The Boxing Truth®

  The time has come once again where this observer shares his “Boxing Wishlist” for the coming year. Unlike previous years where this annual feature here on The Boxing Truth® has usually begins the schedule at the beginning of a year, for 2022 that was not the case. This was due to the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) group of promoters staging cards on Christmas night and a pay-per-view card on New Year’s Day. While this column has been written in advance of those cards and will be released after both cards have taken place that will be the subject of a feature next week here on The Boxing Truth®, in a coincidence, it leads to the first item on the 2022 “Boxing Wishlist.”  To see promoters that have relied on the pay-per-view model finally embrace the benefits of the subscription-based streaming model that has gradually populated much of the Boxing broadcast coverage throughout the sport over the last three years thanks largely to the success of digital sports streaming networ...

    It has been announced that due to COVID-19’s latest omicron variant that has been spreading throughout the world that the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) has suspended all Boxing cards throughout the month of January throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. What this does mean is the scheduled January 29 th card featuring a Women’s World Middleweight championship bout between undefeated world champion Claressa Shields and Ema Kozin, as well as a Middleweight bout between former IBO Super-Middleweight world champion Chris Eubank Jr. and Liam Williams that was one of the marquee events on the schedule for January 2022, which was due to co-headline a pay-per-view event here in the United States from Cardiff, Wales, that was already rescheduled from it’s original December 11 th date, has been postponed again. As of this writing, there is no word on whether the card will be attempted to be rescheduled beyond the BBBofC’s January pause.     This however, d...

  It has been announced that due to the ongoing global COVID-19 epidemic the scheduled December 29 th Middleweight world championship unification bout between IBF/IBO Middleweight world champion Gennady Golovkin and WBA Middleweight world champion, which was scheduled to take place at the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo, Japan has been postponed. The postponement of the bout, which is due to be broadcast globally by digital subscription sports streaming network DAZN comes as a result of the Japanese government imposing travel restrictions to the country due to the recently discovered Omnicron variant of the COVID-19 virus.   As of this writing, there is no word on a rescheduled date or a potential change in venue for the bout once rescheduled.   We will keep readers updated on developments as they become available. Stay tuned.   “And That’s The Boxing Truth.”   The Boxing Truth® is a registered trademark of Beau Denison All Rights Reserved.   ...

  The first time this observer saw the word “FINALLY!” in relation to the promotion of a Boxing event it was prior to my covering the first encounter between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield as a young writer, who was honestly just starting to get his feet wet in regard to not only the practice of being a writer, but also covering combat sports when the fight took place with much anticipation in November 1996. Of course, the term “FINALLY!” in all the promotion that surrounded the fight was due to the fact that the fight, which was originally scheduled to take place in June of 1992, but was cancelled due to a Tyson conviction that resulted in a three year jail sentence and the fighters subsequently taking different paths in those years including when Tyson resumed his career in 1995, was finally going to become a reality.   There are times however, where the phrase “FINALLY” can and perhaps should be used if not to describe the anticipation of an encounter, than certainly to d...

  The recent career of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has been marked by a very public split from his longtime promoter Oscar De La Hoya outside of the ring as well as his becoming essentially a free agent while continuing to maintain a relationship with global digital subscription sports streaming network DAZN . Inside the ring however, the last year of Alvarez’ career has seen more frequent activity as well as establishing a working relationship with promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing. A relationship that has seen Alvarez fight three times in under a year in the process winning and successfully unifying three of five Super-Middleweight world championships.  While some may not see a fighter fighting three times in one year as being overly significant, it is extremely rare both due to a fighter like Alvarez’ position as an elite level boxer, but also due to the financial incentives that a fighter like Alvarez can earn on a per fight basis to see a fighter in his position compete ...

A quote that this observer has referenced often over the years in regard to unexpected things occurring is one that came from the Hall of Fame trainer and former fighter Freddie Roach who in the prelude to Manny Pacquiao’s victory over Oscar De La Hoya in December 2008 said as many felt that his fighter Pacquiao had bitten off more than he could chew by jumping up significantly in weight to face the bigger and theoretically stronger De La Hoya “If there were no upsets in the world, the world would be boring.” As many know, Pacquiao went on to score a dominant victory over De La Hoya in which he forced him to quit on his stool and into retirement. Truly one of the milestones in Pacquiao’s legendary career. Of course, upsets are not something that is exclusive to the sport of Boxing, but is something that occurs throughout all of sport. Recently, this was proven in Baseball where in the divisional round of the American League playoffs, the Boston Red Sox, a team that got into the divisio...

  CREDIT: Dragon Fire Boxing  Unbeaten Heavyweight Dylan Winter scored a brutal fourth round knockout over Ryan Williams to win the Western Australian State Heavyweight championship on Friday night at Metro City Nightclub in Perth, Australia. In what was the main event of promoter Tony Tolj’s Dragon Fire Boxing’s Thunderdome 36 event saw the two fighters engage in what could be described as a brawl early. For a period of time, Williams was landing hard right hands over a jab on Winter. As Winter began to get his own jab going however, the momentum shifted and he was able to gradually accumulate punishment on Williams, the end came when in the midst of a barrage of punches, Winter decked Williams with a flush left hook to the head that sent him flat on his back on the canvas. Although Williams was very “Game” in trying to get up from a knockdown that frankly would have ended the night for most fighters on the receiving end of that kind of punch, he staggered badly once he got t...

    Press Release: September 25, 2021 By Dragon Fire Boxing /Story By Chris Glover – Tony Tolj has experienced likely every challenge that global travelling has during the last two years, with his charges Andrew and Jason Moloney signing with global boxing leaders Top Rank just prior to the beginning of the COVID-19 Global Pandemic.  Credit: Mikey Williams/Top Rank Boxing The Moloney's have travelled back and forth to the USA for camps, culminating in fights with Joshua Franco, Josh Greer and the arguable pound for pound King Naoya Inoue. With Tolj based in Western Australia, and the Moloney's on Australia's Gold Coast, it hasn't been the easiest of tasks  Tolj discussed some of the issues he's faced over the last two years. He said, "I've spent a total of just under 6 months in quarantine since the pandemic commenced. Human beings are social creatures, so keeping them locked up isn't good for their mental and physical health in general. The hardest...

  There are some stories in Boxing that are go hand and hand with the sport. One of the most common is the story of a former world champion continuing on with their career in search of another opportunity at a world championship. Former IBF Jr. Middleweight world champion Carlos Molina is one such tale of a former champion that has continued on in hopes of getting another opportunity at a world title. Some may recall Molina winning the IBF crown from Cory Spinks in February 2013 in winning a twelve round unanimous decision to take the title from the former two-division world champion. After a successful title defense over former world champion Ishe Smith later that year, Molina lost his crown to Cornelius Bundrage in October 2014. Since then, Molina’s career inside the ring has seen the ups and downs that many fighters experience over the course of a long career. Along the way, Molina has taken a route that some boxers have in choosing to take a true entrepreneurial approach to h...

It would not be appropriate for this observer not to begin this column without being honest with the reader when I say that I took several days to write this column. Not in the sense that I have been grinding away in the writing process, a process that all writers regardless of genre truly appreciate whether all of us will admit it or not, but in the sense that I needed time to compose myself mentally due to feeling something I have not felt in the two and a half decades that I have been writing about and covering Boxing in addition to other combat sports. The feeling of absolute utter disgust and embarrassment for the sport that I have loved since I was a little kid. A feeling that hit me when I watched the recent pay-per-view event promoted by Triller headlined by an eight round Heavyweight bout between two-division world champion and Boxing Hall of Famer Evander Holyfield and former UFC world champion Vitor Belfort. An event and bout that left not only the feelings I have described,...