Visa issues can become problematic for foreign boxers attempting to enter the United States and force promoters to settle sometimes for less significant fights as they attempt to keep cards intact on short notice. That was the unfortunate situation Golden Boy Promotions encountered when Filipino contender Joey Canoy couldn’t get into the U.S. in time for his shot at Ring, WBA and WBO 105-pound champion Oscar Collazo on Saturday night at Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California.

Canoy (25-5-2, 15 KOs, 1 NC), ranked fifth among The Ring’s strawweight contenders, would’ve been a credible challenger for Collazo (14-0, 11 KOs). Fans and pundits would rather see Puerto Rico’s Collazo test himself against Pedro Taduran and Siyakholwa Kuse, The Ring’s respective Nos. 1 and 2 contenders, but at least Canoy could make a reasonable case for getting a title shot.

The same cannot be said for Neider Valdez, the Mexican veteran who replaced Canoy on Wednesday.

Valdez was such a step down in competition from Canoy, even the WBA, which would approve almost anything to collect its fee, refused to sanction this 12-round main event as a title defense for the No. 9 fighter on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list. The WBO, though, appallingly approved Valdez as an acceptable replacement for Canoy due to the extenuating circumstances.

Valdez fought for the then-vacant WBA junior flyweight title in December 2024, but he lost a unanimous decision to Erick Rosa (then 7-0). Since then, Valdez (15-3-3, 12 KOs) lost by second-round knockout to Victor Rojas (then 8-3-3) in May 2025 and settled for a six-round majority draw with Gerardo Rodriguez, who entered their bout 4-4 on May 30 in Guadalupe, Mexico.

Yes, you read that correctly. A fighter who couldn’t beat an inexperienced opponent with a .500 record less than three weeks ago was approved as a championship challenger.

Valdez, as you might imagine, is not ranked in the top 15 by either sanctioning organization and thus shouldn’t be eligible for a 105-pound title shot.

Worse yet, Valdez hasn’t competed in the strawweight division since March 2024. He was stopped in the fifth round of that bout by Erik Badillo (19-0, 8 KOs).

Based on Valdez’s recent history, there is no reasonable justification for approving Collazo-Valdez as a title fight. It would’ve been perfectly acceptable due to the unforeseen circumstances to allow Collazo to proceed versus Valdez without any of his championships at stake.

But boxing’s incessant need to promote virtually every main event as some sort of title fight leads to embarrassing, inexplicable decisions such as these.

Golden Boy president Eric Gomez initially attempted to replace Canoy with another Mexican contender, Luis Castillo (22-1-1, 14 KOs). Castillo has lost only a unanimous decision to former WBC 105-pound champ Melvin Jerusalem (25-4, 12 KOs) and would’ve been a much more respectable replacement for Canoy.

It became clear Castillo, too, would’ve encountered visa issues that would’ve prevented him from entering the U.S. on such short notice. To avoid more complications, they settled on Valdez.

Again, circumstances beyond the control of Golden Boy, DAZN and any other company involved in this event resulted in this obvious mismatch. It’s what was necessary so that Collazo and all the fighters on the undercard can at least still fight Saturday night.

It was equally unnecessary for the WBO to allow an underserving opponent to fight for its championship in what should’ve simply been relegated to a non-title fight.

Ernesto “Tito” Mercado is still young and is an entertaining knockout artist who wants to test himself against top opponents at junior welterweight.

After parting ways with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, however, the 24-year-old needs to regenerate interest in his career when he returns to the ring Friday night in Long Beach, California. The best way Mercado can do that is by becoming the first fighter to knock out Juan Carlos Burgos in their 10-round fight on the Ashton Sylve-Joseph Diaz undercard.

The durable Mexican veteran is 38, but Burgos (36-8-3, 22 KOs) has taken Keyshawn Davis, Andy Cruz, Devin Haney and Mikey Garcia the distance over the past 12 years. Mercado (18-0, 17 KOs), of Pomona, California, has won seven consecutive bouts by knockout or technical knockout since South Africa’s Xolisani Ndongeni became the first to reach the final bell against him in July 2023.

DAZN’s coverage of the main portion of the Sylve-Diaz card is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET from Thunder Studios.

It’s baffling to watch Al Haymon continuing to sign off on tune-up fights for Jermall Charlo that inevitably lead to long layoffs, not meaningful matches within a loaded super middleweight division.

An entire year has passed since the 36-year-old former WBC middleweight champion stopped Thomas LaManna in the sixth round of a bout that was supposed to lead to Charlo facing former IBF 168-pound champ Caleb Plant in a grudge match. Armando Resendiz upset Plant by split decision in the main event that night, which obviously hurt Charlo’s cause.

It was announced Thursday that Charlo (34-0, 23 KOs), who was a 12-1 favorite over LaManna, will box an even bigger underdog — figuratively at least — when he encounters Koen Mazoudier on the Tim Tszyu-Errol Spence undercard July 26 at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.

Mazoudier (15-4-1, 6 KOs) is a career-long junior middleweight who will move up two divisions to face Charlo. The native Australian also has been stopped twice, most recently in the ninth round by Tszyu’s younger brother, Nikita, in December 2024.

Today marks the five-year anniversary of Charlo’s tougher-than-anticipated points victory over Mexican contender Juan Macias Montiel. His fight with Mazoudier will be just the third for Charlo since he withstood Montiel’s challenge.

■ After proving countless skeptics wrong with his respectable performance against Mario Barrios 11 months ago, it seems like Manny Pacquiao probably wasted precious time trying to get back in the ring with Floyd Mayweather. Their rematch is supposed to take place in three months, yet it hasn’t been publicly acknowledged by any entity involved in the event since it was officially announced February 23. If they are actually going to fight again September 25, this is one of the more peculiar promotional plans in boxing history. And as Mayweather’s legal problems mount on an almost daily basis, it appears Pacquiao would’ve been better served selecting a younger, active welterweight to fight next.

■ If Tyson Fury doesn’t fight again in August, it’ll be because no one wants to pay him another seven-figure purse for a second tune-up bout before he finally faces Anthony Joshua in November. “The Gypsy King” was already paid handsomely to face a huge underdog who was stopped in two of his previous five fights April 11, when the former WBC heavyweight champ went the distance with Russia’s Arslanbek Makhmudov at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. It wouldn’t make much business sense to do that again when his long-awaited showdown with Joshua will already sell extremely well.

■ Despite that it keeps coming up, it would make even less financial sense for Fury-Joshua, billed as the biggest fight in British boxing history, to be held anywhere other than in England.