Category: Boxing

• Unbeaten rivals collide at Tokyo Dome on 2 May

• Inoue defends undisputed super-bantamweight crown

• Nakatani says he must be ‘at my best’ to win

Japan’s Naoya Inoue said Friday that he will need to be at his destructive best when he faces unbeaten countryman Junto Nakatani in their highly anticipated showdown at Tokyo Dome in May.

The two fighters met in Tokyo to formally confirm their 2 May clash, with Inoue set to defend his undisputed super bantamweight world championship against Nakatani, who is moving up in weight in pursuit of a fourth divisional title.

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• Champion will face Rico Verhoeven for WBC belt in May

• ‘I respect people who reach the very top in their sport’

Oleksandr Usyk, who has not fought since a fifth-round knockout of Daniel Dubois at Wembley in July, will defend his WBC heavyweight title against a kickboxer at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

The bout with Rico Verhoeven on 23 May, dubbed “Glory in Giza”, will be the first title fight held in Egypt, according to The Ring magazine, and will be streamed live on Dazn.

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• 40-something fighters will meet in Las Vegas

• Mayweather won previous encounter in 2015

Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will face each other on 19 September in Las Vegas in a rematch of one of the biggest fights in boxing history.

Their first fight, in 2015, was generally seen as a tame affair with both fighters past their peaks. September’s bout, which will be streamed live on Netflix, is likely to be of a lower quality. Mayweather and Pacquiao will be 49 and 47 respectively when they fight. Mayweather’s last professional fight, which preserved his unbeaten record, came in 2017, although that was a glorified exhibition against UFC star Conor McGregor. Pacquiao fought for the WBC welterweight championship last year, but is far from the force he was in his prime.

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• Fury set to step back into the ring after 15 months out

• Joshua involved in fatal Nigeria car crash in December

Tyson Fury has revealed the deaths of two of long-time rival Anthony Joshua’s friends in a car crash in December was the catalyst for his return to boxing.

Fury will step back into the ring on 11 April after a 15-month absence to face the Russian-born heavyweight Arslanbek Makhmudov in a bout at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium which will be broadcast live on Netflix.

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• Boxer fights back tears in first video since fatal car crash

• Joshua: ‘I am going to do what is right by them’

An emotional Anthony Joshua has insisted he knows what he has got to do after the death of close friends Sina Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele last month, adding that their company was akin to “walking with giants”.

The two-time world heavyweight champion Joshua was involved in a fatal car crash in Nigeria on 29 December which killed Ghami and Ayodele and shocked the boxing fraternity.

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Ahead of his blockbuster Madison Square Garden clash with Shakur Stevenson on Saturday night, boxing’s most mercurial star reflects on pressure, purpose and parenthood

Teófimo López’s boxing career has unfolded in untidy extremes, and few places have captured those contradictions like Madison Square Garden. It’s the building where he boat-raced Richard Commey inside two rounds to win his first world title aged 22, saw his fast track to superstardom abruptly derailed as a heavy favorite, then returned two years later to dismantle Josh Taylor as the underdog and stamp himself as a two-division champion. Now on Saturday night, when he defends his junior welterweight title against Shakur Stevenson in a clash of arguably the two best American fighters active today, the Garden may finally make it clear which version of López is here to stay.

“It’s the magnitude of it all,” says López, one of boxing’s most charismatic and mercurial personalities, filling my screen with warmth and effortless third-person bravado during the final days of his training camp in Hollywood, Florida. “Who’s going to really set the tone for the sport? You’ve got Shakur Stevenson, who wants that baton, and you’ve got Teófimo López who believes he’s the better representation for boxing.”

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• Davis arrested after US Marshals surveillance operation

• Warrant alleges battery, false imprisonment, kidnapping

• Arrest follows lawsuit and cancelled Jake Paul bout

Gervonta Davis, a three-division world champion and one of boxing’s biggest stars, was taken into custody in Miami on Wednesday, nearly two weeks after police issued an arrest warrant accusing the fighter of battery, false imprisonment and attempted kidnapping in connection with an alleged domestic violence incident last fall.

Miami Gardens police said Davis was apprehended following a multi-day surveillance operation conducted across three counties in coordination with the US Marshals Fugitive Task Force. Authorities said he was arrested without incident in Miami’s Design District and booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center late Wednesday night.

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• Former world champion to face Arslanbek Makhmudov

• Briton has been training in Thailand

Tyson Fury is to make his comeback against Arslanbek Makhmudov on 11 April in a fight that will be screened on Netflix. Fury announced his retirement a year ago after successive defeats to Oleksandr Usyk, but has been training in Thailand for his return to the ring. A venue has yet to be announced for the fight, but it will take place in the UK, making it Fury’s first contest here since he overcame Derek Chisora in 2022.

“Well it’s official I’m back doing what I [heart emoji] to do,” Fury posted on Instagram. “I’ve brought the biggest network along with me. Netflix, this is going to be astronomical. Blessed by God.”

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• Ortiz claims Dazn deal expiry allows contract exit

• Golden Boy disputes termination, cites renewal talks

• Lawsuit alleges lost earnings and fight opportunities

Vergil Ortiz Jr has filed a federal lawsuit against Golden Boy Promotions, seeking to end his relationship with Oscar De La Hoya’s company amid stalled negotiations for what he views as a career-defining fight against Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.

Ortiz, the unbeaten World Boxing Council interim junior middleweight champion, filed the complaint on Thursday in US district court in Nevada, asking a judge to confirm that his promotional agreement with Golden Boy has been terminated and alleging that the promoter breached the contract and interfered with his earning potential.

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Biopic charting Naseem Hamed’s rise has reopened old wounds but is also a reminder of what was and what might have been

The first time I watched Prince Naseem Hamed train, my jaw couldn’t have dropped any faster if he had hit me with one of his lassoing uppercuts. I had followed all his fights on TV, of course. But to see him in the flesh in September 1994, a year before he became world champion, was an altogether more visceral and mesmeric experience.

Hamed’s punches sounded like firecrackers welcoming in the new year as they smashed into the pads. He was almost impossible to hit. And, most staggering of all, despite standing 5ft 4in tall and weighing only nine stone, he would bully far bigger men in sparring – including fighters such as John Keeton, who went on to become the British cruiserweight champion – until my great uncle, Brendan Ingle, called time.

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Former champion on his relationship with trainer Brendan Ingle, now portrayed on film, quitting at the right time and the importance of his faith

Naseem Hamed carries himself with a stately grandeur these days. Having settled his considerable bulk into a comfortable chair he pauses meaningfully. We look at each other intently and it’s hard to believe the incorrigible little “Naz fella”, the swaggering Prince Naseem who became a world champion 30 years ago and changed British boxing forever with his dazzling aptitude for fighting and showmanship, is 51 now.

“This is the one thing you need to understand,” Hamed says as he remembers Brendan Ingle’s famous old gym in Sheffield. “The minute I walked through the doors of that boxing club, that was it. I saw the ring, the bags, the lines on the floor, and I was immediately obsessed. This was going to be my life. I saw boxing as a game of tag. I’m going to hit you and you can’t hit me. It took speed and accuracy and I was really good at it.”

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