Ten rounds while hoping men’s boxing follows the lead of women’s boxing in 2023 …
10. Jaron Ennis will admit—last year was a forgettable one. After three fights in 2020 and two more in ’21, Ennis, one of boxing’s top young stars, fought just once in ’22. Ennis, who will face Karen Chukhadzhian for an interim 147-pound title on the undercard of the Showtime pay-per-view headlined by Gervonta Davis-Hector Garcia, chalks up the inactivity to the uncertainty with the negotiations for a fight between Errol Spence and Terence Crawford.
“All the 147-pounders was waiting around to see what they was going to do," says Ennis. “So nobody really wanted to engage anything until they found out. Once they figured out what they were going to do, everybody started going in different ways.”
A win over Chukhadzhian would cement Ennis (29-0) as the mandatory for one of the three titles held by Spence. It could also make him an appealing opponent for Crawford, who fought in November. Does Ennis believe either would fight him?
“I mean, they are two grown men, they ain't scared of nobody and I feel like they both would get in the ring with me,” says Ennis. “It's only a matter of them making their mind up if they want to fight me or not. I feel like Spence would fight me and I feel like [Crawford] would fight me. Hopefully we can make those fights happen, so I can take them belts from them.”
Ennis is aiming for three fights this year, including a showdown with the winner of a compelling welterweight fight between Vergil Ortiz and Eimantas Stanionis, two unbeaten 147-pound contenders penciled in to fight sometime in March. Ennis had hoped to face Stanionis in this fight while a matchup with Ortiz would represent a clash between two of boxing’s top young stars.
“I feel like that's one of the biggest fights in boxing, whoever win out of Ortiz or Stanionis,” says Ennis. “That's definitely one of the biggest fights in boxing. I feel like that could definitely happen within the year or six months. It could happen next, for real. If it was up to me, it would happen next, but people going to go different ways and try to move around. I feel like if it was up to me, I'd make anything happen, the best fights possible.”
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9. Is this the year Demetrius Andrade lands a big fight? Andrade, a former middleweight titleholder, will end a 14-month layoff when he takes on Demond Nicholson in the opener of the Davis-Garcia pay-per-view card. It will be the first fight for Andrade since his three-year partnership with Matchroom ended. Andrade, 34, has aligned himself with PBC for this fight, hoping the change will open up opportunities for him to face PBC-aligned fighters like Jermall Charlo, David Benavidez and Caleb Plant. Will it? One of the wilder factoids in boxing is that Andrade, a two-division titleholder, has never faced a current or former world champion. Hopefully this is the year he does.
8. It’s January—has Anthony Joshua selected a new trainer yet?
7. Love the recently announced Matchroom card set for Feb. 4 in New York. Amanda Serrano and Erika Cruz … for the undisputed 126-pound championship. Alycia Baumgardner vs. Elhem Mekhaled … for the undisputed championship at 130. Among the reasons women’s boxing surged in 2022 is because instead of talking about big fights, as often happens in the men’s game, women made them and that trend appears poised to continue in 2023.
6. It’s been perplexing to see how dismissive people have been of Hector Garcia’s chances this weekend. Ryan Garcia—who has a vested interest in the outcome of this fight—told me last month he doesn’t see Garcia as much of a spoiler, while Devin Haney noted that Garcia was so ineffective in sparring that he threw him out of a recent camp. Meanwhile, SI Sportsbook has installed Davis as a 12-1 favorite. Davis is the bigger puncher and the more natural 135-pounder. But Garcia looks physically bigger and is coming off the best year of his career, picking up a pair of solid wins (Chris Colbert, Roger Gutierrez) along with a 130-pound strap. He also has one of boxing’s most underrated tacticians, Bob Santos, working his corner. This fight could be a lot more competitive than people think.
5. Will anyone fight Shakur Stevenson? Stevenson is still on the lookout for an opponent to face in his 135-pound debut, with George Kambosos, William Zepeda and Isaac Cruz among the fighters passing on opportunities to face the two-division titleholder. Next on Stevenson’s list: Frank Martin, the Errol Spence promoted prospect who is coming off a career-best performance against Michel Rivera. It’s unlikely Martin, who has been aligned with PBC, would take a fight with the Top Rank-promoted Stevenson, but it would be a fun one.
4. Joshua Franco had to settle for an unsatisfying draw against Kazuto Ioka last weekend in Japan but that should not derail another potential 115-pound unification fight. A fight between Franco and Juan Francisco Estrada would do good business in Texas, where Franco is from and where the Mexican-born Estrada can draw a crowd. If Estrada wins, it could increase the interest for a fourth fight with Roman Gonzalez. If Franco wins, he could face Gonzalez, giving Gonzalez a new challenge—and the chance to claim a pair of titles.
3. The video of Dana White slapping his wife is reprehensible. White, the UFC czar who has dabbled in boxing, has said that there is no place in UFC for people who put their hands on women. Will he hold himself to the same standard? There aren’t many with the power to discipline White but those that do—his partners with Endeavor or higher-ups at ESPN, which has a long-term contract with UFC, or network executives at TBS, which have to make a decision on the future of White’s upcoming new series, Power Slap—should. I thought Luke Thomas, the co-host of Showtime’s Morning Kombat, hit the nail on the head this week: Combat sports have a blind spot when it comes to violence against women.
2. Jake Paul is polarizing, but his decision to join PFL—in part to use his long social media reach to promote the upstart league, in part to potentially step into an MMA cage—is a bold one. Paul told the New York Times that he wants to cut a two-fight deal with ex-UFC star Nate Diaz, with one fight in a boxing ring and another in an MMA cage. Paul, a longtime advocate for higher pay for MMA fighters who will step into a newly created role as PFL’s Head of Fighter Advocacy, is helping to create a “Super Fight Division,” where the most marketable stars compete with a 50% revenue share.
Said Paul, “As Head of Fighter Advocacy, I will consistently promote PFL fighters and I invite all top MMA fighters, both men and women, to join the PFL and get a payday like they've never had before.”
1. Ryan Garcia told SI on Thursday that he does not plan on attending the Davis-Garcia fight this weekend. Garcia, of course, is penciled in to face Davis sometime in the spring, though it should be noted that there are no signed contracts (or contracts of any kind, really) for that fight. While Garcia told SI last month that he did not intend to take an interim fight before facing Davis, you wonder if he will reconsider that decision.
