Category: Boxing

• ‘Signed, sealed, delivered,’ says promoter Eddie Hearn

• Joshua takes on Prenga in Riyadh warm-up in July

The most hyped and regularly ­postponed fight in recent ­British boxing history will apparently take place this year after Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury agreed terms to meet in the ring. Long in the ­making, and coming far too late in the faded careers of both former world heavyweight champions, the much-delayed showdown will be a guaranteed money-spinner for the fighters and their backers.

Eddie Hearn, who promotes Joshua, could barely contain his glee in an Instagram post that said: “Signed, sealed, delivered! AJ v Fury is on! The biggest piece of business we’ve ever done but more importantly the one we’ve always wanted. Biggest year of AJ’s career coming up, the comeback is on.”

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• Ali Act overhaul would allow unified boxing bodies

• Backers say centralized model would boost revenues

• Critics warn fighters could lose leverage and rights

A US Senate hearing on the future of boxing laid bare a sharp divide over the sport’s direction on Wednesday, as longtime boxing figures including Oscar De La Hoya warned of proposed changes that could erode fighters’ rights while executives aligned with an Ultimate Fighting Championship-backed push for a centralized model argued they would bring structure and investment.

“When one system controls access, choice becomes theoretical, not real,” professional boxer Nico Ali Walsh told lawmakers, framing the stakes of a debate that could dramatically reshape boxing’s economic model. “When that happens, you fight who you’re told to fight or you don’t fight at all.”

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• Heavyweight vows to clear his name with bout cancelled

• Fighter cites elbow treatment and hopes ‘sense prevails’

Lawrence Okolie has pledged to clear his name after a failed drugs test that has led to the cancellation of his heavyweight bout against Tony Yoka this weekend.

The British fighter, a former cruiserweight world champion who moved up to heavyweight, had been scheduled to face the Frenchman in Paris on Saturday. Okolie is the No 1-ranked contender by the WBC, whose belt is held by Oleksandr Usyk.

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• Crawford fined after Omaha traffic stop at gunpoint

• Boxer ordered to pay $75 plus $49 in court costs

• Police review found officers acted lawfully

Terence Crawford was found guilty of careless driving Monday and ordered to pay a $75 fine stemming from a traffic stop last year during which police ordered the world champion boxer and passengers out of his vehicle at gunpoint.

Crawford was stopped on 28 September, hours after his hometown of Omaha held a parade through downtown to celebrate his unanimous-decision victory over Canelo Álvarez in a super middleweight championship fight. The win made Crawford the first male boxer to capture three unified division titles. He announced his retirement in December with a 42-0 record and 31 knockouts.

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Arslanbek Makhmudov shouldn’t be much of a test but Gypsy King and his battered old rivals are fading away

“I’ll make this short and sweet,” Tyson Fury said in a brief video he posted online on 13 January 2025. “I’d like to announce my retirement from boxing. It’s been a blast and I’ve loved every single minute of it. I’m going to end with this: Dick Turpin wore a mask. God bless everybody. I’ll see you on the other side.”

It was the fifth time Fury had retired from boxing in a professional career that began in December 2008 when he made his debut in Nottingham. So there was little surprise when, less than a year since that latest attempt to walk away from boxing, Fury announced his inevitable return. Four months ago he released a typical Fury message as he hollered: “Return of the Mac. Been away for a while but I’m back now. 37 years old and still punching. Nothing better to do than punch men in the face & get paid for it.”

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• Fury: ‘I’m going to make an example of him’

• Russian lifts Fury in the air during final face-off

A cheerful Tyson Fury has promised his latest comeback to the ring will begin with a destructive knockout of Arslanbek Makhmudov at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Saturday night. “It’s going to be different because, for the first time in forever, I’m the hunter,” Fury said at the fight’s final press conference. “I’m not the hunted, and we all know that when I’ve always been the hunter in the past, I’ve always fucked people up.

“I actually feel sorry for Makhmudov because I’m going to make an example of him. He’s a big six foot seven lump, 18 or 19 stone. But I’ll knock his head right off his shoulders. I’m going to lay him unconscious like the gamecock on top of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. He will be knocked spark out on the canvas looking up, thinking: ‘What just happened there?’ But it’s no shame because he’s fighting the great Tyson Fury.”

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The heavyweight from Dagestan now lives in Canada and describes Saturday’s opponent as the ‘professor’ of boxing

“This guy is the professor,” Arslanbek Makhmudov says of Tyson Fury as he looks forward politely to their fight on Saturday night at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. There is none of the usual bluster and malice of heavyweight boxing as the huge Russian from Dagestan shows considerable respect for the former world champion who is making yet another comeback to the ring.

“Tyson Fury is the professor of mind and boxing,” Makhmudov continues in his functional but effective English. “A lot of boxing is mental and he is a master. But boxing is also spiritual. I am going to be strong, spiritual and smart. You can say this is a war between mental and spiritual and we’ll see who is more successful. Inshallah it is spiritual.”

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• London-born fighter wins easily on points

• Harper was knocked down in sixth round

Caroline Dubois added the WBO world lightweight title to her WBC crown with a unanimous points victory over her fellow Briton Terri Harper. The London-born younger sister of heavyweight Daniel Dubois scored a 98-91, 97-92, 98-91 win to see off Harper at London Olympia on Sunday night.

Dubois struggled to get to her opponent initially, but floored her in the sixth round and never looked back as she moved a step closer to unifying the division.

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• Wilder wins heavyweight contest on split decision

• British boxer earns hero’s reception in final fight

Deontay Wilder consigned the British heavyweight Derek Chisora to defeat in his final bout but only after an exhilarating fight-of-the-year contender at a raucous O₂ Arena. In the 50th bout of Chisora’s eventful professional career, Del Boy showed remarkable powers of recovery to come back from a punishing eighth round and take the former WBC champion the distance in south-east London.

After the American showed early on the power that once made him one of the most formidable punchers in heavyweight history, Chisora’s farewell threatened to turned into a nightmare during a one-sided start.

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The IBF and WBC welterweight champion on returning to the ring, boxing politics and her imminent wedding

A year ago, on a historic night for boxing when an all-women card of fights was held at the Royal Albert Hall last March, Lauren Price produced an imperious headline performance which should have led to a series of even more prestigious bouts. Her dominant display in outclassing the venerable Natasha Jonas appeared to be the ideal launching for a new stage of Price’s career as the IBF and WBC world welterweight champion.

But when she finally steps back into the ring on Saturday night in Cardiff to defend her titles against Stephanie Piñeiro Aquino, the little-known Puerto Rican challenger, almost 13 months will have passed since that high point. Only frustration and inertia have followed.

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The great old warhorse of British boxing, who faces his 50th and final bout on Saturday, reflects on retirement, Deontay Wilder and his friendship with the Reform leader

“Nigel’s here,” Derek Chisora says as he gives me a nudge when we walk into a restaurant called Boisdale in Belgravia. The great old warhorse of British boxing and I have been ambling around this stretch of London in search of a place where we can sit down and talk. He settles on Boisdale, which tags itself as “a British restaurant” and “a carnivore’s delight”.

Even though we are not dropping in for lunch Chisora has enough of a swagger to blag us a private room to chat. We look more ragged than the diners, including Nigel Farage, and I’m not sure that the seemingly bewildered staff have a clear idea who Chisora is but we sweep through the restaurant, climb the stairs and find ourselves in a discreet room. After Chisora orders a bottle of water for us to share he asks the waiter to let Farage know that he is here.

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• British boxer continues ascent and wants Usyk next

• American shocked by his first knockout, in fifth round

Moses Itauma made another emphatic statement as the British heavyweight prospect became the first fighter to stop Jermaine Franklin.

Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte were both taken the distance in points wins in Franklin’s two previous visits to the UK but the durable American was brutally taken out midway through the fifth round by Itauma in Manchester.

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