Pedraza vs. Commey Preview
The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma will host a dynamic junior welterweight fight on Saturday August 27th. The main event will be between two fighters looking for a return to championship glory as Jose Pedraza will battle Richard Commey.
Pedraza is trying to rebound from a unanimous decision loss to former unified champion Jose Ramirez in March which put an end to a three-fight winning streak. Pedraza is a former two-weight world champion as he previously held the Ibo super featherweight title in 2014 and IBF super featherweight title from 2015 to 2017. He also was a WBO lightweight champion in 2018.
The Puerto Rican fighter is moving beyoind his last fight and looking forward to defeating a world class fighter such as Commey. "August 27 will definitely be a high-stakes battle between two world-class fighters. We are both coming to get back on the winning path. That's the perfect recipe for a great fight. I know that a convincing victory against an opponent of Commey's caliber will put me back in contention to capture that coveted world title opportunity. Despite what happened in my last fight, I still have my sights set on being crowned world champion at 140 pounds. I'm still chasing my goal of becoming a three-division world champion,” said Pedraza.
The 33-year-old has been in the ring with some of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world such as Gervonta Davis and Vasiliy Lomachenko. He has key victories over Raymundo Beltran, Stephen Smith, Edner Cherry, Andrey Kilmov, Alberto Garza and Tevin Farmer.
Commey is fighting for the first time in 2022 but is also trying to rebound from a loss in December to Vasiliy Lomachenko by unanimous decision. The 35-year-old is a former IBF lightweight champion but lost the title by second round TKO to Teofimo Lopez in 2019. He and his team still believe he can be champion at any weight class.
The Ghanaian fighter is ready to make some noise in a new division. “I am really looking forward to this fight,” Commey said. “It’s an opportunity for one of us to make a big statement in the 140-pound division.”
Commey went on to say, “It is a deep division, but so was lightweight,” he said. “That doesn’t worry me. If you want to be the best, you have to challenge the best. I have been competing at lightweight all my career, over 11 years now.
“My team and I feel this is the right time to step up in weight and try to become a two-weight world champion.”
The former champion knows what kind of a challenge he has in Pedraza. “I have the upmost respect for Pedraza, not only as a fighter but as a human being,” he said. “He conducts himself very well, and I’ve never seen or heard him being disrespectful to anyone.
“I look forward to sharing the ring with him. He is a very good technician and has a very high boxing IQ, so I will have to bring my ‘A’ game to be victorious. I do believe we will give the fans a treat and I can’t wait.”
The fight can be seen on ESPN+
