Boxing

7:34 AM ET JAKE PAUL ARRIVED at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, just after 9 p.m. on April 24. He got to his front-row seat for UFC 261 during a preliminary fight between Alex Oliveira and Randy Brown. As Paul settled into his spot, a buzz came over the crowd. People around him

1:37 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez are on the brink of yet another fight. Promoter Eddie Hearn told ESPN on Friday that he’s confident he’ll close a deal for the unified 115-pound championship trilogy fight next week, a bout he’s planning to stage Oct. 16. Hearn is looking at

2:23 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Jaron “Boots” Ennis, one of boxing’s fastest-rising stars, is set for his second fight of 2021. Ennis and Thomas Dulorme have verbally agreed to fight each other in a 12-round Showtime main event, sources confirmed to ESPN on Friday. The two dates being considered for the welterweight bout are Oct.

7:30 AM ET Dotun AkintoyeESPN.com JAKE PAUL HAS taken to scrawling poster board messages in the living room of his home in Dorado Beach, Puerto Rico. Consider the writing on the wall: “Make History.” “Inner Athlete.” “Win.” “Win!!” “Give Back.” “What Would Jordan Do?” “Secretary Bird” “Orca Energy” “Box Jellyfish — no heart, deadliest animal.”

11:24 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Edgar Berlanga has agreed to terms on a two-fight plan with Top Rank, the boxer told ESPN on Thursday. The first bout comes Oct. 9 in Las Vegas against Marcelo Esteban Coceres, Berlanga said, in the main event of a Top Rank Boxing show on an ESPN platform that will

2:20 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Errol Spence Jr. suffered a retinal detachment/break in his left eye during sparring weeks before his scheduled fight with Manny Pacquiao, the 31-year-old unified welterweight champion told ESPN. During a session at the World Class Boxing Gym in downtown Dallas, Spence said, he felt something amiss, stopped the session and

5:02 PM ET The WBA on Wednesday announced that it will eliminate all of its interim champion designations — a move that will affect fighters like Daniel Dubois, Chris Eubank Jr., Rolando Romero and others. WBA president Gilberto Mendoza had told ESPN Knockout earlier this month that this project was supposedly going to start in

4:54 PM ET WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo was arrested Wednesday on felony robbery charges following an alleged dispute with a waitress over a bar tab. According to Texas court records, Charlo was booked on Wednesday on three counts of second-degree robbery stemming from an incident in July. Charlo posted bond for all three charges

1:12 PM ET Mike Rothstein The undercard of the Shakur Stevenson-Jamel Herring WBO 130-pound title fight has added some more intrigue. Nico Ali Walsh will have his second professional fight and Olympic silver medalist Duke Ragan will both be fighting in State Farm Arena on Oct. 23 against yet-to-be-named opponents, a source told ESPN. The

7:54 AM ET AMANDA SERRANO WAS in the place she feels most comfortable — a boxing gym — when a 6-year-old approached her. In the girl’s hands was a cell phone, and she wanted to show it off. The girl was the only one in the conversation with a phone of her own. Serrano has

7:44 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN David Benavidez’s fight with Jose Uzcategui has been rescheduled. The 168-pound bout is set for Nov. 13 at Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, a PBC on Showtime main event. The fight was originally slated for Aug. 28 before Benavidez tested positive for COVID-19. Benavidez, ESPN’s No. 3 super middleweight, will

8:02 AM ET Manny Pacquiao has likely fought his last fight, and while it wasn’t viewed in this way heading into Saturday in Las Vegas, the bout against Yordenis Ugas may have been the passing-of-the-torch moment the welterweight division has desperately needed. Pacquiao will almost certainly step away from the sport to focus on his

3:03 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Terence Crawford is inching closer to the biggest fight of his career. After Top Rank and PBC failed to complete a deal for Crawford to defend his title against Shawn Porter by Friday’s deadline, the WBO ordered a purse bid Monday that will be held Sept. 2 where the rights

3:48 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The Teofimo Lopez-George Kambosos soap opera appears to be reaching its conclusion. Triller’s Ryan Kavanaugh told ESPN he sent contracts on Monday to both Lopez and Kambosos for the undisputed lightweight title fight to take place Oct. 5 at New York’s Hulu Theater at MSG. “We’re really excited about it:

10:35 AM ET Sometimes the best thing for a narrative is a little disruption. On Saturday night in Las Vegas, one could argue Yordenis Ugas didn’t just play a spoiler role. He provided an intervention. Had the odds played out accordingly and Manny Pacquiao beat Ugas to regain the WBA “super” welterweight title, it would

3:55 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN LAS VEGAS — Manny Pacquiao sits in the ring in front of the media, sunglasses covering his freshly stitched face. The shades help Pacquiao avoid detection of his battered eyes, but he can’t evade the question he knows is facing him; the question he perhaps can’t answer for himself. Is

1:29 AM ET An opportunity to face a future Hall of Famer and one of boxing’s all-time pound-for-pound best doesn’t happen every day, and even less often does such a fight come together 11 days out. But Yordenis Ugas took that opportunity against Manny Pacquiao, and successfully defended his WBA welterweight world title on one

1:06 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN LAS VEGAS — This night was supposed to be a celebration, a culmination of all the great Manny Pacquiao has accomplished — a champion in eight divisions in four decades, a superstar the world over. Yordenis Ugas wasn’t here for the Pacquiao party, though — he was here for his