Innholdsfortegnelse for 16 October 2025 i Boxing News

FRIDAY would have been Harry Carpenter’s 100th birthday. (He passed away 15 years ago.) With his many years behind the microphone for BBC television, I think we’d have to consider Carpenter the greatest of all British TV commentators. With Carpenter in mind, I thought it appropriate to give some thoughts about TV commentary in general and how things have changed since Harry’s time. I’m not going to offer any criticism of commentators currently working. Fans have their likes and dislikes. It’s not for me to weigh in. I worked as a ringside analyst for two shows in Cedric Kushner’s Heavyweight Explosion series and it’s not quite as easy as it might appear. But I will give some opinions on TV boxing commentary over the years, touching on things that stood…

Highlighting the best of the week’s stories WWW.BOXINGNEWSONLINE.NET IT IS WELL documented that Anthony Joshua, who has not fought since his fifth-round stoppage defeat to Daniel Dubois in September 2024, is considering offers from Nigeria and Ghana ahead of his next outing. Initially, it appeared Ghana was the frontrunner, only for a suspension of boxing there following a ring fatality last month to see Nigeria emerge as the more likely. Earlier this month, meanwhile, cruiserweight contenders Brandon Glanton and Marcus Browne headlined a show in Lagos, with promoter Ezekiel Adamu believing the event showcased his credentials to deliver a possible ‘AJ’ showdown. “It is no secret that Anthony Joshua wants to fight in Africa before ending his career,” Adamu told Boxing News. “AJ is Nigerian by blood. “Nigeria also has…

SEBASTIAN FUNDORA’S WBC super-welterweight title defence against Keith Thurman on October 25 is off after Fundora suffered a hand injury in training. Initial reports suggested that the supporting contest between O’Shaquie Foster and Stephen Fulton would carry the event, but that too will be moved to a separate date. Fundora’s chief handler, Sampson Lewkowicz, said Fundora will return in early 2026. A man with his own chequered injury history, Thurman’s failing frame and veteran status might mean this fight won’t take place.…

IN MANY ways, it has been a period of rebuilding for Shannon Ryan. The defeat to Emma Dolan in 2024, when the British and Commonwealth superfly-weight titles were on the line, might have cost the Watford superfly-weight her unbeaten record, but it led to changes in her inner circle. A different team. A different mindset. After a couple of low-key wins, Ryan now has a fight of real meaning. Chloe Watson and Ryan will head to the iconic York Hall on Friday night, knowing a victory could push the winner towards the fringes of a world title opportunity. It’s a fight of real jeopardy for both fighters. But, equally, one of potential high reward. The importance of the fight isn’t lost on Ryan. “It’s not just about us as fighters…

WOODFORD GREEN OCTOBER 11 WHOLE SHOW THE UNPREPOSSESSING setting of the Sir James Hawkey Hall for Costsakis Evangelou’s Premier Promotions’ five-bout show became a full-house terrace-style singalong party for Tottenham fan Jamie Bradley. The only drawback was that the South African-born, Newport-based Garth Noot (1-12-2, 1KO, 142lbs), came for a fight, not for a friendly. As the taller man, and with a wide-legged stance, Jamie (4-0-1, 143lbs) had not yet lost a round in his pro career. However, Noot got underneath the Londoner’s jab, which by the end had raised a bump on his left cheek, as he drove himself forward repeatedly to share 57 points apiece on Mark Bates’ ringside card, with Rocky Israel controlling the action. Lee Every also scored a draw, 56-56, after Islington’s Jordan Grannum (12-172-6,…

BIRMINGHAM OCTOBER 11 WHOLE SHOW CHELMSLEY WOOD’S Brandon Jones (10-0, 4 KOs, 178lbs) bested Argentina’s Marcos Nicolas Karalitsky (8-17-2, 2 KOs, 184lbs) by 58-55 on Chris Dean’s card, heading up a Top Promotions card at the Birmingham Airport Holiday Inn. The import came to win and, despite contending with a height deficit, scored with close-range hooks from each side. Jones grew into the contest. He made a dent with bodywork in the third and held his ground more over the back end. Both were tired by the last, but Brandon forced out the cleaner work and the visitor was docked a point for use of the head. Bloxwich’s Omar Davis (5-0, 1 KO, 166lbs) overcame Costa Rica’s Jose Aguirre (2-16, 1 KO, 161lbs) by 59-55 for Mr Dean. The shorter…

ENGLAND, Wales and the United States are among the countries who are set to boycott the IBA World Men’s Championship. The International Boxing Association have announced the event will be held in Dubai between December 2 and 13. Total prize money on offer totals $8 million, with the winner of each weight category awarded $300,000. Silver medallists get $150,0000 and prize money will be divided between the boxer (50%), coaches (25%) and their national federation (25 %). The IBA tournament follows the men’s and women’s World Championship in Liverpool last month. World Boxing was set up to keep boxing in the Olympic Games after the International Olympic Committee banned IBA from organising the games in 2023. IBA have continued to run events, included the Women’s World Championship in Serbia in…

THIS PHOTOGRAPH shows three boxers among a group of five men who are walking down a London street on March 30, 1942, following the weigh-in for a show at the Royal Albert Hall that same evening. I suspect one of them might be recognisable to most readers, and that is the lad second left who was, at the time, a claimant for the world flyweight title following his 1938 victory over Jackie Jurich. And in 1937 he had gone 13 rounds with the great Benny Lynch in his first attempt at the world title. He is, of course, the great Peter Kane of Golborne, a small village between Warrington and Wigan. Kane was a huge favourite at the Liverpool Stadium before the War, where he made a habit of crushing…

THE LATEST Boxing News rankings feature a couple of notable moves in the super-middleweight and heavyweight divisions. Since our last set, published on August 28, Terence Crawford has gatecrashed the scene at super-middleweight. Last month, he took possession of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s four belts, and undisputed champion status, by force. As the king of yet another division, this time 168lbs, Crawford is the biggest mover across any of the weight classes. Further down the pecking order, as a reward for beating former world title challenger Vladimir Shishkin so emphatically, Cuba’s Osleys Iglesias leapfrogs Diego Pacheco into fifth. Bruno Surace drops out, along with Bektemir Melikuziev. The latter accommodates Lester Martinez, who enters after his draw with our No.3, Christian Mbilli. Meanwhile, in the land of the giants, one of the…

HEAVYWEIGHT 1. Oleksandr Usyk | Ukr WORLD CHAMPION 2. Joseph Parker | NZ 3. Agit Kabayel |Ger 4. Daniel Dubois | UK 5. Filip Hrgovic | Cro 6. Zhilei Zhang | Chi 7. Fabio Wardley | UK 8. Derek Chisora | UK 9. Martin Bakole | DRC 10. Efe Ajagba | Nig CRUISERWEIGHT 1. Gilberto Ramirez | Mex WBA & WBO CHAMPION 2. Jai Opetaia | Aus IBF CHAMPION 3. Badou Jack | Swe WBC CHAMPION 4. Chris Billam-Smith | UK 5. Michal Cieslak | Pol 6. Noel Mikaelian | Arm 7. Aleksei Papin | Rus 8. Ryan Rozicki | Can 9. Yamil Alberto Peralta |Arg 10. Mike Perez | Cub LIGHT-HEAVYWEIGHT 1. Dmitry Bivol | Rus WBA, IBF & & WBO CHAMPION 2. Artur Beterbiev | Rus 3. David…

THE REVEREND Canon Grace Thomas told Ricky Hatton’s last capacity crowd in Manchester that “we came with our grief and our pain”. And our respect. In the shadow of Hatton’s fighting castle, the old MEN, on a damp morning, we sat in every seat possible in the cathedral, dropped our heads, wiped our eyes and nodded at old, old friends. A boxing funeral is all about saying hello and not just goodbye. Hundreds of active and retired boxers filled the side streets near the cathedral before the first bell, and then took their seats or stood in packed aisles. The fighters remained for a long, long time after the last bell – they never want to leave the company of their ring brothers and sisters at a funeral. A thousand…

Highlighting the best of the week’s stories WWW.BOXINGNEWSONLINE.NET “2025 HAS been a difficult year for promoting in small hall boxing and trying to get my better fighters the title fights that they deserve on the big TV shows – but none of this compares to what my friend Georgia Wainwright is about to go through in the next week.” Newark’s hard-working promoter/manager/trainer – and former pro boxer – Carl Greaves was speaking about how the frustrations he feels in the tough of world of boxing are put into perspective when talking about a 15-year-old from Loughborough who suffers with the rare genetic disorder Rett Syndrome, and who captured his heart seven years ago. “I first met Georgia through my press officer [and Georgia’s dad] David Wainwright, and he told me…

OUTSTANDING GOOD FAIR DISAPPOINTING RUBBISH 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 MAIN EVENT UNDERCARD THERE is nothing quite like a genuine crossroads matchup for the British and Commonwealth titles, or better still, a domestic dustup where the result might as well be determined by the flip of a coin. Here, with Kieron Conway vs George Liddard, it appears we have a combination of both ingredients; the two ingredients, in fact, which only ever seem to make for an edge-of-your-seat spectacle. Conway (23-3-1, 7 KOs) had found himself in an almost identical position to Liddard back in 2019: a 23-year-old Lonsdale Belt challenger who just so happened to be entering his first 12-rounder, at…

OUTSTANDING GOOD FAIR DISAPPOINTING RUBBISH Reporters’ star ratings for main events and undercards are based on in-ring entertainment, competitiveness and whether overall expectation was met SHEFFIELD OCTOBER 11 MAIN EVENT UNDERCARD ATMOSPHERE HEAVYWEIGHT Dave Allen might not be the biggest name in world boxing, but the Doncaster favourite has no shortage of support, as was evidenced by the crescendo of noise that welcomed him to his first main event at Sheffield Arena. Facing him across the ring was towering Russian Arslanbek ‘The Lion’ Makhmudov (21-2, 19 KOs, 261lbs 1oz) who, hopeful of adding to his impressive KO ratio and doing his best to silence the 9,000 noisy souls from an early stage, kept it long and found the target with a number of purposeful looping rights. The bearded visitor was…

LEEDS OCTOBER 10 WHOLE SHOW STAYING busy ahead of a first defence of his Central Area welterweight title, York’s Will Harrison (7-0-2, 158lbs 6oz) ticked over at Leeds United’s Banqueting Suite against Hyde’s Dale Arrowsmith (6-139-5, 1 KO, 156lbs 5oz). Arrowsmith, who’s learnt a thing or two about defence over the course of 150 professional contests, tucked his elbows in tight and peeped out between his gloves but offered precious little by way of a threat. No surprise, then, that third man Michael Alexander scored it 60-54 in favour of the more polished local. There were six-round shutout successes, too, for York’s Jack Marshall (8-0, 137lbs 1oz) who, in his first outing over that distance, brushed aside Dorset’s much heavier Stefan Vincent (2-38, 147lbs 7oz), and for Leeds super-welter Ishmael…

LONDON EBA enjoyed a very successful meeting on October 5, with the raffle raising £314. Among the former champions there were Maurice Hope, Vernon Sollas and Bernard Paul – and there was a special welcome back for former British light-middleweight champion Jimmy Batten, unable to attend for a while owing to ill-health. There are still a great many medals from the Wolverhampton, Shoreditch and Manor Place Baths reunions that have not been presented, so it was great that former Hammersmith bantam Eric Elderfield made the meeting and was presented with his medals for the latter two by his nemesis (and long-time LEBA member) Tony Humm. They clashed three times, Humm winning all three on points. The first time was at London’s Connaught Rooms in March 1969, Humm winning over eight.…

Oct 17 KIERON CONWAY vs GEORGE LIDDARD York Hall, Bethnal Green (British and Commonwealth middleweight titles) DAZN Jimmy Sains vs Troy Coleman (vacant English middleweight titles) Shannon Ryan vs Chloe Watson Oct 18 DANNY GARCIA vs DANIEL GONZALEZ Barclays Center, New York Gabriel Rosado vs Vaughn Alexander LOURDES JUAREZ vs YESICA NERY PLATA Convention Center, South Padre Island, Texas (WBC light-flyweight title) DAZN Desley Robinson vs Logan Holler (IBF and WBO middleweight titles) Shuretta Metcalfe vs Krystal Rosado-Ortiz ANDRES CORTES vs DERLYN HERNANDEZ-GERARLDO Thunder Studios, Long Beach, California SARAH BORMANN vs YUKO KUROKI Wandsbeker Sporthalle, Hamburg (WBO and WBA strawweight titles) Oct 19 WBC GRAND PRIX SEMI-FINALS Riyadh DAZN Oct 23 JOSHUA JAMES PAGAN vs MALIEK MONTGOMERY Coliseito Pedrin Zorilla, San Juan, Puerto Rico DAZN Oct 25 JOSEPH PARKER vs…

ARTURO GATTI JR has died, aged 17, as he was preparing to make his professional debut. The son of the same-named boxing legend reportedly took his own life, though authorities have not confirmed the cause of death. If true, it is a haunting echo of his father’s death. Gatti Sr committed suicide, aged 37, in 2009, when Junior was just 10 months old. Junior [below] was found dead in an apartment in Mexico City, where he was living as he trained for his pro debut. His father won world titles at super-featherweight and super-lightweight and is best remembered for his thrilling trilogy with Micky Ward. The World Boxing Association posted on X on Wednesday last week: “The WBA and the boxing world mourn the passing of Arturo Gatti Jr. “His…

MORE OFTEN than not, our mind is our greatest enemy. It steers us closer towards those vices which, while offering more harm than good, just always seem to be right around the corner. Whether it is nicotine, sugar, or even doomscrolling through social media, most of our brains are programmed in such a way that habits, or even addictions, feel almost inevitable, as if designed to tease us with their cheap dopamine and rampant accessibility. For a fighter, though, an internal struggle is likely to look drastically different, and indeed far less trivial. As they approach the business end of a gruelling camp, their body practically shot to pieces, it is then a question of whether they possess the mental fortitude to continue. At this point, they may begin to…

WHOLE SHOW OF THE 128 hopefuls who started out in the WBC Grand Prix in August, only 16 are left. The semi-finals in the four weight classes – featherweight, super-lightweight, middleweight and heavyweight – take place on Sunday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Inevitably, most of focus will be on the heavyweights – a tournament which hasn’t gone to form. Of the four left, only Ahmed Krnjic, a 28-year-old, 6ft 4½ins tall Bosnian, has an unblemished record. He improved to 6-0 by grinding out a majority points win over 12-0 Tsotne Rogava in the last eight and can expect a similar battle this weekend against Keaton Gomes. The 26-year-old headed into the WBC Grand Prix on the back of a KO loss to Shane Potgieter – who he had previously beaten…

FARNWORTH OCTOBER 11 WHOLE SHOW MANCHESTER’S Bobby Faulkner (11-0, 3 KOs, 148lbs 2oz) extended his unblemished record by claiming a stoppage win over Johnstone’s Jack Owens (4-2, 1 KO, 148lbs 2oz) atop this VIP Boxing bill at the Hideout. Faulkner applied consistent pressure from the outset and had his hand raised at the end of round four of a scheduled eight, with referee Darren Sarginson accepting the retirement from Owens’ corner. Earlier, former Central Area super-featherweight champion Lewis Wood (8-4, 137lbs 2oz) suffered a defeat against Hereford’s Jake Price (3-8-1, 138lbs) in his first fight since losing an English title contest in November 2024. Price upset the odds to triumph 40-37 on Mr Sarginson’s scorecard. Another home fighter to fall was Wigan’s Lennox Lythgoe (10-2-1, 3 KOs, 124¾lbs), who was edged…