Indholdsfortegnelse for 26 June 2025 i Boxing News

TURKI ALALSHIKH is not only bankrolling big fights and cutting through entrenched promotional rivalries to make fights happen, he’s also weighing in on his preferences for the type of bouts he’d like to see. I’m referring to the social media post in which His Excellency declared he doesn’t want to see any more “Tom and Jerry-type” boxing matches on his shows – bouts where, as Turki puts it, one boxer is running around the ring and the other is chasing him. His Excellency was clearly referring to last month’s Riyadh Season bout between Canelo Alvarez and William Scull, in which Scull was in constant motion, though unfortunately of the backwards-moving variety. And one suspects the bout between Devin Haney and Jose Ramirez in New York may also have been viewed…

OUTSTANDING GOOD FAIR DISAPPOINTING RUBBISH The star ratings indicate how well the writer believes the fighters match up, the fight(s)’ contextual significance, and how good the fight(s) will be WHOLE SHOW AFTER back-to-back tough fights, Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez has another difficult task when he defends his cruiser-weight titles against Yuniel Dorticos in Anaheim, California, on Saturday. Zurdo (I don’t think anyone refers to him as “Ramirez” any more) outboxed the rugged Arsen Goulamirian to win the WBA “super” title. He followed this with another unanimous decision, this one over Britain’s Chris Billam-Smith, to add the WBO title. Now he faces another top-calibre, if slightly faded, opponent in Cuba’s Dorticos, who, like Goulamirian and CBS, has world championship credentials, having held the WBA and IBF titles. Dorticos is the WBA’s mandatory…

BETHNAL GREEN JUNE 21 WHOLE SHOW ON A SWELTERING East End night, Louie O’Doherty scored his biggest win by outpointing Youssef Khoumari in an action-packed 12-rounder at York Hall (Goodwin Boxing promoted). O’Doherty claimed the English lightweight title along with a shot at the British title, for which this was a final eliminator. Both put forth an exceptional effort in sweltering conditions, but the Halstead man’s consistently better-quality work earned him the unanimous decision of judges Sean McAvoy (116-111), Kieran McCann (115-112) and Lee Every (115-113). In round three, Wembley’s Khoumari was docked a point for low blows by referee John Latham. It started a good spell for O’Doherty (10-0, 2 KOs, 134¾lbs), who used his faster hands and good variety to win exciting exchanges as Khoumari (18-3-1, 8 KOs,…

Highlighting the best of the week’s stories WWW.BOXINGNEWSONLINE.NET ON Saturday, Costas Evangelou promotes a show at Harrow Leisure Centre. The following morning, he will be taking usual Sunday morning service at his church in Edmonton. “I wear a lot of hats,” is how the 67-year-old grandfather of six puts it. Evangelou wore a couple the other Saturday. “I did a seminar in the church in the morning to around 100 people, mostly ministers, and when I finished that, I went to Ipswich for the boxing,” said Evangelou, who is President of the Ixthus Council of Churches that oversees two million people worldwide. “Next morning I was in church giving a service!” He was in Ipswich with Nelson Hysa, the Albanian heavyweight he represents who called for a fight with Moses…

Jun 26 YUKO KUROKI VS NANAKO SUZUKI Korakuen Hall, Tokyo (WBA strawweight title) Jun 27 ZAK CHELLI vs ADAM HEPPLE York Hall, Bethnal Green (English light-heavyweight title) DEONTAY WILDER vs TYRELL HERNDON Charles Koch Arena, Wichita, Kansas PPV.COM CHRISTIAN MBILI vs MACIEJ SULECKI Videotron Centre, Montreal ESPN+ Erik Bazinyan vs Steven Butler Arslanbek Makhmudov vs Ricardo Brown THANANCHAI CHARUNPHAK vs RYUKU NAGAMINE Suanlum Night Bazaar, Bangkok Jun 28 SHAKAN PITTERS vs BRADLEY REA Connexin Live, Hull DAZN (vacant European light-heavyweight title) Hughie Fury vs Michael Pirotton Sean McComb vs TBA Shakiel Thompson vs TBA JAIRO NORIEGA vs RAKYB MOHAMED RADJI Centro de Tecnifica (vacant European flyweight title) GILBERTO RAMIREZ vs YUNIEL DORTICOS Honda Center, Anaheim DAZN (WBA Super and WBO cruiserweight titles) Jake Paul vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr Floyd Schofield vs Tevin…

OUTSTANDING GOOD FAIR DISAPPOINTING RUBBISH Reporters’ star ratings for main events and undercards are based on in-ring entertainment, competitiveness and whether overall expectation was met BIRMINGHAM JUNE 21 WHOLE SHOW ATMOSPHERE I HAD A feeling beforehand that Brummie southpaw Galal Yafai (9-1, 7 KOs, 111lbs 6oz) would have his work cut out against top-class Mexican Francisco Rodriguez Jr (40-6-1, 27 KOs, 111lbs 1oz), but I hadn’t banked on the experienced 32-year-old from Monterrey turning in quite the performance he did. Nor, I suspect, had many others at the bp pulse Live Arena. Scores at the finish of a bout dominated for the most part by the man from Monterrey were wide, very wide – 119-108 twice and 118-109 – and the well-deserved win means that, having accounted for Yafai in this…

EAST KILBRIDE JUNE 20 WHOLE SHOW ATMOSPHERE THE match between Matt McHale and Sean Bruce for the vacant Commonwealth super-flyweight title was seen by both as a chance for justice, with McHale losing his first attempt by contentious decision last time out, and Bruce seeing his opportunity for the same belt vanish when Kaisy Khademi pulled out immediately prior to their fight in Gibraltar in March. This set the scene for a cracking contest in a very warm Gladiators Arena. It became evident from the opening bell, however, that McHale (8-1, 6 KOs, 114½lbs) was simply on another level, as he immediately took ring centre, utilising his left as a range-finder before unleashing his signature double backhand rights and pivoting to avoid any retaliatory shots. From the second it looked…

TOKYO, JAPAN JUNE 19 WHOLE SHOW ATMOSPHERE BRIAN NORMAN JR retained his WBO welterweight title in ruthless fashion, dispatching Jin Sasaki with a punishing fifth-round stoppage victory. Their one-sided spectacle took place last Thursday at the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan, where Norman, 28-0 (22 KOs, 147lbs), ultimately produced a truly destructive finish on away soil. Prior to that, the 24-year-old had dropped his man twice in the opening round, setting the tone for what swiftly became a career-best performance. As expected, second-ranked WBO contender Sasaki, 19-2-1 (17 KOs, 147lbs), flew out of the traps like a bull in a China shop, only for Norman to take a half step back before flooring him with a looping left hook to the dome. Moments later, the American scored his second knockdown…

TWO WINS in six days marked out Wisdom Ovlawe as a super-heavyweight to look out for. It took the 24-year-old from Prospects ABC less than a round to claim the East Midlands belt in Gresley. Danills Kaliinins (Rainworth & Blidworth) kept his guard tight to keep out Ovlawe’s opening onslaught, but the effect was devastating when the Derby powerhouse found a way through his defences. Ovlawe switched his sights downstairs after Kaliinins blocked a left hook and, when his guard dropped an inch or so, Ovlawe slammed a right-left-right off his chin, leaving him slumped in the corner, badly dazed and defenceless. The referee waved it off instantly. That was followed five days later by what looked sure to be a tougher test. Ovlawe headed to Doncaster to face NAC…

NOBODY is really sure what happened to Deontay Wilder in the Zhilei Zhang fight and nobody is sure what will happen when Wilder fights again. Deontay Wilder has never been an easy puzzle to solve; fighters have no idea what he is going to do, and promoters have no idea what he is going to say. His three fights with Tyson Fury secured a history for the pair; the raw action, the bravery, the lunacy attached to the fights, controversy, allegations, salvation, the joy and the despair. Wilder made his name in those fights; they are his legacy. They compensate for the lost Anthony Joshua fight. Right now, the last memory is from last summer, and it is Wilder staggering, unsteady on those skinny legs and looking in the wrong…

MAIN EVENT ONE OF boxing’s oldest stories will be told again this weekend, inspired by one of its oldest adages. The story is that of the ageing boxer launching a comeback; the adage is that the last thing a fighter loses is his punch. If that is true (and it isn’t always), it explains why anticipation for Deontay Wilder’s return exceeds the prospects of his comeback being a successful one. Wilder, after all, can – or at least could – punch as hard as anyone. The statistics suggest he punched harder than any heavyweight champion who ever lived, with all but one of his 43 wins coming by way of knockout – a ratio of 97.7%. That’s higher than Joe Frazier (84.4%) Rocky Marciano (87.8%), Mike Tyson (88%) and even…

ALFRETON JUNE 21 WHOLE SHOW PROFESSIONAL boxing returned to Alfreton Leisure Centre for the second time in just over a year, as promoter John Ashton put on a cracking seven fight show. Eastwood’s Jack Mantell (8-1-2, 2 KOs, 153lbs 13oz) challenged Coventry’s unbeaten Midlands Area super-welterweight champion Amir Abubaker (9-1, 6 KOs, 153lbs 2oz). The opening round saw Abubaker on the front foot throughout, catching Mantell with a couple of heavy right hands which buckled his legs on both occasions, but the Eastwood fighter bravely stood up to it. The second round was closer, with Abubaker throwing some heavy artillery but being wasteful too. Mantell, though hurt again, caught his opponent with some accurate shots himself. The third was Mantell’s round as he made the fight a little tougher for…

BIRMINGHAM JUNE 14 WHOLE SHOW IT WAS quite a night for Midlands Area titles being contested and while two such crackers went ahead over in Aldersley, back here at Birmingham Airport Holiday Inn, which was hosting pro boxing for the second successive week, local favourite Ryan Whelan (5-1-1, 172¾lbs) and Tamworth’s David Butlin (6-0, 173¼lbs), both previously unbeaten, met with the vacant light-heavyweight belt up for grabs. There was never a great deal of daylight between the pair in an entertaining battle, but Butlin [pictured below] edged it over the distance, with Solihull referee Chris Dean scoring 96-94. The same official was in charge for two further contests, both boxed over four rounds and both ending 40-36 in favour of the home corner. Birmingham-based Ghanaian Christopher King (2-0, 181¾lbs) got the…

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA JUNE 20-21 WHOLE SHOW THERE was heavyweight drama in the last 16 of the WBC Grand Prix in Riyadh where ‘The Polish Tyson’ got off the floor to win a one-round shoot out. Down inside the opening minute, Piotr Lacz, the No.2 seed from Poland, got up to flatten Croatian southpaw Marko Milun (1-1, 1 KO) in just 2-25 of a scheduled six. Lacz (14-0, 10 KOs) looked dazed after getting up from a short, clubbing left hook, but was soon launching bombs of his own at Milun’s chin. He fell short with a right and followed through with a leaping left hook that found Milun’s jaw and swept him off his feet. Milun looked blank-eyed as he lay on his back, but still managed to stand…

World rankings HEAVYWEIGHT No weight limit 1. Oleksandr Usyk 2. Daniel Dubois 3. Joseph Parker 4. Agit Kabayel 5. Anthony Joshua 6. Filip Hrgovic 7. Zhilei Zhang 8. Fabio Wardley 9. Derek Chisora 10. Martin Bakole CRUISERWEIGHT 200lbs/14st 4lbs 1. Gilberto Ramirez 2. Jai Opetaia 3. Chris Billam-Smith 4. Badou Jack 5. Noel Mikaelian 6. Aleksei Papin 7. Michal Cieslak 8. Ryan Rozicki 9. Umar Salamov 10. Yamil Alberto Peralta LIGHT-HEAVYWEIGHT 175lbs/12st 7lbs 1. Dmitry Bivol 2. Artur Beterbiev 3. David Benavidez 4. Callum Smith 5. David Morrell 6. Albert Ramirez 7. Anthony Yarde 8. Joshua Buatsi 9. Imam Khataev 10. Oleksandr Gvozdyk SUPER-MIDDLEWEIGHT 168lbs/12st 1. Canelo Alvarez 2. Christian Mbilli 3. Jose Armando Resendiz 4. Diego Pacheco 5. Caleb Plant 6. Edgar Berlanga 7. Osleys Iglesias 8. William Scull…

ONE HUNDRED years ago, the 1925 ABA finals were held at Holland Park Hall, in Kensington. This venue, originally a skating rink, closed in 1928, but for a short while during the 1920s it was used by the National Sporting Club for some of their most important professional events, usually involving British and European titles. The ABA had used many different venues for their finals prior to 1925, including Holborn Stadium, the Northampton Institute in Clerkenwell and, most regularly, the Alexandra Palace. From 1926 onwards, the Royal Albert Hall became the regular venue and would remain so for many years thereafter. It wasn’t until 1923 that the ABA insisted that those entering their finals should be the champion of their own region. Until then, the ABA finals were open to…

REGULAR correspondent Denis O’Hara contacted me to say that a galaxy of former Irish international boxing champions, including Commonwealth Games ‘Golden Boy’, lightweight Gerry Hamill, enjoyed a memorable evening of music, memories and camaraderie at the Northern Ireland Ex-Boxers› Association’s recent annual function at Belfast’s National Club. Making the 60-mile round-trip from Ballymena with Hamill were his boxing brother Martin, nephew Dermot and other ring luminaries from the mid-County Antrim town – Tony McAvoy and Johnny Thompson. Also there were former Ulster and Irish light-welter champion Paddy Moore and prominent Belfast coach Harry Fitzsimons. NIEBA publicity officer Barry McCafferty reported: “There was a strong turnout from the boxing community – past champions, trainers, and supporters to celebrate the enduring spirit of the sport.” The former professionals in attendance included Jimmy…