Category: Boxing

• Cooney suffered intracranial haemorrhage at Ulster Hall
• ‘He was a much loved son, brother and partner’

The Irish boxer John Cooney has died, his promoter Mark Dunlop has announced, a week after he was injured in a fight in Belfast.

A statement on Monday said that the 28-year-old was in intensive care following his defeat to the Welshman Nathan Howells at the Ulster Hall last Saturday. The bout was stopped in the ninth round and Cooney had subsequently undergone surgery after it was discovered he had an intracranial haemorrhage. The bout was his first defence of the Celtic super-featherweight title.

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• Global Fighters Association looks to football as model
• Former middleweight Paul Smith says aftercare is needed

Paul Smith says the lack of care and protection for boxers “is not surprising anymore” and that the Global Fighters Association (GFA) will bring support to fighters.

Much like the Professional Footballers’ Association, the GFA aims to introduce a framework where financial support and adequate aftercare is offered to athletes. Retired middleweight Smith – brother to active British fighters Liam and Callum Smith – is one of the group’s founding members alongside the likes of Amir Khan.

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• Shields becomes first undisputed heavyweight champion
• Flint native outpoints Perkins (100-89, 97-92, 99-90)
• Shields ‘not here for people to cry and feel sorry for me’

And here comes Claressa Shields. She’s accompanied by Papoose alongside a small troupe of musicians as she dances her way out of the tunnel and toward the ring, leading the crowd in a round of Whoop That Trick. This is her homecoming fight and she’s squeezing every drop from the atmosphere, beaming from behind a pair of designer sunglasses and wearing a black robe with gold trim.

Anthem time in Flint. First a performance of Lift Every Voice and Sing followed by the Star-Spangled Banner (refreshingly free of catcalls). Now Perkins is entering the arena. She’s wearing a black robe with red trim and making a very, very slow and measured walk to the ring. She looks calm and composed, climbing through the ropes and circling the ropes to polite cheers.

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• Shields unifies titles with unanimous-decision win
• Champion scores 10th-round knockdown in victory
• Claressa Shields v Danielle Perkins – as it happened

Claressa Shields unanimously outpointed Danielle Perkins on Sunday night in the first undisputed heavyweight bout in women’s boxing to remain undefeated.

Shields, a two-time Olympic gold medalist with titles in five divisions, was in control of the fight from the start. She knocked down Perkins, landing a right hand on her chin with 15 seconds left in the 10th and final round.

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• ‘Mexican Monster’ beats Morrell by unanimous decision
• Benavidez improves to 30-0 with one-sided victory
• Stephen Fulton wins WBC featherweight belt in co-main

David Benavidez unified the light heavyweight championship by earning a unanimous decision over challenger David Morrell on Saturday night to keep his interim WBC belt and win the WBA title.

Judges Patricia Morse Jarman and Steve Weisfeld both scored the fight 115-111 while Tim Cheatham scored it 118-108.

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• Inoue announces Vegas plans after latest knockout win
• Japanese star lays claim as world’s best pound for pound
• Naoya Inoue knocks out Ye Joon Kim – as it happened

The Monster is coming to Las Vegas.

Naoya Inoue, the undefeated Japanese boxing star known as Kaibutsu (怪物), confirmed his plans for a spring fight in the United States after meting out a four-round destruction of South Korea’s Ye Joon Kim on Friday night to strengthen his claim as the world’s finest boxer regardless of weight.

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• Japanese star retains all four major title belts at 122lbs
• Inoue lays claim as world’s top pound-for-pound boxer

Round 3

Kim lands a good combination to start the round between Inoue’s high guard but the champion responds with a straight right hand. Now Inoue is putting together his punches with alarming efficiency. Excellent body work from Inoue. Snappy, precise shots from Inoue, who is outthrowing and outlanding his South Korean foe. A mouse has appeared under the left eye of the challenger. Kim has given a commendable accounting of himself so far, but the gulf in class between the pair is apparent.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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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.

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• 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.

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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.”

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