Boxing

8:43 PM ET Mikaela Mayer will defend her IBF and WBO junior lightweight titles on April 9 against Jennifer Han, a source told ESPN on Friday. The fight will be Mayer’s first since she defeated Maiva Hamadouche by unanimous decision on Nov. 5 to unify the IBF and WBO crowns. It will be Mayer’s second

1:44 PM ET Editor’s note: This story was originally published in January. It has been updated to reflect the news that Alvarez will fight Dimitry Bivol on May 7. Canelo Alvarez will return to the ring in May to fight Dimitry Bivol for the WBA light heavyweight title. Canelo is the undisputed super middleweight champion,

2:08 AM ET Sibusiso Zingange claimed the South African Junior Lightweight belt at Africa Boxing on Feb. 24, beating four-time defending champion Phila Mpontshane by unanimous decision over 12 rounds. It wasn’t the only title bout of the night though, as South Africa’s Smangele Hadebe dominated from start to finish to beat Tanzania’s Halima Vunjabei

5:31 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Former heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, plans to take up arms to defend against Russia’s invasion, which began in the early hours Thursday. “It’s already a bloody war,” Klitschko, a Hall of Fame boxer, said Thursday on ITV’s “Good Morning Britain.” “… I don’t have

10:00 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 Jack Catterall might be the lesser-known name as he prepares to fight Scotland’s undisputed world champion Josh Taylor on Saturday, but he has shared

11:05 AM ET Savannah Marshall’s defense of her WBO middleweight title will have to wait a few more weeks. BOXXER, which is putting on Marshall’s fight against Femke Hermans, announced Tuesday that Marshall will now fight Hermans on April 2 in Newcastle, England, after being previously scheduled for March 12. This is the latest move

7:48 PM ET Terri Harper will need a new opponent for her return to the ring March 12. The former WBC junior lightweight champion made the decision to move to lightweight and was set to make her return against American veteran Heather Hardy. But Hardy posted on Twitter on Wednesday that she is going to

7:51 AM ET Timothy Bradley Jr. Josh Taylor returns home to Scotland to make his first title defense as boxing’s undisputed junior welterweight champion of the world at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow (Saturday on ESPN+, 2 p.m. ET). Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) faces undefeated Englishman Jack Catterall (26-0, 13 KOs), who previously stepped aside

1:12 AM ET NEW YORK — Amanda Serrano is preparing for the biggest fight of her life and at the same time she has also begun to take steps for the next part of her career. Serrano is putting the finishing touches on signing her first client as a boxing manager, Nicole Ocasio, in conjunction

6:56 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Bantamweight titleholder John Riel Casimero was accused of sexual abuse, according to a Feb. 11 complaint filed by the Women and Children Protection Desk in Taguig City, Philippines. The complaint says the 33-year-old inappropriately touched a 17-year-old girl while she was sleeping in his hotel room on June 7, 2021.

8:10 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 Josh Taylor owns all the world titles at junior welterweight, but he insists he is hungry for more as he targets the welterweight division

4:54 AM ET Smangele ‘Smash’ Hadebe will be fighting for more than the vacant African Boxing Union [ABU] female flyweight title on Feb. 24, with the South African fighter hoping to show survivors of child abuse that ‘they are not alone’. Hadebe will take on Tanzania’s Halima Vunjabei as the co-main bout on the Africa

9:58 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Dillian Whyte on Monday signed the contract for his WBC heavyweight title fight vs. Tyson Fury on April 23 at London’s Wembley Stadium, sources told ESPN, hours ahead of the organization’s midnight CT deadline to keep the bout intact. There remains one issue related to Whyte’s contract that the WBC

5:17 PM ET Women’s boxing is divided between 17 weight classes, from heavyweight to atomweight. The four major sanctioning bodies, WBO, IBF, WBA and WBC have champions in most of the divisions and to make it easier for boxing fans, below is a chart of who holds each of the titles and secondary belts. For

7:05 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 MANCHESTER, ENGLAND — For years Kell Brook has insisted he has the beating of Amir Khan, and on Saturday he executed his gameplan to

9:28 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 MANCHESTER, England — Kell Brook will look back on Saturday’s sixth-round stoppage win over English rival Amir Khan as one of his career highlights

5:46 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Ryan Garcia explained why he parted ways with trainer Eddy Reynoso during a Friday appearance on ESPN’s “Max on Boxing” with Max Kellerman, saying Reynoso “didn’t really have time to train me.” The star boxer announced last week that he’s training with Joe Goosen ahead of his April 9 comeback

8:00 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 Time has not diminished the animosity between Amir Khan and Kell Brook. After six years of talk, fight fans — specially in the United