The boxing world is coming off two abnormally busy, eventful (to use a safe euphemism) weekends to start May, and now heads into a relative lull for the rest of the month.

The biggest fight this coming weekend? Either Serhii Bohachuk-Mykal Fox or Johnny Fisher-Dave Allen II. As boxing fans, we have to pick and choose our spots, and this is a clear “suck it up and spend some time with your family for a change” Saturday.

It improves a little on May 24 with Angelo Leo vs. Tomoki Kameda in Osaka, Japan — the most appealing fight on the schedule over these next three weekends — and then we have Caleb Plant and Jermall Charlo in separate, probably lopsided fights on May 31 … and that’s about it for the month.

So let’s just fast-forward past all of that, because in June and July, there’s an abundance of promising action on the fight calendar. It could be one sizzling summer of slugging.

I will note here that if you’re a slave to the solstices, summer technically runs from June 20 to September 22. Screw that. Here in ’Merica, the summer season goes from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend. Basically, that’s June, July, and August. And since there isn’t a single mouth-watering fight signed yet for August, we’re focusing on June and July.

Here are my 10 favorite fights announced so far for those two months, with a running (and seasonally appropriate) theme of the burning question each fight has the potential to answer.

Keyshawn Davis vs. Edwin De Los Santos

June 7, Norfolk, Virginia, ESPN

Burning question: Can Davis succeed where Shakur Stevenson failed and make beating De Los Santos watchable?

As we scramble week to week to try to redefine who the “Four Princes” are (for now, Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney are out, all other slots are up for grabs), it’s Stevenson and that other Davis, Keyshawn, who appear to have the highest upside of the young lightweight set.

Davis-De Los Santos isn’t a great fight on paper – Davis is a -900 favorite at DraftKings and an even more prohibitive -1100 at FanDuel – but there is a version of the Dominican southpaw that could make things interesting. De Los Santos can pop (when he, ya know, throws punches), as 14 KOs in 16 wins and his thrilling 2022 third-round knockout of Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela indicate. We did not see that De Los Santos when he fought Stevenson in November 2023 … and haven’t seen De Los Santos in the ring, period, since.

The 26-year-old Davis has the potential to be the next major star in American boxing. If he can improve his record to 14-0 on June 7 in some fashion that doesn’t have fans heading for the exits early the way they did when Stevenson and De Los Santos stunk it out together, he’ll take a meaningful step in that direction.

Fabio Wardley vs. Justis Huni

June 7, Ipswich, England, DAZN

Burning question: Are we looking at a future heavyweight champion? (And if so, who?)

When Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller fell out of his fight with Wardley, we fell into a more appealing heavyweight matchup – especially with an eye toward the future. Wardley is 30, Huni just 26, both are undefeated, and both cracked my highly speculative top 10 rankings for the 2030 heavyweight division.

Wardley is the -360 favorite at DraftKings and is fighting at home, but +265 ‘dog Huni has fast hands, a big heart, and amateur pedigree. They’re about the same size (Wardley is listed at 6-foot-5, Huni at 6-foot-4, and they both usually weigh in around 240 pounds), and they just may be the perfect foils for each other.

I love this matchup. Why speculate wildly about what the future of the heavyweight division looks like when we can start finding out for real?

Junto Nakatani vs. Ryosuke Nishida

June 8, Tokyo, Japan, ESPN+

Burning question: Will this set the stage for a domestic superfight for Naoya Inoue?

Nakatani-Nishida is an outstanding matchup in its own right. It’s an alphabet unification (for whatever such things are worth), and more meaningfully, they’re ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the division by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, which means the winner will be recognized as the new lineal bantamweight champion.

And while Nakatani is knocking on the door of pound-for-pound lists, this shouldn’t be a walkover. The sportsbooks have him a -650 favorite, which isn’t that wide for a pound-for-pound-ish guy against a relative unknown, telling you the underdog is somewhat live here. Nishida doesn’t punch hard, but he’s a skilled southpaw who showed class in his title win over Emmanuel Rodriguez last May.

All that said, the plan here is for Nakatani to keep winning and to square off against Inoue next year. That’s about as massive as a boxing event in Japan can possibly get.

Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez vs. Yuniel Dorticos

June 28, Anaheim, California, DAZN PPV

Burning question: Does this make shelling out for the Jake Paul-Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr sideshow worthwhile?

The less said about Paul vs. the formerly semi-serious boxer who recently lost to Anderson Silva and struggled with Uriah Hall, the better.

But even if Paul’s fights are best ignored, his promotions usually serve to spotlight more deserving boxers. Enter Ramirez and Dorticos.

Zurdo has looked good in his three fights at cruiserweight, but even at age 39 and almost five years removed from his last title, Dorticos is a threat to win. The Cuban veteran’s only losses came against prime Murat Gassiev and prime Mairis Briedis, both in close fights. Even though he’s an underdog ranging from +425 to +470, I could see him toppling Ramirez.

Hopefully it’ll be a fun fight, and then viewers can decide whether they want to keep the TV on for the Paul-Chavez walkout bout.

Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano III

July 11, New York, New York, Netflix

Burning question: Do the oddsmakers know something nobody else knows?

Taylor-Serrano III making this top-10 list requires little explanation. They staged probably the best and second-best rumbles in the history of women’s boxing and they still have a score to settle. This may just be the most un-miss-able fight on the entire summer schedule.

Taylor got the decision in each of their first two fights. There’s something about her style that wins over the judges (even if I felt Serrano won the majority of the rounds both times). Taylor is once again getting her preferred round length. And there’s no particular reason to think their second fight, last November, took more out of her than it did Serrano.

So why is Serrano a -142 favorite at FanDuel? And an even more lopsided -175 favorite at DraftKings? Perhaps there’s an assumption that the New York judges will favor the Brooklyn girl if it’s close again – although their first fight was at Madison Square Garden too, and that hometown-judging narrative didn’t exactly play out.

I’d think Taylor should be even money at worst. So maybe there’s betting value on her? Or maybe this is one where we just park our money and root for another stirring fight and another triumphant night for women’s boxing in front of another massive streaming audience.

Shakur Stevenson vs. William Zepeda

Edgar Berlanga vs. Hamzah Sheeraz

Alberto Puello vs. Subriel Matias

Imam Khatev vs. David Morrell

July 12, New York, DAZN PPV

Burning question: What could possibly go wrong on another Ring Magazine-promoted event at an unspecified venue somewhere in New York?

This pay-per-view card doesn’t have an exact location yet, and it isn’t quite official enough to make the BoxRec fight schedule, but it’s been announced, it’s on – and it’s rather appealing from top to bottom.

We have two tossups, in Berlanga-Sheeraz (Berlanga is either a -140 or -156 favorite) and Puello-Matias (Matias just barely has the betting edge at -125 or -136). And though Stevenson is a much wider favorite (-1100 at DraftKings, -1450 at FanDuel), Zepeda’s as good a candidate as any to make him uncomfortable.

Perhaps the actual burning question here should be: Do styles really make fights, and if so, how? These are some serious clashes of styles, with slugger Matias, banger Berlanga, and pressure fighter Zepeda each taking on men who should theoretically want to try to outbox them.

It’s a truly intriguing, deep PPV card (the fourth fight is David Morrell vs. Imam Khataev). As long as they don’t end up setting up the ring in the bathroom at Grand Central Station while the press watches on a TV screen at nearby Zucker’s Bagels & Smoked Fish, this event looks like a winner.

Oleksandr Usyk vs. Daniel Dubois

July 19, London, England, DAZN PPV

Burning question: Is Dubois indeed a different fighter than the one who capitulated vs. Usyk two years ago?

This is without a doubt the most important fight on the summer calendar. It’s for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world, pitting the champ against his top contender.

It’s a rematch that makes all the sense in the world … but when it’s over, we may end up asking: What was the point of that?

Usyk, who’s a -350 favorite at DraftKings and -450 at FanDuel, made Dubois surrender the first time, and if he wins decisively again, this will feel afterward like an entirely unnecessary rematch.

But there’s no ignoring how spectacular Dubois has been since the night Usyk got up from a controversial (to some) low blow to stop him in the ninth round. “DDD” stopped Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic, and Anthony Joshua in a span of nine months, each win more impressive than the last. In those fights, under trainer Don Charles, Dubois looked like he’d made a meaningful leap.

But is Usyk such a masterful champion that it won’t matter? This could be the dawn of a new heavyweight era. Or it could be a peak moment for “I told you so”-ing, especially coming from fans of the snubbed Joseph Parker.

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs. Phumelele Cafu

July 19, Frisco, Texas, DAZN

Burning question: Has Bam reached the point where we’re tuning in regardless of the opponent?

No offense to Cafu, but the South African southpaw is probably in way over his head here. FanDuel says Rodriguez is a -1800 favorite and Cafu is a +940 underdog. DraftKings is taking even less in the way of risks on Rodriguez, at -3000 and +1100.

Hey, we all want to see Bam tested. But there probably isn’t anyone at 115 pounds capable of making that happen. There won’t be any snafu against Cafu, but that’s fine; Rodriguez makes rolling over no-hopers a delight to watch.

This can’t go on in perpetuity without boxing fans starting to gripe, but for now, a Bam Rodriguez mismatch still shapes up as one of the top 10 fights of the summer.

Honorable (and dishonorable) mention

What didn’t make the top 10?

If you’re looking for huge names, Paul-Chavez was an easy and obvious exclusion.

And the not-official-yet Mario Barrios-Manny Pacquiao fight mooted for July 19 isn’t even a fringe contender for my list. It’s rather a cringe non-contender.

And one more big name that misses the cut comfortably: Deontay Wilder, taking on Tyrrell Herndon on June 27.

Then there are the quality fights I’m looking forward that simply landed a little outside the top 10: Abdullah Mason vs. Jeremia Nakathila on June 7, Jai Opetaia vs. Claudio Squeo for the cruiserweight championship on June 8, Richardson Hitchins vs. George Kambosos on June 14, Brian Norman vs. Jin Sasaki on June 19, Christian Mbilli vs. Maciej Sulecki on June 27, three solid women’s title fights underneath Taylor-Serrano III on July 11, Diego Pacheco vs. Trevor McCumby in the Rodriguez-Cafu co-feature on July 19, and Claressa Shields vs. Lani Daniels on July 26.

So, yeah – take advantage of these slower boxing weekends that round out the month of May while you can.

Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X, BlueSky, or LinkedIn, or via email at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.