Category: Boxing

Luis Concepcion has failed to make weight for his WBA super-flyweight title defence against Britain’s Kal Yafai and has been stripped of the belt.
The Panamanian was 2.7 pounds over the 115-pound limit at Friday’s weigh-in.
Yafai, who came in at 117.7 pounds, has still opted to fight Concepcion and will be champion if he wins.
Yafai said: “This is all about me, not him. I am 100 per cent confident I will become a world champion.”
If Concepcion wins, the title will remain vacant.
The bout will…

Britain’s Lee Haskins has withdrawn from his IBF bantamweight title defence against Shohei Omori, set for 31 December in Kyoto, Japan, after injuring his leg in training.
Medical reports show he will be fit to resume training in early January.
Haskins said: “I am gutted to have to pull out of this fight, I was looking forward to the challenge of boxing in Japan and closing out 2016 with three title defences.
“I will rest up over Christmas and hopefully will be able to get back to training in…

Britain’s Billy Joe Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs) retained his WBO middleweight title with a points win over Artur Akavov (16-2, 7 KOs) on Saturday night at the Paisley Lagoon Centre in Glasgow, Scotland.
In his first title defence, Saunders won a unanimous decision by scores of 116-113, 116-112 and 115-113, but he was outworked for most of the fight and fortunate to keep the WBO belt.
Saunders has not been in action since winning the world title with a majority decision over Andy Lee last December,…

Murat Gassiev (24-0, 17 KOs) outpointed defending champion Denis Lebedev (29-3, 22 KOs) to win the IBF cruiserweight title on Saturday night at the MegaSport Arena in Moscow, Russia.
The Russian fighter won a 12-round split decision over countryman Lebedev, as the judges scored the bout 116-112, 116-111 for Gassiev, while the third had it 114-113 in favor of Lebedev.
Southpaw Lebedev was busier, but Gassiev landed the harder shots, dropping Lebedev with a body shot in the fifth and marking him…

WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (7-1, 4 KOs) retained his title with a TKO victory over previously unbeaten Nicholas Walters (26-1-1, 21 KOs) on Saturday night at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Lomachenko, who was making the first defence of the title he won by a fifth-round knockout over Roman “Rocky” Martinez in June, outboxed, outworked and outclassed the former WBA featherweight champion and Walters quit after seven rounds.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist connected…

WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (32-0, 13 KOs) scored a eighth round stoppage win over Puerto Rican challenger Orlando Cruz (25-5-1, 13 KOs) on Saturday night at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales.
The Manchester fighter dominated the action from the start as Cruz was in survival mode throughout.
Flanagan, who was making the fourth defence of the title, upped the pressure as the fight progressed and dropped his overmatched opponent twice in the eighth before referee Steve Gray…

WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (32-0, 13 KOs) scored a eighth round stoppage win over Puerto Rican challenger Orlando Cruz (25-5-1, 13 KOs) on Saturday night at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales.
The Manchester fighter dominated the action from the start as Cruz was in survival mode throughout.
Flanagan, who was making the fourth defence of the title, upped the pressure as the fight progressed and dropped his overmatched opponent twice in the eighth before referee Steve Gray…

Tony Bellew  (28-2-1, 18 KOs) and David Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) will fight in an all-British heavyweight clash on March 4 at the O2 Arena in London.
Following an ongoing war of words, Bellew jumped out of the ring and confronted Haye after defending his WBC cruiserweight title with a third-round knockout victory over BJ Flores in October.
Bellew, 33, captured the vacant WBC belt in May when he climbed off the canvas to stop Ilunga Makabu in three rounds, and the Liverpudlian will now make his…

British middleweight Billy Joe Saunders’ world title defence against Artur Akavov has been postponed by a week to December 3.
Saunders, who dethroned Ireland’s Andy Lee last December, had been due to make the first defence of his WBO middleweight title on Saturday night at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales, but the fight will now take place at the Lagoon Leisure Centre in Paisley, Scotland, a week later.
Problems with the translation of medical paperwork supplied by the Russian’s team have…

Australian heavyweight Lucas Browne (24-0, 21 KOs) has failed a drugs test for the second time in eight months.
The 37-year-old Browne, who was due to fight American Shannon Briggs for the vacant WBA heavyweight title before the end of the year, tested positive for the banned substance ostarine – which is used to aid muscle recovery – following a recent test in his native Australia by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association as part of the WBC’s Clean Boxing Program.
Browne won the WBA title in…