BIG-TIME BOXING RETURNS TO THE BIG APPLE FOR A BLOCKBUSTER WEEKEND OF ACTION

When you think of a double-header, from two different promoters, with two different broadcasters, over two days and in one city, it really does not get much better in the world of boxing than this weekend.

One of the greatest rivalries in boxing will come to a conclusion at Madison Square Garden on Friday as Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano battle it out in what will more than likely be the big finale between the pair on an all-female card which features three undisputed world title fights and three more world title fights — two of those being unification clashes. Remarkable.

If that wasn’t enough, on Saturday night, big-time boxing heads 10 miles across town to the Louis Armstrong Stadium where undefeated lightweight stars Shakur Stevenson and William Zepeda will battle it out for the WBC world title, with Hamzah Sheeraz taking on Edgar Berlanga, Alberto Puello defending his world title against Subriel Matias, and David Morrell Jr facing off with Imam Khataev in a potential light-heavyweight classic — all on the undercard.

Weekends really don’t get much better than that.

We’ll start off by taking a look at the history-making card at Madison Square Garden on Friday night.

Whether you are a fan of what he is doing inside the ring is a different question and entity in itself, but one thing is for sure — what Jake Paul is doing outside of the ring for women’s boxing is nothing short of commendable.

Most Valuable Promotions have now put together a roster which is, by a distance, the best in women’s boxing, and the depth on this card just emphasises that.

To open up the card with the likes of Tamm Thiebeault, Ramla Ali, Chantelle Cameron and then into an undisputed clash between Cherneka Johnson and Shurreta Metcalf — it’s what dreams are made of for women’s boxing.

One of British boxing’s most dominant world champions in recent years, Savannah Marshall, then returns from a two-year hiatus to clash with Shadasia Green in a 168lbs unification clash that is guaranteed to be a fight-of-the-night contender, before fellow Brit Ellie Scotney looks to enhance her claims as one of the best P4P women on the planet in a super-bantamweight unification against Yamileth Mercado.

Then it’s time for the main and co-main.

In the co-main, the hard-hitting Alycia Baumgardner looks to defend her undisputed super-featherweight crown against the undefeated Spaniard Jennifer Miranda.

Miranda has been impressive so far in her 12-fight career, albeit against opposition that wouldn’t deserve to lace the gloves of Baumgardner. She is also yet to fight outside of Spain as a professional; however, she does have victories over the likes of both Chantelle Cameron and Estelle Mossely as an amateur.

Baumgardner, meanwhile, has been faultless since losing her undefeated record to Christina Linardatou back in 2018 — an opponent she got revenge against in 2023.

She has been fairly inactive recently, having boxed just three times in nearly four years, with her last fight against Delfine Persoon ruled a no-contest due to an accidental clash of heads.

The American should prove to have just a little too much in the locker here for Miranda though — so in front of the Netflix cameras, expect her to make a bit of a statement.

Now onto the main event — and this is without a shadow of a doubt the best, biggest and most fearsome rivalry in women’s boxing history.

Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano — THE TRILOGY.

If you thought the first fight was good, then nothing could have prepared you for how good the rematch would be — and with this fight potentially being the last hurrah for both women, we could well be in store for the best of the lot in the trilogy.

Despite Taylor winning both of their previous two clashes, not even a fag paper could split them.

The rivalry has been so good because, to be honest, they’re probably two of the most evenly matched fighters to ever compete around the same weight divisions in women’s boxing history.

There’s probably not one boxing fan on this planet who can confidently say they thought either fighter won both of the first two. If Serrano had won both, there wouldn’t be any controversy. If it had been a draw in both, likewise — not many people would have complained. That’s how good this rivalry is.

So, how do we see the trilogy going?

To be honest, it could well go either way like the previous two contests. The only thing guaranteed is that this will be another Fight of the Decade contender — and ultimately, it’s going to come down to who wants it more.

Will it be 3-0 for Katie, or will Serrano finally get some sort of revenge and make it 2-1 to dangle the potential carrot of a fourth fight? We’ll find out on Friday night.

On Saturday night, the action heads east to the Louis Armstrong Stadium where The Ring Magazine will be staging their third fight night, as hometown favourite Shakur Stevenson and Edgar Berlanga look to make huge statements in two high-quality fights.

Before those two though, the main card opens up with two absolute guaranteed wars.

Up first is an intriguing light-heavyweight clash between David Morrell Jr and Imam Khataev.

A Cuban superstar, Morrell suffered the first loss of his career in his last fight — a highly competitive match-up with David Benavidez, which he unfortunately just fell short in.

Prior to that though, his hard-hitting southpaw style was proving a nightmare for everyone, justifying the hype around him.

Luckily, despite the defeat, the hype train hasn’t derailed — and for him to jump straight back in off the back of a defeat against a fighter like Khataev speaks volumes of the fighter and man he is.

No easy fights. If he’s good enough, he’ll prove it. If he’s not, he’ll get back in the gym and work his arse off to become good enough.

The Russian Khataev is a fighter who’s gone massively under the radar in recent years.

A vastly experienced amateur, he claimed victories over Morrell’s Cuban counterparts Arlen Lopez and Julio Cesar La Cruz in the unpaid ranks, along with winning a bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics — so he is clearly a man who fancies his chances against the Cuban style.

He’s 10-0 with nine stoppages as a pro, so it’s clear he’s heavy-handed with the lighter gloves on — and he poses a serious threat to Morrell here.

On paper, it looks as though Khataev will be the one on the front foot, setting the pace — and with Morrell already stating that he is going to go back to his Cuban roots and look to box, it’s likely the fight will become a classic boxer vs brawler match-up.

Morrell has the experience of fighting at a higher level in the pros than Khataev, and we think that could well prove to be the difference on Saturday night. Expect a clinical performance from the Cuban — but one thing is for sure, Khataev is not an opponent you can write off.

To the first world title fight of the night now, where the undefeated Alberto Puello will be defending his WBC World Super-Lightweight Title against Subriel Matias.

The champion, Puello, has been in fine touch of late, building his record to 24-0 with standout wins in his last two fights over Gary Antuanne Russell and Sandor Martin.

His fluid southpaw style has proven to be a nightmare for all of his opponents to date — but in Matias, he comes up against a man on a mission.

22-2 with all 22 of his victories coming by way of stoppage, big things were expected from the Puerto Rican before he suffered a shock defeat to Liam Paro on home soil back in June last year.

He’s bounced back in style though with back-to-back stoppage wins, and that form puts him in good stead as he challenges Puello for his world title here.

This will quite literally be a case of the bull and the matador.

Puello, at this level, only knows how to box on the back foot and move — hence why his last six wins have all come by decision. Matias, on the other hand, only knows one way to fight — and that’s by plodding forward looking to take his opponent's head off with every shot.

This fight solely depends on Puello’s rhythm. If Matias can get to him early and hurt him, it’s going to be a long night at the office for Puello. But as we saw against Paro, Matias can be outboxed — and Puello has more than enough ability to do that.

It may not end up being the most entertaining of contests, but one thing is for sure — it’ll be an intriguing one.

To the co-main now where New York’s very own Edgar Berlanga will be aiming to continue his rise back to the top following his defeat to Canelo last year against the 6’3” undefeated Brit Hamzah Sheeraz who’ll be making his debut up at super-middleweight. 

After quite literally destroying his first 16 professional opponents by stoppage, the hype around Berlanga was big, really big. 

However a less than impressive performance against the then 30-2-1 Marcelo Coceres, which saw Berlanga dropped for the first time in his pro career, proved that he is most certainly human. 

Since that incredible 16-fight KO streak ended, just two of his last seven wins have come by way of stoppage so it’s clear that that invincibility factor has more than left him, along with him suffering the first defeat of his career to the hands of Canelo in between those wins. 

If there is one thing that Berlanga doesn’t lack though it’s confidence and in the build up to this one, he’s looked back to his old smarmy self, which we have missed for a while now and that may turn out to be the difference. 

In Sheeraz though he comes up against a completely different type of opposition to what he has faced before. 

A tall, rangy fighter who can whack with both hands, it’s no wonder that Sheeraz has a big fan in Turki Alalshikh. 

21-0, dragged himself over the first speed bump of his career in his last fight when he could only manage a draw against WBC World 160lbs champ Carlos Adames. 

That was probably Sheeraz’s worst performance since his fight with Bradley Skeete and like he did in that fight, it looked as though the weight cut had just caught up with him. 

A step up in weight combined with the fact he has now teamed up with the highly-talented former world champ Andy Lee, Sheeraz will not have any excuses for another lacklustre showing and we fully expect him to put in a career best performance here. 

So, to the actual fight – expect fireworks.

Despite his enormous frame and long levers, Sheeraz is a fighter who just loves mixing it on the inside. Here though, he cannot afford to do that.

Berlanga’s sharpness and explosiveness on the inside will likely be a nightmare for the Brit, so he’s going to need to utilise that reach advantage as much as he can.

The American is a fighter who can often fight on emotion, and Sheeraz will need to use that to his advantage. Fight dirty at times, lean on Berlanga, upset his rhythm, wind him up – if he does that, he’ll almost certainly take the initiative in the fight.

For Berlanga, he needs to put it on Sheeraz just like Adames did.

Switch up his angles, switch up his shots to head and body – don’t be predictable. When Sheeraz throws a lazy jab or steps into range, plant your feet and give him a good old whack.

Sheeraz showed he can be hurt against Adames – and Berlanga will be more than aware of that.

Whether he carries the power at 168lbs to do that, though, is a different question.

This is a real 50/50 – and a fight that will more than live up to expectations.

Now finally, to the main event.

Similar to Puello, it’s boxer vs brawler – but in this case, the boxer has vowed to go toe-to-toe with the brawler.

Reigning WBC World Lightweight champ Shakur Stevenson FINALLY takes on his mandatory in Mexican William Zepeda, in a fight which feels like it’s been in the works for years.

Both undefeated, Stevenson is already a three-weight world champ at the age of 28, whilst Zepeda’s rise to stardom has been a lot quieter, mainly fighting out of Mexico for the vast majority of his career.

The past couple of years have been frustrating for Stevenson, after fighting with a hand injury before finally getting surgery on it at the end of last year.

He was set to face the undefeated Floyd Schofield Jr in February, before Schofield pulled out in the week of the fight – so in stepped the undefeated Brit Josh Padley to face the wrath of Shakur.

The American didn’t really get out of second gear in that fight, though, and secured the ninth-round stoppage, which has now set him up nicely for this clash against the hard-hitting Mexican.

Zepeda, up until late last year, had looked untouchable. He’d beaten the likes of Maxi Hughes and Jojo Diaz, but apart from that, he didn’t really have any names of real note on his résumé.

He was 31-0 with 27 stoppages before he came up against former world champion Tevin Farmer.

Farmer proved much trickier than he anticipated, though, with the Mexican ultimately claiming a controversial split-decision victory in the first fight, then a majority-decision victory in the rematch back in March.

It looked a bit as though Farmer had exposed Zepeda a little and laid out the blueprint to beat him. Considering how similar in style Farmer and Stevenson are, those two fights could be detrimental to how this one goes.

Again, going off their records, this is the bull and the matador. However, with Turki Alalshikh publicly stating that he’s had enough of seeing “Tom and Jerry” fights, Stevenson has pledged to come for the KO.

There’s no doubting the fact that Stevenson’s power is underrated – but if he is going to win this fight and look good doing so, he has to fight his fight, not Zepeda’s.

Boxing is about hitting and not getting hit – something Stevenson is really good at – and he’ll have to do plenty of that to claim victory on Saturday night.

As for Zepeda, he needs to do something which no fighter has really done before – and that is expose Shakur.

Stevenson has quite literally barely lost a round in the 166 he has boxed as a professional – quite incredible.

Zepeda needs to make it uncomfortable for him. He needs to use that Mexican grit and force his way inside Stevenson’s southpaw jab.

Be twitchy. Keep Stevenson’s brain occupied. Throw unconventional shots. Throw unconventional combinations – things that Shak may not have seen before. Set a strong pace, drag him into deep waters later in the fight, and look to make a statement – not just by beating him, but by putting a beating on him.

The only problem for Zepeda with doing that is the fact that it’s much easier said than done.

Will Stevenson have the cajones to make Turki’s wishes come true and take the fight to Zepeda? Only time will tell.

Tune in live on DAZN to find out on Saturday night.

Ring III | July 12th | Louis Armstrong Stadium | Get your tickets HERE