2020 Olympic silver medalist Torrez has long been earmarked as one of the future players in the heavyweight division, and five years on from his success in the delayed Tokyo Games, we finally get a yardstick opponent to measure the American southpaw against.<\/p>\n
Cuban-born Miami-resident Frank Sanchez is no joke. His one career defeat came at the fast hands of Agit Kabayel, but a 2021 win over Efe Ajagba is one that\u2019s looking better with age.<\/p>\n
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If we\u2019re being honest, this fight gets notched up a couple of places due to its location \u2014 as bizarre as it is historic under the Pyramids in Giza. And sorry Oleksandr, but this is one list that you just aren\u2019t making.<\/p>\n
4. O’Shaquie Foster vs. Raymond Ford, 12 rounds, for Foster’s WBC super featherweight title, May 30<\/p>\n
In any normal month of boxing, O\u2019Shaquie Foster vs. Ray Ford \u2014 who meet inside Houston\u2019s Fertitta Center for Foster\u2019s WBC super featherweight title \u2014 would top the slate as the one to watch. But as you\u2019ll see from entries No. 3-1, the competition is fierce in May!<\/p>\n
Foster (24-3, 12 KOs), who was last seen outclassing Stephen Fulton in December<\/a>, has dropped just one of those defeats across his past 15 outings. His meeting with the 27-year-old southpaw, Ford, marks the second defence of Foster\u2019s current reign after reclaiming the WBC title following a two-fight series with Robson Conceicao.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Ford has won three on the spin since jumping up to 130 pounds following the sole defeat of his career to Nick Ball, and now gets the chance to prove his learnings from what was a tight but tough defeat against the ferocious Liverpudlian in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n And the best thing about this fight? The clear intention for Top Rank and Matchroom Boxing to work closer together now that they share a network in DAZN.<\/p>\n Fabio Wardley (left) and Daniel Dubois face off as Frank Warren watches during a press conference in London.<\/p>\n (James Manning – PA Images via Getty Images)3. Fabio Wardley vs. Daniel Dubois, 12 rounds, for Wardley’s WBO heavyweight title, May 9<\/p>\n If you like your heavyweights to hit hard, then boy do we have a fight for you.<\/p>\n This WBO title fight between England\u2019s Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois is titled \u201cDon\u2019t Blink\u201d for good reason, as these concussive heavyweights meet in Manchester for more than just shiny hardware.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The winner inside the Co-op Live Arena will hold the missing key to yet another undisputed heavyweight title fight with the king \u2014 and money-man \u2014 of the division, Oleksandr Usyk, with Wardley seemingly being the only British heavyweight left not to have already mixed it up with the Ukrainian great.<\/p>\n If it\u2019s Dubois who wins, surely a third dance with Usyk will be dodged, but \u201cDDD\u2019s\u201d stock would shoot sky-high once again.<\/p>\n It\u2019s these risk-reward payoffs in the most dangerous of divisions that make for the most intriguing fights, and Wardley vs. Dubois feels like it\u2019s on a knife\u2019s edge without a single punch thrown.<\/p>\n 2. Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez vs. David Benavidez, 12 rounds, for Ramirez’s WBO and WBA cruiserweight titles, May 2<\/p>\n Back when this fight was announced, there was a collective groan within the boxing community.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Not through any fault of \u201cZurdo\u201d Ramirez or David Benavidez, but more that the name Jai Opetaia wasn\u2019t involved in the signature cruiserweight fight of the year, and that Benavidez wasn\u2019t meeting Dmitry Bivol or Artur Beterbiev at light heavyweight.<\/p>\n But time moves fast, fighters move to Zuffa, and suddenly we are a week out from this all-Mexican fight over Cinco de Mayo weekend and it\u2019s finally receiving its deserved flowers<\/a>.<\/p>\n A \u201cCanelo\u201d-less Cinco de Mayo celebration needed something big to fill the void, and putting 25 pounds on the Mexican \u201cMonster\u2019s\u201d frame to jump up to this new weight will well and truly put Benavidez\u2019s unbeaten record under the spotlight.<\/p>\n These two own 79 professional wins between them and have shared over 200 rounds in sparring over the years, but all this acquired experience and knowledge may become redundant once the bell goes and these two Mexican marvels bite down on their gumshields and go to war.<\/p>\n Naoya Inoue (L) and Junto Nakatani pose for photos following a weigh-in ahead of their Tokyo match.<\/p>\n (YUICHI YAMAZAKI via Getty Images)1. Naoya Inoue vs. Junto Nakatani, 12 rounds, for Inoue’s undisputed super bantamweight title, May 2<\/p>\n This is probably the contest that fight fans have been looking forward to the most over the past 12 months.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n This all-Japanese superfight for the undisputed super bantamweight championship ticks every box imaginable if you were to build the perfect fight from scratch<\/a>, with the mystique of a unique Tokyo setting adding sprinkles on top of May\u2019s headliner.<\/p>\n Inoue has been locked in a battle for boxing\u2019s No. 1 pound-for-pound spot<\/a> for more than half a decade now, amassing an unblemished 32-0 record, stopping 27 of his foes. Yet there are suspicions he is on the slide at age 33<\/a>, just in time, perhaps, for southpaw Junto Nakatani (also 32-0) to grab the baton that\u2019s been in the \u201cMonster\u2019s\u201d possession throughout 27 consecutive world title fights.<\/p>\n But if Inoue is successful in defending his titles, then conversations around his standing in the all-time pantheon of boxing greats will accelerate. And rightly so.<\/p>\n So, keep your eyes on an unmissable night inside the Tokyo Dome this Saturday between two incredible athletes attempting to make history \u2014 and maybe, just maybe, going one better than James \u201cBuster\u201d Douglas did in upsetting Mike Tyson inside the same venue 36 years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When I asked NSYNC back in 2000 what month of 2026 they predicted would produce the best slate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,5383,13038,81762,107762,56382,130344,13040,13035,5384,239196,82,239197],"class_list":["post-641467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-daniel-dubois","tag-david-benavidez","tag-fabio-wardley","tag-frank-sanchez","tag-frank-warren","tag-gilberto-zurdo-ramirez","tag-junto-nakatani","tag-naoya-inoue","tag-oleksandr-usyk","tag-raymond-ford","tag-sports","tag-tokyo-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Fabio](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/961fa8ab-d3a2-41f9-9c7a-a133b43afa8e.jpeg\"\/)
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