In light of the success of the first Judges and Referees seminar conducted by the World Boxing Association (WBA) through the WBA Academy two weeks ago, which reached maximum capacity very quickly, the WBA decided to open a new seminar to give an opportunity to those who could not register in the first edition. It will also have simultaneous translation for English speakers.

This new seminar will be held at 2:00 p.m. in Colombia, 3:00 p.m. EST, 12:00 p.m. PST and 8:00 pm in the UK; and it will be online just like the first one. Registration is open through www.wbaboxingacademy.com. The seminar is called “How to score a round and refereeing procedure” and will be dictated by experts such as Gustavo Padilla, Luis Pabón, Raúl Cáiz Jr., Octavio Rodríguez and Roberto Torres, all of whom have extensive international experience. Continue reading “WBA Academy to hold 2nd seminar Saturday”

Panel
Rob Maloof
Brian Selander
Caroline Rheaume
Keith Sheldon
Jill Diamond
Victor Silva

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By Mauricio Sulaimán
President of the WBC – Son of José Sulaimán

All of us who are passionate about sports enjoy remembering and entering in discussions with friends about sports’ glory moments, those memorable endings of some game, the great stories that lead to debate between what has been most dramatic ending or the greatest performance or who has been the best.

We love making lists of the best and the most memorable. We are fascinated by comparing legends from different eras, debate what would have happened if X faced Y … if Pelé is the best of all time, comparing him with Maradona, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. If Muhammad Ali is the greatest boxer ever, what would have been the result if he had faced Mike Tyson? Or if Tom Brady is the best QB of all time, then those from the Roger Staubach, Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana era quickly jump into the conversation.

Last Friday I had the opportunity to get myself into a time capsule. My brother Héctor asked me for a list of fights that I could recommend to watch during these #stayhome days. Continue reading “A Glorious Era”

By Joe Koizumi

Today, May 19, is the Boxing Day in Japan. We make it a rule to celebrate and remember the birth of our first world champion in Yoshio Shirai who brilliantly dethroned Hawaii’s Dado Marino to become the new world flyweight champion at the Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo on May 19, 1952. Shirai successfully retained his undisputed belt on four occasions to his credit before he forfeited it to Argentine Pascual Perez via fifteen-round decision in 1954.

He became a popular television commentator, and later honorably presided Shirai Gushiken Boxing Gym. Shirai passed away at the age of eighty in December 2003. We still greatly respect Shirai’s very first achievement that paved the way for the younger aspirants to follow his footstep.

By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing

Hall of Fame former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes supports a third fight between Mike Tyson, 53, and Evander Holyfield, 57. “If these guys want to do it, I’d say go ahead and do it. I’m not going to say don’t do it,” Holmes said in an interview with @trcksuits. “They get a chance to show what they got and if they look good enough, they’re probably going to get an opportunity to fight somebody in the top 10 contenders.”

“Evander Holyfield is a good fight for Mike Tyson, but it’s also a bad fight because Holyfield knows him,” said the 70-year-old ‘Easton Assassin.’ “He fought him, beat him up. So Mike Tyson would have to worry about that, he’s going to worry about it, it will be in his mind.”

By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing

International travel is mostly at a standstill these days. But WBA super flyweight champion Andrew Moloney and his twin brother former world bantamweight challenger Jason have managed to travel from Australia to Las Vegas over the weekend with their manager Tony Tolj to fight on upcoming Top Rank cards.

“If Andrew wasn’t the world champion and Jason wasn’t the WBO number two rated, we wouldn’t have got the exemptions,” Tolj told Yahoo Sports. “I rang the boys on Thursday and said ‘boys pack your stuff.’ I got the flights ready for Friday. We had to go to Sydney overnight and then Sydney to San Francisco and San Francisco to Las Vegas. Everyone on the Top Rank staff can’t understand, saying ‘it’s a miracle that you guys have been able to get in the country when we can’t even get Mexicans and Canadians.'”

Panel
Shawn Porter
Mark Taffet
Benedikt Poelchau
Frank Garza
Malte Müller
Victor Silva

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Starting June 9, Top Rank will hold twice-a-week fight cards in Las Vegas. According to lvrj.com, the cards will consist of four or five fights and air on ESPN platforms on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout June and July.
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Governors of California, New York, and Texas have announced that pro sports leagues could begin returning in a few weeks without spectators. Boxing wasn’t specifically mentioned.

By Joe Koizumi

The liaison conference of the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) and the JPBA (Japan Professional Boxing Association, the union of 282 club owners) set up the necessary guidelines on Friday to prepare to resume boxing shows from July. All the shows scheduled through June had been completely canceled due to the still growing coronavirus outbreak here.

The Japanese government, on April 7, declared a state of emergency until May 6 at first and then extended it through May. But it was lifted last Thursday (May 14) as for 39 prefectures, while eight Metropolis/prefectures such as Tokyo, Osaka and six others should still stay under the coronavirus state of emergency that temporarily restrains our freedom to move around anywhere at any time for safety and sanitation. The closure of sports training facilities, including boxing gyms, still prevails nationwide for fear of any COVID-19 infection. Continue reading “Japan sets guidelines to resume shows from July”

By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing

Four-time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield and two-time heavyweight ruler Mike Tyson could feature in a charity exhibition bout after talks between the two camps. “His people have been talking to my people and we haven’t yet got a solid deal together but it’s coming that way,” Holyfield told The 3 Point Conversation podcast.

“If it happens, then that’s no problem. The thing is, he was doing something and I was doing something. When I told people about it, they saw me working out and they kind of put two and two together. They must be coming together to do this like this. But the fact of the matter is, I don’t mind if we do do something like this.”

By Hesiquio Balderas

Mercito Gesta wants a piece of the Ryan “Kingry” Garcia, as do many other fighters in the lightweight division. Abner Mares, Jorge Linares, Devin Haney, Gervonta Davis, and many more seem to be willing to mix it up with Ryan as evidenced by the war of words that has been going on on social media.

Mercito Gesta promoted by Golden Boy Promotions thinks that he might get the fight first since he and Ryan share the same promoter. Mercito had a few words for Fightnews.com®. Continue reading “Mercito Gesta targets Kingry Garcia”