ESPN+ and Social Networks, 11:00 am ET, Stevenson vs. Conceicao press conference.
ESPN+ and social media, 1:00 pm ET, Stevenson vs. Conceicao weigh-in.
ESPN+ and social media, 9:00 am ET, Joyce vs. Parker weigh-in.
ESPN+, 6:00 pm ET, Stevenson vs. Conceicao prelims. This is the stated time at the moment, sometimes this increases a bit if a fight or two goes down during the week. Anyway, the usual preliminary Top Rank stuff. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
ESPN and ESPN+, 10:00 pm ET, Shakur Stevenson vs. Robson Conceicao. Stevenson defends his WBC and WBO junior lightweight titles against basically the best opponent available, and Conceicao can definitely fight, a 2016 Olympic gold medalist whose professional career stalled until he fought Oscar Valdez and lost a highly contentious decision. . Stevenson, of course, smoked Valdez, and the odds will favor him here; he has shown a special talent. This could also end up being the last fight Shakur does at 130, because he’s just running out of fights, unless Emanuel Navarrete wants to show up, which was discussed, he didn’t go very far, and we ended up with this instead. But things could change. Regardless, it’s a good fight and a rare Friday main event for Top Rank. Keyshawn Davis is also in action. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
DAZN and social media, 12:15 pm ET, Hughes vs. Galahad prelims.
DAZN, 2:00 p.m. ET, Maxi Hughes vs. Kid Galahad. This was supposed to be Leigh Wood vs. Mauricio Lara, which I think was going to be all action for as long as it lasted, but Wood got hurt and this is the new main event. It’s an opportunity for Galahad to get going at 135 after losing the title to him at 126 last year, and Hughes has been on a very hot run. It’s not a bad fight, the stakes are high for both guys, and the card also features Hannah Rankin defending her WBA 154-pound belt against Terri Harper, who is trying to follow in Tasha Jonas’s footsteps of basically jumping from 130. /135 to 154 to take advantage of the fact that there is basically no depth in women’s boxing over 140 pounds. Right now, we’re seeing everyone’s schedules shake up to have live coverage for this or not. Bad Left Hook could get live coverage.
ESPN+, 2:00 pm ET, Joe Joyce vs. Joseph Parker, Amanda Serrano vs. Sarah Mahfoud. A significant heavyweight fight between two contenders for the interim WBO title. We have the industrious but destructive Joyce and former champion Parker, who has a knack for surviving fights at this level. This fight was meant to happen a couple of months before, then Parker signed Boxxer and Sky, and it seemed wrong, but it turned out that Boxxer and Sky really had no one for him and the best fight was with Joyce, promoted by Frank Warren and wrestling on BT Sport, who will have him on PPV in the UK. Serrano vs. Mahfoud is for three featherweight belts, and if Serrano wins as expected, she will then fight Erika Cruz in an undisputed fight. The rest of the card is really solid domestically: Michael Magnesi vs. Anthony Cacace, Ekow Essuman vs. Samuel Antwi, Nathan Heaney vs. Jack Flatley. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
PPV, 11:00 pm ET, Floyd Mayweather vs. Mikuru Asakura. You can order on FITE TV for $29.99. It’s an exhibition boxing match, but that really means he doesn’t have any records; you can tell this is an all-out effort, not combat like some. The last time Mayweather went to Japan for one of these, he destroyed Tenshin Nasukawa. It is part of a RIZIN card that also features MMA fights and a kickboxing match between Nadaka Yoshinari and Bandasak So Trakunpet. I basically have nothing else to do and some people will want to know what’s going on, so I’ll be here. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
