Saturday, August 3, will be a memorable day for boxing. Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) will face Israel Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KOs) at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
(Credit: Mark Robinson: Matchroom Boxing)
Crawford, who was the undisputed champion at 140 and 147 pounds, will move up to the 154-pound division to challenge Madrimov for his WBA junior middleweight title. The fight will headline the “Riyadh Season” card featuring WBA super lightweight champion Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz (26-2-1) defending his title against Jose Valenzuela (13-2), Andy Ruiz (35-2 ) former heavyweight champion. against Jarrell Miller (26-1-1), and Eminem’s performance.
The natural question from reading that section, aside from how Terence Crawford will look at 154 pounds or what Eminem’s set list will look like, is: wait, if this card is happening in Los Angeles, why is Riyadh Season promoting it? I thought Riyadh was in Saudi Arabia. Well, the answer to that is simple! Honorable Turki Alalshikh thinks that the Riyadh Season is such a great article that it should also cover events that are not in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, or Asia. This Saturday’s event in Los Angeles will be the first time the Riyadh Season has entered the United States.
Terence Crawford is a man who deserves to be the subject of such a history card. Crawford has looked unstoppable as of late. The Omaha native has won eleven fights in a row by knockout as he has entered the discussion for the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Aside from training for his fight with Madrimov, Crawford has been seen in another ring recently, making two appearances on WWE Smackdown in the past few weeks. The two episodes took place in Crawford’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. Crawford was sitting in the front and gave the wrestler a seat; the following week, after the victim of the chair shooting demanded Crawford apologize, Crawford “knocked out” the wrestler with one punch.
Crawford’s appearance in the professional wrestling world was notable for many reasons. When Top Rank represented Terence Crawford early in his career, Bob Arum was vocal about Crawford’s inability or unwillingness to help promote his fights. Maybe Crawford wouldn’t have done something like this a few years ago; it got people talking about Crawford and his upcoming fight. The venue was also appropriate.
Before boxing and UFC promoters started holding main cards in Saudi Arabia and Turki Alalshikh sponsored boxing cards on American soil, WWE entered the murky waters of holding events in Saudi Arabia and dealing with all the negative publicity that came with it. WWE has held promoted events in Saudi Arabia since 2014 and agreed to a ten-year multiplatform partnership with the Saudi General Sports Authority in 2018. Regardless of what you think of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record or the willingness of warlords to do business with them. Saudi leaders, ‘Riyadh season’ came to Los Angeles on Saturday night and it didn’t just happen in the air. It has been building to this for years.
…
One man who has fought in Saudi Arabia and enjoys fighting in Los Angeles is Andy Ruiz, who was born in Imperial, California, about 260 miles from BMO Stadium. Andy Ruiz will face Jarrell Miller in an exciting heavyweight match. Outside of the main event, this is the fight on the card that I’m looking forward to.
The two men have become inextricably linked, as five years ago, Miller would face heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in what would be the biggest night of his career. But Miller tested positive for steroids and was pulled from the card. In Miller’s place came Andy Ruiz, who pulled out one of the worst fights in boxing history and defeated Anthony Joshua 25-1 at Madison Square Garden to become the heavyweight champion. Jarrell Miller could get a little revenge on Ruiz on Saturday night.
This fight card is excellent from top to bottom, a common feature of Saudi boxing events. The vacant light heavyweight championship will be on the road when David Morrell (10-0) takes on Serbia’s Radivoje Kalajdzic (29-2). Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz will defend his piece of the 140-pound championship against Jose Valenzuela. Valenzuela is still a young, talented youngster who should not be discounted. But it will be interesting to see if ‘Pitbull’ Cruz can do enough to qualify for a rematch against fellow 140-pounder Gervonta Davis (30-0). Cruz gave Davis the toughest test of his career to date, and a rematch could be a huge fight. American heavyweight Jared Anderson (17-0) is also on the card. He will face Congolese Martin Bakole (20-1), the younger brother of former cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu, in the toughest test of Anderson’s career. Also, Eminem will be performing! I’m totally Stan for this card. Let’s get to the other man in the main event before I think of more puns.
…
While Israel Madrimov defends his championship against a man moving up in weight to challenge him, Madrimov is the designated underdog in this matchup. Madrimov, who hails from Uzbekistan, will face a tough challenge from the incredibly talented Crawford. Madrimov has been in the 154-pound weight class his entire professional career and has spent half of his time in the lower ranks fighting at an average weight of 168 pounds.
Despite being a naturally big man, Madrimov has been more active than Crawford in recent years. Since Madrimov turned pro in November 2018, he has won eleven times. Crawford has only six fights in that span. That inactivity could also be beneficial for Crawford, who will be 37 years old at the end of September. Madrimov’s fans in his home country of Uzbekistan have been watching a lot of boxing lately.
Uzbekistan has eleven male and female boxers qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games, currently taking place in Paris, behind only twelve athletes sent by Australia. Uzbekistan is one of two countries that will have a representative in all seven men’s boxing weight classes at the 2024 Olympics, along with neighboring Kazakhstan.
Two of the most notable fights in the history of Uzbek boxing are Artur Gregorian and Ruslan Chagaev. Gregorian became the WBO lightweight champion and successfully defended his belt against seventeen opponents between 1996 and 2003. Chagaev was a two-time WBA heavyweight champion and the first Asian man to win a world title recognized by one of the four major boxing divisions. Israel Madrimov will go a long way toward adding his name to that list with a victory over Terence Crawford.
On a day when Saudi Arabia’s influence on the world of sports will be more inescapable than ever, Israel Madrimov hopes that Saturday night marks the beginning of a golden era for Uzbek boxing.
Source link
