Cruiserweight and Heavyweight thread.

Contracts aren't signed for Manosur/Kuzmin 2. The negotiations are ongoing. Mansour's roids ban ends in end of June. Kuzmin have sparred with Gerald Washington and other US heavyweights and he doesn't they are strong, although he didn't mention Wilder. He added that he thinks that Russian heavyweights can compete with US heavyweights.
Right now Kuzmin is training hard for his next fight.

 

Stevenson-Gvozdyk, Rivas-Jennings, Beterbiev-Johnson in Play

 

Rivas vs. Jennings would be part of a Top Rank promoted card on August 18 at the Ocean Resort Casino in Atlantic City.

 

The Canadian promoter is currently in discussions for several potential showdowns in the near future.

Michel has revealed that NABF heavyweight champion Oscar "Kaboom" Rivas (24-0, 17 KOs) has received an offer to face former world title challenger Bryant Jennings (23-2, 13 KOs), ranked #8 by the WBO and #13 by the WBA.

Rivas vs. Jennings would be part of a Top Rank promoted card on August 18 at the Ocean Resort Casino in Atlantic City.

Then there are two important purse bids scheduled in the next few weeks.

The first is for IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev (12-0, 12 KOs) and his mandatory challenger Callum Johnson (17-0, 12 KOs), and the second purse bid is connected to the showdown between WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis "Superman" Stevenson (29-1-1, 24 KOs) and his mandatory challenger Oleksandr Gvozdyk (15-0, 12 KO).

The purse bid dates are June 26 for Beterbiev-Johnson and July 2 for Stevenson-Gvozdyk.

Michel indicates that he's involved in ongoing negotiations to finalize deals for both fights. He's speaking with Eddie Hearn (promoter of Johnson) and Top Rank (promoter of Gvozdyk) - with the goal of reaching agreements for both fights before the respective purse bids.

Michel recently won a court battle, with a judge ruling that Beterbiev was contracted to his company until 2021. But the Russian boxer has appealed the decision and awaits answer from court.

 

Rivas/Jenniigs has been talked previously about as well, so it will be interesting to see if it happens. I would pick Jennings to win, if I judge from the previous performance by Rivas. All that muscle is slowing him down. I'm more eager to see a rematch between Perez and Jennings than this one but nevertheless this is not a bad fight for the heavyweight division in this day and age.

 

Best thing is that Beterbiev will probably fight against Jonshon even if he lose the appeal.

 

Also, Rivas/Andy Ruiz Jr or Jennings/Andy Ruiz Jr is possible for some sort of eliminator in the future.

 

Zhilei Zhang/Daniel Martz for the World Boxing Organisation Oriental Heavyweight Titleheavyweight on 20th July is ago and Darmani Rock is set to fight TBA on the same card.