Dina Thorslund Chases the Belts She Never Lost vs Cherneka Johnson

Dina Thorslund never lost her belts in the ring — she lost them to circumstance. The Danish former champion held the WBC and WBO bantamweight titles and had an IBF unification booked when a pregnancy forced her to withdraw, and she was subsequently stripped. This weekend in Orlando she gets the chance to correct the record against Cherneka Johnson, who now owns all four straps (IBF, WBC, WBA and WBO) after cleaning up the pieces Thorslund left behind.

The path here is a hard one to read on paper. Johnson held the WBA belt at the time Thorslund stepped away, then won the IBF unification, then absorbed the vacated WBC and WBO to become undisputed. Thorslund, who suffered a premature loss of the pregnancy, returned in January with a near-unanimous decision over Almudena Alvarez. Now she wants everything back at once, in one night, at the Orlando show. Prelims land at 6:30 pm ET on ESPN+.

What's on the Undercard

It's a stacked women's card top to bottom. Desley Robinson puts her unified middleweight belts on the line against Tamm Thibeault, and there's a heavyweight fight featuring Cuban prospect Dainier Pero deeper down. If you want title fights, this is where the week's best boxing lives.

McKenna's Middleweight Statement in Dublin

Over in Dublin, Aaron McKenna fights for the vacant IBF middleweight title against Ferdinand Oliha. McKenna, 20-0 with 10 KOs and the IBF's #6-ranked middleweight, leveled up in a big way last April with a wide unanimous decision over Liam Smith. This is his first outing since. Oliha, by contrast, is fighting outside Italy and Germany for the first time as a pro, and his most recent bout was a six-rounder against an opponent who came in at 19-33 — the kind of soft matchmaking that gets European fighters into mandatory position without much risk. History says guys who arrive that way rarely deliver when the real opportunity lands.

The card runs deep with Irish talent. Undefeated 25-year-old Callum Walsh takes on 35-year-old Tyler Denny, who owns exactly one KO across 28 pro fights — so a spectacular finish here would be a genuine surprise. Connor Coyle, Stephen McKenna and Joseph Ward all feature further down the bill.

Leeds Runs It Back

In Leeds, Sam Simpson and Michael Williamson meet in a rematch of a December upset in which Williamson rallied from behind, dropped Simpson four times, and forced a stoppage. It's the first show on a new promotional banner for DAZN. There's no live broadcast — it clashes head-to-head with the Orlando card on Paramount+ — but the story's worth tracking regardless. Four knockdowns tends to demand a sequel.