It was like going through withdrawal with nothing on ESPN+, ESPN, DAZN, Fox Sports, and Showtime having its last show!
The first show in 2024 looks like a real winner on promoter Oscar De La Hoya’s (Golden Boy Promotions) Main Event having the return after seventeen months of unbeaten WBO International Welterweight champion Vergil Ortiz, Jr. over DAZN moving up to super welterweight putting his 19-0 with 19 stoppages record on the line.
He faces Frederick “General Okunka” Lawson, 30-3, with twenty-two stoppages from Ghana out of Chicago, Illinois, over 12 rounds. Not an easy opponent.
The undercard is loaded with three matches that could have been main events themselves.
Ortiz was closing in on a world title fight but could no longer make the welterweight limit at 147. With both Terence “Bud” Crawford in a rematch with former IBF champion Errol “The Truth” Spence and both moving up to the super welterweight after this one, it won’t be any easier for Ortiz being in the same weight class along with current Super Welterweight champion Jermell “Iron Man” Charlo holding three of the titles.
He is coming off a loss to Super Middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who is never short of challengers due to receiving a big payday. Even Crawford talks about moving from welter to challenge Alvarez.
Saturday’s event will be at the Virgin Hotels, Las Vegas, Nevada Saturday, with another twelve-rounder and a pair of ten-rounders.
Welterweight Mexican Raul “Cugar” Curiel, 13-0 with 11 stoppages, faces Elias “Ingles” Diaz, 12-1, with seven stoppages out of National City, CA, in a ten-rounder.
Super Lightweight Ohara “Two Tanks” Davies, 25-2 with 18 stoppages out of Hackney, London, UK, will face Ismael Barroso, 24-4-2 with 22 stoppages out of Venezuela and Miami, FL, coming off a vacant WBA Super Lightweight challenge loss.
WBO Inter-Continental Super Lightweight champion Arnold Barboza, Jr., 28-0 with 10 stoppages out of L.A., CA, takes on Xolisani “Nomeva The Wasp” Ndongeni, 31-3 with 18 stoppages out of Duncan Village, Eastern Cape, South Africa in a ten rounder. Two four-rounders will round out this excellent show.
All four bouts will have what looks like competitive fights for viewers to see, especially with the short absence of any shows on the tube for several weeks.
On the thirteenth, with the same record as Ortiz, IBF, WBC, and WBO Light Heavyweight champion Russian Artur Beterbiev, 19-0 with 19 stoppages out of Montreal, CAN, faces former WBA Super Middleweight champion Callum “Mundo” Smith, 29-1 out of Liverpool, UK., in Quebec City, CAN., over ESPN+ and ESPN.
It looks like January will have a good variety of shows for boxing fans to look forward to.