11:35 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Oscar Valdez wasn’t the only person to be scrutinized by the boxing world after he tested positive for the banned substance phentermine ahead of his victory over Robson Conceicao earlier this month. His trainer, Mexico’s Eddy Reynoso, was dragged into the controversy, and had his reputation called into question by

7:53 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Boxing has myriad issues, but chief among them is inactivity. That problem was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the inability to hold fights in front of capacity crowds. But even with many of those restrictions behind us, many notable boxers have no fights officially scheduled despite not having competed

6:19 PM ET BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Canelo Alvarez and Caleb Plant started their scheduled fight more than a month early. The two boxers got into an ugly punching exchange during a stare-down at a news conference Tuesday at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Alvarez and Plant are scheduled to fight for the unified super middleweight

11:57 AM ET World heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua has signed a new “career-long” agreement with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom, the promoters announced on Tuesday, although the length of the deal is undisclosed. Joshua will put his WBA, IBF and WBO world title belts on the line when he fights Oleksandr Usyk at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

12:15 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Joe Smith Jr. was hospitalized with COVID-19 and his Oct. 30 light heavyweight title defense vs. Umar Salamov has been postponed, the boxer’s promoter, Joe DeGuardia, told ESPN on Tuesday. The 32-year-old stayed in a Long Island, New York, hospital overnight before being released, according to DeGuardia. The 175-pound title

5:31 PM ET Nick Parkinson Close •Reports on boxing for ESPN.co.uk, as well as several national newspapers•Has been reporting on British boxing for over 15 years•Appears on BoxNation’s Boxing Matters show Anthony Joshua has been concentrating on overcoming Oleksandr Usyk’s southpaw stance in preparation for Saturday’s world heavyweight title defence. The WBA, IBF and WBO

11:51 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Probellum, a boxing promotion and media company, launched on Monday, the company’s president, Richard Schaefer, told ESPN. The company aims to take a global approach to the sport, using alliances in different territories — Europe, Eastern Bloc, Asia, Middle East and Africa among them — in an attempt to unify

2:39 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Manny Pacquiao has not made a decision on his future despite comments from the boxer suggesting he has retired, Sean Gibbons, the president of Pacquiao’s promotional company, told ESPN on Monday. The future Hall of Famer, during an interview with Filipina star Toni Gonzaga on Sunday, said his “boxing career

6:24 PM ET The Mikaela Mayer-Maiva Hamadouche junior lightweight unification title bout will take place as a main event on Nov. 5 in Las Vegas, a source told ESPN on Sunday. The fight will be the second defense of the WBO junior lightweight title for Mayer (15-0, 5 KOs), who beat Erica Farias by a

6:31 AM ET Philip Matel Philippine senator and boxing icon Manny Pacquiao accepted the nomination of the PDP-Laban-Pacquiao faction to run for president in the 2022 Philippine elections scheduled in May. In the faction’s national assembly held in Quezon City on Sunday, Pacquiao ended months of speculation by pushing through with his biggest fight outside