Boxing News

Brian Norman Jnr will travel to Tokyo to take on Japan’s Jin Sasaki and defend his welterweight title on June 19, promoter Top Rank announced Thursday night.

Norman, 27-0 (21 KOs), of Atlanta, will make the nearly 7,000-mile trip to make the second defense of his title against Sasaki, 19-1-1 (17 KOs), at Ota City General Gymnasium in Sasaki’s hometown.

“Brian Norman Jr. is a motivated and talented champion who didn’t hesitate when offered this opportunity,” Top Rank Chairman Bob Arum said. “Jin Sasaki has power and punches in volume, and their styles will make for a dramatic, action-packed world title showdown.”

Also on the bill will be Cristian Araneta, 25-2 (20 KOs), facing Thanongsak Simsri, 38-1 (34 KOs), for a vacant junior flyweight world title in the co-main event; and welterweight Sora Tanaka, 3-0 (3 KOs), squaring off against Takeru Kobata, 14-7-1 (6 KOs) in an all-Japanese welterweight bout.

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Norman, 24, isn’t new to fighting abroad. After making his pro debut in the States in 2018, he took his next 12 fights in Mexico – nine of them before he had turned 18 years old. Norman knocked out then-undefeated Giovani Santillan in the latter’s hometown of San Diego last May to earn an interim belt. Elevated to full titleholder status upon Terence Crawford’s move out of the division, Norman followed hand surgery by making his first defense in March, stopping Cuba’s Derrieck Cuevas inside three rounds in Las Vegas.

“The king from the South comes to take over the world – I like how that sounds,” Norman said of the Sasaki matchup in Tokyo. “On June 19, I’m ready to put on a stellar performance and write another triumphant chapter of ‘The Norman Experience.’”

Sasaki, 23, hasn’t lost in nine fights since moving up to welterweight in 2021. Most recently, he went 12 rounds for the first time to win a unanimous decision over Shoki Sakai last January.

The Norman-Sasaki headliner and the top two supporting bouts will stream live on ESPN+ in the United States.

"The Contender" debuted on NBC on March 7, 2005. This article is part of a monthly series throughout 2025 – the 20th anniversary year – catching up with alumni of the show.

Previous profiles in this series: Sergio Mora, Tarick Salmaci, producer Adam Briles.

“I woke up. I’m blessed.”

That’s how Peter Manfredo Jnr responds to “How are you?” – the simple rhetorical question that starts the interview. And his five-word response fully encapsulates his attitude in life now, as a 44-year-old ex-boxer. He exudes appreciation for what he has and for every day that begins with him opening his eyes.

And he starts each day by passing that appreciation along, in the form of a texted GIF to damned near everyone in his contact list. It’s usually a religious message, offering blessings and some sort of positive affirmation. But it doesn’t matter if the people on the other end of his texts share his faith. For Manfredo, he’s mostly doing it as a way to check in.

“I do it just to keep in touch with the people I love in my life, and to make sure they wake up every day,” Manfredo explained this week from his home in Rhode Island. “It’s just, you have a certain amount of time. We never know when that time is up. So I just make sure that I stay in touch with everybody before it’s my time.”

Among the recipients of the daily texts are family, old friends, newer friends, other ex-fighters like his fellow New Englander Micky Ward – and of course, a lot of his castmates he met 20 years ago on the first season of “The Contender.”

He listed Brent Cooper, Tarick Salmaci, Joey Gilbert, Jesse Brinkley. They all get the texts.

But what about that guy Sergio Mora, the one who defeated Manfredo in the finals of the reality-TV tournament?

“Sergio, yeah, I text him here and there, but he’s not on the every-day thing because I don’t know if he’ll get mad if I text him because they’re three hours behind in California. I don’t wanna wake him up and get him mad – I don’t need him trying to beat me up again, you know what I mean?” Manfredo said with a chuckle. “He already kicked my ass and won the million. Leave me alone.”

Nobody else on Season 1 of “The Contender” had a journey quite like Manfredo’s. It ended with that defeat to Mora on live TV on May 24, 2005, via lopsided seven-round decision with nearly 8 million US households watching. It also began with a loss – the first of Manfredo’s pro career, an upset in a five-rounder against Alfonso Gomez.

And in between, Manfredo got the ultimate redemption arc.

“The Pride of Providence” came into the reality show a 154-pound hot prospect, having gained acclaim fighting regularly on ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights” and sporting a record of 21-0 (10 KOs). He made for a relatively easy casting decision after fellow Providence boxer Vinny Paz – who happened to be buddies with co-host Sylvester Stallone – convinced him to drive up to Brockton, Massachusetts, for a tryout. Manfredo had a target on his back from the moment he arrived on the “Contender” set. He was the most established fighter in the cast.

But the “West Coast” team was stronger top to bottom than Manfredo’s “East Coast” team and started out winning the challenges and earning the right to make the matchups.

And the then-unknown Gomez cleverly blindsided Manfredo by calling him out for the opening fight of the tournament.

“We had to weigh in at 158, and the weight was really hard for me to make,” Manfredo recalled. “I was walking around on the show at about 170, I believe, and then the weigh-in was on the day of the fight. I was used to the weigh-in the day before and then rehydrating myself and sleeping and coming in fresh, and I couldn’t do that for the fights on the show.

“So Alfonso, I believe I hurt him in the first round, but I expended all my energy trying to take him out, and after the first round, I was dead. He ended up beating me up for the rest of the fight.

“I thought I’d ruined my life. I really did. I thought my career was over after that. I kind of wanted to give up, because I knew I was better than Alfonso, I knew I could beat him, and I really didn’t know if I wanted to fight anymore. But I also didn’t know what else I could do. Boxing was all I knew. My father and mother, that’s all they had me do since I was a kid, was box. So I had no other options.”

As fans of the show surely remember, one of the other contestants from the East Coast team, Jeff Fraza, contracted chicken pox a few episodes in, setting up the remaining cast to vote for an eliminated boxer to come back and replace him. They picked Manfredo.

“All the guys were licking their chops,” he remembered. “They were like, ‘Peter Manfredo, he can’t make the weight, he’s probably not mentally ready to come back, and I want him to come back so I can have his name on my resume. It’ll be easy to beat him.’”

Here’s something most people don’t know about “The Contender”: When a boxer lost, he wasn’t allowed to go home. It’s similar to “Survivor,” where when a contestant is eliminated early, they travel with other eliminated contestants, because otherwise, the order in which people return home would provide spoilers. They couldn’t have the locals in Providence seeing that Peter Manfredo was back in the gym after just a few days away, as word would get around that he must not have lasted long on the show.

So Manfredo was sent to another house in the L.A. area.

“It was actually an even better house than the one we were staying in on the show,” he said. “It was beautiful. We actually had a TV, we had chefs and all that other stuff, and, you know, I didn’t even want to go back. It was better than the loft or being back home.”

Of course, keeping the eliminated fighters in southern California had the added benefit of making them readily available to return if a boxer got cut, or suffered a bad concussion, or, say, came down with chicken pox.

So Manfredo returned to the show. And he went on a three-fight winning streak, narrowly decisioning Miguel Espino, beating Gilbert, and then avenging his loss to Gomez in the semifinals.

The scores are all posted on BoxRec now, giving a sense of which fights were squeakers and which weren’t – something you couldn’t necessary tell as a viewer in 2005.

“They made every fight look close, which, every fight really wasn’t close. But they made every fight look close in the editing, like it came down to the last round,” Manfredo noted with a laugh. “Look, that’s what sells on TV. They want to make people watch and make it seem like the last round is gonna decide this fight.

“And it worked. I think it was a great show, really. It was great to watch. It was great for boxing. And it got to show the other side of boxers. We’re people, you know, it showed we’re not just animals. We’re regular people, we have wives, we have families, and it showed why we actually fight, what we do this for.”

Even though Manfredo started “The Contender” undefeated and finished it with two losses, he has no regrets about taking part in this pugilistic TV experiment.

“It was challenging because here we were, professional prizefighters, but now we’re on this reality show where we didn’t have our trainers, we didn’t have our comfort, our routines. But I’m glad I went on the show. I wish I won the million dollars, but I didn’t. It wasn’t in the cards. Sergio beat my butt in the end, and, he was the ‘Contender’ champion, but I was glad I did it. People got to know who I am and people still know who Peter Manfredo is.”

His celebrity has waned, of course. He remembers the craziness of that spring and summer of 2005, when he was getting stopped left and right for pictures and autographs while trying to enjoy Disney World with his family. Now it’s less frequent, and Manfredo says it’s usually more of a “Hey, you look familiar,” rather than people instantly knowing his name. In fact, he said appearing in the “Fight Night Champion” video game has probably done as much to make him recognizable to people in 2025 as his reality-TV run did.

That Contender fame, of course, also propelled him to further opportunities in the ring. There was an immediate rematch with Mora, which went “The Latin Snake’s” way by split decision, though Manfredo feels strongly the judges got it wrong. That was followed by back-to-back third-round KO wins headlining ESPN cards at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, against Scott Pemberton and Joey Spina, setting Manfredo up for the ultimate shot: April 4, 2007, in Cardiff, Wales, against super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe.

To the surprise of nobody, it was a one-sided contest. But to the shock of Manfredo, referee Terry O’Connor stopped it halfway through the third round, with Manfredo yet to show any sign of being buzzed by any of Calzaghe’s punches.

“I never got a chance,” he said. “That stoppage, it just wasn’t fair to me. It left a bad taste in my mouth. I wasn’t hurt. Here’s the thing – Calzaghe, he was great, don’t get me wrong, I’ll never take nothing away from him. He would have probably beat me anyway. I know that. But it shouldn’t have been like that. I think I would have given him a good fight. But, basically, they used me. They knew I was popular from ‘The Contender.’ I just had come off two big wins, two big knockouts, and they wanted to bring Calzaghe to America soon, and they wanted to use me to do it, and they really didn’t give me a chance to win.

“But I can’t cry over spilled milk. It is what it is. Calzaghe was great, and no one can ever say Peter Manfredo didn’t fight the best, right? Because I fought him, and he’s one of the best of all time.”

There were ups and downs after that. Wins over David Banks, Matt Vanda, and Daniel Edouard; losses to Jeff Lacy, Sakio Bika, and Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr, the latter two by KO. Manfredo kept going, off and on, retiring and un-retiring, until 2019, when he was 39 years old.

Along the way, there were money problems, and Manfredo became a part-time boxer and a part-time construction worker, first out of the Local 271 labor union in Providence, later out of Local 22 in Boston (where he still works daily from about 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.).

“After I got beat by Bika, I said, ‘I gotta get a job.’ But I kept boxing, too, because I had bills and I had a family.”

Manfredo, 42-7-1 (23 KOs), was actually planning another comeback fight in 2022, against Daniele Scardina in Italy, but one punch in sparring changed everything.

“As I was leaving the gym, I noticed my right side was all numb,” Manfredo revealed. “My whole right side of my body was all numb, and it’s still numb to this day. The doctors found a bruise on my brain. He must have hit me so hard in the head, he put a bruise on my brain. They said eventually it’ll heal, but it’s been a couple years, I still feel the same.”

Manfredo explained that his right foot burns and he has a tingling sensation in his right arm, and it can be uncomfortable, but far from debilitating – and he holds out hope that the doctors are right and it will eventually heal and the numbness will go away.
“I think it was God telling me to quit fighting,” he said. “I had enough. It was time to hang it up for the rest of my life. But I’m OK. It doesn’t stop me from going to work every day. I’m just used to the way it feels now. It’s not ruining my life. It’s just a pain in the ass, and it’s always there.”

For what it’s worth, Manfredo sounds just fine – his mind seems sharp, his speech the same as it was 20 years ago.

Told as much, he responded: “Oh, yeah, I’m not that punchy. I still got a few French fries in my Happy Meal. Don’t worry about it.”

His current physical issues aren’t the only sad part of Manfredo’s story. Fans will recall that he was trained for much of his career by his father, Peter Manfredo Snr. But they’re not on speaking terms these days.

“I haven’t talked to my father and mother in over a year,” he said. “I used to send them those text messages, but they told me to stop sending them. It’s … it’s a shitty situation. I hate to talk about it. Everybody has a cross to bear in their life.”

Manfredo didn’t want to get into any details beyond that.

And there’s no need to dwell on it – especially when his current family brings him such joy. Fans of “The Contender” will remember his wife Yamilka as well as his daughter Alexis, who was 2 years old on the show. Alexis is 22 now, daughter Mercedes (with whom Yamilka was pregnant at the Contender finale) is 19, and son Peter is 17.

Peter and Yamilka have been together since high school, when she was 15, and they’re still married.

“I got so lucky,” he said. “I got her when she was too young to know better.”

That’s Manfredo’s personality summed up in two sentences: cracking jokes, thinking himself lucky, and appreciating every little thing that’s gone his way – including getting to be part of the first season of “The Contender.”

“It was a long process to get cast on the show, a bunch of different stages, but eventually I made it, I was one of the 16. I was lucky, ya know? I caught a break, which we all need to do in life sometimes.”

Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X, BlueSky, or LinkedIn, or via email at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.

Chris Eubank Jnr sought to unnerve Conor Benn in one of the final opportunities he will have to do so before finally confronting him in the boxing ring on Saturday night.

The 35 year old started the promotion of their middleweight contest at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium by hitting him in the face with an egg at the first press conference. At the second, he threatened Benn’s father Nigel, and at Thursday’s final press conference he accused his opponent of “fleeing the pressure” surrounding one of the biggest fights of the year.

Those involved in Saturday’s promotion, at the 62,850-seater stadium in north London, claim that it has sold out. If it is beyond the magnitude of occasion the experienced Eubank Jnr has previously been involved in, it dwarves, by comparison, any of those previously involving Benn.

The calcultated Eubank Jnr, who has consistently labelled Benn a “cheat” as a consequence of the failed drugs tests that forced the cancellation of their date in October 2022, has targeted Benn via social media and at further set-pieces organised to promote Saturday’s grudge match.

His recognition that the 28-year-old Benn is the most emotional of fighters was again transparent when he spoke on Thursday. So, too, was his appreciation of the way his father of the same name so succesfully angered Nigel Benn during their heated and memorable rivalry of their 1990s. If he is a less talented fighter than Chris Eubank Snr he is also more articulate, and he adopted a similarly dismissive-and-condescending tone to address Conor Benn as that Eubank Snr used over 30 years earlier. 

“I know what’s coming,” he calmly said. “I’ve prepared my whole life for these moments. I’ve put the time in; dedicated decades to this sport, and done it all without cheating; without cutting any corners, and I’m proud of that.

“The mentality I have – the experience I have – the fortitude, and the will, is what I will be using on the night to take out my adversary in Conor Benn.

“Conor speaks about pressure and dealing with it, but there’s a reason why he had his training camp in Spain. The kid had to flee his own country to prepare for this fight. He knew that he couldn’t handle the pressure of walking these UK streets and having people shouting out, ‘drug cheat’, and egg jokes. He didn’t want to be involved in any of that. So he took himself away, and now he’s back. 

“He thinks he can use me to get back into good graces. I haven’t fled. I haven’t hidden away from anything. I’ve been on these streets. I’ve been to gyms all over London over the last two months. I’ve been and spoke to kids; done all the media obligations I needed to do around the country. I’ve felt the energy on the streets of the UK over these last two months. It’s real. People are invested in this. Everywhere I go, people are screaming, and most of the time it’s positive, which is a new thing for me. I’m still getting used to that.

“I’m happy with the place I’m at mentally. I don’t think Conor can say the same thing. I think he’s feeling the pressure and the heat. He’s feeling that, and he’s going to feel it a hell of a lot more in a couple of days’ time.”

Eubank Jnr had, by then, again refused to allow the normally vocal, quick-witted and composed Eddie Hearn, Benn’s promoter, to speak. Hearn responded by instructing Frank Smith, the chief executive of Matchroom, to replace him at the top table, and Smith, similarly, struggled to speak over Eubank Jnr’s consistent-and-dismissive interruptions. The middleweight was regardless, by comparison, much more willing to listen to his rival, until seizing on an opportunity to deliver his most dismissive line of all.

“No, no pressure,” Benn responded when asked about Eubank Jnr’s assertions. “I’ve had the fight over 100 times in my head. It’s just focusing on the training; removing myself from my comfort zones; my familiarities; my family, and fully dialling in. I’m not going to lower myself to Chris and do all that back and forth. That PR’s done. 

“I’m excited to get in there and put my hands on him Saturday night, irrelevant of all the rubbish he wants to talk, and names. We’re not at school, and come Saturday night I get to put me hands on him.” 

“You will be at school on Saturday night, my friend,” Eubank Jnr swiftly responded. “I’m taking you right to school. I’m going to be the headmaster, my friend, and you will be in detention.” 

When Benn responded, “Just focus on getting the weight off, fat boy”, Eubank Jnr got the emotional response he perhaps had sought. Hearn has already spoken of the need for Benn to maintain the composure he lost at the first two press conferences; though Hearn was unable to offer it on Thursday, support came from Benn’s father Nigel in the form of him repeating the same stories he told on Wednesday of his son’s dominance in sparring against Denzel Bentley, Bruno Surace and William Scull, in the same prediction that he will win inside four rounds, and from Benn’s long-term trainer Tony Sims.

“Every so-called expert I listen to or watch are all favoring Chris Eubank Jnr to win, because they’re saying that Conor’s at a disadvantage moving up in weight and Chris is going to be too big for him and too skilful,” Sims said. “But Conor Benn carries the power up from welterweight to middleweight. He’s got the speed. And I believe he wants this fight really badly. 

“He’s been through two years of hell [following the failed drugs tests that Benn has maintained his innocence regarding] – over that course of time he’s gone from being a boy to a man, and we’ve seen in this camp, eight weeks in Palma, Mallorca, we really have had a fantastic camp. He really has looked fantastic to me in sparring. I believe he’ll come out victorious. 

“God has a way of looking down – things happen for a reason. He’s been through hell for two years, but sometimes you have to go through these things to come out on top at the end.”

“Everyone’s always talking about this weight thing,” said Eubank Jnr with the same straight face, having agreed to fight Benn at a catchweight of 157lbs in 2022. “The weight is painful. I’m in pain right now. I’ll be in even more pain tonight and tomorrow morning. But the question I ask myself is, ‘What is pain?’ I have a 31-year-old brother [Sebastian] buried in the desert in Dubai. That’s pain. I have his son, Raheem, three years old. He asks, ‘Why can’t I see my daddy? Why doesn’t he talk me to school?’. That’s pain. 

“My own father, a man I idolised for my entire life – he doesn’t speak to me. We haven’t spoken for years, and he thinks I’m a disgrace. These things are what pain is to me. If I can deal with all of these trials and tribulations, then the weight cut, and the rehydration clause – these are all things that are not an issue. They’re not important.

“Now it’s about preparing to get this kid out of boxing. We’re not taking him lightly anymore. He should have taken the chance he had in that first fight, when I was underestimating him. That was his best shot, and now it’s gone. Now I have a duty to boxing, to the fans he’s lied to, to erase these guys from the picture.”

“This is what I do,” Benn also said. “I love this game. This is what I live for. This is every fighter’s dream; to turn professional; to live this life. I’ve been doing this for 10 years, and I’m more than prepared; more than ready. I wish it was Saturday night.”

By the time Eubank Jnr had finished goading Hearn with a new proposal for a bet on the outcome of Saturday’s contest, it’d become easy to forget about those who spoke before him – his trainer Johnathon Banks included.

“It takes a certain type of mental fortitude to be able to [fight],” Banks said. “No way in the world should that be underestimated. But even with that, what separates what we have going on is [Eubank Jnr’s] mentality. It’s a little bit different. With that mentality, along with that work ethic, it’s going to be the separation between the two.”

LOS ANGELES – Naoya Inoue fully grasps the significance of a Cinco de Mayo fight weekend in Las Vegas. As he launches toward the teeth of his schedule, returning to the U.S. to headline the traditional festivities ignites a campaign to elevate his standing as a global sporting figure.

Japan’s undisputed junior-featherweight champion Inoue, 29-0 (26 KOs), will defend his belts against Texas’ Ramon Cardenas, 26-1 (14 KOs), on May 4 at T-Mobile Arena to cap a jam-packed boxing weekend that includes cards headed by Ryan Garcia on May 2 in New York’s Times Square and Canelo Alvarez on May 3 in Saudi Arabia.

And, with former unified 122lbs champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev awaiting Inoue in Saudi Arabia in September, and unbeaten bantamweight champion and countryman Junto Nakatani due in December, Inoue has the sport’s grandest stage to stamp himself as the world’s best boxer.

“I don’t know if I’ll make it back to No. 1 with this fight, but with September, December and next year … I hope to get back with those fights,” Inoue told reporters gathered at his media workout Wednesday at the Westside Boxing Gym. “I’m really looking forward to it. I know it is a legendary day for boxing, and I’m very pleased I’m in the main event.” 

At 32, the four-division champion nicknamed “The Monster” has taken some criticism for meeting aged TJ Doheny and replacement fighter Ye Joon Kim when a planned mandatory in January against Sam Goodman fell through.

The lesser foes have seen Inoue fall behind former undisputed heavyweight champion and 2024 Boxing Writers Association of America fighter of the year Oleksandr Usyk in the pound-for-pound rankings. 

And while Akhmadaliev’s team has decried the extended wait for their mandatory WBA title shot, Inoue’s American promoter Todd DuBoef of Top Rank quickly sprang to Inoue’s defense.

Labeling Cardenas a third consecutive soft touch is “such an unfair indictment. Forget about [the recent bouts]. Are you looking at [Inoue’s 2023 TKO of champion Stephen] Fulton?” DuBoef asked.

“It’s not fair to point to Doheny, an [injured] mandatory or [Mexico’s Alan David] Picasso, who doesn’t want to show up [leading to Cardenas].

“The guy goes out of his way to say, ‘I’ll take him, I’ll take him, I’ll take him.’ He’s the one guy I’ve never seen protect himself, who thinks, ‘You have the title, you’re in the sweepstakes.’ He’s very [Vasiliy] Lomachenko-esque, he’s never backed off anybody.

“And it wasn’t like Hagler, Hearns, Leonard and Duran all fought each other in succession. You have to have fights in between, and the timing has to be right. The standard for the greats is too high. When you’re a pound-for-pound guy and a big attraction, everybody wants to be in the sweepstakes, but there aren’t always sweepstakes fighters available, so you have a choice: Sit on your ass and wait, or stay active like he does and say, ‘Whoever wants to come in … I want to come to America, I want to expand my runway, fight in Japan, Saudi Arabia, wherever it is … I’ll take him. And when the next title fighter is available, I’m ready.’

“I’d rather have him fighting than not fighting.”

Inoue has only fought in the U.S. three times – two COVID-era bouts and a 2017 undercard debut in Carson, California.

“Having Inoue come back to the states is really important, because in the time he’s been away, he’s emerged as the pound-for-pound king and decimated everybody while the buzz that’s carried through Japan has carried through the world,” DuBoef said. “He’s one of the most exciting fighters you can watch with his speed and power.

“He and his team understand the importance of being in America and expanding your brand. He sees how popular he is, and that it’s good to step outside that.”

Inoue said he’d also like to one day fight at Madison Square Garden, and a bout attended by Japan’s Shohei Ohtani at Dodger Stadium would generate a bonanza of interest.  

“There’s a great turnout today. I know the expectation is there. I want to fulfill those expectations,” Inoue said, calling his interest in fighting in the U.S.“very important to me.”

Starting this rugged stretch of bouts on Cinco de Mayo weekend is especially meaningful for Inoue after he watched fights growing up with his father-trainer that included their favorites, Mexican legends Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez.

“Those are the Mexican fighters I’m fond of,” he said. “It’s going to be a great fight for me, and I’m very excited about that. For this fight, I have pure confidence. [Cardenas] is an all-around good fighter. No matter how it comes out, I have the advantage.”

Inoue recently announced his intention at a Japanese boxing awards show to pursue the showdown with Nakatani – “Who wants to see that fight?” he asked reporters to enthusiastic responses Wednesday. 

He additionally has been linked to major bouts against Top Rank’s WBO featherweight champion Rafael Espinoza – who defends his belt in the May 4 co-main event – and unbeaten WBC super-flyweight champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez.

“He’s the most active champion, averaging more than three fights a year. Tell me anyone on the pound-for-pound list that’s matching that?” DuBoef said of Inoue.

“There’s a lot of chatter, with everyone getting on their milk boxes screaming, ‘He’s avoiding me, he’s avoiding me.’ That’s all bullshit. That’s just their way of saying, ‘I want more money.’ But they want the fight later on. That’s not fair, and he shouldn’t be indicted for it. He’s fighting! And he’s knocking everyone off.”

Inoue is up for it all, DuBoef maintains, pointing to how other great champions have avoided demanding rematches after a difficult title test.

When Nonito Donaire broke Inoue’s jaw in the 2019 fight of the year, Inoue sought out a rematch.

“That’s a fucking fighter,” DuBoef said. ‘That’s a real guy.”

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.

Ryan Garcia is officially cleared to fight.

BoxingScene has confirmed that the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) has officially removed the once-troubled star boxer from suspension. Garcia, 24-1 (20 KOs; 1 no contest), was required to meet the terms of a settlement reached with the commission stemming from a positive drugs test from his 12-round fight with Devin Haney, 31-0 (15 KOs; 1NC) on April 20, 2024. 

The development comes just ahead of his planned showdown with Rolando Romero, 16-2 (13 KOs) atop a DAZN Pay-Per-View from New York City’s Times Square on May 2.

“The suspension has been lifted,” a spokesperson for NYSAC confirmed to BoxingScene. “All conditions of the consent order have been met.”

Garcia, 26, initially earned a majority decision over Haney at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The verdict was changed to a no contest when it emerged that Garcia tested positive for the banned substance ostarine, in samples collected through testing by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA). 

The results also confirmed a separate sample collected by the state commission. Garcia – through his legal team – reached a settlement with the commission which left him banned from competing anywhere in the US for a minimum of one year, along with a $10,000 fine – the maximum allowed by NYSAC – and full forfeiture of his seven-figure purse. 

An undisclosed portion of the purse was paid to Haney, who was additionally compensated when Garcia was more than three pounds overweight, an infraction that cost the California native a shot at Haney’s WBC junior-welterweight title. 

Even after Garcia was declared the winner on fight night, Haney retained the belt. The unbeaten two-division champ would subsequently vacate in lieu of a mandatory title defense against Sandor Martin, for which he felt the payday from the purse bid fell short of his true worth. 

In that vein, Haney also filed a civil complaint against Garcia, alleging battery, fraud and breach of contract. 

BoxingScene has confirmed that the case has since been settled and will be dismissed in May. 

Meanwhile, Garcia’s signed consent order with NYSAC carried conditions for his career to move forward beyond the minimum one-year suspension period.

Garcia was required to submit to random drugs testing during that time, to prove that he was a clean boxer. Not only did he not immediately comply, but Garcia – and promoter Golden Boy Promotions – repeatedly contended that he was the victim of substance contamination. 

His stance changed earlier in 2025, when Garcia was able to strike a deal with Riyadh Season and its leader Turki Alalshikh. The pact led to his headlining the upcoming May 2 Ring Magazine show, but – as is the case with all Riyadh Season promotions – requires the participants to commit to VADA testing. 

Garcia was apprehensive about working with the agency but ultimately conceded – though, not without reinforcements. Supplemental testing was conducted by the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) – his home state governing body – which helped end his suspension, as the findings were properly reported to NYSAC. 

Neither Garcia nor Haney have fought since their controversial clash but will share a card next weekend. Garcia and Romero will meet for the WBA “World” welterweight title in the main event. Haney will face former unified WBC and WBO junior-welterweight titlist Jose Ramirez in the co-feature, in the welterweight debut for both boxers. 

Wins for Garcia and Haney will reportedly lead to a rematch later in 2025 to officially launch the year’s Riyadh Season in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.

It’s a fight that was born to a rivalry from a different generation, yet the story of Chris Eubank Jnr vs Conor Benn has grown increasingly ugly since its conception. It’s a tale of failure, incompetence, manipulation, emaciation, and eggs. 

September 18, 1989: Chris Eubank Jnr, son of middleweight contender Chris Eubank, is born in Hove, England.

September 27, 1990: Live on British television, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank (Snr) sign to fight each other on November 18. “I personally do hate him,” Benn growls.

November 18, 1990: Following a bad-tempered build-up, Eubank upsets Nigel Benn in Birmingham, England, when he stops him in nine brutal rounds to win the WBO middleweight title. A reported 14m watch the contest on television. Afterwards, in his dressing room, Benn is inconsolable. “Of all the people to lose to, why did I have to lose to him?”

October 9, 1993: The grudge between Eubank and Benn, by now both titlists at super middleweight, has long since intensified to the extent it captures the interest of practically everyone in Britain. The rematch, staged at Manchester United’s Old Trafford, ends in a contentious 12-round draw with many observers believing Benn had done enough to win.

September 28, 1996: Ten days after Eubank Jnr celebrates his seventh birthday, Conor Benn – son of Nigel – is born in London, England.

November 9, 1996: After being defeated by Steve Collins for the second time in four months, 32-year-old Nigel Benn calls time on his 42-5-1 (35 KOs) career. 

July 18, 1998: Following consecutive losses to cruiserweight belt-holder Carl Thompson, Chris Eubank retires from boxing at the age of 31. His record reads 45-5-2 (23 KOs).

August 9, 2003: Tensions run high when Eubank and Benn star in reality TV show, Gladiator: Eubank v Benn III.

November 12, 2011: On the undercard of Tyson Fury toppling Neven Pajkic in Manchester, England, professional debutant Eubank Jnr – donned in gold trunks emblazoned with the family name and his father prowling at ringside – feasts on the overmatched Kirilis Psonko. “A father, or any right-minded father, only ever wants their son to be better than what he was and that’s something I truly pray for,” Senior later tells Boxing News about 22-year-old Junior. 

April 9, 2016: A fortnight after Eubank Jnr wins the British middleweight title with a fateful victory over Nick Blackwell to improve to 22-1, 19-year-old Conor Benn – weighing a little over 144lbs – makes his professional bow on the London undercard of Anthony Joshua-Charles Martin and tears through Ivaylo Boyanov in 127 seconds. “He wants to be better than me and he’s going to be better than me,” a proud Nigel Benn says afterwards.

September 27, 2018: It emerges that Billy Joe Saunders has failed a VADA test ahead of a proposed bout with the Eddie Hearn-promoted Danny Jacobs. Later, the British Boxing Board of Control [BBBoC] report they won’t take any further action against Saunders, who was found to have an illegal stimulant in his system, under instruction from UKAD. “What is the point of signing up for drug testing if, when you fail, everyone just goes, ‘Don’t worry about it, just let him him fight?’” said Hearn. “The argument that it’s all right with UKAD is totally irrelevant. You signed up for drug testing with VADA, the best testing agency, in my opinion, in the sport.”

January 19, 2022: Benn, previously at No. 5, is removed from the WBC welterweight rankings for failing to enrol in the sanctioning body’s Clean Boxing Program with VADA.

January 23, 2022: While in conversation with TalkSport Benn calls the situation with the WBC a “shambles” and, the following day, states that his team have been instructed to begin the enrolment process. He insists that he will be reinstated into the rankings in February.

February 5, 2022: Eubank Jnr, weighing 160lbs, drops Liam Williams four times during a 12-round points victory in Cardiff, Wales.

April 16, 2022: The still unranked Benn, half-a-pound under the 147lbs welterweight limit, obliterates the fading Chris van Heerden in two rounds. He returns to the WBC rankings the following month. 

May 12, 2022: Benn and Eubank Jnr briefly cross paths at the Sports Industry Awards in London. “Listen, you and me can make a lot of money in the future,” Eubank tells Benn who replies, “Yeah, I know.” 

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June 3, 2022: British publication Boxing News is told that negotiations for a huge domestic showdown between Eubank Jnr and Benn are underway and moving positively.

July 19, 2022: The official announcement of the contest is expected but postponed until July 28, a date which also bites the dust due to ongoing arguments about the catchweight and rehydration clause between Eubank Jnr, a middleweight, and Benn, a welterweight.

July 25, 2022: As part of the WBC’s Clean Boxing Program, Benn submits a sample to VADA. 

August 9, 2022: The contest between Chris Eubank Jnr and Conor Benn is officially confirmed for October 8, 2022. It will take place at a catchweight of 157lbs though the rehydration clause is not publicized due to it being a private agreement between the two boxers. Different reports suggest it is between five and 10 pounds. Eubank, who also spent several years campaigning at super middleweight, had never been as low as 157 at any point in his professional career. Benn’s then-highest was 148 1/2lbs. 

August 12, 2022: At the press conference to launch the promotion, Eubank declares that he will only be at “60 per cent” due to the catchweight. And to beat Benn, Eubank insists, he’ll only need to be at 60 per cent.

August 23, 2022: Benn, Matchroom, the BBBoC and the WBC are informed that clomiphene, an estrogen modulator known to boost testosterone, was found in the sample he submitted on July 25. Eubank is not informed due to the test taking place before the fight between them had been formally signed. 

September 1, 2022: Benn submits another test to VADA, pursuant to the fight contract.

September 9, 2022: The pair go head-to-head for a promotional film. “There are levels in the game, you’ve never done anything like this before,” Eubank tells his rival. “I have walked your path; I was you once.” Benn rolls his eyes. “Stop playing that old man card,” he says.

September 23, 2022: The results of the second test are disclosed to both fighters, their teams, and the BBBoC. Clomiphene has again been found in Benn’s sample. 

September 30, 2022: Eubank and Benn appear together on Good Morning Britain, a popular television show to promote their contest.

October 4, 2022: In the evening, the BBBoC rule that they will “prohibit” the contest due to the failed tests. Relevant parties are informed the following morning.

October 5, 2022: Riath Al-Samarrai, of the Daily Mail, breaks the news of the second failed test. That afternoon the promoters of the bout, Matchroom and Wasserman, release a statement that suggests they still plan to stage the bout on October 8. “Both fighters have taken medical and legal advice, are aware of all relevant information and wish to proceed with the bout on Saturday,” it reads.

Reports emerge that they are seeking an alternative governing body to the BBBoC. Benn appears at the open workouts. “I’ve not committed any violations, I’ve not been suspended,” he says. “So as far as I am concerned the fight is still going ahead. I am a clean athlete, and we’ll get to the bottom of this.”

October 6, 2022: Eubank Snr, long opposed to the contest, tells Boxing News: “It’s just a game to them [promoters]. All they seem to do is mock us [fighters] and do not seem to know that it’s on our backs, that we make them and their families financially secure… Stop playing with the lives of our sons.” It is understood, however, that his son is still keen to go ahead with the bout after being told by a doctor that the amount of clomiphene in Benn’s system is not “performance-enhancing”.

October 6, 2022: Late into Thursday afternoon, Saturday’s contest is belatedly pulled. “It is undeniable that the British Boxing Board of Control’s decision to withdraw their sanctioning was procedurally flawed and without due process,” reads part of the Matchroom and Wasserman statement. “However, while there are legal routes to facilitate the fight taking place as planned, we do not believe it is in the interests for those to be pursued at such a late stage or in the wider interests of the sport.” Hearn, annoyed by the BBBoC waiting so long to make their decision, later suggests that because tests were also carried out by UKAD, and they found no trace of anything illegal, the contest could have gone ahead.

October 8, 2022: Enraged with Benn, Eubank posts images on his social media channels of his emaciated body making the stipulated weight regardless. He later tells The Opening Bell podcast: “That was gruesome… You’re sitting there dying of starvation and all the time thinking, ‘you don’t actually have to do this, you can eat and drink as much as you want.’ That will never happen again. If and when the fight does happen with Conor, he’s lost all his privileges. I will not be coming down to 157lbs. He does not deserve that anymore.”

October 11, 2022: News of the first failed test breaks.

October 21, 2022: Benn is due to appear in front of the BBBoC regarding an allegation of misconduct. He does not attend but sends legal representation who indicate that the boxer wishes to relinquish his British licence. The commission confirm that the allegation of misconduct is upheld. 

October 27, 2022: Benn, furious that the BBBoC left it so late to pull the fight, tells The Sun’s Wally Downes Jnr that he will never again box under a British licence. “I will never box for them again,” he says. “I’ve got nothing to hide but as far as I’m concerned they’ve got it in for me… All the fighters who have tested positive and been cleared to fight. But with me they left it until days before the fight.”

January 21, 2023: After going straight from the Benn fiasco into camp to prepare for a date with Liam Smith, Eubank Jnr is stopped in four rounds in a sizeable upset.

February 22, 2023: Following an investigation into the first VADA test, the WBC absolves Benn of intentionally doping after ruling that a “highly elevated consumption of eggs” was considered a “reasonable explanation” for the adverse finding. Benn’s team provided a 270-page document to assist the rankings body with their study. It is not provided to UKAD or the BBBoC. The result of the second test, which had nothing to do with the WBC, is not considered during the investigation. 

February 22, 2023: In response, the BBBoC state: “For clarity, whilst the BBBoC wishes to make clear it respects the WBC, the WBC is a sanctioning body and not a governing body. The BBBoC was the governing body with whom Mr Benn was licensed at the material time, and as such any alleged anti-doping violation shall be dealt with in accordance with its rules and regulations.”

February 23, 2023: Benn posts his reaction on Instagram. “Whilst I welcome the ultimate outcome, I do not agree with everything said in the WBC’s statement. That is something I am discussing with my legal team. There will be additional comment in due course but the for the time being I just want to focus on getting career back on track after being effectively prevented from fighting for many months.”

February 28, 2023: Again on Instagram, Benn says: “At no point did I indicate that I failed any VADA tests because of contaminated eggs.” 

March 15, 2023: Benn is placed under provisional suspension by UKAD.

July 28, 2023: Benn is no longer provisionally suspended by UKAD after a ruling by the National Anti-Doping Panel (NAPD). The ruling centers on VADA, who carried out the failed tests, not being Britain’s ruling anti-doping agency. 

August 17, 2023: UKAD, in conjunction with the BBBoC, announce that they plan to appeal the NAPD’s ruling.

September 2, 2023: In an immediate rematch, Eubank blitzes Smith in 10 rounds. Smith will later claim that he was battling injuries throughout his camp but felt obliged to go through with the fight.

September 23, 2023: Benn returns to the ring after a 17-month absence and comfortably outpoints Rodolfo Orozco over 10 rounds in a junior middleweight bout staged at the Caribe Royale Orlando.

October 21, 2023: Eddie Hearn, eager to stage Eubank Jnr-Benn in Britain, puts pressure on the BBBoC: “If we stage the fight, it’s up to the Board if they want to sanction the fight, we hope for their support.” The unimpressed BBBoC indicate they will wait for the outcome of the appeal.

November 29, 2023: With the BBBoC standing firm on their stance to distance themselves from a proposed Eubank-Benn clash, at least until the pending appeal is heard, Hearn announces that the fight will take place on February 3, 2024, at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

December 14, 2023: The fight is off again. Kalle Sauerland, of Wasserman, states the collapse is due to commercial issue, Hearn feigns disbelief that Eubank has turned the fight down, and Benn insists that Eubank is running scared.

February 2, 2024: Out in Las Vegas, Benn is forced to go the full route again when the unheralded Peter Dobson takes the Briton 12 rounds before losing a unanimous decision. 

May 7, 2024: UKAD and the BBBoC are successful in their appeal and Benn is provisionally suspended again. 

October 11, 2024: Benn is invited to Saudi Arabia to ramp up interest in a future bout with Eubank, who is set to fight Kamil Szeremeta the following day. Benn, with Hearn nearby, confronts a visibly drawn Eubank after the weigh-in.

October 12, 2024: Eubank defeats Szeremeta in seven rounds. Benn, still provisionally suspended from boxing due to failing two drug tests, is encouraged to enter both the ring and Eubank’s personal space. They engage in a spot of nose-to-nose name-calling, much to the delight of the paymasters watching on. 

November 6, 2024: The NADP rule they’re “not comfortably satisfied” that UKAD had proved that Benn committed an anti-doping violation. The latest provisional suspension is lifted. UKAD indicate they will consider appealing again. It has been a costly process, however, and reporters learn that another appeal is in fact unlikely.

November 28, 2024: UKAD confirm they will not appeal the ruling but “the World Anti-Doping Rules, the World Anti-Doping Agency has a separate right of appeal and an extended deadline to file any appeal.” Within the statement is another interesting aside: “In accordance with 8.5.2 of the UK Anti-Doping Rules, UKAD is unable to publicly disclose the decision of the independent National Anti-Doping Panel at this time without Mr Benn’s consent.” It is reported that the ruling was made without Benn being ordered to explain why clomiphene was twice detected in his system. 

January 23, 2025: Following a two-week negotiation period, it is confirmed by Turki Alalshikh that Eubank and Benn will fight on April 26 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. The fight will take place at 160lbs but there will be a rehydration clause – neither fighter can weigh more than 10lbs over the middleweight limit on the morning of the contest. Eubank Jnr, now 35 years old, typically gains 20lbs after weighing in. The bout is labelled ‘Fatal Fury’ after a computer game.

February 25, 2025: On a day designed to market the fight, the saga plunges to a new low as Eubank Jnr and Benn are pulled apart when the former strikes the latter, smashing an egg on his face in the process. Eubank Jnr will later tell The Guardian’s Donald McRae: “The egg was meant to embarrass him. It was meant to make an example of him. It was meant to make sure that his cheating will never be forgotten. There are so many active fighters that have been caught cheating and are now still fighting and no one says anything about it. I couldn’t let that be the case for this man.” 

Behind the scenes, when pressed by two journalists to divulge the finer details of being cleared by UKAD, Benn says: “If someone starts asking me trick questions, I’ll throw you out of the room, do you hear me? I’ll drag you by the neck outside.”

April 16, 2025: Chris Eubank Snr, in London to support old rival Michael Watson who was left with brain damage following a 1991 loss to Eubank, expresses his concern to SecondsOut about the rehydration clause and his son’s behaviour. “If the rules are abided to then we don’t have to talk about rehydration clauses, which actually kills fighters and puts them in the position that Michael Watson is in,” he says. “Junior, you are smashing an egg in someone’s face. Who taught you that? It’s disgraceful. You think I’m going to stand in your corner? You must be mad. I would never be in your corner. You smash an egg in someone’s face and then try to justify it? There is no justification for that. There is nothing noble about that.”

April 22, 2025: “I keep hearing this two weight classes thing; he’s not coming up two weight classes,” Eubank says at the ‘grand arrivals’. “He hasn’t been a welterweight for three years. This isn’t about size or weight. It’s about skill. It’s about dedication. It’s about expertise. And all those areas I excel in.”

“People say it’s strictly business,” Benn says. “It’s never business. If you’re trying to put your hands on me and render me unconscious, it’s never business. It’s always personal… this one has a little more history to it, shall we say.”

Eddie Hearn adds: “I can’t believe we’re four days away. I mean, is it actually going to happen?”

Veteran former champion Liam Smith faces unbeaten prospect Aaron McKenna on Saturday on the undercard of Chris Eubank Jnr-Conor Benn at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Smith has not fought since his stoppage defeat against Eubank in their rematch back in September 2023. He was then slated to face Josh Kelly last September, but Smith was forced to withdraw during fight week because of an illness.

Smith will now face McKenna, a 19-0 (10 KOs) middleweight from Ireland who is attempting to announce himself on the world scene. McKenna, still only 25 years old, had recently competed in Matchroom Boxing’s “PrizeFighter” in Japan, picking up a career-best win over Jeovanny Estela, but the tournament has since been scrapped due to a legal matter.

McKenna isn’t short on confidence, despite his limited experience at the top level. Smith isn’t too sure where McKenna gets his confidence from.

“Yeah, I think he's a good fighter coming through,” Smith told BoxingScene. “Young, hungry, a little bit too big for his boots. I think in past fights I've heard him saying he's the best middleweight in Britain and all that. Just before the Japan tournament and all that, ‘the most feared middleweight in the world,’ he was saying. At one stage, I couldn't get where that was coming from. But good fighter, good game, loves a fight, can box a bit better than his brother. I rate him as a good fighter coming through.”

Aaron’s older brother, Stevie McKenna, recently suffered the first defeat of his career, to Lee Cutler last December. Stevie spoke a good game heading into the contest, but he was found out by the more experienced Cutler. Smith was asked if he believes lightning will strike twice on the McKenna brothers.

“One hundred per cent, yes I do,” he said. “Just like, you know, a similar case, just repeats all over. Fights I've had over the past five years, maybe, [Anthony] Fowler. Just people – I get asked all the same questions as well. I get asked all the same questions in the press conference, the fight week. I get asked all the same things. A lot got mentioned to [my brother] Callum [Smith on February 22].

“People mentioned age, the fellow at the top of the bill [Artur Beterbiev] was 41 years of age. Age is a number when, if you're getting old, you're getting old. It can come at 31 years of age, it can come at different ages. I feel like I'm going to get the same type of questions. You know, I've reached the top, what have I still got? You know what I mean? But, yeah, it's time for me to show that I've still got a lot. I've still got a lot left to be done.”

McKenna has trained in the US for the majority of his pro career, and has learned his craft from some of the best in the States: Freddie Roach and Robert Garcia. During his time training in America, McKenna shared the ring with the likes of Terence Crawford in sparring. But Smith believes that sparring can teach you only so much and it’s his experience under the bright lights that will show on fight night.

“Massive, massive. That's one thing I think of him – I think he's still very green,” said Smith. “You can do all the sparring in the world, but in there's a different story, a different kettle of fish. I've said this with numerous fighters I've had over the years. I've boxed Fowler, I've said it with him. After the Fowler fight, I remember an interview I'd done, I said, ‘You can match me with’ … there was a lot of 154lbers on that bill, there was JJ Metcalfe against Kieran Conway, Ted Cheeseman versus Troy Williamson. I was like, you can match me with any one of them – It's a good fight, a better fight.

“I've sparred them all, but just experience, little gloves on, it's a big factor,” Smith continued. “Same with Sam Eggington [whom Smith stopped in 2019]. I use Sam a lot for sparring; we have very good spars. In the ring with him, with fight gloves on, in fight shape with a bit of needle, it's a different story. Yeah, I think experience and know-how will be a big factor to have in that kind of fight.”

Pick it: Chris Eubank Jnr-Conor Benn

When to Watch: Saturday, April 26 at noon Eastern Time (5pm BST)

How to watch: DAZN Pay-Per-View

Why to Watch: First, there was the family history – the second generation of a past rivalry resurrected in the present. Then there was the drama over this fight being postponed, which only stoked the flames between the two boxers. Now, two-and-a-half years after they were first supposed to fight, Chris Eubank Jnr and Conor Benn are at last sharing the ring.

It is a huge event for UK fight fans, even though it is between two men who have never won a world title. Tens of thousands are expected at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Many more will watch the show on pay-per-view.

Their fathers – Chris Eubank Snr and Nigel Benn – were famed British boxers in the 1980s and ’90s. They battled twice; Eubank stopped Benn in the ninth round in 1990 for the WBO middleweight belt (back before that sanctioning body was widely recognized as a major title). They had a rematch in 1993, this time as super middleweights, and fought to a draw.

Eubank Jnr is a 35 year old from Brighton, England. He was born in 1989 and followed his father into the sweet science. He turned pro in 2011, lost a split decision to Billy Joe Saunders in 2014, and rebounded with wins over Arthur Abraham and Avni Yildirim. That landed him a fight with then-WBA titleholder George Groves in 2018; Groves won a unanimous decision.

Eubank Jnr and Conor Benn were supposed to fight in October 2022. Benn tested positive for a banned performance-enhancing drug, and the match was canceled.

Instead, Eubank Jnr met Liam Smith in January 2023 and lost via fourth-round TKO, though some feel that stoppage came in part because of an elbow from Smith. Eubank Jnr won their rematch nine months later, stopping Smith in the 10th round. Eubank Jnr last fought in October 2024, returning from a 13-month layoff with a seventh-round TKO of Kamil Szeremeta. His record is 34-3 (25 KOs).

Benn, born in 1996, is a 28 year old from Ilford, London. He turned pro in 2016. Although he is undefeated at 23-0 (14 KOs), Benn has never won beyond the level of the faded versions of Adrian Granados (UD10 in 2021), Chris Algieri (KO4 in 2021) and Chris van Heerden (TKO2 in 2022).

He was suspended after his positive test for clomifene, though that didn’t stop Benn from getting a pair of bouts in the United States – decisions over the 33-3-3 Rodolfo Orozco in September 2023 and the 16-0 Peter Dobson in February 2024. Benn, previously a welterweight, was at junior middleweight for those two victories. The fight with Eubank Jnr will be at middleweight.

Eubank Jnr has been understandably upset at Benn’s positive test in 2022, and he is understandably skeptical of Benn’s excuse that it was caused by eating too many eggs. He slapped Benn in the face with an egg during a pre-fight event.

This fight is even bigger in 2025 than it would’ve been in 2022. But it also has implications beyond what happens on Saturday.

At Eubank Jnr’s age, he needs a victory in order to remain in the running for a title shot in an otherwise shallow middleweight division. Benn, meanwhile, would be launched forward with a win over Eubank Jnr, becoming a star – be it as a hero or villain – in the UK. Doors would open for him at 160lbs, or perhaps down in the deeper junior-middleweight division.

Or perhaps there will be so much money made in this version of Eubank-Benn that they follow the leader of their fathers and give us Eubank Jnr-Benn II.

Beyond the main event, the PPV’s four-fight undercard includes:

Chris Billam-Smith-Brandon Glanton: Billam-Smith, 20-2 (13 KOs), is back for the first time since losing his WBO cruiserweight title in November’s unification bout with Gilberto Ramirez. He faces Glanton, 20-2 (17 KOs), an action-friendly fighter best known for his win in a war in 2021 with Efetobor Apochi. 

Viddal Riley-Cheavon Clarke: In the other cruiserweight bout on this card, the undefeated Riley takes on the once-beaten Clarke. Riley, 12-0 (7 KOs), is taking a step up in level of competition. Meanwhile Clarke, 10-1 (7 KOs), received a reality check in December when he was dropped in the first round against Leonardo Mosquea and wound up losing a split decision.

Liam Smith-Aaron McKenna: Smith, 33-4-1 (20 KOs), is a former junior-middleweight titleholder who was last seen losing to one of this show’s headliners, when taken out in 10 rounds in his rematch in  September 2023 with Eubank Jnr. He’d like to face the winner of the main event. But first he’ll need to get through McKenna, 19-0 (10 KOs), a middleweight prospect who’d like to be considered a contender and who wants to use Smith’s name to propel himself forward.

Anthony Yarde-Lyndon Arthur: This is the third fight between these two light heavyweights. Arthur, 24-2 (16 KOs), won a split decision in their first meeting in December 2020. Yarde, 26-3 (24 KOs), avenged that defeat with a fourth-round knockout in December 2021. Both have fallen short against the top tier at 175lbs. Yarde was taken out in the 11th round by Sergey Kovalev in 2019 and by Artur Beterbiev in eight rounds in 2023, though he was competitive in both bouts. Arthur was shut out by Dmitry Bivol in 2023.

More Fights to Watch

Friday, April 25: Eric Tudor-Kevin Johnson (DAZN)

The broadcast begins at 9pm Eastern Time (2am BST).

Tudor, 12-1 (7 KOs), is a 23-year-old welterweight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. His one loss came via unanimous decision to the 13-3-1 Jose Luis Sanchez in October 2023. Tudor earned three victories in 2024, including a unanimous decision over the 28-1 Harold Eduardo Calderon in November.

Johnson, 12-5 (8 KOs), is a 32 year old living in Las Vegas. Four of his five losses have come against undefeated fighters, and all five of his losses were by decision. There were defeats by the 4-0 Fazliddin Gaibnazarov in 2018 and a young, 9-0 Richardson Hitchins in 2019. A decision loss to the 18-2 Cristian Baez in December 2022 left Johnson inactive for around 18 months. He returned in 2024 and added a majority decision loss to the 12-0 Kelvin Davis in July and a unanimous decision loss to the 10-0 Isaiah Johnson in December.

This fight headlines at Thunder Studios in Long Beach, California.

Friday, April 25: DeAngelo Evans-Helton Lara (TrillerTV)

The broadcast begins at 9pm Eastern Time (2am BST).

Evans, 13-0 (12 KOs), is a 26-year-old junior welterweight from Kernersville, North Carolina, not too far from this show at a church’s event and sports building in Greensboro.

Lara, 17-8 (9 KOs), is a 28 year old from Nicaragua fighting out of Key West, Florida.

Saturday, April 26: Ashton “H2O” Sylve-Nicolas Polanco (BLK Prime PPV)

The broadcast begins at 7pm Eastern Time (midnight BST).

Nine months after he suffered his first pro loss, lightweight prospect Ashton “H2O” Sylve is set to return to the ring. Sylve, 11-1 (9 KOs), will face Nicolas Polanco, 22-8-1 (13 KOs), in the main event at the Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Georgia.

Sylve, a 21 year old from Long Beach, California, was last seen in July 2024. He was pitching a shutout on the scorecards after five rounds when his opponent, the unbeaten Lucas Bahdi, scored BoxingScene’s knockout of the year for 2024.

His road back begins with Polanco, a 35 year old from the Dominican Republic. Several of Polanco’s defeats have come against familiar names, including Javier Fortuna, Albert Bell, Angelo Leo and Ronny Rios. Polanco fought five times in 2025. However, he went 2-3, with those wins coming against foes with records of 22-34-2 and 16-20. Polanco has lost his past two fights by stoppage, falling in the third round to the 13-0 Haven Brady Jnr and in the second round to the 23-6-1 Leonardo Padilla.

The co-feature will showcase one of Fernando Vargas’ fighting sons, Amado Vargas – a 24-year-old featherweight with a record of 12-0 (5 KOs). Vargas is coming off an eight-round majority decision win in March over the 8-2 Eduardo Hernandez Trejo. 

Vargas will face Angel Luna, 20-15-1 (11 KOs), a 35 year old whose last fight was a 36-second knockout loss in September to the 10-0 Victor Hernandez. Thirteen of Luna’s 15 losses have come by KO or TKO.

Saturday, April 26: Ardian Krasniqi-Diego Ramirez (DAZN)

The broadcast begins at 2pm Eastern Time (7pm BST).

Krasniqi, 10-0 (10 KOs), is a light-heavyweight prospect from Rottweil, Germany, who will be headlining up the road at Glaspalast Sindelfingen in Sindelfingen. He has only ever faced two foes who had won more fights than they had lost – a first-round KO of the 15-10 Denis Altz in September 2023 and a first-round KO of the 10-1-1 Saul Ivan Male in Krasniqi’s past appearance in September.

Ramirez, 27-12-1 (6 KOs), will make it three. The 30 year old from Argentina has lost to a handful of somewhat recognizable names, including a KO8 to Custio Clayton in 2020, a UD10 to Nathan Heaney in 2022 and a points loss to Padraig McCrory in 2023. Although Ramirez has won successive fights, he’s clearly here as a designated opponent, has fought most of his career between welterweight and middleweight, and will most likely be undersized, overmatched and Krasniqi’s 11th knockout victim.

At least the undercard features a title fight. In December, Sarah Bormann won the WBO strawweight belt left vacant when the undisputed champion Seniesa Estrada retired. Bormann, 19-1 (7 KOs), is making her first defense against Isabel Rivero, 10-2-1 (1 KO).

Sunday, April 26: Greg Outlaw-Windry Amadis Martinez (BXNG TV)

The broadcast begins at 6pm Eastern Time (11pm BST).

Outlaw, 17-2 (10 KOs), is a 31-year-old welterweight from Bowie, Maryland, who will headline at AC Jordan Arena on the campus of Bowie State University.

Martinez, 10-2 (5 KOs), is a 31 year old from the Dominican Republic.

Sunday, April 27: Kurt Scoby-Jesus Vasquez Jnr (DAZN)

The broadcast begins at 7pm Eastern Time (midnight BST).

The rebuilding continues for Kurt Scoby, 16-1 (14 KOs). The 30 year old from Pennsylvania suffered an upset loss in April 2024, stopped in the sixth round by the 13-6-3 Dakota Linger. Since then, he’s won three in a row – all by KO or TKO – defeating the 11-1 Daniel Lim in two minutes, the 8-4 Ramiro Lucero in four rounds, and the 11-11-1 Cesar Villarraga in five rounds.

Sharing the main event with Scoby at the Carteret Performing Arts and Events Center in Carteret, New Jersey, is Jesus Vasquez Jnr, 11-3 (3 KOs). The 33 year old from Colorado is returning from his most recent defeat – an eight-round shutout loss to the 12-0 Haven Brady Jnr. 

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing”, is available on Amazon.

Rivalries in boxing are a lot like relationships, meaning no two are ever the same and not a single one is perfect. 

Some will start with a first date so full of potential it must be followed immediately with a second for both parties to know exactly where they stand. Others, meanwhile, have a longer and less certain courting period and function more as a drawn-out love affair, with all the ups and downs typically associated with one. 

If, as is the case with Anthony Yarde and Lyndon Arthur, a rivalry is stretched over the course of five years, you can be sure that a lot has gone on between the pair and that other partners have at some stage been involved. You can also be sure that they are reuniting at the point at which they have realised either that the grass isn’t always greener or that they were never at their best when in each other’s company. 

In 2020, when they first met, Yarde happened to be mourning the deaths of various family members due to Covid-19 and his mind was naturally elsewhere. He was thinking not of Arthur, the opponent in front of him, but of all he had lost; fighting just to distract himself and feel something. As a result, he would suffer further loss on the night, with Arthur a shock winner via 12-round decision. 

One year later, having now come to terms with his losses, Yarde rematched Arthur and was a completely different proposition. This time, rather than passively following Arthur around the ring and allowing the technician to control him with his jab, Yarde set about him in an effort to take back the one loss he could actually take back. In just four rounds, he had done it, too, stopping Arthur with a barrage of shots to level the score in the most empathic way possible. 

So emphatic was Yarde’s performance, in fact, most assumed the rivalry between Yarde and Arthur was finished that night in London. After all, though it was now one win apiece, the nature of Yarde’s rematch victory surely superseded the relatively close decision which went Arthur’s way in fight one. 

“I thought it was put to bed,” Yarde told BoxingScene. “I didn’t think I’d ever fight him again, to be honest. After we fought the second time, I went on to fight for the unified title against [Artur] Beterbiev and he fought [Dmitry] Bivol. I then heard rumours that he might retire, so I wasn’t really thinking we would ever fight again. 

“But that’s the thing about boxing. You look at my situation and you’ll see that the fights I wanted didn’t materialise and that I wasted a lot of time trying to make them. That caused me some inactivity and it caused me to slow down really. Now I’m just happy to be getting back in the ring and fighting on a massive occasion like this. Finally, I’ve got a live opponent.”

While it would be a stretch to say that Yarde and Arthur have found each other exactly when they need each other, it is true to say that their trilogy fight, set for Saturday (April 26) at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, is an example of two fighters going over old ground in an attempt to then move forward. It is, in many ways, a reset. It is a chance to not only settle the rivalry once and for all, but it also provides some renewed relevance to a couple of light-heavyweights whose careers are seemingly always in danger of drifting, being forgotten. 

Yarde, in particular, has had the strangest of careers, with heroic performances, albeit losing ones, against the likes of Beterbiev and Sergey Kovalev interspersed with routine wins against nonentities. In fact, when he isn’t boxing fearsome Russians as the underdog, it is only in fights against Lyndon Arthur that Yarde, now 33, has managed to capture the imagination of the British public. Everything else, alas, has been somewhat anticlimactic for Yarde, his career awash with one too many tune-up fights and one too many knockouts followed by a shrug. 

“It's been very frustrating,” he admitted. “The fight I had against Beterbiev [in 2023] won ‘Fight of the Year’ and I was ready to go again and build on the momentum from it. We tried to get the rematch but he went on to do bigger things and fight Bivol. 

“For me, it was hard, because I still wanted to be involved in big fights. We tried to make certain fights happen – like against [Joshua] Buatsi, and Callum Smith, and some other names – but they didn’t come to fruition. I was also in promotional disputes around the same time. There were a lot of ups and downs and a lot of going round in circles. But it all worked itself out in the end. I just stayed in the gym and kept getting better. 

“After the Beterbiev fight I had a nice break and it was probably the best I have looked in the return fight [against Jorge Silva]. Then I had the dispute thing, the layoff, and I fought again but didn’t feel myself. That’s why I’m excited to get out again and be part of a big occasion. That’s when I feel I really thrive.”

He calls the third fight with Arthur an example of him going “full circle” and believes it will act as a “building block” for his career and nothing more. It is not a fight anybody was hankering to see, he concedes, yet it is probably the fight that makes the most sense for Yarde at this crucial stage in his 29-fight career. 

“I feel like it’s one of those fights where we both know each other and there’s a bit of bad blood there,” he said. “We’re both from England and we both speak English. So there will be a bit of excitement in the build-up as well. 

“The second fight was a lot more electrifying – there was a crowd there, etcetera. But this one will be even bigger than that.”

Of course, given the “electrifying” nature of fight two, and especially Yarde’s performance, it won’t be easy for the Londoner to improve on it come Saturday night. A decision win, that can be bettered with a stoppage win, while a late stoppage win, that can be bettered by an early stoppage win. A stoppage in round four, however, leaves little room for improvement and makes Yarde fighting Arthur for a third time an even riskier option to take. 

“Unless I go out there and knock him out in the first round – or the second or third – and I look better, there’s always going to be that pressure,” Yarde acknowledged. “But my mentality is to never put pressure on myself. Even when I’m in big fights, I never put pressure on myself. It’s boxing. We don’t know what’s going to happen until it happens. I just go out there and enjoy myself. I embrace the fact I made this decision in my life and enjoy the whole experience.”

Usually when it comes to rematches you can use the previous fight as a guide and an indication of what to expect. Here, though, it is a little more difficult. After all, in fight one Yarde was present in body only, while in fight two Arthur could argue that he was caught cold, or simply caught out by something, or someone, he had not been expecting. Neither, in other words, have ever been at their best on the same night, which helps give fight three a little bit of mystery and intrigue it would otherwise lack.  

“I think he expected it,” Yarde, 26-3 (24), said of Arthur in their 2021 rematch. “I just think he couldn’t handle it. He knew what was coming, but when it did come, he had no answer for it. I told him what I was coming with and his trainer [Pat Barrett] even told everybody what I was going to be coming with. His trainer told me they knew how I was going to come for that rematch. I just hope that they know I will be bringing even more to this third fight. I’m going to be more aggressive, better, sharper. Hopefully he’s better as well. 

“I’m probably the best [version of himself] out of the three. Third time’s a charm, they say, and of the three fights we have had, I feel like I am in the best place mentally for this one.”

Often in relationships familiarity breeds contempt, yet in boxing it tends to go the other way. In boxing, a familiarity between two boxers builds only respect. Sometimes it is grudging, and sometimes it is hard to express, but it is always there, somewhere. 

“In his career he has always been a good fighter,” Yarde said of Arthur. “He has only lost to me and Bivol and has only been stopped once – by me. He’s not someone I can overlook. He’s got some good wins on his record as well. 

“I know that Lyndon Arthur is not a gatekeeper. He is a guy who will want his revenge. Even after I beat him in our rematch, the first thing he said to me was, ‘I want my belts back. I want to fight again.’ He will be seeing this as a massive opportunity. 

“Knowing that, plus the fact there’s a bit of bad blood there, makes this a very exciting fight for me.”

Because we have seen them share a ring before, it doesn’t take much creativity and imagination to picture both Yarde and Arthur triumphing on Saturday. If you like Arthur, you will point to his mastery of the left jab and how he used this punch so expertly to offset Yarde in fight one. If, on the other hand, you are more partial to the work of Yarde, you will steer doubters in the direction of his work in the rematch, which he won by essentially overpowering Arthur and throwing punches in combination; something he neglected the first time around. Ask Yarde, of course, and he can see only one way fight three unfolds. 

“I think the result will go the same way [as the rematch], definitely,” he said. “I don’t ever go into a boxing ring expecting anything in terms of the opponent fighting a certain way, or the fight playing out a certain way. But he’s known as a fighter who fights on the back foot, jabs a lot, and clinches a lot. He might come with something different this time. Who knows? I’m just seeing it as a fresh fight. We know each other well enough, as two people going into a ring and fighting, but you still can’t assume anything. I just genuinely feel that he can’t handle the things I bring to the table. That’s my mentality for this fight. I know I’m better now than I was when we fought three years ago.”

It is, in truth, the only way a relationship like theirs can work and make sense. They must, on the night, both be better than they have been in the past and they must show that they have learned their lessons and that they have improved. Only then can we think about adding Yarde vs. Arthur to the many memorable and meaningful trilogies we have seen in British boxing over the years. Only then can one of the two finally make peace with everything that has happened between them and maturely move on to bigger and better things.

The managers of Shakur Stevenson are finalizing a deal for the unbeaten WBC lightweight and three-division champion to be represented by veteran New York promoter Lou DiBella for Stevenson’s planned title defense versus Mexico’s William Zepeda on July 12 in New York.

Boxing reporter Dan Rafael first reported DiBella’s involvement – a shift for Stevenson, 23-0 (11 KOs) – away from his two-fight agreement with Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn that included a title defense on February 22 against late-replacement opponent Josh Padley in Saudi Arabia.

According to an official connected to the agreement who was unauthorized to speak publicly on the matter, Stevenson’s co-managers James Prince and Josh Dubin were empowered to negotiate with DiBella because Hearn and Matchroom didn’t exercise their option for the second fight on the agreement with Stevenson.

DiBella’s team will work to represent Stevenson as the New York State Athletic Commission selects officials and assigns medical tests for fighters.

DiBella, according to an official close to the promoter, is said to be “very happy for” Stevenson, a fighter he views as “super talented – to be in a big show again, [DiBella] has gratitude”.

Hearn did not immediately return messages left for him on Monday by BoxingScene. 

Hearn’s parting, said the official, freed Prince to negotiate directly with the Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh after Stevenson previously accused Alaklshikh on social media of shorting the purse he originally promised when Stevenson and Zepeda sought to fight in 2024. Stevenson has since apologized for the misunderstanding, and the Zepeda fight is a go.

Zepeda’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, is expected to serve as lead promoter for the card that Alalshikh’s company recently announced – one that includes a super-middleweight bout between Edgar Berlanga and Hamzah Sheeraz, the WBC 140lbs champion Alberto Puello versus former champion Subriel Matias, and David Morrell in a light-heavyweight bout against Imam Khataev.

Golden Boy promoting the card and Berlanga also moving on from Hearn following the expiration of his multi-fight agreement with the promoter isn’t seen as a Saudi turn away from Hearn and Matchroom, who are overseeing the Times Square promotion on May 2 and will be involved in the coming Dmitry Bivol-Artur Beterbiev light-heavyweight title trilogy and the expected return of Anthony Joshua.

“Turki didn’t need Eddie to make a Shakur fight,” said a veteran fight official observing the Saudi’s movements. “That said, I strongly don’t think Eddie’s out … although I don’t think anybody’s solidly in [with Alalshikh] except Frank [Warren of Queensberry Promotions]. If it doesn’t help [Alalshikh’s] agenda, he doesn’t care who he does or doesn’t do business with.

“Eddie can be a difficult guy and I don’t think his ego’s going to handle well the idea that Turki is running boxing, but, that said, if [Alalshikh] wants to make a deal with Eddie for Joshua to fight Tyson Fury, I’m sure he can and will.”

One individual said the July 12 show may also deviate from the rotation of using Madison Square Garden or Barclays Center and get staged at another New York venue, as with the May 2 promotion.

The individual additionally said that they expect Alalshikh to create a fuller “round-robin” of bouts beyond the coming Ryan Garcia-Devin Haney rematch that is expected to follow the card on May 2.

The winner of the WBO 140lbs title bout between the champion Teofimo Lopez and Arnold Barboza Jnr will be positioned to meet the winner of Puello-Matias winner, for instance – or Stevenson may be coaxed to move up one weight class to meet either winner if he achieves his expected triumph.

“You can see [Alalshikh] is cornering those weight classes, and we know he’s not shy about overspending,” the individual said.

When taken out of context, everything seems a little silly. The two of them, Ben Whittaker and Liam Cameron, fighting in Saudi Arabia six months ago seemed silly when both are from England. The image of them then falling out of the ring in round five looked silly. The subsequent image of Whittaker leaving the ring in a wheelchair also looked silly. The reaction to it, that seemed silly. The drawn-out negotiations to get the rematch on seemed silly. The argument regarding an extra two rounds seemed silly. The wheelchair jokes seemed silly. Bringing an egg to a faceoff seemed silly. Pundits on “Super Sunday”, a football (soccer) show, discussing Whittaker vs. Cameron II seemed silly. The reaction of Whittaker to winning in round two seemed silly. The debate afterwards to the reaction of Whittaker winning in round two seemed silly. The crowning of Whittaker as British boxing’s greatest talent seemed silly. Writing this, a post-fight piece about something so silly, seems silly. 

It all seems a little silly not because Whittaker and Cameron are two unserious fighters, but simply because their fight, an English title fight in all but name, has been blown out of all proportion on account of controversy. As a result of it, Whittaker found himself under more scrutiny than he probably deserved and the rivalry itself ended up growing into something it was never meant to become. Suddenly, in the space of just a few months, a routine fight for Whittaker became a career-defining one and a man of just nine pro fights was being held to the standards of seasoned world champions. 

It was, on reflection, unnecessary, perhaps even unfair. But it was also symptomatic of both Whittaker’s personality and British boxing’s growing desperation to create something worthy of a headliner these days. In Whittaker and Cameron, you had, in theory, all the ingredients. You had a showman in Whittaker whose downfall many have either been predicting or praying to see since he turned pro, and you had a fight, the first one in Riyadh, so bizarre and controversial it could only ever lead to months of debate and back and forth. You then had the inevitable rematch and the chance to go viral all over again. 

Indeed, given that was forever the driving force, is it any wonder that Whittaker reacted the way he did when finally silencing the noise on Sunday in Birmingham? After all, before winning the fight in two rounds, he had been accompanied to the ring by a chorus of boos – this despite the venue being close to his hometown of Wolverhampton – and had for months been told he didn’t have the minerals for this game and that he had failed the warrior’s code by “tapping out” in October. That, of all the insults hurled at a boxer throughout their career, is arguably the worst. It is the worst because courage is usually the one thing uncontested; the one thing that separates a boxer from an ordinary civilian. Rarely is a boxer ever praised for their intelligence, or selflessness, or people skills, but courage, that’s another thing. That is a given. A prerequisite of their job. The bare minimum. 

To have it questioned, therefore, must have hurt Whittaker, just as it would have hurt the many fighters who have had the same said about them whether online or by commentators. It would explain, if not condone, his behaviour both before the fight and also after it, when, having stopped Cameron in round two, he made a beeline for Cameron’s cornerman, Grant Smith, and aggressively stuck his head through the ropes. Some claimed he then spat at Smith, but this Smith later denied. Either way, it was not something one usually expects to see after a fight, nor something Whittaker, in an ideal world, would have wanted to do following his career-best win. 

Yet this win was not like the other wins, of course. This win on Easter Sunday meant more to Whittaker than any previous and possibly future win as well. More than just a win, his second-round stoppage of Liam Cameron was vindication; a middle finger up to everybody who doubted him or, worse, questioned his commitment. It had, for Whittaker, become a battle bigger than simply boxing. Moreover, it had become a battle bigger in his head than it was in anybody else’s. 

That, you see, is the problem with being stuck there, in your own head, while also enjoying the glare of the spotlight; when you are told you are Britain’s greatest prospect; when accustomed to going viral; when pushed as a headliner from day one. All of a sudden, despite the fact you are still learning, you find yourself assessed from every angle and learn only when it is too late that you lack both the experience and maturity to handle it. 

Whittaker, in moving to Ireland to escape both the spotlight and the trappings of success, appears to have now realised this in the nick of time. “What happened in Saudi needed to happen,” he told Sky Sports’ Andy Scott in the ring last night. “It made me open up the door, it made me work harder. I’m still flashy, I’m still swaggy – you saw me on that ring walk, it was beautiful – but when I came in here, I was very disciplined and people know now I can hit. 

“People need to understand my lifestyle went a hundred miles an hour. I come from a humble family. My dad worked two jobs, my mum worked two jobs, and then everything was coming, people were following me, people were driving past my house, calling me, doing this and that, so I got lost in it. But what I did was calm down, go to Ireland, lock in, and you saw Ben Whittaker there; the real Ben Whittaker.”

Often the mere threat of defeat is all it will take for a fighter like Whittaker, 27, to see the silliness of everything going on around him. That he experienced this threat from Liam Cameron in October should now stand him in good stead going forward, even if the fallout from last night’s correction, and indeed his personality, will always make things trickier for Whittaker than for most. Natural or otherwise, the way Whittaker elects to carry himself invites pressure – both in the ring and outside it – and the way people with a vested interest in his progress talk about him does the same. In a world, too, where everything is, for attention’s sake, either the greatest thing ever or the worst thing ever, there is no longer the opportunity for someone like Whittaker to just be good; that is, humbly learn his craft and improve. He will, current trends dictate, either be brilliant or awful and must then live with the emotional rollercoaster which becomes a byproduct of these extremes. One minute he will be up; the next he will be down. One minute he will be a viral sensation; the next he will be a meme used to mock.  

All Whittaker, 9-0-1 (6), can do is keep winning and, in time, try to understand the nature of the beast – both boxing, and himself. Should he do so, he will be able to then place fights like last night in their proper context and see that winning is enough and that it speaks louder than anything he can say with his mouth or aim at his critics. He will realise in the process that nobody is out to get him and that, if they are, it is only because he has eyes on him and now a target on his back; two things he has wanted, it seems, from the very start.

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND – Ben Whittaker took just two rounds to silence the doubters. A huge right hand caused Liam Cameron to unravel, dropping the Sheffield man, and Whittaker followed up, causing the referee Howard Foster to stop the fight and put the Whittaker-Cameron feud to bed.

The fight was scheduled for 10-three-minute rounds, an issue that had been the centrepiece of a bizarre fight week story involving Cameron saying he had signed to box 12 rounds but Whittaker’s team saying he was going to fight over 10. In the end, that debate proved completely futile.

“I should have done the 12 now, shouldn’t I?” Whittaker joked. “It’s the best camp of my life, and thanks to Andy Lee… You saw the real Ben Whittaker.”

It marked the first time the pair had teamed up, and for their first fight together they headlined at the bp Pulse Arena, part of the larger Resorts World in Birmingham.

Cameron was cheered to the ring on what should have been enemy territory, while the divisive Whittaker was announced to boos. 

As that happened, Whittaker’s former Olympics teammate Frazer Clarke pointed to both of his temples and told Whittaker to focus on what was in front of him rather than the noise.

Whittaker looked sharp early, too. His jab was pointed and he whipped in occasional rights. Cameron shrugged at the power, but Whittaker had set his stall out and power was nothing to do with it; it was speed and movement, and then opportunities would come.

Whittaker was up and out for the second with enthusiasm and conviction. He then started adding lefts to the body to his repertoire. Cameron tried to march him down, crowd him, and outmuscle him on the inside, but Whittaker’s sharpness soon paved the way for a booming, precise right hand that travelled from Cameron’s chin – where it detonated – down his spinal cord and into his boots with a jolt. 

Whittaker knew it registered and knew he had a chance, and with that he flew in and fired away. With Cameron’s back to the ropes, Whittaker lanced him with another right hand, and then another thudded off Cameron’s head and as Cameron threatened to be overwhelmed, Foster intervened after 1:53 of the second round.

Whittaker, to the crescendo of boos, cupped his ears, but the boos could never have sounded so good.

Cameron, the 34 year old who served a suspension for taking recreational drugs, had felt his career was over, and having battled alcoholism he’s returned for its most lucrative stage. 

The length of the bout was being questioned, providing the chief talking point over the rematch and placing what happened previously firmly in the rear-view mirror.

Because what had happened last time, when Whittaker and Cameron met in Saudi Arabia in October, was controversial. The bout ended with both men tumbling over the top rope and Whittaker claiming he was too injured to fight on but Cameron, seen by many as holding the upper hand, hungry to continue. As it was, their fight went to the scorecards and it was all square after six rounds, leaving nothing resolved.

This time, it was put to bed in emphatic fashion, and Whittaker improved to 9-0-1 (6 KOs).

Cameron wanted the rematch, but Whittaker was initially quiet; that he agreed to it earned the former Olympian credit from his detractors. Whittaker then joined Lee, committing to a training camp in Ireland, and he spoke of punching with more spite while, at Saturday’s weigh in, Cameron merely thought Whittaker had shrunk.

But Whittaker’s reputation once again grew on Sunday evening. Often one with the highlight-reel moves and the ability to goad an opponent that draw viewers to viral clips, he added the biggest stoppage of his career to date to that reel, and silenced those who doubted that the unlikely underdog from Sheffield might have had his number.

Six months after losing the heavyweight championship to Muhammad Ali in Zaire, George Foreman was angry, adrift and lost. In contrast to the cheerful, affable man widely eulogized upon his passing in March, he was surly and unapproachable.

“Losing had knocked me off my axis,” he would later write. “The heavyweight title meant much more to me after I had lost it than when I held it. Without it, I was nothing. As a champ, I imagined that everyone considered me the ultimate man. Now I imagined that I could hear them laughing at the loser.”

He became consumed with the idea of regaining the championship. 

“I resolved that if I ever got into a title fight again, I’d die before losing. The only way to count me out now would be on a stretcher.”

Foreman knew that securing a rematch with Ali would not, however, be easy. The champion, he wrote, “didn’t want to risk fate again.”

He knew he had to build a drumbeat of public demand for him to face Ali again. It was, of all people, the singer Marvin Gaye who came up with the idea of Foreman facing five men on one night.

“Just fighting an ordinary fight wouldn’t prove what I wanted to prove: that something had to have happened to me in Africa,” Foreman wrote. “Beating one guy wouldn’t do it; beating five guys would.”

When his team struggled to secure a location or a TV network, Don King stepped in and found a site – Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto – and secured TV coverage from ABC. Commentating from ringside would be  Howard Cosell and Ali, and it was their presence that would help turn what already threatened to be a circus into something of a PR nightmare for Foreman.

As soon as Foreman entered the ring on April 26, 1975, for the first of what were scheduled as five three-round exhibitions, Ali sprang into action, playing to the cameras, jawing at his rival and pretending to be on the verge of lunging at him. The champion was clearly having fun with it all; Foreman, who glowered at him in return, was not.

Cosell began dumping on the whole venture almost as soon as he started talking.

“What has he got to gain, really?” he asked rhetorically. “If he knocks these five guys out, they’ll say, ‘Well, he should have – they’re all stiffs.’ But if he fails to knock any of them out, they’ll say he’s not the fighter he was.”

Foreman’s first opponent was Alonzo Johnson, 40 years old and with a record of 24-18 with 6 KOs, and without a professional outing in three years. His last would be Boone Kirkman, who, with a record of 32-5 (23 KOs), was on paper the toughest opponent of the five.

Ali was critical of the idea of saving the strongest opponent until last, although the order had been settled by a blind draw by media members.

“I’d think if he had the chance, he’d pick the best man first while he’s still fresh,” Ali opined. “If I was coaching these guys, I’d tell the first three to lay on the ropes like I did and block punches, and the last two should open up on him.”

Johnson did nothing of the sort, attempting to take the fight to Foreman in the first round as the former champion danced and hopped around the ring contemptuously. Foreman had predicted a second-round knockout, and as soon as the second frame began, Foreman stepped into a short left hook and put Johnson down. A second left-hook knockdown swiftly followed and then a right hand dropped Johnson for the third time. 

One fight down, and as Johnson’s handlers stepped in to save their man, Foreman was already leaning over the ropes and jawing once more with Ali. 

Opponent No. 2 was Jerry Judge, 15-4-1 (12 KOs), who, at 195 pounds, would not even be considered a heavyweight today. Before the bell even rang, however, came the first signs that the night would not present Foreman with the public support and endorsement he wanted. Responding to Ali’s taunts had been a mistake, as now the crowd started chanting the champion’s name, to Foreman’s clear irritation.

Judge was determined not to just lay down, and he landed a clean left hand on Foreman’s jaw about halfway through the round. That woke up Foreman, who was continuing to pay more attention to Ali than his opponents, and he marched forward, launching uppercuts and overhand rights and dropping Judge to his knees with one powerful uppercut near round’s end. Judge hauled himself up just before the count ended and even landed a right hand as Foreman moved in for the kill. The bell rang to end the round, and the two fighters glared at each other. Foreman paced around the ring during the break as the fans began to boo him. It was all starting to unravel for Foreman, prompting Cosell to urge his commentary partner to “sit down and leave him alone.”

“George is getting a little tired,” Ali said on the mic as action of sorts resumed in the second. “He’s sweating now, losing a lot of perspiration, and by the time he meets the fifth man, who is the best, we can see that this is going to be really rough now. If George was in with the same man, he’d be tiring the man out. But you must remember that each man George meets is fresh and George is constantly getting tired.”

As Ali spoke, Judge continued to frustrate Foreman until the former champ once more stepped in to him and let go a series of right hands that put Judge down again. This time he didn't beat the count.

Two down, but now things began to really get out of control.

Foreman went over to Judge, the two men talked, then they shoved each other, then they punched each other, and finally they wrestled each other to the canvas as their corners rushed in.

“This is an absurd scene,” Cosell observed accurately. “Foreman is beside himself, and Ali’s presence at ringside has to have something to do with it.”

By now, it was difficult to see what Foreman could do to prevent the whole enterprise being derided as a circus act. “This thing is a carnival and it is not pleasant to see,” Cosell editorialized as the boos rang out.

Ali was now whipping the crowd into a frenzy as Cosell lamented that “the whole thing has turned into a charade.” 

Almost unnoticed, Terry Daniels now entered the ring for the third bout of the evening. In 1972, Daniels had challenged Joe Frazier for the heavyweight crown Foreman would subsequently win and lose, but he was presently in the midst of what would become a 2-18 slump with which he concluded his career.

Daniels went down from a short, fast left in the first but made it into the second, whereupon Foreman stalked him and landed a steady succession of right hands. When Daniels, clearly wobbled, refused to go down, Foreman waved in the referee to stop it – which he did, hesitatingly. Foreman walked back toward his corner and Ali, Daniels following and apparently protesting that he wanted to keep fighting. So Foreman obliged him, and when the referee – again haltingly – stepped between them, Foreman stabbed a jab into the chest of Daniels’ cornerman. One of Foreman’s team entered the ring and threw a hook at the same man, Foreman shoved him out of the way, Daniels raised his arms aloft, and the crowd cheered. Foreman raised his and the crowd jeered.

Opponent No. 4 was Charley Polite, a former sparring partner for Frazier, who kissed Foreman on the chin during the pre-fight staredown.

“One had nothing to do with the other,” Foreman wrote later, “but he was the only boxer of the five I didn’t knock down at least once.”

Polite, largely adopting Ali’s rope-a-dope tactics, lasted all three rounds; so, too did, Kirkman. However, despite Foreman being clearly exhausted by this stage, he roused himself to pursue Kirkman aggressively, dropping him and cutting him over the eyes even as Kirkman continued to fire back.

Foreman was defiant afterward, insisting he was ready to go more rounds and criticizing Polite for laying against the ropes. “How can you call yourself a champion when all you do is lay against the ropes,” he asked, clearly not directing his ire at Polite but at the now-departed Ali.

“Despite Cosell and Ali, I felt proud at having gone 12 rounds,” Foreman wrote later. “A cracked rib showed I’d taken some wicked punches.” 

Still, he ultimately acknowledged that he had made an error by engaging in a back-and-forth with Ali.

“That put the fans in his corner against me, and gave the exhibition the smelly aura of professional wrestling,” he wrote. “This was strictly Ali’s domain. I couldn’t avoid looking like my usual sour self.”

The following year, Foreman returned to the ring for his first sanctioned bout since the Ali loss, visiting the canvas twice in the fourth round before stopping Ron Lyle in the fifth. A second win over Frazier was followed by three straight knockout wins before a loss to Jimmy Young led to a religious awakening, a 10-year retirement and finally the greatest comeback in boxing history. On November 5, 1994, Foreman finally became champion again, at the age of 42, and his bizarre night in Toronto became nothing more than an aberrant footnote to an all-time-great career.

Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcast about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He presently co-hosts the “Fighter Health Podcast” with Dr. Margaret Goodman. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is www.kieranmulvaney.com.

OCEANSIDE, California – Relentless, merciless and without a qualified peer at this hour, Gabriela Fundora stepped up to the task of becoming the first woman to headline a Golden Boy Promotions’ main event Saturday, scoring a technical knockout of Marilyn Badillo in the seventh round.

“I knew the stoppage was going to come. It was just how I was going to place it,” said Fundora, 16-0 (8 KOs) and the undisputed flyweight champion.

“People like home runs. People like touchdowns. It’s boxing: People like knockouts.”

The sister of men’s unified junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora, 23-year-old Gabriela now has just one fewer knockout than the combined total of renowned lightweight champion Katie Taylor and the proclaimed “GWOAT,” Claressa Shields.

The southpaw Fundora immediately wielded her powerful weapon by sizing up Badillo with the left and whipping it to the challenger’s face in the first round.

Fundora said it was during the first that she felt she had solved Mexico's Badillo 19-1-1 (3 KOs), who was seeking to duck and move inside.

“That’s Boxing 101," Fundora said. “The jab’s always there.

“I stayed on her. She’d do movement to get a break, but like I told you, we train every round for a knockout.”

Fundora compounded the abuse with combinations in the second, defusing Badillo’s ability to get inside and brawl. Kept at bay by the stinging left, Badillo was left to wait for offerings that usually fell short.

Fundora’s jab heightened the difficulty for Badillo, who continued eating lefts in the fifth, ducking in to hold and delay further damage.

In the sixth, Fundora slammed two hard lefts to Badillo’s head and another to her rib cage, expanding an insurmountable scorecard lead.

Before the seventh, Fundora’s father-trainer, Freddy Fundora, advised her to finish the work.

The fighter uncorked three consecutive lefts to Badillo’s head, the second of which sent the challenger to the canvas. Referee Rudy Barragan then waved the fight off on the advice of Badillo’s corner.

With 105lbs titleholder Yokasta Valle sitting ringside, Fundora said she’s capable of moving down or up in weight.

“That’d be awesome to go to a different weight class and collect some more belts,” she said.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.

OCEANSIDE, California – What was supposed to be Charles Conwell’s audition for a shot at a world title instead became Jorge Garcia Perez’s showcase.

In a determined performance highlighting the advantages of reach and activity, Mexico’s Garcia Perez, 33-4 (26 KOs), emerged with a split decision victory over Cleveland’s Conwell by scores of 115-113, 113-115, 115-113 Saturday night at Frontwave Arena.

“By winning this fight, a big fight can happen – a world title can happen,” Garcia Perez, 28, said in reference to unified WBO/WBC champion Sebastian Fundora, who was in attendance Saturday to watch his undisputed women’s flyweight champion sister, Gabriela, defend her belts in the main event.

Judges Chris Migliore and Damian Walton awarded the 12th round to Perez to give him their 115-113 scores, while Lou Moret had the final round for Conwell.

It was the ambition of Conwell, 21-1 (16 KOs), to lean on Saturday’s showing to improve his position as the second-ranked WBO contender and move nearer a title shot at Fundora, who is currently in talks with No. 1-ranked mandatory contender Xander Zayas, of Puerto Rico, for a title defense.

Now Garcia Perez is expected to jump from No. 3 past Conwell into that prime position.

Relying on a 3in height advantage and the reach that kept Conwell on the short end of distance exchanges, Garcia Perez said his cornermen instructed him to continue repeating the proven fight plan as the rounds extended.

“My conditioning,” Garcia Perez said, when asked what won him the fight. “My camp was great. Each time out, I feel better and better. I worked really, really hard.”

Although Conwell – a -1200 betting favorite at the start of the night – sought to absorb the punches and land power shots of his own, the wearing effect of the blows began to take effect in the second half of the bout, as the points leaned to Garcia Perez.

The difficulty with Garcia Perez’s length showed that Conwell would have to deal with an even more trying proposition in the 6ft 5½in Fundora, who would own a whopping 13in reach advantage over Conwell.

At 6ft, Garcia Perez is nearer in size.

And by defeating Conwell, Garcia Perez proved he’s nearer in talent, too.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.

SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND – Dalton Smith picked up a unanimous decision win over Mathieu Germain on Saturday in Sheffield, England.

Germain proved to be an awkward customer, moving around constantly from Smith’s attacks. The traveling Canadian was able to survive the contest but was dropped three times by Smith, with the final scorecards reading 117-107 and 119-105 twice, all in favour of Smith.

Smith is now the mandatory challenger for Alberto Puello’s WBC junior welterweight title and Smith’s promoter Eddie Hearn is adamant that his next fight will be for the world championship.

Smith, now 18-0 (13 KOs), was in no rush to get Germain out of there, and patiently stalked his opponent as the fight began. Smith threw a wild right that missed by a mile but seemed unfazed and continued to edge closer to Germain.

Smith was again patient in the second, waiting for his opportunity to land with bad intentions. Smith landed his first telling shot of the fight midway through the session. It came in the form of a left hand, which brought a smile from Germain. But the Canadian certainly felt it.

Germain, now 26-3-1 (11 KOs), started to get a little cocky after landing a couple of nice body shots. He then came in to land a left hook but also took one himself and hit the canvas in a heap. Germain returned to his feet but was on shaky legs, and thankfully for him the bell sounded just as Smith went in to finish the job.

Smith, 28, had Germain hurt again in the third. This time it was the right hand that caused the damage. Smith whipped over a right as Germain came in low and landed clean on the Canadian’s head. Germain was wobbled and nearly touched down, yet managed to survive the round.

In the fifth, Germain was now moving a lot to evade the heavy shots coming from Smith. The Canadian landed a nice left hand as Smith came in, but was on the receiving end of a low blow moments later. Smith was warned by the referee and Germain took his time before coming out of the neutral corner to restart proceedings.

Smith started to turn up the heat in the sixth. Germain was struggling to find a way around Smith as he came in and at times couldn’t keep Smith off. Smith targeted Germain’s body, whipping in left hands to the Canadian’s ribs.

Germain, 35, started the seventh a little better, landing a few jabs to the body before spinning away from trouble. He eventually slowed down, however, and Smith again landed several telling blows to his body and head.

Germain started to feel the impact of the hard shots Smith had been landing in the eighth. As Germain threw his right hand Smith sank in a left to the body which caused the Canadian to wince in pain. Smith seemed in no rush to secure a stoppage in the ninth, however. He again stalked Germain and waited for him to stop moving before sinking in power shots.

Smith had Germain hurt again after landing a left hand and, as the Canadian retreated to the ropes, Smith threw two more to send German falling through the ropes. The referee Victor Loughlin ruled it a slip.

Smith again seemed like he was in no rush to halt things in both the ninth and tenth, and during the break heading into the eleventh, his father and trainer Grant Smith urged him to pick up the pace. Smith came out for Round 11 and straight away followed a double jab with a right hand which sent Germain to the canvas. The Canadian returned to his feet and recovered from the shot well.

As the twelfth began, Smith landed a hard shot below the beltline of Germain and that forced the Canadian to drop to his knees in pain. He took his time to recover but Smith sensed that the Canadian was feeling the effects of the blow and pounced on him. He belted in two body shots and then landed a stiff jab which dropped Germain as he was retreating away.

The Canadian returned to his feet yet again and Smith, urged on by his home support, came in to try and finish the job. He pinned Germain into each corner of the ring for the remainder of the round but just couldn’t find a way to send Germain to the canvas for what would have undoubtedly been a third and final time.

Warrington connected on 31% of his punches, while Khan only landed 22% of his punches. Khan reached double digit lands in two rounds, while Warrington reached double digit connects in eight of the ten rounds. Warrington knocked Khan down early in the second round, and Khan lost an additional point in that round for excessive spitting out of his mouthpiece. All three judges scored the fight for Warrington- 99-89, 99-90, and 97-91.

BIG BEAR LAKE, California – The last time Arnold Barboza Jnr saw Teofimo Lopez Jnr, the WBO 140lbs titleholder was running from his former promotional teammate in the basement of a Los Angeles theater after slapping Barboza to close a news conference.

“A sign of weakness,” Barboza, 32-0 (11 KOs), told BoxingScene this week as he nears the conclusion of his demanding, high-altitude training camp in preparation for his May 2 title bout against Lopez, 21-1 (13 KOs), at New York’s Times Square.

In this updated occasion, Barboza was asked what he thought of Lopez recently saying he’s not too concerned with Barboza because the Southern Californian has only scraped by with two split decisions and one narrow unanimous decision in his past three fights.

Indeed, Barboza has edged Sean McComb (92-98, 96-94, 97-93), former unified 140lbs champion Jose Ramirez (97-93, 96-94, 96-94) last November 15 and former top-ranked contender Jack Catterall (115-113, 113-115, 115-113) on February 15.

“I haven’t even heard these comments until now, but my response is, ‘Look at my last three fights versus his last three, and who’s fought the better opposition?’” Barboza asked, pointing to Lopez victories over former undisputed 140lbs champion Josh Taylor (115-113, 115-113, 117-111), elusive Jamaine Ortiz (same scores) and journeyman Steve Claggett (120-108, 120-108, 119-109).

“The fights I’ve taken are supposed to be close, as I’m fighting three of the top five guys in my division within just over a five-month period,” Barboza said. “That’s an old-school mentality. You can argue Ramirez is in the top five. Catterall was top two or three. And Teofimo is No. 1. I went over there [to fight England’s Catterall in Manchester], in hostile territory, something Teo hasn’t done.

“He hasn’t gone into someone’s backyard with 15,000 people booing him. I had to travel 18 hours to Saudi [to fight Ramirez]. [Lopez] hasn’t been through this. I have. I literally have earned this the hard way. He hasn’t done that. So he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

If anyone feels they know the truth of the situation, it’s Barboza, 33, who previously fought under the same Top Rank promotional banner as Lopez.

After signing a three-year extension in which it was strongly hinted that a title bout with Lopez would be forthcoming, Barboza said Top Rank Chairman Bob Arum came clean with him.

“I spoke to Bob, and one of the things that stuck with me, when we were trying to get the Teo fight, was when [Arum said], ‘Look, we want our fighters to fight, but the fighter has to want to fight,’” Barboza said. “We want Teo to fight you, but he doesn’t want to, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

“I’m not saying he’s scared of me, but he didn’t want to fight me, and now I feel like the only reason he is is because I literally put his back to the wall, and he has to.”

Not only did Barboza elevate to WBO interim 140lbs champion by defeating Catterall, he won the support of the WBO to mandate the fight with Lopez, with Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh also pressing Lopez to take the bout.

“So now it’s going to happen,” Barboza said. “Yeah, he beat [three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko] and Taylor, but they both had little injuries. He got them at the right time.”

Lopez gets a Barboza who has waited more than two years for a crack at him after grinding through “a rollercoaster of taking high-risk, no-reward fights.

“I fought Alex Saucedo when he was dangerous. I fought Danelito Zorrilla when no one knew him, and look what he did to [former 140lbs belt holder] Regis [Prograis in a 2023 split decision]. It was frustrating.”

Will the extended wait affect Barboza’s fight plan and lead him to alter a boxing-first mindset that paced him to the victories over Ramirez and Catterall? Barboza admits he’s not sure how the judges will treat him against the better-known titleholder.

“I don’t think anything can take me out of my game plan – 15,000 fans booing me didn’t – so how can this?” he said. “They’ve got to see if Barboza the brawler or Barboza the boxer is coming. I’m done with the clown show, talking stuff to promote the fight. I’m just excited to get in there and get my hands on him. Things got personal when he put his hands on me.”

One individual who helped script the careers of both men said Barboza is poised to win.

“He’s a steady performer, lives clean, solid home, and he’s been active – the opposite of Teofimo, whose personal life is in disarray and hasn’t looked good [in] a pair of so-so fights,” said the individual who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are unauthorized to provide a frank fight breakdown.

“Teo once could have been a world-class fighter. No longer. Too much baggage. Arnold’s an honest, steady workman. Teo probably outpoints him, but Arnold can win. Or, to put it better, Teo can lose.”

Barboza is thrilled at the prospect of being the first fight in the unique Times Square outdoor ring.

“Our fight has the highest stakes, fighting for a belt and for bad blood,” Barboza said. “I’m expecting the best Teofimo there’s ever been because I know he knows he’s in for a fight. I don’t want any excuses. We’re ready. To me, this is the fight, like [Juan Manuel] Marquez in that fourth fight against [Manny] Pacquiao – I can’t see past him at all.”

Barboza spoke to BoxingScene following a workout supervised by his trainer-father Arnold Barboza Snr, a man the son maintains is the polar opposite of Lopez’s brash, caustic father-trainer, Teofimo Snr.

“It’s his dad – he ignited everything,” Barboza said. “As a family and team, it’s disgusting to watch. The reason he acts the way he does is his dad. His dad raised him like this.

“They say the son is a product of his dad. Now the son’s going to have to pay for the sins of his father.”

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND – Ben Whittaker is continuing his education in the Kronk style of boxing under his new trainer Andy Lee.

Whittaker will compete in his first contest under Lee’s guidance this Sunday at the BP Pulse Live in Birmingham, where he meets Liam Cameron in a rematch following a controversial end to their first encounter last year. The pair came together and toppled over the top rope onto the canvas beneath them in Saudi Arabia in a fight that hung in the balance.

Whittaker injured himself in the fall and was unable to continue, meaning the fight went to the scorecards and was ruled a split decision draw.

Whittaker had been working with one of the sport’s in-demand trainers, SugarHill Steward, early on in his career and Lee has quickly become one of the most respected trainers in boxing, implementing the teachings of Emanuel Steward to his stable of fighters. He has perhaps done his finest work with heavyweight Joseph Parker, taking him from a former champion on a seemingly downward spiral to a heavyweight most deserving of a title shot. He has also impressed many with his work with Paddy Donovan, who recently suffered a controversial disqualification in a final eliminator for the IBF welterweight title.

Lee now looks to improve the skills of one of the gifted Whittaker, who has the tools to be one of the finest light heavyweights the UK has produced, but who failed to deal with Cameron last time out in the fashion everyone expected.

As a consequence, Lee has made some adjustments to his style, and the improvements have come from a lifestyle and behaviour in training camp.

“Truthfully, like I said I don't want to give away too much, we’ve not changed it crazily, he was under the tutelage of Kronk [Emanuel Steward] himself,” said Whittaker. “If you saw the first part of my career, I was with SugarHill [Steward], who was a Kronk fighter, so we sing off the same hymn sheet. I say the main thing is that guidance, that structure, you're working and this is what you're doing today where before I would do my own thing, so I think that's the main thing he's changed. He's a great person.

“That’s one thing. I wouldn't say I cut corners, if anything I overdid it sometimes,” Whittaker continued. “Like I was running my own camp, so I was doing three sessions a day, when I was supposed to be resting, I'd still be training. Whereas Andy Lee, he's been there and done it, he was a world champion, he's got fighters that are at the top level, so if he tells you to rest, you rest, if he tells you to graft, you graft, and that's what I needed. Then, not only that, little things, I've brought a nutritionist in, so like I said, he's cut those Krispy Kremes out, he's cut the bacon sandwiches out, little things like that, and I think the level I'm at now, you need that level of people.”

Emanuel Steward did not aim for points victories when training his students, Kronk fighters would always press for the knockout. Whittaker has been accused of not hitting hard enough in his professional career but said Lee was impressed when he first took him on the pads.

“Yeah, the funny thing is, like I said when I first went there, he's going off what other people are saying, ‘Oh, you can't really punch’, and when I started hitting the pads he was like, ‘Why don't you do this in the ring’,’’ said Whittaker. “I said, ‘I don't know, I like to mess around.’ So that opened up his eyes, and when he started seeing the power there, we've been working on a few things, but we'll see.”

Lee has recently made another addition to his impressive stable of fighters. Hamzah Sheeraz, who recently drew with WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames, has linked up with Lee ahead of a move up to super middleweight.

“Yeah, it's good sparring isn't it?” Whittaker said. “On paper it's a great stable now, you've got Joe Parker, Paddy Donovan, me, Hamzah [Sheeraz]. I'm sure a lot of people will be trying to join it as well, but I know Andy likes it nice and tight knit, so he can look after us properly.”

Sergey Kovalev was able to call it a wrap on his terms.

The former three-time light heavyweight titlist capped a storied sixteen-year pro career with a seventh-round knockout of Germany’s Artur Mann. Kovalev scored two knockdowns on the night. The latter prompted a stoppage 49 seconds into the seventh round of their cruiserweight fight Friday evening at Yunost Arena in Kovalev’s hometown of Chelyabinsk, Russia. 

The show was billed as “The Last Dance,” which carried the guarantee that Kovalev, 36-5-1 (30 KOs), would enter the ring for the final time. It was a deliberate but steady pace to close the show for the 42-year-old, as Mann, 34, fought behind a high guard in his best effort to not suffer an early knockout. The visiting former title challenger offered little offense, which allowed Kovalev to work without having to expend much energy. 

Kovalev opened up his attack in the second, to which Mann did not have any response. A right hand and left hook sent Mann to the canvas with just over 30 seconds left in the round. He beat the count but spent the rest of the frame on the defensive and under siege. A second trip to the canvas was waved off as a push, which allowed Mann to make it to the bell. 

A brief momentum shift saw Mann land a clean right hand and left hook after he took a couple of shots from Kovalev on the chin early in the third.

Despite the modest success, Mann was forced to contend with a cut just outside his right eyelid following a pair of Kovalev jabs. Another left hook by Mann put Kovalev on his heels but the lack of immediate follow-through let Kovalev off the hook. He came back with a left hook to the body and straight right hands to close out his best round to that point.

Action slowed in the middle rounds, as Kovalev made a conscious effort to not punch himself out too early. Mann was unable to seize the moment and would eventually pay the price. 

Kovalev let his hands go in the sixth round, to set up the spectacular finish moments later. Mann’s leaky guard could not stop Kovalev’s heavy jab, nor pick off a fight-ending right hand which sent him crashing to the canvas.

Despite a valiant effort in rising to his feet, Mann was unable to convince the referee or his team that he could continue. A waving of the arms from one of Mann’s cornermen prompted the ring official to halt the contest. 

While the night was undoubtedly Kovalev’s final call, Mann will have to consider what he still wants to get out of the sport. Dating back to his March 2019 knockout loss to Kevin Lerena, the Kazakhstan-born, Germany-based boxer has failed to beat anyone beyond the journeyman level. His lone title bid ended in a one-sided, third-round drubbing at the hands of then lineal and IBF cruiserweight king Mairis Briedis.

Mann was subsequently dominated in defeats to Evgeny Tischkeno and Muslim Gadzhimagomedov. 

Meanwhile, the next step is clear for Kovalev - retirement. 

At his peak, Kovalev was high among the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. From his August 2013 fourth-round knockout of Nathan Cleverly to claim the WBO light heavyweight title, the heavy-handed Russian quickly rose to the top of the light heavyweight division. 

Eight successful defenses followed as he collected all but the WBC title, which was held by the elusive Adonis Stevenson who flat out refused to engage in an undisputed championship clash. 

Kovalev’s first title reign ended in a disputed points loss to Andre Ward in their November 2016 pound-for-pound showdown between unbeaten boxers at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. 

The same venue hosted their June 2017 rematch, which resulted in Kovalev’s first stoppage defeat. Ward earned an eighth-round body shot knockout in what marked the final fight of his Hall of Fame career. 

Kovalev would go on to enjoy two more WBO title reigns. His second tour ended in a stunning knockout defeat to Eleider Alvarez in August 2018. The setback was avenged six months later in a February 2019 decision win, followed by a knockout victory over Anthony Yarde to successfully defend the belt for the final time.

The pair of wins paved the way for by far the highest profile fight and biggest payday of Kovalev’s career. Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez moved up two divisions from middleweight to successfully wrest the WBO light heavyweight title from Kovalev’s possession via emphatic eleventh-round knockout. 

Just two fights followed over the next five years prior to Friday’s swan song. The 30-month gap between his loss to Alvarez and a May 2022 points win over Tervel Pulev was caused in part due to the pandemic.

There was also the issue of a positive drug test which killed plans for a January 2021 light heavyweight clash with then-unbeaten Bektemir Melikuziev. The development proved to be his last attempt at making the 175lbs. limit, but was merely part of his many out-of-ring issues.

There was a years-long court case over charges of a June 2018 felony assault, which ended in Kovalev receiving three years’ probation.

He was subsequently arrested on DUI charges in February 2020 but did not serve jail time. He was also removed from an outbound flight from Fort Lauderdale on drunk and disorderly claims, but was not placed under arrest for the 2019 incident. 

The win over Pulev was hoped to have provided a career boost for Kovalev but was met with another two-year ring absence. He resurfaced on the loaded Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury card last May in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. However, it was a night to forget for Kovalev, who looked every bit his 41 years of age (at the time) in a lopsided points loss to Robin Sirwan Safar.

Still, Kovalev sought to end his career on his terms, rather than to be retired by the game. Friday’s event provided a far more desirable exit. 

Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.

SAN DIEGO – Ryan Garcia showed up at Thursday’s media workout clear-eyed, calm and confident – a sharp departure from the chaotic, crazed figure who brought nonstop volatility to last year’s three-knockdown victory over Devin Haney that was later changed to a no-contest.

Nearly one year to the day from that performance at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, which was sabotaged by Garcia’s three positive tests for the banned performance-enhancing drug ostarine, the popular Southern Californian discussed his readiness for his May 2 return atop the one-of-its-kind card to be staged at New York’s Times Square.

Garcia, 24-1 (20 KOs), will meet former WBA 140lbs titleholder Rolando Romero, 16-2 (13 KOs), for the WBA secondary welterweight belt.

“Every camp has its challenges,” Garcia said in reflecting on the maddening Haney camp that was fraught with rambling social-media posts and alcohol use.

“I felt like playing mind games with them. I talked a lot of crazy things, thinking, ‘I’ll out-crazy the crazy.’

“Took it a little too far, but I did win.”

Following a one-year suspension by the New York State Athletic Commission and an arrest for vandalism at a Beverly Hills hotel, Garcia engaged in heart-to-heart talks with his family, headed by father Henry Garcia, and resolved to change his ways.

Asked by BoxingScene what brought him comfort and peace, Ryan Garcia said, “Taking a break from everything. I took a break from social media, just not really posting a lot, not saying anything. You get lost in trying to be entertaining on [Instagram], trying to get clicks, trying to get a reaction.

“Taking a step back from that, getting back to reality, hanging out with my family, you feel a sense of reality getting back into your system and start understanding not everything has to be on the internet.”

Garcia’s conspiracy-driven, frantic and obsessive posts halted, sanity restored.

“I kind of got bored with the social-media stuff. I did it so much. I feel like I was the top boxer doing it. What more was there to do? I could only do so much with training-camp videos,” he said.

“Now I want to get back in the ring, focus on my craft. I’ll still be posting, of course, but not as deliberate as I was.”

Those who know Garcia best, including his father, as well as promoter Oscar De La Hoya, feel Garcia has come to understand all that’s possible by righting himself.

He returns to this rare venue that one insider told BoxingScene is costing Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh more than $10 million to stage inside a 19ft by 19ft ring that will be viewed up close by a small group of (less than 300) VIPs, and draw an unknown volume from the New York public to the spectacle.

At 26, Garcia stands as the prime successor to take over Cinco de Mayo weekend from former promotional teammate Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in the years to come.

“He’s picked up where he left off, from the point that he knows what I expect now,” Garcia trainer Derrick James said while shifting camp from Texas for the Haney fight to San Diego for Romero. “I’m seeing the power, the speed, the athleticism. Rolly is a power puncher who’ll be trying to knock Ryan out, but Ryan is strong and smart. He’s cool, he’s good.”

Conditioning coach Justin Fortune, who has worked with Manny Pacquiao, Mike Tyson and James Toney, similarly vouches for Garcia.

“Ryan has trained hard. … He trains to the point of nearly overtraining, and that’s what champions do,” Fortune said. “Our goal is to be in shape, on time, on weight. He’s 6lbs over with two weeks to go. This is an easy weight for him. Yes, he has that great left hook [that decked Haney three times], and his right hand is just as strong.”

Garcia expressed determination to prove the substance found in his system against Haney meant nothing, even as Haney’s father-trainer-manager, Bill Haney, telephoned BoxingScene after Thursday’s DAZN-streamed workout to say, “I thought Ryan looked smaller …”

Said Garcia: “I’ve got a lot to prove with the Devin Haney rematch [next]. There’s something extra there, with Bill talking … it’s just unfortunate. I did it the first time. It’s an opportunity to do it again.

“Coming off a performance like that, it was so exhilarating. I had to battle mentally after [the positive drug tests were revealed] because I was extremely irritated by what I feel is an injustice which I never really got the chance to defend – which, if I did, what can you really say?

“It just baffles me every time I think about it. That was supposed to be the victory of my life. … I always knew I could beat those guys. It is what it is.

“Here, I’m just looking to get back into it. A year off is a year off. “Consistency is key, so I’m looking to be the boxer I can be after a year off, shaking off the ring rust, being sharp, having my eyes there, understanding the situation well so I can be prepared going into the Haney [rematch, planned for the early fall]. I don’t expect this to be easy.”

De La Hoya wasn’t as cautious after being lifted by the brief session Garcia produced, which included some one-on-one conversations between the pair.

“Its going to be fun to watch – explosive,” De La Hoya predicted of May 2. “Ryan Garcia at peace and focused is a dangerous Ryan Garcia.

“I’m just happy he’s at peace. I told him I can see it in his eyes. I’ve been through what he’s been through 100 times over. So I know where he’s at, what he’s feeling, what he’s thinking. He’s in a great place, and that’s going to be a dangerous place for any opponent he faces.”

Garcia was asked what the audience should expect as he squares off against a rival who has long sought this showdown.

“They’re going to be impressed with my technique, my ring generalship, and if I catch that dude, they’re going to be impressed by the knockout,” Garcia said. “In this fight, a lot of things can happen. He’s going to be throwing bombs, so that’s going to open him up, and it’s up to me to time the shot correctly and see what approach he has.

“[Romero] tried to box the last few times, moving around. I don’t really know what style he’s going to try to bring. It could be one of those fights I’m just boxing, tagging him up. I can see him getting desperate, and crack!

“I’m underestimated most of the time, but my talent prevails, and it will again May 2.”

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.

For all the time they’ve spent nose to nose, Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano sure don’t see eye to eye.

There’s one rather obvious matter they disagree on: who won their two fights. Two of three official judges said it was Taylor on April 30, 2022, and all three judges said it was Taylor – by exactly one point – on November 15, 2024. Taylor understandably agrees with those decisions. Serrano understandably does not.

But the past is the past. There’s another issue, pertaining to the near future, on which Taylor and Serrano are diametrically opposed.

These two exceptional female fighters have signed the contracts for a third bout, on July 11 at Madison Square Garden, and they vehemently disagree on what one of the key parameters for this next chapter should be.

The fight is scheduled, as their first two instant-classic battles were, and as almost all women’s championship bouts are, for 10 two-minute rounds. That’s exactly how Taylor wants it.

Serrano wants 50 percent more time on the clock. She wants three-minute rounds, the same as the men use.

At the kick-off press conference at The Theater at MSG last week, they argued about it. Serrano insisted that initially Taylor had agreed to three-minute rounds for fight number three, emphasizing that they “shook on it” but then Taylor changed her mind.

Taylor claimed in response that she isn’t opposed to fighting three-minute rounds as a general rule, but that she is opposed to letting Serrano have her way.

“I think as a matter of principle that the challenger shouldn’t be dictating the terms of the fight,” Taylor said. “I am 2-0 here and I’m in the driver’s seat here and that’s only right.”

Serrano accused Taylor of dodging the potential extra 10 minutes of combat: “You know that if you have an extra minute that it won’t go your way.”

And back and forth they went – presumably to no avail for Serrano. The fight is listed on BoxRec as “10 x 2.” That’s what they’re contracted for. That’s what it will be.

But what should it be? There are strong cases to be made either way. And it largely divides into two separate debates:

Which round length will provide the most fulfilling experience for the fans?

And which round length is better for the health of the fighters?

Neither question has as obvious an answer as it may seem at first glance.

The natural inclination is to say that if you loved the 20 minutes of action you got in each Taylor-Serrano fight so far, you’ll love 30 minutes even more. But it’s not that simple. Part of what made Taylor-Serrano I and II so thrilling was the pace.

No matter how intensely you train, how well you whip yourself into shape, it’s hard to go ovaries to the wall for every second of a three-minute round. But to unload nonstop for two minutes? Well, it’s still a tough ask, but it’s 33.3 percent more do-able.

The point is, there can be a frantic energy to a two-minute round that is nearly impossible to maintain across multiple three-minute rounds. To reference the classic fight that’s been on every boxing fan’s mind this week, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns fought the most ferocious three-minute first round ever – and there was no possible way to sustain it. A round and a half later, their fight was over.

Serrano has boxed three-minute rounds twice as a pro: over 12 rounds against Danila Ramos in 2023; and against Marilyn Hernandez in 2017, a fight scheduled for 10 but over at the 2:38 mark of the first round.

At last week’s press conference, Taylor used that recent bout against Ramos to make her case.

“I [thought] the point of the three-minute rounds was to prove to people that you get more knockouts,” Taylor said. “How many knockouts did you get in your 12 three-minute rounds? Zero. They end up being boring fights, and it wasn’t a good advertisement for 12 three-minute round fights for women. It was boring, so I don’t think Netflix is too disappointed that this fight will be a 10 two-minute round fight.”

That argument by Taylor ignores Serrano’s mismatch against Hernandez, a fight in which the round length very specifically opened the door to a first-round KO in a fight that otherwise would have at least gotten into round two. But still, the Irish champion’s point is taken. A Taylor-Serrano fight with three-minute rounds wouldn’t necessarily deliver more entertainment for the fans. There’s a decent probability it would result in more tactical warfare, and more lulls as the ladies save their energy.

But that’s only half the equation when it comes to the fan satisfaction of Taylor-Serrano III. There’s also the matter of settling the score. The first two fights – despite Taylor posting a 2-0 mark in them – very much did not achieve that.

There’s no need to relitigate the decisions here. I felt Serrano won both fights, closely but clearly, with the rematch particularly crossing into “robbery” territory for me. But reasonable people disagree with me about both of them.

Social media polls immediately following the fights suggested a slight majority thought Taylor won the first time, and a slight majority felt Serrano deserved the decision in the rematch. This is not a rubber match, technically, because they aren’t tied 1-1. But the fact they’re doing it a third time tells you that superiority has not been established. It feels like a rubber match, even if Taylor will hold a lead in the series no matter what when the fight is over.

So, clearly, there’s still a score to be settled here. And though they couldn’t get there over the course of 20 two-minute rounds, it stands to reason there’s a better chance they will if the rounds are three minutes long.

In each of their previous battles, it was Serrano who hurt Taylor more visibly. The Puerto Rican southpaw rocked her foe in the fifth round of their first bout, and did damage in the opening round of the rematch. Maybe with an extra minute to work with, Serrano would have produced a stoppage on one or both occasions.

Purely from a standpoint of wanting to see either Serrano or Taylor win definitively in their third fight, three-minute rounds figure to be more telling than two-minute rounds, and the extra minute would seem to increase the chance of a knockout finish.

But that leads directly into the other element of the debate: Which round length better promotes the safety of the fighters?

Again, there’s an obvious response and a counter to that obvious response, and it hasn’t been proven which is correct.

There’s a simple formula at the heart of this: More punches taken equals more health risk.

In an article published in January 2021 in the Association of Ringside Physicians’ “Journal of Combat Sports Medicine,” Dr. Michael Schwartz communicated that formula – but also communicated uncertainty about its application:

“The Association of Boxing Commissions (of which I am the Co-Chair of the Medical Committee) agrees with two-minute rounds. The recommendations were based on all the evidence and the potential for more serious injuries with a longer round duration. Nonetheless, without more compelling evidence, it is difficult to emphatically state that the risk between two- and three-minute rounds would absolutely increase a woman’s risk of serious injury. The only answer is to obtain more medical data and the only way to get more useful information is to increase the round duration to three minutes and compare injury rates. With that being said, the first time there is a bad outcome, there will certainly be those critics who will question why the change was made given that some studies already exist which indicated that the injury risk increased with a longer round. This brings in an aspect of liability as well.”

The experts have their speculations and they have their recommendations, but they don’t have “compelling evidence” of anything.

And there’s a theory that runs counter to the belief that longer rounds would result in greater damage.

As has been suggested countless times in boxing history, a quick knockout often takes less of a toll than a prolonged beating (and certainly it spares the winning boxer damage). Ring fatalities unquestionably occur more commonly when a fight is grueling and features sustained punishment than when one boxer flattens the other with a single violent punch.

If we agree that the chance of a KO is greater with three-minute rounds – even if, as Taylor pointed out, the Serrano-Ramos fight suggested otherwise – then three-minute rounds may serve to make a match safer.

In his article, Dr. Schwartz noted that in mixed martial arts, the length of the rounds is usually the same for the women as it is for the men – five minutes. “Thus far,” Schwartz wrote in 2021, “anecdotal evidence suggests no obvious increase in concussion rates.”

Approaches vary from sport to sport. Whereas male tennis players go best-of-five sets in the grand slam tournaments, their female counterparts play best-of-three. WNBA games feature four 10-minute quarters, while NBA quarters are two minutes longer.

But a marathon is 26.2 miles regardless of gender. Standard women’s soccer games are 90 minutes, just like men’s matches.

Claressa Shields has repeatedly pushed to have her fights contested with three-minute rounds – but not purely for sporting reasons. As she said several years ago, “If fighting three minutes will get us paid equally to the men, I’m all for it.”

Paychecks commensurate with their talents are no longer an issue for Taylor and Serrano, who each reportedly made over $6 million for their second fight and are expected to earn even higher amounts for the third one. Money is not a factor in this debate over whether the rounds should last two minutes or three.

This debate is about entertainment for the fans and it’s about safety for the fighters. And there are compelling cases on both sides of each of those sub-debates.

But for me, the deciding factor is the potential for a fight with three-minute rounds to tell us definitively which of these all-time great women’s boxers is in fact greater. Two attempts in the “10 x 2” realm have failed on that front.

Once again, I find myself narrowly siding with Serrano. And once again, officially, unless something unexpectedly changes in the next 12 weeks, this decision has gone Taylor’s way.

Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X, BlueSky, or LinkedIn, or via email at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.

They were destructive (and avoided) Eastern European menaces who ruled as world champions, literally crushing a crew of competitors before meeting their fate and going quietly into the night.

But on the same week Russia’s Sergey Kovalev is closing his career with a farewell bout in his native Chelyabinsk, Russia, Kazakhstan’s Gennady Golovkin has made news by pointing his promising countryman fighter to his ex-trainer Abel Sanchez.

“I’m just happy they’re patching things up. They gave us a lot of memories together, and a lot of nights we’ll remember ‘GGG’ for,” former welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi said on Wednesday’s episode of ProBox TV’s “BoxingScene Daily.”

Sentimental feelings were not connected to either fighter as they ruled their divisions. 

Golovkin posted 23 consecutive knockouts and defended his middleweight belt 20 times to clinch his Hall of Fame stature, while Kovalev maintained a mostly icy demeanor in ruling the light-heavyweight division.

“Stone-faced and stone in his hands,” former 140lbs champion Chris Algieri said. “He was bad news.”

Malignaggi agreed it was an “all-time miss” that Kovalev and Adonis Stevenson never staged a unification in the division, leaning to the notion that Stevenson was the culprit in the matter.

“[Kovalev] was the quintessential Hollywood villain. The scowl, mean, a death on his resume – a very good fighter and scary to deal with,” Malignaggi said.

Kovalev finally landed his big fight in 2016 against unbeaten super-middleweight champion Andre Ward, and dropped the “Super Six” champion in the second round before Ward impressively rallied to emerge with a unanimous-decision victory by three 114-113 scorecards.

In the rematch, Ward avoided getting punished for low blows by referee Tony Weeks and a frustrated Kovalev effectively surrendered in the eighth round.

“Ward was fouling in that [rematch], low blows to the knees,” Malignaggi said. “When you’re a villain, you’re unlikeable.”

Kovalev fought Canelo Alvarez in 2019 and was faring well into the late rounds before getting blasted by Alvarez right hands that ended the bout in the 11th.

“When he did have the big fights, he lost,” Algieri said of Kovalev’s Hall of Fame worthiness.

While that debate doesn’t concern Golovkin, the popular fighter closed his career on a sour note by parting with trainer Sanchez, who had his fighter watch old Julio Cesar Chasvez Snr. videos while they were sequestered in their Big Bear Lake training camps, and touted Golovkin’s “Mexican style” to fans who clamored for the action.

Upon landing a lucrative six-fight deal with DAZN, however, Golovkin worked to change the terms of Sanchez’s pay structure, leading to a split that resulted in a diminished version of “GGG” following his controversial draw and majority decision loss to Alvarez.

Yet, Sanchez revealed to BoxingScene Tuesday that he’s training promising Kazakhstan junior-middleweight Sadriddin Akhmedov, 15-0 (13 KOs) because Golovkin pointed his countryman to Sanchez.

“That makes me feel great,” Sanchez said. “Just because we had some issues with [Golovkin’s] advisors doesn’t take away from the fact he’s a great fighter and we had a great run. We made each other a lot of money, and we made each other a lot of history.”

On “BoxingScene Today,” 2024 trainer of the year Robert Garcia said the split “was difficult on Abel,” who briefly retired before now buying a new gym near his former headquarters. 

“You bring up this fighter nobody knows and come up with this ‘Mexican style’ – a lot of that had to do with Abel – and then when [Golovkin] makes the big money, the trainer [still] deserves his [10 percent] money, not less,” Garcia said.

That prompted Malignaggi to note that fighters have a far shorter career than trainers.

“It comes down to communication,” Algieri said. “Money changes drastically.”

The good thing for Golovkin and Sanchez is that time can soften grudges, and as the fighter of mutual interest progresses, the potential for reuniting the pair increases.

BIG BEAR LAKE, California – It was one of the most successful fighter-trainer pairings of its generation but surprisingly closed sourly.

Together, former long-reigning middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and trainer Abel Sanchez formed a mutually empowering union that saw the Kazakhstan fighter embrace the “Mexican style” tenets of Sanchez’s teachings to become a household name in the U.S. by, at one point, posting 23 consecutive knockouts and proceeding to an eventful trilogy with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

The trilogy match – won widely by Alvarez – didn’t include Sanchez, who was fired by Golovkin, 42-2-1 (37 KOs), in a 2019 cost-cutting move that coincided with his descent.

In the interim, Sanchez retired briefly, returning only to take on elite-level fighters, including his recent connection with heavyweight Filip Hrgovic, who recently earned a decision over Joe Joyce.

Saturday night, in the main event of 360 Promotions’ UFC Fight Pass card at Commerce Casino in Southern California, Sanchez will also be cornering rising junior middleweight talent Sadriddin Akhmedov, 15-0 (13 KOs), against veteran Elias Espadas, 23-6 (16 KOs).

After training in Canada for three years, Akhmedov landed on the West Coast, where he crossed paths with Golovkin at Santa Monica’s Churchill Boxing Club.

There, Golovkin urged his countryman to seek out Sanchez.

“[Akhmedov] tells me Gennady suggested he come see me. … That makes me feel great,” Sanchez told BoxingScene on Tuesday. “Just because we had some issues with [Golovkin’s] advisors doesn’t take away from the fact he’s a great fighter and we had a great run. We made each other a lot of money, and we made each other a lot of history.”

While Golovkin developed his English and became a constant force displaying his “Big Drama Show” on HBO, Sanchez provided a confident voice, praising his fighter’s rare and dedicated methods that lifted them to a record run of middleweight title defenses and a pair of scintillating battles with Mexico’s Alvarez – a 2017 draw and 2018 majority decision loss.

“It makes me feel good that he recognizes I can help this kid,” Sanchez said. “I’m good. I’m happy.”

Perhaps it will lead to a healing reunion between Golovkin and Sanchez, as Akhmedov is promoted by Golovkin’s former promoter, Tom Loeffler.

“I would like that,” Sanchez said.

The promise of Akhmedov, preparing for his second bout under Sanchez, has encouraged the trainer to purchase and build a new gym down the street from the one where he trained Golovkin – a facility now owned by former junior middleweight titleholder Jaime Munguia, where Akhmedov trained Tuesday.

“He’s got a lot to learn still because he’s only got 15 fights,” Sanchez said. “We’re in the process of developing fight by fight. I’d like to develop him under the radar until we get a title shot. I know he won’t. I’ll get time to work with him and get him where he needs to be to fight at the elite level.”

Loeffler also has two other formidable 154lbs fighters in WBC top-ranked contender Serhii Bohachuk and top-five contender Callum Walsh.

“These club shows help with building – not enough promoters do that,” Sanchez said. “What I’m looking for is this kid to do the things we practice in the gym, and if Tom can have him fight every two months like Gennady did, I would love that.”

Loeffler said he’s eager to display “the next KO king trained by Abel Sanchez.

“Gennady showed Sadriddin some things in the ring, and it means a lot that he gave Sadriddin his blessing to work with me and Abel. It’s pretty much the same team we had with Gennady, including the managers.

“Any one of [my 154-pounders] can become world champions. Sadriddin has a wealth of amateur experience – and the power, too.”

Loeffler, who has worked closely with TKO boxing head and UFC CEO Dana White, said he expects all three of his 154lbs fighters to participate in the new promotion once it launches, likely next year.

Walsh is likely to return in June on Loeffler’s card at Chumash Casino, and Bohachuk will headline a May 17 card at Commerce Casino against Mykal Fox on a card that includes IBF No. 2-rated Omar Trinidad against Alexander Espinoza and WBO women’s junior bantamweight titleholder Mizuki Hiruta, 7-0 (2 KOs), versus Carla Merino of Argentina.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.

Silence bit into the Las Vegas humidity for several seconds. Then, the late Colin Hart, The Sun’s veteran fight scribe who was working as an analyst for BBC Radio, let out a shriek.

“That is the greatest round of boxing ever,” he yelled.

He had finally broken the long pause left for him by co-commentator Ian Darke, who had just done everything in his power to describe a frenetic first round that was one of the finest in the history of the sport.

Darke teed it up for Hart, but was met with silence.

“It was just like dead air for three seconds until he kind of gulped and just said it,” Darke recalled.

“But it was brilliant radio because his voice captured just how spellbinding it had been.”

There was another five minutes of Las Vegas mayhem to go, too.

*

‘I’ll have a war with you’

It was exactly 40 years ago, April 15, 1985, when Hagler and Hearns tore into one another. Ian Darke covered hundreds more big fights and made his way back to Las Vegas dozens of times, but still nothing compared to that except for possibly, Darke says, the 12-round barnstormer Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales shared in their first fight.

Of Hagler-Hearns, Darke said: “I’ve often been asked what was my number one fight, and that’s it.

“It only lasted eight minutes, but it was eight minutes of just drama and fury played in this really high-octane atmosphere on a balmy night in Las Vegas outdoors. It was, in every way, sensational, and of course, the first round you can argue, but I think the greatest round of championship boxing you’ll ever see.”

The fight featured the career-middleweight Hagler, fighting out of Boston but from Newark, against Detroit icon Hearns, who had laid waste to many welterweights in the most shocking fashion. It was, in part, down to the lore around Hearns’ power that Darke feels he might have sided with the man from the Motor City.

“I think I went towards Hearns, you know?” Darke explained. “And it doesn’t make sense now, but at the time, there was a feeling Hearns’ power looked something from another planet almost at times. And I think we all underestimated just how big a factor the sort of natural weight of the two fighters were, because Hagler was the natural middleweight, and I think he took great umbrage at the fact that a lot of people saw in Hearns’ favour and that Hearns might blow him away.”

And with that stubbornness in mind, Hagler bit down and fought Hearns with every ounce of pent-up frustration and aggression he possessed. 

“He was basically saying to him, I think, in that first round, ‘Look, I’m the king of the middleweight division – you are just a blown-up welterweight, light middle coming up into my territory. If you want to have a war with me, I'll do that with you, because I’m going to win that’.”

**

‘He thought he’d blow him out of there’

There was a big-fight feel in Las Vegas, but Hagler was not one for the media. Darke, who had previously had doors held open for him – figuratively speaking – by the likes of Muhammad Ali, found the door to Hagler closed.
“Hagler was a nightmare to cover,” said Darke, who had covered the Brockton southpaw before. “If you turned up in the week of the fight, and of course everybody did, because we’ve all got jobs to do, he wasn’t, basically, available. He just locked himself away in the week of the fight. The American journalists, particularly American boxing writers, used to take great umbrage at it.”

Once, when Darke covered Hagler’s fight with Britain’s Tony Sibson, Hagler’s team – specifically the Petronelli brothers – informed him that Hagler refused point-blank to do an interview, despite Darke’s meagre request of two minutes having travelled thousands of miles.

“He goes, ‘I don’t talk to anyone before a championship fight’,” Darke was told. “‘I’ve got nothing against you, buddy, but I don’t talk before a championship fight.’” 

The Petronellis apologized and promised Darke he would be the first one to get Hagler after he’d battered Sibson, and they came through for him.

“The only stuff you’d get from him was like a set-piece press conference, and the set-piece press conferences back then weren’t kind of like they are now, they were slightly more muted affairs – now it's all kind of, um, showbiz and hype, isn't it?” said Darke. “I think you were allowed to go and see him work once before the fight. Hearns was a bit more accessible. I got a one-on-one with Hearns in the week of the fight, and he was full of bravado; I think he genuinely thought he had too much for Hagler and would blow him out of there.”

***

‘I’ve just watched something for the ages’

Hagler and Hearns was such a ferocious affair, and hauled the viewer in with such intensity, that when Hearns finally succumbed in round three, there remained a thirst for more rather than a feeling of satisfaction over what those present at Caesars in the parking lot had witnessed.

“Exactly that,” Darke added. “I think everybody was disappointed that there wasn’t going to be more of it, because it really was edge-of-the-seat stuff. You wanted more of it, but and of course, at the end of the second round, Hagler had that cut, didn’t he? And famously, [referee] Richard Steele went over to him and said, ‘Marvin, Marvin, can you see okay?’ And Hagler reportedly said to him, ‘I ain’t missing, am I?’. Which is brilliant. I can just hear him saying that. Steele would not have dared stop that fight at that point – second round. It was eight minutes, and even if you’ve been around loads and loads of big fights, sometimes that really did just take your breath away, and everybody was like kind of open-mouthed at what they’d seen. Sometimes when something finishes, you think, ‘My goodness me, I’ve just watched something there for the ages’. And of course, now you’re doing a feature on it now on the anniversary [40 years later].

“It’s still talked about, isn’t it? Still is. It had that crazy intensity about it.”

****

‘That sounded something pretty special’
Darke’s incredible story-telling was played out later than anticipated owing to a delay with the fighters coming to the ring. As such, when the magic took place, it happened early in the morning the next day rather than ridiculously late the previous night, even catching some early-bird commuters on their way to work.
When Darke returned to England, he was at the sportsdesk of the Today show, and the esteemed presenter Brian Redhead said to him: “Mr Darke, you kept me royally entertained the other morning on my way into work.”

“He’d listened to it and he wasn’t remotely interested in boxing normally. Even he said, ‘That sounded something pretty special’.”

It was so special that Hart’s three seconds of silence that started this brief tale stayed with Darke as much as the three rounds of violence.

“It was probably only about my fourth trip to America,” Darke recalled. “Colin did the fight because not all the newspapers would pay to do a fight like that if there was no British boxer involved, so it wasn’t a crazy big British contingent of fight writers as I recall, so that’s how we ended up, and BBC Radio would only pay for me and my producer to go – they didn’t pay a color commentator. Colin was good at doing it, and it’s the only time I can ever recall speaking to Colin in his whole life and career where he was literally speechless at the end of the first round.”

Everything has been said and written about The War over the years, but sometimes silence is the best way of delivering a message, and Hart’s still speaks that way to Ian Darke four decades on.

Jaron “Boots” Ennis was extremely impressive in victory over Eimantas Stanionis.

I’d expected a virtuoso performance – he had long appeared the type of fighter who would rise to the challenges in front of him – and I believed that he respected Stanionis and would be well prepared. 

I also believed that he wasn’t being held back by the IBF’s second-day weigh-in, and so that by not having to do that before fighting Stanionis he was likelier to be able to perform to his best.

He fought like a champion in great shape, and who had made the weight comfortably. In the past he’s been guilty of starting slowly, but against Stanionis he was firing on all cylinders from the opening round. 

Ennis’ style was certain to prove challenging for Stanionis. He’s a free-flowing, stance-switching, power puncher with hand speed. He’s got good feet and he can use them, but instead of winning on points he’d rather stay in front of his opponents and beat them up. 

Stanionis wants to fight in the pocket, but Ennis’ ability to fight out of the Philly shell and to aggressively counterpunch made Stanionis’ evening particularly difficult. Stanionis landed some really good shots, but Ennis responded by throwing even bigger ones. He makes his opponents pay when they succeed.

Errol Spence was like that in his youth. If opponents hit him he shrugged it off – he was bigger and stronger than them, and he couldn’t be hurt. When Danny Garcia fought him, everything Garcia landed got absorbed. Ennis has that same toughness, and he complements it with such an aesthetically-pleasing style that he’s become my favourite fighter to watch. He does everything so smoothly and effectively – it’s almost like a dance, and yet it’s violent, and aggressive. 

Stanionis is the nature of fighter who also beats his opponents up. He wears opponents down via his engine and aggression, but he had zero momentum, and couldn’t earn respect from Ennis.

More than being beaten physically, he appeared beaten mentally, because of that. His trainer Marvin Somodio made the right call in pulling him out at the end of the sixth round. He was watching Stanionis get hurt more and more, and knew the direction the fight was going in. I know Marvin, and I know how much he cares about his fighters, and also about how positive his relationship with Stanionis is. He cares about his fighters and their strengths and weaknesses – he knows Stanionis as a man and a fighter, and he not only knew that Stanionis’ night wasn’t going to get any easier, he could see that Ennis was becoming more damaging and dangerous. 

The body punch Ennis landed shortly before then was brutal. He also saw the blood trickling from Stanionis’ nose and landed a succession of uppercuts on it to damage it more. 

This was the first time we’d seen Ennis perform at the highest level. It was a fight between the world’s number one and number two welterweights, but the difference between the number one and the number two was vast. Stanionis is still a good fighter, but Ennis, simply, is very, very good. 

I believe he beats Brian Norman Jnr and Mario Barrios, the division’s other champions. He’s so good he could well beat them on the same night. Stanionis would give every other welterweight a good fight and maybe even beat them. It’s Ennis who’s on a different level – which we’ll see for years to come.

As with Terence Crawford and Floyd Mayweather before him, Ennis ought to be considered the finest welterweight of his era. But they had the rivals they needed to prove their greatness – Ennis doesn’t have the opposition at 147lbs who can enhance his legacy.

The only reason for him to remain at welterweight is to win the undisputed title, which he should still try to do, for the achievement. Once he’s done so, if that means him having beaten Norman Jnr and Barrios, he should then move up and prove how great he really is. 

There’s a lot of talented fighters at 154lbs. If he can take those out as well, we’d be talking about Ennis as an all-time great. It’s not just what a fighter accomplishes, it’s who they beat, and how they beat them. By then, comparisons with Crawford would be deserved.

I fully expect Ennis to unify at 147lbs, but it’s much harder to predict he’ll do the same at 154lbs because of who he’d be competing with. The reality is also that he’s been hit cleanly in each of his fights – just because welterweights can’t hurt him, it doesn’t mean that junior middleweights won’t.

It may be that he fights like that at 147lbs because he knows he can’t be hurt. But if he doesn’t make adjustments at 154lbs, like Crawford did as he moved up, it’s going to be much harder for him to be as dominant. The very, very best are always good defensively.

The first time I met him I remember shaking his hand and being eye-to-eye with him. I’m 5ft 11ins, which is tall for a welterweight, but I didn’t only see that he was tall – I saw wide shoulders, a heavily muscled chest and back, and thick legs. Ennis and Spence are the two biggest welterweights I’ve ever seen – I don’t know how they made the weight. 

The day, regardless, will come when Ennis ends up at middleweight. He’s also entering his physical prime, and deserves to be on pound-for-pound lists everywhere.

The boxing world awaits the next move of heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk and with Daniel Dubois at the front of the queue, where does that leave Joseph Parker, Agit Kabayel and co? Whatever happens, Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions and their ever-expanding army of heavyweights are on the brink of a complete takeover.

What next for Oleksandr Usyk?

It appears just a matter of time before IBF beltholder Daniel Dubois is confirmed as the next opponent for world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, with London’s Wembley Stadium the venue on July 12. BoxingScene understands that negotiations have been ongoing for several weeks but, according to a source close to the situation, "we haven't got it done yet". The Ring today published a report stating the rematch was close to being finalized.

Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions – Dubois’ promoters – are set to stage without any assistance from Saudi Arabia though Riyadh Season could yet be confirmed as one of the event’s sponsors. Even so, given how heavily involved Turki Alalshikh’s General Entertainment Authority has been in all recent heavyweight blockbusters, the staging of Usyk-Dubois II as a largely independent venture is a huge statement of intent for Queensberry, an organization who have long been investing in the heavyweight market.

Where does that leave Joseph Parker?

Also represented by Queensberry, New Zealand’s Joseph Parker will have to add at least one more victory to a run that includes wins over Deontay Wilder, Zhilei Zhang and Martin Bakole if he’s to secure that elusive – and deserved – world title chance. It is expected that Parker will fight in the summer against rated – but likely beatable – opposition. The intention is that Parker will then fight the winner of Usyk-Dubois II, though it seems unlikely that Usyk would enter a rematch with Dubois without the guarantee of a third fight should he come unstuck.

So why Dubois and not Parker at this juncture?

BoxingScene understands that terms are close to being agreed by both Usyk, who holds the WBC, WBA and WBO titles, and Dubois, the current owner of the IBF strap, for their summer showdown. Usyk won their first encounter in 2023 when he rose from a low blow in the seventh to halt Dubois in the ninth. Subsequent appeals from Team Dubois, claiming the punch that sent Usyk down for several minutes was a legal blow, were later rejected. That moment is the only asterisk to be found anywhere within Usyk’s otherwise spotless career. He will be keen to remove it.

Furthermore, Dubois has won three on the bounce, stopping Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and Anthony Joshua, with each victory more impressive than the last. The destructive victories over Hrgovic and Joshua, both upsets, leave “DDD” regarded as the most dangerous man in the division and arguably the most marketable.

And there’s the not so small matter of ‘undisputed’

Usyk defeated Tyson Fury last May in a bout heavily marketed as the first undisputed heavyweight title fight of the century. It would only be weeks after the Ukrainian won on points, however, before the IBF demanded that Usyk then fight their ‘interim’ titlist, a status Dubois achieved with victory over Hrgovic. With Usyk already committed to a Fury return in December, one he would again win on points, he had little choice but to relinquish the belt.

Dubois was quickly upgraded to IBF champion, an honor he defended with aplomb when he savaged Anthony Joshua in September. Now all that’s left to do is match Usyk with Dubois and, hey presto, we have an undisputed champion again.

But for how long?

The notion of undisputed champions in the current era is largely a falsehood and nearly always a one-fight only deal – such is the impossibility of appeasing all four ranking bodies for any length of time. Yet there is little sign of the industry’s fascination with the term relenting any time soon so here we are.

There is an unwritten mandatory process in place that all four alphabets are supposed to follow. It stipulates the order in which titles are defended when owned by one fighter. The IBF actioned their spot in the order of things last year when they demanded Usyk fight Dubois and next in line is the WBO, with the WBC to follow, then the WBA (more on them in a bit), before we head back to the IBF – presuming, hoping, dreaming – that an undisputed champion is still in place.

If Parker is the WBO’s leading contender, why is he not forcing his shot? 

‘Undisputed’ fights – the matching of two fighters who between them hold all four belts to create one champion – take precedence over any sanctioning body’s mandatory requirements. As such, should Usyk fight IBF belt-holder Dubois, he will be permitted to do so by the WBO. Parker, therefore, will be next in line to face the winner. However, if Usyk-Dubois negotiations break down then the Ukrainian must defend against Parker to keep his belt. Also, should there be a need for an immediate third fight between Usyk and Dubois, the WBO might be forced to strip Usyk and present Parker, as interim champion, with the title.

What happens to Dubois if Usyk negotiations fall at final hurdle?

In February, Parker had been set to challenge Dubois in Saudi Arabia but the bout was cancelled with days to spare. The Englishman’s illness meant an underprepared Martin Bakole stepped in only to be knocked out in two rounds. Prior to that, Bakole had been expected to face Efe Ajagba later in the year in an IBF eliminator. That organization has since confirmed that British veteran Derek Chisora, another Queensberry fighter who recently outpointed Otto Wallin, is now next in line. So, if it isn’t Usyk in an undisputed fight for Dubois, he will be ordered to defend against Chisora.

It is understood, however, that those negotiating for 41-year-old Chisora, who claims his next fight will be his last, would prefer the veteran to face someone less demanding than Dubois at this late stage of his long and punishing career.

Where does all that leave the status of the WBC belt?

Like the WBO, they have created a secondary strap to compensate for their world belt being tied up with unification/undisputed commitments. The owner of that bauble – the pesky interim title – is Agit Kabayel. The German is widely regarded as the fourth best heavyweight on current form – behind Usyk, Dubois, and Parker – after wins over Frank Sanchez and Zhilei Zhang. He is also another Queensberry fighter whom the promotional group must keep happy.

With that in mind, he might be lined up for a lucrative summer showdown, in his native Germany, with former cruiserweight beltholder and the No. 1 WBC heavyweight contender, Lawrence Okolie. It’s almost needless to say at this juncture but Okolie, from England, is also on the books of Queensberry.

The winner of that fight should then be next in line after Dubois and Parker to challenge Usyk. However, with Usyk only planning on having two more fights, the winner of Kabayel-Okolie might ultimately decide the next WBC champion.

And the WBA?

The WBA, as always, seem to be making it up as they go along. Not content with one secondary championship, the belt known as the ‘regular’ title, they have reintroduced the wholly unnecessary interim belt to take their grand total to three. 

That secondary title is currently owned by the aging Kubrat Pulev and it was expected that he would defend against Britain’s No. 1-ranked Fabio Wardley, another Queensberry fighter, in June.

However, the promotional group’s efforts to secure Pulev’s signature proved futile so, keen to keep the June 7 date they’d reserved at Ipswich Town Football Club’s Portman Road Stadium, they approached the WBA with a request for Wardley to clash with Jarrell Miller, who is ranked No. 4, with the defunct interim title to be reborn to mark the occasion. The WBA accepted the proposal.

Pulev, meanwhile, is now expected to defend against the No. 2-ranked Michael Hunter with the winner to be ordered to meet the Wardley-Miller victor before the end of the year. Whoever comes out on top of that merry go round should then be in place to take their place in the queue for the real heavyweight king. However, in yet another twist, the WBA recently stated that they will not enforce a mandatory on Usyk for two years so he can focus on “worthwhile” fights - which kind of says it all.

Regardless, Queensberry’s Wardley will be a short favorite to emerge as the WBA’s leading man.

Anyone else to keep an eye on?

Anthony Joshua is weighing up his options while hoping that the retired Tyson Fury comes back out to play. The declining Deontay Wilder, if he shows enough of his old self against Tyrell Herndon in June, could also snare a money-spinning showdown with Joshua later in the year. But we turn to Queensberry again for the division’s most valuable asset in the long term: 20-year-old Moses Itauma is currently sitting pretty with the WBO (No. 2), the WBA (No. 3) and the IBF (No. 9). Should Warren’s plans to match him with Jermaine Franklin end in another impressive victory for the youngster, he too will be calling for a title shot. Considering his age and potential, Itauma is likely the best bet to reunite the belts when they inevitably drift apart in the coming months.

Alycia Baumgardner has added 2023 Trainer of the Year Derrick James to her team. 

Baumgardner, the undisputed junior lightweight champion, had teased a major announcement on social media. That announcement was made official on Monday afternoon, when she posted a picture of her and James at the World Class Boxing Gym in Dallas, Texas, to her Instagram account. 

“Solid addition. Even stronger foundation. We’re ready for July 11th!” Baumgardner wrote. 

July 11 is when Baumgardner, 15-1 (7 KOs), will defend against Jennifer Miranda, 12-0 (1 KO), on the undercard of Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano III at Madison Square Garden in New York. 

Miranda is undefeated but has not fought any notable opposition. She is 38 years old and turned pro in 2018.

In contrast, Baumgardner is a decorated fighter, is positioned 10th on the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board’s pound-for-pound list, and is the owner of a win over Mikaela Mayer, who TBRB ranks seventh. Baumgardner’s lone loss came against Christina Linardatou in a split decision in 2018. Baumgardner exacted revenge over Linardatou in their 2023 rematch via a comfortable unanimous decision.

James has worked with other notable fighters, including being the corner man for Errol Spence Jnr through 2023, as well as Jermell Charlo and Ryan Garcia. James had a difficult 2023: Terence Crawford shattered Spence’s undefeated record and took his three welterweight titles with a savage ninth-round TKO, and Charlo turned in a listless performance against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez that had James with his face in his hands ringside. 

He and Baumgardner will be working for a better result in July.

Nine years ago, when Shannon Briggs was going round the UK yelling “Let’s go, Champ!” and seemingly on the cusp of fighting Britain’s David Haye, there was something oddly charming and captivating about the former WBO heavyweight champion. It was 2016, a different time, and Briggs was only 44 years of age. It was all a bit silly, yes, and kind of preposterous, but Briggs’ catchphrase soon caught on and it wasn’t long before everybody was saying it and following the American wherever he went. 

His one fight that year, which took place in London, ended with Briggs knocking out Emilio Ezequiel Zarate inside a round, whereupon he called out Haye, the night’s headliner, and screamed “Let’s go, Champ!” until blue in the face. Haye, for his part, then went on to stop the unknown Arnold Gjergjaj in two rounds only to appear considerably less enthused about sharing the ring with Briggs in the future. Suddenly, though for months it looked inevitable, the battle of faded heavyweights on Dave – a British comedy channel known to run repeats of comedy shows that were never really that funny in the first place – was not quite so appealing to Haye, younger than Briggs by eight years. Suddenly, he had other options, more lucrative ones, and suddenly Briggs started to feel used. Sure enough, 10 months later, the double act officially broke up: Haye fought and lost against Tony Bellew, while Briggs never boxed again. 

In truth, Briggs’ subsequent disappearance from the sport came as no shock. He was, after all, a man in his mid-forties and there was around that time a sense that all his eggs were very much in the Haye basket. Not only that, when he did find another opportunity, this time against Fres Oquendo in 2017, Briggs conspired to make a mess of it by failing a performance-enhancing drug test for elevated levels of testosterone, which led to a six-month ban. 

Regardless, by that stage of his long fighting career Briggs had a reputation more for promotion – that is, self-promotion – than actually fighting, having once stalked Wladimir Klitschko in an effort to secure a fight with him before then doing the same with Haye. He had a voice and he still knew how to use it. He also knew that a fighter’s voice, more so than their punch power, is truly the last thing to go when they approach the end. 

Added to this, Briggs was selling himself at a time when video interviews were all the rage and every boxer could now easily project and tell the world whatever they wanted, with no filter, opposition, or quality control. This meant that a larger-than-life character like Briggs could essentially go rogue and know that his behaviour and antics outside the ring would mean more to people than whatever he produced inside the ring. That’s why he was all of a sudden popular again, 18 years after losing against Lennox Lewis. That’s why he managed to cultivate a new fan base – indeed, a whole new generation of fans – and why he had youngsters saying “Let’s go, Champ!” as though Briggs actually had direction and somewhere to go.

Now, in 2025, after nearly a decade of relative silence, Briggs, at the age of 53, is again making noise. For one, he has just announced a comeback fight, which will reportedly take place in Nashville on July 1 and will be his first appearance in a boxing ring since beating Zarate in London. Secondly, Briggs has his eyes on various targets, one of whom happens to be Deontay Wilder, the 39-year-old former WBC heavyweight champion from Alabama. 

Wilder, like Briggs, has plans to return to the ring this summer, and he too is famous for having both the gift of the gab and a catchphrase. It seems only natural therefore that Briggs, forever in need of a target, would see in Wilder a kindred spirit. 

“I want to fight him,” Briggs said in an interview with Fight Hub TV. “I think it’d be a great one for Alabama when he’s back. I’ve never properly retired; they just won’t fight me. I’m ready to go, so if he’s in, let’s make it happen.”

Rather than thinking about Shannon “The Cannon” Briggs, Wilder is presumably only focusing on Tyrrell Anthony Herndon, the Texan he is set to fight in Wichita on June 27. After that, it remains to be seen what the former WBC champion elects to do, but suffice it to say, he will have better options, and far more lucrative options, than fighting a 53-year-old Shannon Briggs in Alabama in 2025. 

In other words, for all his ambition, it’s likely that Briggs, 60-6-1 (53), will have to look elsewhere for the next man to stalk. He may have to look at men closer to him in age, for instance; either that or acknowledge the growing presence of influencer and YouTube boxing and stagger down that road instead. 

In terms of the latter, there are countless straight-nosed neophytes who would be willing to engage in some verbal back and forth before trying to apply additional damage to Briggs’ brain and body for eight two-minute rounds. As for the other option, Briggs’ apparent allegiance with Jimmy Adams, the promoter behind the Nashville show on July 1, could point to a fight between Briggs and Oliver McCall in the future. McCall, after all, has appeared at the same venue – Texas Troubadour Theatre – of late and is also a former heavyweight champion who finds it easier to say “Let’s go!” than “no”. 

Last year, McCall, 61-14 (40), returned to the ring after a five-and-a-half-year absence to stop Stacy Frazier inside two rounds. He then followed this win with another in February, beating Gary Cobia inside the first, and has given no indication since that he intends to stop anytime soon. 

Rather, McCall, at 59, still wants more. He wants more fights, he wants to throw and receive more punches, and he wants to see how much longer he can taunt and tempt Father Time. He will know, as we all do, that almost 31 years have passed since the night he knocked out Lennox Lewis to win the WBC heavyweight title, yet the past, it seems, has no bearing on what McCall does in the present. 

If anything, McCall, like Briggs, offers proof that incredible longevity is often the cruel “upside” of famed durability and toughness. Because while it perhaps benefits these men in the early years, and allows them to go on much longer than their peers, the gift of superhuman durability never stops giving and also never stops taking.

Sunday’s light heavyweight rematch between Ben Whittaker and Liam Cameron is currently scheduled for 10 rounds, according to event promoter Boxxer and the British Boxing Board of Control.

There has been confusion, however, after Cameron – who held the fancied Whittaker to a surprise technical draw last October – claimed to have been sent a contract for a 12-round fight. His promoter, Frank Warren, had insisted that until an amended contract was issued then Cameron will indeed fight over the championship distance.

Cameron today posted on social media: “Boxxer have my terms to accept to change the fight to 10 rounds but they are refusing to send me a contract to vary the deal and are trying to suggest they can change the rounds without a contract. Going into fight week not knowing how many rounds I’m fighting is a joke for me and for my opponent. As I post this it’s still a 12 round fight.”

Cameron, 23-6-1 (10 KOs), is the more seasoned at professional level and has been involved in 12-round bouts four times in the past. That’s in contrast to the 8-0-1 Whittaker who only turned professional in 2022 and is yet to go beyond 10.

When asked by BoxingScene whether the fight was 10 or 12 rounds, Boxxer’s Ben Shalom told BoxingScene via text message: “10 – confirmed with the Board [of Control] and communicated to all parties.”

This was verified by Robert Smith of the BBBoC. “As things stand it’s 10 rounds,” he told BoxingScene. “But I haven’t seen any contracts.”

The contest is set to take place at Resorts World Arena, Birmingham. Whittaker withdrew from the first bout, citing an injury, after the tangled pair tumbled over the ropes and landed on the ring apron.