DAZN and Social Media, 8:00 am ET, Benn vs van Heerden press conference.
Note: We’ll add times and listings for the Spence-Ugas fight week events when Showtime releases them.
DAZN and Social Media, 8:00 am ET, Benn vs van Heerden weigh-in.
ESPN+, 2:00 pm ET, Gavin Gwynne vs Luke Willis. The vacant British lightweight title is on the line here between Gywnne, a twice-beaten veteran from Wales, and the unbeaten Willis, a 30-year-old southpaw from Liverpool. The show also features Sultan Zaurbek vs Haithem Laamouz and Bec Connolly losing another fight.
DAZN, 2:00 pm ET, Conor Benn vs Chris van Heerden. Benn takes another baby step forward or sideways step, however you want to look at it, against the veteran van Heerden, who hasn’t fought since a first round no-contest against Jaron Ennis in late 2020. It’s honestly not that awful a fight or anything, van Heerden knows what he’s doing in there, but promoters have this bad habit of trying to turn criticism around on fans because they’ve spent so much time over-selling where their fighters are at. It’s really not a bad fight for Benn! But if you’re selling him as a headliner, and Matchroom have been, then you have to understand people expect better fights than another one like this, which is about on level with Benn’s last four, and he’s dominated those. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
SHO, 7:00 pm ET, Radzhab Butaev vs Eimantas Stanionis, Brandun Lee vs Zachary Ochoa. Don’t sleep on these prelims, Butaev-Stanionis is a good, very relevant matchup at 147 lbs, and Brandun Lee is one of the sport’s most exciting prospects. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
PPV, 9:00 pm ET, Errol Spence Jr vs Yordenis Ugas. The main event is the money buy here, with three welterweight titles on the line, Spence’s WBC and IBF belts and Ugas’ WBA strap. The undercard features Isaac Cruz vs Yuriorkis Gamboa, Jose Valenzuela vs Francisco Vargas, and Cody Crowley vs Josesito Lopez. I like the Crowley-Lopez matchup on paper, and Valenzuela-Vargas could be fun. Cruz-Gamboa depends on what shred of something Gamboa might potentially have left, but Cruz should be easier for him to at least try something against than Devin Haney or Tank Davis were. You don’t have to hunt for Cruz much. Spence-Ugas is a great matchup, one the sanctioning bodies (the WBA in particular) had the be convinced to allow, but ultimately they were, so yay. The winner will only have the WBO belt left for an undisputed claim, and that’s held by Terence Crawford, who is currently doing nothing but suing Top Rank. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.