Boxing

8:16 AM ET FLINT, Mich. — It was a little past 8 p.m. on Friday and the music inside Claressa Shields’ dressing room started to heat up. She grabbed her portable speaker, thumbed with her phone and hit play. Cardi B’s “Up” came on. Shields turned her space into a dance party, twisting her body

6:16 PM ET Associated Press FEASTERVILLE, Pa. — Smokin’ Joe Frazier stood fearsome in bronze, his frozen left hook on the brink of connecting with Muhammad Ali, much as the power punch did 50 years ago in the Fight of the Century. Linked forever by a trilogy of bouts, it’s the first meeting — won

3:09 AM ET Mark KriegelESPN On a March morning, in a suite at the Essex House, half a century ago, Muhammad Ali’s longtime friend and adviser Gene Kilroy received a call from the late Budd Schulberg, a writer whose contribution to the American canon includes “The Harder They Fall,” “On the Waterfront” and a line

12:35 AM ET FLINT, Mich. — Claressa Shields wanted to make history on Friday night on multiple levels. The first part, she handled before she even stepped in the ring, headlining an all-women’s pay-per-view card. The second, she took care of in the ring in a way similar to all of her fights before. Shields

8:49 PM ET FLINT, Mich. — After a year of waiting, Claressa Shields faces Marie-Eve Dicaire in the main event of an all-women’s pay-per-view event Friday night at the Dort Financial Center in Flint. This will be the first boxing pay-per-view in 20 years to be headlined by a women’s fight, and a limited crowd

12:29 PM ET WBO featherweight world titlist Emanuel Navarrete will make the first defense of his belt on Saturday, April 24, against former title challenger Christopher Diaz, in the main event of a Top Rank card on ESPN at the MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas, sources told ESPN on Thursday. Knockout artist Edgar

8:05 AM ET Michael Rothstein Close ESPN Staff Writer Previously covered University of Michigan for ESPN.com and AnnArbor.com Also covered Notre Dame for Fort Wayne Journal Gazette 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

1:09 PM ET The junior welterweight unification title bout between Jose Ramirez and Josh Taylor will take place May 22 at a venue to be determined in Las Vegas. Ramirez, the WBC and WBO champion, and Taylor, the IBF and WBA champion, had initially been planning to fight May 8, but the fight was moved

5:25 AM ET IN A YEAR when Claressa Shields bought a house, created an expansive home gym and successfully gained a larger social media following, the one thing she couldn’t do was what she wanted to do the most: fight. It had been a year of yo-yo fight planning — dates given and pulled back,

Feb 1, 2021 It wasn’t close on Saturday night, and as expected, Canelo Alvarez took care of WBC mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim to retain his titles. Immediately after the fight, Alvarez’s next fight was announced — a unification bout against Billy Joe Saunders. Will Alvarez achieve his goal of unifying the super middleweight division in

6:53 PM ET WBC and WBA super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez defends his belts against mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim in the main event of Saturday’s DAZN card at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami (DAZN, 7 p.m. ET). Alvarez (54-1-2, 36 KOs) unified the titles by defeating Callum Smith by unanimous decision in December. That was

12:32 AM ET Ben Baby Close ESPN Staff Writer ESPN Staff Writer Previously a college football writer for The Dallas Morning News University of North Texas graduate Michael Rothstein Close ESPN Staff Writer Previously covered University of Michigan for ESPN.com and AnnArbor.com Also covered Notre Dame for Fort Wayne Journal Gazette Another Canelo Alvarez fight,

11:18 PM ET From the opening bell Saturday night, Canelo Alvarez appeared destined for a knockout victory against mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim. Alvarez didn’t have to wait long for that. Yildirim’s corner threw in the towel at the end of the third round, as Alvarez picked up a technical knockout victory and retained his WBC

1:34 PM ET Former junior welterweight champion Regis Prograis will be featured on a unique boxing card. Prograis will face Ivan Redkach on the undercard of the Jake Paul-Ben Askren event on April 17 that will be produced by Triller, a source confirmed to ESPN on Saturday. The recent development comes on the heels of

7:37 AM ET The vast majority of the boxing world sees the outcome of Saturday’s super middleweight title defense by Canelo Alvarez in Miami a foregone conclusion. WBC mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim has lost both of his big step-up fights in his career and has been out of the ring for two years. Alvarez has

8:08 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 Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are close to agreeing a deal for their world heavyweight title unification fight, Fury’s co-promoter Frank Warren has told

12:41 PM ET Undefeated light heavyweight Gilberto Ramirez has signed a promotional deal with Golden Boy for multiple fights. The 29-year-old Ramirez (41-0, 27 KOs) had won the WBO super middleweight belt, but after five title defenses he decided to jump to light heavyweight, where he has won two fights. “They understood the goals and

7:36 AM ET On Saturday, Feb. 20, lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez went to Top Rank Promotions president Todd duBoef with a simple question: “Are we good?” It was an inquiry made during a difficult negotiation process surrounding Lopez’s mandatory IBF title defense against George Kambosos Jr. When Lopez asked the question, it appeared all parties