8:48 PM ET LOS ANGELES — When pound-for-pound king Vasiliy Lomachenko’s next lightweight title defense was being planned he thought it would be a three-belt unification fight with Richard Commey, who had won a vacant belt on Feb. 2. But when Commey injured his right hand during a second-round knockout of Isa Chaniev in the
Boxing
12:43 PM ET Former middleweight world titleholder David Lemieux, who has had multiple fights canceled because of his issues making weight, will officially move up to super middleweight for his next bout against John Ryder, which Golden Boy Promotions announced on Wednesday along with the rest of the Canelo Alvarez-Daniel Jacobs undercard. The card, headlined
11:26 AM ET Associated Press MOSCOW — Russian boxer Tamir Galanov has been banned for two years for doping. Galanov won a bronze medal at the 2017 world amateur championships and is Russia’s current national flyweight champion. Galanov tested positive for furosemide, a banned diuretic that can be used by boxers to make weight but
Apr 8, 2019 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 Former lightweight world titleholder Anthony Crolla’s nickname might be “Million Dollar,” but that is only because it rhymes. There is nothing flashy about Crolla,
1:38 PM ET Unified world lightweight champion and ESPN’s No.1 pound-for-pound fighter Vasiliy Lomachenko, of Ukraine, faces England’s Anthony Crolla in the main event of a Top Rank on ESPN+ card at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Friday at 11 p.m. ET. The undercard will air at 8 p.m. ET, also on ESPN+.
10:31 PM ET Former four-division world titleholder Adrien Broner avoided jail time on Monday when he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges and was given probation in a case in which a woman accused him of forcibly kissing her at a nightclub in June. Broner, 29, was supposed to go to trial on Monday on felony
4:27 PM ET Top Rank made no secret when it signed lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury to a co-promotional deal with Frank Warren in February that Fury’s first fight of the agreement would take place in Las Vegas and on be broadcast on an ESPN platform. Now the specific venue and platform are official for
5:03 PM ET Opening Bell: 10 knockdowns! There were no high-profile fights this past weekend. The various boxing platforms took a breather, probably to avoid competing with one of the biggest events in American sports, the Final Four, on Saturday night. The boxing schedule now kicks into high gear, with notable fights every single weekend
4:47 PM ET Steve KimESPN Junior bantamweight contender Aliu Bamidele Lasisi defeated Ricardo Blandon by unanimous decision in the main event of a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Friday night. The bout provided some compelling moments, as both fighters hit the canvas as they battled through 12 tough-rounds.
3:26 PM ET The heavyweight debut of cruiserweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk is set. Usyk, the 2018 consensus fighter of the year, will make the move up in weight to face battle-tested former heavyweight world title challenger Carlos Takam on May 25 (DAZN) at the MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Matchroom Boxing promoter