Boxing News

Spencer Brown will be the lead promoter for the upcoming Tyson Fury-Arslanbek Makhmudov show on April 11 at Tottenham Hostpur Stadium in London, England.

Brown, who has long worked in a managerial role for Fury, will today (Wednesday) be approved for an official British promoter’s licence by the British Boxing Board of Control, BoxingScene can confirm.

The founder of Gold Star Promotions – which originally specialised in celebrity dinner events – has made huge strides in boxing in recent years. A close ally of Ring Magazine owner Turki Alalshikh, Brown was first listed as a promoter on a major boxing event in December 2023 when he was one of several involved in the Saudi Arabia show that was topped by Joseph Parker outpointing Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua beating Otto Wallin.

Since then, Brown has worked in an official capacity on three further Ring/Riyadh Season events while also making inroads into the Australian market. In January, alongside Queensberry Promotions, he was involved in Agit Kabayel’s homecoming victory over Damian Knyba in Germany.

Brown and Gold Star have enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Queensberry, the UK promoters of Fury since 2018. BoxingScene understands that Queensberry, alongside Top Rank in the US, remain the official promoters of the former heavyweight champion. Frank Warren’s Queensberry will not, however, be involved in the on-ground operation of this forthcoming event. Their relationship with Gold Star is believed to remain healthy, however.

Such a scenario is not unusual. One can look at Anthony Joshua’s most recent fight as a case in point; Joshua, very much a Matchroom-promoted fighter, clobbered Jake Paul on an event promoted exclusively by Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions. Before that, in 2024, Joshua appeared on a Queensberry-promoted event when he was stopped by Daniel Dubois.

It is not yet known if Warren, who BoxingScene can confirm was asked personally by Fury to attend the press conference announcing the Makhmudov contest, will be present in London for the fight itself.

BoxingScene however understands that Brown will be assisted by other promoters for the April 11 show who will be confirmed closer to the event.

Leading the undercard is Conor Benn, the recent signing of Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing, who takes on Regis Prograis in a catchweight bout over 10 rounds. White is yet to be involved in a British boxing event, but he has already promoted four boxing cards in Las Vegas this year. Should White decide to represent Benn in an official capacity on April 11, he would have to be approved by the Board but, as an established overseas promoter who would work alongside lead promoter Brown, he will not need to apply for a British licence.

Last month, it was reported that Queensberry was considering legal action, to the tune of a $1b lawsuit, regarding the launch of Zuffa Boxing. Warren alleges that Alalshikh and Sela, alongside Zuffa’s parent company TKO, went behind his back to form Zuffa Boxing which, he claims, represented breaches to the contracts he had signed with the two entities. 

Other promoters who are speculated to be involved in the making of the April 11 show include Ben Shalom, whose Boxxer outfit represent several fighters on the undercard including Jeamie Tshikeva, Richard Riakporhe and Frazer Clarke.

While one IBF titlist was spared his fate on Tuesday, the same could not be said for Janibek Alimkhanuly.

BoxingScene has confirmed that the unbeaten Kazakh southpaw was stripped of his IBF middleweight title for a previous doping violation. In a ruling distributed on Tuesday, the sanctioning body cited IBF Rule 18 covering drug testing in its justification relieve Alimkhanuly of his reign.

“Alimkhanuly is due to make a Mandatory defense of his IBF Middleweight title on or before July 4, 2026. The IBF must notify Zhanibek Alimkhanuly of his Mandatory defense on or around May 4, 2026,” IBF Championships Committee chairman George Martinez outlined in a ruling obtained by BoxingScene. “The penalties imposed by Rule 18. prohibit Alimkhanuly from being ranked by the IBF or “participat[ing] in any IBF sanctioned bout” [emphasis added] for one (1) year following his suspension for an anti-doping violation.

“Alimkhanuly’s suspension by the KPBF is effective as of December 2, 2025, and the resulting one-year period of ineligibility therefore expires on December 2, 2026. Accordingly, Alimkhanuly is unable to fulfill his Mandatory defense obligation on July 4, 2026.

“On March 5, 2026, the IBF Board of Directors participated in a teleconference to discuss this matter. A majority of the Directors determined that, in light of the foregoing, the IBF Middleweight title should be vacated immediately.”

As previously reported by BoxingScene, Alimkhanuly, 17-0 (12 KOs) was issued a backdated six-month suspension by the Kazakhstan Professional Boxing Federation (KPBF) that will run through June 2. The date is six months from December 2, when Alimkhanuly was pulled from a planned three-belt unification clash with Erislandy Lara after testing positive for Meldonium.

Alimkhanuly was due to risk his IBF and WBO titles versus Lara, the reigning WBA titleholder.

The ruling by the KBPF triggered a similar disciplinary action from the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC), who converted his indefinite suspension to one with a hard June 1 deadline.

A separate ruling from the WBO left Alimkhanuly unable to participate in its sanctioned bouts for a minimum of one year. However, the WBO suspension applies only to its title fight and eliminators, as sanctioning bodies do not have the authority to suspend a boxer beyond its own jurisdiction.

Regardless, he will be down to one title whenever he returns to the ring. Additionally, he will have to undergo continued random drug testing – at his own expense – and provide clean samples prior to his reinstatement.

Because Alimkhanuly last fought in Kazakhstan – a knockout win over unbeaten Anauel Ngamissengue last April 5 in Astana – the local commission took control of the investigation.

According to the final report – a copy which was obtained by BoxingScene - the KPBF determined that Alimkhanuly ingested the substance in question from an emergency medical visit last May 7. Alimkhanuly reportedly suffered deteriorated health, at which point his “relatives sought immediate medical assistance at the Adam Clinic” in his Almaty hometown.

“The clinic’s official medical report documents the following: acute severe headache, nausea and vomiting, dizziness, transient bilateral visual disturbance, limb numbness [and] chest pressure.”

The final diagnosis was that Alimkhanuly suffered a transit ischemic attach (TIA) from a vertebrobasilar insufficiency. His condition was described as in need of urgent therapeutic intervention, which came with an assortment of prescribed medication.

Among the administered substances was Ripronat, which is legal in Kazakhstan but contains Meldonium. “The medical intervention, including the administration of Ripronat (Meldonium), was medically necessary, urgent, and professionally justified,” read the KPBF report. “The medical documentation submitted to the Commission is legitimate, complete, and verifiable through the national medical registry.

“[Alimkhanuly] stated that the brand name Ripronat did not lead him to associate the product with the prohibited substance Meldonium, which is commonly known internationally through other trademark names (e.g., “Mildronate”).”

An eight-person panel found Alimkhanuly negligent to a minimal degree, which resulted in the backdated six-month suspension.

Upon his return to the sport, Alimkhanuly – should he remain at 160lbs and with the WBO title still in tow – will have to face the winner of the April 4 Denzel Bentley-Endry Saveedra interim title fight in London.

IBF officials have to rule on fulfilling its vacancy. However, it’s believed that a title fight will be ordered between Etinosa Oliha and Shakiel Thompson, though it may require some work.

Sheffield’s Thompson, 15-0 (11 KOs) is the IBF No. 3 contender at middleweight, one spot below Italy’s Oliha, 21-0 (9 KOs). However, the Brit is currently scheduled to next face countryman Brad Pauls, 20-2-1 (11 KOs) on Queensberry Promotions’ March 28 “Magnificent 7” show in Manchester, England. 

There is the scenario where Thompson could have his cake and it, too. According to rule IBF Rule 6.A covering vacant title fights, "If the vacancy arises unexpectedly and if one of the two leading contenders has a fight scheduled within the next 30 days, the president and championships chair may, at their discretion, allow that bout to take place prior to the notification to fill the vacancy and utilize and new ratings after the interim bout." 

Regardless, Oliha is first in line to fight for the now available title.

Alimkhanuly held the IBF title since a sixth-round knockout win over then-unbeaten titleholder Vincenzo Gualtieri in their October 2023 unification bout. He made three defenses of the IBF belt and five overall with the WBO title at stake.

Tuesday’s ruling came hours after the IBF determined that the case involving cruiserweight champ Jai Opetaia, 30-0 (23 KOs) – not at all drug-related – remained in deliberation.

Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.

Jai Opetaia’s quest to become undisputed champion remains intact – for now. 

BoxingScene has confirmed that the IBF will continue to look into the unbeaten Australian southpaw’s case, with the possibility that he will not be relieved of his title reign. Opetaia, 30-0 (23 KOs), moved forward with his clash on March 8 versus Brandon Glanton, 21-4 (18 KOs), despite the IBF withdrawing sanctioning from the Zuffa Boxing 04 Paramount+ headliner.

Opetaia handily defeated Glanton via unanimous decision, though at the time the bout was deemed in violation of IBF Rule 5.H, discouraging reigning titlists from participating in unsanctioned bouts. However, his comments during his post-fight interview and the post-fight press conference stressing his commitment to pursue undisputed status swayed IBF officials at least from terminating his title reign for a second time. 

“The status of the IBF cruiserweight title remains in deliberation,” the IBF said in an update obtained by BoxingScene. “Jai Opetaia made comments during the post-fight press conference that have led the organization’s leadership to question whether he was made completely and fully aware by his advisors of the decisions he needed to make when committing to the bout against Brandon Glanton. 

“The organization intends to look further into this matter.” 

Sanctioning for the bout was finally granted on March 5, after assurances from Opetaia’s team that the Zuffa belt was merely a trinket and a trophy, and that it was not an actual unification bout. Communication was conducted between the sanctioning body and Sean Gibbons, who served as a go-between for Opetaia and his team. 

All parties were on the same page, to the point where Gibbons’ Knucklehead Boxing wired to the IBF a payment of $73,000 – covering the sanctioning fees for the reported purses of Opetaia ($45,000) and Glanton ($6,000), along with the promoter’s fee ($22,000). 

Zuffa sources leaked that it had paid in excess of $80,000, though – as previously reported by BoxingScene – intentionally misleading others by including the due fees to referee Allen Huggins ($3,100) and judges Eric Cheek ($2,300), David Sutherland ($2,300) and Patricia Morse-Jarman ($2,300). Officials for bouts conducted in Nevada, as well as their assignment fees, are appointed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and have nothing to do with the sanctioning bodies. 

However – as previously reported by BoxingScene – the IBF decided to withdraw its sanctioning due to the miscommunicated status of the Zuffa belt that was made available for the fight. In turn, the abovementioned sanctioning fees were no longer applicable. 

“Payment for sanction fees, which totaled $73,000.00, was sent to the IBF via wire transfer from Knucklehead Boxing’s bank account and received by the IBF on March 6,” read a statement from the IBF. “The IBF withdrew sanction of the bout at 8:22 PM EST on March 6 via email to Gibbons following the pre-fight press conference that took place shortly beforehand. 

“At 1:22 PM EST on March 7 a wire transfer was processed from the IBF back to Knucklehead Boxing’s bank account returning the $73,000.00 in sanction fees. Immediately afterward, an email was sent to Gibbons including the wire transfer receipt advising that the funds had been returned. Gibbons acknowledged receipt of the email at 2:46 PM EST.”

Zuffa officials declared that Opetaia-Glanton would be for its inaugural championship, going out of their way to advertise the fight as for the “Zuffa Boxing world cruiserweight championship”. Furthermore, the promotion went out of its way to ignore the IBF – in line with Zuffa’s open admission that they refuse to work with the sanctioning bodies.

The IBF’s decision to consider stripping Jai Opetaia of their cruiserweight title on the eve of his contest with Brandon Glanton has jeopardised Zuffa Boxing’s attempts to sign Richardson Hitchins.

Hitchins, 28 years old and the IBF junior-welterweight champion, was considering a lucrative offer to join the promotional organisation led by Dana White but, BoxingScene understands, is increasingly aware that doing so could lead to the loss of the title he is determined to retain.

It was with a victory over Liam Paro in December 2024 that he was crowned champion, and he has since defended it once, against George Kambosos Jnr in June 2025. Both contests were on Matchroom promotions – his promotional contract with Matchroom has since expired, contributing to the offer received from Zuffa before Opetaia-Glanton.

For reasons including but not exclusive to the English welterweight Conor Benn leaving Matchroom for Zuffa, the rivalry between the promotional organisations has perhaps become the most intense of any between two promoters in 2026.

Hitchins, it is also understood, hasn’t yet ruled out following in Benn’s footsteps, but having watched Australia’s Opetaia – who has long been so vocal about his ambition of winning the undisputed cruiserweight title – expect to be able to defend it against Glanton and then learn that he could get stripped following his first fight since joining Zuffa, the American recognises he potentially has greater considerations than promotional rivalries to weigh up.

The two most lucrative fights that could be made for him at 140lbs would be against Shakur Stevenson, the WBO champion, and Keyshawn Davis, and Hitchins is aware of the value of his status as a recognised world champion in the event of negotiations for a date against either. 

Until illness forced his withdrawal, the Keith Connolly-managed Hitchins had been scheduled to defend his title in February against Oscar Duarte on the undercard of Mario Barrios-Ryan Garcia, a promotion overseen by The Ring, whose owners the General Entertainment Authority are working closely with TKO Boxing and Zuffa. Benn, incidentally, is also managed by Connolly.

LAS VEGAS – To Zuffa Boxing head Dana White, the behavior of the IBF in opting not to sanction its cruiserweight titleholder Jai Opetaia’s victory over Brandon Glanton has the appearance of a setup.

“[Opetaia] paid his sanctioning fees. [The IBF] flew a guy [supervisor Levi Martinez] out here [from New Mexico]. To say [IBF President Daryl Peoples] is disrespected … the [IBF] belt was in front of [Opetaia] the entire time [at Friday’s news conference] and [Opetaia] held it. It’s pretty clear what they’re doing and what’s going on,” White said at Sunday night’s post-fight news conference at the Meta Apex.

“I see lawsuits coming, that’s what I see.”

The IBF has been permanently scarred by that “L word,” ever since former president Bob Lee was found guilty in a 2000 racketeering trial connected to the acceptance of bribes. The outcome has been a strict adherence to its rules, particularly those related to the protection of mandatory title challengers.

After White opened his new Zuffa Boxing promotion by expressing disinterest in working with sanctioning bodies and working to lobby for a new Ali Act – which would allow the promotion to rank and award belts to its own fighters – the organizations’ presidents have kept their guard up.

Yet new Zuffa signee Opetaia, a 30-year-old from Australia, posed an alternate case. He was proud of his IBF belt he won in 2022 and defended in two separate reigns since, enduring a broken jaw and being stripped once earlier while remaining unbeaten.

White eased off his mandate to blackball the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO.

He explained it this way to BoxingScene: “My goal is, before I ever got started, these kids had goals and dreams and ambitions and things they wanted to accomplish in boxing. We want to help them with that, not hurt them, and if it means working with sanctioning bodies, Jai wanted to do that. He paid his [sanctioning] fee.”

But on Friday, the olive branch began fracturing. White said IBF supervisor Martinez asked for a $200 per diem, received it and boarded a flight home to New Mexico, with Zuffa Boxing saying the IBF said it was “embarrassed” by the display of its belt at Friday’s gathering with reporters.

“What could we have done differently?” White asked. “[The IBF] 110 per cent planned to do that. The belt could not have been more prominent. I never disrespected them. These are the most bottom-feeder, low-level people I’ve ever been in business with … grabbing your $200 per diem check, and jumping back to fly home. That’s the level of rinky-dink bullshit we’re dealing with. Isn’t that crazy?

“We did everything we were supposed to do. … It’s very odd, very unprofessional. We’ll see how this whole thing plays out.”

Is it the last straw that will keep Zuffa from associating with the entities?

White answered: “We’ll see how it plays out. It will be on a case-by-case basis.”

White delivered an ultimate response to BoxingScene on the matter by expressing that his company’s “going to sign everybody who we think has the potential to be a world champion and potentially the best in the world.”

Would that include Zuffa’s rumored interest in four-division champion Shakur Stevenson and heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk?

“Do you consider him to be one of the best in the world? Yeah. I’m going to fucking sign everybody,” White said. “And we’re going to do more fights. This has been such a joke coming into this business. These people have been so unsophisticated and bad at what they do.”

Backed by a $10 million annual investment by Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh, a streaming deal with Paramount+ and an untapped additional pool of Saudi money that lured welterweight contender Conor Benn to Zuffa for a one-fight, $15 million deal, Zuffa and its parent company TKO (which also presides over the UFC and WWE) aim for a takeover that White said is fastening by the day.

“In two to three years, we’ll see where we stand,” White said. “The writing is clearly on the wall. Everyone can read it clearly now. What I thought will be two to three years from now is months from now.”

White repeated being unimpressed with the work of rival promoters Top Rank/Bob Arum, Premier Boxing Champions/Al Haymon, Golden Boy Promotions/Oscar De La Hoya and Matchroom Boxing/Eddie Hearn.

“I’m four fights in,” White said. “Imagine when I’m 44 fights in. We’ll have all the best guys here. I’ve done four shows this year. Bob Arum has done one. De La Hoya’s done one. PBC’s done none.

“The moral of this story is these guys are so bad at what they do, I don’t see how they stick around. I’m just blown away. Top Rank doesn’t have a TV deal. De La Hoya … don’t even get me started. Al Haymon, I heard he’s sick. Eddie Hearn, he’s a manager now. My rival? Holy shit.”

White went in on Hearn, who last announced he’s managing UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall in White’s primary combat sports organization.

“Is he a rival promoter? I haven’t seen a rival anything from these guys. He’s a manager now. We deal with lots of managers. I wouldn’t call Eddie Hearn a rival anything. He’s a manager,” White said.

“There’s a million of them. We deal with them all. What can Eddie Hearn bring to the management table that we haven’t seen in the last 25 years?”

Amid speculation Hearn may seek to open the UFC books and inspire a revolt among MMA fighters – who are seeing the Benn and Opetaia money after a wave of anti-trust litigation involving the UFC – White said, “Why is it a bad thing when guys make more money? Since 2001, fighter pay has gone [up] nonstop [in the UFC]. We just got a great new television rights deal. I promise you fighter pay is going to do just fine over the next seven years.”

From White’s perspective, he’s just doubling down on combat sports, maintaining he’s up for all of it.

“The fight business is a daily soap opera,” he said. “Always something. It’s part of the fun.”

Although Jai Opetaia wore three belts on his body last night, the placing of them was rather telling. You had, on his right shoulder, the IBF cruiserweight title, which had not been on the line during his unanimous decision victory over Brandon Glanton in Las Vegas. Then, over his left shoulder, you had The Ring’s cruiserweight belt, the owning of which supposedly indicates that Opetaia is the true number-one cruiserweight in the world and therefore has no need to collect or flaunt other belts to prove it. 

As for the third belt on Opetaia’s person last night, that was wrapped around his waist. This, of course, was the inaugural Zuffa cruiserweight title, which Opetaia won by beating Glanton and was kindly applied to his body from behind by Dana White, the head of Zuffa Boxing. This belt, unlike the other two, was not one gathered by Opetaia of his own volition and attached to body parts of his choosing. It was instead wrapped around his waist – secured around his waist – by a man he didn’t even see coming. 

Thanks to White, the belt now had pride of place on Opetaia’s body. It arrived first – before the IBF belt and The Ring belt – and it remained front and centre, the belt to which all eyes were drawn. With White’s help, it had now marked its territory. It had taken the best spot. 

After all, whenever we imagine the archetypal world champion boxer, we picture a belt around their waist before we picture a belt slung over their shoulder. In that sense, the Zuffa Boxing belt, though fresh on the scene, was more symbolic of Opetaia being a world champion than any other he carried with him in Las Vegas. That includes The Ring magazine belt, merely an afterthought, as well as the IBF belt Opetaia has won twice and defended on five occasions. 

Indeed, as if to hammer the point home, Max Kellerman, an employee of Zuffa Boxing, was after the fight determined to press reset on Opetaia’s four-year cruiserweight reign and start again. He did so by putting the emphasis on the belt around the Australian’s waist, and what that means, while ignoring Opetaia’s desire to collect belts rather than simply defend a belt that, to date, has no real significance. 

“You are the recognised Ring magazine champ and you’re now the first-ever Zuffa cruiserweight champion of the world,” Kellerman said in the ring. “Who would you like to make your first title defence against?” He then paused. “Zuffa title defence,” he stressed.

“Man, I’m chasing the belts,” Opetaia, now 30-0 (23 KOs), said. “I know there’s been a lot of white noise and stuff, and a lot of stuff on social media, but I’m hoping we can get it worked out and I can chase that goal. I have not lost track of it. I never have. I’ve been stripped once before and I’ve been stripped again. I’ll be getting the belt back and will become undisputed.”

At the time of that post-fight interview Opetaia had reason to believe he had been stripped of the IBF title he held on his right shoulder. However, he was less sure of that in the post-fight press conference, when he expressed a glimmer of hope that this might not be the case. 

Either way, more important than whether he has been stripped or not is the fact that Opetaia’s instinct, when asked about defending belts, was to mention his plan to “chase” them rather than defend them. This suggests that he is, despite signing with the organisation, not content with being a Zuffa cruiserweight champion and trying to create an identity as a world champion with just that title. It suggests he still pines for what may or may not have been lost – whether that’s a belt or a dream. 

“I think you are undisputed, you just don’t know that yet,” said Kellerman, both cognisant and fearful of Opetaia’s sentimentality. “In the eyes of most boxing fans you already are undisputed in spite of whatever the belts have to say.” He then asked Opetaia if he had an interest in fighting Gilberto Ramirez, the WBA and WBO cruiserweight champion, to which Opetaia replied: “WBC, WBO, WBA, whatever. I’ve been chasing these unification fights for such a long time. I made it very clear. Now I’m holding the most belts. I’ve got three belts; he’s [Ramirez] got two. Let’s get it on.”

Again, this wasn’t what Kellerman or his paymasters had in mind by way of a response. In fact, rather than Opetaia playing the perfect model for their garish new belt, the answers he offered while in the ring wearing the Zuffa belt had the opposite effect. If anything, they served to render the belt as inconsequential; a mere accessory gifted to him by his new fancy man; a Rolex watch.

“Undisputed first,” Opetaia reiterated when Kellerman mentioned a move to heavyweight, where, of course, Opetaia could one day become the Zuffa heavyweight champion. “Don’t lose track of what I’m trying to say. Undisputed, then we talk about the other ones.”

In spite of the best efforts of Kellerman, the Paramount commentary team, and Dana White coming up from behind, Opetaia’s intentions were clear and obvious after beating Glanton in Las Vegas. He wants the belts, that much we know. He doesn’t just want one belt – whether that’s a brand-new one, or one owned by a Saudi Arabian financier – nor does he want to be told the value of a belt by someone who has no idea what they are talking about. Instead, as the fighter, Opetaia knows what he wants and knows what it means – to him. 

Besides, perhaps it is now too late to recondition the minds of boxers who have for decades been told that superiority is the result of being “unified” or “undisputed” and that those two things require more than just one belt. Perhaps it is not so easy to undo the mess created by sanctioning bodies – of which there are far too many, it’s true – and convince the boxers who pay their sanctioning fees that there is another way to now show you are the best in the world. 

On the face of it, advocates of this approach – Zuffa, The Ring – are right. They are right to sell us a world in which only one belt matters and every fighter in the division has their sights set on obtaining this belt. Yet unfortunately, just as the image of the boxer with the belt around their waist is the one we automatically recall when thinking of a world champion, so is the image of the boxer holding a green belt or a red belt or a black belt the one that comes to mind when thinking the same thing. More importantly, it is the image of the world champion buried in belts that fighters like Jai Opetaia will associate with the goal he is chasing and has been chasing since he turned pro. There are no images available of Muhammad Ali wearing the Zuffa Boxing heavyweight title. Nor are there any images of Oleksandr Usyk or Evander Holyfield wearing the belt Opetaia won last night in Las Vegas. 

Opetaia would have known all this going in, of course. He would have known when aligning himself with Zuffa Boxing that the prospect of becoming their inaugural cruiserweight champion would feel simultaneously satisfying and empty. In being the first, he would have expected to feel proud, important, and bolstered by the publicity. But being first can also be lonely and can leave one feeling a little lost and bewildered. After all, what, at this stage, does any of it really mean? What does it mean to be a Zuffa cruiserweight champion in 2026? 

Presumably it means getting well paid, which, for a cruiserweight, is not an easy thing to achieve, hence so many move to heavyweight. Money is also the main motivating factor for the majority of professional boxers and something they will remind you of whenever you, a non-boxer, become fixated on the idea of legacy. They will remind you, as they are entitled to, that “legacy doesn’t pay the bills” or do much for a boxer in the bleak wilderness that is retirement. They will remind you as well that the career of a professional boxer is a short one and that the window of opportunity, as far as earning life-changing money goes, tends to be even shorter. 

All true, it is only when a boxer is accosted from behind and given a new belt to replace the old one they worked so hard to acquire that the idea of “legacy” becomes something else. Now it is connected to identity, purpose, the realising of a dream. Now it is something tangible, worth holding on to. Now you understand that when discussing one’s career in retirement, it is that – legacy – people want to know about, not how much you made in purse money. 

If, back in Australia, Opetaia is approached this week and asked what he does for a living, it won’t take much effort on his part to explain the job of a professional boxer. Even if he is asked about the level at which he competes, Opetaia can then say, with ample pride, that he is a world champion in his sport and has yet to experience defeat in a 10-and-a-half-year professional career. 

If, however, he should be pressed to reveal which world title he currently holds, suddenly you might see beads of sweat on the world champion’s forehead as he figures out how best to clarify the situation in which he now finds himself. If he says Zuffa, they might think of one of the Marx Brothers, while The Ring, that is the domain in which two boxers fight, not something you receive for being the best in the world. 

Because of this confusion, Opetaia will revert to thinking in terms of acronyms, or three letters: IBF, WBC, WBA, WBO. He could even decide to mention the three letters of the world-famous Ultimate Fighting Championship – the UFC – and explain that Zuffa has something to do with that. “But I thought you said you were a boxer?” he will then hear as he tries to escape.

LAS VEGAS – As bitter as the events surrounding the loss of his IBF cruiserweight belt are, Jai Opetaia didn’t have a cross word to say about the powers that be connected to the decision.

“Just … the politics. I broke my jaw for this belt.  I couldn’t eat for four months,” Australia’s Opetaia said following his Sunday night victory by three 119-106 scores over Atlanta’s Brandon Glanton. “I missed time with my family. Missed [a family member’s] funeral. They don’t see the sacrifices I’ve made for this. To just have, ‘We’re going to strip it,’ it hurts. 

Opetaia 30-0 is expected to formally learn Monday that the IBF, in opting not to sanction Sunday’s bout because it was also staged for the new Zuffa Boxing belt along with The Ring strap, will vacate the cruiserweight title and ultimately assign the next two contenders to fight for it.

Opetaia? He’ll be fine. He spoke after the fight of next meeting new WBC cruiserweight Noel Mikaelian and then fighting the May 2 winner of the WBO/WBA title fight between unified champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez and David Benavidez by year’s end.

“I would love to get Mikaelian next – a good fight, a unification fight,” Opetaia, 30, said. “This is what we’re chasing. Right now, he’s got nothing on, and I’m chasing him. It’s perfect. Then, end of the year, undisputed. That’s the perfect picture, but there’s a lot of moving parts to it.”

And Opetaia is just off seeing how those moving parts can disintegrate and implode.

Opetaia knew his move from Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing to Zuffa could imperil his belt, since Zuffa Boxing head Dana White has so repeatedly communicated that he’d rather avoid working with the four major sanctioning bodies.

Still, it appeared the IBF would allow Opetaia to pay his sanctioning fees and retain his strap until Friday, when IBF President Daryl Peoples ordered his supervisor, Levi Martinez, to return home to New Mexico and distributed a statement saying the fight would not be sanctioned.

Zuffa officials said they received an email from Peoples saying he was “embarrassed” by the position of the IBF belt on the Friday news conference stage.

White torched the IBF in his post-fight comments.

Opetaia, meanwhile, brought the belt on the table before him after honoring the IBF’s second-day weigh-in and making weight by three pounds.

“It’s a bit frustrating, but I really hope … as of now, I’m not stripped,” he said late Sunday night. “I honestly don’t know what’s going on. I just try to keep doing my thing, I’ve respected the belt, done everything in my power to keep the belt. I had the double weigh-in, abided by their rules.I’m really hoping they can put the nonsense aside. The beef is not between me. It’s the outside causing conflict and I’m the only one who’s suffering, but at the same time, it is what it is.

“What can I do? Train hard and work for the next one.”

Frankly, no one dethroned Opetaia as IBF champion, and his pursuit of Mikaelian and the Ramirez-Benavidez winner could happen given the past involvement of Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh in fights involving all four champions.

BoxingScene learned Zuffa Boxing officials will attend Ramirez-Benavidez with an eye on matching the winner against Opetaia for The Ring lineal belt.

Opetaia placed The Ring, Zuffa and IBF belts before him after Sunday night’s victory.

Of the one that looks to escape him, Opetaia said, “It means something to me, a lot of effort went into winning that.”

LAS VEGAS – The IBF may have taken away Jai Opetaia’s cruiserweight title since he’s joined the new Zuffa Boxing promotion, but his zero remains intact.

The unbeaten Australian lost his sanctioning body belt when he stepped into the ring Sunday night at the Apex versus Brandon Glanton. Opetaia, however, retained all the skill that carried him to the strap, and his victory only enhanced the notion that he’s the world’s best 200lbs fighter.

Symbolizing that was Opetaia receiving the Zuffa Boxing championship belt, which was given for the first time in the fledgling promotion’s fourth card. He also got The Ring cruiserweight strap for being the lineal titlist.

Judges scored the bout 119-106 three times for Opetaia, 30-0, after Opetaia punctuated the outcome with several power scoring blows to Glanton’s head in the 12th round.

“We’re starting a new chapter as Zuffa champion – let’s go,” Opetaia said.

The southpaw Opetaia found Glanton with rapid lefts to open the bout, smoothly flowing along the ring to establish effective angles, including an uppercut to the body.

Glanton found himself in the enviable position of being too slow-handed to diminish his defense by throwing punches, as Opetaia landed even with both of Glanton’s hands up in a protective mode in the second.

An uppercut and jab landed, and a creative combination closed the round.

A right uppercut and straight left peppered Glanton, 21-4, in the third, and those punches were only increasing in volume and effectiveness as Glanton, 34, covered up.

Glanton was rocked in the fourth and fifth and opted to boldly try a toe-to-toe effort that only generated groans from the crowd witnessing his punishment.

In the sixth, the desperate and pained Glanton suffered a one-point deduction for holding. Opetaia followed with busy combinations.

Three wicked lefts greeted Glanton in the seventh, and Opetaia devoted the final minute of the frame with body punches.

“He’s a tough kid,” Opetaia said.

Glanton lost another point in the eighth for a second low blow.

That created a desperate Glanton, who charged and landed some inside blows while again absorbing Opetaia offerings.

By the ninth, Glanton was taking on punching-bag duty, staying close to the champion to help mute the impact of the blows.

Opetaia hammered Glanton by the ropes in the 10th, nearing a defining punch that Glanton again delayed.

In the 11th, Opetaia suffered a one-point deduction for holding as the pair engaged up close.

Opetaia said he’s interested in “chasing belts. I’ll get the belt back and become undisputed,” adding he’d like to fight the winner of the May 2 Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez-David Benavidez WBA/WBO cruiserweight titles fight.

The bout culminated a dramatic series of events leading up to the fight, including the IBF’s decision to leave Las Vegas after objecting to the fact Opetaia was fighting for the newly unveiled Zuffa cruiserweight belt.

By stepping into the ring Sunday, Opetaia put himself at risk of losing the title – a formality expected to be finalized by the IBF this week.

IBF Rule 5.H states, “An Unsanctioned Contest is a fight which the IBF has not formally approved for sanction or where sanction has been formally withdrawn. If a Champion participates in an unsanctioned contest within his prescribed weight limit, the title will be declared vacant whether the Champion wins or loses the bout.”

Earlier Sunday, other outlets claimed IBF president Daryl Peoples said the presentation of its belt during Friday’s final pre-fight press conference was “an embarrassment.” 

BoxingScene’s Jake Donovan reported earlier Sunday that Zuffa Boxing was aware of all the fees attached to the main event. 

A total of $75,300 in sanctioning fees was applied to the main event:

– $45,000, to reflect three percent of Opetaia’s reported $1,500,000 fight purse
– $6,000, to reflect three percent of Glanton’s reported $200,000 fight purse
– $22,000 assigned as a promoter fight sanction
– $2,300 assigned to Levi Martinez, the IBF-appointed supervisor, who was later informed to abandon the event, after being flown in first-class and provided a hotel suite, per IBF rules covering travel and lodging arrangements.

In late November, Vergil Ortiz Jnr posted a triumphant home-state knockout of veteran former junior middleweight title challenger Erickson Lubin, listened to promoter Oscar De La Hoya emphasize the fighter’s rising stock and said, “You know I have your back.”

Less than a month later, in a meeting between Ortiz’s manager, Rick Mirigian, and the president of De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, Eric Gomez, a cycle of events began turning that brought Ortiz to doubt that the promoter felt the same.

In documents reviewed and information obtained by BoxingScene, the Ortiz-De La Hoya split that has sent their dispute to arbitration and compromised a bout between Ortiz and unbeaten Jaron “Boots” Ennis – which has been called “the best fight that can be made in America” – has been laid bare.

On December 9, while Golden Boy summoned reporters to its downtown Los Angeles offices for an interview session with welterweights Raul Curiel and Alexis Rocha, Mirigian appeared, looking agitated and prepared to argue for Ortiz’s worth in a bout that seemed certain to captivate the US and global boxing audience.

Not only had Texas’ Ortiz, 24-0 (22 KOs), posted successive victories over former WBC interim junior middleweight titleholder Serhii Bohachuk, former WBA 154lbs belt holder Israil Madrimov and Lubin (by second-round stoppage), former unified welterweight champion Ennis, 35-0 (31 KOs), of Philadelphia, had won his junior middleweight debut by first-round knockout and boarded a flight to debate and face-off with Ortiz after the Lubin win.

Ennis, 28, pointed to his watch, illustrating “it’s time” for the showdown, and Ortiz, 27, said he was ready.

In that meeting – according to an individual connected to the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the pending legal case – Golden Boy offered Ortiz $3 million for the Ennis bout with a split of revenue triggered by 200,000 DAZN pay-per-view buys and a 50-50 split of all net revenue.

Mirigian asked for a flat $7 million with no splits in play, and was told no, so he turned to the language of Ortiz’s three-year contract with Golden Boy that began in August 2024.

Mirigian pointed out that Golden Boy must present two other opponent options, and the manager produced what he assessed as comparable pay to premier American fighters, including Shakur Stevenson and Teofimo Lopez Jnr ($8 million apiece for their January 31 bout), David Benavidez and even Ortiz’s February 2025 victory over Madrimov, funded by Saudi Arabia and financier Turki Alalshikh.

The requests for other opponents and more money was rejected, according to the official, who said another Golden Boy executive witnessed the exchange, in which Mirigian was told the promoter would be content to let Ortiz sit and absorb the blame for not fighting Ennis.

De La Hoya this week labeled Mirigian “the worst manager in boxing” and a “selfish asshole,” arguing Mirigian wants “triple what we’re contractually obligated to pay Vergil for the ‘Boots’ fight.”

Nothing changed over three more weeks of dialogue, according to the individual, as De La Hoya told BoxingScene he wanted Ennis to take the fight for a 60-40 split, with the loser taking a 5 per cent hit in their percentage.

To the Ortiz camp, Golden Boy has committed a contractual breach by not meeting this prong of the contract:

“The Promoter guarantees the Boxer two bouts per Year; Promoter will offer at least three (3) opponents per bout, at least sixty (60) days before the proposed fight date.”

A second clause was also betrayed, according to Team Ortiz.

In it, Golden Boy is obligated “to work in good faith with all boxing promoters to assure that Boxer maximizes his exposure and revenue opportunities during the Term. Promoter agrees to work in good faith to try and negotiate with the representatives for any and all opponents Boxer wants to fight during the Term and Boxer and his representatives expressly agree to direct any and all inquiries they may receive from potential opponents to Promoter for purposes of negotiating the terms of a potential bout with Boxer.

“In the event Promoter receives an offer to provide Boxer a fight from another promoter or broadcast platform under a provision of services (“POS”) or similar agreement, Promoter must disclose to Boxer the full value of all compensation offered and will provide Boxer with a copy of such POS or similar agreement and have Boxer included as a party to such agreement. In the event that a third party promoter, broadcaster, or financier wants to negotiate a fight involving Boxer; Promoter, Boxer, and his representatives will work in good faith to maximize the opportunity for all parties, including but not limited to, as necessary, by Promoter allowing Boxer’s representatives to directly negotiate the bout with the third party. Unless the parties agree otherwise, Promoter shall receive a POS fee equal to twenty-five percent (25%) of Boxer’s compensation for the bout.”

Team Ortiz assesses that De La Hoya’s “vulgar, disrespectful” words uttered toward Ennis promoter Eddie Hearn, Alalshikh and the new Zuffa Boxing heads Dana White and Nick Khan compromised Ortiz’s earning power and ability to land a lucrative alternative bout.

Mirigian has complained that Hearn has said he previously negotiated an Ennis-Ortiz deal with Golden Boy but that the manager was kept from learning the points, being told only that Ortiz would earn $3 million.

On his own, Mirigian has said he secured two separate offers for Ortiz to fight Ennis, one of which he said would pay the fighter a minimum $16 million.

In her ruling this week that refused to free Ortiz from Golden Boy and sent the matter to arbitration, Nevada District Judge Cristina Silva leaned on another contractual clause over Golden Boy’s expired but still-being-negotiated broadcast deal with DAZN.

The clause says this:

“Promoter’s distribution relationship with DAZN is a material incentive for Boxer to enter into this Agreement. In the event that Promoter’s distribution relationship with DAZN terminates, for any reason, and Promoter does not have an agreement in principle in place for an exclusive distribution relationship with an alternative broadcaster, then Boxer shall have the right to terminate this Agreement. For avoidance of doubt, if Promoter has agreed on all material terms with an alternative broadcaster, but is in the process of negotiating the long form agreement with that broadcaster, Boxer shall not be entitled to terminate this agreement. Boxer’s right to terminate must be exercised by written notice within thirty (30) days following Boxer obtaining knowledge of the triggering event, or will be deemed waived.”

While Team Ortiz believed the spirit of the clause was that if a long-term agreement was not in place for any reason, then Ortiz had the right to terminate at any time, Judge Silva ruled differently.

DAZN will stage a Golden Boy fight in Anaheim, California, March 14, and a DAZN executive has provided a deposition saying the sides may extend and are not contingent on the making of an Ortiz-Ennis bout.

On De La Hoya’s “Clapback Thursday” this week, he celebrated Judge Silva shooting down what he called Ortiz’s “master plan to break his contract.

“Now, because of [Mirigian’s] poor advice, Vergil’s sidelined,” De La Hoya said. “And he’s headed to waste more time and money in arbitration, and that could last years. … Vergil, you’ve received the worst advice of your life. I’ve protected you like family, and you’ve turned your back on me?”

Mirigian told BoxingScene on Saturday that he called and texted De La Hoya after posting that statement, and said he received no response.

Lastly, Mirigian has argued in his own sworn statement that he believes Golden Boy especially undercut Ortiz during his December “Clapack Thursday” appearances on Instagram, slamming Zuffa Boxing and angering Alalshikh, who is backing the promotion with $10 million of annual support plus a payment of $15 million to land welterweight Conor Benn.

Team Ortiz had hoped Alalshikh would provide funds for Ortiz-Ennis, too, but unlike his support of Stevenson-Lopez, requests have been met by silence.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.

The battle lines have been drawn, and Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing – the outfit that has Turki Alalshikh’s backing – is ready to take on anyone in its quest to rule the sport.

When one considers White’s friends in high places – Donald Trump is another fan of the UFC boss – alongside the money that’s believed to be at his disposal, he would likely be made favorite to win, too. But the ‘old guard’ – promotional powerhouses like Matchroom, Top Rank, Queensberry and Golden Boy – are getting increasingly insistent that they will not be moved.

Emotions are high. Egos are on show.

Arguably the most influential of that old guard, Eddie Hearn, even pulled his pants down this week and proudly entered the dick-swinging contest by signing UFC star Tom Aspinall on an advisory basis in response to White snatching Conor Benn from Matchroom a fortnight ago.

This is uncharted territory in boxing, we’re told. But Zuffa’s not the first organization or promoter to come along with promises of reform. Don King did so; Frank Warren did so; Oscar De La Hoya did so; Hearn did so. Furthermore, every promoter who came along with cash on the hip, or means to produce it, did so while driving the existing hierarchy bonkers. But in many ways, each of them, though fueled by ambition and hopes of a new and improved sport, merely facilitated existing bad habits in the long run. If Zuffa is to implement palpable improvements, and not just add an extra belt or a tweak to the rules, then it will have to prove it’s better than what came before. In turn, those who came before must prove that what exists is better than what might be coming.

Thus, this battle is far from over. 

The biggest headline of the last fortnight was Zuffa’s signing of Benn. Though it was certainly a shock, given Benn’s supposedly unbreakable relationship with Matchroom, further context is required when evaluating its true significance. Benn is indeed highly marketable, but he’s far from proven at world level, and victory over the shop-worn Regis Prograis on April 11 will do little to change that. When, or if, he is stepped up to elite level, there is every chance he loses. Whatever happens, Benn is certainly not going to be the catalyst for a new and improved sport. What he should be, however, is an indicator of Zuffa’s ability to seduce talent away from leading promotional rivals.

But when one looks across the entire sport, it can be argued that there simply aren’t enough truly big names – even if Zuffa nabbed every one of them – to make the kind of splash that would submerge the surrounding landscape.

At heavyweight, you would say Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua are all bona fide A-listers but each of them is past his best. And should Zuffa sign all three? (It won’t, but bear with me.) Then what? Who will they be matched with and how many fights can the promoter realistically get from what would amount to a seismic investment?

Is Jai Opetaia, at cruiserweight, a superstar? No. Or at least not yet.

David Benavidez, maybe, at light heavyweight. The disappointing viewing figures for both Dmitry Bivol-Artur Beterbiev contests puts a question mark alongside their drawing power.

Canelo Alvarez at super middleweight.

Nobody at middleweight.

At junior middleweight, as painful as it is to say, neither Vergil Ortiz Jnr nor Jaron Ennis is yet a crossover star. If you scoff at that, think back to the box office performance of Terence Crawford-Errol Spence for context. Even though that was the matchup that hardcore fans had wet their pants about for years, it flunked, exposure-wise, when compared to similar fights from the past.

Welterweight is interesting. Ryan Garcia likely slips in. Arguably, too, Manny Pacquiao and/or Floyd Mayweather Jnr – but anyone looking to sign either of those two on long-term deals should probably go outside and get some fresh air. Devin Haney is a question mark.

Down at junior welterweight, Shakur Stevenson has edged into the big-league bracket, but he’s the lone raider at 140 when it comes to moving the dial. And even he isn’t anywhere near the level of fame that someone like Mayweather used to be.

“Tank” Davis fits the bill at lightweight, but Tank Davis is also Gervonta Davis, the despicable character who might soon find himself in prison. 

Then all we’re left with, from junior light to strawweight, is Naoya Inoue. Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez – as much as the hardcores adore him – is unlikely to guarantee a huge audience on his own.

Jake Paul should probably get a mention because of the recent numbers he has generated. But he’s not about to join Zuffa, and Zuffa won’t want him if it is serious about “making boxing great again.”

There are, of course, plenty more on the cusp with the potential to become household names, and it’s those names that Zuffa would be wise to build long-term plans around. Problem is, many will be tied to deals elsewhere. Regardless, the point is that nobody – Zuffa or otherwise – will be able to make the matchmaking plays in the short term that are required to secure complete control.

“I like that people don’t understand what we’re doing,” White this week told IFL TV. “My thing is, how about you judge us at the end of the year on the body of work we do in boxing? That’s where I’m going with this whole thing.

“I don’t have a set plan of where I’m like, ‘We’re only going to do this, this and this.’ I get into these type of businesses and what I want to do is put on the best things I possibly can with the best fighters I can. … It’s all a work in progress.”

People expecting things to change overnight are certainly naive. But dramatic changes coming by the end of the year might also prove fanciful. 

One established member of the old guard anonymously told BoxingScene: “It’s all well and good to come in with grand ideas and big promises, but to ‘take over’ you will need to sign all the young up-and-coming fighters to long-term deals. And I mean all of them. That’s easily done if you’re the only players in the market. They’re not.

“Promoters with more experience in the sport know exactly how it all works. We can sit down with an Olympian and their parents and show evidence of what we’ve done for other fighters in the past. We can show them how we can get them the education they need, how we will get them ranked, how we can move them up and how we can look after them financially while doing so. What is this lot going to do? Tell them that they’re going to be matched tough from the start and they could be involved in a life-and-death fight in their third or fourth fight? The reality of the 50/50 philosophy is exceptionally short careers.”

There are also those aforementioned friends in high places to consider. Alalshikh hasn’t exactly been a model of loyalty during his two-and-a-bit years in the sport, and Trump – his incredible ability to rewrite rulebooks notwithstanding – surely won’t be in office forever.

It's not just promotional wars to consider, either. The sanctioning bodies are digging their heels in, too. Though the concept of one champion per division is appealing, for as long as there are enough boxers willing to fight (and pay) for belts, and promoters to showcase them, then the sanctioning bodies won’t go anywhere.

The flip side, however, is the performance of those alphabet groups. Overnight, the IBF stood tall when they ruled that Opetaia's fight against 15th-ranked Brandon Glanton would not be sanctioned, and neither could it be a 'unification' simply because a new Zuffa belt was on the line. It was an admirable show of strength. But should those decisions grow ever more erratic – see: the WBC’s decision to approve Rico Verhoeven as a title challenger to Usyk – then their credibility suffers. Previously, a roll of the eyes would have been the lone reaction to such a decision. Today, our eyes might instead focus on an alternative to such nonsense. When it comes to titles, and fair rankings, all it will take is a few years of complete impartiality from the newbies, and a game-changing swing becomes a realistic possibility.

It's those finer details, therefore, that should be the real driver. Big fights and big signings will always exist, regardless. What boxing really needs is some order. It has for too long been an unruly child, getting away with all sorts while answering to no one. And like an unruly child, boxing needs boundaries and consistency. It needs rules that won’t be broken, rankings that can’t be bent and trust that is unspoken.

And it’s in those finer details – structural improvements and acute long-term planning – where this can all be won. 

Should a winner ever truly emerge, of course. My money, for what it’s worth, is on a no-contest.

Matt Christie, a lifelong fight fan, has worked in boxing for more than 20 years. He left Boxing News in 2024 after 14 years, nine of which were spent as editor-in-chief. Before that, he was the producer of weekly boxing show “KOTV.” Now the co-host of ”The Opening Bell” podcast and regularly used by Sky Sports in the UK as a pundit, Matt was named as the Specialist Correspondent of the Year at the prestigious Sports Journalism Awards in 2021, which was the seventh SJA Award he accepted during his stint in the hot seat at Boxing News. The following year, he was inducted into the British Boxing Hall of Fame. He is a member of the BWAA and has been honored several times in their annual writing awards.

Jai Opetaia’s quest to become undisputed champion has hit a wall.

BoxingScene has confirmed that the IBF has withdrawn its sanctioning from Sunday’s “Zuffa Boxing 04” headliner between Australia’s Opetaia and Atlanta’s Brandon Glanton. A press conference held on Friday confirmed that the IBF title, Ring Magazine championship and inaugural Zuffa cruiserweight title will be at stake.

It was the classification of the Zuffa belt as a “championship” that forced the IBF’s hand.

“The International Boxing Federation (IBF) has withdrawn sanction of the optional defense of the IBF Cruiserweight Title between champion Jai Opetaia and #15 ranked contender Brandon Glanton scheduled for March 8, 2026,” an IBF spokesperson confirmed to BoxingScene via submitted statement.

“With sanction withdrawn, the Opetaia vs. Glanton bout is now an Unsanctioned Contest. IBF Rule 5.H. states in part - An Unsanctioned Contest is a fight which the IBF has not formally approved for sanction or where sanction has been formally withdrawn. If a Champion participates in an unsanctioned contest within his prescribed weight limit, the title will be declared vacant whether the Champion wins or loses the bout.”

The development will now leave Opetaia, 29-0 (23 KOs), as a former two-time IBF titleholder.

BoxingScene has learned that Chris Billam-Smith and Floyd Masson could wind up meeting for the soon-to-be-vacant title.

Sunday’s Paramount+ main event – which will stream live from the Meta APEX in Las Vegas – will still come with Opetaia’s Ring championship and the newly created Zuffa belt on the line.

His previous reign ended under similar circumstances when he moved forward with a fight versus Ellis Zorro on the December 2023 “Day of Reckoning” Riyadh Season event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The fight was doubly rejected – Zorro was not ranked in the IBF top 15, nor had Opetaia sought an exception to his already ordered mandatory versus Mairis Briedis.

Opetaia ultimately regained the vacant title in a May 2024 victory over Briedis, whom he initially dethroned in their July 2022 thriller.

Five successful defenses followed for Opetaia during his second reign, after which he signed with the newly formed Zuffa Boxing league. The signing caught many by surprise – Opetaia was the first major titlist secured by the company, which has been adamant about refusing to work with the sanctioning bodies.

At the time, it was confirmed that an exception was made given Opetaia’s burning desire to become undisputed champion. He even reluctantly agreed to a face-off with WBC titlist Noel Mikaelian shortly after a Zuffa Boxing event last month in Las Vegas, which was intended to build intrigue towards a future showdown.

Shortly after Opetaia was confirmed to headline “Zuffa Boxing 04,” IBF president Daryl Peoples – who initially learned of the fight through social media – contacted Opetaia and Tasman Fighters to discuss the terms of the bout.

IBF Rule 5.E.1, covering unification bouts, explicitly states that “No Champion shall box or sign to box a Champion or for another championship of another sanctioning body in seeking to unify a title unless prior approval is granted by the Championships Committee. Once the IBF has sent out the notice of the date of the purse bid, or once a contract has been signed for a mandatory bout, no request for a Unification Contest will be approved.

“A Champion’s failure to comply with this requirement will constitute sufficient cause for the Championships Committee and Board of Directors to consider withdrawing recognition of the title and to remove him from the IBF ratings.”

IBF Rule 5.E.2 notes the recognized sanctioning bodies – WBA, WBC and WBO – for unification purposes. Zuffa’s newly created league and title does not fall under that category. At the time of their exchange earlier this week, Opetaia’s representatives acknowledged the issue at hand and insisted its intention to defend the IBF title was in accordance with sanctioning body rules.

“After continued dialogue, on March 3, Opetaia’s team confirmed the fight would not be a unification and that any belt awarded by Zuffa would be ‘characterized as a trophy or token of recognition,’” confirmed the IBF. “The IBF has not had any discussion regarding this bout with any direct representative from Zuffa Boxing.

“However, the organization received assurances from Opetaia’s representatives that this would be the case. The IBF approved the bout under these conditions as the bout would no longer conflict with IBF Rule 5.E.2 which states in part – For the purpose of unification of titles, the preeminent Champions of the … WBA … WBC … and WBO may be designated as ‘elite contenders’ and may be permitted to fight for the unified title.”

Furthermore, Zuffa does not yet have permission to produce its own championships or rankings under the current terms of the Professional Boxing Safety Act.

Steps have been taken to advance H.R. 4624 – an amendment to the Ali Act that would permit Universal Boxing Organizations (UBOs) to effectively act as judge and jury, provided they follow a strict set of rules of operation external to the rules of the original act. However, the bill was only recently approved to advance to the House of Representatives floor; it still requires a scheduled voting date for House approval, followed by the Senate and then on to US President Donald Trump to enact into law.

None of that will happen prior to Sunday, which leaves Opetaia in quite the predicament.

“The press conference held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, today [March 6] made it clear that the Zuffa World Cruiserweight title would still be contested on March 8,” noted the IBF. “The IBF reserves the right to sanction title bouts alongside other sanctioning bodies that comply with the same mandated regulations followed by the organization.”

Absent his sudden withdrawal from Sunday’s event, Opetaia will be one title lighter, and thus significantly further away from his goal to become undisputed.

Additionally, his Ring title could be at risk later this spring if the independent(-ish) ratings panel abides by the publication’s championship policy.

Among the six ways a Ring champion can lose their title are:

1. The Champion loses a fight in the weight class in which he is champion.

2. The Champion moves to another weight class.

3. The Champion does not schedule a fight in any weight class for 18 months.

4. The Champion does not schedule a fight at his championship weight for 18 months (even if he fights at another weight).

5. The Champion does not schedule a fight with a Top-5 contender from any weight class for two years.

6. The Champion retires.

In accordance with Rule 5, Opetaia has not faced a Ring top five contender since his May 2024 rematch with Briedis.

He has since scored knockout victories over Jack Massey, David Nyika, Claudio Squeo and mandatory challenger Huseyin Cinkara. All four were in the IBF top 15; none were in the Ring’s 200lbs rankings at the time they faced Opetaia. Glanton, 21-3 (18 KOs), has managed to sneak into the No. 10 spot of the Ring’s cruiserweight rankings.

Based on social media commentary from some panel members – and taking into account Turki Alalshikh’s influence over the publication (despite his previous insistence of remaining independent from the Ring as a news outlet) – it is highly doubtful that Opetaia will be at risk of losing his Ring title, unless it’s in defeat or he chooses to one day vacate.

The same cannot be said of the IBF, as much of a stickler for the rules as any entity in the sport – even at the risk of unpopular decisions.

“The organization’s rules don’t always yield the preferred or popular outcome, but they provide structure and transparency, serving not just the champion but also those waiting for the opportunity to fight for the title,” emphasized the sanctioning body. “The pursuit of undisputed status – by unifying the IBF, WBA, WBC, and WBO titles – represents the highest ambition in the sport. 

“The IBF is committed to providing professional boxers worldwide with meaningful opportunities to advance their careers.”

Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.

Zuffa Boxing’s intention to do things differently and better in the sport is being immediately put to the test by its union with cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia.

“You have a fighter who has it all,” former welterweight titleholder Paulie Malignaggi said on Thursday’s episode of ProBoxTV’s “BoxingScene Today.” “Make him a star.”

Australian southpaw Opetaia, 30, captured the IBF belt in 2024 and has knocked out or stopped six of his past seven opponents to improve to 29-0 with 23 knockouts as he heads to Sunday’s Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight title fight at the UFC Apex.

“He’s the best cruiserweight in the world,” trainer Stephen “Breadman” Edwards said on Thursday’s show.

Despite his dominance, Opetaia has struggled to draw crowds.

After seeing their union end and watching Opetaia move to Zuffa Boxing, his former promoter, Eddie Hearn, said the fighter wasn’t a big ticket seller.

Maybe that’s because of the division he fights in – which has long lagged in popular fighters – or Opetaia’s distance from boxing’s biggest markets.

But as “BoxingScene Today” analyst and former 140lbs belt holder Chris Algieri said, Opetaia’s success, look and charisma make him ripe to increase his star power as his Zuffa debut versus Atlanta’s Brandon Glanton, 21-3 (18 KOs), arrives in Sunday’s main event on Paramount+.

“They’ll let him do what he does with their tremendous marketing arm,” Algieri said.

While the 200lbs division lacks attractions, Zuffa Boxing head Dana White has said it’s possible that his circuit’s best fighters will be placed in Saudi Arabia financier Turki Alalshikh’s “Ring” cards, meaning showdowns with the likes of unified champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, WBC titlist Noel Mikaelian and May title challenger David Benavidez are possible.

“Let’s see if Zuffa can recalibrate him,” Malignaggi said. “Dana White has been called the best promoter in the world by [Zuffa broadcaster] Max Kellerman. Opetaia’s now changing over to a team promising a lot of things.

“This is the litmus test for Zuffa – a guy with all the potential in the world, not selling. Make it work.”

The analysts discussed how some fighters scuffle in their efforts to build fan bases, as Terence Crawford and Floyd Mayweather Jnr did before leaving Top Rank.

“Jai is a bona fide world champion,” Malignaggi said. “Let’s see if Zuffa lives up to the hype or if they’re like everyone else. … This was always going to come to a head.”

The newly expanded “BoxingScene Today” also addressed comments by new featherweight titleholder Bruce Carrington calling out undisputed junior featherweight champion Naoya Inoue to press for global stardom by fighting in the US, along with thoughts on a Xander Zayas-Josh Kelly junior middleweight title unification.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.

The fact that most people know Bob Arum’s famous quote about the elasticity of truth without knowing the context says as much about the sport as it does that particular promoter. It says, in a nutshell, that context is unimportant when it comes to characters in boxing. It suggests that if ever a promoter says, “Yesterday, I was lying, today I’m telling the truth,” it can probably apply to any number of things. The specifics, for once, do not matter. All that matters is that a promoter once admitted to lying. Now we, the fans, have permission to doubt everything. 

As it happens, Arum’s immortal line about flip-flopping was one he said during a drinking session in Syracuse, New York, where he was promoting Ray Leonard’s welterweight title defence against Larry Bonds in 1981. Interestingly, too, although it sounds like a statement dragged from him under intense scrutiny and duress, it was anything but. Instead, Arum said the line when trapped in a hotel due to a snowstorm and was merely killing time drinking and arguing about boxers with several journalists. They had done the same thing the night before as a matter of fact. 

“We were all s***-faced drunk out of our minds and it was just a fun thing about who was better,” Arum told Yahoo Sports in 2016. He then confessed that he was unable to recall the names of the boxers he and the journalists were debating but said that Bob Waters, a sports writer at Newsday in New York, soon accused Arum of contradicting himself. It was shortly after that that Arum’s famous phrase was born. 

“Bob said, ‘Hey, last night you said [boxer] A was better and now you're saying it’s [boxer] B,’” Arum recalled. “And so I smiled and I said, ‘Well, yesterday I was lying. Today I’m telling the truth.’ We all laughed about it and that was it. We were all friends and we were drinking and [talking] and having a good time and that was it. A little while later, he did a little story on it in Newsday and it was funny and it was just exactly the way it happened.”

As with the very best lies, the comment stuck. It became a source of amusement for some and a source of ammunition for others. “It was totally unfair and people think it’s my mantra or something,” Arum said. “When I’ve had to testify in trials, the lawyers have even asked me about it and I’ve had to explain the situation. I’ll tell them the story of how it happened and I’ll mention that I definitely learned a lesson from it. They’ll say, ‘What's that?’ And I always tell them, ‘Never drink with the press.’”

Arum, now 94, may no longer drink and argue with the press as voraciously as he once did, but he still promotes fights and he still communicates in the language of hyperbole to get his point across and ensure he is heard. He is also a salesman at heart, a great one, and it is of course incumbent on all great salesmen to stretch the truth to guarantee a sale. In this respect Arum is no different than any other promoter, or indeed fighter, who has come along during the lengthy time he has been involved in the sport. The only difference, perhaps, is that Bob Arum happens to be a bit more honest about his dishonesty. 

As for the rest, they continue to fall into the trap of underestimating the intelligence of their buyers and presuming nobody will ever know when they are telling fibs. If they can lie, they will. If they then get away with it, no longer is the lie even considered a lie in their book. 

This is something we witness whenever a boxer tests positive for a performance-enhancing drug and is immediately asked to explain why it happened and how they plan to now clear their name. It is also something we see more generally in the sport – on a daily basis, in fact – simply because the sport itself is a court without judge or jury and accommodates only crooked lawyers and the accused. It is, to put it mildly, fertile ground for anybody predisposed to lying or, at best, having one opinion on Monday and a different opinion on Tuesday. For these people, there is no space safer than boxing and no such thing as a barefaced lie. Some would even argue that in boxing an ability to lie is essential. Key to one’s survival. 

You would certainly think that based on recent events. Within the past seven days, in fact, we have heard countless lies, retractions and reversals, all of which have been greeted with a collective shrug and all of which can be explained by that famous Arum line: “Yesterday I was lying. Today I’m telling the truth.”

Yesterday’s lie: Floyd Mayweather is a perfect 50-0, has more money than God, and has nothing left to prove. 

Today’s truth: Despite everything we were once led to believe, Floyd Mayweather is not content. He is not content with being retired, he is not content with a professional record of 50-0, and he is not content being almost 50 years of age. In fact, he wants more. More attention. More money. More purpose. That’s why, on September 19 in Las Vegas, Mayweather has agreed to fight Manny Pacquiao again, 11 years after their first encounter, and why in the meantime he will look to participate in whatever exhibition bouts come his way. He has one of those in the books, too, scheduled for June in Athens, Greece. 

“Why?” you might ask. Well, because “Money” Mayweather, for all his brilliance and wealth, is really no better than any other retired fighter in the end. Meaning that no matter his greatness, there are still bills to pay, a void to be filled, and an unnerving silence whenever he is not in public. At 49, that silence grows only louder with each passing day and all Mayweather has to combat it are two things: his name, which remains bankable, and his ability to lie – first to himself, then to everybody else. 

Yesterday’s lie: According to Turki Alalshikh, the genius behind it, a WBC heavyweight title fight between Oleksandr Usyk, the champion, and Rico Verhoeven, the kickboxer, is perfectly acceptable. Not only that, it is, according to its Saudi Arabian financier, “Not fun, but a dangerous fight.”

Today’s truth: The truth is that if kicks were permitted Verhoeven would indeed be a dangerous opponent for Usyk on May 23, making Alalshikh right. However, given this is a boxing match and not a kickboxing match, we cannot view the fight through that fair and inclusive lens. In fact, the only reason Alalshikh chose to describe the fight the way he did – “Not fun, but a dangerous fight” – is because Mike Coppinger, one of his employees at The Ring, dared to get on his social media soapbox and tiptoe towards the truth. “Usyk has fought practically everyone at heavyweight, from four fights total with Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury to another two with Daniel Dubois, Derek Chisora, etc,” Coppinger wrote on February 27. “Yes, Wardley and Kabayel are deserving. But if Usyk wants to have some fun with a big spectacle, so be it.”

That, on reflection, was little more than a limp-wristed attempt to justify Usyk’s fight with Verhoeven. Yet Alalshikh, Coppinger’s boss, failed to see even that when reading the post on his phone. He instead focused on a single word: “Fun.” Boy, did Coppinger’s boss not like that. “It is not fun,” he reminded Coppinger publicly, having presumably first done so privately. “It is a dangerous fight.”

To which Coppinger, his turtleneck tightening, then wrote: “Indeed, kickboxers have had a lot of success in heavyweight boxing. Vitali Klitschko. Dillian Whyte. Big Baby Miller. Alexander Povetkin. This isn’t a wrestler boxing Usyk. It’s a man who has knockout power and stands up when fighting.”

He may as well have written: “Yesterday I was lying, today I am telling the truth.” Either way, Rico Verhoeven went from being “fun” to being a threat to Oleksandr Usyk’s reign as world heavyweight champion all in the space of three inane tweets posted within just hours of each other.

Yesterday’s lie: When getting wind of the public outrage directed at Oleksandr Usyk’s ludicrous WBC heavyweight title fight against Rico Verhoeven on May 23, the World Boxing Council [WBC] started to question their involvement in it. They wanted to be part of the fun, of course, but also understood why allowing Verhoeven, a one-bout novice, to box for their heavyweight title might undermine the very concept of a sanctioning body and a world championship belt. Thus, on March 1, the WBC publicly declared that Usyk-Verhoeven would be a “WBC Special Event” and that one of those garish, completely pointless belts we see all too often these days would be on the line instead of Usyk’s actual WBC heavyweight title. This was, in the view of the WBC, the best of both worlds: uphold the illusion of integrity while still having fun. 

Today’s truth: Less than 24 hours after announcing Usyk-Verhoeven would be a “WBC Special Event”, the sanctioning body’s Board of Governors suddenly reneged on that decision, remembering that Usyk, 24-0 (15 KOs), was due a voluntary defence, so yeah, why not? That Verhoeven, the voluntary defence in question, had boxed only once as a professional – some 12 years ago – had no bearing on the WBC’s bizarre U-turn, nor their willingness to put their WBC heavyweight title – once the most coveted belt in boxing – on the line in Egypt on May 23. 

“After careful consideration, the WBC Board of Governors has ruled in favor of sanctioning WBC World Heavyweight Champion Oleksandr Usyk’s voluntary title defense against legendary kickboxing Champion Rico Verhoeven,” the sanctioning body revealed in a public ruling. “At its 63rd Annual Convention in Bangkok, Thailand, the WBC granted Champion Usyk a voluntary defense.  

“Subsequently, the WBC received a petition to sanction the Usyk v. Verhoeven fight as a voluntary defense.” 

If you’re still not going to use this as evidence of why we should probably redefine the term “world champion” in 2026, we should at the very least start to question what a “voluntary defense” actually means. Because it is that, rather than the suitability of Rico Verhoeven, the WBC have decided to emphasise in an effort to validate one of the dumbest fights we have seen in boxing for at least three months. 

Yesterday’s lie: Conor Benn pulled a fast one on Eddie Hearn, his promoter, and never again will the two do business or so much as speak.

Today’s truth: When emotions are involved, a change of heart or opinion is fair enough – expected, even. But, in this instance, it wasn’t long before the dramatic parting of Conor Benn and Eddie Hearn teased enough of a grey area to indicate there might still be the possibility of reconciliation in the future. As hurt as Hearn may have appeared in the aftermath of the split, one wonders how much of that had to do with the embarrassment of it all – a divorce played out in public – than the actual pain of it. After all, since the initial shock of the announcement, we have learned that (a) Benn wants to work with Hearn again, (b) Matchroom had the chance to retain Benn, and (c) Benn is getting paid a head-turning, hard-to-turn-down $15 million to fight a 37-year-old Regis Prograis in an undercard fight on April 11. 

No doubt it was a signal of intent from Zuffa Boxing snatching Benn from Matchroom, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Benn and Hearn are over for good. Even if, in private and in the heat of the moment, the pair took to calling each other every name under the sun, it is quite easy to repair surface-level damage in a fickle, insincere sport like boxing. All you have to do is say, “I was lying yesterday, today I’m telling the truth.” It also helps if the upshot of letting bygones be bygones is that you stand to make a lot of money together. Because that – money – is the thing that makes liars of them all.

 

Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani met face-to-face to formally announce the biggest all-Japanese fight in the nation’s rich boxing history.

A press conference was held Friday to confirm boxing’s worst-kept secret: Inoue, 32-0 (27 KOs), will risk his lineal, Ring and undisputed 122lbs championship, while Nakatani, 32-0 (24 KOs), will bid to become a four-division champion. Their superfight will top a May 2 blockbuster event to air live on Lemino pay-per-view from the Tokyo Dome in Japan.

U.S. distribution rights weren’t immediately revealed during the presser. The full undercard, however, was revealed. Among the supporting clashes will be a terrific bantamweight clash between WBC titleholder Takuma Inoue and former four-division titlist Kazuto Ioka.

The Inoues, Nakatani and Ioka were on stage Friday, along with their respective teams, to create an historic moment for the Japanese media.

Takuma is Naoya’s younger brother by two years and a two-time bantamweight title claimant. He previously held the WBA title and won the WBC belt in a 12-round decision victory over Tenshin Nasukawa last November 24 in Tokyo.

Ioka, 32-4-1 (17 KOs), became the first male boxer from Japan to win major titles in four weight divisions. He beat Naoya to the feat by four years, having won belts at 105lbs, 108lbs, 112lbs and 115lbs.

Nakatani has the chance to become just the third ever on that list and fourth overall to win belts in at least four weight divisions. Recently elected Hall of Fame member Naoko Fujioka is the nation’s only boxer – regardless of gender – to accomplish the feat.

Ioka can become Japan’s first male boxer to win five divisional titles should he beat the younger Inoue. He rebounded from back-to-back defeats to then-unbeaten Fernando Martinez with a win at bantamweight last New Year’s Eve at Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo.

Friday’s session capped a year’s worth of anticipation that the fight had a significant chance to become a reality. Inoue and Nakatani spoke it into existence last year during the 2024 Japanese Boxing Commission (JBC) awards.

They met again during this year’s awards ceremony, where Inoue won his eighth consecutive Fighter of the Year award, while Nakatani was also honored for Best Skill, an award shared with Takuma Inoue. The pair of pound-for-pound entrants were happy to report that they honored their word.

“We were both able to fulfill our promises,” Inoue said during this year’s ceremony. “In May this year, at Tokyo Dome, I'll clash head-on with Junto Nakatani.

“Everyone, please make sure to witness that courageous showdown.”

Inoue’s 2025 campaign represented the most active male boxer at the top of the sport. He made four successful championship defenses on the year, the busiest of any male lineal champion since Brian Mitchell’s 1987 campaign, when he was the recognized lineal and WBA 130lbs king.

Nakatani’s 2025 campaign jumped out to a strong enough start that he was selected as the mid-year leader for BoxingScene’s Fighter of the Year race. He earned stoppage wins over David Cuellar and unbeaten countryman Ryosuke Nishida, the latter of which saw Nakatani unify the WBC and IBF 118lbs titles in just the fourth-ever unification bout between reigning titlists from Japan.

The win over Nishida was also Nakatani’s final fight at bantamweight, where he won the WBC belt in February 2024 and scored knockout wins in each of his five fights at the weight.

Shortly thereafter, Nakatani took the most significant step towards making the Inoue fight a reality when he declared that he was set to campaign in the 122lbs division.

His debut came in the chief support to Inoue’s most recent title defense, when they both appeared on the December 27 “Japan vs. the World” card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Inoue turned away unbeaten contender Alan David Picasso via unanimous decision just three months after he outpointed former unified titlist Murodjon Akhmadaliev. Nakatani’s night was considerably more exciting, as he suffered cuts and bruising while barely outlasting Mexico’s Sebastian Hernandez over 12 grueling rounds.

Nakatani previously unified two titles at bantamweight, then exited the division at a perfect 6-0 (6 KOs) – all in title fights. He has also held major titles at flyweight and junior bantamweight.

Inoue won his first strap in 2014, when he blasted out Adrian Hernandez in the sixth round of their WBC 108lbs title. By year’s end, he was already a two-division titlist after ending the lengthy reign of WBO 115lbs title claimant Omar Narvaez via second-round knockout. 

In 2018 came a move to bantamweight, where Inoue held a secondary version of the WBA title before he became a true three-division titleholder following a May 2019 early knockout of Emmanuel Rodriguez. He went on to fully unify at bantamweight, capped by a December 2022 late stoppage of Paul Butler to become Japan’s first-ever undisputed champion in the three- or four-belt era.

His run at 122lbs has added to the historic stretch enjoyed by the all-time great.

Inoue is the only Asian boxer ever to claim two-division undisputed championship status, and has ruled junior featherweight with an iron fist since his July 2023 knockout of unbeaten WBC/WBO titlist Stephen Fulton Jnr. A win over Marlon Tapales added the IBF and WBA chips, along with 2023 Fighter of the Year honors.

Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.

Steven Butler ended Ramadan Hiseni’s run of good luck in Quebec province, where the latter came up snake eyes Thursday at Montreal Casino in Montreal.

The Montreal-based fan favorite Butler scored a highlight-reel knockout, finishing the fight with a single left hook at 1 minute, 20 seconds of the second round. The win was the fourth straight – all by knockout – for the 30-year-old “Bang Bang” Butler, who moved to 38-5-1 (32 KOs).

Hiseni, 29, of Switzerland, dropped to 22-3-2 (8 KOs), while losing for the first time inside the distance.

The victory improved Butler’s standing in the super middleweight division, where he remains undefeated after years of struggling to make the middleweight limit. He collected a regional WBA 168lbs belt, which should improve his ranking with the sanctioning body that he intends to target for his next title opportunity, telling BoxingScene before the fight that his hope is to challenge WBA super middleweight titleholder Jose Armando Resendiz.

It was clear early on that Butler’s power was too much for Hiseni to deal with. Midway through the first round, Hiseni looked like he had trouble carrying the force of the first right hand from Butler. Near the end of the round, Hiseni was hurt even more dramatically as a Butler right hand knocked his head back, forcing him to see the lights above, bloodying his nose and nearly putting him down.

Hiseni attempted to get some respect early on in the second round, coming out more aggressively, but Butler showed he wasn’t impressed by what was coming his way. A minute into the round, a right hand froze Hiseni along the ropes before a left hook closed the show.

Hiseni had done well in his two previous visits to the Canadian province, upsetting Alexandre Gaumont in December by unanimous decision and nearly defeating Shamil Khataev in 2024, holding him to a majority draw.

Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.

Establishing the rules as we go is apparently this week’s theme in boxing as the fate of Jai Opetaia’s cruiserweight belt and the impending awarding of a lightweight belt to the winner of William Zepeda-Lamont Roach Jnr hang in the balance.

On Wednesday’s episode of ProBoxTV’s newly expanded “BoxingScene Today,” those fluid topics were addressed by analysts and former world titleholders Chris Algieri and Paulie Malignaggi.

“So he’s coming off a loss and gets a title shot? Love the rule change,” Malignaggi said in reference to Mexico’s top-rated and former interim belt holder Zepeda, 33-1 (27 KOs), landing the opportunity to fight for the belt that the WBC stripped from unbeaten four-division champion Shakur Stevenson over unpaid sanctioning fees.

Roach, 25-1-3 (10 KOs), ironically, has come up short in his past two fights while engaging in entertaining draws versus Gervonta “Tank” Davis last March and Mexico’s former 140lbs belt holder Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz in December.

Setting aside the controversy over new WBO 140lbs titlist Stevenson being stripped and the past precedent that fighters weren’t eligible for title fights when coming off a defeat, Algieri said Zepeda “comes forward and throws a lot of punches … it’s a fun fight.”

While Malignaggi believes Stevenson will move forward just fine without the belt – “He can make his own way and be favored no matter which direction [in weight] he goes,” Malignaggi said – the former welterweight titlist said, “I don’t like the politics of it,” in reference to the Mexico-based WBC placing the Mexico-based fighter in title-fight position.

Zepeda has scuffled in his past three fights – two against former 130lbs belt holder Tevin Farmer and one against Stevenson – but the similarly crafty Roach suffered a hand injury in his bout against Cruz, rallying to gain the draw.

“You needs those hands … and Zepeda needs a rebound performance,” Malignaggi said of the likely spring bout.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Opetaia, 29-0 (23 KOs), is reportedly confronting the loss of his IBF cruiserweight belt if he becomes the first active titleholder to fight for a new Zuffa belt on Sunday’s Zuffa Boxing card in Las Vegas.

“The IBF sticks to its guns and the ethics of its rules set,” Malignaggi said, reminding that the New Jersey-based sanctioning body stripped Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for not previously meeting his mandatory contender.

“It’s the old-guard versus the new-world order,” Algieri said of the IBF’s reported stance that Opetaia can keep its belt by fighting only for it Sunday but will be stripped if he fights for and accepts the Zuffa belt.

At this point, Zuffa – run by UFC CEO/President Dana White – has yet to win Congressional approval to change the Ali Act and gain the right to rank its own fighters and reward belts.

And after White said his circuit did not want to associate with the four established sanctioning bodies – IBF, WBC, WBO, WBA – the sanctioning bodies have worked to emphasize their importance.

“Zuffa drawing a line in the sand is going to get Opetaia stripped,” Malignaggi said. “It’s, ‘No, dude, [Zuffa] can’t play with us. … You’re out of the circle of trust.’

“This was already known by how Zuffa said it was going to go about its business.”

Opetaia said after signing with Zuffa that he believed he had the right to still pursue an undisputed cruiserweight crown.

And White sought to clarify at a Zuffa card last month that any world titlists fighting for Zuffa could also fight for the Ring [lineal] belt if the opportunity presented itself.

Yet the matter is destined for clarity as the fight nears.

“[Opetaia’s] the best cruiserweight in the world,” Malignaggi said, even as unified champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez and new WBC titlist Noel Mikaelian also wear belts in the division.

“Zuffa’s the way for [Opetaia] to get notoriety. It made sense. The kid deserves it. There were more pros than cons. [With Zuffa, it’s] creating an alternate reality.”

The analysts suspect Zuffa may “want to corner the market” by signing other elite cruiserweights and making a previously neglected [and less expensive] division more relevant.

“You’ve got this big shark [Opetaia] who needs to eat,” Algieri said.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.

Rolly Romero says he has signed to fight Devin Haney May 30 in a welterweight unification at Barclays Center in New York, and Haney is in “serious conversations” to finalize the bout, BoxingScene learned Thursday.

WBA champion Romero 17-2 (13 KOs) and his Las Vegas neighbor Haney 33-0 (15 KOs), a three-division champion now wearing the WBO welterweight belt, are pegged to fight under the Premier Boxing Champions banner in a Prime Video/PPV.com pay-per-view.

In addition to their common hometown, both are linked to new WBC champion Ryan Garcia.

Haney, of course, was knocked down three times in a 2024 decision loss to Garcia that was overturned to a no-contest due to Garcia’s three positive tests for the banned PED Ostarine while Romero, 30, defeated Garcia in his most recent fight, in May at Times Square.

Also that night, Haney, 27, defeated former unified 140lbs champion Jose Ramirez by unanimous decision.

“No more ball back in this court or that court. I’m signed, sealed and delivered,” Romero posted on “X” Wednesday. “Big boy deal. The Haneys have always been soft and full of lies. I’m going to end y’all for good.”

An official connected to the talks said, “It’s a fight we’re trying to make happen. It’s a fight I hope we can make.”

Devin Haney has expressed that the offer to fight Romero is quality, and BoxingScene has learned his father/trainer/manager, Bill Haney, is involved in scrutinizing the details of the financial structure.

Romero has only lost to unbeaten three-division champion Gervonta Davis and WBC interim 140lbs champion Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz.

He answered by knocking down Garcia in the Times Square main event on May 2, winning by unanimous-decision scores of 115-112, 118-109, 115-112.

Haney’s move to Romero delays his anticipated rematch with Garcia after years of acrimony over their 2024 affair at Barclays Center.

By defeating Mario Barrios February 21 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Garcia became a world champion and heightened the appetite for Garcia-Haney II.

Yet, by defeating Romero, Haney would make the bout a three-belt unification and further stoke interest for the showdown. 

Since his victory over Garcia, Romero has staved off the effort by WBA mandatory challenger Shakhram Giyasov 17-0 (10 KOs) for a title fight, saying he had never heard of Giyasov while expressing interest in fighting Manny Pacquiao, Shakur Stevenson and Conor Benn instead.

“It’s disrespectful and unfair,” Giyasov manager Vadim Kornilov told BoxingScene Thursday. “They’ve been talking to like 10 people … they had a 30-day mandatory notice in October [from the WBA], there was a purse bid. They could’ve applied for an exception … but it doesn’t mean they can just make us wait.”

Kornilov said Giyasov attorney Pat English has written several letters to the WBA encouraging the sanctioning body to enforce the mandatory to no avail.

Giyasov, 32, hasn’t fought since April.

“We’ve been waiting on a response and we’re not looking to fight someone else [in the interim],” Kornilov said. “Manny, Shakur, Conor Benn, and now Haney … how many people are they going to mention before they fight Giyasov?

“He’s fought two eliminators and he’s fought for the mandatory. He deserves his shot now. We’ve given this two years. He’s not looking to do a step-aside [agreement].”

If Romero-Haney gets finalized, however, it may be his best option.

Twenty years ago, Joe Calzaghe produced arguably the finest performance of his career, and arguably the finest performance seen in a British ring, to befuddle and ultimately beat Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy in Manchester, England. 

Thirteen years ago, when I asked Calzaghe to reflect on that win, he remained proud of his achievement and his performance, though questioned how both the fight and the win would age. He knew as well as anyone how time can either act favourably for a fighter or instead apply a fresh layer of context which has us all rethinking what we once saw and celebrated. 

In the case of Calzaghe and Lacy, the seven years that had passed between the fight happening and Calzaghe reflecting on its legacy had not been kind. In that time Calzaghe had of course only furthered his own legacy – which is, to him, all that really counts – yet the same could not be said for Jeff Lacy. He, in fact, was never more popular and revered than he was the night he walked to the ring to face Calzaghe in Manchester. After that, it was mostly downhill for the heavy-handed slugger from Florida.  Never again did he fight for a world title, let alone win one, and seldom will people offer Lacy’s name when asked to identify the best opponent Calzaghe conquered in his Hall-of-Fame career. 

“It's a shame Lacy didn’t do much after our fight, but at the time he was undefeated, an Olympic medallist, and destroying everybody in his path,” Calzaghe reminded me. “Well, I annihilated that guy and I did it live on ITV in front of millions. It was the best performance of my career and one that will, I hope, be remembered for years. When you put it like that, it doesn’t really matter what Jeff Lacy did or didn’t go on to achieve after our fight. I destroyed the guy not only physically but also mentally, and took everything away from him. Fair play to him for even trying to come back from it.”

Twelve hours ago, approx., marked the 20th anniversary of Calzaghe’s fight with Lacy, not that many would have known. It has, for whatever reason, been given very little attention or fanfare this time around. Whether that’s because everything that can be said about the fight has already been said (perhaps for the 10th anniversary) or because the fight does not mean the same thing in 2026 as it meant in 2006 is up for debate. But it is certainly a curious phenomenon, that 2006 fight between Calzaghe and Lacy. 

At the time, of course, we all felt it was legacy-defining for Calzaghe – both the performance and the result – yet sometimes a moment is just that. It is fleeting, it is of its time, and it depreciates in value the second it ends. Rest assured, nobody in 2006 would have believed that 20 years after the fact we would greet Calzaghe’s career-best performance with a collective shrug; or worse, a question: “Who was Jeff Lacy again?”

If in need of a reminder, allow me. Jeff Lacy, although merely a name on a list now, was in 2006 one of the scariest super-middleweights on the planet. His shoulders alone were bigger than most people’s heads and his ability to end fights inside the distance, often via his left hook, had plenty preferring his championship reign, however brief, to Calzaghe’s. He was, to the untrained eye, more dynamic, more exciting, and more likely to one day become a superstar in the sport. Even if Calzaghe, the older man by five years, had been defending his title for a much longer time, experience becomes negligible when hype comes along. With Lacy, there was a great deal of that, make no mistake. In fact, by the time the fight was upon us, at 2am local time on March 5, he was viewed as the slight favourite. Moreover, the fight itself was by then deemed not so much a unification – Lacy’s IBF title, Calzaghe’s WBO title – as a changing of the guard.  

“Lacy was the favourite and came with a big reputation,” Calzaghe said. “He was knocking people over left, right and centre, and people were trying to make him out to be some kind of Mike Tyson-type figure. He was supposed to be fearsome.

“They called him a monster and a huge puncher, but I never took any notice of it really. Whenever I watched him on tape, which wasn’t very often, he looked slow. I couldn’t get past how slow his feet were. That stuck out every time I watched him. 

“Also, I trusted my own ability, and I knew that I would raise my game when the time came to do so. If they matched me with a tough opponent, someone who might even be a favourite against me, I knew I’d rise to the occasion. 

“So, rather than being fearful, I was excited. I liked the opportunity to test myself at the very top level and I also liked what I saw on tape. If you look back, I broke my hand in the previous fight [against Evans Ashira] and still won it one-handed. It was easy for me. If anything, I’d gone a bit stale and needed a kick up the arse. The Lacy fight provided that. But it also provided me with an opponent I knew I could look good against.”

Calzaghe never lacked confidence going into the Lacy fight, but that is not to say he was immune to doubt. There were too many niggling injuries and too many people on the outside expressing their own doubt for Calzaghe to complete his training camp entirely convinced he was doing the right thing by going through with the fight. He had no fear of Lacy, it wasn’t that. But Calzaghe was, for perhaps the first time, starting to doubt both himself and his ability to produce his best form on the night. 

“I nearly pulled out of the fight because of a hand injury,” he said. “I told my dad [Enzo, also Joe’s trainer], and said, ‘Look, this guy has been knocking everybody out and I can’t fight him with one hand.’ Dad says it's very, very simple. He said, ‘Listen, mate, this guy is made for you, and this fight is going to make your life. You need to fight. He said this guy has to move five times to throw one punch. All you’ve got to do is throw five punches and move once.’ 

“It was so simple, but it made complete sense to me, and it made me believe I could win the fight with very little difficulty. I knew that all I had to do was use the time it took for him to load up on punches – his five moves – to get off with five punches of my own and then move once to avoid his response. Suddenly I could see the fight playing out in my mind and there was no way I was pulling out. 

“At first, I said, ‘What are you talking about? It’s never going to be that easy.’ But he assured me it would be that easy. And he was right; he was spot on. This guy, my dad, who’d never boxed before, had figured something out that every so-called boxing expert had apparently missed. They all seemed to think I’d get knocked out. They didn’t have a fucking clue.”

Soon into the fight many at ringside were saying similar things about Lacy, for he too cut a clueless figure in the company of Calzaghe. Everything Lacy tried, Calzaghe had an answer for, and no amount of huffing and puffing and swinging with that fearsome left hook of his could turn the tide in the American’s favour. Instead, the more he missed, the more Calzaghe grew in both stature and confidence. The more he presented his body and head as a target, the easier it was for Calzaghe to then forget about the fact his hands, these weapons with which he was battering Lacy, were themselves in poor condition. 

“If you look at it, that fight was clearly my best performance,” said Calzaghe, who claimed a unanimous decision (119-107, 119-107, 119-105) at the bout’s conclusion. “I couldn’t have fought a more perfect fight that night. Everything went to plan. My defence was good, my offence was obviously good – Jeff can probably tell you that – and it all just connected nicely. Sometimes you get nights like that, and sometimes you have to try and gut it out. It was just great to get a night when everybody’s picking against you and when everybody’s trying to make your opponent out to be something he was not. That’s what makes a night like that really special. 

“Funnily enough, when I watched the Showtime version of the fight for the first time, I got the sense that the commentators saw me as just the opponent. It was almost as if I had no right sharing the ring with Lacy. They didn’t respect my credentials and they didn’t even know if I could fight or not. It was quite funny watching the ring-walks back, knowing what happened a few minutes later. Even the change in attitude is amusing. They almost mark the first round down as a bit of a fluke – half expecting Lacy to put it right in the next one – and then by round four you can sense the worry and confusion in their voices. By the second half of the fight, they have realised what I knew for ages: I can fight, man.”

Since beating Jeff Lacy so impressively in 2006, that has never really been in doubt. Yet still it is nice to remind yourself of that fact from time to time, especially when time itself threatens to diminish what should never be diminished.

Brandon Glanton isn’t the opponent we’ve long wanted to see Jai Opetaia share the ring with, but that doesn’t mean that Opetaia-Glanton, on Sunday, is a bad fight.

Opetaia’s at the very top of the cruiserweight division, so the fight for him that most appeals is with Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, but with Ramirez fighting David Benavidez on May 2 that won’t be happening any time soon, so Glanton, as a solid opponent, can ensure a solid fight.

Glanton, had a very competitive fight with Chris Billam-Smith, who remains one of the world’s best cruiserweights, and he’s never been stopped – he’s also better than Jack Massey, David Nyika, Claudio Squeo, and Huseyin Cinkara, Opetaia’s four opponents since his successful rematch with Mairis Briedis.

Opetaia’s a warrior and an assassin, and he believes in his skills – there’s no question he’d willingly fight anyone. He’s incredibly athletic, big for the weight, has an extremely dynamic attack, power in both hands, is well schooled, and had the heart and hunger to resist a broken jaw to beat a very good Briedis in the first of two fights against him. He’s essentially the total package. The only concerns surrounding him are that because he’s so aggressive he can be hit and hurt, and also that he appears to struggle to make weight. But against that he’s about to fight for the fourth time in under 15 months – he’s among the busiest of the world’s elite fighters – and that level of activity makes it easier for him to make weight and to further hone his skills.

Glanton’s very durable, very strong, has a mean streak, can punch, and is always in very good condition. He can be one-dimensional and one-paced, and his attack lacks the dynamism of Opetaia’s.

His best chance of success lies in forcing a rough fight and getting into Opetaia’s head. He’s a good talker – if he can verbally assault Opetaia before and during the fight and then make it as physical as possible he has a chance.

The key for Opetaia is to stay as cool, calm and collected as he normally does. If he’s focused and disciplined, and doesn’t get caught with anything stupid, Glanton will have a difficult evening.

Opetaia, on the grounds of his skills and particularly his attack – he’s the all-round superior fighter – can be expected to win. He’s younger and fresher than Glanton, and he remains hungry, but while I expect Glanton to survive, I can’t see him winning.

Conor Benn signing for Zuffa Boxing might have caused more headlines than Opetaia, but Opetaia is the more significant recruit. He’s the best fighter in a strong cruiserweight division – if Benn returned to welterweight he wouldn’t even be in the top five. Opetaia’s all steak, no sizzle; Ben’s the opposite, a high-profile star without anything like Opetaia’s accomplishments.

It might yet transpire that Opetaia is forced to decide whether he and Glanton fight for his IBF title or the vacant Zuffa title. He’s long said he wants to be the undisputed champion – and I’ve always believed him; particularly because he’d be a very fitting undisputed champion – but this could prove a line in the sand for all concerned.

If the IBF make him choose between the titles, Opetaia potentially risks never becoming undisputed champion – the IBF apply their rules more consistently than any other sanctioning body. If Opetaia prioritises his title – which is what I would do – it would show how committed he is to his dream and represent a win for the old guard and the sanctioning bodies who continue to believe that titles matter. But if he prioritises the Zuffa title he can become the first ever Zuffa champion – that might not mean anything now, but the day might come when it does.

Even as the reigning IBF champion, there’s no guarantee of Opetaia fighting the WBC champion Noel Mikaelian or the winner of Ramirez-Benavidez. There’s also no guarantee of the WBC, WBA and WBO sanctioning fights for their titlists that also involve the Zuffa title.

Benavidez, by the way, would be my bet to beat Ramirez in May. Ramirez is a very, very good fighter who’s better than ever at cruiserweight but Benavidez is special – his confidence is at an all-time high, and he’s become one of the best fighters in the world.

The first question I asked when I was told Oleksandr Usyk’s fighting Rico Verhoeven was whether his titles were on the line – because surely they couldn’t be? 

But they will fight for the WBC heavyweight title. Which, even though the WBC makes all of the exceptions it does, is wild. 

When they sanctioned Manny Pacquiao as a challenger to Mario Barrios in 2025 it represented a risk but it could also be argued that they were showing respect to an icon of the sport, and against a titlist with limitations. 

Usyk-Verhoeven is completely different. There’s no way this should be getting sanctioned as a title fight. It’s crazy, and an insult to boxing. 

Usyk, as the champion, has a responsibility too. Until agreeing to fight Verhoeven he consistently fought the toughest opponents, which has led to suggestions that he deserves a break from doing so, but as the champion he ought to be consistently fighting the best and instead he’s giving a title shot to an opponent who doesn’t deserve it. 

The winner of Fabio Wardley-Daniel Dubois – even if that means fighting Dubois for the third time – would have been far more worthy than Verhoeven. Agit Kabayel, the mandatory challenger with the WBC, also would be – how is this fair on him? This isn’t an exhibition – Verhoeven is jumping the line. Usyk had always been so pure and always done so much that’s positive for boxing – he’s been exemplary. By agreeing to this, as the champion, he’s becoming part of the problem. 

Even if this means Usyk’s ready to retire – and it far from guarantees that he is – I don’t expect him to take Verhoeven lightly. Even if his motivation isn’t the same in 2026, his discipline will be. A fighter with that mindset will take all of the steps they can to be at their best every time. The only risk he’s really taking is that at 39 years old he’s putting his body through another training camp and fight that means that if he continues to fight after this he’ll have brought closer the day when he finally starts to look old. Not that it would be a surprise if he retires after this, by the way – it has the appearance of a swan song.

The range for kicks for a kickboxer is very different to hands for a boxer. Their footwork has to be different too. Some skills are transferrable, but it can’t happen overnight – certainly not against an opponent like Usyk. I see absolutely nothing in Verhoeven that suggests that he has a chance. 

*

At this point in Floyd Mayweather’s career he has to pick his opponents more carefully than ever. He’s capable of forging a path to a title fight, but at 49 I’m not convinced that he can win one – particularly with the recently weak welterweight division again growing in strength. 

The rematch with Pacquiao is bound to prove very popular but, after that, if he fights younger opponents, he’s going to put himself at risk. A fight against an opponent like me would make much more sense – I’m a former world champion and I’ve been active in bare-knuckle boxing. 

A fighter always misses fighting. But I’m not sure Mayweather was missing it enough to come back without money being the biggest driver. I certainly don’t believe he’s broke – most of us will never understand what it means to have the wealth I suspect he still has – and I happen to believe he never stopped training. I make him the favourite against Pacquiao. From what I’ve seen of his body language and rhythm in training, he’d beat Barrios today.

Emanuel Navarrete is back and so is the city where he delivered a powerful statement, reminding a balkanized business that both fighter and place aren’t going away.

For a while, it looked as if they might. There were signs that Navarrete was fading in the ring and Phoenix was vanishing as a destination.

In the immediate aftermath of Navarrete’s dramatic stoppage of a favored Eduardo Nunez at Desert Diamond Arena in suburban Glendale, however, both forecasts are double-down foolish.

February 28 was a night when Navarrete and the Phoenix logo could have been one and the same. That mythic bird from the ashes is still aloft, perhaps higher than ever.

Here are just a couple of parallel tracks in a story tied together by fighter and fans:

1. The 31-year-old Navarrete, a three-division champion and unified junior-lightweight champ, has never looked better, perhaps good enough to get some serious pound-for-pound consideration for the first time. 

2. The Phoenix market, dormant for more than a year, has never looked and sounded more viable. A Desert Diamond crowd of nearly 12,000, according to Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn, roared its approval throughout most of the eight-fight card.

“A special night, but this is the right place for it,’’ said Hearn, who before first bell predicted the card would be “the greatest advertisement for boxing.’’

Boxing’s only advertisement for at least a year has been a contentious collection of threats, lawsuits and slurs. From day-to-day, it’s hard to know who’s insulting whom. Trash-talk has always been part of the fight game’s language, but it’s easier to understand if it comes from the fighters. Punches are a better sales pitch than politics, but politicos have been getting most of the headlines.

Forgotten amid it all are casual fans who don’t know or care about the WBC-IBF-WBA-WBA versus Zuffa-Sela-TKO-RING. They’re casual, perhaps, because they’ve heard it all before. Acronyms moving in, acronyms moving out. 

“Above all, I’m a fan,’’ said Roberto Vargas, whose intense interest in the sport led him to creating Arizona’s Iron Boy Promotions and now management of promising Phoenix junior-featherweight Jordan Martinez. “It’s really tough to figure out what’s going on in boxing right now. I’m a promoter, yeah. I’m a manager, yeah.

“But I’m like most fans here and I think everywhere else.

“I’m just going to wait and see, see what happens. But one thing isn’t going to change. Not ever. We just want to see good fights.’’

At Desert Diamond, those fights were back, including Martinez in an entertaining draw with Arturo Cardenas in the DAZN opener to the Navarrete-Nunez featured card.

It was the first major card in Phoenix in nearly 15 months. The Maricopa County market went dark after Navarrete stopped fellow Mexican Oscar Valdez on Dec. 7, 2024 in a Top Rank-promoted rematch in front of 8,438 at the NBA Suns’ arena in downtown Phoenix.

Navarrete-Valdez II had been preceded by a long string of successful cards, both at Desert Diamond and the Suns’ home.

There was Navarrete’s unanimous decision over Valdez in front of 10,246 at Desert Diamond in their August 2023 meeting.

There was the Super-Fly classic - Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez’ stoppage of accomplished Juan Francisco Estrada in front of more than 9,000 at the Suns’ arena in June 2024. 

There was Estrada’s trilogy victory over legend Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez in December 2022 at Desert Diamond, also in front of more than 9,000.

There was Jaime Munguia’s super-middleweight stoppage of veteran John Ryder in front of 10,836 in January 2024 at the Suns arena in a Golden Boy-promoted fight.

The fans kept coming. But the cards stopped until Navarrete returned. What happened?

 

The best guess is that Saudi money turned off the Phoenix lights and kept them off for a long, dark stretch. Instead, fights that might have been in downtown Phoenix or nearby Glendale went to Riyadh, including perhaps a hometown return for David Benavidez, who instead defended his light-heavyweight title in Saudi Arabia. 

Another, often mentioned by Phoenix fans, was Bam Rodriguez in his knockout of Fernando Martinez for another piece of the unified Super Fly title. 

Instead, Bam’s victory got buried, a significant unified title fight lost and mostly forgotten on a card headlined by Benavidez' victory over Anthony Yarde in November.

Benavidez made big money. Bam made big money.

“But sometimes you’ve got to give these guys their flowers,’’ said Hearn, who has long said that the Phoenix crowd is populated by “educated” fans.

By educated, Hearn isn't talking about degrees. It's simple: Phoenix fans know what they’re watching, which isn’t always evident in the bouts from Riyadh. Watch the livestream and you see fans yawning, fans napping and presumably leaving. Empty seats account for a livestream empty of enthusiasm.  

For Hearn, that has led to a renewed effort at bringing fans back into the arena. 

On the last day in January, he promoted Shakur Stevenson’s masterful decision in New York over Teofimo Lopez in front of a Madison Square Garden record, 21,324.

On the last day in February, Hearn promoted Navarrete coming back to what the Mexican called his second home at Desert Diamond in front of a crowd that sounded a lot bigger than the nearly 12,000 announced by Matchroom.

“We’ll definitely be back once, if not more,’’ said Hearn, who signed a new DAZN deal for 30 shows a year.

More fans will follow, Hearn promised.

“Promoters got lazy,’’ he said. “There was so much money in the TV rights that the gate revenue became less important in terms of a piece of the pie.

“They gave up, went to smaller venues that cost less. 

“They went: ‘Where can we stage an event as cheaply as possible?’ Rather than: ‘How can we get the biggest crowd, create the best atmosphere that raises energy and gives everybody a night.’

“I hope everybody who leaves tonight goes: ‘I had a great time. I got value for my money. I’m coming back.’

“That, for us, is key.’’

A key, maybe, to a divided game’s survival.

In September 2015, Tyson Fury, never one for the conventional, turned to a professional kickboxer to help him prepare for the biggest boxing match of his life. The fight in question was a world heavyweight title challenge against Wladimir Klitschko and the kickboxer to whom Fury turned was a 26-year-old from Holland called Rico Verhoeven. 

At the time it seemed rather odd for Fury to prepare for Klitschko, a heavyweight champion for nine years, by using a man more synonymous with kicking than punching. He was tall – around six foot five – but size alone did not justify Fury’s faith in Verhoeven. There surely had to be more to it than just size and inherent toughness. 

In an effort to find out, I decided to interview Verhoeven back in 2015, just two months before Fury fought Klitschko and changed both the complexion and indeed future of the heavyweight division. Back then, Verhoeven was as unfamiliar to me as he was to most in boxing – though the name was one I had heard, I had never seen him fight – but the Furys not only vouched for him but were longtime admirers. They had, in fact, been aware of the hard-hitting Dutchman for around three years, having first encountered him on one of their training camps in Belgium. That was when Fury and his family first got to see Verhoeven up close and began to wonder if kickboxers – or just Verhoeven – possessed a fortitude boxers lack. 

“They were getting a lot of Dutch guys in for sparring but the sparring was turning out to be a real problem,” Verhoeven explained to me. “Most of the guys they were sparring would quit or be sent away after one session. They all thought, No way, this is not for us. You’ve got one of the best boxers in Europe at the time knocking their heads off with just the jab. It was crazy. They weren’t used to it. For us, as kickboxers, it’s totally different to what we’re used to.

“So, back then my trainer hooked us up with them and we started doing some sparring. They came to our gym and we did six or seven rounds. Tyson closed both my eyes inside the first four rounds, which was quite a feat considering we were wearing head guards.

“He definitely surprised me. After four rounds my trainer said, ‘Look, he’s a big guy, he’s now going to start getting tired.’ He told me to speed up. Already both my eyes were closed. I couldn’t see a lot. But I still thought I was going to speed up and kick his ass.

“It never happened. After four rounds Tyson turned southpaw on me. I couldn’t believe it. He was now southpaw and still kicking my ass. I looked over at my trainer as if to say, ‘What the hell is this guy doing?’

“For a man of his size – so big, so heavy – he can move so well. He’ll be backing up against the ropes and I’ll think, Right, now I’m going to take his damn head off! But then he’ll just step to the side and I almost fall out of the ring. I think, How the hell does he do that? He’s leaning on the back leg and is still able to move sideways. It really is crazy. He’s so skilled. He’s a natural. Orthodox or southpaw, it doesn’t matter. It’s amazing to watch him at times.”

The experience stuck with Verhoeven, as one might expect, yet his pride was never dented. He was a kickboxer, after all, and by agreeing to enter Fury’s world – boxing – he was giving up certain advantages in order to sample something new. The eventual taste – blood, pain – may have been bitter and not entirely to his liking, but it didn’t deter Verhoeven, nor put him off going back for more. 

“I didn’t enjoy getting my ass whooped, but it was a great learning experience for me,” he confessed. “I was already at a decent level in kickboxing, sparring was always difficult for me to find, and this was something completely new. I liked it. It was difficult to hit him, but I knew if I kept on training and kept on improving, I now had something to work towards. Each time we sparred I got a little bit better.

“I got my respect from them [the Furys] as well. I was different from the other fighters they found in Holland. I just kept coming. Even though Tyson was beating my ass at times, I’d never stop. I’d keep coming back, keep taking my beating and, over time, I got my respect from the Furys. It was mutual respect.”

Although Verhoeven has now competed over 75 times as a professional kickboxer, he has fought only once as a professional boxer, despite him getting a taste for it back in 2012. That one boxing match – a second-round knockout of Janos Finfera – took place in Germany in 2014, but never after that did Verhoeven box again. In fact, his next dalliance with another combat sport came in the world of mixed martial arts the following year when Verhoeven stopped Viktor Bogutzki in round one of a fight in Romania. That, too, was a one-and-done situation, with Verhoeven in the end doing no more than testing the waters and exploring the other dangerous parts of his anatomy. 

Still, by broadening his horizons, the current GLORY heavyweight champion does at least have a decent grasp of the differences between the arts. If anything, he is better positioned than most when it comes to pointing them out. 

“I don’t want to say our sport is tougher, but when you get kicked to the body, kicked to the leg and kicked to the head, it’s not nice – it hurts like hell,” he said. “But you have to keep going and push through the pain barrier. You can’t just stop. With boxing, it’s just arms. That’s the biggest difference. In kickboxing it hurts when you get a kick right on your thigh; there’s no pain like it, especially when you’re not used to it.

“That ability to fight through the pain is definitely something the Fury team liked about me. I’m used to being hit and hurt. It mentally makes me very strong. A strong punch to the face means nothing to me. It just makes me go, Oh, is that it?

“Also, in boxing you have 12 rounds. You have time to have a look around and ease your way into the contest. It’s not like that in kickboxing, though. The fights are much shorter and you’re into the action straight away. My championship fights are fought over five rounds. Most other fights are three rounds. As soon as the bell goes, that’s it, you fight. There is no time to waste.”

Verhoeven, who turns 37 next month, is perhaps applying the same logic and urgency to his own career. Unbeaten for 11 years as a kickboxer, he is now in the phase of a fighter’s life when final boxes are being ticked and any remaining itches will need to be scratched. If that means boxing again, so be it. If it means not only boxing again, but doing so against the best heavyweight on the planet, Verhoeven is, at 37, apparently game. 

Because on May 23, in Egypt, that is exactly what Rico Verhoeven, 1-0 (1 KO), will do. He will box Oleksandr Usyk, the best heavyweight boxer in the world in only his second professional boxing match – some 12 years after the last. He will then presumably realise in the process that everything he experienced in sparring with Tyson Fury is nothing compared to the experience of fighting Usyk – a two-time Fury conqueror – in a competitive bout over 12 rounds. He will realise, too, that it is one thing helping someone else prepare to challenge for the world heavyweight title, as Verhoeven did in 2015, yet quite another thing challenging for the WBC world heavyweight title himself. For that, more than just toughness is required. For that, you are no longer the help. You are instead the one now in need of help. 

In this case, that means Fury helping Verhoeven rather than the other way round. Specifically, it means Peter Fury, Tyson’s uncle, training and then cornering Verhoeven for his fight against Usyk on May 23. “It’s going to be a great night; a lot of hard work to be done,” the trainer wrote on social media. “Two great people, two great champions in their own right. What a privilege.”

The last time Peter Fury cornered his nephew, of course, the pair were in Düsseldorf, Germany, where Tyson Fury shocked the world by dethroning Wladimir Klitschko on a cold November night. Since then, a great deal has happened. Fights have been won and lost, drug tests have been failed, titles have changed hands, and relationships have been broken and never fixed. Yet one thing has remained constant throughout the past 10 years: Rico Verhoeven has been a kickboxer, not a boxer.

 

It looks like Jaron “Boots” Ennis will have to move on while Vergil Ortiz Jnr’s career remains on hold.

Golden Boy Promotions earned a huge victory in its ongoing legal battle with Ortiz, when a Nevada judge granted the company’s motion to compel arbitration. Furthermore, Monday’s ruling also denied the unbeaten WBC interim junior middleweight titlist and manager Rick Mirigian from independently negotiating with third parties prior to arbitration. 

The latter was determined hours after Ortiz filed an emergency motion to dismiss the Temporary Restraining Order [TRO] filed by Golden Boy. 

“While Ortiz attempts to argue application of agency principles, this argument requires that I find Golden Boy’s decision to sue Mirigian as constituting waiver,” Nevada District Judge Cristina Silva stated in a final ruling obtained by BoxingScene. “But Ortiz fails to meaningfully analyze how those principles apply here. Ortiz also fails to cite points and authorities to support his position that Golden Boy’s decision to sue Mirigian waives its right to invoke arbitration here. 

“Even so, this argument has been raised and rejected in other courts… thus, I also grant Golden Boy’s request for interim injunctive relief to allow for meaningful arbitration, so I hereby order that Ortiz may not negotiate or contract with third parties for future fights before the arbitrator addresses the parties’ dispute set forth in this action.”

The ruling came 10 days after both parties appeared before Judge Silva to present final arguments to determine whether the case should head to arbitration or be dismissed outright. The February 20 hearing was crucial for Ortiz, Matchroom Boxing and DAZN in its efforts to proceed with a desired Ortiz-Ennis clash originally targeted for this spring. 

Those plans are not only shot to sunshine, but it remains unclear when the matter can be revisited as long as Ortiz is not permitted to move without resolution to this case – unless the unbeaten Texan is willing to reconcile or settle with Golden Boy. 

It’s a significant ruling, given the on-the-record confirmation that Matchroom Boxing, Ennis’ promoter, was prepared to enter a three-fight, eight-figure deal with Ortiz to include the abovementioned matchup. Monday’s decision puts that arrangement on ice, if not nullifying the agreement altogether.

Ortiz’ legal team filed a lawsuit earlier this year, citing breach of contract and interference with economic advantage. The contention on the Ortiz side was that the promotional contract with Golden Boy expired once the company’s output deal with DAZN expired this past December 31. 

Section 10(g) of Ortiz’s contract calls for termination of said agreement if Golden Boy’s distribution relationship with DAZN terminates, providing in relevant part as follows:

• Promoter’s distribution relationship with DAZN is a material incentive for Boxer to enter into this Agreement. In the event that Promoter’s distribution relationship with DAZN terminates, for any reason, and Promoter does not have an agreement in principle in place for an exclusive distribution relationship with an alternative broadcaster, then Boxer shall have the right to terminate this Agreement.

Where Golden Boy gained its victory is in the wording of that clause. Ortiz’s team mistook the expiration of the deal, rather than taking note of the specific wording – relationship, not contract. 

Golden Boy pointed to its two dates on the calendar post-contract – its January 16 show and the upcoming March 14 DAZN show from Honda Center in Anaheim, California. 

Furthermore, DAZN COO Ed McCarthy, in his own fumbled attempt to support Ortiz via written declaration, admitted on record that “DAZN remains open to seeking to agree and enter into a long-term distribution agreement with GBP on commercially reasonable terms, whether or not GBP has Mr. Ortiz under contract.” 

McCarthy also noted that “DAZN is aware that, following the filing of proceedings by Mr. Ortiz against GBP and immediately prior to the recent Court Order, Mr. Ortiz was negotiating, and close to executing, an agreement with Matchroom Boxing to fight Mr. Ennis on April 18, 2026 in an event to air on DAZN.”

Both statements were made while confirming Golden Boy’s claim that DAZN was in talks with the promotional company since late 2025 to work out a new deal. McCarthy confirmed that a deal was still not in place – meant to support Ortiz’s claim but instead bolstered Golden Boy’s argument that there still exists a relationship, however dysfunctional at the moment. 

Meanwhile, the court did not fully buy the claim from Ortiz’s legal team that Golden Boy’s filed counter lawsuit against Mirigian waives its right to invoke arbitration. In fact, the court said that the case is fit to be presented before an arbitrator.

“The totality of Golden Boy’s actions does not indicate that it waived its right to arbitration,” explained Silva. “Rather, its actions are consistent with its right to enforce the arbitration provision of the Agreement. Accordingly, I grant Golden Boy’s motion to compel arbitration. Further, because I find that this action is arbitrable, injunctive relief is necessary to preserve the status quo.” 

The ruling forces Matchroom Boxing to take the next step in advancing the career of its fighter.

Ennis, 35-0 (31 KOs), entered the 154lbs division with a first-round knockout victory over Uisma Lima last October 11 in Ennis’ hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He’s spent the next four-and-a-half months waiting out Ortiz’s side. 

Matchroom Boxing head Eddie Hearn told BoxingScene and other promoters on Saturday – while promoting the Emanuel Navarrete-Eduardo Nuñez DAZN show in Glendale, Arizona – that time was short on holding out for this fight before moving on to the next step. 

“If we can’t get Vergil Ortiz, then the target we want is Xander Zayas,” insisted Hearn. “And if we can’t get him, we have another Matchroom fighter – Josh Kelly, who just won the IBF title. That’s another opportunity as well.

“I’d like to do Boots versus Vergil Ortiz and Xander versus Josh Kelly. Then the winners fight each other.” 

It seems that Matchroom will instead have to mix and match to eventually get to Ortiz-Ennis, because that fight is not happening anytime soon – if at all. 

“IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Golden Boy’s motion to compel arbitration and for interim injunctive relief is GRANTED,” Judge Silva ruled. “This action is STAYED pending arbitration. Because I am granting the interim injunctive relief, the parties are required to file a joint notice with the court, on September 2, 2026, advising of the status of the arbitration proceedings, or within five days of the arbitrator’s decision, whichever is first.

“IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Golden Boy’s motion to dismiss is DENIED. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Ortiz’s emergency motion is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part as set forth in this order.”

Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.

GLENDALE, Ariz. – This time around, Emanuel Navarrete made a point to stay ready so that he wouldn’t have to get ready. 

The three-division beltholder from San Juan Zitlaltepec, Mexico is now a unified titlist for the first time following a one-sided, technical knockout win over Eduardo “Sugar” Nuñez. Navarrete battered his countryman for ten rounds before the fight was mercifully stopped 1 second into Round 11 Saturday night at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.

Navarrete defended his WBO 130lbs title for the fifth time, while snatching the IBF belt from Los Mochis’ Nuñez, 30-2 (28 KOs) in the process.

Largely factoring into posting arguably the most complete win of his career was his conditioning throughout training camp. Navarrete, 40-2-1 (33 KOs), has previously struggled at the scales, having quickly outgrown featherweight and not always quite hitting 130lbs on the first try during a few fights at junior lightweight. 

For this camp, Navarrete entered in shape and dedicated himself to a new strategy from his conditioning and nutritional team. 

“Just clean living,” Navarrete told BoxingScene. “I’ve done a few different things in this camp to make sure there are no more mistakes, no more interruptions to what I know I can achieve.” 

Despite having campaigned at 130lbs since 2018, Nuñez was dwarfed by Navarrete, who arrived in the division just three years ago. Nuñez once rode an 18-fight knockout streak prior to going the distance in back-to-back title fights in 2025; his power wasn’t at all a factor on Saturday.

Conversely, it was Navarrete who held the edge in that department and nearly every other. 

“We did a little more weightlifting than normal for this camp,” Navarrete noted of his improved strength. “We also brought more physical therapy into our regular routine. 

“There are a few other things that we’ve done as well but I’ve noticed the best results so far from those two key changes.”

The proof was in the performance. 

Navarrete’s WBO 130lbs title run began with an off-the-canvas knockout win over Liam Wilson in February 2023 at this very location. There was controversy surrounding his weight during the official pre-fight weigh-in, particularly because Wilson was shockingly light – in fact, barely above the featherweight limit, which he and his team openly questioned. 

Nothing came of the matter, though Navarrete needed two tries to eventually hit the mark in his August 2023 victory over countryman and former two-division titlist Oscar Valdez, also at DDA.

Navarrete scored a far more dominant knockout victory over Valdez in their December 2024 rematch, at the time his peak performance. It was followed by one of his most disastrous turns, when he massively struggled to make weight ahead of his May 11 title fight with the Philippines’ Charly Suarez at Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California. Navarrate twice weighed in over the 130lbs limit and was bone dry when he finally came in right on the dot during his third and final attempt. 

The fight night didn’t fare any better. He suffered a cut which was deemed too severe to allow the contest to continue. The wound was ruled as caused by an accidental headbutt and went to the scorecards, where Navarrete won a technical unanimous decision victory. 

Replays showed that it was caused by a punch, denying Suarez a stoppage win and the WBO title. A review by the California State Athletic Commission last June supported Suarez’s claim that he was cheated out of a victory. However, the panel instead split the baby – the verdict was changed to a No-Contest, which preserved Suarez’s unblemished record but still left him without the title and perhaps more leverage in a rematch.

As it stands now, Navarrete is mandated to run it back with Suarez. There is the possibility that he could vacate the belt if a showdown with WBC titlist O’Shaquie Foster proves a more lucrative option. 

No such decision will be made until he’s forced to do so, though Navarrete previously acknowledged to BoxingScene that he owes Suarez a second chance – literally, and from the perspective of honor. 

Should they meet again, the unbeaten Filipino is bound to face a reborn version. 

“I’m really appreciative of Charly Suarez and his team working with us to allow this fight to happen,” Navarrete pointed out. “This is a business and I know he could have stood his ground and demanded an immediate rematch instead of stepping aside. This was a fight that I badly wanted but also, I know I owe Suarez that rematch after this. 

“This year will be focused on collecting belts, but it’s also important to settle unfinished business with Suarez. Our first fight was the wakeup call I needed and I will never go back to that version of myself.”

Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.

 

GLENDALE, Arizona – Blood and guts were promised – and delivered.

Three-division champion Emanuel Navarrete of Mexico unleashed a relentless, long-armed attack for the duration of his Saturday night junior lightweight unification bout versus countryman Eduardo Nunez, winning by 11th-round TKO on the ringside doctor’s stoppage.

The doctor first inspected Nunez’s cut before the 10th, emphasizing his desperation.

The cut worsened and the swelling increased in a vicious 10th, where outgoing IBF titleholder Nunez was pummeled in his corner by a free-swinging Navarrete.

“This is sport. It can be difficult to see your opponent hurt, but I need to continue to do the work,” Navarrete, 40-2-1 (33 KOs), said afterward, wearing the patented cowboy hat that accompanies his nickname, “Vaquero.”

It’s the first time that Navarrete, 31, stands as a unified champion, and he’ll need to decide whether he wants to defend his belts in a rematch versus Charly Suarez of the Philippines or drop his WBO belt to pursue a shot at WBC belt holder and Top Rank stablemate O’Shaquie Foster.

“It’s a dream to be here. I’ve been waiting a long time for this opportunity,” Navarrete said.

When asked why he looked so better than he did in barely edging Suarez by a technical decision caused by his own cut near the eye, Navarrete said, “There were many things that are difficult to explain, but mostly, I got back to the heart and guts of being a Mexican warrior.”

That willingness and doggedness to pursue a firefight aided Navarrete because he had the length and superior boxing talent to batter Nunez, 29-2 (27 KOs).

Navarrete started by looking to land power shots thanks to his reach, launching whipping type blows to the face and body. Nunez circled and threw a few heavy blows but seemed content to establish range.

Navarrete’s ability to grasp the feel early on paced him to win the second round, as well, with his push forward and instigation dictating the event.

Nunez was blasted late in the third by a hard right hand and a vicious left uppercut.

Navarrete latched on to the confidence from that sequence to greet Nunez with forceful blows at the start of the fourth. 

Nunez was bleeding under the right eye off of a pair of combinations, and Navarrete seized upon the cut, smacking Nunez with hard body blows that backed the IBF titlist.

“I knew he was the strongest fighter at 130lbs,” Nunez, 28, said. “I’ve admired him for so long.” 

There was no more time to digest the fellow champion’s skills as the fifth opened, and Nunez charged to send blows to the body and head, leading Navarrete to gladly reciprocate with his own thudding punches that fulfilled the expected toe-to-toe hype around the bout.

Nunez paid dearly for rushing in, his defensive liabilities being exposed by a veteran who has been tested by far more rigorous competition, including two-division champion Oscar Valdez.

In a neutral corner, Nunez tested his chin mightily, exchanging mercilessly with Navarrete during the sixth as each titlist absorbed destructive shots and kept punching.

Navarrete’s ability to land the bigger shots while keeping his head at a safe range proved the difference, as Nunez was left to lean in and eat hammering punches.

Nunez went all in at Navarrete’s body in the eighth, setting up exchanges featuring thunderous head blows. There was the right eye swelling and cut right eyelid for Nunez after that, and Navarrete launched three hard rights in the ninth that each literally hit the nail on the head.

Nunez continued seeking the body, and was blasted all the more for the effort.

“I would’ve liked to finish the fight,” Nunez said. “I want to be champion again.”

Judging by what transpired Saturday, it will have to be in a division and for a belt not involving Navarrete.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.

GLENDALE, Arizona – The lightbulb went off for promoter Eddie Hearn as soon as he saw the light attracted to the fighter who looks so poised to be boxing’s next big name.

As Hearn glanced up at Thursday’s news-conference stage featuring Emiliano Vargas in gold-rimmed sunglasses and a sharp suit, Hearn remarked, “This kid’s a big deal. He’s the co-main.”

And just like that, former welterweight title contender Abel Ramos’ match was demoted so that the 21-year-old son of former champion Fernando Vargas could have a position of greater prominence on the DAZN card at Desert Diamond Arena.

Fresh off his cameo appearance with Puerto Rico’s unified 154lbs titleholder Xander Zayas on the Super Bowl 60 halftime show starring Bad Bunny, Vargas on Saturday let loose his encouraging power and defeated Argentina’s Agustin Quintana by TKO after nine rounds. 

Referee Raul Caiz Jnr stopped the fight after Quintana, 22-3-1 (13 KOs), absorbed heaps of damage from multiple head punches in the ninth and began to bleed near both eyes.

Quintana objected vehemently, slamming his right glove atop the top rope near his corner, but it was to no avail.

“From Prospect of the Year to Super Bowl to 17-0 … I just want to keep on learning,” Vargas said in recording his 14th knockout.

Vargas was fighting on Hearn’s card Saturday, but he’s under contract with Bob Arum’s Top Rank, which is operating without a television/streaming deal after parting ways with ESPN in July.

Vargas’ effort increased sharply in the third round as he rocked Quintana with a right, a power jab, a combination of body blows and a hurtful left hand.

Vargas powered back to the body in the fourth and slammed a left to the head to further assert himself.

To his credit – given the step up in talent to the 2025 Prospect of the Year – Quintana didn’t cave. He pounded Vargas’ body early in the fifth and struck Vargas with a low blow during the attack. Vargas answered to the body but would likely agree the round wasn’t his.

That’s what’s needed now: a test of grit to complement the grit, rugged moments to prove the name is Vargas and that he hails from battle-tested Oxnard.

“I wanted to go for the knockout. That’s what experience is for,” Vargas said. “He’s a hell of a fighter.”

Sitting on the stool, listening to his trainer-father before the seventh, Vargas nodded affirmatively at the directions and returned to pounding the body and further reddening Quintana’s eyes.

Hard rights to the head paced Vargas in the eighth, and Quintana endured an onslaught of abuse, urging Vargas on, but surely not meaning it as blood began to flow near both eyes.

The elder Vargas begged for more before the ninth, and the son obliged, satisfying his growing fan base by rocking Quintana to the ropes with power punches.

“I’m coming for all the dogs. I’m just 21. I want to be world champion [and] continue to get better at my craft,” said Vargas, who said he would like to fight a former world champion in his next bout.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.

GLENDALE, Arizona – Eddie Hearn’s long-time promotional peer in the UK, Frank Warren, and the legendary fight-pitchman Don King, 94, have filed lawsuits against the Saudi Arabians presiding over an attempted new boxing frontier.

While Hearn has watched two of his former standouts, cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia and welterweight contender Conor Benn, depart his Matchroom Boxing stable for the new Saudi-backed Zuffa Boxing promotion headed by Dana White, he’s taking a different approach.

Hearn said he wants to fight them with superior talent and quality bouts rather than seeking litigious satisfaction.

Hearn took stock of the shifting landscape in a conversation with BoxingScene leading to his card on Saturday night topped by the super-featherweight unification bout between IBF champion Eduardo “Sugar” Nunez of Mexico and WBO titlist and fellow Mexican Emanuel Navarrete. A rousing 12,000 or more fans are predicted at Desert Diamond Arena. 

“You know boxing – it’s the wild west, a different kind of animal to just control as your own sport, as [White] does with the UFC and MMA,” Hearn said. “So they’re going to have to put up with things. You’ve seen Dana at his press conferences – [calling rival promoters, including Hearn] ‘Fucking idiot,’ ‘Pussy,’ all these things – [and we’re like], ‘Calm down mate, we’re just getting started’.

“They’re used to total control, and you’re never going to get it in boxing unless you buy everyone out. And we’re the wrong kind of characters for that. We’re resilient. This is what we do. We go up against each other and battle away against the politics. They don’t want to do any battling. They just want to do what they want.”

Benn parted with Hearn after the promoter’s fierce backing of the fighter through a PED crisis in favor of a one-fight, $15million agreement to meet veteran former champion 140lbs champion Regis Prograis in April as the co-main event to Tyson Fury-Arslanbek Makhmudov.

The compelling wrinkle in this Hearn-White, Matchroom-Zuffa, DAZN-Paramount+ rivalry is the deep involvement of Saudi Arabia’s principal boxing financier, Turki Alalshikh.

Not only does Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund own a percentage of DAZN and stage Alalshikh’s The Ring and Riyadh Season fights on the streaming service, his entertainment company Sela was identified by an executive for Zuffa’s parent company as entirely funding Benn’s $15million.

“Ultimately, these lawsuits that keep coming – that’s not good for anybody,” Hearn said. “That’s a lot of pressure on a public company, TKO. It’s not a good look when they’ve already got the class-action lawsuits from the UFC and now they’ve got [Warren’s] $1billion boxing lawsuit.”

It signals that Alalshikh will experience difficulty maintaining business alliances with both sides, Hearn said, even if Alalshikh believes he can compartmentalize his events.

“He has his ‘Ring’ shows; he has Saudi ‘Riyadh Season’ shows; TKO/Zuffa. Personally, I don’t think he’s going to want to put all his eggs in one basket,” Hearn said.”Or maybe he is; maybe he’s trying to get everybody. Unfortunately for them, 98 per cent of our fighters are under contract.”

Hearn said he’s kept his three-belt super-flyweight champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez from leaving for Zuffa and should have a fight announcement for Rodriguez in short order, but noted he does not have four-division champion Shakur Stevenson, whom he formerly promoted, under contract. 

Some, like Warren, see Alalshikh as tipping his hand toward where his loyalty lies: Zuffa Boxing.

“In terms of our relationship with Turki, people have said, ‘Oh, he’s going up against you’, well, not really,” Hearn said. “What I like about Turki is you know where you stand. If you have something he wants, he’s going to work with you. If you don’t, he’s not going to.

“We will joke, and he’ll say, ‘I’m going to [get] you, Eddie’, and I’ll say, ‘I’m going to [get] you, too’. It’s like a joke thing. But he would do that. He has no real emotional attachments. I think he quite likes me; I think he’s quite funny. And vice versa. But I always know where I stand with him, so I don’t get offended if he goes against me or the other way. What I get offended by is if someone is like that with you and you do so much for them, and then they fuck you.”

That’s a reference to Benn.

“Benn was a bitter pill to swallow, mainly because of our relationship,” Hearn said. “He’s a good fighter and everything, but the reality is we did a lot for him. That’s what hurt. But the main thing is, if this [move to Zuffa] is directed at me, it’s a very expensive move. He’s fighting Regis Prograis on an undercard for $15million.

“What we can’t do is make poor decisions for our business. That’s why the Conor Benn stuff, I feel it was manufactured. Ultimately, the money’s wrong. If [Zuffa] want to pay, congratulations. We just expected it to play out in a different fashion. Everybody’s different, but, to me, you just do things in a separate way, which is, ‘Listen, you’ve had my back for fucking ever. I have this offer…’”

Hearn admitted a reunion with Benn is possible. “There’s a conversation to be had,” he said.

In the meantime, there’s the focus on improving his Matchroom schedule that shifts from Leigh Wood-Josh Warrington in the UK to this US return to a vibrant market that Hearn adores in a cross-promoted fight with Bob Arum’s Top Rank.

Hearn has also made a strong financial offer to promote the appetizing bout pitting in-their-prime, unbeaten junior-middleweights Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Vergil Ortiz Jnr.

Many in the industry foresee a future when the old guard of American and British promoters will need to fully turn their backs to Saudi influence and engage liberally in deep, cross-promoted cards to counter the rich investment into free agents by the Saudis and Zuffa.

“Everybody knows that… there’s been no meeting where everyone has come together,” he said. “But a good example is Navarrete from Top Rank fighting on a Matchroom show with us paying the bills. We don’t care who pays the bills. We just want to make great fights,” Hearn said.

“If we can do that, like ‘Boots’-Ortiz – if we can get that over the line, that’s the best fight in American boxing. That’s what we have to keep doing: rack them in, another one and another one. We’ve just got to keep outperforming them. Because let’s be honest: they’re not making great fights on Zuffa Boxing. The product is not very good.

“Now, the bluster of Dana White – if you actually strip it back and look at what you’re getting – if I was putting on those shows Dana is doing, I’d get ridiculed.”

Hearn insists a steady slate of world-championship fights will hammer that point home.

Opetaia’s Zuffa debut on March 8 in Las Vegas, comes against the little-known 15th-ranked contender Brandon Glanton.

“So what do we have to worry about, other than they’re powerful people?” Hearn asked. “Of course they’re powerful people.

“We’re powerful people. We put on the fights. We know boxing inside and out. A lot of people feel personally about this movement – that they’re trying to destroy boxing as we know it.”

Hearn nodded to the personal attendance in Glendale by New Jersey-based IBF president Daryl Peoples and Puerto Rico’s WBO president Gustavo Olivieri.

That contrasts with Zuffa Boxing’s push for a new Ali Act that will allow the promotion to rank its fighters and award its own belts – Opetaia is expected to win the first Zuffa belt on March 8 – while shunning the established four sanctioning bodies.

“[Zuffa] wants [the sanctioning bodies] dead and finished,” Hearn said. “What are we going to do about that? We’re going to come together and show them great boxing.

“No fake belts. Legacy. You know what I mean? The championships.”

It requires a discerning attitude from the boxing fan to navigate how the opposing events are being packaged, Hearn said. 

“It’s smart what they’re trying to do, trying to spin the narrative that this Zuffa belt is the belt,” he said. “How? To people who don’t really know… who listen to [Zuffa Boxing broadcaster] Max Kellerman?

“The promo of [Zuffa heavyweights] Charles Martin versus Efe Ajagba [February 15] – ‘the best versus the best’ – the casual fan may be, ‘OK, OK, OK’, thinking this Zuffa belt straight out of the WWE is the belt for boxing. If you know boxing, you say, ‘Oh no it’s not.’ And it’s not for me. So we’ve got to show the belts that have heritage.”

Hardcore boxing fans had feared it was coming: Oleksandr Usyk, the world heavyweight champion, would take on Rico Verhoeven, a kickboxer. Today those fears were realised when it was confirmed by Turki Alalshikh that the pair will come together on May 23 at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. According to reports, Usyk's WBC title will be on the line.

The 36-year-old Verhoeven, from the Netherlands, holds all sorts of records in kickboxing - where his record reads 66-10 (21 KOs) - and he can also boast a solitary outing in each of boxing and MMA, winning both fights by KO. That lone contest in boxing came back in 2014, when he knocked out the 0-5 Janos Finfera in two rounds. Despite his all-round fighting prowess, it remains to be seen how the WBC will justify this contest as a world title fight. In December, at the WBC convention, the sanctioning body's president Mauricio Sulaiman confirmed that Usyk, who was in attendance, would be permitted to make a voluntary defense. However, at the time, it was thought that Deontay Wilder would be the challenger.

"I truly respect people who reach the very top of the sport," Usyk is quoted as saying via The Ring, who will stage the event. "Rico is one of them - a powerful athlete and a great champion. He's truly the king of kickboxing. Being a champion isn't just about belts. 

"I'm ready and looking forward to meeting him in the ring. It's going to be a unique experience for both of us, a big night is coming."

Though the bout is a questionable one in terms of its championship status, it can certainly be argued that the 24-0 (15 KOs) Usyk - widely regarded as the best fighter in boxing, pound for pound - is due a low-risk, high-reward showcase. After winning all four belts against the best the cruiserweight division had to offer he repeated the feat at heavyweight. In his last six bouts he has twice defeated each of Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois. Joshua, incidentally, had been rumored to be lining up a bout against Verhoeven in February prior to the car crash he survived in December.

Verhoeven said: "I spent 12 years as the undisputed heavyweight kickboxing champion and accomplished everything I set out to accomplish. But staying at the top for that long didn't take away from the hunger, it strengthened it.

"Usyk is the undisputed in boxing. That's the kind of challenge that motivated me. Undisputed versus undisputed. The best versus the best."

Alalshikh made his entry into high-profile boxing with a similar project in October 2023 when he matched Tyson Fury with Francis Ngannou over 10 rounds. The MMA star fared much better than feared, when he not only lasted the distance he also dropped the then-heavyweight titlist along the way. At the end of the scrappy bout, the novice was deemed unlucky to lose the decision. 

Following that, Fury was twice outpointed by Usyk as the Ukrainian proved himself the best heavyweight of the current era. Verhoeven, 1-0 (1 KO), will certainly have his work cut out to change that.

 

 

 

In more than 25 years in boxing, it’s hard to recall a week as chaotic as this.

Storylines were advanced, relationships snapped, fights made, rivalries reunited and things have gone legal.

The backdrop of it all, of course, is the emergence of Zuffa Boxing, but boxing does boxing things regardless.

So here is a brief recap of events:

The whole fascinating thing – for the past week – started after Zuffa came in for Conor Benn. That sent shockwaves through the sport for those who are aware of what a high-value commercial signing he represents and how damaging, potentially, it was considering former promoter Eddie Hearn’s supposedly close relationship with Benn beforehand. 

It seemed like it was advantage, Zuffa Boxing. But then other things started to happen. Wheels started to turn elsewhere, and those cogs rotated as more news came to light. 

Is the ESPN and Top Rank marriage back on, for instance – following Brunch Boxing’s revelations about the behind-the-scenes machinations at work over there? 

And PBC has managed to fund the Cinco de Mayo show featuring Gilberto Ramirez-David Benavidez on its own, seemingly without any Ring investment, which is a high-profile show. 

Then there was the news that Floyd Mayweather Jnr versus Manny Pacquiao II is on for Las Vegas in September. It might (will) be a circus, but it will be a huge, high-profile circus – on Netflix, no less – seemingly without any Saudi Arabian or TKO involvement. Factor in Matchroom now having been burned and the Queensberry lawsuit, and the old guard seems to have kicked into some kind of gear – even if, completely unsurprisingly, it is not a cohesive or united movement.

There are plenty who would like to see a union between Golden Boy, PBC and Top Rank, where they go all-in with DAZN – which, by the way, also has Saudi Arabian investment, to the tune of $1 billion.

There are plenty, however, who believe that the end of this old-versus-new battle is a foregone conclusion, regardless of who is winning on points at present. More than one expert has said, “It’s already all over,” such is the strength of the forces behind the Sela-Zuffa-TKO union.

But there are also plenty who contend that, boxing being boxing, the situation will be too hard to manage, that there are too many cats to herd and that, although Zuffa might even become the major and most significant players in the sport, the other promoters will still be able to operate with or without it.

Matchroom recently announced a new five-year deal with DAZN, for instance, so it isn’t going anywhere. 

Queensberry rolled out the WBO heavyweight title fight between Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois this week (tickets on sale Friday!), and that is one of the best fights that can be made in the sport.

As much as we like the action inside the ring and I might have preferred to be writing about the Eduardo Nunez-Emanuel Navarrete cracker this weekend, it is the political landscape that is proving so captivating at present.

You daren’t look away from your news providers or social media channels in case you miss something shocking or ground-breaking. And it is worth noting here that one of the best fights that could have been made – even though everyone knew it was coming – was formally announced this week, with Naoya Inoue ready to take on Junto Nakatani in May. 

What a week to bury good news.

It is hard to know what will happen next.

Of course, there is speculation about further Zuffa signings – like Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury, too – but they are both in their late 30s and at the tail end of their careers. So although they will carry instant clout, they cannot be part of a long-term vision.

Of course, in that respect, Shakur Stevenson would move the needle more, and that signing would seem nailed on.

Yet it is also worth noting that those fighters leaving the status quo now will be – or should be – fully aware of the intentions to regulate pay scales under one umbrella structure (like the UFC), as we have been led to believe is the plan all along. Those fighters now taking the big money are the ones who will be hurting the opportunities for fighters to make megabucks in the future. Not that they will care. It is all too rare for anyone but a handful of well-meaning individuals to view this sport through the prism of the greater good, though it was good to see Stevenson talking about the importance of VADA testing on the DAZN broadcast last weekend.

It's strange how so many behave like VADA is a pariah, but the real ones know it’s designed to protect the fighters from cheats, and should be used as such by clean fighters.

Whatever, there have long been quiet murmurings about how UFC fighters would feel if Dana White’s boxing brainchild started paying big-time boxers big-time purses, and the first signs of discontent have been made known. Obviously, it was low-hanging fruit for boxing’s promoters to stir the pot – asking how UFC fighters will feel when the boxers are paid typical boxers’ wages – but the $15 million fee told to Dan Rafael for Conor Benn’s first purse for Zuffa Boxing has sent early ripples.

TKO has moved to explain that the tab is being picked up by Turki Alalashikh, but Michael Page and Sean O’Malley have already discussed their disapproval.

“I can’t imagine it being true Zuffa Boxing is like they're paying out,” said O’Malley. “I don’t even know who Conor Benn is. He’s supposed to be a pretty big name in boxing, but I’ve never fucking heard of him.”

Page added: “It’s not something I’m happy about. … But to see it and how highly [White] values people away from the sport that built his reputation, it’s just upsetting, to be fair. It’s disappointing, more than anything.”

Then there was an implosion on X Wednesday night, “credibility” was lost (again), and we gather ourselves for the next instalment of what’s to come on this evolving and explosive landscape.

*

When I wrote on X this week that the September rematch between Floyd Mayweather Jnr and Manny Pacquiao is on in 2026 because 2015 wasn’t late enough, I didn’t realize readers would think I was trying to come up with a tagline. But if the cap fits?

From 2009 to 2014, all I seemed to write about was Mayweather and Pacquiao not fighting one another, and now I don’t have the energy to address why they shouldn’t box again.

From a boxing standpoint, I’m loathe to get into how it all might unfold should they actually be standing across from one another at the Sphere on September 19, but I actually reckon it’s a more even fight now than it was in 2015 – while also knowing, historically, that Mayweather is better in rematches.

Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, a BWAA award winner, and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.

It took 3,980 days. But finally, on February 26, 1926, the powers that be in boxing granted another black fighter a chance to challenge for a world title.

The occasion 3,980 days prior was the dethroning of heavyweight champ Jack Johnson by Jess Willard in Havana, Cuba. And Johnson, as you may have heard, had his detractors in the America of a century-plus ago. Assorted fighters, managers and promoters drew the color line, and it took nearly 11 years for another black man to get a chance.

Exactly 100 years ago today, Theodore “Tiger” Flowers got that opportunity, against all-time great middleweight champion Harry Greb, at New York’s Madison Square Garden, and he became not just the first black title challenger since Johnson, but the first black world champion since Johnson, decisioning the 5-to-1 favorite Greb.

There is no footage of the fight – there is, in fact, no known footage of any Greb or Flowers fight.

But based on the written accounts of the time, we aren’t missing much. The Flowers-Greb fight on February 26, 1926 at MSG, the second of their three bouts against each other, was not exactly a classic.

But it is a vital chapter in boxing history, and one that would give way over the next two years to a strikingly similar pair of tragedies.

The exploits of Greb, “The Pittsburgh Windmill”, are legendary. He fought 299 times as a pro and took on most of the best of his era – of any race – from welterweight all the way to heavyweight. Greb handed future heavyweight champ Gene Tunney his only loss and faced the likes of Mickey Walker, Tommy Loughran, Tommy Gibbons and Battling Levinsky. He also frequently called out heavyweight king Jack Dempsey, to no avail.

Oh, and he fought the last five years of his career with a detached right retina – basically a one-eyed fighter.

On August 31, 1923, Greb outpointed Johnny Wilson to become middleweight champ. A year into that reign, on August 21, 1924, he squared off against Flowers – by then rated by The Ring magazine as the top 160lbs contender – in a 10-round non-title bout at Legion Stadium in Fremont, Ohio. It went the distance and there was no official decision rendered, though a slight majority of the ringside media favored Greb, leaving the record books to show a “newspaper decision” in the champ’s favor.

Greb and Flowers were close in age – the former was born in 1894, the latter in 1895 – but Greb had been a fighter far longer, turning pro at 18, whereas Flowers got a late start. “The Georgia Deacon” temporarily relocated from his native southern state to Philadelphia during World War I, learned to box in former light-heavyweight champ Philadelphia Jack O’Brien’s gym, and went pro at 23.

Flowers’ bio in The Boxing Register, the record book of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, contains the line: “A southpaw, Flowers was sometimes called a ‘left-handed Harry Greb’, because of the way he hit opponents with the side of his fist.” Newspaper articles from the time also noted how stylistically similar the fighters were, aside from their stances.

After the non-title fight against Greb, Flowers plowed along as the top middleweight contender, going 34-3-1 with eight newspaper decisions over the next 16 months. (Of course, 34-3-1 would be a full career nowadays.)

Two days before Christmas, 1925, Flowers gave away eight pounds as he took on light heavyweight Mike McTigue in a 10-rounder at MSG. The notes under the result on BoxRec pretty well sum it up: “Referee [Eddie] Purdy voted for Flowers; the two judges (both inexperienced local businessmen) for McTigue. This decision has the reputation of being one of the worst ever rendered.” One of those “inexperienced local businessmen” was department store magnate Bernard Gimbel, whose surname surely conjures shopping-related memories for readers old enough.

That apparent robbery against McTigue was the final push Flowers needed to get his overdue title shot against Greb two months later.

The opening line of James P. Dawson’s ringside report in the February 27, 1926 edition of The New York Times captures the language of the time and the pugilistic action of the evening: “A new world middleweight champion was crowned last night in Madison Square Garden when Tiger Flowers, Atlanta negro, slapped, slashed, cuffed and smacked his way to the decision over Harry Greb, Pittsburgh’s human windmill that has become creaky and slow.”

The article says there were 20,000 fans in the attendance, the second largest crowd ever for a fight at the Garden, though The Boxing Register tabs the attendance at 16,311. The New York Times reported a gate of $105,134.70.

The newspaper report explained that Greb was a 4-to-1 favorite an hour before the fight, but wagers kept coming in on the champ until he was 5-to-1 at the opening bell. Even though their non-title fight a year-and-a-half earlier had been a close one, few were picking Flowers to claim the title.

A round-by-round description of the action beneath the main article in The Times is as close as we’ll come to seeing a fight film of Flowers-Greb.

According to that report, the more accurate Flowers dominated the first round, though “Greb opened a cut over Flowers's left eye with a right as the gong sounded”. In the second round, a head clash left Greb with a matching cut over his left eye.

Flowers got out to a 3-0 lead on the Times scorecard with Greb mostly on defense in the third, but the champ found a degree of rhythm in the fourth and fifth, particularly with a punishing body attack.

From the sixth round on, however, The Georgia Deacon was in command almost the whole way in writer Dawson’s view. The southpaw outmaneuvered Greb and made him miss. He landed jabs and body shots. He clinched when warranted. He popped Greb with right uppercuts inside in the eighth, and froze him with right hooks to the body and head in the ninth.

Greb rallied to an extent in the 11th and 12th, but had little in the tank the final three rounds. The 15th round, as described by The Times: “The men shook hands. Flowers slapped his right to the face and to the body and head as Greb rushed in. Flowers slapped a left and right to the head and almost upset Greb with a right to the jaw. Greb rushed in but was wild. Flowers hooked a left to the body as Greb missed a right to the head. They exchanged lefts to the body and clinched. After falling short with a right to the face, Greb drove a right to the body. Flowers jabbed his left to the face and in a clinch they exchanged rights to the body. Flowers hooked a left to the body and they clinched. They exchanged rights to the face at the final bell.”

While The Times’ Dawson saw it as a lopsided win for Flowers, 11-3-1 in rounds, and a majority of the ringside press agreed that the title should change hands, there were some who scored it a draw or a narrow win for Greb. Officially, it went into the books as a split decision, with referee Ed “Gunboat” Smith, a former heavyweight contender and one-time opponent of Greb’s, scoring for the champ, but he was overruled by judges Tom Flynn and Charles F. Mathison. Nowhere on the internet today could the exact scores be found.

As Dawson summarized: “Flowers easily outfought Greb in the only style in which it is possible for anyone to outfight Greb – by outroughing the Pittsburgher, who heretofore has been the marvel of the ring.” He added, “there is no accounting for the complete reversal of form by Greb other than that he has passed the crest, that even the wonderful physical powers that heretofore were his have weakened, as those of so many other fighters and athletes have weakened in the past under the stress of continued activity. Greb fought like an athlete who is burned out. He had not the sustained speed and stamina and endurance which have carried him to so many glorious victories in the past”.

Apparently, the term “washed” was not in the vernacular a century ago.

Whether the verdict was correct or not, whether Greb was badly faded or not, Flowers made history, becoming the first black world champion since Johnson.

He gave Greb a rematch on August 19, 1926, also at MSG, and again Flowers won a split decision that some observers disagreed with. Greb was among those dissenters, stating: “Well, that was one fight I won if I ever won any.”

Greb promptly announced his retirement at age 32, with a record of 105-8-3 (48 KOs) and 183 no-decisions.

The next time you start feeling sorry for yourself and insist you’re having a lousy year, pause and consider Harry Greb’s 1926.

He lost his middleweight title, then lost the rematch by a decision he felt was unjust. And it gets dramatically worse from there. That September, he had his right eye removed, replaced with a glass substitute. In October, he had surgery in Atlantic City “to repair facial injuries caused by boxing and an auto accident”, The Boxing Register explained. But there were complications during the surgery, and Greb died on the operating table on the afternoon of October 26.

Flowers fought on – after completing his trilogy with Greb, he lost by disqualification in an over-the-weight fight against “Slapsie” Maxie Rosenbloom, lost his title that December in Chicago on a highly controversial decision to Mickey Walker, drew twice with Rosenbloom and fought at least once in every single month until November 1927.

That month, with a professional record of 115-14-6 (53 KOs), with 21 no-decisions and one no-contest, Flowers underwent surgery in New York City to remove scar tissue around his eyes. Just like his rival Greb the year before, he never emerged from that surgery. Flowers died on November 16, 1927, aged 32, the same age Greb was when he died.

Greb is considered by some historians – particularly those who factor in his exploits at higher weights – the greatest middleweight champion ever. In a 1995 article ranking the five best of all-time in each division, The Ring’s Steve Farhood placed Greb third at 160lbs, behind Sugar Ray Robinson and Carlos Monzon and ahead of Stanley Ketchel and Marvin Hagler. Greb was inducted into the IBHOF in 1990’s inaugural class.

Flowers had to wait a little longer, just as he did for a title shot upon becoming the No. 1 contender at middleweight. Greb’s southpaw counterpart entered the hall as part of the class of ’93.

But, hey, Run the Jewels never wrote a rap lyric about Greb.

Flowers was immortalized in 2016’s “Kill Your Masters”, in which fellow Georgian Killer Mike declared: “I’m Jack Johnson, I beat a slave catcher snaggletooth / I’m Tiger Flowers with a higher power, hallelu.”

Ten years ago, Flowers was linked with Johnson through hip-hop. One hundred years ago, he became eternally connected to Johnson in the boxing history books.

Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with nearly 30 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X, BlueSky, or LinkedIn, or via email at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.