ESPN+ and Social Media, 11:00 am ET, Stevenson vs Conceicao press conference.
ESPN+ and Social Media, 1:00 pm ET, Stevenson vs Conceicao weigh-in.
ESPN+ and Social Media, 9:00 am ET, Joyce vs Parker weigh-in.
ESPN+, 6:00 pm ET, Stevenson vs Conceicao prelims. This is the listed time right now, sometimes this gets bumped up a bit if a fight or two fall off during the week. Anyway, usual Top Rank prelims stuff. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
ESPN and ESPN+, 10:00 pm ET, Shakur Stevenson vs Robson Conceicao. Stevenson defends his WBC and WBO junior lightweight titles against basically the best available opponent, and Conceicao can definitely fight, a 2016 Olympic gold medalist whose pro career was stagnating until he fought Oscar Valdez and lost a very debatable decision. Stevenson, of course, smoked Valdez, and odds will rightly heavily favor him here; he’s shown special talent. This could also end up being the last fight Shakur does at 130, because he’s simply running out of fights, unless Emanuel Navarrete wants to come up, which was discussed, didn’t go very far, and we wound up with this instead. But things could change. Anyway, it’s a good fight and a rare Friday marquee event for Top Rank. Keyshawn Davis is also in action. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
DAZN and Social Media, 12:15 pm ET, Hughes vs Galahad prelims.
DAZN, 2:00 pm ET, Maxi Hughes vs Kid Galahad. This was supposed to be Leigh Wood vs Mauricio Lara, which I think was going to be all-action for however long it lasted, but Wood got hurt and this is the new main event. It’s a chance for Galahad to get himself going at 135 after losing his title down at 126 last year, and Hughes has been on a really good run. It’s not a bad fight, plenty on the line for both guys, and the card also features Hannah Rankin defending her WBA 154 lb belt against Terri Harper, who is trying to follow Tasha Jonas’ footsteps of basically jumping from 130/135 to 154 to take advantage of there being basically no depth in women’s boxing over 140 lbs. Right now, we’re seeing how everyone’s schedules shake out to have live coverage for this or not. Bad Left Hook might have live coverage.
ESPN+, 2:00 pm ET, Joe Joyce vs Joseph Parker, Amanda Serrano vs Sarah Mahfoud. A meaningful heavyweight fight between two contenders for the interim WBO title. We’ve got the plodding but destructive Joyce and the former titleholder Parker, who has a knack for sort of scraping by in fights at this level. This fight was meant to happen a couple months earlier, then Parker signed with Boxxer and Sky, and it appeared to be off, but it turned out Boxxer and Sky really had no one for him and the best fight was still with Joyce, promoted by Frank Warren and fighting on BT Sport, who will have it on PPV in the United Kingdom. Serrano vs Mahfoud is for three belts at featherweight, and if Serrano wins as expected, she figures to fight Erika Cruz in an undisputed bout after. The rest of the card is really solid domestic-level stuff: Michael Magnesi vs Anthony Cacace, Ekow Essuman vs Samuel Antwi, Nathan Heaney vs Jack Flatley. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
PPV, 11:00 pm ET, Floyd Mayweather vs Mikuru Asakura. You can order over at FITE TV for $29.99. It’s an exhibition boxing match, but that really just means it doesn’t count on records; you can figure on this one being full effort, not sparring like some. The last time Mayweather went to Japan for one of these, he obliterated Tenshin Nasukawa. It’s part of a RIZIN card that also features MMA fights and a kickboxing match between Nadaka Yoshinari and Bandasak So Trakunpet. Basically I have nothing else to do and some people will want to know what happens, so I’ll be here. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.