Rising junior welterweight Tiger Johnson, who starred for Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics, intends on capping his 2022 campaign with a standout performance at The World’s Most Famous Arena.
Johnson steps up in his first scheduled eight-rounder against Mike O’Han Jr. on Saturday, Dec. 10, at Madison Square Garden.
Johnson-O’Han joins a loaded fight card headlined by the junior welterweight main event between former lightweight king Teofimo Lopez and former two-weight world champion Jose “Sniper” Pedraza.
Johnson (6-0, 4 KOs), from Cleveland, Ohio, has established himself as one of the sport’s top prospects since turning pro last November.
A quarterfinalist in Tokyo, Johnson is 5-0 in 2022, a year that began with a four-round decision over Xavier Madrid in January.
In August, he became the first fighter to stop Massachusetts native Harry Gigliotti. Johnson returned on the Vasiliy Lomachenko-Jamaine Ortiz card last month and shut out Esteban Garcia over six rounds.
He moves up to the eight-round plateau against O’Han (16-1, 9 KOs), a native of Holbrook, Massachusetts, who has won seven straight bouts.
Johnson said, “Madison Square Garden is the biggest stage in boxing, and I plan on making a huge statement against a tough opponent in Mike O’Han. I am ready to put the 140-pound weight class on notice. I’m going to close out 2022 strong and start climbing the rankings in 2023.”
Lopez-Pedraza tops a televised quadruple-header airing immediately after the Heisman Trophy Ceremony at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on ESPN, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+.
Heavyweight sensation Jared “The Real Big Baby” Anderson aims for his 13th straight knockout against the battle-tested Jerry “Slugger” Forrest, Puerto Rican junior middleweight star Xander Zayas steps up in class against 28-fight veteran Alexis Salazar, and 2020 Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn Davis looks to jumpstart his world title ambitions in a lightweight duel versus Juan Carlos Burgos.
Johnson-O’Han and additional undercard bouts will stream live and exclusively on ESPN+ at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT.
In other undercard action, “Irish” Joe Ward (7-1, 4 KOs) will battle Frederic Julan (12-1, 10 KOs) in a six-round light heavyweight tilt, undefeated Polish heavyweight Damian Knyba (8-0, 5 KOs) steps up against Emilio Salas (7-3-1, 3 KOs) in a six-rounder, Brooklyn-born featherweight sensation Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (5-0, 3 KOs) takes on Juan Tapia (12-4, 4 KOs) in an eight-rounder, and Long Island-born welterweight Jahi Tucker (9-0, 5 KOs) aims for win number 10 against Ivan Pandzic (14-2-1, 8 KOs) in an eight-rounder.
Promoted by Top Rank, tickets starting at $51 are on sale now and can be purchased at Ticketmaster.com.
