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Deontay Wilder
The 40-year-old Wilder (45-4-1, 43 KO) isn’t ever going to be the star and champion that he was in his prime, but his win over Derek Chisora was his best in years, and there are several factors to it that raise his stock.
- It was a pretty entertaining fight.
- The location is big. Wilder winning and being part of that sort of crowd-pleasing brawl in London means that fans there will be more eager to see him return against another British star.
Wilder was asked about and said he’s not ruling out a fight with rising star Moses Itauma, but the obvious fight to make is Anthony Joshua, who was front row alongside promoter Eddie Hearn. Joshua vs Wilder will never be what it could have been had they met years ago
when both were unbeaten and peaking stars, but it’s still a very marketable fight that will sell tickets, and last Saturday only helped.
Wilder is not “back” in the sense of being who he used to be in the ring. But he’s definitely back in the mix for money fights. You don’t have to like it, and you don’t have to believe his remaining in-ring ability deserves it. But his charisma, his reputation and fame, and the ability to sell people on fight-changing power that isn’t what it used to be — yeah, he’s a player again.
Viddal Riley
Riley (14-0, 7 KO) took another step up the cruiserweight ladder, beating Mateusz Masternak convincingly to win the European title, having previously claimed the British belt a year earlier.
I’ll admit that Riley, 28, is not someone I took very seriously some years back, when he was mostly attached to social media celebrity-turned-“boxer” KSI. Seemed gimmicky, like someone who wasn’t really that good, but I was wrong. Riley can fight. I started to believe more in 2023-24 when he beat Nathan Quarless and Mikael Lawal, and his wins over Cheavon Clarke and Masternak have made him a legit top 10 sort of guy at the weight, or at least in that argument. And he’s won all those fights on his boxing, they were all 10- or 12-round decisions and all clear victories.
There is still the real world level to go, but there aren’t that many guys at cruiser that I think you’d certainly favor to beat him, and he’s got time on his side at his age compared to most of the higher-ranked cruisers.
Riley appears to be headed the IBF route, but if you were him — and you could actually make sure Don King did a deal in orderly fashion — would you risk Viddal against WBC titleholder Noel Mikaelyan right now?
Caroline Dubois
Dubois (13-0-1, 5 KO) wasn’t super dominant against Terri Harper, though she was a clear and deserving winner, and quality proved out over the 10 rounds. But having entertaining, competitive fights is always a plus, and Dubois, 25, now has two of the world titles at 135 lbs.
The biggest potential fight for Dubois is against Katie Taylor, maybe to go up to 140 or Taylor might come back to 135 for a retirement fight. I wouldn’t expect it, really, but Dubois definitely cemented that should be on the shortlist for Katie’s farewell. Dubois has previously said it’s not a fight she feels she has to chase, with respect to Taylor for not “needing” to fight her,
Denzel Bentley
Bentley (22-3-1, 18 KO) has had an up-and-down last five years, dating back to his TKO-3 loss to Felix Cash in April 2021. He won three after that, lost a more competitive fight than most expected to Janibek Alimkhanuly, won a fight, was shocked by Nathan Heaney, and has now won four straight.
Saturday’s TKO win over Endry Saavedra netted Bentley, 31, the interim WBO title. The sanctioning body has seemed committed to not taking much of a stance on the aforementioned Janibek’s drug test failures — the IBF has stripped him, the WBO have basically said they won’t — but if something changes there, Bentley’s in position to be elevated now. It wasn’t the biggest win in the world, no, but it was a big win for “2 Sharp,” who is now fully in the discussion at 160 again.
Sam Goodman
Goodman (22-1, 8 KO) dropped back down to 122 lbs for a clear win over Rodrigo Fabian Ruiz in Wollongong, following a pair of fights at 126, including a world title loss to Nick Ball last August.
Goodman is a fine featherweight but probably better at super bantamweight. No one is looking past Naoya Inoue vs Junto Nakatani on May 2, but if Inoue gets through that and stays at 122 (he’s given no indication he wants to go higher in weight), then Goodman’s as good a shout as anyone for Inoue finding an opponent he hasn’t already beaten.
Irma Garcia
Being cold and realistic, it’s certainly possible that the 44-year-old Garcia (26-5-1, 6 KO) didn’t dramatically change her position in boxing by going over to London and stopping Emma Dolan in three rounds. The biggest fight she can make in her division, super flyweight, would still be — for the moment — against Japan’s Mizuki Hiruta or American Adelaida Ruiz.
But MVP has been good about featuring top women’s talent and winners, so if Garcia wants it, more MVP offers should come to her. Her display of power, timing, and skill was a great way to kick off MVP’s new relationships with ESPN and Sky Sports, too. That being the first fight new or curious viewers saw was a strong impression.
Lauren Price
Price (10-0, 2 KO) retained her belts with a wide win over Stephanie Pineiro, but she got marked up pretty good, too. The big thing for the welterweight standout is that she did a face-to-face with Claressa Shields, and Shields doesn’t fly overseas to attend fights just to do it.
Shields is running out of interesting opponents. I mean, realistically, she already has, at least among fighters who are naturally 160 lbs or bigger, so her actual size. But Claressa’s done 154 before, too, and Lauren Price might be willing to gamble on facing a bigger opponent. It’s definitely going to be the biggest fight Price can make, save being offered Katie Taylor in Dublin, and that seems more unlikely than getting a good offer to face Shields.
◄ Holding Steady ►
Ellie Scotney
Scotney (12-0, 0 KO) is now undisputed champion at 122 lbs, an expected result, but it was a really good fight with Mayelli Flores, who gave a great effort. I think Scotney holds steady here, the big fight for her would be with Skye Nicolson, who is one of the few women’s boxers of note to not run to the open arms of MVP.
Nicolson, who has an interim belt at 122, is currently slated to return on April 29 in Australia. If she wins there, we know she’ll want Scotney. Whether it happens remains to be seen.
Chantelle Cameron
Cameron (22-1, 8 KO) picked up the WBO super welterweight title, as 154 continues to be a women’s boxing haven for wayward bigger names to pick up paper titles against mediocre talents. Cameron follows in the footsteps of Claressa Shields, who came down in weight, and Natasha Jonas, Terri Harper, and Mikaela Mayer, who all went up, as Cameron did, to win a belt.
It makes Cameron a two-division world champion and gives her some leverage. She can essentially say to people from 130 to 140, who are seeking something bigger than might be available in those classes, hey, I’ve got a world title if you want to weigh 148 lbs instead of your usual.
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Tim Tszyu
Yeah, he won clearly. He should have. Denis Nurja was not really qualified to face Tszyu (27-3, 18 KO). In the end, Tszyu made some money, got a win, and also suffered a cut that could make coming back quickly a lot tougher.
The word has been that Errol Spence Jr is going to make a comeback and fight Tszyu, and that Tszyu was tuning up with this one. My opinions on that fight haven’t changed. I have no idea what Spence has left, he hasn’t fought in three years, he got clobbered the last time we saw him, and his career was trending in the wrong direction for multiple reasons already. As our own John Hansen put it in the live discussion for Tszyu vs Nurja, Errol Spence hasn’t fought in three years either because he can’t or because he didn’t want to do it. Neither is reason for confidence that he’ll come back strong.
Tszyu is still good, rugged, and mean enough to be a huge roadblock if Spence just doesn’t have it. This is good, in some ways. Tszyu won’t be so incompetent that Spence can be lousy and lie to himself with a win; if he’s lousy, Tszyu will beat him.
The folks over at PBC really might want to join us in the 2020s sometime, though. Between running Keith Thurman out there to get obliterated by Fundora and their newest big plan an Errol Spence comeback, it’s hard when you tune in to not feel like that entire operation made a bubble for everyone involved in 2017 and they’re refusing to leave it.
I don’t think Tszyu went down in stock considerably, but past the Spence idea, I just don’t think he looks like a serious contender anymore at 154 or 160. Even more than losing at top level, this fight made me wonder about where he’s at these days, because he got a little coast-happy against a very over-matched foe.
Emma Dolan
Dolan is 27 years old. She’s young enough to bounce back. But that was absolutely a brutal defeat against Irma Garcia. You could see it all over Dolan’s face when all was said and done, that sort of shell-shocked level of disappointment and bewilderment. Irma Garcia hadn’t just beaten or out-boxed her, she crushed her.
Dolan (8-1, 1 KO) can box. We’ve seen that, she’s beaten some solid opponents already. She got caught, though, and really, from the moment that well-timed left hand dropped her for the first time in the second round, the fight was over. She never really recovered, and she was all over the place. Maybe she didn’t have the experience with real adversity to gather her wits, hold, and try to buy some recovery time. She tried to fight fire with fire, and she got burned up against a calm, controlled opponent who did not try to force a stoppage; Garcia waited for good shots and took the openings when they came. Dolan had no hope after that first knockdown.
That sort of hard reality check about new levels can be devastating to someone so used to winning. But you always root for the comeback story, and I will be. Here’s hoping Emma can watch it back, see what went wrong, take it one stop on the journey, and move forward.
