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Ten rounds while eagerly awaiting this weekend’s Frank Martin-Michel Rivera fight …
10. Terence Crawford’s sixth-round knockout of David Avanesyan went about as I expected. Avanesyan was competitive early. But Crawford, a notoriously slow starter, got going in the third, slowing Avanesyan with withering body shots before eventually catching him upstairs with an uppercut-hook combination that ended the fight. It was a solid shake-off-the-rust win for Crawford and a nice payday (reportedly $10 million), but the question now is can Crawford rekindle talks with Errol Spence Jr.? There’s some healthy skepticism within the industry, with insiders noting that not only do the issues that scuttled negotiations in October still exist, but there is now a healthy distrust between Crawford and Al Haymon, Spence’s advisor. Perhaps Crawford, without an eight-figure offer to fall back on this time, will be more eager to close a deal.
9. Dmitry Bivol is in position to land a rematch with Canelo Alvarez next, and in an interview with SI this week Bivol made it clear that he would like the fight at a new weight. Bivol, who defeated Alvarez at 175-pounds last May, says he is ready to drop down to 168 and face Alvarez at super middleweight.
“I think it's much more interesting to fight 168,” says Bivol. “And why? Because after the fight, first what he said, ‘Maybe this is not my weight class.’ And second, I want to be motivated too. I don't want to be motivated only by money for this fight. I want the motivation to be the belts. I can make 168, because now my weight, it's around 187, maybe 185. Why not? It'll be a new experience for me and no excuses about the weight.”
8. Speaking of Bivol, I asked him about his amusing exchange with Jermall Charlo, the middleweight champion who challenged Bivol to a fight when the two crossed paths at the Regis Prograis-Jose Zepeda fight last month.
“To be honest, it was a little bit funny,” says Bivol. “It was … I don't know what it was, to be honest. When I try to remember our conversation, I don't know what it was. I was confused because I didn’t want to fight him before. I just met him and I saw him, we was talking and I said to him, ‘You look big. You are 160, but you are big. And he just starts asking me, ‘Do you want to fight me? Do you want to fight me?’ So I said, ‘I don't want to fight you, but it's interesting, maybe we could fight. But for what? For a belt? I want to fight you if you have a belt, and which weight class?’ It was a funny conversation, to be honest.”
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7. Conor Benn’s most recent statement was a big nothing burger. Benn, the disgraced ex-welterweight contender who tested positive for a banned substance multiple times before an anticipated showdown with Chris Eubank in September, posted on social media that “my team has proven my innocence and the truth will soon come out.” If Benn, who tested positive for clomifene, a female fertility drug, does have evidence vindicating him, great. At this point, I’d settle for a reasonable explanation. But just saying he’s proven it is meaningless.
6. Naoya Inoue is headed to 122 pounds after fully unifying the 118-pound division with an 11th-round knockout win of Paul Butler on Tuesday. Can he do the same at super bantamweight? The division has two titleholders, with Stephen Fulton and MJ Akhmadaliev splitting the belts. Fulton, who will at least temporarily move to 126-pounds in his next fight for a rematch with Brandon Figueroa, has expressed interest, but it feels unlikely that Fulton will travel to Japan, where both fighters stand to make the most money. Akhmadaliev is far more likely to go, but he has been on the shelf since June with a hand injury and must first defend his titles in a mandatory defense against Marlon Tapales. If Akhmadaliev can get through Tapales, an Akhmadaliev-Inoue fight is a massive event next year.
5. I’m kind of over the torrent of criticism that’s been leveled at Teofimo Lopez since his narrow win over Sandor Martin last week, especially the criticism coming from fighters. It certainly wasn’t Lopez’s finest performance, but any fighter with something to say about how Lopez looked against Martin should have to fight Martin, an incredibly difficult opponent who has now made two top fighters (Lopez, Mikey Garcia) look bad.
4. As SI reported last week, Adrien Broner and Ivan Redkach will face each other in a 147-pound non-title fight in February. BLK Prime, the fledgling pay-per-view provider, made the announcement over the weekend. That announcement, though, was met with heavy skepticism after Broner, looking considerably overweight, made an appearance at the press conference. “Broner got a stomach on him,” observed Prograis in an interview with FightHype. For what it’s worth, while Redkach intends to train like the Broner fight is happening, multiple members of his team told SI they do not believe this fight will take place, at least not in February.
3. Manny Pacquiao has expressed a desire to return to boxing to take on one of the top welterweights. After watching Pacquiao’s exhibition debut against influencer and MMA fighter DK Yoo over the weekend, it’s clear that would be a mistake. Pacquaio, who weighed 160 pounds for the fight, dominated Yoo but looked like a shell of the Hall of Fame fighter he once was. Pacquiao, who will turn 44 on Saturday, is certainly free to continue his exhibition tour, and there is buzz that he could have another one, perhaps in the Middle East, early next year. But his days of competing in traditional boxing are over.
2. You have to be impressed by Ebanie Bridges, the 118-pound titleholder who defended her belt with an eighth-round knockout of Australian rival Shannon O’Connell last weekend. Bridges, who has spent much of her career dismissed as a gimmick, battered O’Connell in that fight, finishing it with a bruising flurry of punches that forced the referee to step in. Bridges leans into the attention paid to her appearance, routinely wearing lingerie to weigh-ins. But she can fight. Eddie Hearn, who recently signed Nina Hughes, another 118-pound champion, hopes to make unification fights for Bridges next year. There’s also a compelling rematch with Shannon Courtenay, who handed Bridges her first pro defeat last year.
1. Happy belated Birthday to Bob Arum who turned 91 years old last week and who spent last weekend sitting ringside for the entire Lopez-Martin card. Arum admitted he is far less involved in the day-to-day with Top Rank than he used to be. “They wheel me out when they want me to do an interview,” Arum told me last month. But he still enjoys the job and has no intention of stepping away from it anytime soon. “They consult me about certain fights,” says Arum. “Is it hard work? No, it’s not hard work. That’s why when people say to me 'Why don’t you retire?', I say, 'Retire from what?' I’m really not working.”
