NEW YORK (AP) — Just as Wimbledon is winding down, action at the home of the U.S. Open will heat up.
Boxing action, that is.
Swinging rackets will be replaced by swinging fists Saturday night when the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center hosts boxing for the first time.
Edgar Berlanga and Shakur Stevenson headline the show in separate bouts on the card, which sends both locally based fighters to a place they’d never visited before. The fights will be in Louis Armstrong Stadium, the No. 2 venue on the grounds.
“It’s a new stadium, it’s going to be a big arena, there’s going to be a lot of fans there, so I’m excited to put on a show,” said Stevenson, who is from Newark, New Jersey.
Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs) will defend his WBC lightweight title against fellow unbeaten William Zepeda (33-0, 27 KOs). Berlanga (23-1, 18 KOs) then takes on Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0-1, 17 KOs) in a super middleweight bout in the main event.
The second Ring Magazine card in New York caps a big fight weekend in the city, following Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano’s third fight Friday at Madison Square Garden, and again bypasses a traditional boxing venue for an usual location. Times Square was the site of a tripleheader in May, with an outdoor ring set up in the middle of the tourist center.
Both Berlanga and Stevenson were originally told that plans were for this card to take place in Central Park. It will be Flushing Meadows instead, but the Brooklyn-based Berlanga said his fans will find him.
“They’re going to come,” he said. “They’re going to find a way. If they’ve got to take a bus, they’ve got to walk, train, plane, whatever, helicopter, they’re there.”
The National Tennis Center has hosted other sports, including the WNBA’s first regular-season outdoor game, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show and wrestling. The final Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season begins there in late August.
The Times Square event fell flat because tickets weren’t sold to fans, allowing for just a few hundred people — including Stevenson — to attend. There will be a crowd Saturday, which should provide the fighters with a boost of energy that Stevenson could tell they didn’t have in May.
Berlanga and Sheeraz shouldn’t need any extra push, not when both hope an impressive victory could lead to a fight against 168-pound champion Canelo Alvarez, should he beat undefeated multi-division champion Terence Crawford in September.
Berlanga sustained his only loss to the Mexican superstar but it hasn’t dented his confidence. Sheeraz, who is moving up from middleweight, has been touted as a possible opponent if he wins Saturday — though Berlanga insists that he won’t.
“These guys, they can study, they can come fight week acting like they’ve got the game plan to beat me. They’re not beating me,” Berlanga said.
“They’re not doing nothing that night. They’re not going to stand a chance. I’m telling you. I’m going to be the best to ever do it in this sport of boxing, man. Discipline, dedication to the sport, that’s all I need bro, and I’m going to take over the 168 division. I’m going to slice and dice this dude.”
The card that will stream on DAZN as a pay-per-view also features Alberto Puello (24-0, 10 KOs) defending his 140-pound title against former champion Subriel Matias (22-2, 22 KOs), along with a light heavyweight bout between David Morrell (11-1, 9 KOs) and Imam Khataev (10-0, 9 KOs).
Stevenson is probably the most talented fighter on the show — and in all of boxing — but has been criticized at times for an overly cautious style. The 2016 Olympic silver medalist shrugs it off.
“You stand there and you go toe-to-toe, I keep saying this, and you’re going to end up in the damn hospital bed and you’ve got to sit there all night and they’ve got to check on your brain,” Stevenson said.
He concedes, though, that Zepeda’s style could make him win another way.
“I think he’s going to force me into a fight and I’m going to have to show a different side of me that night,” Stevenson said. “He’s a great fighter, puts a lot of pressure, undefeated, he was No. 1 at every belt organization, so it’s going to be an amazing fight.”
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AP boxing: https://apnews.com/boxing
