At least one welterweight is convinced of an undisputed championship on the horizon.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that Alexis Rocha will no longer wait out the process for his mandatory shot at the WBO welterweight title. Instead, the top-rated contender will revisit plans to face Anthony ‘Juice’ Young, which will headline a May 27 DAZN show from Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California.
The development comes as the deadline long ago expired for Rocha’s team to negotiate with WBO welterweight titlist Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford for their ordered title fight. The March 20 deadline came and went without a deal in place and with Rocha’s immediate team initially calling for the WBO to order a purse bid hearing.
That moment never arrived, as whispers began of resurrected talks between Crawford (39-0, 30KOs) and WBA, WBC and IBF welterweight titlist Errol Spence Jr. (28-0, 22KOs) in a fight to fully unify the division. Depending on who you ask, the two are either approaching a deal for a targeted June 17 Pay-Per-View event, or still far enough apart to where it’s doubtful that the fight happens next or even at all at least while both hold welterweight titles.
Golden Boy Promotions was noncommittal in a previous inquiry placed by Boxing Scene to see where things stood on Crawford-Rocha. It appears that the team is now prepared to keep the line moving for its rising contender.
Rocha (22-1, 14KOs) was due to face Atlantic City’s Young (24-2, 8KOs) atop a January 28 DAZN show from YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California. Young was forced to withdraw after suffering an untimely injury late in training camp and was replaced by Ghana’s George Ashie on roughly six days’ notice.
Rocha won by seventh-round knockout in front of a rabid, sold-out venue mere minutes from his Santa Ana hometown. The win was the sixth in a row for the 25-year-old southpaw, who awaited news of a title shot that was all but certain to be on the horizon.
Crawford even made the trip to Los Angeles from Omaha, Nebraska to meet with Golden Boy Promotions on a number of topics. Among them were plans to honor his mandatory versus Rocha as well as the possibility of entering a multi-fight deal. Neither of those matters materialized, as Crawford’s name was instead linked to a fresh round of direct negotiations with Spence months after their collapsed plans for an undisputed championship initially targeted for last November 17 in Las Vegas.
Rather than wait out the process, Rocha will move forward with his career. His team could petition the WBO to make an interim title available, although he would—at the minimum—retain his mandatory ranking.
Young (24-2, 8KOs) has mostly fought out of his Atlantic City hometown but traveled west for the biggest win of his career. It came on a Golden Boy-promoted show, as the streaking bubble contender scored a third-round knockout of former WBO junior middleweight titlist Sadam Ali on the May 2019 Canelo Alvarez-Daniel Jacobs undercard in Las Vegas.
The victory was as much of a curse as it was a career rival. The combination of the pandemic and his high-risk, low-reward profile left Young out of the ring for more than two years, as he’s fought just three times since beating Ali. He enters this fight following an eight round points win over Jose Zaragoza last October 29 in Atlantic City.
The universe at least rewarded the 35-year-old welterweight gatekeeper with the payday that was once lost. It also gives Rocha his sixth fight in an eighteen-month span—all since his lone career defeat.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
This content was originally published here.
