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 Jim Dower: Undefeated prospect Shakur Stevenson (4-0, 2 KOs) showed tons of promise tonight in blasting out a limited Oscar Mendoza (4-3, 2 KOs) in featherweight action in winning a 2nd round TKO on Saturday night in a Top Rank promoted card on ESPN at Madison Square Garden in New York.
By Tim Royner: 2016 Olympic U.S silver medalist Shakur Stevenson will be fighting next month on December 9 against Oscar Mendoza in 6-round fight on the undercard of the Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux fight at Madison Square Garden in New York.
By Chris Williams: Light heavyweight contender Oleksandr Gvozdyk kept himself on course for an eventual world title shot last Saturday night in defeating Craig Baker by a 6th round knockout at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska. Baker was coming off a year-long layoff to take the fight with Gvozdyk.
By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford (31-0, 22 KOs) hit the scales right at the light welterweight limit of 140 pounds on Friday for his unification contest against unbeaten IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Julius “Blue Machine” Indongo (22-0, 11 KOs) this Saturday night on ESPN and ESPN Deportes at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, New York.
By Jeff Aranow: Dillian Whyte, Bryant Jennings, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Nicholas Walters and Shakur Stevenson will all be fighting on the undercard of the Terence Crawford vs. Julius Indongo card on ESPN on August 19 at the Pinnacle Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska. In terms of sheer names, this has got to be one of the best fight cards thus far in 2017.
https://youtu.be/u0MEaLfeAZ0
Terence Crawford 139.2 vs. Felix Diaz 139.4
Ray Beltran 134.6 vs. Jonathan Maicelo 134.8
Undefeated World Junior Welterweight Champion and top pound for pound fighter TERENCE “Bud” CRAWFORD (30-0, 21 KOs), of Omaha, Neb., will make his 2017 debut, This Saturday! May 20, at the Mecca of Boxing, Madison Square Garden. This will also be his debut headlining in the big room — a testament both to his talent and his growing popularity. Crawford will be defending his unified World Boxing Organization (WBO) / World Boxing Council (WBC) / Ring magazine titles against former Olympic gold medalist and top-rated contender FÉLIX DÍAZ (19-1, 9 KOs), of Brooklyn by way of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in a marquee all-action fight. It will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing®, beginning at 10:15 p.m. ET/PT.
By Chris Williams: WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford’s next fight against Felix Diaz (19-1, 9 KOs) will be taking place now at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Crawford-Diaz fight was originally planned to be staged at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, but Crawford’s promoters at Top Rank were approached by officials from Madison Square Garden recently to offer them to stage the fight in their venue.
By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Arum has a venue for WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford’s next fight on May 20. Arum is going to stage the fight at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey with Newark. The fight will be televised on HBO World Championship Boxing.
Arum doesn’t have an opponent yet for Crawford (30-0, 21 KOs). It would be nice if Arum upgraded the level of opposition that Crawford is facing, because he’s had too many lackluster opponents lately. The last opponent that Arum matched Crawford against, John Molina, came into the fight with him having lost 3 out of his last 5 fights.
By Chris Williams: 2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson has signed with Top Rank promoters in a move that will have some boxing fans and writers shaking their heads. It’s definitely a big signing by Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, but it’s going to be interesting if he’s going to be matching him against other fighters outside of his stable or sticking him with a lot of in house fights his entire career. Andre Ward will be Stevenson’s co-manager.
The 19-year-old Stevenson fought well in the Rio Olympics until he met his match against Cuba’s Robeisy Ramirez, who schooled him pretty well. Ramirez is just a super talented fighter, and Stevenson was not in his class.