1:46 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Sergey Kovalev and Meng Fanlong are finalizing a 185-pound catchweight fight on March 12 in Los Angeles, sources told ESPN on Wednesday. The Triller Fight Club headliner will be Kovalev’s first bout since November 2019, when Canelo Alvarez brutally knocked him out to capture a light heavyweight title. Kovalev, a

7:20 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Promoter Kalle Sauerland announced last week that Tony Yoka accepted an IBF heavyweight title eliminator with Filip Hrgovic, a rematch of the 2016 Olympic super heavyweight semifinal, but the fight is now in jeopardy due to a contract dispute. Yoka, an Olympic gold medalist, signed to fight Martin Bakole on

8:40 AM ET Former world titleholders Heather Hardy and Terri Harper are both heading back to the ring — to face one another. Hardy, the former WBO world featherweight titlist, and Harper, the former WBC world junior lightweight titlist, are scheduled to fight on March 12 in Nottingham, England, in a lightweight bout as part

7:23 AM ET Katie Taylor has become a game-changer for women’s boxing. The undisputed lightweight champion and ESPN’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter is on the precipice of a massive year, which will likely include a bout against Amanda Serrano, one of the best fighters of this generation and current unified featherweight champion, who has won

2:37 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Shakur Stevenson and Oscar Valdez are in the process of finalizing a deal for a 130-pound title unification fight on April 30 in Las Vegas, sources told ESPN on Sunday. Sources said no financial agreement has been reached for the proposed ESPN main event. After Valdez (30-0, 23 KOs) scored

12:13 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Joe Smith Jr. made the first defense of his WBO light heavyweight title with a ninth-round TKO of Steven Geffrard on Saturday in Verona, New York. Smith (28-3, 22 KOs) dished a beating on Geffrard (16-3, 12 KOs) from the opening bell before finally dropping him to a knee in

9:21 AM ET Chris Eubank Jr.’s bout with Liam Williams has been confirmed for Feb. 5 in the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Boxxer promotions has announced, following uncertainty due to COVID-19 restrictions in Wales. The pair had been scheduled to face off a week earlier on Jan. 29, but the bout was postponed after the

Apr 8, 2021 Mark KriegelESPN Editor’s note: This story was originally published ahead of Joe Smith’s win over Maxim Vlasov. Joe Smith. A search on Boxrec.com reveals seven and a half pages — almost 200 professional fighters — who go, or have gone, by “Joe Smith.” The name itself is a generic suggestion: just a

3:55 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Welterweight champion Terence Crawford filed a lawsuit Wednesday against his former promoter Top Rank in Nevada, alleging racial bias on the part of the company’s chairman, Bob Arum. The suit alleges that the 90-year-old Arum “continues to make racist and bigoted statements and purposefully damage the reputations of Black boxers.”

11:23 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Edgar Berlanga and Steve Rolls have agreed to terms for a super middleweight fight on March 19 at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden, sources told ESPN on Wednesday. The bout will be Berlanga’s first since he tore his left biceps in Round 3 of his victory over Marcelo Esteban