Boxing

2:05 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The Josh Taylor-Jack Catterall rematch for Taylor’s lineal and WBO junior welterweight championship has been rescheduled to March 4 in Glasgow, Scotland, sources told ESPN. The return bout between ESPN’s top two 140-pounders will take place at the same venue as the first meeting: the OVO Hydro. Taylor, who fights

7:58 AM ET Naoya Inoue became the undisputed bantamweight champion after earning an 11th-round KO victory on Dec. 13 in Tokyo. The win also earned him eight first-place votes from our ESPN’s pound-for pound 21-member panel, moving him closer to Terence Crawford at No. 1. In his other fight this year, Inoue scored a second-round

8:11 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Jose Ramirez has passed up a title shot against Regis Prograis after the WBC set the purse split at 65-35 in favor of the junior welterweight champion, Ramirez told ESPN on Monday. Now, Ramirez (27-1, 17 KOs) is set to return March 25 in Fresno, California, in an ESPN/ESPN+ main

9:14 AM ET Katie Taylor paused and looked around before stepping into the ring. On the last day in April, a packed crowd at Madison Square Garden in New York awaited her arrival and chanted her name. A fighter from Ireland in the most iconic venue in boxing history, in the city where if you

10:56 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Ryan Garcia has decided to forgo a Jan. 28 junior welterweight tuneup bout against Mercito Gesta to focus on a planned April 15 superfight against Gervonta Davis at 136 pounds in Las Vegas. The decision comes despite the fact Garcia and Gesta have signed contracts for a fight, sources told

8:00 AM ET 2022 featured the breakout of many boxers, the retirement of others — some of them short-lived — and a few new undisputed champions. The year also included plenty of upsets, disappointing performances, and of course, controversies. What fight will be remembered as the best of 2022? Who did we select as Fighter

11:11 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Emanuel Navarrete and Liam Wilson have agreed to a deal for a WBO junior lightweight title fight on Feb. 3 in Glendale, Arizona, a source told ESPN. Navarrete was set to meet Oscar Valdez in a highly anticipated ESPN/ESPN+ main event, but as BoxingScene first reported, Valdez (30-1, 23 KOs)

8:07 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Everlast accepted responsibility for welterweight champion Terence Crawford’s glove malfunction during his sixth-round knockout win over David Avanesyan on Saturday in Omaha, Nebraska, saying the issue was not the fault of Crawford and his camp but due to “a batch of defective leather.” Heading into the sixth round of Saturday’s

10:15 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Naoya Inoue, ESPN’s No. 2 pound-for-pound boxer, has proved peerless through 24 fights as he cruised to another inside-the-distance victory on Tuesday in Tokyo. Paul Butler was no match. He really wasn’t ever expected to be. The Englishman was simply there to hand over his WBO belt to Inoue, who

7:51 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Naoya Inoue, ESPN’s No. 2 pound-for-pound boxer, won the undisputed bantamweight championship with an 11th-round KO of Paul Butler on Tuesday in Tokyo. Butler was unwilling to engage throughout the ESPN+ bout, but Inoue still found a way to finish his foe. The Japanese star connected with a right hand

6:04 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The rights to the Eimantas Stanionis-Vergil Ortiz Jr. WBA “regular” welterweight title fight were won by Oritz’s promoter, Golden Boy, with a commitment of $2.3 million at Monday’s purse bid at the sanctioning body’s convention in Orlando, Florida. Stanionis, who won the title with a split-decision victory over Radzhab Butaev

Dec 10, 2022 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 Josh Warrington’s career suffered another setback Saturday as Luis Alberto Lopez took his IBF world featherweight title by majority decision. Lopez did most of

Dec 11, 2022 One dynamic combination showed Terence “Bud” Crawford remains one of boxing’s pound-for-pound best. In front of a raucous hometown crowd, Crawford floored David Avanesyan with a sixth-round TKO on Saturday at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska. A left uppercut followed by a textbook right put Avanesyan on his back, quickly

3:06 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Ryan Garcia and Mercito Gesta have signed contracts for a Jan. 28 fight in Phoenix, sources told ESPN. The 140-pound bout will serve as a tuneup for Garcia, who is slated to meet Gervonta Davis on April 15 in a Las Vegas superfight at a 136-pound catchweight. Davis (27-0, 25

2:31 AM ET Several major cards took place on Saturday, including a welterweight title defense for Terence Crawford, a homecoming for Teofimo Lopez and an upset loss for Josh Warrington. Mike Coppinger, Ben Baby and Nick Parkinson react to the action and try to make sense of three unique cards around the world. Well, here

12:32 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN NEW YORK — Teofimo Lopez suffered a flash knockdown in Round 2 but picked up a controversial 10-round split-decision victory over Sandor Martin in their junior welterweight bout Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. One judge scored it 95-94 for Martin, but was overruled by scores of 96-93 and 97-92

Dec 9, 2022 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 Paul Butler is reminding himself that Naoya Inoue, who is in punch-perfect form, is still human ahead of Saturday’s world bantamweight title unification fight.

7:29 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 David Avanesyan’s manager Neil Marsh is backing him to emerge from the shadows of boxing and make a name for himself by pulling off