Fightnews.com

By Hesiquio Balderas

Mexican legend Erik Morales confirmed in his podcast that the fight between his pupil, former jr middleweight champion Jaime Munguía, and former middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs is a done deal and the fight will take place very soon. Morales also explained why Munguia-Charlo isn’t happening.

Munguía-Jacobs

“It’s a catch weight. I don’t know exactly at what weight it will be, but the fight is a done deal,” said Morales. “It’s a very tough fight. Danny Jacobs is a great fighter and he is up there competing. He lost his last fight but it was a close one on foreign soil. He is still elite and it will be a great fight.”

“Fernando Beltrán told me that the fight is set and we will be fighting above 160 pounds,” added Morales. Continue reading “Morales: Munguía-Jacobs is a done deal”

WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury will defend his crown against Dillian Whyte in front of a sold-out crowd of 94,000 at London’s Wembley Stadium (Live in the U.S. on ESPN+ PPV, 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT).

Current Odds (courtesy www.BetOnline.ag):

Tyson Fury vs Dillian Whyte
Tyson Fury -600 (1/6)
Dillian Whyte +450 (9/2)

Tyson Fury vs Dillian Whyte Props

Will the Fight go the Scheduled Distance?
Yes +240 (12/5)
No -300 (1/3)

Continue reading “Fury-Whyte collide today”

By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Shifty southpaw Masataka Taniguchi (16-3, 11 KOs), 105, successfully made his initial defense of the WBO 105-pound belt as he halted overweight opposition Kai Ishizawa (10-2, 9 KOs), no less than 110, with his incessant combinations at 2:29 of the eleventh round on Friday in Tokyo, Japan. It was such a lopsided affair that the champ kept battering the slower and sluggish foe upstairs and downstairs all the way.　Prior to the well-received halt, all the tallies were perfectly identical—Katsuhiko Nakamura, Masakazu Murase and Masahiro Muroya 99-91, giving only the third round to Micro Tyson. The referee was Michiaki Someya. All were out of the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC). Continue reading “Taniguchi halts Micro Tyson, keeps WBO 105lb belt”

Former IBF bantamweight champion Paul Butler (36-2, 15 KOs) outpointed late sub Jonas Sultan (18-6, 11 KOs) over twelve rounds to claim the vacant WBO interim bantamweight world title on Friday night at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena. Scores were 116-112, 118-110, 117-111.

Butler, who won the IBF belt in 2014 but never defended it, was originally slated to challenge WBO bantamweight champion John Riel Casimero, but Casimero was forced to pull out due to weight issues and will likely be stripped.

Unbeaten former Italian super middleweight champion Ivan Zucco (16-0, 14 KOs) scored an exciting second round TKO over Marko Nikolic (28-2, 12 KOs) for the vacant WBC International title on Friday night at the Palazzo Dello Sport in Verbania, Piemonte, Italy. Zucco was staggered at the end of round one, but he dropped Nikolic twice in round two. Nikolic beat the count and seemed OK, but the bout was waved off despite Nikolic’s complaints. Time was 1:30.

Zucco said, “After Nikolic hit me hard to the face at the end of the first round I went back to my corner and my father/trainer Andrea told me to calm down, to keep my hands up and don’t trade punches immediately, but I was too angry with Nikolic and wanted to hit him hard. After I sent Nikolic to the mat with that straight left to the chin, I realized that he was hurt and that I could try to knock him out. That’s what I did with that right hook to the jaw.” Continue reading “Zucco stops Nikolic, remains unbeaten”

Unheralded super lightweight Alejandro Meneses (16-5, 9 KOs) stopped previously unbeaten local hero Sam Maxwell (16-1, 11 KOs) to win the vacant IBO title on the Butler-Sultan undercard in Liverpool, England. Meneses dropped Maxwell in round four. Meneses battered Maxwell from pillar to post in round seven. Meneses floored Maxwell again in round nine and got the stoppage with his follow-up barrage. Time was 2:29. Great fight!

Former WBA super middleweight champion “Rocky from Stocky” Fielding (29-2, 17 KOs), now competing at light heavyweight, scored a third round TKO over journeyman Timo Laine (30-18, 12 KOs). The referee waved off the mismatch at 1:34.

Former featherweight title challenger Jazza Dickens (31-4, 12 KOs) scored a fifth round KO against former Euro champ Andoni Gago (25-5-4, 7 KOs). Dickens dropped Gago in round three and finished him at 2:52 of round five.

Olympian super bantamweight Peter McGrail (4-0, 3 KOs) scored a fourth round KO over Uriel Lopez Juarez (15-18-1, 7 KOs).

Former WBO 168lb world champion and light heavyweight contender Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramírez (43-0, 29 KOs) will face former WBA interim light heavyweight champion Dominic Boesel (32-2, 12 KOs) on May 14 at Toyota Arena in Ontario, CA, and will stream live exclusively on DAZN. The 12-round fight will pit the WBA #1 ranked Boesel against the #2 WBA ranked Ramirez.

The co-main event will feature undefeated lightweight William “El Camaron” Zepeda (25-0, 23 KOs) defending his WBA Continental Americas title against former world champion Rene “Gemelo” Alvarado (32-11, 21 KOs) in a 10-rounder.

Tyson Fury 264.8 vs. Dillian Whyte 253.25
(WBC heavyweight title)

*Some confusion about Fury’s weight. Ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. initially announced Fury’s weight as “264 pounds, 13 ounces.” He quickly amended Fury’s weight to “263 pounds, 13 ounces.” Turns out Jimmy had it right the first time.

Ekow Essuman 146.5 vs. Darren Tetley 145.75
Isaac Lowe 125.25 vs. Nick Ball 125.5
Tommy Fury 177.75 vs. Daniel Bocianski 175
David Adeleye 232.4 vs. Chris Healey 282
Royston Barney-Smith 132 vs. Constantin Radoi 132
Karol Itauma 175.75 vs. Michal Ciach 175.75
Kurt Walker 129 vs. Stefan Nicolae 127.4

Venue: Wembley Stadium, London
Promoter: Queensberry, Top Rank
TV: PPV, ESPN+ (undercard)

By Joe Koizumi

Shifty southpaw Masataka Taniguchi (16-3, 11 KOs), 105, successfully made his initial defense of the WBO 105-pound belt as he halted overweight opposition Kai “Micro Tyson” Ishizawa (10-2, 9 KOs), no less than 110, with his incessant combinations at 2:29 of the eleventh round on Friday in Tokyo, Japan. It was such a lopsided affair that the champ kept battering the slower and sluggish foe upstairs and downstairs all the way.

(More to come)

By Ron Jackson

Cowin Ray was most impressive in stopping his #2 challenger Andile Mtungwa in the third round to retain the South African super middleweight title on Thursday night at The Galleria in Sandton. The time was 2:58.

It was a confident and superbly conditioned Ray (8-0, 6 KOs) who fights from the southpaw that came into the ring to make the first defense of his title. Continue reading “Cowin Ray retains SA title on a third round stoppage”

By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing

Undisputed IBF, WBA, WBO and WBC Franchise lightweight champion George “Ferocious” Kambosos is expecting 60,000 fans to attend his clash with WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney on June 5 (June 4 in the USA) at the Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

“I love fighting in America,” Kambosos told the Herald newspaper. “I love being that road warrior, but I’ve paid my dues and earned my stripes. It’s time that these guys get out of their comfort zone and do it the way I did it. It’s different because they’re getting out of their comfort zone but have got all the luxuries. They get millions of dollars to come over here. When I went and did it, I was fighting for $5,000 or $10,000 max. Continue reading “Kambosos expecting sellout crowd”

Fightnews.com® spoke to future Hall of Famer and living legend “The Filipino Flash” Nonito Donaire about his start in boxing, how he got that nickname, his rematch coming up June 7 with “The Monster” Naoya Inoue, a potential mega showdown with another living legend Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez and so much more in this exclusive interview.

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Former IBF light flyweight champion Felix “El Gemelo” Alvarado (37-2, 32 KOs) of Nicaragua recently vacated his world title. He will return to the ring on May 21 in his native Nicaragua against an opponent to be announced. Alvarado wasted no time in making it clear about his immediate goals. His sights are on any of the current world champions of the four major sanctioning bodies at flyweight that will give him an opportunity. He is even open to a major fight at super flyweight where there are some big names at the top of the list.

Felix what made you vacate your title to move to 112lbs?

The main thing was for my health. It was getting harder for me to make the 108lb maximum weight limit. Continue reading “Ex-champ Alvarado ready for all champs at 112”

Lightweight Mercito “No Mercy” Gesta (33-3-3, 17 KOs) won a ten round unanimous decision over Joel Diaz, Jr. (26-3, 22 KOs) on Thursday night at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California. Southpaw Gesta floored Diaz twice in round one with straight left hands. Diaz rebounded well in round two and there was good two-way action the rest of the way. Scores were 96-92, 96-92, 95-93. Gesta was a slight underdog coming in.

Unbeaten lightweight Jousce “Tito” Gonzalez (12-0-1, 11 KOs) stopped durable veteran Jairo “Doberman” Lopez (27-15, 17 KOs) in round six. Gonzalez dropped Lopez once in round two and twice in round three. The fight was finally waved off by the referee at 2:59 of round six. Continue reading “Gesta defeats Diaz by unanimous decision”

Unified WBC, WBA and IBF world champion Jermell Charlo and WBO world champion Brian Castaño exchanged promises to deliver knockouts and revealed glimpses of the distaste they have for each other during a virtual press conference Thursday before their rematch for undisputed status at 154-pounds on May 14 live on Showtime from Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif.

Jermell Charlo: “I’m going to have him hurting and crying. This isn’t about Castaño, this is about Jermell Charlo.”

Brian Castaño: “I’m going to make him pay for everything he said and everything that happened in the first fight. I’m going to break him and I’m going to make him suffer.”

More quotes…

Alen Babic (10-0, 10 KOs) will look to keep his destructive knockout streak going when he takes on Adam Balski (16-1, 9 KOs) for the vacant WBC silver bridgerweight title on the undercard of Joshua Buatsi’s huge domestic light heavyweight clash with Craig Richards at The O2 in London on May 21, live worldwide on DAZN (excluding New Zealand and Australia, as usual).

In other action, WBC/IBF female super lightweight champion Chantelle Cameron (15-0, 8 KOs) defends her crowns against former champion Victoria Noelia Bustos (23-6, 0 KOs) and super lightweight Robbie Davies Jr (22-3, 15 KOs) puts his WBA Continental title on the line against  Javier Molina (22-4, 9 KOs).

Lightweight Raymond “Danger” Muratalla (13-0, 11 KOs) will fight Jeremy Hill (16-2, 11 KOs) in an eight-rounder on the ESPN+ undercard of the Oscar Valdez-Shakur Stevenson WBC/WBO junior lightweight title unification tilt on April 30 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

In other undercard bouts:

Junior lightweight Andres “Savage” Cortes (16-0, 9 KOs), who recently inked a long-term contract with Top Rank, faces Alexis del Bosque (18-5-1, 9 KOs) in an eight-rounder. Continue reading “Valdez-Stevenson undercard”

The WBA set Friday, April 29 as the date for the bidding to grant the promotional rights of the super welterweight eliminator fight between Israil Madrimov and Michel Soro. Madrimov and Soro will fight in a rematch and the WBA gave them the regular deadline for negotiation. Upon expiration of such period, the fight was open to bidding pursuant to the WBA regulations.

The bidding will held online through the Zoom platform and will be presided by Carlos Chávez, director of the WBA Championships Committee. The minimum amount to obtain the rights to the fight will be US$ 110,000.00 and the split will be 50% for each of the fighters.

By TMZ.com

Mike Tyson seemed to lose his cool on a plane on Wednesday night … repeatedly punching a man in the face after the guy had apparently annoyed him. TMZ Sports has learned … the incident all went down at around 10:30 PM PT as Tyson was slated to fly out of San Francisco International Airport to Florida.

A witness on the plane says as he and his friend were boarding Tyson’s flight … the boxing legend was initially cool with them and the other passengers. Continue reading “Mike Tyson involved in airplane scuffle”

Paul Butler 117.8 vs. Jonas Sultan 117.6
(WBO interim world bantamweight title)

Peter McGrail 124.4 vs. Uriel Lopez 124.2
Sam Maxwell 138.8 vs. Alejandro Meneses 139.2
James Dickens 126 vs. Andoni Gago 125.2
Rocky Fielding 175.4 vs. Timo Laine 171.4
Will Cawley 119.6 vs. Marius Vysniauskas 117.6
Harry Kinsella 130 vs. Christian Narvaez 131
Joe McGrail 122 vs. Mohammed Alwarith 121.6
Frankie Stringer 136 vs. Simas Volosinas ??
Steven Cairns 133 vs. Jose Hernandez 127
Blane Hyland 118 vs. Stephen Jackson 117

Venue: M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England
Promoter: Probellum
TV: Probellum.com

By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Hard-hitting 105-pound challenger Kai Ishizawa (10-1, 9 KOs) is called “Japanese Micro Tyson.” because of his tremendous power punching. WBO#5 Ishizawa is slated to have an ambitious shot at the defending champ, his grudge rival Masataka Taniguchi (15-3, 10 KOs) tomorrow at the Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan. At the weigh-in ceremony of today (Thursday), however, Micro Tyson couldn’t make the contracted 105-pound class limit but scaled in at 50.1 kilogram (110.5 pounds), no less than 5.5 pounds over the limit. The champ Taniguchi tipped the beam at the 105-pound class limit. Problem was that Micro Tyson, although given two hours, reduced just half a pound (200 gram). His final weight was 49.9 kilogram (110 pound).

Taniguchi at first refused to fight Micro Tyson because he thought Ishizawa didn’t pay his best effort but reduced only half a pound in two hours. Plus, Ishizawa was five pounds heavier than him. His promoter Hitoshi Watanabe and manager Shinji Fukamachi finally persuaded the champ to fight Micro Tyson under the condition that Ishizawa should not weigh more than 3 kilogram (some 6.6 pounds) over the 105-pound limit—that is, less than 50.6 kilogram–at the point of 5:30 PM, three hours before the title bout. Continue reading “Japanese Micro Tyson fails to make weight”

Joel Diaz Jr 134.6 vs. Mercito Gesta 134.8
Jousce Gonzalez 134.4 vs. Jairo Lopez 133.2
Manuel Flores 119.4 vs. Victor Ruiz 119.6
Jan Salvatierra 111.6 vs. Ernie Marquez 110.8
Jorge Chavez 127.8 vs. Jonathan Tejeda 124.8

Venue: Fantasy Springs Casino, Indio, California
Promoter: Golden Boy
TV: DAZN

Unbeaten junior welterweight Nestor Bravo (20-0, 14 KOs) has signed a co-promotional agreement with American Dream Presents, Boxlab Promotions and GH3 Promotions. Bravo returns to the ring Saturday, May 21 and will face former two-time world title challenger Fernando David Saucedo,(63-9-3, 10 KOs) in an eight-rounder. Bravo-Saucedo will be televised as part of Entrobox Fight Series on Bally Sports Network from the Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida. Continue reading “Unbeaten Bravo inks promo deal, returns May 21”

Boxing returns to Las Vegas on May 5, two days before Canelo-Bivol. Reid Boxing will put on a good-looking show at the Sahara Event Center featuring not one, but three matchups with hot prospects putting their undefeated records on the line.

In the main event, super middleweight Lester Martinez (11-0, 10 KOs) will square off against Juan Abraham Villegas (17-0, 13 KOs) in a 10-rounder. Martinez defeated Ricardo Mayorga in his pro debut.

The co-main event will showcase light heavyweights Robin Sirwan Safar (14-0, 10 KOs) and Christian Thomas (11-0, 9 KOs) in an additional battle of undefeated prospects putting their unbeaten records to the test.

The undercard bouts include heavyweights DeAndre Savage (3-0, 3 KOs) and Antonio Zapeda (3-0, 3 KOs) in a scheduled 6-round bout. Again, someone’s “0” must go. Also unbeaten lightweight Able Mendoza (32-0, 25 KOs) meets Ricardo Proano (11-4, 9 KOs) in a 10-rounder.

Tickets priced $20, $25, $35, $50, $75, $100 and $150 (VIP).

The drama surrounding whether Dillian Whyte would show up for Wednesday’s press conference was much ado about nothing. Whyte arrived on time, and he and WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury exchanged more pleasantries than trash talk three days out from their PPV showdown at Wembley Stadium. Continue reading “Fury-Whyte presser quotes”