Author: Paul Magno

When word of the Naoya Inoue-Stephen Fulton junior featherweight title fight hit the online Universo Puglistico on Wednesday, hardcore boxing fans became instantly energized. The 29-year-old “Monster” Inoue (24-0, 21 KOs), a 3-division world titlist and unified 4-belt bantamweight champ who recently relinquished his 118 lb. titles for a move up in weight, is universally regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world (if not THE best). Fulton (21-0, 8 KOs), meanwhile, is currently the WBO and WBC junior featherweight champ and also acknowledged as one of the very best in the sport. The 28-year-old “Cool Boy…

Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury is back on…again. It’s not exactly a mega-fight, super-fight or anything resembling Ryan Garcia-Tank Davis or Errol Spence-Terence Crawford in size or level of importance, but Paul-Fury looks to be finally happening. Mixed martial arts journalist Ariel Helwani recently broke the story of the “done deal,” set for February 25. Details involving venue and a broadcast deal have yet to be released, but former ESPN boxing reporter Dan Rafael has said via Twitter that ESPN PPV may be the host. This latest attempt to make the fight will be the third try to wrangle the…

Oscar De La Hoya, head of Golden Boy Promotions, sent the online boxing world into a tizzy early Sunday morning when he blasted his way into a quiet boxing news night with this Twitter post: “I have no contract, deadline for me is Monday or I’m moving on. #DavisGarcia” Wait, what? Gervonta “Tank” Davis vs. Ryan “King Ry” Garcia, the fight everyone’s been assured is a “done deal” and definitely going to happen April 15, is definitely NOT a done deal? There’s still not even a contract in play? We knew back in November, when financial and broadcast arrangements had…

Boxing fans (and media) are a notoriously fickle bunch. As a fighter, you’re often only as good as your last performance. An elite-level performer or “can’t miss” prospect one day could be “overrated” or “untested” the next, depending on a fighter’s most recent outing. This is the case with rising welterweight star Jaron “Boots” Ennis. The 25-year-old Philadelphia fighter was riding high on a wave of positive buzz coming into his January 7 bout with the Ukraine’s Karen Chukhadzhian. He had stopped his last 19 opponents, delivering first-time career KO/TKO losses to four of his five last on-the-books foes. “Boots”…

Boxing nerds have told us for ages that the ultimate objective in boxing should be “one champion per division.” Doing this, they say, is the key to getting the sport back to mainstream prominence. Of course, anyone with even a somewhat reasonable understanding of boxing in this real world of 2023 knows that the lament over “too many world champs” is pure silliness. Boxing has long since passed the point where championship clarity matters. Case in point is Devin Haney. There’s no questioning Haney’s status as the fully unified 4-belt lightweight champ. He’s got all four belts. No doubt. Admittedly,…

Newly-crowned WBC junior welterweight champ Regis Prograis is determined not to be overlooked or passed over again. After three years of trying to get a shot back at the top following a razor-thin decision loss of his WBA title to Josh Taylor in 2019, the once-again champ has kept himself in the spotlight following his November stoppage of tough-as-nails former world champ Jose Zepeda for the vacant title. Prograis’ reemergence has definitely caught the eye of fellow 140 lb. top dogs. Rising star Ryan Garcia, for example, let it be known that he doesn’t think a whole lot of Prograis’…

The excitement was understandable. The hype leading up to this past Saturday’s bout between Gervonta “Tank” Davis and Hector Luis Garcia said that, should Davis win, an April 15 mega-fight between Davis and Ryan “King Ry” Garcia would be next. As things turned out, Davis won spectacularly, via ninth round corner stoppage. Tank vs. King Ry is next…right? Well… Any savvy boxing fan knows that nothing is guaranteed in this sport. And, given the two human beings involved in this dynamic, this April 15 date is FAR from guaranteed. The 28-year-old Davis has had his outside-the-ring problems and distractions, most…

In boxing, a brutally effective show-closer often has the ability to erase any taste of scandal or outside-the-ring nastiness. Such appears to be the case with WBA lightweight titlist Gervonta Davis. The favored Davis stopped undefeated WBA super featherweight champ Hector Luis Garcia with a big left hand at the end of the eighth round that eventually led to a corner stoppage prior to the ninth. The big showing– taking place before a sold-out crowd of 19,000+ at Capital One Arena in Washington D.C.– instantly TKOd talk of the fighter’s December 27 arrest on charges of domestic battery and of…

Jake Paul is okay at boxing. He’s good at wrestling. He may be decent at MMA. He’s great, however, at attracting attention. YouTuber/influencer/C-list celebrity Jake Paul announced Thursday morning that he’s signed a deal with mixed martial arts outfit, the Professional Fighters League (PFL) and will make his MMA debut later in the year. The 25-year-old says that he’s not done with boxing and will simultaneously compete in the two combat sports. He’s also publicly offered UFC legend Nick Diaz a two-fight deal to face him, once in a boxing match and then in an MMA contest. The bouts would…

Jaron “Boots” Ennis fights this Saturday on the Gervonta Davis-Hector Luis Showtime PPV undercard at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. If you don’t know who the 25-year-old welterweight “Boots” Ennis is, you need to start paying attention, quick. Ranked no. 1 by the IBF and in the top 3 of the other sanctioning bodies, the Philadelphia native is on the verge of making the whole “who’s the best– Spence or Crawford?” debate null and void. Ennis just may be better than both. He’s certainly making a solid case for himself as he tears through second-tier challenges on his way…