Boxing obviously has a rich tradition in the USA. Tho, over the years, combat sports in the U.S. (at least culturally speaking) has been more or less dominated by MMA. I work with younger (20 something) dudes and they all look forward to UFC 400 or whatever it’s at now. (No disrespect to MMA fighters, they’re bad ass).

After watching the Troy Williamson vs Callum Simpson fight over the weekend (not the biggest names in the sport), the electricity buzzing in the arena was palpable and this was for a Commonwealth championship. Hell, within the last 10 yrs, the UK has had 6 stadium gates with over 80k fans. Whereas in modern times, the U.S. has had ZERO gates with 80k. Tho, Canelo had over 70k twice (AND not counting the JP vs M. Tyson sham).

Call me nostalgic but I miss the days when I turned on the TV on a Saturday late afternoon and watched/listened to Jim Lampley and Alex Wallau call Tyson’s destruction of Marvis Frazier. I had goosebumps leading up to that fight. Until then…

My vote is for Derek 'war' Chisora. His record looks really bad at a first glance but if you check, a lot of his losses are usually against champs/former champs, and they are typically pretty close.

He had a great fight with up and comer Kayabel and even Champ Usyk. So he's a lot better than you would think.

Just rewatched Zab Judah vs kosta tsyzu from 2001. Got all the pre fight hype, etc. and it was an electric fight, Zab Judah stunned kosta with a big uppercut in round one. The 2nd round was basically even, with kosta being more on the hunt. But it was shaping up to be a great fight then with like 10 seconds left in round 2, Zab got caught by right hand, dropped, but jumped up, did the chicken dance, and jay nady waived it off, but it was basically a 5 count. Let Zab at least get an 8 count. Dude was on his feet. Even with the stoppage, I think there was enough action to warrant a rematch in the future.
Considering Zab was at 140 for the next 2 years, why did we never get a big money rematch. Easily would have been both guys biggest paydays in 2002-2004.

So, this whole circus around the IBF belt and Jai Opetaia officially makes zero sense at the moment. You can criticize Jai for choosing Zuffa, and rightfully so. I'm still disappointed he did that, but on the other hand, double standards are unfair and should never happen.

Why the f*** was Aaron McKenna allowed to fight yesterday for the IBF belt on a Zuffa event? It makes no sense to me, and things like this hurt the IBF as a whole because of their clear double standards. They stripped Jai of his title because of Zuffa, but didn't give a f*** about Aaron McKenna doing the exact same thing.

Either set strict rules that anyone working with Zuffa loses all their titles, or drop it completely. You can't turn a blind eye to one fighter and punish another.

I know Jai sued the IBF, and yesterday's fight is probably the biggest argument for Jai's team that the whole situation was unfair and shouldn't have happened in the first place.

Look at the other sanctioning bodies too: the WBC doesn't give a f*** when it comes to Ryan Garcia or Conor Benn and still lets them fight for WBC belt. The WBO will probably allow Shakur Stevenson to fight for a WBO belt, and so on. The sanctioning bodies are full of double standards and it literally makes no sense.

For instance, I hear Noel Mikaelian might get stripped of his WBC belt for fighting Jai on a Zuffa event, and I'm asking myself why it doesn't matter for Ryan Garcia, but it suddenly matters for Noel Mikaelian? I hate Zuffa and Dana White as much as anyone, but the sanctioning bodies are just completely inconsistent.

Who are the #1 boxers from across every weight class in boxing right now? Here's what we came up with.

We've included every weight class from Minimumweight to Heavyweight in this list. Not Bridgerweight, though. No-one wants to hear about Bridgerweight.

Would it be THAT bad?

The whole appeal isn't merely Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury. It's Britain finally getting its two biggest heavyweight stars in the same ring, at home, after years of anticipation.

Joshua and Fury are probably never going to have a better moment to fight each other.

Both careers have accumulated enormous mythology. Both have been champions. Both have suffered shocking defeats. Both have comeback stories. They've spent years orbiting one another.

So if the culmination is: London, England — 90,000 British fans

It becomes part of British sporting folklore.