I’ll believe these fights are taking place when the fighters all arrive in Saudi on the 23rd. Till then it’s all hot air.
I'm gonna say that Fa is definitely fighting as he seems to be jetting off to training camp judging by his social media.
General question ... who's Luis Ortiz's promoter? Could he, or Dychko possibly find their way onto the Usyk/Fury under-card in some one-off arrangement. Bakole/Ortiz would be interesting. If Dubois/Milller can be put together all of a sudden ...
Y'know, this ain't a pairing I ever thought about til just now, but Dychko-Ortiz would also be a good fight to make. Dychko is who I'd lean toward as well. Damn shame he seems content to just be a sparring partner for the most part, man could be in some great fights.
I don't see any likelihood of Ortiz v. Bakole. Ortiz is no longer really a name. He can probably still be a bit dangerous for a few rounds, but he's no longer at the top. I don't think anybody is going to sign up to fight Dychko "sight unseen". Really bad "Risk/reward" ratio there. DuBois/Miller seems to be a real possibility. Miller's mouth makes him a name and it's obvious he's in search of a payday. If he does beat DuBois - it'll open doors. Of course there's a chance that Miller will be dirty and get caught and this falls apart before they fight.
I think Sanchez v. Fa will happen and I think that fight makes sense. Fa needs to beat somebody highly-rated to have any chance of getting back into the contender discussion. Otherwise, he's just a gatekeeper who won't get fights outside of AUS & NZ. Sanchez, otoh, needs to get on the Saudi Arabian stage and while Fa might not be the most dangerous guy - he passes an eye test just fine. At worst, he's a "stay busy" fighter who could raise Sanchez's visibility back to where it was 18 months ago. ICYMI: I watched footage from the Sanchez v. Scott Alexander fight and Alexander actually hurt Sanchez badly in the 2nd round and had a chance of stopping him. Sanchez recovered, obviously, but that was the first time Sanchez had been hurt.
I think at this point Luis Ortiz is resigned to the fact that he will never, ever line up a fight for a major title. As a result, he's not going to take a fight unless there's good money for him to make. Dychko was collateral damage in the Probellum promotional fiasco and he's stuck in the promotional wilderness at the moment. That means there really isn't any money on the table to make fights with him. So Ortiz v. Dychko is really unlikely.
Amidst all the hubub about the upcoming Saudi Arabian fight card, Bakhodir Jalolov managed to sneak in a quick (real quick) fight against South African Chris Thompson. The fight took place in the capital of his native Uzbekistan and lasted for less time than it has taken me to write this posting. And it went exactly as you expected it would
Top Rank will continue to have Jalalov fight meaningless opposition, while they'll give Anderson every opportunity to win a world title because he's an American. Too bad they will not judge boxers by their ability instead of nationality.
Ever the case. Jalolov's one hope is a return to a four belt ABC era which will occur should the winner of Usyk Fury retire. How he gets his ranking up with meaningful wins is the question.
And then we will get a new thread a few years down the line again wondering why Americans are so good at Boxing...
And this time it's been particularly bad for him. He's still bound to the smoking ruins of Probellum even though it no longer operates and it's really hard for him to emancipate himself in US courts while he's based himself in Uzbekistan. Heck it took Brandon Moore about 15 months to extricate himself from his Probellum contract and he's in Florida!
