Boxing

5:08 AM ET Floyd Mayweather Jr. will take on Geordie Shore star and former MMA fighter Aaron Chalmers in an exhibition fight at the O2 Arena in London on Feb. 25. A knee injury meant that Mayweather’s original opponent, Muay Thai fighter Liam Harrison, had to withdraw from the bout. Chalmers, who stars in Geordie

3:02 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Tim Tszyu will fight Tony Harrison for the WBO junior middleweight interim title on March 12 in Australia, it was announced on Sunday. The site and city were not disclosed, but the fight will take place on that Sunday afternoon in Australia and be televised in prime time in the

7:17 PM 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 Liam Smith settled his differences with Chris Eubank Jr. in emphatic fashion, stopping his English middleweight rival in four rounds on Saturday. Smith floored

2:45 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Joe Joyce and Zhilei Zhang are closing in on a deal for a fight on April 15 in London, sources confirmed to ESPN. The heavyweight bout will be televised on BT Sport in the United Kingdom rather than PPV, sources said. Joyce, ESPN’s No. 6 heavyweight, scored a career-best win

1:34 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Josh Taylor has suffered a torn plantar fascia, and his March 4 junior welterweight title rematch with Jack Catterall in Glasgow, Scotland, has been postponed, sources tell ESPN. The plantar fascia connects the heel bone to the toes to create the arch of the foot. Recovery time for the injury

5:00 AM ET Chris Eubank Jr. and Liam Smith have apologised for their comments in a news conference which descended into ugly scenes on Thursday ahead of their middleweight bout on Saturday. Eubank was subjected to anti-gay comments while Smith was subjected to taunts about social class. When the organisers tried to halt the chaos

7:51 AM ET A mega fight between lightweight contender Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia is still in the works for April 15, but that doesn’t prevent us from making a prediction. Can Garcia not only win, but stop Davis? How about Shakur Stevenson, who’s also moved up to the 135-pound division in search of bigger

Jan 18, 2023 Mike CoppingerESPN Stephen Fulton and Naoya Inoue have agreed to terms for a unified 122-pound title fight in the spring in Japan, sources told ESPN on Wednesday. The fight for Fulton’s WBC and WBO junior featherweights titles is being targeted for May, sources said, though a date has not been set. The

5:49 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Former super middleweight titleholders David Benavidez and Caleb Plant will meet in a long-awaited fight on March 25 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, sources told ESPN on Wednesday. The 168-pound bout will be a PBC on Showtime PPV. Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) and Plant (22-1, 13

Jan 18, 2023 Mike CoppingerESPN Edgar Berlanga and Top Rank have mutually agreed to part ways after months of talks that failed to resolve key issues, Team Berlanga and the promotional company told ESPN. Both sides have signed the separation agreement. Berlanga (20-0, 16 KOs) is now a promotional free agent. The 25-year-old native of

Jan 18, 2023 Mike CoppingerESPN Mark Magsayo and Brandon Figueroa are in the process of finalizing a deal for a March 4 featherweight bout in the U.S., sources told ESPN on Wednesday. The PBC on Showtime bout would feature two of ESPN’s top 10 boxers at 126 pounds (Magsayo is No. 6 while Figueroa is

2:08 PM 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 Chris Eubank Jr. faces former world welterweight champion Liam Smith in Manchester on Saturday, but talk of fighting Conor Benn has not faded. Eubank

Jan 17, 2023 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 Richard Riakporhe might not be a name you are familiar with, but the cruiserweight contender insists this will be his breakout year. As long

2:43 PM ET The third time is apparently the charm for Jake Paul and Tommy Fury. Paul, the YouTube star-turned-prizefighter, and Fury have agreed to fight Feb. 25 in Saudi Arabia, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Mike Coppinger on Tuesday. This is the third time the two have booked a fight with one another, though they

11:37 PM ET It was the first major women’s fight of 2023 — and by the end of the year, it might be remembered as one of the best, too. Jessica Nery Plata, who entered the fight as the WBA junior flyweight champion, left the ring as the unified champion after beating WBC titleholder Kim

6:03 AM ET Associated Press TOKYO — Japanese boxer Naoya Inoue is giving up his four bantamweight belts and plans to fight as a junior featherweight. The undefeated Inoue holds the title belts for the WBC, WBO, IBF and WBA. He made the announcement at a news conference in Yokohama, Japan, on Friday. “The real

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