Boxing

2:57 PM ET Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has missed weight once again. The son of the legendary Mexican boxer weighed in at 184 pounds Friday, two pounds over the contracted weight for his scheduled fight with UFC all-time great Anderson Silva, promotion officials confirmed with ESPN. The bout will go on Saturday in Guadalajara, Mexico,

7:45 AM ET When Naoya Inoue first started boxing as a first grader in Japan, he had no aspiration of fighting professionally, let alone making beating people up a career or becoming a world champion. He just did it. It was only years later, after training at the same gym as future three-division world champion

3:30 PM ET WBC junior lightweight champion Oscar Valdez has signed a new multifight contract with Top Rank, including his first defense of that belt this fall. The 30-year-old Valdez won the title in his last fight, upsetting Miguel Berchelt on Feb. 20. He is 29-0 with 23 knockouts, including winning four of his past

1:34 PM ET Oscar De La Hoya’s comeback to the ring is set. The boxing legend will meet MMA luminary Vitor Belfort in an exhibition boxing match Sept. 11 under the Triller Fight Club banner, promoter Ryan Kavanaugh confirmed Thursday to ESPN. The Athletic first reported the news. De La Hoya has not competed since

8:13 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 Anthony Joshua doubts a fight with Tyson Fury will now happen, according to Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn. Talks to stage Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs)

8:06 AM ET MIKAELA MAYER WAS backstage at a concert in Colorado waiting for her friend. It was 2018, before Mayer had become a world champion, before she started to become more of a face of women’s boxing. A man approached her and her best friend, Ginny Fuchs, also a fighter, and started offering boxing

6:58 PM ET LOS ANGELES — Deontay Wilder, clad in dark sunglasses and wearing headphones with music blaring into them, stared straight ahead during Tuesday’s news conference when emcee Crystina Poncher, sitting to his right, addressed him with a question. That was Wilder’s afternoon in a nutshell. The heavyweight boxing star gave an opening statement

Find out why professionals are using BoxBandz 7:51 AM ET Editor’s note: The Teofimo Lopez-George Kambosos Jr. lightweight title fight, and Franchon Crews-Dezurn’s super middleweight unification fight against Elin Cederroos were originally on this list before that card was postponed due to Lopez testing positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. Multiple title fights. Famous names in exhibitions.

2:07 PM ET MIAMI — Teofimo Lopez has tested positive for COVID-19 and he’s symptomatic. His Saturday bout vs. George Kambosos that was scheduled to be in Miami and the whole undercard has been moved to Aug. 14, sources told ESPN. Lopez, the unified lightweight champion and No. 5 on ESPN’s pound-for-pound list, was in

10:02 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 Promoter Eddie Hearn has announced he will host three events on back-to-back Saturdays in July in August in the garden of the company’s headquarters

Find out why professionals are using BoxBandz 10:57 PM ET George Kambosos Jr. says unified lightweight world champion Teofimo Lopez has underestimated him and that he will make the American look “very very silly” when the two square off in Miami on Saturday. Kambosos (19-0, 10 KOs), is unwavering in his belief he has the game

1:42 AM ET Lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez and Top Rank Promotions are back on good terms. Lopez and Top Rank have agreed to a restructured contract, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Cameron Wolfe. In the new agreement, Lopez will have his minimum purses raised from the previous amount of $1.25 million and will have the opportunity

2:01 PM ET Russian boxer Alexander Povetkin said on Sunday he was retiring, citing lingering injuries that require treatment. The 41-year-old was the 2004 Olympic super-heavyweight gold medallist before turning professional. He held the World Boxing Association (WBA) world heavyweight title between 2011 and 2013. Povetkin had 36 wins, three losses and one draw in

12:28 AM ET LAS VEGAS — Shakur Stevenson did everything well Saturday night except finish Jeremiah Nakathila for a knockout. Instead, Stevenson (16-0, 8 KOs) dominated every second of the fight cruising to a shutout unanimous decision victory to win the WBO interim junior lightweight title. All three judges scored the bout 120-107 in favor

12:25 AM ET LAS VEGAS — Shakur Stevenson said his shutout victory over Jeremiah Nakathila wasn’t good enough by his standards but that he is confident he has more than enough to beat WBO junior lightweight champion Jamel Herring. Moments after his win, Stevenson was asked about Herring, shown on the screen, and he didn’t

6:36 PM ET Shakur Stevenson could get closer to a title opportunity at junior lightweight if he defeats Jeremiah Nakathila for the WBO interim belt on Saturday (ESPN and ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET, with undercard at 6:30 on ESPN+). Stevenson (15-0, 8 KOs), 23, of Newark, New Jersey, won the vacant WBO featherweight belt in

10:28 PM ET Jaime Munguia will have a new opponent in his main event on June 19 in El Paso, Texas, with Kamil Szeremeta stepping in on short-notice to take the bout, a source confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday. Munguia (36-0, 29 KO), the former WBO light middleweight champion, has since moved up to middleweight.

5:39 PM ET LAS VEGAS – WBC junior lightweight champion Oscar Valdez is set to return to the ring in September for a voluntary title defense against veteran Andrew Cancio in Arizona, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told ESPN Thursday. Valdez (29-0, 23 KOs) is coming off a significant upset victory over Miguel Berchelt in