Boxing

10:56 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Ryan Garcia has decided to forgo a Jan. 28 junior welterweight tuneup bout against Mercito Gesta to focus on a planned April 15 superfight against Gervonta Davis at 136 pounds in Las Vegas. The decision comes despite the fact Garcia and Gesta have signed contracts for a fight, sources told

8:00 AM ET 2022 featured the breakout of many boxers, the retirement of others — some of them short-lived — and a few new undisputed champions. The year also included plenty of upsets, disappointing performances, and of course, controversies. What fight will be remembered as the best of 2022? Who did we select as Fighter

8:07 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Everlast accepted responsibility for welterweight champion Terence Crawford’s glove malfunction during his sixth-round knockout win over David Avanesyan on Saturday in Omaha, Nebraska, saying the issue was not the fault of Crawford and his camp but due to “a batch of defective leather.” Heading into the sixth round of Saturday’s

11:11 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Emanuel Navarrete and Liam Wilson have agreed to a deal for a WBO junior lightweight title fight on Feb. 3 in Glendale, Arizona, a source told ESPN. Navarrete was set to meet Oscar Valdez in a highly anticipated ESPN/ESPN+ main event, but as BoxingScene first reported, Valdez (30-1, 23 KOs)

10:15 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Naoya Inoue, ESPN’s No. 2 pound-for-pound boxer, has proved peerless through 24 fights as he cruised to another inside-the-distance victory on Tuesday in Tokyo. Paul Butler was no match. He really wasn’t ever expected to be. The Englishman was simply there to hand over his WBO belt to Inoue, who

7:51 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Naoya Inoue, ESPN’s No. 2 pound-for-pound boxer, won the undisputed bantamweight championship with an 11th-round KO of Paul Butler on Tuesday in Tokyo. The Japanese star unloaded a flurry of power shots that floored Butler for the 10-count at 1:09 of the penultimate round. Inoue (24-0, 21 KOs) entered the

6:04 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The rights to the Eimantas Stanionis-Vergil Ortiz Jr. WBA “regular” welterweight title fight were won by Oritz’s promoter, Golden Boy, with a commitment of $2.3 million at Monday’s purse bid at the sanctioning body’s convention in Orlando, Florida. Stanionis, who won the title with a split-decision victory over Radzhab Butaev

Dec 11, 2022 One dynamic combination showed Terence “Bud” Crawford remains one of boxing’s pound-for-pound best. In front of a raucous hometown crowd, Crawford floored David Avanesyan with a sixth-round TKO on Saturday at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska. A left uppercut followed by a textbook right put Avanesyan on his back, quickly

3:06 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Ryan Garcia and Mercito Gesta have signed contracts for a Jan. 28 fight in Phoenix, sources told ESPN. The 140-pound bout will serve as a tuneup for Garcia, who is slated to meet Gervonta Davis on April 15 in a Las Vegas superfight at a 136-pound catchweight. Davis (27-0, 25

Dec 10, 2022 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 Josh Warrington’s career suffered another setback Saturday as Luis Alberto Lopez took his IBF world featherweight title by majority decision. Lopez did most of

2:31 AM ET Several major cards took place on Saturday, including a welterweight title defense for Terence Crawford, a homecoming for Teofimo Lopez and an upset loss for Josh Warrington. Mike Coppinger, Ben Baby and Nick Parkinson react to the action and try to make sense of three unique cards around the world. Well, here

12:32 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN NEW YORK — Teofimo Lopez suffered a flash knockdown in Round 2 but picked up a controversial 10-round split-decision victory over Sandor Martin in their junior welterweight bout Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. One judge scored it 95-94 for Martin, but was overruled by scores of 96-93 and 97-92

Dec 9, 2022 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 Paul Butler is reminding himself that Naoya Inoue, who is in punch-perfect form, is still human ahead of Saturday’s world bantamweight title unification fight.

8:37 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Teofimo Lopez was at the pinnacle of boxing after beating Vasiliy Lomachenko in 2020. A new contract, celebrity, sponsors and fandom followed the undisputed lightweight champion. Just months after his 23rd birthday, Lopez was poised to be the next superstar in a sport with a long history of them. Lopez

7:29 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 David Avanesyan’s manager Neil Marsh is backing him to emerge from the shadows of boxing and make a name for himself by pulling off

9:19 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The Josh Taylor-Jack Catterall rematch for Taylor’s lineal and WBO junior welterweight championship won’t take place on Feb. 4 in Glasgow, Scotland, as planned, sources confirmed to ESPN. The reason, as BoxingScene first reported, was a scheduling decision made by Sky Sports, the network that will televise the pay-per-view event

9:08 AM ET Timothy Bradley Jr. My No. 1 men’s pound-for-pound boxer, Terence Crawford, of Omaha, Nebraska, finally returns to the ring on Saturday, and while he’s not facing archrival Errol Spence Jr., Crawford will take on a top welterweight contender in David Avanesyan (BLK Prime PPV, 9 p.m. ET). But to make things interesting,

1:54 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The Oscar Valdez-Emanuel Navarrete fight for the vacant WBO junior lightweight title is set for Feb. 3 in Glendale, Arizona, sources told ESPN. The Top Rank Boxing on ESPN main event will be supported by an intriguing co-feature between Jose Pedraza and Arnold Barboza Jr., both of whom are ranked