After weeks of speculation regarding the status of Premier Boxing Champions, all doubts were laid to rest when Showtime Sports announced its presentation of seven marquee boxing matches.
The bouts pit top-10 rated champions in the prime of their careers against fellow top-10 rated challengers over four consecutive months beginning in December.
The bold lineup includes two long-awaited championship matchups, Jesus Cuellar vs. Abner Mares and Jermall Charlo vs. Julian Williams.
Also, there’s a cant-miss featherweight rematch between Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz, and a long-awaited welterweight unification fight between undefeated champions Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia.
Recently, fights like Gennady Golovkin vs. Kell Brook and Canelo Alvarez vs. Amir Khan have raised the ire of the boxing public for weight class mismatches.
Highly anticipated matchups like Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin or Terence Crawford vs. Manny Pacquiao, all HBO fighters, have not manifested and have had fight fans seeing red for some time now.
Showtime is claiming to have produced the strongest lineup of world-class boxing events of any network this year, delivering 18 world title fights devoid of mismatches and tune-up fights. They state evidence to the fact in their two Fight of the Year contenders: Keith Thurman vs. Shawn Porter and Leo Santa Cruz vs. Carl Frampton.
There was also a Knockout of the Year frontrunner by Heavyweight champion, Deontay Wilder; and demolitions of Charles Martin and Dominic Breazeale by UK standout, Anthony Joshua.
After news that Danny Garcia will return in a non-title tune-up fight against Samuel Vargas in Philadelphia next month, the news that his match-up against Thurman is done is great news for 2017.
Al Haymon, the architect behind Premier Boxing Champions reminds the world to never count him and his strategy out.
