Amanda Nunes Wants Over $1 Million For Claressa Shields Bout
UFC world champion Amanda Nunes is looking for her biggest career payday in a potential clash with multi-division champion Claressa Shields.
Shields was ringside on Saturday night in Las Vegas, and watched Nunes retain her bantamweight title with a five round unanimous decision over Germaine de Randamie as part of the UFC 245 pay-per-view event.
UFC President Dana White is interested in making the fight a reality in 2020.
After five defenses of her title since winning it in 2016, Nunes is looking for the biggest possible challenge of her career. She's beaten a who's who of female stars that UFC had to offer - including Ronda Rousey, Meisha Tate, Holly Holm and Cris Cyborg.
Back in 2017, UFC superstar Conor McGregor crossed over to the boxing ring, and faced five division champion Floyd Mayweather. Their contest generated the second highest pay-per-view buyrate in the history of combat sports.
And Nunes wants to secure proper payment for such a crossover event.
“A million? (I want to get) more than that,” Nunes said to reporters.
But Nunes is not looking to fight in a boxing ring - she wants to face Shields in MMA. Shields has expressed interest in crossing over to mixed martial arts.
“I’m an MMA fighter, why does she want to take me away from my sport? If she wants to fight me, come into my world,” Nunes said.
“I respect her as a boxer but I’m an MMA fighter. I don’t like to fight in boxing. I like MMA. I like what I did today. If she can handle that for five rounds, come see me. She wants to see me? I’m gonna wrestle the sh-t out of you and finish you with jiu-jitsu submissions. I want to see how she’s gonna feel (about) that."
Mikey Garcia Inks Promotional With Eddie Hearn, Returns on 2/29
Mikey Garcia has signed a promotional deal with Matchroom Boxing USA.
Former four-weight World king Garcia (39-1 30 KOs) will return to action on February 29, exclusively live on DAZN, as the California favorite looks to regain his World champion status and continue his glittering career at the elite level.
Garcia, who turned 32 today (December 15) will step back into the ring early in 2020 for the first time since moving up two-weights in March to face Welterweight ruler Errol Spence in a bid to win World honors at a fifth weight, and Garcia is on the hunt for more World title clashes and big name showdowns to add further scalps to a stellar resume that boasts wins over the likes of Adrien Broner, Roman Martinez and Orlando Salido – and Garcia believes that the best is yet to come.
“I am happy to announce my return to the ring for February 29,” said Garcia. “I am eager to make my return and grow my legacy. I look forward to working with Matchroom Boxing USA and DAZN and I want to thank all my fans for the continued support. Fight details will be announced soon and I can’t wait to be back in the ring.”
“I’ve been talking to Mikey for over a year now and I’m so happy to welcome him to the team,” said Eddie Hearn. “Mikey is a standout star and I’m looking forward to working with him on big fights moving forward.
“He will return to the ring on February 29 and we will be announcing the opponent and venue shortly. The talent within Matchroom Boxing and on DAZN is unprecedented – we look forward to an epic 2020!”
“Mikey Garcia joining the DAZN roster will allow us to deliver even greater value to our subscribers as our Fight Season schedule begins to take shape for 2020,” said Joseph Markowski, DAZN EVP, North America. “We’re a data-led business and so we’re naturally drawn to the fact that Mikey has consistently delivered numbers - whether it’s been television audience, pay-per-view buys or ticket sales. We look forward to welcoming his fans to DAZN on Leap Year Day."
Crawford: I'm "1" at 147 - I Beat The Man Who Beat The Man!
WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford is hope to secure the other top names in his weight class.
On Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City, he dropped and stopped undefeated mandatory challenger Egidigus Kavaliauskas.
Crawford is having trouble securing the other names - because nearly all of them are promoted by Premier Boxing Champions, who have exclusive content deals with Fox Sports and Showtime.
Crawford is promoted by Top Rank, who are exclusively tied to ESPN.
The PBC banner includes boxers such as Manny Pacquiao, Errol Spence, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Yordenis Ugas, Sergey Lipinets and several others.
But Crawford is not the buying the talk of "come across the street" to fight on PBC - because he views himself as the best fighter at 147.
"Of course [I'm the best at 147]. When I came into 147, I asked for the top guys at 147. I didn’t ask for the guys that everybody thought I was going to beat. I beat the man that beat the man, whether you like it or not. Jeff Horn beat [Manny] Pacquiao. I stopped him," Crawford told Complex.
"When I came into the division, I didn’t have a fight in the division. And all the champions said he need a belt. He didn’t even fight in the division right now, why is everybody rating him so high in a division he never fought in before? So when I had my first fight in the division, I stopped Jeff Horn.
"Now everybody’s saying 'he’s on the other side of the street.' But what happened to get a belt first? So it’s not like I’m coming into a division taking on the weakest link. I’m coming into the division saying I want all of ya’ll right now. I don’t need no warm-ups, no tune-ups, and that’s what I did."
Teofimo Lopez Sr: My Son Ends Lomachenko, Becomes P4P #1!
Teófimo López Sr., the father and trainer of IBF lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez, is confident that his son is going to demolish WBO, WBA world champion Vasiliy Lomachenko next year.
This past Saturday night in New York City, Lomachenko was ringside at Madison Square Garden as he watched Lopez crush Richard Commey in two rounds to capture the IBF belt.
Now the stage is set for Lopez and Lomachenko to fight each other in the early months of 2020.
Lopez has been chasing the fight with Lomachenko since last year.
Both boxers are promoted by Top Rank, who are eager to get them together in the ring.
Lomachenko, regarded by some as the best pound for pound fighter in the sport, will be a solid favorite when he faces Lopez in the ring.
But Lopez Sr. has no doubt about the outcome.
“Two years ago I told people that we were going to take Lomachenko's head off, because he is a lying champion. He has never faced a fighter like my son. We come very hungry. We are Indians, we come from the pure blood of the Indians and we are going to show Latin America that the Indians are more powerful than the Europeans," Lopez Sr. told George Ebro.
“In March or April of 2020, we will end Lomachenko and we will end him in less than five rounds. I teach my son a style that is not styled in boxing: stay in front of the opponent, pick off the punches and use the fists of the opponent to our advantage. The only one I've seen who has done it is Floyd Mayweather.
"God is putting us in the right fights. After this [fight with Lomachenko] we can fight at 140 pounds. And if he beats Lomachenko, he can be considered the number one pound per pound in the world. We are going to do it."
Arum, Haymon To Make More Fights in 2020 After Wilder-Fury
Bob Arum has called Al Haymon a cancer to the sport of boxing in the past, and even said he encourages PBC fighters like Errol Spence Jr. not to work with white promoters.
That was then, and with the Feb. 22 rematch between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury being the “now,” Arum has changed his position about the longtime rival Haymon.
“I can predict that with no uncertainty that Wilder-Fury 2 will be one of a number of fights Top Rank and PBC will be doing together, some on ESPN, some on FOX and others on PPV. I think that is absolutely the case,” Arum told BoxingScene.com in an interview. “Everything changes in boxing. Everything changes life. There is now peace among promoters.
“We have no problem working with PBC. You’re dealing with professionals, but the press paints a different picture. When PBC had all of the money from hedge funds, their policy was not to deal with anybody. That’s long since passed.”
Arum even went as far as saying he can negotiate a fight with Terence Crawford and Spence Jr. in less than an hour once Spence Jr. is ready to resume his career thanks to his rekindled relationship with Haymon.
“I have no problem working with PBC and I don’t think they have a problem working with us,” said Arum. “People talk, but they don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s easy for others to say we don’t deal with each other. But that’s not the case. I speak to Al everyday now because of the promotion for Wilder and Fury … Al Haymon has a modus operandi to be in the shadows, and not talking to the press. That’s something he wants to do, and we can’t change that. If anything, I speak to much to press.”
Arum emphasized that it’s easy to say competing promoters don’t work with each other, but it’s simply not true.
“We deal with everybody, whether it’s Eddie Hearn with Matchroom Boxing and DAZN, or Oscar De La Hoya at Golden Boy,” said Arum.
Arum pointed to Top Rank’s recent fights arranged with Golden Boy, which included his fighter Shakur Stevenson besting Joet Gonzalez for the WBO featherweight title, and Jamel Herring beating Lamont Roach for the WBO junior lightweight crown. His other Top Rank fighter, Carlos Adames, lost to Golden Boy’s Patrick Teixeira for the WBO super welterweight title last month.
On the Matchroom side of the table, recent bouts include Vasyl Lomachenko heading overseas to face Luke Campbell at the 02 Arena, and Lomachenko facing the Matchroom-promoted Anthony Crolla previous to that at Staples Center in April. Also, the Top Rank-promoted Jose Ramirez unified the super lightweight division against Maurice Hooker on DAZN during a Matchroom promoted event.
“For the right arrangement, [rival promoters] all willing to deal with one another,” said Arum. “That’s the good news. You can’t keep kicking the dog when the dog is not responsible for anything, when actually, the dog is quite willing to cooperate with everybody. I don’t only speak for myself, but for all other promoters.”