Boxing

6:52 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Former heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr.’s fight against Tyrone Spong, which Triller Fight Club announced would take place July 16 in Mexico City, will not proceed as planned. Ruiz, ESPN’s No. 5 heavyweight, apparently signed a contract to fight Luis Ortiz in a PBC heavyweight bout in late summer before

1:22 PM ET ARLINGTON, Tex. — Errol Spence Jr. flexed and grinned in front of a predominantly home crowd on Friday morning. In his first weigh-in since suffering a detached retina last year, Spence comfortably cleared the weight limit for Saturday’s welterweight unification title fight at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Spence came in at

7:53 AM ET Timothy Bradley Jr. Errol Spence Jr. returns from a long layoff to face Yordenis Ugas in a unification fight Saturday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas (Showtime PPV, 9 p.m. ET). Spence was supposed to face Manny Pacquiao last year, but suffered a left eye injury a few days before and

7:45 AM ET Ismael Salas remembers the first time Yordenis Ugas caught his eye. Just three weeks after Ugas started training with Salas, he had a sparring session with Gabriel Rosado, one of boxing’s top action fighters. Until that moment six years ago, Salas had never seen Ugas, who was in the midst of an

6:27 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Andy Ruiz Jr. is set for yet another comeback, but in a twist, his next bout will be promoted by Triller, not PBC. The former unified heavyweight champion will meet ex-Glory Kickboxing champion Tyrone Spong in a 10-round Triller Fight Club pay-per-view bout on July 16 at the Plaza de

3:00 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 After turning down the chance to have dinner with Yordenis Ugas, Conor Benn hopes they can meet again in the ring later this year.

7:50 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Errol Spence Jr. was less than two weeks away from a career-defining fight with Manny Pacquiao when he realized something was wrong. Spence had already returned from a devastating car crash, and while sparring to prepare for the Pacquiao fight, he felt something happened to his eye. Days later, he

9:09 PM ET An unidentified plaintiff has filed a civil lawsuit against professional boxer Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz, accusing the former IBF super featherweight champion of attempting to coerce a minor to engage in sexual activity. The lawsuit, which was filed by ‘Jane Doe’ in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleges

3:26 PM ET ESPN News Services DUBLIN — Some of the biggest figures in boxing have been urged to cut ties with a promoter who fronts an Irish organized crime gang targeted with sanctions by the American government on Tuesday. The U.S. ambassador to Ireland, Claire Cronin, said at a news conference in Dublin that

7:52 AM ET They can envision April 30 now. Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano walking toward the ring in the main arena of New York’s Madison Square Garden, one of the most iconic sporting venues in the world. Thousands of fans cheering. Irish and Puerto Rican flags flying. A buzz in the air, a fight

2:13 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN They call him “The Towering Inferno,” a 6-foot-6, 154-pound boxer who can throw punches from seemingly all angles. Sebastian Fundora had dazzled with his height for the junior middleweight division to earn the No. 5 spot in ESPN’s ranking, but he had never been truly tested before the fight Saturday

1:21 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Ryan Garcia has gone the 12-round distance for the first time in his career, in scoring a unanimous-decision victory over Emmanuel Tagoe on Saturday in San Antonio. The 23-year-old rising star remained undefeated via scores of 119-108, 119-108 and 118-109. Garcia (22-0, 18 KOs) scored a flash knockdown of Tagoe

12:51 AM ET Mikaela Mayer continued to show why she is one of the best female fighters in the world. In her first fight in her home state of California as a champion, Mayer scored a dominant unanimous decision win over Jennifer Han to retain her IBF and WBO junior lightweight titles at The Hangar

5:13 PM ET WBC women’s junior lightweight champion Alycia Baumgardner will be making her first title defense April 16 against Edith Soledad Matthysse in Manchester, England. Baumgardner and her promoter, Matchroom Boxing, announced the fight Saturday as part of the Conor Benn-Chris van Heerden card. The 27-year-old Baumgardner (11-1, 7 KO), from Michigan, won her

10:28 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN After 16 months away from the ring and at 40 years old, there were plenty of questions surrounding Gennadiy Golovkin in the lead-up to his middleweight title unification fight with Ryota Murata in Saitama, Japan, on Saturday. Since suffering a majority-decision loss to Canelo Alvarez in September 2018, Golovkin (42-1-1,

8:53 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Gennadiy Golovkin is inching closer to a long-awaited trilogy fight with Canelo Alvarez. One day after he turned 40, Golovkin captured a second middleweight title with a ninth-round stoppage of Ryota Murata on Saturday in Saitama, Japan, in an early candidate for Fight of the Year. Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs)

6:01 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua will meet July 23 in a rematch for the unified heavyweight championship, likely in Saudi Arabia, sources told ESPN. When they met in September in London, Joshua entered with three heavyweight titles but Usyk wrested the championship in dominant fashion. The former undisputed cruiserweight champion

8:00 AM ET Timothy Bradley Jr. Saturday brings four major boxing cards with some long-awaited returns, close matchups and opportunities for fighters to test their level before engaging in bigger and better things. In what looks on paper to be a 50-50 fight, junior middleweight contenders Erickson Lubin and Sebastian Fundora will meet in Atlanta