Joe Smith Jr., Long Island’s working class hero, will make the long-awaited first defense of his WBO light heavyweight world title against British knockout artist Callum Johnson on Saturday, Jan. 15 at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, N.Y.

Smith-Johnson kicks off the Top Rank on ESPN 2022 schedule with a battle between two of the division’s biggest punchers. Smith was supposed to defend his title Oct. 30 in New York City, but a COVID-19 diagnosis delayed his return to 2022.

In the 10-round featherweight co-feature, the undefeated Abraham “El Super” Nova, who hails from Albany, N.Y., will face Mexican action star Jose Enrique Vivas. Smith-Johnson and Nova-Vivas will air live on ESPN and ESPN Deportes (simulcast on ESPN+) at 9:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. PT.

In a real shocker, the World Boxing Council has approved Canelo Alvarez to challenge WBC cruiserweight champion Illunga Makabu for his title in early 2022.

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman confirmed that the sanctioning body has approved Canelo’s request to move up to cruiserweight [200 lbs] to take on the 34-year-old Makabu (28-2, 25 KOs) for his title.

Canelo choosing to fight Makabu, who is viewed by some boxing fans as by far the weakest of the four champions at cruiserweight, is a move to make it easy for the Mexican star to capture a fifth division world title.

Undisputed junior welterweight world champion Josh “The Tartan Tornado” Taylor and WBO No. 1 contender Jack “El Gato” Catterall will meet face-to-face for a two-city press tour to announce their upcoming showdown Saturday, Feb. 26 at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. The bout will be televised live in the UK on Sky Sports and will stream exclusively on ESPN+ in the United States.

The tour kicks off Tuesday, Dec. 7 at The Royal Scots Club in Taylor’s hometown of Edinburgh, Scotland, and moves on to London the following day, Wednesday, Dec. 8 at the Sports Direct Flagship store on Oxford Street.

WBC board of governors have approved David Benavidez to fight for the World Boxing Council interim super middleweight title now that champion Canelo Alvarez won’t be free to defend his belt.

The WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman didn’t say who Benavidez will face for the interim 168-lb title. Still, it’s likely to be one of these top ten counters in their sanctioning bodies’ rankings:

Terence Crawford feels it was a mistake that his fight with Shawn Porter was shown on the ESPN+ app for pay-per-view last Saturday night.

It’s questionable whether it would have significantly improved the PPV numbers if Top Rank had placed Crawford’s fight with Porter if it wasn’t put on the ESPN+ app.

If you took a look at social media during the last two weeks during the build-up for the Crawford-Porter fight, there was minimal talk about the contest.

There was arguably more interest in a day-to-day discussion about Anthony Joshua, Canelo Alvarez, and Tyson Fury than Crawford vs. Porter.

In a recent interview with boxing social, highly regarded trainer Shane McGuigan is picking Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs) to defeat Artur Beterbiev (16-0, 16 KOs) if they fight next year.

McGuigan mentions how Callum Johnson (20-1, 14 KOs) was able to drop Beterbiev and how the Russian boxer is now 36 years old, which makes it hard for him to make weight.

He then goes on to say that he doesn’t believe Beterbiev could knock Canelo out, and if the Mexican superstar were to win, it would be via stoppage.

The pound-for-pound king notched his career-defining victory. Terence "Bud" Crawford knocked out "Showtime" Shawn Porter in the 10th round to retain his WBO welterweight world title in front of a sold-out crowd of 11,568 at Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) made the fifth defense of the title he won in June 2018 and was presented with the stiffest test of his illustrious career. Porter (31-4-1, 17 KOs), who has fought every elite welterweight of this era, made things uncomfortable on the inside.

In a shocking ending, the past his best 35-year-old former IBF super bantamweight champion Kiko Martinez (43-10-2, 30 KOs) destroyed the heavy favorite IBF featherweight champion Kid Galahad (28-2, 17 KOs) by a sixth round knockout on Saturday night at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, England.

The victory for Martinez makes him a two-time world champion, and likely will result in a rematch. Although Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn didn’t say afterward, there’s likely a rematch clause in the contract because this was a voluntary defense for Galahad.