Michael Conlan came out sharp in his revenge match with Vladimir Nikitin. The two-time Irish Olympian boxed beautifully from the opening bell, circling the cruder Niktin and tagging him with one-two combinations upstairs to win four of the first five rounds. But Niktin has come on strong in round six and seven, finding range with the left hook as Conlan has started to slow down a bit and present a more stationary target. Three more rounds to go.
Hello and welcome to Madison Square Garden for tonight’s WBO welterweight title fight between Terence Crawford and Egidijus Kavaliauskas. Crawford (35-0, 26 KOs) is returning to action for the first time since a sixth-round technical knockout of Amir Khan in this same building. But rather than a big-money fight with Manny Pacquiao and Errol Spence Jr or any one of the other big names at 147lbs, the Omaha native has been forced to settle for the WBO’s mandatory challenger in Kavaliauskas (21-0-1, 17 KOs), a two-time Olympian for Lithuania fighting out of Oxnard, California.
Before that, however, a pair of intriguing co-features. First it’s Ireland’s Michael Conlan (12-0, 7 KOs), who is out to avenge a pair of amateur losses to Vladimir Nikitin (3-0, 0 KOs) – including his nightmarish Rio “defeat” at the hands of the Russian. Then highly regarded contender Teofimo Lopez (14-0, 11 KOs) will face off with Richard Commey (29-2, 26 KOs) for Commey’s IBF lightweight title.
Tonight’s rolling order
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s a look at tonight’s order of play in reverse order.
- Terence Crawford v Egidijus Kavaliauskas, 12 rounds, for Crawford’s WBO welterweight title
- Richard Commey v Teofimo Lopez Jr, 12 rounds, for Commey’s IBF lightweight title
- Michael Conlan v Vladimir Nikitin, 10 rounds, featherweights
- Josue Vargas v Noel Murphy, 10 rounds, junior welterweights
- Edgar Berlanga v Cesar Nunez, 8 rounds, super middleweights
- Julian Rodriguez v Manuel Mendez, 8 rounds, junior welterweights
- George Kambosos Jr v Mickey Bey, 10 rounds, lightweights
