Follow all the action as Tyson Fury defends the WBC Heavyweight Title against mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte in front of over 94,000 people at London’s Wembley Stadium.

The action begins at 1 PM ET / 6 PM UK time with a six-fight undercard

NO BROWSER REFRESH NEEDED. THE PAGE WILL UPDATE AUTOMATICALLY.

Round 1:

ROUND 2 1-2 FROM FURY…Jab…Check hook…Body work from Whyte

ROUND 3 Left from Fury…Jab to body..right behind the jab..Left to body…1-2…Jab..Left uppercut..

ROUND 4 Overhand right from Fury..Fury being admonished for not breaking…Whyte cut over his right eye…Left hook from Whyte…Right from Fury..Grappling in the corner…

ROUND 5 Body shot from Fury…Double jab..Right..Right to body…

ROUND 6 Left Hook to body,,Right to body from Fury…UPPERCUT AND DOWN GOES WHYTE….HE WOBBLES..AND THE FIGHT IS OVER

Round 1:

Round 1:

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s a UK day to celebrate a Saint, Saint George, a long-forgotten Crusader. Not too many Saints in boxing. Not many Crusaders either, although the business could use one after a long week full of allegations and suspicions involving alleged Irish gangster Daniel Kinahan.

There are more questions than answers. But the questions are mounting, fueled by a sudden succession of sanctions, resignations and denials that leaves one of the biggest fights in British history under a darkening cloud.

Tyson Fury is coming home for his first UK fight in nearly four years Saturday (ESPN Pay-Per-View $69.99/2 p.m. ET) since he affirmed his worldwide celebrity. He’s the lineal heavyweight champ, which doesn’t mean he can trace his heritage all the way back to the sainted George. Nonetheless, it’s a lineage, historical enough for a projected milestone — a record crowd of 94,000 at London’s Wembley Stadium against challenger Dillian Whyte. It looked to be a majestic stage for Fury, the proverbial hero-come-home story about a people’s champ who has always been comfortable on just about any stage. He sings. He dances. He danced all over Deontay Wilder the last time we saw him.

But the expected parade is taking an ominous turn. Fury, who has more lyrics and one-liners than counters, is uncomfortable with all things Kinahan. But, increasingly, the Kinahan question is impossible to ignore. It’s crashing the party. 

Within about 10 days, the questions have gone from absent to everywhere. From muted to megaphone. On April 12, news broke that the US Treasury Department had levied sanctions against Kinahan. Actually, sanction is a polite word for what the Feds have done. They published a poster, bordered in red and Kinahan’s photo beneath a headline offering a reward of up to $5 million for “financial disruption of the Kinahan criminal organization or the arrest and/or conviction of Daniel Joseph Kinahan.’’

The wanted poster has morphed into the main event.

Fury has long acknowledged his relationship with Kinahan, who has been living in Dubai as a fugitive, reportedly since 2019. The High Court of Ireland and Irish law enforcement has long called him a gangster who smuggles drugs and guns throughout Europe. Murder has also been alleged.

But Fury doesn’t get specific about his relationship with Kinahan.

“I just had about a million questions about all of this rubbish,’’ he told Sky Sports. “But, like I said to them, it’s none of my business. I don’t get involved in other’s people’s business. So, it doesn’t really concern me.’’

But the relationship is there, caught in photos and in logos. For a while, he fought with MTK Global stitched onto his trunks. The MTK logo – originally called MGM — was the management/promotional company reportedly formed by Kinahan, who would only say that he worked as an advisor for the MTK boxers, mostly from the UK.

“I haven’t done any dealing, business, with him for a long time.’’ Fury said, again to Sky Sports. “I think there was a statement released in 2020. So, that was the end of the business.’’

A succession of moves in the aftermath of the US sanctions on Kinahan, however, suggests that the end is not that simple or definitive. MTK, which said it parted with Kinahan in 2017, shut down Wednesday, the day after MTK CEO Bob Yalen, a former ESPN executive, resigned. Thursday – just a couple of days before the Fury-Whyte opening bell, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) froze Kinahan’s assets.

World Boxing Council President Maurico Sulaiman, who helped broker the deal for the Fury-Whyte fight, appeared in a photo while meeting Kinahan during a stop in Dubai last month. Then, Sulaiman defended the meeting, saying he had no “knowledge of any wrongdoing” by Kinahan. Monday, Sulaiman said in a statement that “at no time have we (the WBC) had any relationship with Daniel Kinahan.’’

There’s no end in sight. This story is just starting. 

By Mario Ortega Jr. –

Undefeated second generation fighter Kenny Lopez Jr. returns to the ring for elusive professional bout number five on Friday, May 13th at the DoubleTree Hotel in Sacramento, California. Lopez, who has been itching to get into the squared circle since late last year, will meet fellow unbeaten super middleweight Andrew Garcia in a four-round bout as part of “May Madness: Show Up or Shut Up.” 

Lopez is the son of former California State light middleweight champion Kenny Lopez, a venerable TV-friendly fighter that fought a bevy of top guys over the course of a 44-bout career, including a win over former world champion Simon Brown in 1999. The younger Lopez was born too late to witness his father in his prime, but he does have some recollection of his dad’s three-fight comeback which ended with a victory in Stockton in May of 2005. 

“I went to a couple of his fights, like two or three in Stockton, but I was hell of young though,” remembers Lopez Jr. “I wasn’t excited, but I would watch him. I was more into karate, that was my thing. I thought it was cool that my dad was fighting, but my mom and dad were divorced, so I wasn’t really with my dad all the time, if you know what I mean.”

Later in life, Lopez Jr. found his way to the same sport his father spent over twenty years competing in as a professional. “In high school, we used to do these backyard boxing fights,” explains the younger Lopez. “They used to get me to fight and I was doing it all the time. They would set it up and it was just fun after school type shit. So I remember going to my dad, ‘You need to teach me some shit, because this is getting to the point that a lot of people are watching. He said ‘alright.’ That’s how it kind of started.”

Lopez Sr. had moved on from being a professional fighter, and though he spent some time helping in gyms after his career, it would be his son that would bring him back to the sport. “My dad showed me how to throw my first jab and everything,” says Lopez Jr. “When I went back to the gym, sparring to just get into shape, that’s when my dad would come in and out, helping me here and there after work. When I started getting serious, he started showing up at the gym everyday. He told me, ‘You’ve got to start running and doing your shit.’ He was my first coach from the get-go.” 

Growing up with divorced parents, one obviously does not get as much time with both of their parents as they would under different circumstances. Now as adults working towards a common goal, Lopez Sr. and Jr. have made up for lost time. “[Growing up,] with me, he was the man in my eyes,” explains Lopez Jr. “When we first started training, I was just listening to everything he said. Nowadays, he is more like my friend than a parent. We’ve gotten pretty close and I can tell him anything low-key and it is good.” 

Once the younger Lopez got a feel for the fight game, he wanted to turn professional immediately, given his age at the time. However, Lopez relented to his father’s advice and gave the amateurs a run before entering the paid ranks. 

“I just barely started boxing when I was 20-years-old,” describes Lopez Jr. “My thing was that I wanted to go pro right away and my dad was like, ‘No, you have to do amateurs.’ So I went the amateur route and rode that wave for a little bit. In 2020, with COVID, we were waiting for nationals, but the nationals kept getting rescheduled. I just wanted to do one national tournament against hell of good people and then go from there. My goal was to win the whole tournament and then leave [amateur boxing.] Then it just kept getting rescheduled and I just got impatient.”

Impatience for the pause on national level amateur boxing, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, led Lopez Jr. to go against his father’s advice and turn professional in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico on January 30th of last year against Luis Juan Hernandez. “In the beginning of last year there were no fights happening locally,” explains Lopez Jr. “I was already in shape. I am always training and always in shape, sparring 24/7. I was getting impatient. My dad was against the Mexico fights at first. He didn’t want me to do any of them. I was kind of against them too, but I thought I needed to get busy, instead of just sitting around here and becoming an Instagram fighter.” 

The experience ended up being a little more harrowing than Lopez Jr. had expected. “The first fight [in Tijuana], my first fight, I could write a movie about it honestly,” explains Lopez Jr. “I went there by myself, with no coach, no corner, nothing. My dad and the people from the gym, everybody that was supposed to corner me, even Nate [Diaz] and all of them were going to come to the fight on the day of the fight. I was in San Diego, training with Diaz and them. My dad was going to meet up with me the day of the fight after I went down there to do the weigh-ins. So when I am weighing-in in Mexico, they announce that everyone that is going to be in your corner needs to be here to take a COVID test. It was a whole situation, and I almost didn’t [fight], because I had no coach. The promoter ended up having to corner me. It was a pretty crazy experience.”

Fighting without anyone familiar in his corner, for his professional debut no less, was only a fraction of what made Lopez’ first pro fight weekend an experience to remember. “I even got took for a couple hundred bucks at the border,” recalls Lopez. “I had cut a few pounds and was not eating and drove myself to the weigh-in. The guy at the border started fucking with me. He told me to pull over and asked me why I didn’t have something. My car was registered, but maybe I didn’t have the paperwork with me or something. He said he couldn’t let me through, but when I pulled out my I.D. he saw the money in my wallet. I was just trying to hurry because I needed to get to the weigh-ins. I didn’t think to put my cash away. He said, ‘It is going to be 200 bucks or I can’t let you through.’ It was a shit experience. It honestly didn’t go well until I walked into the venue. Once I got to the venue I felt like nothing else bad would happen.” Lopez would be right, as he started his pro run with a second-round stoppage. 

Despite his difficult first experience fighting in Tijuana, Lopez would go back three more times last year to run his record to 4-0. “I learned a lot [from fighting in Tijuana]. As far as in the ring, I got used to the lighter gloves, no headgear and the pace,” explains Lopez. “These Mexico fights take a lot of energy out of you, at least for me, because I was doing it all by myself. I would talk to the promoter myself, get the fight myself and my dad didn’t want me doing it. So I thought if no one was going to do it for me, I was going to do it myself. So I was going to these Mexico fights always worrying about some janky shit. So I felt it took me out of my game a little bit, energy wise. Also, on top of that, I don’t speak Spanish. So I am over there in Mexico on toes, feeling like everybody was out to get me, being skeptical about it. It took a lot of the focus away from the fight, but it was good to get used to. I felt it kind of got me more experience in the ring, but also outside of the ring as far as the business end and how shit is handled on that end.” 

As tough as the business of boxing can be for an English speaker in Tijuana, Lopez has run into a couple of roadblocks getting that first pro bout on his home soil as well. Back in October of last year, Lopez, a native of Ceres, California, was primed to take on Yuba City, California’s Tony Hernandez at the DoubleTree Hotel in Sacramento. Much to the chagrin of Lopez and his team, it turned out Hernandez was a little too far from the super middleweight limit to make the fight a reality after some back and forth over the contract. 

“It got to the point where I said this guy is not that big of a deal to me,” explains Lopez. “And I am pretty sure I am not that big of a deal to him either. That all happened in October. I was ready to go in October, went to Vegas and had a full ass camp and everything.”

Fast forward to the next event to be held at the DoubleTree, promoted by Nasser Niavaroni’s Upper Cut Promotions this past January, and again Lopez-Hernandez was put together and looked to be a go for the main event. With a new COVID variant running rampant across the country, both fighters would end up coming down with the virus in the lead up to the bout. 

“There was a news interview on that Monday, and I was supposed to go, but Joeshon [Jones], who is hell of cool, ended up going in my place because I was sick that day,” remembers Lopez. “I was getting skeptical, because I was really, really sick, with chills and everything. I had to change my shirt like four times in the night. Just really sick, with aches and pains. I told Nasser, ‘I can’t make it to the news interview today, I am too fucking sick, but I am going to work out tomorrow and I’ll tell you how I feel.’ I worked out the next day and I felt regular, so I said, ‘Let’s go.’ We had the weigh-in and the face-off, so I thought we were on.”

Unfortunately for Lopez and fans of both fighters, the fight ended up getting canceled the afternoon of the fight, as Hernandez fell ill with reemerging symptoms from the virus. Despite the obvious disappointment, Lopez holds no ill will against Hernandez, who is scheduled to fight on the same bill next month, but he decided to go another route all the same. 

“I ran into [Hernandez] at Lightning’s [Boxing Club], and it was all good,” explains Lopez. “He’s a cool dude. He seems hell of cool and owns his own gym, which is something I want to do. I just figure we need to lay off this guy for a bit, because I am not going to give him a two-year camp to fight me. We might as well just relax, find somebody else. When it comes up for the next fight, if Anthony is ready to go and is back in his fighting mode, then fine, we will fight Anthony.”

With the off-and-on Hernandez fight on the backburner for now, Lopez looks towards finally stepping into the ring in his home state and country against Andrew Garcia (3-0-1, 2 KOs) of Oxnard, California on Friday, May 13th. “I don’t know anything [about Garcia] really,” says Lopez confidently. “All I have looked up is his BoxRec. I am just taking it as a performance. I am trying to put on for my first show [in the United States.] The fight is at 165, which is nothing for me. I weighed-in at 167 for my last fight, easy.”

Even though Garcia’s fights, most of which took place at the same Tijuana venue Lopez made a home away from home last year, are readily available for viewing online, Lopez doesn’t get too hung up on studying the videos. “They are on YouTube and I sent it to my dad,” explains Lopez Jr. “Honestly, I’ll watch [my opponent’s fight], but I’ll only watch it for 30 seconds. I don’t like over analyzing it. [My dad]  will probably just tell me a few things about the dude and tell me to keep one or two things in mind. That’s all it really is, sticking to your game, but keeping a few things in mind for the specific person. Mostly I just really want to stick to my game and do my thing that I always do.” 

While not looking past Garcia, Lopez hopes to carry momentum from May into a run of victories in the United States, with less strenuous car rides over the border and more fights in front of his family and friends.

“I want to fight out here against whoever,” explains Lopez. “I want to get up in the rankings on these people and just keep moving up. I can’t wait to put on a show in front of everybody. My local people and my family. I can’t wait to see everybody out there.” 

Tickets for the event, titled “May Madness: Show Up or Shut Up,” and promoted by Upper Cut Promotions, are available online at uppercutpro.com

Title photo by Cristian Correa 

Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortegajr.mario@gmail.com

Follow all the action live as it happens when Errol Spence Jr. meets Yordenis Ugas in a Welterweight unification fight.  The action kicks off at 7 PM ET with five fights that includes Isaac Cruz against Yuriorkis Gamboa; Cody Crowley and Josesito Lopez; Jose Valenzuela vs Francisco Vargas as well as the WBA Welterweight title between Radzahb Butaev and Eimantas Stanionis

THE PAGE WILL UPDATE AUTOMATICALLY; NO BROWSER REFRESH NEEDED

Round 1: Exchanging jabs to the body…Right to body from Ugas..jAB

ROUND 2 Spence lands a left…1-2..Good left..

ROUND 3 Left to body by Spence..Hard lefts…Short left uppercut..Lead left..Left hook..Good right from Ugas…3 lefts..Combination and right…

ROUND 4 Right from Ugas…Left from Spence…Combination…

ROUND 5 Left Uppercut and right from Spence…Hard left..Right uppercut  and left from Ugas…Left from Spence..

ROUND 6 Huge right rocks Spence..Spence Mouthpiece goes flying…Spence Cut over his Right eye..Hard right…

ROUND 7 Left drives Ugas back..Spence all over Ugas…Ugas Right eye closing…Good right from Ugas…Huge combination from Spence…

ROUND 8 Spence lands a left..Ugas eye swelling badly…Doctor checking eye…Spence beating Ugas up…

ROUND 9 Right to body from Ugas..Right to body..

ROUND 10 Right to body by Spence..Uppercut hurts Ugas..Doctor checking eye…FIGHT STOPPED

Round 1 Hard left buckles Gamboa bad…Hard Right
Round 2 Hard right from Gamboa… 3 hARD SHOTS AND DOWN GOES GAMBOA
Round 3 BIG LEFT HOOK AND DOWN GOES GAMBOA
Round 4 2 Big rights from Cruz…Right to the head…HUGE LEFT HOOK AND DOWN GOES GAMBOA
Round 5  VICIOUS OVER HAND RIGHT DRIVES GAMBOA INTO ROPES AND THE FIGHT IS OVER

Round 1: HUGE LEFT…DOWN GOES VARGAS AND THE FIGHT IS OVER

Round 1 Left to body…another…Left to body..
Round 2 Body shot from Lopez…Left uppercut and right from Crowley..Combination on the ropes…
Round 3 Three left hook from Lopez…Combination from Crowley..Double jab and counter left from Lopez
Round 4 Body shot from Crowley…Right to the head
Round 5 Body shots from Lopez…Body shot…Right from Lopez…
Round 6 Left from Lopez…Crowley lands a 1-2..Left to body…
Round 7 Right hook from Crowley..RIGHT HOOK AND DOWN GOES LOPEZ..Lead left from Crowley
Round 8 Body shot from Crowley…Hard combination ..Left to body
Round 9 Good straight left doubles Lopez over…Right hook..Left eye of Lopez starting to swell
Round 10  Straight left to the body by Crowley

98-91 TWICE AND 99-90 FOR CROWLEY

Round 4 Right hook from Butaev
Round 5  Combination from Stanionis
Round 6 Big left from Stanionis..Right from Butaevv
Round 7 Combination from Stanionis…
Round 8 Sharp right from Stanionis
Round 9 Combination from Stanionis …
Round 10 Right from Stanionis…Nice Combination…Right to body
Round 11Butaev deducted a point for holding..
Round 12 Hard jab from Stanionis…Big right

Round 1 Left hook from Lee…Right from Ochoa..
Round 2 Right from Ochoa…2 left hooks from Lee…Nice uppercut..
Round 3 Lee starting to assert more..Uppercut .
Round 4 Body shot from Ochoa…1-2 from Ochoa…Good left..Combination from Lee…Right..Right uppercut..Combination from Ochoa
Round 5 Right from Lee…Blood from nose of Ochoa..Overhand right from Ochoa..
Round 6 Left hook from Ochoa..Left to body and right to head from Lee
Round 7 Right from Lee..
Round 8  Right from Lee
Round 9 Nice uppercut from Lee..Combination from Lee..Nice right from Ochoa..Uppercut from Lee…Good body shot from Lee..Good left, right and left from Ochoa..Right from Lee
Round 10  Combination from Lee..Nice overhand right from Ochoa..Left…Right from Lee..Nice combination..right to body and right to head..

By Norm Frauenheim-

Errol Spence Jr. guarantees victory. But he wants more. He wants a knockout. He wants to be the fighter he was. More important, perhaps, he wants to be the fighter he remembers.

Given his unbeaten record, a hometown crowd and measurable advantages in height, reach, and age, his promised win over Yordenis Ugas looks likely.

“One-hundred percent,’’ Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) said during media appearances this week before his welterweight showdown with Ugas (27-4, 12 KOs) Saturday night (9 p.m. ET/6pm PT, Showtime PPV/$74.99) in a ring near the 50-yard line on the Dallas Cowboys home field at AT&T Stadium.

Spence didn’t offer any guarantees on a KO, however. That might have been an acknowledgement of Ugas’ skillset, which is rooted in the Cuban school of fundamentals. He knows the defensive art. It’s there, a skill turned into instinct through years and years of practice in Cuban gyms

To wit: It’ll be really hard to stop Ugas. But it would also be a huge statement and self-affirmation from and for a fighter who hasn’t scored a stoppage in almost four years. 

A knockout would say he’s back, all the way back. The KO has been part of Spence’s identity. From 2014 through 2018 he scored 11 straight, including a notable KO of Kell Brook in May 2011 in the UK. 

Then, it would have been a victory if a Spence opponent took a fight to the scorecards. For four years, nobody did. Nobody could. It was head-rocking run, one that seemed to be headed straight to the top of the pound-for-pound debate. But it ended with a first-round KO of Carlos Ocampo in June 2018 in Frisco, Tex.

The KO has been missing, raising questions, including one still asked: Who is Errol Spence Jr.? It lingers, in large part because of the October 2019 auto accident that put Spence’s career on the shelf for about 15 months. He was back in December 2020, winning a unanimous decision over Danny Garcia. 

But even before the scary accident, the familiar stoppage was MIA. First, there was an efficient, one-sided decision over Mikey Garcia in March 2019, also at AT&T. Spence won every round on every card. He got a 10-8 score in the ninth even though there was no knockdown. It was that overwhelming. Still, there was no KO.

Six months later, he faced a tough, clever Shawn Porter. Spence won a split decision in September 2019 in Los Angeles. Still no KO. The decision over Garcia had the look of a new beginning. Manny Pacquiao was next. But Spence had to withdraw from that one last August because of a torn retina. That allowed Ugas to step in with a stunning upset, a unanimous decision that sent the legend into retirement.

Any kind of victory over Pacquiao would have been enough for Spence to say he’s back, all the way back. At 42, Pacquiao’s skills weren’t the same. But there was no erosion in the Filipino’s name recognition. At 5-foot-5 and with a 67-inch reach, Pacquiao had some of the same dimensions as Garcia. The always aggressive Pacquiao might have walked right into the power possessed by the bigger Spence. We’ll never know.

But eye surgery put Spence back on the shelf for another 16 months. He returns, this time seeking the KO that could – once and for all – answer the lingering questions.

“There’s no way to elaborate on when I said I’m going for the knockout,’’ Spence said. “It’s what I said. So, if I get it, I get it. If I don’t, I don’t.

“But I definitely want to knock him out.’’

Definitely, it would be a knockout that would leave no doubt. 

By Mario Ortega Jr.-

Fathers indoctrinating their sons, especially first borns, into their line of work is a long standing worldwide tradition. The sport of professional boxing is one of the many trades that has been handed down from one generation to the next in the history of humankind. Some second generation fighters have found great success emulating their fathers, while many others failed to excel inside the squared circle, perhaps in part to the inherent pressure that comes with following in large footsteps on a grand stage. Steve “USS” Cunningham is one father that left mighty big shoes to fill for his aspiring fighter sons. The former two-time world cruiserweight champion’s first born and namesake, Steve Cunningham Jr., looks to one day put his name on the side of the ledger of second-generation boxers that fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Cory Spinks call home. The junior Cunningham begins that journey as he makes his professional debut in boxing’s capitol on April 29th, on a card titled “Sons of Legends,” at the Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. 

The elder Cunnigham’s pro career was just starting to ramp up when he and his wife brought young Steve Jr. into the world. Despite bestowing his first son with his own name, Cunningham did not originally plan on molding his offspring into a world class boxer. “From the cradle I was actually more like, ‘No, my son is not going to box.’ I don’t know why, but maybe because I saw how dirty this business could be at that time,” remembers Senior. “I was signed with Don King and they were frustrating years for me. I beat everybody they put in front of me, but it was just a very uncomfortable contractual situation. So I’m like I don’t want my son going through this.”

The way life worked out for the Cunninghams played a part in Steve Jr. developing an affinity for the sport of boxing. “My wife worked and I went to the gym,” recalls Steve Sr. “I would take him to the gym, packed in the car seat and at around seven, I’d have him workout with me. I didn’t want him sitting there doing nothing and getting into trouble at the gym. It wasn’t that he showed talent, but I was just like, ‘Why not have him box?’ If I was a lawyer I would send him to law school. Or if I were a doctor, I would send him to medical school. I’m a boxer and not just a boxer, but a two-time world champ. Let me give him a shot.”

Having a world champion father surely opens doors for an aspiring second generation boxer, but with that advantage comes some strings attached. “Being his son, you never get a light sparring [session] or any easy sparring,” explains Cunningham Jr. “Whoever spars you or comes to your area, you get the hardest sparring there is. They bring their game. I will see them spar somebody else and think, ‘Dang, you didn’t spar them nearly as hard you sparred me.” They try to test you or get over on you.” 

As Cunningham progressed in his pursuit of an amateur boxing career, he closely followed the career of his father as one might expect. The elder Cunningham has had a great career, but when you go up against the best in the world as many times as “USS” did, there are bound to be some setbacks. 

“There was one thing I remember, and I don’t think he remembers this: it was after the first Adamek fight,” describes Senior. “When we were in the locker room after the fight…and it was a great fight, it was smoking. Junior said ‘When I grow up, I’m going to beat him for you.’ And I was like alright man, cool. So we are going to find Adamek, and in a few years he will be old as hell and he’ll have to fight Junior now. I remember that. That has been on my mind for years.”

While Cunningham Jr. may not remember vowing to defend his father’s honor after the first of two fights his dad had with the great Tomasz Adamek, there were other tough nights he does remember. 

“The [Amir] Mansour fight was a crazy one because we were sitting there watching the fight and it was going good and then boom, he gets dropped,” remembers Cunningham Jr. of the 2014 bout.” And I looked over to my cousin and we started praying. Then he gets up and he gets dropped again. I thought, ‘It’s going bad, it’s going bad.’ Then he ends up coming back in the fight and whipping him. Finishing the fight and whipping him. It was really inspiring, we almost broke the ring celebrating that night.”

The two-time world champion father Steve Cunningham Jr. has always looked up to is also the man he looks up to from his stool in between rounds. The elder Cunningham did not always have confidence in his training ability, but found words of wisdom from the legendary Naazim Richardson that led him on the right path before a 2015 event held between fighters from Pittsburgh and fighters from Cuba. 

“I called Brother Naazim and I was biting my nails, telling him, ‘We have got to fight a Cuban. I am going to send Junior to live with you for two months.’ Brother Naazim was like, ‘Listen, you have everything you need to train him to beat this Cuban.’ I was nervous as heck, but what he said and with what happened, for him to say I had enough to train him to win that fight, that helped to propel me as a coach. 

As a fighter I excelled, but as a coach I didn’t know a damn thing. But I’ve been blessed to be under the wing of guys like Brother Naazim, Coach Shar’ron [Baker], Anthony Chase, Richie Giachetti…all of these guys I have trained under and I have stolen from, along with my own experience in the ring, and that’s what we get. With that we were able to beat a Cuban and I was like, ‘Wow, here we go.’” 

Just as the elder Cunningham began the only prolonged layoff of his pro career, Steve Jr. came onto the scene at the national level in 2018. “Starting out it was cool and the only tournaments I would do were the Silver Gloves,” explains Cunningham. “The Silver Gloves are cool, but nothing compared to the national tournaments. It was a great experience, but the nationals are another level. Three to four rings running at one time. They are just knocking the fights out. It’s pretty dope. It’s fast-paced. You’ve got to keep your head in the game, stay locked in and be ready.”

During the 2020 USA Boxing National Championships (which were held in April 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), the father-son duo of Steve Cunnighams did something maybe no other father and son have done together before: prepare for major boxing events that they each were going to compete in the same month. Just a couple weeks after the tournament, where Junior would end up short in the quarter-final round, the original Steve Cunningham competed for the first time in sanctioned action in over three years with a decision win over former MMA star Frank Mir in a boxing bout. 

“When we were at the tournament in Louisiana, I was training mostly myself for that [Mir] fight,” explains Senior. “I sparred Junior for that fight, because Frank is a southpaw and Junior is a southpaw. He helped get me ready for that fight, a few rounds, but I didn’t even spar a lot. Keep it real, I didn’t expect too much from Frank, but I got in shape. Junior gave me that southpaw look more than a few times during that national tournament.” 

Although Cunningham may have inherited some of his athleticism and ability to improve and grow as a fighter from his father, he did not completely inherit his dad’s height or overall size, being a middleweight. While the size discrepancy may alter some aspects of the sparring sessions between the two, Senior refuses to hold back on his ability out of necessity while sharing the ring with his first born. 

“With him being 160-pounds, of course I hold back on the power, but skillswise heck no, I have to match him on the skill,” says Cunningham Sr. proudly. “Because he’s throwing and he can go 100 and sometimes he’s caught me and it hurts. He hits hard. Skill-wise, I am at 100 [percent] with him, but powerwise of course I’m holding back a little. Because I could just overpower him and that’s not helping either one of us.” 

The more Cunningham Sr. has worked with his son in the ring, the more even the sessions have become. “There was one time we were sparring and I couldn’t get him,” recalls the senior Cunningham. “So I had to adjust my life after that. It’s been great. Of course I’ve seen his level stepping up, especially in the sparring. The things he does and the punches he chooses, so I’ve seen growth. Sparring me is the best thing for him on certain levels.” 

Despite his affinity for how national tournaments operate as events, Cunningham Jr.’s last national amateur experience was one of a handful that left a bad taste in his mouth for the system on a whole. In the immediate aftermath of the 2021 USA Boxing National Championships, the Cunninghams decided it was time for Junior to make the leap to the paid ranks. 

“A big part of the decision [to turn pro] was the last tournament that we were in,” recalls Cunningham Jr. of the December 2021 event in Louisiana. “I was boxing and did good in the first round. Then in the second round, I fought this tough dude [Ruben Salazar], but I was fighting two fights at the same time. I was fighting the ref and the fighter. I was boxing him and boxing him and the ref told me to stop running. I was moving, and I’m moving my head, and the ref started giving me eight counts. In the last round, he managed to squeeze in three eight counts to stop the fight. And the last eight count was on the bell. So it was really tough. So after that, we couldn’t take the amateurs anymore. We decided it was time to go pro.”

Cunningham Sr. shares his son’s frustration with how his last national tournament played out. “He’s beautifully boxing, and the referee tells him to stop running? And they find a way to give him three eight counts,” says Senior with frustration in his voice. “The last eight count was just him slipping. He slipped every punch that guy threw, only to get an eight count. I saw the look on his face, and I’m like, ‘I am sick of this happening to my kid.’” 

Amateur referees are in the rearview now for Team Cunningham as they have their sights set on success in the professional ranks. At age 19 and with his dad in his corner, Cunningham Jr. seems to feel he is right where he was always meant to be in his career at this point in his life. “It’s crazy because the way my career has gone up until now is exactly how I imagined it as a kid,” proclaims the junior Cunningham. “Almost exactly like how I imagined it growing up and looking up to my father.”

“USS” Cunningham is in agreement with his son that now is the time for the next phase of Junior’s career. “I didn’t want his spirit for boxing to get damaged from the way amateur boxing was treating him, so I said we are going pro,” explains Cunningham Sr. “It’s done. Even at 19, I feel he is ready. He wants this bad, he works hard and he is only going to get stronger and stronger. So this is it right here. Now it is time to build him into a world champion.” 

On April 29th in Las Vegas, Cunningham will make his debut on a card featuring sons of famous fighters like Tommy Morrison, Hasim Rahman, Roberto Duran and many others. One would think being featured in such a way for your pro debut would be intimidating, but Steve Cunningham Jr. sees the event in a different light. 

“I’ve always been a junior, so there has always been attention drawn to my name because of my father,” explains the young Cunningham. “Actually there is not as much pressure as there would be usually [by fighting on a show with other famous sons]. I love it. It is a great opportunity for me. I feel good. It’s everything I’ve been waiting for all my life. All of the things I’ve been doing have been leading up to this. I’m ready. Ready to put on a show.” 

Tickets for the event, promoted by Roy Jones Jr. Boxing and Ares Entertainment, which will be streamed live on Fite and headlined by a heavyweight clash between Kenzie Morrison and Hasim Rahman Jr., are available online at AXS.com. 

Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortegajr.mario@gmail.com and followed on Twitter @MarioG280  

Follow all the action as Gennady Golovkin and Ryota Murtata in a IBF/WBA Middleweight Title Elimination bout.  The card begins at 5:10 am ET and 6:10 PM in Tokyo with an undercard that will feature the WBO Flyweight bout between Junto Nakatani and Ryota Yamauchi

NO BROWSER REFRESH NEEDED.  THE PAGE WILL UPDATE AUTOMATICALLY

Round 4: Body shot from Golovkin.  Good left hook..Uppercut

ROUND 6 Hard right from Golovkin knocks the mouthpiece out..Good right…2 hard jabs…Good counter right

ROUND 7 Good lft hook from Golovkin…Uppercut..Big left hook…Good right from Murata

ROUND 8 Jab from Golovkin…Hard rights and lefts…Big right from Murata…Good right…Left hook from Golovkin

ROUND 9 Big Right hurts Murata..Hard flurry…Murata looks done…Muata lands a left…HARD RIGHT DOWN GOES MURATA…TOWEL COMES IN FIGHT OVER

Round 4 Good body work from Nakatani…2 hard lefts and an uppercut

ROUND 5 Good combination from Yamauchi..Good left hook…Left hook to the body..Flurry on inside from Nakatani

ROUND 6 Double left and 1-2 from Nakatani..Left hook to body from Yamauchi…

ROUND 7 Big left from Nakatani…  Another hard left

ROUND 8 Good right from Yamauchi…left hook…BIG BARRAGE FROM NAKATANI..YAMAUCHI IS HURT AND THE FIGHT IS STOPPED

Round 1 Yoshino lands a jab..Ito lands a right to the body..Right from Yoshino…Jab from Ito..Left hook to the body from Yoshino
Round 2 Jab from Yoshino..Good overhand right and uppercut..Chopping right on the inside..Blood from nose of Ito..Hard body shots from Yoshino…2 Rights..Good right from Ito..Good 3 punch combination..Uppercut on inside from Yoshino
Round 3 Hard right from Yoshino..Left hook from Ito..Right..Right from Yoshino..Quick combination from Ito…Right..Body shot from Yoshino
Round 4 Left hook from Yoshino..Good rights from each guy..Counter from Ito..Jab from Yoshino..Left hook to body…Good right from Ito
Round 5 Hard right from Yoshino..Good body work…Chopping right…Ito lands 2 uppercuts..Right from Yoshino..Hard right..Big left hook..Hard right
Round 6 Ito working on the inside…Nice right..Right and uppercut..Right..Uppercut…Good body shot from Yoshino..Another..Right from Ito…Good action…hard right from Ito
Round 7 Trading hard shots..Good body work from Yoshino…
Round 8 Good right from Yoshino on the inside…Combination from Ito..Good jab from Yoshino and a left hook..Ito cut underneath his left eye
Round 9 Ito lands a left hook and right hand..Good right and jab..Trading rights…Hard right from Yoshino
Round 10 Uppercut on Inside from Ito..Doctor looking at Ito’s cut..Good left hook from Yoshino..Right from Ito…
Round 11 Good right from both fighters..Lead right from Yoshino and a good body shot..Headbutt and another cut on Ito’s left eye,  THE FIGHT IS STOPPED…GOES TO SCORE CARDS

YOSHINO WINS 107-102 twice and 106-103

By Norm Frauenheim-

The odds suggest that Gennadiy Golovkin is in Japan to celebrate a birthday. He’ll blow out 40 candles Friday. Then, he’ll blow out Ryota Murata.

It’s not that simple, of course. It might not be that one-sided either. The guess here is that Golovkin wins. But the real question is in the margins. How does he win?

It’s no secret that the middleweight bout Saturday (DAZN, 5:10 am ET/2:10 am PT) is projected to be a steppingstone to a fight that fans have wanted for three-and-half years. A long-awaited Canelo Alvarez-GGG 3 looms. It’s supposed to be next.

It’s believed that a third leg to the contentious rivalry will answer, once and for all, questions left in the unresolved wake of a draw in the first bout and Canelo’s majority decision over GGG in the second.

But a chance at finality doesn’t last long. It’s up to GGG to prove that it’s still there. He’ll be 40 at opening bell in Saitama, north of Tokyo. He’s at an age that’s hard to judge. Milestone or millstone?

It’s a question complicated by a long stretch out of the ring. It’s been about 16 months since GGG’s last fight, a seventh-round stoppage of Kamil Szeremeta in December 2020.

A fighter stuck in idle during his prime is one thing. Rust is temporary.  An idle fighter a few years beyond his prime is a question. Erosion is permanent.

GGG is in Japan, perhaps amid some uncertainty about how his legs and reflexes will respond. He’s also there aware of the country’s unique boxing history. One of history’s defining upsets happened in Japan. Buster Douglas upset Mike Tyson in 1990.

“Japan is the land of surprises, at least when it comes to boxing,’’ GGG (41-1-1, 36 KOs) said. “I remember what happened in the Tyson-Douglas fight. It has been in the back of mind throughout training camp.’’

The danger of history repeating itself, however, seems remote. Murata (16-2, 13 KOs), whose spotty record includes losses to Hassan N’Dam and Rob Brant, is listed as a 4-to-1 underdog. He’s also not exactly young. He’s 36. He’ll be 37 in January. He’s also been idle longer than GGG has. Murat hasn’t fought in about two-and-half years. He last answered an opening bell in December 2019, scoring a fifth-round stoppage of Steven Butler, an unknown Canadian.

GGG’s biggest concern might be recent history. His birthday Friday makes me think about Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao’s legendary career ended last August in a scorecard loss to Yordenis Ugas, then a late-stand-in for Errol Spence Jr., who withdrew because of an eye injury.

Pacquiao was a huge favorite. He was the Pacquiao everybody remembered and not the 42-year-old fighting for the first time in two years. He was coming off a split decision over Keith Thurman in 2019. He was 40 then. Two years later, he was just too old.

GGG is a couple of years younger. He also appears to be facing an opponent, Murata, who isn’t the threat that Ugas turned out to be. Still, some of the questions are familiar, all brought on by a 40^th birthday.

A dramatic GGG knockout of Murata would set the stage for a third fight with Canelo, who has to take care of his own business on May 7 against light-heavyweight Dmitry Bivol. A big KO, a resurrection of GGG’s Big Drama Show, is promoter Eddie Hearn’s hope. Make that bet. It would sell the pay-per-view.

But a narrow decision – or, worse, a controversial one — would only leave further questions. It might be unfair to expect GGG to still be the force he was four, five years ago. If he isn’t, however, a third fight with Canelo won’t prove anything other than to say it is past due. 

By Norm Frauenheim-

Melbourne and Los Angeles are separated by 18 time-zones and 7,932 miles. You can get on a plane in Melbourne and arrive in Los Angeles before you left Australia. It sounds upside-down, which is another way of saying Down Under.

But there was no confusion Thursday evening in Los Angeles and Friday morning in Melbourne. Only the clocks said different things.

George Kambosos Jr. and Devin Haney spoke a universal language in a formal news conference introducing their lightweight fight June 5 in Melbourne. The newser for a world-title bout was steamed, appropriately enough, worldwide.

No interpreters were necessary. Trash talk is understood everywhere

“He keeps saying he will leave this fight as a King,’’ Kambosos said from a stage in Melbourne to Haney and his trainer/father, Bill, who were seated in a LA studio. “But what’s a King to an Emperor?’’

Kambosos is one belt short of an empire. Haney has it, a World Boxing Council version, and Kambosos intends to take it at an arena called Marvel Stadium. It’s no place for a comic book hero. Kambosos looks to be the real thing after his wild upset of Teofimo Lopez on Nov. 27 in New York.

Lopez sounded delusional after the defeat. His delusion is still evident. Now, he’s alleging that the scorecard loss was somehow fixed. It makes you wonder if Lopez is somehow finished. That’s another story for another day and another weight class. Lopez is moving up the scale, from 135 pounds to 140. Maybe, he’ll gain the pounds and lose the delusions. We’ll see.

But it’s become evident that Kambosos, a former Manny Pacquiao sparring partner, is a keen practitioner of psychology, one of boxing’s timeless arts. To wit: He knows how to get into somebody’s head long before he ever lands a head-rocking shot.

In what was perhaps an opening salvo of rhetoric, Kambosos mocked Haney. The clever Aussie suggested that the likeable American was already losing his cool. He wasn’t, of course. 

But it was the sound of what’s to come in this bout between a couple of unbeaten lightweights from different hemispheres. Kambosos is at home, and he intends to use every advantage in what is expected to be a huge Aussie crowd at the 53,000-seat stadium.

Haney laughed off the mocking. But he was also annoyed. Kambosos called the 23-year-old Haney a kid.

“He keeps calling me a kid,’’ Haney said. “I am not a kid. I am a man. So, quit calling me a kid.’’

However, it’s beginning to sound as though Kambosos is just getting started. For now, at least, Kambosos is the underdog. That’s a surprise, mostly because Kambosos is coming home after scoring a huge upset in Lopez’ hometown.

Haney, who steps in as Kambosos’ challenger when Vasiliy Lomachenko decided to stay at home in Ukraine to fight the Russians, opened as a minus-280 favorite, meaning he has about a 73-percent chance at winning.

Australia is known for gambling. From Sydney to Melbourne to Perth to Brisbane, you can bet on just about anything. It’s called “the national sickness. The guess here is that Kambosos will be favored at opening bell.

He’ll talk his way into the favorite’s role. Bet on it. But can talk his way into Haney’s head? That’s the real question. If he can, he’ll win. 

LAS VEGAS (March 29, 2022) – Despite winning the WBA Light Heavyweight World Title Eliminator last December to become the mandatory challenger for WBA Super Champion Dmitry Bivol, 43-0 Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez finds himself blocked from fighting for a world light heavyweight title due to boxing politics and a unification fight.

Rather than sit and wait, or fight a meaningless tune-up, Ramirez is fully prepared to move up in weight once again, this time to challenge World Boxing Council (WBC) Cruiserweight World Champion Ilunga Junior Makabu (29-2, 25 KOs).

“I’m always ready to take on anyone,” Ramirez said. “I was hoping to make the Bivol fight, but he took another route. It’s definitely disappointing but I’m glad he was rewarded with Canelo. He’s a good guy and definitely has a chance to change his life forever. Now moving forward, as always, I’m open to fighting anyone from light heavyweight to heavyweight, and why not start with cruiserweight? Golden Boy did mention Makabu to me and if he has the balls to face me, I will snatch that WBC title from him with ease. Despite the weight difference, I would out-skill, out-speed, and out-fight him in every aspect.”

Last December in San Antonio, Ramirez (43-0, 29 KOs) did his job to earn his long-awaited showdown with Bivol, stopping Yunieski “The Monster” Gonzalez (21-4, 17 KOs) in the 12th round to become Bivol’s mandatory challenger. However, Bivol has since been allowed by the WBA to fight unified super middleweight world champion “Saul“ Canelo” Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs) on May 7th in Las Vegas.

The other two world light heavyweight champions, (WBC/IBF) Artur Beterbiev (17-0, 17 KOs) and (WBO) Joe Smith, Jr. (28-3, 22 KOs), are reportedly fighting in a unification bout June 18th in New York City, effectively shutting out the 30-year-old Ramirez from fighting for the world light heavyweight title until this fall at the earliest.

Makabu, 34, is the first and only native of the Democratic Republic Of The Congo to be world boxing champion. According to reports, ironically, he was all set to fight “Canelo” until boxing’s “rainmaker” shifted gears and chose Bivol as his next opponent. Makubu captured his WBC Cruiserweight crown January 31, 2020, when he decisioned Michael Cleslak, followed by two successful title defenses versus Olanreqaju Durodola (34-7) and Thabisco Mchunu (23-5), both by 12-round decision.

The first Mexican to capture the world super middleweight title, “Zurdo” wants to write Mexican boxing history again as the first from his country to be world cruiserweight champion.

Rated as the No. 2 light heavyweight in the world by both the WBA and WBO, as well as No. 4 by the IBF and #5 by The Ring magazine.

“Zurdo” is ready to move on up and add to his growing boxing legacy.

INFORMATION:

Website: www.ZurdoPromotions.com

Instagram: @zurdoramirez, @zurdopromotions

Twitter: @ZurdoPromotions, @GilbertoZurdoRamirez

Follow all of the action as Kiko Martinez defends the IBF Featherweight title against Josh Warrington in a rematch. The action starts at 3 PM ET with a four-fight undercard that feature the IBF Bantamweight title between Maria Cecilia Roman and Ebanie Bridges

The Page will update automatically. No Browser refresh needed

Round 1: Jab from Warrington…Good body shot..Head combination….big barrage on the ropes…Good left hook…BIG RIGHT AND DOWN GOES MARTINEZ..Martinez bleeding from his left eye

ROUND 2 Warrington opening up again on Martinez

ROUND 3 Body shot from Warrington…Good right.

ROUND 4 tough fight on the inside.  Warrington forcing  the action

ROUND 5 Good right from Warrington..

ROUND 6 Warrington backing Martinez on the ropes..

ROUND 7 Right and left Martinez..Hard right…Huge BARRAGE FOR WARRINGTON…MARTINEZ IS HURT ON THE ROPES ANDS THE FIGHT IS STOPPED

ROUND 2 Body work from Bridges..Bridges outworking Roman

ROUND 3 Bridges good work to the body…Good combination..

ROUND 4 Good right hook from Roman..Body shot…Left hook from Bridges..Solid right from Roman..Right to body from Bridges..

ROUND 5 Overhand right from Bridges..Jabbing..

ROUND 6 Right from Bridges

ROUND 7 Right from Roman..

ROUND 8 Body work from Bridges

ROUND 9  HARD WORK INSIDE…BRIDGES FINISHES UP STRONG

ROUND 10  Comination and Hard right from Roman

100-91 and 97-93 twice FOR EBANIE BRIDGES

Round 1:  Left from Hughes
Round 2 Good left from Hughes…Right…
Round 3 Good right from Walsh..Good left from Walsh.. Walsh cut over left eye
Round 4 Uppercut from Hughes…Body work..Jab…Uppercut..3 punch combination…Good right hook..
Round 5 Jab and left from Hughes..Right..Good left from Walsh…
Round 6 Hughes goes to the body
Round 7 Right from Walsh..
Round 8 
Round 9 Hughes lands a left…
Round 10 Left..Counter from Walsh…Jab…Right from Hughes..
Round 11 Jab from Hughes..Straight left…
Round 12 

120-108, 119-109 and 118-110 for HUGHES

Round 1 Right from Smith…Body shot…Left hook..Left hook..Counter right…Counter left hook
Round 2 Right to head by Smith…Right Hand/Left Hook..Lead left hook..Moylette starting to swell under left eye
Round 3 Left hand from Smith..
Round 4 Uppercut from Smith..Another..Good right hand
Round 5 Body shot from Smith…3 uppercuts
Round 6 1-2 from Smith..Jab..Body shot..Body combination..
Round 7  Left hook that is very low from Smith crumples Moylette to the canvas..Smith Deducted 2 Points
Round 8  Right from Smith…Another low blow
Round 9 Left from Moylette…Uppercut from Smith…
Round 10 BIG LEFT AND DOWN GOES MOYLETTE….HARD LEFT HOOK AND DOWN GOES MOYLETTE…FIGHT OVER

Round 1 Nicholson lands a body shot…Jab..
Round 2 Nicholson Jabbing
Round 3 Right hook from Nicholson…Combination…Left
Round 4  Left from Nicholson
Round 5 Blood from Nose of Connolly
Round 6 Nicholson boxing and moving

60-54 for Nicholson

By Norm Frauenheim –

There were swimmers, gymnasts and skiers standing alongside Vladimir Putin in support of his war against the Ukraine last week in a Moscow rally.

There wasn’t a boxer among them, according to reports. But boxing’s absence doesn’t mean there won’t be an impact.

Dmitry Bivol wasn’t there.

Yet, it was hard not to think about the Russian light-heavyweight and his May Day date with Canelo Alvarez. Putin’s war is everywhere. It’s there when buying a tank of gas. It’s there in tears and trauma, 24-7, on the television news. There’s no refuge, no place to hide from it all.

Business-as-usual is an illusion. Still, it’s been brisk, at least it has been for boxing. Tickets for Canelo-Bivol on May 7 at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena sold out within the first day they went up for sale this week.

For now, at least, Bivol has sidestepped the escalating wave of controversy and sanctions. When the prizefight was announced, he was careful to say that he wasn’t political. He said all the right things. But words aren’t a rhetorical vaccine against getting swept up in it all.

Former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, already on record with his opposition to letting Bivol fight, added some fuel to the fire this week with an impassioned video on social media. He didn’t mention Bivol this time. He didn’t have to.

Waldimir stood alongside his brother-in-arms and another ex-heavyweight champ, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, and condemned the Russians, saying that the “Ukraine is not a battlefield, it is a crime scene.’’

Quit funding the crime, he then said.

“Stop doing business with Putin’s Russia, because every dollar buys them ammunition,’’ he said. “… Every cent going into the Russian budget is going today to killing our men, women and children.’’

That begs a question: Will any of Bivol’s purse go to the Russians? As a Russian citizen with a family in Saint Petersburg, he pays Russian taxes. According to reports when the bout was announced last month, Bivol is guaranteed $2 million. His final paycheck could grow to $4-million, depending on the pay-per-view sales. If the quick sellout of T-Mobile is a sign, there’s a pretty good chance that the PPV will be strong enough to double Bivol’s payday.

International sanctions limiting Russian access to banks and dollars might stop Russia from getting a share.

There’s an argument that Bivol should be allowed to fight. Fair enough. Citizenship shouldn’t be enough to keep any athlete off the track, out the water and out of the ring. Bivol appears to be a quiet craftsman. He’s not making any noise. He’s staying apolitical. But war, the money and his Russian citizenship won’t allow him to be neutral in what could be one of the most watched prizefights of the year.

For one thing, the Klitschko Brothers will continue to campaign against all things Russian. They are committed, compelling and comfortable in front of the camera.

Then, there are mounting sanctions against Russian athletes. Don’t confuse Bivol with any who stood with Putin at the Moscow rally. They were wearing the Z that is supposed to be a sign of support for his war. We keep hearing that Z is not in the Russian alphabet. Neither is a swastika.

They have identified themselves, front and center, as targets for the terror the Klitschko Brothers are fighting. But there’s more than one symbol that ties Bivol to them. There’s the dollar $ign.  

A swimmer, Evgeny Rylov, got an endorsement deal with Speedo after the backstroker won two gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics last summer. Speedo terminated the contract Wednesday after video surfaced of him on stage with Putin.

“Any outstanding sponsorship fees will be donated to the United Nations,’’ Speedo said in a formal statement, perhaps precedent for a prizefight.

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s a busy schedule. Ambitious, too.

Showtime announced nine cards over five months on a spring-to-summer series that includes 21 unbeaten fighters, seven championship fights and a lot of the same old questions.

The ambition is to get some of the answers, never simple in a balkanized business plagued by noisy feuds and defined by its inherent divisiveness.

Search for logic at your own peril.

But that’s what Stephen Espinoza, Showtime President of Sports and Programming, is seeking.

Espinoza wants to give fans “a sense of logic,’’ he said Tuesday in announcing a schedule that kicks off next week Saturday (March 26) with legend Kostya Tszyu’s son Tim (20-0, 15 KOs) against former U.S. Olympian Terrell Gausha (22-2-1, 11 KOs) in a junior-middleweight fight at The Armory in Minneapolis      

Boxing and logic don’t belong in the same sentence. Not even in the same universe. Together, they create a classic oxymoron. Put it this way: Peace on earth is more likely than logic in boxing. If there was any, we would have already seen Terence Crawford-versus-Errol Spence Jr. and Canelo Alvarez-versus-David Benavidez.

But give Espinoza credit, or at least some sympathy. The logic he hopes to find will be a product of organization. In other words, he hopes fans can follow a telecast schedule like some sort of blueprint, a road map to title fights.

Under today’s chaos-as-usual model, title fights between Belt Holder and Who’s He just seem to appear, then vanish. Too many fighters have only a record and no name recognition. Their path to a title fight is a mystery. It hard to follow, which is a sure way to lose fans. There’s no way for them to sustain interest.

Trouble is, the messy web is there in large part because of the feuding   promotional entities and dizzy array of acronyms – all with sanctioning fees and mandatories. It’d be nice if it could be cleaned up and sorted out. But the business only knows chaos. There’s no simple tournament-like bracket to sum it all up.

At least, somebody is trying. But Espinoza’s mission looks quixotic. From this corner, logic is the longest of long shots.

At this point, a Crawford fight against Spence looks to be as elusive as ever. Still, there will be plenty of talk about it before Showtime’s biggest card, an interesting pay-per-view bout on April 16 between Spence and Yordenis Ugas on the Cowboys home field in Arlington, Tex. Ugas emerged with a stunning upset of Manny Pacquiao in August. Ugas was a late stand-in for Spence, who suffered an eye injury.

There are questions about Spence. We just haven’t seen enough of him since his scary auto accident in October 2019. Ugas might prove to be better than anybody thought. He also might be emboldened by his victory over Pacquiao. Maybe, Ugas has a chance at springing another upset. Whoever the winner, however, there’s still no clear path to logic, which is another way of saying Crawford, still a promotional free agent.

Another intriguing bout on the Showtime card involves David Benavidez on May 21 in his second straight appearance in hometown Phoenix. He faces faded David Lemieux. It promises to be another moment in evolution of Benavidez, still only 25 years old. His body is growing. So is his fan base. But his campaign to fight Canelo has been going nowhere. Don’t look for that to change.

Canelo has a DAZN deal, first to fight Russian light-heavyweight Dmitry Bivol on May 7 in a step that could lead to a third bout with Gennadiy Golovkin, who first has to beat Ryota Murata in Japan.

“Obviously, David Benavidez is angling for the biggest fight,’’ Espinoza said. “But this is the next best thing.’’

The next best thing is only good if it leads to the fights that frustrated fans want. There’s plenty to like about Showtime’s schedule. There’s a heavy investment in the junior-middleweights, first with Tim Tzsyu and Gausha. Then there’s a rematch of Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano on May 14 in southern California at a site to be determined.

But logic? For now, that’s still elusive as ever.

By Norm Frauenheim–

Dmitry Bivol doesn’t look like collateral damage. Not yet, anyway. But the controversy, if not the possibility, is there. Wladimir Klitschko made sure of it.

Bivol, a Russian light-heavyweight champion, should not be allowed to fight Canelo Alvarez, Klitschko told UK media in a condemnation of Russia and its ongoing attack of Ukraine, the former heavyweight champion’s homeland.

His blunt comments are not a surprise. He and brother Vitali, mayor of Kyiv and also a former heavyweight champ, are just a few of the prominent faces engaged in a desperate fight. Wladimir, soldier and statesman, wants a boycott of all things Russian.

Right now, that means Bivol. The light-heavyweight is a current face, a Russian symbol, of what the Klitschkos and their fellow Ukrainians believe the world should boycott.

Bivol’s deal to fight Canelo, the world’s wealthiest and best-known boxer, was formally announced last week.  Bivol can’t escape the timing. Perhaps, it’s just coincidence. But the timing of the deal and Klitchko’s subsequent comments put him in the crosshairs.

In interviews with BBC 5 Live Radio and London tabloid The Mirror, Klitschko likened a ban on Bivol to another sanction on Russia.

“Every sanction – and it’s nothing against the personalities or athletes, it’s about the politics of Russia,’’ Klitschko told BBC. “Every Russian representative in this case needs to be sanctioned, because this way we show to Russia that the world is against his senseless war and there is no good in this war.”

In other words: Don’t buy Russian oil, don’t let Russians use ATMS, don’t let them eat Big Macs, sink the oligarch yachts and don’t watch Bivol.

For promoter Eddie Hearn and Canelo, the aforementioned watch – as in watch DAZN’s pay-per-view telecast on May 7 – looms as perhaps the real threat, some collateral damage to the biggest boxing promotion this year.

The deal is done. Business, as it always has in boxing, moves on, no matter what. Muhammad Ali-George Foreman, 1974’s fabled Rumble in the Jungle, happened in dictator Mobutu’s country, then Zaire. Ali-Joe Frazier 3, 1975’s Thrilla In Manila, happened under strongman Ferdinand Marcos’ rule.

More tyranny from Vladimir Putin probably won’t stop the fight. But it might make at least some people in the projected audience think twice about paying $79.98 for the PPV. Nothing about Putin War is pretty. Ugly is the only word for it. Wall-to-wall coverage on cable networks is full of tears, trauma, rubble and blood. An end to the carnage is not in sight.

The sports world is reacting. The NBA’s Utah Jazz just announced it will fund 32,000 nights of housing for Ukrainian refugees. Expect more of the same. Maybe, the Canelo-Bivol promotion can do something similar. But that won’t silence the controversy over Bivol’s appearance on a card that could earn him a reported $4 million, more than four times bigger than his biggest payday.

He seems to be a nice guy. He’s quiet. He was born in Kyrgyzstan. He has lived in Russia most of his life. He has family in Saint Petersburg. He tried to say all the right things last week at the newser in San Diego. He said he has friends in Ukraine. He said he has friends in Russia.

“I wish everyone peace and only the best,’’ Bivol said. “It’s really sad for me. Every day, I wake up and read the news. I hope this ends soon.”

It’s a dilemma, one that Bivol didn’t seek. But there’s no hoping it just goes away. There’s also no way to pacify both sides. The Klitschko brothers stand as a lesson and also a warning, at least to the Russians. They won’t quit. 

It was hard not to notice Thursday that the Ukrainians destroyed a Russian tank column, a reported regiment, in Brovary, a suburban town about 10 miles east of Kyiv. It’s the same town where Wladimir Klitschko first learned how to box at Brovary Olympic Reserve School in the late 1980s.

Those burning tanks are a warning.

So, too, are Klitschko’s words.

So, too, are pound-for-pound contenders Vasiliy Lomachenko and Oleksandr Usyk, both symbols of Ukraine’s inexhaustible will to fight. Lomachenko and Usyk are still in the middle of brilliant ring careers. Lomachenko was projected to fight unified lightweight champion George Kambosos in Australia. Usyk was working toward a rematch of his heavyweight stunner over Anthony Joshua.

Lomachenko was training in the Greek islands. Usyk was in the UK. Then, Putin attacked. Their lives changed. But their priorities did not. They enlisted in the fight to save their homeland.

It’ll be impossible not to think about their real fight while watching Bivol in a prize fight.

By Norm Frauenheim –

The deal is done, all nine figures of it, without any chance that Canelo Alvarez will face David Benavidez over the next year.

It’s not a surprise. It’s more of a pattern. Months ago, Canelo and his trainer, Eddy Reynoso, were clear that their plans did not include Benavidez.

If not now, when?

It’s an unanswered question. The pressure is on Benavidez to provide an answer.  Canelo put it there, squarely on his young shoulders, in interviews after Canelo’s May 7 date with light-heavyweight Dmitry Bivol on May 7 at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena was formally announced Wednesday.

Canelo repeated his mantra about his pursuit of history. He suggested there was no chance at making some against Benavidez or Jermall Charlo. He suggested that they needed to fight each other.

Mostly, he said they needed to bring more to the table in terms of legacy, a word that is at the cornerstone of the marketing for the Canelo-Bivol bout, the first in a rich Matchroom deal expected to lead to a third Canelo fight with Gennadiy Golovkin.

On the virtual fight poster, it says “Legacy Is Earned.’’ In social media, it comes with a hashtag, #legacyisearned. Intentional or not, the message to Benavidez and Charlo is that they haven’t earned enough of it.

“They have nothing to offer,’’ Canelo told reporters after the Bivol bout was announced at a news conference in San Diego. “I just want to make history, and they have nothing to offer me.’’

Canelo’s kind of history, of course, is attached to more than a hashtag. There’s a dollar sign, a very big one. According to some reports, the deal for perhaps three fights is worth $160 million.

That’s a lot of legacy, enough to be a powerful factor in any calculation of the risk-to-reward ratio.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. perfected it.

Canelo learned it.

It’s impossible to understand Canelo’s career without his loss to Mayweather on Sept. 14, 2013 at Vegas’ MGM Grand. The loss was a lesson, on both sides of the ropes for Canelo, who was 23 – two years younger than Benavidez – when he lost a decision to Mayweather.

In the eight-plus years since then, Canelo has evolved as a boxer. And a businessman. He has succeeded Mayweather at the top of the game because of what he learned from him.

There are two fundamentals: Knowing who to fight. And when to fight him.

It’s no coincidence that Canelo has waited until GGG turned 40 before a second rematch of their two controversial bouts, the first a draw and the second a Canelo victory by majority decision.

Assuming GGG beats Ryota Murata on April 9 in Japan, he’ll face Canelo, still well within his prime. He’ll turn 32 on July 18. Insert the respective ages to the risk-to-reward equation, and GGG looks less risky than a 25-year-old Benavidez, especially for a payday that could exceed $50 million.

Put it this way: Who would you fight? Dumb question. It’s GGG every time.

It’s hard to see how the emerging Benavidez ever gets included in Canelo’s application of the risk-reward ratio. Benavidez, expected to fight Canadian David Lemieux in May perhaps in hometown Phoenix, is just entering his prime. He’ll be 30 in five years. By then, Canelo might have moved from the gym to the golf course for good.

Benavidez might be to Canelo what Antonio Margarito was to Mayweather. Mayweather never fought Margarito. That’s not because he couldn’t beat him. He could. He probably would have. But it would have been a very tough fight. Margarito was tough and aggressive. He was dangerous. Manny Pacquiao beat him, scoring a one-sided decision in November 2010 on the Dallas Cowboys’ home field in Arlington, Tex.

But Pacquiao got hurt by a huge body shot midway through the bout from Margarito. It took something from Pacquiao. The Filipino great was never quite the same fighter, so relentless and fearless early in his pro career.

Pacquiao won. But he paid a price. Mayweather wouldn’t go there. A likely victory wasn’t worth the potential cost.

It looks as if Canelo sees Benavidez the same way. Canelo would probably beat him. But Benavidez’ size, high volume of punches and relentless pursuit could take a toll. The risk is a steep price, one not worth it on a scale that has rewarded Canelo with Mayweather-like money. 

By Mario Ortega Jr.-

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA — Tomorrow night, heading a Showtime-televised tripleheader from the Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Chris Colbert aims to stay on the path towards recognition as a world champion as he takes on ranked contender Hector Luis Garcia in a WBA super featherweight title eliminator. For the winner, the prize will be a meeting with WBA kingpin Roger Gutierrez, who had been primed to defend against Colbert on Saturday before a COVID-19 diagnosis two weeks prior. Fighters for the entire card weighed-in Friday at the Nolita 1 Ballroom, four floors up from the casino floor. 

The recent lineage of the WBA’s 130-pound title is a far too complicated web to completely untangle in this space, but the belt looms over the main event. In short, Colbert claimed the interim version of the title with a unanimous decision over Jezzrel Corrales in 2020 and went on to defend it twice before it was eliminated from circulation. Gutierrez, who had claimed what had been referred to as the “regular” WBA title in 2021, was elevated to full champion with defending against Colbert the next required step for consolidation. 

On February 10th, rumors of Gutierrez’ medical condition were confirmed, leaving Colbert without his opportunity to gain full recognition as the WBA champion at 130-pounds or a dance partner for the 26th.

Enter stage left Garcia (14-0, 10 KOs) of San Juan de la Maguana, San Juan, Dominican Republic. With the short notice, the WBA and promoter Tom Brown looked to the sanctioning body’s featherweight rankings, where Garcia places fifth. Garcia, who scaled 129.6-pounds, was last seen rebounding from a first-round knockdown to decision Isaac Avelar in a super featherweight bout last December. 

Colbert (16-0, 6 KOs) of Broolyn, New York was relieved of his interim champion moniker in anticipation of the consolidation bout, but now finds himself in an eliminator, fighting for the opportunity he was already granted. Apparently this is by design, as Colbert, should he still be holding his interim champ tag, would be best described as a fighting champion. Reports suggest Colbert could have simply waited for Gutierrez, but chose to fight and keep the date with Showtime. Colbert scaled 128.8-pounds Friday.

One of the longest active titleholders in boxing, IBF super flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas (33-1-2, 22 KOs) of Panabo City, Davao del Norte, Philippines will attempt to defend his mantle successfully for the tenth straight outings against Fernando Daniel Martinez (13-0, 8 KOs) of Buenos Aires, Distrito Federal, Argentina over twelve rounds.  

Ancajas, weighing 114.6-pounds on Friday, has not lost a bout since 2012 and claimed his belt back in 2016 with a unanimous decision over then-champion McJoe Arroyo in the Philippines. Ten months ago Ancajas made his ninth successful defense with a unanimous decision win over once-beaten Jonathan Javier Rodriguez Valles in Connecticut and on Showtime. 

Martinez, who weighed-in at 114.6-pounds also, is taking what appears to be a monumental step-up in class from the competition he has seen thus far in his professional career. Martinez last saw action against a sub .500 fighter in Dubai, scoring a fourth-round stoppage in the stay busy bout. Martinez has seen the tenth round or later just three times in his career.

The fight that has most insiders excited going into the televised tripleheader, mega prospect Gary Antuanne Russell (14-0, 14 KOs) of Capitol Heights, Maryland will take on grizzled veteran Viktor Postol (31-3, 12 KOs) of Marina Del Rey, California by way of Velyka Dymerka, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine in a ten-round junior welterweight bout that likely has title implications for the winner. 

On top of the career stakes for both fighters, there’s a high level of emotional components heading into the fight. Notably, Postol’s home country has come under attack in recent days, which will clearly be weighing on the mind in some way for the former champion. Russell lost his brother Gary “Boosa” to a heart attack in 2020, while his father battles serious medical issues himself presently. Facing the same backdrop of events, Russell’s older brother Gary Jr. recently dropped his title in a close fight. 

With a win over a credible contender like Postol, Russell may be at the cusp of completely escaping his older brother’s shadow and launching himself into a world title opportunity. Postol represents a step-up in class for Russell, last seen stopping Jovannie Santiago last May, and is the first former champion the Maryland native has shared the ring with. 

Unlike Russell, Postol has been in the ring with the top guys of the 140-pound division time and time again, going the distance, but coming up short against the Murderer’s Row of Jose Carlos Ramirez, Josh Taylor and Terence Crawford. Prior to the Crawford bout, Posol achieved the dream of becoming world champion with a tenth-round stoppage of Lucas Matthysse back in 2015. The question to be answered: does Postol still have it in the tank to turn back a young blue-chip prospect? Russell hopes to put himself in the same sentence with the three that turned back Postol’s challenge. Russell came in at 139.4-pounds, while Postol scaled 140.6-pounds. 

In off-television action, veteran contender Claudio Marrero (25-5, 18 KOs) of Santo Domingo, Districto National, Dominican Republic will take on Viktor Slavinskyi (13-0-1, 6 KOs) of Los Angeles, California by way of Mykolaiv, Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine in an eight-round super featherweight bout. Marrero, who weighed-in at 130.8-pounds, is looking to get back in line for title contention, having fought one stay-busy bout since a decision defeat in a title eliminator against Xavier Martinez in 2020. Ukrainian import Slavinskyi, who fights while his homeland surely weighs on his mind, is taking a leap in competition in meeting Marrero Saturday. Slavinskyi, who came in at 129-ppunds, has gone the ten-round distance once in his career. 

Guerrero Family pupil Justin Cardona (6-0, 3 KOs) of Salinas, California will take on Joshua Draughter (4-1-1, 1 KO) of New Orleans, Louisiana in a six-round lightweight fight. Cardona, who trains under Robert Guerrero and the former world champion’s father/trainer Ruben, weighed-in at 132.6-pounds. Draughter, who is 1-1-1 in his last three fights, came in at 130-pounds.

19-year-old light middleweight prospect Micky Scala (4-0, 2 KOs) of Mesa, Arizona will battle Jose “El Guero” Gomez Jr. (3-1, 3 KOs) of Concord, California in a six-round contest. Scala, a nationally regarded youth amateur before turning professional at 16-years-old in 2019, came in at 153.6-pounds.  Gomez, who trains out of the Double Trouble Boxing Club in Antioch, California, weighed-in at 150.8-pounds.

Once-beaten super bantamweight Angel Barrientes (7-1, 5 KOs) of Las Vegas will take on Brian Cannady (10-2, 6 KOs) of Fort Myers, Florida in a four-rounder. Barrientes, who has rebounded from his lone pro defeat to go 4-0 and stop three opponents, weighed-in at 121.6-pounds. Cannady, who came in at 119.8, has lost two straight decisions after beginning his career undefeated in ten bouts. 

Former two-division champion, Rances Barthelemy (29-1, 15 KOs) of Las Vegas by way of Havana, La Habana, Cuba had been pegged to continue his slow rise back to prominence against returning Chris Howard (17-2-1, 8 KOs) of Cincinnati, Ohio in an eight-round light welterweight contest, but that bout fell off the card at some point.

17-year-old welterweight prospect David Lopez (1-0, 1 KO) of Oakland, California was slated to meet Corey Champion (2-4, 2 KOs) of Louisa, Virginia in a four-rounder. Champion opted to fight February 19th instead, where he was decisioned over four-rounds by Joseph Veazy in Maryland. 

Former nationally ranked amateur light heavyweight Chavon Davis of Ambridge, Pennsylvania by way of Mansfield, Ohio was slated to make his professional debut against Nathan Davis Sharp (4-3, 4 KOs) of Merced, California in a four-rounder. Late in fight week that bout was a no-go for undisclosed reasons. 

Tickets for the Premier Boxing Champions event, promoted by TGB Promotions, are available online at AXS.com. 

Quick Weigh-in Results:

WBA Super Featherweight Title Eliminator, 12 Rounds

Colbert 128.8

Garcia 129.6

IBF Super Flyweight Championship, 12 Rounds

Ancajas 114.6 

Martinez 114.6

WBA Continental America’s Light Welterweight Championship, 10 Rounds

Russell 139.4

Postol 140.6

Super Featherweights, 8 Rounds

Marrero 130.8

Slavinskyi 129

Lightweights, 6 Rounds

Cardona 132.6

Draughter 130

Light Middleweights, 6 Rounds

Scala 153.6 

Gomez 150.8

Super Bantamweights, 4 Rounds

Barrientes 121.6

Cannady 119.8

Photos by Ryan Hafey / Premier Boxing Champions

Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortegajr.mario@gmail.com or followed on Twitter @MarioG280

By Norm Frauenheim-

Josh Taylor has always hoped a castle would be in his future. He likes history. Mostly, he likes making some.

The castle will have to wait. But another chance at history is close. It might be there Saturday after Taylor’s first bout in his native Scotland in more than four years. He defends his unified junior-welterweight title against somebody named Jack Catterall, known only in the UK.

Despite an unbeaten record, Catterall’s anonymity says a lot about what Taylor is expected to do. A win is almost assumed. He won’t say that. Not exactly.   

“How is he going to win?” Taylor asked Thursday at a news conference.

Taylor then went on to answer his own question. It was an answer that also included what Scottish fans expect.

“…This isn’t a one-sided fight,’’ he said. “It’s my job to make it a one-sided fight.’’

If that task gets done as thoroughly as the betting odds suggest, it’ll be definitive. Actually, it’ll be a lot more than that. On Thursday, Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) was a 20-to-1 favorite over Catterall (26-0, 13 KOs). Translation: He’d have to trip and fall into a moat to lose this one.

This fight itself has the feel of a homecoming parade. Taylor returns with all the relevant belts – WBO, WBC, WBA, IBF and The Ring. He’s the second Scottish fighter to win an undisputed title since lightweight great Ken Buchanan.

The only complaint, perhaps, is the setting. The bout (ESPN+, Sky Sports, 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT) will happen at the OVO Hydro arena in Glasgow. No moat there. It has none of the magic of that castle, the one on a hilltop in Edinburgh about eight miles from Prestonpans, a mining town where Taylor grew up.

Taylor has long fantasized about a summer fight on a lawn in front of the castle or somewhere within the medieval walls. He talked about the possibility after taking possession of the belts in a decision over Jose Ramirez in Las Vegas last May. He talked about it before his long-awaited showdown with Ramirez. But there was no place at the roundtable for one of boxing’s royalty.

“I’m beginning to get to the point of telling them just to ram it,’’ Taylor told The Herald, a Glasgow newspaper, before his two-knockdown victory over Ramirez at Vegas’ Virgin Hotels. “It’s beyond me why the people at the castle don’t want to have one of their natives and have a massive historical event there.

“Yet they’ll let Lady Gaga or someone go up there and have a concert. It’s beyond me, the logic.’’

But history is not beyond him. There’s plenty of talk that his homecoming is also his goodbye to the junior-welterweight division. A jump up the scale makes sense. There’s not much else he can do at 140 pounds. Other than The Ring’s version, the acronym-sponsored titles come up with a succession of mandatories and sanctioning fees. That’s what Catterall is. He’s the WBO’s mandatory challenger.

In a move to welterweight, Taylor moves up to challenges he has long envisioned. He has talked about Terence Crawford for a couple of years. At 5-10, he’s two inches taller than Crawford. At 31, he’s four years younger. It’s time.

The problem is Crawford’s lawsuit against his former promoter, Bob Arum, Taylor’s current promoter. It was filed not long after Crawford’s November stoppage of Shawn Porter in a victory that enhanced his pound-for-pound credentials in the ongoing debate with Canelo Alvarez, still No. 1 in most rankings.

Crawford alleges racism, among other things. As long as the lawsuit is pending, the inflammatory allegations aren’t exactly a way of bringing Arum to the bargaining table.

Still, Taylor, who argues that Crawford – not Canelo –is pound-for-pound No. 1, believes the fight could happen. He has mentioned Crawford several times throughout the media tour for the Catterall bout.

The lawsuit, Taylor told FightHype.com “is a bit of an obstacle. But I still believe it’s a very doable fight. We’re both sort of in the same house. It looks like it can be made. I think it can be made.’’

Crazier things have been made in boxing, where today’s enemy is tomorrow’s business partner. The hostility between Crawford and Arum could be part of the promotion. Bad blood sells.

There are other possibilities. Taylor has also mentioned Errol Spence Jr. and Yordenis Ugas, who are scheduled to fight April 16 on the Dallas Cowboys home field at AT&T Stadium in Arlington TX. But Crawford is always first and foremost in any Taylor talk about the welterweight division.

“That’s the fight that would give me the fear factor and push me to new heights,” Taylor told The Guardian. “Otherwise, if you don’t have that kind of challenge, you go stale.’’

Going stale is also no way to get into that old, upscale house on top of a Scottish hill.

LOS ANGELES, CA (February 22, 2022) – Undefeated, WBO International Welterweight Champion, Vergil Ortiz Jr. (18-0, 18 KOs), of Grand Prairie, Texas and Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy, Oscar De La Hoya hosted a special press event today at the Galen Center to promote the upcoming bout between Vergil Ortiz, Jr. and #3 WBO ranked welterweight Michael “The Problem” McKinson (21-0, 2 KOs) of Portsmouth, Great Britain. The pair are set to collide on Saturday, March 19 at University of Southern California’s Galen Center in Los Angeles. The 12-round fight for Ortiz, Jr.’s WBO International Welterweight title will stream live, worldwide, exclusively on DAZN.

Below are what Vergil and Oscar had to say about the upcoming bout:

VERGIL ORTIZ, JR., WBO INTERNATIONAL WELTERWEIGHT CHAMPION:

“I feels awesome putting a card in LA. I have a lot of fans here in LA that have been asking me on social media to come back and I am happy that we are able to do that. I am looking forward to putting on a good show at the Galen Center.

“I always train to go the distance in every fight. I don’t go into the ring looking for the knock out. If the opportunity comes to finish the fight with a knock out I will take it.

“I would love to fight at the very least three times this year. After this fight get back in the ring as soon as possible, stay active. That’s how I feel the sharpest.

“My dad has been training me the whole time alongside Hector Beltran. He’s the one that is always on my a** making sure that I am doing everything right. Now that we have added Manny Robles to the corner, he brings experience and a different point of view. He’s taken fighters like Oscar Valdez and Andy Ruiz to world title fights and hopefully we can do the same.”

OSCAR DE LA HOYA, CHAIRMAN AND CEO GOLDEN BOY:

“As a promoter we have to knock on a lot of doors to get our fighters a fight, and it’s a dream come true when fighters like Michael McKinson want to face one of our guys. Vergil is in a very unique position, being 18-0, 18KOs. World champions know that he’s dangerous, world champions know that if they get in the ring with him there will be a huge possibility that they are going to loose. So it surprised me that McKinson was knocking on Vergil’s door, on our door. It just goes to show you that when you are fighting at this level, you are going to cross paths with great fighters who want to fight the best.

“Vergil has his father who knows the in’s and out’s. He has trained him all his life. It was a breath of fresh air to hear what they were thinking, to come to LA which has great fighters and great sparring. Manny has experience and great knowledge that can be a good second voice for Vergil’s father, who is on the fore front of Vergil’s training.

“Vergil is just getting better and better, and better. I tell every world champion, fight Vergil now. Fight him now because if you wait a year or two, it will only get worse for you because Vergil is very young and just getting better and better. He’s knocking on the door of these champions so it’s going to be very interesting on who he fights next.”

Tickets for the event go on sale now and are priced at $150, $75, $50 and $25 not including applicable service charges. Tickets will be available for purchase at www.galencenter.org or www.goldenboypromotions.com. Please note that LADPH guidelines and other protocols relating to admission requirements will be in place for this event, which include that all guests age 2 and older will have to provide proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result within 24 hours for an antigen test or 48 hours for a PCR test.

Ortiz Jr. vs. McKinson is a 12-round fight for the WBO International Welterweight Title presented by Golden Boy in association with Matchroom Boxing. The event is sponsored by Hennessy “Never Stop. Never Settle” and “BetOnline – Your Online Sportsbook Experts.” The fight will take place on Saturday, March 19 at Galen Center in Los Angeles, and will be streamed live worldwide on DAZN.

For more information, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com and DAZN.com. Follow on Twitter @GoldenBoyBoxing and @DAZNBoxing. Become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GoldenBoy and https://www.facebook.com/DAZN. Follow on Instagram @GoldenBoy and @DAZNBoxing. Follow the conversation using #OrtizMcKinson

By Norm Frauenheim –

It looks as if Canelo Alvarez has more deals on the bargaining table these days than he has clubs in his golf bag. There’s no end to the reported options or the money. Mostly, the money.

The unsourced reports are all over the proverbial ballpark. Eight-five million dollars here. A hundred-million over there. Only the B-word — as in billion — hasn’t been reported. Given today’s inflation rate, that one can’t be too far away.

It’s always safe to attach some skepticism to the dollar sign next to those eight and nine-figure sums. When talks begin at boxing’s bargaining table, they might as well be speaking Russian. The numbers are hard to understand. Harder to believe. But they do include some lessons, especially for David Benavidez. He continues to be the odd man out.

He knows that. He’s known it for a while.

“Of course, I want to fight Canelo, (Caleb) Plant, (Jermall) Charlo, any of those guys,’’ Benavidez, a Phoenix native, said Wednesday during a media workout featuring middleweight prospect Diego Pacheco in Rancho Fe, CA. “But they don’t want to fight me, so I’ll fight who I have to fight, become a world champion until they have no choice but to face me.”

The abundance of Canelo’s options and his proven pay-per-view numbers allow him to do whatever he wants. For now and probably for a while, what he doesn’t want is a date with Benavidez.

Instead, all of the reports point to a Matchroom Boxing deal for a Canelo fight in May with light-heavyweight Dmitry Bivol that could lead to a third bout with Gennadiy Golovkin, according to ESPN. As of Friday, however, there was no agreement.

“About my next fight nothing is confirmed,’’ Canelo said in a tweet Thursday.

ESPN reported that GGG has yet to agree. He’s training for a bout at middleweight in Japan with Ryota Murata in April. He’s expected to beat Murata. But he’s past his prime and a third fight with Canelo is past its due date. GGG turns 40 on April 9. He still argues that he beat Canelo, first in a fight judged to be a draw in 2017 and then a rematch that Canelo won by majority decision in September 2018.

The lingering controversy perhaps is still reason enough for a third fight. It’s a chance for Canelo to shut up the doubters, once and for all. For the aging GGG, it’s a chance to make his point and an opportunity at one more big payday. But it’s a little late in the game.

The momentum, at least among younger fans, is swinging increasingly toward Benavidez-versus-Canelo.

On their respective career paths, Benavidez and GGG are going in opposite directions. GGG’s best days are behind him. Benavidez’ best is still ahead of him. The two-time former super-middleweight champion, who is expected face David Lemieux in a spring bout perhaps in hometown Phoenix, is about 15 years younger than GGG. He turned 25 on December 17.

That’s why Canelo appears to be leaning toward a deal that leads to GGG instead of a reported PBC offer that would have led to Benavidez.

On the risk-to-reward ratio – a formula that Canelo has learned and applied ever since his lone loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2013, the choice is easy. Frustrating too, for Benavidez and his growing crowd of supporters who see him as the only real threat to Canelo Inc.

By Mario Ortega Jr. –

As reported in this space yesterday, Mayweather Promotions’ 17-year-old junior welterweight prospect David Lopez was set to make his second appearance as a professional in a four-round bout against tough guy Corey Champion (2-3, 2 KOs) of Gordonsville, Virginia at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas next Saturday night. This bout will no longer take place on the undercard to the Showtime-televised tripleheader headlined by the WBA super featherweight title eliminator between Chris Colbert and Hector Luis Garcia. 

“Basically my original opponent pulled out,” Lopez updated 15rounds.com late on Tuesday night. “And they tried reaching out to many other opponents, but it was too short notice.” 

Finding opponents for Lopez (1-0, 1 KO) of Oakland, California is a tall task for any matchmaker with ample notice, much less a couple weeks’ notice. The internet is littered with his sparring sessions and freakish athletic gifts. 

“It was disappointing after hearing the news,” said Lopez, who admitted he was a bit angry when he first heard the news. “As a fighter, we put our bodies through a lot in preparation for our fights. All I can do is stay ready and keep my mind at peace. Stuff happens man.” 

No word yet on when Lopez will return to the ring after this late cancellation. Lopez reports that he is staying ready for whenever he gets the call. 

Photo by Michael Ham/TGB Promotions

Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortegajr.mario@gmail.com or followed on Twitter @MarioG280

By Mario Ortega Jr.-

In the modern era of professional boxing it sometimes feels like some of the world’s best fighters are somehow pieced together in a lab, rather than naturally born and developed athletes. Some of these fighters that are so athletically gifted and excellently trained at a young age can make one wonder how anyone can compete if they did not have that same background. One young fighter that has those in the know comparing him to the top young fighters of recent times is 17-year-old child prodigy junior welterweight “Dynamite” David Lopez. The Alameda High School student takes a break from class next week to go for pro win number two on the undercard of the Showtime-televised event at the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas on February 26th. 

Lopez (1-0, 1 KO) of Oakland, California comes from a fighting family and was first incorporated into the world of boxing at the age of 5 by his father Kris Lopez, a former promising fighter himself and proprietor of Lightning’s Boxing Club in Oakland. His older brother Daniel is also a fighter, currently making a comeback. The boxing bloodlines run deep as there is family in the boxing game in Hawaii and Kris’ great grandfather Elmario Santos was a fighter of some description himself.

“My grandmother used to always tell me stories about him jumping rope and chasing roosters,” recalls Kris Lopez. “That was what he did. It is very interesting that boxing is in our family. Boxing is definitely in our family, from my grandmother’s side to my uncle’s. They would arrange bootleg backyard fights, but when it got to me…I took it to another level. I sought out to become a legitimate fighter. I struggled with it a bit and got married early, and I kind of blew my career. Here I am years later, trying to right my wrongs with my kids.”

“Lightning” Kris Lopez, as he was known during his fighting days, appears to be on his way to accomplishing his fight career goals with how he has developed David. “He’s a special kid,” says his father unapologetically. “We knew when he was little, he was a little bit different and a special, rare kid. The things he could do as a small child, even as a two-year-old baby he was freakishly strong. As a six-year-old we challenged him to do push-ups and he did like 130 push-ups. Every time he got the ball on the football field it was a touchdown. He had great open-field vision, dexterity, athleticism, coordination, toughness, everything you can imagine for an athlete he has, including being humble and having a tremendous work ethic.”

The young Lopez developed a strong fan base as an amateur with his natural abilities, speed and learned skills. Videos of interviews from David’s early amateur run are all over YouTube and are something to watch. His speaking abilities and comfort level with media at around age 11 is something rarely seen in sports.  

“I used to hear my dad talk a lot and I pretty much just repeated after him,” says David. “Whatever my dad would say, I just learned from him. My dad is a businessman, he is a gym owner. I used to hear him with the clients and the people that would come into the gym and I just took a page out of his book.”

At just 17, Lopez finds himself signed to Mayweather Promotions, one of the most prominent promotional companies in the United States. Lopez was likely on the promotional firm’s radar for years, as sparring sessions and fights between Lopez and another prodigy and Mayweather understudy “Cash Flow” Floyd Diaz are something of internet legend. Once the pros became an option, Lopez’ team got a tryout in hopes of signing with “Money May’s” company. 

“Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, lined it up for me to spar with one of their signed fighters, Kevin Johnson,” recalls David. “It was good work and Leonard liked what he saw and we went from there.” 

Despite having a burgeoning fight career, David Lopez is still in high school attending class at Alameda High amongst the general population. “It’s cool,” says Lopez of the high schooler/boxer experience. “I get a lot of recognition from my friends and the teachers. They will say things like, ‘There goes the boxer’ or ‘There goes David “Dynamite.”‘ Other than that, it’s pretty normal. I’m still a normal citizen to myself. I’m just a professional boxer. It’s just a plus for me.”

Lopez turned pro in October of last year, and balancing his career and school was a little simpler during the pandemic. “The virtual learning and the zooms were much easier,” admits Lopez. “I got to wake up when I wanted to. As far as my schedule, I could go to the gym whenever and be in class at the same time. It was definitely easier.”

With in-person learning back in full-swing, Lopez has a different balancing act to perform, but he seems to be handling it well. “It’s pretty easy to manage,” says David. “I just go to school and get my work done. Whenever I have camps out in Vegas, I run it by my teachers and they give me extra work to do while I’m gone. That’s pretty easy to do.”

One of the main guys in camp with David is veteran pro and fellow southpaw Aaron Coley. David first began sparring Coley, a powerfully-built full grown man, in the early part of 2020 when he was probably just beginning to shave. “He would put him in at the tail end of the sparring,” recalls Coley (16-3-1, 7 KOs). “I had a few fights I was getting ready for and David would come in at the end.”

Lopez has been studying Coley’s game and learning what he can from the veteran, who is also trained by Kris Lopez. “He’s a very sharp fighter and he keeps my eye sharp,” David says of Coley. “The level of experience that he is on is very good. It’s a level of experience a lot of fighters don’t have, so every camp we try to get Aaron. He throws nice, in-tight punches and he’s able to get his head off the line and step around you. So definitely his in-tight work and I would say his punch selection and his work ethic [are what I emulate.]”

Coley, who turned pro in 2012, is equally complementary of Lopez. “He is sharp,” says Coley. “He is one of the better younger guys I have seen around. He’s fast and he has a lot of natural abilities. Then he comes in there and gets after it. The sky’s the limit for him. Some people are just made for certain stuff or bred into it. Like he is one of them guys. He can play everything too. He played other sports, football and is pretty good at hoop.”

Lopez’ hoop game got his name out there last year when he extended a public challenge for a one-on-one basketball game to his promoter, one Floyd Mayweather, on an episode of the Abrams Boxing Show podcast, hosted by our own Marc Abrams. It is a challenge that so far has not been accepted. 

“Not yet,” Lopez answers to the question of whether he has heard back from Mayweather. “It is going to come though. We are staying ready for it. We have been doing a lot of explosive training to dunk on him when that time comes, so I hope that Floyd is ready. He does a lot of cross training during his off-time and he always stays sharp and he’s always in the gym, so I’m sure he can hoop still.”

On February 26th, Lopez will return to the ring on the undercard of Chris Colbert-Hector Luis Garcia at the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas, taking on tough guy Corey Champion, a fighter with an MMA background and two distance losses to mega prospects Xander Zayas and Vito Mielnicki Jr. on his boxing resume. 

When it is presented to us, and they bring up Xander Zayas and Vito Mielnicki, and they both couldn’t knock him out,” Kris Lopez says of Champion (2-3, 2 KOs). “Those guys are both junior middleweights and couldn’t knock him out. This is a grown man, he’s coming down [in weight,] has never been knocked out and his two wins are knockouts. Why would you think my smaller 140-pound kid will knock him out? I know the answer to it: he probably can and he probably will. David has been knocking out 175-pound guys, knocking them out cold. But this guy, we are not going to underestimate him.”

Lopez has some sparring experience that will probably come in handy when fighting a rough MMA fighter with an awkward style. Another San Francisco Bay Area veteran often shares the ring with Lopez who is known for his rough and tough style, former welterweight contender Karim Mayfield. 

“He knows I am going to give him some rough, unorthodox work,” says Mayfield. “But when I was sparring him more and more, I saw him adjusting to some of the stuff I was doing. And I have been sparring for quite a few years and some people weren’t able to adjust to it. So that was a good look for me to see him adjusting to the unorthodox stuff, because that is stuff a lot of world champions couldn’t adjust to. He is going to excel and do well. Speed and power, the whole nine.”

The Lopez family continues a long boxing tradition of the father-son, trainer-fighter duo. “It’s great having my dad with me,” says David. “I know that I am safe and that my dad has my best interests. I think it is really cool that I get to follow my dreams with my dad. He’s a part of it and he’s taking me to where I need to go through his knowledge from what he has experienced in his past. It is definitely dope that my father gets to be part of this and is my trainer of course.”

The long road ahead gets one fight shorter next Saturday for the Lopez family and David Lopez the fighter. Although the journey is just beginning for the fighting wunderkind of Alameda High, all the ingredients appear to be there for a successful run and young David Lopez is ready to do the work required, beginning with Corey Champion in Las Vegas. 

“We are training hard and I am feeling as sharp as ever,” says David. “I can’t wait for February 26th to come.” 

Photos by Michael Ham/TGB Promotions

Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortegajr.mario@gmail.com or followed on Twitter @MarioG280

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s never been much of a secret. It could be a great fight. Now, it’s official. Shakur Stevenson-versus-Oscar Valdez Jr. is going to happen

Stevenson and Valdez formally signed Thursday for a junior-lightweight fight projected for April 30 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. Top Rank posted photos on social media of each fighter sealing the deal for a bout that has been in the works for at least a month.

In hindsight, it’s a fight that’s been inevitable for a couple of years. Both are unbeaten. Both have belts. Both are Top Rank fighters, meaning there weren’t the usual hurdles that keep rival promoters from ever getting to the table.

There’s been speculation that the deal wasn’t done a few weeks ago because Stevenson wanted provisions about drug testing written into the contract. That’s reasonable, given the furor over Valdez’ positive test for a stimulant – phentermine – about a month before his Sept.10 fight with Robson Conceicao in Tucson, Valdez’ second home.

Valdez was allowed to fight because of different rules – WADA instead of VADA — regulating the bout on Pascua Yaqui land. Valdez went on to retain his World Boxing Council title, scoring a debatable decision over Conceicao. But the controversy lingers. 

It’ll still be there, part of the story, if not the marketing.  For Valdez, it figures to be a source of motivation. The fight is an opportunity for him to get past the controversy. It’s still not clear why he tested positive. He blamed a herbal tea. 

But the social-media mob believes that one about as much as it believes Canelo Alvarez’ claim that tainted beef was the reason he tested positive in 2018 for clenbuterol, a steroid, before his rematch with Gennadiy Golovkin.

Canelo went on to answer the furor by beating Golovkin in a postponed bout. What controversy? Just a few days before the Super Bowl, here’s an old, yet always relevant quote from late Raiders owner Al Davis.

Just win, baby.

Question the ethics, but not the effectiveness. Winning works, especially in a game where ethics are, well, negotiable.

For Valdez, however, victory won’t be as likely as the “just” in Davis’ enduring line might suggest. 

Winning has been predictable for Canelo, now a Valdez stablemate whose current negotiations might lead to a bout, also in Las Vegas on May 7, the Saturday after the projected date for Valdez-Stevenson. Winning is all Canelo has done. He’s 8-0, post-clenbuterol.

Stevenson has already opened as the betting favorite, according to some online books. He’s at minus-250, making him a 5-2 favorite. That puts Stevenson’s chances at 71.4 percent. Don’t be surprised if the odds in his favor grow. 

He’s got all the documented advantages. At 24, he’s seven years younger than the 31-year-old Valdez. Stevenson is two inches taller and has a two-inch advantage in reach.

The numbers, however, don’t measure the intangibles, especially Valdez’ tenacity. It’s off the charts. Put it this way: Valdez is never in an easy fight. He’s never lost one either, including a crazy night nearly four years ago in the rain at Carson CA when he overcame a broken jaw to score a unanimous decision over a bigger Scott Quigg.

Despite the victory, there were doubts about whether there was much left of Valdez after that bloody night. Turns out there was plenty, including a stunning knockout of heavily favored Miguel Berchelt a year ago.

Then, there was the bigger Conceicao, who was beating Valdez through the first half of their fight on a hot desert day in an outdoor ring in Tucson. But Valdez battled back – both from potential distractions brought on by the PED controversy and Conceicao’s early advantage. 

So far, Valdez’ tenacity has been inexhaustible. Nobody bites down quite the way he does.

It’s a factor that’s hard to quantify and harder to predict. But if that Valdez tenacity is still there, it could test Stevenson in ways he has never been tested. 

For Stevenson, this a fight for pound-for-pound recognition. It’s a potential springboard to the stardom many believed was there when he came home from Brazil with a 2012 Olympic silver medal.

For both, the fight is defining. For different reasons, it’s personal, which is another way of saying the stakes have never been more dramatic. This deal has a chance to be a classic. An official one.

Follow all the action as former world champions Keith Thurman and Mario Barrios get it on in a welterweight bout.  The action commences at 7 PM ET with bouts featuring Abel Ramos and Ryan Karl.  Then at 9 PM ET, Luis Nery takes on Carlos Castro; Jesus Ramos gets it on with Vladimir Hernandez and Leo Santa Cruz fights Keenan Carbajal

NO BROWSER REFRESH NEEDED; THE PAGE WILL UPDATE AUTOMATICALLY

Round 1: Right from Thurman…Body shot from Barrios…Right to body..Right from Thurman
Round 2 Hook from Thurman…Good left hook..Left hook from Barrios…Hook from Thurman…Right from Barrios..
Round 3 Nice body shot from Barrios..Left Hook from Thurman…Left hook..Body shot..Nice right from Barrios..Left from Thurman..jab..
Round 4 Sharp combination from Thurman..left uppercut and right from Barrios…Combinations wobbles Barrios…3 punch combination..Left hook hurts Barrios…good right
Round 5 Right to body and head from Thurman…Barrios bleeding down the side of his face…Combination to the body…Right to body from Barrios…2 Hooks from Thurman..Combination
Round 6 Left from Thurman
Round 7 Hook from Thurman
Round 8 Good hook from Thurman…Body shot..Right Buckles Barrios…Barrios cut badly over right right eye…Barrios trying to fight back…Right from Thurman
Round 9 Counter from Barrios…
Round 10 Nice Hook from Thurman…Hard right and left hook..Nice hook…Good right from Barrios…
Round 11 Combination from Thurman
Round 12 Counter hook from Thurman…Good Jab..Flush hook and a body shot..good jab..Big right wobbles Barrios

117-111…118-100 TWICE FOR KEITH THURMAN

Round 1 Body shot and hook to head from Santa Cruz..2 jabs and right hands..Body shots
Round 2 Hard combinations from Santa Cruz…head butt opens a cut over left eye of Santa Cruz
Round 3 Body shot from Santa Cruz..Left ..Hook from Carbajal
Round 4 Another headbutt by Carbajal..
Round 5 Uppercut from Carbajal..Nice combination..Santa Cruz answers back
Round 6 Right from Santa Cruz..Left to body..Referee looking at Santa Cruz eye…Uppercut from santa Cruz..
Round 7 Santa Cruz pressing forward…
Round 8 Combination from Santa Cruz…
Round 9 Right to head from Santa Cruz…Right to the head..Good Combination..
Round 10  Santa Cruz lands a right

100-90 on all CARDS FOR LEO SANTA CRUZ

Round 1: Right from Ramos..
Round 2 Left from Ramos
Round 3 Thumping lefts from Hernandez..
Round 4 Right hook stuns Hernandez
Round 5 Hernandez swarming and lands a left hook
Round 6  Huge left to the chin that hurts Hernandez…Ramos aLL OVER HERNANDEZ AND THE FIGHT IS STOPPED

Round 1 Big LEFT AND DOWN CASTRO…Nery landing a barrage..Hard left from Nery…
Round 2
Round 3  Hard right and left from Castro..Combination..Nery lands a left
Round 4 Combination and uppercut from Nery..
Round 5 Right from Castro..
Round 6 Combination from Nery
Round 7 Sharp combination from Nery
Round 8 Hard combination from Nery
Round 9 Jab from Castro…Combination from Nery…
Round 10 Right hook from Nery…Right from Castro..Left

95-94 CASTRO; 95-94 NERY; 96-93 NERY

Round 1:

Round 1  Jab from Juarez..Right
Round 2 Good body shot from Juarez..Hard right..Right from Karl…Right from Juarez
Round 3 Sharp right from Juarez..Right from Karl…Big hook from Juarez rocks Karl..Karl bloody over his left eye…Left hook from Juarez..
Round 7 Karl a bloody mess..Right from Karl…Combination from Juarez…Nice right from Karl..Jab..
Round 8 Combination from Karl

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – Time is in his nickname. But time is not on his side.

Keith Thurman, who calls himself One Time, faces the inevitable.  At 33, the former welterweight champion is confronted by the calendar, the ceaseless career clock, that says not much prime time is left.

It’s easy to make fun of Thurman’s nickname. He hears it often.

“People can say what they want,’’ Thurman (29-1, 22 KOs) said a few weeks before his comeback Saturday night against Mario Barrios (26-1, 17 KOs) in a Fox-pay-per-view telecast (9 pm ET/6pm. PT) at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob Ultra Arena. “Thurman ‘sometimes,’ ‘one time’, ‘no time.’

“Say what you want. I see your comments. Say what you want. But Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman will always be one of the best welterweights in the welterweight division today.”

But all the mocking has yet to include the inevitable:

Out Of Time.

That prospect approaches and might bring a growing sense of urgency to Thurman’s first fight in more than 30 months.

Thurman’s pursuit of legacy and a spot in the Hall of Fame has been interrupted by injuries, or the Pandemic, or boxing’s balkanized politics, or all of the above during the five years since he held two of the 147-pound belts in 2017. Then, it looked as if anything was possible. Now, not so much.

Instead, there are questions. Maybe, Thurman knocks them out against Barrios, a former junior-welterweight who is fighting for the first time at 147 pounds. But there are doubts, all still there after Thurman lost a split decision to Manny Pacquiao in July 2019.

There’s enough doubt, in fact, that a panel of trainers picked Barrios, who has Virgil Hunter in his corner, to upset Thurman during a zoom session Tuesday.

“I truly believe Mario Barrios has a great chance of beating Thurman, especially since Thurman has been out for so long and he’s made millions of dollars, so that changes anybody,’’ Robert Garcia said, “He’s (Thurman) gonna say he’s been training 10, 12 months, non-stop.

“But he could be saying that, it might not be true. I can’t wait for this fight, I’m actually excited about this fight, but I truly believe Barrios has whatever it takes to win.”

Thurman, about a 2-to-1 favorite, says a lot, of course. He’s a tireless self-promoter. His confidence has been evident throughout the sales-pitch for the Fox telecast, which has been criticized for it $75 pay-per-view price tag. 

At the formal weigh-in Friday, he laughed at any suggestion that Barrios had a chance.

“He already knows what’s up,’’ Thurman said after weighing in at 145.5 pounds. “Keep your hands up, defend yourself at all times, because you’re about to get your ass knocked out.’’

But the weigh-in also included one fact that could not be explained away. Barrios is bigger. In posing for the cameras, Barrios stood taller, looked broader. He also weighed more, He came in at 146.25 pounds.

“I’m just more comfortable now,’’ said Barrios, who was knocked out by Gervonta Davis in his last outing at 140 pounds in a June loss in Atlanta. “I feel better, stronger. This is my natural weight.’’

Barrios is also 26. He’s seven years younger, which only means he’s got more of the time that is no longer there for Thurman.

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – It’s a noisy business. Maybe that’s why you haven’t heard much about – or from – Carlos Castro. 

He’s the quiet guy in a contentious crowd full of tireless trash-talkers who work harder in social media than they do in the gym. In Jake Paul’s world, clicks are more valuable than punches. A twitter account is today’s bully pulpit.

But Castro confines his craft – and perhaps his identity — to doing the work where it has always been done.

In the gym. 

And within the ropes.

That’s where he’ll be Saturday night at Mandalay Bay on a Fox pay-per-view card featuring seldom-seen Keith Thurman in his first fight in 30 months against newly-minted welterweight Mario Barrios.

For Castro (27-0, 12 KOs), the fight is a huge step. He faces Luis Nery (31-1, 24 KOs) in a junior-featherweight fight that could lead to a world-title shot against Stephen Fulton or Uzbek Murodjon Akhmadaliev, each of whom have two of the division’s significant belts.

A Castro victory over Nery, a former two-time champion, would speak volumes. Just don’t expect the volume to come from Castro, 

The bout is a chance at affirmation for the Phoenix fighter, one of four Arizona fighters (also Keenan Carbajal of Phoenix and the Ramos brothers, Abel and Jesus, of Casa Grande) scheduled to appear in Las Vegas on the same night when DAZN is scheduled for another PPV card featuring Carlos Cuadras-versus-Jesse Rodriguez at Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix. Location, location, location??? 

Cuadras-Rodriguez might be a good fight on an otherwise shuffled card. But it’s in the wrong place on the wrong night. Footprint, the Suns home arena, has 18,422 seats. A good bet is that there will be more people at the FanDuel book on the concourse level than in the arena’s seats at opening bell.

Arizona’s fight crowd figures to watch Castro, instead. If you haven’t heard about him yet, he’s hoping you will with a victory that will finally affirm his place on the world-class stage.

“He’s already one of the best in the world at junior-feather and featherweight,’’ his longtime promoter Robert Vargas of Iron Boy Promotions said. “He knows that. He’s proven it. But he just needs the victory that will get people talking about him.

“A win over Nery, a really tough guy, could do it.’’

It could. But a victory over Nery would also qualify as a mild upset, at least according to the prevailing odds. Castro is plus-140, meaning he’s a 7-to-5 underdog. On the percentage scale, that means he has less than a 50-50 chance at beating Nery, an aggressive lefthander from Tijuana. His chances? 41.7 percent.

There are countless ways to interpret the narrow odds. In part, they look to be based on simply who’s better known. That would be Nery. But Castro has been patiently working his way into the collective awareness of fight fans. He did so in February 2019 with a one-sided decision (110-90, 99-91,98-92) over Filipino Genesis Servania, who knocked down Oscar Valdez and had the current junior-lightweight champion in trouble throughout a 2017 Tucson fight. Valdez escaped with a decision (117-109, 116-110, 115-111).

That’s when Vargas and Castro knew they could play on the world-class stage. But Castro’s patient work ethic kept him from bragging. Kept him off social media, too. All the way, he continued to work on developing his skillset and upper body. Power has been a question, one that looms large against Nery. Does he have enough of it to keep the Mexican off of him?

We’ll see. In an eye-opening performance on a card featuring Yordenis Ugas’ upset of Manny Pacquiao last August, Castro flashed newfound power in scoring a 10^th-round stoppage of former contender Oscar Escandon in a featherweight bout. At 37, Escandon might not have had much left.

But he still had enough power to hurt Castro. He did. But that’s when Castro displayed newfound command of an evolving skillset. For nine-plus rounds, he did it all. 

All, and even more, might be necessary against Nery, whose lone defeat is a stoppage loss to Brandon Figueroa in his last bout.

“This the beginning of a new chapter to my career,’’ Castro said after the Escandon stoppage, his first bout with former Valdez trainer Manny Robles in his corner.

The career’s beginning was humble. Castro, now 27, arrived in Arizona from Obregon, Mexico as a 3-year-old. He grew up in trailer park in southwest Phoenix. The surrounding streets only led to trouble. Vargas said his father decided to get him into one of the countless mom-and-pop boxing gyms that dot the Phoenix landscape. 

Vargas signed him as a 17-year-old with a long amateur career. He labored – always quietly – on small cards in Phoenix. He also labored as a landscaper to support his family. He‘s a husband. And a dad. Now, he’s a contender, one step from a shot at the world title he has always wanted.

By today’s chest-thumping standards, that’s reason to brag. But there is no boast in Castro’s skillset. He’ll let a victory over Nery speak for itself. At least, he hopes one will.

Follow all the action as llunga Makabu defends the WBC Cruiserweight title against Thabiso Mchunu; Also Trevor Bryan defends the WBA Heavyweight title against Jonathan Guidry

NOW BROWSER REFRESH NEEDED; THE PAGE WILL UPDATE AUTOMATICALLY

Round 1: Right hook from Makabu

ROUND 2:  Counter left from Mchunu..Left to body from Makabu..Counter from Mchunu..Short left from Makabu..

ROUND 3 Jab to body from Mchunu..Big left from Makabu..

ROUND 4 Right hook from Mchunu..Uppercut..Straight left from Makabu..Right hook from Mchunu..Combination from Makabu

ROUND 5 Right hook and left from Mchunu…Counter left ffrom Makabu

ROUND 6 Left from Mchunu…Right uppercut..Combination from Makabut…Left from Mchunu

ROUND 7 Short jab from Mchunu…Combination from Makabu…Jabs…Nice left from Mchunu..uppercut on the inside..

ROUND 8 Jab from Mchunu..Right to the body..right hook …straight left…Nice left

ROUND 9 Right hook from Mchunu..Good body shot..Counter hook..Left..

ROUND 10 Counter from Mchunu..Hook to body from Makabu..Right hook..jab

ROUND 11 Counter from Mchunu..Counter right..Big left..Counter

ROUND 12 Body shot from Makabu..Counter from Mchunu..

115-113 MAKABU; 115-113 MCHUNU; 116-112 MAKABU

ROUND 1 Good right from Bryan..Jab..

ROUND 2 Right from Guidry…Counter right from Bryan..Jab..Ciunter hook from Guidry..Right from Bryan..

ROUND 3  Jab from Bryan..Guidry lands 2 body shots…Jab from Bryan..Another jab..Guidry starting to swell under his right eye

ROUND 4 Guidry lands a body shot…Short right from Bryan..Double jab,,,Right..Left hook from Guidry..Left hook to the body..Short left hook from Bryan,,2 jabs…Good body shot from Guidry..Big right from Bryan,,2 rights to the head..Hard right

ROUND 5 Short left hook from Guidry..Jab from Bryan..Good jab from Guidry..

ROUND 6 Nice jab from GuidrLeft uy…Nice left hook…Good right..Counter right from Bryan..Right from Guidry..Short counter..Body

ROUND 7 Right to body from Guidry..Jab from Bryan..Nice uppercut

ROUND 8 Body shot from Bryan…Jab from Bryan

ROUND 9 Hook inside from Guidry..Jab from Bryan and another…Big right hurts Guidry..Quick left from Guidry..Short right…Nice left hook..Right..Counter right from Bryan..2 good shots..Nice right…Hook from Guidry

ROUND 10 left uppercut from Bryan..Straight right..Inside left..Double jab to the body

ROUND 11 Left from Bryan..Nice uppercut..Short right from Guidry,,Jab from Bryan

ROUND 12 2 jabs from Bryan..And another..Big Right…Hook to the body..Jab …Left hook..Right…RIGHT IN THE LAST SECONDS DROPS GUIDRY…HE GETS UP

118-109 and 116-111 for BRYAN AND 115-112 FOR GUIDRY

Round 1: Good left hook to body from Kisner…Bidy shot from Langston
Round 2 Counter left from Kisner
Round 3 Nice left from Kisner..Langston Jabbing..Counter right from Kisner..Short left..
Round 4 Left From Langston…Combination on ropes
Round 5  FLURRY ON THE ROPES AND DOWN GIES KISNER..BODY SHOT AND DOWN GOES KISNER…Big Right…COMBINATION AND DOWN GOES KISNER AND THE FIGHT IS OVER

Round 1 Hafney lands a jab..Right to body
Round 2 Good Body shot from Scott..Counter from Hefney…
Round 3 Good uppercut from Scott
Round 4  Headbutt and bad cut over Hefney’s left eye
Round 5  Counter from Scott
Round 6 Nice left hook from Scott
Round 7 Scott landing power shots
Round 8 Big right hurts Hefney
Round 9 Nice Jab From Scott..Good body shot..Uppercut at the bell
Round 10 Right from Hefney..Nice Right..Nice right from Scott..

96-94 Hefney; 96-94 Scott; 97-93 Scott

Round 1: Quick left from Wiggins
Round 2 Quick combination from Wiggins…Big left hurts Wilson…Big flurry..Left and down goes Wilson
Round 3 Big left AND DOWN GOES WILSON…Straight left and the fight is stopped.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Can anyone make sense of the heavyweight mess? Sorry for the stupid question. But boxing’s old flagship is awash in uncertainty and misinformation these days

Three fights are apparently under consideration. Apparently is the key word here, simply because it’s hard to know who or what to believe.

The reported options:

A – Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua.

B – Usyk-Tyson Fury

C – Fury-Dillian Whyte

Best guess, C. At least, that was the early leader about 24 hours before a re-scheduled purse bid Friday at the World Boxing Council’s offices in Mexico City.

Fury, who has been as loud and unbelievable as ever for the last couple of weeks, appeared on social media early Thursday shouting out a promise that suggests Whyte is next.

“I can’t wait to punch Dillian Whyte’s face right in, mate,” said Fury on video posted to UK promoter Frank Warren’s Twitter account. “I’m going to give him the best hiding he’s ever had in his life, boy. Dillian Whyte, train hard sucker, cause you’re getting annihilated, bum.”

Fury says a lot of things, of course. Let’s just say his punches are more accurate than his talk. But maybe – only maybe – he dropped a reliable hint at what’s up. Warren is his promoter. Early Thursday, there were already reports that Fury-Whyte would happen in March in the UK.

But don’t be surprised if there’s news that Fury has said something different, delivered some sort of late reversal, before or after the scheduled meeting. Nobody throws a more artful feint than Fury.

After all, the purse bid had been postponed twice. Whyte apparently had been unhappy at the reported split – 20 percent for him and 80 for Fury, the WBC’s defending champion. Be 100 percent skeptical.

Even if this purse bid results in an agreement for a so-called mandatory defense, skepticism about when and where is, well, mandatory. In Saudi or Saturn, there might not be enough money to fill the purse that Fury and Whyte hope to divide.

After all, it’s not Fury-Usyk. It’s not Fury-Joshua, a fight that was proposed yet never came off last year despite reports of a $150-million offer from the Saudis. Instead, there was an arbiter’s ruling that resulted in Fury’s dramatic stoppage of Deontay Wilder in the 2021 Fight of the Year last October.

Fury-Whyte simply looms as a prelim, one step and untold sums of money before the main event. Maybe, that’s unfair, at least to Whyte. He’s a solid heavyweight, yet unknown to fans outside of the UK. That might be his best chance against Fury.

For the world’s best-known heavyweight, there might not be as much motivation for Whyte as there would be for better wages against the better-known Usyk or Joshua.

As it is, there already have been reports about negotiations for an immediate fight between Fury and Usyk, who took four of the heavyweight belts in a stunning unanimous decision over Joshua in September.

There are also widespread reports that Joshua turned down so-called step-aside money. He would have withdrawn from his contracted right for an immediate Usyk rematch, making way for Fury-Usyk.

Step-aside, however, might hasten a permanent step-away from a ring career. His confidence looks broken ever since his upset loss by stoppage to Andy Ruiz in 2019. Acceptance of step-aside cash would only be a further sign of a shot fighter. The message: Take the money, and you’re done.

According to The Telegraph, however, the money was more than just a step aside. It was a step into some serious cash. The UK newspaper reported that the offer was for 15-million pounds. That’s 20,082,150 dollars.More, maybe, than Fury-Whyte is worth

Follow all the action as Gary Russell Jr. defends the WBC Featherweight title against Mark Magsayo. The show begins at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT with Tugstsogt Nyambayar taking on Sakaria Lukas. Subriel Matias takes Petros Ananyan in rematch.

THE PAGE WILL UPDATE AUTOMATICALLY; NO BROWSER REFRESH NEEDED

Round 1: Left from Russell…Right to body from Magsayo..Jab…

ROUND 2: Body shot from Magsayo..Uppercut to body…Straight right..2 Hard Body shots..Right…Right to body..

ROUND 3: Right to body from Magsayo..Left from Russell…Left to body from Magsayo..Hard right..Good counter right…Left from Russell..Good left..Right to body from Magsayo

ROUND 4 Hard right hurts Russell..Hard body shot…Left from Russell..Good left…Hard counter left

ROUND 5 Left from Russell..Uppercut to body from Magsayo…Right…Left to body from Russell..2 body shots from Magsayo..

ROUND 6  Right from Magsayo…Left from Russell..Left to body

ROUND 7 Counter left from Russell..Uppercut from Magsayo…Counter left from Russell..2 Hard rights from Magsayo..Inside left from Russell..Left to body from Magsayo

ROUND 8  Slapping left from Magsayo…Counter left from Russell…and another…Left to body from Magsayo…Left and right…Counter left from Russell

ROUND 9 Quick left from Russell…Left to body from Magsayo…Good right

ROUND 10 Left hook from Magsayo…Hard Snapping left

ROUND 11 Right from Magsayo..Straight righty

ROUND 12 Right from Magsayo….Left from Russell..Left from Russell

114-114….115-113/,,,115-113 FOR MARK MAGSAYO

Round 1 Jab from Matias…Left and right…Right from Ananya…Hard left and right from Matias..Left to body…
Round 2 Jabs from Matias…Left hook from Ananyan…Left from Matias…Trading on the inside…Combination from Matias..Left from Ananyan…Jab from Matias..
Round 3 Right from Matias…Body combination..Right from Ananyan..Left to head from Matias…Fight is a phone booth…Right from Ananayan…Left from MiB
Round 9 Big right from Matias..Left from Ananyan..Big right and left..5 Punch combro from Matias,,,,BIG RIGHT AND DOWN GOES ANANYAN

FIGHT STOPPED IN CORNER AFTER THE ROUND

Round 1: Jab from Lukas…Jab from Nyambayar…counter left hook rocks Lukas..Left and right
Round 2 Leaping left and right from Nyambayar…Jab from Lukas…Jab…Left from Nyambayar…Left hook from Lukas..
Round 3 Left hook from Nyambayar…Left..
Round 4 Body shots from Nyambayar..Jab from Lukas…left-right from Nyambayar…Left hook..Right to body…Left hook..Body shot from Lukas..Right..Left from Nyambayar
Round 5 Right from Nyambayar…Left…Counter left hook…Hard right hurtsd Lukas…Jab from Lukas..
Round 6 Jab from Lukas..another jab…Uppercut from Nyambayar….Left..Good right from Lukas..Right from Nyambayar…
Round 7 Right from Lukas
Round 8 Right and down goes Nyambayar (Ruled a slip)..Uppercut and left from Lukas…Right to body…Body work from Nyambayar…Jab…
Round 9 Right from Nyambayar…Jab…Jab..Right from Lukas
Round 10 Right from Lukas…Counter left from Nyambayar..Left from Lukas…Right from Nyambayar…Left

96-94 LUKAS…96-94 NYAMBAYAR…95-95…A SPLIT DRAW

By Norm Frauenheim-

Canelo Alvarez has options. David Benavidez has only frustration.

Canelo’s future has become a multiple-choice game. He was thinking about cruiserweight. Then, there are reports about a super-middleweight defense against a middleweight champion. Or, maybe a light-heavyweight challenge between tee times.

None of the above. Or all of the above. Benavidez is not among the reported possibilities, despite a growing number of fans and pundits who are calling for Canelo to fight him. ESPN’s Tim Bradley is just the latest to cast his vote for Canelo-Benavidez.

‘’That’s the guy that everybody wants to see him face, you know,’’ Bradley said during an ESPN telecast about the mounting speculation surrounding Canelo’s next fight.

But, you know, Benavidez is the one guy Canelo isn’t considering. His trainer, Eddy Reynoso, said so, eliminating Benavidez from a projected May 7 date.

Actually, Reynoso did more than eliminate Benavidez. He insulted him, or at least dismissed his resume. It just doesn’t measure up, Reynoso said in so many words. That brought on an inevitable counter from Benavidez, who extended his unbeaten record (25-0, 22 KOs) with a stoppage of Kyrone Davis in front of a roaring hometown crowd of about 8,000 in downtown Phoenix Nov. 13.

“It kind of, like, frustrates me now that everybody’s coming out and saying I haven’t fought nobody, that I’ve never fought on pay-per-views, I’m nobody, this and that,” Benavidez said during an appearance on the Calling Russ Anber podcast. “You can say all that, but I’m going through the ranks at super middleweight. I’ve been number one like three fights already. I’ve been beating the people I have to beat.

“The people love to see me fight, so why wouldn’t he want to fight me?’’

Good question.

Other than an opening bell, there’s not a very good answer. Inevitably, there’s talk that Canelo is simply ducking Benavidez. Maybe.

For now, however, there’s only one thing that seems to guide Canelo’s thinking on who he will — or won’t fight. A belt has to be involved. Benavidez doesn’t have one. At least, he doesn’t anymore. The World Boxing Council’s 168-pound belt was taken from him twice, first for testing positive for cocaine and then for not making weight.

Belts are like hood ornaments. They’re cheap and plentiful. But Canelo still places value on them. They are symbols, perhaps, in the history Canelo says he is pursuing.

Presumably, that’s why Reynoso mentioned cruiserweight Illungu Makabu. Makabu has a belt, the WBC’s version. A two-division jump up the scale generated a lot of headlines and social-media talk. But the possibility has cooled over the last several weeks. Makabu defends his title on Jan. 29 against Thabiso Mchunu Jan. 29 on a Don King-promoted card in Warren, Ohio.

King, of course, is still trying to trumpet the Canelo possibility. After all, he has to sell the pay-per-view. But even King hinted that Canelo’s interest has cooled.

“Hopefully, I can get him to come on in to the fight,’’ King said last week during a Zoom session for a card scheduled for a chilly locale. “So far, he don’t want to come in to that cold snow. Maybe, the sun will shine one day.’’

And, maybe, Canelo will fight Jermall Charlo instead. Talks for a May fight with Charlo, first reported by ESPN, make more sense than a risky jump up to cruiserweight.

Against Charlo, Canelo would eliminate much of the risk and retain all of the reward. It would be Charlo’s first fight at 168 pounds. But he has the one thing Benavidez doesn’t. He has a belt, the WBC’s 160-pound version.

The other Canelo possibility is at light-heavy. Joe Smith Jr. and Dmitry Bivol have been mentioned. They, too, have one thing in common: A belt. Smith retained the World Boxing Organization’s 175-pound version with a stoppage of Steve Geffrard. Bivol has a World Boxing Association belt.

Without one, Benavidez has only frustration.

His immediate future figures to include faded Montreal middleweight David Lemieux. Caleb Plant is also there. Plant is looking for a comeback from his one-sided loss to Canelo, who took his International Boxing Federation belt in a beatdown that ended in an 11^th-round TKO on Nov. 6.

Benavidez and Plant had set the stage for a showdown with trash-talking exchanges. But it all ended when Canelo decided he wanted another belt. Benavidez-Plant could still be a good fight.

For Benavidez, it also would be a yardstick, one way to measure himself against the pay-per-view star who continues to elude him.

A stoppage of Plant in an earlier round than the 11^th would give Benavidez some bragging rights. That’s better than just more of the same frustration.

By Mario Ortega Jr.-

ROSEVILLE, CA – Long established Sacramento area promoter Nasser Niavaroni’s Upper Cut Promotions will open its 2022 campaign this coming Friday, January 21st with what should be an action-packed card at the DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton, located at the state capitol’s Point West Marketplace. The six-round featured attraction pits venue favorite, Live Oak’s Tony Hernandez, who is riding a three-fight win streak, against unbeaten super middleweight and second-generation boxer Kenny Lopez Jr. of Ceres.

Hernandez (4-2, 3 KOs) last saw ring action last July against veteran trial horse Fermin Alberto Canedo, scoring a third-round stoppage in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. In his preceding three professional fights, Hernandez became a favorite amongst local fight fans, going 2-1 with one knockout all inside the DoubleTree Hotel ring. Just under two weeks away from his DoubleTree Hotel return, Hernandez is excited to remind the local fanbase what he brings to the ring.

“I’m ready to put on a show for all of my Sacramento fans and my 530 [area code] Yuba City fans,” says Hernandez. “This will be the best Tony Hernandez everyone has seen, I can promise that. I am looking forward to January 21.” 

The Friday bout marks Hernandez’ first foray into the scheduled six-round distance and his opponent sports the glossiest record of the Live Oak resident’s career. Neither of those aforementioned facts seem to be weighing on the mind of Hernandez however.

“Training has been going good, probably one of the best camps I’ve had,” proclaims Hernandez. “I feel the best physically and mentally for this fight. I’m sure Kenny Lopez has been training hard and is going to bring his best and I’m ready for whatever he brings to the table.” 

Though the less experienced professional of the two, it is Lopez (4-0, 3 KOs) that sports the undefeated record heading into the bout. Lopez compiled all four of his pro wins during the difficult 2021, finding a home away from home at the Big Punch Arena in Tijuana. Lopez last competed just a few weeks after Hernandez blew through the same ring in Mexico, scoring a first-round stoppage of an overmatched Jorge Rodriguez Gomez.

For Lopez, whose father Kenny Lopez was a longtime professional and former California State welterweight champion, January 21st has the young fighter thrilled to be fighting for the first time in the United States. “I’m excited about everything,” says Lopez Jr. “I’m excited for my career. I’m excited to see everyone and to do my thing. Just [excited about] all of it and to learn the lessons that come with this all.” 

In the night’s second six-round affair, unblemished Sacramento featherweight Malikai Johnson will meet longtime journeyman tough guy Jude Yniguez (5-8-4, 1 KO) of Oak Hills, California. Yniguez, who in his career has gone the distance with former title challenger Stephon Young and former world champion Rico Ramos, returned to the ring late last November, ending a two-and-one-half year sabbatical from the sport.

Johnson (7-0-1, 4 KOs) began his pro career with seven straight bouts, going 6-0-1, at the DoubleTree Hotel beginning in 2017. Unfortunately, the pandemic played a part in derailing his plans for advancing his career in 2021, but Johnson could not be more amped to get back in front of his Sacramento fans on January 21st, where he will be led to the ring by a new guiding voice in his corner. 

“I’ve had to fight many obstacles in my personal life in the last two years, along with the pandemic, just to make it here,” explains Johnson. “Leaving my old coach of nine years, deaths of family and friends, stress from business ventures and serious depression from not fighting. My mental health was at an all-time low and, honestly, I considered quitting boxing, but everything changed when I joined hall of fame coach Ray Woods and the Golden State Bloodhounds. I’m with a new team, got new skills and a new hunger I haven’t felt in a long time. This fight is where I show the world Malikai “Machine Gun” Johnson is back to make a statement in the featherweight division.” 

Sacramento’s power-punching middleweight Joeshon James (4-0, 3 KOs) will return to the DoubleTree Hotel ring as he takes on debuting Bryan Martinez of Paso Robles, California in a four-round tilt. James is coming off of a unanimous decision win over durable Christian Duran at the DoubleTree last August, the first time he had been taken the full distance.

“It’s an honor to be fighting close to home so my friends and family who have never seen me fight before can support my career and watch what I do best,” says James. “Nasser has been open arms from the start and I appreciate that he has given me an opportunity to showcase my skills once again.” 

In a four-round light welterweight bout, Mark Salgado (1-0, 1 KO) of San Jose, California returns to the site of his pro victory to take on Luciano Ramos of Stockton, California by way of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Salgado made his debut last August at the DoubleTree Hotel with a stoppage win over Cmaje Ramseur. Ramos has been matched incredibly tough in his short pro career, taking on highly regarded prospects Charlie Sheehy and Mandeep Jangra in his first two outings last year.

In a four-round lightweight contest, debuting Sergio Ibarra of San Bernardino, California will take on Cmaje Ramseur (0-1) of nearby Elk Grove, California. Local product Ramseur took on the super tough Mark Salgado in his debut and came up short in that DoubleTree Hotel bout.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the much-anticipated pairing of pro debuts between Salinas, California’s Lizette Lopez and Victorville, California’s Neveah Martinez, scheduled as a four-round super featherweight fight, was a late scratch from the card.

Tickets for the event, “Super Boxing Battles,” promoted by Upper Cut Promotions, are available online at Showclix.com or by phone or in person at Niavaroni’s Kickboxing in Roseville (916-782-4757). 

Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortegajr.mario@gmail.com or followed on Twitter @MarioG280