A crowded fall boxing calendar has some new fights to add into the mix as well. A few major announcements have been finalized over the past few days, including most notably, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. facing Peter Manfredo, and Denis Lebedev taking on James Toney.
The Chavez Jr. vs. Manfredo Jr. match has been set for November 19th, and looks to be held from Houston, Texas. The fight will be for Chavez’s WBC middleweight title, whatever legitimacy you’d like to give to that belt considering the way he got it.
Meanwhile, another faded American legend will be traveling to Moscow, Russia to take on cruiserweight Denis Lebedev. Lebedev vs. Toney will take on November 4th.
Of course, Toney isn’t nearly as faded as Roy Jones, and doesn’t have the chin issues he had. What’s really notable about this fight is that Toney is dropping back down to 200 lbs, where he last fought in 2003, in a stirring fight and winning effort against Vassiliy Jirov. It should be very interesting to see how Toney looks both physically and in terms of where his skills are at right now.
These fights add to the collection of other recent announcements, like Pawel Wolak vs. Delvin Rodriguez II on the Cotto-Margarito II undercard, and Alfredo Angulo vs. James Kirkland. So there’s lots of intriguing and important bouts coming up for the remainder of the year, and the Ward vs. Froch Super Six Finals fight will still take place, just a bit later than expected. Plenty to keep boxing fans happy.
