Namibian veteran Jeremia Nakathila in June<\/a>, before capturing the vacant belt against Noakes.<\/p>\n\u201cJust as the fight with Sam Noakes went down, I feel like this fight will set the tone for whatever is going to come next,\u201d Mason said at Tuesday\u2019s press conference. \u201cMe and my brothers in the city of Cleveland, we are putting on for the city. We are making sure that everything we do is big.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what he has seen from Cordina on tape, Mason said: \u201cHe\u2019s definitely a volume puncher. He has some good offense, quick, and has good feet. I would say he\u2019s well rounded in what he does. But everything he does, I do better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cordina Targets Second Weight Class<\/p>\n
Cordina (19-1, 9 KOs), a 2016 Olympian for Great Britain, won the IBF junior lightweight title in 2022 with a second-round knockout of Kenichi Ogawa. He was stripped of the belt before his first defense due to a hand injury, regained it with a decision over Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov in 2023, and lost it to Anthony Cacace last May. He has since posted wins over Jaret Gonzalez Quiroz and Gabriel Flores Jr.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 4th of July is a massive day for America but it\u2019s also a massive day for boxing,\u201d Cordina said. \u201cAbdullah is a good fighter, but I\u2019m looking to come f*** up his homecoming. I\u2019m coming to rip his heart out and bring it back to the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matchroom Sport chairman Eddie Hearn said in a release that Cordina \u201cshowed in California that he\u2019s not afraid to fight in hostile territory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carrington Defends Featherweight Title<\/p>\n
The co-feature pairs WBC featherweight titleholder Bruce \u201cShu Shu\u201d Carrington (17-0, 10 KOs) of Brownsville, Brooklyn, against Mexican challenger Rene Palacios (19-0-1, 10 KOs). Carrington won the interim WBC belt in July 2025 with a decision over Mateus Heita and was elevated to full champion after a ninth-round stoppage of Carlos Castro in January.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single fight I have is a statement made. I feel like this is one of those things to show people why I am a champion,\u201d Carrington said. \u201cEven though I have this title, a real champion is someone who can defend it successfully.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carrington also stated his goal of unifying the division: \u201cAt the end of the day, I just want to be the best. And I will be. I will be the first undisputed featherweight champion in this era.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palacios earned the title shot with a decision over Sulaiman Segawa, a common opponent. \u201cI made a promise to my mother that one day I would become a world champion, and I\u2019m going to keep it,\u201d Palacios said in a release.<\/p>\n
Tiger Johnson, Davis Round Out Televised Card<\/p>\n
Cleveland native Tiger Johnson (17-0, 8 KOs) faces unbeaten Christopher Guerrero (16-0, 9 KOs) in a 10-round welterweight bout. Johnson moved up from 140 pounds last year and most recently stopped Nicklaus Flauz in four rounds in November. Guerrero, a Mexican-born resident of Montreal, makes his United States debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means everything, it\u2019s a dream come true. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve been dreaming of since I was a little kid,\u201d Johnson said of fighting in Cleveland. \u201cIn Cleveland, we breed killers. We bring some of the best boxers in history.\u201d<\/p>\n
The televised opener features unbeaten lightweight Deric \u201cScooter\u201d Davis (11-0, 10 KOs) against Carlos Ramos (18-4-1, 10 KOs) in an eight-round contest. The undercard also includes separate four-round bouts for two of Mason\u2019s brothers, lightweight Abdurrahman Mason (2-0, 2 KOs) and super featherweight Ibrahim Mason (2-0, 2 KOs).<\/p>\n
Cleveland Backing<\/p>\n
Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb, who attended Tuesday\u2019s press conference, said the date carries added significance for the city. \u201cI think people don\u2019t realize how Cleveland has influenced boxing and the sport of boxing for years, and now people are starting to notice,\u201d Bibb said. \u201cEspecially come July 4th as we not only celebrate 250 years of America, but it\u2019s also Cleveland\u2019s 230th birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carl Moretti, Top Rank\u2019s Vice President of Boxing Operations, said the promoter has \u201ca long history of building guys in their hometown\u201d and pointed to the card as a continuation of that pattern.<\/p>\n
According to Top Rank, The Fight will air monthly on TNT Sports and DAZN platforms in the U.S. and worldwide on DAZN, with supplementary content distributed across Bleacher Report and House of Highlights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WBO lightweight titleholder Abdullah Mason will make the first defense of his world title against former IBF junior…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-650925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650925","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=650925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}