SES Boxing announced today that the March 28 WBA interim light heavyweight title fight between champion Dominic Boesel and Zac Dunn is cancelled. After considering the daily dynamically changing circumstances of the global coronavirus pandemic, SES determined that staging the event on the scheduled date isn’t possible and a postponement is inevitable. Tickets to the SES event remain valid for the new date, which will be communicated as soon as possible.

“We deliberately and carefully considered this decision to postpone the SES boxing gala,” said promoter Ulf Steinforth. “We got expert advice very early on and would have held this event even after all the restrictions. Above all, our responsibility as part of society is the health and well-being of everyone involved. This was always paramount! Now the postponement is inevitable. I am sorry for our boxers, our SES boxing team, the people who looked after the organization so self-sacrificingly and helpfully and above all for our partners and service providers. Continue reading “Boesel-Dunn WBA title fight cancelled”

By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing

One day after tickets went on sale and promoters had insisted that the Jeff Horn-Tim Tszyu clash would go ahead as scheduled on April 22 at the Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, the event was abruptly cancelled. No new date was announced.

Up until today, UK government and health authorities had decided that all public events presently planned (including boxing events) were free to go ahead. That policy has now ended.

The British Boxing Board of Control today made the following announcement:

CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19)

With regard to the above and the statement made by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, all public tournaments under the jurisdiction of the British Boxing Board of Control are unfortunately cancelled. Further consideration of the matter will take place at the beginning of April.

The cards definitely cancelled include:
March 20, Golden Contract LH semifinals, ESPN+
March 28, David Avanesyan vs. Josh Kelly, DAZN

Other cards in likely jeopardy are:
April 4, Lewis Ritson vs. Miguel Vazquez, DAZN
April 11, Joe Joyce vs. Daniel Dubois, ESPN+

MTK Global has confirmed the Golden Contract event scheduled for Friday has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Full refunds will be available from point of sale.

Statement: The Golden Contract light heavyweight semi-finals will take place at a later date and we look forward to bringing big-time boxing back to as many venues and as many TV screens as quickly as we can. In the meantime, we hope you all stay safe.

According to ESPN, the ESPN+ streamed card on March 28 from Magdeburg, Germany, topped by WBA interim light heavyweight champion Dominic Boesel against Zac Dunn, and heavyweight Agit Kabayel against former world title challenger Mariusz Wach, has been cancelled. Still no confirmation on this from SES Boxing promoter Ulf Steinforth, who has been pulling out all the stops to keep the event alive.

Top Rank has now cancelled the March 28 ESPN card featuring WBC/IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and IBF mandatory challenger Meng Fanlong at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City, Canada.

Top Rank has also called off a planned April 11 ESPN card featuring IBF junior bantamweight champion Jerwin Ancajas defending against Jonathan Rodriguez in Las Vegas, and an April 17 ESPN card featuring WBA super flyweight champion Andrew Moloney defending against Israel Gonzalez in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Addressing the publication of a number of unspecified statements and articles they call “misleading and misrepresentative” relating to Tyson Fury, MTK Global, Top Rank and Queensberry Promotions have issued a joint statement that says in part:

Tyson is contracted to a third fight with former WBC world champion Deontay Wilder. Any statement made regarding negotiations, talks, venues or any other bout should be disregarded.

Top Rank, MTK Global and Queensberry Promotions have and will continue to work in close conjunction with each other to deliver Tyson Fury the best opportunities to enhance his career and earnings. This will require each party, as well as Tyson Fury himself, to continue to work together as a team to explore and negotiate any and all future possibilities. Continue reading “Fury Team issues joint statement”

Due to the growing concerns over COVID-19, Premier Boxing Champions scheduled events for March and April have been cancelled and will be rescheduled for a later date. At this time there’s no information regarding future shows.

These shows include:
Luis Nery vs. Aaron Alameda, March 28, Showtime
Jamal James vs. Thomas Dulorme, April 11, FOX
David Benavidez vs. Roamer Angulo, April 18, Showtime

“The health and safety of the boxers, fans and those working the events are of utmost importance to us,” said Tom Brown, President of TGB Promotions and lead promoter for the cancelled shows. “We are all disappointed and as we get more information we will address future events.” Continue reading “All scheduled PBC events cancelled”

Matchroom Boxing USA’s event at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland on Friday April 17 has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Former World Super-Lightweight champions Regis Prograis and Maurice Hooker were due to meet in Maryland along with undisputed World Welterweight champion Cecilia Brækhus defending her titles against Jessica McCaskill, while Croatian Heavyweight Filip Hrgović was set to take on Jerry Forrest and Olympic gold medal man Daniyar Yeleussinov had his sights set on former unified World champion Julius Indongo. Matchroom Boxing USA is exploring alternative options around staging the event, including on a rescheduled date. Fans should visit their point of sale for ticket refunds.

While most worldwide boxing events are being shut down, Friday’s “Golden Contract” light heavyweight semi-finals card at York Hall in London is still a go. Tickets are still available and all the scheduled fight week festivities will proceed normally for the MTK Boxing event that will air live on Sky Sports in the UK in association with Matchroom Boxing and on ESPN+ in the US in association with Top Rank.

Light heavyweights Hosea Burton (25-1, 11 KOs), Liam Conroy (18-5-1, 9 KOs), Ricards Bolotniks (16-5-1, 7 KOs), and Serge Michel (10-1, 7 KOs) will learn their opponents this week. Each fighter will pull a ball out of a bag and the man who gets the “golden ball” will be allowed to choose his opponent. The eventual winner of the tournament earns a two-year, five-fight deal with six-figure purses for each fight guaranteed.

Last Saturday, AGON Sports & Events announced that their planned March 21 boxing event featuring former world champion Jack Culcay at the Bayerhalle in Wuppertal, Germany, would be moved to a controlled studio setting inside the AGON Gym in Berlin with no spectators and the card would be live-streamed. All necessary security measures were prepared with comprehensive contingency plans for the health of the participants.

However, since then the city of Berlin has banned all events with over 50 people, as well as any sports event, whether private or public. There are no exceptions. Continue reading “Studio boxing show shut down in Germany”

By Ray Wheatley — World of Boxing

Former WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn’s scheduled bout with IBF #6, WBO #9 Tim Tszyu on April 22 is still on course to go ahead at the Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville, Queensland despite the announcement by the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison that gatherings of more than 500 people will not be permitted by law because of the Coronavirus outbreak.

Promoters Dean Lonergan and Matt Rose made the decision to go ahead with the promotion.”We are still going on sale today for general admission tickets and have been on sale for corporate hospitality since Wednesday last week,” Lonergan said to WA Today. Continue reading “Horn-Tszyu still on track for April 22”

By Karl Freitag

Unless they can work out a way to do studio boxing cards with no spectators, it looks like there might not be any boxing events in the United States for quite a while.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention) has just recommended that starting immediately and for the next 8 weeks ALL EVENTS OF 50 OR MORE PEOPLE BE CANCELLED. This includes sporting events, conferences, festivals, parades, concerts, weddings, and other types of assemblies.

MGM Resorts has announced it will suspend operations at its Las Vegas properties until further notice, effective as of Tuesday, March 17. That does in the March 28 Showtime card featuring Luis Nery vs. Aaron Alameda at the Park MGM. MGM doesn’t plan on taking room reservations again until MAY!!!

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic boxing qualifiers at London’s Copper Box Arena was open to fans over the weekend. That will end today as the event continues behind closed doors and no more spectators will be permitted to attend. The policy will take place up until the end of the tournament. Fans who had tickets will get a refund.

If boxing is back in arenas by June 6, that will likely be the date that IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin makes his mandatory defense against Kamil Szeremeta at The Forum in Inglewood, California. The news was reported by ESPN, scooping rival DAZN on announcing DAZN’s own fight.

By Ron Jackson

Veteran 34-year-old Tshifhiwa “Atomic Spider” Munyai (32-6-1, 18 KOs) surprised his critics when he scored a unanimous 12 round points decision over Siphosethu Mvula (15-4-1, 7 KOs) to win the vacant South African lightweight title at the Blairgowrie Recreation Centre in Randburg on Sunday afternoon. Showing all his skills after a long 17 year career, Munyai proved too much for the plucky Mvulu who pressed the action throughout. The scores were 118-110, 117-111 and 116-112 all in favor of Munyai. Continue reading “Tshifhiwa Munyai wins vacant SA lightweight title”

British tabloids are having a field day over a claim by a farmer who says he lied to UKAD (the UK anti-doping agency) about supplying current WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury with uncastrated wild boar in 2015. Fury and his cousin Huey tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone in 2015 and blamed it on tainted wild boar meat or supplements. The farmer claims he was promised £25,000 to lie, but was never paid. UKAD apparently is taking the claim seriously.

Hall of Fame promoter Frank Warren, who co-promotes Fury, stated “The farmer making these outrageous allegations sent me a letter last October, full of errors and basically telling me he had committed perjury by signing statements under oath and lying. When I called him, he asked for money. I told him to clear off and get in contact with UKAD. He chose not to speak to UKAD but instead speak to a newspaper. Continue reading “Tyson Fury ‘tainted meat’ scandal erupts in UK”

By Karl Freitag

During an emergency meeting via phone on Saturday, the Nevada State Athletic Commission cancelled all combat sports until their March 25 meeting due to the coronavirus. This decision affects only two amateur events scheduled during that period. Decisions on big boxing events will be made at the March 25 meeting and indications are it won’t be good news.

The upcoming boxing schedule in Las Vegas includes a March 28 Showtime card (Luis Nery vs. Aaron Alameda) at the Park MGM, an April 11 Top Rank show (Jerwin Ancajas vs. Jonathan Rodriguez) at The Cosmopolitan, and an April 25 Top Rank show (Naoya Inoue vs. John Riel Casimero) at Mandalay Bay.

Canelo Alvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders is planned for May 2 at the T-Mobile Arena, but the official announcement is on hold due to all the current chaos in the sports and entertainment world. Continue reading “Nevada Commission expected to cancel events”

Unbeaten junior welterweight prospect Omar “Pollo” Aguilar (17-0, 16 KOs) quickly defended his World Boxing Council Youth super lightweight title against late sub David Alegria (10-4, 6 KOs) on Saturday night at the Auditorio Municipal in Tijuana, Mexico. The first solid punch landed by Aguilar, a left hook, put Alegria down in round one. Alegria beat the count but did not appear in condition to go on and the referee waved the bout off at 34 seconds.

In the 10 round co-feature, featherweight prospect Alan David Picasso (13-1, 5 KOs) defeated a very game Jesus Quijada (16-6-2, 11 KOs) by unanimous decision to win the WBC Youth title. The 19-year-old Picasso fought an intelligent fight mixing it up along the way. The official judges scorecards were 99-89 and 99-90 twice.

The event was promoted by Promociones Zanfer/Fernando Beltran.

Amid all the cancellations of professional boxing cards on Saturday night, the Pier 6 Promotions show went on as scheduled at the Bryan Glazer Family JCC Auditorium in Tampa, Florida.

Former world title challenger “Silky” Wilky Campfort (26-3, 13 KOs) scored a one-sided six round unanimous decision over Pal Olah (9-30-3, 7 KOs) in a middleweight fight. Campfort broke down Olah to the body en route to a 60-54 shutout across the board.

In the main event, unbeaten local welterweight Mark Reyes, Jr. (12-0, 10 KOs) scored a fourth round KO over Gabriel Calfin (24-11-5, 9 KOs). Reyes dropped Calfin in round two and round four. The bout was stopped after the second knockdown. Time was 1:56. Continue reading “Boxing Results from Tampa, Florida”

By Joe Koizumi

All shows scheduled until April 30 were cancelled or postponed by the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) and the JPBA (Japan Professional Boxing Association), the union of all licensed club owners (some 270), on Friday. Previously they had decided to cancel all up to April 15 but now extended the application of the forced cancellations for fifteen more days due to the unceasing coronavirus outbreak, which the WHO lately declared pandemic on Wednesday. Continue reading “All cards in Japan cancelled until April 30”