By Jeff Aranow: WBO lightweight champion Raymundo Beltran (35-7-1, 21 KOs) will be facing replacement opponent former IBF super featherweight champion Jose Pedraza (24-1, 12 KOs) rather than his previously scheduled opponent #1 WBO Roman Andreev, who had surgery for appendicitis. Beltran will be defending against Pedraza on August 25 on Top Rank Boxing on ESPN at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
By Allan Fox: Top Rank won the purse bid on Tuesday for WBO lightweight champion Ray Beltran’s fight against #1 WBO Roman Andreev (21-0, 15 KOs) for their match on August 25. The fight will be taking place in Phoenix, Arizona. Top Rank won the purse bid with a winning bid of $252,000.
By Chris Williams: After 19 years as a pro, Raymundo Beltran (35-7-1, 21 KOs) finally captured a world title in defeating 39-year-old Paulus Moses (40-4, 25 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Friday night to capture the vacant WBO lightweight title at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada.
By Jim Dower: Raymundo Beltran (34-7-1, 21 KOs) weighed in at 134 ½ pounds on Thursday for his fight against #2 WBO Paulus Moses (40-3, 25 KOs) for the vacant WBO lightweight title this Friday night at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino, Grand Theatre in Reno, Nevada. The 39-year-old Moses weighed in at 134 lbs.
By Chris Williams: Top Rank boss Bob Arum doesn’t look like he’s going to get his wish to schedule his fighter Vasyl Lomachenko (10-1, 8 KOs) against WBA World lightweight champion Jorge Linares (44-3, 27 KOs) on May 12th on ESPN like they were hoping.
By Chris Williams: Top Rank boss man Bob Arum says super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (10-1, 8 KOs) will be moving up to the lightweight division (135) for his next fight in April, and he’ll be targeting Ray Beltran and Jorge Linares, according to Lance Pugmire of the La Times.
By Chris Williams: Raymundo Beltran (34-7-1, 21 KOs) will be fighting #3 WBO Paulus Moses for the vacant WBO lightweight title on February 16 on ESPN at the Reno Sparks Convention Center in Reno, Nevada. This is a Top Rank card. The co-feature bout on the Beltran-Moses card is still yet to be decided.
LAS VEGAS, NV. (March 31, 2015) – The Chelsea inside the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas welcomes an exciting evening of boxing featuring former two-division world champion TAKAHIRO AO who returns to the ring in his 2015 debut where he will battle two-time world title challenger RAY BELTRAN in a 12-round rumble for the vacant World Boxing Organization (WBO) lightweight world championship on Friday, May 1.
By Frainy: Boxers all over the world are heavily criticized for being inactive, for shying away from fights or for hand-picking opponents in order to preserve their reputation. Indeed, gone are the days of the top fighters or indeed any fighters fighting over 100 fights in their career.
The sport has become far too physically demanding for this to be possible as well as TV deals and money grabbing promoters heavily influencing the career choices made by those in the upper echelons of the sport.
By Dan Ambrose: Last Saturday night’s fight between WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford and Raymundo Beltran brought in disappointing ratings on HBO “Boxing After Dark” from Omaha, Nebraska. The Crawford-Beltran fight averaged 836,000 viewers with a peak of 936,000 viewers, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. This was below the average of 898,000 for an HBO BAD fight.
While there could be many reasons to explain the lack of interest in the Crawford vs. Beltran fight, such as the late start time, you have to look at the fact that neither of these guys have much of a fan base as of yet in terms of casual boxing fans.