BOXING BOXING ARTICLES

Undefeated Devin Haney puts his WBC super lightweight belt on the line against one-loss challenger Ryan Garcia in a scheduled 12-round bout on Saturday, April 20 in Brooklyn, NY. Each of Haney’s last 13 fights has been for some sort of title. Most recently he moved up a weight class vacating his unified lightweight championship to tangle with Regis Prograis for the strap. In a dominant unanimous decision, Haney added another belt becoming a two-division world champion at just 25 years old.Althou... 

In what essentially amounts to a title elimination fight, junior lightweights Jordan Gill and Zelfa Barrett square off on Saturday, April 13 in England. Betting odds suggest a close bout with Barrett listed as the -172 favorite. The Brown Flash is looking to get back in the title picture after suffering a TKO loss to Shavkat Rakhimov for the IBF belt in November 2022. Since then Barrett has defeated a pair of worthy opponents and is looking for a shot at strap holder Joe Cordina.Gill has his sig... 

Undefeated super lightweights Richardson Hitchins and Gustavo Daniel Lemos square off in an IBF title eliminator bout scheduled for April 6 in Las Vegas. Though both fighters have won every fight in their professional careers and Lemos has 12 more victories on his resume, oddsmakers installed Hitchins as a big -600 favorite on the opening betting line. Hitchins looks to ride the momentum of an impressive win over former WBC light welterweight challenger Jose Zepeda last September. He’s a few years older and has more fights on his professional resume, but Lemos should be well rested after not fighting for two years. That hiatus is part of the reason why Lemos is a +425 underdog on the opening line. He scored a fifth round TKO of former IBF featherweight champ Lee Selby in March 2022 in his last fight. Lemos has been a regional champion for years as both a lightweight and super lightweight. He stepped up in class to battle Selby facing an opponent on the downslope of his career who retired from boxing a month after Lemos’ victory. ... 

Undefeated Dalton Smith opened as a strong -280 favorite in his 12-round super lightweight fight against Jose Zepeda, scheduled for March 23 in Sheffield, England. Following an illustrious amateur career, Smith turned pro in 2019 rising through the ranks to claim the English super lightweight title with a TKO of Lee Appleyard in just his eighth professional bout. He’s been the British super lightweight belt holder since August 2022 successfully defending his title four times. This is an opportunity for Smith to enter the main stream of the 140-pound class. A veteran of 43 career professional fights we can refer to Zepeda as a journeyman. He fought for the WBO lightweight title in 2015 and twice for the WBC light welterweight title in 2019 and 2022 losing all three bouts. Zepeda has lost two of his last three fights, most recently to unbeaten Richardson Hitchins by unanimous decision last September. Zepeda hit the boxing betting board as a +214 underdog. ... 

Undefeated William Zepeda tangles with former IBO champion Maxi Hughes in a 12-round IBF and WBA lightweight title eliminator bout scheduled for Saturday, March 16 in Las Vegas. With 25 of his 29 wins by knockout, Zepeda has emerged as a massive -900 favorite on the opening betting line. In his last four fights Zepeda has taken out former featherweight champs Rene Alvarado and Joseph Diaz and most recently scored a TKO against former world title contender Mercito Gesta last September.Coming off ... 

Former MMA champ Francis Ngannou faces two-time former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in a non-title boxing match scheduled for March 8 in Saudi Arabia. Ngannou has been one of the most intriguing stories in the world of combat sports holding a heavyweight title in the UFC before signing with the PFL, which allowed him the option to box. Ngannou did just that and makes his second professional appearance inside a boxing ring after stunning the boxing world with a split decision loss ... 

Luis Alberto Lopez puts his IBF featherweight belt on the line as a massive favorite against challenger Reiya Abe in a 12-round bout scheduled for Saturday, March 2 in New York. A regional champ in his early days, Lopez made the most of his first title fight scoring a majority decision over Josh Warrington at the end of 2022 to claim the IBF strap. He has successfully defended his title twice since and his handlers are looking at a potential unification bout should the -800 favorite do what he’s... 

WBC bantamweight champ Alexandro Santiago puts his belt on the line as an extreme underdog against challenger Junto Nakatani on Saturday, February 24 in Tokyo, Japan. It’s extremely rare to see a titleholder as a +549 underdog, but Nakatani isn’t your typical opponent. After his streak of 20 consecutive fights without a loss ended in 2021, Santiago responded with three straight wins earning a shot at the vacant WBC belt, which he won by outpointing Nonito Dontaire in his last outing.Nakatani isn... 

WBC junior lightweight champion O’Shaquie Foster puts his belt on the line against challenger Abraham Nova on February 16 at Madison Square Garden. In his first title defense, Foster was on the ropes against Eduardo Hernandez behind on every scorecard until a furious final two rounds earned him a stoppage in the 12th and final round. For Foster this will be his third fight in the span of 12 months as he looks to take advantage of the momentum he earned by claiming the belt in a decision over Rey Vargas last February. Foster opened as a massive -1000 favorite on the early line. The list of opponents isn’t as glossy for Nova, but he did what he had to after moving up a weight class. Following his only professional loss, Nova made the move to 130 outclassing veteran tough guy Adam Lopez before abusing Jonatan Romero with a third-round KO. Those wins aren’t considered groundbreaking and “Super” Nova makes a significant leap in stature facing Foster. As such, Nova is a massive +585 underdog on the early boxing line. ... 

Teofimo Lopez Jr. puts his WBO and Ring Magazine junior welterweight titles on the line against challenger Jamaine Ortiz on Thursday, February 8 in Las Vegas. Looking to take advantage of the Super Bowl hype in the Nevada desert oasis, the contest pits two boxers looking to make more of an impact in the division after recently suffering their first professional defeat. Though he won his last three fights, Lopez still has the sting of a setback to George Kambosos hanging over him. Lopez was upset... 

Undefeated welterweights Conor Benn and Peter Dobson square off in Las Vegas on February 3 with each fighter looking to move up the ranks. While both have the same number of losses on their resume, the road to this matchup has been quite different. Benn was on the fast track to the top of the division winning the WBA continental welterweight title in 2018 with eight successful defenses before his career was put on hold due to a suspension. With a more polished game and wins over some prominent b... 

Undefeated former world champion Jaime Munguia takes on John Ryder in a super middleweight bout scheduled for January 27 in Phoenix. A winner in all 42 of his professional fights, Munguia held the WBO light middleweight belt for nearly two years before vacating the title and moving up in weight. Also, with a win over Ryder there’s talk of a matchup with undisputed super middleweight champ Canelo Alvarez. He still has to get past the battle-tested Brit Ryder and looking ahead could be a costly mi... 

Undefeated Artur Beterbiev puts his WBO, WBC and IBF light heavyweight titles on the line against Callum Smith in a fight scheduled for January 13 in Canada. The two were originally scheduled to meet last summer but that bout was postponed when Beterbiev became ill. With all 19 of his fights won by stoppage, Beterbiev opened as the betting favorite with odds of -480, but he has fought just once in the past 18 months.A former world and regional super middleweight champion, Smith is a formidable o... 

Making his much anticipated return to the ring, Vergil Ortiz Jr. moves up in weight for a junior middleweight bout with Fredrick Lawson scheduled for January 6 in Las Vegas. Following a 17-month battle with health and other issues, Ortiz Jr. is finally ready to resume a boxing career that was on the fast track. It wasn’t like Ortiz Jr. was off sipping pina coladas and throwing down bon bons during the hiatus. He was actively trying to get back in the ring and had a scheduled fight with Eimantas ... 

Every belt in the super bantamweight class is on the line when undefeated WBC and WBO champ Naoya Inoue takes on WBA and IBF title holder Marlon Tapales in an undisputed title bout on December 26 in Tokyo, Japan. It’s rare to see a title fight with such disparaging odds but that’s exactly what we have for this one. Inoue cruised through the bantamweight ranks claiming the undisputed title with an 11th round TKO of Paul Butler 12 months ago becoming the first Japanese fighter to hold an undispute... 

A night of heavyweight boxing dominates the card on Dec. 23 when former unified champ Anthony Joshua takes on Otto Wallin in the headliner that also features Deontay Wilder against Joseph Parker. It was reported a few months ago that Joshua and Wilder could possibly square off but recent changes have the contenders fighting different opponents on the same ticket. After losing his belt in the first of back-to-back decision losses to Oleksandr Usyk, Joshua rebounded with a pair of wins, most recen... 

Saying he wants to be a world champion boxer and that he must compete against fighters with a boxing history in order to do so, Jake Paul will take on Andre August in a cruiserweight bout as a heavy favorite. This is a change in direction for Paul, who in his boxing career has mostly faced UFC fighters in crossover matches. The fight doesn’t have the marquee attraction of Paul’s previous fights, but he is listening to his critics, who have long said Paul needs to fight legitimate boxers.He’s not... 

Two-time and current WBC junior welterweight champion Regis Prograis puts his belt on the line against undefeated challenger Devin Haney in this much-anticipated encounter scheduled for Dec. 9 in San Francisco. The bout was originally set for late October but the sides couldn’t come to an agreement causing Prograis to accuse his opponent of avoiding him. This only added to what should already be a rambunctious bout. Turns out the October date had a pay-per-view event already scheduled thus causi... 

Former WBC interim lightweight champion Ryan Garcia is a big favorite in his junior welterweight bout with Oscar Duarte for the scheduled 12-round fight for Dec. 2 in Houston. Garcia gets back in the ring for the first time since being KO’d by Gervonta Davis in April in what was his first professional defeat in 24 fights. Garcia won the interim title with a seventh-round TKO of Luke Campbell on the second day of the year 2021. The belt slipped off rather easily though since Garcia was stripped o... 

Undefeated super middleweights David Benavidez and Demetrius Andrade will tangle for the interim WBC strap in Las Vegas on Nov. 25. Benavidez claimed the title with a third round TKO of David Lemieux in 2022 and successfully defended with a unanimous decision over Caleb Plant in March. Benavidez is a -370 favorite on the early boxing line to be the top contender to face Canelo Alvarez for the undisputed super middleweight championship.A former two-division champion who was the WBO middleweight b... 

Undefeated and a former two-class world champion, Shakur Stevenson is a massive favorite against Edwin De Los Santos when the two scrap for the vacant WBC lightweight title on Nov. 16 in Las Vegas. It isn’t the fight most expected after undefeated contender Frank Martin backed out, but De Los Santos is a rising star and a formidable opponent that Stevenson can’t afford to take lightly. Making a move to lightweight after titles in lower classes, Stevenson stopped Shuichiro Yoshino with a sixth round TKO last time out. The inability to make weight forced a move up. Just 23 years old De Los Santos has put together a solid resume winning 16 of 17 fights with 14 of them by KO. Maybe Stevenson wanted to throw a jab (no pun intended) at Martin for turning down the fight or maybe he truly believes what he says when he stated, “I think he’s a harder challenge than Frank Martin,” when discussing De Los Santos. Ranked No. 1 by the WBC, Stevenson opened as a -800 favorite with De Los Santos at +502. ... 

Current WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury is a massive -1300 favorite to beat former UFC champion Francis Ngannou when the two tangle in a non-title fight in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, October 28. It’s a battle reminiscent of the 2017 money grab crossover match between Floyd Mayweather and former UFC champ Conor McGregor. Fury is scheduled to defend his title in late December against Oleksandr Usyk, using this perhaps as a sparring session while making coin in the process.With Ngannou making hi... 

Current WBC super featherweight champion O’Shaquie Foster puts his belt on the line against once-defeated contender Eduardo Hernandez on Saturday, October 28. In his last bout Foster outpointed Rey Vargas to claim the strap and makes his first title defense having won his last 10 fights. While he is five years older than his opponent, Foster has 13 fewer professional fights on his resume and his list of opponents is stronger. Foster is positioned as a -195 favorite on the opening line.In terms o... 

Following a controversial loss to Josh Taylor in February 2022 for the unified light welterweight title, many consider Jack Catterall the champion. He rebounded from his first professional setback to win the vacant WBA intercontinental light welterweight crown and is set to defend as a heavy favorite against former three division champion Jorge Linares on October 21 in Liverpool. With an eye on a Taylor rematch Catterall can’t afford to overlook his ageing but still difficult opponent. Catterall opened as a prohibitive +800 favorite. On the down slope of his career, t he 38-year-old Linares had held world championships in three weight classes, including the WBC featherweight, the WBA super-featherweight, and most recently the WBA, WBC and Ring Magazine lightweight titles. He enters this scheduled bout on a three-fight losing streak and has dropped five of his last eight fights since losing the lightweight titles to Vasiliy Lomachenko in May 2018. While he’s one of the most formidable opponents to go against Catterall, Linares is still a big underdog at +500 on the opening boxing betting line. ... 

The scheduled cruiserweight boxing match between Dillon Danis and Logan Paul, billed as the joint main event on the KSI vs. Fury fight card at MF & DAZN: X Series 10, has gotten more attention for the exploits of the fighters outside the ring. That’s because neither Paul nor Danis have much experience inside it. Paul enters the ring for the first time since taking on Floyd Mayweather in an exhibition bout more than two years ago. And Danis, a former MMA fighter in the Bellator promotion, has...