Two Ohio-born boxers have joined the ESPN+cundercard leading up to the July 1st heavyweight doubleheader featuring Toledo’s  Jared “The Real Big Baby” Anderson against Kazakhstan’s Zhan Kossobutskiy in a ten rounder at Toledo’s Huntington Center. Cleveland native Abdullah Mason will make his third appearance of 2023 in a six-round lightweight fight against Tobias Green, while Toledo-born junior lightweight Tyler McCreary will face an opponent to be named in a six-rounder. Anderson-Kossobutskiy and Arslanbek Makhmudov-Raphael Akpejiori will be broadcast live on ESPN, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+ at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT. Promoted by Top Rank, in association with Universum Boxing, tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster.com.

 

Mason (8-0, 7 KOs) is a 19-year old who was considered one of the brightest talents in U.S. amateur boxing before signing with Top Rank in October 2021. Mason debuted as a pro the following month with a second-round TKO over Jaylan Phillips. In 2022, Mason went 5-0 with four knockouts. The southpaw hopes to be just as dominant this year after a first-round knockout over Erick Garcia Benitez in April and a sixth-round TKO win over Desmond Lyons last month. Green (10-3, 3 KOs) is a 27-year-old Floridian who returns after an eight-round decision win against Ryan Schwartzberg last October. 

 

McCreary (17-2-1, 8 KOs) is an almost nine-year pro who is on the comeback trail. Following his 2019 showdown against former two-division champion Carl Frampton, the 30-year old experienced a near-two-year layoff before losing to Manuel Rey Rojas in 2021. Last month, however, he overcame another layoff to score a first-round knockout against Jake Bornea in Toledo.