Boxing

Ryan Garcia is boxing's reigning "it" guy.

A potent meld of good looks, effusive personality and prodigious social media following has made him a higher-profile commodity than his ring resume now warrants.

So it's been working well enough so far.

But while casual fans may be forever distracted by non-combat bells and whistles, he'll need to gain legitimate in-ring street cred to move the needle past Kardashian-style fame.

A one-sided defeat of Javier Fortuna—a former second-tier title-holder at 130 pounds—on Saturday didn't hurt the cause, coming via sixth-round KO. Garcia spent most of the evening in Los Angeles strafing the 33-year-old Dominican with punishing shots to the body and head that yielded three knockdowns.

The performance predictably delighted the masses in his SoCal backyard, but given that the fight was at 140 pounds and Fortuna hadn't won a truly meaningful fight in a couple of years, it wasn't exactly the stuff that sure-fire Hall of Fame inductions are made of.

In other words, though his record is a pristine 23-0, and he's ranked fifth by The Ring at lightweight, he'll need more than a few new Instagram devotees to get over with the purists.

That means his next foe will need to meet a few criteria.

He'll need to be closer to a 50/50 proposition than a 10/90. He'll need to have scored a worthwhile win since the start of 2021. And he'll need enough skill of his own to make Garcia finally use the tools his hype men have been gushing about.

Fortunately, there's one man who checks all three boxes.

His name: Gervonta "Tank" Davis.

The 27-year-old Baltimore native shares space with Garcia as one of the sport's best young talents, is slotted one place above him in The Ring's rankings at 135 and performs with a rough-hewn ferocity while brandishing highlight-producing one-shot power.

He's held belts of varying worth in three weight classes, starting as the full-fledged IBF/WBA champ at 130 pounds before "progressing" to bogus secondary title claims at 135 and 140.

Regardless, there's little debate about his skill, which has yielded a 27-0 record with 25 KOs since 2013 and has him on the verge of truly elite status–as evidenced by inclusion among the "five more who could easily be here" on Boxing Scene's pound-for-pound top 10 last month.

In other words, he's already everything Garcia says he wants to be.

And the fight is a promoter's dream for multiple reasons.

The style clash of a lanky 5'10" right-hander and a predatory 5'6" southpaw is particularly intriguing, given that both men have shown fight-altering power to the head and body.

"King Ryan" got off the floor to stop veteran contender Luke Campbell with a single hook to the liver in January 2021, while Davis' uppercut finish of triple-division champ Leo Santa Cruz three months earlier was the kind that still yields an involuntary cringe on every viewing.

The fan base clash is equally intriguing, too, with Davis having played to full houses in Baltimore, Atlanta and New York in recent fights while building on a hometown foundation that's evolved into crowds dotted with high-profile athletes and celebrities angling for space.

Garcia, meanwhile, blends the traditional boxing fervor that stems from his Mexican-American heritage with the new-school arrivals that help comprise his 1.21 million subscribers on YouTube and 8.9 million followers on Instagram.

Ask a teenager about Julio Cesar Chavez, and you'll get a blank stare. Ask the same teenager about Garcia, and you'll get instant recognition.

And perhaps the best reason for the fight?

Both guys seem to want it—at least when microphones are present.

The rivalry has kept each man's name in the other's mouth for the last several months. Davis has suggested the match has been made in public but rejected behind the scenes, while Garcia counters by saying Davis has been protected by promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Indeed, Davis' last five opponents have all been clients of either Mayweather Promotions or the Premier Boxing Champions stable, with which "Money's" business is closely aligned. That has left the Golden Boy Promotions brass to suggest the Garcia match would be easier to make if Davis were to break ranks.

Such a split appeared imminent leading up to Davis' fight with Rolando Romero in May, but neither the fighter nor Mayweather have provided much insight into the relationship since. And Golden Boy reportedly upped the ante in June by floating a "multi, multi, multi, multi-million-dollar offer" in Davis' direction to get the fight made but received no tangible response.

As for Garcia, he repeated his "bring me Davis" mantra for DAZN's audience on Saturday, again pining for a fight. Sirius XM host and ex-New York State Athletic Commission chairman Randy Gordon told Bleacher Report that a Davis-Garcia fight is alongside Terence Crawford vs. Errol Spence atop fans' wish lists.

It's a continuing soap opera on social media and between business types.

But if the rivals are who they say they are, it won't be a wish for much longer.

"I will fight Tank next," Garcia said. "If Tank wants it, let's get it. I have a spirit of competition in me, and you're gonna see it when I fight Tank Davis, and I'm gonna whip his ass."

Boxing legend George Foreman alleges that he is being extorted by two women who he says made up allegations that he sexually abused them.

According to TMZ Sports, the two women intend to file a lawsuit this week in Los Angeles against Foreman saying that he sexually abused them in the 1970s. The fathers of both women "apparently had a friendship and working relationship with Foreman decades ago."

Foreman released a statement on Wednesday denying the allegations and saying the women are trying to extort money from him:

"Over the past six months, two women have been trying to extort millions of dollars each from me and my family. They are falsely claiming that I sexually abused them over 45 years ago in the 1970s. I adamantly and categorically deny these allegations. The pride I take in my reputation means as much to me as my sports accomplishments, and I will not be intimidated by baseless threats and lies."

A source told TMZ Sports that the women have previously asked Foreman to pay each of them $12.5 million, but he believes the entire situation is part of "a coordinated extortion plot."

A former two-time heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medalist, Foreman is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He is also an entrepreneur known for his George Foreman Grill. His net worth is estimated to be around $300 million, per TMZ Sports.

Foreman concluded his statement by indicating that he fully intends to fight the allegations.

"I am, and always will be, guided by my faith and trust in God," Foreman said. "I will work with my lawyers to fully and truthfully expose my accusers' scheme and defend myself in court. I don't pick fights, but I don't run away from them either."

Gennadiy Golovkin is, by well-earned reputation, a straightforward guy.

And he insists there is zero animosity in his relationship with Canelo Alvarez.

The two have fought twice—first to a split-decision draw in September 2017 and then, exactly one day shy of a full year later, to a majority decision in which Alvarez handed Golovkin his only defeat.

The second fight, by the way, was delayed six months after Alvarez failed drug tests.

Golovkin is not shy in suggesting he deserved to win both fights, and plenty of deeply embedded boxing people back him.

Yet, in spite of noticeable changes in the way the two men behave in each other’s company—warm handshakes replaced by cold stares—he sticks to the claim of zero enmity as they prepare to make it a trilogy September 17 in Las Vegas.

But now that he’s on the flip side of 40 years old, his nonverbals may be betraying him.

The longtime and still-reigning middleweight champion recently sat down with Bleacher Report for a video Zoom chat in which Alvarez’s name inevitably came up.

And when asked directly if things with Canelo had soured over the years since their seemingly cordial initial interactions, his face curled into a mischievous smile as he launched a subtle verbal haymaker in the Mexican’s direction.

“I don’t even know how to explain it,” he said.

“Maybe it’s just the side effects of certain substances in the body. But I treat it as a sporting event, nothing personal. But the words that he chooses to say are unexplainable. Inexplicable.”

Those words, incidentally, are about as subtle as a sledgehammer.

“He's a f--king a--hole," Alvarez told TMZ Sports this month. He continued:

"He's not honest. He pretends to be a good person and be different but he's not. He talks a lot of s--t about me. He'll say, ‘I respect him, his career.’ And, other part, he'll say, ‘He's an embarrassing boxer, he's embarrassing for Mexican boxing.’ ... I hate that motherf--ker because of that."

Welcome to a high-stakes “he said/he said,” sweet science style.

A third fight between the rivals had been an on-again/off-again proposition from the moment they exited the T-Mobile Arena ring after fight No. 2. Their names were intermittently in each other’s mouths even as Alvarez pursued and captured titles at 168 and 175 pounds and Golovkin stayed put at middleweight and regained two of three mainstream belts he’d lost in the 2018 rematch in Las Vegas.

It became a done deal this spring when it was announced that they’d meet again in September after interim fights in which Golovkin faced the WBA’s 160-pound claimant, Ryota Murata, and Alvarez again climbed to light heavyweight to face that division’s WBA champion, Dmitry Bivol.

Golovkin passed his test with a ninth-round TKO win in Japan, but Alvarez suffered his second defeat in 61 career fights when he dropped a wide decision to Bivol. He insisted in the days following the fight that a rematch with Bivol was a priority, but a confirmation came soon after that he’d face Golovkin to complete their trilogy in a bout in which Alvarez’s four titles at 168 pounds are on the line.

Had Bivol not won, Golovkin isn’t certain he’d have gotten his third try.

“Knowing certain details, I believe that this fight would take place regardless of the outcome of the Bivol-Canelo fight,” he said, the impish smile returning. “On the other hand, his loss in his last fight probably brought him back to reality. It probably taught him to treat boxing more seriously.

“At some point I stopped hoping that this fight was going to take place because there were certain obligations, contractual obligations, that were broken, there were some legal issues that came about, and then the pandemic began. So indeed, I stopped hoping at some point.

“But eventually this fight materialized, and I’m very happy that it is going to take place now.”

And now that it’s happening, it’ll provide another referendum on the Golovkin legacy.

The perpetually proud Kazakh insisted before the Murata fight that another go-round with Alvarez was not necessary for his career narrative—given his multi-belt pre- and post-Canelo title reigns and a prodigious KO streak that covered eight years and 23 opponents from 2008 to 2017.

Still, when compared with his pristine 42-0 slate against everyone else, the 0-1-1 record against Alvarez does leave a smudge that Golovkin will likely be anxious to wipe clean come September.

Whether he pointedly admits it or not.

“My answer to your question before the fight in Japan was an honest answer,” he said. “I back then did not believe it was important, and I still think that it is not going to affect my legacy in any negative way.

“It would be just an excellent addition to my achievements if I deliver to my opponent and I get what I deserve. On the other hand, I believe that I will not lose anything. It is not going to tarnish my legacy even if I fail to win this fight. I will still be happy. It will just be my legacy that will stay with me, just without this additional goal.”

As for how to accomplish the goal, Golovkin played it conveniently close to the vest.

He’s been intermittently impressive in blowouts over relative nobodies Steve Rolls (KO Rd. 4) and Kamil Szeremeta (TKO Rd. 7) and appeared intermittently vulnerable while working his way to victories over more recognizable top-10 commodities Sergiy Derevyanchenko (UD Rd. 12) and Murata (TKO Rd. 9).

The Szeremeta and Murata fights came at the beginning and end of a pandemic-prompted 16-month hiatus, the longest of his career and one that followed on the heels of a 14-month break between Derevyanchenko and Szeremeta.

Overall, he’ll have fought just four times and 32 rounds between Alvarez II and Alvarez III, roughly half the workload of his younger (by eight years) rival.

Nevertheless, the mere suggestion that the layoffs could be an issue raises Golovkin’s ire.

“I don’t think that I would need to demonstrate to somebody or prove anything to anybody,” he said.

“I believe I need to be myself and do my job, and I don’t feel the need to prove anything to anybody. He became a more active fighter because he became the focus of his promoter, who was able to bring him back and reshuffle his card deck. It will not affect me much.”

Meanwhile, Golovkin says, what also won’t affect him is the third Alvarez result.

He wouldn’t promise that a win, even an impressive one, would prompt a glorious ride into the sunset. Nor did he concede that a loss in the third bout would instantly trigger retirement talk.

He won the vacant IBF title at middleweight with the defeat of Derevyanchenko and added the WBA belt with the stoppage of Murata. Win, lose or draw in September, he’ll have the option of returning to 160 pounds—a weight he’s hit or fought under in 41 of 44 career bouts—to defend his claims or perhaps engage with the division’s WBO (Demetrius Andrade) and WBC (Jermall Charlo) champions.

So if you’re trying to gauge exactly when he’ll be finished, Golovkin isn’t showing his cards.

"It’s hard for me to say,” he said.

“I will continue until I stop feeling I can show the best of me, the best boxing at this top level. I will continue until my body tells me to stop. I also have the belts at 160, so the victory or the loss in this upcoming fight is not going to affect my decision about when to retire.

“It’s about being honest with myself, listening to my body, to my mind, and to feel when it tells you to stop. And then you stop.”

Jake Paul revealed Wednesday that he will announce a new opponent Thursday for his upcoming boxing match at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Aug. 6.

Paul had been scheduled to face Tommy Fury, the younger half-brother of heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury, but Paul accused Fury of going "into hiding" and said Fury has been given a termination notice:

This marks the second time that a scheduled Paul vs. Fury fight has been called off, as they were supposed to clash Dec. 18 until Fury pulled out because of an injury.

The second cancellation is an apparent result of travel issues that have prevented Fury from entering the United States.

Last week, a press conference was scheduled for MSG to promote the Paul vs. Fury fight, but Fury was prevented from flying from his native England to the U.S.

Paul's Most Valuable Promotions released a statement on the matter, saying: "Despite many assurances by Tommy Fury's team that he was able to come to the U.S., and knowing that Tommy was in California just last month, we were surprised to learn that he had an issue at Heathrow Airport on Monday."

Fury later took to Instagram on Tuesday to explain what occurred, writing (via ESPN):

"So I just want to come on here and set the record straight before anyone else tries to. Me and my team this morning arrived at Heathrow Airport ready for the press conference, ready to fly out.

"As soon as I entered the airport I got pulled to one side and I was told by a homeland security officer that was there that my ESTA had been denied and I wasn't able to travel to the USA for a reason that I apparently know. I can stand here and say I've done absolutely nothing wrong and I have no clue why I am not allowed to travel to the USA."

Fury would have represented Paul's toughest test yet, as he is 8-0 as a boxer and would have been Paul's first opponent with legitimate boxing experience.

Paul, who was best known as a YouTuber and actor before getting into boxing, owns a 5-0 record with four wins by way of knockout.

His victories have come over YouTuber AnEsonGib, former NBA guard Nate Robinson and former UFC fighters Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley.

Woodley was Paul's opponent in each of his past two fights, as he served as the fill-in for Fury for the Dec. 18 fight.

While Paul won't make an official announcement until Thursday, Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated reported Tuesday that Paul was finalizing a deal to fight his training partner, Hasim Rahman Jr.

Rahman Jr. is 12-1 as a pro boxer and is the son of former heavyweight boxing champion Hasim Rahman, who went 50-9-2 during his career, including a win over Lennox Lewis.

Gennady Golovkin said he's not planning to retire from boxing after his trilogy fight against Canelo Alvarez in September.

"GGG," who turned 40 in April, told TMZ Sports in an interview released Thursday he'd even consider a fourth matchup against Alvarez.

"Not yet. I'm not ready yet," Golovkin said when asked about retirement. "... The business side [of continuing to fight], it's very interesting."

The Kazakhstani superstar has embarked on a long, decorated career. He won a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and has compiled a 42-1-1 record as a professional, with the only loss and draw both coming against Alvarez.

A victory in their third meeting would level the head-to-head series at 1-1-1, which would likely lead to calls for a rubber match between the high-profile duo.

It's unlikely there would be nearly as much interest in a fourth bout if Alvarez wins again, but the Mexican superstar is coming off just his second career loss (57-2-2) against WBA super light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol.

Golovkin addressed that defeat in an interview with Yahoo Sports' Kevin Iole on Tuesday.

"Canelo has shown he learns from his mistakes," he said. "He's not the kind of fighter who will make the same mistake twice. But at the same time, [the Alvarez-Bivol fight] needs to be analyzed."

Golovkin has won four straight fights, including an April knockout of Ryota Murata to win the WBA super middleweight title, since his loss to Alvarez in September 2018.

It sets the stage for what should be another highly competitive showdown that will be a chance for both fighters to make a major statement.

Game of Thrones star and former strongman competitor Hafthor "The Mountain" Bjornsson is up for a fight with world heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury.

According to TMZ Sports, Bjornsson responded Wednesday to a post Fury made on his Instagram page, which read: "I wonder if Thor Bjornsson could take a crashing right hand to that big jaw. Who would have Thor's hammer? Would this mountain be too big to climb?"

The Mountain isn't backing down, as he replied: "I'm 100% up for war. Let's do this."

It is unclear if Fury was actually laying down a legitimate challenge, but if he was, they would be evenly matched from a physical perspective since they are both 6'9", although Bjornsson clearly has the muscle mass advantage.

In terms of boxing experience, however, it is no contest with Fury having a significant upper hand.

The 33-year-old Fury is arguably one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time with a 33-0-1 record and 23 wins by way of knockout. He is the reigning WBC and The Ring heavyweight champion, and he has also held the WBA (Super), WBO, IBF and IBO heavyweight titles during his career.

Fury impressively scored back-to-back knockout victories against Deontay Wilder in 2020 and 2021, and he most recently retained his heavyweight titles in a TKO win over Dillian Whyte in his native England in April.

The 33-year-old Bjornsson won the World's Strongest Man competition in 2018 and has also won Europe's Strongest Man and the Arnold Strongman Classic.

In addition to acting, the Icelandic star has gotten into boxing, competing in four professional fights. The Mountain owns a record of 2-0-2 with one of his victories coming by way of knockout.

Despite his imposing size and strength, Bjornsson would likely be in over his head in a boxing match against Fury, although an exhibition would undoubtedly generate a ton of interest.

A mass boxing class in Mexico City on Saturday set a new Guinness World Record.

Per Salvador Rodriguez of ESPN Deportes, the event broke the record for the largest boxing class in the world with 14,299 attendees.

The event took place at the Zocalo for 30 minutes and was hosted by 15 current and former Mexican boxers, including Erik "El Terrible" Morales, Andy Ruiz Jr., Oscar Valdez, Jackie Nava, Humberto "Chiquita" González, Miguel Berchelt, Jose "Pipino" Cuevas, Alfonso Zamora, Jose Luis Bueno, Jose Antonio "Jaguar" Aguirre, Ganigan Lopez, Adrian "Confesor" Hernandez, Mariana Juarez, Ana Maria Torres and Alan David Picasso.

Javier Hidalgo Ponce, director of the Sports Institute of Mexico City, handed out t-shirts with green, white and red colors to represent the Mexican flag to all participants earlier this month in anticipation of the mass class.

"It will be a great multicolored party because together we will form the Mexican flag with these beautiful shirts that each and every one of the participants in the Massive Boxing Class will have," Hidalgo said on June 3 (via Rodriguez).

Per WBCBoxing.com, a total of 40,000 participants registered to take part in the class. Due to limited space at the location, organizers were only anticipating 15,000 to 20,000 people to participate.

"To break the Guinness Record, the Massive Class will be continuous, it will not be able to stop," WBC Boxing wrote. "Participants will only be able to take two 20-second breaks to hydrate during the class."

The previous world record for largest boxing class belonged to a 2017 event held at Red Square in Moscow, Russia, with 3,250 attendees.

Legendary boxer Mike Tyson suggested Friday night that he may have an interest in fighting YouTuber and rising boxing star Jake Paul.

Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live (h/t Anton Tabuena of Bloody Elbow), Tyson was asked about Paul and whether a blockbuster fight against him is a possibility.

"That could be very interesting," Tyson said. "I never really took it serious, but yeah, it could be really interesting. Everything is possible, yeah. But it gotta happen this year. It gotta happen this year."

The 55-year-old Tyson has not had an official professional fight since 2005, while the 25-year-old Paul is 5-0 in five pro fights since 2020, including wins over former UFC stars Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley.

Although Paul hasn't faced a legitimate boxer yet, he has been impressive with four of his five victories coming by way of knockout.

Tyson, who was a knockout king in his heyday, praised Paul for what he has been able to accomplish during his short stint in boxing:

"He's skilled enough, yes. I'm gonna give it to him. He's skilled enough because he's winning. Even if he's fighting guys that you guys don't believe is a good enough fighter, they should be able to beat him, but they can't. He's beating people that he shouldn't really be beating. We got to give him that credit.

"And he's doing so much good for boxing. Listen, this guy got 70 million people following him every time he fights. Champions of the world don't have that many people following them. So what he's doing for boxing is just sensational. No one should be hating on that. He's helping everyone get money. Why are people mad at him?"

While Tyson is more than twice Paul's age, he would undoubtedly pose the biggest threat yet to Paul's undefeated record.

In a pro boxing career that stretched from 1985 to 2005, Tyson went 50-6 with 44 knockouts, earning him the nickname "The Baddest Man on the Planet."

Tyson began his career 37-0 and held the WBA, WBC, IBF and The Ring heavyweight titles before suffering a shocking defeat against James "Buster" Douglas in February 1990.

He recovered by winning his next eight fights after that and went on to clash with fellow legendary boxers such as Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis.

Tyson returned to the ring in 2020 when he met Roy Jones Jr. in an exhibition fight that was ruled a split draw after eight rounds.

With Tyson turning in an impressive performance, there was some thought that he would fight again. That hasn't happened despite overtures and teases, but a clash with Paul would perhaps be one of the biggest possible fights in boxing right now.

Before thinking about a potential Tyson fight, Paul is focused on an Aug. 6 event at Madison Square Garden in New York City that he is co-headlining with Amanda Serrano.

No opponent has officially been named for Paul yet, but Tommy Fury is heavily rumored to be in that spot.

Fury, a professional boxer and younger brother of world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, was supposed to fight Paul in December but pulled out because of injury.

Mike Tyson showed remorse for punching a fellow passenger on an airplane when discussing the incident on Jimmy Kimmel Live (h/t TMZ Sports).

"I was wrong, that should've never happened," Tyson said (7:05 in video). "That's me back in my primitive child stages. I shouldn't of done that, but I was just irritated, tired, high and pissed off. S--t happens!"

Video of the April incident went viral, but Tyson did not receive any criminal charges after a review from police. The San Mateo County District Attorney cited the "conduct of the victim leading up to the incident" as part of the reason no charges were filed.

The video clearly showed a man climbing over a seat talking to Tyson, while the boxer's representatives told TMZ Sports that he threw a water bottle at Tyson.

"He was f--kin' with me. ... I took pictures with this n----," Tyson told the Hotboxin' podcast. "I shouldn't even be taking public planes. My wife gets mad I take public planes."

It's clear frustrations boiled over, leading to the altercation.

This could also be a lesson not to bother a former heavyweight boxing champion, because you don't know what kind of mood he might be in.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. has another exhibition upcoming.

The former boxer will face MMA fighter Mikuru Asakura in Japan this September, per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN), his second exhibition in the country since his retirement from professional boxing five years ago.

Mayweather faced Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in the country back in 2018, an event that he showed up two hours late to before promptly knocking Nasukawa to the mat three times in a two-minute span, leaving him in tears after his corner called the fight.

"It was all about entertainment. We had fun," Mayweather said after the bout, ever the salesman. "Tokyo, Japan, you guys have been amazing. Thank you."

It probably helped the sales pitch that Mayweather reportedly made $9 million from the exhibition.

While Mayweather enjoyed himself, many of the people who tuned in for that fight saw through the spectacle:

Mayweather's exhibition against Mikuru likely won't be much different. While Mayweather was a perfect 50-0 in his boxing career, Mikuru is 16-3-1 in his MMA career and currently fights in the Rizin promotion.

Holding the fight under boxing rules gives Mayweather an obvious advantage, as it did when he faced Conor McGregor and Tenshin.

One difference is that Mikuru will be at much less of a size and weight disadvantage, as he fights around 145-150 pounds, whereas Tenshin is closer to 125 pounds. By the end of his career, Mayweather was fighting in the welterweight division (140-147 pounds).