Fightnews.com

By Miguel Maravilla

Former world champion Lucas “La Maquina” Matthysse (38-4, 35 KOs), of Chubut, Argentina, held a press conference on Tuesday afternoon at Malbec Argentinean Cuisine in Santa Monica, California to announce his upcoming fight against undefeated Thai superstar Tewa Kiram (38-0, 28 KOs) for the vacant WBA welterweight world title. Matthyse will square off against Kiram Saturday January 27th at at the “Fabulous” Forum in Inglewood, California live on HBO Boxing After Dark.

Lucas Matthysse: “We have started camp. Now I’m looking forward to finish this camp and get ready for this fight.” Continue reading “Lucas Matthysee set for Jan 27 return”

Uzbekistan power-puncher Shohjahon Ergashev will face the toughest test of his career in fellow undefeated and top-10 ranked Sonny Fredrickson in the telecast opener of ShoBox: The New Generation on Friday, Jan. 12 live on SHOWTIME (10 p.m. ET/PT) from Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, N.Y.

In the co-feature of the tripleheader headlined by the Claressa Shields-Tori Nelson Women’s 10-round Super Middleweight World Championship, Jesse Hernandez (10-1, 7 KOs) will take on former National Golden Gloves Gold Medalist Ernesto Garza (9-2, 5 KOs; 1-3 WSB) in a 10-round super bantamweight bout between two all-action fighters.

Ergashev (11-0, 11 KOs), who has recorded a knockout in each of his first 11 professional fights, and Fredrickson (18-0, 12 KOs) of Toledo, Ohio, will contest an eight-round super lightweight bout. Continue reading “Ergashev-Fredrickson collide Jan 12 on ShoBox”

Heavyweight boxers Tyson and Hughie Fury are free to immediately resume their boxing careers after coming to a joint agreement with UKAD today to finally resolve the ongoing anti-doping proceeding. Tyson and Hughie have always maintained their innocence after elevated levels of nandrolone metabolites were detected in urine samples provided after their fights in February 2015.

While Tyson and Hughie were ready and prepared to see the hearing through, they decided to settle with UKAD and bring this long-running dispute to a close. In doing so, Tyson and Hughie avoid any further unnecessary distractions and interuptions to their careers.

Tyson, the unbeaten former Unified world heavyweight champion, is now determined to return and dominate the heavyweight division. Continue reading “Anti-doping proceedings against Furys terminated”

Following the outstanding response to Superfly 2 being announced last week, a ten-round super flyweight clash has been added with former WBC super flyweight champion Carlos “Principe” Cuadras (36-2-1, 27 KOs) facing two-time world title challenger McWilliams Arroyo (16-3, 14 KOs) on HBO February 24 from the Forum in Los Angeles.

The card is headlined by WBC super flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (43-4-1, 39 KOs) defending his title over 12-rounds for the second time against former world champion and #1 ranked mandatory challenger Juan Francisco “El Gallo” Estrada (36-2, 25 KOs). Additional information on Superfly 2 will be announced shortly. Continue reading “Cuadras-Arroyo added to Superfly 2”

On Thursday, DiBella Entertainment will return to B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in Manhattan for the first time since March 2016, with its highly anticipated year-end Broadway Boxing “Season’s Beatings” event. The tremendous seven-bout card will include three outstanding matchups featuring six undefeated prospects as well as the return of former world lightweight champion Dejan Zlaticanin. All bouts will be available for viewing by visiting the DiBella Entertainment Facebook page.

“This is the kind of boxing card that would make Showtime’s Gordon Hall very proud,” said Lou DiBella, President of DiBella Entertainment. “Just like our recent ShoBox card in Cleveland, this event will match several undefeated prospects against one another as they vie to advance their careers. Former lightweight champion Dejan Zlaticanin will also begin his comeback on Thursday night. This is one of the best ‘Broadway Boxing’ shows we’ve had in the series and I’m thrilled to end the year with a bang for the local fight fans in attendance and those watching live on our Facebook page.” Continue reading “Broadway Boxing hits Broadway”

By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Upcoming late-bloomer, IBF#10/WBA#13/WBO#13 Ryuichi Funai (29-7, 20 KOs), a lanky KO artist at 114.75, kept his Japanese national 115-pound belt as he displayed a devastating overhand right to a game warrior from Osaka, Shota Kawaguchi (21-9-1, 9 KOs), 114.75, and badly dropped him to prompt the referee Nakamura’s intervention at 3:09 of the second round on Monday in Tokyo, Japan.

Funai, a year his junior at 32 and making his second defense, was a little befuddled by Kawaguchi’s tricky style before his coup-de-grace exploded at the jaw of the loser, who fell prone and attempted to raise himself only to succumb forward again. Since he once failed to win the national belt from unbeaten Sho Ishida (who recently lost to Khalid Yafai with the WBA belt on the line in Cardiff, UK) via majority nod last year, Funai thus registered five victories straight with four within the distance. Continue reading “IBF #10 Funai halts Kawaguchi to keep Japanese 115lb belt”

By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing

Jeff Horn 146.6 vs. Gary Corcoran 146.5
(WBO welterweight title)

“It’s always good to get in nice and close to that weight but not go over it, because it can be stressful,” stated Horn, reportedly lost 9 pounds in the final 24 hours. “It’s always a struggle … (but) I’ve done this plenty of times before. I feel like I’ll be feeling good tomorrow. I’m going to have a good feed tonight and just relax, watch a movie, have a nice sleep, get up and do the business.”

Venue: Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Brisbane, Australia
Promoter: Duco Events/Top Rank
TV: ESPN

By Héctor Villarreal

Panamanian featherweight Bryan “La Roca” De Gracia (21-1, 17 KOs), ranked #12 by WBA, and his opponent Sergio “Time to Shine” Perales (24-2, 16 KOs), from Texas, USA, went face-to-face for the first time on Monday at the final press conference before their 8 rounds fight scheduled for Thursday night at Fantastic Casino Albrook Mall in Panama City, Panama.

“This is a great opportunity for me to get into the World rankings so I did not hesitate to accept when my promoter told me about coming to fight in Panama” said Perales, who faces De Gracia on the main event of the “Tormenta Perfecta” boxing card which is the final event of Promociones y Eventos del Istmo in year 2017.

“Perales is shorter than me and recently he has been not so active but I have to be very carefull because he is a little more experienced and has almost my same KO ratio,” said De Gracia.

Update: ESPN announced that the near-three hour Lomachenko-Rigondeaux boxing event posted an average of 1,730,00 viewers.

Saturday night’s Top Rank on ESPN telecast featuring Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux had a 1.5 metered market rating and was the second highest-rated boxing telecast on cable in 2017. Only Manny Pacquiao vs. Jeff Horn had a higher rating. It should be noted that Lomachenko-Rigondeaux was going head-to-head with a boxing telecast on HBO.

The Twitter feud between WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders and former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux escalated during a conference call with reporters Monday. They collide December 16 on HBO in Montreal.

David Lemieux: I’m really excited for this fight. I’m more excited, actually, just to lay my hands on Billy Joe Saunders more than anything else. He’s got a big mouth…I’m going to make him pay in the ring. All this animosity is going to come out in the ring. If he thinks he can run away for 12 rounds, he’s in a lot of trouble…he said a whole bunch of things. Just his character, he is who he is, and I don’t like him.

Billy Joe Saunders: [On Lemieux’s impressive KO ratio] Against bums, yeah, knocking out old men, but he got stuck against Rubio. He’s a tough man with power. He lost his next and then fought bums all the way up until Golovkin. Curtis Stevens, he’s not an A-level fighter. He’s just a step up, a bit of a seasonal fighter. He’s really nothing special. He dealt with him, fair play. But he got spanked by Golovkin previous to that. When you mix him up against the very, very best of the league, he’s not quite comfortable. He didn’t win a round against Golovkin.

Francesco Patera 134,3 vs. Edis Tatli 134,7
(European lightweight championship)

Timo Laine 169,8 vs. Pjotr Filatov 169,8
Oskari Metz 149,9 vs. Dzianis Yahorenka 149,3
Jose Antonio Sanchez Romero 125,7 vs. Krzysztof Rogowski 124,6
Antti Hietala 151,3 vs. Aliaksandr Abramenka 141,1
Elena Saveleva 113,1 vs. Oksana Romanova 109,3
Krenar Aliu 202,2 vs. Andreii Isakov 187,6

Venue: Kisahalli, Helsinki, Finland
Promoter: P3 Boxing
Live stream: Viaplay

Kell Brook will face Sergey Rabchenko on his debut at Super-Welterweight at the FlyDSA Arena in Sheffield on March 3, live on Sky Sports. Brook is gunning to become a two-weight World champion and that journey starts in his seventh outing in his hometown arena, and marks a return to action following his IBF World Welterweight showdown with Errol Spence at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane ground in May, hot on the heels of his showdown with Middleweight beast Gennady Golovkin

‘The Special One’ is wasting no time in testing himself at his new weight by taking on Rabchenko. The Belarussian is ranked number seven in the WBC and won the European title by stopping Brook’s fellow Ingle Gym product and Steel City son Ryan Rhodes, so Brook knows that the stakes are once again high as he looks to make a statement at 154lbs. Continue reading “Brook makes superwelter bow against Rabchenko”

Explosive foul play claims by the Gary Corcoran camp has lit the fuse ahead of Wednesday night’s showdown between the Englishman and Australia’s world boxing champion Jeff Horn at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC). Speaking at today’s official press conference at the BCEC, Corcoran’s trainer Frank Greaves accused the Brisbane boxer of continually moving forward and using a head butt.

Greaves produced the video above of examples from Horn’s previous bouts and has promised his boxer will fight fire with fire if Horn uses the same tactics. The allegation is strongly refuted by the Horn camp, who are confident of their first world title defense.

By Ray Wheatley — World of Boxing

WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn will target Terence Crawford, IBF champion Errol Spence and WBC, WBA champion Kieth Thurman after he defends the WBO championship against WBO #10 Gary Corcoran on Wednesday according to trainer Glenn Rushton who talked to Grantlee Kieza of the Courier Mail.

Horn tonight begins the agonizing ritual of dramatic weight loss with a boxing session behind closed doors with coach Glenn Rushton. He says he will eventually move to the heavier junior middleweight and middleweight divisions because it has been so hard for him to shed almost 22 pounds since the celebrations ended after his July world title win over Manny Pacquiao. But Rushton insists he still wants Horn to beat his main welterweight rivals Crawford, Spence and Thurman before going up a weight. Continue reading “Horn Camp targets Crawford, Spence, Thurman”

By Marco Bratusch

Last May, after twelve rounds of two-way action at the Gatorade Center in Turku, Finland, a surprising outcome moved the European lightweight belt into the hands of little-known challenger Francesco Patera who was facing decorated titlist and local favorite Edis Tatli.

The facility is normally used to host ice hockey, but in the end the boxing ring too appeared to be ‘slippery’ for the defending champion that night. Continue reading “Euro champ Patera poised for Tatli rematch”

By Ricardo Ibarra
Photos by Mike Blair/Boxingprospects.net

Closing out what has been an outstanding year for the young Pacific Northwest cruiserweight prospect, Marquice “Tree” Weston (12-1-1, 6 KOs) defeated Ohio’s Armando Ancona (8-7-2, 5 KOs) on Saturday night at the Jackson Armory in Portland, Oregon, putting on a dominant performance over seven rounds on his way to a unanimous decision win, his fifth consecutive victory of 2017.

The fight headlined the inaugural card for former world champ Steve Forbes’ 2 Pound Sports & Entertainment, who along with partner Christina Lunzman brought professional boxing back to Portland for the first time in over a dozen years. Continue reading “Weston shuts out Ancona in Portland”

By Gabriel F. Cordero

Undefeated Mexican prospect Eduardo ‘Rocky’ Hernandez scored an easy win over experienced Venezuelan Rafael ‘Potro’ Hernandez to remain WBC Youth super featherweight champion on Saturday night at the Palenque de la Feria del Caballo in Texcoco, Mexico State. Hernandez sent Hernandez to the canvas four times before the bout was stopped in round four. Hernandez, 20, has become a serious prospect in Mexican boxing to become world champion

Former world champion Rodrigo ‘Gato’ Guerrero became the new FECOMBOX super bantamweight beltholder when he defeated Salvador ‘Pelón’ Juarez over ten exciting rounds. Scores were 97-94, 96-94 for Guerrero, 96-94 for Juarez.

Unbeaten Mexican Olympian Juan Pablo ‘Pivi’ Romero knocked out Luis ‘The Crash’ Acuña in five rounds.

By Miguel Maravilla

The career of four-time, two division world champion Orlando “Siri” Salido (44-14, 31 KOs) came to an end Saturday night in Las Vegas. After his blood-and-guts loss to Miguel “Mickey” Roman, the 37-year-old Salido says he’s hanging them up.

“I’ve beaten young fighters before, but this time it was a matter of age. Time takes its toll, and obviously I just couldn’t do it. This was my last fight. Thank you to all, to those who will remember me for all the great fights that I had, and to the people who have followed me.”

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