The undercard is shaping up for Top Rank’s world title twinbill on Saturday, March 2 at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York. The main event is the vacant WBA featherweight world title showdown between Otabek Kholmatov and Raymond Ford with IBF featherweight kingpin Luis Alberto “El Venado” Lopez defending his crown against Reiya Abe in the co-feature. Kholmatov-Ford, Lopez-Abe and undercard fights will stream live and exclusively in the U.S. on ESPN+.
- Unbeaten welterweight Brian Norman Jr. (25-0, 19 KOs) will defend his WBO International title against Janelson Bocachica (17-2-1, 11 KOs) in a 10-rounder.
- Middleweight Nico Ali Walsh (9-1, 5 KOs) will make his 2024 debut in a six-rounder against an opponent to be named. The grandson of “The Greatest” starts his 2024 following a points triumph over Noel Lafargue last December in Conakry, Guinea.
- Undefeated U.S. Olympic silver medalist Duke Ragan (9-0, 1 KO) will see action in an eight-round featherweight clash against Brandon Valdes (15-4, 7 KOs).
- In a battle of undefeated junior welterweights, Dominican Olympian Rohan Polanco (11-0, 7 KOs) will lock horns against Tarik Zaina (13-0-1, 8 KOs).
- U.S. Olympian Troy Isley (11-0, 4 KOs) will face Marcos Hernandez (16-6-2, 3 KOs) in an eight-round middleweight bout.
- Heavyweight prospect Brandon Moore (13-0, 8 KOs) takes on Helaman Olguin (9-6-1, 4 KOs) in an eight-rounder.
- Floyd “Cashflow” Diaz (10-0, 3 KOs) puts his unbeaten record on the line in an eight-round bantamweight tilt against Edwin Rodriguez (12-7-2, 5 KOs).
- Junior welterweight prospect Bryce Mills (14-1, 5 KOs) will square off against Gerffred Ngayot (6-1, 5 KOs) in a six-rounder.
The grandson of “The Greatest” must just be doing it for money, where can his boxing career actually go
The grandson of the falsest is garbage. I say throw him in with a mid level fighter, so he gets knocked out and we will be done with him once and for all.
Kinda surprised that Venado isn’t the main event in this one.
Troy Isley got a gift in his last fight against Vladimir Hernandez
Nico Ali Walsh looks nothing like his grandfather, so I never really equate the two. I know “The Greatest” was part-Irish, but Nico looks more like Antonio Margarito than gramps.
“The grandson of “The Greatest” starts his 2024 following a points triumph over Noel Lafargue last December in Conakry, Guinea.”
I’m assuming that was an exhibition? No mention of it on either fighter’s Boxrec page…
I remember seeing it on their schedule page but then it disappeared right before the fight and I wasn’t sure it even happened until a little while later.
But I’ve seen some of it and it looks legit (it’s actually a pretty good fight). The entire thing is on YT. Shane Mosley was there, Hasim Rahman too…. think I’ll go watch the rest of it now, actually.
Ok, found that fight, along with a video of a parade they had for Ali-Walsh. He’s a bigger deal there than I would have imagined.
Just curious, any idea who else was on that card? I’m assuming Ali-Walsh was the Main? Not seeing any more info on it.
Interesting location for this card.
Apparently it was a pretty big card, I don’t know how many of these fights actually took place though. Recognize a couple of names, Julio Cesar La Cruz and Sofiane Oumiha.
The easiest way I’ve found to see the entire card is to Google “Gala de Boxe International: Fight4Africa” and it should be the first link, but if it isn’t for you, what you’re looking for is the Tapology page for the event. Tapology is an mma site, but they also do at least attempt to keep records for boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, grappling – everything.
Got it. Solomon Adebayo-Richard Lartey looks like the most interesting fight on the card, and it’s on YouTube as well. Will watch that one now. Thanks.
Ahhh. Looks like that same YT has most of the fights on that card (or at least 10 of them). Watched Adebayo – Lartey. Think Lartey just gassed out.
Lartey was in nowhere near as in-shape for this one as he was for Dubois a few years back. He seemed pretty decent back then, but not sure how seriously he’s taking things now.
The ref paused the action after Lartey raised his right arm in the 3rd round. Not sure what was going on there, but I thought Lartey may have had an injured arm. He turned Southpaw briefly just after that.
I really just tuned in to see Adebayo, who had the glossy record at 13-0 12 KOs. Doesn’t look like he’s going to be much of a thing outside of Africa.
No. Adebayo isn’t going anywhere. I wouldn’t be too surprised if his career ended up like Lartey’s: Build up a shiny record in Africa, get a big fight in Europe and then become a journeyman type.