3,425 stories on BoxingScene are published under the Cliff Rold byline.
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It might be one of the hardest cards of the week for many in the states to catch live. Those who can should be rewarded. Dallas’s 28-year old Rob Brant (25-1, 17 KO) scored one of the big upsets of 2018 when he laid a whooping on Japan’s Olympic gold medalist Ryoto Murata (14-2, 11 KO) in Las Vegas.
By Cliff Rold - This Saturday night, 22-year old featherweight prospect and 2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson (11-0, 6 KO) goes home to Newark for the first time. The 22-year old might just be finding what could be a profitable home base. The Prudential Center has solid history as a boxing venue in the decade and change since it opened its doors, starting with several Tomas Ada...
By Cliff Rold - Being boxing’s biggest moneymaker is an enviable position. Everyone within a division or three wants to fight you and will generally meet your terms. The boxing fans that loathe you are as willing, maybe more willing, as those who love you to pay big dollars for your services. It was like that for Sugar Ray...
With a few months of results to ponder, it’s time to reflect again on some of the very best of the best across the span of seventeen weight divisions. The biggest change comes near the top. While the physical talent has been seductive for years, Naoya Inoue’s latest destructive victory in May over Emmanuel Rodriguez was particularly eye popping. He took a young, quality, undefeated opponent and obliterated him in two rounds.
Middleweight already made some news this week. Saul Alvarez, the rightful middleweight champion of the world no matter what sanctioning body belt he has, is now something called a franchise champion for the WBC. It makes sense in a perverse way.
Ghana’s 32-year old IBF lightweight titlist Richard Commey (28-2, 25 KO) may be in line for a unification showdown with Vasyl Lomachenko. All he has to do is keep winning. Friday, he’ll have to do it against a tried veteran who missed weight, putting Commey in the unfair position of being able to lose his crown to a man who can’t win it.
By Cliff Rold - The position Errol Spence holds right now, lingering on the edge of super stardom and with the boxing world intrigued about his chance of seizing control of his weight class? There are a lot of people who thought that was the sort of career WBO middleweight titlist Demetrius Andrade (27-0, 17 KO) wou....
Heavyweight: Andy Ruiz now takes up a big piece of real estate in the unlimited class with three title belts and a likely first defense against the man he beat for them, Anthony Joshua. Since the last update, Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury have made defenses of their claim to the throne. Cruiserweight: The slow separation of Oleksandr Usyk from the division is near complete. Usyk hasn’t formally made his move to heavyweight as yet but all the alphabet titles he collected are now off his waist.
Lineal Jr. featherweight king Guillermo Rigondeaux (18-1, 12 KO) didn’t make any new fans when he surrendered in the corner after six rounds against Vasyl Lomachenko last December. His trip to Jr. lightweight was well promoted, drew a nice crowd at the arena, and succeeded in terms of television ratings. In the ring, it was a nightmare for perception of the cerebral Cuban. On his biggest stage in years, what was witnessed was, for many, largely dispassionate with a finish too rational for what is often an irrational endeavor.
By Cliff Rold - 2019 has had a healthy share of feel-good stories. The Jr. middleweight title victories of Tony Harrison and Julian Williams are two of them, both of them former title challengers too many gave up on after stoppage losses. Andy Ruiz went from short notice card saver to tri-belted heavyweight titan...