ESPN columnist Mike Coppinger reported that the former two-time WBA middleweight champion, 2012 Olympic gold medal winner Ryota Murata decided to hang up his gloves and end his professional career. The 37-year-old fighter, a big star in his native Japan, last competed last April when he lost Gennady Golovkin in the unification match in Saitama.
The World Boxing Council made a decision regarding the undefeated welterweight boxer Conor Benna. Last October, Benn was scheduled to fight Chris Eubank Jr. in intermediate weight. Their fight was canceled less than a week before the event when it was revealed that Benn had tested positive for doping. Later, Benn himself said that in an earlier test, he also passed a positive result for the same banned substance.
After a successful last year Dmitry Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) is looking for new challenges. Eddie Hearn, a promoter who is interested in the Russian, said he was in preliminary talks to fully unify the light heavyweight titles.
Caleb Plant (22-1, 13 KOs) before the fight with David Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) decided to raise the trash talk to an unprecedented level in professional boxing and bought the Internet domain davidbenavidez.com.
Liam Smith (33-3-1, 20 KOs) named official contender for the WBO middleweight title held by Zhanibek Alimkhanuly (13-0, 8 KOs). Representatives of the boxers have until March 14 to agree on this fight. The promotional auction date will be set later.
Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) will return to the ring on June 17 in Houston. Thus, the WBC world middleweight champion will break an almost two-year period of inactivity in boxing.
WBO light welterweight title holder Josh Taylor said he thought Vasily Lomachenko favorite in the upcoming confrontation with the absolute world champion in the lightweight division Devin Haney.
Jake Paul on the eve of the fight on February 26 in Saudi Arabia against Tommy Fury spoke about what, in his opinion, made the Briton agree to this fight. "The money was good, so he had to," Jake Paul told BT Sport.
Saul Alvarez (58-2-2, 39 KOs) confirmed that he will fight next in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he will defend the WBA, WBO, IBF and WBC super middleweight belts.
World heavyweight champion according to WBO, IBF, WBA Oleksandr Usyk told about what he rethought after the start of a full-scale war with Russia.
