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LOS ANGELES – The bruising over his left eye still prominent, Noel Mikaelian didn’t blink when told fellow cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia was calling him out for an immediate unification.

“Great, let’s do it – I’m ready to go,” Mikaelian told BoxingScene late on Saturday night after recapturing the WBC belt with a 115-111, 116-110, 116-110 unanimous decision victory over former three-division champion Badou Jack at Ace Mission Studios.

“Just tell him to sign a big check.”

Mikaelian, 28-3 (12KOs), was still celebrating his triumph after winning the bout’s final five rounds to pull away in a rugged affair that involved two point deductions, a headbutt that left a nasty knot on Jack’s forehead, and a post-eighth-round extension of the bout when Mikaelian and Jack were flinging wild punches at each other as they leaned heavily on to the ropes. It appeared the veteran, retiring referee Jerry Cantu could’ve called a double disqualification as the fisticuffs transpired. 

Mikaelian was asked if he considered a double disqualification if he didn’t stop fighting with Jack after the bell.

“I didn’t care about that – it got too heated,” he said. “Once it got that heated, it’s like, ‘Let’s rough him up’.

“Sometimes, it’s difficult – I’m a calm guy. But he forced me to let the dog out. He was punching and pressing with the head.”

Through seven rounds two judges had the bout even and another scored it by one point for Jack. But Jack, 42, said the effects of a headbutt that wound up swelling his forehead cost him the fight and will make the three-division champion reconsider retirement.

“It wasn’t my best performance.” he said. “I don’t feel that great. It’s not easy to perform at this age. I’ve had a great career.”

Jack acknowledged: “Father Time may be coming… Maybe [it’s time for retirement], maybe not… There were headbutts. He has his little dirty tricks. Flinching, holding, headbutts, eye pokes – now he is slick.”

Promoted by Don King, Mikaelian, meanwhile, said he’s “waiting for unifications”. “Whoever has the belts,” he continued, “those are the challenges I’m looking for.”

Jai Opetaia has responded to Norair “Noel” Mikaeljan’s victory over Badou Jack by demanding a unification contest with the new WBC cruiserweight champion in 2026.

In his rematch with Jack at Los Angeles’ Ace Mission Studios the 35-year-old Mikaeljan earned a unanimous decision to record his finest win.

According to Mick Francis of Tasman Fighters, the promoter of the IBF champion Opetaia, a contract already existed for the winner of their rematch to confront his leading fighter in the new year.

Mikaeljan had previously presented as the more willing of the two to fight Opetaia, and the Australian and his promoter – determined to further his prospects a week on from the stoppage of Huseyin Cinkara that represented his third title defence of 2025 – have already moved to secure the unification showdown he has made little secret of wanting next.

“First of all, congratulations to Noel Mikaeljan,” said Opetaia. “He put in a strong, gritty performance against a very experienced fighter in Badou Jack and deserved the win. Becoming a two-time world champion is no small achievement.

“But now the time is right to unify the titles. I’m the Ring Magazine and IBF champion. He’s the WBC champion. This is the fight that makes sense for boxing and for the cruiserweight division. The fans want to see who the real number one is, and I’m ready to prove it.

“I respect Noel as a fighter and a champion. But I believe I’m the best cruiserweight in the world. Let’s unify the belts and show the fans what this division is really about.”

Opetaia, 30, is widely considered on course for the heavyweight division, but he has also been vocal about wanting to win the undisputed cruiserweight title first.

It is little secret that Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, the WBA and WBO champion, is prioritising a fight with David Benavidez in May 2026, and it was that that Francis referenced when he called for a match-up between Opetaia and Armenia’s Mikaeljan next.

“Boxing needs unification fights, it’s that simple,” the promoter said. “Jai has never shied away from anyone. He’s been crystal clear that he wants all the belts, and he’s willing to fight anyone who holds them.

“Let’s be honest – ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez wants absolutely nothing to do with Jai Opetaia. We’ve seen plenty of noise, but no action. Given that reality, the most logical and meaningful fight to make right now is Opetaia versus Mikaeljan.

“It’s champion versus champion. IBF and Ring Magazine versus WBC. It’s clean, it’s simple, and it gives the division exactly what it needs – clarity.”

Super middleweight Diego Pacheco got off the canvas to win on Saturday night.

Pacheco won a 12-round unanimous decision over unbeaten Kevin Lele Sadjo at Adventist Health Arena in Stockton, California. The bout served as the main event of a DAZN telecast.

The scores were 117-110, 116-111 and 115-112.

Pacheco, a 24-year-old from Los Angeles, used his 9ins reach advantage to win early rounds, but the undeterred 35-year-old Sadjo applied relentless, calculated pressure to turn the action his way. The 5ft 8ins Sadjo mauled Pacheco and forced contact at close range, where Pacheco’s 6ft 4ins frame and longer reach were less of a factor.

In the sixth, Pacheco began to target Sadjo’s body, but the inside fighting continued with more clinches. Pacheco suffered a small cut above his left eye during a head clash in that round. In the eighth, Sadjo dropped Pacheco with a left hook that jolted the crowd.

Sadjo continued to land clean punches on Pacheco, while Pacheco continued to find himself trapped on the inside with the much smaller fighter. Pacheco stayed constantly busy in the fight, but he was fighting Sadjo’s fight. It was in the closing rounds that he was finally able to pull away.

Pacheco rocked Sadjo in the 11th, unleashing violent flurries as the crowd got to its feet, rooting on Pacheco. Sadjo, despite being dazed, continued to press forward. In the 12th and final round, Pacheco and Sadjo both battled valiantly to the finish, as the fighters embraced, exhausted, at the final bell.

Pacheco extended his unbeaten record to 25-0 (18 KOs), while Sadjo, of Creteil, Val-de-Marne, France, lost his first fight as a pro to slip to 26-1 (23 KOs). 

Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.

DUBAI – Fabio Wardley said he and Frank Warren will meet to determine his next move as the WBO heavyweight champion of the world.

Wardley has been in Dubai this week at the IBA Pro event, where he saw Murat Gassiev claim the WBA regular heavyweight title with victory over Kubrat Pulev.

“We haven’t put a solid plan together. We’re throwing a few broad ideas at each other, but nothing solid to sit down and really assess the landscape,” Wardley told BoxingScene. “When we get back, I'll have a word with the boys and we'll come up with something.”

Wardley knew his O2 Arena bout with Joseph Parker was an important one and that it could have championship ramifications.

The winner was due to become a clear No. 1 contender for Oleksandr Usyk, but Usyk subsequently relinquished the WBO strap and it was awarded to Wardley.

“It feels good,” the new champion said. “I haven't actually put my hands on it [the belt] properly yet, but yeah, it feels good to be a world champion. It feels good to be kind of up there at the top, on top of the game, but there's still a lot more I want to do, a lot more I want to achieve, a lot more big fights out there I want to be having.”

Wardley’s story from white-collar fighter to a leading heavyweight has been well documented. He delivered a wild come-from-behind knockout of Justis Huni earlier in the year and then scalped Parker. 

“Look, it was a hard, hard fight,” he said of defeating the veteran New Zealander. “He's one hell of a competitor, one hell of a fighter, wealth of experience, been around the game a long time. There were a lot of moments in that fight where I had to kind of figure out different things and kind of work my way through and just kind of think on the fly and under fire really. But again, it proves I can learn on the job and in the middle of it, come up with something different and kind of turn the tide.”

It was subsequently revealed that Parker tested positive for cocaine on the night; something he stringently denies.

“I think everyone in boxing was pretty shocked,” Wardley said of the news. “I know his character and always assume that that's not never something he would be associated with in that sense. It's surprising but you just have to wait and see and let it play itself out, really. Because we've seen this go left and go right a few times in boxing. So I think it's wise in these situations to kind of withhold judgment until the final proceedings are all gone through and then we can make an informed decision on how we feel about it.”

What has been beyond proof in 2025 is Wardley’s insatiable will to win and dig in when the going gets tough.

For him, it’s normal and something he can’t explain.

Asked where he gets that from, Wardley said: “Yeah, one singular place, I'm not too sure. It's a multitude of feelings, like I have something to prove to everyone else, something to prove to people in boxing, which I feel like I have done since I started my career.

“Again, something to prove to myself and then the other way of just wanting to also prove people right, like my family, friends, team, supporters, everyone that's been saying, ‘Yeah, he can do those things, he can achieve. He is that good.’ It's down to me on the night, on the occasion to prove them people right. So there's a lot of different aspects which pile into it. And the other half of it, I guess, I just like a bit of a scrap.”

Wardley, 30, from Ipswich, is now 20-0-1 (19 KOs), and he is planning on being around for a long time yet.

“There's a lot more to be done,” he insisted. “And I guess that's almost kind of funny to say at this stage in my career after some of the things I've ticked off… headlining, selling out the O2 and then doing a stadium show in my hometown and things like that. There's some huge milestones on there, which a lot of people would be very happy with at this stage of their career. And don't get me wrong, I am as well. But I'm still ambitious enough to think, you know what? There's still a lot more on the table for me.”

On Wardley’s way through he twice boxed Frazer Clarke. The first bout was a Fight of the Year war, scored a draw after 12 torrid rounds; the second saw Wardley storm to an emphatic one-round stoppage in crushing fashion.

There is a fear that Clarke has not emerged from their rivalry the same, having lost a decision to Jeamie TKV in his most recent fight.

Has Wardley taken a lot out of him?

“Maybe. I don't know. There's always different circumstances,” Wardley explained.

“And no one ever knows the full details of what goes on in a camp. And I know that fight got delayed. So maybe having to prolong the camp and drag things out a bit, maybe that played a factor. Who knows? But don't get me wrong. Those two fights, they would have taken a lot out of anybody. So maybe, maybe not.”

That is, of course, of no consequence to Wardley, who is moving on and with a belt in tow. In the social media age, he has been dubbed an “email champion”.

But he went into the Parker fight knowing the stakes were high and that was why he was so happy to roll the dice against Parker.

“Both of us knew what was on the line,” Wardley added. “Hence why we took the fight so seriously and both of us put it on the line and it went the way it did. But yeah, no matter the circumstance, the tag, a paper champion or whatever you want to call it, is always going to apply if you don't win it in the ring. But to me, we knew that was an interim fight going into it. We knew what the stakes were going to be after. And look, if the difference for me is if Usyk would have given up that belt only a few weeks earlier, I would have won it in the ring on the night and no one would have said anything about being a paper champion. It would have been a four [major sanctioning bodies] world champion with all the rights. So to me and my brain and the way I view it, I'm a world champion. With all the respect, Usyk looks like he's going to go in a different direction.”

And that is of “mild frustration” to Wardley, who was hoping to test himself against the very best.

“When you want to fight the best and you want to challenge yourself and they may deviate and do something else, it is frustrating, of course,” he said. “But look, everyone's got to do what's best for them or whatever they think is best for them and best for their careers. So we're just going to move on, pick the next best option around.”

For now, Wardley’s name is being attached to many top heavyweight contenders. Asked for his opinion on future fights with some of them, here are his replies.

“Daniel Dubois.”

“Blockbuster.”

“Parker part two.”

“Maybe.” 

“Deontay Wilder.” 

“Yeah, definitely.”

“Usyk.” 

“A hundred percent, the top of the list.”

“Anthony Joshua.”

“Yeah, massive.” 

“Moses Itauma [his stablemate with trainer Ben Davison]. 

“No, not currently anyways.”

Sup Breadman. With modern training techniques and sports science, why do some modern champions still seem to peak for fewer years than legends from the past?

Bread’s response: I think fighters are lasting longer these days. The three best fighters in the world are Crawford, Usyk and Inoue. All are over 30. Crawford and Usyk are closer to 40 than they are 30. I’m not sure what you’re trying to say. I think the eras before this era were better in terms of peak talent. But even I will acknowledge fighters of the last 20 years have aged better. As with everything there are outliers to the rule. But I disagree with you wholeheartedly….

Hi Breadman. I pray God is blessing and continues to bless you, your family and the fans of your mailbag and their families. Breadman, you made a great point about Bivol not being hated like Haney, but I feel the reason why is because Bivol doesn’t trash talk and Haney does a lot of it. Haney, Shakur, Mayweather, Camacho, Malignaggi and boxers of that ilk talk like gangstas but fight like wangstas. They talk like killers or like they are Mike Tyson, but they bring artistry and not the violence. James Toney talk gangsta talk and fought with skills but also brought a level of violence that those others don’t bring. Most fans tune in to see fights for violent entertainment. The purists appreciate boxing but most of us casuals tune in to boxing matches to see a fight break out. Haney and others don’t give us that which is where the hate comes from. If he was quiet and humble, he wouldn’t get the negative feedback that he gets. It is a catch twenty-two, though. Because of his boring style he has to talk trash so people will come to see him get beat. If Mayweather had been nice and humble and hadn’t created the persona of Money Mayweather, he would have never got paid like he did so you and others might as well get over it. Boxers who aren’t violent and get knockouts are never going to be popular and that is how it has always been. I was overjoyed when Garcia beat the breaks off Haney and I’m a black man. I am into performance and not personalities. If you are aggressive and moving forward throwing punches and going for knockouts I’m going to always cheer for that type of fighter unless it is Frazier against Ali. Most fans are bloodthirsty, and boxing purists like yourself  are never going to be able to relate to them. God bless and take care. BG from Germantown.

Bread’s response: I can relate to the bloodthirsty crowd. I love KO artists and “killers”. I have so many different types of favorite fighters. I love Sugar Ray Leonard and I love Evander Holyfield. I love Felix Trinidad and I love Roy Jones. I love Manny Pacquiao and I love Salvador Sanchez. My favorites are a variety of races and styles. My issue with the narratives are I don’t believe they’re authentic. I think they’re agenda driven. It’s ok to have your picks. But at least recognize the excellence of fighters who execute a style you may not be fond of. It’s called being open-minded and professional. Let me show you what I mean.

Hypothetically, if Devin Haney was fighting tonight and Boots Ennis was fighting tonight and they were fighting the same type of opponent and I had to pick one fight to attend, I would pick Ennis because I feel like he’s going to appeal to my wanting to see a KO. I have no issue saying that. But here is what I will never ever do. I won’t crap on Devin Haney because he’s a boxer and he doesn't score KOs at the same rate as Ennis. I won’t call him a Wanksta because he doesn’t punch as hard as Boots. Devin can’t help that Boots hits harder than him. Devin can’t help his mental make up. And I’m open-minded enough to appreciate Devin and not criticize him just because I find Boots more appealing to watch.

This is the same as calling a pretty woman ugly because she’s not your type. Alicia Keys is a very pretty woman but she’s not my type. Keri Hilson is a very pretty woman but she is my type. I wouldn’t crap on Alicia just because Keri is more my type. There is a level of maturity that’s involved in appreciating something that you may not be partial to…

Sir, thanks for the bag. I’m here every week. So I say even if Junior isn’t top of the world I would be so proud if I was his dad. Just a son being world class in something that pop was pretty good at (understatement of course). I don’t know what the public thinks except maybe Jnr wasn’t good or just had a name.  He had a decent fight with one of my favorites Danny Jacobs. Not the best but I rooted for Jacobs. But boxing people, what are their thoughts on Jnr? Also, both Shane Mosleys if you’ve got a second. I don’t hear much about Snr these days

Bread’s response: Shane Mosley Sr. was a terrific fighter; Hall of Famer and one of the best fighters of the 90s and early 2000s. Mosley had a great chin, great handspeed, a big punch and loads of heart. He’s one of the best lightweights I have seen in my lifetime and could compete with any lightweight in history.

Shane Mosley Jr. is a solid fighter, with lots of determination and heart. Junior gives A+ effort every time he steps in the ring. It’s not easy following in the footsteps of a HOF father. Both father and son should be proud of their accomplishments individually and collectively.

Hi Bread. With the Janibek situation at middleweight, where do you think Terence Crawford goes from here? Do you think there is a chance he retires? Or should he fight Erislandy Lara to pick up another divisional title? Thank you. Kindest regards, Sam.

Bread’s response: Good question. I thought about it when Janibek tested positive. Crawford is really good at keeping his plans quiet. I suspect he has something cooking right now but he’s not going to reveal his hand. I don’t know his next move but I do believe it will be a blockbuster type of fight. I respect Lara but I don’t know if that’s the type of fight that Crawford wants. Lara is formidable but he only has one belt and he’s not a huge draw at the box office. Crawford is a needle-mover at this point. In order to be paid how he deserves to be paid, his opponent will have to move the needle that Lara doesn’t move with just one belt. There is a certain type of fighter that gets the algorithms moving. Canelo moves the needle. Vergil Ortiz moves the needle. Boots Ennis moves the needle. Hamzah Sheeraz moves the needle. There are a few others but I had a long day today and I can’t think of anyone else right now off the top of the dome….

This is in regards to your answer regarding the WBC and Terence Crawford. My husband is a HUGE fan of yours and respects you immensely. Over the years he has often come to me with your mailbag. He loves how you are able to be fair and answer questions with facts without being harsh. I can honestly agree with him in regards to his opinion of you and I myself admire your intelligence and calm nature. However, I am uneasy about this post this time. My husband and I  can't stop talking about it.  I don't know much about boxing and or the fees involved. What I do know though is that regardless of my opinion on whether or not my bill is too high I still have to pay for it. If I don't pay my light bill, they get shut off. I watched the interview with Mauricio Sulaiman and from what I understand Terence Crawford just refused to pay so they took the belt back. The fee was 0.06% which makes no difference in my opinion on this because in life you have to pay your bills regardless if you think they're too high. Nothing was heard from the other sanctioning bodies because they were in fact paid. This actually saddens me because Crawford is a legend that other boxers look up to, not to mention children. Legends are held at a very high standard and they should act as such. I understand that you mentioned that you were not saying who was in the wrong here because you did not know all the details and I can appreciate that. Maybe by the time you read this you will have done more research. You said that you RESPECT Crawford for standing up for himself and I wish that I could agree with that statement but I just can't. In my eyes he didn't stand up for himself at all. He simply told the whole world that he isn't paying his due fees that every fighter before him had to pay. He admitted that he didn't care about giving that belt back because he had the RING belt and that's the only one that matters. This is immaturity and negligence at its highest. Eddie Hearn made a great point in saying that Crawford needed the WBC belt in order to be undisputed. Crawford won the fight but didn't pay for the belt. This is no different than going to a high-end restaurant and eating all of the best dishes with wonderful service and not paying your bill. Crawford was well aware of the fees involved. Maybe the fees aren't fair. Maybe fees need to be discussed for future fighters. Again, I don't know much about boxing. But as of right now Terence is past due on his bill and the entire world now knows his true colors. On a lighter note, thank you for all you do, Breadman. We truly love and respect you highly. Have a great night.

Bread’s response: I was very clear that I didn’t know all of the details so I can’t say who’s right or wrong. In life, but especially in boxing, unless you’re directly involved you will never know the full truth. In most cases of conflict, both sides will tell THEIR side. So I’m careful with my words.

If you’re offended that I said I respect Crawford for standing up for himself , that’s your right, but I stand on that. Many times in boxing fighters are afraid to speak up for themselves out loud because they’re in fear of retaliation. They fear everything from bad scoring in their fights, to low offers in pay, to limited opportunities etc. So they take a lot of abuse silently. I assume Crawford has had many things happen to him that he hasn’t spoken on publicly. Now he’s 38, he’s a millionaire many times over and he will probably fight two or three more times max. So he’s at a point where he can speak his mind in public about his experiences in boxing. So I respect that. It doesn’t mean I’m saying he’s right or wrong. I’m saying I respect it. There is a huge difference. And at the same time I have no idea if he’s right or wrong because I don’t know what was negotiated. 

You make a good point about the high light bill. But the difference is sanctioning fees can be negotiated. Light bills can’t. We don’t know what was negotiated. And we also don’t know how much the other sanctioning bodies were paid. Until I see something that shows me what was negotiated, and what the other sanctioning bodies accepted, I will reserve my judgment on who’s right or wrong.

I do agree that Crawford needed the WBC belt to be undisputed. One of the things that makes Crawford a legend is he was undisputed in three different divisions, so it’s fair to say that belts did matter in his career. But there is still no proof that he screwed the WBC. Therefore I will leave it at this: the sanctioning fees should have been agreed to, long before Crawford and Canelo ever got in the ring. Other than that I still don’t have an opinion on who’s right or wrong.

I saw you on Pro Box TV doing the Roach vs Pitbull and Foster vs Fulton fights. Bro, you need a job. You called both fights exactly how the judges did. You had the right score both times. And you called a draw in Roach vs Pitbull at like the halfway point. I found it interesting that you weren’t card counting. You just said your score and went onto the next round. The Foster vs Fulton fight was easy to score. But Roach vs Pitbull was tight and you didn’t actually know who had won until the producer told you that you scored the fight a draw. You’re one of the best people in all of boxing. Salute Breadman.

Bread’s response: Thank you, I really appreciate that. Sometimes I score fights on my own so I can get a better feel of what the judges are looking for. And after fights I ask for the official scorecards so I can be better as a trainer. I have a relationship with Stephen Fulton and his team. And I’ve met Lamont Roach and his team. I put that all to the side and just called the action how I saw the action. I was surprised that Foster dominated Fulton like he did. I still don’t know what happened, but I know what I saw and I scored it accordingly.

As for the Roach vs Pitbull fight. Get this: I thought I scored the fight for Roach. I honestly did. That’s why I kept asking what was my final scorecard on the broadcast. I really didn’t know. But if you made me guess I would’ve said Roach by a slight edge. I was shocked to see that I scored it a draw. But judging a fight is no easy task. You have to score a round. Turn the score in. And clear your mind and score the next round and so on. No carry over effect. No card counting. Just objective scoring of Clean Punching, Effective Aggressiveness, Defense and Ring Generalship. Or simply, who would you rather be in that three-minute session. I tried my best and did my best. Thanks again. It was a great experience for me.

You were right after all about GGG. I remember fans arguing with you about GGG being a first-ballot Hall of Famer. You stood on your ground and now he’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer. You also kept saying that Nigel Benn should be in over many others who were getting in and he got in this year. How were you so confident in both? You seem to have some influence on this indirectly. Are there any other fighters who should be in that aren’t?

Bread’s response: I wasn’t that confident that Nigel Benn would get in to be honest. His career has been over for over 20 years and he wasn’t in yet. So I felt like he was being overlooked. But I couldn’t understand for the life of me how Vinny Pazienza got in the Hall of Fame and Nigel Benn didn't.

This was no disrespect to Pazienza but under no metric was he better than Benn. Benn did more as a fighter. He was a better fighter. And I respect fighters who were BIG stars. Fighters who moved the needle. But Benn was a huge draw in the UK. He was just as a big of a star in the UK as Pazienza was here in the US. They fought basically during the same timeframe. I never said that Pazienza shouldn’t be in. I don’t disrespect a fighter’s accomplishment like that. But I did say that if Pazienza is in, Benn should be also. Hopefully someone read it and voted Benn in. I’m not sure if that happened and I certainly don’t want to take credit for Benn getting in but it’s cool that he did.

No person with high accomplishments wants to be overlooked and underappreciated. GGG getting in was a no-brainer. Especially this year when there weren’t any recent ATG locks. I don’t even want credit for calling GGG a 1st ballot HOF. Anyone who thought otherwise either doesn’t understand the metrics or doesn’t like GGG. The only question about GGG is whether he’s an ATG or not. His HOF status was a lock long ago.

Other fighters who should be in… I won’t say who should be in or not. But I like to phrase it as, who deserves strong consideration? Dariusz Michalczewski deserves very strong consideration. If you watch him at his peak you know you’re looking at a HOF-level fighter. Then if you check his numbers you know he has the numbers. His career was very similar to GGG’s. His drawback is he didn’t fight here in America. But he still deserves very strong consideration.

Chad Dawson is a fighter I find interesting. I don’t know if he’s a HOF. I’m not lobbying for him to get in. I think he’s a borderline case. But interestingly enough Antonio Tarver was just inducted. Congrats to Tarver by the way. In no way am I suggesting Tarver shouldn’t be in. But Dawson beat Tarver twice head to head. He beat Glen Johnson twice, who went 1-1 against Tarver. He beat Bernard Hopkins who beat Tarver. And he beat an undefeated Tomasz Adamek. I know Dawson had a very bad slide after he lost to Andre Ward. But if you look at his peak value and his resume, he at least deserves strong consideration. There are others but those two names popped in my head today.

What is the likelihood that we get Ennis vs Ortiz next? I know you favor Boots but if you were laying the betting lines what would they be? Are there any advantages that you see that Ortiz has that can make the fight more competitive? You have stated several advantages that Boots has but I haven’t heard you speak on Ortiz’s advantages.

Bread’s response: I’m going to guess that Ennis vs Ortiz has a 70% chance of happening next. That’s just a guess, by the way. If I were making the betting lines I would make Ennis a -200 favorite with Ortiz being +225 as an underdog.

Ortiz advantages… umm, let’s see. Ok, technically Ortiz’s punches are a little shorter on the inside. Boots has long arms and sometimes he whips his shots and they come off a little wide. Ortiz also solved the Madrimov puzzle without getting bored or frustrated. I think Boots got a little bored then frustrated when he faced Karen. Karen and Madrimov have similar styles…

Hey Breadman, love your Twitter (X), by the way. My question is about Erron Peterson. He’s 13-0 with 12 KOs and he hasn’t been signed yet. Do you think it’s his age or is it the current state of boxing? I’ve seen him fight. I’ve seen his interviews. He’s must-see TV. He’s a puncher. He’s from Philly. I can’t help but to think it’s his age because I can’t think of anything else.

Bread’s response: Erron Peterson is my next fighter on the rise. Great kid. I can’t tell you why he’s not signed yet because I’m not a promoter. He’s 29 but as you stated he’s 13-0. It's not like he’s making his pro debut at 29. I really don’t worry about him getting signed right now. I just concern myself with how well he’s progressing. Several promoters have reached out to me. But no one has pulled the trigger. I believe he will get signed when the time is right. These things are very tedious. And you never want to rush them for several reasons. I actually love the position Erron is in right now. Because the more his record and profile is built up before he gets signed, the easier the contract will be to work out when he does get signed. Because the further along he is, the less the promoter has to invest and it benefits the promoter to get a faster return on their investment.

I have two questions. What belt is held higher in esteem out of the sanctioning bodies, and what belt do you hold in higher esteem? Next, I’ve heard you speak on Crawford before. But tell me where he ranks compared to other greats at welterweight which seems to be his best division.

Bread’s response: I view the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF as all equals in terms of accomplishment and status.

Welterweight, in my opinion, is the best division in the history of boxing. When I say best, I feel collectively that welterweight has had the best and biggest fights, while displaying the highest degree of talent. The telling factor is, the best welterweight in the world is usually a great fighter. The best welterweight in the world is usually a HOF. The best welterweight in the world is usually on the P4P list. The best welterweight in the world is usually one of the biggest stars in the world. Overall I believe Terence Crawford is one of the 10-15 best welterweights ever. I don’t know exactly where I put him because I’ve never sat down and forensically researched it. But off the top of my head he’s with the top 15 ever. But there is a metric I have off the top of my head that I would like to state:

In my lifetime Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns have been the best welterweights. Whenever a new era is ushered in, I always say to myself, ‘Can he hang with the Sugarman or the Hitman?’ Ok so let’s go through the years and I will give you my takes.

Immediately after Leonard and Hearns left the division, Donald Curry emerged. I looked at Curry and I thought with his precision straight punching and pedigree that he had a chance vs Leonard and Hearns. But post 1986, I thought to myself Curry didn’t respond to adversity good enough to beat them.

After Curry’s era, Simon Brown and Marlon Starling were the best welterweights. Although I think both Brown and Starling are underrated and deserve HOF consideration, there was never a day I thought either could beat Leonard or Hearns. Leonard and Hearns are A+ fighters and Brown and Starling are B+ fighters on most days with the capabilities of being A- fighters on their great days.

After that Buddy McGirt, Meldrick Taylor and Pernell Whitaker emerged. I never thought McGirt could beat Leonard and Hearns. I thought Taylor was just too small. Whitaker in a P4P sense is good enough but I didn’t think he had the physicality to beat either.

Next up was the Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad and Ike Quartey era. This was a very tough era. Even the contenders like Yory Boy Campas, Oba Carr and Jose Luis Lopez were extremely tough outs. I thought Oscar was an A-fighter but I thought he was a level below Leonard and Hearns. I feel the same way about Quartey. Felix Trinidad is interesting. I believe Leonard’s feet and hands would have been too fast for Tito. But I do see a world where Tito could beat Hearns. I wouldn’t favor Tito to beat Hearns. I think if they fought three times, I would be comfortable predicting Hearns would win twice. But Hearns could be drawn into trading hooks. Hearns didn’t have a great hook to the head. He had a great hook to the body. When he was forced to trade hooks to the head, he got in trouble. Tito had one of the best hooks I have ever seen. I favor Hearns to beat Tito but there is a real scenario where Tito could win that fight.

The next era was Mosley and Forest. I was comfortable picking Leonard and Hearns to beat both.

Next was Spinks and Judah. Again I favored Leonard and Hearns.

Floyd Mayweather now enters the division. I believe, in a P4P sense, Floyd is Leonard and Hearns’ peer. But beating them head to head is different. So while I give Tito a better chance to beat Hearns than Leonard, with Floyd I give him a better chance to beat Leonard than I do Hearns. I think Hearns is just all wrong for Floyd. I have never seen Hearns outboxed. And I just don’t know if Floyd could be rough enough to force Hearns into a slugging match and if so would that even benefit Floyd. Whereas with Leonard, I don’t favor Floyd to beat Leonard, but  I do see Floyd’s jab and IQ giving Leonard trouble. Floyd and Leonard are similar in stature and I don’t have nostalgic bias. I favor Leonard to win but I know this could be a tough fight for him.

Manny Pacquiao emerged after Floyd. For as great as Manny is, I just feel he’s too small for Hearns. And I feel Leonard would catch him and clip him.

Tim Bradley, Shawn Porter, Errol Spence ushered in the next era. Bradley is tough enough but I just don’t think he has enough. Porter the same. Spence has the size but I would pick Leonard and Hearns to defeat him.

Now we have Terence Crawford. Terence Crawford is the FIRST welterweight in 45 years that I give the eyeball test and I say to myself, ‘He has a 40%-45% chance to beat BOTH Leonard and Hearns.’ Crawford’s adjustable approach, physical strength, long reach, chin and conditioning makes me say to myself, ‘Leonard and Hearns would have all they could handle with him.’ These are close fights. I would make Hearns vs Crawford 55/45 in Hearns’ favor. Hearns would have issues with Crawford in the 2nd half of the fight. I would make Leonard vs Crawford 60/40 Leonard. Leonard’s speed and gold medal pedigree would be an issue for Crawford. But Crawford’s 75 inch reach, southpaw stance and conditioning would be an issue for Leonard.

Crawford is the closest welterweight to Leonard and Hearns in terms of if everybody would were made to fight each other in a big tournament, I believe Crawford would be the #3 seed since 1980. Before anyone writes in to argue, I’m not talking about resumes. I’m not talking who’s greater or had the greatest careers. I’m talking strictly who would win if everyone had to fight on their best DAY at WELTERWEIGHT, like you asked me.

Send questions and comments to dabreadman25@hotmail.com

DUBAI – A picture-perfect left hook from Murat Gassiev put Kubrat Pulev down for the count and saw a minor heavyweight belt change hands on United Arab Emirates soil for the first time.

The story of the WBA regular heavyweight title has been well told.

Its list of champions doesn’t read like a Murderers Row, and certainly not like a sample of Hall of Famers.

But it means something to the fighters who contest it and to those who build their shows, like tonight’s IBA Pro Fight Night 13, around it.

Although the world recognizes Oleksandr Usyk as the clear top big man in the world (who also happens to hold the main WBA title, as well as the IBF and WBC belts), the WBA’s regular belt was being fought for here by a 44-year-old champion and a challenger who used to box at cruiserweight and who had lost his biggest fight since moving up some five years ago.

Gassiev’s two losses had come to southpaws in Usyk, who beat him soundly to unify belts at 200lbs, and Sweden’s Otto Wallin in a closer tussle.

Pulev’s defeats – to Wladimir Klitschko, Anthony Joshua and Derek Chisora – had been in 2014, 2022, and 2022 respectively. He’d won his last three, including claiming this belt against Mahmoud Charr in Bulgaria a year ago. Charr, who lives in Dubai, was ringside tonight.

It was a Gassiev thunderbolt, a clean left hook, that accounted for Pulev’s fourth defeat and closed the show so emphatically here.

The opening round was timid. Pulev was trying to make room for his right hand, to both the head and body, as the action got underway just past midnight local time.

Pulev worked behind his jab in the second and Gassiev tried to slip and get inside the tall Bulgarian.

The crowd in the Duty Free Tennis Stadium was split. Although Gassiev earned plenty of cheers, Pulev brought a number of flag-waving supporters from Bulgaria. Both fanbases, clearly invested, obviously couldn’t care less about the lineage of the WBA belt on offer.

In the third round, Pulev fired over a heavy right but Gassiev, hands high, took it on the gloves and soon after replied by stuffing a short right under Pulev’s elbow and into his side. It was a shot Gassiev started to look for, sometimes adding a short right to the hook afterwards in the hope that Pulev’s hands would drop to protect his ribs.

Pulev opened the fifth more aggressively, exploring opportunities with his left while trying to throw rights in behind. Gassiev tried to keep him off by letting an overhand right go and the action began to heat up.

But Pulev, who had not stopped an opponent since he defeated Bogdan Dinu in seven in 2019, didn’t have the firepower to slow Gassiev and, in the next, Gassiev landed the shot to dramatically close the show. He followed in a short left with a left hook and Pulev crashed heavily onto his back, his head bouncing off the canvas.

The crowd gasped. Pulev didn’t know what had hit him. He rolled onto all fours with a knowing smile and the referee waved it off before he could even really try to get back to his feet.

The veteran from Sofia, Bulgaria, was stopped after 50 seconds of the sixth and Pulev dropped to 32-4 (14 KOs).

Gassiev, 12 years younger at 32, is now 33-2 (26 KOs). 

Youngster and WBA No. 1 Moses Itauma could press his claim to challenge for that title in the new year but the gifted southpaw must first get by American gatekeeper Jermaine Franklin in Manchester, England, in January.

LOS ANGELES – Counting his participation in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Badou Jack has fought in eight nations, stretching from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and now back to Los Angeles for his Saturday night WBC cruiserweight title defense.

That event, a rematch on PPV.COM and Prime Video pay-per-view versus former titleholder Noel Mikaelian at a 1,500-seat sound stage known as Ace Mission Studios, comes after Jack has fought on cards headlined by his former promoter Floyd Mayweather Jnr, along with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Gervonta Davis, Jake Paul and Logan Paul.

Those varied experiences by Jack, now 42, qualify him as boxing’s truest globetrotter, a three-division champion willing to do his thing whether it’s on the second-most viewed pay-per-view of all time (as the 2017 Mayweather-Conor McGregor card was) or this show.

“I’m international. Traveling is no problem,” Jack said with a smile earlier this week, having been summoned from his home in Dubai to a black-brick gym building tucked next to L.A. freeway lanes where big-rigs roared by. “It’s all about believing in yourself even when people write you off and don’t believe in you. You’ve got to believe in yourself. That’s all that matters.

“I’ve experienced everything in boxing. This is nothing new to me. I’m excited to be back in the States and make a statement.”

Jack’s ideal statement would be to proclaim a more convincing victory over Armenia’s Mikaelian, 27-3 (12 KOs), following Jack’s 115-113, 114-114, 115-113 triumph in May on the Alvarez-William Scull card in Saudi Arabia.

“I want to win more clearly,” Jack said. ‘The first fight was too close. I’m levels above him. It’s not supposed to be so close.”

Besides the fight, Jack’s extended run in the sport as a three-division champion (he was a secondary WBA light heavyweight titlist) pressing to go out as an undisputed cruiserweight champion with the likes of Jai Opetaia, Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez and David Benavidez before him is also something to behold.

“You’ve got a guy who loves what he does, who’s dedicated his life to religion/family and the sport of boxing,” Jack’s veteran trainer Johnathon Banks said. “He’s extremely dedicated. … I think any diehard fan would appreciate Badou Jack.”

A week after Cuba’s 42-year-old WBA middleweight titlist Erislandy Lara successfully defended his belt, and five months after record eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao, 46, fought welterweight belt holder Mario Barrios to a draw, Jack embodies the effects of clean living in an era where medical monitoring and advanced nutritional knowledge can extend athletic careers in ways beyond what George Foreman’s grill accomplished for him.

Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Jack, 29-3-3 (17 KOs), fought for his father’s West African nation of Gambia in the Olympics and defeated the likes of Anthony Dirrell, George Groves, Lucian Bute and James DeGale as super middleweight titleholder before fighting mighty light heavyweight titlist Adonis Stevenson to a draw and then discovering opponent Jean Pascal joined Bute as a second foe to fight him under the influence of PEDs.

In 2023, Jack scored a 12th-round TKO of cruiserweight belt holder Junior Makabu to seize that belt.

Wearing a belt at a post-40 age “doesn’t happen that often in boxing, but with all of the technology, the fresh food and juices, the new medicine that they didn’t have back when George Foreman did it, you’ve got companies now delivering food for straight, clean eating – it digests so easy you don’t even gain a pound,” Banks said.

“The technology allows us to search what’s in our food and tap into our DNA to see what works best for our body.”

A beneficiary of that advanced knowledge, Jack – who has 232 rounds of pro experience under his belt – is a marvel in the eyes of his trainer.

“He’s one of those guys you’re not sure you want to fight, because you’re not sure if you’re going to make it out safe or not,” Banks said. “Nobody’s running up to his door.” 

Mikaelian, 35, made his case, blaming the judges for his prior loss.

“I’ll get a fair shake. Last time, I won eight rounds and everybody knows that,” said Mikaelian, wearing a Dodgers cap for good measure. “The judges [in the May bout] are not watching fights. They are following orders. Everybody else had me winning – all the presidents of the sanctioning bodies, [promoter] Frank Warren, [Julio Cesar] Chavez Snr, even the commentators, the fans, the German press.

“If you know boxing, watch the fight and see. It’s unfortunate, but now we have a second chance. I’m going to win convincingly and get the belt back.”

Jack grinned slightly at Mikaelian’s prediction, countering that he’s 5-0 as a cruiserweight, with three knockouts/stoppages.

“Good luck with that. That’s what I’m coming for,” Jack said.

“I don’t have to cut all the water and weight and be weak. Mikaelian might be bigger than me, but he’s not stronger than me. He’s not a better fighter than me. Some people cut a lot of weight. That’s not good for the body.”

Banks assesses that Mikaelian has been talked up by others about how he actually fared in May, encouraging anyone to replay the championship rounds and observe Mikaelian’s withering body language.

“I believe he feels that [he won] now, but he didn’t feel that way the night he lost,” Banks said. “Look at his face. He didn’t feel this way. The 11th and 12th rounds – that’s your true self. How did he feel during that adversity? We have to fight for our livelihood in those rounds. Looking at this fight over and over, he showed who he was.

“He didn’t feel he won that fight. The 12th round was his least active round. Other people told him what they feel, but he didn’t feel he won, and all those people telling him he’ll win, they don’t have to fight Badou. They don’t have to get up off that stool after eight rounds and say, ‘Oh, man, I’ve got to get through four more rounds of this?’”

That’s why Banks believes he’s coaching the right man for the job Saturday night, a veteran who has traveled so far, experienced so much and still wants to press on to finish his lengthy story on his terms.

“What I tell everybody in boxing, the ring is where the truth emerges,” Banks said. “Everything else around it is bullshit. The truth is told in the ring.”

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.

Deontay Wilder was pleasantly surprised to hear that Oleksandr Usyk was interested in defending his unified heavyweight titles against him next.

It looked as though Usyk would face mandatory challenger Fabio Wardley, but talks broke down. Usyk then relinquished his WBO strap and Wardley was upgraded to full-champion. With Usyk deciding against a date with Wardley there was speculation whether the Ukrainian would continue in the sport. After all, he has beaten all worthy challengers to his crown and, at 38 years old, isn't getting any younger.

Usyk put an end to speculation last week while attending the annual WBC Convention in Bangkok, Thailand, revealing that his favored pick for his next opponent is former champion Wilder. The former long-reigning WBC heavyweight champion has won just two of his last six fights since losing his title to Tyson Fury in their third fight in 2020. That matters little to Usyk, however, who seemingly wants to add the name of Wilder to his decorated resume.

“I wasn't expecting that at all,” Wilder told BoxingScene of Usyk’s recent callout. “I was like, when I got the call and my manager and them calling tomorrow [he then paces up and down vigorously]. You know what I'm saying? We are on the phone, I'm pacing, I'm back and forth. Like I said, it'd probably be some type of burnt residue in my rug right now because of me going back and forth and stuff. I thought I smelled smoke. But yeah, I was excited, though. I really was excited. And I was overwhelmed with joy.”

So Wilder accepts the challenge of Usyk?

“Hell yeah, I want that smoke,” Wilder said. “I want all that smoke. We're going to make a signal out of that smoke, you know. And it's going to be good. We're in negotiations right now. “Negotiations are going very well. I just hope and pray that it all ends well, as well. And give the fans what they want to see. A lot of people are very excited. They made sure they let me know. I had to call my guy. I was like, ‘Man, they are really pumped for this fight’. So we'll see what happens.” 

It seems as though Usyk is wanting to face Wilder in order to add his name to a record that already includes the likes of Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Daniel Dubois and Mairis Briedis. The acquisition of Wilder’s name would complete the set for Usyk, with the Ukrainian defeating all the dominant figures of his era.

“I think they see a lot of things,” said Wilder. “Not only that, I don't think that's a major part of just completing this era of fighting for the last five, 10 years. But I also think that they see, just like other fighters or whatever, that they feel like I'm beatable now. They think they see holes in my armor and different things that they can do to beat me, to get it. I only say that because I go back on past conversations. When I was at the top, they didn't talk that way. It was a different language.

“I still got that power right here, but they feel because of my derailing of certain situations and me mentally getting myself back together, they feel like, ‘Oh, now we can beat him. Let's give him an opportunity’. Because I know for sure, the more you lose, the more opportunities you get than when you’re winning. I know that for a fact. You get more opportunities losing than winning because people feel like they can beat you. I think that’s one of the strongest opinions that I have about that. Now, you are right about finishing out the era and stuff, because that’s a great thing. I would want to do that as well, but I think the big deal is what I just said.”

Wilder and Usyk strike polar-opposites when viewing how two fighters have learned the sport. Usyk, who has studied his craft since a child and has been praised for his well-schooled skills over the years and then there is Wilder, who has relied on raw power rather than the fine arts to secure his victories as a professional.

“I think he's a very skillful fighter,” he said of his Ukrainian counterpart. “Even when I first was introduced to him and stuff like that, I always thought Usyk had nice skills. It's crazy how people's mindset is. One minute when you're great and doing your thing, ‘Oh, he’s wild, he don’t know how to box’. Now, when they feel like you’re gone and they want you back, ‘We want the old Wilder back’. I'm like, ‘I don't like him or something like that,’ I don't know, ‘You really want him back or you want the new one? Which one you want?’ 

“But it's all good, man. You can't please all the people all the time. You never can. You got to have a sense of humor, especially when you're in the business of boxing. You just have to. You have to have tough skin as well. And that I have. I have it all, and I'm looking forward to whatever God has for me. It's going to be big for me, and people are about to be shocked. “When [Muhammad] Ali said he shook the world or he shocked the world, I'm going to shock it as well. I'm going to shock it and shake it.

“How about that? Shock it and shake it.”

 

Friday, December 12

SYDNEY, Australia – Anthony Velazquez had been in Australia for in the region of an hour when he arrived at Rockdale’s Tszyu Fight Club and came face to face for the first time with his opponent on Wednesday, Tim Tszyu.

The great Kostya Tszyu, perhaps Australia’s finest ever fighter and Tim’s father, trained out of the Tszyu Fight Club when he was in his destructive prime. Before Velazquez arrived Tim’s younger brother Nikita – who fights Michael Zerafa on January 16 – could also be seen hitting the heavy bag.

Velazquez and Tszyu were committed to media workouts ahead of their 157lbs catchweight fight at Sydney’s TikTok Entertainment Centre, but Velazquez had arrived in Sydney 48 hours later than scheduled as a consequence of two delays. The first owed to a ticketing issue at LAX; the second to the cancellation of his flight. There is little question that, at the very least in the context of his body clock, if not also the process of making weight – and he looked bigger than Tszyu – his late arrival risks leaving him underprepared.

“It was probably promotional – some kind of strategy from the promoters,” said his outspoken trainer Hector Bermudez. “They wanted to get my man unfocused. The only thing that can get him unfocused is that ugly face right there.”

The “ugly face” to which Bermudez was referring was that of Omar Iferd, Tszyu’s chef who – according to those present, uncharacteristically – chose to goad Velazquez almost as soon as he arrived. “You’ve got nothing – there’s levels here,” Iferd could be heard shouting. “Enjoy the pain. How’s your weight?” 

To the last of those one of Velazquez’s team responded “Are you on weight, fat boy?”, but for all of the understandable frustration they would have felt at their delay, they may also have been heartened to learn that Tszyu’s preparations have also been imperfect. Owing to his new trainer Pedro Diaz’s commitments to Norair “Noel” Mikaeljan’s WBC cruiserweight title fight with Badou Jack on Saturday in LA, one Stefan Hubert was scheduled to fly in from Belgrade, Serbia, to oversee the final days of Tszyu’s build-up. Hubert, however, is yet to receive a visa, so when Tszyu was doing pad work on Friday it was instead with Khalil Saab, who worked with him while he remained an amateur.

“Every day,” Tszyu responded when asked how much he and Diaz were in contact. “Every morning. Every little thing. Every training is mapped out. I’ve got my team here – Khalil, Omar and the boys helping me out. They’re in contact with Pedro as well. Right now the hard work’s done. I’ve put everything into it to get to this stage. Right now it’s just about freshening up.”

Tszyu, by then, had become a considerably more tense figure than the one seen on Wednesday at a pre-fight promotional activity with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, and also than he had been up until Velazquez’s arrival. Throughout his pad work he was largely loose and relaxed; the same applied as he had his photo taken with some children and when he made his way around a gym displaying his fight posters on each wall. After he and Velazquez first went face to face, however, Tszyu was visibly irritated. Whether that is a reflection of the pressure he is under ahead of a fight that could yet end his career at the highest level or something he detected in Velazquez that he disliked was ultimately unclear, but it was there for all to see.

“It’s the first time we’ve seen each other,” he also said. “Honestly, I can’t wait to just get in there and punch his face – that’s what I was thinking. It wasn’t the laugh and the smile that he was putting out. That face is gonna get punched.”

Velazquez, even by the standards of Tszyu, is a man of very few words. “I think he had a great career,” he said of his opponent, after some prompting. “He had a great career. I think he got his name off his dad – his dad got a big name – but I’m here to beat him. That’s what I’m here for.” Appropriately enough, Velazquez was standing in front of a wall covered in Kostya Tszyu fight posters during the stage of his hall-of-fame career in which Tszyu was in his prime.

“I love that they thought I had something to do with it,” George Rose, of Tsyzu’s promoters No Limit, said to BoxingScene of Velazquez’s delay. “It was unfortunate, the way that it worked out. I’m stoked that they made it here this morning. 

“Being here, in Australia, it’s always a worry when you bring in international opponents. Australia’s very strict with who they’ll let in, so visa issues to get here; long flight; everything else that comes with it… Until they get through customs here in Sydney, I’m always nervous. 

“You’ve gotta find someone to blame, right? I’m flattered that they think I can control flights in America. Me; Donald Trump; there must be only two people that can do it.

“You do need a few days to get over [the time difference], especially ‘cause we’ve got daylight savings here too. We’ve got long, late, sunny days – if they’re not really focused on that recovery process then it will affect them, and it doesn’t hit you in the first days. It’s a couple of days after that if you haven’t acclimatised properly, and that will be leading into that fight time. If he doesn’t do it right, then around that fight time he will be feeling it.”

Asked about the change in Tszyu’s mood, he responded: “I thought he had a really good vibe, getting in here; seeing everyone back in his old gym. I think when Velazquez looked forward and was smiling and almost looking arrogant in his approach to Tim, I think that changed his demeanour massively. Before, you would have seen Tim having open chats with everyone. As soon as that happened, that’s put him in the zone where he’s locked in to put on a big performance. He’s a very disciplined guy, and when you see that switch flick for him, that’s what he’s got to do.”

STOCKTON, California – Diego Pacheco recently returned home to Los Angeles for his training camp, where he was reminded of all sorts of familiar sights.

Pacheco will face Kevin Lele Sadjo in a 12-round super middleweight bout in the main event on Saturday’s card at Adventist Health Arena in Stockton, California.

Pacheco, 24-0 (18 KOs), will be trying to cap off a 2025 that saw him enter the top 10 of three of the four major sanctioning bodies. A 24-year-old who until recently had been working under Jose Benavidez Snr in the Seattle area, Pacheco will be facing a style he knows all too well.

“I grew up in Los Angeles, California, and I boxed in Mexico a lot,” Pacheco told BoxingScene. “The style that he brings is the style I have seen since I was a kid, and basically made me the boxer I am today.”

You will see some new and old faces in Pacheco’s corner Saturday. After training with Omar Villanueva early in his career, Pacheco left to train with Benavidez in 2022. In October, BoxingScene reported Pacheco had split ties with Benavidez, and he has since returned to working with Villanueva. The Sadjo fight will mark the debut of his newly formed team.

“I decided it was time for me to make my own team, Team Pacheco,” he said. “What better than to go back to the people who have known me since I was a kid? They know what I am good at and what I need to work on. That is what they are doing, and they focused 100 percent on me.”

Pacheco’s style is a blend of American and Mexican boxing. He has the ability (and length) to box on the outside and use angles, but he can also fight on the inside when needed. His versatility has seen him record unanimous decision victories over Steven Nelson in January and Trevor McCumby in July. Both fights were won behind his jab as he got full extension on his reach.

“I feel like composure is probably my best attribute – and my patience,” Pacheco said. “Even when I do get hit with a punch, I am able to stick to a game plan and do what I have to do.”

Pacheco also credits being around older people at a young age with helping learn patience at a young age. He was given heightened responsibilities at a young age, which he believes made him more mature, both inside and outside of the ring.

“I just feel like I am an old soul,” Pacheco said. “At 13 and 14, I was traveling on my own to national tournaments.”

Sadjo, 26-0 (23 KOs), is an unbeaten fighter from Cameroon who now resides in Creteil, Val-de-Marne, France. Sadjo, 35, burst onto the scene with a win over Jack Cullen in 2021 – a fight that displayed his physicality.

Pacheco believes this will be another good win that vaults him into a position for a big year in 2026.

“If you look at my BoxRec [boxing record], there are a lot of guys with good records on there,” Pacheco said. “You see what I do to them. I take care of business. I control fights. Most of the guys get knocked out. Sadjo is a good fighter, undefeated, with a lot of knockouts. It will be another great name and another great knockout under my belt.”

Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.

Hours after comments were expressed indicating Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz and Lamont Roach Jnr would not return for a rematch, another outcome is materializing with a key player describing the negativity as “posturing.”

“If I had to guess, it’ll be Lamont Roach versus ‘Pitbull’ in New York, with the winner fighting [Gervonta] Davis,” Roach co-promoter Garry Jonas said on a special ProBoxTV discussion Wednesday on the set of “BoxingScene Today.”

Jonas, who owns ProBoxTV and BoxingScene, was joined by recent super-featherweight champion Roach and his trainer-father, Lamont Roach Snr, on the show, with the younger Roach reporting he did not require surgery on his broken right hand, which should require five weeks to heal.

On Tuesday, Cruz advisor Sean Gibbons said the delay in Roach’s injury and Cruz’s belief that he decisively defeated Roach would prompt them to move on and pursue fights against Davis, upcoming welterweight title challenger Ryan Garcia or current WBC 140lbs champion Subriel Matias.

Judges scored the bout 115-111 Cruz and 113-113, 113-113,a majority draw for Cruz’s WBC interim 140lbs belt.

“I was a little disappointed in the scoring. I thought I did enough to win the WBC interim 140lbs belt,” said Roach, who later admitted he would not accept a rematch in Texas, which offered a heavily pro-Cruz crowd.

Jonas said he realized around the halfway point of the bout that Roach had injured his hand, praising him for producing a “fun, close fight.”

“You get bad judging in those kinds of fights, with the crowd noise,” said Jonas, who noted Roach was in the exclusive company of fighters like Manny Pacquiao and Terence Crawford by going unbeaten in three consecutive fights in different weight classes.

Jonas said he noted the punch stats favored Roach, that “we’ll do a little audit … I believe we won a close fight.”

Jonas earlier Wednesday issued a press release saying he wanted Roach to next take a fight at home in Washington, but as the cast was discussing Cruz’s Tuesday disinterest in a rematch, Jonas confided that this type of resistance is usually a call for “more money.”

Jonas affirmed Roach is in a good place after being eligible for a rematch with Davis following their March draw at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, along with the fact that Premier Boxing Champions also wants to see Cruz-Roach II.

“I hope [Cruz] is a man of his word after saying he’s not a Gervonta Davis [looking to avoid the rematch]. Part two would be an even better fight with the drama and controversy,” Roach Snr said.

Analyst and former 140lbs champion Chris Algieri said he doesn’t believe Cruz’s fans will let him walk away from Roach after he gave Cruz such an in-your-face effort.

“If either rematch is on the table, we’ll likely go that route,” Jonas admitted. “[PBC] wants to go to New York [for Roach-Cruz II]. That’s fair, neutral territory.”

Algieri was impressed with how Roach rallied from a third-round knockdown to perform strongly in rounds five through 10.

“The momentum was with Lamont, but he’ll still have to deal with a fresh ‘Pitbull’ Cruz coming out of the gate.”

Roach Snr said he was “very proud” of his son’s effort, saying, “He went through adversity and showed his character.”

Roach Jnr said his brand-boosting 2025 is “only the beginning” as the fights of 2026 and beyond await.

If you’ve ever been curious to investigate why so many young female “influencers” visit Dubai each year to buy expensive things, stand on expensive yachts, and take an endless number of selfies for social media, just know this: curiosity didn’t just kill the cat, it can kill your innocence, too. 

Some things, in other words, are best left unknown. Sometimes it is better to see a “holiday” as simply a holiday without learning (a) how the holiday was paid for or (b) how the sausage was made. Sometimes the illusion sold on social media is as much for your own good as theirs. 

In the case of boxing’s WBA “Regular” heavyweight title, a similar suspension of disbelief/ignorance is required to avoid throwing up. This has in fact been true of that silly belt for years now and our collective willingness to play along is why it still exists and can present itself as a “world title” in 2025. 

The latest man to own the belt is Kubrat Pulev, of course, a once-capable but now-44-year-old Bulgarian whose best days are well and truly behind him. In 2020, Pulev boxed for the proper version of the WBA heavyweight title – in a spirited but unsuccessful effort against Anthony Joshua – so knows the difference between “Super” and “Regular”, even if he is never likely to let on. He won’t let on because for middle-aged Pulev winning the WBA “Regular” belt has provided the dermal filler and BBL his career required, as well as given him the opportunity to dress and pose like a world champion without having to go through the ordeal of beating a world-class fighter for the privilege. 

Instead, to rise to “champion” Pulev merely had to overcome Mahmoud Charr, himself a long-time fan – and yes, holder – of the WBA “Regular” belt last December. That fight took place in Sofia, Pulev’s home, and was by every measure a fairytale ending to a long and decent professional career. It had all the hallmarks of a fairytale at least: the shiny things, the triumph of the hero, the happy climax. It also had those fantastical elements every great fairytale needs, plus the reassurance that it is, in the end, just a fairytale. Rest assured, only small children and those of a naïve persuasion would ever take the WBA “Regular” heavyweight title seriously and consider it anything more than regular. Only the fighters themselves would ever attempt to have small children and those of a naïve persuasion believe that what they were watching was world championship boxing. 

Plenty have done it, mind you. Before Pulev and Charr, you had Daniel Dubois, you had Trevor Bryan, and you had Lucas Browne. All carried the WBA “Regular” belt for a spell and did all they could to convince both themselves and others that it meant something more than others told them it meant. There was, to them, nothing regular about it at all. In fact, for most who win that belt, it is as close as they will ever come to touching the real gold – call it “Super” or something else – and capturing that feeling. For these fighters, it’s enough just to wear the clothes. 

Indeed, where there is a belt, there is a sanctioning fee, and where there is a vacancy for a world champion, there will be a fighter somewhere keen to apply. Pulev, the latest, in many ways fits the bill to a tee. At 44, he is the right age, and his rate of activity is in keeping with what the WBA expects from its “Regular” champions. It’s worth remembering, after all, just how long Mahmoud Charr managed to hold on to his “Regular” belt without actually fighting – three years and two months, if you’re interested – and how old Fres Oquendo was when his fight against Charr in 2018 was scrapped due to Charr failing a performance-enhancing drugs test (he was 45).

All in all, it’s a messy business, this “Regular” heavyweight title business. It’s full of old men – some of whom are dirty, all of whom are desperate – and Love Island-levels of plastic and deceit. Should you get into the business, you will know what to expect. It’s why you come along. As bad as it sounds, you want a taste of that seediness and that unpredictability. You want to slum it for a bit and watch old, dirty blokes have their fun. 

This time they will have their fun in the desert – Dubai, to be exact. That’s where Kubrat Pulev will defend the belt against Russia’s Murat Gassiev on Friday and, in truth, there can be no better place for the business of WBA “Regular” heavyweight boxing to find its home. If we thought a decrepit casino in Miami ticked every box when Dubois and Bryan boxed there for the belt in 2022, we were wrong. This is even better. This brings the WBA “Regular” heavyweight title to the land of plastic, shiny things and gives it the opportunity to dazzle in a way only Dubai really can. Better yet, it allows the fight to seduce the kind of people only a place like Dubai can seduce. Which is to say, on Friday night, the superficial meets the superficial; the soulless meets the soulless; stuff meets stuff. It’s not so much the blind leading the blind as the fake leading the fake, but the effect, make no mistake, is still the same. It all goes down at the Duty Free Tennis Stadium – where else? – and everybody involved, thanks to the WBA’s great dereliction of duty in regard to their titles, will again rally against truth and common sense.

See, it’s perfect. In Dubai, among all that plastic and glass, nobody will care to ask too many questions. Nobody will slut-shame Kubrat Pulev or ask him how he got that snazzy, expensive belt he keeps parading on his Instagram. Instead, everybody will just make their money and have a grand old time, accepting that nobody needs to know what any of it really means. Besides, sometimes you’re better off not knowing.

LOS ANGELES – Formal talks to stage an appetizing junior-middleweight bout pitting the unbeaten, in-their-prime contenders Vergil Ortiz Jnr of Texas and Philadelphia’s Jaron “Boots” Ennis kicked off on Tuesday as the sides committed to renew acquaintances in short order.

According to two officials with familiarity of the session, it lasted six hours, with each side presenting their “positions and needs” while “talking through some steps to accelerate this… over the next 10 days”.

Finalizing a bout between the WBC interim 154lbs champion Ortiz, 24-0 (22 KOs), and recent unified welterweight champion Ennis, 35-0 (31KOs), for a proposed date in March would be a tremendous Christmas present to fight fans.

The 27-year-old Ortiz is coming off a second-round knockout of veteran former title challenger Erickson Lubin in Texas – a bout Ennis, 28, watched from ringside after posting a first-round knockout of Uisma Lima a month earlier in Philadelphia. Ennis attended Ortiz’s victory, pointing to his watch that, “it’s time” to make the fight.

Ortiz’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya maintained in comments immediately after Ortiz’s victory that his fighter deserves the larger cut, and one official on Tuesday reported the talks repeated that notion, since Ortiz has fought stiffer competition in succession – Lubin, former WBA 154lbs champion Israil Madrimov, and former WBC interim champion Serhii Bohachuk.

Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez, who represents Ortiz, said at the recent WBC Convention in Bangkok, Thailand that he believed an imminent deal was possible, with Ortiz ultimately seeking his first world title against WBC champion Sebastian Fundora later in 2026.

The teams of Ortiz and Ennis presented options to bring the talks closer to reality, and one individual told BoxingScene there were times negotiations “got heated”, but said that that’s expected, considering where they are.

“If it was bad and had no chance, I would tell you,” the individual said. “Deals like this do not get done in a day.”

Zuffa Boxing is officially set to enter the ring.

The Dana White-led boxing venture will host its first branded event on January 23, as confirmed by TKO Group Holdings – Zuffa’s parent company - during an investor's quarterly conference call Tuesday. It will also mark the launch of boxing on Paramount+, on the eve of UFC’s maiden voyage with the streaming platform.

“We are planning to launch our first boxing show on January 23, which is the night before our first UFC show on P-Sky (Paramount Skydance),” TKO president Mark Shapiro confirmed on Tuesday. “Back-to-back nights. A big weekend for TKO, to say the least.”

No further details – such as the main event, any fighters involved in the debut show, or even the location - were provided as this goes to publication. Messages left with Zuffa and TKO officials were not immediately returned.

That said, UFC 324 is scheduled to take place on January 24 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It would stand to reason that Zuffa’s event the night before would also take place in the same city, if not that very venue.

News of the series launch comes one week after the U.S. Congress held a meeting to introduce bill H.R. 4624 - the proposed Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act (MAABRA), which TKO seeks to have passed as an amendment to the current Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act.

The proposed bill in current form was introduced through bipartisanship support from Rep. Brian Jack (Georgia) and Rep. Sharice Davids (Kansas; also a former MMA fighter). To date, there are 12 confirmed co-sponsors – from both sides of the aisle – and several more prepared to join the movement, given the tenor of the December 4 hearing in Washington D.C.

Should the proposal gain full approval, promoters – such as Zuffa Boxing – would then have the power to operate as a Unified Boxing Organization (UBO). It would not have to comply with the Ali Act, provided that it carries the stipulations outlined in the amendment, such as national minimums for fighter per-round pay, health insurance coverage as well honor anti-doping and anti-betting policies.

To date, the bill is still in the discussion phase with the Education and Workforce Committee. It has yet to gain approval beyond its introduction, required to then make its way to the House of Representatives.

For now, Zuffa will have to operate in accordance with the current Ali Act, though White has previously suggested in an interview with CBS Sports that his company’s success doesn’t necessarily hinge on the passing of the proposed amendment.

UFC entered a 7-year deal estimated at $7.7 billion over the life of that agreement. Such terms for the boxing side have yet to be revealed, other than that the series is a partnership with Turki Alalshikh and Riyadh Season. TKO will receive a $10,000,000 annual fee as “managing partner and to provide day-to-day operational management oversight” according to Shapiro in a previous interview with Sports Business Journal.

Shapiro further expanded on that during Tuesday's call.

“The way we’re going to go value here – on one hand, you’ve got this partnership with our friends in Saudi Arabia (Turki Alalshikh and Riyadh Season). We’re going to run it like we do UFC, bring the whole platform in, sell tickets, sell media rights and sell partnerships and marketing. Ultimately, monetize the site fees like we do UFC and WWE.

“To do that, we’re not taking risks. We’re being paid a management fee (by Riyadh Season) and we’re going to build firm value. In the space of a couple of years after hitting our threshold – which we are well on our way to doing – we will roughly be at 50/50 on ownership of that.”

The January 23 event will mark the first boxing event under the Paramount umbrella since Showtime's exit from the sport at the end of 2023. 

Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.

There are bad days for professional athletes. And then there are terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days for professional athletes.

This is the story of Stephen Fulton and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

I use the word “day” liberally, as it was actually over a span of about 33 hours that everything for Fulton went terribly, horribly, no goodly, very badly wrong.

In the world of unscripted entertainment – i.e., sports – unexpectedly poor outcomes frequently happen. But this was on another level. Fulton totally dropped the ball.

Actually, that’s too PG-rated of a metaphor for what he did. He screwed the pooch. That’s the PG-13 way to say it.

Or if you want to go for the full rated-R, he shat the bed.

Whatever your MPAA rating of choice, Fulton had that bottom-one-percent outcome that nobody saw coming.

There is no shame and no shock – pun somewhat intended – in losing to O’Shaquie Foster in what the oddsmakers tabbed as a 50/50 fight. But the utterly listless, one-sided manner in which Fulton lost on Saturday night in San Antonio – that was a result nobody predicted.

And he produced that result some 33 hours after failing to make weight. Even though he was moving up from 126 to 130lbs, Fulton tipped the scales at 132. That combined with his performance turned this into the sort of epic disaster weekend for “Cool Boy Steph” that leaves the whole sport scratching its collective head.

It’s not just that he lost. It’s that he appeared lost. And he appeared that way on the heels of quite possibly the most meaningful win of his boxing career 10 months earlier.

In February, Fulton boxed beautifully – at least as beautifully as he could against an opponent intent on mauling him – in winning a clear-cut decision in his rematch with Brandon Figueroa. (And, for style points, he did it while wearing custom Timberland boxing boots and trunks that looked like jorts.)

And that’s why I wholeheartedly reject a comment I saw here and there on social media Saturday while Fulton was in the middle of screwing pooches and crapping beds: that he hasn’t been the same since he got stopped by Naoya Inoue in the summer of 2023.

Yes, the eighth-round stoppage to Inoue was a violent defeat with the potential to eviscerate a man’s confidence. And in its wake, Cool Boy Steph didn’t fight for 14 months, and didn’t look good at all in his first fight back, a split decision over Carlos Castro. But he shed the rust and the self-doubts and whatever else he was dealing with and boxed his way past Figueroa with relative ease.

Based on those 12 rounds, Fulton was all the way back, the Inoue loss just a blip to be filed under “occupational hazards of being willing to fight Naoya Inoue.”

And then he moved up, missed weight by two pounds and sleepwalked through 12 rounds with Foster. From the second round on, Fulton looked like he would have rather been anywhere else in the world than inside that boxing ring.

So what the heck happened to him?

I have four possible theories:

Theory 1: O’Shaquie Foster happened to him.

This is the glass-half-full theory, the theory that promotes credit rather than blame, the theory that behind every desultory loser, there is a dynamic winner.

Foster’s style presented problems for Fulton. “Shock” had the faster hands. He was the longer boxer and he used his jab masterfully. He spent much of the fight in the southpaw stance, which Fulton seemingly was not expecting.

Foster’s combinations weren’t especially creative, but they were often pinpoint and they were well-timed. By mid-fight, Fulton’s trainer, Derek “Bozy” Ennis, began imploring his charge to get inside, but the rangy Foster never made that easy for him.

Foster is a fighter who almost never wins with room to spare. He needed a 12th-round knockout to save his 130lbs alphabet title in a fight he was losing against Eduardo “Rocky” Hernandez. He eked by Abraham Nova by split decision. He split two bouts with Robson Conceicao, and even though Foster rightfully should have been 2-0 in the series, both fights came down to a round or two.

But despite this pattern, there was Foster taming Fulton fully on Saturday night and winning by scores of 119-109, 118-110 and a frankly too close 117-111.

It would be possible to give Foster credit and leave it at that.

Except I don’t think we can leave it at that.

Give Foster credit for an outstanding, disciplined, confident performance? Sure. But to chalk it all up to what O’Shaquie did well is to effectively say “Fulton could have beaten any junior lightweight other than Foster on this night.” And if you watched the fight, you can’t reasonably say that about the dismally disinterested Fulton we saw for those 36 minutes.

Theory 2: A delay that led to weight-cut challenges happened to him.

Fulton posted on social media back in May that he was walking around at 164lbs, 30% above what was at the time his fighting weight of 126lbs. That’s on him, of course. Some boxers can blow up between fights and bounce back, and some can’t, and maybe Fulton went too far this time.

But there’s also a complication here that was somewhat beyond Cool Boy Steph’s control.

His fight with Foster was originally tabbed, unofficially, for a slot supporting a proposed August rematch between Gervonta Davis and Lamont Roach. When that event fell apart, Foster-Fulton was scheduled for October 25, in the co-main to Sebastian Fundora-Keith Thurman. Fifteen days out from the event, Fundora withdrew with a hand injury, and the whole card was pulled. So Foster-Fulton moved to December 6.

Fulton went from thinking he was two weeks away from a fight to suddenly being eight weeks away, and he needed to maintain his weight over the course of what was now a double-length training camp.

To be clear, all the same challenges applied to Foster. So this is not an excuse. It’s just a possible explanation.

Fulton’s lone previous defeat, against Inoue, also came after a delay. That bout was set for May 7, 2023, but postponed to July 25, 2023, due to an Inoue hand injury.

In the media scrum at the end of the final pre-fight press conference for this past weekend’s PBC PPV card, Fulton was asked about that.

“And that was, like, a struggle,” Fulton said. “That part was like a struggle, like, not financial, but weight-wise. I can’t keep holding that motherfuckin’ weight for like three more fuckin’ months.”

He also insisted that going through that experience with Inoue helped prepare him for the delay against Foster. The evidence suggests it very much did not.

Again, not to excuse Fulton’s disaster on the scale, because Foster remained on weight and on point, but it’s logical to theorize that the postponement played a role in (a) a featherweight suddenly failing to make junior lightweight, and (b) Fulton failing to peak physically on fight night and instead looking lifeless for most of the contest.

Theory 3: Overconfidence happened to him.

Maybe I’m reaching here, but how else do you explain Fulton suddenly uncorking overhand rights with no regard for proper technique other than to say he believed he was so talented he could get away with doing things wrong? Call it Roy Jones Syndrome. (Except in Roy’s case, he was so talented he could get away with it.)

But seriously, I refuse to believe a trainer of Bozy Ennis’ experience and credentials spent weeks in the gym working on adding the looping-est right hand ever thrown to Cool Boy Steph’s repertoire.

Those unorthodox punch mechanics aside, it’s possible that overconfidence bred from the Figueroa win was at the root of Fulton’s weight problems and fight-night performance. The first time Fulton and Figueroa clashed, the Philly fighter escaped with a disputed majority decision. The second time, Fulton won going away.

That may have tricked him into believing he was simply a level above Foster.

Such a mindset could explain Fulton not pushing himself as hard as he needed to in training camp. And it could explain why he had such a blank look on his face when it became clear that Plan A – whatever the heck Plan A was – wasn’t working.

Theory 4: Some outside-the-ring distraction we don’t know about happened to him.

Take this with the proverbial grain of salt. I don’t know the first thing about Stephen Fulton’s private life. Some theories are grounded in reality and others are pure conjecture, and this fits into the latter category.

I’m not going to be so journalistically irresponsible as to speculate about what the outside-the-ring distraction could be. People have significant others, kids, parents, friends – and strained relationships with any of them can affect a boxer’s performance.

Some athletes block out the noise, and some even channel it into enhancing the way they fight. But some let it knock them off balance.

Look at some of these CompuBox numbers:

• Fulton landed eight punches in a round twice, and in the other 10 rounds, his high-water mark was five punches landed.

• He had a stretch of three rounds, from the fifth through the seventh, in which he went 0-for-57 on jabs.

• Fulton and Foster each were credited with five landed punches in the first round. In every round thereafter, Foster landed at least twice as many shots as Fulton.

• In total, Fulton landed 56 of 438 punches, just a 12.8% connect rate, and just 4.7 out of 36.5 as a per-round average.

That’s not the Stephen Fulton we had come to know. Maybe that was a Stephen Fulton dealing with things unrelated to boxing.

Again, it’s just a theory.

These are all just theories, and it may be that one of them is right, that all of them are partially right, or that none of them are quite right.

But there has to be some explanation for what was wrong with Fulton last weekend. You don’t suddenly go from skillful, slick, confident and well-conditioned to terrible, horrible, no good and very bad without a reason.

Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with nearly 30 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X, BlueSky, or LinkedIn, or via email at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.

Lamont Roach Jnr didn’t win a fight in 2025.

O’Shaquie Foster was deprived of a title defense.

Yet both fighters’ stock rose on Saturday night thanks to their performances on the Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view card in San Antonio.

On the heels of his controversial March 1 draw with Gervonta “Tank” Davis, in which he was deprived of a clear knockdown that should’ve won him the bout, Roach faced even more adversity against former 140lbs champion Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz. Roach tasted the canvas in the third round, then broke his hand in the fifth, but staged a stirring rally that secured him another draw.

“Considering how we thought of Lamont Roach before 2025 … he raised his stock quite a bit regardless of two draws,” ProBoxTV analyst Paulie Malignaggi said on Monday’s episode of “BoxingScene Today.” 

Roach, 25-1-3 (10 KOs), let his WBA super-featherweight belt go to Jazza Dickens by fighting the popular Mexican in Cruz, 28-3-2 (18 KOs), in a 140lbs bout that effectively sold out the San Antonio Spurs’ home arena.

And by willingly going toe-to-toe with Cruz, he not only subjected himself to the third-round knockdown, but endeared himself to fight fans by making the second consecutive move up in weight and performing as an eager brawler, not a smooth technician.

“I thought Lamont could control Cruz better than that,” analyst and former 140lbs champion Chris Algieri said.

The point was that Roach wasn’t interested in that type of evasive performance, prompting analyst and returning trainer of the year Robert Garcia to say Roach’s two draws have been “a win” for the Washington, D.C.-born fighter because he not only showed his resilience, but helped produce an entertaining scrap that can sell as a rematch.

The cast was less impressed with how Cruz performed down the stretch, getting a point deducted for holding Roach as he fatigued during the fight’s second half.

“‘Pitbull’ arguing against the point deduction is ludicrous, but it’s a solid setup for the rematch,” Malignaggi said.

Algieri said Cruz must address that flaw before the next meeting.

“Cruz tends to fall off a cliff … that precipitous dropoff can really hurt you at this level [as he found] Roach has a good gas tank,” Algieri said.

“If he doesn’t fall off that cliff, he beats a one-handed Lamont Roach,” Malignaggi said.

Garcia speculated that Cruz’s tough fights and rugged sparring zap him of consistent energy, as the punching frenzy of the early rounds faded.

“He came out in a sprint, and it was a mile run,” Malignaggi said.

“This fight will benefit Roach in the rematch,” Garcia predicted. “Roach can be better in the second half, and he won’t have the broken hand.”

Meanwhile, Houston’s Foster, 24-3 (12 KOs), made his Texas homecoming in a scintillating showing. He dominated WBC featherweight champion Stephen Fulton on the scorecards, flashing impressive hand speed and the ability to fight well from both orthodox and southpaw stances.

Fulton missed weight for the bout, forcing it to become an interim lightweight title bout.

Algieri said prior criticism over Foster’s consistency, “allowing space in rounds” was nonexistent Saturday. Malignaggi labeled it his “career-best” performance and praised “the way he directed the fight with that lead hand from both stances.”

With fellow 130lbs champions Emanuel Navarrete and Eduardo Nunez meeting February 28 for the unified WBO and IBF title, Foster is in prime position to meet the winner for three belts as Mark Magsayo and Michael Magnesi will fight to become his WBC mandatory challenger.

WBA middleweight champion Erislandy Lara saw his Saturday unification versus two-belt champion Janibek Alimkhanuly scrapped by Alimkhanuly’s positive test for the banned substance meldonium last week, but Lara’s unanimous decision win over replacement fighter Johan Gonzalez was a yawner, despite Lara scoring two knockdowns.

“Forgettable, but get the money next time,” Algieri said.

Lara could potentially do just that by next fighting five-division champion Terence Crawford, a cleared Alimkhanuly, WBC champion Carlos Adames, or contenders Vergil Ortiz Jnr and Jesus Ramos.

GOLD COAST, Australia – Joseph Parker was already attempting to recover from the disappointment of his stoppage defeat by Fabio Wardley when it was reported that he tested positive on the day of their fight – on October 25 at London’s O2 Arena – for cocaine.

The heavyweight, from New Zealand, potentially faces a two-year ban, regardless of cocaine being classified as a recreational, not performance-enhancing, drug.

He responded to the reports by saying, on social media: “Before my recent fight I took a voluntary test and have now been informed that it returned an adverse result. This came as a real surprise to me.

“I did not take any prohibited substance, I did not use performance enhancing drugs and do not support their use. I am cooperating fully with the process now underway, and I am confident the investigation will clear my name.

“Thank you to everyone who has sent messages of support. It means a great deal to me and my family. When the investigation is complete, I will speak openly and answer questions.”

Parker, 33, regardless travelled to the Gold Coast Exhibition Centre to support his friend Jai Opetaia on the occasion of the Australian’s IBF cruiserweight title defence against Huseyin Cinkara. Having watched Opetaia win inside eight rounds, in conversation with BoxingScene, he then broke his silence.

BoxingScene: What’s your understanding of the latest regarding your positive drugs test?

Joseph Parker: At the moment, we’re just going through our process. Once we get a better understanding of what’s happening, then things will come up very soon.

How did you feel when you first heard?

I was devastated. You have to do all these voluntary drug tests in camp and then all of a sudden you get a bit of a surprise and shock that you fail on a fight day. So, I’m just gonna go through the process of trying to get it cleared, and I want to be in the ring as soon as possible.

Is this something you’ve discussed with your trainer and your promoter, Andy Lee and Frank Warren?

Listen, there’s not really much we can do or say because there’s a bit of a process going on, but I do believe – well, hopefully – we get cleared soon.

What is that process you’re referring to?

There’s a process that you have to deal with VADA [the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association]; you have to deal with UKAD [UK Anti-Doping], and the promoters and everyone that’s involved. It’s a process that everyone has to follow in order to get cleared.

How do you intend on explaining your testing positive?

Listen, I think the team – we’re doing everything we can to get it solved. There’s a process to follow, and once that is completed, everything will come out, you know?

Does that mean, when you reflect, that you can see a way that it could’ve happened accidentally?

Yeah, you start questioning everything. You start questioning “Why did I have that cup of tea?”. Or “Why did I do this?” Or “Why did I do that?” There’s a lot of things you think about. I’ve never failed a drugs test before, so it was a surprise and shock.

Are you aware of what the potential consequences are, if you’re found guilty?

Not quite. I think there’s a ban. The team are taking care of it at the moment. I’m in Australia at the moment; I came to support Jai Opetaia [in victory over Huseyin Cinkara] and the other fighters on the undercard; Teremoana [Teremoana]. I’m just living my life as normal; this blessed lifestyle. I have to travel around with my family. Hopefully my team will get it sorted very soon.

How confident are you that you’ll fight again?

Very confident. I’m very confident I will fight again.

Given that you maintain your innocence, how frustrating does this feel at a time when so many believe that the sport is being undermined by the widespread use of PEDs?

I think the whole process is frustrating, but what can you do? You’ve just got to accept it and follow what we can in order to get it cleared.

Have you ever taken recreational drugs?

In the past I’ve enjoyed myself. I wouldn’t say “recreational drugs”, but I went out and had a few beers and that. That’s the old me, when I was young fighter. Now, after every fight, all I do is go home to the wife and kids. My life is on track. I’m focused on living the best that I can live and doing the best that I can do.

For the record, are you guilty?

No, not at all. If I was guilty I would say I’d made a mistake. But I’m not.

Then, how difficult has this been for you, emotionally?

You know, when I got told, I was shocked. But emotionally, I know I did nothing wrong. My wife said as long as I’ve got the right people around me, and I did nothing wrong, so what’s there to worry about?

All I can say is I had a great camp. All the other drugs tests came back negative. I had my wife and kids there, and I had the opportunity to fight Usyk, because he still wanted the fight. It just doesn’t make any sense.

It makes it hurtful but what can you do, mate? [I just] think about what’s next.

When are you likely to learn more about what’s next?

Very soon, you know. There’s the process. It’s a bit of a process. It’s getting the team to get it sorted, and once it’s all cleared I’m ready to come back again.

How did you feel when Fabio Wardley was elevated to WBO heavyweight champion?

I’m happy for him. I actually gave him a text and said congratulations. I think his story is an amazing story. He’s a champion. He’s achieved what he set out to achieve in boxing.

You openly doubted, pre-fight, whether Oleksandr Usyk would fight the winner…

I think Usyk had his own plans and was probably looking forward to having a fight with myself but in boxing things happen and, you know, things don’t really go the way you think they might go. With Usyk, I’m not really sure what he has in mind. I think from what I saw online he’s looking at fighting [Deontay] Wilder.

How do you reflect on your former opponent Anthony Joshua agreeing to fight Jake Paul?

Jake Paul’s done a lot in his career and is also bringing a lot of eyes to the sport of boxing. I guess he’s serious about what he wants to achieve in boxing, as he’s locked in a fight with Joshua. I mean, it’s massive step up. For boxing people, you would think Joshua would just bluff it out, but he truly thinks he has a chance against Joshua. So, I think a lot of fans – a lot of supporters – are interested to see how it goes.

GOLD COAST, Australia – Jai Opetaia described himself as having become “complacent” after criticising his performance against Huseyin Cinkara despite so emphatically winning inside eight rounds.

At the Gold Coast Convention Centre he produced another of the knockouts of 2025 to leave his Turkish German challenger requiring medical attention while motionless on his back in the ring. 

After recovering consciousness Cinkara was taken to hospital and diagnosed with a fracture in his neck. Before he had left, however, Opetaia said from the ring that he was “pissed off” with his performance. His face was unexpectedly marked up, and it has since been revealed that he has suffered a suspected fractured eye socket that is likely to delay his plans to fight again early in 2026.

“I was terrible,” the 30 year old told BoxingScene. “I feel like I can fight a lot better. I feel like I needed it, you know what I mean? I needed it. A lot of room for improvement.

“I needed that – I feel like I needed to be humbled a bit. I was getting a bit complacent and it showed in the ring. I feel like I trained hard, but my body – my legs were just shot, to be honest. But it’s good – it’s good learning. I shouldn’t be getting hit that much from someone like that, you know what I mean? 

“I should have been boxing a lot better; moving a lot smoother; I should have been on my toes a lot more. Just a few things in my camp, and now we know how to fix it.”

The Australian was then asked how much his struggles owed to his 40-year-old opponent fading. His legs buckled in the second round when he was caught by a strong right hand, but Cinkara quickly tired as a consequence of his body punching and the high pace Opetaia was setting, contributing to his hesitancy and his ambition swiftly draining. 

“It’s before that,” the champion responded. “It’s from the start. It was from the start – I just made it hard for myself, because I was making too many mistakes, but it is what it is. I know what I was doing wrong, you know – it’s not like… I know what I need to fix. I’m excited to get back in the gym. I’m excited to get back on my toes and move better. These power punches – I was just trying to take his head off.

“Footwork. Distance. We just – wait and see, man. I’m telling you – I’m gonna come back better, I’m telling you. I promise you.

“He got me with a good shot. But I recovered pretty quick, you know what I mean? I was fit. Just, my body wasn’t keeping up with me. My legs were just gone for some reason. They were cramping up and shit. Fuck, I hate this – I hate these excuses and shit. 

“Don’t worry – we’ll move forward, and it’s gonna be alright. We got the win – that’s all that matters – and we move forward. I’m telling you – I’m gonna come back better.”

It was tempting, when listening to Opetaia speak, to conclude that the struggles he described owed partly to the recent unexpected death of his assistant trainer Keri Fiu. 

Fiu suffered a heart attack during a training session with the heavyweight Justis Huni, whose rematch with Kiki Toa Leutele was later cancelled. His funeral came less than a month before fight night, and a lengthy and emotional tribute was paid to him before Opetaia – who spoke at his funeral – made his way to the ring.

“Maybe, bro, you know?” he responded when that was put to him. “It has been a fucking massive rollercoaster, you know? It’s been a huge up and down, the last couple weeks. But we got the win, and we improve. 

“I’ve been through this before – I’ve been through all this stuff [Opetaia endured the death of a grandparent in 2022 in the weeks before his career-transforming victory over Mairis Breidis]. 

“I’m just – I’m honestly really excited to get back in the gym. Usually after a fight like this I would kick back and relax and earn my fun, but I honestly feel like I haven’t earned it yet. I haven’t earned my fun – that’s not a worthy performance. 

“It was very emotional. Even walking out to that song, it was Keri’s favourite song. It was pretty emotional – I was trying to fight back tears while I was listening to it. But it’s time to improve, [and] learn from it.”

In addition to the small fracture in his neck Cinkara has suffered some bruising and been instructed to remain in hospital for two days as a precaution.

The reality remains that Opetaia has stopped all three of the challengers to his IBF title in 2025 to remain widely considered the world’s finest cruiserweight. The knockout of David Nyika in January was similarly destructive and therefore chilling but for Australia’s leading fighter that wasn’t enough.

“I’ve got a little injury here on my cheek,” he said. “We get this fixed. As soon as I can get back in the ring I’ll be back. I’m not looking at having a big break or anything like that.”

Lamont Roach Jnr once again failed to score favor on a single scorecard, this time in a fight where he boasted a strong case for victory.

In his first fight at 140lbs, Roach overcame a third-round knockdown to outbox Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz for much of the night. The judges disagreed, as their secondary WBC junior welterweight title fight ended in a majority draw. 

Cruz won by an absurd 115-111 on one card, overruled by matching tallies of 113-113 in the PBC on Prime Video pay-per-view main event Saturday evening at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio.

“All I want is a fair shake,” Roach told Prime Video’s Brian Campbell in his reaction to the decision. “This is some bullshit.”

Roach was moving up in weight for the second straight time. He challenged WBA 135lbs titlist Gervonta “Tank” Davis on March 1 and held the unbeaten knockout artist to a draw in Brooklyn, New York. Saturday marked his second consecutive fight above 130lbs – where he held the WBA title until the opening bell sounded, at which point he was relieved of his two-year title reign.

Despite moving up, Roach was very clearly the bigger man.

Cruz is always at a height and reach deficit, no matter the opponent at 135lbs or 140lbs. The squat former WBA junior welterweight titlist learned long ago how to overcome that deficit, and did so on Saturday as he immediately raced across the ring at the sound of the opening bell.

Roach, the superior technician on paper, lived up to his pre-fight promise to stand his ground and exchange with his heavier-handed foe. It was admirable, though also unnecessarily risky, as Cruz found an inviting target for his left hook.

A far more competitive second round saw Roach make better use of his counterpunching skills. Cruz continued to come straight forward in a no-nonsense approach, but Roach was prepared for those moments, as his right hands would catch Cruz coming in.

Cruz put separation between the two with a dominant third round. 

The frame came complete with the bout’s (first) knockdown. A left hook by Cruz slammed home on Roach’s chin, causing the now former WBA 130lbs titlist to stumble across the ring. Cruz made a beeline across the ring in an effort to follow up, but referee James Green intervened and correctly ruled a knockdown after Roach’s glove touched the canvas.

Cruz made a conscious effort to work Roach’s midsection. He was credited with 14 body shots landed in the fourth, though he was also warned for one that landed well below the beltline.

Despite the ability to work behind his jab and create separation, Roach relied on the strength of his jab to set up power shots at the center of the ring.

Cruz’s attack was slowed by frequent clinches – ironically, often of his own doing. The popular Mexico City native was also warned for another low blow. Roach landed a sweeping left hook with less than a minute to go in the sixth, arguably his best punch of the fight.

Boos began to spatter throughout the venue in the seventh round. The crowd was distraught over a fight that devolved into a clinch-fest and became further irate when Cruz was deducted a point for holding and hitting. Roach maintained a level head for the balance of the frame, as he landed the cleaner shots in between the tie-ups at close quarters.

With the fight very much there for the taking, Roach began to box more in the eighth round. He used subtle movement to set up his combinations, which forced Cruz to go to his jab in a bid to work his way inside. Uncharacteristically, Cruz became the mover but clearly had no real response. His decision to squat at the knees and stick his tongue out at Roach played to the crowd but also illustrated the frustration of dealing with a superiorly skilled boxer.

Roach offered more movement in the ninth and 10th rounds. There was little in the way of sustained action in either round, primarily because Cruz struggled to adjust to Roach’s versatile style.

The confidence of Roach was brimming, though he was brought back down to earth by his father and head trainer, Lamont Snr, who urged his son to not take any foolish risks. Roach listened (for the most part) throughout a clean 11th round. Cruz offered a major scare when he hurt Roach late in the frame, though he ran out of time to follow up.

A sense of urgency overcame the Cruz corner heading into the final round, one they urged their charge to take without question. Roach was given similar advice, though to a less intense degree. 

Cruz immediately got in Roach’s chest to start the 12th, but Roach was prepared for the tactic. A clinch at the one-minute mark was followed by a Cruz left hook, which drew a rise of out the crowd. Chants of “Pitbull” filled the air, but it was Roach who followed with a looping right and a left hook around Cruz’s guard.

The final minute saw Cruz attempt lateral movement as Roach shut down any incoming attack at close quarters. Cruz touched Roach’s body with right hands during a clinch, but with little effect.

Both fighters raised their arms in victory once the bell sounded. Roach mounted a corner post, which was met with boos, while Cruz drew cheers as he was paraded around the ring by his corner. 

In what was a déjà vu moment, Roach was then forced to hear the scorecards read without any landing in his favor.

Understandably, given a boxer’s nature, Cruz was equally irked by the draw verdict – as well as the officiating.

“I did my job, I did my work,” said Cruz in comments translated by Prime Video’s Abner Mares, a former three-division champ. “The referee was on his side; the judges were, too. I thought I won this fight.”

Outside of the venue, Cruz will get little support in that claim. 

As for Roach? “It’s back to the drawing board,” he said as he left the ring belt-less and without any real leverage, even if he once again gained a moral victory and public support.

A draw verdict was not terrible in the Davis fight when taking the scored rounds at face value. However, Roach was cheated out of a ninth-round knockdown in that fight, which ultimately cost him what would have been a deserved decision.

This fight left considerably less room for error, yet the judges still found a way to send him home empty-handed.

“I thought I won this fight,” insisted Roach. “I’m tired of this shit.”

Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.

Justice was ultimately served.

O’Shaquie Foster pushed away the nonsense that came with Stephen Fulton unprofessionally blowing weight and delivered his finest moment to date in a lopsided decision win. Scores were 117-111, 118-110 and 119-109 for the two-time WBC 130lbs titlist Foster, who also claimed a secondary belt at lightweight with the win Saturday evening at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio.

The dynamics of this fight drastically changed barely 40 hours ahead of the opening bell. Foster had originally planned for the first defense of his second tour as a WBC 130lbs titlist. Those plans were sent to hell after Fulton – a two-division and current WBC 126lbs titlist – blew weight by 2lbs. An emergency call to the WBC by TGB Promotions paved the way for a secondary title at lightweight to be at stake for the evening’s chief support.

Adding insult to injury, Foster was given the full B-side treatment as he was introduced first both at the weigh-in Friday and for his ring walk on Saturday. He channeled any frustration felt throughout the promotion, and especially during fight week, and applied it to a beautiful boxing performance against a highly skilled two-division titlist in Fulton.

Foster used his massive reach advantage to keep Fulton at long range for much of the night. His steady jab controlled the range and pace in the opening round, though Fulton managed to land a clean right hand midway through the frame.

Action held in one direction throughout the first half of the contest. Foster was able to rely solely on jabs and right hands during the second and then spent the next several rounds fighting out of a southpaw stance.

Fulton enjoyed a comparatively better third round, as he enjoyed greater success in closing the gap. The moments never lasted very long. Foster quickly took the lead with textbook combinations and often made Fulton miss even as the action took place in the center of the ring and at close quarters.

Fulton was given clear and direct instructions by head trainer Derek “Bozy” Ennis at the midway point. He was not going to win the fight without getting inside and making Foster uncomfortable.

Even if the will was there, the ability was sorely lacking. Fulton followed Foster around the ring, missing on nearly every exchange, as shown in Compubox stats, which credited him with just two punches landed in the frame. Foster never had to leave first gear, though he was urged by head trainer Bobby Benton to “not go crazy but step on the gas a bit more.” 

Foster absorbed the sage advice from his boxing-lifetime head coach, as he threw more combinations in the eighth. Fulton dug in and attempted to match that energy but never came close to landing anything of consequence. Foster connected with a looping left and a right hook, while a frustrated Fulton continued to catch nothing but air. 

The only real shift in action in the later rounds came when Foster switched back to orthodox to start the 10th. It produced a higher output, as Foster more than doubled up Fulton on punches thrown, while outlanding him at a 32-8 clip. Fulton’s effort to land a combination was met with a counter right by Foster while stepping back.

Foster went back to southpaw in the 11th and peppered Fulton with straight left hands. Fulton managed to land a right hand to the body but was also forced to contend with a bloodied nose and a cut along the right side of his forehead. Foster landed a left hand inside the final minute as Fulton attempted lateral movement to avoid additional damage.

Miserably behind on the cards and in desperate need of a knockout, Fulton instead played keep-away for the entire 12th and final round. Foster didn’t get to land the rib-rattling body shot that his trainer wanted, but he was fine to settle for a virtuoso performance as he earned by far the best win of his hard-luck career.

Fulton, 23-2 (8 KOs), is now 2-2 in his past four starts and stuck in no man’s land. He won two straight after an eighth-round knockout loss to Naoya Inoue in July 2023 to end his unified 122lbs title reign.

A disputed win over Carlos Castro last September raised eyebrows, but Fulton looked fantastic in a dominant win over Brandon Figueroa in their February 1 rematch. Fulton claimed the WBC 126lbs belt that night, but he will now have a hard decision to make about what’s next.

Junior lightweight clearly didn’t work out, as he weighed 132lbs on his second attempt on Friday. It’s even less likely that he will return to 126lbs, and he looked terrible in his lightweight debut. 

Foster, 24-2 (12 KOs), picked up his second straight win, though the run should be far longer.

He was disgracefully robbed in a July 2024 loss to Robson Conceicao to end his first WBC 130lbs title reign. Revenge was gained five months later when Foster regained his belt via split decision last November.

Two postponements for this very matchup kept Foster out of the ring for 13 months. 

At the very least, he has options – though also a choice to make whether to fight at lightweight and aim to upgrade his secondary belt or return to 130lbs. Per WBC rules, he will have to inform the sanctioning body within the next 15 days of his next steps.

Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.

 

A compelling battle between two proven titlists headlines tonight’s Premier Boxing Champions’ Prime Video pay-per-view card from San Antonio with outgoing WBA junior lightweight titleholder Lamont Roach Jnr meeting Mexico’s former 140lbs belt holder Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz.

BoxingScene will provide continued live updates tonight of the four pay-per-view bouts, including relevant check-ins from the opening middleweight bout between PBC’s promising challenger Jesus Ramos Jnr and son of legend Shane Mosley Jnr.

From there, we’ll have round-by-round coverage of the WBA middleweight title bout between titlist Erislandy Lara, 42, of Cuba, and replacement challenger Johan Gonzalez following the positive PED result of unified champion Janibek Alimkhanuly.

The co-main event also has issues, with featherweight titleholder Stephen Fulton surprisingly coming in overweight for his shot at a third division title, moving up to 130lbs to meet WBC titlist O’Shaquie Foster.

By being two pounds over, Fulton will now meet Foster for the WBC interim lightweight belt.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.

GOLD COAST, Australia – Jai Opetaia remains on course for a unification contest with the winner of Badou Jack-Norair Mikaeljan after devastatingly knocking out Husseyin Cinkara in eight one-sided rounds.

The IBF cruiserweight champion, on the occasion of the sixth defence of his title, gradually broke his challenger down before producing another of the most emphatic knockouts of 2025 by landing an explosive left hand on Cinkara’s exposed chin.

Cinkara, 40 years old, was by then already exhausted and doing little more than attempting to survive. He had buckled Opetaia’s knees in the second in his only moment of success, but remained motionless for an uncomfortably lengthy period after so heavily hitting the canvas, until gradually recovering following medical attention, and hearing the stoppage being confirmed at 56 seconds of the eighth round.

The honest Opetaia was critical of his performance, post-fight, at the Gold Coast Convention Centre – “I fought like shit” – but if he quickly became reckless it was largely because the tiring Cinkara equally quickly lost his ambition.

There is little question that he would have to improve in the event of being matched with Jack, Mikaeljan, Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez or David Benavidez – he has made little secret of his desire to fight for the undisputed title in 2026 – but each, equally, would prove more active opposition. 

The 30-year-old Opetaia had anticipated Cinkara’s early aggression, and to that end, as the considerably younger, fitter and more active fighter, set a high pace from the opening bell. He also regularly targeted the Turkish German’s body in an attempt to quickly tire him out and to slow him down, before also falling narrowly short of his target with a straight left hand.

At the start of the second round he then swung and missed with a wild left hand that left him open to a right before absorbing a jab to the chin and then the right hand that hurt him. When he is hurt Opetaia typically risks trading instead of protecting himself and he did so again, when soon responding with a left to the body and a further left that backed Cinkara up.

If the Australian was already taking risks and neglecting his defence, he looked consistently sharp and possessed a considerable advantage in reflexes and speed. As early as the third they both fought as though both aware of that reality; Cinkara started to tire and become hesitant, and also to lose his form.

A straight left to the head and further lefts to the body continued to punish Cinkara in the fourth round, serving as the realisation of a prediction Opetaia had made, pre-fight. Aware of the confidence with which his challenger was carrying himself he insisted that that confidence wouldn’t last when they started to trade. Opetaia, similarly, was aware that forcing Cinkara on to the back foot was the most effective way of disarming him, and so, repeatedly, it proved.

The champion’s pace slowed slightly from the start of the fifth but he was aware of Cinkara’s exhaustion and remained content while Cinkara continued to retreat. Both fighters were also swelling up under both eyes, but only Cinkara, looking increasingly lost, fought as though hurt. 

That Opetaia was throwing with power while often neglecting his jab was recognition of how little Cinkara was already offering. His punch resistance regardless kept him in the contest, until the most devastating of finishes so dramatically followed. 

It was at the start of the eighth when Opetaia attempted a straight left hand to the chin, and when he fell only narrowly short. He proved to be simply finding his range because he then threw a right jab, teased Cinkara with his head movement and pulled the trigger before landing to perfection. Cinkara fell so heavily it was obvious his challenge was immediately over. The bigger concern soon surrounded his health.

When in January Opetaia stopped in four rounds David Nyika, the finish had been similarly devastating.

Cinkara had been on course to be his opponent that night but Opetaia is an aggressive champion at his peak, one who has clinically won three fights in 2025, and started and ended his year in the same, intimidatingly brutal fashion.

“I feel like I just fought like shit, to be honest,” he said, after Cinkara’s recovery. “You get these nights. We go back to the drawing board. I’m very disappointed in myself, I feel like I’ve let some people down with that performance. I made a lot of mistakes. I’m so pissed off. 

“I’m so pissed off, but we got the win. I needed that humble pie; watch this space. We want unifications fights, Zurdo, I’m chasing belts – I’ve been asking for them for a long time. But we’re gonna go back to the gym and sharpen up.”

The super middleweight Max McIntyre had by then already stopped his fellow Australian Jed Morris in the fourth of eight scheduled rounds. A powerful-and-accurate right uppercut hurt Morris before further punches forced him backwards and to the canvas. When he returned to his feet he was dangerously unsteady, prompting his corner to throw the towel in after two minutes and 35 seconds.

GOLD COAST, Australia – At the grand arrivals for his IBF cruiserweight title defence against Huseyin Cinkara, Jai Opetaia – the fighter around which Saturday’s promotion revolves – had minimal interest in the bright lights and the cameras complementing the occasion at The Star casino so close to the Gold Coast Exhibition Centre where he and Cinkara will fight.

For all that he is physically imposing and photogenic in the way that so many of the most naturally athletic and typically clean-living professional athletes are, he was wearing a baggy t-shirt that did little to flatter his physique, even though, for the very first time, he and his challenger were coming face to face.

He watched the arrivals of the many undercard fighters simply because he was waiting his turn – it’s far from uncommon for a main-event fighter to be late – and he again gave little away. But it was then, when he was called to the platform shortly after Cinkara, that a subtle, instinctive smile appeared in the corner of his mouth, because he was sizing up his Turkish German opponent and aware of the reality that they, finally, are about to fight.

Cinkara is Opetaia’s third challenger of 2025 – David Nyika and Claudio Squeo were stopped in four and then five rounds – but in January he had been scheduled to be his first. With less than a month until fight night injury ruled him out and he was replaced by Nyika, which means that over a year has passed since Opetaia first started preparing for him and he more consistently started being on the champion’s mind.

Opetaia, 30, was again present throughout Thursday’s undercard press conference, and when that for the main event started thereafter he, unlike so many of his contemporaries, offered little by way of the attention seeking or hyperbole so commonplace when, as he no doubt is, a fighter is aware of the value of promoting and therefore selling his latest fight.

Mid-fight week the Australian can be particularly intense, which is in contrast to the warmer, humorous and more relaxed figure he cuts considerably further away from fight night. What’s regardless consistent is his reluctance to speak for the sake of speaking; to pretend to be anyone other than who he is.

“I’m not into it at all,” he told BoxingScene of the sometimes glamorous build-up to Saturday’s contest. “No. Man, all I wanna do is win the fight, you know what I mean? 

“All I’m focusing on is getting my hand raised, because no matter how much fucking jewellery you wear or what car you’ve got, if you lose the fight, no one cares, do they? I just wanna go down as the best fucking fighter that people have seen. That’s what I’m chasing. Not superstardom. 

“I don’t know. I’m not worried about that. Like I said, I’m just focusing on the fight, winning the fight, and doing my thing.”

He could well have answered similarly at the Q&A session at the Sports Bar of The Star at which he was introduced as the “guest of honour”, but, for all of his willingness to participate, he gave the impression that instead of being the focal point of the occasion he would have preferred to have remained sat with his friends at the back.

It was when he was asked about his pride in representing, like the heavyweights David Tua and Joseph Parker, his Samoan heritage that he was most engaged, in the same way that at Thursday’s press conference, instead of about himself he favoured speaking of the importance of the promising younger fighters featuring on Saturday’s undercard benefitting from the nature of platform he struggled without until fighting Mairis Breidis in July 2022.

In both he revealed, despite his presence towards the top of one of the most sycophantic and egotistical of all professional cultures, someone who not only remains in touch with his roots but perhaps an awareness of how much he still has to achieve.

“We didn’t have world champions [in Australia] and stuff to fight under when I was coming through, so it’s good to have this platform and build up a show in boxing,” he explained. “It’s good. I’ve been in their shoes before. I’ve been hungry; I’ve been young, and stuff like that. I’m still hungry, you know what I mean? And I’m still young. But I’ve been fighting in this game for a long, long time. 

“I’ve been professional since I was 19, so it’s good to give these boys a platform and rocket their career a bit faster than mine was. I was fighting, fucking, on any shows. I was fighting for no money. That’s why – people get confused these days. They look for the big pay cheques straight away. I was 19-0 before I got my first pay cheque, you know what I mean? You gotta invest in yourself; do the hard yards, and the rest will fall into place.

“Fucking yeah,” he then responded when asked if he was being reminded of how far he has come. “Especially when I look around and see my cousin here, and my brother. We started from nothing, you know? We’ve got tracksuits now – we’ve got a team tracksuit now, brother. Before we just had a shirt, you know, and the shirts were hard enough to get, and not everyone was wearing ‘em, we just had, maybe, four or five shirts. Fucking sharing ‘em around – when I’d jump in the ring he’d put my shirt on. Now everyone gets their own tracksuits. We’ve come a long way. The tracksuits’ just an analogy, but we’ve come a very long way.”

If Opetaia established himself as the world’s leading cruiserweight on the night he so dramatically resisted a broken jaw to supplant Breidis, in 2025, partly on account of his struggles to secure unification showdowns with Badou Jack and Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, there are observers of the sport who would argue that Mexico’s Ramirez deserves that position instead. Evander Holyfield, David Haye and Oleksandr Usyk are recognised as the three finest cruiserweights in history; Opetaia is, like Holyfield, Haye and Usyk, considered on course for a future in the heavyweight division, but for all of his abilities he requires victories over Jack and Ramirez if he is to forever earn parity with them at 200lbs. 

He so recently was also at risk of being frustrated further when it was revealed that Ramirez is instead prioritising a fight with David Benavidez, the light heavyweight, but Opetaia’s focus and sense of perspective – one perhaps enhanced by the recent, unexpected death following a heart attack of his long-term assistant trainer Keri Fui – and his indifference to the business side of boxing contributes to him not considering what’s next.

“Doesn’t bother me, man,” he said. “The fight with Ramirez – we weren’t [planning on] fighting him until later in the year anyway. If he gets this fight done it just secures that later on in the year. Everyone’s just fucking shouting and screaming – just let me fucking fight, bro, that’s all I wanna do.

“I honestly don’t even – they say ‘Fight this guy’, I’ll fight ‘em. I wasn’t sure if I was fighting him; someone else. They fucking told me, what? Nine, 10 weeks ago, ‘You’re fighting Cinkara’. ‘Let’s do it.’ Before that they said ‘He’s gonna step aside – you’re gonna fight someone else’. ‘Let’s do it.’ I just train. Just train. Whoever I’ve got I’ve got.”

Before he makes his way to the ring on Saturday his promoters Tasman Fighters will pay tribute to Fui. Fui’s funeral took place less than a month before fight night – the heavyweight Justis Huni’s rematch with Kiki Toa Leutele was cancelled partly on account of his death – but for all of his stoicism, the reality that Opetaia is in mourning, and the absence of Fui’s comforting presence on fight night, will provide a different test of the cruiserweight’s already-proven mental strength.

“Keri was a part of our team, man,” he said. “He was our assistant coach. But I know what Keri would want and we’ve dug a bit deeper and trained a bit harder for him. 

“I’ve had adversity throughout my whole career. I lost my nan two weeks before when I fought for the world title [against Breidis]. They had her burial the week before – I couldn’t make it. I’ve been here before – I’ve been in these shit situations and stuff like that. It’s not new to me, having to put my feelings to the side and push on. We’re here now, we want to push forward – and we’ve got a fucking job to do.

“It’s the sacrifices that I’ve had to make. If I’m half-arsing it or not training my best or not getting the most out of it, what am I making these sacrifices for? I’m willing to dig deep and do what I need to do to win these fights because I’ve done my hard yards – I haven’t let anything get in the way.

“He was like family. He was a very, very close friend of ours. Unfortunately these things happen, and, fuck, we’ve gotta push on, don’t we?”

By the time of Friday afternoon’s ceremonial weigh-in, Opetaia and Cinkara were sufficiently comfortable in each other’s presence for the 40-year-old challenger to remain within feet of the champion and his entourage without considering the need for any nature of statement to be made. Opetaia, once again without the air of someone aware that the occasion was his more than any other’s, observed the undercard fighters weighing in if he wasn’t casually talking to those around him until he and Cinkara were called to the stage.

It is his reputation – as one of his country’s finest ever fighters – in which the influential Australian broadcaster Stan has just invested to deliver a pay-per-view for Saturday that UFC Fight Pass has committed to broadcasting overseas. Those working on behalf of Stan were no doubt instructed to promote the value of everything surrounding Saturday but were given little assistance from Opetaia, who was simply again being authentic when he described it as “another day at the office”, regardless of how ineffective, for a broadcaster, such a line would have been. 

That his father and trainer Tapu resisted joining him on stage while he was the centre of attention perhaps revealed even more about the modest make-up of one of the world’s finest, and proudest, fighters. 

The plans for Ramirez-Benavidez to be staged in Las Vegas demonstrate that the US remains the centre of the boxing universe. Opetaia fought in the UK and Saudi Arabia before remaining in his home city for each of his three fights in 2025. He will almost certainly have to again travel if he is to fight the winners of Jack-Norair Mikaeljan and Ramirez-Benavidez, but if he does so there is ultimately little question of where it is his heart will remain.

“[Cinkara’s] relaxed,” said Opetaia. “He’s a bit tall; he’s skinny. He’s an older dude, you know? He’s been here before, so he’s been around the block.

“He’s good, bro. He’s not a bad little boxer, you know what I mean? He’s not just a brawler. I feel like he wants to brawl because he wants to make it 50-50, but who knows, bro? He’s showcased skills against other fighters. When he showcases skills against me, what’s he gonna bring? Everything I’ve watched, I’ve watched him fucking bash people [like they are] a punching bag. That’s now how we fight, is it? We’re definitely expecting a different version of him.

“He’s gutsy. He’s fucking got decent power. He’s hungry.

“They’re all confident. Everyone that comes in the fight is confident before the fight. They believe in themselves; they’ve had people around them the whole fucking camp going ‘You can do it; you can do it’. When you’re in that ring by yourself it’s a whole different ball game. When they start to see the movement and feel the power, or get hit with some shit, they think ‘Fuck, this is a different level’, you know? It’s humbling. Then, ‘Thank you so much – you’re fast’, and blah, blah. They’re all like this. I see it in them. They all think this is their time to become a world champion. ‘This is my time to become undisputed.’

“Every fight is a statement. Every fight, we have to step in the ring and we have to perform well. It’s not just one fight, this one. We’ve gotta make no mistakes. Every single time we’re in the ring we have to win and win good – and I like doing clinics. Putting on a good clinic; boxing well. Not everything has to be a knockout. If the knockout comes, it comes. But boxing clinics is my thing.

“I’m expecting a good fight. I don’t think he’s going to be an easy fight at all. You grow; you get better.

“I think I can still get better, to be honest. I don’t think I’m good enough; I feel like can improve, always, in certain things.

“Every time I fight here it builds up the whole country. There’s no other world champions putting on big shows here in Australia. When I fight it’s a big statement, for Australia, for the rest of the world, to move forward, build the profile and get these fights that are so hard to get over the line as well.”

At this point, it’s a full-blown escalation.

First, the WBC stripped Terence Crawford of his super middleweight belt this week for stiffing the sanctioning body of two fights’ worth of fees. Then, Crawford responded with an F-word-laced monologue.

And now, a TKO Group board member overseeing the new Zuffa Boxing promotion has piled on during a swarm of chummy media appearances, effectively arguing, “See, this is why we don’t need sanctioning bodies,” as he lobbies hard for Congress to revamp the federal regulations protecting boxers from manipulations by those who pay (and control) them.

Watching this all play out over the past 48 hours has made it clear that each side can either steadfastly remain committed to their version of the truth, or they can consider the others’ criticisms and strike a compromise.

Let’s start with Crawford.

No matter how tough he talks in defense of his decision to go delinquent on the sanctioning fees he knew were owed the WBC, the 38-year-old five-division champion has nevertheless been reduced to a pawn by Zuffa Boxing and its $10-million-per-year financial backer, Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh in this episode.

The point can be argued to infinity, I guess, but after years of falling in line with sanctioning-fee payments, Crawford suddenly adopting this defiant stance just as the men who paid and promoted his breakout September victory over Saul “Canelo” Alvarez move toward their new, anti-sanctioning-body promotion that is due to start in early 2026 reeks of a coordinated attack.

To accomplish its mission, Zuffa Boxing – led by UFC CEO/President Dana White, the close friend of President Donald Trump – needs to convince the Republican-led Congress to vote to approve the new Muhammad Ali “enhancement” act that will change existing rules and allow Zuffa Boxing to rank its roster of fighters and award belts to them while depriving fighters of pre-fight disclosures – a breakdown of how much the fighter is earning versus how much the promoter and others are making from the bout card.

Since Crawford’s Wednesday stripping in Bangkok, Thailand, and before Thursday’s congressional committee hearing on the proposed changes, WWE President and TKO Group board member and former television sports power agent Nick Khan has appeared and campaigned on schmoozing segments of the “Inside The Ring” show (Alalshikh owns Ring Magazine) along with ESPN’s “Pat McAfee Show” (ESPN is still UFC’s home) and Daniel Cormier’s UFC podcast (TKO controls the UFC).

Additionally, Ring Magazine has furthered the campaign with social media dispatches critical of WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman’s sanctioning fees while noting that The Ring’s belt – reserved for a division’s lineal champion – does not charge fees.

Like ProBoxTV’s Paulie Malignaggi said on Thursday, The Ring is also a toothless entity in comparison to the powers wielded by the four sanctioning bodies.

BoxingScene requested an interview Thursday with Khan to address other topics on this proposed legislation change but did not immediately hear back from him.

Khan complained to “Inside The Ring” host Max Kellerman and McAfee that Sulaiman requested a hotel suite and an “ample number of [front row] tickets” to attend Crawford’s September upset of Canelo Alvarez at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium.

“It all seems quite odd that a sport would be run that way,” Khan told McAfee, likening the subsequent stripping of the belt to revoking a World Series trophy months after Game 7.

Crawford also ripped Sulaiman for racking up fight-week expenses that he believes are made entirely on the fighter’s back.

“It irks my nerves how this dude [Sulaiman] gets on a plane, gets a hotel suite – him and his buddies – they go out to dinner [five-star meals, all that], and guess who’s got to pay for it?” Crawford said. “Us fighters…We’re paying for y’all to…have the time of your life, and it’s all done on our dime.”

In this case, however, Sulaiman gifted Crawford a Beverly Hills jeweler’s specially designed ring for the Alvarez victory, valued at more than $100,000, and instead of charging the Nebraskan the typical 3 per cent sanctioning fee, he reduced the percentage on Crawford’s $50 million purse to 0.6 per cent – $300,000.

Of that $300,000, 75 per cent was to be earmarked toward a fund in Sulaiman’s father Jose’s name, which benefits ailing fighters.

“I ain’t paying your ass shit,” Crawford said in his Instagram post, making it clear that The Ring belt is the “best” belt because there’s no fee.

Yet if Crawford’s concern is questionable discretionary spending by those profiting off fighters, will that same outrage exist if the reports of White’s wild Las Vegas table gambling habits continue when Zuffa Boxing launches?

Is Crawford going to raise a stink that another corporate head has enough money to burn to savor daily morning massages?

Certainly not, which makes the credibility of this well-coordinated effort so dubious.

Khan is able to say for now that Zuffa’s streaming deal with Paramount+ starting next year empowers the organization over competitors.

Premier Boxing Champions is with Prime Video, Golden Boy Promotions is on DAZN, and Top Rank is still without a broadcaster after losing ESPN in July, hoping to have a deal in place by the end of January.

“If you want to actually become a star…in fights that will ultimately make you a lot of money, come this way,” Khan said to Kellerman.

Kellerman later commented, “You guys have an idea that seems to be dangerous to the status quo, and the defense of the status quo is absurd because boxing in the US has been completely marginalized.”

“That’s correct,” said Khan, who projects that the Paramount+ live fight coverage and social media exposure for Zuffa Boxing fighters will help change that.

“I don’t care what any of the other promoters are doing. I don’t care what the sanctioning groups are doing. What I care about is putting on the best product for the fans, having the right fighters with us, elevating the sport.”

He said making “competitive fights with fighters who start to become known,” is essential for Zuffa Boxing’s first year.  

But what Khan and others supporting the new Ali Act are downplaying beyond their new ability to slip the fighter pay disclosures is the pay scale they will provide for their fighters who begin realizing that anticipated success.

Will the purses for those come anywhere near what fighters of similar levels will earn for other promotions in boxing’s current free market?

The UFC’s decision to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by its MMA fighters for $375 million last year over suppressing fighter pay should have a chilling effect, say boxing industry officials and rivals urging boxers to resist Zuffa’s temptation of more early career money and some health-care protections in exchange for the restrictive effects of annual fight limits and pay increases based on victories.

Khan and others who criticize the WBC and three other boxing sanctioning bodies are absolutely correct to slam them for seeking sanctioning fees at nearly every turn among the sport’s 18 divisions – for interim and regional titles and a multitude of other belts.

Yet some of the WBC money is being directed to efforts that promoters, state commissions and other sanctioning bodies have fallen short of supporting.

And the question remains whether Zuffa Boxing is committed to the kind of undertakings the WBC displayed this week at its annual convention in Bangkok.

My BoxingScene colleague Matt Christie explored the serious interest respected WBC ringside physician Dr. Paul Wallace and others took on while addressing a possible return to same-day weigh-ins to address the brutal weight cuts and next-day rehydrating that can have a dangerous effect on fighters’ health.

The WBC is also addressing the damaging toll of sparring without reporting injuries/knockouts/knockdowns while also pressing for reforms of drug testing protocols.

Sulaiman sadly detailed how part of Crawford’s expected sanctioning body fee was to be targeted for the late middleweight title challenger Vanes Martirosyan, who died of skin cancer last month at age 39.

Instead, as the sides exploded in battle this week, with Sulaiman labeling Zuffa Boxing as a “bullying” menace intent to impose its will, and Zuffa countering that the sanctioning bodies have effectively destroyed the sport, the question is whether either will fully inspect the middle ground in pursuit of betterment of boxing and boxers?

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.

Erislandy Lara generally doesn’t comment on much beyond his task at hand.

The circumstances surrounding his most recent fight date, however, have understandably left him feeling a certain kind of way about what could have been.

Lara did not mince his words about what the future should hold for Kazakhstan’s Janibek Alimkhanuly after a drug-testing scandal forced the IBF and WBO 160lbs titlist out of their unification clash. The two were due to meet this weekend in a three-belt tilt – with Lara’s WBA title also at stake – this Saturday at Frost Bank Center, home of the San Antonio Spurs. 

Those plans were shot to sunshine when Alimkhanuly, 17-0 (12 KOs), produced an adverse finding for accelerated levels of meldonium. Alimkhanuly’s team is now exploring means to have his “B” sample tested while the unbeaten southpaw fights to clear his name.

Just don’t count Lara among his supporters for that cause. 

“He should be punished for cheating,” Lara told BoxingScene and other reporters when questioned on the subject Wednesday. “He tested dirty. He’s a younger man – 32 – fighting a 42-year-old man. 

“We’ll see what happens, but he has two titles and he tested positive. He absolutely should be punished.”

Lara, 31-3-3 (19 KOs) – a Cuban export who now lives and trains in Las Vegas – will instead face substitute challenger Johan Gonzalez, 36-4 (34 KOs), in the third defense of his WBA 160lbs title.

The late opponent switch at least affords Lara, 42, the opportunity to resume his career.

He has not fought since a ninth-round stoppage of former two-division titlist Danny Garcia last September at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The win was the second of 2024 for Lara, sadly his busiest campaign since the pandemic. 

Alimkhanuly’s fallout never threatened Lara’s placement on this card. Gonzalez was already secured by PBC as a standby opponent for any of the show’s bouts in and around the 160lbs division.

So now it’s on to business as usual for the two-division titlist Lara. So much so that he has already moved on from previously scheduled affairs. 

“I’m just focused on fighting, no matter who the opponent is,” insisted Lara. “I’m not even gonna mention that guy’s name, because he doesn’t deserve it.

“I’m glad to be on this big card. It means a lot. We’re gonna go out there prepared and see what our opponent does and take it from there.”

Lara-Gonzalez is part of a four-fight PBC on Prime Video pay-per-view event. Isaac Cruz will defend his secondary version of the WBC 140lbs title versus Lamont Roach Jnr in the headliner.

Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.

BANGKOK, Thailand – The WBC have announced changes to their Clean Boxing Program which will take effect from February 1, 2026. Those changes, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman told Boxing Scene, are designed to prevent boxers from claiming they unknowingly ingested a banned substance through a supplement or equivalent.

There have been numerous cases in recent years, whether Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in 2018 or Subrial Matias as recently as November, when high-level fighters have failed PED tests only to then insist the findings are a mystery and, thus, must have been caused by contamination to their diet or a supplement they have taken.

The issue is again at the forefront of attention with Matias being permitted to go ahead with the defence of his WBC junior-welterweight title against Dalton Smith in New York on January 10, despite testing positive for ostarine on November 15. The levels of ostarine in his system are reported to be lower than the amount that commissions in New York, Nevada and California would deem illegal, hence the contest remains in place.

Should the test have occurred after the new protocols have been put in place, however, Matias may not have been so lucky.

The WBC, following “long and extensive” scientific investigations, have formulated a list of products that they know are at risk of contamination. From February, every boxer who is enrolled in the Clean Boxing Program – and to be ranked in the top 15 by the WBC, enrolment is mandatory – will be informed of those supplements at risk. Therefore, says Sulaiman, there can be no excuses when a performance-enhancing drugs test is failed. 

“They’re in danger of having an adverse finding [if they take a supplement on the list] and because they were aware of the danger [of taking a supplement containing a banned substance] the case against them is much stronger,” Sulaiman explained to BoxingScene. “They will no longer be able to claim that they did not know they could have it [in their system]. 

“Today they claim, and rightfully so, that they didn’t know. But now they know this is a potential risk of getting an anti-doping violation.”

The Clean Boxing Program, though the only one of its kind in the sport, has been criticized because it is commonplace for a failed test to occur and no punishment to follow. Frequently, whether herbal tea or protein powder, the case for innocence rests on a particular substance or foodstuff the boxer has ingested.

“All these cases [of positive tests], the boxer discloses what they are taking,” Sulaiman went on. “They are not hiding it. When we do a test, the boxer taking that test will be given a form that asks them to [stipulate] what they are using right now. 

“The boxer will then write down all the supplements they are taking. They sign it; they do the test. When there is an adverse finding, we look at that list and we can see that [in many cases] the supplement that we know [can be contaminated] has been listed. He didn’t know. Then we investigate further. But now they can’t claim they didn’t know. It will be much stricter. They can no longer claim they didn’t know.”

It is a positive step though the danger, of course, is that new products will come to market that are not listed among the WBC guidelines that a fighter might claim to have been contaminated. 

“There will still be issues,” Sulaiman said before suggesting that new supplements will be examined as they come to market. “Doping is very complicated and each substance is different and the education will be ongoing. This new protocol is key. Every boxer who enrols on the Clean Boxing Program will now know the expectations of them. We will ensure there can be no mistakes made. 

“The Program is eight years old; it was perhaps a little dated. This represents a significant improvement.”

BANGKOK, Thailand – It just so happened that Vergil Ortiz Jnr and BoxingScene had scheduled a Zoom call on Wednesday, hours before his promoter announced talks for a first-quarter showdown with fellow unbeaten junior middleweight Jaron “Boots” Ennis could be finalized next week.

There are so many other days between bouts when boxers like Texas’ unbeaten Ortiz, 24-0 (22KOs), are out of the news and out of sight from their fans.

Ortiz, 27, is doing something about that slight by striking a union with the social-media platform OnlyFans, providing him with the opportunity to interact with his supporters, provide glimpses of his training and personal life, and elaborate on any news regarding his rising career.

Signing in every day and contributing a likely minimum of two posts a week, Ortiz said he decided to participate in the production of content because “you keep the fire in the fans’ hearts alive – being acknowledged, keeping them interested, that means everything”.

He expects to provide live footage of workouts, sparring, dieting and eating habits and boxing pointers, all while conversing with his audience.

“We can use OnlyFans to spread facts,” Ortiz said.

He provided a glimpse of that while responding to the breaking elements that came on Tuesday, when he engaged with recent unified welterweight champion Ennis on “X” and waited to hear the news from the WBC Convention mandatories meeting in Bangkok.

Ortiz made it clear before learning of the positive update on negotiations by his Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez that he at least deserved to be elevated into mandatory position on the heels of his November 15 second-round knockout of former 154lbs title challenger and top-five contender Erickson Lubin in Fort Worth, Texas.

“I’ve defended the interim belt two times already,” Ortiz told BoxingScene.

WBC 154lbs champion Fundora, 23-1-1 (15KOs), is expected to return to the ring in February for a title defense versus former unified welterweight champion Keith Thurman after their bout was postponed from October by a hand injury Fundora suffered.

Gomez told WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman that Ortiz plans to successfully defend his interim belt against Ennis and then fight Fundora, expecting the 6-feet-7 champion to prevail against Thurman.

“I would love that fight,” Ortiz said. “I respect Fundora a lot. He’s done some good things at 154, and I would love an opportunity to share the ring with him. The fans would love it. I would love it, for sure, to get a crack to fight for the WBC belt. You know why I’m here – I’m here to prove I’m the best.”

While Fundora will be busy through the first quarter of 2026, Ortiz turns to the glamour showdown against the unbeaten Ennis, 35-0 (31KOs), the Philadelphia product who recently moved up to 154lbs. Ennis appeared in the ring with Ortiz after the Lubin knockout, expressing praise for the performance and pointing to his watch to illustrate it’s time for them to square off.

Before Gomez made public that the Ennis talks were making strides, Ortiz pressured Ennis to push for the bout.

“A little back and forth to ensure the fire stays on it,” Ortiz told BoxingScene of the social-media blasts to Ennis. “I’m very excited about where my career stands. It definitely depends on his side, more than anything.

Ortiz said dominating Lubin has further lifted his confidence about what he can accomplish.

“I was very happy [in crushing Lubin],” he said. “No wear and tear on my body at all. We came out unscathed. That’s really all you can ask for. I feel at the top of my prime right now, and only climbing it.”

Whatever transpires, he has his own vehicle to provide dispatches on what is happening by leaning on his OnlyFans’ base.

The site already provides content from a wide range of athletes in boxing, soccer, motorsports, golf and more, with the company striving to offer “exclusive behind-the-scenes training, competition and fitness content to elevate their profiles and promote their sports, while showing the work, grit and determination it takes to get to the top”.

Ortiz promises to play electric guitar on some of his appearances, telling BoxingScene he aspires to one day play in a band “in some small bars” someday.

He said the access will go beyond Instagram thanks to the interaction.

Asked which fighter he would’ve registered to follow, he chose the late, great Mexican champion Salvador Sanchez.

“I don’t think I can emulate him,” Ortiz said. “He had good head movement. He had hands like rocks, the way they were thudding when he hit guys.”

Something like what Ortiz did in knocking out Lubin as the battered veteran stood against the ropes in November.

Erislandy Lara has a new opponent for Saturday.

BoxingScene has confirmed that Lara, a two-division champion and the current WBA 160lbs titlist, will now face Venezuela’s Johan Gonzalez in a voluntary title defense. The move was made in the wake of Kazakhstan’s Janibek Alimkhanuly testing positive for the banned substance meldonium, which forced him out of his planned IBF, WBA and WBO unification bout with Lara.

Lara-Gonzalez will serve as part of a PBC on Prime Video pay-per-view event Saturday from Frost Bank Center, home to the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.

The move allows Lara, 31-3-3 (19 KOs), to remain on Saturday’s show, which will end a ring absence of nearly 15 months.

At 42 years old, Lara is the sport’s oldest current titleholder, though his infrequent schedule stretches the term “active reign.” Lara previously held the WBA 154lbs belt and a secondary version of the WBA 160lbs strap before he was upgraded to full titleholder in 2023. Just two successful defenses have followed for the Cuban export.

Both took place in 2024, Lara’s first year with at least two fights since 2019. He scored knockouts in each defense, both of which took place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Lara stopped overmatched Michael Zerafa inside two rounds in March 2024 and then forced Danny Garcia to retire on his stool after nine one-sided rounds last September 14.

He jumped at the chance to face Alimkhanuly, 17-0 (12 KOs), the reigning IBF and WBO 160lbs titleholder who spent all year demanding a unification bout.

The original desired target of unbeaten southpaw Alimkhanuly was Carlos Adames, who holds the WBC belt. Talks were in place but never quite reached the point where it was clear that a deal would be reached. The conversation then shifted to Lara, who accepted without hesitation.

Alimkhanuly’s only fight for the moment is the one to clear his name. As is the case with most offending parties in random drug testing, the 32-year-old boxer professed his innocence and expressed immediate shock over the results produced from his November 15 VADA test.

His team is exploring the steps necessary to have Alimkhanuly’s “B” sample tested, although even if immediately processed, the latest results won’t come in time for him to be cleared for fight night this weekend.

The dilemma opened the door for Gonzalez, 36-4 (34 KOs), to challenge for his first major title and enter his first scheduled 12-round contest.

Gonzalez was already on stand-by in the event that one of the fighters dropped out of the evening’s scheduled bouts in and around his weight division. The career junior middleweight is coming off the most notable win of his career, a 10-round split decision nod over former unified 154lbs titlist Jarrett Hurd on March 1 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

The win came less than five months after Gonzalez was manhandled by then-unbeaten Yoenis Tellez in a seventh-round knockout defeat last October 19 in Orlando, Florida. It was his second defeat in three fights, which included a ninth-round knockout at the hands of Jesus Ramos Jnr, who will face Shane Mosley Jnr in a vacant WBC interim 160lbs title fight also set for Saturday.

The balance of the lineup for Saturday’s PBC on Prime Video card remains intact. Topping the four-fight PPV telecast, Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz will defend his secondary version of the WBC 140lbs title versus Lamont Roach Jnr.

Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.

Janibek Alimkhanuly is now at risk of losing out on a long-sought three-belt unification clash, this time as a result of his own alleged actions.

BoxingScene has confirmed that the unbeaten IBF and WBO 160lbs titlist has tested positive for the banned substance meldonium. The development officially jeopardizes his showdown with WBA 160lbs titleholder Erislandy Lara, which was due to air as part of a PBC on Prime Video pay-per-view event this Saturday from Frost Bank Center in San Antonio.

Ring Magazine was first to report the news.

An adverse finding of the substance was discovered from a November 15 sample collected through random testing as contracted through VADA, according to a letter obtained by BoxingScene. Ironically, Kazakhstan’s Alimkhanuly, 17-0 (12 KOs), informed his fans in real time through social media on the day he was contacted by testers.

The 32-year-old southpaw Alimkhanuly has since addressed the issue following the positive test becoming public knowledge.

“I have always supported clean sport you know this well,” Alimkhanuly stated via social media. “I was surprised when I read the news. VADA took the first test and said everything was clean. I have not made any changes to my vitamins.

“I don’t know what happened with the second test, so I requested a retest.”

As is the standard with all adverse findings in drug tests, the offending party has the right to request the testing of his “B” sample. It is extremely rare for the results to differ, though there have been occasions when boxers were cleared upon proving contamination.

Nevertheless, BoxingScene has learned that – due to the timing of the development – the most likely scenario at this juncture is for Lara to remain on the card against a new opponent.

Should that be the case, it remains unclear whether a fresh contender will be selected or if an already-scheduled participant in Saturday’s show will be elevated from the undercard. Jesus Ramos Jnr and Shane Mosely Jnr are currently slated to meet for the WBC interim 160lbs title.

Meldonium is a prescription drug in select Eastern Europe nations, though perhaps a moot point since Alimkhanuly denies having ever used the substance. It was placed on the WADA banned list, both for in- and out-of-competition use, in 2016 due to its ability to shift metabolism to increase endurance and also accelerate the rehabilitation and recovery process.

Should Alimkhanuly fail to gain clearance and be found at fault for the positive test, the IBF and WBO are then required to take measures – which could result in the end of his unified title reign. He has held the WBO belt since 2022 and unified in an October 2023 knockout win over then-unbeaten IBF titlist Vincenzo Gualtieri.

Lara, 31-3-3 (19 KOs), has not fought since a September 2024 knockout victory over former two-division titlist Danny Garcia in Las Vegas.

Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.

 

Boxing hasn’t had many titleholders in their 40s.

One of them, Erislandy Lara, is in action this weekend against substitute Johan Gonzalez after his scheduled opponent, Janibek Alimkhanuly, failed a drugs test.

We all know the story of heavyweight George Foreman defeating Michael Moorer at 45 years old. It is a staple of Foreman’s story, and the crowning achievement of his remarkable, unlikely second career after his losses to Muhammad Ali and Jimmy Young and decade-long departure from the sport.

Bernard Hopkins is the oldest boxing beltholder in the history of the sport. Hopkins defeated Jean Pascal at 46 years old to win the WBC light heavyweight title and lineal championship. After losing his throne to Chad Dawson, Hopkins would break his own record by defeating Tavoris Cloud at the age of 48. Hopkins would hold a title until he was 49, a record.

Manny Pacquiao became a 40-year-old beltholder by beating Keith Thurman for a welterweight belt in 2019. He nearly became a 46-year-old titleholder this past July when he fought Mario Barrios to a majority draw. It seems likely Pacquiao will fight for a title again in the upcoming year. 

Then there’s the 42-year-old Lara, who - until Tuesday - was approaching his second unification bout (he lost the first one to Jarrett Hurd at junior middleweight in 2018). The WBA 160lbs titlist's planned showdown with Janibek Alimkhanuly is off after his IBF and WBO counterpart tested positive for a banned substance. The good news is that Lara remains on Saturday's PBC pay-per-view show, now facing Johan Gonzalez in a less significant matchup. Still, Lara is the rare combination of talent and power, and boasts an efficient style that just may take him into his late 40s.

Vitali Klitschko regained the WBC heavyweight title when he was 37 years old and made his last defense at 41. Klitschko made three defenses of his belt in his 40s: against Tomasz Adamek, Derek Chisora and Manuel Charr. Younger brother Wladimir ruled the division during this time, but Wladimir’s bid to become a 40-year-old titleholder fell short when he lost to Tyson Fury at the age of 39, and he was 41 when he was knocked out by Anthony Joshua. 

Artur Beterbiev barely makes the list. Beterbiev won his first light heavyweight title in 2017. He held it until February of this year – one month after his 40th birthday – when he lost a majority decision in a rematch with Dmitry Bivol. 

Badou Jack won the WBC cruiserweight title, stopping Ilunga Makabu in 2023 at the age of 39. Career inactivity didn’t see him return to the ring until May, where he won a majority decision over Noel Mikaelyan. Jack is currently 42 years old and will rematch Mikaelyan on December 13 in Los Angeles. 

Gennadiy Golovkin already had one world title when he turned 40 and then added another one day later by stopping Ryota Murata in April 2022. Golovkin only fought one more time, moving up to super middleweight and losing to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez later that year. 

Sam Soliman, the awkward Australian middleweight, defeated Felix Sturm to win the IBF title in May 2014. At the time, he was 40. He’d lose the belt in his next fight to Jermain Taylor, but he kept fighting until he was 50, which was 2024. 

WBA cruiserweight titleholder Guillermo Jones held his belt until he was 40.

Virgil Hill was 40 when he lost his WBA cruiserweight title to Jean-Marc Mormeck, and he went on to hold the WBA's secondary belt from ages 42-43.

Thulani Malinga won the WBC super middleweight title over Nigel Benn in 1996. Despite being dropped in the fight, Malinga would win a split decision to capture the belt at 40 years old. He’d lose it in his very next title defense, also by split decision, to Vincenzo Nardiello.

Cornelius Bundrage won the IBF junior middleweight title over Carlos Molina in October 2014. The rugged fighter from Detroit was 41 years old. He’d be stopped in his next fight, losing his title to Jermall Charlo the following year. 

And now for a couple of fighters who had secondary titles:

Guillermo Rigondeaux won the vacant secondary WBA bantamweight title in 2020 over Liborio Solis at the age of 39; the primary title belonged to Naoya Inoue. Rigondeaux would fight John Riel Casimero over a year later, entering the ring at almost 41. Rigondeaux lost a boring split decision against Casimero and is often forgotten amongst 40-year-old titleholders, as he was then so far removed from his prime, when he was dominant and feared.

Nonito Donaire, at 42 years old, is a secondary titleholder. He defeated Andres Campos to win the vacant interim WBA bantamweight title in June; the primary beltholders have been Seiya Tsutsumi and Antonio Vargas. Donaire faces Tsutsumi for the primary title on December 17.