Fightful Boxing Newsletter (8/3): Mayweather-McGregor Latest, Wladimir Klitschko, Broner vs. Garcia Review, Pernell Whitaker vs. Oscar De La Hoya Retrospective

Now that August has appeared, attention to the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor fight will soon reach a fever pitch. In the past week, we have been slowly learning what the undercard has been shaping up to be, but there is still no formal announcement. We do have an idea of what the co-main event will be, Gervonta Davis vs. Roman “Rocky” Martinez for the IBF’s 130-pound title, but after that, not a whole lot has been leaked out there.

Mikey Garcia cemented his status as a top pound-for-pound boxing star with his victory over Adrien Broner. The entire Barclays Center card, was filled with several top boxers but none of the fights were memorable in the sense that they were competitive. That certainly did not stop the venue and Showtime, who broadcasted the fight card, from reaping the benefits of the card, which did not feature any world title matches.

In a bonus addition to this week’s newsletter, we take look at the great career of Wladimir Klitschko, who had announced his retirement, just hours into the morning of August 3.

A pair of Japanese boxing greats in Takashi Miura and Takashi Uchiyama retire from the sport, the first Fightful Boxing Retrospective where I take a look at the Pernell Whitaker vs. Oscar De La Hoya fight from 1997 and more are covered in this week’s edition of the Fightful Boxing Newsletter.

Fightful Boxing Newsletter (8/3) Table of Contents:

1. The Latest in Mayweather vs. McGregor (Page 2)
2. Takashi Miura and Takashi Uchiyama retire (Page 3)
3. Adrien Broner vs. Mikey Garcia review (Page 4)
4. Results from the world of boxing (Page 5)
5. Official Fightful Rankings (Page 6-7)
6. Other news in boxing (Page 8)
7. Fightful Boxing Retrospective: Pernell Whitaker vs. Oscar De La Hoya (Page 9)
8. Wladimir Klitschko announces his retirement from boxing (Page 10)

The Latest in Mayweather vs. McGregor:

With less than four weeks away from potentially the biggest boxing pay-per-view in history, there is still no announcement as to what the full undercard looks like.

Showtime Sports Executive VP Stephen Espinoza addressed media at the Barclays Center during the first few fights on the Adrien Broner vs. Mikey Garcia undercard.

One of the biggest questions for the undercard is who IBF junior lightweight champion Gervonta Davis will fight. Sources told Fightful that Davis will most likely fight former world champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez and will serve as the co-main event of the pay-per-view card. The fight will be Davis’ second title defense after winning the title back in January and defending it in May.

Espinoza said Davis knows who he is fighting, but the announcement has yet to be made. Despite an announcement coming so close into the fight, Davis had known who he is for a while now and has been in training camp for several weeks now.

“The undercard is set. Davis knows who he is fighting. We would have made the announcement earlier in the week, but we didn’t want to take away the much-deserved attention of Broner vs. Garcia. We’ll make an announcement next week,” Espinoza said.

Davis, who was with Espinoza and Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe at the Barclays Center, denied any possible rumors about him fighting Tevin Farmer, who is riding an 18-fight win streak and is No. 5 on the IBF’s official junior lightweight rankings. Farmer was ordered to fight in a title eliminator, but his injury sustained in an incident in which he got shot in the hand will prevent the fight from happening. Fortunately for him, promoter Lou DiBella said Farmer is expected to make a full recovery and that he could even return to the ring before the year ends.

Another rumored fight is former super middleweight world champion Badou Jack making his light heavyweight debut. Jack was linked to a possible title fight with WBA “regular” light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly but the WBA recently ordered Cleverly and interim titleholder Dmitry Bivol to fight, almost putting any Cleverly vs. Jack rumors to rest.

Martinez is 1-1-1 in his last three fights and hasn’t won since 2015 when he defeated Orlando Salido to win the WBO junior lightweight title. Martinez had a split draw against Salido in the ensuing rematch and then Martinez lost the title to Vasyl Lomachenko.

Now some may wonder why on Earth someone like Martinez is getting a world title shot at this stage and someone more deserving. The mentality from Mayweather Promotions is that Martinez is a former world champion whose only pro losses came against Mikey Garcia, Vasyl Lomachenko and Ricky Burns, a fact that can be promoted well into Davis’ favor. Martinez does not have a lot of momentum in his career right now and is his late 30s.

Mayweather Promotions doesn’t want to give Davis major names like Lomachenko, because there is no need to rush him into the spotlight in this manner. Davis is only 22 years old and has plenty of time to fight the best in his division. Te important thing is to raise his profile more so that he can be a potential pay-per-view star for when the time comes for Davis to unify titles or even challenge for a world title at a higher weight class. Under Mayweather’s tutelage, Davis is being groomed to be Mayweather’s Promotions’ superstar.

As far as a free undercard for the fight, according to RingTV.com, Shawn Porter will fight former junior welterweight world title challenger Thomas Dulorme in the main event of a two-fight card on FOX right before the pay-per-view card starts.

Dulorme, who is signed to Mayweather Promotions, last competed in the untelevised undercard for the Badou Jack vs. James DeGale fight back in January. He defeated Brian Jones via sixth-round TKO in his only fight of 2017. Dulorme did compete for the then-vacant WBO junior welterweight title in 2015, being stopped in the sixth round by Crawford.

Porter currently is the WBC’s mandatory challenger to Keith Thurman‘s welterweight title after beating Andre Berto earlier this year in a title eliminator. Thurman is out of action due to elbow surgery, but there were rumors that Porter would fight Danny Garcia in either a WBC title eliminator or a WBC interim welterweight title match. Porter even addressed the rumors by calling Garcia out while dressed as The Undertaker.

No word on what the second fight on that FOX card is, which starts at 7 p.m., but British Commonwealth Games gold medalist Savannah Marshall, another Mayweather Promotions fights, is expected to make her professional debut against an opponent to be named.

In a surprising twist to the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor fight buildup, Mayweather announced that he’s letting the UFC champion fight using 8-ounce gloves of any brand.

Mayweather posted on his Instagram account that he and Mayweather will be fighting using 8-ounce gloves compared to the 10-ounce gloves that was previously announced when the fight was first announced.

“Don’t believe what you hear in the media. Don’t believe what you hear on blog sites. If it’s not coming directly from me, then it’s not true. I’m telling McGregor, “Let’s fight in 8 oz gloves”. McGregor can fight in any brand he prefers or chooses. I’ll be wearing 8 oz Grant gloves. Whatever advantage McGregor needs to feel more comfortable in the ring, I’m willing to accommodate. Let’s give the boxing and MMA fans what they want to see.”

However, the Nevada State Athletic Commission blocked any possibility of lighter gloves being used on the night of the fight. Bob Bennett, the Nevada commission executive director, told ESPN as soon as the announcement was made that the rules were set and will not make an exception for this fight.

“These regulations are in place for the health and safety of the athletes, which is of the utmost importance to the commission,” Bennett said. “Our regulations already outline the appropriate glove size according to contracted weight of a fight.”

There were questions as to what type of gloves were going to be worn. Since the fight will be contested at 154 pounds, both fighters are required to wear 10-ounce gloves come fight time. Both fighters could theoretically fight using 8-ounce gloves, as is the case with any boxing fight contested at 147 pounds and below, should the boxers agree to it. It’s a rare event that both fighters at junior middleweight and above to agree to this stipulation.

It’s also noteworthy because of McGregor’s recent comments during the Mayweather vs. McGregor press tour regarding the gloves.

Mayweather has had a long history of demanding opponents to wear certain types of gloves as was the case for the May 3, 2013 fight against Marcos Maidana. Mayweather insisted Maidana wear Everlast Powerlock model gloves rather than Everlast MX, the latter of which includes horsehair as part of the padding. The disagreement on the eve of the fight included a Mayweather threat to cancel the event if Maidana didn’t comply.

In regards to the type of glove, this could mean that McGregor may be using either Mexican-made gloves or horse hair gloves because of the slight punching power increase it brings. Mayweather also has a history of not allowing opponents to wear such gloves.

As far as ticket sales are concerned, it has not been a super promising start. An online check revealed hundreds of seats still available from Ticketmaster for the fight. There are so many open seats that fans with enough room left on their credit cards can buy six tickets together in 162 different spots throughout the arena.

That might be because of the astronomical prices set by promoters. The cheapest tickets still available on Ticketmaster have a face value of $3,500. It’s also possible that fans are simply hoping that the tickets will go down in price, but it’s unlikely that it will happen. Ellerbe said he is very pleased with how ticket sales have gone and is very confident that the event will sell out. Tickets on the secondary market are also extremely pricey, at about $2,000 at the cheapest.

Another sign that demand may be lacking is the hotel prices for the weekend of the fight. There are still plenty of rooms available online in the $300 to $400 range, including several hotels operated by MGM Grand, which owns the T-Mobile Arena. If ticket sales still has little to no movement, I wouldn’t be shocked if instead Mayweather Promotions would strike a deal with casinos to try and get the show to be a sell-out. As far as viewing parties, are concerned, the closed circuit prices at affiliated MGM resorts in Las Vegas will be $150 to view for anybody in the area.

The $150 price is the same for when Mayweather fought Pacquiao back in 2015. For that fight, 46,000 tickets were sold at MGM Resorts properties in Las Vegas for an additional $6.9 million in revenue. It’s hard to tell at this point if the closed circuit revenue from this fight will break the $6.9 million from two years ago and if tickets for the T-Mobile Arena start selling our or if prices go lower, people in Las Vegas may just opt for the $150 viewing instead.

Takashi Miura and Takashi Uchiyama retire:

Takashi Miura and Takashi Uchiyama, two of the best Japanese boxers of this generation, separately announced their retirements. Both men have retired after almost 20 combined years of entertaining fights and dominance in boxing’s super featherweight division.

After a nearly three-year reign as the OBPF super featherweight champion, Uchiyama turned his attention to winning the WBA super featherweight title. He won the title by stopping Juan Carlos Salgado in the 12th round in 2010. He would defend the title 11 straight times, nine of which resulted in a knockout win for Uchiyama. His last two fights saw Uchiyama lose his title to Jezreel Corrales and lose the rematch as well.

At a news conference that was held in a TV Tokyo studio on July 29, Uchiyama said he had no regrets and didn’t have a lot of motivation to keep fighting at 37 years old.

“I began thinking of retiring around the end of April,” Uchiyama said. “The biggest reason was that I didn’t have as much motivation as I previously had and that I was hampered by injuries and I couldn’t dispel my doubt that I could be a better fighter than before. That’s why I decided to retire.”

Miura announced his retirement on Twitter in Japanese. The tweet roughly translates to: “After I pondered (the decision), I decided to retire. I don’t have regrets. As I was able to achieve my boyhood dream and get in the ring in America, which I had never imagined I would, I had the best possible boxing career. Thank you very much.”

Miura, a former Japanese national champion, unsuccessfully challenged Uchiyama for the WBA title in 2011, but would later win the WBC title two years later. The Uchiyama vs. Miura fight was a good match that I recommend if you’re a Japanese boxing fan, but that never got a true conclusion. Miura knocked down Uchiyama in the third round of the fight, but Uchiyama was the better fighter. Miura suffered a bad cut and then his corner had to retire Miura in the eighth round of the fight.

Miura would hold onto to the title until being stopped by Francisco Vargas in 2015 and would not get another world title shot for a while. That title shot came back in July when he lost a unanimous decision to current WBC champion Miguel Berchelt on an HBO card.

Berchelt vs. Miura was supposed to be a “Fight of the Year” contender on paper, but Miura did not look great and was nowhere the world champion boxer that he used to be. It’s good that Miura has finally taken the initiative and leave the sport with his health relatively intact.

Uchiyama is in his late 30s and has garnered a great deal of success in Japan, and now is the right time for Uchiyama to step down. Uchiyama has been a huge star on Japanese television and there’s a chance Uchiyama could see a future as a boxing analyst for TV Tokyo, the station where he made his retirement announcement.

Adrien Broner vs. Mikey Garcia review:

I attended Showtime’s latest venture into the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York where Mikey Garcia shined in his 140-pound debut against Adrien Broner. With no world titles on the line, or world title opportunities on the line, the match was a great example of what a well-marketed fight between two elite boxers can produce.

For all intents and purposes, the card was a resounding success. It was the second highest attendance the venue has had for a boxing match in 2017, behind the Keith Thurman vs. Danny Garcia fight from back in March. The July 29 crowd had an official attendance of 12,084 while the Thurman-Garcia fight had 16,533 people attend, which is a Barclays Center record for a boxing event.

Ratings wise, the event was also a hit with the Showtime crowd. While some may think that because this is the period in which Showtime has a free trial going on that the ratings would be inflated. That’s not true. Showtime ratings are provided by Nielsen, but the final ratings does not take into account non-subscribers. If anything, the peak in viewership may have eclipsed 1 million, but it’s close to impossible determining how many non-subscribers were watching due to the free trial.

While Broner and Garcia gave the network big ratings, it’s a bit hard to say the same for the undercard. The main card opening match, Jermall Charlo vs. Jorge Sebastian Heiland in a WBC middleweight title eliminator, only averaged 500,000 viewers. On television, those were the only two fights broadcast, but the network did show two additional fights: Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller vs. Gerald Washington and Katie Taylor vs. Jasmine Clarkson. Those two fights were broadcast on Showtime’s YouTube and Facebook account and fared better than the Charlo-Heiland fight. Between Facebook and YouTube, the two undercard fights has a total viewership of 622,000 as of 9 p.m. ET on August 1 (449,000 on Facebook and 173,000 on YouTube). There was supposed to be another fight being shown, which was the Carl Frampton vs. Andres Gutierrez bout that was canceled due to injuries Gutierrez sustained hours after Frampton missed weight.

The card itself was fine, if not uneventful, in terms of the quality of the fights themselves. All of the top fights were not competitive and mostly one-sided. Even before the card began, you could have picked the winners of the five marquee fights fairly easily. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but unless any of the underdogs provided any drama, the fights were there to make the favorites look good. That’s not the mentality boxing promoters when planning the entire card, but a wrestling promoter might. If this was a wrestling event with predetermined winners, all the right people won and looked great while boxing.

Mikey Garcia defeats Adrien Broner via unanimous decision (117-111, 116-112, 116-112): This was a complete performance by Garcia, arguably the best of his career. Garcia dominated Broner, who spent the majority of the fight defending Garcia’s speed and high volume of punches (783 punches thrown in the fight by Garcia to be exact). With a future at 140 pounds all but set, Garcia has a chance to abandon the lightweight division, and his WBC title, for the potential opportunity of fighting Terence Crawford, who, when it’s all said and done, may be carrying all four major world titles by the end of August. I go more in-depth into Garcia’s future in another article at this link.

Broner, who had just turned 28 years old, now finds himself at a bit of a crossroads. His split decision win against Adrian Granados back in February did not inspire much confidence in Broner having much of a chance against Garcia. It’s fair to wonder whether or not Broner’s recent troubles affected him in his two fights in 2017, but he’s still a quality boxer whom Showtime will be more than happy to keep giving top matches. After all, Broner has proven that he can deliver big ratings for Showtime, no matter the opponent.

Jermall Charlo defeats Jorge Sebastian Heiland via TKO, round 4, 2:13: Charlo was making his middleweight debut and was given a chance to fight in a WBC middleweight title eliminator against Heiland. Charlo, who was immediately put in the No. 2 spot in the WBC middleweight rankings, made Heiland — the top-ranked middleweight in the WBC — look like an amateur. Heiland looked to have hurt his leg during the fight after a knockdown by Charlo and Heiland could not recover. Strangely enough, this fight reminded me a lot of the fight between Miguel Cotto and Sergio Martinez. Heiland, like Martinez, was an Argentinean middleweight who was among the best of his division, but hurt his leg early in the fight, never recovered and eventually lost via TKO. Charlo is now the WBC’s mandatory challenger to Gennady Golovkin’s middleweight title. Whether or not a Golovkin-Charlo fight will happen will have to depend on Golovkin’s performance against Canelo Alvarez next month.

Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller defeats Gerald Washington via TKO, round 8, 3:00: This was a battle of two behemoth heavyweight boxers, with Miller almost tipping the scales at 300 pounds at the weigh-ins. Miller’s power was there from the beginning, landing a lot of clean punches upstairs throughout the entire fight. Washington had his moments, but never got into a groove and did not land a lot of his punches very cleanly. The seventh and eighth rounds had Miller do a lot of damage to Washington and Miller couldn’t answer back. After eight rounds, referee Gary Rosato and Washington’s corner put a stop to the fight.

Katie Taylor defeats Jasmine Clarkson via TKO, round 3, 3:00: This was Taylor’s first fight in the United States and she brought a decent Irish fanbase for this fight. It opened the Showtime undercard internet stream, which gives her some much-needed exposure. Taylor looked really sharp and was hitting Clarkson hard in the corner. It’s hard to tell if Taylor was that good tonight or simply she was given an opponent in Clarkson who was overmatched. Clarkson had a 4-8 record heading into the fight and right from the get-go, it did not look like it would be a long fight. Clarkson had close to zero offense in the fight (nine punches landed in the three rounds) and once the third round ended, referee Charles Fitch called the fight, giving Taylor the win.

Rau’shee Warren defeats McJoe Arroyo via unanimous decision (118-110, 117-111, 117-111): The fight was a junior bantamweight title eliminator with Warren getting the win over Arroyo. It was a solid performance by Warren, a former world champion, as he tagged Arroyo with quick combinations and body shots throughout the fight. Arroyo, at times, put up a decent effort, but was easily overmatched by Warren. Warren now becomes the mandatory challenger to Jerwin Ancajas’ title.

The rest of the results from the Barclays Center card will be in the “results from the world of boxing” section in the next page.

Results from the world of boxing:

August 1: Centro de Espectaculos El Jefe, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico

• Jonathan Rodriguez defeats Gonzalo Garcia via UD
• Irving Turrubiartes defeats Jesus Guadalupe Romero: DQ, round 4
• Ramon Aguinaga defeats Erick Mireles via UD
• Ronaldo Hernandez defeats Arturo Soriano via UD
• Rodolfo Castillo defeats Jose Guerrero: KO, round 1
• Javier Garcia and Michell Polina fight to a majority draw
• Gabriela Magana and Liliana Borquez fight to a draw on PTS

August 1: Bayombong Sports Complex, Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines

• Carl Jammes Martin defeats Jerry Mae Villagracia: KO, round 2

July 31: St. Rose Village 2, Covered Court, Malaban, Binan City, Laguna, Philippines

• Alvin Lagumbay defeats Jimmy Aducal: TKO, round 7
• Marlon Arcilla and Robin Dingcong fight to a majority draw (76-76, 76-76, 74-78)
• Lloyd Jardeliza and Jerwin Mejes fight to a majority draw (76-76, 76-75, 76-76)
• Lito Dante defeats Powell Balaba: UD (60-53, 60-53, 60-53)
• Raymond Basa defeats Jeffrey Labe: UD (39-37, 39-37, 39-37)
• Jino Rodrigo defeats Edison Ebron: TKO, round 2
• Haizon Caba defeats Mark Edsil Gajana: KO, round 2

July 30: Grand Regency Hotel, Qingdao, China

• Jun Long Zhang defeats Osborne Machimana to retain the WBA Oceania heavyweight title: KO, round 1

July 30: Mondo Fitness, Roma, Lazio, Italy

• Emanuele Della Rosa defeats Nodar Robakidze via PTS

July 30: Kamarina Club, Scoglitti, Sicilia, Italy

• Francesco Invernizio defeats Davide Cali via PTS

July 30: Sumiyoshi Ward Center, Osaka, Osaka, Japan

• Mark John Yap defeats Kentaro Masuda to retain the OPBF bantamweight title: TKO, round 4
• Koki Tyson defeats Brandon Lockhart Shane to retain the OPBF middleweight title via UD
• Niwat Kongkan defeats Jumbo Oda Nobunaga Shoten Petagine to retain the OPBF super welterweight title: TKO, round 11
• Hirofumi Mukai defeats Chirayu Nurot: KO, round 5
• Masataka Taniguchi defeats Narathip Sungsut: TKO, round 1

July 30: Mejong Glad Hotel, Jeju, South Korea

• Yong Hwan Jun and Katsutoshi Takahashi fight to a majority draw (38-38, 38-39, 38-38)
• Jae Hyuk Shin defeats Keisuke Kanazawa: TKO, round 4
• Takuya Mori defeats Hyun Wook Jung: TKO, round 2
• Do Jin Lee defeats Naomichi Yaginuma: UD (39-37, 38-37, 39-37)
• Satoru Araki defeats Gi Won Shin: UD (38-37, 39-36, 39-36)
• Shinnosuke Kimoto defeats Min Joon Kim: UD (40-37, 39-36, 39-35)
• Takahiro Inoue defeats Hoo Joon Lee: UD (39-38, 39-38, 40-37)
• Sung Hyuk Moon defeats Yoshihiro Watanabe: UD (39-37, 40-36, 40-36)

July 30: Berane, Montenegro

• Mirsad Ramusovic defeats Mihalj Halas: TKO, round 3
• Goran Sucevic defeats Srecko Janjic via PTS
• Aleksandra Vujovic defeats Ksenija Medic via PTS

July 30: Orient Theatre, East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa

• Azinga Fuzile defeats Rofhiwa Maemu to retain the South African featherweight title via UD
• Toto Helebe defeats Cebo Ngema to retain the South African bantamweight title via UD
• Thembelani Nxoshe defeats Xolisile Voyi to retain the South African flyweight title via MD
• Khanyile Bulana defeats Sithembile Luzipho: TKO, round 6
• Siphosethu Mvula defeats Bonakele Bikitsha via PTS
• Ayanda Ndulani defeats Thandolwethu Hlangani: TKO, round 3
• Simthembile Mbande defeats Khanyiso Siko: KO, round 1
• Phumlani Maloni defeats Siphenathi Dasa: KO, round 1
• Sive Nontshinga defeats Sandile Wessels: KO, round 3

July 30: Lwandle Community Hall, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

• Lazola Mjonono defeats Ayanda Fatyi via PTS
• Siphenathi Qampi defeats Lwandile Gugushe: TKO, round 5
• Mayihlome Mjonono defeats Mtsepua Mthembu via PTS
• Thembani Mbangatha defeats Welcome Mathe: TKO, round 1
• Gregory Gans defeats Mvuzo Nkothobe via PTS

July 30: Butiama Villa Hall, Chanika, Tanzania

• Said Mbelwa defeats Ambokile Chusa vis PTS
• Ramadhani Migwede defeats Hassan Mgaya: TKO, round 5
• Adam Ngange defeats Abdallah Mwimba: KO, round 3
• Salehe Mkalekwa defeats Yassin Chagu: TKO, round 2
• Juma Shabani defeats George Bale via PTS

July 30: Rabobank Theater, Bakersfield, California, USA

• Nathaniel Gallimore defeats Justin DeLoach: RTD, round 5
• Victor Ortiz defeats Saul Corral: KO, round 4
• Adam Lopez defeats Paul Romero: MD (58-56, 58-56, 57-57)
• Karlos Balderas defeats Eder Amaro Fajardo: KO, round 1
• Eimantas Stanionis defeats Isaac Freeman: KO, round 3
• Efe Ajagba defeats Tyrell Herndon: KO, round 1
• Money Powell IV defeats Carlos Lozano: UD (40-35, 40-35, 40-35)
• Jose Balderas defeats Don Jose: UD (40-36, 40-36, 40-36)
• Efetobor Apochi defeats Daniel Mejia Hernandez: KO, round 2
• Miguel Contreras defeats Phillip Percy: KO, round 4
• Alejandro Guerrero defeats Matt Murphy: KO, round 4
• Emmanuel Medina defeats Edgar Ivan Garcia: UD (40-36, 40-36, 40-36)
• Oluwafemi Oyeleye defeats Uriel Gonzalez: KO, round 1

July 30: Fronton del Campus Municipal, Maldonado, Uruguay

• Eric Miguel Abeijon defeats Julio Cesar Pereira: KO, round 4

July 29: Gimnasio Instituto Corazón de María, Chascomus, Buenos Aires, Argentina

• Walter Gabriel Sequeira defeats Martin Fidel Rios to retain the Argentina (FAB) Light Heavyweight title (98-91, 98-91, 99-91)
• Matias Carlos Adrian Rueda defeats Aldimar Silva: TKO, round 2
• Ariel Esteban Bracamonte defeats Facundo Cesar Ghiglione: UD (39-37, 39-37, 39-37)
• Brian Nicolas Laguna defeats Cesar Leonel Leiva: TKO, round 2
• Martin Ramiro Balbuena defeats Matias Ezequiel Sami: TKO, round 1
• Luis Javier Ahumada defeats Daniel Alberto Coronel: UD (38-36, 39-36, 39-36)

July 29: Club Social Boulogne, Boulogne Sur Mer, Buenos Aires, Argentina

• Debora Gomez defeats Veronica Analia Tesure via UD

July 29: Club Social y Recreativo Curuzu, Curuzu Cuatia, Corrientes, Argentina

• Gustavo Alberto Sanchez and Ramon Manuel Ledesma fight to a draw on PTS

July 29: The Famous Fortitude Gym , Newstead, Queensland, Australia

• Helen Joseph defeats Shannon O’Connell: KO, round 2
• Deanha Hobbs defeats Kylie Hutt: TKO, round 2
• Ben Kite defeats Ray Ingram: UD (60-54, 60-54, 60-54)
• Reuben Aiono defeats Michael Bagley: UD (59-55, 59-55, 58-56)
• Ben Mahoney defeats Jason Leuken: KO, round 2
• Chris Hamilton defeats Michael Dan: TKO, round 3

July 29: Maida Energy Sports Center, Jinan, China

• Shidong Cai defeats Xiaohao Xu: MD (38-38, 39-37, 40-36)
• Bangxin Zhang defeats Yong Peng fight to a majority draw (38-38, 38-38, 36-40)
• Yang Yang Luo defeats Shayilanbieke Kadeerbieke: UD (39-37, 40-36, 40-36)
• He Lu defeats Wei Li:KO, round 1
• Youli Dong defeats Jiahui Li: TKO, round 3
• Duancai Tian defeats Saierlan Muerzhabieke: MD (38-38, 40-36, 39-37)
• Shuhao He defeats Bo Wang: TKO, round 1
• Ahatelike Muerzhabieke defeats Qing Yu: KO, round 2

July 29: Budapest Fight Center, Budapest, Hungary

• Gyula Rozsas defeats Krisztian Horvath via PTS
• Zsolt Sarkozi defeats Roland Petrovics via PTS
• Oszkar Fiko and Ferenc Katona fight to a draw on PTS
• Gabor Zsalek and Sandor Szabo fight to a draw on PTS

July 29: Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

• Tsubasa Koura defeats Jaysever Abcede to win the vacant OPBF minimumweight title: KO, round 4
• Yusaku Kuga defeats Ryoichi Tamura to retain the Japanese super bantamweight title via UD
• Naoya Okamoto defeats Gaku Aikawa via SD
• Kudura Kaneko defeats Masaharu Kaito: TKO, round 2
• Daiki Maniwa defeats Masami Morisaki: TKO, round 2

July 29: Gyeongju Boxinggym, Gyeongju, South Korea

• Nak Yul Park defeats Young Hwan Jo: TKO, round 3
• Hyun Hee Kil defeats Bang Un Kim via UD
• Hee Do Lee defeats Tae Sung Ha: KO, round 3
• Jong Hoon Lim defeats Jung Jae Son via MD
• Han Bin Suh defeats Hyo Duk Oh: TKO, round 2

July 29: SemaraH Hotel Lielupe, Jurmala, Latvia

• Nikolajs Grisunins defeats Iulian Ilie: TKO, round 1
• Aleksejs Aboltins defeats Vadims Konstantinovs: TKO, round 1
• Andrejs Podusovs defeats Bogdans Stadnickis: TKO, round 1
• Raitis Sinkevics defeats Ruslan Semenov: UD (40-36, 40-36, 40-36)
• Valerijs Mikalauskas defeats Artjoms Mironcevs: UD (40-36, 40-36, 40-36)
• Nikita Smirnovs defeats Maksims Kazaks: TKO, round 1

July 29: Centro de Convenciones IMSS, Tlalpan, Distrito Federal, Mexico

• Anabel Ortiz defeats Nancy Franco to retain the WBA World female minimumweight title: UD (96-93, 97-92, 98-91)
• Emanuel Navarrete defeats Jhon Gemino: TKO, round 5
• Carlos Jimenez defeats Sergio Torres via UD
• Cesar Soriano Lozada defeats Miguel Angel Bautista Navarrete via UD
• Jose Angel Napoles and Fernando Avila fight to a majority draw
• Hector Reyes defeats Isaac Ruiz: TKO, round 3

July 29: Auditorio del Pueblo, Durango, Durango, Mexico

• Cristian Mijares defeats Rafael Hernandez via UD
• Ivan Alvarez defeats Luis Jesus Vidales
• Francisco Horta defeats Rodrigo Hernandez: KO, round 5
• Jorge Sanchez Lopez defeats Ismael Gonzalez via PTS
• Diego Andrade Jr. defeats Pedro Flores via PTS
• Jesus Trevino defeats Omar Andrade via PTS
• Elias Emigdio defeats Moises Adame: KO, round 2
• Ernesto Olvera defeats Victor Herrera via PTS
• Andres Sanchez Ramirez and Marlon Rios fight to a draw
• Angel Contreras defeats Irving Medina via PTS

July 29: Ellerslie Racecourse, Auckland, New Zealand

• Conrad Lam defeats Tussi Asafo: KO, round 3
• Ruben Webster defeats Harley Love: MD (38-38, 40-36, 39-37)

July 29: Nuevo Gimnasio Nicarao, Managua, Nicaragua

• Alexander Mejia defeats Ramiro Blanco to win the vacant WBA Fedelatin Super Bantamweight title: SD (106-105, 107-103, 104-106)

July 29: Gimnasio Municipal, Puerto Armuelles, Panama

• Brad Solomon defeats David Bency to win the vacant WBA Fedebol welterweight title: UD (90-82, 90-81, 90-81)
• Muhammad Waseem defeats Ivan Trejos: TKO, round 3
• Jose Santos defeats Juan Fong: U (39-37, 40-37, 39-37)
• John Hibbert defeats Jacob Smith: UD (40-36, 40-36, 40-36)
• Gil Rodriguez defeats Alvin Cedeno: TKO, round 3
• Cristian Serracin defeats Derick Caballero: TKO, round 3

July 29: The Flash Grand Ballroom of the Elorde Sports Complex, Paranaque City, Metro Manila, Philippines

• Jonathan Taconing defeats Silem Serang: KO, round 3
• Diomel Diocos defeats Jayar Diama: MD (78-74, 77-75, 76-76)
• Abraham Bullagay defeats Ryan Tampus: RTD, round 5
• Kenta Ide and Germaine Dela Rosa fight to a split draw (78-74, 76-76, 75-77)
• Arvin Magramo defeats Romeo Tenorio: UD (59-55, 59-55, 58-56)
• Arvin Yurong defeats Jomar Borbon: KO, round 1
• Bryan Ascano defeats Nestor Junio: UD (59-55, 59-55, 60-54)

July 29: Coliseo Pedrin Zorilla, San Juan, Puerto Rico

• Marcos Osorio and Richard Gutierrez fight to a split draw (77-75, 75-77, 76-76): Vacant WBC FECARBOX super welterweight title bout
• Jose Rodriguez defeats Harold Reyes: UD (57-56, 58-55, 58-55)
• Jesus Soler defeats Josthiel Caraballo: KO, round 2
• Nestor Bravo defeats Hector Fernandez: KO, round 1
• Bryan Tanco defeats Rafael Mesorana: TKO, round 3
• Cristian Vale defeats Christian Santos: UD (40-35, 40-35, 40-35)
• Julian Cruz defeats Alex Nazario: UD (39-37, 39-37, 40-36)
• Jose Villaran defeats Eugene Arvelo:TKO, round 2

July 29: Bowlers Exhibition Centre, Manchester, Lancashire, United Kingdom

• Zelfa Barrett defeats Jordan Ellison: TKO, round 1
• Rafael Chiruta defeats Reece Cartwright:TKO, round 1
• Martin Bakole Ilunga defeats Dominic Akinlade: TKO, round 1
• Steven Lewis defeats Zaurs Sadihovs: TKO, round 3
• Lyndon Arthur defeats Istvan Orsos: KO, round 2
• Chris Jenkinson defeats Arthif Daniel: TKO, round 4
• Stacey Copeland defeats Ester Konecna via PTS
• Diego Costa defeats Greg O’Neill: TKO, round 3
• Marcel Braithwaite defeats Luke Fash via PTS
• Denton Vassell defeats Edvinas Puplauskas via PTS
• Nick Ball defeats Jamie Quinn via PTS
• Jake Kelly defeats William Warburton via PTS
• Dean Laing defeats Curtis Gargano via PTS

July 29: Guildhall, Plymouth, Devon, United Kingdom

• Des Newton defeats Liam Richards via PTS
• Ibrar Riyaz defeats Darren Townley: RTD, round 6
• Faheem Khan defeats Dylan Draper via PTS
• Chris Adaway defeats Ben Owen via PTS

July 29: Ponds Forge Arena, Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom

• Loua Nassa defeats Sergey Tasimov via PTS
• Navid Mansouri defeats Jordan Grannum via PTS
• Dan West and Duane Green fight to a draw on PTS
• Tommy Frank defeats Georgi Andonov via PTS
• Scott Westgarth defeats Callum Ide via PTS
• Denzil Browne defeats Mitch Mitchell via PTS
• Kyle Fox defeats Nick Golubs via PTS
• Danny Tombs defeats Dmitrij Kalinovskij via PTS

July 29: Oldham Leisure Centre, Oldham, Lancashire, United Kingdom

• Liam Taylor defeats Arvydas Trizno: TKO, round 2
• Danny Wright defeats Ilian Markov: TKO, round 3
• Jake Haigh defeats Josef Obeslo: TKO, round 4
• Mark Heffron defeats Istvan Zeller via PTS
• Qasim Niaz defeats Andrej Cepur via PTS
• Shakeeb Ali defeats Joe Beeden via PTS
• Jack Flatley defeats Sonny Whiting via PTS
• Jack Kilgannon defeats Daniel Spencer via PTS
• Luke Willis defeats Ismail Anwar: TKO, round 4
• Joe Eko defeats Kristian Laight via PTS

July 29: Tudor Grange Leisure Centre, Solihull, West Midlands, United Kingdom

• Sean McGoldrick defeats Gyula Dodu: TKO, round 1
• Geiboord Omier defeats Anthony Manning: TKO, round 1
• Robbo Robinson defeats Remigijus Ziausys via PTS
• Lewis Crocker defeats Sylwester Walczak: KO, round 1

July 29: Biddulph Valley Leisure Centre, Biddulph, Staffordshire, United Kingdom

• Kieran McLaren defeats Andy Harris via PTS
• Nathan Clarke defeats Danny Little via PTS
• Luke Caci defeats Daniel Borisov via PTS
• Owen Jobburn defeats Casey Blair: TKO, round 3
• Connor Parker defeats Michael Mooney via PTS

July 29: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA

• Mikey Garcia defeats Adrien Broner to win the WBC diamond belt: UD (117-111, 116-112, 116-112)
• Jermall Charlo defeats Jorge Sebastian Heiland: TKO, round 4,
• Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller defeats Gerald Washington: TKO, round 8
• Katie Taylor defeats Jasmine Clarkson: TKO, round 3
• Rau’shee Warren defeats McJoe Arroyo: UD (118-110, 117-111, 117-111)
• Dan Murray defeats Kenny Robles: MD (38-38, 39-27, 39-37)
• Noel Murphy defeats Julio Cesar Sanchez: UD (80-72, 79-73, 78-74)
• Desmond Jarmon defeats Darnell Pettis: UD (40-35, 40-35, 40-35)

July 29: Abundant Life Christian Center, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

• Dewayne Beamon defeats Jose Alfredo Rodriguez to retain the International Boxing Organization Intercontinental and Universal Boxing Federation (UBF) World super flyweight title: KO, round 9
• Thomas Mattice defeats John David Charles: KO, round 6
• Zachary Ochoa defeats Ariel Vasquez via UD
• Cameron Springer and Stephon McIntyre fight to a majority draw
• John Matt Jenkins defeats Rackwon Blackston: KO, round 1
• Oscar Moreno defeats Tyshee Robinson: KO, round 1
• Jacquan Townes defeats Demetrius Shaw: KO, round 1
• Chordale Booker defeats Bryan Goldsby: KO, round 2
• Mathew Gonzalez defeats Kire Lucas: TKO, round 1

July 29: Casino Del Sol, Tucson, Arizona, USA

• Sadam Ali defeats Johan Perez to win the vacant WBA International welterweight title: UD (97-92, 98-91, 97-92)
• Alejandro Barrera defeats Eddie Gomez: SD (96-93, 96-93, 94-95)
• Patrick Teixeira defeats Andrew Hernandez: UD (80-72, 79-73, 80-72)
• Daquan Arnett defeats Jorge Silva: UD (80-71, 80-71, 80-71)
• Pablo Rubio Jr. defeats David Perez: SD (58-56, 54-60, 59-55)
• Alfredo Escarcega defeats Rodolfo Gamez: MD (39-37, 38-38, 40-36)

July 29: The Queen Mary, Long Beach, California, USA

• Tramaine Williams defeats William Gonzalez: KO, round 1
• Junior Younan defeats Mike Guy: UD (76-75, 76-75, 78-73)
• Jonathan Rice defeats Rodney Hernandez: UD (59-55, 58-56, 59-55)
• Sergio Quiroz defeats Guadalupe Arroyo: UD (40-36, 39-37, 39-37)
• Raul Calderon defeats Eric Gomez: UD (40-36, 40-36, 40-36)

July 29: UIC Pavilion, Chicago, Illinois, USA

• Jessica McCaskill defeats Natalie Brown: TKO, round 2
• Ramiro Carrillo and Antonio Canas fight to a no contest
• Josh Hernandez defeats Gavino Guaman: TKO, round 6
• Shawn Simpson defeats Sergio Najera via UD
• Vernon Brown defeats Shaun Lee Henson: RTD, round 1
• Yousif Saleh defeats Tommy Bryant via UD
• Nick Brindise defeats Donte Bryant via SD

July 29: Huntington Park, Columbus, Ohio, USA

• Jamie Walker defeats Zakery Rollins to win the USA Ohio State super welterweight title via MD
• Jermaine Franklin defeats Axror Muralimov via UD
• Tyler McCreary defeats Edward Kakembo via UD
• Michael Glasscox and Muhammad Abdullah fight to a split draw
• Travis Davis defeats Harrison Watkins via UD

July 29: Metroplex, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

• Cem Kilic defeats Keith Collins: RTD, round 2
• Terry Chapwood defeats Jerrod Jennings: TKO, round 2

July 29: Center Stage, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

• LaVonte Earley defeats Gary Lynch: SD (58-56, 59-55, 56-58)
• Reggie Barnett Jr. defeats Stevie Massey: UD (59-54, 59-54, 60-53)
• Zsolt Daranyi Jr. defeats Andre Baker: TKO, round 6
• Ray Barlow defeats Pedro Martinez Jr.: UD (40-36, 40-36, 40-36)
• Carltavius Jones Johnson defeats Bryan Mullis: UD (39-37, 39-37, 40-36)
• Derek Hyatt and Kyle Harrell fight to a majority draw (39-37, 38-38, 38-38)
• Brandun Lee defeats Donovain Battle: UD (40-36, 40-35, 40-35)

July 29: Skowhegan Community Center, Skowhegan, Maine, USA

• Jason Quirk defeats Brandon Baue: TKO, round 2
• Antonio Chaves Fernandez defeats Nate Charles: KO, round 3

July 28: Club Sportivo Barracas, Buenos Aires, Distrito Federal, Argentina

• German Argentino Benitez defeats Damian Leonardo Yapur: Ud (98-97, 97-95, 100-91)
• Federico Sebastian Pedraza defeats Jose Rodolfo Garcia: UD (59-57, 58-57, 60-54)
• Nelson Ismael Ayala defeats Lucas Nahuel Rojas: MD (40-36, 39-38, 38-38)

July 28: Asociación Cordobesa de Volantes, Cordoba, Cordoba, Argentina

• Carlos Adan Jerez defeats Carlos Moyano: UD (78-77, 78-76, 78-74)

July 28: Gimnasio Club Mexico, Osorno, Chile

• Robinson Lavinanza defeats Ricardo Vera: UD (60-54, 60-54, 60-54)

July 28: Shanghai Oriental Sports Center, Shanghai, China

• Sho Kimura defeats Zou Shiming to win the WBO World flyweight title: TKO, round 11
• Chaoqun Dong defeats Sunil Khokhar: UD (59-55, 60-54, 60-54)
• Amingbuhe defeats Bima Prakosa: TKO, round 3
• Zubiao Chen and Anuj Kumar Singh fight to a majority draw (38-38, 39-37, 38-38)
• Bo Hao Sun defeats Thirayut Sithsaithong: KO, round 2
• Jie Yan and Joe Corner fight to a split draw (38-38, 37-39, 40-36)

July 28: Maida Energy Sports Center, Jinan, China

• Yongchao Sheng defeats Aikeremujiang: TKO, round 3
• Yin Gang Wang defeats Richard Garcia: UD (59-55, 58-56, 60-54)
• Yujie Zeng and Huerban Qiatehe fight to a split draw (37-39, 40-36, 38-38)
• Zefeng Zhan defeats Zhi Liang Fan: TKO, round 3
• Cheng Wang defeats Weichien Peng: SD (39-37, 39-37, 37-39)
• Xing Xie defeats Ying Yuan Chen: TKO, round 3
• Pei Wang defeats Zhouyang Zhao: UD (39-37, 39-37, 39-37)
• Chiaching Hung defeats Yiping Gao: TKO, round 1
• Qi Xiu Zhang defeats Ru Mu Qing Ji: UD (40-36, 40-36, 39-27)

July 28: Casino Rio, Cartagena, Colombia

• Placido Ramirez defeats Luis Diaz Marmol to retain the Colombian lightweight title: UD (97-92, 97-93, 97-93)
• Galvis Guerra defeats Saider Vizcaino: KO, round 6
• Luis Ruiz defeats Franki Vides: KO, round 1

July 28: Hospudka Eden, Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic

• Marek Prochazka defeats Andrei Danco: KO, round 1
• Pavel Sour defeats Petr Frohlich: TKO, round 2
• Michal Vasek defeats Martin Horvath: RTD, round 1
• Jan Pasajev defeats Lukas Polak: KO, round 1
• Bronislav Kubin defeats Jan Sendrei: UD (40-36, 40-36, 40-36)
• Peter Masorsic defeats Patrik Gadzo: TKO, round 1
• Richard Walter defeats Patrik Filo: UD (39-38, 39-38, 39-37)
• Daniel Vencl defeats Petr Pirko-Pulo: TKO, round 2
• Martin Kabrhel defeats Vojtech Majer: TKO, round 1
• Patrik Bartos defeats Kevin Gunar: TKO, round 2
• Michal Vosyka defeats Bohuslav Jano: TKO, round 2
• Danny Williams defeats Pavel Siska: UD (39-32, 40-33, 39-33)

July 28: EDION Arena Osaka, Osaka, Osaka, Japan

• Tetsuya Hisada defeats Atsushi Kakutani to retain the Japanese light flyweight title: TKO, round 8

July 28: Gimnasio Usos Múltiples UdeG, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

• David Alegria defeats Ricardo Iniguez: KO, round 6
• Yareli Larios defeats Guadalupe Lincer Ortiz via UD
• Juan Carlos Raygoza defeats Victor Manuel Palacios via UD
• Cesar Ayon defeats Francisco Marques: TKO, round 4
• Jesus Jauregui and Juan Jose Lopez Alcaraz fight to a draw on PTS
• Carlos Encinas defeats Edgar Romero via PTS
• Bruce Vazquez defeats Rogelio Gonzalez via UD
• Josue Obando defeats Antonio Rodriguez: TKO, round 2
• Ronaldo Ruelas defeats Miguel Angel Jimenez: KO, round 2
• Carlos Camacho and Johnny Diaz fight to a draw on PTS
• Alejandra Gonzalez defeats Cinthia Cardona via UD

July 28: Plaza Tinaco, Empalme, Sonora, Mexico

• Roberto Sanchez defeats Ulises Ramirez via MD
• Alberto Fundora defeats Octavio Castro via SD
• Sebastian Fundora defeats Missael Juarez: TKO, round 1
• Emilio Canizales defeats Angel Mendoza: TKO, round 1
• Ronald Castillo defeats Vidal Cruz: TKO, round 1
• Freddy Fundora defeats Jesus Medina: TKO, round 1
• Saul Robles defeats Ramses Ruiz: KO, round 2
• Everardo Jhoao defeats Luis Escobar via UD

July 28: Nuevo Gimnasio Nicarao, Managua, Nicaragua

• Cristofer Rosales defeats Martin Tecuapetla to retain the WBC Latino flyweight title via UD

July 28: International Convention Centre, East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa

• Lodumo Lamati defeats Luis Melendez to win the vacant IBF Intercontinental super bantamweight title: UD (119-108, 120-107, 119-108)
• Gideon Buthelezi defeats Ryan Rey Ponteras to retain the International Boxing Organization World super flyweight title: UD (118-112, 118-111, 118-109)
• Mzuvukile Magwaca defeats Yesner Talavera to win the vacant IBF Intercontinental bantamweight title: KO, round 7
• Siphamandla Baleni defeats Bangile Nyangani to retain the South African minimumweight title: UD (117-111, 115-113, 117-114)
• Yanga Sigqibo defeats Mfundo Gwayana via PTS
• Uyanda Nogogo defeats Khakhathi Raminchi: KO, round 1
• SIkho Nqothole defeats Saul Hlungwane via PTS

July 28: Trui Teatre, Palma de Mallorca, Islas Baleares, Spain

• Jose Del Rio defeats Aristides Quintero via UD
• Sean Pendry and Juan Florit fight to a majority draw
• Jon Martinez defeats Vicente Campaner via MD
• Angel Lorente defeats Mihail Dorin Nuta: KO, round 1

July 28: Gallera del López Socas, Las Palmas, Islas Canarias, Spain

• Davinia Perez defeats Maribel De Sousa via UD
• Yolanda Ramos defeats Eloisa Rodriguez via UD
• Cristian Montilla defeats Luis Espinosa: RTD, round 4
• Iriome Penate defeats Gheorge Henk Mihai: TKO, round 2
• John Dickson defeats Fabrice Julien Dane via UD
• Aramis Torres defeats Teodor Vasile Manciu: TKO, round 3
• Catalina Diaz defeats Virgina Dominguez via UD
• Paloma Ramos defeatsAouatif Al Kallachi via UD

July 28: Pabellón Municipal, Cullera, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain

• Jorge Fortea defeats Yuri Pompilio via PTS
• Israel Munoz defeats Vicente Andres Monzo via PTS
• Alin Florin Ciorceri defeats Manuel Prieto: TKO, round 1

July 28: Laredo Energy Arena, Laredo, Texas, USA

• Christina Ruiz defeats Cristina Fuentes to win the vacant NABF female super flyweight title: TKO, round 3
• Jorge Castaneda defeats Jose Silveria: TO, round 2
• Jessie Sanchez defeats Derrick Beroit: TKO, round 4
• Jose Martinez defeats Austin Rivas: UD (40-35, 40-35, 40-35)
• Miguel Angel Rebullosa defeats Ivan Hernandez: UD (39-36, 38-37, 39-36)
• Jorge Ramos defeats Jonathan Ewer: TKO, round 2
• Manuel Rubalcava defeats Juan Bryand: UD (39-36, 38-37, 39-36)

July 28: Kissimmee Civic Center, Kissimmee, Florida, USA

• Daniel Lozano defeats David Carmona to win the vacant WBO NABO super bantamweight title: KO, round 2
• Jean Carlos Rivera defeats Juan Carlos Benavides: TKO, round 3
• Manny Woods defeats Danny Pastrana: TKO, round 2
• Henry Lebron defeats Oscar Eduardo Quezada: KO, round 1
• Noe Lozano defeats Daruma Almenarez via SD
• Edgar Figueroa defeats Kervin Gonzalez via UD

Official Fightful Rankings:

Pound-for-pound

1. Andre Ward
2. Gennady Golovkin
3. Canelo Alvarez
4. Vasyl Lomachenko
5. Mikey Garcia
6. Terence Crawford
7. Keith Thurman
8. Roman Gonzalez
9. Guillermo Rigondeaux
10. Leo Santa Cruz

Heavyweight

1. Anthony Joshua
2. Deontay Wilder
3. Wladimir Klitschko
4. Joseph Parker
5. Luis Ortiz
6. Kubrat Pulev
7. Dillian White
8. Andy Ruiz Jr.
9. Dominic Breazeale
10. Charles Martin

Cruiserweight

1. Oleksandr Usyk
2. Denis Lebediev
3. Murat Gassiev
4. Krzysztof Glowacki
5. Mairis Briedis
6. Krzysztof Wlodarczyk
7. Marco Huck
8. Firat Arslan
9. Tony Bellew
10. Yunier Dorticos

Light heavyweight

1. Andre Ward
2. Sergey Kovalev
3. Adonis Stevenson
4. Nathan Cleverly
5. Oleksandr Gvozdyk
6. Sulliva Barrera
7. Artur Beterbiev
8. Eleider Alvarez
9. Juergen Braehmer
10. Joe Smith Jr.

Super middleweight

1. James DeGale
2. Gilberto Ramirez
3. George Groves
4. Anthony Dirrell
5. Andre Dirrell
6. Jose Uzcategui
7. Chris Eubank Jr.
8. Tyron Zeuge
9. Callum Smith
10. Juergen Braehmer

Middleweight

1. Gennady Golovkin
2. Canelo Alvarez
3. Daniel Jacobs
4. Jermall Charlo
5. David Lemieux
6. Billy Joe Saunders
7. Andy Lee
8. Hassan N’Dam
9. Ryota Murata
10. Sergiy Derevyanchenko

Light middleweight

1. Erislandy Lara
2. Jermell Charlo
3. Demetrius Andrade
4. Jarrett Hurd
5. Julian Williams
6. Austin Trout
7. Erickson Lubin
8. Liam Smith
9. Jack Culcay
10. David Benavidez

Welterweight

1. Keith Thurman
2. Errol Spence Jr.
3. Danny Garcia
4. Shawn Porter
5. Manny Pacquiao
6. Jeff Horn
7. Kell Brook
8. Jessie Vargas
9. Lamont Peterson
10. Lucas Matthysse

The rest of the rankings are in the next page.

Light welterweight

1. Terence Crawford
2. Mikey Garcia*
3. Julius Indongo
4. Viktor Postol
5. Antonio Orozco
6. Eduard Troyanovski
7. Rances Barthelemy
8. Adrian Granados
9. Ricky Burns
10. Sergey Lipinets

Lightweight

1. Jorge Linares
2. Mikey Garcia*
3. Terry Flanagan
4. Robert Easter Jr.
5. Anthony Crolla
6. Luke Campbell
7. Dejan Zlaticanin
8. Raymundo Beltran
9. Denis Shafikov
10. Felix Verdejo

Junior lightweight

1. Vasyl Lomachenko
2. Miguel Berchelt
3. Gervonta Davis
4. Jezreel Corrales
5. Francisco Vargas
6. Orlando Salido
7. Robinson Castellanos
8. Jason Sosa
9. Jhonny Gonzalez
10. Masayuki Ito

Featherweight

1. Leo Santa Cruz
2. Carl Frampton
3. Gary Russell Jr.
4. Lee Selby
5. Abner Mares
6. Oscar Valdez
7. Scott Quigg
8. Jesus Cuellar
9. Joseph Diaz
10. Claudio Marrero

Light featherweight

1. Guillermo Rigondeaux
2. Jessie Magdaleno
3. Nonito Donaire
4. Moises Flores
5. Hugo Ruiz
6. Rey Vargas
7. Marlon Tapales
8. Julio Ceja
9. Yukinori Oguni
10. Ronny Rios

Bantamweight

1. Shinsuke Yamanaka
2. Jamie McDonnell
3. Zhanat Zhakiyanov
4. Ryan Burnett
5. Juan Carlos Payano
6. Zolani Tete
7. Lee Haskins
8. Luis Nery
9. Takoma Inoue
10. Liborio Solis

Light bantamweight

1. Naoya Inoue
2. Roman Gonzalez
3. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai
4. Jerwin Ancajas
5. Khalid Yafai
6. Carlos Cuadras
7. Juan Francisco Estrada
8. John Riel Casimero
9. Rau’shee Warren
10. Luis Concepcion

Flyweight

1. Kazuto Ioka
2. Donnie Nietes
3. Daigo Higa
4. Zou Shiming
5. Juan Carlos Reveco
6. Moruti Mthalane
7. McWilliams Arroyo
8. Francisco Rodriguez Jr.
9. Komgrich Nantapech
10. Andrew Selby

Light flyweight/Strawweight

1. Milan Melindo
2. Kosei Tanaka
3. Knockout CP Freshmart
4. Jose Argumedo
5. Ken Shiro
6. Ryoichi Taguchi
7. Tatsuya Fukuhara
8. Hekkie Budler
9. Pedro Guevara
10. Wanheng Menayothin

* Since Mikey Garcia’s future is yet to be determined, I decided to put him in both the lightweight and light welterweight rankings until Garcia makes a decision in what weight class he will compete next.

Other news in Boxing:

1. Promoter Eddie Hearn has a lot of interest in putting together a rematch between Dillian Whyte and heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. But before Hearn can put that fight together, he wants Whyte to capture a world title by beating WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. Whyte is fighting on August 19 against a still to be determined opponent in the United States. Whyte is fighting on the undercard of the Terence Crawford vs. Julius Indongo card at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska. That fight will be broadcast on ESPN.

2. After finally getting his hands on the IBF welterweight title, Errol Spence Jr. has his sights set on unified welterweight champion Keith Thurman. Spence has wanted a fight against Thurman since 2014. Thurman wasn’t willing to fight him back then, and he still doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to make the fight now that Spence is a world champion. It’s also hard to imagine Thurman taking a fight with Spence after he is finished recovering from elbow surgery.

3. Former welterweight world champion Andre Berto says Conor McGregor revealed to him the game plan he’ll be using to try and beat boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. later this month in their fight on Showtime pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“He understands how he wants to make Floyd Mayweather uncomfortable,” Berto told Fighthype. “Me seeing it and talking to McGregor, that’s the plan. He’s a southpaw. He does a lot of awkward movements, and I really believe he thinks it’s going to make a big difference in the fight. He believes he’s going to bring a little bit more, something different from what Floyd’s used to. Make things awkward, and jump in from different angles.”

4. Promoter Lou DiBella, who co-promoted the July 29 Barclays Center card in Brooklyn, New York, has two more dates on hold for fight cards at the arena this year. One is penciled in for October 14, which is supposed to be the return of former middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs for his first fight since a close decision loss to unified world champion Gennady Golovkin on March 18. Jacobs’ fight, against an opponent to be determined, likely will headline a Premier Boxing Champions card on FOX.

The second date is November 4, which is earmarked for heavyweight world titleholder Deontay Wilder’s next defense. It’s supposed to be on Showtime but if Wilder is ultimately forced into a rematch with mandatory challenger and former champion Bermane Stiverne. At this point and time, a Wilder vs. Stiverne match is not commercially viable, so don’t count on the fight being on Showtime, which has said it has no interest in that bout. The network would have big interest in fights between Wilder and an opponent such as Luis “King Kong” Ortiz, whom Wilder wants to fight, or Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller.

Fightful Boxing Retrospective: Pernell Whitaker vs. Oscar De La Hoya (April 12, 1997)

Here is a brand new section to the newsletter, the boxing retrospective, where I would take one fight from the past, suggested by you, the readers, and I will analyze the fight, the fighters and the impact that fight left in the sport, if any. This week we’re taking a look at the 1997 fight between Pernell Whitaker and Oscar De La Hoya.

The bout featured a matchup of two of the top ranked pound-for-pound fighters in boxing at the time. Whitaker had been the WBC welterweight champion for four years, capturing world titles in four different divisions throughout his career. Whitaker had been among the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport since 1989, with The Ring magazine listing him number one in their annual pound-for-pound rankings for three consecutive years from 1993 to 1995. The 24-year-old Oscar De La Hoya was a perfect 23-0, had already become a three-division world champion and was the reigning WBC super lightweight champion, which he had won the previous year after defeating Mexican legend Julio Cesar Chavez.

Financially, the bout was a success for all sides. De La Hoya won $10 million in the fight while Whitaker took home $6 million. The pay-per-view generated 720,000 pay-per-view buys and $28.8 million in PPV revenue.

This fight is certainly timely for a couple of reasons. The first of which is the highly disputed scorecards in which boxing fans call a robbery against Whitaker. The second was the circumstances regarding both fighters. De La Hoya, a junior welterweight, is moving up in weight to fight Whitaker, the WBC welterweight champion at the time. To a much smaller degree, it’s almost like what we saw in the Adrien Broner vs. Mikey Garcia in which Garcia is moving up in weight from lightweight to junior welterweight for the fight.

I watched the HBO broadcast of the fight, which can be seen below. The broadcast team at the time was the main trio of Jim Lampley on play-by-play duties and Roy Jones Jr. and Larry Merchant serving as color commentators. As is with almost every HBO boxing fight for the past couple of decades, Harold Letterman is the unofficial judge and fourth broadcaster for the fight.

This fight was suggested to me by @vgmightyp on Twitter. If you want to see a fight being featured on the Fightful Boxing Retrospective section, you can participate either in the comments section below, in the Fightful boxing forums, or Tweet me @CarlosToro360

Round 1: The fight begins with both men clinching numerous times within the first 30 seconds. The crowd is not happy with that. De La Hoya throws a quick jab. Whitaker throws a couple of jabs and the two of them clinch. De La Hoya throws a mean left uppercut which Whitaker partially blocks. De La Hoya is now throwing more left hooks now. Whitaker lands a nice three-jab combo. Both men clinch yet again with the two fighters throwing short, yet mostly ineffective uppercuts to the body. The crowd is definitely not pleased with this round so far. Whitaker throws a couple of jabs, but then De La Hoya answers back with a flurry of rights while the two of them get tangled up. Whitaker shot connects a good body shot using the left hand. Both men try to throw a few jabs to end the round.

Fightful scored round 1 for Whitaker 10-9

Round 2: Both men exchange jabs to start and De La Hoya goes for a 1-2 combo. Whitaker continues to use the right jab. De La Hoya hits Whitaker with a hard left body shot while Whitaker responds with a straight right. De La Hoya lands a good counter right and misses with the left. Whitaker taunts De La Hoya and the crowd is chanting “Oscar!” De La Hoya lands a right-hand body shot while Whitaker lands a counter left. Whitaker lands a left-hand body shot. De La Hoya lands a couple of very hard right body shots as the round comes to a close.

Fightful scored round 2 for De La Hoya 10-9

*Author’s note: By this point in the fight, punching stats are nearly identical. Whitaker landed 36 of 101 punches (36 percent) while De La Hoya landed 34 of 97 punches (35 percent).

Round 3: The round starts with a couple of jabs being thrown by both fighters Whitaker barely connects with the left jab. De La Hoya throws a three-punch combo at Whitaker. De La Hoya is now missing some of his punches now, but then connects a nice counter right jab to Whitaker’s face almost a minute into the round. Whitaker fires back by throwing a hard left hand to De La Hoya. Both men clinch and they throw a couple of hard body shots. Leaving the clinch, De La Hoya connects with a hard-sounding left body uppercut. Whitaker just uses the jab to get De La Hoya to back off of him. De La Hoya and Whitaker clinch again. Whitaker throws De La Hoya to the ground, but it’s not ruled a knockdown. What happens in that scuffle is that Whitaker headbutts De La Hoya and now is suffering from a cut under his right eye. Referee Mills Lane decides to take a point away from Whitaker as a result of the headbutt. The round ends with De La Hoya still throwing more punches. De La Hoya lands another hard uppercut and Whitaker manages to land a good jab.

Fightful scored round 3 for De La Hoya 10-8

Round 4: De La Hoya tries to stick a right hand, but he’s short or just over the shoulder too often. There’s one that lands, and now Whitaker leads with his head and starts doing some work inside during a clinch. Most of this round is Whitaker’s defense just frustrating De La Hoya. De La Hoya is trying to land numerous jabs clean, but is unsuccessful in doing so. De La Hoya does starting swinging his hands all over the place at the end of the round, landing nothing but the crowd is still very excited. Whitaker did a masterful job of trying to outmaneuver De La Hoya and that final sequence won him the round in my book.

Fightful scored round 4 for Whitaker 10-9

Round 5: Whitaker opens the round with a 1-2 combo, both of them very hard shots. Whitaker is starting to really use the jab to control the fight while De La Hoya has been throwing nothing but power punches. De La Hoya lands a left hook to Whitaker, but misses the ensuing combo. A 1-2 from Whitaker lands as he completely controls the action with his jab and movement. Whitaker showboating now, trying to draw De La Hoya in. De La Hoya switches to the southpaw, as he did at the end of the fourth, and tries to jab back with his right.

Fightful scored round 5 for Whitaker 10-9

Round 6: De La Hoya starts off in the southpaw stance again. De La Hoya lands two straight left hands. De La Hoya misses with the left jab. Whitaker starts tagging De La Hoya with the left jab. Whitaker misses with a hard left hand. De La Hoya barely connects with a left body shot, but the commentators think it did a lot of damage when it clearly didn’t. Whitaker starts throwing jabs again. De La Hoya spends the majority of the round switching stances. Both men finish the round aggressively. Really hard round to call.

Fightful scored 6 for Whitaker 10-9

Round 7: Whitaker eats a left body shot from De La Hoya. Whitaker throws a couple of right hands, but it doesn’t land cleanly. De La Hoya throws a couple of left jabs and Whitaker tries to audition for the UFC and takes down De La Hoya. Whitaker with a nice body shot, and De La Hoya clips him with a right hand. De La Hoya now goes for a long right punch. De La Hoya keeps feigning, but not taking advantage of his much bigger frame. Then he showboats and pumps his fist after the bell sounds.

Fightful scored round 7 De La Hoya 10-9

Round 8: Whitaker lands with the left. Whitaker then tries to throw a left hook, but misses. De La Hoya answers back with a lead right jab. De La Hoya lands with a counter right jab. Both men clinch once more. De La Hoya tries to tag Whitaker with the jab once more. Whitaker misses with the left hook. De La Hoya then gets caught with a right hook. De La Hoya threw a nice left body hook. De La Hoya lands several good punches at the end of the round. Whitaker has the last punch of the round, a right jab to De La Hoya.

Fightful scored round 8 for De La Hoya 10-9

Round 9: Whitaker lands a short left body hook. Whitaker then goes to the jab once more. Whitaker lands another left body hook. Both men clinch once more. De La Hoya has been hopping around the ring all round long. De La Hoya then loses his balances from switching to southpaw and gets his feet tangled with Whitaker’s. De La Hoya was about to fall, but then uses his right hand to touch the canvas and regain his balance. That’s called a knockdown for Whitaker. Whitaker with a left to the body, and De La Hoya tries to flurry again in the closing seconds of the round. Whitaker lands a good counter hook at the end of the round as well.

Fightful scores round 9 Whitaker 10-8

Round 10: Both men are throwing sharp jabs, but neither man is landing their jabs. The first 90 seconds of the fight sees both men not doing much. Whitaker tags De La Hoya with the jab. De La Hoya lands a good right hand and then goes for a flurry of punches, but doesn’t land much. Whitaker lands another body hook as the two of them are tangled up on the ropes.

Fightful scores round 10 for De La Hoya 10-9

Round 11: Whitaker is now trying to land numerous jabs and trying to outbox De La Hoya. De La Hoya lands a couple of hard body shots, but Whitaker clowns around to show that he is unaffected. De La Hoya, now in the southpaw stance, lands a couple of left jabs. Whitaker answers back with a right jab. Whitaker lands several hard shots to De La Hoya, his best round of the fight trying to land power punches in my book.

Fightful scores round 11 for Whitaker 10-9

Round 12: De La Hoya starts the round by throwing a jab. De La Hoya unleashes a flurry of punches to Whitaker’s body. Whitaker has De La Hoya miss with the right jab. De La Hoya goes for another flurry of punches. Whitaker throws a couple of jabs. The two men exchange punches, but not much landed from either man. Both men clinch again. De La Hoya finishes the fight throwing another flurry, but Whitaker dodges it by moving back and not countering with anything.

Fightful scores round 12 for De La Hoya 10-9, making it a 113-113

This fight was an impactful one for several reasons. One, it further cemented De La Hoya’s status as boxing’s next biggest star. It also brought to light the ridiculous WBC ruling, even though it didn’t matter in the final scorecards. Jones did not think De La Hoya was really affected from the headbutt and thought the governing body should amend the rule and only remove a point away from the uncut fighter if and only if the fighter who got cut is really affected. The fight itself was not decent, but not great, with neither man proving they are better than the other, as Merchant said late in the fight, “I don’t know if any fighter deserves to win this fight if it ends this way.”

It’s hard to call this fight a robbery, but it exposed what the three judges in the fight value more: power punches. Each judge has a different criteria for what constitutes a round win. Like with different fighting styles, judging and scoring a bout is multi-layered with some people valuing certain aspects more than others. Had the three judges valued Whitaker’s speed, defense and higher volume of punches, the scores would have been flipped. It’s the clash of philosophies in the cards that has some people thinking that the sport is fixed, and while I’ll be the first to admit that there is a problem with incompetent judging, I will also defend the way some of these judges score fights, much to the chagrin of the fans and boxing media.

Wladimir Klitschko announces his retirement from boxing

Wladimir Klitschko, boxing’s former heavyweight champion who went undefeated for 11 years at one point, has announced his retirement.

Klitschko released a statement on his website detailing the reasons for the retirement. He had also released a video, which can be seen above, going into a little more detail into this decision.

“Twenty-seven years ago, I started my journey in sport and it was the best choice of a profession I could have ever made. Because of this choice, I have traveled the world, learned new languages, create businesses, build intellectual properties, help people in need, became a scientist, entrepreneur, motivator, trainer, investor and much else. I was, and still is, capable of doing all of this because of the global appeal of the sport of boxing, my own talent, and most importantly, you, my loyal fans. At some point in our lives we need to switch careers and get ourselves ready for the next chapter and charge towards new challenges. Obviously, I’m not an exception to this, and now it’s my turn. I’m doing this with the greatest respect to these new challenges, but obviously with tremendous excitement, passion, dedication, expectation and hope that my next career, which I had been planning and working on for several years will be at least as successful as my previous career, if not even more successful,” Klitschko said in the video.

The statement on the website said Klitschko took this long to make a decision because he wanted the excitement from his latest fight to wear off.

“I deliberately took a few weeks to make my decision, to make sure I had enough distance from the fight at Wembley Stadium. As an amateur and a professional boxer, I have achieved everything I dreamed of, and now I want to start my second career after sports. I would have never imagined that I would have such a long and incredibly successful boxing career. I´m very thankful for this. Thanks to everyone who has always supported me. Especially my family, my team and my many fans,” Klitschko wrote.

Klitschko was the unified WBA “super”, IBF, WBO, IBO, The Ring, and lineal heavyweight champions, before losing his titles to Tyson Fury in late 2015. The two had been scheduled to have a rematch throughout 2016, but injuries to both fighters and failed drug tests on the part of Fury canceled the fight.

It was at that point in late 2016 that all the heavyweight titles that Fury held were vacated and so Anthony Joshua won the IBF title. After defeating Eric Molina last year, Joshua vs. Klitschko was made official. The two fought in April where Klitschko was knocked out late in the fight and Joshua retained the IBF title and won the vacant WBA title. That fight drew in a record crowd of 90,000 at Wembley Stadium to see the two of them fight in what would result in one of the greatest heavyweight title matches of all time.

Even with the loss, Klitschko looked great against Joshua, a far younger and faster boxer than Klitschko. His retirement was not because of declining skills. At worst, Klitschko is the third-best heavyweight in the world right now, but at 41 years old, Klitschko thought it was time to hang up his gloves and leave the sport in very good health despite a pro career that began 21 years ago.

A Joshua vs. Klitschko rematch was rumored to take place in Las Vegas in November, but that rematch was never made official. Klitschko did say in the post-fight interview that he would like a rematch, but had hinted that a rematch was not a guarantee and that he would retire instead.

Klitschko had an 11-year undefeated streak where he captured world title after world title, beating any challenger that stepped forward. One fight that some fans had been hoping Klitschko would take during his reign as the unified champion was one against his brother Vitali, who spent several years as the WBC heavyweight champion. Wladimir had tremendous respect for his brother and did not want to hurt the relationship between the two and said he never wants to fight his brother.

Now the focus will surely move on to Joshua’s next fight. Now that Klitschko has retired, Joshua’s next opponent will almost surely be mandatory Kubrat Pulev, likely to take place on that November Las Vegas that was slated for Joshua vs. Klitschko 2.

Klitschko was a supremely gifted boxer as well as a class-act and humanitarian. He was as close to a modern-day Renaissance man as there could be. Klitschko was one of the greatest athletes of the 21st century as well as have an intellectual side to him that can match his tremendous athleticism. Nicknamed “Dr. Steelhammer,” Wladimir has a PhD in exercise physiology and can speak four languages fluently.

His love for the theatrics has been incorporated into the ring, most notably his ring entrances, with Klitschko having almost WrestleMania-like entrances whenever he came out for a fight.

Klitschko retires with a 64-5 pro record with 53 wins coming via knockout. Klitschko started his pro career in 1996. Overall, he became the second-longest reigning heavyweight champion of all time, and has the second-most successful title defenses total of any heavyweight boxer with 23 (including his initial reign as WBO champion), behind Joe Louis (25) and ahead of Larry Holmes (20) and Muhammad Ali (19).