Friday, July 28th 2016
Adonis Stevenson vs. Thomas Williams, Jr.
Canadian star Adonis Stevenson (27-1) has held on to his WBC light heavyweight title for more than 3 years. After being taunted by Sergey Kovalev and with Andre Ward entering the light heavyweight ranks, Stevenson is knocking the dust off of a 10-month layoff to face Thomas Williams, Jr.
Williams (20-1), who knocked out Edwin Rodrigues in April, is looking to dethrone a champion whose only loss came in 2010 before he had any hardware to boast about.
Stevenson, 38, earned the title with a 76-second stoppage of Chad Dawson in June 2013 and will attempt to make the seventh successful defense. His last fight was in September where he bested fellow southpaw Tommy Karpency with a third round TKO in Toronto. It was just Stevensons fourth contest in the last two years.
Catch all the action live from Centre Videotron in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada live tonight on Spike at 9pm EST / 9pm PST.
Saturday, July 29th 2016
Leo Santa Cruz vs. Carl Frampton
Leo Santa Cruz became WBA Super World Featherweight Champion on Aug. 29, 2015 when he beat Abner Mares by decision in a Fight of the Year candidate. He is currently 11-0 in world title fights.
Santa Cruz (32-0-1), a Mexican fighter currently living in Rosemead, California, has the distinction of having defeated seven current or former world champions and is still undefeated.
He hasn’t tasted defeat and I know he’s going to come with everything because he’s not going to want to let that all go, said Santa Cruz on the pre-fight media call. But at the same time that’s also more motivation for me, because I know he hasn’t lost and I want to be the first one to give him his first loss.
Irishman Frampton (22-0) is stepping up in weight for the first time to fight for Santa Cruzs belt. This will only be Framptons second time fighting in the States and after delivering excitement for years as a champion in the U.K, he looks to finally gain a U.S. following.
I’ve been involved in some pretty big fights back home in the UK which haven’t really caught the public’s imagination in the States, said Frampton on the pre-fight media call.
But I think that this fight will. It’s a world-class opponent who’s coming to win and he really believes that he’s going to win this fight.
Mikey Garcia vs. Elio Rojas
The co-main event features Mikey Garcia (34-0), who returns to action after a 2 year absence from competition. The younger brother of former fighter turned notable trainer, Robert Garcia, takes on former WBC world featherweight champion, Elio Rojas.
Rojas lost the title in 2012 via unanimous decision to Johnny Gonzalez and didnt fight again until August 2014, where he won a non-title unanimous decision. Rojas is back after a two-year hiatus of his own.
With the politics of boxing taking Mikey Garcia out of competition for two years, he is ready to get back to his winning ways, claiming that the layoff did nothing to affect his work ethic and conditioning.
Catch all the action from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn live on Showtime at 9pm EST / 6pm PST
MMA
UFC 201: Robbie Lawler vs. Tyron Woodley
Sometimes teammates have to fight each other to get to the next level and although most wont when a title is on the line, affiliation doesnt matter.
American Top Team star and UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler will defend his belt against teammate and wrestling standout Tyron Woodley.
Woodley appeared in the movie Straight Outta Compton as one of N.W.A. group member Ice Cubes entourage. Woodley also has been an outspoken proponent of the police brutality in his native Ferguson, Missouri.
Woodley has been chasing a title his whole career and came close against Nate Marquardt in the now defunct Strikeforce promotion back in 2012. He was brutally knocked out in the fourth round.
Lawler, is a true MMA veteran that has been winning and losing titles along his storied career. Often considered the most underrated star in MMA, Lawler quietly has dominated the last two years, winning the UFC welterweight title along the way at UFC 181.
After knocking out Rory MacDonald in an epic cage match that pushed both men into the nether regions of consciousness, Lawler took a split decision victory in his last outing at UFC 195 against Carlos Condit.
The action will be real from the Philips Arena in Atlanta on pay-per-view at 10pm EST / 7pm PST.
