The time has come once again for this observer to pull out the periodic feature here on The Boxing Truth®️ Jabs And Observations. A feature column that was originally thought up as a bi-monthly addition as an attempt by yours truly to cover even more ground than what is typically found during a standard calendar year in covering the sport of Boxing. In more recent times, however, the concept of what I refer to as J&O in referencing upcoming features on social media has been used when pauses in the usual schedule have been unwanted, but necessary.
While the month of July necessitated such a pause that was not intended by yours truly, it certainly did not mean that the sport was inactive. In fact, it was quite the opposite. When one will look back at the month that was July 2025 down the line, it will likely be summed up in two words: “Marquee Events." A description that due largely to the fourth of July holiday, the fact that it is in the middle of the summer here in the United States and for many, that means vacations and traveling, as well as other sporting events typically scheduled for this time of year, one usually does not think of the month of July as a target for Boxing’s major events. This time around, however, there were four significant events throughout the month that for their own reasons, fit the description.
Of course, arguably the biggest among those events took place on July 11th inside Madison Square Garden in New York City as future Hall of Famers and world champions Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano met for the third time with Taylor's Undisputed Jr. Welterweight world championship on the line. Back at the location of their legendary first encounter in April 2022 where they became the first women's Boxing match to main event in the main arena of Madison Square Garden, the third encounter was even more significant as it would not only serve as a main event once more, but this time, would top the first ever all-women’s Boxing card in the history of Madison Square Garden.
Seen by over six million live viewers on Netflix as the general entertainment subscription-based streaming network’s second foray into Boxing after serving as the broadcaster of the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson event last November, in which the second encounter between Taylor and Serrano stole the show, the third battle between the two best female fighters of their era, like the previous two, was a closely fought and competitive fight from start to finish. Unlike the first two bouts, however, which were all-action grueling wars that some feel Taylor just barely did enough to win those fights, fight three was more of a tactical battle where each woman had periods of success in showcasing her skillset.
A fight fought at a more measured pace favored Taylor more than the grueling back and forth wars of the first two fights in that she was able to use her movement and angles to set up her offense, consistently get her punches off first, and not get into the heated exchanges that highlighted the previous bouts between the two. While perhaps disappointing to some, when two fighters face each other multiple times, not every fight is going to be exactly like the one or ones that preceded it. This is due primarily to the fighters being able to familiarize themselves with each other's styles and tendencies and make adjustments to their respective approach. In this case, though she also got the upper hand in the first two fights, Taylor was able to keep the pace slightly slower in the third bout and not get into a toe to toe battle with Serrano.
Although Serrano had periods of success throughout the third fight, this time the measured pace that was established by Taylor allowed the Undisputed Jr. Welterweight world champion to outwork her over ten rounds to earn a decision victory to retain her crown. Similar to the previous two fights, however, a split decision in the first and a unanimous one point decision in the second, fight three saw Taylor earn the nod of two official judges, while the third judge scored the fight even giving her a majority decision.
While this observer will likely revisit the Taylor-Serrano trilogy again in long-form down the line as the historic series and its significance deserves its own column, what will likely be the final encounter between the two legends before each takes their rightful place in the International Boxing Hall of Fame and a well-earned retirement, Taylor-Serrano 3 is not the only topic that will be discussed in this edition of Jabs and Observations.
The very next evening on July 12th, the first of three pay-per-view events during the month of July, a doubleheader took place at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, NY broadcast by DAZN as part of an event titled simply as Ring III, which in short was the third card promoted under the Ring Magazine banner. The highlight of this card was two separate bouts in the Lightweight and Super-Middleweight divisions. In the first encounter, undefeated three-division world champion Shakur Stevenson defended his WBC World Lightweight championship against number one WBC contender William Zepeda. Despite being one of the top stars in the sport, Stevenson had somewhat unfairly gained a reputation in recent years for being a dominant, yet not necessarily the most crowd pleasing world champion. This is due largely to Stevenson's superior Boxing ability in being able to out box his opposition, often earning decision victories rather than highlight reel knockouts or putting himself at unnecessary risk.
It was because of this reputation that not much was expected by many fans and experts, including yours truly. Although William Zepeda had earned his number one ranking legitimately and deserved the opportunity, having covered several of Stevenson's fights, I felt stylistically, unless Zepeda were to catch the champion with something significant early, this would be another performance highlighted by Stevenson's combination punching, hand speed, and ability to be elusive in a likely wide victory on the scorecards.
While the champion's skillset ultimately would be the story of this fight, it would not necessarily be for the aforementioned attributes, or at least not in the form they had been showcased up to the point of this bout. In a strategy that was perhaps a response to pressure both from fans and the promoters of this event, Stevenson chose to be more engaging in the sense of being willing to stand in the line of fire, rather than using his legs to evade offense from his opponent.
From a pure entertainment standpoint, the change in approach seemed to make things more interesting for those who do not necessarily consider themselves to be Boxing purest. Despite staying in the pocket and putting himself at risk, Stevenson's ability to use upper body movement, timing, and counter punching as well as his hand speed carried the action as he outworked Zepeda to retain his world championship via a wide and convincing twelve round unanimous decision.
While more entertaining in the sense that he did not use his legs to evade offense as much as compared to previous fights, Shakur Stevenson showed why he is among the elite fighters in the world with this latest performance and did so against a dangerous opponent. As for what's next for Stevenson, it would not surprise yours truly to see him try to pursue a unification bout before the end of this year or early 2026.
The second half of this doubleheader in Queens saw former world title challenger and top Super-Middleweight contender Edgar Berlanga facing undefeated top contender Hamzah Sheeraz in a WBA world title elimination bout. After three rounds of tactical positioning where neither fighter really stood out clearly from the other while each was looking for an opening, a combination to the head highlighted by a left hook by Sheeraz sent Berlanga down hard on the canvas late in the fourth round. This would be followed by a second knockdown of Berlanga with a follow up barrage of punches in the closing seconds of the round.
At this point Berlanga showed the appearance of a fighter that was overwhelmed and knowing he had his opponent compromised, Sheeraz closed the show in the fifth round with a flurry of unanswered blows, which forced a stoppage of the fight. The victory for Hamzah Sheeraz was the type of statement-making performance that most would like to see of a contender looking for an opportunity at a world championship.
Whether or not Sheeraz gets that opportunity as now the WBA’s top contender in the Super-Middleweight division will likely be dependent on what happens when current undisputed world champion Saul “Canelo" Alvarez faces undefeated multi-division world champion Terence Crawford in September as depending on the outcome of that fight, there may be a contractual rematch clause that would obviously force Sheeraz to wait longer than would probably be the case for his opportunity. Sheeraz can say, however, that unlike Alvarez, who dropped Berlanga early in their fight in 2024, he was able to do what the champion could not do, score a knockout win over a fighter in Berlanga, who until he lost to Alvarez was considered a knockout artist in his own right. If nothing else, it provides an effective sales hook for whomever the promoter of a fight between Alvarez and Sheeraz would be, assuming of course, that the champion is able to get by Terence Crawford.
This brings us to two marquee events that took place on July 19th. First, in Wembley Stadium in London, England, the highly anticipated rematch to reunify the Heavyweight division as world champions Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois met for the Undisputed Heavyweight championship of the world also broadcast by DAZN.
By now the narrative of the first encounter between the two in August 2023 is well known. Dubois, then a mandatory challenger going against a then unified, but not yet undisputed champion in Usyk, landing a body shot that sent the champion down in pain on the canvas. Had it been called a knockdown, which it appeared to be, Dubois would have emerged victorious as Usyk did not appear that he would have been able to beat a ten count in order to continue. While the punch appeared to land on the beltline of Usyk, it was ruled a low blow, allowing the champion time to recover and effectively taking what appeared to be a potential knockout and a world championship away from Dubois.
As most know, Usyk was able to recover and went on to knock out Dubois in the ninth round. Following that fight Usyk went on to become undisputed champion in his first fight with Tyson Fury later that year, only to be stripped of the IBF Heavyweight world championship for having to go through a contractually mandated rematch with Fury rather than face its mandatory challenger, which was coincidentally due, which happened to be Dubois, who had worked himself back into contention and was subsequently named world champion by the IBF. While that synopsis is only a brief glimpse into the political landscape of the sport of Boxing, the controversy of the first encounter on its own was enough to warrant a rematch. The addition of reunifying the Heavyweight division and the historical significance of such an occasion of an Undisputed World Heavyweight champion being determined for the first time in British soil made it a bigger event than the storyline of whether or not Usyk had benefited from what some deemed a bad call by a referee in the first fight.
Although Dubois began this fight like a fighter on a mission in immediately pressing the action from the opening bell, he ran into Usyk’s jab and counter punches. Despite being physical and trying to use his strength, Dubois, as was the case in the first fight, had trouble adjusting to Usyk’s ability to use angles and found himself getting caught in exchanges. As has often been the case throughout Usyk’s career, he was able to make his opponent fight his fight and use that opponent's aggression against them.
The systematic approach by Usyk would culminate in the fifth round, knocking Dubois down with a right hand that seemed to land on the ear, which can affect the equilibrium. Although Dubois was able to get up, Usyk would drop him a second time, this time hard and for the count with a perfectly timed counter left hook to the jaw. Oleksandr Usyk had made a statement in emphatic fashion.
Not only did Usyk become the first fighter in Boxing history to fully unify the Heavyweight division twice, but his victory in this fight also earned him his third undisputed world championship after previously accomplishing the feat as a Cruiserweight. Simply put, when one looks up the definition of Hall of Fame Resume or All-time great, a picture of Oleksandr Usyk should be next to it.
While it would be wonderful to see the Undisputed Heavyweight championship of the world remain fully unified and see Usyk attempt to somehow add to his cemented legacy, the reality is, much like Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, two fighters who have carried Women's Boxing to unprecedented heights, Oleksandr Usyk having dominated the amateur ranks where he was an Olympic Gold medalist and having completely dominated both the Cruiserweight and Heavyweight divisions as a professional seemingly has nothing left to prove and this victory by unifying the Heavyweight championship of the world for a second time, something that based on past history and the politics that be in the sport, seems unlikely to happen again, it would appear this would be the ideal scenario to end his career even though it would force the Heavyweight division into a reset period as has been the case when world champions and unified champions have retired throughout the sport’s history.
When one thinks of fighters with legacies long having been cemented in history with nothing more to prove, Hall of Famer Manny Pacquiao would be on that list. In August 2021, Pacquiao lost a decision to Yordenis Ugas in an attempt to regain a World Welterweight championship. A fight that Pacquiao seemed to show decline and after a long and illustrious career, the legend and Boxing’s first eight-division world champion and politician in his native Philippines, retired from the ring.
While Pacquiao would return in December 2022 in picking up a victory in an exhibition bout against martial artist DK Yoo in a bout held in Korea, many assumed Pacquiao's career as an active fighter was concluded with his defeat to Ugas. At age forty-six and one month after his induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, however, Pacquiao would return to the ring on July 19th to challenge WBC World Welterweight champion Mario Barrios at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV.
Although Boxing history is full of stories regarding legendary fighters and former world champions attempting to make a comeback after a lengthy absence from active competition, this was a case where the curiosity was squarely centered on Pacquiao and given what had happened in his last fight four years earlier, there were some who were concerned for him in getting back in the ring. It did not take long for fears to dissipate as Pacquiao showed that though he was older, he could still compete and do so effectively.
While obviously not the blistering, swarming, attacking fighter he had been in his prime, Pacquiao consistently beat the younger Barrios to the punch, frequently landing two and three punch combinations and seeming to outwork the champion, who for whatever reason chose not to press the issue when he had opportunities to gain an advantage. Whether it was a hesitancy to take a risk knowing Pacquiao’s reputation for being a precision counter puncher, or simply being awed by the event in sharing the ring with a legend of the sport, gradually it appeared that Barrios had let the fight get away from him as he opted to throw single punches rather than combinations. Though effective in spots, he did not do enough in this observer’s view to retain his championship as at the conclusion of the twelve round world championship bout, I had Pacquiao winning by a margin of nine rounds to three or 117-111 in points.
Despite the view of yours truly as well as several fellow media members and fans of a clear victory for Pacquiao, the result would be a majority draw, the second consecutive draw for Barrios in his reign as champion following a lackluster performance in his previous title defense before this outing against Pacquiao against Abel Ramos on the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson event. While that does not necessarily paint Barrios in a light that makes him considered a dominant champion after back to back close calls in fights that many felt could have gone against him, the opinion of yours truly aside that Pacquiao did enough to win this fight, the fact is Mario Barrios did retain the title via a draw.
The obvious question is what happens now? An interesting development surfaced in the days following the fight in that the WBC named Pacquiao its number one contender, which appears to set up a rematch between him and Barrios. Whether or not that happens, however, will depend on both what Pacquiao decides to do next as well as whether there will be sufficient public demand for a return encounter. It should also not be overlooked that it remains unknown as of this writing how the bout, which was promoted by the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) group of promoters and broadcast on pay-per-view via digital subscription general entertainment network Prime Video did in terms of buys as those numbers have not been made public.
While one should not make assumptions based on that fact, it should also not be dismissed that the pay-per-view model has been in steady decline for years as consumers have demonstrated not only a dissatisfaction with being asked to pay the same inflated prices that led many to cut the cord of traditional cable and satellite Pay-TV service and the same pay-per-view prices, which ultimately led to networks like HBO and what is now known as Paramount+ with Showtime to exit broadcasting Boxing altogether, but also a willingness to pay for more reasonably priced subscription-based streaming options that are budget-friendly. Although this trend in consumer choice is certainly not exclusive to the PBC group of promoters or one specific network or streaming platform, it will be interesting to see what will follow as DAZN recently announced that they will soon discontinue it's selective pay-per-view approach for Boxing events and return to the subscription-based approach the streaming network implemented successfully from its entry into the United States in 2018, and now the most recent news that the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion, a longtime stalwart of pay-per-view, will be leaving the model behind in favor of a seven-year $7.7 Billion broadcast deal with subscription-based digital streaming entertainment network Paramount+ to broadcast all of the promotion’s events including numbered (Previously pay-per-view) UFC events to subscribers at no additional cost while also maintaining their UFC Fight Pass combat sports digital streaming network, which houses the full UFC library plus other combat sports including Boxing. With Netflix also continuing to throw its hat in the Boxing ring not only with the recent successful Taylor-Serrano 3 card, but also preparing to serve as the global broadcaster for the upcoming Undisputed Super-Middleweight championship fight between Saul “Canelo" Alvarez and Terence Crawford on September 13th, arguably the biggest event on the Boxing calendar in 2025 to Netflix subscribers at no additional cost, it remains to be seen what appetite, if any, remains for pay-per-view and that is certainly not exclusive to a potential rematch between Barrios and Pacquiao, but across the combat sports genre as a whole. One can only hope that hold outs like the PBC, who have relied heavily on the pay-per-view model, despite losing numerous broadcast partners along the way and continuing mounting evidence that the pay-per-view model is no longer viable or preferred by consumers, will finally adapt their strategy to a more consumer-friendly approach while also looking to different sources of revenue that can effectively achieve what is hoped for, but rarely accomplished via pay-per-view. The reality is Boxing will be much better off by such change and the sport will only grow because of it.
“And That's The Boxing Truth."
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