With Matchroom vs Queensbury’s 5v5 card fast approaching, rumours have begun to circulate around a potential USA vs Mexico 5v5 staged as part of Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Season, with a headline event of Canelo vs Crawford.
The Matchroom vs Queensbury 5v5, originally planned as the undercard for Dmitry Bivol vs Artur Beterbiev, before Beterbiev’s injury, is coming up next week, with many fans excited by what is a fairly new type of card in boxing, where politics between promoters has for too long stopped some great fights being made.
The card will show which promoter, Frank Warren or Eddie Hearn, will get bragging rights for their stable, with each points win being 1 point, each stoppage win 2 points, and double points for their assigned captain. Hearn has chosen ‘The Bronze Bomber’ Deontay Wilder as his captain, with Wilder set to face ‘Big Bang’ Zhilei Zhang at the top of the card. Queensbury’s captain is Hamzah Sheeraz, who is going in against Matchroom’s Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams.
Other fights on the card include Nick Ball vs Ray Ford, Filip Hrgovic vs Daniel DuBois, and Craig Richards vs Willy Hutchinson.
It is no surprise this format has been popular, allowing viewers to side with an entire team rather than just one fighter, and is understandable why this may be replicated in a USA vs Mexico 5v5 card this year.
Canelo vs Crawford
The rumoured card consists of the following fights:
- Terence Crawford vs Canelo Alvarez (Super Middleweight)
- Caleb Plant vs Jaime Munguia (Super Middleweight)
- Shakur Stevenson vs Isaac Cruz (Lightweight)
- Brandon Figueroa vs Luis Alberto Lopez (Featherweight)
- Stephen Fulton vs Luis Nery (Featherweight)
This is, of course, to be taken with a pinch of salt, as a few of these fighters are already booked in this year, and in a sport as unpredictable as boxing, could be off the card should they lose in their upcoming bouts. Examples of this are Isaac Cruz who is scheduled to fight Jose Valenzuela on the undercard of Terence Crawford versus Israil Madrimov. Lopez is set to be fighting Angelo Leo this year too.
For Munguia, a fight against Plant would be a road to redemption after his recent defeat to Canelo Alvarez. Stephen Fulton and Luis Nery, too, would look to get back on track after both suffering stoppage losses to Naoya Inoue, albeit with Nery being the first man to ever knock Inoue down.
As great as the card is, there is the potential that some of these fights do not go ahead. Other potential match-ups could include a heavyweight bout between Mexico’s Andy Ruiz Jr and America’s Jermaine Franklin, after Franklin’s dominant performance against Devin Vargas last night. This would rely on Ruiz Jr getting past Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller on the upcoming Crawford v Madrimov card.
Though many fans are still holding out for an all-Mexican war for Canelo against David Benavidez, this card is undoubtedly great for boxing.
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