Boxing

6:58 PM ET LOS ANGELES — Deontay Wilder, clad in dark sunglasses and wearing headphones with music blaring into them, stared straight ahead during Tuesday’s news conference when emcee Crystina Poncher, sitting to his right, addressed him with a question. That was Wilder’s afternoon in a nutshell. The heavyweight boxing star gave an opening statement

8:06 AM ET MIKAELA MAYER WAS backstage at a concert in Colorado waiting for her friend. It was 2018, before Mayer had become a world champion, before she started to become more of a face of women’s boxing. A man approached her and her best friend, Ginny Fuchs, also a fighter, and started offering boxing

7:51 AM ET Editor’s note: The Teofimo Lopez-George Kambosos Jr. lightweight title fight, and Franchon Crews-Dezurn’s super middleweight unification fight against Elin Cederroos were originally on this list before that card was postponed due to Lopez testing positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. Multiple title fights. Famous names in exhibitions. A bunch of younger fighters in

2:07 PM ET MIAMI — Teofimo Lopez has tested positive for COVID-19 and he’s symptomatic. His Saturday bout vs. George Kambosos that was scheduled to be in Miami and the whole undercard has been moved to Aug. 14, sources told ESPN. Lopez, the unified lightweight champion and No. 5 on ESPN’s pound-for-pound list, was in

7:51 AM ET Multiple title fights. Famous names in exhibitions. A bunch of younger fighters in bouts that could push their careers forward. Saturday, for a moment, might feel like boxing used to before the pandemic. There were times in the last year and a half where there were surely questions about when a day

1:42 AM ET Lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez and Top Rank Promotions are back on good terms. Lopez and Top Rank have agreed to a restructured contract, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Cameron Wolfe. In the new agreement, Lopez will have his minimum purses raised from the previous amount of $1.25 million and will have the opportunity

10:02 AM 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 Promoter Eddie Hearn has announced he will host three events on back-to-back Saturdays in July in August in the garden of the company’s headquarters

10:57 PM ET George Kambosos Jr. says unified lightweight world champion Teofimo Lopez has underestimated him and that he will make the American look “very very silly” when the two square off in Miami on Saturday. Kambosos (19-0, 10 KOs), is unwavering in his belief he has the game plan to defeat Lopez (16-0, 12

2:01 PM ET Russian boxer Alexander Povetkin said on Sunday he was retiring, citing lingering injuries that require treatment. The 41-year-old was the 2004 Olympic super-heavyweight gold medallist before turning professional. He held the World Boxing Association (WBA) world heavyweight title between 2011 and 2013. Povetkin had 36 wins, three losses and one draw in

6:36 PM ET Shakur Stevenson could get closer to a title opportunity at junior lightweight if he defeats Jeremiah Nakathila for the WBO interim belt on Saturday (ESPN and ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET, with undercard at 6:30 on ESPN+). Stevenson (15-0, 8 KOs), 23, of Newark, New Jersey, won the vacant WBO featherweight belt in

12:25 AM ET LAS VEGAS — Shakur Stevenson said his shutout victory over Jeremiah Nakathila wasn’t good enough by his standards but that he is confident he has more than enough to beat WBO junior lightweight champion Jamel Herring. Moments after his win, Stevenson was asked about Herring, shown on the screen, and he didn’t

12:28 AM ET LAS VEGAS — Shakur Stevenson did everything well Saturday night except finish Jeremiah Nakathila for a knockout. Instead, Stevenson (16-0, 8 KOs) dominated every second of the fight cruising to a shutout unanimous decision victory to win the WBO interim junior lightweight title. All three judges scored the bout 120-107 in favor

10:28 PM ET Jaime Munguia will have a new opponent in his main event on June 19 in El Paso, Texas, with Kamil Szeremeta stepping in on short-notice to take the bout, a source confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday. Munguia (36-0, 29 KO), the former WBO light middleweight champion, has since moved up to middleweight.

8:01 AM ET LAS VEGAS — Shakur Stevenson nonchalantly sat on the stage rocking a gray Nike hoodie, black basketball shorts and a New York Yankees hat cocked to one side at his prefight news conference, when his opponent on Saturday — Jeremiah Nakathila — said something that made Stevenson quickly turn his head in

1:39 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Claressa Shields is a champion. She has showed that for years in the boxing ring, winning gold medals in two Olympics and becoming a three-division world champion (twice undisputed) in an undefeated professional in-ring career. On Thursday night, she showed a different side of her championship mettle by surviving a

5:39 PM ET LAS VEGAS – WBC junior lightweight champion Oscar Valdez is set to return to the ring in September for a voluntary title defense against veteran Andrew Cancio in Arizona, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told ESPN Thursday. Valdez (29-0, 23 KOs) is coming off a significant upset victory over Miguel Berchelt in

8:38 AM ET Shakur Stevenson’s smile disappears. He’s approached with the one question that he’s thought about plenty over the past six months: What’s next? It’s frustrated him. He’s tired of waiting. Stevenson sits up straight, looks ahead and without hesitation says, “I want Oscar Valdez next. Nothing else. That’s the big fight. That’s the

7:30 AM 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 Anthony Joshua could defend his world heavyweight titles against Oleksandr Usyk at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, in September, Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn confirmed to