Category: Boxing / UFC / MMA

Gripping contest in April damaged both men who wouldn’t be in the ring again if it weren’t for their fathers’ fights

Boxing has always been a deeply cynical business. The overwhelming objective for most promoters, and many fighters, is to rake in as much money as quickly as possible without any undue concern about looking crass or desperate.

Anyone who has spent just a little time in the company of boxers will understand that they deserve whatever cash they can make out of such a hard and dangerous activity. But promoters have ransacked the pockets of boxing fans through the decades while peddling anything and everything from Joe Louis’s “Bum of the Month” club to this week’s proposal that Anthony Joshua may make tens of millions of dollars if he steps into the ring to face Jake Paul, the former YouTuber, next month.

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• New Zealander lost high-profile bout in London

• Fight could prove his last one for a lengthy period

Joseph Parker failed a drugs test on the day of his 11th-round stoppage to British heavyweight Fabio Wardley.

Ipswich-born Wardley and New Zealander Parker produced a pulsating encounter in London on 25 October to determine who would become WBO mandatory challenger to undisputed world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.

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• Joshua and Paul finalizing December bout

• Fight expected in Miami on 19 or 26 December

• Netflix to announce matchup on Monday

Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul are finalizing a deal to meet in a heavyweight fight in Miami this December, sources told the Guardian, with Netflix preparing to announce the bout on Monday. A source with knowledge of the negotiations said the deal is done and that the fight will take place on either 19 or 26 December.

Paul had originally been scheduled to fight Gervonta Davis on 14 November at the Kaseya Center, but the event was cancelled after Davis was removed from the card amid domestic violence allegations. Davis’s former partner, Courtney Rossel, filed a civil lawsuit in Miami-Dade County accusing the lightweight champion of battery, aggravated battery, false imprisonment, kidnapping and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Miami Gardens police confirmed they are investigating the alleged incident, which Rossel says occurred at the strip club where she works. She was granted a restraining order shortly afterwards.

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• British fighter demands right to three-minute rounds

• WBC was set for purse bid for Cameron v Sandy Ryan

Chantelle Cameron relinquished her WBC super-lightweight title on Friday in a protest over women’s boxing rules, with the British fighter demanding the right to fight three-minute rounds like her male counterparts.

Cameron’s decision to vacate her championship belt stems from her opposition to the World Boxing Council’s mandate that women compete in two-minute rounds, which the 34-year-old views as unequal treatment.

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• Former white-collar boxer wins heavyweight clash in 11th

• Briton will now face world champion Oleksandr Usyk

The British heavyweight Fabio Wardley pulled off the biggest win of his career with an enormous upset over Joseph Parker to set up a world title shot against Oleksandr Usyk. In a pulsating contest at the O₂ Arena, Wardley showed he has one of the toughest chins in the sport as he swallowed several huge punches from Parker before forcing the referee, Howard Foster, to stop the bout in an explosive 11th round.

The WBO had ordered the experienced Parker to face Usyk, the undisputed world heavyweight champion, in July, but the New Zealander put his mandatory challenger status on the line against Wardley, who was still involved in white-collar boxing when his opponent was world champion in 2016.

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Heavyweight clash promises great intrigue as the experienced Parker aims to keep up a hot streak of six wins against the British former white-collar boxer

Boxing is in a real slump this year, with few major fights and far less compelling bouts than usual, and so the prospect of a serious and intriguing heavyweight contest between Joseph Parker and Fabio Wardley at the O₂ Arena brings a measure of relief to the beleaguered business. The winner will almost certainly face Oleksandr Usyk, the world champion, next year. In contrast, the loser is likely to lament the inevitable erosion of the hard-won plaudits he had gained.

Danger and risk surround this clash. Parker is on a hot streak since his last defeat, to Joe Joyce, three years ago. The New Zealand veteran, who won the WBO world title in 2016, has been rejuvenated by his switch of trainers to the inspirational Andy Lee. He has won six fights in a row, earning particular acclaim for the poised way in which he crushed Deontay Wilder, Zhilei Zhang and Martin Bakole.

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Former Ipswich academy footballer fights Joseph Parker hoping victory will earn him a world title shot at Oleksandr Usyk, who he once went to Ukraine to spar with

“Joseph Parker was a world heavyweight champion in 2016 when I was still having white collar fights,” Fabio Wardley says of the contrasting career paths he and his opponent have taken before their crucial bout at the O2 in London on Saturday. “So it’s been a wild, wild journey for us to reach this point. And if I get through this fight I’ll get a chance to meet Oleksandr Usyk. Fighting Usyk for the world title would be a funny story, remembering how I went to Ukraine to spar him seven years ago. It would feel like I’ve come full circle.”

We’re sitting in the back room of a gym in Wardley’s home town of Ipswich and the amiable and intelligent 30-year-old, who is unbeaten after 20 professional contests, allows himself to get a little excited before confronting the serious threat of Parker. He nods when I suggest that it sounds like an outlandish boxing movie or overheated drama series.

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• Boxer was ticketed for reckless driving

• Crawford is a hero in his hometown of Omaha

• Police chief says incident will be investigation

Omaha police ordered boxing world champion Terence Crawford out of his vehicle at gunpoint during a traffic stop for reckless driving early on Sunday, hours after his hometown held a parade to celebrate his recent victory over Canelo Álvarez.

A video circulating on social media showed a portion of the traffic stop. Police chief Todd Schmaderer ordered an internal affairs investigation, a move Omaha’s mayor, John Ewing, said he supported.

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• Eubank Jr makes allegations against Matchroom at press conference

• Hearn rejects claims and threatens legal action unless boxer apologises

Eddie Hearn has threatened to sue Chris Eubank Jr, after the boxer fired the first shots during a press conference ahead of his rematch with Conor Benn by accusing his opponent’s team of dirty tricks and “sabotage”.

Eubank Jr, who won their first bout by unanimous decision in April, claimed an ambulance taking him to hospital afterwards was stopped – and appeared to point the finger at Benn’s promoters, Matchroom Boxing.

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• ‘Can’t explain how much I’m going to miss the laughs’

• Campbell Hatton also pursued a boxing career

Ricky Hatton’s son Campbell has paid an emotional tribute in his first public comments since his father’s death.

Tributes have poured in across the world of sport and beyond following the death of former world welterweight champion Hatton, who was found dead in his home on Sunday morning at the age of 46.

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