Matchroom Boxing redefines 'street fighting' with Martinez-Arroyo card in Oklahoma

Andreas Hale

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Matchroom Boxing redefines 'street fighting' with Martinez-Arroyo card in Oklahoma image

This article first appeared on DAZN News.

Matchroom Boxing will place a ring in the middle of the street in downtown Tulsa for a night of fights headlined by Julio Cesar Martinez defending his WBC flyweight title against McWilliams Arroyo.

Matchroom Boxing will be taking "street fighting" to new heights in its stateside return on Aug. 16, for a card headlined by Julio Cesar Martinez (16-1, 12 KOs) defending his WBC flyweight title against McWilliams Arroyo (20-4, 15 KOs).

The real story of the event, which will be broadcast live and exclusively on DAZN, is the location: the heart of Tulsa, Okla.

Matchroom will place a ring in the intersection of E. 5th Street and S. Boston Avenue, with no fans present and strict social distancing and medical protocols in place for a full night of action. 

"We are taking elite World Championship boxing to the streets in Tulsa!" Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn said in a press release. "For our return in the US we wanted to stage something as unique, ambitious and spectacular as we have with Fight Camp at Matchroom HQ in the UK, and I believe that’s exactly what we have in Oklahoma.”

A loaded undercard features undisputed women's welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus (36-0, nine KOs) defending her titles against Jessica McCaskill (8-2, three KOs), with the winner in line to face the winner of Katie Taylor and Delfine Persoon’s Aug. 22 rematch. 

Amateur star Marc Castro will make his pro debut on the card, along with Shakhram Giyasov (9-0, seven KOs) defending his WBA International super lightweight title against Francisco Rojo (22-3, 15 KOs), and appearances by budding talents Nikita Ababiy (8-0, six KOs) and Raymond Ford (5-0, two KOs).

"With explosive Mexican Martinez defending his world title against Puerto Rico's Arroyo, the undisputed welterweight battle between Braekhus and McCaskill, Uzbek star Giyasov and talents Ababiy, Ford and debutant Castro, this is a lineup that could stop traffic — so we’ve done exactly that!" Hearn said.

Andreas Hale

Andreas Hale Photo

Andreas Hale is the senior editor for combat sports at The Sporting News. Formerly at DAZN, Hale has written for various combat sports outlets, including The Ring, Sherdog, Boxing Scene, FIGHT, Champions and others. He has been ringside for many of combat sports’ biggest events, which include Mayweather-Pacquiao, Mayweather-McGregor, Canelo-GGG, De La Hoya-Pacquiao, UFC 229, UFC 202 and UFC 196, among others. He also has spent nearly two decades in entertainment journalism as an editor for BET and HipHopDX while contributing to MTV, Billboard, The Grio, The Root, Revolt, The Source, The Grammys and a host of others. He also produced documentaries on Kendrick Lamar, Gennadiy Golovkin and Paul George for Jay-Z’s website Life+Times.