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LOS ANGELES — Tuesday at the Fox studio lot in Studio City, Premier Boxing Champions and Fox announced the first rollout of fights to take place across their networks through April.
Nearly every fighter announced for these cards were in attendance, making it a star-studded event. Chris Myers hosted, and he will be part of Fox’s broadcast team along with Lennox Lewis.
The crown jewel of the announcement event was Fox’s first pay-per-view venture, when Errol Spence Jr. and Mikey Garcia square off March 16 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
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Fox had already announced its first show for Dec. 22 featuring the Charlo brothers at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Jermell Charlo will face Tony Harrison in the co-main event; Jermall Charlo will face Willie Monroe Jr. in the main event. Heavyweight Dominic Breazeale will kick off the broadcast against Carlos Negron.
Kicking things off in 2019 will be super middleweight titlist Jose Uzcategui against Caleb Plant on Jan. 13 at Club Nokia in Los Angeles.
On Jan. 26 at Barclays Center, Keith Thurman will return to the ring after a lengthy layoff against Josesito Lopez on Fox. Adam Kownacki faces off Gerald Washington in a heavyweight co-feature.
Leo Santa Cruz will face Miguel Flores on Feb. 16 on Fox at a site to be determined in Los Angeles. An intriguing bout between Omar Figueroa and John Molina will open the card.
On Feb. 23, Anthony Dirrell and Avni Yildirim will square off for the vacant WBC title at 168 pounds. The belt was left vacant by the suspension of David Benavidez. That bout is headed to FS1.
Shawn Porter will make the first defense of his newly won WBC welterweight title against Yordenis Ugas on March 9 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. That fight will be televised on Fox.
In the NFL offseason, Sunday, March 24, will be reserved for boxing. Former titleholder Lamont Peterson will face Sergey Lipinets in a crossroads bout on FS1 in Oxon Hill, Md.
Peter Quillin and Caleb Truax will meet in a 160-pound super middleweight bout on April 13 on FS1. The bout will take place on Truax’s home turf in Minneapolis.
Danny Garcia will return to the ring on April 20 following a close loss of his title to Shawn Porter. He will face Adrian Granados at a site to be determined; Fox will televise the bout. Granados wasn’t able to make Tuesday’s event because he was sick, but Fox rolled footage of a video he sent in talking trash to Garcia. Garcia responded by saying Granados should stay in bed; otherwise, Garcia will send him back there.
Overall, this is an interesting schedule of fights. There aren’t that many A-level bouts but there are many solid B-level fights. The important thing is for the PBC to keep its fighters active. So many of them are coming off lengthy layoffs and this Fox deal, coupled with the new Showtime deal, should mean we should see these guys three or four times a year.
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