Crawford Vs. Madrimov: 3 Weeks Until One Of Best Undercards In Recent Times

In three more weeks, Terence Crawford vs. Israil Madrimov will headline one of the greatest Undercards in Recent Times on August 3rd on ESPN+ PPV at the BMO Arena in Los Angeles. The price of the event is $79.99 on ESPN+ PPV.

Stellar Undercard Showdowns

• Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz vs. Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela: WBA light welterweight champion Isaac Cruz makes his first defense against ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela. Cruz (26-2-1, 18 KOs) looked outstanding in destroying WBA champion Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero (15-2, 13 KOs), knocking him out in the 8th round on March 30th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela (13-2, 9 KOs) is one of the biggest punchers in the 135-lb division and will be moving up to 140 to challenge ‘Pitbull’ Cruz for his belt. It’ll be interesting to see if ‘Rayo’ has more power at 140. If he hits even harder in the light welterweight division, Pitbull could be in trouble on August 3rd.
• Andy Ruiz Jr. vs. Jarrell Miller: Former heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr. (35-2, 22 KOs) has been included on the card for a fight against Jarrell Miller (26-1-1, 22 KOs). This match-up is less than appealing because Ruiz Jr. is not going anywhere with his career, and he seems to have lost his ambition entirely after getting two big paydays against Anthony Joshua in 2019. Ruiz has enjoyed the reported $10 million he made from those two fights and has only fought twice in the last five years. If His Excellency is paying Ruiz a lot of money to fight Jarrell Miller, it won’t be surprising if he disappears for another two years before fighting again.
• David Morrell vs. Radivoje Kalajdzic: Former WBA regular super middleweight Champion David Morrell Jr. (10-0, 9 KOs) moves up to 175 to fight for the WBA light heavyweight title against Radivoje “Hot Rod” Kalajdzic (29-2, 21 KOs). Some boxing fans believe that the talented Cuban Morrell is the one fighter that David Benavidez is afraid of fighting, knowing how difficult it would be for him. Morrell arguably punches harder and has superior skills than Benavidez, and it might be a disaster for him, ruining his dreams of fighting Canelo Alvarez for a big payday. Morrell was forced to move up to light heavyweight because he couldn’t get any big names at 168 to face him, such as the Benavidez mentioned above.
• Jared Anderson vs. Martin Bakole: Top Rank has included heavyweight Jared Anderson fighting Martin Bakole. That’s a good fight, but not one that will generate ticket sales because Anderson isn’t popular and is viewed by many fans as a fake hype job. His fight against British fighter Bakole arguably should be buried at the bottom of the card due to the lack of interest in him.
• Andy Cruz vs. Antonio Moran: The 2020 Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz (3-0, 1 KO), who comes from Cuba, is already ranked in the top tier at lightweight after only three fights. Now promoted by Eddie Hearn, the 28-year-old Cruz is expected to be fast-tracked to the top of the 135-lb division. Hearn has already challenged highly ranked Keyshawn Davis to fight Andy Cruz but with no luck. Cruz already beat Keyshawn four times, including in the 2020 Olympics finals, making it look easy. Cruz appears ready to dethrone WBC champion Shakur Stevenson, but Hearn likely won’t let that happen if he signs the New Jersey native.

The main event could be good, depending on what Crawford has left at nearly 37 after sitting out of the ring for thirteen months. However, the undercard is the most appealing part of this event because His Excellency Turki Alalshikh has assembled some outstanding fights for U.S. fans to watch live.

Surprisingly, tickets for the event at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles aren’t selling well. As of Friday, the Ticketmaster site shows a massive number of still available tickets.

For it not to sell, it suggests that fans in Southern California aren’t excited about seeing Crawford, who is long in the tooth and has been fighting just once a year since 2020, taking on WBA Junior middleweight champion Madrimov. He’s not well-known to casual fans in the U.S.

When you have an unknown fighter, they must be matched against an active popular star, and that’s not happening here. If this were a star like Gervonta Davis, you could get away with matching him against a lesser-known Champion, but not Crawford. He’s only had one fight that did well during his career, and that was when he rode the coattails of Errol Spence Jr. last July.