WEEKEND
Former track and field athlete Michael Conlan will face rival Leigh Wood in a crucial £126 match on Saturday in England. On Friday, 154-pound competitor Ardreal Holmes was the featured boxer on ShoBox.
Ardreal Holmes (11-0.5 KO) vs Vernon Brown (13-1-1, 9 KO)
- When: Friday, March 11
- Time: 9:35 p.m. ET / 6:35 p.m. PT (main event after show)
- Where: Deadwood Mountain Grand, Deadwood, South Dakota
- TV / Stream: Showtime
- Assignment: Young middle class
- Circle: ten
- Under threat: No main title
- Ranking in British Pounds: Not available
- The odds: NA
- Also on the card: Luis Acosta vs. Edwin De Los Santos, lightweight; Giovanni Marquez vs Nelson Morales, middleweight contenders
- Guess: Holmes UD
- Story: 6-foot-2-meter tall young middleweight prospect Ardreal Holmes will face defeated Vernon Brown in the main event “ShoBox: The New Generation”. Holmes is an accomplished amateur tennis player, including playing a substitute role on the US Olympic team in 2016. He can box. The Flint, Michigan product, is due to have a knockout match against Jose Antonio Abreu in the third round in November 2019, meaning he will be out of the ring for more than two years. His most impressive win was perhaps the decisive six-round match against veteran Lanardo Tyner in May 2019. Friday’s matchup will be the 27-year-old Holmes’ first scheduled 10th round. He will have a significant height advantage over Brown, who is 5 feet 7. The 32-year-old male tennis player from Chicago played his final match last February, knocking out Fabian Lyimo in two rounds. Brown’s only defeat came in a decisive 10-round fight with Jamontay Clark, who drew with Sebastian Fundora. It was Brown’s only other scheduled 10-round game.
Leigh Wood (25-2, 15 KOs) vs Michael Conlan (16-0, 8 KOs)
- When: Saturday, March 12
- Time: 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. Pacific Time (main event follows)
- Where: Nottingham Arena, Nottingham
- TV / Stream: DAZN
- Assignment: Feather class
- Circle: twelfth
- Under threat: WBA phụ sub-title
- Ranking in British Pounds: Not available
- The odds: Conlan 1 -1 favorite (multi-store average)
- Also on the card: Terri Harper vs Yamila Belen Abellaneda, lightweight; Caoimhin Agyarko vs Juan Carlos Rubio, middleweight; Gary Cully vs. Miguel Vazquez, lightweight
- Guess: Conlan UD
- Story: 2016 track athlete Michael Conlan could take a big step Saturday to land his first world championship title. The 30-year-old Irishman facing British rival Leigh Wood is the biggest test of his professional career, which began in 2017. Conlan, from Belfast, is on the verge of a full victory over TJ Doheny in August of last year. five, seven months ago. That was followed by fear for Ionut Baluta, who had lost majority decision-making to Conlan the previous April. Wood, the second WBA title-winner, is considered the top 10 in the world’s top 10 126-pounders. The Nottingham native lost a tight majority decision to Jazza Dickens in February 2020 but has racked up two straight wins since, a ninth Reece Mold TKO a year later and a 12th.order-entered Can Xu’s TKO this past July to win his extra belt. Leo Santa Cruz is the WBA champion. Wood is 33, which makes him even more urgent. He needs to move quickly if he hopes to fight for a major world title.
Also fighting this week: Savannah Marshall (11-0.9 KO) of England defends her WBO middleweight belt against Femke Hermans (12-3.5 KO) of Belgium on Saturday in Newcastle, UK (No TV in US). And Fatih Keles (14-1, 8 KOs) of Turkey vs Diego Chaves (28-8-1, 23 KOs) of Argentina in their seventh junior middleweight title match in Dubai (FITE).
