Boxing

7:15 AM ET Mychal Denzel Smith THE EXACT NUMBER of punches that Emile Griffith landed on March 24, 1962, at Madison Square Garden, in the flurry that killed Benny “Kid” Paret, is in dispute. According to which expert you ask, it was anywhere between 17 and 29 clean shots, mostly uppercuts with a few hooks

12:53 AM ET NEWARK, N.J. — Shakur Stevenson was relentless. Punch after punch thrown, punch after punch landed — the audible pop clear to all in the Prudential Center what was going on. Stevenson was dominant Saturday night in his hometown, and midway through the sixth round, it was over. The referee stopped the fight.

1:48 AM ET Michael Rothstein Close Michael Rothstein 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 Ben Baby ESPN Staff Writer ESPN Staff Writer Previously a college football writer for The Dallas Morning News University of North Texas graduate

2:10 AM ET Brian Mendoza did little to nothing of consequence in the first six rounds of his bout against Sebastian Fundora on Saturday night. A couple of devastating punches reversed all of that and sent his career to new heights. A thunderous left hook followed by an overhand right sent Fundora to the canvas

1:47 AM ET For the first time since 2018, Claressa Shields is heading back to Detroit to fight. Shields will have the first defense of her undisputed middleweight title on June 3 at Little Caesars Arena against Hanna Gabriels, the same fighter she beat by unanimous decision in that fight in the Motor City. The

1:29 AM ET Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez left the ring on Saturday night feeling only partly accomplished. In moving down to flyweight, he secured the WBO’s vacant 112-pound championship with a unanimous-decision win over Cristian Gonzalez (118-110, 117-111, 116-112) at the Boeing Center at Tech Port in San Antonio. But when Rodriguez spoke in his postfight

7:05 PM ET Michael Rothstein Close Michael Rothstein 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 Ben Baby ESPN Staff Writer ESPN Staff Writer Previously a college football writer for The Dallas Morning News University of North Texas graduate

7:51 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Shakur Stevenson, one of boxing’s fastest-rising stars, makes his entrance into the star-studded lightweight division on Saturday in his native Newark, New Jersey, when he takes on Japan’s Shuichiro Yoshino in a WBC title eliminator fight. The bout headlines a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN tripleheader (10 p.m. ET) flanked

7:53 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 Anthony Joshua is unlikely to regain the aura and dominance of his first reign as heavyweight world champion, but don’t rule him out of

4:50 AM ET British boxer Amir Khan has been handed a two-year ban from all sport after a test detected the prohibited substance ostarine following his fight against Kell Brook last February, the UK Anti-Doping agency said on Tuesday. Former light-welterweight world champion Khan, 36, announced his retirement in May after his sixth-round stoppage defeat

2:05 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Mauricio Lara and Leigh Wood will meet in a WBA featherweight title rematch on May 27 in Manchester, England, Matchroom Boxing announced. Lara (26-2-1, 19 KOs) scored a seventh-round TKO victory over Wood in February to win his first title. The 25-year-old Mexican was down on all three scorecards when

10:03 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 When it comes to assessing the best British boxers of all time and the best globally in the early 1970s, Ken Buchanan’s name will

6:45 PM ET Connor O’Halloran LONDON — Former heavyweight unified champion Anthony Joshua claimed his first win in over two years with a unanimous decision victory over American Jermaine Franklin at the O2 Arena in London on Saturday. The judges scored the bout 118-111, 117-111 and 117-111. Joshua (25-3, 22 KOs) had suffered defeats to

1:43 AM ET Robeisy Ramirez now has a championship belt to add to his long list of accomplishments. The two-time Olympic gold medalist joined the ranks of boxing’s titlists with a convincing victory over Isaac Dogboe on Saturday night. Ramirez defeated Dogboe via unanimous decision — 117-110, 118-109, 119-108 — to win the WBO featherweight

2:02 AM ET Jamal CollierESPN In his first fight in more than three years, boxing Hall of Famer Roy Jones Jr. was defeated by former UFC champion Anthony Pettis by majority decision on Saturday night in Milwaukee. Two judges scored the bout 77-75 and 78-74 for Pettis, while a third judge scored it a 76-76

8:08 PM ET Connor O’Halloran LONDON — So much of Saturday’s fight was about starting a new chapter for former heavyweight unified champion Anthony Joshua. It had been eight months since the British heavyweight — once upon a time so clean cut and untouchable — gave an embarrassing speech in the ring in Riyadh, Saudi

11:16 AM ET Ken Buchanan, Scotland’s first undisputed boxing world champion, has died at the age of 77, the former lightweight’s charity foundation said Saturday. Edinburgh-born Buchanan beat Panama’s Ismael Laguna in Puerto Rico for the WBA lightweight title in 1970 and took the vacant WBC belt a year later after fighting Ruben Navarro in

11:53 AM ET ESPN News Services LONDON — Anthony Joshua will come in at the heaviest fighting weight of his career when he takes on Jermaine Franklin in London on Saturday. Joshua, a former two-time world heavyweight champion, weighed in Friday at 255.4 pounds for the fight at the O2 Arena. That is nearly 11