Bob Arum of Top Rank believes the winner of the June 9 fight between WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn and Terence Crawford will be the next super star of the 147 lb. division. Arum promotes both fighters, and he thinks that their next fight in less than one month will create the new star at welterweight.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya says Saul Canlo Alvarez will sign up with the World Boxing Council VADA 365 ‘clean drug’ program as soon as his next fight is signed. De La Hoya hopes that Canelo’s next fight will be against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, but if not, it’s his loss.

WBC featherweight World champion Gary Russell Jr. (28-1, 17 KOs weighed in at 125.5 pounds on Friday for his title defense against up and comer Joseph ‘Jo Jo’ Diaz Jr. (26-0, 14 KOs) for their fight on Saturday night on Showtime Championship Boxing at the MGM National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

For only the second time in his career, Vasyl Lomachenko looked vulnerable last Saturday night in beating Jorge Linares (44-4, 27 KOs) by a 10th round knockout to claim the WBA World lightweight title at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Lomachenko was hit early and often by the 32-year-old Linares, and knocked down in the 6th. This was not the normal dominating performance from Lomachenko, even though he eventually scored a knockout in the 10th round from a body shot.

Manny Pacquiao’s old strength and conditioning trainer Alex Ariza believes that he’s making a mistake in fighting WBA World welterweight champion Lucas ‘La Maquina’ Matthysse (39-4, 36 KOs) in their fight on July 15 at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Floyd “Money” Mayweather, the greatest pound-for-pound boxer of all time, arrived in the Philippines last week with his crew known as “The Money Team” for several endorsements activities, rest and recreation, as well as a quick chat with Special Assistant to the president Bong Go.

Mayweather, who successfully competed and defended his championship belt from 1996 to 2007 and 2009 to 2015, boasts of a 50-0 career win-loss record, which included a successful one-fight comeback in 2017 wherein he defeated the Philippines’ Manny Pacquiao.

After a surprisingly modest stateside promotion, here we are on the eve of a crucial matchup that will have big implications in the post-Andre Ward era at Light Heavyweight. This fight had a short buildup from its announcement and has not gotten the kind of buzz that it deserves. Badou Jack is an ambitious workman who gets stronger as the fight goes on. Adonis Stevenson is a typically exciting southpaw puncher that can end it all at any moment. It is fair to expect that both men will come to fight in this one. Crowd pleasing action is practically guaranteed.

Up until two months ago, it was thought that boxing discussions this week would center around Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez, depending on the outcome of their fight that was to be held last weekend. Was a clear winner determined? Was there a beatdown, mentally or physically, that would require time for the loser to recover? More importantly to the fans, and just as intriguing, would be what would be what would be next for both.