On June 1 in Saudi Arabia, Deontay Wilder will face Zhang Zhilei in a heavyweight bout on the undercard of Queensberry-Matchroom's "5 on 5" evening, with Artur Beterbiev facing Dmitry Bivol in the main event. Wilder is representing Eddie Hearn, while Zhang is representing Frank Warren.
Also on the night, heavyweight Filip Hrgovic will face Daniel Dubois. Hrgovich represents Eddie Hearn, Dubois represents Frank Warren.
In the bantamweight division, Willie Hutchinson will face Craig Richards. Hutchinson represents Frank Warren, Richards represents Eddie Hearn.
In the middleweight division, Hamza Shiraz will face Ammo Williams. Shiraz represents Frank Warren, Williams represents Eddie Hearn.
Ray Ford will defend his WBA world featherweight title against Nick Ball. Ford represents Eddie Hearn, while Ball represents Frank Warren.
Eddie Hearn has selected Deontay Wilder as his captain in his fight against Zhilei Zhang, while Frank Warren has selected Hamza Shiraz in his fight against Ammo Williams. Two points in this tournament will be awarded for winning early, one point for winning by judges' decision. The points for captains are doubled.
Thus, the full Matchroom-Queensberry "5 on 5" Matchroom-Queensberry "5 on 5" card on June 1 in Saudi Arabia is as follows:
Deontay Wilder vs Zhilei Zhang
Filip Hrgovic vs Daniel Dubois.
Ray Ford vs Nick Ball
Craig Richards vs Willie Hutchinson
Ammo Williams vs Hamza Shiraz
"At some point I lost my love for boxing and my passion for training," admitted Deontay Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KOs), who will face Zhang Zhilei (26-2-1, 21 KOs) in a fight for his future.
Despite the fact that the fight between Filip Hrgovic (17-0, 14 KOs) and Daniel Dubois (20-2, 19 KOs) will not ultimately have a championship belt at stake, the stakes are very high in this encounter. The sides will end up playing for the IBF heavyweight title as the mandatory challenger.
The presence of banned doping substances was found in the body of Evgeny Tishchenko (12-1, 7 KOs) after his fight with Leon Hart (22-5-1, 13 KOs). As a result, the result of the December fight for the WBA bantamweight belt, which took place in Dubai, was canceled.
Bob Arum was very disappointed with Saturday's fight between Jared Anderson (17-0, 15 KOs) and Riad Merhi (32-3, 26 KOs). The American won on points, but the Belgian avoided open confrontation the entire fight and spoiled the spectacle with his defensive attitude.
The Top Rank executive published a post on social media in which he announced the collection of open applications of those willing to cross gloves with the undefeated Anderson.
"We are looking for a heavyweight who believes he can beat Jared Anderson. We need someone brave enough to get in the ring with Jared and give him a real fight. At this point, there is no one that Jared refuses to fight," Arum stated.
Anderson could fight Luis Ortiz in his next professional appearance, but the Cuban will have to lower his financial demands. Negotiations on this matter took place at the beginning of the year, but Ortiz demanded 2 million dollars for a fight with Anderson.
Sad news came today - Gary Shaw passed away at the age of 79 after a long illness with prostate cancer. Boxing fans associate him primarily as one of the strongest promoters in the world, however, he appeared in boxing much earlier and before that he managed to try himself in different roles.
Ukraine's Konstantin Dovbyshchenko
Rafael Espinosa (24-0, 20 KOs) plans to defend his WBO lightweight title for the first time on June 21 at Boxing Night in Mexico. The 29-year-old fighter's opponent will be Sergio Sanchez (22-1, 13 KOs).
Former world champion in the first heavyweight Marco Hook (42-5-1, 28 KOs) announced his return to the ring. The fight of the German representative is scheduled for June 29 at the evening of boxing in Berlin. The name of the opponent of the former champion in the cruiserweight division is still unknown. This will be another attempt to return to the ring Hook, who has not boxed since August 2020, when he defeated Dennis Lewandowski.
Tyson Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) is trying not to reveal who he will be sparring with this time as he prepares to fight Oleksandr Usyk (21-0-1, 14 KOs) for four heavyweight belts. However, as it turned out, one of the sparring partners of "Gypsy King" is a certain Ty Mitchell (3-2, 2 KOs), a former middleweight boxer who hasn't competed since 2011, but recently boasted a photo with the WBC champion in his Instagram.
