’s a record of 3-2. Arum might think Ramirez vs. Postol is a great fight, but the casual and hardcore boxing fan in the States don’t agree.
Postol is an old guy now, who’s best career victory was beating a past his prime Lucas Matthysse in 2015 after he suffered an eye injury. Aside from that, the tall, lanky 5’11” Postol has beaten no one of note during his 13-year pro career.
Postol’s recent wins since being outclassed by Terence Crawford in 2016 have come against these fighters:
- Mohamed Mimoune
- Siar Ozgul
Fans want to see Ramirez take on IBF/WBA 140-pound champion Josh Taylor, former WBA champ Regis Prograis and former IBF belt holder Ivan Baranchyk. Those guys would attract a lot more interest as opponents for Ramirez.
Yeah, it makes sense for Arum to put the Ramirez-Postol fight together because he promotes both guys, but the fight is still a boring one. A better choice for Ramirez would be for him to give a rematch to Jose Zepeda, who he beat by a controversial 12 round majority decision in 2019. People saw the results of that fight as a robbery, and it made Ramirez look bad that he chose to move on rather than clearing up the controversy.
