By Joe Koizumi

Southpaw speedster IBF#3 Reiya Abe (25-3-1, 10 KOs), 125.75, easily defeated former world champ IBF#7 Kiko Martinez (44-12-2, 31 KOs), 125.25, by winning a unanimous decision (119-109 twice,117-111) over twelve monotonous rounds on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan. Abe, ex-Japanese champ, had the upper hand almost all the way against the slower and sluggish Spaniard, who looked to fail to bring his fighting spirit and zip from Spain. He was just a shell of the old Kiko, who previously halted our hero Hozumi Hasegawa here in 2014. Kiko kept stalking the Japanese footworker only to absorb his southpaw counters to have the nose bridge bleeding from the fifth on. Abe wasn’t as sharp as usual, but was an obvious winner since Kiko was least aggressive. The ref was Albert Earl Brown.

Promoter: Teiken Promotions.

Two matchups will be featured on the $59.99 ESPN+ PPV undercard headlined of the telecast headlined by undisputed lightweight champion Devin “The Dream” Haney against former three-division champ Vasiliy “Loma” Lomachenko on Saturday, May 20 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The 10-round junior lightweight co-feature will see former two-division world champion Oscar Valdez (30-1, 23 KOs) taking on Adam “BluNose” Lopez (16-4, 6 KOs) in a rematch of their 2019 battle. In the PPV opener, unbeaten lightweight Raymond “Danger” Muratalla (17-0, 14 KOs) takes a big step up in competition versus former world title challenger Jeremia Nakathila (23-2, 19 KOs) in a 10-round clash.

The PPV undercard has been announced for the clash between three-division world champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis’ and “Kingry” Ryan Garcia on Saturday, April 22 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The pay-per-view telecast will begin at 8PM ET/5PM PT and features WBA super middleweight “regular” champion David Morrell Jr. (8-0, 7 KOs) battling Sena Agbeko (27-2, 21 KOs) in the co-main event. The action will also see a rematch between super middleweight “King” Gabriel Rosado (26-16, 15 KOs) and “Bully” Bektemir Melikuziev (11-1, 9 KOs) in a 10-round showdown. Kicking off the telecast will be hard-hitting 19-year-old middleweight Elijah Garcia (14-0, 12 KOs) facing Kevin Salgado (15-1-1, 10 KOs) in a 10-round showdown.

“For me, I like to come in and entertain the fans,” said 54-year-old ring legend Roy Jones Jr. after losing his fight against pro-debuting MMA fighter Anthony Pettis on Saturday night in Milwaukee. “My job is to come in and make sure that the fans get what they paid for, and I’m all good with that. I think it was a good fight. He did a great job and fought a very smart fight. I think I educated him and taught him a lot in this fight. So I think if I fought him again it would be even better because he knows a lot more now. I think it would be a really good rematch.

“I don’t do exhibitions, I fight real fights,” added Jones Jr. “I’m not an exhibition guy, I’m a real guy. I want to win, or I want to lose. But I’m going to go out on my shield, and I want to be able to do it again as many times as I want to. At 54 years old, that’s a beautiful thing, and he already said he’d do it again because one judge had it even. So that’s what I love.”

In a clash for the vacant WBO featherweight title, two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist Robeisy “El Tren” Ramirez (12-1, 7 KOs) took a twelve round unanimous decision over former junior featherweight king Isaac “Royal Storm” Dogboe (24-3, 15 KOs) on Saturday night at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ramirez was simply too quick and too slick for Dogboe. A final round knockdown scored by Ramirez punctuated a 117-110, 118-109, 119-108 win.

“I’m living a new stage in my life,” stated Ramirez afterward. “This is a new history that I’m writing, and I did everything I had to do. As an Olympian, I won two Olympic gold medals, and now I can call myself a champion. All the respect to Isaac to a warrior like Isaac Dogboe. He has my admiration, and all it took was me listening to this genius, Ismael Salas, because I did that, and he led me to victory.”

“I believe things happened for a reason. If it wasn’t for that loss in my pro debut, I would have never ended up with Ismael Salas. Yordenis Ugas never would’ve told me, ‘You have to move to Vegas, you have to change your life,’ and I never would have gotten this team together to be where I am today.” Continue reading “Ramirez defeats Dogboe for WBO feather title”

Former two-time unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (25-3, 22 KOs) won a lackluster twelve round unanimous decision over Jermain Franklin (21-2, 14 KOs) on Saturday night at the O2 Arena on London. Now under the tutelage of new head trainer Derrick James, ‘AJ’ was content to keep Franklin on the end of his piledriver jab for most the fight. Lots of holding, not many exchanges. Scores were 118-111, 117-111, 117-111.

Unbeaten heavyweight Fabio Wardley (16-0, 15 KOs) won by fourth round TKO over Michael Polite-Coffie (13-4, 10 KOs) in a bout for the vacant WBA Continental title. Wardley opened up in round four and got a very quick stoppage from referee Howard Foster. Coffie didn’t appear hurt.

Unbeaten 2020 Olympic gold medal star Galal Yafai (4-0, 3 KOs) got a referee’s stoppage after dropping Moises Calleros (36-11-1, 19 KOs) in round four of a super flyweight bout. Time was:44.

Unbeaten super lightweight Campbell Hatton (11-0, 4 KOs) took out Louis Fielding (10-8, 1 KO) with a body shot in round one. HAtton is the son of ring legend Ricky Hatton. Continue reading “Joshua beats Franklin, doesn’t impress”

In preparation for his upcoming fight on April 29 in Arlington, Texas, Vergil Ortiz, Jr. has had to pull out of his main event versus Eimantas Stanionis for the WBA regular welterweight world championship due to a flare-up of rhabdomyolysis. Ortiz was originally diagnosed with the condition in March 2022. He is expected to make a full recovery and return to the ring later this year.

“Vergil works tirelessly to prepare for his fights and this is of course a huge disappointment for Golden Boy, him and his family,” said Chairman and CEO Oscar De La Hoya. “Despite this setback, I truly believe Vergil remains focused and will accomplish his goal of becoming a world champion this year and going on to become the top welterweight in the division.”

More information on the April 29 event will be announced shortly.

By Joe Koizumi

Ohashi Promotions has announced the new date of “Monster” Naoya Inoue’s once-postponed crack at the WBC. WBO 122-pound belts against Stephen Fulton to be July 25, Tuesday, at Ariake Arena, Tokyo.

Promoter Hideyuki Ohashi, ex-WBC, WBA 105-pound champ, as well as Naoya expressed their appreciation of his counterpart Fulton party’s acceptance. Inoue said, “I’d like to so completely recover from a hand injury that I will show my best performance.”

By Jeff Zimmerman

Fightnews.com® caught up with 2x world champ and Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson as he prepares to face Shuichiro Yoshino on April 8 back home in Newark, NJ at the Providence Center and live on ESPN. Stevenson talked about his upcoming fight, how he would fight the “Mexican Monster” David Benavidez who faced Caleb Plant Saturday night (pre-fight interview), Tank-KingRy prediction, his appreciation for Bud Crawford and so much more in this exclusive interview.

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“I just want to tell everyone that I have a lot of respect for Canelo Alvarez but he has to give me that shot now,” said undefeated two-time super middleweight world champion David “The Mexican Monster” Benavidez after retaining his WBC interim strap with a bruising unanimous decision victory over former world champion Caleb Plant on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

“That’s what everyone wants to see. Now the fans are calling for this fight, the legends are calling for this fight, so let’s make it happen!”

There were a lot of bitter feelings from both sides entering Saturday’s fight.

“I know there was a lot said between us but in the end we settled this like men,” said Benavidez. “I’m happy we gave the fans the best rivalry of the year or the last five years. I’m just very happy. Continue reading “Benavidez: Canelo has to give me that shot now”

By Miguel Maravilla at ringside

Undefeated former two-time WBC super middleweight champion David “The Mexican Monster” Benavídez and former IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant settled their long-simmering feud on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Close fight for the first half of the bout. But Benavídez (27-0, 23 KOs) then took over after Plant (22-2, 13 KOs) slowed down and starting dealing out the punishment en route to a twelve round unanimous decision by scores of 115-113, 116-112, 117-111. Continue reading “Benavidez defeats Plant”

Three-time world title challenger and WBC #7 rated super lightweight Jose “Chon” Zepeda (36-3, 27 KOs) won an easy ten round unanimous decision over survival-minded Neeraj ”Gangster” Goyat (17-4-2, 7 KOs) on Saturday night at the Domo Alcalde in Guadalajara, Mexico. Zepeda pressed the action but Goyat wasn’t interested in engaging or winning. Scores were 100-90 3x.

Former world title challenger and WBC #10 super welterweight Carlos “Chema” Ocampo (35-2, 23 KOs) battered Mauricio Gutierrez (7-2, 5 KOs) for four rounds and Gutierrez didn’t come out for round five.

In a WBC super lightweight eliminator, former unified champion Jose Ramirez (28-1, 18 KOs) scored an eleventh round KO against former lightweight world champion Richard “RC” Commey (30-5-1, 27 KOs) on Saturday night in front of 11,201 at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California. Both fighters came right at each other and threw large volumes of punches. Ramirez finally dropped Commey twice in round eleven and the second time Commey was counted out. Time was 2:31.

In a female minimumweight unification clash, WBA champion Seniesa “Super Bad” Estrada (24-0, 9 KOs) swept past previously unbeaten WBC champ “Tiny” Tina Rupprecht (12-1-1, 3 KOs) over ten by scores of 100-90 3x.

6’9 heavyweight prospect Antonio “El Gigante” Mireles (7-0, 6 KOs) was lucky to get a split decision against 321lb Patrick Mailata (6-2, 3 KOs) in a six-round bout. Mireles came off the canvas in round three to win 57-56, 57-56 on two cards. Mailata was up 57-56 on the third card.

Unbeaten lightweight Raymond Muratalla (17-0, 14 KOs) recovered from a first round knockdown to stop Humberto Galindo (14-3-1, 11 KOs) with a body shot in round nine. Time was 2:40.

Other Results:
Charlie Sheehy W6 Angel Rebollar (lightweight)
Eduardo Alvarez D4 Jessie James Guerrero (light flyweight)
Ricardo Ruvalcaba KO1 Marco Antonio Cardenas (junior welterweight)
Subaru Murata KO1 Jose Negrete (junior featherweight)

WBO cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie (19-0, 14 KOs) scored a sloppy twelve round unanimous decision over previously unbeaten mandatory challenger David “The Great White” Light (20-1, 12 KOs) on Saturday night at the AO Arena in Manchester, England. The lanky Okolie kept Light at long range and controlled the early rounds. Lots of wrestling with few clean punches landed. Scores were 116-112, 119-108, 117-110.

2020 Olympic super heavyweight bronze medalist Frazer “Big Fraze” Clarke (6-0, 5 KOs) punished late sub Bogdan Dinu (20-5, 16 KOs) for two rounds. Dinu didn’t come out for round three.

Super featherweight Michael Gomez Jr (19-1, 5 KOs), son of Manchester boxing legend Michael Gomez, won a ten round split decision over previusly unbeaten Levi Giles (13-1, 3 KOs) in a bout for the vacant English belt. Scores were 97-93 and 97-94 Gomez, 96-95 Giles.

Other Results:
Karriss Artingstall W6 Linzi Kuczyński (female featherweight)
Callum Simpson KO3 Celso Neves (super middleweight)

Undefeated WBC #2, WBA #5, WBO #11 super middleweight Christian Mbilli (24-0, 20 KOs) scored an exciting ten round unanimous decision over WBC #9, IBF #13 Carlos Gongora (21-2, 16 KOs) on Thursday night at the Cabaret du Casino de Montreal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. High level fight between legit contenders with Mbilli mostly outworking Gongora. Gongora rocked Mbilli twice with uppercuts, but Mbilli recovered and fought back. Mbilli punished Gongora late. Scores were 97-93, 98-92, 99-91. Mbilli retained his WBA International and WBC Continental Americas titles. Great fight!

Heavyweight Simon Kean (23-1, 22 KOs) scored a seventh round KO over former world title challenger Eric “The Drummer Boy” Molina (29-9, 21 KOs). Slow-paced bout for the most part until things opened up in round seven. Kean finally connected with a right hand that put Molina on the canvas. Time was 2:39.

Super lightweight Steve Claggett (34-7-2, 24 KOs) broke down and stopped Rafael Guzman (26-3-2, 16 KOs) over seven brutal rounds of infighting. Guzman finally didn’t come out for round eight.

Unbeaten lightweight Luis Santana (9-0, 3 KOs) TKO’d Francisco Arturo Ramirez Martinez (11-5, 6 KOs) in round three. The bout was halted when Martinez turned away after taking a liver shot. Time was 1:23.

Other Results:
Leila Beaudoin W6 Laura Avendano (super featherweight)
Wilkens Mathieu W4 Jose Gonzalez Saldana (super middleweight)
Jhon Orobio KO1 Alejandro Medina (super featherweight)
Vanessa Lepage Joanisse W4 Princess Hairston (female cruiserweight)

By Miguel Maravilla at ringside

In a super lightweight clash elevated to main event status after the sudden implosion of the Zurdo-Rosado headliner, Filipino veteran Mercito “No Mercy” Gesta (34-3-3, 17 KOs) from San Diego was victorious Saturday night in taking a ten round split decision over former world champion and 2012 U.S Olympian Joseph “JoJo” Diaz, Jr. (32-4-1, 15 KOs) of South El Monte, California at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California.

Gesta worked from the start, letting his hands go. He was busier than Diaz but Diaz connected with the right hand towards the end of the opening round. Staying busy and jabbing in the second, Gesta outworked Diaz. Things began to pick up in the third as Diaz and Gesta exchanged inside with the Filipino fighting off the ropes and the 2012 Olympian on the attack. In the fourth, Diaz stood close and applied pressure with Gesta mixing it up using the jab from a distance and trading. Continue reading “Gesta beats JoJo by split decision”

In a war, WBA #10 heavyweight Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller (26-0-1, 22 KOs) scored an entertaining sixth round TKO over WBA #9 Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne (31-4, 27 KOs) on Saturday night at the Agenda Arena in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Both came at each other and were willing to trade power punches. Each absorbed big shots. In round four, Miller rocked Browne, but Browne survived the round. Browne had a good recovery round in round five as both continued to trade. Miller finally battered Browne to the canvas in round six and got the stoppage with his follow-up barrage. Time was 2:33.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1637196909294104578

Fast-tracking cruiserweight Soslan “Cobra” Asbarov (4-0, 1 KO) scored a ten round majority decision over WBO #11 Brandon “Bulletproof” Glanton (17-2, 14 KOs). Slow-paced fight for the first five rounds. Glanton got the better of it down the stretch, but it was too little, too late. Scores were 98-92, 97-93, 95-95. Glanton was coming off a controversial loss in a WBO eliminator, so good name for Asbarov’s resume.

WBA #5, IBF #11 super featherweight Jono “King Kong” Carroll (24-2-1, 7 KOs) outscored three-time world title challenger Miguel “The Scorpion” Marriaga (30-7, 26 KOs). Scores were 100-90, 99-91, 98-92. The fight was closer than the scores indicated. Continue reading “Big Baby spanks Big Daddy in six”

In an IBF light heavyweight world title eliminator, 7:1 underdog Michael Eifert (12-1, 4 KOs) scored a surprising twelve round unanimous decision over 40-year-old former world champion Jean Pascal (36-7-1, 20 KOs) became mandatory challenger for IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev. The quicker Eifert, 25, outboxed and outworked Pascal, while Pascal mostly missed with wild power punches. Eifert slowed down a bit midway and Pascal began to connect more often. However, Eifert continued to outwork Pascal, who often looked old and sluggish late in the fight. Scores were 118-110, 115-113, 117-111.

Junior welterweight Mathieu Germain (22-2-1, 9 KOs) scored a ten round unanimous decision against Steven Wilcox (24-4-1, 7 KOs). Scores were 96-94, 97-93, 97-93.

In an upset, unheralded female junior welterweight Karla Ramos Zamora (10-9-1, 2 KOs) scored a fourth round TKO against former world title challenger Jessica Camara (10-4, 2 KOs). A barrage of unanswered punches prompted a referee’s stoppage. Time was 1:46. Zamora claimed the IBF International title.

2016 Olympian light heavyweight “Mighty” Joe Ward (9-1, 5 KOs) needed just 91 seconds to annihilate previously undefeated Mario Andrade Rodriguez (7-1, 4 KOs). Ward dropped Rodriguez with a left hook then quickly finished him.

Former two-time world champion Oscar Valdez will be returning to the ring on May 20th on the undercard of Vassily Lomachenko vs. Devin Haney at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Manager Frank Espinoza confirmed the date for the Nogales, Sonora native. “Once Oscar get past his next opponent in May, he will most likely face world champion Emmanuel Navarrete for the 130 pound title,” Espinoza affirmed. “That fight will take place in August or September.” Continue reading “Oscar Valdez returns May 20”

Four-time former world champion Adrien Broner has teamed up with “Hall of Famer” promoter Don King. Currently campaigning at super lightweight/welterweight (140/147 pounds), Broner has been out of the ring since he fought on February 20, 2021, and won a unanimous decision against Jovanie Santiago at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.

“Fantastic boxing excitement is already permeating the boxing atmosphere,” said King.“This phenomenal team-up of superstar exciting bad boy of boxing Adrien Broner and the world’s greatest boxing promoter, will give the people what they want–the best of boxing, and the best boxing excitement… capturing the imagination, the heart, and the mind, stimulating the boxing imagination’s begging the all-important question, when is the next event?

“Adrien is ready and excited to show his championship skills once again for the delight of the great boxing fans. As his proud promoter drops the gauntlet to all the other promoters and challenges them to bring forth their best fighters to (meet) fight super star bad boy of boxing Adrien Broner. Bob Arum, Frank Warren, Al Haymon, Eddie Hearn, and any other promoter with a hot commodity champion, we welcome them all.”

WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury stated today that his April 29 clash with WBA/IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk is “definitely a worker” and now he’s headed to training camp.

By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing

Undefeated WBO #1 rated Tim Tszyu (22-0, 16 KOs) stepped out of the shadow of his ring legend father Kostya Tszyu to stop former world champion Tony “Superbad” Harrison (29-4-1, 21 KOs) in round nine to claim the vacant WBO interim junior middleweight title on Sunday morning at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Harrison was able to keep Tszyu on the end of his jab in round one. Tszyu upped the pressure in round two. Tszyu rocked Harrison with heavy artillery in round three. Harrison continued to land the jab, but most the power punches were landed by Tszyu. Tzsyu finally dropped Harrison hard with a barrage of punches in round nine. Harrison barely beat the count, but referee Danrex Tapdasan waved it off. Time was 2:43 of round nine.

With the win, Tszyu set up a clash against undisputed super welterweight world champion Jermell Charlo. After the fight, Tzsyu shouted, “What’s my motherf**king name? Say my motherf**king name!”

At the time of the stoppage, Tszyu was ahead 77-75 on all three cards.

42-year-old heavyweight Carlos Takam (40-7-1, 28 KOs) scored a ten round split decision over 2016 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Tony Yoka (11-2, 9 KOs) on Saturday night at Zenith Paris in Paris, France. Yoka never got untracked and Takam pressed him all the way to deservedly win 96-94, 96-94 on two cards. Yoka was somehow ahead 96-94 on the third card. Two straight losses for Yoka now, following his defeat to Martin Bakole last May. Yoka was a 6:1 favorite.

In a bout for the European light heavyweight title, unbeaten Dan Azeez (19-0, 13 KOs) broke down and stopped Thomas Faure (21-5-1, 2 KOs) in round twelve. No time announced. Tough gritty fight. Faure not happy about the stoppage.

In a female welterweight bout, Olympic gold medalist Lauren Price (3-0, 1 KO) shut out Naomi Mannes (6-1, 4 KOs) over eight 80-72 3x.

Undefeated middleweight Farrhad Saad (8-0-2, 0 KOs) and Macaulay McGowan (17-3-2, 3 KOs) battled to an eight round draw. Scores were 77-75, 76-76, 76-76.

WBA middleweight Gennady Golovkin and his team sent a communication to the organization to announce his decision to relinquish the WBA’s “super” championship, leaving “regular” champion Erislandy Lara as the WBA’s only 160lb world champion. Golovkin and his team explained that GGG is still not clear about his next step in boxing and they prefer to give up the title since the organization had ordered a purse bid for the mandatory fight against Lara. He assured that they prefer the division to continue with movement and not to make Team Lara wait.

The WBA Championships Committee will now study Lara’s situation as champion and determine who he should face in his next fight.

Currently, the WBA’s top five contenders are: 1. Michael Zerafa, 2. Sergio Martinez, 3. Austin Williams, 4. Connor Coyle, and 5. Thomas LaManna, so Lara could wind up facing one of them.

Inoue to make ambitious invasion in 122lb division against Fulton

By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Time will come soon. “The Monster” Naoya Inoue (24-0, 21 KOs), Japan, will have an ambitious shot at the WBC, WBO 122-pound belts against also unbeaten Stephen Fulton (21-0, 8 KOs), US, at the Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan, on May 7. Naoya, formerly undisputed bantam four-belt kingpin, will aim for his fourth division championship after he completely renounced all the 118-pound belts last month in order to have a crack against the ringwise Fulton. It was announced by Ohashi Promotions today (Tuesday) in Tokyo. Inoue, 29, confidently said, “I’m happy to have this event eventually announced publicly. It is a challenge to myself that I’ll invade into the super-bantam category and make myself in a tip-top condition. It truly motivates me that I’ll welcome the big fight at my first fight after moving up to the 122-pound class.”

Inoue described his target Fulton, saying, “He is a taller boxer with a more advantageous reach. It might be hard to finish him, but I’d like to concentrate to be victorious, I believe I am more powerful and faster than Fulton. I don’t know at this moment what game plan I will take against Fulton. Continue reading “Inoue-Fulton Kickoff Press Conference”