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Nick Parkinson
Saudi Arabia’s takeover of big-time boxing extends to Los Angeles on Saturday, when Riyadh Season has its first overseas event at BMO Stadium with Terence Crawford, one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, topping the bill (ESPN+ PPV, 6 p.m. ET).
As per previous events in Saudi Arabia that feature a series of fights good enough to headline a boxing card on their own, Saturday’s show in L.A. is stacked with quality matchups.
Riyadh Season is an annual state-managed sports and entertainment event that attracts sponsorships from some of the region’s most prominent companies. Saturday’s card features fighters from different promotional companies, a rare feat for boxing.
Riyadh boxing events have also been defined by high-quality production, and legendary hip-hop singer Eminem will be performing during the event Saturday.
One of the promoters involved in the show is Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn. He told ESPN, this is the biggest fight night he has seen in American boxing from top to bottom.
“American boxing fans are going to have their minds blown. I’m looking forward to an absolute spectacle,” Hearn said. “When we started Riyadh Season we expected it to just be in Riyadh between October and March. But Riyadh Season also wants to market itself worldwide and [is] using these events in L.A. and London [on Sep. 21] to expand the brand and it’s great news for fight fans.”
With such a list of must-see matchups, ESPN breaks the pay-per-view card down and ranks all the fights.
1. Israil Madrimov vs. Terence Crawford – Junior middleweight title fight
Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs), a three-division champion and undisputed at 140 and 147 pounds, bids to conquer another weight class but will have to subdue a puncher who has been compared to Gennadiy “GGG” Golovkin, the former middleweight champion and KO specialist.
Crawford, 36, of Omaha, Nebraska, looked sensational in his last fight, when he dropped Errol Spence Jr. three times en route to a ninth round TKO win to unify all four major welterweight belts in July 2023.
Crawford, the current WBA an WBO welterweight champion, enters the fight as a favorite (-800 per ESPN BET) due to his extensive library of boxing skills and ring IQ, but there is an element of jeopardy for him in this fight. He is stepping up to junior middleweight for the first time, and faces an in-form, powerful puncher who seems calmly impervious to the size of the occasion in facing ESPN’s No. 2 ranked pound-for-pound fighter in a first defense of his WBA 154 pounds title.
Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KOs), from Uzbekistan, has only had 11 pro fights, but don’t read too much into that. He had a long, distinguished amateur career at international level and is one of the many east European elite fighters who train out of Indio, California. One of those training partners is Dmitry Bivol, the light heavyweight who upset the odds when he defeated the sport’s biggest star Canelo Alvarez in 2022. Can Madrimov do the same? He is hungry, has been busier than Crawford in recent years (Crawford has had one fight per year since 2020), and looked good in his last outing when he stopped Magomed Kurbanov in five rounds in Riyadh last March.
Much depends on whether Madrimov, 29, can land some of his big punches to unsettle Crawford in the early rounds before Crawford gets into his stride. Crawford is a clinical finisher, one of the most lethal in the business, and if he can land two or three punches flush, he could finish the fight in the latter rounds.
2. Andy Ruiz Jr. vs. Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller – Heavyweight
There will be a lot on the line when these two battle to stay relevant in a heavyweight division that could be full of world title opportunities next year following the undisputed clash between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury on Dec. 21.
Ruiz (35-2, 22 KOs) briefly held three titles after he stopped Anthony Joshua in 2019 but came in out of condition for the rematch six months later. Ruiz, 34, of Imperial, California, has only been seen in the ring twice since, but insists he has regained his focus and motivation for the sport.
Ruiz weighed 269 pounds for his most recent fight against Luis Ortiz nearly two years ago, which he won by unanimous decision. Miller (26-1-1, 22 KOs), 36, from New York, similarly, has come in heavy for fights. He weighed a staggering 333 pounds for his fight against Daniel Dubois in December, when he ran of steam and was stopped in the 10th round.
Ruiz, if he is as focused as he says he is, should prevail but this fight promises drama and knockdowns. It will be fun to watch, but a fight neither can afford to lose.
3. Jared Anderson vs. Martin Bakole – Heavyweight
Anderson has been heralded as the future of American heavyweight boxing for a few years now, and this could be a fight that moves him to the verge of a world title opportunity.
Anderson (17-0, 15 KOs), 24, of Toledo, Ohio, has a top 5 ranking with two of the world governing bodies, but Bakole (20-1, 15 KOs), is the No. 1 contender for the WBA belt held by Usyk. Bakole, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo but based in Scotland, impressively stopped Carlos Takam in his last fight in October 2023.
“It is a great fight, but a strange one to make,” Hearn told ESPN. “A lot of people are high on Anderson and if he beats Bakole he’s in a great position, a star of the division, but I’m not sure he will beat him. If Anderson wins it puts him right up there. His Excellency Turki Alalshikh [the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority], has taken a shine to Jared Anderson so he’s going to look to line him up for all the big fights in the division, but I think it’s a 50-50 fight.”
4. Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz vs. Jose Valenzuela – Junior welterweight title fight
This all-Mexican title fight sees two in-form fighters meeting each other after the best wins of their careers last time out.
Cruz (26-2-1, 18 KOs), of Mexico City, impressively stopped Rolando “Rolly” Romero in March while southpaw Valenzuela (13-2, 9 KOs), of Sinaloa, also shined when he knocked out Chris Colbert in December.
If Cruz, 26, can navigate his way past Valenzuela in a first title defense, there are big potential fights for him further down the road according to Hearn.
“He’s a very exciting fighter, Hearn, who promotes Cruz, told ESPN.. Liam Paro, Subriel Matias, Teofimo Lopez, Devin Haney, Jack Catterall versus Regis Prograis in August, so there are some massive fights in play at 140 pounds and he’s definitely one of the exciting guys in that division.
Cruz has struggled with southpaws before (he lost a points decision to Gervonta Davis in 2021 and beat Giovanni Cabrera by split decision a year ago), while Valenzuela is stepping up a division for his chance.
5. David Morrell vs. Radivoje Kalajdzic – Light heavyweight title fight
David Morrell (10-0, 9 KOs), of Santa Clara, Cuba, and Radivoje Kalajdzic (29-2, 21 KOs), of Belgrade, Serbia, will fight for the vacant WBA “regular” light heavyweight title, with the winner getting closer to a shot at Bivol, the full champion. Minneapolis-based Morrell has been ruthless stacking six knockout wins as WBA super middleweight champion. This is Morrell’s debut at light heavyweight and it will be interesting to see if he can continue his four-year knockout streak.
6. Andy Cruz vs. Antonio Moran – Lightweight fight
Cruz (3-0, 1 KO), of Matanzas, Cuba is a 2020 Olympic gold medalist. He takes on veteran Antonio Moran (30-6-1, 21 KOs), of Mexico City, in a 10-round fight. Cruz, 28, has quality and this is a good chance to check out whether he can go all the way in the pro ranks. For Moran, 31, this an opportunity to keep building after an impressive sixth-round victory over Romero Duno in January.
Source: www.espn.com