Boxing

6:56 PM ET Brett Okamoto Close ESPN Staff Writer MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun Michael Rothstein Close ESPN Staff Writer Previously covered University of Michigan for ESPN.com and AnnArbor.com Also covered Notre Dame for Fort Wayne Journal Gazette Former lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko returns to the

7:27 PM ET Associated Press LONDON — Anthony Joshua will defend his heavyweight titles against Oleksandr Usyk on Sept. 25 in London. Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, made the announcement Friday. Joshua, holder of the WBA, IBF, and WBO titles, was to have an all-British showdown with Tyson Fury this summer, but a legal ruling in

7:59 AM ET Brett Okamoto Close ESPN Staff Writer MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun Eric Woodyard LAS VEGAS — One fight can change a lot in boxing, a sport in which it’s not uncommon to fight only twice a year. In the case of Vasiliy Lomachenko,

7:49 AM ET Gervonta Davis was going through the motions during an interview in May when a phrase caught his attention. Davis is one of boxing’s young and rising stars around the lightweight division. When it was suggested that he didn’t have the top accomplishment among the group of impressive young 135-pounders that includes Teofimo

Nov 1, 2017 Editor’s note: Thsi story was originally published on Dec. 7, 2017. Lightweight world titleholder Vasiliy Lomachenko is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. He’s also very good at pretty much everything else he does. Lomachenko is very active on social media and we

7:00 AM ET Samuel Braslow THE VOICE of the announcer yo-yoed across the boxing arena at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California. “Your winner, by unanimous decision … and now undefeated in his professional career: Patricio ‘Cacahuate’ Manuel!” The applause and cheers came first, concentrated in Section VV, packed with Manuel’s family, biological

7:52 AM ET The world titlists held serve Saturday night in Las Vegas, as Naoya Inoue, Mikaela Mayer and Jermall Charlo successfully retained their belts. But while this upcoming weekend does offer up another world title fight in the form of Gervonta Davis facing Mario Barrios at 140 pounds — perhaps Davis’ best fighting weight

10:44 PM ET LAS VEGAS — Bob Arum promoted Muhammad Ali. Now he’s putting on the professional debut of Ali’s grandson. Arum told ESPN on Saturday that Top Rank will be putting on the first fight of Nico Ali Walsh’s career on Aug. 14 as part of the undercard of the Andrew Moloney-Joshua Franco fight.

8:32 PM ET LAS VEGAS — Mikaela Mayer’s next fight, as long as she wins Saturday night against Erica Farias, will start to unify the junior lightweight division. Mayer, the WBO junior lightweight titlist, will next fight IBF junior lightweight titleholder Maiva Hamadouche, a source told ESPN on Saturday. The date and venue have yet

Jun 19, 2021 Carlo Pamintuan Hours before unified World Boxing Association (WBA) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue was scheduled to defend against the Philippines’ Michael Dasmariñas, a big fight was signed in this division, and it involved two of Dasmariñas’ countrymen. In a move that is another step closer to crowning

1:38 AM ET Multiple Contributors It was a wildly busy night in the world of boxing, even with the postponement of the pay-per-view card centered around unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez and George Kambosos. IBF and WBA bantamweight world champion Naoya Inoue reminded the world of the otherworldy power he possesses at 118 pounds with

1:24 AM ET Anderson Silva made a career in MMA out of making the impossible look possible. Now, he’s done the same thing in boxing. Silva, a UFC legend, defeated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. via split decision (75-77, 77-75, 77-75) in a shockingly impressive boxing performance Saturday night at Jalisco Stadium in Guadalajara, Mexico. A

1:07 AM ET LAS VEGAS — Naoya Inoue stepped back for a split-second in the third round, extending his arms out wide almost as if to wonder what else might be coming. To that point, Michael Dasmarinas hadn’t shown or done much inside the ring. Inoue had been dominant, already knocking him down once in

1:02 AM ET Jermall Charlo accomplished something on Saturday night that isn’t easy to do. The WBC middleweight champion had an unknown but very game challenger in Juan Montiel, whose awkwardness and stubbornness decreased the likelihood of a Charlo showcase in front of a hometown crowd in Houston. It wasn’t as easy as it looked

5:21 PM ET Michael Rothstein Close ESPN Staff Writer Previously covered University of Michigan for ESPN.com and AnnArbor.com Also covered Notre Dame for Fort Wayne Journal Gazette Ben Baby Close ESPN Staff Writer ESPN Staff Writer Previously a college football writer for The Dallas Morning News University of North Texas graduate Multiple boxing cards, featuring

Jun 16, 2021 ESPN staff Welcome to the 2021 ESPYS presented by Capital One, where you, the fans, get to help decide the stars of the show (aka the award winners). The nominees for Best Boxer are: Canelo Alvarez, who owns three of the four major super middleweight world titles; Teofimo Lopez, who dethroned Vasiliy

2:57 PM ET Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has missed weight once again. The son of the legendary Mexican boxer weighed in at 184 pounds Friday, two pounds over the contracted weight for his scheduled fight with UFC all-time great Anderson Silva, promotion officials confirmed with ESPN. The bout will go on Saturday in Guadalajara, Mexico,

7:45 AM ET When Naoya Inoue first started boxing as a first grader in Japan, he had no aspiration of fighting professionally, let alone making beating people up a career or becoming a world champion. He just did it. It was only years later, after training at the same gym as future three-division world champion