List of All Articles with Tag 'box'

The heavyweight division is a bad pantomime now with Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk, a chorus of fighters, a few promoters and some hefty backers all trying to work out what part of the dancing horse they are. Moving away from the ugly sisters, there is every chance that the gap between the last championship fight and the next will be the longest in over 50 years. This break is not common, ignore people telling you that. Fury defended his WBC title last December against his old, old friend, Dereck Chisora, and Usyk beat Anthony Joshua for the second time last August in Saudi Arabia to retain his IBF, WBA and WBO titles. Fury has no date, just social media plans, and Usyk is due to defend in Poland in late August against Daniel Dubois. It is hard to find a solitary reason for the break and even more difficult to put the blame on just one single person. There are a lot of people on the stage, and they all have a role to play. And to be honest, during the last six months they have all said too much. Sure, greed, rivalries, stupidity, lies and ego are at the very core of the problem, but boxing at the highest level has always had the same flaws, the same fluid obstacles. The standard excuses are there to overcome - that is how boxing works. Fury and Usyk for all the tarnished marbles was meant to have been signed and sealed last September. It was scheduled for April and is now a plan for December. Both boxers have insulted the other, and the theme of their mutual abuse is simple: greed. Obviously, both deny they are the greedy, money-grabbing party in the sad affair. Actually, the righteous outrage from both sides is comedy gold at times. Fury’s father, the unstoppable “Gypsy John” Fury, has demanded that Usyk apologise for his criticism. He has warned that if there is no apology, there might be a straightener in a field somewhere, man-to-man. There is honour at stake. It is endless mirth, it really is. c. Some of boxing’s wisest, richest and smartest brains have been involved in this ongoing lunacy. The men and women in the Fury camp blame Usyk, and the men and women in the Usyk camp blame Fury. The two main players in the Fury business, Bob Arum and Frank Warren, have a combined total of 98 years of promotion; they are both battling this madness. There is, according to some insiders, a one-off offer on the table from the government of Saudi Arabia for Fury and Usyk to fight there at the end of the year. Usyk has signed his deal. This offer is non-negotiable, and we know this because the media flown out to Saudi by the Saudi government have reported it as fact. As a guide to the way boxing works, there are seldom any facts involved when deals are being made, broken and made again. The real insiders are furious that Usyk and Fury, the biggest fight in boxing, is not yet across the line. The sanctioning bodies, who get paid a fee for fights, have promised to get tough with their heavyweight champions, but have not said a word or done a thing; everyone is holding out for a slice of the Saudi cash pie. ‘Hey, it’s a business,’ they will say, but that little claim is wearing very thin. Fury, meanwhile, has mentioned 10 possible opponents in his social media rants in the last few weeks, including a plan to fight two UFC icons in one night. Usyk and Dubois went to purse bids, which is one of boxing’s ancient rituals, and Usyk’s team won. The fight is scheduled for August. Looking in from the side of the crowded stage is Joshua. His fight with Fury was announced by Fury on 10 June, 2020; it would have been a fight for the ages, for all the belts and all the bragging rights. It never happened and it has come close a couple of times since then. Joshua, meanwhile, will fight in August and it might be Dillian Whyte. There is a rumour that Whyte wants too much for the fight; the flip side of that rumour is that Whyte was offered too little. In America, Deontay Wilder, twice beaten in classics by Fury, has not fought since last October. There is a plan, under the Saudi deal, for Wilder to fight Joshua in Saudi Arabia on the same night as Usyk and Fury fight. There is, so the paid publicists insist, a total purse of $400million on the table for the four boxers to split. It must be a strong table. There are bold plans right now for the deadlock to be broken soon and some concrete dates and fights to finally be announced. The traffic, as they say in the world of espionage, is heavy. Let’s hope for some fights – the old game needs the best heavyweights back in action and out of the back end of that horse suit. Click here to subscribe to The Independent’s Sport YouTube channel for all the latest sports videos. Read More Tyson Fury claims UFC has offered him ‘hybrid fight’ with Jon Jones Joe Rogan is right: Tyson Fury has ‘no chance in hell’ against Jon Jones Why has Saudi Arabia become big player in world sport and what does future hold? Tyson Fury claims UFC has offered him ‘hybrid fight’ with Jon Jones Tyson Fury promises ‘imminent’ announcement of ‘big fight’ Joe Joyce on knockouts, oil painting, and teaching 60-year-olds to swim

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Tyson Fury has claimed that the UFC has offered him a ‘hybrid fight’ with Jon Jones. WBC heavyweight boxing champion Fury has been linked with Jones, who holds the UFC heavyweight title, in recent weeks, since claiming that he would win a fight with the American. Fury, 34, has also long been linked with Francis Ngannou – Jones’s predecessor as UFC heavyweight champion – and the Briton has now addressed the chances of either bout materialising. “I’ve been in talks with Francis Ngannou for a hybrid fight,” Fury said on a Twitter Spaces stream on Friday (16 June). “There’s talks of me and Jon Jones doing a hybrid fight, as we talk right now. I received an offer from the UFC yesterday. “So, you never know what’s going to happen. The future’s bright for sure, and there’s a lot of options out there. “It seems, at the moment, I’m struggling to get an actual boxing opponent. Mauricio Sulaiman, the president of the WBC (World Boxing Council), did an interview on a podcast recently, and he said: ‘Tyson’s a victim of his own success. He’s that good, people don’t want to fight him. They’d rather fight someone else.’ “That’s what I’m experiencing right now. I think I’ve called out everybody in the top 15 in the heavyweight division in the last six months, and I’m still without an opponent, as we speak today.” Fury last fought in December, retaining the WBC heavyweight title with a TKO win against Derek Chisora, whom he had already beaten twice in the past. The “Gypsy King” was then in talks to fight unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, but negotiations fell apart in March. Meanwhile, Jones last fought in March, returning to the UFC after a three-year absence to move up a weight class and fight for the vacant heavyweight belt. The 35-year-old submitted Ciryl Gane in the first round to claim the gold. Jones is a former multiple-time light-heavyweight champion in the UFC, and he is seen by many fans and pundits as the greatest fighter in mixed martial arts history. Click here to subscribe to The Independent’s Sport YouTube channel for all the latest sports videos. Read More Joe Rogan is right: Tyson Fury has ‘no chance in hell’ against Jon Jones Conor McGregor denies allegation he sexually assaulted a woman at NBA Finals Nate Diaz ‘looked like he was dying’ in training for Jake Paul fight, sparring partner says UFC fan favourite Max Holloway to return with ‘Korean Zombie’ fight in Singapore

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Chris Eubank has opened up on his split from his son’s team, claiming that Chris Eubank Jr ‘has never listened’. A rift emerged between Eubank and his son in October, ahead of a planned fight between Eubank Jr and Conor Benn – a bout that collapsed after the revelation that Benn had failed two drug tests. Eubank Jr went on to lose to Liam Smith via fourth-round TKO in January, with the pair’s scheduled rematch then falling through due to an injury sustained by Smith. As such, Eubank Jr, 33, is currently without a fight. Addressing the current state of Eubank Jr’s career, his father – a British boxing icon – told Talksport on Tuesday (13 June): “David Haye called me the other day and said [Eubank Jr] doesn’t spar, he does everything that he wants to do, he’s got ‘yes men’ around him. “And so it seems to me, by what David Haye tells me, that he’s still not listening. If you won’t listen, then life will teach you what it taught many of the other fighters. It is arrogance when you shut your ears, and what arrogance gets you is what it got him in his last fight. “The calibre of Liam Smith does not beat Chris Eubank Jr on my watch. Junior on my watch is not supposed to lose to Liam Smith; on the watch of these PE teachers anything can happen, and anything did. He has never listened. “My son could have been a tremendous fighter, he electrified me when watching him, but he hasn’t because he doesn’t listen, and if you don’t listen then you have to feel. The truth will set you free. I did not go missing, he sent me away, you gave me the ability to go away and live my own life. Of course I will accept anything he asks me, but you have to have the humility to ask. Dad is no longer chasing you.” Addressing a past comment made by Simon Jordan, in which the Talksport host labelled Eubank Jr a ‘charlatan’, Eubank Sr said: “In the world of honesty, how can I disagree with you? I guess my silence says it all. Truth is truth.” Discussing the role he played in helping his son secure significant paydays, Eubank, 56, added: “Without me, you can’t make the money that he’s made. “There were three fights he had [...] with fighters who were like [Avni] Yildirim; $9 million, I got him that. He can’t make that kind of money without someone like me, they’re paying these guys $60,000 a fight.” Click here to subscribe to The Independent’s Sport YouTube channel for all the latest sports videos. Read More Chris Eubank Jr and Liam Smith rematch postponed for second time Josh Taylor plunged into the unknown as Teofimo Lopez earns redemptive win Dmitry Bivol hits out at ‘unfair’ WBC ban on Russian boxers

Dmitry Bivol has labelled the World Boxing Council’s ban on Russian boxers ‘unfair’, as he looks ahead to his next fight. The Kyrgyzstani-born Russian holds the WBA light-heavyweight title and has been linked with a bout against Artur Beterbiev, who holds the WBC, WBO and IBF belts. Russian-born Beterbiev represented his country of birth until last year, when he opted to represent Canada – where he has lived for 16 years – amid sporting sanctions relating to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Among those sanctions was a decision by the World Boxing Council (WBC) not to recognise Russian and Belarusian fighters, including champions. That decision also precludes Bivol, 32, from fighting Beterbiev, 38, in a unification bout at light-heavyweight, despite strong demand from fans. “Of course it’s not fair,” Bivol told Seconds Out on Monday (12 June). “How could [someone] say, ‘I am the champion of the world,’ if somebody from some country couldn’t fight for your belt? But this guy could be better than you. “It’s not fair. And this guy is just training, spending his time in the gym, and he’s not allowed to fight. He’s the same [as] you, he’s just living in a different apartment in a different place, but he’s working the same [as] you. “He’s training, he’s fighting, his mentality is similar, but why is he not allowed to fight? It’s not fair.” Bivol last fought in November, comprehensively outpointing Gilberto Ramirez to retain the WBA light-heavyweight title, which he also retained in his previous fight, against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in May 2022. Meanwhile, Beterbiev most recently fought in January, stopping Anthony Yarde in the eighth round. He is next due to box in August, defending his titles against another Briton, Callum Smith. Click here to subscribe to The Independent’s Sport YouTube channel for all the latest sports videos. Read More Teofimo Lopez and his father share emotional exchange during Josh Taylor fight Josh Taylor says move up to welterweight is ‘imminent’ after first career defeat Jake Paul agrees to 10 rounds in Nate Diaz fight