The Boxing Truth®

The start of 2024 in the world of Boxing on January 6th saw the return of undefeated former Welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz. Ortiz, who after scoring nineteen consecutive knockouts to start his career and seemed to be on the brink of challenging for a world championship, saw his career come to a halt due to a series of health problems including COVID-19 and dehydration, which stalled his return resulting in scheduled bouts being cancelled. After seventeen months out of action, Ortiz finally did return to the ring, this time as a Jr. Middleweight to face veteran Fredrick Lawson at the Virgin Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. The story going into this fight was a simple one. How would Ortiz look after dealing with those health issues, but also returning in a higher weight class. In Frederick Lawson, Ortiz faced a one time contender as a Welterweight, who came into the fight with a record of 30-3, with 22 Knockouts. Lawson also had an advantage over Ortiz in terms of activity and came into the ...

  Perhaps the biggest story in Boxing in 2022 came in the month of May when undefeated WBA Light-Heavyweight world champion Dmitry Bivol scored a dominant twelve round unanimous decision over current Undisputed Super-Middleweight world champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to retain his WBA crown. While Bivol was naturally bigger and stronger than Alvarez and has a difficult Boxing style that has proven difficult for opponents to combat, much less solve, most viewed his victory over Alvarez as “An Upset.” This view, which is not shared by this observer, is based largely on the fact that Alvarez is one of the sport’s biggest stars and the expectation of many was that he would defeat Bivol, a fighter not well-known to casual fans on what was his quest to begin the process of trying to fully unify a second division after what he had accomplished in fully unifying the 168lb. Super-Middleweight division. While Boxing is truly the theater of the unexpected, Bivol did go against the script that ...

  After a lengthy absence from in ring competition, the career of former three-time Light-Heavyweight world champion Sergey Kovalev resumed at The Forum in Inglewood, CA on May 14 th . While the thirty-nine year old former world champion is not a stranger to the process one goes through following a defeat, this time it was a little different for Kovalev. Not only was Kovalev coming off of a two and a half year layoff following his knockout loss at the hands of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in November 2019, but for the first time in his career, Kovalev would not be competing as a 175lb. Light-Heavyweight. A division where he has been the cornerstone for much of the last decade. After a career spent in the Light-Heavyweight division, Kovalev chose to move up in weight to the 190lb.-200lb. Cruiserweight division to face undefeated contender Tervel Pulev in a scheduled ten round bout. The primary question that I had going into this fight was what did Sergey Kovalev have left to give as a ...

  One of the most common storylines that is associated with the sport of Boxing and by extension all combat sports that most can identify with is one of a former world champion trying to re-emerge into competition after a lengthy absence. A storyline is most commonly known as “A Comeback.”     While there are certainly no shortage of comeback stories that range from highly successful to at times tragic in the sense of the outcome of a planned return, each comeback story has its own unique circumstances. In the case of former three-time World Light-Heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev, his career has seen several highs and lows that often come with a long career in the sport. In his last bout in November2019, Kovalev's third reign as a Light-Heavyweight world champion came to an end when he was knocked out by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for the WBO world championship in eleven rounds. Since then, Kovalev has been inactive due in part to testing positive for banned substances...

 The month of May in the sport of Boxing will kick off with the return of Undisputed Super-Middleweight world champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez as he will return to seek a second world championship in the 175lb. Light-Heavyweight division as he will face undefeated WBA world champion Dmitry Bivol on Saturday, May 7 th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV. A bout that can be seen on digital subscription-based sports streaming network DAZN globally, but will be offered by DAZN on a pay-per-view basis in North America.   As much as this observer wants to simply discuss what is an interesting fight that has implications that may play out later this year for Alvarez, it would be outright dishonest of me to say that this fight has not been overshadowed to a degree by the network’s decision to use this fight to test a pay-per-view model that DAZN has proven over the past four years since it’s inception here in the United States to be of a better value than the model, which yours...

  In uncertain times as we all are experiencing due to the ongoing global COVID-19 epidemic, there are circumstances which unfortunately get in the way of scheduled plans. Such was the case in February when the battle for the vacant WBO Light-Heavyweight world championship between top Light-Heavyweight contenders Joe Smith Jr. and Maxim Vlasov was postponed days before it was to take place due to  Vlasov testing positive for the COVID-19 virus.  Now, two months later, the bout has been rescheduled. For the first time here at The Boxing Truth®️ due to the unique circumstances of the initial postponement, we will provide readers with a re-release of the preview that was released back in February prior to the postponement as written by Beau Denison. Aspects of the preview such as the change in venue as well as legal broadcast information have been updated to provide the reader with the most accurate information as possible. The preview will begin below.   Much of the la...