#2 WBA Lucas Matthysse and #1 Tewa Kiram will be fighting for the vacant WBA World welterweight title next month on January 27 at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
The 35-year-old Matthysse will be moving up in weight to the welterweight division to fight it out with the little known Kiram for the vacant WBA 147lb. title.
Eddie Hearn is not overly optimistic about his chances of making a fight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury in 2018. Hearn’s chief complaint is the 60 percent purse split that Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) is demanding for him to agree to fight Joshua.
WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn hasn’t made it clear yet whether he’ll take the fight with his mandatory challenger Terence Crawford in early 2018. While Horn’s co-promoter Bob Arum wants him to take the fight with Crawford, he could potentially swerve the fight by vacating the WBO title and taking a bigger money fight against fellow Australian Anthony Mundine.
Shannon Briggs has revealed that he plans on making a comeback in 2018 following a drug suspension. The 46-year-old Briggs has been out of the ring for a year and a half since stopping Emilio Ezquiel Zarate on May 21, 2016.
Showtime Boxing will be televising a welterweight match between former world champions Brandon ‘Bam Bam’ Rios (34-3-1, 25 KOs) and Danny ‘Swift’ Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs) on February 17 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Garcia vs. Rios will be the main event in the main event on Showtime televised card in Vegas.
Promoter Eddie Hearn is looking 3 possible dates for the heavyweight unification fight between Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker. The dates are March 24, March 31 and April 7. London and Wales are potential areas where the fight could take place.
Keith Thurman vs. Jessie Vargas is in the works for April 14. The fight is being worked on both their management, and we could see the two square off on Showtime.
Deontay Wilder will be defending his WBC title against Luis Ortiz on March 3 if the fight can get negotiated. The two heavyweights are planning on fighting each other Showtime Boxing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
It was thought that IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) would seek out a unification fight with WBO 160lb champion Billy Joe Saunders (26-0, 12 KOs) once Triple G got past Saul ‘Canelo Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs), but it looks like that’s no longer the case.
Eric Gomez of Golden Boy promotions thinks he might have the negotiations completed for the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) rematch by Christmas on December 25. He says he’s going to keep working right through the holiday until he gets the fight made for May 5. This is what Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs) wants. He gave Gomez the green light to make the rematch with Triple G.