Indholdsfortegnelse for 29 May 2025 i Boxing News

NINO (born Giovanni) Benvenuti, who died on May 20 at the age of 87, was surely Italy’s greatest fighter, and one of the very best in European boxing history. Benvenuti was world champion three times, at two weights – juniormiddle (as the division was then known) and twice at middleweight. He was Olympic welterweight gold medallist at the 1960 Games in Rome, where he was awarded the Val Barker trophy as the boxer considered to have shown the greatest technical excellence (also known as the “best stylist” award). Nino must have looked good to get more votes than Cassius Clay (as he was then known), light-heavy gold medallist at the same Games. As a pro, Benvenuti was a stylish but aggressive boxer with an excellent jab, good timing, and power…

Reporters’ star ratings for main events and undercards are based on in-ring entertainment, competitiveness and whether overall expectation was met GLASGOW MAY 24 MAIN EVENT ATMOSPHERE ONLY A win, and a convincing one at that, would have sufficed to keep the dream of being a two-weight world champion alive for Josh Taylor in front of a partisan crowd at the Hydro, and he chose a tough assignment in his first outing as a welterweight in the form of Ekow Essuman. But despite showing flashes of his former brilliance, the Scot was unable to repel the Englishman’s assault. It was widely known that making 140lbs had become an ordeal for Taylor, the signs were there in his first meeting with Jack Catterall in 2022, with Taylor (19-3, 13 KOs, 146½lbs) only…

YORK HALL  MAY 25 WHOLE SHOW TWO cracking eight-rounders and the sound of wedding bells sent a full house home happy on Johnny Clark’s Sunday show at York Hall. Wickford southpaw James Osborne (9-1-1, 1 KO, 167lbs) met stout resistance from Moulscombe’s rugged Liam Forrest (3-1-1, 167lbs), but his more considered boxing and workrate kept him ahead. Lee Every seeing the bout 78-74. Amy Pu was unable to separate an excellent matchup that both participants agreed should go on again. South Ockendon’s Kevin Reavell (6-4-2, 2 KOs, 160lbs) started faster, having the last say in some fierce exchanges. However, urged on by trainer Iain Weaver, Southampton’s Morgan Sellamuthu (4-1-2, 159 lbs) made up the difference in a fight neither deserved to lose. Most impressive of the undercard was St Pancras…

TOLWORTH MAY 24 WHOLE SHOW ITALY’s Luigi Alfieri (12-3-1, 147.6lbs) continued his British campaign with a six-round points win over Mexican Ramiro Garcia Lopez at Tolworth Recreation Centre. In February Alfieri outpointed Dan Booth here, by 60-54. This time he met sterner resistance but came through, referee Chris Jones scoring 58-56. Lopez (145.6lbs) fell to 8-24, but seven wins came inside-schedule. The visitor came to fight, several times trapping Alfieri on the ropes – but Alfieri generally stayed cool, moved well from side to side, and countered as his aggressive opponent came in. Lopez had a good third, scoring through the middle and landing solid body-shots, and there were some decent exchanges throughout. But Alfieri generally had the edge. Amar Kayani, Slough (157.2lbs) moved to 11-1 (2 KOs), well outscoring Hyde’s…

ON October 9, 1911, The Sporting Life reported that negotiations for a contest between Jim Driscoll and Owen Moran were well under way, with the bout due to take place in December in Birmingham. The two were matched by the promoter, Gerard Austin, for a combined purse of £2,600, with additional sidestakes of £200 a side. When the final arrangements were confirmed, Moran went into training at the Talbot Hotel in Knightswick, Worcestershire, rshire, while Driscoll prepared in Cardiff, his home town. At the time, the sport was reeling from the recent decision by the Home Secretary, Winston Churchill, to ban the proposed contest between Bombardier Billy Wells and Jack Johnson for the world heavyweight title, which had been due to take place at Earls Court on October 2. The…

May 30 MANUEL GALLEGOS vs KHALIL COE II Domo Alcalde, Guadalajara, Mexico DAZN Murodjon Akhmadaliev vs Luis Castillo BEKTEMIR MELIKUZIEV vs DARIUS FULGHUM  The Theater at Virgin Hotels, Las Vegas DAZN May 31 CALEB PLANT vs ARMANDO RESENDIZ Michelob Ultra Arena, Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas Amazon Prime (WBA interim super-middleweight title) Jermall Charlo vs Thomas LaManna BRAD PAULS vs TBA  Riviera International Conference Centre, Torquay Jun 01 ANGELINA LUKAS vs DANIELA ASENJO 2 Taraz, Kazakhstan Jun 03 OLIVER McCALL vs CARLOS REYES Texas Troubador Theatre, Nashville, Tennessee Triller TV Jun 06 JOSH KELLY vs FLAVIUS BIEA Newcastle Arena Channel 5 Felix Cash vs TBA Tom Welland vs TBA FRANCHON CREWS DEZURN vs CITLALLI ORTIZ Turning Stone Resort & Casino, Verona New York (WBA super-middleweight title) Brandon Moore vs Stanley Wright…

DONCASTER MAY 23 MAIN EVENT UNDERCARD ATMOSPHERE DENABY’S Terri Harper fulfilled a long-held ambition by boxing outdoors at the Keepmoat Stadium and, in what was a first defence of the WBO lightweight title she’d won by outpointing Rhiannon Dixon eight months prior, she dominated en route to a wide points victory over Hamburg’s previously unbeaten Natalie Zimmerman. All three judges scored 99-91. Truth be told, Terri (16-2-2, 6 KOs, 134lbs 5oz), who immediately afterwards called out Londoner Caroline Dubois, was a huge step up for the 42 year-old German (13-1, 3 KOs, 134¾lbs) who had never previously exchanged pleasantries with anyone with a winning record, and the gulf in class was clear right from the start of a bout which began just as the rain started to fall. Time and…

CANNOCK MAY 25 WHOLE SHOW IT WAS back to the Premier Suite for this Sunday-afternoon Scott Murray promotion, where a quartet of distance victories were garnered by the home corner. Seldom one to disappoint and always up for a scrap, Stoke warrior Jamie Stewart (4-12-4, 150lbs) found unbeaten Zach Evans (10-0, 2 KOs, 153lbs 7oz) a little too much and, while going the four-round distance he twice had to pick himself up after being dropped by body shots from the Droitwich favourite. Having been awarded a 40-34 victory by Birmingham referee Peter McCormack and thus taking his win tally into double figures, Evans will doubtless be eyeing potential title shots. There was a keep-busy outing for Chelmsley Wood’s Nyall Berry (14-1, 6 KOs, 132lbs), who just a couple of months earlier…

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 RIGHT now, one of the hottest fights in the super-middle division would pit Caleb Plant against Jermall Charlo. There’s a backstory here that’s an obvious selling point, with Plant having slapped Charlo across the face in a confrontation that was filmed on a mobile phone and attracted 473,000 views on YouTube. In the meantime, the two fighters feature in separate bouts at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday. The idea, one assumes, is that Plant and Charlo will win to set the stage for a grudge match. True, there’s an element of risk in this sort of double-header showcase, but Plant…

EORGIA O’CONNOR, as she was still known, was on the stage at the Royal Albert Hall in early March and that giant smile was back on her face. In another life, she would have been in the ring. The many friends she had in our sport steadily took their time to go and talk to her. Her cancer was terminal that night and she still smiled. The greatest of souls, her best friends said. She hugged and laughed, and she had a great presence inside that ancient house of fights. She probably cried. That is only human; a lot of other people did. Georgia had not fought for a couple of years inside the ring. She had been in other struggles, including the attritional battle last year to convince the…

OSAKA MAY 24 MAIN EVENT ATMOSPHERE ANGELO LEO produced a measured display to retain his IBF world featherweight title with a majority decision victory over Tomoki Kameda. The pair squared off in a tactical yet absorbing encounter at the Intex Osaka. Thankfully, their razor-thin contest was aptly reflected by the judges, as despite a 114-114 conclusion, two scorecards of 115-113 and 116-112 swung the result in Leo’s favour. Despite having campaigned as low as bantamweight, Japanese contender Kameda (42-5, 23 KOs, 125¾lbs), was by far the more physically imposing operator, putting his spindly but sturdy frame to great use. The in-and-out movement of Leo (26-1, 12 KOs, 125¾lbs), however, was what ultimately saw him emerge victorious and, in turn, present a case for himself as the top dog at 126lbs.…

WOLVERHAMPTON MAY 25 WHOLE SHOW GREAT BARR’S Omarah Taylor (4-0, 2 KOs, 156lbs) proved one of the stars of the show on this latest BCB Promotions offering at The Hangar where, 11 months after her previous outing in this very same ring, in a contest scheduled for six and refereed by Ryan Churchill, she eased to a fifth-round stoppage victory over Czech Jenifer Joklova (1-3, 159lbs 6oz), who by that stage, battered, well beaten and with her nose bloodied, had had more than enough. Mr Churchill, who halted it with 77 seconds of the penultimate session gone, was the man in the middle as well for all bar two of the evening’s other contests – the main one of which, slated for six, saw Woodville southpaw and former Area champion…

WHOLE SHOW A MORE measured approach, defined by pulsating movement and blistering combinations, should see light-heavyweight prospect Khalil Coe exact his revenge on Manuel Gallegos on Friday. The pair will headline a Matchroom card in Guadalajara, Mexico, with Coe, (9-1-1, 7 KOs), looking to rebound from his first professional setback. Thankfully for the 28-year-old, his ninth-round stoppage defeat of last November – albeit a sizeable upset – was by no means catastrophic to his career moving forward. Rather, there is a series of adjustments – mostly concerning his temperament, but also, greater use of his technical prowess – that could quite easily lead the American to a comprehensive victory. During their first encounter, Coe was seemingly hell-bent on producing a statement performance – so much so, in fact, that a…

I LIKED to fight. I like to say I was a street fighter. I was more of a deviant kind of kid. I was not a good person, but I wasn’t evil either.” Carlos ‘El Famoso’ Hernandez wasn’t a street urchin, but he honed his skills on the street. Little did he know his fists would be his legacy and one of his claims to fame is being the first – and only – man to send Floyd Mayweather Jr to the canvas. Former IBF super-featherweight champion Hernandez, now 54, recalls the moment he had Mayweather in trouble: “Knocking Floyd down was an incredible moment. I remember going to the neutral corner during the standing eight count and my corner, especially Manny Robles, was yelling, ‘Go, go, you got him!’…

STOKE-ON-TRENT MAY 11 QUEENSBERRY Police ABC had a special guest at their show at Jubilee Club. Gary Marston, who boxed for the Stoke on Trent club, left the local hospice where he is fighting pancreatic cancer and sat ringside to watch 16 bouts put together by Mark Griffiths. Griffiths trained Marston when he boxed for the club before he had a 11-1-2 pro career. “Gary had a couple of bouts with another club before coming to us and he was always a very gutsy lad,” remembered Griffiths. “You could always rely on Gary to put up a good fight. “He was a little guy with a heart of a lion and he was always pushing Queensberry. “He was an MC on our shows and worked the doors as well. “I…

CARDIFF MAY 18 THE Mullane family were celebrating again after the Welsh Schools Championship finals in Cardiff. Peter Mullane (Chepstow) beat Tadgh Kilduff (Warehouse) in the 50kgs final to secure his second national title. Coach Steve Woods said Mullane was “near punch-perfect” in his two bouts to take another Welsh title home, adding to those won by elder brothers Terry and Pat. Oliver Morgan was another champion from Chepstow. The 11-year-old, with father Ryan in the corner, outpointed Kohan Chives (Pantside) in the 32.5kgs final. Morgan won all three bouts by unanimous decision, taking his overall record to nine wins from 10 bouts.…

ON MARCH 8, 1912, the Erith boxer Arthur Evernden was engaged to fight in Paris against the Frenchman, Raphael Belli. Evernden was a thoroughly seasoned professional by this point and was well used to fighting in France. Seven months previously he had boxed Georges Carpentier, losing the decision after boxing the full 15 rounds. Belli, on the other hand, was less experienced and had recently lost for the first time after going undefeated in his first 10 bouts, going down to Sergeant Baker of the Royal West Kents, at the Ring Blackfriars. What happened when the Evernden met Belli was both tragic and quite unbelievable. The bout was to be a 15-rounder and Evernden got off to a bad start, losing the first six rounds and finding himself on the…

I’M forever stressing the need for EBAs to support – and show they support – today’s boxers, rather than constantly looking to the past. So I was delighted to hear from Northern Ireland EBA member (and regular correspondent) Denis O’Hara, that earlier this month Barry McCafferty, NIEBA’s publicity officer, led “a posse of fanatical fight fans” to cheer on Anthony Cacace in his defeat of Leigh Wood in Nottingham. “It was estimated close on 500 Cacace supporters made the trip from Belfast to witness the Irish fighter’s outstanding display,” Denis said. Barry remarked: “A large number of Anto Cacace’s neighbours made the journey – and what a weekend it was! Anto put on a fantastic performance for the travelling fans. Nottingham was a great spot – with everyone delighted to…