Sherdog’s Weekend Boxing Preview

What: Tyson Fury vs. Tom Schwarz, Heavyweights

When: June 15
How to Watch: ESPN+ 10 p.m. ET
Why You Should Care: To watch the always entertaining Tyson Fury make his Vegas debut, not because you think Tom Schwarz is the new Andy Ruiz.

The easy way to sell this fight, and the way I suspect ESPN will try to sell the fight, is by pointing out that this is the first big heavyweight fight since the shocking fight that was Ruiz-Joshua. The Worldwide Leader in Sports is going to remind you at every turn that while this is a huge mismatch, so was that one, so anything could happen, right?

That’s a decent attempt at promoting the bout, but not an especially honest one. While the mainstream media is pushing the idea that Andy Ruiz was a total unknown, boxing fans knew about him from almost making the Olympics, training with Freddie Roach, and going the distance with Joseph Parker. The point being, people may not have expected Ruiz to beat Joshua, but he was far from a complete unknown.

While undefeated at 24-0 with sixteen knockouts, Germany’s Tom Schwarz is a legitimate, complete unknown. Chosen in part because he’s tall and Bob Arum wanted Fury to fight a tall guy in anticipation of his Deontay Wilder rematch, he is a +1200 underdog going into the fight on Saturday night.

Worse for him, reports are that Fury is looking really good these days. He has supposedly been dropping sparring partners so often that they’ve been getting sent home at a rapid rate. And, having spent more time at his healthy fighting weight, he’s likely to feel far better having adjusted to the weight than he did fresh off an over 100-pound weight loss.

So, tune in to see the always entertaining Tyson Fury make his Sin CIty debut in a warmup fight that might tell us how the Wilder rematch will go. But don’t tune in because of Andy Ruiz, because Tom Schwarz is no Andy Ruiz.

What: Sullivan Barrera vs. Jesse Hart, Light Heavyweights

When: June 15
How to Watch: ESPN+ 10 p.m. ET
Why You Should Care: To see if Gilberto Ramirez was just a bad matchup for Jesse Hart or if he’s not good enough to become a world champion.

Philadelphia’s Jesse Hart, the son of former Cus D’amato protégé and Marvin Hagler knockout victim Eugene “Cyclone” Hart, is 25-2 as a professional with 21 knockouts. However, he has never won a world title because both of those losses came to Gilberto Ramirez in attempts to win the WBO 168 pound belt. Ramirez moved up to 175 and abandoned the title, and now Hart is making the move to 175 as well.

His first opponent at the new weight class is Cuba’s Sullivan Barrera. An absurd choice for a debut opponent at a new weight class, Barrera has only lost to two opponents, both undefeated world champions, in Dmitry Bivol and Andre Ward. He’s also beaten guys like Joe Smith Jr. and Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy and is fresh of a win over Sean Monaghan.

The winner of this fight will be in a great position, in what is an absurdly stacked 175 pound division. But, while Barrera is a more proven commodity in the division, Hart could be far better than people think. There are plenty of examples of lesser fighters just being bad matchups for more talented guys. Vernon Forrest beat Shane Mosley twice in 2002, eight years before Mosley fought Floyd Mayweather Jr. But for whatever reason, the far more talented Forrest simply couldn’t beat Ricardo Mayorga in two attempts. It didn’t make sense; it was just a bad matchup.

Is Jesse Hart a great fighter that ran into an unwinnable matchup, or is he just not good enough to become a world champion? Saturday night may not give us the answer, but it will go a long way in telling us which is the case.

What: Josh Warrington vs. Kid Galahad, Featherweights

When: June 15
How to Watch: ESPN+ 3 p.m. ET
Why You Should Care: To see if Kid Galahad is right that he’s far hungrier than Josh Warrington, and if this fact can lead to him pulling off the upset.

Josh Warrington wanted to take over America. Coming off wins over Lee Selby and Carl Frampton, the IBF featherweight champion was looking to come to the USA and make his mark, hopefully in a unification bout with Leo Santa Cruz or Oscar Valdez. Instead, the IBF said he had to face his mandatory opponent and his fourth straight Brit, Kid Galahad.

Galahad, whose real name is Abdul-Bari Awad (his ring name comes from the Elvis movie) thinks this situation will be to his advantage. Undefeated at 26-0, Galahad was trained by Naseem Hamed’s late trainer Brendan Ingle, but doesn’t possess anywhere near Hamed’s power, having only stopped 15 opponents. It should also be noted that Galahad tested positive for PEDs and was banned from boxing for two years in 2015. He claims a spiteful brother spiked his drink when he wouldn’t give him money, which is at least one of the more interesting PED excuses, though highly implausible.

This week, trainer Dominic Ingle said that “Josh Warrington hasn’t got the same kind of hunger he had when he boxed Carl Frampton and Lee Selby. He’s the champion now, he’s not the one coming up. He’s coming up against an unbeaten prospect, someone with the same kind of hunger and determination that he had.”

Warrington dismissed this idea, but it does warrant mentioning. Josh Warrington wanted to break through in the USA but was stuck with a mandatory title defense against a fellow Brit. He didn’t want the fight; the question will be if he can still bring the motivation and hunger necessary to win the fight he didn’t want in the first place.

What: Mairis Briedis vs. Krzysztof Glowacki, Cruiserweights

When: June 15
How to Watch: Dazn 2 p.m. ET
Why You Should Care: To see which fighter can erase their Usyk loss and get their career back to where it was before he beat them.

Krzystof Glowacki was 26-0, the WBO cruiserweight champion of the world fresh off a win over Steve Cunningham when he ran into the pound for pound buzzsaw that is Oleksandr Usyk in the WBSS cruiserweight tournament. Mairis Briedis, who once beat shot Mike Tyson victor Danny Williams, was the WBC cruiserweight champion, 23-0, and fresh off a win over Mike Perez when he ran into Usyk in the WBSS. He lost as well.

Both Glowacki and Briedis have only lost to Usyk and are now facing each other in the WBSS semifinal for a shot at the Dorticos-Tabiti winner. And, with Usyk considered a top-5 pound for pound fighter by almost everyone and a serious potential contender at heavyweight by most, there’s no way of knowing how good either of these guys could be. So, they will fight each other in Latvia, where Briedis is from, to try and figure it out together.

Glowacki was given his WBO belt back after Usyk relinquished it, and this fight will determine the WBC champion after Usyk bailed on it as well, after moving to heavyweight. In essence, the winner of this fight will get back to where they were until they ran into the Ukranian nightmare that is Oleksandr Usyk. The loser will be in a far worse situation than they’ve ever been before.

What: Yunier Dorticos vs. Andrew Tabiti, Cruiserweights

When: June 15
How to Watch: Dazn 2 p.m. ET
Why You Should Care: To see if training under Floyd Mayweather Sr. can lead Tabiti to crash the WBSS reunion.

Andrew “The Beast” Tabiti is the only fighter left in the WBSS cruiserweight tournament that didn’t compete (and lose) in it, the last time around. That makes him simultaneously the most interesting fighter left in the tournament, and the biggest unknown. What we do know about Tabiti is that he is 29 years old, undefeated at 17-0 with 13 knockouts, and trained by Floyd Mayweather Sr.

Just a few weekends ago, we saw that Floyd Mayweather’s work with Austin Trout didn’t exactly pan out, so his boasts about Tabiti like “I’ve shown Tabiti all the skills and things he needs to win. I have worked to build him to the level he’s at right now. I think he’s bound to break records; he’s going to be a winner,” don’t hold the same water they did a few weeks ago.

Yunier Dorticos suffered his first loss as a professional in the first WBSS cruiserweight tournament when he was stopped by Murat Gassiev in the final round of their fight, though Gassiev was already ahead on every scorecard. Still, the decorated Cuban amateur is a monster puncher, having stopped 21 of his 24 opponents, and Gassiev has abandoned the weight class to move up to heavyweight.

Andrew Tabiti is the fresh face of the WBSS cruiserweight tournament, but that makes him an unknown. And, while we’d like to take the word of Floyd Mayweather Sr that he’s going to “break records,” Floyd Senior’s record of late isn’t too great in terms of working with fighters. On Saturday against a one-loss, powerful Cuban puncher, we’ll see if “The Beast” can move to the finals and show that as a trainer, Floyd Sr. still has it.