Boxing

8:26 AM ET Nick Parkinson Close •Reports on boxing for ESPN.co.uk, as well as several national newspapers•Has been reporting on British boxing for over 15 years•Appears on BoxNation’s Boxing Matters show The WBC’s recent announcement of mandatory world title fights and eliminators has produced some solid matchups to look forward to. Some of those fights

5:44 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Floyd Mayweather Jr. stopped YouTube star Deji Olatunji in the sixth round of an exhibition boxing match on Monday in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Mayweather, after playfully throwing punches at Olatunji’s body over the first two rounds, began to deliver shots with slightly more power in Round 3. Mayweather played

1:26 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Janibek Alimkhanuly retained his WBO middleweight title with a far-tougher-than-expected unanimous decision over Denzel Bentley on Saturday in Las Vegas. The scores: 116-112, 116-112 and 118-110. Alimkhanuly, a 20-1 favorite, jumped to an early lead as he peppered Bentley with straight lefts before the Londoner came alive in Round 5.

7:57 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Errol Spence Jr. could defend his unified welterweight championship against Keith Thurman next after the WBC ordered the mandatory title fight on Wednesday at its convention in Mexico. Spence, 32, who holds the WBC, WBA and IBF belts at 147 pounds, was in advanced talks to fight Terence Crawford, but

5:42 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Junior welterweight contender Jose Zepeda has been accused of punching a 40-year-old man at a boxing gym on Tuesday, Lt. Josh Hendricks of the Baldwin Park (California) Police Department told ESPN on Wednesday. No charges have been filed, Hendricks said, who added there was no video surveillance footage and no

Nov 9, 2022 Mike CoppingerESPN Russian and Belarusian boxers will be removed from the WBC rankings and therefore won’t be eligible to fight for any of the organization’s titles because of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman announced on Tuesday during the sanctioning body’s convention in Acapulco, Mexico. The measure will last

9:00 AM ET Dmitry Bivol defended his WBA light heavyweight title with an impressive unanimous-decision victory over Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez and positioned himself as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters currently in boxing. With the victory, Bivol moved from No. 8 to No. 7, while also creating a gap between him and fellow 175-pound champion

7:27 AM ET Nick Parkinson Close •Reports on boxing for ESPN.co.uk, as well as several national newspapers•Has been reporting on British boxing for over 15 years•Appears on BoxNation’s Boxing Matters show Sunny Edwards believes a successful defence of his IBF flyweight world title on Friday will be the launchpad to set up high-profile bouts against

6:11 PM ET Jeff Fenech has joined an elite group of boxers to have won world titles in four weight divisions after finally being recognised for one of sport’s great injustices. More than 30 years after being controversially denied the super-featherweight belt, Fenech has been awarded the strap retrospectively at a World Boxing Council convention

8:39 AM ET The boxing schedule is almost set for the year, and the sport has a couple of interesting fights lined up for the start of 2023. There are some compelling matchups, such as trilogy bouts for Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, and Tyson Fury and Derek Chisora and a Josh Taylor

11:04 PM ET Super middleweight contender Aidos Yerbossynuly was placed in a medically induced coma following a knockout loss Saturday night, one of his trainers confirmed to ESPN. The Kazakh fighter was stopped in the 12th round by top prospect David Morrell in the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions card from The Armory

10:40 PM ET Logan Paul’s widely praised WWE performance this weekend has come with a cost. Paul, the former YouTuber who has dabbled in boxing and now pro wrestling, announced Saturday night on social media that he tore an MCL and meniscus, and potentially an ACL, in his WWE main event match with Roman Reigns

7:36 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Dmitry Bivol retained his WBA light heavyweight title in lopsided fashion with a unanimous decision over Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez on Saturday in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The win — via scores of 118-110, 117-111 and 117-111 — comes after Bivol broke through in May with an upset victory over

8:00 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Former super middleweight titleholders David Benavidez and Caleb Plant both announced Thursday on social media that they’ve struck a deal for a long-awaited fight. The 168-pound bout will be presented by PBC on pay-per-view in the first quarter of 2023, a source told ESPN. Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) and Plant

7:47 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Dmitry Bivol arrived in Las Vegas this May as an afterthought. “The Canelo Alvarez Show” was in town — and attracting all the attention. Bivol was the WBA light heavyweight champion, and Alvarez, boxing’s top star, already had a deal in place to face Gennadiy Golovkin in September for a

9:00 PM ET Andres Waters Javon “Wanna” Walton’s rise to stardom continues. The 16-year-old boxer-turned-actor made history this week when he announced via Instagram that he signed a deal with Jordan Brand, making him the youngest member of “Team Jordan.” According to SneakerNews, Nike is currently working with Walton to debut a boxing boot, in

8:34 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The planned super middleweight bout between former champions David Benavidez and Jose Uzcategui, a PBC on Showtime main event set to take place in January, has been scrapped, multiple sources told ESPN. The reason, sources said, is public backlash surrounding Uzcategui’s positive test for the performance-enhancing drug recombinant human EPO

8:05 AM ET Nick Parkinson Close •Reports on boxing for ESPN.co.uk, as well as several national newspapers•Has been reporting on British boxing for over 15 years•Appears on BoxNation’s Boxing Matters show Chantelle Cameron once thought she would pursue a career as a teacher, but instead she became a professional boxer. On Saturday, she’ll get the