The summer boxing calendar is filled with massive showdowns despite losing Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul

Gervonta Davis, Shakur Stevenson, Teofimo Lopez and Terence Crawford are all set for return dates in the next few months.
Just weeks ago, the boxing summer schedule looked stacked with intriguing fights, with one controversial bout that may have drawn more interest than any fight in recent years. But things change quickly in the sport and that schedule has taken some recent hits. Still, there are enough meaningful and interesting fights to come that boxing fans have plenty to look forward to.

For starters, the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight has been postponed to a date yet to be announced after Tyson suffered what his team referred to as an “ulcer flare-up” during a recent flight. Tyson vs. Paul had fan opinion split, with many feeling put off by the 30-year age difference between the men and a return to Paul’s approach of fighting older fighters in gimmick bouts rather than building a “real” boxing career.

Despite all the controversy, there’s no denying that the fight, which would have been the first ever streamed live on Netflix, would have drawn more attention and eyeballs than any fight in memory. It still will if and when it does go down but, for better or worse, it was the biggest fight of the summer.

More recently, Cody Crowley was forced out of his July 13 bout with IBF welterweight champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis in Philadelphia. Crowley was the IBF mandatory for Ennis and the fight was the first to be set to take place at Wells Fargo Center since the arena opened. It was also a rare big fight to be held in the city and Ennis’ hometown.

There’s no word on if the card will go forward with a replacement opponent. Crowley was set to make nearly $600,000 for the fight, which is a decent amount that could tempt someone to face one of the sport’s elite talents on short notice.

Now, let’s take a look at the fights that remain on boxing’s summer schedule.

A loaded June 15 slate
June 15 features three cards and a total of four championship fights.

First up is a card featuring a rematch between WBO cruiserweight champion Chris Billam-Smith and challenger Richard Riakporhe in London. Riakporhe won their first meeting in July 2019. That remains the only blemish on Billam-Smith’s 19-1 record. Billam-Smith won the WBO belt in May 2023 with a majority decision over Lawrence Okolie. He defended the belt in December with a stoppage of Mateusz Masternak.

Riakporhe hasn’t taken big strides in level of opposition but has ripped through his five most recent fights, scoring stoppages in each. It’s an interesting pairing that will give the winner domestic bragging rights as well as setting them up in a powerful position as the cruiserweight continues to reshape itself.

In a card from Puerto Rico, Subriel Matias will defend his IBF junior welterweight title against Liam Paro. In the wake of Devin Haney’s loss to Ryan Garcia, which will almost certainly be overturned due to Garcia’s multiple failed drug tests, Matias might actually be the best fighter in the division. Sporting a 20-1 record, Matias has scored stoppage wins in each of his professional victories.

Should Matias win, as expected, he is in position for big fights against the likes of Haney or WBO champion Teofimo Lopez. If Paro scores the win and remains undefeated, he slides into the spot of being a potentially attractive option for the division’s big names.

The crown jewel in the June 15 lineup is the Las Vegas event headlined by WBA lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis and Frank Martin. Davis is arguably the biggest star in the sport and routinely delivers a memorable show with his impressive power punching. He has not been in the ring since April 2023, when he knocked out Ryan Garcia with a body shot, the inactivity largely a product of having been first under house arrest and then in jail for a November 2020 hit-and-run incident.

In Martin, Davis faces a solid boxer with all-around skills but who isn’t outstanding in any one area of the game. His most recent outing was a difficult decision win over Artem Harutyunan, who proved a stylistic nightmare. The good news for Martin is that Davis fights nothing like Harutyunan.

Also on that card, David Benavidez moves up to light heavyweight to face former champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the interim WBC title.

Benavidez is jumping up a division after it became clear that he would never get his earned shot at Saul “Canelo” Alvarez despite a lengthy time as Alvarez’s WBC mandatory challenger. Alvarez has shown little interest in fighting the dangerous Benavidez, complaining about the weight Benavidez puts on after weight-ins and saying it would take an offer upwards of $200 million for him to accept the fight.