NEW YORK (AP) — Just as Wimbledon is winding down, action at the home of the U.S. Open will heat up.
Boxing action, that is.
Swinging rackets will be replaced by swinging fists Saturday night when the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center hosts boxing for the first time.
Edgar Berlanga and Shakur Stevenson headline the show in separate bouts on the card, which sends both locally based fighters to a place they'd never visited before. The fights will be in Louis Armstrong Stadium, the No. 2 venue on the grounds.
“It’s a new stadium, it’s going to be a big arena, there’s going to be a lot of fans there, so I’m excited to put on a show,” said Stevenson, who is from Newark, New Jersey.
Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs) will defend his WBC lightweight title against fellow unbeaten William Zepeda (33-0, 27 KOs). Berlanga (23-1, 18 KOs) then takes on Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0-1, 17 KOs) in a super middleweight bout in the main event.
The second Ring Magazine card in New York caps a big fight weekend in the city, following Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano's third fight Friday at Madison Square Garden, and again bypasses a traditional boxing venue for an usual location. Times Square was the site of a tripleheader in May, with an outdoor ring set up in the middle of the tourist center.
Both Berlanga and Stevenson were originally told that plans were for this card to take place in Central Park. It will be Flushing Meadows instead, but the Brooklyn-based Berlanga said his fans will find him.
“They’re going to come,” he said. “They’re going to find a way. If they've got to take a bus, they've got to walk, train, plane, whatever, helicopter, they’re there.”
The National Tennis Center has hosted other sports, including the WNBA's first regular-season outdoor game, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show and wrestling. The final Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season begins there in late August.
The Times Square event fell flat because tickets weren't sold to fans, allowing for just a few hundred people — including Stevenson — to attend. There will be a crowd Saturday, which should provide the fighters with a boost of energy that Stevenson could tell they didn't have in May.
Berlanga and Sheeraz shouldn't need any extra push, not when both hope an impressive victory could lead to a fight against 168-pound champion Canelo Alvarez, should he beat undefeated multi-division champion Terence Crawford in September.
Berlanga sustained his only loss to the Mexican superstar but it hasn't dented his confidence. Sheeraz, who is moving up from middleweight, has been touted as a possible opponent if he wins Saturday — though Berlanga insists that he won't.
“These guys, they can study, they can come fight week acting like they’ve got the game plan to beat me. They’re not beating me,” Berlanga said.
“They’re not doing nothing that night. They’re not going to stand a chance. I’m telling you. I’m going to be the best to ever do it in this sport of boxing, man. Discipline, dedication to the sport, that’s all I need bro, and I’m going to take over the 168 division. I’m going to slice and dice this dude.”
The card that will stream on DAZN as a pay-per-view also features Alberto Puello (24-0, 10 KOs) defending his 140-pound title against former champion Subriel Matias (22-2, 22 KOs), along with a light heavyweight bout between David Morrell (11-1, 9 KOs) and Imam Khataev (10-0, 9 KOs).
Stevenson is probably the most talented fighter on the show — and in all of boxing — but has been criticized at times for an overly cautious style. The 2016 Olympic silver medalist shrugs it off.
“You stand there and you go toe-to-toe, I keep saying this, and you’re going to end up in the damn hospital bed and you’ve got to sit there all night and they've got to check on your brain,” Stevenson said.
He concedes, though, that Zepeda's style could make him win another way.
“I think he’s going to force me into a fight and I’m going to have to show a different side of me that night,” Stevenson said. “He’s a great fighter, puts a lot of pressure, undefeated, he was No. 1 at every belt organization, so it’s going to be an amazing fight.”
AP boxing: https://apnews.com/boxing
FILE - Canelo Alvarez lands a right to Edgar Berlanga in a super middleweight title bout Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's photo portrait display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has had references to his two impeachments removed, the latest apparent change at the collection of museums he has accused of bias as he asserts his influence over how official presentations document U.S. history.
The wall text, which summarized Trump's first presidency and noted his 2024 comeback victory, was part of the museum's “American Presidents” exhibition. The description had been placed alongside a photograph of Trump taken during his first term. Now, a different photo appears without any accompanying text block, though the text was available online. Trump was the only president whose display in the gallery, as seen Sunday, did not include any extended text.
The White House did not say whether it sought any changes. Nor did a Smithsonian statement in response to Associated Press questions. But Trump ordered in August that Smithsonian officials review all exhibits before the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The Republican administration said the effort would “ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”
Trump's original “portrait label," as the Smithsonian calls it, notes Trump's Supreme Court nominations and his administration's development of COVID-19 vaccines. That section concludes: “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials.”
Then the text continues: “After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837– 1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term.”
Asked about the display, White House spokesman Davis Ingle celebrated the new photograph, which shows Trump, brow furrowed, leaning over his Oval Office desk. Ingle said it ensures Trump's “unmatched aura ... will be felt throughout the halls of the National Portrait Gallery.”
The portrait was taken by White House photographer Daniel Torok, who is credited in the display that includes medallions noting Trump is the 45th and 47th president. Similar numerical medallions appear alongside other presidents' painted portraits that also include the more extended biographical summaries such as what had been part of Trump's display.
Sitting presidents are represented by photographs until their official paintings are commissioned and completed.
Ingle did not answer questions about whether Trump or a White House aide, on his behalf, asked for anything related to the portrait label.
The gallery said in a statement that it had previously rotated two photographs of Trump from its collection before putting up Torok's work.
“The museum is beginning its planned update of the America’s Presidents gallery which will undergo a larger refresh this Spring,” the gallery statement said. “For some new exhibitions and displays, the museum has been exploring quotes or tombstone labels, which provide only general information, such as the artist’s name.”
For now, references to Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton being impeached in 1868 and 1998, respectively, remain as part of their portrait labels, as does President Richard Nixon's 1974 resignation as a result of the Watergate scandal.
And, the gallery statement noted, “The history of Presidential impeachments continues to be represented in our museums, including the National Museum of American History.”
Trump has made clear his intentions to shape how the federal government documents U.S. history and culture. He has offered an especially harsh assessment of how the Smithsonian and other museums have featured chattel slavery as a seminal variable in the nation's development but also taken steps to reshape how he and his contemporary rivals are depicted.
In the months before his order for a Smithsonian review, he fired the head archivist of the National Archives and said he was firing the National Portrait Gallery's director, Kim Sajet, as part of his overhaul. Sajet maintained the backing of the Smithsonian's governing board, but she ultimately resigned.
At the White House, Trump has designed a notably partisan and subjective “Presidential Walk of Fame” featuring gilded photographs of himself and his predecessors — with the exception of Biden, who is represented by an autopen — along with plaques describing their presidencies.
The White House said at the time that Trump himself was a primary author of the plaques. Notably, Trump's two plaques praise the 45th and 47th president as a historically successful figure while those under Biden's autopen stand-in describe the 46th executive as “by far, the worst President in American History” who “brought our Nation to the brink of destruction.”
Barrow reported from Atlanta.
People react to a photograph of President Donald Trump on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Visitors to the National Portrait Gallery walk past the portrait of President Donald Trump, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Visitors stop to look at a photograph of President Donald Trump and a short plaque next to it are on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
A photograph of President Donald Trump and a short plaque next to it are on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Anna Johnson)
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
