A few notes from around the boxing world:
- The rematch between middleweight titleholder Daniel Jacobs and Sergio Mora is being moved. The fight was supposed to serve as the co-feature on the Showtime-televised undercard of the Leo Santa Cruz-Carl Frampton featherweight title fight at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, the same arena where Jacobs stopped Mora in the second round last Aug. 1 when Mora could not continue after suffering a fractured right ankle on a knockdown. The rematch will be delayed until August or September, Mora told ESPN.com, although he is not quite sure of the reason.
“July 30 is off the table,” Mora told ESPN.com Friday. “They told me to take a week off and adjust to the new scheduled, which is August or September. I would love to have fought July 30, one year almost to the day of the first fight. I think there’s some kind of poetic justice to fighting him again exactly a year later. But I’ll wait a little longer and have a little more time to prepare. No biggie for me.”
Jacobs (31-1, 28 KOs) has not fought since knocking out Brooklyn rival Peter Quillin in 85 seconds to retain his belt on Dec. 5. Because of the ankle injury, Mora (28-4-2, 9 KOs), a former junior middleweight titleholder, has not fought since the fight against Jacobs.
- Junior featherweight titlist Nonito Donaire (37-3, 24 KOs), who retained his title via third-round knockout of Zsolt Bedak on April 23 in Cebu City, Philippines, could be headed back to his native country to make his second defense this fall. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told ESPN.com that Donaire probably will fight next in Manila against mandatory challenger — and fellow Top Rank fighter — Jessie Magdaleno (23-0, 17 KOs). “He has to fight Jessie next, so that is what I am working on,” Arum said. “I’m trying to do is raise sufficient money so I can do the fight in the Philippines.” Arum said the bout would take place in September or October.
- Perhaps the HBO and Showtime fights that went head-to-head this past Saturday hurt both shows because neither scored strong viewership. According to Nielsen Media Research, Vasyl Lomachenko’s spectacular fifth-round knockout of Rocky Martinez to win a junior lightweight title averaged 585,000 viewers in Lomachenko’s first HBO main event, peaking at 613,000. Lightweight Felix Verdejo’s fifth-round knockout of unknown Juan Jose Martinez averaged 513,000 viewers, peaking at 538,000. Overall, the telecast averaged 532,000. On Showtime, junior welterweight John Molina’s upset decision against Ruslan Provodnikov in the main event averaged 465,000 viewers (568,000 peak). Junior middleweight contender Demetrius Adrande’s 12th-round knockout of Willie Nelson in the co-feature averaged 336,000 viewers (364,000 peak). The opener, Dejan Zlaticanin’s third-round knockout of Franklin Mamani to win a vacant lightweight world title averaged 301,000 viewers (330,000 peak).
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