The start of 2023 hasn’t lacked its highlights. The Artur Beterbiev-Anthony Yarde scrap is currently on the board as a fight of the year competitor and the Gervonta Davis-Hector Garcia reveal loaded your home in Washington, DC.
To state the schedule has actually still been a little light would be reasonable. It’s slowly getting with some gems being available in the year’s fastest month. On the guys’s side, the Jr. light-weight title image is set for a shakeup with 2 uninhabited titles on the line, the Jr. welterweight department will fill an uninhabited belt with what might be an action loaded affair in between Subriel Matias and Jeremias Ponce, and featherweight has a possible gem in Mauricio Lara-Leigh Wood.
On paper though, the very best or a minimum of most considerable action in February might be on tap in its very first weekend with 2 of the greatest names in females’s boxing choosing indisputable crowns:
02/04: 126 – Amanda Serrano (43-2-1, 30 KO, WBC/IBF/WBO) vs. Erika Cruz Hernandez (15-1, 3 KO, WBA)
02/04: 130 – Alycia Baumgardner (13-1, 7 KO, WBC/IBF/WBO) vs. Elham Mekhaled (15-1, 3 KO); uninhabited WBA
This twin-bill on DAZN brings Serrano back to Madison Square Garden. It may not be the primary flooring as held true for her 2022 light-weight impressive with Katie Taylor, however the Theatre crowd will see her effort to sign up with Taylor, the only female to beat Serrano in more than a years, as an undeniable queen. Serrano, with titles from 115 to 140 pounds has actually never ever tidied up all the belts in a class. Hernandez is the last challenge to her objective.
On the undercard is a possible competitor for Serrano on department up. Alycia Baumgardner will aim to include the uninhabited WBA title to the 3 belts she’s gathered up until now at Jr. light-weight as she makes her very first start because beating Mikaela Mayer for the IBF and WBO belts in 2015. Whether we see Serrano-Taylor II next or not must Serrano win this weekend, an undeniable champ sandwiched in between the 2 makes Baumgardner an alternative in the past, after, or rather of that rematch.
It’s not a bad location to be.
After this weekend, disallowing any draws, females’s boxing will have indisputable champs in every weight class from featherweight to incredibly middleweight disallowing a Jr. middleweight class that is a Natasha Jonas-Terri Harper rematch far from joining them. That’s 7 of 8 weight classes because spread.
Unification fever was a genuine thing in guys’s and females’s boxing in 2022. It has actually not diminished as the brand-new year starts.
Cliff’s Notes…
The non-title image reveals pledge in February also…Luis Nery-Azat Hovhannysian is another banger in a run of them at Jr. featherweight. The winner will remain in position to challenge the winner of the prepared for Stephen Fulton-Naoya Inoue clash…Fans of the Jake Paul reveal will discover it’s newest episode in February in addition to the current Floyd Mayweather post-career exhibit…The Arnold Barboza-Jose Pedraza Jr. welterweight fight this weekend will offer some genuine insights on where both guys remain in their professions.
Additional Title Fights in February
Men
02/03: 130 – TBRB #2 (126) Emanuel Navarrete (36-1, 30 KO, WBO) vs. Liam Wilson (11-1, 7 KO); uninhabited WBO
02/11: 130 – #5 O’Shaquie Foster (19-2, 11 KO) vs. #3 (126) Rey Vargas (36-0, 22 KO, WBC); uninhabited WBC
02/18: 126 – #1 Mauricio Lara (25-2-1, 18 KO) vs. #5 Leigh Wood (26-2, 16 KO, WBA)
02/25: 140 – #8 Subriel Matias (18-1, 18 KO) vs. Jeremias Ponce (30-0, 20 KO); uninhabited IBF
02/26: 200 – #3 Ilunga Makabu (29-2, 25 KO, WBC) vs. Badou Jack (27-3-3, 16 KO)
Women
02/25: 118 – Dina Thorslund (18-0, 7 KO, WBO) vs. Debora Anahi Lopez (20-1-1, 1 KO)
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, an establishing member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
