Japan’s Junto Nakatani – who fights Alexandro Santiago for the WBC bantamweight title at the Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo on Saturday – can fight. For a fighter who’s already won titles at flyweight and super flyweight he’s tall, and his reputation’s growing. His knockout of Andrew Moloney in May 2023 was impressive. Moloney had already established himself in the US, so for Nakatani to knock him out ...
IBF welterweight champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis is looking for a new promoter. It had recently been reported that he had been in discussions with a number of promoters, including Matchroom. Ennis, 26, was upgraded to the status of champion as a consequence of Terence Crawford’s contractual obligation to negotiate a rematch with Errol Spence. Philadelphia’s Ennis most recently recorded a ...
Since boxing began, newspapers, magazines, television channels and websites have used the same time-honoured way of assessing a fighter and their capabilities. They will work their way down a checklist and put their scores or thoughts alongside a series of categories. Usually tagged on to the end, alongside sections like “Boxing ability” and “Chin”, there will be another: “Intangibles.” It is ...
The man Edgar Berlanga hopes to fight someday soon, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, is fond of saying: “No boxing, no life.” Berlanga knows there’s more to it than that. Did he always feel that way? That’s something only he knows in his heart, but, at least today, the super-middleweight contender is well aware that no boxing doesn’t mean the end of ...
Flint, Michigan’s Ardreal Holmes Jr extended his undefeated record with a superb second-round knockout of Marlon Harrington. Holmes fought Harrington at 154lbs in the main event on Salita Promotions’ inaugural DAZN broadcast at the Wayne Star Fieldhouse in Detroit. Harrington started more aggressively, and was on the front foot for the opening 30 seconds of round one. Holmes, however, played it cool, keeping ...
Canelo Alvarez is stuck in a curious conundrum. In the court of public opinion, it’s David Benavidez or bust as to who the super middleweight champion should fight next around his traditional Cinco De Mayo date. From Caleb Plant to Billy Joe Saunders and Gennadiy Golovkin to Callum Smith and, most recently, Jermell Charlo, Alvarez has ousted everyone he’s faced ...
The promoter of Alexandro Santiago has had quite a week and believes it will continue. Santiago makes the first defense of his WBC bantamweight title on Saturday, February 24, in Japan against the No. 1 ranked challenger for his belt Junto Nakatani. Santiago won that title last summer against future Hall of Famer Nonito Donaire on the Errol Spence vs. ...
Naoya Inoue has been in the awards again, having been named Japan’s Boxer the of the Year at the annual Japanese Boxing Commission and Sportswriters Club ceremony in Tokyo. The brilliant super bantamweight champion, dubbed ‘The Monster’, enjoyed a brilliant 2023, with decisive wins over Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales, and for many he was boxing’s Fighter of the Year. ...
Junto Nakatani might not be a household name in the US, but that could be for now. He fights Alexandro Santiago on February 24 at the Ryogoku Kokugikan, in Tokyo, Japan. Already a two-division world champion, he won the vacant WBO flyweight title over Giemel Magramo and defended it four times. Three of those four defenses were by stoppage. In ...
Padraig McCrory believes Edgar Berlanga and his team have made a mistake in picking him to fight this Saturday and that he’s one punch away from changing his life when the unbeaten Super-Middleweights clash at Caribe Royale in Orlando, live worldwide on DAZN. McCrory (18-0 9 KOs) faces-off with Berlanga (21-0 16 KOs) for the first time today (Tuesday) in Orlando as they ...