Boxing

Jan 10, 2023 Mike CoppingerESPN Robeisy Ramirez and Isaac Dogboe will meet in a featherweight bout with title implications on April 1 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, sources told ESPN. The Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ main event is expected to be contested for either the vacant WBO featherweight title or the interim belt. Emanuel Navarrete, the

8:31 AM ET Women’s boxing made considerable strides in 2022. Fighters who had spent years — in some cases over a decade — fighting for relevancy and a chance to push their names and the sport into the spotlight have finally accomplished it. There were exciting fights and moments, some that fans are still talking

3:11 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Leigh Wood will defend his WBA featherweight title against Mauricio Lara on Feb. 18 in Nottingham, England, promoter Matchroom Boxing announced on Monday. The bout, which shapes up as a slugfest between two aggressive fighters, was scheduled for September before Wood suffered a torn biceps while sparring. Wood (26-2, 16

1:50 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Gervonta “Tank” Davis rocked Hector Luis Garcia with a left hand in the closing moments of Round 8, prompting the underdog to retire on his stool ahead of the ninth round Saturday in Washington, D.C. Garcia absorbed a flurry of power shots on unsteady legs and later said, “I didn’t

3:24 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Gervonta Davis usually starts slow, as he did Saturday night, but he once again found the bout-ending shot to move onto what should be a super fight vs. Ryan Garcia on April 15 in Las Vegas. Moments after Davis landed the left hand that prompted Hector Luis Garcia to retire

2:30 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Eimantas Stanionis’ promoter, Richard Schaefer, told ESPN the fighter had an emergency appendectomy Friday in Lithuania, postponing the March 18 welterweight fight vs. Vergil Ortiz in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Stanionis, 28, was released from the hospital Saturday. “We communicated to Golden Boy, who is going to look at available

7:49 AM ET The new year can bring some of the biggest fights boxing can offer, and add more undisputed champions to its rankings — if the stars (meaning, promoters, networks and fighters) align. From Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk for all the heavyweight titles in the men’s side, to a rematch of one of

8:06 AM ET Jake Paul is moving into mixed martial arts and will do so with the Professional Fighters League. The entertainer and social media influencer-turned-professional boxer announced Thursday that he has signed an MMA contract with PFL. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but PFL chairman and co-founder Donn Davis told ESPN it

10:52 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Murodjon Akhmadaliev will defend his two 122-pound titles against Marlon Tapales after the sides struck a deal, sources told ESPN. The unified junior featherweight championship bout is slated to take place in early spring, likely outside the U.S., sources said. Akhmadaliev (11-0, 8 KOs) has made three defenses of the

9:51 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez will meet Cristian Gonzalez for the WBO’s vacant flyweight title on April 8 in San Antonio, sources told ESPN on Tuesday. Rodriguez is ESPN’s No. 3 boxer at 115 pounds but revealed plans to move down one weight class following his September victory over Israel Gonzalez. At

8:27 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The 147-pound bout between Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Eimantas Stanionis is slated to take place on March 18 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, sources told ESPN. Oritz’s promoter, Golden Boy, won the rights to the WBA “regular” welterweight title fight at last month’s purse bid with a commitment of $2.3

8:19 AM ET At long last, four years after their second bout, archrivals Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin met for a third time, but the September trilogy fight fell far short of the first two battles. It’s no surprise, of course, after boxing failed to deliver this matchup when both fighters were at their peak.

12:54 PM ET WBA strawweight champion Seniesa Estrada will make her first appearance of 2023 when she fights in a unification bout against WBC champion Tina Rupprecht, sources told ESPN on Sunday. The fight is expected to take place in the United States with a targeted date of March 25 as a cofeature fight, sources

11:26 AM ET Former WBO and IBF junior lightweight champion Mikaela Mayer will make her debut at lightweight against Christina Linardatou, a source confirmed to ESPN. A date and location for the fight have not been determined. This will be Mayer’s first fight since a split-decision loss to Alycia Baumgardner in October that unified the

5:59 AM ET SAITAMA, Japan — Manny Pacquiao will return to the ring in 2023. The boxing legend announced Saturday that he has a deal in place with Japan’s Rizin Fighting Federation to compete next year. Pacquiao made the announcement in the ring during Rizin’s New Year’s Eve card at Saitama Super Arena outside Tokyo.

8:14 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Gervonta Davis allegedly struck a woman on the right side of her head with a “closed hand type slap,” leading to his arrest this week in Florida, according to a Broward County Sheriff’s Office incident report. According to the incident report, the woman, who doesn’t live with Davis and whose

8:54 PM ET The woman who called police to report boxer Gervonta Davis in a domestic violence incident earlier this week said Friday that Davis “did not harm me or our daughter.” The woman, whose identity was confirmed to ESPN by her attorney, released a statement on her Instagram account Friday, saying in part that

7:46 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN With the boxing calendar coming to a close, many of the most anticipated fights this year collapsed during negotiations. There were failed talks to match Tyson Fury with Anthony Joshua, and Errol Spence Jr. with Terence Crawford. The lack of activity for most of the top fighters in the sport