8:59 AM ET Steve KimESPN Boxing wasn’t always the first love for some of today’s top performers in the ring. Football, basketball, soccer and even snooker are among the sports fighters such as two-division champion Terence Crawford, undisputed welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus and featherweight interim titlist Xu Cang grew up playing. ESPN spoke to a
Boxing
5:53 PM ET Former boxing star Miguel Cotto, a world champion in four divisions, has submitted a proposal through his promotions company with suggested protocols to resume professional events in his native Puerto Rico as early as August. Among the points established in the document are staging cards behind closed doors and testing boxers for
12:18 PM ET Steve KimESPN Boxing’s calendar is about to be booked up once again, according to Top Rank promoter Bob Arum. Arum said during a recent interview on IFL TV that he hopes to start making announcements on an upcoming schedule starting next week. “It’ll be all fighters who have either appeared on the
5:34 PM ET Efficient coronavirus testing is a major key to the return of combat sports in earnest. The Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory (SMRTL) is set to help unlock some of those doors. SMRTL has been “cleared and certified” to begin doing coronavirus testing for sports, lab president Dr. Daniel Eichner said Monday
9:00 AM ET Steve KimESPN Boxers will always have that fight or win that defines their career. They also have those fights where they just enjoy being in the ring, win or lose. They know their most challenging opposition and love to discuss their most satisfying victories. ESPN spoke to a number of top fighters
5:27 PM ET WBC junior lightweight champion Miguel Berchelt, WBO junior featherweight champion Emanuel Navarrete and WBO junior lightweight champion Elwin Soto are among the fighters Zanfer Promotions is planning to feature as part of a resumption of boxing in Mexico in June, organization president Fernando Beltran told ESPN. Beltran told ESPN that fans will
5:50 PM ET Steve KimESPN After some back-and-forth jabs in the past, the war of words between UFC superstar Conor McGregor and boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya is really heating up. The latest escalation happened when De La Hoya gave a sharp response when asked about how he’d fare with McGregor in a fight.
9:49 AM ET Heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua and the IBF’s mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev could face each other in front of a crowd at a Roman Amphitheatre in Croatia, the Bulgarian’s manager has said. The pair were due to meet at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on June 20 but the fight was
9:51 PM ET Steve KimESPN Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said Wednesday that his company will begin putting on fight cards next month after being idle since February due to the coronavirus pandemic. “We are coming back in June,” Arum told ESPN. “These will be shows that will be on ESPN and ESPN+. They will
5:04 PM ET IBF middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin said Wednesday that he doesn’t expect his first bout coming off the coronavirus pandemic to be against boxing superstar Canelo Alvarez, since Golovkin has an agreement in place to face undefeated mandatory challenger Kamil Szeremeta when the schedule resumes. That would open the door for Alvarez, the
4:22 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN FLINT, Mich. — Cars continue to form long lines to get free water bottles at local distribution sites here — even amid the coronavirus pandemic — with the water crisis continuing to plague the city since April 2014. So two-time super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell is trying to help his
6:00 PM ET Canelo Alvarez’s trainer Eddy Reynoso confirmed Tuesday via social media that he would work with Andy Ruiz for his next fight. “Welcome to the team Andy. We are going to do well,” Reynoso captioned an Instagram post. Reynoso also trains former featherweight titlist Oscar Valdez, former bantamweight Luis Nery, and lightweight sensation
3:51 PM ET Nick Parkinson Close •Reports on boxing for ESPN.co.uk, as well as several national newspapers•Has been reporting on British boxing for over 15 years•Appears on BoxNation’s Boxing Matters show The World Boxing Council (WBC) is advising promoters and national or state commissions to put boxers and their teams into 14 days of isolation
1:52 PM ET Steve KimESPN A card featuring boxing, kickboxing, MMA and bare-knuckle fighting has been scheduled for June 6 at Forbes Field in Topeka, Kansas. “We’re going to have a ring and a cage side-by-side,” said John Carden, the head of Carden Combat Sports, which is staging the event. He said that the venue
8:59 AM ET Steve KimESPN Boxers are always thinking about fighting, whether it’s the previous bout or the next one. Those who step into the ring rarely get the chance to take a step back and understand all they’ve been through. However, with the sport on hold, many world-class fighters have had a chance to
7:55 PM ET Steve KimESPN A short training clip of Mike Tyson recently went viral, and according to the man who was catching the former champ’s punches, the iconic heavyweight still has some fight left in him at age 53. “I didn’t know what to expect,” trainer Rafael Cordeiro told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani on Monday.
8:29 AM ET Mark KriegelESPN May 5, 1862: The French were heavy favorites that day, as it was long before they went on their losing streak in international competition. Sportsbooks don’t keep odds that far back, but the troop ratio was probably about two-to-one. Still, Mexico won the Battle of Puebla in just a matter
2:17 PM ET Less than a month after advising that all combat sports should be postponed due to COVID-19, the Association of Ringside Physicians (ARP) is relaxing its stance. On Saturday, the ARP released a statement that is more agreeable with combat sports resuming — as long as added precautions are taken. The ARP is