By Miguel Maravilla at ringside

WBA lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis (29-0, 26 KOs) of Baltimore retained his world title but he had his hands full in winning a twelve round unanimous decision over IBF #2 Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz (22-2, 15 KOs) of Mexico City, Sunday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Scores were 116-112, 115-113, 115-113. Continue reading “Tank gets past Cruz, retains WBA title”

By Miguel Maravilla at ringside

WBC lightweight champion Devin “The Dream” Haney (27-0, 15 KOs) of Las Vegas scored a twelve round unanimous decision over Joseph “JoJo” Diaz (32-2-1, 15 KOs) of South El Monte, California, on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas. Haney’s speed and reach won the early rounds. JoJo came on in round four and had some good moments after that, but Haney was mostly in control. Scores were 117-111, 117-111, 116-112.

Haney came out flashy, displaying the hand speed as Diaz had slow start pawing and working the jab in the opening round. In the second, Haney kept letting his hands go with Diaz working his way in leading with the jab and getting inside getting rough. Diaz began to attack downstairs in round three, Haney continued to show hand speed outworking Diaz but the challenger appeared to be gaining ground inside. It got rough in the fourth as Diaz attempted to connect to the body shoved Haney to the ground, moments later Diaz connected with a solid straight left that got the champ’s attention. Continue reading “Haney defeats Diaz, retains WBC lightweight title”

In a WBO light heavyweight eliminator, former world title challenger Anthony Yarde (22-2, 21 KOs) impressively knocked out previously unbeaten #1 rated Lyndon Arthur (19-1, 13 KOs) on Saturday night at the Copper Box Arena in London. Yarde came out extremely aggressive and didn’t let up. No pacing himself. He punished Arthur for four rounds, getting him out of there with a huge right hand. Time was 1:27. Yarde avenges a split decision loss to Arthur 12 months ago.

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More results

Golovkin-Murata, Ioka-Ancajas postponed

By Joe Koizumi

The emergent omicron virus has called off a couple of world title bills on Friday here in Japan. Teiken Promotions has announced the greatly anticipated middleweight unification bout of WBA super champion Ryota Murata and IBF titleholder Gennady Golovkin on December 29 is called off due to the government’s ban of any foreigner to enter Japan.

A special permit wasn’t made even for such a big show that all our fight fans are so much eager to watch with greatest expectations. Also, another unification bout between WBO 115-pound ruler Kazuto Ioka and IBF titlist Jerwin Ancajas on New Year Eve will be canceled by the same reason. This morning we experienced a considerably big earthquake in the Tokyo area, but our fistic world also got terribly shaken up with the shocking cancellations.

The WBO World Championship Committee has ordered negotiations to commence for a clash between WBO middleweight champion Demetrius “BooBoo” Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs) and Zhanibek “Qazak Style” Alimkhanuly (11-0, 7 KOs). The parties are granted 20-days to negotiate and reach an agreement or purse bid proceedings will be called. The minimum acceptable bid is $200,000. Any of the parties involved may request a purse bid procedure at any time during the negotiation process.

By Joe Koizumi

Japanese 130-pounder Kenichi Ogawa’s IBF coronation warmed all the hearts of our aficionados. Ogawa (26-1-1-1NC, 18 KOs), 33, had a rollercoasting career and displayed a four-year perseverance caused by his unfortunate forfeiture of the once-acquired but later stripped IBF belt. It was in December 2017 that the hard-punching Japanese, formerly a nippon-kempo (a sort of karate) specialist at Meiji university, temporarily won the vacant IBF junior light belt by edging Tevin Farmer by a hairline split decision (116-112, 115-113, 112-116) in Las Vegas. Ogawa, however, tested positive for Androstanedior, and Teiken Promotions strongly and persistently denied his intake of any forbidden drug by submitting a lot of proofs, but in vain. The Nevada State Athletic Commission, four months later–in April 2018, reversed it into a no contest, and the IBF eventually denied Ogawa’s belt and declared it vacant again. Pitifully, Kenichi was fined twenty percent of his purse, and was suspended for six month by the NSAC. The Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) followed the verdict and also suspended him for a year from his Farmer bout. Continue reading “Ogawa’s coronation warms Japan’s heart”

Bitter rivals Amir Khan and Kell Brook will finally enter the ring on February 19 to square off in one of the most highly-anticipated encounters in British boxing history. BOXXER and Sky Sports will formally announce the fight at a press conference in London this afternoon, with the news set to delight boxing fans who have clamored to see the two antagonists do battle for nearly a decade. The long-awaited encounter will take place at the AO Arena in Manchester.

“Khan and Brook are icons of the sport in Britain and this will be an iconic encounter. Their rivalry has simmered for years, they are still by far the best welterweights in the country and the eyes of the world will be on them when they square off in February to finally settle the question about which of them is the better man,” said Ben Shalom, BOXXER’s founder and CEO. Continue reading “Khan-Brook finally clash on Feb 19”

In an action-packed super bantamweight unification clash, undefeated WBO champion Stephen “Cool Boy Steph” Fulton Jr. (20-0, 8 KOs) took a twelve round majority decision over previously unbeaten WBC champion Brandon “Heartbreaker” Figueroa (22-1-1, 17 KOs) on Saturday night inside Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas.

It was rock’em, sock’em robots as both boxers traded punches non-stop the entire fight. It was Figueroa’s activity (1,060 punches thrown) against Fulton’s accuracy (37% connect rate) and judges scored it 114-114, 116-112, 116-112 for Fulton. Rematch please.

In a huge upset, George ‘Ferocious’ Kambosos Jr. (20-0, 10 KOs) won a twelve round split decision over undisputed lightweight champion Teofimo ‘The Takeover’ Lopez (16-1 12 KOs) and seized his WBA, IBF, WBO, and WBC franchise on Saturday night at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Kambosos dropped Lopez with a big right hand at the end of round one and largely outboxed Lopez until round nine, which Lopez clearly won.

Lopez knocked down Kambosos in round ten, but Kambosos survived. Kambosos rebounded in round eleven. In the end, scores were 115-111, 115-112 Kambosos, 114-113 Lopez.

In a clash for the vacant IBF super featherweight title, Kenichi Ogawa (26-1-1, 28 KOs) won a brutal twelve round unanimous decision over Azinga Fuzile (15-2, 9 KOs) on Saturday night in the Lopez-Kambosos co-feature at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Ogawa dropped Fuzile hard in round five, but Fuzile survived. Ogawa dropped Fuzile twice in round twelve to punctuate a 115-110, 115-110, 114-111 victory.

By Jeff Zimmerman at triadside

In the main event of the inaugural Triad Combat, former heavyweight boxing world title contender Kubrat Pulev stopped former 2X UFC heavyweight champ on his feet in the first round at Globe Life Park in Arlington, TX, in front of 20K plus raucous fans that included a concert from heavy metal band Metallica. Team Rampage won 14-11 over Team Shannon.

Pulev showed he was clearly better on his feet than the Brazilian jiujitsu specialist Mir as he landed early to the head and body of Mir. Mir showed good movement and even got Pulez in a clinch, but soon after Pulev was able to get Mir off him. And with one second left in round one of the scheduled 9, Pulev landed an overhand right that was quickly followed up by a left hook that sent Mir to the ropes as he appeared to be out on his feet. Referee Dan Miragliotta looked at Mir closely and waved it off with Mir still standing. Continue reading “Pulev crushes Mir in Triad fight”

A golden opportunity was missed to see WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford and WBC/IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence go face-to-face on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Spence attended Crawford’s fight against former champ Shawn Porter, but as soon as Crawford stopped Porter, Spence rose from his seat, shook his head disparagingly, and left the arena.

Crawford was surprised to hear Spence was even there.

“He was at my fight?” Crawford told Bernardo Osuna in the ring. “That boy said he was never going to be at my fight but now he’s at my fight. You saw what I did compared to what he did. Who’s #1 in the welterweight division now? Y’all know who I want. I’ve been calling him out!”

By Miguel Maravilla at ringside

Undefeated WBO welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) stopped former two-time welterweight world champion “Showtime” Shawn Porter (31-4-1, 17 KOs) in the tenth round on Saturday night before 11,568 at the sold out Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Rounds were mostly close until Crawford dropped Porter twice in round ten and Porter’s corner stopped it. Time was 1:21.

At the time of the stoppage, Crawford was ahead on all three cards 86-85, 86-85, 87-84. WBC/IBF champ Errol Spence was on hand and immediately left the building upon the completion of the fight. Continue reading “Crawford TKOs Porter in ten”

Unbeaten WBA flyweight champion Artem Dalakian (21-0, 15 KOs) retained his title by ninth round TKO over former world champion Luis “El Nica” Concepcion (39-9, 28 KOs) on Saturday night at the AKKO International in Kiev, Ukraine. Dalakian was in command all the way. He dropped Concepcion twice in round five and got a referee’s stoppage shortly after dropping Concepcion again in round nine. It was Dalakian’s fifth successful defense.

By Scott Ploof at ringside

WBO middleweight champion Demetrius “BooBoo” Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs) delivered on his promise to destroy Jason “El Animal” Quigley (19-2, 14 KOs) on Friday night at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire.

From the onset, it was clear that Andrade had much more power than Quigley. Andrade dropped Quigley in round one, however Quigley was able to survive. Andrade dropped Quigley twice more in round two with a barrage of bunches putting Quigley away at 2:24.

“I did what I said I would do, I looked good and felt good,” said Andrade. “I delivered a message tonight – what’s next and who’s next? Continue reading “Andrade demolishes Quigley in two”

By Bill Luppert at ringside

In a Mexico vs. Puerto Rico showdown, WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez (18-1 14 KOs) and McWilliams Arroyo (21-4 16 KOs) ended in a no contest on Friday night on the Andrade-Quigley undercard at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire. Both Martinez and Arroyo were on the canvas in round one. Arroyo was cut over the right eye and dropped again in round two. After round two, Arroyo said he couldn’t see and the match was halted.

By Scott Ploof at ringside

Unified WBA and IBF super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev (10-0, 7 KOs) scored a twelve round unanimous decision against rugged late sub José Velásquez (29-7-2 19 KOs) on Friday night on the Andrade-Quigley undercard at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire. Velásquez had Akhmadaliev holding on after a body shot in round seven, but otherwise it was all Akhmadaliev. He repeatedly landed jabs and body combinations. Velasquez worked to press the action but was not able to get past Akhmadaliev’s defense and counter punching. Scores were 119-109 3x.

“No catchweight, I will KO Canelo” – Ilunga Makabu
“It’s a fifty/fifty challenge” – Canelo Alvarez

By Boxing Bob Newman

Consensus pound-for-pound king Saul “Canelo” Alvarez had been on the special invitees list for this year’s convention, but coming off his epic win to unify all four 168 lb belts less than two weeks ago, it looked as if Canelo would take a pass on coming, that is until today. The best fighter on the planet did indeed appear before the WBC board and remaining guests, to the delight of everyone on hand. He even came face-to-face with his apparent next foe – WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu.

The two warriors were cordial toward each other with handshakes and an embrace – a far cry from the face-to-face with Caleb Plant, which erupted into a shoving, face-slapping melee.

Said a confident Makabu, “Canelo is the best boxer on the planet right now. So, I want to fight the best, and I accept, but there will be no catchweight for this fight. Canelo wants to prove to people that he can do better than others and I am quite prepared to let Canelo try for this dream, but I`ve got my also story to write down. Yes, this is boxing. I lost to Tony Bellew, but I came back. Now I`m telling you one hundred percent, I will knock out Canelo.” Continue reading “Canelo-Makabu face off as 59th WBC Convention ends”

By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing

WBO #1 light-middleweight Tim Tszyu (20-0,15 KOs) moved closer to a world title bout with a comprehensive twelve round decision victory over WBO #7 rated Takeshi Inoue (17-2-1, 10 KOs) on Wednesday night at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, NSW, Australia. Tszyu took charge from round one and stalked the powerfully built Japanese opponent throughout the contest connecting with left hand leads and right hands to the head followed by hooks to the body that had Inoue wincing. Inoue was down in round twelve and it was ruled a knockdown by referee Will Soulos. Scores at the conclusion were 120-107, 120-107, 119-108. Continue reading “Tszyu defeats Inoue, Castaño next?”

By Boxing Bob Newman

The opening day of meetings of the 59th WBC convention got underway in the Castillo Room of the host hotel Intercontinental Presidente in Mexico City on Tuesday morning. After the mandatory roll call of the WBC board of governors to open the 59th annual convention, a very moving slide show commemorating those who the boxing world lost during the pandemic, was screened. A self-introduction of all attendees was then conducted. Continue reading “WBC 59th convention Day 1 meetings”

By Boxing Bob Newman

The WBC received a petition directly from Canelo Alvarez’ trainer Eddy Reynoso, for Canelo to challenge WBC CRUISERWEIGHT champion Ilunga Makabu! The WBC Board unanimously approved the petition. Canelo will be challenging for a world title in his fifth weight class!

This week’s Crawford-Porter pay-per-view will be something different. Instead of buying through the regular PPV channels of cable, dish, apps, etc., fight fans can only purchase Crawford-Porter if they’re ESPN+ subscribers.

Promoter Bob Arum explains.

“ESPN+ has a platform now that has 19 million subscribers,” said Arum. “And when ESPN+ has the exclusive pay-per-view rights and they can publicize it and constantly email their subscribers, they’re doing huge numbers.

“How do I know that? Because while they haven’t had any exclusives yet in boxing, they have had UFC exclusively for a couple of years now at least. And the UFC numbers on pay-per-view are huge because of ESPN+ which has it exclusively. Continue reading “Crawford-Porter: For ESPN+ subscribers only”

Welterweight Thomas Dulorme (25-6-1, 16 KOs), has officially submitted a letter to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, disputing the result of his bout against Jaron Ennis (28-0, 26 KOs), in which he claims he was hit with an illegal rabbit punch to the back of the head. The fight took place at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday, October 30, 2021.

Dulorme is asking the Nevada State Athletic Commission to overturn the knockout loss to a no decision due to the referee Mike Ortiz’ outcome-determinative error.

“I feel I wasn’t given the allocated time to recover by the referee, after getting hit from what was clearly an illegal rabbit punch to the back on my head, forcing me to fight at a disadvantage,” said Dulorme. “Jaron Ennis is a great fighter and I’m not taking anything away from his talent, I’m just disputing that I should have been given the allotted time to regain my composure. I’m hoping that Nevada State Athletic Commission will honor my appeal based on their rules.”

Unbeaten WBC and WBO #1, WBA #4, IBF #9 middleweight Jaime Munguia (38-0, 30 KOs) won an exciting twelve round unanimous decision over WBA #4, WBC #9, WBO #11 rated super middleweight “King” Gabriel Rosado (26-13-1, 15 KOs) on Saturday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Rosado landed a lot of clean shots, but Munguia’s power combination punching and non-stop work rate won him most the rounds. Scores were 118-110, 119-109, 117-111.

Unbeaten WBC #1 super middleweight David Benavidez (25-0, 22 KOs), considered the main threat to undisputed champion Canelo Alvarez, scored a seventh round TKO over game late sub Kyrone Davis (16-3-1, 6 KOs) on Saturday night at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Two-time former WBC champion Benevidez stalked Davis the first three rounds. Davis then stood his ground in an exciting two-way round four. Davis continued to fight valiantly while taking a lot of punishment. The towel finally came in in round seven. Time was :48.

“Everybody wants to see me against Canelo, right? I don’t care what his assessment of my fight is but they keep putting these contenders in front of me. My last fight was a WBC title eliminator and that’s why I’m here holding my belts. They need to give me the opportunity. I’ll go through anybody. Whoever they want me to go through. If (Jermall) Charlo wants it, he can get it too. But he doesn’t want to get in the ring with me.” Continue reading “Benavidez stops Davis, Canelo next?”