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Fights involving former world titleholders Jessie Magdaleno and Jose Pedraza are on tap for June cards that Top Rank is in the process of putting together as it plans to bring boxing back with no spectators due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Top Rank’s first show is tentatively due to take place June 9 at an MGM property in Las Vegas, most likely the MGM Grand, with featherweight world titlist Shakur Stevenson headlining in a non-title bout against Rafael Rivera. Magdaleno and Pedraza are due to appear on the next two cards, sources told BoxingScene.
Former junior featherweight titlist Magdaleno is due to face Yenifel Vicente in a 10-round bout contracted at 128 pounds on June 11 and Pedraza, who has won belts at junior lightweight and lightweight, is slated to meet Mikkel LesPierre in a 10-rounder at 141 pounds on June 18. Both cards, like all of Top Ranks events, will air on an ESPN platform. It is unclear if the bouts are due to be main events or undercard bouts.
Magdaleno (27-1, 18 KOs), 28, a southpaw from Las Vegas, had been due to face Sakaria Lukas in a 10-round featherweight bout at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York on March 14 on the undercard of Stevenson’s first defense against Miguel Marriaga. But that card was canceled two days beforehand, the first of numerous boxing events that were eventually called off due to the coronavirus.
“When Jessie was going to fight in New York his weight was good and he was excited to fight, so he was very disappointed when the card was called off,” Frank Espinoza, Magdaleno’s manager, told BoxingScene. “Jessie is very anxious to get back in the ring. He wants to start making some noise this year. He’s excited about the fight coming up and hopefully he can fight for a title. He is (ranked) No. 1 (at featherweight) by the WBC.”
As for boxing with no spectators, Espinoza said, of course, his fighters would prefer to have fans in attendance, but said they will have no choice but to get used to fighting without crowds for the time being.
“Everyone wants to fight in front of crowds, but crowds or no crowds, my guys are ready to go back to work and ready fight,” Espinoza said. “I think the viewership will be huge because people have been missing boxing.”
Magdaleno has won two fights in a row at featherweight, including against Rivera and former junior featherweight titlist Rico Ramos, since losing his junior featherweight world title by 11th-round knockout to Isaac Dogboe in April 2018. Dominican Republic native Vicente (36-4-2, 28 KOs), 33, is coming off a fourth-round knockout of Rodolfo Hernandez Montoya in October.
Like Magdaleno, Pedraza (26-3, 13 KOs), 31, of Puerto Rico, also had a scheduled fight called off due to the coronavirus. He was due to fight Javier Molina on May 9 in at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California, in the co-feature of the card headlined by unified junior welterweight world titlist Jose Ramirez’s mandatory defense against former titleholder Viktor Postol.
Now, Pedraza, who is coming off a 10-round decision loss to former world title challenger Jose Zepeda in September, is being lined up to face LesPierre. In his last fight, LesPierre (22-1-1, 10 KOs), 35, of Brooklyn, New York, won an eight-round decision over Roody Pierre Paul in December to rebound from losing a unanimous decision challenging then-junior welterweight world titlist Maurice Hooker in March 2019.
In addition to planning bouts without fans in attendance, Top Rank, which is still waiting for final guidelines from the Nevada State Athletic Commission on how to proceed with its events, has notified fighters that it will provide cutmen to work corners in order to reduce the number of people needed to travel to Las Vegas for its events, a source with knowledge of the plans told BoxingScene.
The source also said that Top Rank will further reduce the number of people on site for events by limiting the number of people it will allow to travel with the fighter to the event to two.
Dan Rafael was ESPN.com’s senior boxing writer for fifteen years, and covered the sport for five years at USA Today. He was the 2013 BWAA Nat Fleischer Award winner for excellence in boxing journalism.