Ortiz topples Thompson, Vargas halts Ali

Unbeaten heavyweight Luis Ortiz (25-0, 22 KOs) stopped two-time world title challenger Tony Thompson (40-7, 27 KOs) in the 6th round on Saturday night at the DC Armory in Washington, D.C.
The 36-year-old Ortiz, nicknamed “The Real King Kong,” knocked down his opponent three times en route to a dominant knockout win.
Cuban-born Ortiz, now based in Miami, dropped Thompson with an overhand left in the first round and the American barely beat the count.
Ortiz connected with more hard, accurate…

Browne stops Chagaev to win WBA heavyweight title

Lucas Browne (24-0, 21 KOs) scored a 10th round stoppage aganist Ruslan Chagaev (34-3-1, 21 KOs) to win the WBA heavyweight title on Saturday night at the Colosseum Sport Hall in Grozny, Chechnya, Russia.
Browne got off the canvas in the sixth round to dethrone the defending champion from Uzbekistan, who was making the second defence in his second world title reign.
The taller Browne worked the jab from the outside in the early rounds but southpaw Chagaev soon started to land hard shots and…

Crawford finishes off Lundy in five

WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs) halted challenger Hank Lundy (26-6-1, 13 KOs) in the fifth round on Saturday night at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Crawford, who retained his WBO title for the second time, dropped fellow American Lundy with a right hand in round 5 before a series of hard shots forced referee Steve Willis to step in and stop the fight.
Lundy made a good start and landed a solid right hand to the head in the opening round, but…

Santa Cruz crushes Martinez to retain WBA featherweight title

WBA featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 KOs) stopped former IBF super bantamweight champion Kiko Martinez (35-7, 26 KOs) in the fifth round on Saturday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Mexican-born Santa Cruz dropped Martinez twice in first round, each time from right hands, but the Spaniard survived and came back with some punches of his own.
The two traded hard shots at close range throughout until the end came in the fifth when Santa Cruz backed Martinez to…

Frampton outpoints Quigg to win unification clash

Carl Frampton (22-0, 14 KOs) defeated previously unbeaten Scott Quigg (32-1-2, 23 KOs) by split decision to win their unification clash on Saturday night at the Manchester Arena.
Northern Irishman Frampton made the third defence of his IBF super bantamweight title and captured Quigg’s WBA belt after earning two scores of 116-112 from the judges, with the third scoring it 115-113 for Quigg.
The battle of unbeaten champions got off to a cautious start with neither fighter wanting to commit much…

Keith Thurman pulls out of Shawn Porter fight due to car accident

WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman  (26-0, 22 KOs) has been forced to postpone his fight with Shawn Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) on March 12 at the Mohegan Sun Casino Resort in Uncasville, Connecticut, after being injured in a car accident.
American Thurman was set to make his third title defence against countryman Porter, but suffered a neck injury as a result of a car accident last week and the bout has now been called off. Although it will be rescheduled for a later date.
According to…

Sturm edges out Chudinov in rematch to win world title

Former four-time world middleweight champion Felix Sturm (40-5-3, 18 KOs) defeated previously unbeaten Fedor Chudinov (14-1, 10 KOs) by majority decision in their rematch to win the WBA super middleweight title on Saturday night at the Koenig Pilsener Arena in Oberhausen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.
Two judges scored the bout 115-113 in favour of Sturm, while the third scored it a 114-114 draw.
Each man exchanged punches throughout in 12 evenly matched rounds.
The defending champion Chudinov…

Anthony Joshua to challenge IBF champion Charles Martin on April 9

Unbeaten British contender Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15 KOs) will challenge Charles Martin (23-0-1, 21 KOs) for the IBF heavyweight title on April 9 at the O2 Arena in London.
The undefeated American travels to England to make the first defence of the belt he won when he beat Vyacheslav Glazkov in January. It will be his first fight outside the United States.
Tyson Fury was stripped of the IBF title after he opted to fight Wladimir Klitschko, who he beat on points in November, rather than face the…

Roman Gonzalez to defend title against McWilliams Arroyo on Golovkin card

WBC flyweight champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (44-0, 38 KOs) will fight Puerto Rican challenger McWilliams Arroyo (16-2, 14 KOs) on the undercard of the Gennady Golovkin-Dominic Wade fight on April 23 at the Forum in Inglewood, California.
It will be the third straight time Gonzalez as appeared on the same card as Golovkin.
Each time the Nicaraguan fighter scored dominant wins. He demolished former WBC light flyweight champion  Edgar Sosa in the second round last May and then halted…

Timothy Bradley vacates WBO belt

Timothy Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) has vacated his WBO welterweight title.
The WBO ordered the American to defend his belt against mandatory challenger Sadam Ali, but Bradley instead opted to fight Manny Pacquiao for a third time and relinquish the title.
Ali will now face former WBA light welterweight champion Jessie Vargas for the vacant title on March 5.
Vargas previously challenged for the WBO belt, losing on points to Bradley last June.
Bradley and Pacquiao, who will fight on April 9 in a…