Fightnews.com

By Miguel Maravilla

Popular welterweight Blair Cobbs talks about his upcoming fight vs. Alexis Rocha, plus says PBC is playing with the belts.

_

By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing

Former IBF middleweight champion Sam “King” Soliman (47-16-1, 19 KOs) will clash with Jesse White (6-2, 0 KOs) on Saturday at the Melbourne Pavillion, Flemington, Melbourne, Australia. The 48-year-old Soliman scored a six round split decision over White last December.

Soliman has no thoughts of retirement and is already scheduled to collide with Troy O’Meley on May 7 in Melbourne.

Solomon-White II will be available as a $16.99 PPV stream in the United States, with the show starting around 3AM ET.

By Miguel Maravilla

Welterweight Blair “The Flair” Cobbs (15-0-1, 10 KOs) of Philadelphia will have his toughest test to date as he takes on Santa Ana, California’s Alexis “Lex” Rocha (18-1, 12 KOs) this Saturday night March 19th in the co-main event for Vergil Ortiz, Jr. vs. Michael McKinson at the University of Southern California’s Galen Center in Downtown Los Angeles live on DAZN. We caught up with Cobbs as he discussed his upcoming fight with Rocha.

“This is the main attraction, Blair the Flair vs. a top contender. Let’s see what happens it’s going to be exciting,” Blair Cobbs told Fightnews.com®. “He is a tough contender and won’t give up. He will try to give me as much resistance as possible. He might want to pressure. I have been against multiple guys; Blair the Flair is used to being in the fire. Let’s see what happens when he is in the fire. Can Alexis handle it?” Continue reading “Blair Cobbs: I will keep it exciting”

By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing

Former IBF featherweight champion Billy “The Kid” Dib (47-6, 27 KOs) returns to action on Saturday against unbeaten WBO #5, IBF #9 lightweight Jacob Ng (15-0, 11 KOs) at The Star, Gold Coast, Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia.

“The impossible has been made possible simply with the mindset that my back is up against the wall,” Dib tweeted. “March 19th no stone left unturned…my hard work in camp is already paying dividends. I’ll be skipping no meals, drinking plenty of water, tapering off my training feeling strong, refreshed & healthy all week, to feel sharp on fight night. Good luck Jacob, we all know the first fight for you is with the scales.”

The comeback of two-time WBO featherweight champion Scott Harrison (27-3-2, 15 KOs) is now over. The 44-year-old Harrison was slated to return to the ring on Saturday against Razak Nettey (22-5, 16 KOs) at the Rivals Gym, Wishaw, Scotland, but the fight was scrapped when Nettey pulled put just before their fight.

Harrison announced on social media, “I would like to announce my retirement from boxing. More bad memories than good. Should have kept working for the council as a joiner. All the best. God Bless.”

WBC #1 super Lightweight José “Chon” Zepeda returns to the ring on Saturday night at the Gimnasio Municipal “Josué Neri Santos” in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Zepeda (35-3, 27 KOs) will face Francisco “Verdugo” Pérez (18-12-1, 13 KOs) in a ten-rounder. Zepeda, of course, is now a major fan favorite after his 2020 fight of the year against Ivan Baranchyk. He most recently flattened Josué “Prodigy” Vargas in less than two minutes.

The co-feature is a good super lightweight clash between Carlos “Tiburón” Sánchez (22-0, 18 KOs) and Pedro “Roca” Campa (33-1-1, 22 KOs).

The card will be broadcast live by Azteca 7, so fire up your VPN and catch this telecast.

This past Saturday, lightweight contender Miguel “El Explosivo” Madueño (27-1, 25 KOs) suffered his first defeat as a professional, dropping a unanimous decision to former world champion Jezreel Corrales (26-4, 10 KOs) in a WBA lightweight title elimination bout. After the loss, Madueño feels he has a lot of things to work on and vows to be back stronger than ever.

“It wasn’t my night and I’m going to go back to the gym and work on all the things I know I can improve on,” said Madueño. “Corrales was fighting dirty, so I had to retaliate with some dirty tactics of my own. It wasn’t my best performance by far, but I’ll be back with an improved version of myself. This is just a minor setback.” Continue reading “Madueño: Loss just a minor setback”

Probellum has announced broadcast deals with fuboTV and ESPN KO to screen its back-to-back world title shows from Dubai to fans across North and South America. fuboTV, a $64.99/mo live TV streaming platform will broadcast the Dubai cards in the US and Canada on Fubo Sports Network, while ESPN KO will bring the action to its audience in Latin America.

The cards will air on Eurosport’s linear channels, discovery+ and Eurosport app to homes across 62 markets and territories in Europe and the Indian sub-continent.

The purse bid for the World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight championship bout between Trevor Bryan and Daniel Dubois was officially postponed to next Monday, March 21. The original date was today, March 14, but at the request of Bryan’s team, the WBA rescheduled the bid for the new date. If both teams reach an agreement before March 21, the bid could be suspended.

Bryan is the WBA regular champion and must fight Dubois, who was the interim champion of the division before the world title reduction plan was initiated in August last year, so the two must fight immediately for the black and gold heavyweight belt.

By Héctor Villarreal

Two former WBA super world champions from Panama, Anselmo “Chemito” Moreno and Jezreel “Invisible” Corrales achieved important triumphs in the main card of the WBA KO to Drugs Festival held at the Roberto Duran Arena in Panama City.

Moreno (41-6-1, 14 KOs), 36, ranked #3 at featherweight, stopped Mexican Gustavo Piña (10-4-2, 5 KOs) by TKO in the 10th and final round (1:23) to get closer to his goal of getting another world championship belt.

In a world lightweight title eliminator, Corrales (26-4, 10 KOs) overcame an early knockdown and two point deductions to outbox previously undefeated Mexican Miguel Madueño (27-1, 25 KOs) and win by unanimous decisión (117-108, 115-109, 116-108). Corrales won the right to be the mandatory challenger for Gervonta Davis.

Photos

This past Saturday, undefeated featherweight prospect, Ricky “El Castigo” Medina (13-0, 7 KOs), took one step closer to contender status as he stopped Armando Frausto (9-3-1, 5 KOs) in the eighth and final round in the main event at The Scottish Rite Theatre in San Antonio, Texas. The ring doctor was called ten seconds into the eighth round and advised the referee to stop the bout due to damage that had taken place to Frausto.

By Ricardo Ibarra

In a battle of unbeaten fighters, Marietta, Georgia’s Deonte Brown (15-0, 11 KOs) scored a ninth round TKO win over WBA #10 ranked lightweight Jesus Saracho (10-1, 9 KOs) on Saturday night at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington. Continue reading “Brown stops Saracho in Bellevue, WA”

Plenty of good fights this week with big names like Regis Prograis, Vergil Ortiz Jr., and Edgar Berlanga seeing action.

THURSDAY

UFC Fightpass returns with super middleweight Cam Kilic (15-1, 10 KOs) against Antonio Louis Hernandez (6-12-2, 4 KOs) on a Hollywood Fight Fight show at the Quiet Cannon in Montebello, California.

FRIDAY

Probellum presents cards on consecutive nights from the Duty Free Tennis Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Night One includes heavyweight Bakhodir Jalolov (9-0, 9 KOs), super featherweight Jono Carroll (21-2-1, 6 KOs), and female lightweight Estelle Yoka Mossely (9-0, 1 KO) in separate bouts. U.S. streaming is TBA.

Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing returns to the Paramount Theatre in Huntington, New York, with super bantamweights Oleh Dovhun (13-0, 5 KOs) and Geram Eloyan (7-2, 6 KOs) meeting in the main event. FITE+ will stream the card.

SATURDAY

DAZN deliver #1 welterweight prospect Vergil Ortiz Jr (18-0, 18 KOs) against Michael McKinson (21-0, 2 KOs), plus welterweight Blair Cobbs (15-0-1, KOs) in tough against Alexis Rocha (18-1, KOs). The event take place at the USC Galen Center in downtown Los Angeles.

ESPN+ counters with super middleweight KO artist Edgar Berlanga (18-0, 16 KOs) against former GGG foe Steve Rolls (21-1, 12 KOs) plus hot super welterweight prospect Xander Zayas (12-0, 9 KOs) against Quincy LaVallais (12-2-1, 7 KOs) from the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York City.

Fightzone.uk returns with a free stream from Newcastle, England, featuring heavyweight David Allen (19-5-2, 16 KOs) against 38-year-old Milen Paunov (5-8, 4 KOs).

Day Two of Probellum’s boxing weekend at the Duty Free Tennis Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Former super lightweight champion Regis Prograis (26-1, 22 KOs) takes on Tyrone McKenna (22-2-1, 6 KOs) is on the card, plus IBF flyweight champion Sunny Edwards (17-0, 4 KOs) against Muhammad Waseem (12-1, 8 KOs) and former champ TJ Doheny (22-3, 16 KOs) against Cesar “Corazon” Juarez (27-10, 20 KOs). U.S. TV is TBA.

M&R Boxing Promotions/Laura Ching will present an event at the Manual Artime Community Center Theater in Miami, Florida on Friday March 25th. The headliner will be lightweight Cuban prospect Idalberto Umara (4-1, 2 KOs) taking on Genaro Mendez (13-4-1, 7 KOs) of Mexico. The bout is scheduled for 10 rounds with the WBA FEDECARIBE at stake. Former WBA world minimumweight champion Bryan Rojas (27-4-3, 11 KOs) will be making his U.S. debut versus an opponent to be announced in an eight round co-feature.

“This card will feature a lot of stand-out Cuban fighters with extensive amateur backgrounds, a former world champion, and many more talented fighters,” said William Ramirez (WRAM Boxing).

Fights to be shown on M&R Boxing Promotions Facebook page Continue reading “Cuban prospect Umara headlines March 25 Miami”

Welterweight Przemyslaw Runowski (20-2, 5 KOs) scored a bloody ten round unanimous decision over local favorite Samuel Vargas (31-8-2, 14 KOs) on Sunday night at the Rebel Entertainment Complex, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was a tough, gritty fight with Vargas mostly pressing the action. A cut outside Runowski’s right eye bled steadily for most of the fight. Runowski dropped Vargas with a left hook in round six, but Vargas came back and hurt Runowski with a body shot later in the round. Blood gushed from a cut over Vargas right eye in round nine. Scores were 97-92, 98-91, 98-91 for Runowski, which seemed too wide. Vargas insisted afterward that he won the fight and said he’s done with boxing and not coming back. Continue reading “Runowski defeats Vargas in Toronto”

WRAM Boxing (William Ramirez) and Nica Boxing (Pablo Osuna) continued their run of monthly events Saturday night at the Nuevo Gimnasio Nicarao, in Managua, Nicaragua. The featherweight main event saw local favorite Elysson Marquez (12-2-1, 8 KOs) earn a hard fought technical decision over tough veteran Eusebio Osejo (32-27-3, 8 KOs). The bout was stopped in round seven due to a cut suffered by Marquez from a clash of heads. The fight was very competitive where officially it was announced that after four rounds two judges had it even and one had Marquez up by a round. The official scores were 68-65 and 69-64 for Marquez and 69-69 even. Continue reading “Marquez wins tech dec 7 over Osejo in Managua”

By Robert Coster

Dominican boxing fans were served with an action-packed card in Santo Domingo on Saturday night. The main event was an all-out war between prospects Misael Vasquez and Derlyn Hernandez for the Dominican junior lightweight title. Hernandez (9-1-1, 8 KOs) and Vasquez (9-3, 8 KOs), both hard punchers, went at each other mercilessly bringing the crowd to its feet. Vasquez’ left eye was completely shut after seven rounds which forced the referee to declare a TKO victory for Hernandez. Continue reading “Hernandez wins in Santo Domingo”

Responding to reports that negotiations for a bout between WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo and WBC #1 rated Jaime Munguia have broken down, Munguia’s promoter Oscar de la Hoya issued a statement on social media:

Finalizing Charlo vs Munguia is top priority. Golden Boy remains committed to our partner DAZN. DAZN understands the magnitude of this fight and is willing and able to collaborate with Showtime to get this done. I hope Showtime is on board. Oscar de la Hoya

PBC reportedly insists on putting the fight on Showtime PPV.

The WBC has a purse bid scheduled for next week for a Munguia vs. Carlos Adame eliminator with the winner becoming Charlo’s mandatory. So it looks like probably Munguia-Adame first and then, provided Munguia wins, revisiting the Munguia-Charlo fight with more leverage as the mandatory. In the meantime, Charlo would face another opponent.

After being taken from the ring area on a stretcher after a brutal KO loss, there was serious concern about Michael Conlan’s health. However, after a clean brain scan and some stitches at the hospital, Conlan was back tweeting on social media a few hours later.

About 45 minutes after Conlan’s tweet, his foe, WBA featherweight champion Leigh Wood, offered some encouragement but didn’t comment regarding a rematch.

Conlan again brought up a rematch a few hours later.

By Kurt Wolfheimer at ringside

Hard Hitting Promotions’ own undefeated super featherweight prospect Christian Tapia (14-0, 12Kos) captured the WBC Continental Americas title with a tough ten round unanimous decision victory over fellow Puerto Rican Luis Lebron (18-3, 11K0s) at the Live Casino and Hotel Philadelphia.

The fight was a battle of height versus determination. In the opening round as Lebron hurt the shorter Tapia. Lebron tried to pull the upset early, but Tapia was able to clinch and recover. In the early rounds, Lebron was able to put Tapia against the ropes and land some big shots. It changed as the rounds progressed. Tapia was winning on the inside and countering well. Tapia stepped on the gas in the seventh and eighth rounds as both traded away. He appeared ahead on the scorecards and boxed his way until the final bell.

All three judges had the bout in favor of Christian Tapia by scores of 99-91, 98-92 and 97-93. The win capped off what was an outstanding seven fight card Promoted by Hard Hitting Promotions. Continue reading “Tapia tops Lebron, remains unbeaten”

WBA featherweight champion Leigh Wood (26-2, 16 KOs) scored a spectacular, come-from-behind twelfth round KO over Olympic star Michael Conlan (16-1, 8 KOs) on Saturday night at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, England.

Conlan scored a heavy knockdown at the end of round one and Wood was saved by the bell. Conlan continued to punish Wood in round two and outboxed him until late in the fight. Wood was credited with a knockdown in round eleven, but Conlan still appeared headed to a decision win. In round twelve, Wood finally caught up with Conlan and blasted him through the ropes and out of the ring to emphatically end it. Time was 1:25.

Wood was way behind midway in the fight, but he had whittled Conlan’s lead down to 104-103, 105-102, 104-103 on the official cards entering the final round.

Conlan was taken out on a stretcher and rushed by ambulance to the hospital.

The return of two-time WBO featherweight champion Scott Harrison (27-3-2, 15 KOs) was scrapped when Harrison’s opponent pulled put just before the fight. The 44-year-old Harrison was slated to return to the ring for the first time since 2013 against Razak Nettey (22-5, 16 KOs) at the Rivals Gym, Wishaw, Scotland.

In the co-feature, a scheduled 12-round fight between relative novices, Kevin “The Denny Warrior” Traynor (5-0, 3 KOs) went the full distance to defeat Lewis “Machine Gun” Mulberry (4-1, 1 KO) for the Professional Boxing Council (PBC) British featherweight title. Scores were 117-113, 117-111, 117-111. Traynor had previously only fought in four-rounders, while Mulberry fought one six-rounder and the rest four-rounders.

Middleweight Craig Kelly (12-15-1, 3 KOs) was victorious when Theophilus Ofei Dodoo (9-3, 9 KOs) couldn’t come out for round two citing an injured hand.

Unbeaten WBA #10 lightweight Gary Cully (14-0, 8 KOs) scored a fifth round KO over former IBF champion and WBA #4 rated Miguel “Titere” Vazquez (44-11, 17 KOs) on Saturday night at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, England. Southpaw Cully cut Vazquez over the left eye with a punch in round two. Cully scored a flash knockdown in round three. Cully put Vazquez down for the count in round five with a 1-2 combo. Time was :41. The 35-year-old Vazquez looked badly faded.

Unbeaten middleweight Caoimhin Agyarko (11-0, 7 KOs) took a workmanlike ten round unanimous decision over Juan Carlos Rubio (18-2, 9 KOs). Scores were 100-90, 100-90, 98-92.

Former female champion Terri Harper (12-1-1, 6 KOs) outpointed Yamila Belen Abellaneda (13-5-1, 3 KOs) over ten rounds to win the WBA Intercontinental lightweight title. Scores were 99-91 3x.

Former two-division world champion Erica Farias (27-5, 4 KOs) scored a ten round split decision over hot prospect Sandy Ryan (3-1, 2 KOs). Scores were 97-93 Ryan, 97-94, 95-94 Farias.

By Héctor Villarreal

In the main event of the KO Drugs all-female card on Friday night, Mexican Jessica Nery Plata (28-2, 3 KOs) came from behind to beat Yesica Bopp (37-3, 17 KOs), from Argentina, to claim the WBA light flyweight belt, which had been a property of “La Tuti” Bopp for 13 years. Nery based her offense on very strong left hooks to the middle body, which paid back by the final rounds of the fight, held at Majestic Casino in Panama City, Panama. Scorecards were 97-93 for Bopp and 97-93, 96-94 for Nery who won by split decision.

Former WBA superbantam champion Chantal Martínez, (20-8, 8 KOs) escaped with a majority decision over Colombian model Mónica Henao (4-2-4, 3 KOs). Continue reading “Nery ended Bopp’s 13-year reign”

By Joe Koizumi

So shocking was coverage on Japan’s Sports Hochi yesterday (Friday) on former WBC, OPBF female flyweight champ Go Shindo (16-4, 11 KOs), 34, who will make a comeback — this time as a male boxer — to be the very first example here in Japan. Shindo, whose previous real name was Megumi Hashimoto, legally became a male in July 2017 and married a girl named Ayuka then and there.

She, nay he, retired from boxing accordingly. His current legal name is Go Hashimoto, who established a boxing fitness gym to cultivate young athletes in his native Wakayama city. It is very lately that Go expresses his wish to return to action as a male boxer, saying, “I’ve made up my mind to come back. Will do my best not to have people say he was formerly a girl. This is my life. As I really want to fight again, I’ll do so.” Shindo resumed training at Green Tsuda gym since last October. Now very muscular through weight training, Go reportedly sometimes knocked down a male sparring partner. The Japan Boxing Commission (JBC), according to Sports Hochi, says, “Since there have been no example of a female boxer turning to a male boxer, we may have to consider making a rule for such an application at first.” Go Shindo is very much willing to participate in a comeback bout within this year. Bon voyage.