By Eóin Kennedy
The dust has just about settled on the hysteria that surrounded the Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk super-fight in Saudi Arabia last weekend, and amongst all the post-fight hysteria it is forgivable to have momentarily forgotten the undercard. Northern Irish boxer Anthony Cacace will certainly remember that undercard after he dethroned Welshman Joe Cordina. Let’s take at what’s next for Cacace and examine some other current events from the whacky world of boxing.
What Next for New World Champion Cacace?
The prospect of defending his IBF super-featherweight world title against Anthony Cacace was never an easy one for the former champion, Joe Cordina, but he was still a strong favorite to get out of Riyadh with the belt in his luggage. That wasn’t to be the case however, and Anthony Cacace became a world champion for the first time at the age of thirty-five. In doing so he joins an illustrious list of boxing world champions from the famed city of Belfast, and now his greatest challenge is trying to hold onto the title. It appears that Cacace will be mandated by the IBF to defend the title against Mexican Eduardo ‘Sugar’ Nunez in his next fight. Nunez holds a highly impressive record of 26-1 with all his victories coming by knockout. With that being said, Nunez’ opposition has been little known, so the step up against a newly crowned champion coming off a career best victory will be telling. Cacace will be hoping that Frank Warren uses his promotional muscle to make the fight in Belfast and given it’s a city renowned for its fervent boxing supporters, that’s very likely to happen.
D-Day Looming for Ryan’s B-Sample
New York, they say if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. Ryan Garcia will be learning in the coming days whether his massive victory over Devin Haney in Brooklyn last month will remain written in the history books of the Empire State as a win. The New York State Athletic are working with V.A.D.A. and results from Garcia’s B-sample drug test are expected to be announced early next week. He’s still as active as ever on social media and he even popped up in Riyadh at Fury-Usyk fight week and did a ton of media work so he’s not carrying himself like a boxer who should feel shame amongst his peers. He did strangely post a video on one of his accounts earlier in the week of himself sitting in a vehicle sharing a bag of grapes with an orangutan that was seated beside him in the passenger seat. If posted last month, the boxing community would have said this was an example that showed he needs help, but I think we’ve quickly grown to realize, sharing grapes with an orangutan is just Ryan Garcia in 2024.
Buatsi vs Yarde – Who is the King of London?
While the light-heavyweight division has been whittling itself down to just two Russian contenders left to fight for the undisputed world championship, the city of London has been having its own unofficial tournament within the weight class, or more aptly put, Joshua Buatsi is running the gauntlet on opposition from his hometown. The former Olympic bronze medalist has already dispatched Craig Richards and Dan Azeez, and now only Anthony Yarde remains as a legitimate challenger to the title of best light-heavyweight boxer in London in this current golden era of local fighters. Buatsi is more technically gifted than Yarde but the latter posses plenty of power that could cause problems. Buatsi is still undefeated in eighteen fights as a professional but considering he turned over to the paid ranks with a big buzz surrounding him after the 2016 Olympics, his career has been stop-start to say the least. Given it’s been eight years since he ditched the bib of amateur boxing it’s now time that he challenged for a world title. It’s the next logical career step for Joshua Buatsi, but he’ll have to conquer London first, and Anthony Yarde is the last hurdle in that mission.
