By Scott Gilfoid: #1 IBF Lee Selby (20-1, 8 KOs) and IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich (19-0-1, 9 KOs) have reportedly agreed to terms for a fight on April 25th, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.
By agreeing, the two fighters’ teams have avoided a purse bid for the fight. The Gradovich-Selby fight will be taking place at the O2 Arena in London, UK, even though Selby is merely the challenger.
By Gerardo Granados: It was reported by ESPN Boxing analyst Salvador Rodriguez that next March 21 there is a strong possibility that the former three division champion Fernando Montiel W53(39)-L4-D2 will fight against featherweight contender Mauricio Muñoz W29(13)-L6-D0, the venue has yet to be confirmed but it could be at Hermosillo or Ciudad Obregon, Sonora (Mexico) . Also according to Montiel´s twitter account the fight is on.
On this fight Montiel will risk the chance to dispute the IBF feather belt held by the Mexican Russian Evgeny Gradovich (who has a mandatory defense against the always dangerous TBA) so Kochulito must win his bout against Mauricio Muñoz and better not be overconfident making plans ahead before defeating a hungry adversary who has very little to lose and a lot to win.
By Scott Gilfoid: If Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn gets his way his fighter #1 IBF Lee Selby (20-1, 8 KOs) won’t have to do any traveling at all like traditional challengers do when he faces IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich (19-0-1, 9 KOs) this year.
Hearn is pushing to have the Gradovich-Selby fight staged in the UK, which obviously would give Selby a huge advantage.
By Scott Gilfoid: IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich (19-0-1, 9 KOs) will be defending his IBF title in March against #1 IBF Lee Selby (20-1, 8 KOs), according to Gradovich’s manager Eris Klimas in speaking with esnewsreporting.com.
The fight could take place in Russia, says Gradovich. This obviously means there won’t be an immediate rematch for Gradovich against Jayson Velez, who Gradovich fought to a 12 round draw last November. Gradovich appeared to beat a tired and worn out Velez by at least four rounds, yet the judges scored the fight a 12 round draw. Needless to say, it was a really controversial decision and yet another black eye for boxing.
By Dan Ambrose: IBF World featherweight champion Eveny Gradovich (19-0, 9 KOs) will be defending his IBF title against #2 WBC, #12 IBF, #12 WBA, #12 WBO Jayson Velez (22-0, 16 KOs) in the co-feature bout on the Terence Crawford vs. Raymundo Beltran fight card on HBO on November 29th at the CenturyLink Center, in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
The Gradovich-Velez fight could turn out to be an even better one than the main event between Crawford and Beltran, because Gradovich and Velez will be mixing it up the entire time. With Crawford, you can count on him fighting with his usual counter punching style, and that’s generally less than exciting unless he’s forced to fight like he was in his last fight against Yuriorkis Gamboa last June.