ESPN To Air Top Fights In A Wednesday Marathon Event

Top Rank and ESPN will continue the recent trend of airing boxing fights during a time no live fights will be available. With the coronavirus suspending events, Bob Arum’s promotion is ready to entertain the masses. This comes after Premier Boxing Champions produced a whole day dedicated to classic fights, while ESPN aired both Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury bouts.

The following fights will be shown via a marathon today, Wednesday, March 25:

• 7 p.m. ET – Terence Crawford v. Amir Khan (4/20/19)
• 8 p.m. ET – Terence Crawford v. Egidijus Kavaliauskas, Richard Commey v. Teofimo Lopez, Michael Conlan v. Vladimir Nikitin (12/4/19)
• 10 p.m. ET – Tyson Fury v. Otto Wallin (9/14/19)
• 11 p.m. ET – Floyd Mayweather v. Manny Pacquiao (5/2/15)

Obviously, the biggest bout on tonight’s schedule is the highly-anticipated bout between Mayweather and Pacquiao. A fight that produced a ticket sale revenue of $72,198,500 and 4.6 million PPV buys ($410 million in revenue), the Mayweather (50-0) and Pacquiao (62-7-2) debate continues to be discussed. It was only because the fight ended up being a lackluster affair that saw Mayweather use his defense over his offense. It was also criticized after Pacquiao revealed to have suffered from a shoulder injury prior to the bout.

Pacquiao used his rapid-fire hands to combat Mayweather, who started off with hot punches, had a defensive strategy in the later rounds but came firing in the final few moments of the fight. In the end, Mayweather won via unanimous decision (118–110, 116–112, 116–112) to remain undefeated and plan for his upcoming retirement bouts against Andre Berto and Conor McGregor. Mayweather ended up winning the WBO Welterweight Title to go along with the WBA, WBC, The Ring and lineal Welterweight Titles. Pacquiao has since felt stronger, going 5-1 in his last six fights.

A fight that surprised most, including Tyson Fury, was his bout against Otto Wallin prior to the Deontay Wilder rematch. Inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Fury (30-0-1) came into the bout the lightest he has been in five years. While he ended up winning via unanimous decision (116–112, 117–111 and 118–110), the bout was closer than the scores made it out to be.

Wallin (20-1, 1NC) was aggressive throughout the bout, and even hit big shots that cut Fury above his eye in the third. The cut got worse as time went on, but Fury’s corner did not stop the contest. Wallin dominated every aspect of the first half, while Fury ended up making a comeback in the second. The last three rounds could have went either way, but Wallin was able to make a point while letting people debate if Fury was taking the fight for granted. According to CompuBox, Wallin landed 127 of 334 punches while Fury landed 179 of 651 total blows.

On a night which featured a triple-header of fights, Terence Crawford (36-0) headlined the main Madison Square Garden theater for the third time. While many expected him to beat Egidijus Kavaliauskas (21-1-1) with ease, it wasn’t until the ninth round in which Crawford knocked him down. With his 27th win via knockout, “Bud” successfully defended his WBO Welterweight Title for the third time.

The co-main event saw Richard Commey (29-3) be dethroned of the IBF Lightweight Title by Teofimo Lopez (15-0). It was all Lopez, as he beat Commey via TKO in the second round. Another featured bout was Michael Conlan (13-0) exacting revenge on Vladimir Nikitin. Losing to him in controversial fashion in the Olympics, Conlan finally got his hands on Nikitin (3-1) and beat him via unanimous decision. He successfully retained his WBO Inter-Continental Featherweight Title for the third time.

Speaking of Crawford, “Bud” easily took care of Amir Khan inside MSG via TKO. Khan (34-5) provided little to no offense throughout the bout. it wasn’t until an accidental low blow in round six where things got interesting. By that point, however, trainer Virgil Hunter threw in the towel. Prior to the stoppage, Crawford was winning on all the judges scorecards (50-44, 49-45, 49-45).