Anthony Joshua offered historic fight after missing out on Jake Paul showdown
Eddie Hearn has revealed that Anthony Joshua has been offered the chance to fulfill his dream of fighting in Africa after talks with Jake Paul led nowhere.
Boxing’s latest disruptor Paul made a lot of noise about a bout with the former heavyweight world champion, with the American instead opting for an exhibition fight with compatriot Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
Joshua’s boxing career has been paused by surgery on his elbow over the summer, with his return to the ring pushed back from the end of 2025 to the start of next year.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Hearn has hinted that Joshua’s comeback fight could be hosted in Africa, following offers for an event to be staged in Ghana.
Speaking on the Flash Knockdown podcast, Hearn shared: “As the time ticks by, it’s probably more likely that we see [Joshua] in the ring again for a January/February date if I’m honest. I don’t think there’s any value in us saying it will be in December.
“He’s been travelling about a bit but he’s back in training following an elbow operation. But these big fights take time and every AJ event is a massive event. It was well publicised about the meetings that took place in Ghana over the last couple of weeks.
“There has been an offer to do a fight there and I think it would be incredible for AJ to fight in Africa. However, when you are doing site deals a lot of it depends on when the host wants to stage the show. So, if Ghana comes back and says they’d like to go in January or February, then that’s the offer.”
Matchroom CEO Frank Smith flew to Ghana in August to review the Accra Sports Stadium in the country’s capital, as well as hold talks with Ghanaian-based Legacy Sports, who have recently worked with Amir Khan in hosting events in Africa.
Capable of holding 40,000 for national team football matches, Smith remarked that the usage of the pitch could allow between ‘50,000 and 60,000’ fans to watch a Joshua fight.
Over the years Joshua has spoken about his desire to fight on the continent, with both of his parents of Nigerian descent. The Olympic gold medallist also has a tattoo showing the outline of Africa on his right arm.
As far back as 2017 Joshua told the Daily Star: “I’d like to fight in Africa. People set records and trends for others to follow and I think it would be great because Muhammad Ali did it and he’s one of the great champions we had.
“That would be class, sometime in my career. Even if it was an exhibition match – against [Wladimir] Klitschko – in 10 years’ time.”
Jake Paul brutally Warned, It’s Obvious he Won’t Survive A Jab Against Gervonta Davis If He Screws Up Once”: George Groves
George Groves has warned Jake Paul to avoid one mistake to prevent a knockout loss to Gervonta Davis in their exhibition bout.
Netflix will stream the unlikely exhibition clash between ‘Tank’ Davis and Paul on 14 November, which has got the boxing world talking.
While one former world champion has slammed critics of the fight, most ex-fighters have voiced their displeasure at seeing the WBA lightweight champion compete against the cruiserweight
The announcement of the fight, which has been described as ‘farcical’ by one contender, was preceded by talk of Anthony Joshua stepping in the ring to face ‘The Problem Child’, but the contest never materialised.
Jake Paul will get knocked out by Gervonta Davis if he makes one big mistake, claims George Groves
Instead, fans will be tuning in to watch the 135 lb ‘Tank’ face a weight disadvantage of at least 60 lbs on fight night.
It is not going to be sanctioned as a professional fight, and the exhibition will likely have stipulations in place, such as larger gloves, fewer rounds, and weight restrictions.
Even with these extra rules in mind, former super middleweight world champion Groves still believes a knockout could be on the cards for the undefeated professional Davis.
In an interview with Fightlens, the British boxer believes the gulf in ability will make all the difference, especially if Paul makes a certain mistake.
He said: “Jake Paul is a very good sort of white collar-esque boxer. He’s good and he looks good on the pads a bit, but the fine art, you can see there are levels to this game.
“Gervonta Davis, he might chin him. He doesn’t throw a lot of punches. He might be looking to slip and slide and wait. That might be Jake Paul’s downfall.
“He might try and rush in. He might think, ‘Oh, I’ve got this guy going’. And he hasn’t. And he gets walked onto (a shot).”
Gervonta has not lost as a professional, but his last fight against Lamont Roach was controversially ruled a draw in what some saw as an unfair decision in favour of the champion.
‘El Gallo’ has fought 13 times as a professional and has lost once to Tommy Fury two years ago.
While the Ohio fighter has recently competed against Mike Tyson and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, Groves does not believe Paul’s claims that he is a ‘real’ boxer.
“I don’t think he’s interested in a real fight, is he? Not the fact that he tells everyone he’s a real boxer. He’s not,” he said.
“His Legs Have Gone” Carl Froch Delivers Honest Verdict On Deontay Wilder vs Anthony Joshua
Carl Froch has spoken about the potential heavyweight clash between two former heavyweight world champions, Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder.
Both of these big men are huge punchers who have knocked out a combined 68 opponents out of the 81 men they have faced
However, when Joshua last fought back in September 2024, it was he who was stopped by then IBF champion Daniel Dubois, having rebuilt well following back-to-back losses to Oleksandr Usyk that left him without any belts in 2022.
Wilder suffered defeat twice to Tyson Fury out of the three times they fought, and then went on to lose to Zhilei Zhang and Joseph Parker. He got back to winning ways back in June when he beat Tyrell Herndon and is now making one last push for world honours.
Joshua is also set to return following an elbow injury and is looking to get back into world title contention, potentially against someone like Martin Bakole who he has been linked with, though a fight with Wilder could also make sense.
Someone who has been extremely vocal about Joshua and Wilder over the years is former super-middleweight king Froch, who has again weighed in with a breakdown on how the bout may go.
“I’m not interested in seeing Wilder fighting again from what I’ve seen. His punching power seems to be gone, his legs seem to be gone as well, when he gets clipped he struggles. I just don’t see why these fighters need to carry on and destroy their legacy and ruin it. That’s AJ and Wilder. I don’t think these fighters should be fighting anymore.”
Eddie Hearn revealed this week that Joshua’s return will be a carefully chosen one before bigger fights in 2026, meaning his next fight is unlikely to be against Wilder.
Speaking on his own YouTube Channel, Froch admitted that he thinks that the fight is now well past its sell-by date
‘He Ain’t Got What It Takes to Beat Him’: Dmitry Bivol’s Trainer Bluntly Disses Canelo in Crawford Clash
Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford is just over a week away. Two of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport will collide when Alvarez puts his undisputed super-middleweight crown on the line against Crawford at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on September 13.
Crawford will be attempting to do something that only other men have managed to do during Canelo’s 67-fight career by claiming a victory over the Mexican superstar.
One of the fighters that managed to do that was Dmitry Bivol, who claimed a unanimous decision win when defending his WBA light heavyweight title against Alvarez in May 2022.
The man who was in the corner with Bivol that evening was Joel Diaz, while he also was the trainer of Israil Madrimov when he lost his WBA super-welterweight title to Crawford in August 2024.
Having experienced first hand what it is like to train fighters to face both Alvarez and Crawford, Diaz told The Ring that he sees the Mexican icon claiming the win next week.
“Canelo should win. I see him beating Crawford by a convincing decision. There is no way Crawford beats Canelo. Canelo is the king of the sport, and business-wise, he can’t lose. If he loses, boxing loses a lot of prestige.
“But don’t get me wrong, Crawford is one of my favourite fighters and pound-for-pound the best of this era. The fight will be interesting and back and forth for the first four rounds.
“Canelo has been hit by heavy hitters and never even flinched. As soon as Canelo feels that Crawford doesn’t have what it takes to hurt him, he is going to walk him down.”
Diaz then explained what he thinks will be the biggest factor in the bout.
“Crawford will make it a fight and fight back, but he’s a smart fighter and will play it safe once he’s hurt – that’s when Alvarez will take over.
“Crawford is not going to be exchanging punches with Canelo in the middle of the ring. “We’ve seen Crawford get buckled before, and believe me, Canelo hits harder than Yuriorkis Gamboa and Egidijus Kavaliauskas.”
With just days to go until fight night, all will soon be revealed just who comes out on top in the highly-anticipated mega-fight.
Anthony Joshua keeps getting disrespected as boxing legacy is now in question
Nothing is going the way Anthony Joshua wants it to, at least in recent times. Following his shocking loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. in 2019, AJ suffered back-to-back losses to the now-invincible Oleksandr Usyk. Joshua seemed to get back in form with four straight wins, but then suffered a brutal setback, getting knocked out by Daniel Dubois in the fifth round a year ago at Wembley Stadium.
For 2025, Joshua wanted to get back to big fights despite the Dubois loss. A mega bout against Tyson Fury seemed like a sure thing, but The Gypsy King remains “retired” and Joshua is in limbo. While the rest of his boxing career is up in the air, his legacy is also being questioned now.
Anthony Joshua ranked 49th in Boxing News’ Power 50 list
Boxing News came out with a list of the Top 50 most powerful figures in the sport at the moment. Joshua came in at No. 49, almost missing out on the list entirely. That ranking has enraged a member of Dubois’ team, manager Sam Jones. Back in August, Jones joined Dubois’ team in an advisory role. When he caught wind of the list, Jones became enraged.
“Anthony Joshua at #49 is an insult, mate. He’s top five, top 10. The least you can put him is top 10. He’s carried British boxing – with Tyson Fury as well, Tyson’s been huge as well – but Anthony Joshua could pack a stadium out now if he wanted to. That’s influence on British boxing, that’s called influence. AJ, you can’t disrespect him like that…The AJ one is baffling.”
There’s no doubt that Joshua still has the name power to sell out a stadium. In Jones’ eyes, that is enough to put him much, much higher on the list. It’s clear that Joshua’s legacy in the eyes of many has been tainted a bit over the past half-decade. He simply isn’t considered the larger than life figure he once was.
‘Complete joke’… Fans trashed Canelo Alvarez becoming a first of his kind champion in highly controversial move
Canelo Alvarez has one of the most impressive trophy cabinets of any professional fighter.
Through his career, Alvarez has accumulated a lot of belts, and some strange gifts for good measure.
His next outing on September 13 will see him put his undisputed super middleweight championship on the line against Terence Crawford in a true super fight.
Alvarez may have turned the Crawford fight down at first but we are now just days away from a matchup that fans have been dreaming about for years.
However, giving people exactly what they want hasn’t always been a consistent theme of the Mexican star’s career.
Fans slammed Canelo Alvarez being named as the WBC’s first ‘Franchise Champion’
Like most legendary boxers, Canelo Alvarez has some controversial aspects in his career that go hand-in-hand with his greatest successes.
The most notable one being the drug tests that Alvarez has failed in the past, which remains a cloud over his career to this day.
There is one moment in his career that was heavily scrutinized despite him not having any input.
In 2019, the WBC introduced a new kind of title, the ‘Franchise Championship’, which Alvarez was the first recipient of.
The honorary title was supposed to be a prestigious award that was given to the best of the best which would require them to vacate their WBC world title to hold this higher accolade.
The Franchise Championship meant that fighters like Alvarez could compete in multiple divisions in big fights without having to face mandatory challengers.
Suffice to say that a lot of fans, sharing their reaction in a Reddit thread from the time, were not happy with the way Alvarez’s career was being handled or the need to create any more belts and make things more confusing.
‘I wish I could root for Canelo. He’s so talented, yet favored by judges and so carefully handled.’
‘This is some WWE level non-sense.’
‘Complete joke.’
‘What a s— show, I think this proves just how much money talks in boxing.’
‘For f— sake. This is the kind of s— that turns people away from the sport.’
‘As a rule, WBC makes a new belt for every Canelo’s sparring session I heard.’
‘This is the worst thing I’ve ever read, what is the point in all this bulls— in boxing… Who the hell thinks this is a good idea!’
Four other fighters were named as Franchise Champions after Canelo Alvarez
Canelo Alvarez was the first WBC Franchise Champion but the backlash that this move received didn’t put the governing body off handing out more of these titles.
It quickly turned out that Alvarez was just the start of the process, with the WBC deciding to crown several more champions over the next few years.
‘He’ll finish you with a sledgehammer’: What it’s really like to get punched by Anthony Joshua
There’s a comparison of hitting something with a sledgehammer, or hitting something with a normal hammer a lot of times – you know, like when you hit a nail,” Frazer Clarke says.
So, which comparison applies to getting punched by Anthony Joshua? Well, both, it turns out.
“[The latter] is what it is with Joshua, then he’ll finish you off with a sledgehammer on the last shot,” Clarke tells The Independent. “Boom!”
Clarke knows what he is talking about, not just as an experienced boxer – unbeaten so far in his professional career – but as one who has first-hand experience of Joshua’s punching power. Clarke, 31, spent years training with “AJ” and followed his fellow Briton’s Olympic triumph at London 2012 with a medal of his own at Tokyo 2020.
“To be fair, this is probably the longest time in my boxing career that I’ve not been hit by Anthony Joshua,” the bronze medalist says. “I think the main reasons are that he boxed a southpaw [Oleksandr Usyk] over a period of about two years, and before that, he boxed Andy Ruiz Jr, whose dimensions were different, then there was Kubrat Pulev [while] I was preparing for the Olympics. So, it’s been a while.”
Still, it is not a sensation that slips from the memory.
“It’s not nice,” Clarke says unironically. “It’s not nice being hit by any heavyweight, but…”
But there is a misconception about Joshua, according to Clarke.
“You only have to look at Anthony Joshua, the man is made of muscle – he has muscles coming out of places where muscles shouldn’t be – but when people think about Joshua punching, what they don’t realise is… it’s not the one punch. He’s actually a really good combination puncher, and a fast puncher.
“When he gets the opportunity, he punches hard and often, and that’s almost worse than one single shot. You can prepare for a single shot – you can sort of brace on impact – but what you can’t prepare for is two, three, four shots from different angles.”
Indeed, watching all 22 knockouts from Joshua’s 25 professional wins confirms Clarke’s point. Joshua, 33, has often been criticised for a perceived lack of ring IQ and versatility, but when the former two-time heavyweight champion begins nudging that nail, he does so with speed and from all angles, before hauling out the sledgehammer.
Hector Alfredo Avila was admittedly toppled by a lone left hook in 2014. Charles Martin, similarly, was sent sprawling into a dimension with which he was entirely unfamiliar, courtesy of a piston right cross in 2016; the only set-up on that occasion was a feinted hook. With his most recent KO, in 2021, Joshua put down Kubrat Pulev for good with a sharp right straight.
That knockout of Pulev, however, only arrived after Joshua had dropped the veteran numerous times with a variety of punches in a series of combinations. Furthermore, every other finish was crafted with shots from both wings, often aimed not only to crack the cranium but also to brutalise the body. Even Joshua’s signature knockout of Wladimir Klitschko in 2017 was a result of AJ swarming the Ukrainian against the ropes, rather than the legend being finished by that famous uppercut – which actually came moments before the stoppage.
In any case, Joshua’s vaunted power may not even be his greatest asset.
“He’s the hardest worker in the room, the most determined person in the room,” Clarke says. “To train with him is a pleasure. But also, what I’ve taken from him the most over the last few years is: my goal is to lead a camp like him, from the nutrition to the resting… We all want to be at a level where we can have our own chef, [for example], and I think he’s really honed in on investing in himself.”
With the help of a personal chef and nutrition team, Joshua operates as professionally as any boxer, with his well-crafted heavyweight frame also requiring 5,000 calories a day, as he revealed before fighting Alexander Povetkin, and a lack of cheese, gluten and white rice. “The first thing I do in the morning is drink a litre of water; that helps me get my metabolism going,” Joshua told GQ at the time. “I’ll have some fruit, so it’s not too heavy for my stomach. I’ll then have a proper breakfast, which is what most people have for lunch because I’m eating at around 11am – rice, chicken, vegetables and sweet potatoes. Sometimes, I’ll switch it up, and have pork instead.
“If I want a snack, it’ll be either yoghurt and honey or meringues. By dinner, I’ll have completed all of my main training sessions, so I’ll have red meat or fish: steak or salmon with pasta, whole grain rice or quinoa, and vegetables. I do allow myself to indulge every once in a while, even when I’m training. I’m lucky enough to have a trainer who prepares homemade protein bars and protein shakes for me. I may also have something like a mousse or a yoghurt.”
That level of precision and dedication, as Clarke notes, is “what you need to do to get the best out of yourself, especially at world level”.
For Clarke, getting the best out of himself also involved taking the worst punishment that Joshua could offer.
How Canelo moved away from traditional Mexican style ahead of Terence Crawford super-fight
Canelo Alvarez is a proud Mexican and is one of the country’s most successful fighters of all time – who returns on September 13 to take on Terence Crawford in an era-defining fight for the undisputed super middleweight titles.
Mexican fighters carry a proud tradition of being no-nonsense, all-action fighters who can go toe-to-toe with anyone that is put in front of them.
Alvarez is one of these men, but as we have seen him grow and develop in nearly 70 professional fights, he has also developed his own unique style that has seen him pull away from the traditional Mexican way of fighting.
He learns from every opponent he faces, and it is clear to see as you track the chronology of his career that important fights like his loss to Floyd Mayweather, his war with Miguel Cotto and his fights with Gennady Golovkin have all played an important role in shaping the Canelo we see today.
So, how exactly has Canelo adapted through adversity to become an all-time great?
Defensive nuance
Canelo has always been a defensively savvy fighter, able to make his opponents miss and then make them pay. But a turning point that seemed to put Canelo on another level was when he was outclassed by a veteran Floyd Mayweather Jr across 12 rounds.
Mayweather showed Canelo a different level of defensive mastery – making micro adjustments with his head and feet to create a hair’s breadth of space to keep him close enough to counter with precision.
Canelo had previously done as many fighters do and stayed in almost constant motion to never present a static target your opponent can gamble on, but what he learned from Mayweather is that you only need to move when it’s an absolute necessity, which allows for more energy down the stretch in a fight.
Two fights that are great examples of when this defensive adaptation came to the fore are his first fight with Gennady Golovkin in 2017 and when he faced Daniel Jacobs in 2019.
Canelo was the much faster and more explosive fighter against Golovkin and used this to his advantage. He would, while exchanging in the middle of the ring, lean back after he threw his punches to narrowly avoid the counter left hooks of Golovkin. When on the back foot, he would pivot away to his left and turn his head away, making the right hands of Golovkin miss by mere millimetres, and would never move unless something was coming his way.
Against Jacobs, it was a superb example of being able to download your opponent’s patterns early in a fight and see everything coming your way.
He knew that he had to stay close to Jacobs, who had the height and reach advantage, and he did this with elegant and otherworldly movement – able to make Jacobs miss with 17 shots in a row at one point and counter with heavy jabs and hooks.
This allowed him to walk Jacobs down, even though he was throwing far fewer punches, almost the opposite of a traditional Mexican fighter who looks to pour on pressure with high volume and less head movement.
Low-volume pressure fighting
After the Jacobs fight, Canelo opted to move up to light-heavyweight, an unprecedented decision for a man who was previously considered an undersized middleweight.
Sergey Kovalev was perhaps over the hill at this point, but was still an incredibly dangerous fighter, world champion and much larger than Alvarez.
Canelo, therefore, was forced to evolve once again to allow himself to get close and land his power shots on Kovalev.
To achieve this, Canelo relied heavily on a strong high guard, absorbing most of the shots Kovalev would throw and then exploding on the counter.
His head movement was still present, but he knew it was more risky to try and evade the shots from the bigger man because if he got caught, he would be in a compromised position and would risk getting knocked out.
Canelo shocked many by walking Kovalev down and countering his jabs with left hooks and overhand rights to great effect. He knew his opportunity would come when Kovalev would run out of steam due to unloading ineffective punches onto his gloves.
This was one of the most notable changes Canelo has made in the second half of his career, using the threat of his heavy counter punches to muzzle his opponents whilst staying in range all the time rather than trying to use his head movement to get close.
Between the second Golovkin fight, where we saw Canelo utilise a high volume style as we had seen for so many years against the likes of Shane Mosley and Alfredo Angulo, he threw almost half the amount of punches but landed a higher percentage.
Trap-setting
Canelo has become a master of not waiting for opportunities but creating them for himself using intelligence and educated pressure to force opponents to leave gaps in their defence for him to capitalise on.
This is not to say that Mexican fighters do not set traps, just that Alvarez does it in a unique way that is supremely effective and with more variety.
A perfect example of this is from slightly earlier in his career against Amir Khan.
Against Khan, Canelo came up against a man with extremely fast hands and feet. He knew he needed to catch Khan flat-footed to be able to put him down.
He did this by setting up the iconic overhand right that was the 2016 knockout of the year.
Throughout the early going of the fight, Canelo would mix his lead left hooks to head and body to create uncertainty in Khan, who was very reactive to Canelo’s feints.
Alvarez then proceeded to target the body, dropping his level by bending his legs to throw a jab or backhand to the body, which an intelligent fighter like Khan would pick up on and make adjustments to on the fly.
But the Mexican knew just what Khan would do. The Brit dropped his hands from his guard and attempted to pull back or pivot away from the body shots, which were perfectly set up.
Then in the sixth round, Canelo launched his attack, dropping his level, which stalled Khan’s feet and dropped his hands, opening up the head up to attack, and Canelo obliged by detonating an overhand and flattening Khan.
This exercise in patience, knowing he was dropping some of the early rounds, is something that other, more traditional fighters would not do and would generally opt to hunt down Khan as he tried to evade them, but Canelo brought Khan to him.
I typically try not to use column space to pick on fellow writers, so I hope this will be regarded merely as a professional critique and in no way a personal attack.
But in reading an article on ESPN.com’s boxing page Monday morning, my brow went full furrow over an opinion I read.
As the build to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Terence “Bud” Crawford gathers steam, Nick Parkinson wrote about various defining fights and moments for both men, assorted “bests” and “mosts” in their careers. And the article started with “best performance.”
For Crawford, the selection was his ninth-round stoppage of Errol Spence Jnr, the only fight any level-headed observer could select for that distinction. It was, by far, Crawford’s finest hour — a truly dominant victory over undoubtedly the best opponent he’d ever faced.
For Alvarez, the selection was his 2022 win over Gennady Golovkin in their third fight.
In a word: no.
Golovkin was 40 years old, about four years past the end of his prime, and the 32-year-old Canelo was supposed to thump him and cap their trilogy with the first emphatic win either had scored over the other. Instead Alvarez produced a flat, uninspired performance, and won by just two points on two cards against an opponent who was all but retired.
It wasn’t Canelo’s best performance or defining triumph. It shouldn’t even be listed in the top 10 for those superlatives.
But, hey, opinions vary, and I’m not here to pick a fight with Parkinson. Rather, I’ll gladly thank him for inspiring a column idea. Because he got me thinking: Whereas Crawford has an obvious best win, Canelo, after a 20-year pro career featuring 67 fights in six weight classes, 27 of them “world” title fights across four divisions, doesn’t have that one indisputably great win.
Alvarez has an overabundance of very good wins, enough to eventually make him an easy first-ballot Hall of Fame selection, but he doesn’t have that singular night where he defeated a prime, elite foe cleanly and clearly without some sort of asterisk attached.
In short, Parkinson got me wondering: If it’s not his third fight with Golovkin — and clearly it is not — what the heck is Canelo’s greatest win?
Here are, in chronological order, what I consider the top five candidates, and for each I’ll state the case for and the case against.
W 12 Miguel Cotto, Nov. 21, 2015
The case for: Alvarez mixed tactical boxing and power-punching aggression effectively enough to claim the lineal middleweight championship of the world against a future Hall of Famer. On paper, that’s a phenomenal victory. Even though most observers didn’t think it was as lopsided as the stereotypically Canelo-friendly scores (117-111, 118-110 and 119-109) would have you believe, there was no dispute over who won.
The case against: Cotto was never a full-sized middleweight, as indicated by the agreement to put the title on the line at a catchweight of 155 pounds (and by the defending champ officially scaling 153.5). And the Puerto Rican was, in retrospect, well past his best. He’d recently turned 35, and he would only score one more victory in his career, over made-to-order Yoshihiro Kamegai. And Canelo didn’t stop Cotto — never came close, really. This performance was highly efficient but never spectacular, and you’d hope an all-time great fighter would have something better than that on his resume.
W 12 Gennady Golovkin, September 15, 2018
The case for: Even at age 36, this version of “GGG” was almost certainly the best fighter Alvarez ever defeated. It was a highly entertaining fight — arguably 2018’s Fight of the Year and the best action scrap of their trilogy — and Alvarez really looked like he’d gone up a level compared to their first fight, a year earlier. (Well, at least for the first nine rounds, he did … )
The case against: Can a fight in which your older opponent rallies to arguably sweep the last three rounds, leaving the scorecards in doubt once again and opinions fairly well split down the middle over who deserved to win, really be a future Hall of Famer’s showcase performance? Alvarez painted three-quarters of a masterpiece in the Golovkin rematch, then left it unfinished. And as much as Alvarez proved he was no fraud in those first two Golovkin fights, plenty of people feel he deserved to go 0-2.
KO 11 Sergey Kovalev, November 2, 2019
The case for: Alvarez moved up two divisions from where he’d previously fought to face a full-fledged light heavyweight — and not just any light heavyweight, but one of the scariest pound-for-pound punchers of the era. And Canelo came through with arguably the most impressive knockout of his career, dramatically hurting, dropping and stopping “The Krusher” in the 11th round while trailing narrowly on two scorecards.
The case against: Kovalev wasn’t way past his prime, but he was at least a couple of years over that line, at age 36 against the truly prime 29-year-old Canelo. And the Russian had been stopped twice already, including just 15 months earlier by Eleider Alvarez. He was a once-fearsome fighter who had become, if not quite fragile, at least vulnerable. It would be unfair to refer to Alvarez selecting Kovalev for his light heavyweight debut as “cherry-picking,” but it’s worth noting that, two weeks earlier, Artur Beterbiev stopped Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the lineal title.
KO 8 Billy Joe Saunders, May 8, 2021
The case for: Saunders was undefeated and more or less in his prime at age 31, and in front of a crowd of more than 73,000 fans at AT&T Stadium in Texas, Canelo broke his orbital bone with an uppercut and made the Brit’s corner surrender. And at the press conference after the fight, Alvarez added to his legacy with an all-time great, F-bomb laden dismissal of a mouthy Demetrius Andrade.
The case against: Is anyone going to remember who Saunders was a generation from now? He was a tricky southpaw who’d beaten some good fighters, like David Lemieux, Martin Murray, Andy Lee and Chris Eubank Jnr, but everyone knew he was taking a massive leap in quality against Canelo. And even though Alvarez got the TKO, the ending was an anticlimax to a fight where neither man ever fully got going.
KO 11 Caleb Plant, November 6, 2021
The case for: One fight after stopping Saunders, Canelo checked off most of the same boxes against Plant. Undefeated opponent? Check. Slick, clever style? Check. A big underdog against Alvarez? Check. Whereas Saunders never fought again, Plant has continued on but has gone 2-2, so, it’s hard to say who had the better post-Canelo path. But Alvarez deserves credit for stopping them both, especially for the body shots that cemented Plant’s demise.
The case against: Again, a lot of Saunders redux, as Plant will be remembered as a good, solid super middleweight who was a little out of his depth against the elite fighters of his time. There’s nothing to knock in Alvarez’s performance, but … could a man who served as the face of boxing for roughly a decade really retire with his most exceptional win coming against a relative also-ran like Plant?
There are plenty of other fights to consider on Alvarez’s record, but they each come with a big “yeah, but.”
Erislandy Lara? Highly debatable decision. Austin Trout? Moderately debatable decision. Amir Khan? Way too small. Shane Mosley? Way too old. James Kirkland? Way too limited.
So we’re left with a counterintuitive but very real scenario for September 13.
Crawford, the smaller man and the underdog, can defeat Alvarez and possibly have it not go down as his greatest win because the Spence evisceration was so perfect.
And Alvarez, the bigger man and the favorite, has an outside chance at doing something in the ring at Allegiant Stadium that ends up looked back on as his victory that stands out above all his others — because the competition for that honor is all so flawed.
Gervonta Davis Shares Cryptic Mental Health Message Before Jake Paul Fight
The behavior and messages that Gervonta “Tank” Davis displayed in the lead-up to his March 1 fight against Lamont Roach Jr. raised eyebrows among the boxing community.
The most notable thing Tank said was that he intended to retire from boxing at some point in 2025 during one of his press conferences with Roach in December 2024. His reasoning for this was that he was fed up with the sport of boxing and was too embroiled in issues outside of the ring to rekindle the love he once had for the sweet science.
Most were able to brush these comments off as Tank being in a strange headspace before the fight. However, the fact that he produced the worst performance of his professional career against Roach (which resulted in a majority draw) and made several questionable decisions inside the ring (which should have made it so Tank lost) brought these comments from Gervonta back to mind after the bout ended.
In fact, women’s pound-for-pound great Claressa Shields made a strong claim about Davis’ mental health after this fight, saying, “I feel like Gervonta is a hell of a fighter, but I feel like he needs to get his mental together. When I hear some of his interviews, and I see some of the stuff that he’s saying, I can just tell that he’s not in love with the sport no more.
“I think he would be better, and even a better fighter, if he went and did therapy, like ASAP. Because I can tell he’s a little sad, little depressed… I think therapy would help [Davis],” she added.
Gervonta Davis Addresses Mental Health Before Jake Paul Fight
It’s clear that Davis has no plans of retiring in 2025 right now, because news broke last month that he agreed to fight against Jake Paul, which will take place on November 14, 2025, in Atlanta, Georgia (so long as the Georgia commission approves it).
And if one were to take a September 3 X post from Davis to heart, it seems that he’s in a better mental space than he was before his most recent fight.
Davis’ X post wrote, “Good thing I’m in a better head space, only way you’ll get to me if I allow you to..ya get me! 😉”.
Good thing I’m in a better head space, only way you’ll get to me if I allow you to..ya get me! 😉
Tank’s fans are hoping that this isn’t just hearsay from their favorite boxer, and that he’s actually firing on all cylinders mentally before fighting Paul.
And given how much he’s surely making for this fight, it’s not hard to imagine that he’d be in a good mood right now.
