It’s a fair question to ask: Why on earth would there be two major boxing shows in New York on the same night?
On March 3, Barclays Center will feature a boxing card headlined by the WBC heavyweight championship fight between the champion Deontay Wilder and unbeaten challenger Luis “King Kong” Ortiz. The main event, along with two other bouts, will be televised by Showtime. Meanwhile, at the Garden Theater, Sergey Kovalev will defend his WBO light heavyweight title against Igor Mikhalkin. HBO will televise that bout.
The Garden card, promoted by Main Events, was announced first and, while conflicts are rare given reasonable weather, both arenas should be packed. It will be Kovalev’s second straight appearance in the Theater after winning his title against Vyacheslav Shabranskyy last November.
“I can only worry about things I can control,” said Kathy Duva, CEO of Main Events. “We’re very happy with the response thus far from the fans with the ticket sales. At this point we’ve already exceeded what we did last time. We’re expecting a big robust crowd. This is a great show, top to bottom.”
The respective boxing cards should draw different types of audiences. Kovalev-Mikhalkin is a matchup of two hard-punching Russians. It will be a fistic challenge of national pride and their fans should comprise the bulk of the 5,000 seat arena. The Garden Theater has always be been haven for raucous ethnic crowds. March 3 should be no different.
In the co-main event, Dmitry Bivol also of Russia defends his WBA light heavyweight title against Sullivan Barrera of Cuba.
“I’m very excited about my debut in New York and, of course, to be fighting at Madison Square Garden,” said Bivol, who is unbeaten and a champion is just 12 professional fights. “My trainer’s dream is to have his main fighter fight in the main event in Madison Square Garden. This is a small step towards that dream for him.”
Barclays Center should at least match the 12,000 that showed up for Errol Spence’s victory in January. The attraction of a heavyweight championship fight is big enough, but the card also features Andre Dirrell against Jose Uzcategui in a rematch and New York-based Alicia Napoleon fighting for the vacant WBA women’s super middleweight title against Femke Hermans.
Ortiz was scheduled to fight Wilder last November when a medication he was taking for high blood pressure triggered a positive test for a banned substance.
“It’s going to be a hell of a fight and somebody’s going to hit the canvas,” Ortiz said. “While he keeps hyping himself and hyping himself and trying to believe in himself, it’s going to be a bad night for him.”
The New York Athletic Commission has more than enough medical personnel to handle the two shows, having split duty on Nov. 4 when Wilder defeated Bermane Stiverne at Barclays and the UFC hosted a show in the arena at Madison Square Garden.
Before boxing heads to New York, HBO will broadcast a triple-header from the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Saturday. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai of Thailand defends his super flyweight title against former champion Juan Francisco Estrada of Mexico. Rungvisai (44-4-1, 40 KOs) is coming off back-to-back wins over former champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez. Estrada (36-2, 25 KOs) has won 10 straight bouts since losing to Gonzalez in 2012.
Carlos Cuadras of Mexico (36-2-1, 27 KOs) takes on McWilliams Arroyo (16-3, 14 KOs) of Puerto Rico in a 10-round super flyweight bout, and Donnie Nietes (40-1-4, 22 KOs) of the Philippines fights Juan Carlos Reveco (39-3, 19 KOs) of Argentina in a flyweight showdown.