The first session of the World Boxing Association (WBA) Directorate Meeting being held in Medellín began with a reflection WBA President Gilberto Jesús Mendoza to all the members of the oldest boxing organization in the world. The leader spoke about the present situation of boxing and the need to change, to improve and be more useful for a sport that is going through difficult times.

“The mission is to project boxing and go to the bases. This is not a preamble to justify our incursion into amateur boxing, it is a must. The energy of the Olympic Games is contagious to everyone, it is undeniable that it is a very important event. However, the crucial thing is to start measuring where we are going,” he said. Continue reading “Mendoza: We must go to the bases”

Former heavyweight contender of the 1990s Jimmy Thunder has passed away in an Auckland, New Zealand hospital after recently undergoing brain surgery. He was just 54. Thunder was a regular on American television and scored wins over the likes of Trevor Berbick, Tony Tubbs and Tim Witherspoon. He never fought for a Big 4 heavyweight title, but did hold the IBO and WBF belts. A big puncher, Thunder compiled a record of 35-14, 28 KOs. RIP.

Undefeated IBF featherweight world champion Josh Warrington (30-0, 7 KOs) has signed a multi-fight promotional deal with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, with his future fights to be shown live on Sky Sports and DAZN. Warrington was previously promoted by Frank Warren.

“It’s great to be back with Matchroom, Sky and now DAZN and I’m very excited about the future,” said Warrington. “I have enjoyed my time at BT but now I’m looking forward to going on to achieve my dreams of both fighting in the USA and unifying the division.”

WBO #3, WBC #8 welterweight Vergil Ortiz, Jr. (15-0, 15 KOs) will reportedly face Samuel Vargas (31-5-2, 14 KOs) on March 28 in a DAZN-streamed fight at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
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The Ortiz-Vargas stream is expected to go head-to-head with an unannounced ESPN show headed by unified WBC/IBF lightweight champion Artur Beterbiev (15-0, 15 KOs) against mandatory challenger Meng Fanlong (16-0, 10 KOs) at Centre Videotron in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
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Camps of Ryan “Kingry” Garcia and Gervonta Davis are talking it up on social media, but Kingry vs. Jorge Linares is in the plan. Linares and Kingry are featured together Friday.
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Meanwhile, that Super Bowl week viral video that caught Davis grabbing the mother of his child near the throat and pulling her out of a charity basketball game in Miami resulted in a misdemeanor domestic battery charge to which Davis pleaded not guilty.
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The WBO has ordered a February 20 purse bid for a WBO light heavyweight eliminator between Gilberto Ramirez and Eleider Alvarez. Minimum bid is $300,000. The proceeding will take place in Las Vegas.
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The public is invited to media workouts today for undefeated IBF super middleweight world champion Caleb “Sweethands” Plant and mandatory challenger Vincent Feigenbutz at Music City Boxing Gym in Nashville, Tennessee. It starts at 12:30PM local time.
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Former IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez (42-9, 16 KOs) faces WBA #2 super lightweight contender Lewis Ritson (20-1, 12 KOs) on April 4 at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle, England.
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If you like the latest trend of celebrity boxing matches, how about YouTuber Logan Paul versus NFL bad boy Antonio Brown? Paul created a “diss track video” to goad A.B. (not Adrien Broner) into the ring.
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Lightweight boxer Dat Nguyen fights in a bare-knuckle match this Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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Manny Pacquiao has signed with Paradigm Sports Management, which will partner with Pacquiao’s existing team, which includes business manager, Arnold Vegafria, his associate Ping Nepomuceno and legal counsel Brando Viernesto. Paradigm also represents MMA star Conor McGregor. Can a Pacquiao-McGregor boxing match be far away?
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WBO minimumweight champion Elwin “Pulga” Soto (16-1, 11 KOs) fights Javier Alejandro Rendón (10-4-3, 4 KOs) in a non-title ten-rounder on Saturday at the Auditorio del Estado in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico.

39-year-old former world champion Arthur Abraham, who last fought in April of 2018, has been linked with a better-late-than-never clash against 41-year-old rival former world champion Felix Sturm. They never fought in their primes.

Sturm said he wants to resume his career after spending eight-and-a-half months in custody while fighting tax-evasion charges in Germany.

Abraham says, “If Felix Sturm wants to box me, I’m always ready to do it.” Continue reading “Abraham-Sturm? Brook-Khan?”

Saturday’s fight between Kevin Lerena and Firat Arslan was stopped when a towel came flying into the ring from the direction of Arslan’s corner. However, it wasn’t the corner, it was promoter Erol Ceylan who threw in the towel and Arslan didn’t appreciate it.

“He’s not part of my team,” said Arslan. “It’s sad that the fight ended this way. I value Erol as a person. I know that he thought about my health, but that’s not how it works. Ceylan had no right to throw in the towel!”

Ceylan said the towel was just sitting on the steps, he doesn’t regret it, and he’d do it again.

The question remains, do promoters have the authority to stop fights?

Current odds on the next week’s mega Wilder-Fury PPV rematch in Las Vegas are dead even at -110 for both fighters according to the MGM Sportsbook. The over/under is eleven rounds. Over is -115, under is -105.

Wilder by decision is 7:1
Wilder by KO is 8:5
Fury by decision is 7:5
Fury by KO is 5:1
A draw is 18:1

Rising lightweight star Ryan Garcia (19-0, 16 KOs) and Nicaraguan contender Francisco Fonseca (25-2-2, 19 KOs) hosted a media workout today at Real Boxing MMA & Fitness ahead of their 12-round title fight for the WBC silver lightweight title on Friday at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. and streamed live on DAZN.

Ryan Garcia: “Fonseca had okay fights with Farmer and Davis. It was nothing impressive though. I’m a whole different fighter. I’m taller, stronger and just better overall. I watched four rounds of his fight. This guy cannot beat me. He’s going to try to box me. He doesn’t have the power to brawl. He’s going to keep away from me. I’m going to press the fight like a Mexican fighter.” Continue reading “Kingry: This guy cannot beat me”

By Mauricio Sulaiman
Son of Jose Sulaiman / WBC President

The World Boxing Council, based on the recommendation of its Medical Committee, voted unanimously to reduce all WBC affiliated championship fights from 12 to 10 rounds. Only World Championship and Silver Championship fights will be authorized for 12 rounds.

It is even recommended to have 8 round fights for regional championships, which usually includes fighters with a lower experience profile.

Boxing is a contact sport and can be dangerous when not taking full care of all measures, which over the years have been implemented to maximize the protection of fighters. Continue reading “Reduction of rounds for WBC-affiliated fights”

WBA interim light heavyweight champion Dominic Boesel (30-1, 12 KOs) will make his first world title defense against WBA #12 Zac Dunn (29-1, 24 KOs) on March 28 at the GETEC ARENA in Magdeburg, Germany. Boesel’s IBO belt will also be at stake. SES Boxing will promote the show, which will air on ARD, the top network in Germany and ESPN+ in the US. This is ARD’s first boxing card in five years.

Dominic Boesel: “Many opponents have always underestimated me, come with knockout predictions and then go home defeated. I will also win against Zac Dunn, it’s just a good feeling to finally be world champion. And I will stay that way…I am now looking forward to the very large audience (on ARD)!”

Zac Dunn (appearing with his team via video conference): “Boesel may be a good boxer, he has his qualities. But, we won’t rely on the scorecards. We’ll win early and that means with a KO. We’ll fly to Europe, win, and take our belts ‘Down Under’ to Australia!”

The card will also feature unbeaten heavyweights Agit Kabayel (19-0, 13 KOs) and Peter Kadiru (7-0, 3 KOs) in separate bouts.

Euro sportsbooks have set WBA #2, WBO #6 lightweight Ryan “Kingry” Garcia (19-0, 16 KOs) as a whopping 100:1 favorite to handle Francisco Fonseca (25-2-2, 19 KOs) on Friday night on DAZN.

Kingry’s promoter Oscar de la Hoya issued a challenge to Mayweather Promotions: “You have your fighter @Gervontaa and I have my fighter @KingRyanG. Let’s make this fight happen! If Ryan wins on the 14th, let’s stage a fight.”

Gervonta Davis responded: “Let’s do this! 😎 I’m gonna be Supa rich this year.”

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Meanwhile, in the big fight on Saturday Euro books have IBF super middleweight champion Caleb “Sweethands” Plant (19-0, 11 KOs) down as a 15:1 favorite over Vincent Feigenbutz (31-2, 28 KOs). Feigenbutz definitely has a puncher’s chance at +750.

In his first bout in 18 months, former unified cruiserweight champion Murat Gassiev (26-1 19 KOs) will make his long-awaited heavyweight debut against Jerry “Slugger” Forrest (26-3 20 KOs) at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas on February 29, live on DAZN in the US and on Sky Sports in the UK. Gassiev was set to make his bow in July at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas against Joey Dawejko but a shoulder injury in the build-up put the 26-year-old on the shelf until now. You might remember Forrest from his loss to Jermaine Franklin on ShoBox last July. Continue reading “Gassiev set for heavyweight debut”

Artis Mack, the brother of multi-division female world champion Claressa Shields, has reached a plea deal with Michigan authorities in connection with a sucker punch that left boxing trainer James Ali Bashir with serious facial damages and bleeding on the brain last October.

According to mlive.com, Mack, who was originally charged with one count of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, pleaded guilty down to a single count of misdemeanor aggravated assault. The offense is punishable by up to one year in jail and/or a $1,000 fine, or both.

On February 21, Russian heavyweight Apti Davtaev (19-0-1, 18 KOs) will make a quick return to the ring in an eight-round showdown against fellow undefeated John Napari (21-0, 15 KOs) of Accra, Ghana. Davtaev-Naparias will be a chief supporting bout on an Akhmat Promotions event at the Dynamo Palace of Sports in Krylatskoye, Moscow, featuring undefeated Russian super welterweight champion Islam “The Sniper” Edisultanov’s (9-0, 6 KOs) domestic battle against Evgeny Terentiev (15-2, 7 KOs).

Davtaev was last seen January 10 of this year, scoring a TKO3 over Keith Barr at Ocean Resort Casino, Atlantic City.

In his El Heraldo newspaper column, WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman announced that from now on only world championship and silver championship fights will be sanctioned for the twelve round distance. Fights for other WBC titles will be contested over ten rounds or even eight rounds. This was approved unanimously by the WBC Board of Directors, based on the recommendation of the WBC Medical Committee.

In 1983, the WBC under the guidance of Mauricio’s father José Sulaiman reduced the length of world championship fights from fifteen rounds to twelve rounds. Now 37 years later, the WBC has taken the next step to protect boxers.

Former light heavyweight world title challenger Anthony Yarde (19-1, 18 KOs) returned to the ring in an under-the-radar bout last Saturday at the Discoteca Memphis in Madrid, Spain. Currently rated WBO #6, Yarde dropped Diego Jair Ramirez (4-49-3, 3 KOs) in round two and got the stoppage with his follow-up barrage. Yarde last fought six months ago against Sergey Kovalev.

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WRAM Boxing (William Ramirez) and Nica Boxing (Pablo Osunsa) continue their monthly boxing events in 2020 beginning February 28. The event is billed “Boxeando por Una Causa” (Boxing for a Cause) and will be streamed on the Nica Boxing Facebook page. The site of the event will be the Gimnasio Nicarao in Managua, Nicaragua. The main event will feature world-ranked Jerson Ortiz (16-2, 7 KOs) vs countryman and former world title challenger Julio Mendoza (14-6-1, 3 KOs) squaring off in the 8 round light flyweight contest.

World champion twin brothers IBF flyweight champion Felix Alvarado and WBA junior Lighweight champion Rene Alvarado will fight in seperate 4 round exhibitions for a special cause. Felix vs David Perez and Rene vs Robin Zamora. Continue reading “Boxing back in Managua February 28”