After a somewhat cool close to 202 where many of boxing’s top stars featured their talents in stay-busy fights, the New Year began with hopes of some of the top stars facing off against other top opposition over the next 12 months. At least one fighter cleared his initial hurdle toward the biggest fight of his career when Gervonta “Tank” Davis knocked out Hector Luis Garcia on Jan. 7.
Davis announced in November that he and Ryan Garcia had agreed to the framework of a deal for a fight in 2023 with Davis only needing to get by Hector Garcia to make the fight a reality. He did exactly that, surviving a tough early challenge before scoring a knockout to secure arguably the biggest fight in boxing in terms of public attention.
The schedule did take a hit, however, when Josh Taylor suffered an injury requiring the postponement of his planned WBO junior welterweight championship rematch with Jack Catterall on March 4. That rematch has been postponed several times since Taylor won a highly-disputed decision in their battle for the undisputed welterweight title in February 2022.
The biggest fight left for January is Artur Beterbiev’s clash with Anthony Yarde on Jan. 28 in London. Beterbiev, who holds three of the four recognized world titles at light heavyweight, could end up fighting for undisputed status against 2022 Fighter of the Year Dmitry Bivol before the end of 2023.
Below is a running list of boxing main events for 2023.
Note: This will be updated constantly with changes and additions.
Jan. 28 | Hollywood Park, Florida | Alexis Rocha vs. Anthony Young | Welterweight | DAZN |
Jan. 28 | London | Artur Beterbiev (c) vs. Anthony Yarde |
Unified light heavyweight titles | ESPN |
Feb. 3 | Glendale, Arizona | Emanuel Navarrete vs. Liam Wilson | WBO junior lightweight title | ESPN |
Feb. 4 | New York City | Amanda Serrano (c) vs. Erika Cruz | Undisputed featherweight title | DAZN |
Feb. 11 | San Antonio | Rey Vargas vs. O’Shaquie Foster | Vacant WBC super featherweight title | Showtime |
Feb. 18 | Nottingham, England | Leigh Wood (c) vs. Mauricio Lara | WBA regular featherweight title | DAZN |
Feb. 25 | Atlanta | Adrien Broner vs. Hank Lundy | Welterweights | BLK Prime |
Feb. 25 | Minneapolis | Subriel Matias vs. Jeremias Ponce |
vacant IBF junior welterweight title |
Showtime |
March 12 | TBD, Australia | Tim Tszyu vs. Tony Harrison |
Junior middleweight | TBD |
April 1 | London | Anthony Joshua vs. Jermaine Franklin | Heavyweight | TBD |