Rumor Mill

Samuel Scott54 said:Taylor-Ramirez fighting for total dominance in the super welterweight division is easily the biggest fight announced right now. My second pick would be Canelo - Saunders.

Canelo fights a week earlier, followed by Taylor-Ramirez just two weeks after him.

Jermall Charlo mentioned he's working on setting up a fight with GGG. Honestly, I don't see this happening given all the hurdles involved with promoters and networks. https://www.badlefthook.com/2021/3/2...xing-news-2021 . Beyond Charlo, there are links between GGG and Jaime Munguia (both are on DAZN), as well as Ryan Murat, who recently picked up the WBA belt Canelo vacated.

Oscar de la Hoya is making his return to the ring on July 4th via Triller, though we're still waiting to see who his opponent will be. https://www.boxingscene.com/oscar-de...-event--156435

Pacquiao vs. Crawford on June 5th? https://theathletic.com/news/manny-p...s/25165uY6Ina5

Babić takes on Nick Webb this summer. https://twitter.com/MichaelBensonn/s...09604375293952

Miguel Cotto vs. Juan Manuel Marquez on June 12th—about ten years too late. https://www.badlefthook.com/2021/3/3...xing-news-2021

The "old guard" is making a comeback, and honestly, the big one to watch is the final showdown between Briggs and Klitschko. Briggs has plenty of reasons to be pissed—he never got his shot when he was actually holding the belts, and this time, there’s way more money on the line too. I mean, they’ll probably both walk away with fat paychecks regardless, but still...
Check out these clips for a quick refresher. I seriously died laughing.😁






In this video, you see Briggs getting up in Wilder's face while Lennox Lewis hangs out nearby, filming the whole thing on his smartphone. Shannon is out here claiming he’s gonna beat him up like a little kid when his turn comes. Because there’s only one true "Champ." Shannon - "Cannon " Briggs. Period. No one else.😁☕

This thread is pretty much dead, yet people are still throwing random UFC matchups at me:

Conor - Chandler (Dana says he's cool with it)
Gaethje - Dariush
Oliveira - Makhachev
Poirier - Diaz
Burns - Masvidal
Chimaev - Colby

And those are just some of the lightweight and welterweight fights being floated after UFC 277 (honestly, most of this is basically set in stone by now).

I left Usman - Edwards off the list on purpose, since that one's pretty much a done deal—we're just waiting to see if Usman can actually get the green light from his doctors.

I feel like Chimaev - Diaz doesn't make any sense at all. It feels like the UFC just wants to screw Diaz over, so they handed him this matchup to get him dismantled.

I’d love to see Chimaev - Colby, but I doubt Colby would ever agree to it. Personally, I wouldn't give Islam a title shot yet; who has he actually beaten from the top 10? He just took on an exhausted Hooker on short notice and called it a day. In my book, he needs to face Dariush first.

Pairing Justin against either Dustin or Chandler would be incredible—both fights would be absolute classics. Imagine Justin vs. Poirier or Chandler vs. Conor.

Burns - Masvidal makes total sense.

Gaethje - Dariush? No way, I don't buy it. Aren't those two supposed to be good friends?

Not even close, that was just some article listing what they thought were the most logical matchups. Maybe they overlooked the friendships involved, but we've seen good buddies square off before. I mean, weren't Arlovski and Brown basically best friends? And look how that turned into a total slugfest.

I honestly don't think the UFC is going to pair Justin up with any top-tier grapplers for a while. It just kills his market value, and I don't see why they’d bother risking that. It makes way more sense to send him back against someone like Dustin, or maybe even a matchup with Conor or Diaz. We're talking about high-stakes, entertaining fights that pull huge numbers and actually give him a fighting chance.

brisktrucker51 said:I haven't the slightest clue; I just saw some article about the most logical matchups. Maybe they overlooked the friendship aspect, but they've already fought before as good friends. Weren't Arlovski and Brown best buddies? And they still delivered a total slugfest.

Honestly, I think one of them mentioned they'd never fight each other, similar to how Burns and Luque are positioned.

LoM, you make a fair point. It’s a real shame regarding that LW division—Justin and Dustin are elite fighters, but it's unlikely they'll be chasing titles for a third time. Still, they have enough talent to put on some entertaining fights.