How much regret Keith Thurman will feel at the unharvested fruit that fell from the branches of his prime years is difficult to measure. He remained infuriatingly inactive through injury and choice, watching and narrating as contemporaries; Porter, Brook and Garcia fought and eventually made way for Spence, Crawford and now their own successors ..read more

Article first appeared at gambling.com Joshua to WIN 2/7 BETFRED Joshua to WIN by KO 13/2 William Hill Much is written about whether Anthony Joshua, 26-3 (23ko) is the same fighter he was in 2016 when first exploding on to the world-scene as an aggressive, come forward puncher. Either by evolution, or as a result ..read more

Article first appeared on Gambling.com Dubois to win by decision 15/8 with BETVICTOR On Saturday in Riyhad, Saudi Arabia, amidst the huge Day or Reckoning card, Daniel Dubois arrives at a crossroads in his boxing career. Triumph, and some of the lustre lost in defeat to Joe Joyce and Oleksander Usyk will be restored, defeat ..read more

Eventually, boxing always returns to the big men. Heavyweights transcend the traditional boundaries of boxing in ways Middleweights and Welters never can. Enthralling the masses; from trailblazer Jack Johnson, to Jack Dempsey, from Joe Louis to Mike Tyson and of course the greatest of them all, Muhammad Ali too. On Saturday, the boxing circus will ..read more

Article first published at BigFightWeekend.com Flinty Welsh Middleweight Liam Williams, 25 (20ko)-4-1, returned from a year of inactivity with a one punch knockout victory against the over matched Florin Cardos at the York Hall, London. A win that reveals little; Williams has always been a powerful hitter, but serves as a reminder to Hamzah Sheeraz ..read more

Article first appeared on gambling.com Describing the first fight after the loss of a pristine record as a ‘comeback’ is problematic but nevertheless commonplace. It is one of the many tenants of the modern cult of the unbeaten fighter. An ideology with far fewer followers in bygone eras when activity was king.  Ryan Garcia, 23-1 (19ko), is the latest to find himself cast ..read more

First published on Gambling.com In Manchester this Saturday, Liverpool’s ‘Popeye piranha’, Nick Ball will attempt to leap several spaces on boxing’s uniquely chaotic hierarchy of ladders and snakes when he boxes Isaac Dogboe in a WBC Featherweight eliminator. The event is staged by Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions and will be broadcast live by TNT, formerly BT Sport, in the UK. For ..read more

Cordina wins in Monte Carlo in tougher than expected defence Welshman Joe Cordina successfully defended his IBF Super Featherweight in Monte Carlo, beating American Edward Vazquez over 12 competitive rounds. It was closely contested, Judge Jeremy Hayes arrived at a 114-114 score which struck this observer as generous but was in keeping with DAZN pundit ..read more

Article first published at BigFightWeekend.com Muhammad Ali turned 36 a few weeks before his loss to novice professional Leon Spinks. A man with as many gaps in his smile as fights on his ledger. Tired and compromised, Ali was a poorly coordinated confection of numb defiance and flickering memory by the early Spring of 1978 ..read more

I suppose Marvin Gaye didn’t really care about Cassius Clay recording an album at Columbia Records in 1963 or Smokin’ Joe Frazier singing First Round Knockout for Motown in 1975. Hard to imagine Marlon Brando was unduly concerned that Jake LaMotta played the bartender in The Hustler or that Tupac worried about Nigel Benn’s collaboration ..read more