Boxing

5:41 AM ET Former world heavyweight champion boxer David Haye will return to the ring after a three-year absence to fight Joe Fournier next month, the 40-year-old Briton said on Thursday. Haye, who won the world heavyweight title in 2009 when he beat Nikolai Valuev, retired in 2018 with a 28-4 record following a re-match

4:54 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Jamel Herring and Shakur Stevenson will clash Oct. 23 at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena after both boxers signed contracts for the 130-pound title fight, sources told ESPN on Thursday. Herring and Stevenson both will earn at least $1.5 million — career-high paydays — for a bout that will headline Top

3:27 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN David Benavidez tested positive for COVID-19, sources told ESPN on Wednesday, postponing his Aug. 28 fight with Jose Uzcategui in Phoenix that was set to headline Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Showtime, The 24-year-old volume puncher, one of boxing’s rising stars, has been pushing toward an eventual shot at the

12:42 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN WBA president Gilberto Mendoza told ESPN on Wednesday that he is suspending judge Gloria Martinez Rizzo for six months following her highly controversial scorecard in the Mykal Fox-Gabriel Maestre interim welterweight title fight and the uncovering of racist tweets on an account belonging to her. Mendoza said he will meet

4:57 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Two MMA legends will fight, but it won’t be in a cage. Anderson Silva and Tito Ortiz have signed contracts to meet in an eight-round cruiserweight boxing match on Sept. 11 in the chief-support bout before Oscar De La Hoya faces Vitor Belfort in the pay-per-view main event, Triller co-founder

7:32 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Guillermo Rigondeaux has heard it all before. He’s boring. Unwatchable. The opposite of entertaining. The two-time Olympic gold medalist absorbed all the criticism even as he was boxing circles around his opponents. Nonito Donaire, then the reigning ESPN fighter of the year, was thoroughly outboxed by Rigondeaux in 2013. Despite

11:21 AM ET The World Boxing Association, one of the sport’s four major sanctioning bodies, will start enforcing a reduction policy for its number of championships, WBA president Gilberto Mendoza told ESPN Knockout last week. Mendoza, who was in Mexico City to present the junior flyweight division belt to “regular” champion Esteban Bermudez, said the

3:15 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Manny Pacquiao will still challenge for a welterweight title on Aug. 21 in Las Vegas — it just won’t be against Errol Spence Jr. The Filipino Senator will now face Cuba’s Yordenis Ugas after a retinal tear in Spence’s left eye was discovered during a pre-fight medical exam, PBC announced

8:34 AM ET Canelo Alvarez is still looking for an opponent to fight later this year, but the rest of the 2021 boxing schedule is quickly filling up with title fights. Shakur Stevenson will face a test in WBO junior lightweight champion Jamel Herring, Andrew Maloney and Joshua Franco will complete their trilogy, Josh Taylor

2:30 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The IBF ruled Monday that Triller must stage the undisputed lightweight championship fight between Teofimo Lopez and George Kambosos in a location that doesn’t require quarantine, according to the decision obtained by ESPN. That means Triller’s plan to reschedule the event on Oct. 17 in Sydney, Australia, is scrapped. The

3:29 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Former lightweight titleholder Robert Easter Jr. was charged with misdemeanor assault in connection with an alleged assault Saturday in Toledo, Ohio, according to a Toledo Municipal Court complaint obtained by ESPN. The 30-year-old is accused of punching a woman, rendering her unconscious. The officer observed that the woman had a

10:25 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The IBF is expected to rule that Triller must stage the undisputed lightweight championship fight between Teofimo Lopez and George Kambosos in the United States rather than Australia, multiple sources told ESPN on Sunday. The decision is expected to be handed down as soon as Monday, sources said, while also

8:17 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Vasiliy Lomachenko, one of the world’s best pound-for-pound boxers, is in advanced talks for a Dec. 11 lightweight fight with former titleholder Richard Commey, multiple sources told ESPN. And super middleweight prospect Edgar Berlanga is in talks to fight in the chief-support bout, according to sources. No matter whom he

10:40 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Josh Taylor is coming home to defend his undisputed championship. Taylor and Jack Catterall have agreed to terms for a Dec. 18 fight at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland, sources told ESPN, and all four 140-pound belts will be on the line. Exact TV plans haven’t been finalized, but

2:49 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The 17-year gold-medal drought for USA Boxing’s men continues after a pair of losses Sunday morning at the Tokyo Olympics. First, it was Keyshawn Davis who settled for silver after dropping a split decision to Andy Cruz of Cuba in the lightweight gold-medal match. Then, with one last chance to

6:24 PM 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 Kid Galahad picked apart James “Jazza” Dickens to force a stoppage at the end of 11 rounds and win the IBF world featherweight title

3:35 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN For the third consecutive year, Canelo Alvarez won’t fight on Mexican Independence Weekend. The pound-for-pound king planned to fight Sept. 18, but after prolonged negotiations for two different fights, Alvarez has decided to move his next bout to November, promoter Eddie Hearn told ESPN on Friday. The Mexican star wanted

7:32 PM 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 Michael Conlan increased his world title options with a unanimous points victory over TJ Doheny for the WBA interim featherweight belt in Belfast, Northern