Category: Boxing

• British boxers set to reignite historical feud
• Benn’s ban for failing a drug test lifted in November

The much-anticipated grudge match between Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr is set to finally take place in April.

The British boxers will reignite their historical feud in London, their initial bout in October 2022 having been called off due to Benn failing a voluntary drug test on fight week. Benn’s two-year battle to clear his name saw his suspension lifted in November.

• 36-year-old quits sport in 17-second Instagram video
• Fury had been expected to meet Anthony Joshua

Tyson Fury has announced his retirement from boxing, yet again, in a 17-second posting on Instagram which he released just hours before a major press conference in London to publicise next month’s heavily hyped Riyadh bill which includes Daniel Dubois’ IBF world title defence against Joseph Parker.

It could be a typical ploy from Fury to divert attention from other heavyweights but, following two punishing fights against Oleksandr Usyk last year, both of which he lost narrowly, he might have chosen to get out of the brutal fight business with his faculties intact and more money than he can spend in the coming years.

• Simpson dedicates win to his late sister, Lily-Rae
• Caroline Dubois left frustrated by technical draw

Callum Simpson defended his British and Commonwealth super-middleweight titles with a second-round stoppage of Steed Woodall on an emotional night in Sheffield.

Simpson was fighting for the first time since the death of his sister, Lily-Rae, at the age of 19. “I’m feeling bittersweet,” he told Sky Sports after his quick victory. “There’s one person who everyone knows I wish was here, but I know she’s looking down on me and I know I’m making her proud.

Before the defence of his British and Commonwealth belts, the 28-year-old reflects on the tragic death of his sister

“I’ve heard her voice in training sometimes,” Callum Simpson says quietly as looks up in his apartment in Dewsbury and remembers his sister Lily-Rae who, just over four months ago, died tragically following an accident on a quad bike at the age of 19. “I hear her when the sessions are hard, especially during running sessions, and her voice will say: ‘Just keep going, keep pushing.’”

West Yorkshire looks beautiful on a bitterly cold yet sunlit morning. A new year has just begun, and there is still snow on the ground, but the same raw pain churns though Simpson. The 28-year-old boxer is a composed and impressive man who will defend his British and Commonwealth super-middleweight titles against Steed Woodall in Sheffield on Saturday night. It is likely to be a difficult test against a determined domestic rival who has lost only two of 22 bouts – particularly as Simpson and his family are still besieged by grief.

• Bamba dies six days after knockout of Rogelio Medina
• Puerto Rican boxer won all 14 of his 2024 fights by KO

Puerto Rican boxer Paul Bamba has died at the age of 35, his manager, the R&B singer Shaffer ‘Ne-Yo’ Smith, announced Friday. The news comes less than a week after Bamba claimed the WBA’s secondary ‘gold’ cruiserweight title with a sixth-round knockout of Rogelio Medina in New Jersey.

Bamba’s death was confirmed in a joint statement from Ne-Yo and Bamba’s family. “It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of beloved son, brother, friend, and boxing champion Paul Bamba, whose light and love touched countless lives,” the statement read. It also described Bamba as a fierce competitor with an unrelenting drive for greatness.

The two-time Olympic gold medal-winning boxer’s life has been turned into rousing drama The Fire Inside, written by Oscar winner Barry Jenkins

Claressa Shields was two months removed from defending her Olympic gold medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games when an email from Hollywood landed in her inbox. Universal Studios wanted to make a movie about her life story. For Shields, who had spent much of her career fighting for recognition in a sport that marginalized women when they weren’t ignoring them entirely, the offer felt like more than just a career milestone. It was a rare mainstream acknowledgment of her achievements and a chance to amplify to a wider audience the struggles she had endured in and out of the ring.

“I never checked my emails back then,” Shields says with a laugh. “But I saw the subject line, and it said something about a movie. I thought, ‘A movie about my life? OK, let’s see what they’re talking about.’” That email kicked off a series of phone calls and meetings with the Oscar-winning screenwriter Barry Jenkins and other industry heavyweights. “We negotiated for a year. I was only 20, so I made sure I had a lawyer,” she recalls. “I wasn’t going to just sign anything. But once the contract was finalized, the ball started rolling.”

The Briton stayed the distance against Oleksandr Usyk but after back-to-back defeats what is left for the 36-year-old to prove?

In the end everyone runs out of road. It was probably necessary for Tyson Fury to say he was robbed in the Kingdom Arena on Saturday night. Boxing demands this level of irrationality. Logical multimillionaires do not willingly schedule a brain-jarring, soul‑shredding half-hour beating from one of the most effective practitioners of controlled violence ever to walk the planet. A basic suspension of reason is required. Without it no one would ever step in the ring.

So Fury will maintain that all three judges were wrong to award a unanimous points decision in Oleksandr Usyk’s favour after 12 thrillingly intense rounds in Riyadh. Last time out Fury said he lost because of the war in Ukraine. This time he said it was because of Christmas. Nobody was robbed here. Fury, the challenger, needed to go out and actively take the heavyweight belts. In the event the champion always seemed to have his head above the water.

Round by round, minute by minute, punch for punch. Here’s how our experts called the unified heavyweight title bout

Usyk and Fury practically sprint from their corners to meet each other in the center of the ring and Fury is already looking more aggressive than in round one of the first fight, pumping his jab with urgency. Usyk bursts into the pocket and lands a right hand upstairs. The 55lb weight difference looks even starker under the lights than at the weigh-in. Fury targeting Usyk’s body with straight shots. Both fighters opening up, eschewing the typical feeling-out period. More body shots from Fury. Usyk’s balletic footwork creating an elusive target for the challenger. Usyk barrels in and clips Fury with a left hand. A frantic pace!

• Usyk defeats Fury by 12-round unanimous decision
• Usyk v Fury II: How the world title fight unfolded
• Britain’s Moses Itauma wins by TKO 1 in co-main event
• Oleksandr Usyk beats Tyson Fury again – in pictures

Our man at ringside checks in as we count down the minutes to the main event:

Moses Itauma is only 19 but the British teenage heavyweight recorded a sensational first-round TKO of a tough and normally durable Aussie, Demsey McKean. His ferocious punching power really lit up the Kingdom Arena and cleared the way for an earlier-than-expected start to the compelling main event. The music has been cranked up and, yep, everything feels much more intense. We’ve got a first real crackle in the previously chilly atmosphere.

These complex, contradictory heavyweights are ready to recommence hostilities – let’s hope someone tells the locals

Fight week in Riyadh, at least to an outsider, is an often ghostly experience. Unless you’re up close and talking to the actual fighters, to Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury, or seeing them step off a parked jumbo jet to make their outrageously grand arrivals in front of a small group of local dignitaries, chattering YouTube outlets and jaded reporters, boxing feels like a mysterious rumour from the other side of the world.

It’s hard to gauge how many of the 7 million people who live in this vast and teeming city are even aware that Usyk will defend his world heavyweight titles against Fury on Saturday night, in a rematch of their classic first fight in Riyadh just seven months ago. I have spent hours this week in the company of various Uber drivers, as we crisscross the city, and the chattier men tend to ask two questions: where are you from? Why are you here?

• Ex-MMA champion says he will fight influencer in India
• Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani part of negotiations
• Jury found McGregor assaulted woman at Dublin hotel

Conor McGregor says he’s in negotiations to fight Logan Paul in a boxing exhibition in India.

McGregor said early Tuesday morning on social media he’s in “preliminary agreements” with the family of billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani to fight Paul.

• Vázquez passes away aged 46 after cancer diagnosis
• Mexican great known for four fights with Rafael Márquez

Israel Vázquez, one of Mexico’s most celebrated boxers and a three-time super bantamweight world champion, has died aged 46.

The Mexico City native passed away after being diagnosed with cancer, the World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman confirmed on Tuesday.