Boxing Notes: Daniel Dubois's Weird Week, Boxing's Fyre Festival and More
Welcome back to this week's boxing notes. I'mback from Cleveland this week, where I was on hand for the formal announcement of Abdullah Mason's 135-pound title defense against Joe Cordina on July 4. I'm told ringside tickets are nearly sold out at the Wolstein Center, a great sign for Mason, a Cleveland native, and his ability to draw.
Alright, let's go a few rounds …
Dubois's weird week
Catch any interviews from Daniel Dubois this week? The former heavyweight titleholder-never the most loquacious speaker-has been especially curt lately as he prepares to face Fabio Wardley on Saturday for a piece of the heavyweight crown. Dubois abruptly ended a DAZN social interview and checked out of another with Ariel Helwani.
Daniel Dubois 𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗠𝗦 𝗢𝗨𝗧 of interview
- DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) May 5, 2026
Buy WARDLEY vs DUBOIS HERE --> https://t.co/FoiaUucafv#WardleyDubois | May 9 | Live Exclusively on DAZN pic.twitter.com/PEjCsPGRjs
What gives? Dubois has been a punching bag for British boxing fans in recent years. He was called a quitter after knockout losses to Joe Joyce and Oleksandr Usyk (the first one) and was criticized after being filmed at a house party before his rematch with Usyk. At 28, Dubois is at a career crossroads. He's young enough to survive another loss (he did batter Anthony Joshua less than two years ago) but it would require another rebuild, one he may not have the stomach for. Either way, Dubois doesn't seem interested in talking about it.
Shakur Zuffa-bound
Shakur Stevenson is working towards finalizing a deal with Zuffa Boxing, multiple sources told SI, becoming the latest notable fighter to latch on to Dana White's nascent promotion. I'm told Stevenson had other offers but Zuffa's guaranteed money was too much to ignore.
Who will Stevenson fight? He still holds a piece of the 140-pound crown and while Zuffa is publicly hellbent on destroying boxing's sanctioning bodies they have made it clear that they are willing to play ball with them for the top stars. "The ‘real' fighters get treated differently," said a source with direct contact with Zuffa officials. Richardson Hitchins recently inked a deal with Zuffa and there are rumblings that Devin Haney could soon join them. Zuffa, it seems, is arming up with some big names. Can it get them big fights?
iVB set to debut
iVB, the live sports entertainment company headed by Ed Pereira, announced its first event, which will be headlined by Anthony Olascuaga's flyweight title defense against Andy Dominguez on July 11 in San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza. In a release, iVB said it hoped to challenge the world record for attendance at a boxing event: 132,132, a record set by Tony Zale vs. Billy Pryor at Juneau Park in Milwaukee in 1941.
Laughable. For months Pereira-who is responsible for last May's card in Times Square that looked less like a card in the heart of New York City and more like a fight in a construction zone-has been publicly building up iVB as the future of boxing, promising big names and enormous crowds. His headliner, Olascuaga, is an unknown 112-pounder who has been fighting primarily in Japan. As a boxing event, this card couldn't sell 132 tickets, much less 132,000. Remember the Fyre Festival? This is shaping up to be boxing's version.
More Boxing from Sports Illustrated
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- David Benavidez Is Getting Exactly What He Wanted With Gilberto Ramírez Fight
- Boxing Notes: Floyd Mayweather's Tax Debt, Anthony Joshua's Next Fight and More
- The Senate Blew Its Chance to Get Real Answers on the Health of Boxing
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Boxing Notes: Daniel Dubois's Weird Week, Boxing's Fyre Festival and More.
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This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 2:24 PM.