The unified women’s Lightweight champion and Ireland’s wonder girl Katie Taylor will be fighting a rematch against former Belgian world champion, Delfine Persoon at Matchroom Promotions Headquarters in Essex on August 22nd. The bout will be a rematch of their first encounter atMadison Square Garden in New York last year, where Taylor was controversially awarded a decision win on the scorecards.
Persoon agreed to the bout at short notice, because original opponent Amanda Serrano, for loss of a more descriptive word, “withdrew” from a contest with Taylor. The fight was originally scheduled for May in Manchester but was postponed for obvious Coronavirus reasons. Serrano moaned on Twitter that dates were being changed with no explanation given, seemingly completely oblivious of an erratic worldwide pandemic. She is also unhappy with the lack of preparation time and gyms available in the US, again completely ignoring that she is in the same situation as Taylor who lives and trains in Connecticut.
Nevertheless, Taylor now has the opportunity to swipe away any doubts of a legitimate win against Persoon. The fight is available to watch on Sky PPV on the Dillian Whyte-Alexander Povetkin undercard.Foster is victorious as Boxing returns to Britain.
BT Studios hosted a closed-doors show on Friday 10th July, where precautions were taken so seriously that even the promoter, Frank Warren was deemed to be unnecessary. Warren instead had to watch from home like everyone else.
In the main event, Brad Foster retained his Commonwealth Super Bantamweight Title, and won the British Lonsdale belt outright with an unanimous points win over James Beech Jr. The fight was fought at a frenetic pace, but Foster was able to pull ahead due to his volume punch output and ability to close the space on Beech, who preferred to be punching from range. Foster could well target European champion Luca Rigaldi of Italy in his next return to the ring. On the undercard, unbeaten prospect Hamzah Sheeraz collected his tenth victory when opponent, Paul Kean was unable to come out for the seventh round. Sheeraz, who at 6’3 is incredibly tall for a Super Welterweight, knocked down Kean with a straight right hand in the first round, before continuing to batter the brave Kean in the ensuing rounds. Mark Chamberlain and Heavyweight novices David Adelaye and Dorin Krasmaru also collected wins on the card.
Mikaela Meyer replaces Covid infectee Jamel Herring to be part of the first female main event in Top Rank/ESPN history.
Covid-19 shelved plans for a World Title fight on Tuesday 14th July, as WBO Super Featherweight champion, Jamel Herring tested positive for Coronavirus for a second time. Herring, who was due to fight Carl Frampton in Belfast before the pandemic interrupted plans saw his title defence against Jonathon Oquendo called off as a result. 2016 Olympian, Mikaela Mayer replace Herring as the main event in Las Vegas, as she won a comfortable points decision against the tough Nigerian, Helen Joseph. Mayer and Joseph made some sort of progressive history meanwhile as the first female fight to headline a Top Rank and ESPN broadcast.
Top Rank are continuing to schedule fights at “The Bubble” as former Puerto Rican hot prospect Felix Verdejo competes against unbeaten Will Madera on Thursday 16th July, and the former WBO Featherweight champion Oscar Valdez returns to the ring the following Tuesday. Valdez, who is unbeaten in 27 and holds a victory over Britain’s Scott Quigg will fight the tough, but limited Jayson Velez in another instalment of the Mexico-Puerto Rico boxing rivalry.
