The Boxing Truth®

Initially, this column was intended to be a post-feature covering two Heavyweight bouts taking place on April 25th taking place in two different countries. As some might know, however, the scheduled bout between former WBO World Cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie and Tony Yoka , which was to take place in Paris, France, was cancelled in the days prior to the bout due to Okolie having been found to have tested positive for what was described as an “ Adverse Finding " in randomized prefight testing conducted by the Voluntary Anti-doping Agency (VADA).  With that fight being cancelled the focus shifted to Las Vegas, NV where Heavyweight contender Jarrell Miller met undefeated contender Lenier Pero in a twelve round WBA Heavyweight elimination bout at the Fontainebleau Hotel and Casino . It can be viewed as the most unintentional of coincidences that one fight that depending on one's perspective, which would have gotten significant attention, was cancelled due to a fighter ...

April 11, 2026 marked the beginning of a new chapter for former two-time World Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury . Following another in a series of sabbaticals away from the sport of Boxing, this one following suffering his only two career defeats in consecutive fights to Oleksandr Usyk , this chapter at the age of thirty-seven was the start of a comeback. Fury’s opponent for his first fight in nearly two years was contender Arslanbek Makhmudov in London's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium .  Makhmudov, a veteran of twenty-three professional fights coming into this encounter, had the size and punching power that on paper appeared as though he may have been able to pose a legitimate challenge to Fury, and was not a soft touch for a “Comeback Fight.” Initially, Makhmudov seemed as though he would provide just that by frequently and aggressively pushing Fury back against the ropes and frailing wide, looping punches. Although it needs to be pointed out that Tyson Fury has not been known as a tr...

  Following his second loss to World Heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in December 2024, former two-time World Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury chose to close the book on his Boxing career. While it was not the first time Fury had announced a retirement from competition as he has been open with his struggles with mental health throughout his career and notably took a lengthy retirement after defeating Wladimir Klitschko for his first world championship in 2015, this retirement seemed to have a little more validity in the sense that it was not something that even the most cynical of Boxing fan or those of us who cover the sport could say that Fury would be back. After all, not only had a decade nearly passed from when he previously stepped away from the sport, but since he returned in 2018, he had taken part in several grueling battles over the years including three brutal fights with Deontay Wilder over the WBC version of the World Heavyweight championship. Boxers like the res...

In a follow-up to the column that was released on the website on Sunday, March 1st , discussing the recently announced upcoming World Heavyweight championship bout between Olekaandr Usyk and former World Heavyweight Kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven , which will take place during the month of May in Egypt , the World Boxing Council ( WBC ) released an official statement on it's website and social media platforms regarding its decision to sanction the bout for it's version of the World Heavyweight championship, despite Verhoeven only having one professional fight as a professional boxer. The statement can be read below: Credit: World Boxing Council  We will have a preview of this World Heavyweight championship bout released here on The Boxing Truth® as we get closer to the event and will keep readers updated on further developments as they become available. The Boxing Truth® is a registered trademark of Beau Denison All Rights Reserved.  Follow Beau Denison on the follo...

Credit: DAZN In the summer of last year, future Hall of Famer Oleksandr Usyk further cemented his legacy by becoming the first man in Boxing history to have fully unified the Undisputed World Heavyweight championship twice, adding a third undisputed crown to his extensive list of accomplishments following previously unifying the Cruiserweight division before setting his sights on the Heavyweight division. As record-setting and ground breaking as Usyk’s second unification of the World Heavyweight championship was, it came as a result of the politics that be in the sport of Boxing ensuring a short first reign by not allowing him to maintain the undisputed crown while fulfilling his contractually mandated obligation to give Tyson Fury , the man he defeated for his first undisputed crown at Heavyweight, an immediate rematch. Unfortunately for Usyk, his second undisputed championship at Heavyweight would have a similar outcome as the first as shortly after he reclaimed the IBF world cham...

In May of this year on the undercard of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez successfully becoming an Undisputed Super-Middleweight world champion for a second time with a convincing twelve round unanimous decision over previously unbeaten IBF world champion William Scull in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia , two-division world champion Badou Jack did battle with  WBC World Cruiserweight world champion Norair Mikaeljan with the WBC Cruiserweight crown at stake. A close and competitive fight throughout where the champion Mikaeljan was the busier of the two fighters, but Jack in the view of most observers landed the harder punches. Despite a wide advantage for the champion in terms of CompuBox statistics in out landing Jack in total landed punches 153 to 122 over the course of the twelve round world title bout, it would be Jack who would emerge victorious via a razor-thin majority decision, making him a two-time holder of the WBC World Cruiserweight championship after briefly holding it only to vacate it ...

Below in the following screenshots released on its website and social media platforms is a statement released by the World Boxing Organization (WBO) and it's current president Gustavo Olivieri regarding the decision of now former two-time Undisputed World Heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk to vacate its version of the World Heavyweight championship as of Monday, November 17th. Credit: WBO Credit:WBO Credit:WBO As previously reported here on The Boxing Truth®️ per Sky Sports in the United Kingdom, with Usyk now having vacated the WBO world title in the Heavyweight division, per WBO rules , which is a standard throughout the entire sport regardless of sanctioning organization, Fabio Wardley , who was the undefeated mandatory challenger for Usyk in the WBO Heavyweight rankings, and held interim championship status as a result, following his stoppage of previous number one contender and former WBO world champion Joseph Parker on October 25th in...

According to Sky Sports in the United Kingdom, Oleksandr Usyk the undefeated two-time Undisputed Heavyweight champion of the world, and one time former Undisputed Cruiserweight world champion has chosen to relinquish the WBO World Heavyweight championship . Not only does this mean that Usyk is once again no longer an undisputed world champion in the Heavyweight division after successfully fully unifying it for a second time earlier this year with a knockout win in his rematch with Daniel Dubois , after having a similar situation occur after he successfully unified the division the first time in his first fight with Tyson Fury in 2023, when Dubois was a mandatory challenger in the IBF Heavyweight ratings , after previously being stopped by Usyk prior to Usyk’s first of two bouts with Fury, but it also now elevates undefeated number one mandatory challenger Fabio Wardley , who Usyk had been mandated to fight by the WBO as its latest mandatory challenger, to now WBO World Heavyweight c...

The Heavyweight encounter between former WBO World Heavyweight champion Joseph Parker and undefeated top contender Fabio Wardley on June 25th at the O2 Arena in London, England was one that could and frankly should have repercussions for the talent-deep Heavyweight division going into 2026. Not only was it a rarity in that two number one contenders in two separate world sanctioning organizations,  chose to risk their respective standings against each other rather than sit and wait for a title shot to come to them, but stylistically, it provided the dynamic of a boxer/puncher in Parker, who has been at or near the top of the division for more than a decade going against a “ Knockout Artist ” in Wardley.  It was also a fight that came following a significant scare for Wardley in his previous outing against previously unbeaten Justis Huni earlier this year in a fight where Wardley was trailing on all three scorecards before dropping Huni late in the tenth round to score a d...

Originally, this column was intended and scheduled to preview two separate pay-per-view main events scheduled to take place on Saturday, October 25th. As some Boxing fans know, what was intended has obviously had to change due to the cancellation of the scheduled WBC World Jr. Middleweight championship bout between champion Sebastian Fundora and former World Welterweight champion Keith Thurman , which was due to headline a pay-per-view card promoted by the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) group of promoters and streamed through digital streaming entertainment and subscription platform Prime Video , being cancelled due to a hand contusion suffered by Fundora while in training for the bout. While as of this writing, the plan appears for that bout to be rescheduled as soon as possible, there remains one pay-per-view main event to take place on October 25th that will now be the sole subject of this writing, which could and should have ramifications the the Heavyweight division moving into 2...