Showtime dropped a major announcement today by simultaneously revealing a slew of fights spread over five cards that will give boxing fans plenty to look forward to through the first quarter of 2017.
With Showtime‘s affiliation with Premier Boxing Champions, there are plenty of talented fighters to feature and marquee match-ups to be made. However, boxing fans have grown increasingly frustrated with both the sporadic activity of many elite PBC fighters, as well as the maddening unwillingness to make obvious, compelling fights.
Today, though, Showtime gave boxing fans plenty to look forward to by announcing a slew of tantalizing match-ups that will take place over the next several months. Here are the details:
- December 10: Jesus Cuellar (28-1, 21 KOs) vs. Abner Mares (29-2-1, 15 KOs) & Jermall Charlo (24-0, 18 KOs) vs. Julian Williams (22-0-1, 14 KOs)
- January 14: Badou Jack (20-1-2, 12 KOs) vs. James DeGale (23-1, 14 KOs)
- January 28: Carl Frampton (23-0, 14 KOs) vs. Leo Santa Cruz (32-1-1, 18 KOs) & Dejan Zlaticanin (18-0, 11 KOs) vs. Mikey Garcia (35-0, 29 KOs)
- Feb. 11: Adrien Broner (32-2, 24 KOs) vs. Adrian Granados (18-4-2, 12 KOs)
- March 4: Keith Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs) vs. Danny Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs)
Each fight is either a unification bout, world title fight or a match-up of top contenders. Some bouts, like Cuellar-Mares and Charlo-Williams are overdue, while others, like Thurman-Garcia and Frampton-Santa Cruz, are some of the best fights that can be made in the sport.
The WBC/IBF 168-pound unification fight between Badou Jack and James DeGale is perhaps the sleeper contest of this impressive bunch, and the bout will also be contested for the Ring title, which will further clarify the pecking order in an intriguing and wide open super middleweight division.
What’s also encouraging is that Jack-DeGale and Frampton-Santa Cruz, the latter fight standing out as perhaps 2016’s best thus far, will take place in January — a typically slow month for boxing where the sport slowly emerges from hibernation. In fact, the first remotely significant fight of 2016 was the January 30 rematch between Sergey Kovalev and Jean Pascal, a woefully unnecessary and ultimately one-sided affair.
Showtime will end this calendar year with a card that will particularly entice hardcore boxing fans, while also promising quality action for more casual viewers. And given that Showtime will hit the ground sprinting in 2017, the hope here is that it forces HBO — which has had a down year — to up their game to keep pace.
Boxing perpetually gives itself black eyes, so any modicum of positive news is greeted with enthusiasm. What Showtime signalled today, however, is that the prospect of having the best fight the best — at the optimal time — is still possible.