Boxing

7:44 AM ET Timothy Bradley Jr. The 10-round heavyweight showdown Saturday night between Efe Ajagba and Stephan Shaw seems like a fight of little importance between the two. In actuality, it’s not as insignificant as it may seem. The winner will join the new era of heavyweight contenders brewing in the shadows. It’s a collection

Jan 13, 2023 Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Gerrie Coetzee, a former South African boxer and WBA heavyweight champion who defied some of his country’s racist laws during the height of apartheid in the 1970s and 1980s and won popularity with Nelson Mandela and both Black and white fans, has died. He was

1:32 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Shakur Stevenson and Shuichiro Yoshino are finalizing a deal for an April 8 fight on ESPN that is expected to determine a new mandatory challenger for the WBC lightweight title, sources told ESPN. No site has been finalized. Stevenson, ESPN’s No. 10 pound-for-pound boxer, was stripped of his two 130-pound

5:40 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Jose Ramirez and Richard Commey have agreed to a deal for a March 25 fight in Fresno, California, sources told ESPN. The Top Rank Boxing on ESPN main event will take place at the Save Mart Center, which is approximately 66 miles from Ramirez’s hometown of Avenal, where he’s headlined

5:15 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Errol Spence Jr.’s next fight won’t come against Terence Crawford, and it won’t even take place for Spence’s three welterweight titles. Instead, Spence will meet Keith Thurman in a junior middleweight bout that’s expected to take place in April, sources told ESPN. A matchup between Spence and Thurman was highly

Jan 10, 2023 Mike CoppingerESPN Errol Spence and Keith Thurman are finalizing a deal for a PBC on PPV fight that is expected to take place in April, sources told ESPN. Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) holds three of the four major titles at welterweight, but this matchup will take place at junior middleweight, sources said.

3:17 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Robeisy Ramirez and Isaac Dogboe will meet in a featherweight bout with title implications on April 1 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, sources told ESPN. The Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ main event is expected to be contested for either the vacant WBO featherweight title or the interim belt. Emanuel Navarrete, the

8:31 AM ET Women’s boxing made considerable strides in 2022. Fighters who had spent years — in some cases over a decade — fighting for relevancy and a chance to push their names and the sport into the spotlight have finally accomplished it. There were exciting fights and moments, some that fans are still talking

3:11 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Leigh Wood will defend his WBA featherweight title against Mauricio Lara on Feb. 18 in Nottingham, England, promoter Matchroom Boxing announced on Monday. The bout, which shapes up as a slugfest between two aggressive fighters, was scheduled for September before Wood suffered a torn biceps while sparring. Wood (26-2, 16

1:50 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Gervonta “Tank” Davis rocked Hector Luis Garcia with a left hand in the closing moments of Round 8, prompting the underdog to retire on his stool ahead of the ninth round Saturday in Washington, D.C. Garcia absorbed a flurry of power shots on unsteady legs and later said, “I didn’t

3:24 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Gervonta Davis usually starts slow, as he did Saturday night, but he once again found the bout-ending shot to move on to what should be a superfight vs. Ryan Garcia on April 15 in Las Vegas. Moments after Davis landed the left hand that prompted Hector Luis Garcia to retire

2:30 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Eimantas Stanionis’ promoter, Richard Schaefer, told ESPN the fighter had an emergency appendectomy Friday in Lithuania, postponing the March 18 welterweight fight vs. Vergil Ortiz in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Stanionis, 28, was released from the hospital Saturday. “We communicated to Golden Boy, who is going to look at available

7:49 AM ET The new year can bring some of the biggest fights boxing can offer, and add more undisputed champions to its rankings — if the stars (meaning, promoters, networks and fighters) align. From Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk for all the heavyweight titles in the men’s side, to a rematch of one of

8:06 AM ET Jake Paul is moving into mixed martial arts and will do so with the Professional Fighters League. The entertainer and social media influencer-turned-professional boxer announced Thursday that he has signed an MMA contract with PFL. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but PFL chairman and co-founder Donn Davis told ESPN it

10:52 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Murodjon Akhmadaliev will defend his two 122-pound titles against Marlon Tapales after the sides struck a deal, sources told ESPN. The unified junior featherweight championship bout is slated to take place in early spring, likely outside the U.S., sources said. Akhmadaliev (11-0, 8 KOs) has made three defenses of the

9:51 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez will meet Cristian Gonzalez for the WBO’s vacant flyweight title on April 8 in San Antonio, sources told ESPN on Tuesday. Rodriguez is ESPN’s No. 3 boxer at 115 pounds but revealed plans to move down one weight class following his September victory over Israel Gonzalez. At

8:27 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The 147-pound bout between Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Eimantas Stanionis is slated to take place on March 18 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, sources told ESPN. Oritz’s promoter, Golden Boy, won the rights to the WBA “regular” welterweight title fight at last month’s purse bid with a commitment of $2.3

8:19 AM ET At long last, four years after their second bout, archrivals Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin met for a third time, but the September trilogy fight fell far short of the first two battles. It’s no surprise, of course, after boxing failed to deliver this matchup when both fighters were at their peak.