Lomachenko-Commey undercard
Keyshawn Davis (left) and Top Rank’s Bob Arum
Top Rank on Friday rounded out the undercard for the card headlined by former lightweight titleholders Vasiliy Lomachenko and Richard Commey on Dec. 11 (ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN+, 9 p.m. ET), which will mark the return of boxing to the main arena at Madison Square Garden in New York for the first time in two years, a gap caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Lightweight Keyshawn Davis (3-0, 2 KOs), 22, of Norfolk, Virginia, who claimed a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics this past summer, will return to the pro ranks and have his first fight since signing with Top Rank last month. He will face Mexico native Jose Zaragoza (8-3-1, 2 KOs), 33, who has won three fights in a row and never been stopped, in a six-rounder on the main card.
In the opener of the four-fight telecast, middleweight prospect Nico Ali Walsh (2-0, 2 KOs), 21, of Las Vegas, who is the grandson of Muhammad Ali, will face Reyes Sanchez (6-0, 2 KOs), 29, of Topeka, Kansas, in a four-rounder.
The co-feature is the previously announced eight-round heavyweight fight between Jared Anderson (10-0, 10 KOs), 22, of Toledo, Ohio, and Oleksandr Teslenko (17-1, 13 KOs), 29, a Ukraine native fighting out of Montreal.
The rest of the card, which will stream on ESPN+ beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET, will include six additional bouts, led by red-hot junior middleweight prospect Xander Zayas (11-0, 8 KOs), 19, a Puerto Rican from Plantation, Florida, against Italy’s Alessio Mastronunzio (9-1, 3 KOs), 26, in a six-rounder.
Also on the card:
- Welterweight Pablo Valdez (5-0, 4 KOs), 38, of New York, will face Queens, New York-based Dominican Republic native Julio Cesar Sanchez (11-3, 6 KOs) in a six-rounder.
- Kelvin Davis (2-0, 1 KO), 24, of Norfolk, Virginia, and the older brother of Keyshawn Davis, will face Bryan Emmanuel Ramirez (1-1-1, 1 KO), 23, of Mexico, in a four-round welterweight bout. Kelvin also signed with Top Rank last month,
- John Bauza (15-0, 6 KOs), 23, of North Bergen, New Jersey, will fight Michael Williams Jr. (19-0, 12 KOs), 22, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, in an eight-round junior welterweight bout.
- Staten Island, New York, featherweight James Wilkins (9-2, 6 KOs), 26, will meet Juan Tapia (10-3, 3 KOs), 28, of Brownsville, Texas, in an eight-rounder.
- Light heavyweight Joe Ward (5-1, 2 KOs), 28, a 2016 Irish Olympian promoted by Lou DiBella, will face Britton Norwood (10-3-1, 7 KOs), of Las Vegas, in a six-rounder.