Kell Brook and Jessie Vargas have agreed to face each other in a welterweight title unification bout this summer in Brook’s hometown of Sheffield, England.

BREAKING… @SpecialKBrook will fight Jessie Vargas on August 27th in Sheffield #brookvargas https://t.co/roPKTjhXOj pic.twitter.com/GLKJrE2u89

— BOXING CORNER 24/7 (@boxingcorner247) May 21, 2016

Title Fight

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, who represents Brook, broke the news on Friday. According to Hearn, while the contract has yet to be prepared and signed, both sides have already verbally agreed to the  terms and conditions of the title unification fight.

Both camps have been in talks for weeks now and with Amir Khan choosing not to take a fight with local rival Brook, Hearn said going for another belt was the next best move for his ward. Brook won the IBF welterweight championship with a 12-round majority decision win over Shawn Porter in August of 2014.

Dominant Run

Since then, the unbeaten Briton known as “Special”, has won three straight title defenses and has catapulted to 10th place in the Ring’s mythical Pound for Pound rankings. To say that Brook has been a dominant champion may be an understatement. He’s only needed a total of 12 rounds to dispose of his first three title challengers. In his most recent bout, Brook halted mandatory contender Kevin Bizier in just two rounds last March 26th.

Vargas, meanwhile, is coming off the best performance of his career. In his last outing, Vargas captured the vacant WBO 147-pound title with a 9th round TKO victory over the previously undefeated Sadam Ali. Vargas has lost only once in 27 bouts and that was to Timothy Bradley in June of 2015 during the interim WBO title bout. Bradley later vacated the belt in order to fight Manny Pacquiao a third time last April. Vargas owns notable wins over Wale Otomoso, Khabib Allakhverdiev and Antonio De Marco.

Interesting Matchup

The bout should be interesting because while Brook has been on tear, he’s faced relatively low quality opposition during his title reign. If you take a look at his fight resume, Vargas will be the biggest name he’s ever faced, aside from Shawn Porter.

Vargas, meanwhile, doesn’t back down from any challenge. The former junior welterweight champion gave Timothy Bradley a scare when he hurt and dropped Desert Storm in the closing moments of round 12 of their bout. Behind on points, Vargas surprised Bradley with a big punch but ran out of time to finish him off. Despite the loss, Vargas regrouped and won the same belt against Ali in his next outing.

The injury bug struck UFC 199 big, with Chris Weidman pulling out of the main event bout on Tuesday after suffering an injury during training.

Weidman Out

Weidman, who was supposed to face Luke Rockhold for the UFC middleweight title in the headliner, suffered a serious neck injury while preparing for UFC 199. On his Facebook page, Weidman detailed how neck pains and severe vertigo led to the discovery of a “large extrusion herniation” that left him no choice but to withdraw from the June 4th event. As a result, the UFC scrambled to find a replacement opponent for Rockhold with barely two weeks left before fight night.

The UFC’s first option was Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, who is ranked behind Weidman in the 185-pound standings. Souza was coming off an impressive 1st round TKO win over #3 ranked Vitor Belfort last Saturday at UFC 198. Unfortunately, Souza tore a meniscus during the Belfort fight and was unable to step in for Weidman.

Bisping Answers Call

Enter Michael Bisping, the man next to Souza in the Middleweight ladder. The trash talking Briton is coming off three consecutive wins, including last February’s come from behind victory over Anderson Silva at UFC Fight Night London. Despite getting the call on short notice, Bisping wasted no time in grabbing the opportunity to fight for a world title for the first time in his career.

Bisping gets UFC 199 title shot after Weidman injury https://t.co/rX9qbSKZCE

— UFC News (@UFCNews) May 19, 2016

A lot is going against Bisping, though. First is the fact that he needs to shed the pounds in two weeks in order to make weight. The Count says he’s at around 208 lbs right now and would be working double time to catch 185. Then he also needs to come up with a new game plan to dethrone Rockhold, as this isn’t the first time they will be facing each other inside the UFC Octagon.

Bisping vs. Rockhold Rematch

Rockhold submitted Bisping in two rounds during their first encounter at UFC Fight Night 55. And if the Briton wants to turn the tables this time around, he will need to avoid Rockhold’s elite striking and force his trademark pressure against his opponent.

With the benefit of a full training camp, Rockhold should have the edge in conditioning. But don’t count the Count out yet, he believes he has more heart to compensate his physical disadvantages. Question is whether grit and determination will be enough to unseat a man who is in his destructive pime.

Long Odds

Champ Luke Rockhold opens as more than 10-1 favorite over Michael Bisping at UFC 199 https://t.co/wAzsA6boQk

— MMAjunkie (@MMAjunkie) May 19, 2016

After losing to Vitor Belfort in his UFC debut, Rockhold has won five straight bouts by stoppage. The wins include the four round annihilation of Chris Weidman at UFC 194. He is seen by many as the best middleweight in the game today. Rockhold is a massive -1050 favorite over Bisping, who stands at +600 in the latest odds.

After failing to come to terms in two previous negotiations, it’s all systems go for the clash between interim WBA champion Luis Ortiz and mandatory challenger, Alexander Ustinov.

On Tuesday, Golden Boy Promotions Vice President Eric Gomez confirmed that both camps have agreed on a deal to fight in August or September this year.

Purse Bid is Off

The WBA earlier ordered a purse bid on  May 19th at their headquarters in Panama to finally settle unending talks between Golden Boy Promotions and British promoter Frank Warren. The bid was worth a minimum of $600,000 with 60% going to the champion and 40% to the challenger. With the agreement though, that purse bid will be cancelled once the parties officially inform the WBA that they have reached an agreement.

While Gomez told media that a contract isn’t in place yet, he confirmed that the paper works will be done next week. But with GBP and Warren agreeing in principle to stage the bout in August or September, it’s as good as money in the bank.

Making It Happen

Ortiz has been pushing for the fight to happen the soonest and at age 37, he does have the sense of urgency. Known as the Real King Kong for his otherworldly punching power, Ortiz won the interim WBA title with a 3rd round KO win over Matias Ariel Vidondo last October. Ortiz is coming off back to back high profile wins over Bryant Jennings and Tony Thompson. With his stock rising in boxing’s premier weight class, the Cuban born Ortiz needs to make things happen while his window of opportunity is starting to close.

Ustinov, a 6-7 and 288 pound Russian behemoth, has won six fights in a row since losing to former title challenger Kubrat Pulev in 2012. The former kickboxer most recently knocked out Konstantin Airich in December 2015.

Heavyweight Tournament

The Ortiz-Ustinov bout is part of the WBA’s  heavyweight “tournament” where it hopes to crown one true champion. The WBA has a “super” champin in Tyson Fury and a “regular” champion in Lucas Browne while Ortiz is its interim title. According to the WBA, the plan is to pit the winner of Tyson Fury-Wladimir Klitschko against the winner of Ortiz-Ustinov while Fres Oquendo is scheduled to face Lucas Browne.

The tournament suffered a blow when Browne was stripped of the title last week for failing a drug test. It remains to be seen what happens to that part of the bracket. However, the winner of Fury-Klitschko will be known in July and Ortiz would be more than happy to face the winner later this year, regardless of what happens to Lucas Browne. King Kong has been dying to get a big fight and with Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua looking elsewhere, getting the Fury-Klitschko winner is the best move.

T.J. Dillashaw was disappointed that he didn’t get an immediate rematch with Dominick Cruz. However, the former UFC bantamweight champion can take solace in the fact that he got the next best fight available at the best date possible.

Taking A loss Back

On Tuesday, the UFC announced that DIllashaw will be facing Raphael Assuncao at the historic UFC 200 event on July 9 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It will mark the second meeting between the combatants. Dillashaw and Assuncao went the three round distance in a UFC Fight Night event in 2013. Assuncao got the judges nod and won via controversial split decision.

TJ Dillashaw returns at UFC 200 to face Raphael Assuncao https://t.co/AeUDnrPZ7a#UFC #UFC200 pic.twitter.com/WeeAMeovc0

— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) May 11, 2016

On the other hand, Dillashaw and most of the MMA world believe he did enough to beat Assuncao. Although Dillashaw used that loss as a springboard to capturing the UFC bantamweight title in 2014, it never sat well with him. Now he has the opportunity to take that one back.

Prior to losing to Dominick Cruz via split decision last January, Dillashaw won four fights in a row, including two decisive stoppage victories over former champ Renan Barao. The former Team Alpha male standout is 12-3 overall with 6 KOs and 3 submissions. Dillashaw hold notable wins over Barao ( 2x), Mike Easton and Joe Soto.

Injury Riddled Road

While Dillashaw’s career soared after that UFC Fight Night 29 loss in 2013, Assuncao’s road to the title has been riddled with injuries. After beating Bryan Caraway at UFC Fight Night 54, an ankle injury was slow to heal and forced Assuncao off a 2015 bout with Urijah Faber.

A couple of months later, Assuncao announced that he would undergo surgery on the injured ankle and he targeted a return by the end of 2015. His comeback has been pushed farther and by the time he returns to face Dillashaw again in July, he would have been out of action for 20 months. Injuries aside, Assuncao has won 7 fights in a row and has not lost since being knocked out by Eric Koch at UFC 128 in March 2011.

Dillashaw has been an odds on favorite in nine of his last ten bouts, the exception being his UFC 173 title challenge of Barao. During their first encounter, Dillashaw was a -265 favorite over a +185 Assuncao. Although the lines have not been set yet, Dillashaw is expected to open as a big favorite to get his revenge and redemption over Assuncao.

Two of the best light heavyweights in the planet are going to throw down in Chi-town.

UFC officially announces light heavyweight fight between title contenders Anthony Johnson and Glover Teixeira. pic.twitter.com/kyR7qp6JBI

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 5, 2016

Johnson vs. Glover

As announced by the UFC on Thursday over Fox Sports, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson will face former one-time title challenger Glover Teixeira in a light heavyweight contest that should have title implications written all over it. The #2 and #3 ranked UFC 205 pounders are set to fight as the co-main event of UFC on Fox 20 on July 23rd at the United Center.

The salivating matchup has been in the rumor mill since Teixeira called out Rumble Johnson after his one round TKO win over Johnson’s teammate Rashad Evans at UFC on Fox 19 last month. That victory pushed Teixeira’s winning streak to three, with all wins coming by stoppage. In April of 2014, Teixeira challenged for the UFC Light Heavyweight title but lost to Jon Jones. He also lost his next bout to Phil Davis but since then he’s been on a tear to return to #3 in the rankings.

Johnson meanwhile, challenged for the vacant 205 pound title after Jon Jones was stripped of his belt by the UFC. Rumble faced Daniel Cormier at UFC 187 where he lost via rear naked choke in the 5th round. Since losing to DC, Rumble has knocked out his last two opponents, finishing Jimi Manuwa in 2 rounds at UFC 191 and Ryan Bader in 1 at UFC on Fox 18.

Johnson was said to have been the UFC’s first choice to replace Cormier at UFC 197 in what would have been an interim title bout against Jon Jones. But Rumble was coming off a dental procedure at that time and was in no condition to compete. The slot went to Ovince Saint Preux, who lost a 5 round decision to Jon Jones.

Title Shot on the Line

With Jones now the interim title holder and Cormier, the regular champion set to face each other at the main event of UFC 200, the winner of this match-up between Rumble and Teixeira is expected to get a title shot before the year is over, unless of course the Bones-DC rematch is headed to a trilogy, which however may be unlikely.

A bout between former womens bantamweight champion Holly Holm against Valentina Schevchenko is expected to be the event’s co-headliner. Holm was expecting a rematch with Miesha Tate or Ronda Rousey but surprisingly drew the Muay Thai expert instead. Schevchenko is 1-1 in the UFC but owns a win over women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk in Muay Thai/K-1.

Newly crowned IBF Heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua will face an unbeaten American opponent for the second consecutive bout.

Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn recently announced that British rising star Anthony Joshua will defend his IBF belt against Dominic Breazeale on June 25th at the O2 Arena in England.

The bout will be a quick turnaround for the 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist who won the title with a 2nd round TKO win over American Charles Martin just last April.

Rising Star

Along with James DeGale, the 26-year old Joshua is the only British boxer to win both an Olympic Gold Medal and a Professional world title. After winning the silver medal at the 2011 World Championships in Baku, Joshua was the toast of the nation when he won the gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics. He is also the second boxer, next to Joe Frazier, to win a piece of the heavyweight title while still being the reigning Olympic champion.

Since turning pro, Joshua has won 16 consecutive fights, all by knockout and is considered to be one of the sport’s rising stars. And although the big fights for him are unification bouts with Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder, Joshua will need to pass another test in the person of Dominic Breazeale.

Unbeaten Challenger

Like Joshua, Breazeale competed in the super heavyweight division at the 2012 London Olympics. Unfortunately, he was defeated by Magomed Omarov in the preliminary round and was eliminated. At that time, Breazeale was the highest ranked amateur heavyweight in the United States. This 30-year old former NFL player and University of Colorado quarterback is also unbeaten in 17 professional bouts and has 15 KOs to his credit. Breazeale was knocked down by 40-year old Amir Mansour during his most recent bout last January 23rd. He won that bout though after Mansour retired in the 5th round.

Joshua is expected to be an overwhelming favorite over Breazeale, although he cannot discredit his opponent’s punching power and size. At 6’7” and 81.5 inches in reach, Brezeale is the first opponent for Joshua who can match him in physical attributes. However, unlike Breazeale, Joshua is a lot quicker and more athletic. The Brit is also considered to have the more powerful punch.

An all-Briton bout between George Groves and Martin Murray are also scheduled for the event promoted by Matchroom Sports. That encounter will be a title eliminator for he WBA world super middleweight title.

In his bout in U.S. soil, Carl Frampton had to overcome two early knockdowns to win on points and keep his junior featherweight title. This time, Frampton returns for a bigger fight which could launch him to U.S. super stardom.

Frampton vs. Cruz

As announced by Frampton’s promoter on Thursday, the Briton will challenge Leo Santa Cruz for the latter’s featherweight title. Cyclone Promotions, which handles Frampton, said that the bout will take place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York where Frampton stands to be the crowd favorite owing to the large Irish community there.

For Frampton, the bout will be more than just for a world title. The WBA World  belt which Santa Cruz now owns was the same belt held by Frampton’s manager Barry McGuigan held some 30 years ago.

Chasing a Belt

Coming off the biggest win of his career, a 12-round split decision win over Scott Quigg in a champion vs champion mega fight in Britain last February 27th, Frampton is moving up in weight to chase another title. Last month, Frampton was stripped of the WBA regular version of the title for failing to notify the body of his intention to defend the belt against his mandatory challenger, Guillermo Rigondeaux. On Thursday, Frampton vacated the IBF Featherweight title to make way for a fight with Santa Cruz rather than defend it against mandatory challenger Shingo Wake. Now without a belt, Frampton is eyeing what’s on Leo Sant Cruz’s waist.

Santa Cruz meanwhile outpointed fellow L.A. standout Abner Mares in the Battle of Los Angeles in August of 2015 to win the featherweight title. The former Bantamweight and Junior Featherweight champion recently defended his featherweight belt with a 5th round TKO win over Kiko Martinez also on February 27th. Martinez fought and lost twice to Frampton before taking on Santa Cruz.

Unbeaten Runs

Santa Cruz and Frampton are each other’s biggest test so far in their careers. Santa Cruz is undefeated in 32 bouts and has 18 KOs. He’s one of the fastest rising stars in boxing with his high volume and all action fighting style. Against Frampton, he’s matched up with a similarly unbeaten foe. The Jackal is 22-0 with 14 KOs and like Santa Cruz, he has a fan-friendly style which makes this an explosive matchup with a lot of fireworks to expect from these two young and exciting fighters.

It’s official: Conor McGregor has been bumped off UFC 200.

New Headliner

The Conor McGregor drama is finally over. The UFC Featherweight champion will NOT be fighting at UFC 200. This after UFC President Dana White announced on Wednesday that the rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier will be the new headliner for the UFC’s biggest event.

UFC 200 was supposed to be another Conor McGregor hit but after the Irishman refused to fly to the U.S. last week to promote the event, UFC President Dana White decided to pull him out of the fight card for disciplinary reasons. With McGregor out, opponent Nate Diaz decided to take a vacation instead of fighting someone else. Faced with the dilemma, White decided to resurrect what was supposed to be the main event of UFC 200.

Big Rematch

The Jones-Cormier rematch was shelved after DC suffered an injury during training. As a result, Jones went on to face Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 197 last weekend and he walked away with a one-sided unanimous decision win to capture the interim Lightheavyweight title. After the win, Jones offered to fight at UFC 200 and with the medical clearance from his left foot x-ray expected to be favorable, the UFC announced the bout during Wednesday’s Good Morning America show.

Jones wasn’t impressive against Saint Preux last weekend but that was mainly because he hadn’t fought in over a year. Brushes with the law prevented Jones from fighting after UFC 182 but after his reinstatement last year, he set his sights on reclaiming the the belt he never lost inside the octagon. Jones is 22-1 in his MMA career, with his one loss coming off a disqualification (due to 12-6 elbows). He is considered the #1 Pound for Pound fighter in the planet and is the youngest champ in UFC history. Jones defended the 205 title 8 times before he was stripped.

Odds and Pick

On the other hand, Cormier is 17-1, with his one loss coming from Jones at UFC 182. The former Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix winner beat Anthony “Rumble” Johnson at UFC 187 to win the title vacated after Jones was stripped. He’s defended it once, beating Alexander Gustafsson by split decision at UFC 192.

Despite Cormier’s recent success and Jones’ prolonged absence, Jon still opened as a big -275 favorite to repeat over DC. Cormier is a +210 to beat Jones. Now those are even bigger odds as Jones was only a -192 during their first encounter. Having said that, the lines will still change as the weeks pass but it’s unlikely that Bones will be an underdog against a man he handily beat in 2015.

It didn’t take that long to rebook Dan Henderson to another bout.

Change of Plans

After his scheduled UFC on Fox 19 main event bout against Lyoto Machida was called off days before the fight due to a drug violation by Machida, Dan Henderson thought he would wait that long to finish his obligation. With one fight left in his UFC contract, the 45-year old Hendo was looking forward to his rematch with Machida to determine if he would continue fighting or retire. Unfortunately for him, Machida self-reported a USADA violation and he was scrapped from the event.

Shell of Hendo?

Now at the tail-end of his career, Henderson is ranked just 14th in the UFC middleweight division. He is coming off a knockout loss to Vitor Belfort in Brazil and has lost three of his last four bouts. Known for his freakish knockout power, Hendo was the last Strikeforce middleweight champion as well as the last middleweight and light heavyweight champion of the Pride Fighting Championships.

Henderson is also known as the only mixed martial artist to concurrently hold two titles in different weight classes in a major MMA promotion. Unfortunately for Hendo, he is the oldest fighter in the UFC’s roster of active fighters and may be only  a shadow of his once glorious past.

Lombard’s Return

Lombard, meanwhile, is moving back to middleweight after a failed attempt at 170 pounds. After losing to Neil Magny at UFC Fight Night 85 in Brisbane, Australia last March 19th, Lombard announced that he would be moving back to middleweight, the weight class where he won the title in Bellator and the division he started out in the UFC.

Lombard cited the inability to use IV to re-hydrate after the weigh-ins as one of the major reasons for his move. That procedure is new to the UFC as it is prohibited under USADA drug testing policies. Lombard also stated he had been having difficulties making welterweight. The 38-year old Cuban standout is 35-5-1 with 19 KOs.

Bolstering UFC 199

Henderson and Lombard are two of the UFC’s heavy hitters, both possessing genuine one punch KO power. Both are also among the older fighters in a middleweight division ruled by the young and athletic Luke Rockhold. This bout will add more star power to UFC 199, which Rockhold is headlining against the former champion Chris Weidman in a rematch of their UFC 194 bout, which he won via 4th round stoppage.

Now that a fight against Nicholas Walters is off the table, WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko is moving on.

As confirmed by Promoter Bob Arum, Lomachenko will move up in weight to challenge WBO Super Featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez on June 11th at the Theater in Madison Square Garden, New York. The bout will headline a Puerto Rican Day Parade weekend championship card put up by Arum’s Top Rank Boxing Promotions.

Moving On

Lomachenko’s move comes after negotiations for a potential mega-buck showdown with former WBA featherweight champion Nicholas Walter fell off the shelve after the latter reportedly kept on asking more money to sign the contract. It was even reported that Lomachenko wanted to fight Walters so badly that he offered his opponent an extra $300,000 from his fight purse. Still, that didn’t make Walters put the pen on the paper and so Loma is moving on from that.

With no big fight left at featherweight, moving up in weight  was logical for the Ukrainian amateur boxing legend. His opponent is three time world champion Martinez who is coming off a pair of exciting bouts with Orlando Salido. It can be recalled that it was Salido who spoiled Lomachenko’s first attempt at a professional world title when the former beat Lomachenko by split decision on March 1st, 2014. Lomachenko was then only fighting in his second professional fight ( although the bout was for the WBO featherweight belt which Lomachenko later won against Gary Russell Jr. in his third pro bout.

The Greatest Amateur

Lomachenko is regarded as the greatest amateur boxer of all-time, having finished with an amateur record of 396-1. His only defeat was to Albert Selimov at the gold medal match of the 2007 World Championships. Lomachenko has since avenged the defeat by beating Selimov twice. Lomachenko won gold in the 2009 and 2011 World Championship plus the gold medal during the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Since winning the WBO featherweight title, Loma has made three successful title defenses, 2 by KO.

Martinez meanwhile lost the WBO Super Featherweight title twice, to Ricky Burns and Mikey Garcia but he’s won it back against different opponents. He is coming off a split draw against Orlando Salido last September in a bout that was a rematch of their April of 2014 contest where Martinez won the WBO Super Featherweight title a third time in his career.