It’s a second straight really quiet week for boxing, though this one’s at least got a Saturday night DAZN show, but the schedule will pick up again for the last weekend of July, with the big returns of Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua and Errol Spence Jr, so at least we have that. Summers with boxing go one of two ways, they’re either really hot or really forgettable, and it’s OK, if frustrating, to admit that we’re getting the latter in 2026.
Friday, July 17
Rai Sport 1 (ITA), check listings, Eros Seghetti vs Enid
Numanovic. Light heavyweights from Marche. That’s in Italy. You probably guessed that.
Saturday, July 18
DAZN, 2:00 pm ET, Harlem Eubank vs David Papot. MF Pro from Copper Box in London. This isn’t a bad fight. Well-matched enough on paper between the 32-year-old Eubank and the 35-year-old Papot. They’re just both mid-level welterweights and outside of some IBF ranking and the potential for a bad IBF title fight down the line, there’s not a lot to it. The rest of the show has surface-level decent matchmaking at lower levels.
Diego Pacheco vs Immanuwel Aleem (DAZN, 8:00 pm ET)
Bad Left Hook will have live results and reactions
From Carson, Calif., and the Venue Formerly Known As StubHub Center, now Dignity Health Sports Park, which is what it has been since 2019, so that tells you how long ago it was we were last really talking about “StubHub Magic” fights. It was the Home Depot Center from 2003-13, StubHub from 2013-18.
Anyway, I kinda hate this fight, or at least the way Matchroom and DAZN have tried to present it as significant or interesting. BoxRec have it a two-star fight, which is about right. Aleem (22-4-3, 14 KO) is 32 years old, coming off of a clear and wide loss to Lester Martinez, has never really broken through although being fair to him, he has had some questionable losses and draws, notably on PBC cards, but those were also years ago; we’re talking 2019-21 there. He’s the type of opponent Pacheco (25-0, 18 KO) should have been lined up to face if Pacheco had lost to Kevin Sadjo in December.
It just feels like Pacheco is not progressing, and he’s been sitting in the same gear a while now. The buzz has sort of died. Perhaps because of that, Matchroom put he and Aleem in the middle of an Arizona ring to have them fumble through awkward trash talk for what felt like an eternity on the Bam Rodriguez card a few weeks ago, which did not help anyone’s perception of this fight. The promotion has felt abnormally try-hard.
But you also never know until you know, and sometimes there are yellow flags if not red. And that may be the case here. Sometimes when fighters really do stagnate, they lose their edge, and Aleem has enough grit and ability to pull a shocker if Pacheco is really flat. Look, I can quarter-talk myself into basically anything no matter how little I think of a fight. Doesn’t mean I now have high expectations or see it differently, but sure, there’s a shred of intrigue. Or could be. Maybe.
On the Undercard: We’ll see Andy Cruz face Abraham Montoya in a 10-round lightweight bout, which was meant to be Cruz fighting Albert Bell in an IBF eliminator. This will not be an IBF eliminator. And shouldn’t be, because Montoya isn’t a contender. He’s not even an IBF contender. The most interesting thing about this fight is Cruz reportedly plans to drop down to 130 going forward. … Albert Gonzalez, an unbeaten featherweight hopeful, will face veteran Aaron Alameda in another 10-round bout, and Saul Sanchez will take on Bruno Rios Jr in yet another 10-round fight, plus heavyweight child Leo Atang will make his U.S. debut, because Eddie Hearn thinks Americans are going to be, like, “Oh, yeah, I remember him from that incredible Diego Pacheco undercard five years ago” when he might be ready to actually appeal to American fans.
