By William Lloyd: Matchroom Fight Camp week 1 fights have apparently been leaked with Conor Benn facing journeyman Adrian Granados, Joshua Buatsi fighting Ricards Bolotniks, and Kid Galahad battling Jazza Dickens in a rematch.
None of these are official. We’ve got to wait for Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing to make the big announcement, which should come soon.
Michael Benson spilling the news of the leaked Matchroom Fight Camp week 1 card. These fights aren’t that bad if you ask me. It’s some decent stuff here.
Conor Benn vs. Adrian Granados
Welterweight Conor Benn (18-0, 12 KOs) is taking a stiff test against Adrian Granados (21-8-3, 15 KOs), a fighter struggling as of late. Granados, 31, is a lot better fighter than his record would indicate.
Adrian has been fighting many top-level fighters in the last four years, and he hasn’t had much of a break.
Benn, 24, will need to be on his A-game for him to come out of the fight with Granados with a win and an impressive showing. Conor had said recently that he would be taking a step up in class for his next fight in July.
It’s unclear whether you can call Granados a step up from his last opponent Samuel Vargas, who stopped in the first round last April. If anything, Granados is a lateral move from Vargas and Sebastian Formella, a fighter Benn defeated last November by a 10 round decision.
Granados’s eight career defeats:
- Danny Garcia
- Adrien Broner
- Robert Easter Jr
- Felix Diaz
- Brad Solomon
- Jose Juan Fuentes
- Frankie Gomez
- Shawn Porter
Granados has only lost to quality fighters during his career, so Benn shouldn’t assume that he can roll over him like he did Samuel Vargas.
Joshua Buatsi vs. Ricards Bolotniks
Light heavyweight contender Joshua Buatsi (14-0, 12 KOs) has got a good opponent in Ricards Bolotniks (18-5-1, 14 KOs) for his match. Buatsi is coming off a fourth-round knockout win over Daniel Blenda Dos Santos last May in Manchester.
That was an easy fight for Buatsi compared to the hard time he had in stopping Marko Calic in the seventh round last October.
#5 WBO, #6 IBF Bolotniks has won his last seven fights since losing to Thabiso Mchunu by a sixth-round knockout in 2018.
To say that Bolotniks has improved in the last three years is putting it lightly. He’s a much different fighter than the one that lost to Mchunu three years ago. This is going to be a tough fight for Buatsi.
Other fights on the week 1 card:
- Jack Cullen vs. Avni Yildirim
- Rachel Ball vs. Shannon Courtenay
- Anthony Fowler vs. TBA