Veteran ex-titlists Jose Pedraza and Richard Commey will meet in an Aug. 27 Top Rank on ESPN main event from Tulsa, Okla., according to ESPN’s Mike Coppinger, as both fighters look to bounce back from losses.
The 35-year-old Commey (30-4, 27 KO) will be moving up to 140 lbs for the fight. He was last out in December, where he was pretty well dominated by Vasiliy Lomachenko in New York. It was his second loss in three fights, the other a TKO-2 L against Teofimo Lopez in 2019.
Pedraza (29-4, 14 KO) lost a fairly competitive but clear decision to Jose Ramirez on March 4 in Fresno, Calif., in his last outing. The 33-year-old “Sniper” is 3-2 since moving up to 140 in 2019, losing his first fight at the weight to Jose Zepeda before three straight solid wins.
It’s a good matchup for both, with Commey looking to get into the mix in a new division, and Pedraza looking to stay relevant in a division where, sooner than later, some belts might get scattered.
Josh Taylor has already given up or been stripped of the WBA belt, depending on whose feelings you’re most interested in protecting, and more could follow depending on what Taylor actually does next. If that does happen, Top Rank fighters are well set-up to fight for vacant belts.
Heavyweight prospect Jared Anderson (11-0, 11 KO) is also tentatively slated to return on the show.