Friday, June 19
Ashton “H2o” Sylve vs Joseph “JoJo” Diaz (DAZN, 8:00 pm ET)
Bad Left Hook will have live results and updates
MF Pro from Thunder Studios in Long Beach, CA, a regular, small boxing venue that has held a lot of shows in recent years. Love a place like that.
Sylve (13-1, 10 KO) was once the apple of Most Valuable Promotions’ eye, but then he got knocked out by Lucas Bahdi two years ago and, well, that was that. 16 months later, he returned in Nashville on a small show in a club-level fight, and then in April he fought on the Wilder-Chisora undercard in London. He’s still just 22, so there’s plenty of potential
future, and he’ll be in his hometown for this one. Diaz (34-9-1, 15 KO) is 33 years old and in some ways older than that. He’s had a lot of hard fights, a lot of hard times, and he’s lost eight of his last 10 fights. Some of them were very close losses. Others weren’t. He’s traveled up from 126 to 147 over the years. He still has heart, he still has the fire to fight hard. If Sylve doesn’t have those things, yeah, JoJo’s got a shot in this one. But if Sylve is who MVP thought he was once upon a time, he should win this one and continue this comeback arc.
On the undercard: Of particular note is the return of rising super lightweight Ernesto “Tito” Mercado, who will face long-faded veteran Juan Carlos Burgos. We’ll see other prospects in action, too, including middleweight Amir Anderson and welterweight “Dynamite” David Lopez.
Saturday, June 20
Ryan Garner vs Michael Magnesi (DAZN, 2:00 pm ET)
Bad Left Hook will have live results and updates
Queensberry Promotions from St Mary’s Stadium, the home of Southampton, who have recently been revealed as dirty cheats, meaning maybe this isn’t the greatest time to associate with the club as some sort of badge of honor, but Garner is from Southampton so it’s still a big occasion for him to fight at the stadium, and should be. He didn’t spy on anyone. At least not that I’m aware.
Garner (19-0, 10 KO) has started putting himself in the mix at 130 lbs, and this one will be for the interim WBC title. Boxing’s interim titles are generally dumb, but as a note, this will be the first time since 2009 that there has been an interim WBC champ at 130. Vitali Tajbert beat Humberto Gutierrez for the honor way back then. The full WBC champ at 130 is O’Shaquie Foster, who just fought, so there isn’t really any reason for this, but that’s the WBC for you.
Magnesi (26-2, 13 KO) is a 31-year-old veteran from Italy who won the lightly-regarded IBO “world” title some years back, not in a fight of world level, but that’s most IBO title fights for you. He lost it to Anthony Cacace in 2022 the last time he came to England.
On the undercard: This level of Queensberry event has pretty routinely delivered in quality action in recent months, so don’t sleep on this one. Or do. I’m not your dad. Lyndon Arthur takes on Lewis Edmonson at 175, Brad Pauls will face Bradley Goldsmith at 160, super middleweight prospect Taylor Bevan is in action, and Irish heavyweight hopeful Adam Olaniyan has his second pro fight.
Oscar Collazo vs Joey Canoy (DAZN, 8:00 pm ET)
Bad Left Hook will have live results and updates
From Oceanside, CA, a Golden Boy show in association with Miguel Cotto Promotions. I don’t know what the deal is with Golden Boy shows in California and not showing up on BoxRec until a few days before they actually happen, but either way, yes, this show is happening! And it’s a very good main event, I think!
Collazo (14-0, 11 KO) has established himself as the cream of the crop at 105 in the last few years, winning the WBA and WBO titles, which he’ll defend against Canoy (25-5-2, 15 KO), who is that sort of beatable-but-legit that you really only find down at 105. Though Canoy, 32, has mostly come up short in his biggest fights, and won’t be expected to win this one, either, he does compete and he does come forward. Collazo says he’s looking forward to that, and we could see some good action in this one.
On the undercard: We’ll see light heavyweight prospect Yair Gallardo take on Canada’s Buneet Bisla in a 10-rounder, plus more! Not a big show, but could be a good watch, which is the theme of this coming weekend, really.
