Boxing

8:02 AM ET Two big fights. Each could have been a main event on a card of its own. When Claressa Shields faces Savannah Marshall and Mikaela Mayer fights Alycia Baumgardner on an all-female 10-fight card at the O2 Arena in London on Saturday, it will be another touchstone point for women in boxing. The

12:27 PM ET Jake Paul has found his next opponent — and he’s a combat sports luminary. The YouTuber-turned-prizefighter will meet former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva in a boxing match Oct. 29 in Phoenix, Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions announced Tuesday. The bout will be contested at 187 pounds over eight three-minute rounds. Silva, 47,

9:18 AM ET Nick Parkinson Close •Reports on boxing for ESPN.co.uk, as well as several national newspapers•Has been reporting on British boxing for over 15 years•Appears on BoxNation’s Boxing Matters show It is being billed as one of the biggest fights ever to be staged in women’s boxing, but how much do you know about

1:25 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Andy Ruiz Jr. floored Luis Ortiz three times en route to a unanimous-decision victory Sunday at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The scores: 114-111, 113-112 and 114-111. With the win, Ruiz is in line for a shot at the WBC title held by Tyson Fury, who is in talks to

1:15 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez are set to meet Dec. 3 in a trilogy bout for the junior bantamweight championship, promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing announced Saturday night. No location for the fight was revealed. This is the third time the third fight between Estrada and Gonzalez

2:41 PM ET Oleksandr Usyk has defended Anthony Joshua over his controversial reaction following his defeat to the Ukrainian fighter in their world heavyweight title bout. Joshua said he let himself down after grabbing the microphone from Usyk and embarking on a rant in the aftermath of his split decision loss in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia,

5:58 PM ET It took Natasha Jonas three tries to become a world champion. Now, she’s one step closer to unifying the entire junior middleweight division. Jonas beat Patricia Berghult 100-90, 100-90, 99-91 to become the WBC and WBO champion of the world Saturday on the undercard of the Liam Smith-Hassan Mwakinyo card in Liverpool,

1:15 PM ET WBC junior flyweight champion Kim Clavel will make the first defense of her title on Dec. 1 when she fights in a unification bout against WBA champion Jessica Nery Plata in Laval, Quebec. The 31-year-old Clavel (16-0, 3 KO) won her title in July, beating Yesenia Gomez by unanimous decision. It will

7:40 PM ET Associated Press Earnie Shavers, whose thunderous punches stopped 68 fighters and earned him heavyweight title fights with Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes, has died. He was 78. Former British boxer and close friend Kenny Rainford told The Associated Press in a telephone call from Liverpool, England, that his close friend died on

1:52 PM ET PARIS — UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou told ESPN on Friday that the most realistic timetable for his return to competition is early 2023. Some reports had surfaced that the UFC was hoping that Ngannou, who had knee surgery to repair his right ACL and MCL in March, would be back by

10:43 AM ET Jessica McCaskill, the undisputed welterweight champion, is dropping down in weight for at least one fight to try to win titles in another weight class when she faces WBC and IBF junior welterweight champion Chantelle Cameron on Nov. 5 in Abu Dhabi. Matchroom Boxing announced the fight Wednesday. The fight, which will

2:34 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The vacant WBC junior welterweight title fight between Regis Prograis and Jose Zepeda was won by upstart promotional company MarvNation on Tuesday with a commitment of $2.4 million. TGB Promotions on behalf of PBC was the other bidder at $1.2 million. The fighters will split the $2.4 million evenly. “We

3:02 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Demetrius Andrade vacated his WBO middleweight title and in his place, interim titleholder Janibek Alimkhanuly was elevated to champion, Top Rank announced Tuesday. Alimkhanuly’s first title defense is slated for a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN show in November against an opponent to be determined, a source told ESPN. Andrade

9:33 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Just last year, the 135-pound division was the weight class to watch, as Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez, Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis all called it home. Now Lopez and Garcia campaign at 140 pounds, and suddenly, the junior welterweight division is one of the sport’s most competitive weight classes. The

4:52 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Josh Taylor vacated his IBF junior welterweight title, the third 140-pound belt he has relinquished since his controversial decision victory over Jack Catterall in February. Taylor (19-0, 13 KOs) still holds the WBO title after also giving up his WBA and WBC belts. The 31-year-old from Scotland is in talks

10:50 PM ET Two women who said former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman sexually abused them in the 1970s have filed lawsuits in a Los Angeles court. Foreman, 73, has denied the allegations since they first became public last month, and spokespeople referred questions about the lawsuits to an earlier statement by him. The women

8:25 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Naoya Inoue and Paul Butler have agreed to terms on an undisputed bantamweight championship fight Dec. 13 in Japan, sources told ESPN. Inoue, a star boxer in Japan who is ESPN’s No. 2 pound-for-pound boxer, will attempt to unify all four belts for the first time in his career (he

Aug 23, 2022 Oleksandr Usyk delivered another impressive performance in a split decision victory over Anthony Joshua on Saturday to retain the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight world titles. He also added the vacant Ring belt, making him the lineal champion in the division. This was a rematch of Usyk’s unanimous decision win over Joshua