Boxing News

Raymond Muratalla’s riveting first defense of his IBF lightweight title has positioned him for a homecoming event in August, BoxingScene has learned.

Muratalla, 24-0 (17 KOs), is being pointed to head an August 8 card at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California, a neighboring town to where he was raised in working-class Fontana, California.

Muratalla, elevated to IBF champion upon the retirement of former three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko, produced an entertaining first defense of the belt January 24 at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, defeating previously unbeaten 2021 Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz of Cuba by majority decision scores of 118-110, 114-114, 116-112.

Muratalla, 29, had expressed interest in meeting new WBO 140lbs champion Shakur Stevenson, but an official close to the situation said the talks subsided and have perhaps fizzled.

Cruz was Muratalla’s mandatory challenger, so Muratalla has the freedom to select from a wider field while defending his belt for a second time.

The list of IBF-ranked lightweights includes No. 3-ranked Albert Bell, 

Muratalla, No. 13 Lucas Bahdi and No. 14 Floyd Schofield Jnr, who’s ranked No. 1 by the WBA.

Muratalla’s news came as The Ring reported Tuesday that Lomachenko, 38, is considering a comeback. Tuesday marked the two-year anniversary of his title victory over George Kambosos.

An official familiar with the situation said Ukraine’s two-time Olympic gold-medalist Lomachenko is no longer under contract with his longtime professional promoter, Top Rank. In The Ring story, an official reported he only wants to participate in big fights.

Lomachenko has long wanted to fight recent WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis, who has been out of the ring since March 1, 2025, partially due to a criminal domestic violence case in Florida.

Davis is being targeted for an early fall return bout, BoxingScene was told earlier this month.

“Or maybe he could fight Muratalla,” one official said.

 

There’s no way of knowing exactly how many William Joppy fans there were inside Madison Square Garden on May 12, 2001. But it sure seemed like a number that you could count on two hands. Maybe with your fingers inside of boxing gloves.

Twenty-five years ago today, an announced crowd of 18,235 filed into MSG to watch Felix Trinidad take on Joppy in the former’s 160lbs debut, a semifinal tournament match in Don King’s Middleweight World Championship Series, and it sure sounded like damned near all of them were of Puerto Rican heritage and were there to scream their lungs out in support of “Tito.”

This was Trinidad’s first fight since his epic 12th-round knockout of Fernando Vargas. He was a boxing mega-star reaching his absolute peak of popularity, returning to the Garden for the first time in a couple of years. MSG executives said they were expecting between 14,000 and 15,000 fans. And they got 18,235. That was the most for a non-heavyweight fight at MSG in six years. It was enough to make this the third-highest grossing fight ever at the Garden to that point.

I was there, seated at ringside. And what stands out to me 25 years later is the noise – the ear-splitting roar that emanated from that seemingly 99.9 per cent Puerto Rican crowd throughout the festivities.

From when Tito first climbed the ring steps and saluted his fans, to when Jimmy Lennon Jnr spoke his name into the microphone, to when Joppy went down in the first and then again in the fourth and then Trinidad finished him in the fifth, at no point during any of it did the thunder relent.

It was a vocal expression of passion unlike any I’d heard before. It was a party with more than 18,000 of Trinidad’s closest friends.

It was, in my nearly 30 years on the beat, the loudest boxing match I’ve ever attended.

And it inspired me, on the 25th anniversary, to ask a few people who’ve been doing this even longer than I have what the loudest noise they’ve ever heard from a boxing crowd was.

I reached out to eight members of the boxing media who’ve been voted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the “Observer” category, asking them simply what’s the most deafening boxing moment or full fight they’ve ever subjected their eardrums to.

My friend and mentor Nigel Collins, former longtime editor-in-chief of The Ring magazine, noted several fighters over the years whose ring entrances in particular settings cranked up the decibels, from Arturo Gatti in Atlantic City, to Trinidad at MSG (“except for the Bernard Hopkins fight after 9/11,” Collins pointed out, “because they wouldn’t allow his fans to bring their drums”), to Manny Pacquiao in Vegas.

But for a singular moment, there’s one that stands out for Collins, action that so enthralled the crowd that the noise was suffocating even in an outdoor arena.

“The end of the [Marvin] Hagler-[Tommy] Hearns first round was totally unreal,” Collins recalled. “I’ve often written and said that it was like an atomic bomb exploding.”

I’ve heard Nigel tell the story a few times of the out-of-body experience he had at the Caesars Palace outdoor venue that night, where when the bell rang to end that extraordinary opening three minutes, he found himself standing on his chair in the press section – and had no recollection of climbing up there.

For another former Ring editor, Randy Gordon, Hagler-Hearns is near the top of his list as well – but not quite number one. Gordon ranks that 1985 three-round brawl third, and he places the 1980 Fight of the Year between Matthew Saad Muhammad and Yaqui Lopez at the Playboy Club in Atlantic City second.

But the loudest boxing experience of Gordon’s life was a fair bit less famous than either of those, and it was a fight that “The Commish” was working as a broadcaster for ESPN, alongside Sal Marchiano and Luis Henriquez.

“The arena’s capacity was around 8,000, but at least 4,000 more Panamanians pushed, squeezed, and crowded their way into the arena,” Gordon remembered. “December is summer in Panama, and the temperature during the day hit 95 degrees. The arena was old and had no air conditioning. With the crowd packed into every available square inch of space – even wedging themselves on their knees between Marchiano, Henriquez, and me – and with the hot ESPN TV lights increasing the heat, our thermometer at ringside showed a temperature of 110 degrees.”

Gordon says the entirety of the overpacked crowd was pro-Pedroza and screaming with every punch he threw.

“The crowd was so loud, Marchiano and I had to ask our ESPN director to turn our volume in our headsets to full blast, because we couldn’t hear each other speaking,” he said. “In the thousands of fights I have announced, I never had to make that request before or since. When Sibaca was KO’d in the fifth round, I was relieved to know I could take my headset off. I had ringing in my ears for a week following the fight.”

Another former editor-in-chief of The Ring, Steve Farhood, singled out a fight from his 20-year-plus tenure with Showtime when I asked him for the most deafening experience he could recall. It was a fight that, like Pedroza-Sibaca and Trinidad-Joppy, featured a decidedly partisan crowd.

“I associate the word ‘deafening’ with one particular fight: Ricky Hatton-Kostya Tszyu in 2005 at MEN Arena in Manchester, England,” Farhood said.

He noted that many of the biggest fights he’s attended in Las Vegas involved crowds with divided rooting interests, from Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao, to Larry Holmes-Gerry Cooney, to Ray Leonard’s first fight with Hearns, to both Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson clashes.

“That was certainly not the case with Hatton-Tszyu,” Farhood said. “There were 22,000 fans in attendance that night in 2005, and my estimate is that 21,990 of them were pulling for the unbeaten and hugely popular Hatton.

“The roar when Tszyu surrendered by sticking to his stool before the start of the 12th round was Richter-worthy, but I best remember the response when Hatton made his ring-walk to ‘Blue Moon.’

“More than 20 years later, the chills remain.”

Hatton-Tszyu must have been an extraordinarily loud and boisterous affair, because Farhood’s longtime Showtime colleague Al Bernstein gave the same answer – although he differed somewhat from Farhood by placing that fight in Manchester in a tie with one other bout:

“I was there covering for SportsCenter the George Foreman-Michael Moorer fight,” Bernstein said. “And, I have never heard anything like the sound in the MGM Grand when Foreman knocked out Moorer. It was absolutely deafening. I could not believe how loud that arena became in that moment.”

Regarding the Hatton-Tszyu fight, Bernstein described the crowd as “astonishingly loud. And it was continuously loud. And of course the moment Hatton won was an amazing eruption. And I’m not typically a believer in atmospheres elevating a performance, but I honestly felt that crowd elevated Ricky Hatton that night.”

Like Bernstein, former HBO and Showtime (among other networks) blow-by-blow man Barry Tompkins had to call this a tie, naming two fights that cranked up the volume in different ways.

Both are iconic HBO fights from the ‘80s – one among the decade’s best fights, the other among the decade’s biggest events, and the crowd noise Tompkins cites reflects those designations.

The first of those is Aaron Pryor’s 14th-round stoppage of Alexis Arguello in 1982 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, which Tompkins said he “still hears in my ears.”

“The crowd was so loud that we talked on the air about the real chance of them not hearing the bell to end the round,” he said. “From the fighter introductions to the end of the fight in the 14th round, there was not an instant that the crowd didn't override any sound in my ear. Including my producer, who literally had to scream before I could figure out what he was telling me. Surreal!”

The other fight Tompkins singled out came five years later, when Leonard challenged Hagler at the same Caesars Palace outdoor arena where Hagler faced Hearns.

That extreme decibel level “was born more of anticipation than anything else,” Tompkins said. “And, while the fight was loud and the crowd really into it, the moment for me was when the crowd first caught a glimpse of the fighters as they waited to start their ring walks. It began with a murmur and rose like a tidal wave until both were in the ring, and it wasn't just your ears that heard it, it was your entire body. It was palpable. Anticipation turning to reality, and even as a professional without a rooting interest, you simply could not help but be caught up in it.”

Graham Houston has seen a lot since he first started covering boxing 63 years ago, and for the journalist who was born in England but eventually moved to North America, it was a fight in Vegas featuring a beloved Brit that most reverberates in his aural memories.

“The one that stands out the most in terms of an absolute wall of sound,” Houston said, citing a term commonly associated with music producer Phil Spector, “was the rematch between Mike Tyson and Frank Bruno. The noise was like thunder when Tyson bludgeoned Bruno in the third round.”

Houston also recalled the first fight card he attended in Las Vegas, 14 years before Tyson-Bruno II, in 1981, when the showdown between Mexico’s Salvador Sanchez and Puerto Rico’s Wilfredo Gomez was accompanied by a salsa band dueling with a mariachi band at Caesars Palace.

“Mariachi trumped salsa for decibel-level,” Houston noted. “I remember the reporter sitting next to me saying something like, ‘First round to Sanchez and Mexico – mariachi way too much for salsa.’”

Like Houston, for Las Vegas-based writer Kevin Iole – a member of the soon-to-be-inducted IBHOF class of 2026 – most of the fights that flood his thoughts took place in Sin City. One exception was the third Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez fight in Carson, California, but others on his short list included Holyfield knocking Tyson down in their first fight and Pacquiao flattening Hatton with a second-round left hand.

But Iole ultimately landed on the shocking conclusion to the fourth fight between Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, in 2012.

“The crowd was primed going in because of how good their first three bouts had been,” Iole said, “and then the fourth fight was more than living up to its billing. Manny’s fan base was loud and passionate, and he was in the midst of a rally that had his fans roaring at the top of their voices. All of a sudden, Marquez landed that vicious counter and Manny was out instantly.

“The shock of that moment and the deliriousness of the Marquez’ fans made it a truly sensational moment to experience. It was not only loud, but it rolled on for quite a while.”

Jim Lampley called that fight for HBO Pay-Per-View, and the knockout is his pick as well for the loudest crowd reaction he’s ever heard in a boxing arena. But his recollection of the sound is a bit different than Iole’s, as is his application of the word “deafening.”

“For me, what stands apart is the deafening silence in the moments after Marquez’s lightning counter shot that put Pacquiao to sleep,” Lampley said. “Shocked silence. And I had to get my bearings.

“As – eventually – did Manny.”

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.

It would be the grand exception for any of us older than 30 not to reflect upon a weekend in our 20s to assess, “I wish I hadn’t done that.”

For Keyshawn Davis, the 2021 U.S. Olympic silver medalist and former lightweight world champion, the events of June 2025 arouse such regret.

A day after losing his belt by weighing in 4.3 pounds over the lightweight limit to scrap his title defense against Edwin De Los Santos, Davis scuffled with Nahir Albright, who had defeated Davis’ brother, Kelvin, by majority decision following Albright’s 2023 no-contest versus Keyshawn.

Now the No. 1 ranked WBO 140lbs fighter behind his close friend and four-division champion Shakur Stevenson, Keyshawn Davis 14-0 (10 KOs) has taken Stevenson’s lead and aligned himself with veteran managers James Prince and Josh Dubin.

As Davis heads to the main event of Saturday’s debut DAZN card promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank versus none other than Albright 17-2-1 (7 KOs) back where the trouble first brewed in Davis’ hometown of Norfolk, Virginia, he does so having made a sea change that has lifted his life and career, Dubin says.

In a Monday interview with BoxingScene, Dubin said he and Prince’s union with the fighter would’ve never happened if they had not been convinced the reckless behavior of that lost weekend has been filed away in the past.

“None of us should be defined by our worst moment or worst decision,” Dubin said.

Dubin stated since he and Prince, who also manage WBO lightweight champion Abdullah Mason and previously guided Hall of Fame two-division champion Andre Ward, have joined Davis following the Albright incident and before his sharp January 12th-round TKO victory over Jamaine Ortiz, they’ve been duly impressed.

Davis has addressed himself and “separated from the bad influences” that contributed to past transgressions, and Dubin added, “Neither James nor I would’ve ever signed [Davis] if we didn’t believe he was making all the right changes.”

Dubin has visited Davis in the gym in preparation for Albright after the former champion posted two knockdowns of Ortiz in that 140lbs January debut.

Considering he already represents an unbeaten champion in Stevenson, what Dubin says of the progressing Davis is stop-you-in-your-tracks stuff.

“I don’t think anyone beats him,” Dubin said.

Albright followed the no-contest to Keyshawn and the victory over Kelvin Davis by rallying impressively to fight former lightweight title contender Frank Martin to a draw in February.

Stevenson, 28, and Davis, 27, are too good of friends to fight, but as Stevenson ponders a move to welterweight to meet either WBC champion Ryan Garcia or WBO champion Devin Haney, the expectation is Davis is closing in on a 140lbs title shot with a Saturday showing in the ring that will reduce last year’s weekend to an episode of 20-something mischief.

Davis told video reporter Sean Zittel recently that he didn’t want to fight Albright, but Top Rank wanted it to play upon the prior hard feelings.

Dubin is confident nothing Albright can do or say will trigger a repeat slip by Davis.

“No way. He’s too close to everything else he wants to do now,” Dubin said.

With the unbeaten, previously undisputed champion next up, with a potential new Mike Tyson looming and the fight-of-the-year frontrunner only days behind us, now is the time to say it: The heavyweight division is all the way back.

This is not about debating the merits of past glorious eras – feel free to believe Ali-Foreman-Frazier were more talented than this crop.

Rather, this is an appreciation for how far this group of men have taken their sport and rejected the Klitschko-era theory that “all the great heavyweights are playing linebacker in the NFL.”

Saturday’s thrilling WBO title victory by return champion Daniel Dubois, overcoming two knockdowns to ruin the nose of previously unbeaten outgoing champion Fabio Wardley and stop him in the 11th round in Manchester, England, was so wondrous that aged promoter Frank Warren said it was the best card he ever staged.

It brought to mind my recently passed publicist friend Bill Caplan saying years ago that he ranked Tyson in the teens of all-time heavyweights because Tyson never confronted a knockdown or deep adversity to rally to victory.

“The great ones did,” Caplan said.

Against the popular Wardley, England’s Dubois did it twice in one night.

And when you factor in that two of his losses are to the three-belt active champion Oleksandr Usyk, and that he decked two-time champion Anthony Joshua four times before finishing him in the fifth round of their 2024 bout, that’s quite a player in this deep cast.

Warren revealed that if Wardley is not ready to return for an immediate rematch, the 21-year-old southpaw slugger from the U.K., Moses Itauma, will be ready for his close-up after knocking out 12 of his first 14 foes.

Itauma is the WBO’s No. 1 contender to Dubois, and he’s also No. 1 in the WBA to Usyk and secondary champion Murat Gassiev.

Usyk, 24-0 (15 KOs), is taking a deserved break from the action to resume his title run May 23 at the Pyramids of Giza versus kickboxer Rico Verhoeven.

The 39-year-old has also twice defeated Joshua and two-time champion Tyson Fury. This will be Usyk’s first fight since knocking out Dubois in July, and the 39-year-old has also expressed wanting to meet the other top champion of his era, recently victorious Deontay Wilder.

Warren, however, is pushing for Usyk to move to his WBC mandatory date with the unbeaten interim champion Agit Kabayel.

If there’s one player lacking from the script it’s an American.

However, 2021 Olympic silver medalist Richard Torrez Jnr, 26, has the opportunity to surge to the IBF’s top spot on the Pyramids of Giza card when he meets No. 3-ranked Frank Sanchez of Cuba.

In the meantime, the division’s biggest fight of all is so tantalizingly close by the end of 2026, with both Joshua and Fury on board to finally settle who’s the best U.K. heavyweight of all time.

The drama of that showdown was heightened this week with produced video footage of Usyk and Joshua training alongside each other as Joshua moves beyond the tragic car crash that killed two friends in December and eyes his greatest rival in the late fall.

In scenes drawn from the cinematic friendship between Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed, Usyk motivates Joshua as his next great bout hovers. 

Both Joshua and Fury are slated to next take a stay busy fight. And while we just saw the danger of those with heavily favored light-heavyweight David Morrell getting stopped by Zak Chelli on the Manchester undercard, both should clear those obstacles.

Joshua, 29-4 (26 KOs), meets unranked Kristian Prenga, 20-1 (20 KOs), July 25 in Saudi Arabia, and Fury, fresh off his own post-”retirement” freshener, has yet to select his light touch.

Yet, that event will mark a celebration of how far the once dormant division has come since the night in 2017 when Joshua followed Fury’s own 2015 upset victory on the scorecards over Klitschko by stopping the Ukrainian in that unforgettable event at Wembley Stadium.

Now, once again, the heavyweights are the conversation starter in boxing, and after hearing for so long that the sport is only as good as its biggest division, you must admit it’s in a good place, then.

Junior welterweight Nahir Albright is ready for revenge against Keyshawn Davis. 

Albright will face Davis on Saturday at the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia. The bout will signal the first fight of promoter Top Rank’s new deal with DAZN. 

Though the bout is a rematch of their October contest that Davis originally won via a majority decision, that decision was later overturned to a no-contest due to a positive test result for marijuana. An incident in that same arena where they will return to is also adding fuel to the fire.

Albright, 17-2-1 (7 KOs), upset Kelvin Davis, the older brother of Keyshawn, last year. The bout proved to be an ill-fated night for the Davis brothers as Keyshawn lost his WBO lightweight title on the scale after his scheduled fight against Edwin De Los Santos was cancelled due to Davis missed weight. 

Abdullah Mason was elevated to the main event, and after Kelvin’s loss, Keyshawn was reported to have had an incident backstage with the 30-year-old Albright.

“Honestly, I don’t want to relive that moment, I just want to focus on this fight,” Albright told BoxingScene. “It does motivate me. It is a chip [on my shoulder], and it is unsettled. We have to handle it in the ring.”

Albright is unbeaten since moving up to junior welterweight, and has fought one time since his biggest career win over Kelvin – a draw against Frank Martin in February. Albright of Philadelphia is eager to show the changes he has made since the first bout. 

“I felt I didn’t show all of myself that night,” Albright said. “It is a new weight class now, and I am stronger. It is going to be different this time around.”

For Albright, the bout signifies unfinished business.

“It is personal,” Albright said. “I am coming to fight, I am not coming to play with him. I am about to shock the world next week.”

Davis, 14-0 (10 KOs), is a 2020 U.S. Olympic silver medalist who has already become a titleholder. In January, he made his debut in the junior welterweight division, stopping Jamaine Ortiz. The 27-year-old from Norfolk, will have the support of the local crowd rooting for him, while Albright embraces heading into hostile territory. 

“My mindset is to go to Virginia and seek and destroy,” Albright said. “Get him out of there, and show the world where I belong.”

 

Shane Mosley Jnr has spent a career balancing his authentic respect for the accomplishments of his Hall of Fame father with a burning desire to forge his own path, and on Sunday at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas he showed up with dynamite – and may have blown open a thoroughfare to the biggest fight of his career.

The younger Mosley, 23-5 (13 KOs), never considered a slugger, got drawn into a toe-to-toe brawl with dangerous veteran Serhii Bohachuk and responded by beating the banger at his own game, scoring a sixth-round knockout in the “Zuffa Boxing 06” main event.

The knockout came at 2:38 of Round 6.

“I wanted to do this sport for me,” Mosley said in the ring afterward. “I told everybody when I was 15 years old, when I got punched in the nose and got a bloody nose, and I wanted to get back. This is the result of that. I get punched in the nose. I get punched in the face. What's up? I'm here.”

At age 35, Mosley seems to only now be tapping into his best. He was most recently outdone by the excellent Jesus Ramos Jnr in an interim title fight last December, but he also easily outpointed (admittedly long-in-the-tooth) former middleweight champ Daniel Jacobs in his previous outing.

Against Bohachuk, a Ukrainian now fighting out of Los Angeles, Mosley chose almost immediately to step into a phone booth with a fighter who all but lives there. Bohachuk entered the fight having lost to only two fighters in the pros – Vergil Ortiz Jnr and Brandon Adams – and overwhelming the rest with unceasing punch volume and power that crashes in waves.

Mosley and Bohachuk fought at close range, exchanging often and giving ground rarely. Mosley’s subtle head movement and footwork seemed to help him avoid the worst of Bohachuk’s arsenal, if not give him a decisive edge out of the gate.

By the fourth round, Mosley wasn’t exactly wilting but also wasn’t quite keeping up with Bohachuk’s blistering pace. Neither his defense nor accuracy seemed to matter when Bohachuk tried to steal the round in the closing seconds, landing a hard right hand and a clean left hook. But Mosley instantly turned the table, slipping a left hand and humming in a crushing right of his own that staggered Bohachuk at the bell.

As turning points in a fight go, you’ll find few more definitive than that. Mosley walked out for the fifth, dug in his toes and went to work. But Bohachuk being Bohachuk, it seemed Mosley would have a lot of work ahead of him. And when Bohachuk fired off several molar-rattling right hands, Mosley took them well and returned fire. It was a battle of both attrition and ammunition, and Mosley had never proved capable of walking out of the rubble with his hand raised from such a war – not at this level.

But after the bell, a funny thing happened in the walk back to his corner: Mosley, his lower lip and teeth glistening red with blood, smiled. He took his stool, stared confidently forward as he took guidance from his seconds – more athleticism, more movement, Mosley was told – and promptly ignored it.

In the sixth, Mosley emerged from his corner in apex predator mode, pressing forward and looking for every opening. Bohachuk swung – and even connected, in a few cases – but Mosley seemed to have downloaded the code with all the right angles and timing, increasingly breaking down Bohachuk’s defenses and overwhelming the overwhelmer. With roughly a minute left in the round, Mosley landed a jab that stunned Bohachuk just enough that he wasn’t ready for the right hand that followed. Reeling, he absorbed one more Mosley right before spilling to the canvas.

Bohachuk made it to his feet, but Mosley left nothing to chance, swarming his opponent without smothering his own offense, bursting through and around Bohachuk’s guard until referee Thomas Taylor stepped in to end the affair.

As Bohachuk, 27-4 (24 KOs), ponders his next move – he is only 31 but has been through a series of throwdowns and has lost two of his past three – Mosley already has his next target in sight: fellow Zuffa middleweight Callum Walsh.

Although Walsh and newly signed Zuffa fighter Conor Benn appear to be on a collision course, a Mosley fight as the lead-in to that matchup could make sense for all parties. The time is certainly now for Mosley.

“I'm getting better, man, getting better every day,” he said. “I'm just trying hard. I'm working hard every single day to lift up my family, to lift up my Mosleys, and I want them to see that through adversity, through defeat, through struggle, you can come back and make something of yourself no matter what if you're resilient.”

Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.

Don’t blink, they said. Whatever you do, don’t blink. 

It wasn’t original, as far as taglines go, but that was how last night’s WBO heavyweight title fight between Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois was sold, the implication being that it would be short and explosive. By blinking, of course, one ran the risk of missing something quick and devastating. One might, for instance, have missed Wardley dropping Dubois with the first punch he landed – a right hand thrown just 15 seconds into the fight – and have to then replay the action to be certain it had happened. 

If nothing else, that first punch of Wardley’s was your warning; your reminder. If lagging on account of the fight’s late start – 11pm local time – the image of Wardley flooring Dubois in round one would have surely been enough to have you rub your eyes, whether owing to tiredness or surprise. Either way, you were now wide awake. Now “don’t blink” was not just a suggestion, or a promotional tagline, but a necessity. Now it was not even a choice. 

In fact, by the time Wardley had knocked down Dubois again in round three, once more with a right hand, only then did you realise that your eyes had been out on stalks for almost three rounds. Now you had to blink. Now you rubbed your eyes again, no longer due to tiredness or even surprise, but in the way one does when waking from a dream, eager to differentiate as quickly as they can between what is real and what is not. Now the rubbing of the eyes was an act of disbelief. 

Later on, when one of Wardley’s eyes – his right one – was horribly swollen, we watched through our two good eyes him touch his bad one with his glove, clearly distressed by it. We then watched Wardley have the eye, and also his nose, inspected by a ringside doctor before round nine and again before round 10. The second of those inspections, prior to the start of round 10, felt different than the first and not just because the damage done to Wardley’s face – his eyes, his nose – had inevitably worsened due to the passing of time. It also felt different because the fight had changed in that short period. It had gone from a fight Wardley appeared destined to end early, thanks to two knockdowns, to a fight in which Wardley had a puncher’s chance of winning, to a fight in which the only possible victory for Wardley was a moral one, dependent on his survival. 

Don’t blink, they said, and we didn’t, but now, having refused to blink, we were feeling tired again. It wasn’t the fight that was making us tired – that could never be the case – but instead we were tired of seeing Wardley take punishment round after round. By round 10 it was becoming harder and harder to watch. Blinking, you see, was not the issue anymore. Watching was the issue. 

Alas, that became the challenge in round 10. Rather than watch, you wanted to now close your eyes, or turn away. You hoped that in Wardley’s corner the men responsible for his safety were seeing what we saw, seeing it the way we saw it, and had their eyes open. Forget anyone else. It was now they, the corner team, for whom the phrase “don’t blink” really applied. It was his corner team, as well as the referee Howard Foster, who needed to take a long look at Fabio Wardley and see something more than just a heavyweight with a puncher’s chance and a warrior’s heart. See him as he is, you wanted to shout, not as he was. If you need a reset, please blink twice, erase your memory, and treat Wardley as you see him now, standing in front of you: the flat, broken and bloodied nose, the grotesque eye, the hematoma above it. Don’t ignore it. We have seen enough. 

We had too, all of us. That’s why, when Wardley was somehow okayed to proceed following his second inspection, the roar that went up from the Manchester crowd was nowhere near as vociferous as it had been following the first successful inspection. The ones that could still bear to look issued their approval, you could hear it, but many more were seen shaking their head, no longer in disbelief but displeasure. If seeing the fight stopped before round nine would have been anticlimactic, now it felt about right – too late if we’re honest. 

True as it was that Wardley always had his punch, the chances of that punch landing diminished round by round and now, as we entered the 10th, the danger was putting the fight ahead of the fighter. Already we had seen a Fight of the Year frontrunner, and only our greed and the inherent bloodlust we all channel on fight night had us rubbing our hands and licking our lips as Wardley and Dubois were reunited in round 10. We didn’t deserve it, but we were getting more, it seemed. We also knew that what was good for us was bad for Wardley. And yet still each of us – fan, referee, corner team – pressed “continue” on the off chance that the ending would not be as predictable and ugly as we knew, deep down, it would be.

In some ways each of us could be forgiven for losing sight of the reality of the situation. After all, it had happened in the blink of an eye, this turnaround, this shift in perspective. One minute Wardley was hurting and dropping Dubois with every wild right hand he threw and the next Dubois, having suffered two 10-8 rounds, was backing Wardley up with his jab, landing heavy rights of his own, and disfiguring the WBO champion’s face. In the space of only a few rounds, we had gone from expecting Wardley to finish the fight early, perhaps with his next right cross, to watching Dubois’ better foundations and footwork become a factor in the fight and essentially help him win every round in which he managed to stay upright. 

The more the fight progressed, the more it became apparent that Dubois’ early troubles owed more to shock than anything else. The shock of Wardley’s power, perhaps, or the shock of his angles. Whichever it was, Dubois was caught cold in much the same way he himself caught Anthony Joshua cold in the early rounds of their fight in September 2024. Every time Wardley landed flush Dubois seemed on the cusp of unravelling, and on two occasions he did, the first time getting up too quickly following the knockdown, and the next time electing to take a knee voluntarily after feeling a heavy shot. From one knockdown to the next, we wondered whether Dubois’ resistance was on the wane, or whether he would simply become disheartened in the presence of a puncher who wouldn’t stop throwing powerful shots in his general direction. Each time he went down Dubois would shoot a what-now? glance at his corner, as we have seen him do in the past. He then did the same when rising.

Such was the concern, Don Charles, his coach, said to Dubois between rounds three and four: “I’ve got to ask you, how are you feeling?” To which Dubois, hard to read at the best of times, stared into space and said, “I’m feeling good.” 

Only nothing about Dubois was “good” after three rounds, hence Charles, upon hearing his response, took it not as reassurance but as permission; permission, that is, to tear into Dubois and point out to him everything he was doing wrong and all the ways he could improve. Not one to hold back, Charles even motivated his man by slapping him around the cheek on more than one occasion throughout the fight. 

Still, it had the desired effect. In the next round, the fourth, Dubois found a home for his own right hand with increasing regularity and one of them, thrown short, stiffened Wardley’s legs for the first time in the fight. He was also able to back him into the ropes on a frequent basis and following one exchange Wardley could be seen touching his eye, having been wounded in that area. If Dubois required visible proof of hope, and reason to believe, he now had it.

With this renewed hope, Dubois started to settle down a bit more. His heavy shoulders relaxed and so too did the punches he fired at Wardley to begin his attacks. Whereas before he was all about matching Wardley with Hail Mary right hands and proving his power, suddenly now Dubois remembered he had one of the best jabs in the heavyweight division and began to use it. In fact, in round five the Londoner put on something of a jabbing clinic, constantly knocking Wardley off-balance with the shot and occasionally shaking him up. 

The jab from Wardley, which he offered in riposte and threw from the hip, wasn’t a bad shot, either, yet the key difference was that Dubois’ jab – so powerful and so relaxed – carried all the weight of a right hand. Bit by bit, it started to do its work. You could see it on the face of not only Wardley but the man throwing it. No longer did Dubois carry a look of concern. 

His confidence then only grew in the sixth, a round in which he added to the jab right crosses and even a left uppercut, which caught Wardley up close and caused his legs to sag. After that came a left hook, which again landed clean, and by the round’s end Wardley was having to rely on all his powers of recovery to stick in the fight and not go under. It was brutal, relentless action, and only the courage, belief and perennial threat of Wardley’s right fist stopped it from being viewed as one-way traffic.

The second half of the fight followed a similar pattern, with Wardley now fighting on instinct and relying too much on his heart. In rounds seven and eight Dubois continued to find the champion’s face an easy target to hit with jabs and rights, but still Wardley refused to cower, or yield, or even give Dubois, and us, the impression that the fight was over. It had turned, definitely, but as shown in round seven, when he paid homage to his white-collar days by windmilling with abandon, Wardley was, for as long as he was upright and punching, always in with a shot.

This feeling was of course strengthened by the fact that Dubois, dropped twice already, has a reputation for coming apart at the seams out of nowhere. Whether that is fair or not hardly matters. That is how we have all come to judge Daniel Dubois and his fights and therefore Wardley, upright and punching, had every reason to maintain belief and keep taking his licks. We, too, had every reason to keep watching, keep enjoying it, and keep smiling the smile of the well-fed. 

Truth be told, it was only when the ringside doctor emerged before round nine and introduced a dose of reality to the fun that we did indeed blink. Until then it had been quite easy to get carried away and see these boxers not as men but two trucks in a demolition derby. Their damage could be seen, yes, but the engines still roared and, besides, Wardley wanted this, he loved it, and we in turn loved him for it. 

Did he need protecting from himself? Absolutely. But it wasn’t until the doctor – an unwelcome guest at a party like this – had been called to get involved that we were finally able to extricate ourselves from the fun of it all and acknowledge the actual damage being done. Once that happened, both the fight and our overall enjoyment of it was on borrowed time. 

As great as it was, between rounds 10 and 11 you wanted them to end it – for Wardley’s sake and your own. To let him go on was a dereliction of duty, you felt, and by the time round 11 arrived not only was his demise inevitable but you were forced to watch it either through fingers or from behind the sofa. For many of the same reasons why nobody wanted to stop it, you couldn’t look away, but that didn’t mean you were loving it necessarily. If anything, it was now a test. A test of conscience. A test of tolerance. A test of good taste. Even if you perhaps wanted to blink or turn away, you couldn’t. Your lids were now pegged back; your eyes open wide. You were Alex DeLarge undergoing the Ludovico Technique in A Clockwork Orange. This wasn’t boxing anymore, it was ultraviolence. It was exactly what had been advertised and demanded and now, in front of your wide-open eyes, you had it. You had it and then some. 

For a moment, as they came out for round 11, we all feared that a great fight – the year’s best by a distance – would be redefined as something else, something grim, something tragic. But thankfully, and to our collective relief, just 28 seconds later Howard Foster, the referee, intervened and we were able to feel good about ourselves again. In an instant we were clean again, human again. We could now rank Dubois dethroning Wardley among the very best heavyweight fights we have ever seen and do so without our memory of it being soured or feeling in the least bit guilty.

“We came through the sticky moments and it was a war,” said Dubois, a man of few words but on this occasion capable of finding the right ones. “Thank you, Fabio, for that. Thank you. 

“I know I’ve got heart, bundles of heart, and I’m a warrior in there.”

With both their reputations enhanced, and our memory of the fight preserved, each of us now had permission to blink. The difficulty now was getting to sleep.

MANCHESTER, England – Ben Davison has recognised that Fabio Wardley “could” have been rescued earlier than the 11th round of his WBO heavyweight title defeat by Daniel Dubois.

At the Co-op Live Wardley sacrificed his title on the occasion of his first defence when after 28 seconds of the 11th round the referee Howard Foster finally intervened to save him from further punishment.

Wardley’s right eye was swollen shut, his nose was grotesquely cut and bleeding, he was unsteady on his feet, and he was absorbing consistent punishment to the head from one of the biggest punchers in the world.

He had by then dropped the 28-year-old Dubois in the first and third rounds, and had largely built his reputation after coming from behind to dramatically stop Justis Huni and Joseph Parker in his previous two fights.

Davison, who alongside Rob Hodgins trains the 31-year-old Wardley, was among those criticised, post-fight. Wardley-Dubois will be remembered as one of the fights of 2026, but he, Foster and the ringside doctor had had opportunities to rescue Wardley when he was struggling to defend himself. The final rounds were increasingly one-sided and potentially dangerous; there is also the reality that as a consequence Wardley may never be the same fighter again.

“Firstly, congratulations to Dubois,” Davison posted on social media. "Two tremendous warriors in a modern-day classic. We are super proud of Fabio.

“I actually agree the fight could have been stopped earlier.

“I did not see Fabio stumble before walking over to the doctor at the start of round 10, as ironically we was discussing with each other to ‘have the towel in hand’, by which time he had gone over and seen the doctor and seemed much steadier on his legs, which is what we saw.

“It’s such a difficult job to not only find a balance but to strike at the right time to stop a fight like that on a whim when your guy is responsive and firing back.”

Davison was Tyson Fury’s trainer on the night of his first fight with Deontay Wilder, when Fury produced one of the most memorable of all recoveries from a 12th-round knockdown.

It was also tempting to conclude that Foster – in 2013 and also in Manchester so widely criticised for prematurely rescuing George Groves against Carl Froch – was reluctant to act because the entertaining nature of the contest meant that he feared further criticism.

“I’ve been praised for not towelling Fury (Wilder),” Davison continued. “I was praised for not towelling Wood (Conlan). I was firstly criticised then later praised for towelling Wood (Lara).

“Two occasions we looked at it but one, the end of the round came, two, Fabio fired back and killed Dubois’ momentum.

“Again, it was very difficult in the circumstances of the fighter being responsive and firing back.

“I’ve seen mixed opinions on this one but I agree it could have been stopped earlier. However, with that said, I think Howard Foster got it bang on with his terms.”

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – Daniel Dubois dramatically recovered from two heavy knockdowns to inflict the first defeat of Fabio Wardley’s remarkable career and win the WBO heavyweight title in what may prove the fight of the year.

In the first defence of his title Wardley’s right eye was swollen shut and his nose heavily cut and bleeding and yet despite absorbing consistent punishment from one of the world’s biggest punchers he remained upright until the referee Howard Foster was forced to intervene in the 11th round.

Wardley has risen from white-collar boxing to become one of the world’s leading and entertaining heavyweights, but partly as a consequence of the injuries he suffered he struggled against the more polished and powerful Dubois, and required rescuing before Foster acted 28 seconds into the 11th.

At the conclusion of his most recent contest, in July 2025 against Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed title, Dubois was accused of quitting in the fifth round. He then replaced his trainer Don Charles with Tony Sims, spent months training under Sims without fighting, and left Sims and rehired Charles once again.

The perception of a chaotic career created partly by the house party he attended on the day of the loss to Usyk was therefore enhanced further, and yet it was under Charles – after the first of his defeats by the Ukrainian – against Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and Anthony Joshua that he recorded his finest wins.

In every way in which the 28-year-old Dubois had been groomed for greatness, Wardley has made his way to world level against considerable odds. Either side of Usyk-Dubois II he came from behind to stop both the undefeated Justis Huni and then the former world champion Joseph Parker, and it is for that reason – specifically the heart he showed that Dubois has sometimes lacked – that he had been more widely favoured to win.

The reality remained that their match-up – a classic heavyweight shootout – was even more widely expected to be settled by who would be first to land their heavy right hand and, for all of the doubts surrounding Dubois’ mentality, he proved the more physically gifted.

He perhaps looked nervous on his way to the ring, but provided a response to those questioning him in the way he not only twice returned to his feet to carry on but resisted further punishment and exhaustion to win what is certain to be remembered as a classic contest.

The way that his previous fight ended almost made it inevitable that Wardley would attempt to start fast, and so it proved when in the opening seconds he landed a powerful right hand that dropped Dubois and made him look even less at ease. He returned to his feet and attempted to prioritise his jab while Wardley swung and missed with a right, and Dubois – in a demonstration of his nerves – then wrestled him to the canvas. Wardley narrowly missed with another right hand; Dubois responded with two rights of his own that hurt the champion. They then found themselves trading again on the stroke of the bell.

Wardley found himself being backed up by Dubois’ jab in the second and, partly because Wardley continued to attempt to land his right, Dubois threw his with a lack of conviction. The left eye Dubois injured in defeat by Joe Joyce in 2020 was also starting to swell up and so too was Wardley’s right.

They exchanged right hands at the start of the third in a sign that Dubois was growing in confidence. He had the advantage in speed, but was then punished and dropped again by another big right hand.

A clean right hand in the fourth backed Wardley up, and a second narrowly missed him, but he continued to fight without fear. He ducked one right hand before absorbing two others and then a jab-right hand.

Dubois twice more backed Wardley up with his powerful jab in the fifth. A left-right combination then followed, before another right hand and a jab that knocked Wardley’s gum shield out of his mouth.

It was in the bruising draw with Frazer Clarke in 2024 that Wardley injured his nose and by the sixth it was bleeding just as heavily. He survived a succession of left and right hands by his corner and looked exhausted, but every time he was hurt he sought to swing back instead of to survive.

A clean left-right sent him back into the ropes in the seventh, and he also started to bleed by his right eye. Another right hand from Dubois hurt Wardley again; Wardley then landed a right that hurt Dubois and left them trading once more.

By the eighth Wardley’s right eye was swollen shut, and at the start of the ninth his injuries were being inspected by the ringside doctor. The cut on his nose was by then horrific, and yet his corner, the doctor and the referee – perhaps aware of the entertaining nature of what was unfolding – were reluctant to intervene.

Wardley fell short with a right as he continued to remain upright and to struggle with the consistency of Dubois’ jab. He willingly traded but was then caught by the heaviest right hand of the evening, and yet somehow again remained on his feet.

When he left his corner for the start of the 10th he was still unsteady and the doctor inspected his nose and again tested his vision. He was again allowed to fight on and somehow backed Dubois up with a right hand and stayed upright following another right hand from Dubois.

It had reached the point where his career was perhaps at risk if he continued much longer, and with him under further punishment again in the 11th Foster rightly stepped in, aware that another dramatic knockout was for the first time beyond Wardley’s reach.

His first defeat was made official but it will be reflected that Wardley, like Dubois, enhanced his reputation. Their fight was sufficiently entertaining that a rematch appears inevitable. By the time it takes place it may even be time to question how much they both have left.

Jack Rafferty had by then stopped in six rounds his fellow Englishman Ekow Essuman at welterweight.

Brad Rea also won via stoppage, against Liam Cameron in the fourth round of their all-English light-heavyweight contest. Rea dropped Cameron heavily with a left hook midway through round four before Cameron, characteristically, bravely returned to his feet. Rea then let his hands go in pursuit of the finish, landing two uppercuts, sending Cameron back to the canvas, and prompting the referee Bob to wave the action over after one minute and 35 seconds.

Should we have been here 12 months ago, when Daniel Dubois was riding the most violent of three-fight waves and Fabio Wardley was only one contest removed from a 12-round draw with Frazer Clarke, it’s likely that Dubois, and not Wardley, would have started a contest between them as favorite.

Things have changed since then, however.

Wardley, who had already knocked out Clarke inside a round of their rematch, has come from behind to stop Justis Huni and Joseph Parker, making him very much the man in form and Dubois, who lost meekly to Oleksandr Usyk in a return last July, the justifiable underdog.

One wonders, however, if the 22-3 (21 KOs) Dubois is being judged a little too harshly for failing to beat Usyk, an undefeated fighter of mesmeric guile, who is surely destined to be remembered as one of the best to ever do it. Furthermore, it might also be true that Wardley’s wins over Huni and Parker are in the process being overrated because, though highly impressive turnarounds, we’re yet to see that approach to battle fail. For now, we presume it will always work, that Wardley, through astonishing durability, an ability to learn on the job and genetic physical strength, is somehow destined to never lose. Sooner or later, however, he will. There’s only so long you can get away with pulling things out of the fire before you get burned. 

Dubois is still only 28 years old, and as the demolisher of Anthony Joshua, Filip Hrgovic and Jarrell Miller in recent years, he can certainly boast more impressive victories than Wardley at the highest level. It could be argued, for example, that both Joshua and Hrgovic would have beaten the Parker who showed up against Wardley last October, and Miller has better results on his record than Huni. What should be clear, too, is that Dubois won’t fear Wardley in the way that he might have done Usyk. For him, in fact, tonight’s date with Wardley, 20-0-1 (19 KOs), will be viewed as winnable as any bout in which he has engaged since the end of 2023.

Quite where Dubois’ mind will be on fight night is another matter, however. The cruel way in which clips have been shared of his interviews this week, with fun being poked at his obvious discomfort in such environments, has been social media at its most spiteful. Dubois first told me in 2018 he hated doing interviews and nothing has changed in that regard; he doesn’t have the gift of gab, nor the dexterity to evade questions when answers are not forthcoming. That is not his fault. Chewing the fat with strangers, very simply, is not his bag.

What he can do, very effectively, is box. His powerful jab, arguably his best punch, and trailing right are akin to being whacked by a sledgehammer moments after being clubbed by a baseball bat. When on form, and not blighted by doubt, Dubois is a formidable heavyweight. And though he has been accused of looking for a way out in his two fights with Usyk (before being stopped in five last year, he was halted in nine in 2023), he overcame moments of jeopardy against Miller, Hrgovic and Joshua with aplomb. 

The rapid upward trajectory of Wardley, however, should not be underestimated. The 31-year-old’s late start and roots in white-collar boxing do not need explaining again here, but it should be noted that he had no business getting as far as he has. That he enters this 12-rounder at Manchester, England’s Co-op Live Arena, as the WBO heavyweight titlist is frankly incredible when one considers his lack of education.

However, it is those rather rudimentary beginnings that seem to suit his natural style and mindset. Wardley, who is defined by success and progression, tends to trust only two things: his own instincts and the advice of his coaching team. When rooted in such positivity, there simply isn’t any room for doubt in his head. As admirable as that trait is, there will naturally come a time when the challenge in front of him is too great for bloody-mindedness alone.

For periods of Wardley’s first battle with Clarke, a British title fight in March 2024, it did appear that the slugger from Ipswich, England, had reached his ceiling. But what he has done since then, and what he has been doing since Day 1 of this whole adventure, is seek out the hardest challenges to keep on improving. His desire to win, and the belief that he still can even when he has barely won a round, is one area in which the 31-year-old Wardley does appear superior to Dubois. And it’s that self-belief in a hard fight, particularly considering the power that Wardley himself possesses, that can make all the difference.

But what if Dubois, boxing behind his jab, and letting fly when Wardley strays too close, simply doesn’t let his opponent craft the kind of chances he’ll require to win? What if Dubois is in control early and the notion of this being a hard fight is true only for Wardley? That’s certainly feasible when one reflects on Dubois at his most destructive. And when have we seen Dubois gain control of a bout only to relinquish it? Though he had brief moments of success against Usyk, it would be wildly untrue to suggest Dubois ever had a true foothold. And similarly against Joe Joyce in 2020, when Dubois was stopped late due to a fractured skull, there was always a sense he was chasing, not commanding.

Though Wardley has proved his toughness multiple times, to suggest that he can’t get knocked out is simply untrue. They can all “go,” and in Dubois he meets a puncher with a level of potency he has yet to encounter in a professional ring.

Those picking Wardley to win do so with sound logic. After all, why bet against a man who always finds a way to triumph? Particularly when that man is facing a fighter known to trip over his own mental gymnastics when faced with a puzzle he can’t solve. The feeling here, however, is that Wardley will not deliver the same kind of psychological bemusement to Dubois; he will be in position to hit and get hit, which is exactly where Dubois likes them. It’s also true that Wardley might get hit several times and only need to land one himself to win. But if Dubois is in his groove early in the bout, as recent Wardley opponents have tended to be, he surely brings enough firepower to eventually get the better of his foe and win inside schedule.

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.

The ongoing tinkering with the Floyd Mayweather Jnr-Manny Pacquiao rematch strayed into an 11th-hour date and site adjustment, placing the Netflix-streamed bout at T-Mobile Arena now on a Friday night, September 25.

Less than 24 hours ago, both Pacquiao and an official close to negotiations told BoxingScene the bout – which had been shifted off September 19 at The Sphere in Las Vegas – was moving to September 26, most likely at MGM Grand.

Yet with T-Mobile Arena offering greater overall and suite-seating capacity, and Netflix boasting prior success with Friday night fight cards topped last year by Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano and Anthony Joshua-Jake Paul, the final move was struck.

“It’s all about the finances and how you can scale the venue for a maximum gate,” said one of the officials who confirmed on Friday the final date and site switch first reported by The Ring Magazine.

While Mayweather adores MGM Grand and fought there 12 consecutive times from his 2007 triumph over Oscar De La Hoya to his final bout against a former boxing titleholder in 2015 versus Andre Berto, he did fight former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor at T-Mobile Arena in 2017.

Mayweather-Pacquiao I, the richest prizefight in history, was also staged at MGM Grand in 2015.

The lengthy wait for that first fight has been mirrored on a lesser scale with the rematch, after Mayweather told reporters in late March the bout would be an exhibition and not count as a loss on his 50-0 record if Pacquiao defeated him.

Multiple signed contracts forced Mayweather to concede it would indeed be a professional fight, exposing him at age 49 to his first career loss against Pacquiao, 47, who fought then-WBC welterweight belt holder Mario Barrios to a draw at MGM Grand in July.

Pacquiao has fought at T-Mobile Arena once, losing a welterweight title fight to Yordenis Ugas in 2021.

MGM is the co-owner and operator of T-Mobile Arena.

“MGM took a look at it, and wants a bigger event,” said another individual connected to the bout who received overnight confirmation of the change.

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.

 

In the event of discomfort or awkwardness, it is customary among Brits to discuss the weather. This is perhaps so because it is ever-changing and because there are variations of it and because one must always be prepared and carry with them intel which can, when required, be passed on to others. More than that, weather becomes the pickaxe with which we break ice because it is, in times of panic, solid ground, the only thing to instantly connect strangers. 

Meet someone for the first time, for instance, and often one’s first thought is to bring up the weather. Equally, there are some people you might have known for years, relatives even, with whom there is nothing but the weather to discuss, so great are your differences, so great the chasm. It is always there, the weather. Even if it cannot be trusted to stay consistent, its use as a conversation topic never fails. 

Given this, I couldn’t help but question why nobody bothered to ask Daniel Dubois, a British heavyweight, about the weather this week in Manchester. Instead, to open him up, they opted to ask him about serious stuff, stuff to do with his next fight, without once taking into account the fact that Dubois is (a) British and (b) socially awkward. 

In light of such knowledge, surely it would have made sense to employ the tactic most employ when dealing with British people whose conversation skills leave a lot to be desired. Surely there was a way of easing Dubois in gently and not rushing him so quickly towards a subject he clearly had no interest in discussing. 

“Nice day for it, isn’t it?” would have been a good throwaway comment to start. It would have worked only if the weather justified it, of course, but often this phrase, when used, will elicit a wry smile from both the person saying it and the person hearing it. From there you could start the interrogation. You could, for example, ask Dubois whether he prefers it when it is hot or cold; another subject Brits like to debate ad nauseam. Chances are, like any proud Brit, he would reveal to you that he likes the hot weather, but then bemoan the fact that sometimes it can get “too hot” and that Britain, sadly, lacks the infrastructure to cope with “too hot”. Following that, you could perhaps ask Dubois for his thoughts on wind, or light drizzle, and have him try to recall the weather that time he won his WBA “Regular” heavyweight title by beating Trevor Bryan in a Miami casino in June. “Bet it was hot out there, wasn’t it?” you could say, and he would appreciate the question, no doubt, if only because it takes him back, reminds him of good times: the first major title win, the Miami heat. 

Stick to that line of questioning and you would probably be fine, so failproof is the weather as a talking point. In fact, should you go down that route, the only potential risk would come from asking Dubois if he has checked the forecast for Saturday ahead of his fight against Fabio Wardley in Manchester. To that, he would likely say, “No,” and your error then would be to say to him, “Well, I have,” and provide the following information: “It will be 16 degrees, by all accounts, with a 65 per cent chance of precipitation. That’s a shame, isn’t it? Puts a bit of a downer on things. Still, at least you’ll be indoors.”

Suddenly now, because you have brought up the fight, and because you have in every sense rained on his parade, the expression on the face of Daniel Dubois could match the one we saw this week whenever forced to answer questions he wished were never asked. Just as he said to DAZN, he might say to you: “Do I need to do this interview? Let’s cancel it.” Or he might say: “He’s taking the piss, innit. He’s taking the fucking piss.” Or, as he said on The Ariel Helwani Show, he might say: “I don’t even know why you’re bringing that up. What are you trying to say, man? This is getting awkward right now. Let’s turn this shit off.”

On both those occasions Dubois had had enough, so walked off/logged off. He wasn’t asked anything particularly challenging or offensive, but was, it seemed, just tired of it all and happy to utilise the power he now has as someone known for their dislike of media engagements. One nervous chuckle from Dubois and that was it, he was gone, leaving his interviewers bemused by the speed with which awkwardness had turned to simmering rage. 

Indeed, only on reflection, having watched the clips back a couple of times, did a common theme emerge. The theme, loose at best, had to do with negativity and a reluctance to dwell on it. With the DAZN interview, Dubois apparently couldn’t fathom how being asked to name the things he disliked about boxing seconds after being asked to name the things he liked about boxing was a natural course for an interview to take. He felt instead that he was being asked to reflect on bad moments in his career and being so close to a fight, just days from it, he considered this approach to be insensitive, unnecessary. 

The same goes for his interview on The Ariel Helwani Show later that day. In that one, the so-called negativity was more overt, with the interviewer’s effort to show support and fondness for Dubois ultimately backfiring. It backfired, this attempt, chiefly because as a reference point it used one of Dubois’ three career defeats – his first, against Joe Joyce – and with the mere mention of it Dubois’ mood, already that of a teenager, only soured. It was for that reason he said, “I don’t even know why you’re bringing that up. What are you trying to say, man?”

Again, in the eyes of the interviewer, what had been brought up was context, something of relevance – if not to the upcoming fight, then Dubois’ overall career. Yet, in the eyes of Dubois, the fighter, he could see no benefit to playing games for interviewers when his game – a fight, no less – was just days from happening. In that respect, maybe he had every right to behave the way he did this week when asked the kind of questions he had neither the inclination nor energy to answer. For even if it is his duty to sell an upcoming fight, and it is, that doesn’t mean Dubois, or any fighter, is conditioned to understand how or be in any way equipped to do it. 

In the case of Dubois, few are as ill-equipped for the task of selling, speaking, and answering questions. As shown this week, questions present to Dubois differently than how they present to us and some things get lost in translation. Increasingly, too, the more that he struggles and is mocked for it, the more you start to wonder whether it’s Dubois who has it right and is simply behaving in these interviews the way any sane, normal person would and should. You ask yourself, “Have we become so brainwashed as a society into thinking we are all the main character in our own story that we view those who desire not even the role of an extra as being weird, or odd, or alien? Is Dubois not just a shy, socially awkward manchild who is the product of his admittedly unique and closeted upbringing? Is he not speaking for us all when he demonstrates how exhausted he is by the constant grifting, beeping, and clicking of the content-obsessed modern world? Is he not all of us when we sit dormant on a Zoom call and ache to log off as everyone else touches base and circles back? In a world of show-offs, influencers, and bullshitters, is it not somewhat refreshing to see a man, whether through choice or sheer inability, elect not to broadcast his every thought and feeling in the pursuit of attention and fame?” 

I think it is. I really do. I also think that anybody who frowns upon fast-food content along the lines of “Build your perfect fighter” or “Blind rankings” should immediately receive a medal, or some new WBC belt. In fact, the only thing I hate more than that type of content is myself for knowing it exists, which means any effort on the part of a fighter to reduce it, or expose its brain-rot emptiness, only enhances their reputation in my eyes. This applies to Dubois during a DAZN quickfire round, as well as to anyone else who shows resistance to performing on command and getting “clipped up”.  

Besides, there is a time and place. If you must ask fighters fun or silly questions to spark engagement, that’s fine, but do it at a time when their mind is less consumed with far more important matters. Do it at a time when it is not quite so painful for them to smile and to fake it. Because should you ever get close to a professional boxer you will quickly appreciate that fight week is a time fraught with tension, uncertainty and fear. You will know, too, what you can and cannot ask, and will soon learn that the best position to adopt when in the company of a boxer during fight week is that of a Victorian child: seen and not heard; speak only when spoken to. 

Alas, because we are in a time of noise and attention, few are able to comprehend such a thing. Forgetting that fighters, like writers, choose their profession because it is a solitary one, and because they want to use their hands as a mode of expression, too often we harass these people and see them only as commodities for content. Worse, because not many of us know how it feels to be days from a fight, we tend to view them and their behaviour through the same lens through which we, the ones harassing, see the world. That is naïve, I feel, and perhaps unfair. After all, the only thing we really share with a fighter during fight week is the image that appears when we drag our eyes from our phone and look up at the sky. Sometimes it is blue; other times grey. This week, for Daniel Dubois, it hasn’t stopped raining questions.

 

The Floyd Mayweather Jnr-Manny Pacquiao rematch is moving its date, too.

Two officials close to the negotiations told BoxingScene on Thursday night that the rematch of the most lucrative prizefight in history will take place on September 26 on Netflix.

BoxingScene reported last week that the fight pitting the now 49-year-old Mayweather, 50-0 (27 KOs), and 47-year-old Pacquiao, 62-8-3 (39 KOs), was moving away from The Sphere in Las Vegas, with that Madison Square Garden-owned arena filling the previously scheduled September 19 vacancy with an Eagles concert.

The officials who spoke to BoxingScene both said Thursday that they expect the rematch to land at MGM Grand, where the 2015 bout won by Mayweather by unanimous decision was staged.

MGM Grand is a favorite venue of Mayweather, and it’s where Pacquiao last year fought then-WBC welterweight titleholder Mario Barrios to a draw.

Mayweather fought at MGM Grand 12 consecutive times, from his 2007 victory over Oscar De La Hoya – in what then stood as the most successful pay-per-view fight of all time – to his 2015 victory over Andre Berto to close a six-fight contract with Showtime.

Mayweather has confronted reported financial issues over the past year. After telling reporters the bout might be an exhibition in March, an agreement to keep it a professional bout that will count as a win or loss on the record was struck.

One of the connected officials confirmed Thursday, “Both camps had agreed already on all the conditions.”

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.

If two heads are better than one, then it should logically follow that five heads are better than two. (Exactly how former welterweight belt holder Andrew “Six Heads” Lewis fits into this hierarchy is a topic for another time.)

So: You know what’s more compelling than a two-way debate over who is the best fighter in the world, pound-for-pound?

A five-way debate over who is the best fighter in the world, pound-for-pound.

And if anyone tells you there are only two boxers to choose from right now for that No. 1 P4P spot, that it’s a decision between Door A and Door B, you can let them know they’re wrong. There’s also Door C, Door D and Door E, with someone who may in fact be the best fighter on the planet at this particular moment standing behind any of those doors.

Since Terence Crawford announced his retirement at the end of last year, the question of who is the pound-for-pound king has been framed almost everywhere you look as having only two possible answers: Oleksandr Usyk and Naoya Inoue.

And the hivemind’s arrival at that binary conclusion is entirely understandable. Usyk and Inoue are the two all-time greats who were in the three-way debate with Crawford the last couple of years. They’re both undefeated multi-division lineal champs who have taken on most of the best competition available without ever slipping up.

I am not knocking the case for either man. In fact, when I submitted my pound-for-pound list to ESPN last weekend, I had Inoue on top – after previously having Usyk on top.

So I am guilty of making the very decisions I appear to be arguing against.

Except I’m not actually arguing against either of them.

I’m just saying that if you don’t also recognize the case for ranking Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, Shakur Stevenson or David Benavidez in the No. 1 position, you’re being too closed-minded about this.

At the moment, any of those five fighters – Inoue, Usyk, Rodriguez, Stevenson or Benavidez – might reasonably be perceived as the best fighter in the world.

The pound-for-pound list is a snapshot in time that, like my mom with a camera back in the Polaroid days, struggles to center its subjects and is sure to cut off the people on the end. It always runs slightly behind the times because the folks compiling the lists or voting on the lists need to have seen the boxers prove their greatness, whereas in retrospect, we can identify where and when greatness was underappreciated.

Floyd Mayweather Jnr first reached No. 1 on Ring Magazine's pound-for-pound list in the summer of 2005 – four and a half years after he dominated Diego Corrales. We had to wait for the likes of Roy Jones Jnr and Bernard Hopkins and Shane Mosley and Felix Trinidad to lose, but Mayweather was likely the best of them already by 2001 or 2002, when Jones was 32 or 33 and past his absolute peak.

Crawford was never No. 1 on ESPN’s list until he beat Errol Spence in 2023 – when “Bud” was already 35 years old. Knowing what we know now, there’s a real possibility Crawford was the best fighter alive for an entire decade, from 2015 or so through 2025.

It would have perceived as lunacy to rank Crawford above Mayweather in 2015, when the former was beating Thomas Dulorme and Dierry Jean and the latter was clinching his claim to rulership over his era by outpointing Manny Pacquiao. But in hindsight, Crawford was probably slightly superior to an aging Floyd in that moment, right?

Or at least you can now make the case that he was – which is the whole point of this column. That you can make the case.

Usyk is 39 years old. Inoue is 33.

Benavidez is 29, Stevenson is 28 and Rodriguez is 26.

The latter three, one can reasonably assert, are in their absolute primes right now. Usyk and Inoue are not.

Which isn’t to say slightly post-prime Inoue isn’t a greater fighter right at this moment than Benavidez, Stevenson or Rodriguez are – or than any of that trio ever will be. But if you’ve watched all of his fights and paid attention, you know that the Inoue who got dropped by Luis Nery and Ramon Cardenas, and who had to finish strongly to ensure victory over Junto Nakatani is some tiny fraction of a fraction of a percent physically diminished from where he was back when he didn’t have quite as deep a resume.

Usyk hasn’t shown any of those same small signs of slippage. For goodness sake, the man’s past six fights have been two wins apiece over Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois, and he sure didn’t look like he was slowing down as he obliterated Dubois in five rounds last July.

But he’s closing in on his 40th birthday, hasn’t fought in 10 months and is about to take an unserious fight against Rico Verhoeven. Maybe he’s still at his absolute peak, but, logically, he shouldn’t be.

You certainly can’t penalize Usyk in pound-for-pound rankings because he’s older and your gut is telling you it’s going to start impacting his performances soon. That’s some serious "Minority Report" arresting-people-for-crimes-they-haven’t-committed-yet business.

But it’s fair to wonder: Is one of those exceptional fighters in his 20s better than Usyk right at this moment?

Some people like to describe the concept of a pound-for-pound ranking using the hypothetical of “Who would win if every boxer in the world was the same size?”

If you do indeed think of it that way, have fun picking winners in the 10 possible matchup permutations between these five combatants. Every single one is an unanswerable riddle.

But the fact is that pound-for-pound is not just about accomplishment and resume. We certainly use those as factors to help us make measurements, but it’s really supposed to about the “eye test” – who is the most gifted, the most skilled, the most capable right now, as best we can tell.

Divisional rankings are different. Those serve a practical purpose and are to be based on what a fighter has actually done in the ring.

So, for example, while there are no easy answers to the question of who’s better, pound-for-pound, between Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Vergil Ortiz Jnr, there are easy answers to who should be ranked higher at junior middleweight. Ennis has fought in the division only once, beating relative non-entity Uisma Lima. In Ortiz’s 154lbs campaign, he has turned away Serhii Bohachuk, Israil Madrimov and Erickson Lubin.

If you’re compiling fair, merit-based division rankings, it’s Ortiz over Ennis all day every day, probably with several other junior middleweights ranked in between them.

But pound-for-pound is not supposed to be so dictated by resume. Opinion and personal perception should help shape each individual’s P4P list.

And I believe it is entirely fair for anyone to step back and, using their personal perception, say, “Rodriguez is the best fighter on planet Earth right now,” “Benavidez is the best fighter on planet Earth right now” or “Stevenson is the best fighter on planet Earth right now.”

Southpaw Stevenson is as skilled a technician as there is in the game, to the point that he is frequently likened to former pound-for-pound king Pernell Whitaker and nobody gets too hot and bothered over the comp. Stevenson doesn’t score many early finishes, and he may bore fight fans sometimes into making their own early finishes, but you don’t have to be entertaining to top the P4P list. You just have to be better than everybody else.

And given how Stevenson won almost every second of every round against a borderline pound-for-pound-list boxer in Teofimo Lopez Jnr last time out, Shakur may indeed be that guy.

Benavidez may also be that guy, but through an entirely opposite style. “The Mexican Monster” is relentless. He’s overwhelming. He has decent defense, but you could absolutely apply to him the cliché about his offense being his defense. He annihilated Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez last weekend in his first fight in a new weight class a full 25 pounds above his natural division.

That mental exercise where you hypothesize about fighters across the weight spectrum all magically being the same size? With Benavidez, it’s a little less hypothetical. We’ve seen him go from super middle to light heavy and now all the way to cruiser, pound-for-pound-ing whoever’s in front of him.

Then there’s Bam, located somewhere in between the two poles stylistically. He’s not quite as skilled and slick as Stevenson. But, a southpaw himself, he’s not so terribly far off, either. He’s not quite as intimidating offensively as Benavidez. But, a Mexican-American warrior himself, he’s not so terribly far off, either.

Rodriguez is the ultimate boxer-puncher, with exceptional footwork and well-honed instincts for when to sit back and when to attack.

Boxing fans may look back in 2036 and marvel at how obvious it should have been that one of these five fighters was the best in the business in the spring of 2026. Looking at all five of them in the present day, though, with the information we have, it’s not at all obvious.

There are two comfortable choices and there are three speculative choices. But there are five perfectly reasonable choices.

We are fortunate, of course, to be watching the sport at a time when there’s this much talent at the top. And the frustration of not knowing for sure right now who is the rightful pound-for-pound king is more than compensated for by the joy ahead of finding out.

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.

The more Daniel Dubois is seen and heard with a microphone under his nose the more one feels like he should be shielded from them. At times obviously uncomfortable during today’s press conference to promote Saturday’s challenge to Fabio Wardley, he was regardless accused of being unprofessional by the WBO heavyweight beltholder’s manager, Michael Ofo, for walking out on numerous interviews during fight week.

Dubois, 28, has never liked being an interviewee. He once hated it to such a degree, in fact, that being anywhere near him before a press conference was like watching a fearful flyer arrive at an airport. Just about holding it together but, aware that, sooner or later, they were going to be asked to get on the plane.

Today, after long ago being forced to accept its part of the business, he does the very best he can. But it's still far from pleasant for the big Londoner.

Though it’s rich to attach the notion of ‘bullying’ to a sporting event that will be defined by punches to the face, what Dubois has been subjected to this week on social media and beyond – purely because he’s not the most intelligent man in the room – has nonetheless bordered on the distasteful. Let's all laugh at Dubois struggling with another interview has been the theme of the week.

None of that is Wardley’s fault, of course. But one was left wondering what he must have made of Dubois, a fighter accused of ‘quitting’ on three separate occasions in a boxing ring, looking to the exit door this week every time an interview became too much to bear.

That he keeps putting himself through such an ordeal might one day prove more telling about his character, however.

“I’m very focused, I’m very dialled in,” Dubois insisted when asked about his mindset at this stage of proceedings.

“Oh yeah,” Wardley responded. “Look at him. So chilled out.”

Wardley will know, however, that the Dubois forced to answer questions before a fight is very different to the Dubois who is in the ring, away from those pesky microphones, with only the actual fight to worry about.

Wardley, 20-0-1 (19 KOs), will also know he could have gone an easier route than Dubois, 22-3 (21 KOs), for a first defense of his WBO heavyweight title. But then the same could be said about his career as a whole; the jumps he made at various points – whether up to Frazer Clarke, Justis Huni or Joseph Parker – were deemed highly dangerous before he embarked upon them.

“It’s been a wild 10 years [since I turned professional],” Wardley agreed, “it’s been going at a pace. I’ve always thrown myself in at the deep end… I haven’t changed that perspective or that outlook. I want the biggest and best tests out there.”

Here we are again, then, with Wardley. Another fight that is deemed his toughest test to date, another contest where there is genuine uncertainty. However, without a world title victory under his belt, but with that belt already around his waist, Wardley is perhaps under more pressure than he’s been before.

Previously, whether win or lose, it was all about the journey, the education, and the experience, for the 31-year-old. Lose here, however, and that journey changes direction and the momentum he’s picked up since turning professional in 2017 screeches to a halt – however momentary that might be – for the first time. After all, without a world championship victory, will he truly be regarded as a world champion when all is said and done?

“I treat all of my fights like they’re a world title fight,” Wardley said. “In this division it only takes one punch to change the trajectory of your career… All of my fights are the biggest fight…

“It’s not pressure but it is important to me. My dream of winning a world title looks a bit different to the usual fairy tale – I never got to hear in the ring, ‘and the new’. I won’t get that, but I will get all the bells and whistles. ‘And still…’ will sound just as sweet.”

Dubois has been in this situation himself. Before he fought Anthony Joshua in 2024, “DDD” became world titlist only because of a questionable upgrade from the IBF when, in a situation identical to what would later occur to Wardley with the WBO, Oleksandr Usyk vacated. The subsequent demolition of Joshua, notched in five stunning rounds, added some validity to Dubois’ claim to be a bona-fide boxing king.

Therein lies the real bragging rights, at least for now. Though Wardley is markedly better at charming the media than Dubois will ever be, Dubois remains the only one out of the two to have won a world title fight.

“I’ve been here before,” said Dubois, starting to realise that less is more when asked for his final prediction. “A win by any means necessary. That’s it. I’m here for business. Let’s fight.”

Fabio Wardley grins at the prospect of violence.

He knows that, for the first defense of his WBO heavyweight title, he is up against one of the division’s heaviest hitters on Saturday night in Manchester.

In Daniel Dubois, he meets a former champion who has knocked out 21 of his 22 victims.

Yes, he has lost three times, but he has also notched big wins with the scalps he has taken.

Fireworks are expected when the two punchers collide at the Co-op Live, to the extent that promoters Queensberry have dubbed the bill ‘Don’t Blink.’

Wardley knows what is expected, and asked how he will feel when Dubois lands one of his big bombs, he smiles and replies: “I think you’ll see a lot of me of what you’ve seen before, when opponents have connected. Either I give you a little nod to say, ‘Yeah, cool. If that’s the game we’re playing, no worries. Let’s go.’ Or look, I’ll shake it off and come back with my own flurry of punches. You’re not just going to get one free shot off and I’m going to run away and I’m going to be on the other side of the ring. I’m going to turn around and go for you one way or another. You’re not going to get away with a free shot and I’m going to get hit and be in awe, ‘Oh god, this guy hits well hard, I’m going to back out of the situation.’ I’m going to knuckle up and come after you.”

Wardley brings his own heavy artillery. He’s knocked out 19 of his 20 victims, and in his last three fights he sent Frazer Clark to the shadow realm, turned the tables on a marauding Justis Huni and stunned leading contender Joseph Parker.

Trained by Ben Davison, who notably trained Anthony Joshua ahead of his defeat to Dubois a couple of years ago, Wardley has at least had consistency in the corner.

While Dubois had Don Charles in the corner for his last fight, a stoppage to Oleksandr Usyk last summer, and – indeed – Charles will be in the corner on Saturday, he had a spell with Tony Sims in between.

But Wardley is not looking for positives or advantages in camp personnel. He is concerning himself only with what he does. Yes, he and the team have been looking at Dubois footage, but he’s studied just as much of his own tapes in his quest of improvement as he has his opponent.

“Tony Sims, Don Charles, he could be with two coaches, no coach, I couldn’t give a shit,” Wardley said. 

Much of Wardley’s learning has been on the job. It has been well documented that his only experience pre turning pro was a few white-collar bouts.

To that end, his inexperience compared to decorated stars from the amateur system only enhanced his desire to prove others wrong and catch up to the competition.

“I think it’s been important to me because I guess it forced me, in a sense, very early on in my career [it] made me realise the gap, and made me realise that I had a lot of making up to do, even before I turned professional, but once I started jumping in with pros and things like that, I realised very, very quickly that there was a large gap between me and them, and the only way to shorten that gap was through just sheer workrate and dedication and commitment, and just putting it in, and chucking myself in the deep end at any possible opportunity, whether that be with sparring partners or fights or whatever it was, but trying to gain as much experience as I can in a short period of time. So when it comes to 10 years later, like we are, I’m not out of my depth at all. Going into a fight like this, I’ve done 10-rounders, 12 rounds, big fights, big occasions, I’ve ticked off all the milestones, so nothing’s like a deer-in-headlight situation where I’m new to it.”
He has sparred rounds with the likes of Oleksandr Usyk – in several camps in Ukraine – with Tyson Fury and with Anthony Joshua.

He even did rounds, perhaps as much as a decade ago, with Dubois.

Little can be read into that, though it’s clear Dubois got the better of them given the accounts of both fighters. But that was understandable. Wardley had been beating up bankers. Dubois had been on Team GB.

“I’d either been pro for a little while or just turned pro,” Ipswich’s Wardley recalled.

“It was back when he was with [manager and trainer] Martin Bowers at Peacock and the old Peacock [in Canning Town] as well. That’s where the sparring sessions happened, so many, many years ago.”
Wardley is modest and humble, so at no point back then did he think he and Dubois would be sharing a ring for a portion of the world heavyweight title. 

“Back then, again, my goals or the heights I was aiming, especially back then, were nowhere near what I've achieved currently, which is a funny one,” he explained.

“At that stage, I was just kind of almost happy to be here in a sense, just happy to be mixing it with some top-level guys and sharing the ring with them.”
He did, however, believe Dubois was capable of big things. He has no problem admitting that now.

“After sparring with him, I definitely had him down for being successful because even back then,” Wardley said. “Even though I was older than him, I think he was maybe 19, 20 maybe? So I was a young lad and I was like, knowing how early he started and knowing a bit of his history and stuff, after speaking to the guys around him, I thought, ‘Yeah, one way or another, he’s going to be destined to kind of achieve something in the sport, definitely.’”

It is charitable to say that at that same stage, the odds of Wardley going into a fight with Dubois as the defending champion would be long.

But at every point, Wardley backed himself and eventually put his career in recruitment firmly in the rearview mirror.

While there is a great sense of anticipation about what Wardley-Dubois will offer, the fight Wardley has coveted since his coronation has been with divisional No. 1 Usyk.

Instead, the Ukrainian has opted for another path – against a kickboxer later this month – in an attraction bout in Egypt.

But, should Wardley win, he will press his claims to fight Usyk.

So will promoter Frank Warren, who also promotes Agit Kabayel and Moses Itauma, and both of them are knocking on the Usyk door.

Wardley might have been greener than grass when he sparred Usyk, but he showed him enough to be invited back a couple more times.

“But, yeah, look,” Wardley continued. “There’s going to be a stark difference between the Fabio Wardley of eight years ago and this one. A big, big change. A massive change. I think we’ve seen at least over the last sort of two, three fights as well that there’s been improvements, been changes, been adjustments, and I’ve been doing that throughout my whole career as well.”

He is more than comfortable saying he has learned on the job, too. It has been risky and a very public education, but it has stood him in good stead. 

And should Usyk take another direction in his fight after Rico Verhoeven, Wardley would be in the sweepstakes for the winner of the proposed bout between Fury and Joshua later in the year, should it happen.

“Don’t get wrong, Usyk is still number one for me, irrespective, if you laid out all three of those guys as an option, Usyk would always be top of the tree, because he is undefeated, he is the one running the game at the moment,” Wardley said.

“One thing you know about me is that I always want to test myself against the best, the unquestionable best out there, the best available. So I would always pick him, but yeah, if another situation, another circumstance arises where he makes himself unavailable, or it doesn’t come together, or whatever else, then yeah, then I’d take one of those guys, whether it be AJ, whether it be Fury, I’d be happy to.”

TOKYO – Last week, Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani reminded me just how good boxing can be when it’s done properly.

From start to finish, there was no name-calling, no shoving to sell tickets. There was respect throughout, and it was refreshing to see. We have all become accustomed to watching two fighters whose mouths go at each other all week in an attempt to manufacture interest. However, when two of the very best meet at the right time, none of that is necessary. People will watch anyway.

Every interaction between the pair across the week oozed class, and when fight night came, they delivered a high-level chess match in front of 55,000 at the Tokyo Dome that was impossible to look away from. Inoue retained his undisputed junior featherweight crown after a competitive contest, and even then, the respect remained and the embrace at the final bell said it all.

In many ways, their conduct is exactly what you would expect of two Japanese fighters competing at home. Respect and how you represent your gym comes first. Which is refreshing in itself. Like in the amateurs, you don’t just fight for yourself, you fight for your club and what that represents. 

I spent close to a decade as an amateur boxer, fighting for little more than a medal, pride, and a McDonald’s on the way home. The greatest compliment I can give this week in Japan is that, in spirit, it felt the same.

Not in level, far from it, but in purpose.

Despite the sheer size of the event, it actually just felt like a sport. The biggest fight in Japanese boxing history wasn’t sold on noise or controversy. It was sold on what it was, two elite fighters stepping into the ring to decide who was better. Nothing else.

The stakes, of course, were far greater than a post-fight Big Mac, but the way Inoue and Nakatani carried themselves, you might not have known it. The tone was set as early as Thursday’s press conference. Sitting side by side, there was tension, as there should be considering what was at stake, but never the sense it would spill over. Neither ever threatened to lose control.

Even the room felt different from what I’ve become used to at boxing events in the UK and US. The entire press conference was conducted in Japanese, but rather than feeling shut out, the local media went out of their way to help me. One reporter, Masahiro Muku of "The Answer," sent over translated quotes afterwards, and continued to do so throughout the week.

It was a small gesture, but one that said plenty about boxing in Japan. Respectful, accommodating, and focused on the sport.

I took a walk through Tokyo after the press conference, trying to get a sense of just how big the fight was to the city. In Shinjuku, a district lit brightly with billboards and advertisements, I expected to see Naoya Inoue’s and Junto Nakatani’s faces everywhere. I didn’t see one.

At first, it felt strange. This was a fight I’d travelled 6,000 miles to cover, one of the biggest in the sport, so where was it? The answer came the following day.

Thousands packed into the famous Korakuen Hall for the ceremonial weigh-in to watch Inoue and Nakatani face off one final time. That was when it hit. This wasn’t a fight that needed selling on street corners or billboards. It was already imprinted into fans’ minds long ago.

I thought about how my editor, Matt Christie, told me about how he felt seeing Floyd Mayweather Jnr and Manny Pacquiao finally face off at their weigh-in in 2015. Standing there in Korakuen Hall, I understood what he meant.

This was Japan’s Mayweather-Pacquiao. It was huge.

What happened next, though, was something else entirely. Could you imagine Manny Pacquiao inviting a young foreign reporter into his hotel room 24 hours before the biggest fight of his life? 

No, and quite rightly so, but Junto Nakatani did.

He sat on the sofa alongside his friends and team, cracking a joke as I nearly walked in with my shoes on – something I never quite got used to in Japan. He was calm, relaxed, completely unfazed ahead of facing the undefeated knockout artist known as “The Monster."

It felt surreal. It also felt familiar.

It reminded me of the nights before amateur tournaments, crammed into hotel rooms with teammates, laughing, messing around, anything but thinking about the fight the next day. Back then, it was just a sport. Nothing more, nothing less.

And sat there with him in his room, it seemed that way for Nakatani, too.

He was confident. So was Inoue. And the next night, they would find out whose confidence was best placed.

Now, the weigh-in had offered a glimpse of what Inoue-Nakatani meant to the people of Japan, but it still didn’t prepare me for fight night. I arrived at the Tokyo Dome an hour before the opening bout, thinking I’d have time to grab some sushi and pick up a fight T-shirt to take home. I should have got there six hours earlier, the queue for the merchandise store alone stretched endlessly.

Outside, you could barely see the ground. Thousands filled the surrounding streets, hoping to get their hands on a ticket or simply be part of it. And yet, when I finally made my way inside, it felt as though there were even more people within the Dome than outside it.

The 55,000-seat arena was almost full for the first fight of the night. In the UK, turning up that early usually means spotting the odd reporter, not 50,000 fans already in their seats. It was incredible, and so was the fight.

It wasn’t the bloodbath or war many had hoped for. It was something better. Two of the finest fighters on the planet engaging in a duel laced with finesse, one that only a handful in the sport could truly appreciate. Momentum shifted throughout, each man adapting, adjusting, and finding moments of success.

The atmosphere was something I had not experienced before. 

There was no shouts of “Fucking hit him!” that I’d become used to hearing in UK arenas or fights in the stands. The Tokyo crowd cheered when a shot landed and merely chanted the name of their chosen fighter when things weren’t going well. They were respectful throughout, and so were both Inoue and Nakatani.

There was a brief moment in the eighth round that captured it perfectly.

Nakatani slipped a right hand from Inoue and fired back with two shots of his own, only for Inoue to duck underneath them by millimeters. Inoue popped back up and threw again, but Nakatani made him miss once more.

For a split second, both men paused, and smiled. Almost in admiration of what the other had just done before immediately returning to the task of trying to take each other’s head off.

The crowd applauded as the smile was shown on screen in the arena. They loved it.

“I was fighting while feeling Nakatani's technique and fighting spirit,” Inoue said afterwards. “I think he felt the same way. I think we were both enjoying the space where neither of us could land a hit. I think that smile came naturally from that.”

The respect between them continued after the final bell.

Despite defeat, Junto Nakatani – with a nasty gash over his eye and a broken orbital bone – still gave the media his time. Just five minutes, before heading to the hospital. He almost seemed apologetic that he couldn’t give more. He owed us nothing.

Things were kept brief for Naoya Inoue, too. He would speak again the following day at his boxing gym, as is customary in Japan – something I can’t help but feel we should adopt in the UK.

I’ve never quite understood the rush to put a microphone in front of a fighter seconds after they’ve had their head punched for 36 minutes. Twelve rounds at that level is draining, both physically and mentally. The day-after press conference allowed true reflection, and time to process the result, to occur.

It also reminded me, quite quickly, that I was no longer in the UK.

I walked into the Ohashi Boxing Gym and, without thinking, kept my shoes on – a mistake I quickly corrected when I saw the feet and smiles of everyone else.

A small thing, but in Japan, those things really matter. Respect isn’t just reserved for the ring. It’s everywhere, ingrained from a young age, and evident in how fighters carry themselves, how gyms are treated, and how the sport is spoken about.

It’s not something that’s put on for the cameras. It’s part of the culture, and it’s something I’ll take with me long after this week is over.

Weeks like this don’t come around often. Not in modern boxing. No chaos, no controversy, no stunts for social media. Just two of the very best proving that when the sport is left to speak for itself, it says far more than any promotion ever could.

It reminded me of why I fell in love with boxing in the first place, the purity of competition, the respect and pride in bettering another man in the ring.

This was boxing at its core. Boxing done properly.

Tom Ivers is a lifelong fight fan and former amateur boxer who has a master’s degree in sports journalism. Tom joined BoxingScene in 2024 and is now a key part of the UK and social media teams.

David Benavidez on Saturday became the first fighter ever to win titles at super middleweight, light heavyweight and cruiserweight, and Gilberto Ramirez’s blood on his gloves had barely had time to dry before talk turned to Benavidez moving up to heavyweight – and not just for any fight, but specifically in a matchup against unified and linear heavyweight champ Oleksandr Usyk.

The money and prestige for such a match would be like nothing Benavidez has yet seen, but the same holds true for the risk. Meanwhile, several fights – viable, lucrative, legacy-building fights – are likely available to Benavidez at light heavyweight and cruiserweight (and possibly even his old super middleweight stomping grounds). So we put the question to our esteemed BoxingScene staff: At what weight should David Benavidez fight next?

Declan Warrington: Cruiserweight. A fight with Jai Opetaia to determine the best cruiserweight in the world is both the most significant and most entertaining that both fighters can realistically be involved in. Dates with Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol at light heavyweight also have considerable appeal, but the best fight at 175lbs would be a third fight between those two, not one involving Benavidez. It’s also essential, given that their all-Russian rivalry is level at 1-1. There shouldn’t be any talk of Benavidez fighting at heavyweight until, at the very earliest, he proves himself the world’s best cruiserweight. It’s not that long ago he was at super middleweight – and his only win at cruiserweight came against another former super middleweight. Not that it comes as a surprise that the figure who wanted to match Naoya Inoue with Gervonta “Tank” Davis thinks putting Benavidez in the ring with Oleksandr Usyk is a good idea.

David Greisman: Cruiserweight. We just saw what might be the best version of David Benavidez yet, which is saying something given some of the names on his record at super middleweight and light heavyweight. Yes, I would still love to see a bout between Benavidez and Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed championship at 175. And, yes, I believe that Benavidez can drop back down to light heavyweight somewhat comfortably given his body composition. But barring Bivol or Artur Beterbiev agreeing to fight Benavidez before the end of 2026, let’s see whether a deal can be done with Jai Opetaia for what would be the biggest cruiserweight fight in years.

Lucas Ketelle: Whichever weight class offers him the best big fight. It’s a lame, noncommittal answer, but hear me out: Outside of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Benavidez has three potential matchups that should excite everyone: Bivol, Opetaia and Beterbiev. Bivol and Beterbiev are at light heavyweight, and Opetaia is the other great cruiserweight. His next fight should be against one of those three fighters, and at this point, that should dictate his weight class – as long as he is willing to move back down in weight.

Tris Dixon: Do you know what? I don’t really mind. All I know is that after Saturday, I want to see him again regardless of the weight, and I’d take Canelo at 175 (no chance), Bivol at 175lbs, Beterbiev or Opetaia. The talk of heavyweight seems fanciful and unnecessary. Point to Roy Jones Jnr all you want, but with all due respect, Benavidez is not Roy and Oleksandr Usyk is definitely not John Ruiz. Those talking about that kind of match can, for me, go back to talking about Tank and Inoue, et al.

Matt Christie: I don’t often disagree with Tris, but I’d be fascinated to see those fast hands of Benavidez in the heavyweight division. Failing that, a contest with Jai Opetaia would be a cracker. I have zero interest in a matchup with Canelo at this point and, given the amount of weight he’s just put on, a drop back to light heavyweight might not be the best idea.

Jason Langendorf: In the afterglow of Saturday night, Benavidez seems capable of almost anything. But he and his team should ask themselves not only “Why heavyweight?” (easy answer) but “Why now?” Benavidez was fighting at 168 as recently as two and a half years ago, and a move to heavyweight – even against a former cruiser in Usyk – would mean facing opponents 50lbs heavier, bare minimum. At 29, Benavidez has bankable fights against Bivol, Opetaia and – who knows? – perhaps Canelo that can still be made in three other divisions. Handle what’s in front of you, move up slowly (if at all) and remember the cautionary tale of Roy Jones – who was never the same after beating Ruiz and moving back down in weight.

Abdullah Mason will make the first defense of his lightweight title in front of a novel but favorable boxing audience.

Mason will get his first true hometown date when he defends against former titleholder Joe Cordina on July 4 at Cleveland State’s Wolstein Center, promoter Top Rank announced Tuesday in a press conference at Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The card will be broadcast on TNT and DAZN in the U.S. and on DAZN worldwide as part of their inaugural “The Fight” monthly live boxing series.

The 22-year-old Mason, 20-0 (17 KOs), is boxing’s youngest current male belt holder. He won a 12-round unanimous decision over then-unbeaten Sam Noakes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this past November. Previously, Mason fought in Westlake (a Cleveland suburb), but the Cordina fight will mark his first in “The Land.”

“Top Rank’s had a long history of building guys in their hometown,” said Carl Moretti, Top Rank’s vice president of boxing operations. “There’s nothing better.”

Cleveland arguably hasn’t hosted a fight card of this magnitude since 1975, when Chuck Wepner famously knocked down Muhammad Ali, which ultimately ended in an Ali stoppage win – but also served as Sylvester Stallone’s inspiration for the “Rocky” franchise.

Also in the Mason-Cordina event will be featherweight titleholder Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington’s defense against Rene Palacios in the co-feature; Cleveland native and U.S. Olympian Tiger Johnson facing Christopher Guerrero at welterweight; Deric “Scooter” Davis taking on Carlos Ramos at lightweight; and two of Mason’s brothers – lightweight Abdurrahman Mason and junior lightweight Ibrahim Mason – in separate fights on the undercard.

“July 4 is the homecoming that my brothers and I have been anticipating since before we turned pro,” Abdullah Mason said. “I’m ready to experience all of my city’s support in one building, and I have an appetite for smoke.”

Cordina, 19-1 (9 KOs), is a 34-year-old from Cardiff, Wales, coming off wins over Gabriel Flores Jnr and Jaret Gonzalez Quiroz since falling in a stoppage loss to Anthony Cacace last May that cost him his junior lightweight strap. The win over Flores – in Flores’ hometown of Stockton, California – is particularly notable under the circumstances.

“This is a massive test for me, but it’s one that I’m more than capable of coming through with flying colors,” Cordina said. “Abdullah Mason is a very good fighter, and he’s going to do big things in boxing, but I’m going to mess up the homecoming. I’m looking to come over, rip the title away from him, and take it back to the U.K. It’s a massive fight for boxing, and I’m looking to become a three-time two-weight world champion.”

Daniel Dubois has warned Fabio Wardley of the mistake he will be making if he judges him off the back of his defeats by Oleksandr Usyk.

Dubois on Saturday, at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England, becomes the first challenger to Wardley in his reign as WBO heavyweight champion, and does so on the occasion of his first fight since Usyk inflicted his third defeat.

It was in July 2025 in his rematch with Usyk that Dubois produced the least convincing display of his three defeats – the first came against Joe Joyce in 2020 – when he was stopped in five rounds but appeared capable of fighting on.

He was also stopped by Usyk in 2023, over the course of nine more competitive rounds, and in 10 by Joyce, but when he had horrifically suffered a fractured orbital socket by his left eye.

If it is harsh to hold against him the nature of the defeat by Joyce, even at a time when Usyk is widely considered the finest fighter in the world, his defeats against the Ukrainian are cited by Dubois’ critics as evidence that he lacks heart.

It perhaps helps little in the context of Saturday’s contest that Wardley, 31, endured so bruising-and-bloody a battle against Frazer Clarke in 2024 and won from losing positions against Justis Huni and Joseph Parker in 2025, but Dubois insists that his self-belief is unaffected because of Usyk’s remarkable abilities, and that he is relishing testing himself against Wardley in the way that he previously did against Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and Anthony Joshua before the second time Usyk was put in his path.

“I fought against the best fighter of a generation, so I’m not really down or nothing, just thinking about how we move forward and about a lot of personal things,” Dubois said. 

“Lessons learned are that he’s a great southpaw fighter. He’s a great southpaw, great champion, and I’ve got to go back to the drawing board and come again. I feel like we’re going to get it right this time though, with the training and how everything is going to be perfect – I just have a feeling.

“He’s the greatest fighter of the generation. He’s like your Muhammad Alis – a generational great – but here I am now in a real-life fight now.

“It’s just a process and to be honest I was straight back on it and looking to line up who’s next, watching the heavy division and seeing who’s going to be next and I’m glad I’ve got this opportunity.

“[Wardley’s] nothing like him. Usyk is southpaw, whereas I’m going to have answers for Fabio. He might try southpaw, but I’m experienced now. I’ve faced Usyk twice; I’ve faced ‘AJ’; I’ve faced all these great fighters. I’ve got that experience on my side.”

Dubois, 28, downplayed the consequences of his attending a house party earlier in the day of his third defeat – “That wasn’t a factor; that had nothing to do with that; that was in the past now anyway, so I’m moving on from that” – and also, initially, about his separation from his then-trainer Don Charles, who he replaced with Tony Sims until replacing Sims with Charles when confirmation of his date with the heavy-handed Wardley neared.

“Don’s my trainer for my next fight, and I’m glad to be back with him – that’s all that matters,” he said. “It’s no disrespect to Tony, obviously Tony’s good, but this is the best decision I’ve made for my career.

“It’s a great gym and it feels like my energy and spirit is in [Charles’] gym. I feel like I’m home.

“We just had a bit of a break after the fight. We just had a bit of a break and thought about things. Boxing’s always changing.”

Sims had long targeted for Dubois the fight with Wardley. Charles, too, is characteristically confident that they will win. For all of Dubois’ experience, however – which includes sparring Wardley almost a decade ago; they turned professional on separate promotions on the same date of April 8, 2017 – his fellow Englishman offers a relative rawness and unpredictability that he hasn’t previously seen.

“He’s been lucky up until now – he’s been lucky,” he said. “I’m going to be the man to take his 0. I’ve done it before and I’m going to do it again.

“I mean [he’s been lucky in the way] he’s pulled it out of the bag; he’s unorthodox, so a lot of fighters out there, they’re not used to that; they do things just out of reactions; it’s different. I’m going to be ready for him on fight night.

“[To negate that I’ll] just work off the jab; pumping that jab and getting into the rhythm. I’m going to have all the answers. Everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in their mouth.

“We sparred years back. I dominated him in the spars back then. I was dominating him, but I understand things change; he’s come on since then obviously. I’m looking for the best version of him and I’ll be the best version for sure.

“We were in for good old tear-ups, but I was the one in charge and I’m going to be doing it again. It will be the same story and I’ll be a two-time champion of the world.

“Credit to him, he’s beating all the guys that he’s faced. You’ve got to take your hat off to that. He’s wanted the biggest challenges and he’s taken them on and I respect him for that.

“I love fighting punchers and guys that are like that. Bring it on.

“I feel like the luckiest guy in boxing. It’s just one after the other, and I’ve been grateful to [my promoter] Frank Warren, my dad [Dave], and the support network I have around me for manoeuvring me to keep my spirits high so that we can come again.

“I was elated. This is my chance from God; he’s given me this opportunity and I can’t let myself down or my team down and this is the time to dig deeper than ever before.”

 

When Britain’s former IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois was recently asked to name the six British world heavyweight champions of the 21st century, he managed to name only three. The three that came to Dubois’ mind were Lennox Lewis, Anthony Joshua and eventually Daniel Dubois. “There’s not that many, is there?” he said, before being reminded of the names Tyson Fury, David Haye and Fabio Wardley, his opponent this Saturday. “I know I did bad,” Dubois said. “My brain’s scrambled.”

He needn’t have felt too stupid, Dubois. Anyone put on the spot for a bit of mindless, brain-rot social media content is liable to fold under pressure – either that or lose the will to live – and he is not the first person to sink to the level of the game being played in the name of “banter” or “fun”. 

That said, it was interesting to see him struggle to name Fabio Wardley as one of the six British world heavyweight champions, particularly given it is Wardley’s WBO heavyweight title Dubois will hope to snatch this weekend. Perhaps, given the short nature of Wardley’s reign (he has yet to make a defence), and the fact he was “given” the belt after it was vacated by Oleksandr Usyk, means it is easy to forget that he even owns it. Or perhaps Dubois overlooking Wardley, and the others, is indicative of how easy it is for a heavyweight to claim a version of the heavyweight title these days and how, as a result, the significance of the achievement is in turn diminished. 

Either way, Dubois, a former belt-holder, meets a current belt-holder on Saturday in Manchester, England. It is a fight of importance not only because there is a WBO heavyweight title up for grabs, but because both Wardley, the champion, and Dubois, the challenger, hail from Great Britain. That in itself helps to elevate it; make it something other than just one more heavyweight fight for another slice of the heavyweight pie. 

As we saw last weekend with Naoya Inoue vs. Junto Nakatani and David Benavidez vs. Gilberto Ramirez, there is a special ingredient to fights between boxers who share nationality and often these fights mean more to us than others. At the time the interest in them tends to be much greater and then, with the passing of time, we find that they are a lot easier to remember, too. Even Daniel Dubois, if tested, might be able to name one or two of the few all-British heavyweight title fights of the 21st century. He did, after all, appear in one of them. In fact, the one time Dubois has faced a fellow Brit in a world heavyweight title fight, he produced his best performance to date. So, if he can’t remember that, his brain really is “scrambled”.

As for the other all-British world heavyweight title fights of the modern era, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Perhaps the best of them was a 1993 encounter between Lennox Lewis and Frank Bruno in Cardiff, Wales, but that belongs to the last century, not this one. The offerings this century have been of a slightly different standard, and yet still we have seen some compelling matchups and, notably, some conclusive finishes. 

Here, for the benefit of Daniel Dubois, is a brief history of the all-British world heavyweight title fights of the 21st century so far.  

 

4) David Haye TKO 3 Audley Harrison

November 13, 2010

Manchester, England

When David Haye defended his WBA heavyweight title against fellow Londoner Audley Harrison, it was sold on the premise that they were old friends turned enemies and with it came a tagline worthy of any grift: “Yes. I. Can.” That tagline was something Harrison repeated throughout the buildup to his first and only world title shot and so often was it said some actually started to believe he might have a chance of pulling off the upset. In his last fight, he had dramatically knocked out Michael Sprott in the 12th round of a European title fight he was losing and that was enough for some to believe – or want to believe – that the stars had aligned for Harrison and that his early days of struggle had not been in vain. 

In reality, of course, he had been gifted the title shot with Haye on account of Haye’s desire to have a soft defence against an opponent with some name recognition in the UK. That way Haye could have his cake and eat it. He could, on the one hand, get what most felt would be a guaranteed knockout win, and he could also flog this guaranteed knockout win to the ignorant masses on Sky Sports Box Office. Give it enough of a push, which both he and Harrison did, and a lot of money could be made from something that was, in essence, only ever one thing: a mismatch. 

On the night, when Haye ambushed his best mate in round three, both the fight’s true nature and the extent to which the public had been duped became obvious to all. It then wasn’t long before Haye and Harrison were hugging again and recalling the good old days, all the richer for having shared a ring and a vision. 

3) Tyson Fury TKO 10 Derek Chisora

December 3, 2022

London, England

No more competitive than Haye-Harrison in 2010 was the WBC heavyweight title fight between Tyson Fury and Derek Chisora in 2022. Much like Haye-Harrison, this one carried the stench of an arrangement, or a deal, with Fury and Chisora having endured a long courtship which dated back to 2011 when they first boxed. Since then, they had boxed again, in 2014, and this fight in 2022 was the last and weakest installment of a trilogy nobody really asked for or wanted to see. By now, Fury was levels above Chisora, while Chisora, who tested Fury somewhat in their first fight, was a man clearly on the decline. This not only ensured that the fight was a mismatch, which it was, but it also had you wondering how it had been allowed to happen in the first place. Was it purely because Fury wanted to financially reward Chisora at this late stage in his career? Was it less a fight than a bit of charity? Did Chisora, the charity case, ever really think he was going to win? 

If he did, there were no signs of this belief on the night. Instead, Chisora, brave as always, was gradually beaten up and broken down at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before being finally put out of his misery after 10 rounds.

2) Tyson Fury TKO 6 Dillian Whyte

April 23, 2022

London, England

If Fury’s second all-British world heavyweight title fight with Derek Chisora was all a bit pointless, the same cannot be said for his first one: a sixth-round stoppage of Dillian Whyte at Wembley Stadium in April 2022. That fight had a lot of what Fury-Chisora III would lack – chiefly, stakes, risk, and danger. Rather than gifted his title shot, Whyte had actually worked for it, and been made to wait for it, and by the time it then arrived there were even some who felt he might have the aggression and confidence to have a bit of success in the presence of Fury. 

As it turned out, of course, this couldn’t have been further from the truth. Soon into the fight Whyte’s confidence had been knocked out of him by an on-song Fury and he had come to learn that there is a difference between beating the likes of Alexander Povetkin, Oscar Rivas and Joseph Parker and then toppling Tyson Fury. There was a gap – both in the distance between them and in class – and this gap Whyte, the smaller man, was unable to close. That’s why, in the end, he got desperate, he got reckless, and he walked on to a vicious Fury uppercut in round six. With that, Whyte’s pursuit of a world heavyweight title came to an end.  

1) Daniel Dubois TKO 5 Anthony Joshua

September 21, 2024

London, England

Although Daniel Dubois’ reign as IBF heavyweight champion was brief, the thing that puts Dubois vs. Joshua above the other all-British world heavyweight title fights in the last 25 years is the fact that it was a battle between two “world champions”. Joshua, of course, had held the same belt not once but twice and, unlike Harrison, Chisora and Whyte, challenged Dubois at Wembley Stadium with the history and mentality of a world champion. This alone made the fight between Dubois and Joshua more compelling; fraught as it was with the element of the unknown. 

Even if Joshua was likely past his best, this concern was tempered somewhat by the knowledge that Dubois was new on the scene and had yet to really prove himself or find his feet as a world heavyweight champion. They met, in other words, somewhere in the middle, right in that sweet spot, and it was hard to tell, pre-fight, which of the two Londoners would prevail. 

Then the first bell rang and Dubois suddenly seemed too big, too quick and too strong for Joshua. More than that, he seemed too confident for him, too much for him, and it was no shock when Dubois began wounding his anxious opponent with jabs and right hands, dropping him as early as round one. This pattern continued for the next few rounds before, in round five, Joshua finally had a moment of success when he staggered Dubois with a right of his own during a frantic exchange. That precipitated Joshua’s fans and team rising in hope and excitement, feeling the momentum had now shifted. It also precipitated the image of Joshua spreadeagled on the canvas having stumbled blindly into a heavy Dubois right. “Are you not entertained?!” roared the victor in the aftermath, surrounded by compatriots, with another down at his feet. “Are you not entertained?!”

 

Fabio Wardley has revealed that Daniel Dubois used to “punch him up” when they sparred as younger men.

Wardley on Saturday at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England makes the first defence of his reign as WBO heavyweight champion against Dubois, and while very aware of the very different paths they have pursued.

Dubois, 28, was groomed for greatness as a heavy-handed young professional widely recognised as potentially one of the world’s most exciting heavyweights.

Wardley, in contrast, in many respects looked up to Dubois despite being three years his senior, and because as a former white-collar boxer his progress as a professional was expected to be limited and slow.

Dubois stopped Anthony Joshua in an IBF heavyweight title fight a month before Wardley fought and beat Frazer Clarke – who he had previously drawn with – for the British and Commonwealth titles, and on an evening in October 2024 on which numerous observers of their entertaining first fight had predicted that he would lose.

However Wardley, on account of the heart that means he has recovered from losing positions to record impressive stoppages of Justis Huni and Joseph Parker, has surpassed all previous expectations to emerge as one of the world’s leading heavyweights and in many respects to overtake Dubois, whose leading critics continue to question the heart that they believed was lacking in two defeats by Oleksandr Usyk and another by Joe Joyce.

It is perhaps that knowledge of his ability to survive losing positions – in addition to his quiet confidence and the humility that has contributed so much to the way Wardley consistently improves – that makes him so willing to be open about sparring sessions that might intimidate others, but Wardley in so many respects remains an individual and a fighter unto himself.

“I don’t even know if I was pro by then,” Wardley said. “It was seven or eight years [ago], something like that and either I was or had just started. Maybe I’d had my first fight or second fight.

“I have got no qualms in saying he punched me up but I would beg him not to take anything from that spar and carry that through to now because that was a guy who [just] laced up a pair of gloves whereas he had an amateur career; junior champion; GB champion, this and all the others and I put on the gloves a few weeks ago and thought ‘Yeah let’s have a move around with Daniel Dubois’.

“I wasn’t nervous. I knew it would be a tough spar but I always kind of relished it and challenged it because it was minor incremental [improvements] that I would get a bit better. I would come out of sparring and, ‘Cor I only got punched up 15 times but that was two less than last week’, and it was fine. I didn’t care and wasn’t like score-keeping and thinking I had to win.

“I went into it knowing, ‘Currently you are better than me and I’ve got no problem with that; I’m trying to get better and the only way to do that is to compete with people better than me’. There is no point me staying in my little old white-collar gym and smashing up Steve who comes in every other week and thinking I am the man. For me, at that stage of my career, my mentality was get around, spar everyone as much as possible, and gain as much experience as you can.

“He was even more introverted back then.

“He was definitely up there as one of the big punchers I was in with, but there were a lot I was sharing the ring with at that time. There was [Derek] Chisora; there was Dillian Whyte; there was him; there was Filip Hrgovic. It wasn’t like he was a stand-out, it was just known that he was pretty solid and could whack a bit. There was even cruiserweights – I remember sparring Richard Riakporhe, he could whack and I remember him crack me as well and I was thinking, ‘Jesus, some of these boys can proper hit’, but again, that was seven or eight years ago. It was probably, some of it, due to how green I was – me taking shots and not even moving, taking it straight to the dome and that would rack my brain a bit.”

For every way in which Wardley’s relative rawness makes him unpredictable in the ring, Dubois continues to prove unpredictable outside of it. Defeat in his most recent contest, the rematch with Usyk in July 2025, came after he inexplicably was present at a house party earlier that day. It was then followed by him separating from Don Charles, the trainer who had led him to the impressive victories over Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and Joshua that transformed his career, recruiting the experienced Tony Sims, and then months later splitting with Sims before having a single fight under him and rehiring Charles to prepare him for Saturday’s fight.

That Dubois had previously entered dates under Martin Bowers and Shane McGuigan is also in contrast to Wardley’s loyalty to Robert Hodgins, who he first worked with as a white-collar boxer and whose expertise he complemented, instead of replaced, as a professional with Ben Davison. It is, to Wardley’s mind, a character flaw that is perhaps holding Dubois back.

“It seems unsettled and doesn’t seem like the best course of action,” Wardley said. “And also seems to me that whether it is him or we know the story about his dad [Dave] and how much control he has, etcetera, etcetera, but it also seems to me like a lack of accountability. That whenever there is a fight or whenever you lose or something goes wrong, you immediately blame the trainer and leave that trainer and find another one. Maybe it is you. Maybe you didn’t listen, or you didn’t train or you didn’t do something. I think the default to look outward and blame someone is quite telling.

“Obviously it makes no odds to me. One trainer, two trainers or no trainer, I couldn’t care. For me with Daniel, and he is good don’t get me wrong – very good – but with all of these different trainers, he hasn’t really changed. Stylistically he hasn’t changed; the way he approaches things hasn’t really changed, he might have some different little things, but there’s been no overhaul or difference at all. So, it’s not like there’s a new trainer and I’m going to get there on the night and be like, ‘Fucking hell, who is this? This is a whole new Daniel Dubois’. It’s not going to be like that at all. He is who he is and he fights how he fights. They will tweak little bits along the way, but I don’t think a change of trainer has a massive effect on him like it does for some people.”

Wardley responded to narrowly being outboxed by Clarke in March 2024 to stop him inside a round in their rematch. He was convincingly outboxed by Huni when he dramatically and explosively stopped the Australian in the 10th, and also losing to Parker when he similarly dramatically stopped him in the 11th as recently as October.

There is, objectively, a considerable contrast with the defeats suffered by Dubois, who was horrifically injured against Joyce but twice against Usyk appeared capable of carrying on, and it is that streak – one absent in difficult contests against Miller and Hrgovic – that Wardley believes represents the greatest contrast between them, even while aware of how articulate he is and while describing the rival who turned professional on April 8, 2017, the same day as him, as an “introvert”. It, regardless, may yet prove relevant that their sparring sessions went as they once did; Dubois was full of confidence as the significant underdog against the decorated Joshua at a time when suggestions persisted that he had once hurt Joshua as a young man while they sparred.

“I guess that’s quite on the nose,” Wardley said. “That is the contrast. If it is not going his way, he nosedives and if it is not going my way, I stay the course, I stay focused and stay on track and I think that is evidence in the difference in our mentality.

“It’s not necessarily something new. We knew that before from the Joe Joyce fight, so say it never happened in the Usyk fight and it only happened once in the Joyce fight, I would still know it is there. I would still know it is in him to capitulate and back out. So, it is just more evidence on top of something I already saw there.

“I think there is a level of not being able to believe it that I have come from where I have come from and been able to achieve what I have been able to achieve. Every time it’s like, ‘He has to fall now; he has to go wrong now’, but I do laugh; there is always a caveat like it’s that or the Huni fight I was losing and ‘just’ pulled it out the bag or it was this. There is always a caveat of why; it is never ‘Fabio did well there and congrats’, so, yeah that will always follow me around one way or another.

“[Dubois] is someone people will look at and say ‘That is a respectable opponent’. A respectable opponent; former world champion; someone who has been in with some of the best guys.

“My plan is to be that person – I think the best way to [secure the biggest fights] is to be known for being the guy in real fights and who is entertaining and is value for money.”

David Benavidez scored a thrilling sixth-round stoppage against Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez to win unified cruiserweight titles Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The historic win left only one remaining question: Who will Benavidez fight next?

Benavidez, 32-0 (26 KOs), has now won titles in the super middleweight, light heavyweight and cruiserweight divisions – the first to achieve the feat. A 29-year-old Phoenix native who now lives in Miami, Benavidez also became the first to stop Ramirez, further solidifying his pound-for-pound status. He has teased the idea of an eventual move to heavyweight. He called out Saul “Canelo” Alvarez – yet again – in the ring after beating Zurdo. How high can Benavidez rise? Who could challenge him? Most importantly, who might be up on his dance card?

Here are the most likely opponents Benavidez could face in his next fight:

5. Albert Ramirez

Record: 22-0 (19 KO)

Chances of happening: 3 per cent

Level of excitement: 6/10

Ramirez is an up-and-comer in the light heavyweight division and a former Olympian. He isn’t a sexy name, but he is undefeated. Ramirez is scheduled to fight June 4 against Lerrone Richards.

4. Jai Opetaia

Record: 30-0 (23 KOs)

Chances of happening: 10 per cent

Level of excitement: 9/10

Opetaia is viewed as the cruiserweight division’s best fighter by most pundits. A bout between Benavidez and Opetaia would give both a chance to become the clear standout fighter of the division, but it would have to clear some significant promotional hurdles.

3. Artur Beterbiev

Record: 21-1 (20 KOs)

Chances of happening: 15 per cent

Level of excitement: 7/10

Who knows if Beterbiev, at age 41, will ever fight again? That said, the violence between even a somewhat diminished Beterbiev – a brilliant former light heavyweight titleholder – and three-division champ Benavidez could be out of this world.

2. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez

Record: 33-2 (26 KOs)

Chances of happening: 20 per cent

Level of excitement: 10/10

A fight with Alvarez would potentially be the most compelling boxing has to offer. A still-young star on the cusp of crossover status eager to take the crown against a Mexican legend and boxing’s biggest current star? Yes, please. An important question: Will the weights make sense at this point? Maybe not, but if they can find a way to make their way into the ring together, it’s a great fight. Benavidez may have called out Alvarez, but Canelo is already linked to a September bout with Christian Mbilli.

1. Dmitry Bivol

Record: 24-1 (12 KOs)

Chances of happening: 40 per cent

Level of excitement: 8/10

After Saturday’s event, Benavidez stated that it is actually Bivol, not Alvarez, who is No. 1 on his hit list. Benavidez holds belts at light heavyweight and cruiserweight. Bivol is set to return on May 30 against Michael Eifert. It’s clear that if Benavidez can’t get Alvarez – a galactically lucrative fight that has eluded him for years – Bivol would be his ideal stand-in. And at the end of the day, Bivol seems far more likely to say yes to a Benavidez fight than Canelo.

Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.

LAS VEGAS – It would’ve been one thing for David Benavidez to simply defeat the bigger Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez.

To pursue and then collect a TKO over a fighter who had never been knocked down in his career as a two-division champion speaks volumes about the drive toward dominance that “The Monster” has set out on.

And it’s why people wonder who next will volunteer to meet the 29-year-old who stands actively as a two-division champion with a third 168lbs belt gained in his past.

BoxingScene has learned that preliminary conversations to arrange a next bout between Benavidez, 32-0 (26 KOs), and three-belt light-heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol have gone well as Bivol moves toward an IBF mandatory title defense May 30 against massive underdog Michael Eifert.

But that was before Saturday night’s main event at T-Mobile Arena, where Benavidez became the first man in the sport’s long history to collect a major belt at 168, 175 and 200lbs, while also making Ramirez quit and head to the hospital with what appeared to be an orbital bone injury.

This latest move up was the largest jump in weight, and it made Benavidez the WBO and WBA champion in the weight class, beefing up a collection that already includes his WBC light-heavyweight strap.

If unbeaten Jai Opetaia had been able to retain his IBF belt, perhaps he would be the next-best ideal foe for Benavidez, who would like to double-down in his Cinco de Mayo takeover by fighting next on Mexican Independence weekend.

But Australia’s Opetaia, 30-0 (23 KOs), moved to the new Zuffa Boxing promotion, and that could complicate the ability to bring the sides together, particularly in America, where Benavidez wants to fight.

“That’s the biggest fight in the world, especially in this division,” Benavidez said of Opetaia during his post-fight news conference. “If he wants that fight, come get that fight.

“I don’t know why he went to Zuffa. We could’ve made that fight right after this, but I’m not going over there to fight for a Zuffa title. There’s a lot of politics with that.

“It’s a great fight for the future, but now, he has to come back over here. … if we can make the fight, let’s do it.”

What about Bivol, who previously defeated Benavidez’s rival, Canelo Alvarez, along with beating former undisputed light-heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev.

Asked if he believes he might’ve given Bivol reason to avoid the fight given Benavidez’s performance, the newly unified cruiserweight champion said, “I can’t answer that question. He’s a great champion. At the end of the day, it’s boxing: We’re here to show the best of ourselves. I’m ready to fight the best and test myself.” 

Benavidez told reporters to stop asking him about a move to heavyweight. It’s likely about five years away, as he explained moving that far up, “forget about the other two divisions.”

His No. 1 WBC light-heavyweight contender is Beterbiev, who’s longing for a trilogy fight with Bivol after his narrow loss to him last year.

If it seems muddied now, Benavidez assured, “Everything I speak, I do.

“I’m a champion. I did it the hard way. I want to keep giving the fans the fights they want,” he said. “And I feel it can happen in the United States.”

 

LAS VEGAS – David Benavidez’s relentless quest for history and competition culminated in both Saturday when he became the first to knock out Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez and to win an unprecedented triple crown of world titles.

Benavidez, 32-0 (26 KOs), defeated Ramirez by sixth-round TKO when the swollen-headed unified champion failed to rise from the canvas and yielded his WBO and WBA cruiserweight belts to the existing WBC light heavyweight titlist from Phoenix.

“I don’t care who it is," Benavidez said in the ring afterward. "No one can fuck with me.”

Answering Ramirez’s girth with “speed, power, movement and IQ,” Benavidez became the first male fighter to capture one of the four major titles as a super middleweight, light heavyweight and cruiserweight by dismantling a proud champion from Mexico whose lone prior defeat was to three-belt light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol.

The finishing sequence started with a hard left to Ramirez’s swelling right eye. It was followed by more head-jarring punishment that elicited crowd groans, and Benavidez rushed in for the end.

His head blows sent Ramirez, 48-2 (30 KOs), down for the second time of the night, and as referee Thomas Taylor rushed to count, Ramirez put a glove to his aching head. No comfort came. Only pain.

He nodded “no” to Taylor, and the fight was stopped with 1 second remaining in the frame.

Fulfilling his expectation that his hand-speed advantage would carry the night, Benavidez opened the bout by snapping a couple rights to Ramirez’s face and closing with a combination to the head.

The left-handed Ramirez countered by leaning into Benavidez and finding him with power punches. Yet it all looked like a trap after Benavidez closed the round impressively by landing hard shots on Ramirez’s head.

Rapid combinations by Benavidez scored for the judges, but Ramirez – who had never been knocked down – kept coming forward in the third.

A clean Ramirez uppercut was answered by a short left by Benavidez in the fourth.

And then Benavidez backed up Ramirez with a hammering right, freeing him to unleash all the hand speed he wanted to display – a combination that dropped Ramirez for the first time in his career on a left above the right eardrum.

A hard right uppercut by Benavidez in the fifth provoked Ramirez to throw combinations that Benavidez weathered and answered. Two rights to the head and a body shot cooled Ramirez’s desired response.

When it was over, Benavidez, 29, repeated that he’s here to bring the fans the best fights possible – which could include a showdown with Bivol later this year, or perhaps another cruiserweight title bout.

Of course, Benavidez knew that four-division champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez was in the building, and couldn’t let the proud occasion pass without issuing one more challenge to the former light heavyweight champion who denied Benavidez a fight even when he was positioned as WBC No. 1 and mandatory contender.

“I see Canelo was in the building,” Benavidez said. “We can’t leave that fight on the table. I have the light heavyweight belt. We can fight at 175[lbs].”

After what everyone witnessed Saturday, that may stand as the one bit of unfinished business that remains for Benavidez.

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.

LAS VEGAS – Erasing the stains that have marked his career since he was defeated in this same arena two years ago this weekend, Jaime Munguia found a rebirth Saturday while becoming the new WBA super middleweight titleholder.

Munguia, 46-2 (35 KOs), defeated Mexico countryman Armando Resendiz by wide unanimous decision scores of 117-111 (Eric Cheek), 119-109 (Max DeLuca) and 120-108 (Glenn Feldman) to become a two-division champion. 

From the outset, Munguia showed complete preparedness for Resendiz’s power and the willingness to unleash power shots that overwhelmed his less-experienced foe.

Flashing improved footwork under trainer Eddy Reynoso, Munguia was intent to seize control from the belt holder, making the first title defense of a title he received because five-division champion Terence Crawford retired.

Munguia wanted badly to move on from the past two years, which included a Cinco de Mayo 2024 loss to current stablemate Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, a knockout loss to France’s Bruno Surace and a PED case that he conquered connected to the Surace rematch victory.

Resendiz, 16-3 (11 KOs), threw back in the third to briefly stem the tide of momentum for Munguia, but the former 154lbs titlist kept swinging viciously with success.

Then, late in the fourth, Resendiz clocked Munguia with a right flush to the jaw – a reminder of the Surace blow.

In a symbolic response, Munguia remained upright.

Bouncing on his feet and applying an effective jab, Munguia continued with his mission to remain in charge in the fifth. He delivered an uppercut and flush body shot in the sixth, moving far more boldly than he did two years ago in the Alvarez loss, during which he was knocked down.

Resendiz, fighting for the first time since he rallied on the scorecards to defeat former super middleweight titleholder Caleb Plant, lacked the power-punching advantage this time as Munguia’s movement further complicated the younger man’s pursuit.

Munguia never hesitated to engage in a center-of-the-ring slugfest with his Mexican countryman, getting the better of the action with a short left to the jaw in the seventh.

Sitting ringside, Alvarez both barked direction and pointed to his head for his stablemate to outwork and outsmart Resendiz. Going to the body and then head brought cheers from Alvarez.

Trainer Manny Robles leaned into Resendiz with fierce directions to rally from the deficit. But it was Munguia landing the blows that backed Resendiz, and it was the 29-year-old – with nearly 30 more pro fights than his foe – who fought with more energy.

He rocked Resendiz twice with rights in the ninth, bringing a cheering Alvarez out of his seat.

Munguia’s experience in throwing combinations and then tasting Resendiz’s power gave him the confidence to extend his lead in the closing rounds and remain in toe-to-toe mode, even when Resendiz landed heavily in the bout’s closing seconds.

Munguia persevered again, accepting his new belt and holding it high for all to see while seated high on a cornerman’s shoulders.

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.

TOKYO – For a fight that carried the weight and expectation of a nation, Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani delivered.

Before 55,000 fans at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday night, in what had been billed as the biggest fight in Japanese boxing history, the fight lived up to the hype. At the centre of it all, Inoue emerged once again as the junior featherweight division’s defining force, overcoming Nakatani in a fight that demanded everything of him to retain his undisputed crown. 

The pivotal moment came in the championship rounds, when the fight hung in the balance and Inoue pulled away. The Japanese great shifted momentum in a contest that had been fought at a level worthy of the occasion.

For long stretches, this was exactly what it promised to be – two elite fighters, in their prime, trading control in a battle where neither gave an inch easily. Nakatani proved why he had been considered Inoue’s most dangerous challenger, finding success and forcing the champion to adjust in ways few opponents have managed. But on a night that was defined by the tiniest of margins, Inoue found another gear and pipped his compatriot by scores of 115-113 and 116-112, twice. 

The referee Robert Hoyle wasn’t needed, such was the respect between the two, and that respect could be seen from the off. 

They circled each other, like two lions awaiting the other’s move, and it was Inoue who was first to pounce. Inoue, 33, darted in with his quick feet and landed his left handed jab. Nakatani, 28, pawed his southpaw right into Inoue’s face, and narrowly missed with a looping left.

Nakatani picked things up in the second, keeping Inoue at bay with his right hand. Inoue was falling short, and Nakatani’s left hand was getting closer with every attempt. Then it was Inoue’s turn to adjust, as he cut off the ring with his quick feet, but failed to land anything of note. Inoue then started to pull away and although he was shorter than his 5’ 8” foe, he was starting to win the battle of the jabs. Inoue was rapid, darting in and landing his left hand, and had built himself a healthy lead heading into the sixth session. Nakatani then started to find his feet and unloaded on Inoue as he briefly lay on the ropes. 

Nakatani was pulling it back, and in the eighth went for it.

The challenger took the center ring and pressed Inoue to the ropes where he landed a left, followed by a right, followed by another left. Inoue certainly felt it, but he smiled at his foe and waved Nakatani on. 

It was boxing at its best. They were both making each other miss by millimeters, and just when they thought they had the other pinned, they somehow found a way out.

The pair smiled at each other, almost in awe of their opponent’s skills, then quickly got down to hammering away. Nakatani had his best round yet in the ninth, catching Inoue with four left hands early and cracked Inoue with a peach of an uppercut late.

Nakatani then followed his best round yet with his most telling punch, a right hook that shook Inoue to his boots. The 10th was going to plan Nakatani, but disaster struck late in the session when the pair clashed heads. A large gash on Nakatani’s right eyebrow appeared, and in Round 11, the southpaw was clearly struggling to see.

Inoue took full advantage and wobbled Nakatani with multiple right hands, to the side of Nakatani’s vision that was blurred with blood. Inoue had a confident look on his face as he bounced on his feet for the 12th and final session. Nakatani had a look of worry, and pressed to snatch one vital round for his own. Nakatani pawed away with his right, and fired in his left, but Inoue was too quick, and he danced away in the final session.

The pair embraced at the sound of the final bell. Two masters of their craft, and two fighters that had proved yet again why they are two of the finest in the sport today. Nakatani, 32-1 (24 KOs), may have been handed his first loss as a professional, but he took it well, and even in defeat his stock rose.

Inoue, now 33-0 (27 KOs), continues his search for a challenger capable of bettering him in the ring.

Beforehand, former WBO bantamweight titleholder Yoshiki Takei picked up an underwhelming win over DeKang Wang over eight rounds. Takei, now 12-1 (9 KOs), was fighting for the first time since his stoppage loss to Christian Medina in September, and at a new weight of 122lbs. Takei fought like a fighter wary of his chin, and never looked comfortable when tagged by Wang. Wang, 9-2 (4 KOs) and who had not fought for two years, was the aggressor and had Takei trapped in the corner and hurt on multiple occasions. In the end Takei was somewhat fortunate to walk away with a majority decision win via scores of 76-76 and 77-75, twice.

 

TOKYO, Japan — The excitement around Tokyo has been building all week for what is certainly the biggest fight in Japanese boxing history.

Everyone in town knows about the upcoming clash between undisputed junior featherweight champion Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani this Saturday at the Tokyo Dome. You can hold a conversation with anyone about the bout, from the local cab drivers to the sushi chefs – everyone knows about the big fight.

However, there are no signs of Inoue or Nakatani’s faces across the city, not on billboards or posters; that’s because the contest is so huge it does not need the promotion found in Las Vegas on fight week. The tickets have already been sold and the fight imprinted into the minds of fans long ago. You don’t see posters for the World Cup Final, and that is exactly what it represents to the people of Tokyo. For the people of Japan, this is the ultimate fight, the Super Bowl of boxing.

It pits their Tom Brady, Naoya Inoue, against the No. 1 challenger and only man many think capable of bettering “The Monster” in Junto Nakatani. During a week where Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua have agreed to square off – albeit about six years too late – Inoue and Nakatani will do what few modern fighters do and face each other in their primes, and when public demand is at its highest.

Inoue has cemented himself as the greatest Japanese boxer of all-time by winning world titles in four weight classes, including becoming undisputed in not one, but two divisions. His world title span stretches from claiming his first strap down at 108lbs when he was 20 years old to now holding all four belts at 122lbs aged 33. In that time he has registered 32 wins, no defeats, and has finished 27 of his opponents inside the scheduled distance.

He has become known for his knockouts, which typically come both brutal and early, something unheard of from fighters down in the lower weight classes. Despite his small stature, Inoue has cemented himself as not only one of the pound-for-pound hardest hitters in the sport, but maybe its finest fighter. His dominance has seen him pick up dozens of accolades over his 14 year career, but there are worries that he may now be on the slide.

Inoue stopped Marlon Tapales to unify all four belts at junior featherweight in 2023, but has failed to register that kind of performance ever since. He has been floored heavily by both Luis Nery and Ramon Cardenas, and failed to reach his high standards against the little known Alan David Picasso last time out in December. The fast feet that have brought Inoue so much success over the years may now be starting to slow ever so slightly, just enough to mean that the rocket of a right hand he used to land with so much spite falls just short.

However, despite question marks raised in recent bouts, he is still one of the finest fighters on the planet. His footwork means he cuts the ring off better than all his peers, he finds room for his shots where even the eyes cannot see, and takes away his foes best attributes in a matter of minutes. His ring IQ is arguably only lesser to that of his pound-for-pound rival Oleksandr Usyk, and when he is on-song, there are few fighters better to watch. Inoue almost makes a scuffle between two men look like a rendition of Swan Lake.

His opponent on Saturday, however, is almost equally as graceful in the ring. Nakatani, from Inabe-gun, Japan, and a holder of world honours in three weight classes, brings a beautiful brutality to the squared circle. For a fighter who normally towers over his opponents, standing at 5’ 8”, he fights incredibly well on the inside, but also uses his 68 ½ inch reach to his advantage. He often probes his jab into the face of his foe before delivering a looping left hand that quite often lands with bad intentions. Nakatani seemed to come into his own at bantamweight, claiming the WBC and IBF titles and knocking out all five of his opponents at 118lbs.

However, since moving up in weight last year, he has struggled to register that same dominance at 122lbs. Nakatani has fought in one sole bout, and claimed a dubious decision win over Sebastian Hernandez out in Saudi Arabia back in December. The frontfooted Mexican caused Nakatani all kinds of trouble. Nakatani found a home for his left hand early, but unlike at 118lbs, his foe did not budge. Nakatani was taken into deep waters, found himself gasping for air, but was helped ashore by the three judges seated ringside.

That performance would lead one to believe that taking on who many believe the pound-for-pound best fighter in the sport to be a step too far. However, that is not how boxing works, and as the old saying goes: Styles make fights. Inoue will not bring the same rugged approach that Hernandez brought to the table out in the Saudi heat. The chess match and straight punching that his compatriot from Zama, Japan, brings is much more suited to the 32-0 (24 KOs) Nakatani.

Not many will agree with this prediction, and quite rightly too, but this writer heard a quote recently and it has stayed with him heading into Saturday’s fight. “Inoue has been looking awfully like “Canelo” Alvarez in recent fights.” Now that does not mean in style, but in that he still has enough quality to defeat B-level or even some A-level opposition, but he is just not the fighter he once was. The Inoue who breezed through Stephen Fulton in his first bout at 122lbs would have made a mockery over Picasso in December, which is why this writer is picking Nakatani to become the first man to register a win over “The Monster”.

Nakatani’s style and in particular his left hand could turn out to be a real issue for Inoue, especially down the stretch. With Nakatani’s long reach and footwork that could even rival Inoue’s, the undisputed champion may find himself down on the cards and desperate. Inoue has found himself on the canvas or hurt, often from left hands in recent fights, and if he goes chasing the result that may happen again. Nakatani, however, is not the type of fighter to let his man off the hook, and he is most likely the hardest puncher and best finisher Inoue has fought in his 32 professional contests.

Credit where credit is due to Inoue for taking on his toughest test and he should be applauded for doing so, no matter the result. Too often champions take the easy route, or only take on the very best when everything lines up in their favour. Inoue-Nakatani is what the sport needs, and hopefully more follow suit.

 

LAS VEGAS – Oscar De La Hoya said his lobbying last week for fighters to be protected under federal regulations that exist under the Ali Act was “very unfortunate, like walking into a buzzsaw.”

Only three U.S. senators – two of whom received thousands of dollars in campaign donations from Zuffa’s Dana White – appeared at a committee session where De La Hoya, fighter Nico Ali Walsh (Muhammad Ali’s grandson) and White’s business partner Nick Khan spoke.

“I have never been part of anything so corrupt in my life,” said Golden Boy Promotions chairman and CEO De La Hoya on his “Clapback Thursday” social media episode, as the Senate is expected to forward the bill to White’s close friend President Trump to sign.

The appearance reinforced something deep in De La Hoya.

As the old Ali Act crumbles into the new version crafted by Khan’s Zuffa Boxing, it’s officially time to take the loss over that cause.

And the best response is to commit to a business strategy that will both beat back the enriched new challenger Zuffa and attract the lion’s share of boxers.

De La Hoya’s commitment is one his fellow “old guard” promoters are increasingly gravitating to in the sport’s changing business landscape.

It’s called co-promotion.

In Saturday’s unified cruiserweight title defense by De La Hoya-promoted champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez versus Premier Boxing Champions’ WBC light heavyweight titleholder David Benavidez, longtime adversaries are working together to both beat back their new competitor and take their businesses to new heights.

“The fighter will absolutely realize who’s right and who’s wrong,” De La Hoya said. “The fighter will realize this side of the street is the better side.”

Backed by Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh, Zuffa Boxing is further funded by a new five-year, $100 million annual deal in place with streaming partner Paramount+.

Zuffa has begun landing champions and elite contenders including cruiserweight Jai Opetaia, junior welterweight Richardson Hitchins, super middleweight Edgar Berlanga and welterweight Conor Benn.

Zuffa vows to make a far greater splash, with UFC CEO/President White labeling De La Hoya, PBC’s Al Haymon and Top Rank’s Bob Arum “babies” who will be washed away by the new company.

Yet as Zuffa seeks to expand beyond a string of lesser-tier cards at the UFC’s Meta Apex in Las Vegas with a June 6 card in the UK, promising bigger shows to come, the sport’s existing power brokers are banking on the notion that there is power in numbers.

PBC is looking for Benavidez, 29, to supplant Saudi-supported Saul “Canelo” Alvarez as the new face of Cinco de Mayo. Phoenix’s Benavidez, 31-0 (25 KOs), is moving up 25 pounds to take on the stout challenge of Golden Boy’s Ramirez, 48-1 (30 KOs), who has never been knocked down and will likely outweigh Benavidez by 15 pounds on fight night.

De La Hoya, after recently extending his company’s streaming deal with DAZN, is displaying a willingness to work with new DAZN promoter Top Rank and existing UK-based promoters Matchroom and Queensberry. He plans to place his most decorated fighters in co-promoted events.

“I’m grateful that with promoters like PBC, Top Rank and Matchroom, we can all make fights together, with most of us under the same umbrella at DAZN,” De La Hoya said. “It’s easier to make these kinds of fights happen.”

Easier now because it may be essential.

Zuffa’s fellow companies under TKO Group Holdings are the UFC and WWE, the dominant players in the respective worlds of mixed martial arts and pro wrestling.

“They want to monopolize boxing,” De La Hoya said on “Clapback Thursday.” “You have a choice of … rules and fair rankings or … a dictatorship.”

As impassioned as De La Hoya’s position is, the lead promoter for PBC, TGB’s Tom Brown, reminded that it was just more than a decade ago that the boxing industry saw the well-funded PBC as the business threatening a takeover.

Powerful manager Haymon oversaw an exodus of talent from the Golden Boy stable to his own, leading to years of bitterness between the companies before they began to work together, including the highly lucrative 2023 battle between PBC’s Gervonta “Tank” Davis and Golden Boy’s Ryan Garcia.

“We’ve had a great relationship with Golden Boy. We’ve come together and put on the best events – Garcia versus Tank was a wild success, off the charts,” Brown said. “Then we came together for the last Cinco de Mayo event in Las Vegas – Canelo Alvarez versus Jaime Munguia [in 2024], again a huge weekend.

“Oscar and [Golden Boy President] Eric [Gomez] are very easy to work with. They want to make the best fights. Oscar always said that in his entire career: We trust them, have respect for them and we have a lot in common in the matchmaking department.” 

They also each possess large stables of fighters who they plan to retain by offering major, lucrative, world title bouts that are easier to make by expanding ties with fellow promoters and the four sanctioning bodies.

White has said Zuffa Boxing would prefer not to work with other promoters or the sanctioning bodies, rewriting the Ali Act to allow Zuffa to rank and award its own belt to fighters, as is done in the UFC.

As the Golden Boy-PBC union hogs boxing headlines this week, Zuffa deployed one of its broadcasters, Mark Kriegel, to contrast the business models.

“At best, [the sanctioning bodies] are hacks. At worst, they’re corrupt,” Kriegel said on veteran boxing reporter Chris Mannix’s podcast.

In response to that comment, WBO President Gustavo Olivieri wrote on X: "Hey @MarkKriegel if you have any evidence (direct or circumstantial) against any WBO officials, please contact immediately the FBI. Put your actions behind your words."

Kriegel also bashed De La Hoya for arguing for Ali Act transparency while being engaged in a lawsuit with unbeaten junior middleweight Vergil Ortiz Jnr and after previous legal beefs with Garcia and Alvarez.

“I mean, the idea that Oscar has suddenly become an advocate for full disclosure, to me, is astonishing,” Kriegel said to Mannix.

De La Hoya said he “absolutely, 1,000 per cent” is committed to the co-promotion response to Zuffa Boxing’s efforts, emphasizing the benefits of his strategy to as many boxers as possible.

“Now it’s: ‘Do you want to fight for the unicorn Zuffa belt or continue making history on this side of the street?’” De La Hoya said.

Brown was less defiant toward Zuffa, taking an unintended jab at them in the process when asked if PBC would work with them.

“I haven’t really thought about it, to be honest. If they’re willing to work with the sanctioning bodies … because we’ve got so many champions,” Brown said. “You just never know what they’re going to bring to us. I’m kind of sitting back and watching.”

Brown said the established promoters have not huddled to orchestrate a co-promotion strategy to pummel Zuffa Boxing.

“There hasn’t been anything like that,” Brown said. “Any promoter will tell you, it’s always easier to do an in-house fight. It’s easier to get it done. With us having the biggest stable, it’s easier for us to do that. But we’re willing to work with anyone.”

Increasingly, PBC has shrewdly placed its fighters in high-profile cards promoted by others. Featherweight Brandon Figueroa went to England to wrest a title from Queensberry’s Nick Ball. Carlos Adames defended his middleweight belt against Matchroom’s Austin “Ammo” Williams after gaining a draw in Saudi Arabia versus Alalshikh’s favorite, Hamzah Sheeraz.

When Top Rank was operating without a television deal, Matchroom invited 130lbs titleholder Emanuel Navarrete over for a highly successful unification victory in Phoenix and PBC brought another Top Rank junior lightweight titlist, O’Shaquie Foster, to defend his belt against Stephen Fulton.

PBC also has David Morrell Jnr and Alberto Puello in line for high-profile bouts on Queensberry and Matchroom cards.

“People give us a bad rap, but we’re always doing it,” Brown said.

He said being called “babies” by White hasn’t hurt feelings.

“People always talked about us that way, and Al would say, ‘Let’s stay in our lane, do our thing,’ and you’ve never heard anyone from PBC’s side talk like that about another promoter,” Brown said. “We’re always here – to help on short notice, ready to get other guys in the ring if we’ve got a spot.”

Top Rank’s Foster is going to defend his junior lightweight belt against Matchroom’s Raymond Ford. PBC’s Lamont Roach Jnr is in talks to meet Golden Boy lightweight William Zepeda.

As De La Hoya says it’s good for business, Brown says it’s good for the sport.

Benavidez has the potential Saturday to capture a breakthrough victory that every promoter would want.

“He’s the challenger, but if you look at the poster, see what side he’s on,” Brown said, noting the left side typically reserved for champions. “He’s got that ‘it’ factor, the work ethic, the drive.”

With Alvarez attending the fight after performing in nearly every early May fight since 2015, Brown said, “From Saturday night, this will be David Benavidez’s day.”

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.

They’ve been at each other’s throats in recent months, and there is even talk that they should step in the ring to settle their beef.

The rivalry between Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn and new Zuffa Boxing representative Dana White took to a more civilized public debate this week with Hall of Fame broadcaster and promoter Lou DiBella arguing White is the better promoter.

Appearing on "The Ariel Helwani Show," DiBella contended White is his choice because he takes a more developed “model and business paradigm” as UFC CEO/president as he launches his boxing venture while moving to create a new Ali Act.

“You can say it’s anti-fighter and complain the old system is better, but they know what they’re doing… and there’s not a surviving member of boxing who can say they do it better,” DiBella told Helwani.

“The old promotional system is dying and headed to death.”

Former HBO executive DiBella counts himself as a casualty, having left the sport to focus on the ownership of his minor-league baseball teams.

Harvard-educated DiBella lauded the more established Hearn for being better positioned for success in his native U.K. and for being strongly capitalized.

“Eddie is not going away,” DiBella said.

“Do I think Dana has a smarter, more effective, more intelligent, better capitalized, more television connected relationship than Eddie? It’s not even a question,” DiBella said.

Backed strongly financially by Saudi Arabia holdings, Zuffa Boxing has staged a handful of small shows at the UFC’s Meta Apex in Las Vegas after promoting the massive Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford fight at Allegiant Stadium in September.

Since then, Zuffa has also rounded up former Hearn-promoted champions Jai Opetaia and Richardson Hitchins along with 2024 title challenger Edgar Berlanga and expected welterweight title contender Conor Benn.

Hearn’s Matchroom has built Anthony Joshua to a global sporting figure while readying for a busy June with unbeatens Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez and Jaron “Boots” Ennis headlining major cards in Phoenix and New York.

Trainer and guest analyst Stephen “Breadman” Edwards said on Wednesday’s edition of ProBox TV’s "BoxingScene Today" that he was surprised by DiBella selecting White over Hearn after criticizing White for lobbying to change the Ali Act that provided financial protections for fighters.

“Lou is an intelligent guy. … I don’t think Dana has done enough in boxing to say he’s a better promoter than Eddie Hearn. Zuffa was just born,” Edwards said. “[DiBella] said it with purpose.”

Analyst and former DiBella-promoted welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi criticized DiBella over his choice of White and over his own work as a promoter, calling DiBella “conniving.”

“He sucked at this business and it left him bitter about the old guard [of boxing promoters]. They outdid him,” Malignaggi said. “We haven’t seen enough of Dana White in boxing. So far, he’s kind of average.

“There is a big war chest, but he could still drop the whole bag and fail.”

Malignaggi said White has to prove he can handle a different combat sports model that is “more cemented in,” compared to what White built with the UFC.

“Right now, Eddie Hearn is the better promoter. He’s created more champions. He’s doing more … he’s made Matchroom a bigger company,” Malignaggi said. “To compete [for White] is one thing. To unseat is completely different.”

He said DiBella often reveals agendas with his opinions.

“Take some of those opinions with a grain of salt … there’s something to sift out,” Malignaggi said.