Ohara Davies-Ismael Barroso postponed to January 6 due to visa issues
The clash between Ohara Davies and Ismael Barroso has a new date.
Davies and Barroso will square off for the WBA interim world junior welterweight title on January 6, Golden Boy Promotions announced Friday. The 12-round bout will precede the main event bout between former welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz, Jr. and Frederick Lawson.
It was also announced unbeaten junior welterweight contender Arnold Barboza, Jr., who recently signed a promotional deal with Golden Boy, will also fight on the card against an opponent to be determined.
All three fights will stream live on DAZN (8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT).
The Davies-Barroso fight was scheduled to take place this past Saturday on the undercard of the Ryan Garcia-Oscar Duarte fight at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. A few days leading up to the card, the fight was postponed due to Davies not being able to secure a visa to enter the United States.
Davies would eventually receive one, which allowed his fight against Barroso to proceed.
“Slight delay, thanks to the USA Embassy for working quickly and efficiently to issue me a Visa to travel to (the United States) to Box,” stated Davies on Twitter late last week. “I’ll be collecting the passport this week and the rescheduled fight with Barroso will be announced within the next few days – Big up the US.”
Davies (25-2, 18 knockouts), who resides in London, England, will be making his United States debut against Barroso. He also recently signed a promotional deal with Golden Boy Promotions.
The 31-year-old was victorious in his last fight on March 4, a WBA world title elimination bout, knocking out Lewis Ritson in the eighth round. Davies has won his last seven bouts since losing to Jack Catterall in October 2018.
Barroso (24-4-2, 22 KOs), who is originally from El Tigre, Venezuela and now resides in Miami, Florida, last fought on May 13, losing in controversial fashion to Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero in the ninth round. At the time of the stoppage, Barroso, who dropped Romero during the third round, was up on the scorecards (78-73, 77-74, and 76-75).
The WBA ordered Davies-Barroso as an interim title fight after Romero was not medically cleared to defend against Davies after reportedly suffering an injury after the win over Barroso.
Barboza (28-0, 10 KOs) is ranked No. 7 by The Ring at 140 pounds.
The 31-year-old Barboza, who resides in Los Angeles, last fought on February 3, defeating former multi-division world titleholder Jose Pedraza by unanimous decision. The win over Pedraza marked Barboza’s last fight under contract with Top Rank.
Opening the DAZN stream will be Sergiy Derevyanchenko in a 10-round bout against an opponent to be determined.
Derevyanchenko (14-5, 10 KOs), who is originally from Feodosia, Ukraine and now resides in Brooklyn, New York, lost a close unanimous decision to unbeaten super middleweight contender Jaime Munguia on June 10 in one of the best fights of 2023.
In preliminary action, which will stream live on Golden Boy’s YouTube page, unbeaten welterweight Raul Curiel (13-0, 11 KOs) of Mexico will square off against San Diego’s Elias Diaz in a 10-round bout.
Cruiserweight Tristan Kalkreuth (12-1, 9 KOs) of Texas will face Marquise Weston (15-2-1, 8 KOs) of Tacoma, Washington in an eight-round bout.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at [email protected]
