PBC has finally announced their first boxing event of the year and will make its televised debut on Amazon Prime. Tim Tszyu will be headlining the show against Keith Thurman, while Rolando “Rolly” Romero will be featured in the co-main event as he faces Isaac Cruz. Further complementing the card will be the long overdue mandatory middleweight bout between WBA champion Erislandy Lara and mandatory challenger Michael Zerafa. The show is set to be held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Former WBC super welterweight interim champion Sebastian Fundora (20-1-1, 13 KO’s) will also participate in the event and face 154 lbs Ukrainian contender Serhii Bohachuk (23-1-, 23 KO’s). This match will be for the WBC super welterweight interim title, which was previously held by Brian Mendoza (22-3, 16 KO’s) who in turn had won it by defeating Fundora in April of 2023.
Mendoza later lost that year to the then newly-crowned WBO 154 lbs champion Tim Tszyu (24-0, 17 KO’s) by unanimous decision (UD), likely prompting the WBC to force Mendoza to relinquish the title―even though it was not made available during his bout with Tszyu.
The headlining bout between Tim Tszyu and Keith Thurman (30-1, 22 KO’s) will reportedly not involve Tszyu’s WBO super welterweight title due to the WBO’s refusal to sanction the fight in lieu of Thurman’s lack of activity over the past 23 months.
While the WBO has yet to confirm this news, it essentially means that the bout between the two fighters might not main event, and at the very least will not be considered a pivotal fight in any manner to the sport. Thurman’s lack of activity over nearly two years points towards what will be a one-sided fight in heavy favor of Tszyu, thus severely devaluing the match-up if there is no world title on the line.
Rolando Romero (15-1, 13 KO’s) revealed his desire to fight Isaac Cruz (25-2-1, 17 KO’s) earlier this week―even after Ryan Garcia (24-1, 20 KO’s) had asserted that he would be the one to face Romero. With the latter disproven, questions now revolve around the legitimacy of their fight being a world title fight as the WBA super lightweight title is set to be made available during this bout, in accordance with the champion-in-recess’ (Romero) duties to defend the title upon return from injury or other exceptional circumstances.
As the WBO appears to be against Tszyu defending his title against an inactive fighter in Thurman, it was expected that Romero would face repercussions for facing Cruz who will be debuting at super lightweight for this fight. While Cruz is currently considered a lightweight contender, he is currently not ranked as a super lightweight in any official boxing rankings and leaps over deserving challenger Ismael Barroso (25-4-2, 23 KO’s) who had specifically fought for and won the WBA super lightweight title to gain the opportunity to face Romero once more.
Romero and Barroso fought last year in May in a bout where the then-vacant WBA 140 lbs title had been on the line. Barroso suffered a controversial stoppage loss, and earlier this month appeared positioned revenge his loss after stopping Ohara Davies (25-3, 18 KO’s) to become the WBA super lightweight interim champion. Instead, Cruz will receive this opportunity, despite having never fought at 140 lbs and having done nothing of note but fight a fellow contender in Giovanni Cabrera (21-1, 7 KO’s) in July of 2022 to a split-decision win.
Another title fight will be on the card and held between WBA middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (29-3, 17 KO’s) and his mandatory challenger Michael Zerafa (31-4, 19 KO’s). This fight was supposed to occur somewhere around the middle of last year after first having been mandated by the WBA in March, only for it to be delayed as Lara was expected to face Danny Garcia instead.
Rather than stripping Lara for being inactive and failing to meet his duties as a champion by neglecting to arrange a voluntary defense against Garcia all while sidestepping his mandatory challenger in Zerafa, the WBA instead opted to simply re-order the match and it will now be featured on the undercard of the March 30 fight.
Overall, the card features well-known names that will draw plenty of viewers for PBC’s debut on Amazon Prime, but both the main- and co-main event feature bouts that can be construed as either a mismatch or ineligible. Both Thurman and Cruz have “skipped the line” in a manner of speaking in what appears to be a clear attempt by the PBC to draw attention and customers to the event.
As the event is clearly organized by the PBC, they bear the responsibility of producing competitive fights yet have neglected to do this entirely; as evident by the headlining bouts on the card. Doubts now linger as to how the PBC’s partnership with Amazon Prime will benefit the sport given their inability to arrange fights that actually make sense, and benefit boxing as a whole.
