Larry Merchant — the wordsmith who started out as a newspaperman and graced HBO airwaves with his often poetic and trenchant analysis for 35 years — sounded upbeat and ready to party when congratulated on making it to the 90-year mark. “It’s been a good day,” Merchant told me, after I sang him a few
Fighting
Matchroom Boxing returns to Barcelona on Friday, March 26th with two European title fights and a couple of Spain’s best fighters in store. The main event sees European super lightweight champion Sandor Martin (37-2, 13 KO) look for his ninth consecutive victory and second successful defense of the title he stopped Andrea Scarpa to claim
Iran Barkley is indeed in the hospital after testing positive for COVID, but the three-weight champ from the Bronx told BLH that he is feeling decent. Once a fighter, always a fighter. “I’m hanging in, buddy,” Barkley, age 60, told me on Wednesday evening. “I went to the hospital last week, because I started coughing,
WBC lightweight titleholder Devin Haney says he’s not getting all riled up by Teofimo Lopez’s taunting about being undisputed lightweight champion, but instead says Lopez knows they eventually need to meet in order to settle things in the ring. Haney calls Lopez a ‘liar’ and accuses him of constantly changing his story to skirt a
Eddie Hearn promised that WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol’s 2021 would be a bizarre adventure, and it seems we’ve now got some actual details. Bivol’s manager, Vadim Kornilov, tells Steve Kim that his charge “could be placed on a UK card in April” before facing former WBO super middleweight champ Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez in
With Manny Pacquiao back in training and promising “big news coming soon,” the global sporting icon and bona fide boxing legend is back in the spotlight. Now 42, Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KO) is still a top-tier star in the sport, and still looked like a hell of a good fighter when we last saw him.
David Benavidez’s March 13th clash with Ronald Ellis is set to sit atop a Showtime tripleheader. Dan Rafael reports that the broadcast will also feature a lightweight clash between Isaac Cruz and Jon Fernandez alongside Kudratillo Abdukakhorov vs Javier Flores at welterweight. This confirms earlier reports from various sources. Cruz (20-1-1, 15 KO), a 22-year-old
Daniel Dubois took the first loss of his pro career on Nov. 28, stopped in the 10th round by Joe Joyce in a fight where Dubois had trouble with a heavy jab, which busted up his eye and left him injured and beaten. But Dubois (15-1, 14 KO) is still just 23, still one of
Well, it’s no surprise that Deontay Wilder didn’t take too kindly to his former trainer’s recent criticisms of his work ethic and boxing ability. So coming back to respond to Mark Breland’s comments, Wilder says Breland has revealed himself for the jealous snake he is. Check out some excerpts of what Wilder had to say
Teofimo Lopez appears to have his next fight set as he’ll take on IBF lightweight mandatory challenger George Kambosos Jr, but tells ESPN if he could have it his way, he already knows how he wants 2021 to look for him. “Devin Haney first. Then Garcia or Tank, probably at 140. And Josh Taylor-Jose Ramirez
Saturday, Dec. 13 DAZN, 2:00 pm ET, Josh Warrington vs Mauricio Lara. Warrington has given up his IBF featherweight title after trouble making a unification with Xu Can, which probably has multiple layers. The IBF could have just approved it, but at the same time the WBA refuses to “promote” Xu to “super world” status,
If you were looking for last-minute betting advice from Claressa Shields for tonight’s Super Bowl matchup between the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, great news! “The Chiefs are the reigning champs and Patrick Mahomes has been amazing, but there is only one GOAT,” said Shields. “Tom Brady has a history of
Teofimo Lopez, who holds the WBA, IBF, and WBO lightweight titles and is considered far and wide the top man at 135 pounds right now, is never one to shy away from offering an opinion, whether asked for one or not. Lopez listed his top five current lightweights in the sport, with himself rightly in
Paige VanZant and Britain Hart left last night’s BKFC KnuckleMania event at very different positions than they had entering their main event fight, and both are setting goals going forward. Hart scored a minor upset over VanZant, the former UFC star who was making her bare knuckle boxing debut, and now says she’s going to
As disappointing as it is that the Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano showdown never came off as expected, Serrano (39-1-1, 29 KO) will be back in the ring next month as she’s scheduled to face Daniela Bermudez (29-3-3, 10 KO) in a scheduled 10-rounder from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The fight will air on NBCSN’s “Ring City
Avni Yildirim has the chance of a lifetime on Feb. 27, when the 29-year-old native of Istanbul gets a crack at Canelo Alvarez’s WBC and WBA super middleweight titles, and the chance to derail a lot of big plans. Alvarez (54-1-2, 36 KO) is expected to win without any trouble, as Yildirim (21-2, 12 KO)
Britain Hart ruined Paige VanZant’s bare knuckle boxing plans, at least out of the gate, winning a unanimous decision in the BKFC KnuckleMania main event this evening. Hart won on scores of 49-46 across the board, all three judges having the same tally. Bad Left Hook had it slightly closer at 48-47, but sort of
Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez sat down with ESPN KnockOut yesterday to discuss the company’s upcoming plans, revealing a number of interesting tidbits. He confirmed that something would be announced “very soon” regarding the WBA-mandated trilogy match between Joshua Franco and Andrew Moloney, claimed he’s discussed Patrick Teixeira and Vergil Ortiz Jr potentially facing