The Boxing Truth®

It seems the recent story surrounding both the 135lb. Lightweight and 140lb. Jr. Welterweight division can be summed up in a single word “Transition." In that both weight classes are seeking their next central figures or dominant champions, who are often viewed as being fighters that will carry the division for a significant period of time. One such fighter, who is likely viewed by at least some as the top Jr. Welterweight for the moment is WBO Jr. Welterweight world champion Teofimo Lopez. A fighter who once briefly resigned as the Undisputed Lightweight champion of the world, Lopez is in the midst of what should be viewed as chapter two of his professional career following losing the Lightweight crown to George Kambosos in November 2021. The ongoing chapter that saw a relatively quick turnaround that saw him rebuild in the Jr. Welterweight division to become a world champion once again in 2023 and saw him make his first successful title defense in February against Edwin De Los S...

The first major Women’s world championship bout of 2024 will take place on Saturday, January 20th as two-division world champion Natasha Jonas will make the first defense of her IBF World Welterweight championship against former Unified Jr. Lightweight world champion  Mikaela Mayer in Liverpool, England at the Echo Arena. A fight that can be seen here in the United States on digital subscription sports streaming network ESPN+ . Jonas and Mayer are not only two of the best female boxers in the entire sport, but in a wider context, this bout follows what was a significant year of progress for Women’s Boxing and the bout between the two should continue that momentum. Natasha Jonas has won world championships in the Jr. Middleweight and Welterweight divisions and will come into this fight off of winning the IBF Welterweight world championship in her last outing in July of last year with an eighth round stoppage of Kandi Wyatt in Manchester, England. Although Jonas has now moved down in...

  The fight between Welterweight world champions Errol Spence and Yordenis Ugas on the surface was a unification of three of five recognized world championships in the illustrious 147lb. Welterweight division. Like most “Big” fights, it also had several storylines that accompanied the bout. Such as what the condition on Errol Spence’s left eye would be after suffering a detached retina. Could Yordenis Ugas, who was coming off a career-defining victory over Manny Pacquiao in his first defense his world championship, a victory which came as a result of replacing Spence on short notice, further cement his claim as a world champion by going on to defeat Spence as well. Would the winner of this fight be moved toward a showdown with undefeated WBO Welterweight world champion Terence Crawford for what would be an Undisputed world championship bout?   Such intriguing questions would in part be answered when the two world champions met on April 16 th at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, TX ...

  In an era where there are interim/regular championship designations in Boxing’s respective sanctioning organizations and sometimes those fighters who hold such designations get an opportunity to fight for a different world championship than the one shot they have earned due to the politics that be in the sport, it can at times be confusing to determine who the actual world champions are. Particularly when such scenarios occur, it is not uncommon to see such fights between a top contender/interim/regular “Champion” and a world champion from a different organization actually promoted as a unification bout.   While such scenarios are not in fact world title unification fights and are more or less used as a sales hook to draw in those who may not be as familiar with the structure of rankings in Boxing, it can unfortunately take away from those occasions when there is a legitimate unification bout taking place in the sport. Longtime readers know this observer’s stance on interim/...