Turki Alalshikh wants to make a splash with his first boxing card in the United States.
Saudi Arabia’s chairman of General Entertainment Authority is powering a boxing event promoted by Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn. Terence Crawford is set to challenge Israil Madrimov for his IBF super welterweight title.
Hearn posted on X about a “huge press conference in NYC” on April 23 to alert fight fans to major news.
According to multiple reports, the card will take place at the Los Angeles Forum in Inglewood, California, on August 3. While Crawford’s return to the ring will be a draw, the rest of the planned card could make this event the biggest boxing card of 2024.
In addition to Crawford-Madrimov, the card will have Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz following up his impressive victory over Rolly Ramirez with a defense of his WBA junior welterweight title vs. Jose Valenzuela.
Heavyweight Andy Ruiz will fight Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller in a potential slugfest that may have dire consequences for the loser. Ruiz hasn’t fought in two years, and Miller lost his last bout via 10th-round TKO against Daniel DuBois.
If either man hopes to inject themselves into the prominent conversation around the heavyweight title, they will need a win on this date.
Lastly, we could see Vergil Ortiz Jr. facing Tim Tszyu in a potentially excellent fight. This one comes with a heavy contingency. Ortiz is scheduled to meet Thomas Dulorme on Saturday on the same DAZN show as the Jose Ramirez-Rances Bartholemy bout.
According to ESPN’s Mike Coppinger, Ortiz must defeat Dulorme to set up this clash. The winner of that fight would seemingly be in a position to fight for a world title in their next outing.
Crawford might be a potential opponent for the winner if he doesn’t fight Jaron Ennis, Sebastian Fundora, or better yet, Canelo Alvarez in his next fight following the clash with Madrimov.
Crawford hasn’t fought since he took down Errol Spence Jr. via 9th-round TKO in July 2023. The undefeated 36-year-old has expressed an interest in moving up to 168 pounds to face Alvarez, but the latter will defend his title against Jaime Munguia on May 4.
Alalshikh called out Crawford-Alvarez as one of the three fights he’d like to help facilitate, Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury and David Benavidez vs. the winner of Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol being the other two dream fights for the Saudi needle mover.
Perhaps those are fights we’ll see down the road. For now, the card reportedly scheduled for August 3 should land nicely on the summer boxing ledger.
