Boxing

10:15 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Naoya Inoue, ESPN’s No. 2 pound-for-pound boxer, has proved peerless through 24 fights as he cruised to another inside-the-distance victory on Tuesday in Tokyo. Paul Butler was no match. He really wasn’t ever expected to be. The Englishman was simply there to hand over his WBO belt to Inoue, who

Dec 13, 2022 Mike CoppingerESPN Naoya Inoue, ESPN’s No. 2 pound-for-pound boxer, won the undisputed bantamweight championship with an 11th-round KO of Paul Butler on Tuesday in Tokyo. Butler was unwilling to engage throughout the ESPN+ bout, but Inoue still found a way to finish his foe. The Japanese star connected with a right hand

6:04 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The rights to the Eimantas Stanionis-Vergil Ortiz Jr. WBA “regular” welterweight title fight were won by Oritz’s promoter, Golden Boy, with a commitment of $2.3 million at Monday’s purse bid at the sanctioning body’s convention in Orlando, Florida. Stanionis, who won the title with a split-decision victory over Radzhab Butaev

Dec 11, 2022 Mike CoppingerESPN NEW YORK — In the aftermath of another disappointing performance Saturday night, Teofimo Lopez sought reassurance from his father. “I don’t know if I still have it,” Lopez told his father and trainer, Teofimo Lopez Sr. “Do I still have it?” Lopez never appeared to be in control against Sandor

12:54 AM ET One dynamic combination showed Terence “Bud” Crawford remains one of boxing’s pound-for-pound best. In front of a raucous hometown crowd, Crawford floored David Avanesyan with a sixth-round TKO on Saturday at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska. A left uppercut followed by a textbook right put Avanesyan on his back, quickly

3:06 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Ryan Garcia and Mercito Gesta have signed contracts for a Jan. 28 fight in Phoenix, sources told ESPN. The 140-pound bout will serve as a tuneup for Garcia, who is slated to meet Gervonta Davis on April 15 in a Las Vegas superfight at a 136-pound catchweight. Davis (27-0, 25

Dec 10, 2022 Nick Parkinson Close •Reports on boxing for ESPN.co.uk, as well as several national newspapers•Has been reporting on British boxing for over 15 years•Appears on BoxNation’s Boxing Matters show Josh Warrington’s career suffered another setback Saturday as Luis Alberto Lopez took his IBF world featherweight title by majority decision. Lopez did most of

2:31 AM ET Several major cards took place on Saturday, including a welterweight title defense for Terence Crawford, a homecoming for Teofimo Lopez and an upset loss for Josh Warrington. Mike Coppinger, Ben Baby and Nick Parkinson react to the action and try to make sense of three unique cards around the world. Well, here

9:55 PM ET Mike Coppinger Ben Baby Close ESPN Staff Writer ESPN Staff Writer Previously a college football writer for The Dallas Morning News University of North Texas graduate Former unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez Jr. returns to the ring for his second fight at junior welterweight to face Sandor Martin in the main event

8:34 AM ET Nick Parkinson Close •Reports on boxing for ESPN.co.uk, as well as several national newspapers•Has been reporting on British boxing for over 15 years•Appears on BoxNation’s Boxing Matters show Paul Butler is reminding himself that Naoya Inoue, who is in punch-perfect form, is still human ahead of Saturday’s world bantamweight title unification fight.

8:37 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Teofimo Lopez was at the pinnacle of boxing after beating Vasiliy Lomachenko in 2020. A new contract, celebrity, sponsors and fandom followed the undisputed lightweight champion. Just months after his 23rd birthday, Lopez was poised to be the next superstar in a sport with a long history of them. Lopez

7:29 AM ET Nick Parkinson Close •Reports on boxing for ESPN.co.uk, as well as several national newspapers•Has been reporting on British boxing for over 15 years•Appears on BoxNation’s Boxing Matters show David Avanesyan’s manager Neil Marsh is backing him to emerge from the shadows of boxing and make a name for himself by pulling off

9:19 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The Josh Taylor-Jack Catterall rematch for Taylor’s lineal and WBO junior welterweight championship won’t take place on Feb. 4 in Glasgow, Scotland, as planned, sources confirmed to ESPN. The reason, as BoxingScene first reported, was a scheduling decision made by Sky Sports, the network that will televise the pay-per-view event

9:08 AM ET Timothy Bradley Jr. My No. 1 men’s pound-for-pound boxer, Terence Crawford, of Omaha, Nebraska, finally returns to the ring on Saturday, and while he’s not facing archrival Errol Spence Jr., Crawford will take on a top welterweight contender in David Avanesyan (BLK Prime PPV, 9 p.m. ET). But to make things interesting,

1:54 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The Oscar Valdez-Emanuel Navarrete fight for the vacant WBO junior lightweight title is set for Feb. 3 in Glendale, Arizona, sources told ESPN. The Top Rank Boxing on ESPN main event will be supported by an intriguing co-feature between Jose Pedraza and Arnold Barboza Jr., both of whom are ranked

11:00 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Timothy Bradley Jr., the two-division champion who defeated Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, will join those fighters in the International Boxing Hall of Fame when the Class of 2023 is inducted in the summer, it was announced Wednesday. Carl Froch, who faced a who’s who of the super middleweight

4:29 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Mills Lane, the Hall of Fame referee who officiated the Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield “Bite Fight” and more than 100 other championship bouts, died Tuesday morning at his Reno, Nevada, home, his son Terry Lane confirmed to ESPN. He was 85. Lane, known for his prefight catchphrase “Let’s get it on,”

10:05 AM ET Nick Parkinson Close •Reports on boxing for ESPN.co.uk, as well as several national newspapers•Has been reporting on British boxing for over 15 years•Appears on BoxNation’s Boxing Matters show Josh Warrington is urging Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn to match him against a rival world featherweight champion in the United States next year, providing