Boxing News - Latest Headlines

By Jim Dower: With Tyson Fury out of the picture in defending his IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight titles against Wladimir Klitschko, one possible fight that could occur in place of that is a match between Wladimir and IBF champion Anthony Joshua for one of Fury’s titles.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is talking about possibly matching him against Wladimir for Fury’s World Boxing Association title if the WBA can strip him of the title in time for Joshua and Wladimir to fight in November. Fury and Klitschko were supposed to fight on October 29 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.

Fury pulled out of the fight, leaving Klitschko without the rematch and unable to fight for the titles that he lost to Fury last November. A fight between Wladimir and Joshua would make big news around the world with boxing fans. It would make good money on pay-per-view, and could easily sellout a stadium in the UK or in Germany. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Dower: Heavyweights Alexander Dimitrenko and unbeaten Joseph Parker will be facing each other this Saturday night in what shapes up to be a mismatch at the Vodafone Events Centre, in Manukau City, New Zealand. Parker is taking a fight to get ready for his title shot against IBF champion Anthony Joshua.

Parker (20-0, 17 KOs) needed a tall heavyweight to get him ready for the 6’6” Joshua, and the 6’7” Dimitrenko (38-2, 24 KOs) is the perfect opponent to get him ready. Parker, 24, could wind up facing Joshua on November 26, as this is a fight that Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is talking about wanting to make.

Hearn says that Parker is the most reasonable in agreeing to what’s offered, and he seems to be showing the most amount of interest in making the fight happen. Read the rest of this entry »

By Chris Williams: For boxing fans unclear whether to purchase the Manny Pacquiao vs. Jessie Vargas fight on Top Rank pay-per-view on November 5, the fight WILL NOT be shown on delay a week later on tape delay on non-pay-per-view like in the past when Pacquiao’s fights were televised on HBO.

This is how Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum has setup his fight against Vargas, as he feels there’s less an incentive for fans to buy the pay-per-view fights if they can see it a week later on non-pay-per-view.

HBO was offered the Pacquiao-Vargas fight by Arum, but they decided not to show it due to them already having the Sergey Kovalev vs. Andre Ward fight on pay-per-view during November. Read the rest of this entry »

By Scott Gilfoid: Nathan Cleverly will be trying to become a two-time world champion this Saturday night in his fight against WBA light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (48-2, 35 KOs) at the Jahnsportforum in Neubrandenburg, Germany. Nathan never got a chance to fight Braehmer five years ago when the German fighter was the World Boxing Organization 175lb champion.

Braehmer was stripped of his title after he failed to take the fight with Cleverly. Now things are a little different. Braehmer is the WBA “regular” champion, and Cleverly has been selected by him and his team in a voluntary defense. Braehmer didn’t have to take this fight with Cleverly. He wanted to. Read the rest of this entry »

By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn thinks it’s only a matter of time before the IBO, WBA and WBO governing bodies step in to strip heavyweight champion Tyson Fury of his titles, as he’s got some life issues that he needs to take care before he can get back inside the ring. With Fury’s problems not being injury-related, there’s no way of knowing when he’ll be able to resume his boxing career, says Hearn.

The sanctioning bodies want to have their titles fought over, and they can’t do that with Fury sitting outside of the ring and not defending his belts. Fury beat Wladimir Klitschko by a 12 round unanimous decision 10 months ago, and he’s still not defended his titles.

Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) pulled out of training camp for his scheduled October 29 rematch against Wladimir at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Read the rest of this entry »

By Patrick McHugh: Former 154lb champion Demetrius Andrade is calling out Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to fight him now that he’s the WBO junior middleweight champion after his 9th round knockout win over Liam “Beefy” Smith on September 17. The unbeaten Andrade (23-0, 16 KOs) is the number one challenger for the WBO 154lb belt that Canelo now holds, and he wants to fight him to prove that he’s the better fighter of the two.

Canelo is now talking about moving up in weight to challenge the best fighters in the 160lb division despite the fact that you can argue that he failed to fight the best guys at 154 like Andrade, Julian Williams and the Charlo brothers. Read the rest of this entry »

By Scott Gilfoid: Billy Joe Saunders will be defending his WBO middleweight title next month against an opponent still to be determined on October 22 at the Motorpoint Arena, in Cardiff, Wales. The fact that the 27-year-old Saunders still doesn’t have an opponent for the fight isn’t the greatest news for boxing fans, because it suggests that it might be an underwhelming name that he winds up facing.

Saunders’ opponent will be announced later this week. The two names that have been mentioned as being in the running for the fight are #7 Rob Brant and #11 WBO Artur Akavov. Having seen both of those fighters in action, I’m predicting that Saunders will wind up facing the 28-year-old Akavov, as he looks to be by FAR the worst of the two candidates. It’s not even close, which is why I see Akavov getting the job. Read the rest of this entry »

By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s helper Buboy Fernandez believes that World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Jessie Vargas (27-1, 10 KOs) will be there right in front of Manny Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KOs) when they meet up in less than two months on November 5 in Top Rank’s pay-per-view fight at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Vargas, 5’10”, will have a four inch height and reach advantage to go along with a 10 year youth advantage over the 37-year-old Pacquiao. Why wouldn’t Vargas stand in front of Pacquiao? With the size and youth that Vargas has, it might not make much sense for him to try and move away from Pacquiao. Read the rest of this entry »

By Patrick McHugh: Former WBA junior middleweight champion Austin “No Doubt” Trout (30-3, 17 KOs) wonders if Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) is ever going to fight IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) or not. Trout, 31, notes that Canelo is saying that he’ll fight Golovkin in September of next year rather than right now.

Trout sees that as a sign that Canelo could be looking to wait until Golovkin is over-the-hill before he finally agrees to fight him. Read the rest of this entry »

By Scott Gilfoid: The struggling fringe contender Nathan Cleverly (29-3, 15 KOs) will be getting an arguably undeserved world title shot this Saturday night against World Boxing Association “regular” light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (48-2, 35 KOs) on October 1 at the Jahnsportforum, Neubrandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.

Cleverly has done nothing to deserve a title shot unless you consider losing three out of his last six fights as deserving a shot at a world title. Cleverly was beaten in his last fight by Andrej Fonfara last October. Before that defeat, Cleverly had lot to Tony Bellew and Sergey Kovalev in the last three years. Read the rest of this entry »