Badou Jack vs. Noel Mikaelian | PPV - May 3, 2025

[Ruthless-RKO]

Badou Jack ordered to face Ryan Rozicki by WBC

WBC cruiserweight champion Badou Jack has been ordered to face mandatory challenger Ryan Rozicki.

The two sides will have until February 4 to negotiate a deal, at which point a purse bid will take place that same day, WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman confirmed to BS. The fight must take place within 60 days of a deal being reached.

The 41-year-old Jack, 28-3-3 (17 KOs) has been inactive since winning the title in February of 2023, when he stopped Ilunga Makabu in twelve rounds in Saudi Arabia. The Sweden born, Dubai resident had been named “champion-in-recess” later that year as he sought to move up in weight to challenge for a bridgerweight belt, with Noel Mikaeljan winning the vacant title in November of 2023. Jack was reinstated as full 200lb champion at the WBC Convention last month in Hamburg, Germany after Mikaelian's defense against Rozicki, scheduled for last September in Miami, was postponed several times.

Three Lions Promotions, which promotes Rozicki, 20-1-1 (19 KOs), says they sent an offer to promote the Jack-Rozicki fight in Canada.

“We’re waiting to hear their counteroffer,” said Dan Otter of Three Lions Promotions in a press release. “Boxing has had a huge resurgence in Canada and Ryan is leading the way. He is one of the most exciting and hardest hitters in boxing, definitely in the cruiserweight division. He wants the green WBC belt and, ultimately, to unify the division. Ryan will fight Jack anywhere for the belt.”

Rozicki, 29, is coming off a majority draw last month with Yamil Alberto Peralta for the WBC interim cruiserweight title. Born in Sydney, Nova Scotia but now based in Hamilton, Ontario, Rozicki has fought all of his professional fights in Canada. Rozicki has been unbeaten in his last eight fights since losing a unanimous decision in 2021 to Oscar Rivas.

Jack, who had previously won world titles at super middleweight and light heavyweight, signaled that he has a title defense coming soon, posting a video of himself working on the double end bag on Monday afternoon with the caption "Fight date coming soon."

Jack had called for a unification bout with IBF champion Jai Opetaia at the WBC convention, and says he has been keeping in shape in the gym.

“I’ve been waiting for like a year-and-a-half to get back into the ring. Boxing politics has kept me away, but I’ve been in the gym. I’ve been ready, I’ve been waiting,” said Badou in an interview with BS last month.

Rozicki’s promoter says he likes their chances of pulling off the victory.

“We respect Jack, and I don’t want to sound disrespectful but he’s over 40 and has been relatively inactive for two years,” said Otter.

“He brings a lot of experience and respect into the ring, but he’s going to be fighting a young buck with power. Jack is going to be in a world of trouble and, honestly, I don’t think he’ll get past the first few rounds.”

[EdwardRevolver1993]

Jack was out for almost two years. And even when he's at his optimum shape - he isn't the busiest guy in the ring. Tends to give away rounds. Rozicki will push him.

But ability-wise, Jack should be able to win it.

P.S. I still think all that bridgerweight stuff is kinda pointless.

[cormack]

another WBC disgrace having granda badou holding a belt for this length of time with no activity .

rozicki will stop him - if the fight gets made .

[cormack]

another WBC disgrace having granda badou holding a belt for this length of time with no activity .

rozicki will stop him - if the fight gets made which isnt certain .

[zorndeslammes]

Badou Jack was willing to fight anyone and also fought to the level of his opposition. I will always respect him immensely for that. But at some point, you gotta call it quits and go sit on the couch. IDK if he spent all his money or what.

[Ruthless-RKO]

BADOU JACK-RYAN ROZICKI: THREE LIONS PROMOTIONS WINS PURSE BID, WBC TITLE FIGHT EYED FOR APRIL IN CANADA

A home game is once again in store for Ryan Rozicki’s shot at a cruiserweight title.

With any luck, the latest attempt will actually see the light of day this time around.

The Ring has confirmed that Three Lions Promotions, Rozicki’s promoter, secured the rights to its fighter’s mandatory title shot against WBC cruiserweight titlist Badou Jack. The Ontario, Canada-based company submitted $320,000 as the lone bidder during Wednesday’s hearing.

A date and exact location weren’t immediately determined as this goes to publication, other than to present the fight later this spring.

“We were the only company to place a bid for the fight,” Three Lions Promotions’ Daniel Otter told The Ring in a text message. “We will be looking to host the bout with Rozicki V Jack in Canada in April.”

Jack (28-3-3, 17 KOs)—a 2008 Swedish Olympian now based in Dubai—will attempt his first defense across two WBC cruiserweight title reigns.

The three-division titlist’s current reign was reinstated during the WBC’s annual convention last December in Hamburg, Germany. Jack replaced Noel Mikaelyan (27-2, 12 KOs), who was downgraded to ‘Champion in Recess’ during his legal battle with estranged Hall of Fame promoter Don King, which was since resolved.

Mikaelyan is now due to face the Jack-Rozicki winner. Ironically, his reign ended over his inability to defend against Rozicki (20-1-1, 19 KOs), The Ring’s No. 7 cruiserweight, in a bout that was due to take place last Dec. 7 in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Jack originally won the title in a 12th round knockout of Junior Makabu in Feb. 2023. His reigned ended without a single defense as he opted to pursue a bridgerweight title opportunity that never transpired.

The 41-year-old is now recommitted to campaigning at cruiserweight.

Rozicki has been the mandatory challenger for nearly a year. He made several attempts to challenge Mikaelyan, only for their ordered bout to suffer multiple postponements and an eventual outright cancellation given the prior titlist’s legal issue with King.

A concession was made by the WBC to permit Rozicki to compete for its interim title. It came against Argentina’s Yamil Peralta in a Dec. 7 rematch to their May 2022 meeting won by Rozicki via a questionable split decision. Their sequel ended in a majority draw, though most felt Rozicki deserved the nod this time around.

The stalemate did not harm Rozicki’s placement atop the WBC cruiserweight rankings as he remained first in line to fight for the belt.

“It doesn’t matter when or against who,” Rozicki told The Ring. “I want that [WBC] green belt and Jack has it. It’s my time.”

[Ruthless-RKO]

Ryan Rozicki’s promoter still awaiting Badou Jack’s signature for cruiserweight title fight

Ryan Rozicki’s promoter has a date and location set for the upcoming WBC cruiserweight title fight – but what he doesn’t have yet is an agreement from the WBC titleholder himself.

“Badou Jack has until the end of this month [February] to either sign the contract and honor the purse bid or he will be stripped,” said Dan Otter, managing director of Three Lions Promotions.

Three Lions was the only company to put forth a purse bid on Jack-Rozicki earlier this month. The bid was $320,000, according to Otter (the amount was first reported by The Ring magazine).

Rozicki will fight on Saturday, April 26 – the WBC’s website erroneously says April 29. He will headline at the Centre 200 in his hometown of Sydney, Nova Scotia.

That will remain the case whether the foe is Jack or someone else. If Jack is stripped, then Three Lions and the WBC must instead work their way down the rankings to see who else is available to vie for the vacant title.

Jack, previously a super middleweight titleholder and the owner of a secondary belt at light heavyweight, seized the WBC cruiserweight title in February 2023 with a 12th-round technical knockout of Ilunga Makabu.

But when Jack was mulling over a move to the bridgerweight division later that year, Jack was named “champion in recess.” Noel Mikaelyan stopped Makabu in three rounds in October 2023 to win the vacant WBC belt.

Neither Jack nor Mikaelyan has fought since their respective wins over Makabu in 2023. Mikaelyan pulled out of several defenses against Rozicki, who is ranked No. 1 at cruiserweight by the WBC. In December 2024, at the WBC’s annual convention, Jack was reinstated as the cruiserweight titleholder while Mikaelyan became “champion in recess.”

“At first I thought for sure he would sign,” Otter said of Jack. “He’s against a young buck [Rozicki is 30, Jack is 41] and I think it's a very tough fight for him. Maybe he expected to have a big fight before he retired and get a payday. This is probably not the fight he envisioned back when he was reinstated.”

Rozicki is coming off a draw against Yamil Alberto Peralta in December, a rematch of their May 2022 bout in which Rozicki was controversially awarded a split decision.

Rozicki-Peralta II was for the WBC’s interim cruiserweight title. With that belt still vacant, and with Rozicki vying for the primary title, the WBC is seeking to make a bout between Peralta (currently ranked No. 2) and Michal Cieslak (No. 3) for the interim title.

[Ruthless-RKO]

UNDERCARD INFORMATION

The undercard has been finalized for the undisputed super middleweight clash between Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and William Scull.

In the main event of the evening, Canelo will stake his Ring, WBA, WBC, WBO, world titles when he faces undefeated IBF champion Scull on May 3rd in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

As previously reported by The Ring, former world champion Jaime Munguia (44-2, 35 KOs) will attempt to get revenge when faces Bruno Surace (26-0-2, 5 KOs) in a co-featured rematch.

Back in December, Surace was a massive underdog when he scored a shocking one-punch knockout of Munguia in Mexico. The outcome would ultimately become Ring's Upset of The Year.

Heavyweight punchers Martin Bakole (21-2, 16 KOs) and Efe Ajagba (20-1, 14 KOs) will collide in what many expect to be a shootout.

Bakole will look to bounce back after suffering a two-round knockout loss to former world champion Joseph Parker last month. Bakole took that fight on two day's notice after Daniel Dubois withdrew with an illness. Ajagba saw action back in April of last year, when he picked up a tough split decision win over Guido Vianello.

WBC cruiserweight champion Badou Jack (28-3-3, 17 KOs) will make a mandatory defense of his world title against dangerous puncher Ryan Rozicki (20-1-1, 19 KOs).

Jack will be fighting for the first time since knocking out Junior Makabu for the title in February of 2023. Rozicki will be coming back from a December draw with Yamil Alberto Peralta.

Also on the card, highly touted Olympian Marco Verde will make his pro debut against Michel Polina.

Verde won the gold medal in the 2023 Pan American Games at welterweight. He also won the welterweight silver medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics after losing the final bout against Uzbek Asadkhuja Muydinkhujaev.

Cuban light heavyweight prospect Brayan Leon (6-0, 6 KOs), who is trained by Eddy Reynoso, will face Aaron Guerrero (11-3-1, 7 KOs). The more experienced Guerrero has never lost by knockout.

[squiggy]

Underwhelming card, let's be honest

[lazboy]

Badou Jack was willing to fight anyone and also fought to the level of his opposition. I will always respect him immensely for that. But at some point, you gotta call it quits and go sit on the couch. IDK if he spent all his money or what.

Share those sentiments. He’s well past it so I’m not sure why he’s fighting again.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Underwhelming card, let's be honest

Many saying it’s decent.

Are our expectations too high now for Turki cards

[Ruthless-RKO]

May 3rd sorry

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Fights off

Rozicki suffered a bicep injury

Jack may get replacement

[Ruthless-RKO]

Ryan Rozicki injured, Badou Jack left without challenger for title defense

Ryan Rozicki continues his run of bad luck as it relates to his quest for a major title.

BS has confirmed that the top-rated cruiserweight contender was forced to bow out of his May 3 challenge of Badou Jack’s WBC title in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Rozicki, 20-1-1 (19 KOs), suffered a torn biceps during a training session and will be out of the ring for the next several months.

"It is what it is,” Rozicki lamented to BS. “The doctors called it a freak accident—my biceps tore, and now I'm sidelined for a few months.”

The bout was due to take place on the Riyadh Season show headlined by the Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez-William Scull undisputed super middleweight championship. Jack, 28-3-3 (17 KOs), is now in need of a new challenger for the first defense as the reinstated WBC cruiserweight titlist.

The bout was officially put into play last December, when the WBC restored Jack’s title reign after previously claiming the three-division titlist as its ‘Champion in Recess.’

Canada’s Rozicki was already the mandatory challenger in waiting, at which point the WBC ordered a negotiation period. The two sides were unable to reach a deal, which sent the matter to a purse bid which was won by Three Lions Promotions, Rozicki’s promoter.

Original plans called for the fight to take place later this month in Rozicki’s hometown of Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada. That dynamic changed when Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and head of Riyadh Season, decided to pick up the tab. Alalshikh added $100,000 to the total pot to bring the fight to Riyadh.

It is all a moot point.

"We are absolutely gutted,” Three Lions Promotions’ Daniel Otter told BS. “Rozicki has never looked better—he came prepared to win, and that title was meant to return home to Canada. That said, he’s in great spirits, and we know the comeback will be even stronger. He will be the WBC world champion—it’s only a matter of time.

“We did win the rights to the fight at purse bid, and we’re actively working to facilitate another opportunity. This is far from over."

The move now only benefits Jack, who will remain on the show—assuming a new opponent can be secured in time.

One volunteer emerged in the previous title claimant—Noel Mikaelyan.

Interestingly (and perhaps not at all coincidental), Hall of Fame promoter Don King announced that Mikaelyan, 27-2 (12 KOs) was due to return to the ring on May 17, his first fight since November 2023 when he knocked out Ilunga ‘Junior’ Makabu to win the WBC cruiserweight title.

Mikaelyan and King were previously embroiled in a legal battle, which forced the boxer to relinquish the belt. He essentially traded places with Jack and is the current ‘Champion in Recess.’

King’s May 17 show does not yet have a location. He is prepared to decimate its main event in order to deliver a title opportunity for his charge.

“We just heard the news and our champion in recess, Noel Mikaelian is ready, willing and able to step in for Rozicki and fight Jack for the title.,” said King. “We are in the process of negotiating a deal.”

Meanwhile, Rozicki can only hope to find his way back into the mix once fully healed.

“Make no mistake, I’ll be back,” vowed the 30-year-old knockout artist. “I want that belt, and I’m coming for it."

[Ruthless-RKO]

[Ruthless-RKO]

NOEL MIKAELIAN REPLACES INJURED ROZICKI, STEPS IN TO FACE BADOU JACK ON MAY 3

Noel Mikaelian is stepping in to face Badou Jack for the WBC cruiserweight title May 3 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, sources tell The Ring.

Mikaelian (27-2, 12 KOs) replaces the injured Ryan Rozicki on three weeks’ notice. Mikaelian, a 34-year-old Armenian who fights out of Miami, was stripped of his WBC title last year after he was embroiled in a promotional dispute with promoter Don King.

He was named champion in recess while Jack was elevated to champion, and now Mikaelian has a chance to regain his title on the Canelo Alvarez-William Scull Riyadh Season undercard.

Mikaelian was set to fight Rozicki in June before he suffered a cut in sparring. The rescheduled September date was canceled when King fell ill.

Jack (28-3-3, 19 KOs) last fought in February 2023 in Riyadh when he stopped Junior Makabu in Round 12 to win the title. The 41-year-old Sweden native formerly was a title challenger at 168 and 175 pounds.

Mikaelian’s last fight also came against Makabu, a third-round TKO in November 2023 to capture the title.

[Ruthless-RKO]

BADOU JACK ENDS WBC CRUISERWEIGHT SAGA WITH NARROW WIN OVER NOEL MIKAELJAN

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Badou Jack cemented his position as the rightful WBC cruiserweight champion by the smallest of margins against Noel Mikaeljan on Saturday night.

After 12 hard-fought and attritional rounds, there was very little to choose between the two returning 200lbers at ANB Arena.

Judge Nobuto Ikehara could not split them, returning a 114-114 scorecard, but when Pablo Gonzalez and Jose Manzur scored it 115-113 to Jack, there was finally a conclusion to this long-running saga.

There was a complicated route to this fight which started in February 2023, when Jack initially won the WBC cruiserweight title via 12th-round stoppage of Ilunga Makubu. However, he was then made champion in recess as he plotted a move up to fight for the bridgerweight title.

The following November, Mikaeljan himself fought Makubu for the WBC belt vacated by Jack’s move. He did the business even quicker than Jack, stopping Makubu inside three in Miami.

Neither man has fought since those wins, but at their convention in Hamburg, Germany, in December the WBC decided to reinstate Jack as their full champion and place Mikaeljan in recess, effectively switching the two.

Then just to add another fly to the ointment, once-beaten Canadian Ryan Rozicki was made mandatory challenger for Jack’s title by the WBC with their fight set for Friday in Riyadh. In a final twist, Rozicki pulled out through injury a month ago, opening the door for Mikaeljan and Jack to finally decide who is the "real" WBC champion.

Given they have been out for 41 months between them, it was no surprise that the opening two rounds of this chief support were uneventful. Mikaeljan finally landed a punch of note in the third when a right hand found the target, but Jack barely blinked.

Regardless of the lay-off this was 41-year-old Jack’s third straight fight in Saudi Arabia, with the two before that taking place in Dubai where he now lives permanently. He had therefore described this outing as "like a home match," but he was struggling to assume any advantage against Mikaeljan, who landed a pair of good left hooks midway through the fifth as the fight began to open up. With 20 seconds of the round left, Jack landed with a crisp right hand but took one himself moments before the bell.

Since their absence, the cruiserweight division has moved along at pace, with Ring Magazine king Jai Opetaia now the IBF champion while Gilberto Ramirez holds the WBA and WBO belts. Both men knew that victory here would almost certainly set them on a path towards an undisputed clash with one of those two, although it is unlikely either of them would be too worried about what they saw in the first half of this encounter.

Jack got through with a right hand with a minute left of the eighth but he failed to build on it while Mikaeljan was often landing jabs in bunches of four and five but not setting up his back hand. He then missed wildly with a hook and shipped a heavy left hook in return which seemed to hurt him right on the bell to end the eighth. But he responded with two big moments of his own in the ninth to re-establish his footing in the fight.

The attritional nature of the contest continued through the championship rounds in an untidy climax. Mikaeljan threatened to pull a dramatic finish out of the bag when a left hook landed with less than 30 seconds on the clock but Jack held firm.

Both men held their hands aloft, more in hope than expectation, as they awaited the result but it was Jack who got the nod by the smallest of margins possible in boxing.

[handsofstone]

Another snoozer, I had Mikaelian winning 115-113 but no complaints about Jack edging it, the fight was devoid of any quality and there was only a handful of clean punches from either man, I thought Mikaelian started off quicker, used his jab well, his jab was his best punch in the fight, he threw 1's and 2's stabbing the body of Jack and using the ring better, Jack came into things started timing his right hand, working better up close, Mikaelian switched off in the clinches and allowed Jack to bang to the body and catch him clean with head shots as Mikaelian was looking to the ref to break, again it was slim pickings, tough to score, I thought Mikaelian did enough but knew it was tight and wasn't surprised Jack got it tbh

[goose 5]

Imo, no way Jack deserved the nod.