Just a short distance from Manhattan, Astoria, Queens’ premier entertainment venue, Melrose Ballroom, is prepped and ready to shine this Thursday night, June 21, as it hosts DiBella Entertainment’s long-running and acclaimed Broadway Boxing series for the first time. Broadway Boxing is presented by Nissan of Queens, Azad Watches, OPTYX, Christos Steakhouse and Gagliardi Insurance.
By Tim Royner: Former WBC lightweight world champion Dejan Zlaticanin (22-1, 15 KOs) will be fighting next month on December 14 against Hevinson Herrera (22-13-1, 16 KOs) in a 10 round fight at the BB King Club & Grill in New York.
By Dan Ambrose:Mikey Garcia (36-0, 30 KOs) destroyed WBC World lightweight champion Dejan Zkaticanin (22-1, 15 KOs) by a 3rd round knockout to become a fourth division world champion at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. In round 3, Mikey, 29, hurt Zlaticanin with a right uppercut followed by a left to the back of the head and then a right to the head that knocked him clean out. Zlaticanin collapsed to the canvas on his back and laid there for a long time before they were able to revive him.
By Jim Dower: Carl Frampton (23-0, 14 KOs) will be receiving a purse of $1 million for his title defense against former three division world champion Leo Santa Cruz (32-1-1, 18 KOs) tonight. Santa Cruz will be getting just a little bit less at $900,000, according to Dan Rafael. However, Frampton will almost surely make a lot more from the UK money that brings in. Frampton is very popular in the UK.
This is a good fight. The last time Santa Cruz and Frampton fought in 2016, they had the boxing fans sitting at the edge of their seats with the way the two traded shots. Frampton fought with a lot of energy, and was able to beat Santa Cruz at his own game.
By Matthias Predonzan: Just a few hours from the fight against WBC Lightweight World Champion, Dejan Zlaticanin, Miguel Angel “Mikey” Garcia is on the verge to regain his spot in the elite level of professional boxing at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
His past promotional issues that kept him away from fighting for more than two years were, similarly to Andre Ward, risking compromising the fighter career and equally important, risking to deprive the sport of boxing of one of his best assets.
By Dan Ambrose: #2 WBC Mikey Garcia (35-0, 29 KOs) has what could be the toughest fight of his career against WBC World lightweight champion Dejan Zlaticanin (22-0, 15 KOs) this Saturday night on January 28 on Showtime Boxing from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mikey, 29, has only faced a couple of difficult opponents in his career against Orlando Salido and Roman Martinez.
We don’t know how the Salido fight would have gone because Mikey bowed out of the fight in the 8th after suffering a nose injury. Salido was starting to get to Mikey, and it looked like it was starting to turn around for him.
By Dan Ambrose: Former two division world champion Mikey Garcia (35-0, 29 KOs) will be challenging World Boxing Council lightweight champion Dejan Zlaticanin (22-0, 15 KOs) on the undercard of the Carl Frampton vs. Leo Santa Cruz rematch on January 28 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This will be the soon to be 29-year-old Garcia’s second fight of his comeback. Mikey came off of a two and a half year layoff last July in stopping former two-time WBC featherweight champion Elio Rojas in the 5th round after knocking him down four times in the fight.
By Scott Gilfoid: The World Boxing Council has ordered negotiations to take place between WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares (41-3, 27 KOs) and World Boxing Council World lightweight champion Dejan Zlaticanin (22-0, 15 KOs). However, Linares suffered a hand injury in his recent 12 round unanimous decision win over champion Anthony Crolla on September 24.
With Linares unable to fight, the WBC is going to allow the 32-year-old Zlaticanin make a voluntary defense of his WBC 135lb belt while Linares recovers from his hand injury. Linares, 31, is expected to be on the shelf for a while with the injury.
By Scott Gilfoid: A unification fight between lightweight champions Terry Flanagan and Dejan Zlaticanin are in the works for October. Showtime boss Stephen Espinoza likes the fight. One problem that could potentially get in the way of the Flanagan-Zlaticanin fight taking place is unbeaten Felix Verdejo (22-0, 15 KOs) being named as the #1 WBO mandatory challenger for Flanagan.
Verdejo wants a title shot, and if the World Boxing Organization order the fight, then Flanagan would have to face the talented Puerto Rican fighter. Flanagan has been pretty much taking it easy as the WBO champion since winning it last year against Jose Zepeda.
By Scott Gilfoid: It appears that the recent victory by Ricky Burns (40-5-1, 14 KOs) over an over-matched Michele Di Rocco (40-2-1, 18 KOs) last May seems to have knocked some ideas into his head, because he’s now saying he would like to fight the likes of Terence Crawford, Dejan Zlaticanin, John Molina and Ruslan Provodnikov for his next fight.
Burns, 33, knocked out Di Rocco in the 8th round on May 28th to capture the vacant WBA World light welterweight title in Glasgow, Scotland. The victory by Burns has some of his boxing fans thinking he’s rejuvenated him after his previous losses to Zlaticanin, Crawford and Omar Figueroa, as well as the fight he should have lost to Raymundo Beltran. However, you can’t tell whether Burns has improved in his last three fights because he’s faced very, very poor opposition in Di Rocco, Prince Ofotsu and Josh King.