July 2026

JULY 2026

every round. every fight. live now the ring step into the man who beat the man

The Ring Magazine - The Bible of Boxing, July 2026 • Volume 103, No. 7

32 TOKYO DRIFT NAOYA INOUE VS. JUNTO

NAKATANI WAS EVERY BIT THE SUPERFIGHT THAT IT PROMISED TO BE By Tom Gray 40 THE ART OF RAISING CHAMPIONS SHINGO INOUE HAS SHOWN EXCEPTIONAL SKILLS IN BOTH TRAINING AND PARENTING IN SHAPING JAPAN’S MOST CELEBRATED BOXING FAMILY A RED-TAPE NIGHTMARE KEPT RAFAEL ESPINOZA OUT OF THE MAINSTREAM FOR YEARS, BUT A SPECTACULAR UPSET LAUNCHED HIM STRAIGHT TO THE TOP By Ernesto Amador 58 A GROWING LEGACY DAVID BENAVIDEZ SUCCESSFULLY KICKED IN THE DOOR AT CRUISERWEIGHT, AND THE ULTRA-CONFIDENT THREE- DIVISION TITLEHOLDER SAYS HE COULD GO EVEN HIGHER By Daisuke Sugiura 52 BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

DEPARTMENTS 4 OPENING SHOTS 11 RINGSIDE By Doug Fischer 14 BERNSTEIN ON BOXING By Al Bernstein 17 STEVE’S SOAPBOX By Steve Kim 20 BY THE NUMBERS By Don Stradley 23 RING RATINGS

By Joseph Santoliquito 62 FAMILY FEUD

CLARESSA SHIELDS AND MIKAELA MAYER DESCRIBE EACH OTHER AS SISTERS, BUT A BREWING SUPERFIGHT IS TURNING THEM INTO FIERCE RIVALS By Corey Erdman 68 THE OLYMPIC GOLD STANDARD THE EPIC MEDAL HAUL OF THE U.S. BOXING TEAM AT THE 1976 MONTREAL GAMES STILL MARKS THE PEAK OF AMERICA’S AMATEUR PROGRAM By Michael Rosenthal 74 THE 21-YEAR PUNCH THE STUNNING LEFT HOOK THAT WON JERSEY JOE WALCOTT THE HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP IS A TIMELESS REMINDER TO NEVER GIVE UP By Don Stradley

48 PROSPECT WATCH By Dom Farrell 80 FUNDAMENTALS By Adam Abramowitz 82 MY FIRST TIME: FELIX TRINIDAD By Doug Fischer 86 FIGHT OF FANTASY By Anson Wainwright 88 SLICE OF BOXING By Thomas Hauser 90 COMMISSIONER’S CORNER By Randy Gordon 92 THE FIGHT DOCTOR By Dr. Margaret Goodman 94 FINISHING SHOTS 96 FIGHTLINE

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THE RING (ISSN: 0035‐5410) Issue 7 July 2026, is published monthly by The Ring Magazine FZ, LLC, 475 Heffernan Drive, West Haven, CT 06516. Application to mail at Periodicals postage is pending at Milford, CT 06460. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Ring Magazine Subscriber Service Dept., PO Box 103, Cambey West Congers NY 10920‐0103 Phone 845‐719‐3120 subscriptions@ringmagazine.com RINGMAGAZINE.COM 1

Every fighter remembers the corner that believed in them before anyone else did. Not the corner that arrived when the lights were bright and the prize money was real. The one that was there in the gym, years earlier, when the outcome was still uncertain. stc group has been in Saudi Arabia’s corner for a long time. Long before the Esports World Cup existed, before $75 million prize pools and sold-out arenas, stc was laying the infrastructure that made a gaming culture possible. The DSL broadband rollout in the early 2000s seeded a generation of cybercafes, the places where young Saudis first competed, first lost, first got better. Those cafes were the gym. stc built them without knowing what would emerge. What emerged was a country of 23.5 million gamers, nearly 89% of them under 35, who had been competing long before the world came to watch. When the Esports World Cup launched in 2024 with a $60 million prize pool, the largest in esports history at the time, stc was already there. Not as a late arrival writing a check, but as Elite and Founding Partner, the corner that had spent two decades building the conditions for exactly this moment. The audience filling those arenas had grown up on stc’s infrastructure. But what a corner does on fight night is different from what it does in the gym. At EWC, stc’s role became operational at a scale that has no real parallel in traditional sports. For EWC 2025, stc deployed 30 mobile sites across all event zones, delivering speeds above 2 Gbps. Fourteen dedicated internet circuits, totaling 34 Gbps of capacity, kept 25 tournaments across 24 game titles running without interruption. A team of 92 engineers and 34 on-site technicians worked around the clock, the corner crew, invisible to the crowd, indispensable to everything happening on stage. The boxing corner has its roles. The cutman stops the bleeding. The trainer reads the opponent. The strategist calls the adjustments between rounds. stc’s corner works the same way. Sirar, stc’s cybersecurity arm, neutralized DDoS attacks in real time, the cutman keeping the fight from being stopped on a technicality. Self-Optimizing Networks fine-tuned performance continuously, reading the network the way a trainer reads a fight. The 24/7 war room called the adjustments, monitoring every signal across every venue so that nothing reached the fighters on stage. In esports, the margin is a millisecond. One dropped packet, one spike in latency, and a match that took months of preparation to reach can unravel in seconds. The crowd never sees it when the corner does its job. That’s the point. EWC 2026 returns on July 6 to August 23, bringing a record $75 million prize pool across twenty-four of the world’s biggest esports titles. For the first time, players will have the stc Players Lounge, a dedicated space to recover and prepare between sessions. stc is back as Elite and Founding Partner, three years into a commitment made before the first champion was crowned, before the records were set, before the world was watching. The corner was there first. It’s still there now. In Your Corner: stc and the Esports World Cup

OPENING SHOTS WAR IS HELL: It’s already being mentioned as a contender for Fight of the Year, but the 11th-round TKO that made Daniel Dubois a two-time heavyweight titleholder also followed one of the most brutal slugfests in recent memory, with a blood- drenched Fabio Wardley on the losing end at the Co-Op Live Arena in Manchester on May 9. Dubois, who picked up the WBO version of the title, was floored in the opening seconds of Round 1 and was down again in the third,

both times from big right-hand shots. But Wardley couldn’t keep Dubois down and struggled mightily whenever the Londoner imposed his boxing skills on him. A jolting left jab was the weapon of choice for Dubois, who caused extensive damage to the nose and right eye of his countryman in subsequent rounds. As the punishment intensified, the rounds became harder and harder to watch, as a bloodied Wardley

willingly trudged forward and absorbed blow upon blow. Brave beyond the call of duty, Wardley was never going to pull himself out of the fight and surrender his title. In the aftermath, his corner – headed up by trainer Ben Davison, as well as the ringside doctor and referee Howard Foster – all came under close scrutiny for allowing the bout to go on for as long as it did. RINGMAGAZINE.COM 5

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RINGSIDE By Doug Fischer BILL CAPLAN (1935-2026)

OUR DIVERSITY ENRICHES OUR OFFERING We Connect brands with consumers by utilizing innovative marketing solutions across various platforms to deliver effective campaigns in the MENA region, and across the globe

July 2026 Volume 103, No. 7

Founder Nathaniel Fleischer (1888-1972) Owner His Excellency Turki Alalshikh

Editor-in-Chief Douglass Fischer Managing Editor Tom Gray Senior Editor Brian Harty Creative Director Lamar Clark Controller Deborah L. Harrison

THE RING (ISSN: 0035-5410) July 2026, is published 12 times per year by The Ring Magazine FZ, LLC P.O. Box 90254 Brooklyn, NY 11209. Postmasters: Send change of address Notices to: The Ring Magazine Subscriber Service Dept., PO Box 103 Camby West Congers NY 10920-0103 Phone: 845- 719-3120 subscriptions@ringmagazine.com Single copy price $9.99 in U.S.A. ,10.99 Canada (£10.99 in the U.K.). Global Subscription price $60.00 for 12 issues plus S&H. Not responsible for the loss or non-return of unsolicited articles or photographs, which will not be returned unless accompanied by a selfaddressed envelope bearing the proper amount of postage. The entire contents of this magazine are copyright ©2026 The Ring Magazine FZ-LLC. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. All rights reserved. Publisher is not responsible for the accuracy of the content of advertisements appearing in this magazine, nor the delivery or quality of merchandise or services offered. No endorsement of any such advertisement is intended or implied. Advertisers and agencies assume liability for claims arising from the content of their advertisements. FOR ADVERTISING INQUIRIES AND RATES: advertising@ ringmagazine.com. U.S. / Canadian and International distribution by Comag Marketing Group LLC, 155 Village Blvd #200, Princeton, NJ 08540. UK distribution by Seymour Distribution Ltd., 2 East Poultry Avenue, London, England, EC1A 9PT. Printed In USA Subscription Inquiries Back Issues Inquiries Digital Orders Inquiries The Ring Magazine Subscriber Service Dept. PO Box 103 Camby West Congers NY 10920-0103 Phone: 845-719-3120 subscriptions@ringmagazine.com Send Editorial Comments To: comeoutwriting@gmail.com or P.O. Box 90254 Brooklyn, NY 11209

T he boxing industry lost one of its most beloved elder statesmen with the passing of publicist Bill Caplan on April 23. During a career that spanned seven decades, Caplan worked PR for seven Hall of Fame promoters: Don King, George Parnassus, Aileen Eaton, Dan Goossen, Don and Lorraine Chargin, and Bob Arum. While with Arum’s Top Rank, Caplan represented Oscar De La Hoya during the superstar’s peak fighting years. Beginning in the 2010s, at an age when most of his peers were retired, he worked for De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and helped push Canelo Alvarez’s ascension in the U.S. In recent years, he worked for the World Boxing Council. Caplan, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2022, was associated with three of the hardest hitting and most celebrated heavyweight champions in history – Joe Louis (during the 1960s, well into The Brown Bomber’s retirement), George

Caplan’s career spanned nearly 70 years of boxing history.

Foreman and Mike Tyson. Caplan had more than a working relationship with Foreman. They met in 1966 after Foreman had lost an amateur bout on a card that Caplan served as the ring announcer. He encouraged the young, disheartened heavyweight to keep at it, and following his gold medal victory at the 1968 Olympics, Foreman hired Caplan – the only publicist of his amazing, decades-spanning career. They became the closest of friends and remained so until Foreman’s death in 2025. Caplan traveled the world with Foreman – Jamaica for Joe Frazier (and the championship), Japan for Jose Roman, Venezuela for Ken Norton and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) for Muhammad Ali – during the Houston native’s whirlwind first title

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RINGMAGAZINE.COM 11

RINGSIDE

reign. But Caplan’s home base was the greater Los Angeles area. Caplan was originally from Des Moines, Iowa, where his family ran a bakery, prior to his lightning moment – witnessing “the perfect punch,” which Sugar Ray Robinson landed on Gene Fullmer in the fifth round of their rematch in Chicago on May 1, 1957. Caplan, 21 years old, instantly knew what business he wanted to go into. The man who gave him the ticket to Fullmer-Robinson II – brother-in-law Larry Rummans, a matchmaker who had plans to promote shows in California – would be his ticket into boxing. Later that year, Caplan and his newlywed wife, Sandy, moved to Los Angeles, where Rummans introduced him to real-estate developer Leo Minskoff, who was promoting shows in Hollywood with Louis. Caplan was hired as a PR assistant in 1962 and never left the sport, dabbling in matchmaking and ring announcing before getting full-

time publicity gigs with Parnassus and Eaton, who promoted weekly shows at The Forum and Grand Olympic Auditorium, respectively. Caplan said the loudest noise he ever heard was the explosive ovation Mexican fans gave Jose Becerra the instant the young Guadalajaran scored an eighth- round stoppage of Alphonse Halimi to win the bantamweight championship in the L.A. Sports Arena’s inaugural event in 1959. During the 1970s, Caplan was more than a bystander to the adulation and devotion Mexican fans had for their boxing idols; he helped promote a parade of wildly popular Mexican bantamweight champions that regularly filled The Forum and Olympic, and he proudly helped spread their legends beyond the Spanish-speaking community. Caplan often claimed that being a Mexican bantamweight champion in L.A. in those days was the equivalent to being the heavyweight champ (which is saying something, given his chief client held the

biggest prize in sports from 1972-’74). This golden age consisted of – in order of their title reigns – Ruben Olivares, Chucho Castillo, Rafael Herrera, Romeo Anaya, Rodolfo Martinez, Alfonso Zamora, Carlos Zarate and Lupe Pintor (Caplan’s favorite of the group). There are stories attached to every fighter and each event that Caplan was a part of, and he delighted in telling them. That’s what I will miss the most, the way “Uncle Bill” held court. Along with his good friend Don Chargin, Caplan was my go-to source for Los Angeles boxing lore. And, naturally, he had the best behind-the-scenes accounts of Foreman’s rise, fall, retirement, late-’80s comeback and eventual record-breaking second championship reign. Caplan was an integral character in a

A beaming Caplan listens to Joe Frazier after the Foreman rematch.

George and Bill at the 2002 World Boxing Hall of Fame.

lot of these stories, which are triumphant, tragic and absurd, but mostly funny. I won’t recount them here. Those tales are best told by those who knew Caplan best and go back long enough to have witnessed some of the historical events. We’ll try to collect the best Caplan stories in a feature article for the August issue, but keep in mind that even a sampling of anecdotes from his many decades in the business could easily fill a book. And that book would be penned by the most accomplished southern California-based sportswriters that are still with us – Bill Dwyer, Steve Springer, Doug Krikorian and former Ring editor-in-chief and frequent contributor Michael Rosenthal. Unlike some publicists, Caplan liked the media, and he was especially fond of the daily newspaper sportswriters. He was close with the great Jim Murray and was best friends with popular columnist Allan Malamud. But Caplan read everybody’s copy and appreciated the new generations of boxing scribes

that emerged in the 1990s and 2000s, mentoring Dan Rafael when he was with USA Today and encouraging internet pioneers like myself and Steve Kim. Caplan’s approach to PR was refreshingly simple: He combined what he enjoyed – boxing, sportswriters, talking and eating (Foreman was spot on when he nicknamed him “Buffet Bill”). Caplan would invite sports media and boxing folks for lunch or dinner, get a conversation going and then get out of the way to let the writers do their job. But it was difficult not to include Caplan in the articles. He was such a good talker – self-effacing, affable, humorous, entertaining and quotable, a writer’s best friend. He was also excellent on radio and TV, and even made his way to the silver screen. Yes, Caplan, who was good friends with writer-director Ron Shelton, was a proud SAG cardholder and appeared in several popular TV shows and films during the 1980s and ’90s, including Shelton’s Tin Cup , White Men Can’t Jump (along with

Malamud) and the boxing-themed Play it to the Bone . Despite hobnobbing with Hollywood, being involved in boxing’s biggest events of the past half century and representing the sport’s brightest stars, Caplan was just as passionate about drumming up publicity for club shows, preliminary fighters, prospects, past-prime veterans, trainers and managers. He had an affinity for the sport and all of its players and characters, so he loved his job and never forgot to have fun with it. The vanity plate on his Cadillac read: “FLACK” Caplan, who was 90 when he passed, was a boxing lifer who lived his life and career to the fullest – a big man with a big personality and even bigger heart, with enough love for the entire boxing community. He will be missed.

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BERNSTEIN ON BOXING

Vargas and Mayorga threw down at the crossroads in Los Angeles.

difference, and Mayorga won a close majority decision. The win propelled Mayorga to two more major fights against Shane Mosley and

That cynicism could be correct, or it could be vastly underrating Spence and/or overestimating Tszyu. The Australian’s last two losses

Miguel Cotto (both losses) as his career continued. Vargas never fought again. His boxing career was over.

have been by stoppage and his resiliency could certainly be questioned at this point.

title reigns at 154 pounds, including five successful defenses to the IBF belt he lost to Felix Trinidad in an epic battle. He came into the Mayorga fight off two losses to Shane Mosley, and his place in the upper echelon of 154-pound contenders was in doubt. The colorful, controversial and to some infuriating Mayorga was a former unified welterweight champ and 154-pound beltholder. This 34-year-old chain-smoking Nicaraguan warrior had lost three of his last five fights, with two of the losses coming to Vargas victors Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. One of the things that equates this match to Tszyu-Spence is weight. Mayorga, like Spence, was most successful as a welterweight and had not been at 154 long, despite having already held a junior middleweight title. Spence has only fought at 150 or above twice in his career. In both Tszyu-Spence and Vargas-Mayorga, one fighter demanded a higher weight limit, and after some tough negotiations, both got their way. Vargas wanted the fight at 162 and it was agreed, but then he demanded it go up to a 166-pound catchweight, which was where the fight was ultimately fought. Ironically Spence, normally a welterweight (147 pounds), wanted a 160-pound middleweight limit for the fight, but after heated discussions between the two teams, it landed at a catchweight of 158 pounds. The Vargas-Mayorga fight produced the expected fireworks, which included two knockdowns of Vargas and many great exchanges between the two fighters. The knockdowns were the

In all crossroads fights, we tend to center our thinking on the negatives because both men always have a lot to prove, but let us also look at the positives. Even if these two men are a little diminished (as is often the case with crossroads fights), it could contribute to the action-packed nature of the fight. Both men are relatively stationary, which makes them offensive- minded fighters who can be hit. And the vulnerability each has shown defensively in recent times is likely to be on display for this fight. In short, expect a firefight. From a style standpoint, there are several elements that should be fascinating. The Tszyu straight right is a very good punch, and you can expect to see it against the southpaw Spence. The wild card will be how well Tszyu throws the left hook, which is a good but sometimes underused punch for him and one that can be effective in controlling a lefty. If Spence’s hand speed is even close to its normal level, it will be a key in this fight. That is Tszyu’s kryptonite. He does not deal well with combination punching. But while the X’s and O’s of this fight are important, it all may still come down to the intangibles. Spence is going across an ocean to Australia. He beat Brook in England, but this is still a factor. Then there is the big intangible: When the inevitable firefight portion of the evening begins, which man still has the grit, punch resistance and will to fight his way through it successfully? I don’t have a definitive answer for that question, but I do know one thing: Like all crossroads fights, one man will move forward with some new opportunity on his plate, and the other might be left searching for his next meal.

A true crossroads fight has even more variables than a battle of champions or unblemished contenders, because both men have shown recent vulnerability. That has to be factored in while still fairly evaluating the strengths each man brings into the fray. Tszyu-Spence offers us a myriad of these variables. When the 36-year-old Spence steps into the ring on July 26, it will be the first time in just under three years – the time that has elapsed since the night he took a fearful beating from Terence Crawford. It was the first time Spence had lost as a pro, and yet the severity of the loss and subsequent hiatus made it feel to many like a career-ending loss. I announced that fight, as I did the 2017 win over Kell Brook that gave Spence his first world title and made him a boxing star, as well as several of his title defenses. It was shocking to see him so totally dominated by Crawford in a match most thought would be a close contest. I left that night wondering if we would ever see Spence in the ring again. Will this crossroads fight be a career- ender, as Vargas experienced with Mayorga, or a rebirth that will lead Spence to future glory? The question marks involve his age, the long layoff and his insistence on a weight limit well above his most effective fighting weight. Will the Spence hand speed and combination punching be there for this fight? Will he be able to use angles against the straight-line attacking Tszyu with the extra weight he’s carrying and potential ring rust? He will be facing a naturally bigger fighter and a good 154-pound puncher in Tszyu. The 31-year-old Tszyu is a throwback in many ways. He believes

The loser of Spence-Tszyu may have some tough choices to make.

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE By Al Bernstein

in fighting his way back to stardom and is not one to avoid risks along the way. He has fought seven times during Spence’s three-year hiatus from the ring. I chronicled Tszyu’s rise to 154-pound titleholder, including victories over Brian Mendoza and Tony Harrison. But he has lost three of his last six fights. Some wonder what his career would look like if he hadn’t been hit with that errant elbow from Sebastian Fundora early in their first match. To that point, it looked like Tszyu’s power was already chipping away at Fundora, but the terrible cut caused by the elbow changed the trajectory of the fight and Tszyu’s career. He enters this fight off two wins against undefeated fighters, albeit not upper-echelon fighters and certainly not on Spence’s level. Still, he has shown the willingness to get in the ring to earn future opportunities. That’s what the roll of the dice against Spence is all about. Some would say it is a path of less resistance because of Spence’s move up in weight and long layoff. The Spence marketability, they say, makes him a good but beatable opponent.

I like to think of myself as a broadcaster and writer who is not wedded to boxing cliches, but sometimes they are so apropos that you cannot avoid them. Such is the case for this assignment. I am tasked with writing about the upcoming battle between Tim Tszyu and Errol Spence, a quintessential example of an often used and sometimes misused boxing cliche: “crossroads fight.” So, how do we define a crossroads fight? To me, it is a match where the winner of the fight has the chance to move on to bigger and better things while the loser’s career is derailed to the point of gatekeeper status at best or retirement at worst. For this label to fit, you need several things. First, you

must have two well-known, marketable veterans of the sport with solid achievements on their resume, hopefully world titles. Then, you require both to have fallen from a lofty perch but with the star power to create a big match that boxing fans will care about. This match certainly checks those boxes. To put it in further context for you, I offer an example of a memorable and important crossroads fight involving another pair of ex-champions in the same general weight area with several similarities to Tszyu-Spence. On November 23, 2007, former world champions Fernando Vargas and Ricardo Mayorga met in Los Angeles at a very definite crossroads in their careers. The 29-year-old Vargas was already a 10-year veteran with two

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STEVE’S SOAPBOX

Marco Antonio Barrera stopped Paulie Ayala in 10 rounds.

Antonio Barrera-Paulie Ayala in 2004 having a rather mediocre turnout. A 2006 show topped by Jhonny Gonzalez-Fernando Montiel also drew a sparse crowd. It really wasn’t until 2007, with an anticipated welterweight matchup between Paul Williams and Antonio Margarito, that the modest tennis arena took off and branded itself as a bona fide boxing venue. Behind the promotional efforts of the late Dan Goossen, they were able to sell over 7,000 tickets. The stadium has a capacity of around 8,000, and to that point it was by far their largest crowd for a boxing event. The next year, the soccer stadium hosted Oscar De La Hoya-Steve Forbes, in what turned out to be The Golden Boy’s last professional victory. But perhaps the most important and magical night for what was then called the Home Depot Center (later changed to the StubHub Center, and then the Dignity Health Sports Park) happened on March 1, 2008. It was on this night that Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez III took place, with the two Mexicans waging war until the final bell. It was a last- second knockdown that gave Vazquez a razor-thin split decision in defense of the Ring Magazine/WBC 122-pound championship. In the immediate aftermath, the buzz in that place was palpable. Everyone who was there that evening, from the fighters’ families to Sylvester Stallone and Jack Nicholson, didn’t leave for a good 20 minutes. The “StubHub” was cemented as a fight hub, and the atmosphere and mystique only grew from there. Soon a succession of Ring Magazine Fight of the Year winners would be held at the outdoor venue – from Tim Bradley-Ruslan Provodnikov (2013) to Lucas Matthysse-John Molina (2014) to Orlando Salido-Francisco Vargas (2016).

AN ODE TO THE WAR GROUNDS By Steve Kim

A s the summer boxing schedule gets filled in, one thing is very noticeable to me as a native of Los Angeles: the dearth of big fight cards that are taking place in Southern California. There was a time when boxing regularly played to large crowds at venues like the Olympic Auditorium, the Fabulous Forum and the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Believe it or not, there was a time when boxing was as big as the Dodgers, Rams and Lakers in the city. In the 21st century, a particular venue in Carson became a consistent destination for fights. Located on

the campus of Cal State University Dominguez Hills, the Dignity Health Sports Park’s tennis stadium is known for much more than just serves and volleys. It became a modern-day gladiator pit. This venue – which also includes a soccer stadium, a track-and-field facility and a velodrome – opened in 2003 and hosted its first boxing card that summer. It was Diego Corrales stopping Damian Fuller in the main event of an ESPN2 Friday Night Fights telecast. But in truth, it took a while for this place to catch on with fight fans. I still recall a card headlined by Marco

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STEVE’S SOAPBOX

Gennadiy Golovkin sold so many tickets for his bout versus Marco Antonio Rubio in 2014 that extra bleacher seats were brought in. Now, the “War Grounds” (as dubbed by Bradley before his bout versus Jessie Vargas) is dormant. No fight cards were hosted there in 2025. The last one on the premises took place in August 2024 when Matchroom Boxing put on a card featuring Diego Pacheco. There don’t seem to be any shows that will be held there in the foreseeable future. Why? “The cost, the productions, have gone up,” explained Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez. “It’s a union building now. I think back in the day, it wasn’t. So the cost has gone up. It’s just very, very expensive to have to build a lighting truss, a canopy – everything has gone up.” In the past, Golden Boy, which is located in Los Angeles, regularly utilized the Dignity Health Sports Park. But in recent years, their bigger local shows have taken place at the Honda Center in Anaheim or the Toyota Center in Ontario. Cost matters. And being outdoors only adds to it. “I’ll give you an example: The average for production when you do it in an arena is anywhere between $250,000 to $300,000,” Gomez continued. “You [go] outdoors in the Los Angeles area, it’s double [...] you’re going to end up spending $600,000 on production. There are so many elements that come into play. That’s been the problem: the production. It’s gone up.” And being an open-air facility brings about another variable – the weather. Who can forget that tempestuous night in March 2018 when Oscar Valdez and Scott Quigg battled as it poured rain all night. I dubbed that night “Waterworld,” and while it made for a memorable evening, it killed the live gate. “Weather is always a factor,” says Carl Moretti, the senior VP of boxing operations for Top Rank, which put on Valdez-Quigg. “You don’t want to go there with inclement weather, which takes out five or six months, at least. And it also has a reputation of no one

Vazquez-Marquez III at the Home Depot Center was unforgettable.

paying for tickets. You just go and it’s a free ticket-type of place.” (What Moretti is referring to are the “PBComps” distributed by Premier Boxing Champions for a number of years when the organization was basically giving away stacks of tickets for their cards. But that’s another story for another column.) The shame is that, regardless of the conditions, there was an atmosphere about the War Grounds. It was a place where true fight fans congregated. “There is something special about it, and I’ve gotta commend HBO and Showtime; they recognized that,” said Gomez. “They were a big part of it. And back in those days it was still a bit more expensive than an enclosed arena, but the networks decided to bite the bullet and they did it. And it was special. It was great. There were special nights. It was fun.” What’s more alarming is that beyond Dignity Health Sports Park, the boxing scene in Los Angeles is a bit, well ... dead. Think about the last time the Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center) hosted a boxing event? Or The Forum, which actually had a bit of a revival with the sport about a decade ago. Just finding available buildings is difficult in this area, according to Gomez, who says, “There’s a lot to compete with. You’ve got to be very strategic. You have to do it months in advance. Look, there’s a new arena in L.A., the Intuit Dome (home of the NBA Clippers); we’ve been flirting with the idea of doing something

there. You have the YouTube Theater (within SoFi Stadium). There’s a couple of new places that we’ve been looking into. But doing a show in Los Angeles has gotten very expensive.” This problem isn’t exclusive to the West Coast. Aside from Katie Taylor- Amanda Serrano III in 2025 and Teofimo Lopez-Shakur Stevenson last January, there haven’t been many shows recently in the big room at Madison Square Garden, which years ago was known as “the Mecca of Boxing.” And they have the same issues as Crypto.com Arena. “Every building is booked with something in every major city,” said Moretti. “I don’t know if there’s an available Saturday in the upstairs room at [Madison Square Garden] till the end of the year. Once an NBA or NHL team has success, [arenas] have to be held for the league playoffs, and by the time the league releases the schedule, it’s too late to book the event.” It’s a bleak outlook. Is there any hope? “Sure, there’s hope,” said an optimistic Andy Foster, who cares about such things as the executive director of the California State Athletic Commission. “Look, California’s too big of a market. It’s just a bump in the road. There’s ebbs and flows, and right now we’re in an ebb. It’s just the way the market works.”

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BY THE NUMBERS: FIDEL LABARBA By Don Stradley • Illustration by KronkAAArt

professional fights » LaBarba finished his career in 1933 with a record of 69-15-7, with 16 knockouts and 5 no-decision bouts. He was never KO’d. Among the opponents he defeated were some of the best small men of the time, including Memphis Pal Moore, Tommy Paul, Bud Taylor, Kid Chocolate and Petey Sarron. LaBarba also notched two wins over Willie Smith, a bantamweight who had won a gold medal at the 1924 Games representing South Africa. One of LaBarba’s notable victories in his post-flyweight years was over former bantamweight champion Bushy Graham in May 1930 at Madison Square Garden. He’d beaten Graham in 1928, but since then, Graham had won the bantamweight crown. Strangely, rather than try to avenge his previous loss to LaBarba, Graham spent the rematch running. According to the United Press, it wasn’t until the late rounds that LaBarba “managed to land solidly.” LaBarba hurt Graham at one point and nearly knocked him down. A sad sidenote to the fight was rounds with the bantamweight champion » that the wife of George Blake, LaBarba’s longtime trainer and mentor, passed away suddenly two days before the contest. The woman’s death cast a pall over the team, especially over LaBarba, who looked upon Blake’s wife as a sort of maternal figure. Still, the gallant little slugger went on with the fight and did surprisingly well, keeping Graham on the run throughout all 10 rounds and earning his second victory over him.

failed attempts at the featherweight title » LaBarba returned to New York in May 1931 to challenge featherweight champion Christopher Battalino. Using what the Buffalo Times called “a very scrambled and cluttered technique,” the awkward titleholder had earned the

Fidel LaBarba went from winning a gold medal at the 1924 Paris Olympics to winning the National Boxing Association flyweight title, all before he turned 20 years old. Here’s his unique story by the numbers.

bouts with Jimmy McLarnin » LaBarba was still class president at Lincoln High School when, in only his second professional contest, he was matched against future legend Jimmy McLarnin, who was making his 18th start. The pair ended up fighting three times over the next three months in Vernon, California, with “Babyface” McLarnin taking the first and third bouts by decision, while the middle encounter went into the books as a draw. The first meeting was highly controversial. Though the two ring judges had scored the four-rounder for LaBarba, referee Harry Lee disregarded their scores and inexplicably awarded the bout to McLarnin. Years later, LaBarba explained the situation to author Peter Heller. Apparently, the problems began when an exchange of angry words between LaBarba’s hotheaded brother and Lee turned into a post-fight scuffle. Lee was overheard insulting LaBarba as he gathered the judges’ score slips. After Lee’s stunning announcement, LaBarba’s camp ripped the slips from his hands to show to the fellows on press row. Though the verdict remained a “W” for McLarnin, Lee was admonished, and an immediate rematch was made. Regardless, LaBarba stayed friendly with McLarnin throughout the years. “I speak the highest praise of him,” LaBarba said. “He was a hell of a fighter.”

nickname “Battling” Battalino. That was as close as he came to any sort of affection from press row. Most of the boxing cognoscenti considered LaBarba superior to Battalino, but after 15 rounds of drab mauling, the featherweight champion had retained his title. LaBarba’s only excuse for the loss was, “I just couldn’t untrack myself.” By December 1932, LaBarba was back in the Big Apple for his second chance at the featherweight crown, now held by an old rival, Kid Chocolate. Having split two bouts with the Cuban in the past, a rubber match for the title was a natural. For 15 rounds they battled, with both fighters staggering each other along the way. The Associated Press scored it a draw, but the official verdict was for Kid Chocolate by majority decision. “The crowd booed the verdict lustily, then gave LaBarba a sensational ovation as he shouldered his way out of the arena,” reported the A.P.

wins at the Paris Games » In the legendary Velodrome d’Hiver, a famed venue that hosted

many memorable fights, LaBarba defeated four competitors on his way to the 1924 Olympic flyweight finals. In the other corner was James McKenzie of Great Britain. “He was a tough guy, and I kicked the hell out of him,” LaBarba said. “I really went after him.” Winning a three- round decision and the gold medal “was the greatest thrill in the world,” he added. LaBarba also recalled the intense

damaged eye » Prior to his third bout with Kid Chocolate, LaBarba suffered an eye injury in sparring. This turned out to be a torn retina, which resulted in him retiring a few fights later at age 27. A surgeon would eventually remove the eye.

emotions he felt while standing on the winner’s dais as “The Star-Spangled Banner” played. “Jesus, I couldn’t help it,” he’d say in a 1970 interview. “Tears rolled down.”

cool rope trick » LaBarba (1905-1981) stayed busy after boxing. He served with the old Army Air Corps in Italy in World War II and then became a successful sportswriter. Prior to the war, he had hobnobbed in Hollywood, working as an adviser on boxing movies and contributing to a couple of screenplays for Twentieth Century Fox. He also became great friends with

watched him beat Frankie Genaro » LaBarba was such a big draw in Los Angeles that his bout with Genaro for the vacant NBA flyweight title was a major sporting event. The excitement of seeing

their very own “Los Angeles schoolboy” compete for a title brought 18,000 fans to Ascot Park on August 22, 1925. When LaBarba was awarded the victory, the “crowd swarmed into the ring,” reported the L.A. Daily News, “and it was half an hour before the officer could rescue LaBarba and escort him to his dressing room.” The fight had benefited from a great buildup. With the recent death of flyweight champion Pancho Villa, it appeared Genaro was a logical successor – he’d defeated Villa in the past and was recognized in some circles as the “American” flyweight champion. Like LaBarba, Genaro was a gold medal winner, having earned his at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. LaBarba later recalled Genaro’s speed, saying he could “jump up in the air and hit you three times before his feet landed on the ground.” With the NBA title in hand, LaBarba would unify the belts of the day in 1927 by traveling to New York and beating Elky Clark by 12-round decision, taking the NYSAC title, earning the vacant Ring belt and full recognition as world champion. Just months later, LaBarba announced he was quitting the business to attend Stanford University. Boxing had never been his passion. He was good at it and made money to support his family, but he had other things in mind. LaBarba later claimed his teachers advised him to continue fighting and make some more money before he retired. He did as they suggested but never quite matched the success of his meteoric rise.

novelist and screenwriter Budd Schulberg, even serving as Schulberg’s best man at his first wedding. Troubled in his later years by poor health, LaBarba died at age 76 at a veterans’ hospital in West Los Angeles. Upon LaBarba’s death, Sacramento columnist Bill Conlin recalled young LaBarba’s time on the vaudeville circuit. Fresh off his triumph at the Olympics, LaBarba made money on the Orpheum Circuit with his talent for rope skipping. “LaBarba literally entranced his audiences,” Conlin wrote, “twirling his bejeweled rope with the house lights out and only spots on his center-stage footwork. It was really something.” And so was LaBarba.

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RINGMAGAZINE.COM 21

Ring Ratings Through fights of May 16, 2026

Jeddad Knows Age Every Moment Matters Here Jeddah is Different

RECENT FIGHT RESULTS

MEN P4P: Naoya Inoue (No. 2, P4P: David Benavidez (No. 7,

115: Israel Gonzalez (No. 10,

1) UD 10 Armando Garcia

112: Joselito Velazquez (No. 9) TKO 7 Andres Alvarez 112: Angel Ayala (No. 6) out, inactivity/moving up 105: DianXing Zhu (in at No. 10) UD 12 Ian Abne 105: Siyakholwa Kuse (No. 4, WOMEN 126: Tiah-Mai Ayton (in at No. 4) TKO 4 Stevi Levy 126: Sarah Mahfoud (No. 3) out, inactivity 126: Daniela Bermudez (No. 5) out, inactivity 122: Skye Nicolson (in at No. 3) UD 10 Maria Turner 118: Rianna Rios (in at No. 5) UD 6 Luz Aguilar 115: Shannon Ryan (in at No. 5) TKO 2 Nicola Hopewell 102: Aldana Lopez (in at No. 5) UD Montserrat Alarcon

1) UD 12 Junto Nakatani (No. 6,

2) TKO 6 Gilberto Ramirez

H: H: H: C:

Martin Bakole (No. 7) out, inactivity

Daniel Dubois (No. 4,

3) TKO 11 Fabio Wardley (No. 1,

2) UD 12 Melvin Jerusalem (No. 1,

Filip Hrgovic (No. 5) TKO 3 David Allen

David Benavidez (in at No. 1) TKO 6 Gilberto Ramirez (No. 1,

175: Zak Chelli (in at No. 10) TKO 10 David Morrell (No. 5, out) 168: Jacob Bank (No. 9, 1) KO 5 Paulinus Ndjolonimu 168: Jaime Munguia (in at No. 5) UD 12 Armando Resendiz (No. 6, 1) 147: Brian Norman Jr. (No. 2) TKO 2 Josh Wagner 140: Keyshawn Davis (No. 2, 1) UD 12 Nahir Albright 122: Naoya Inoue (C) UD 12 Junto Nakatani (No. 3) 118: Takuma Inoue (No. 3, 1) UD 12 Kazuto Ioka (No. 10, out) 118: Yoshiki Takei (No. 8) out, moved up

RINGMAGAZINE.COM 23

MEN’S RING RATINGS Through May 16, 2026 CHAMPIONSHIPBELTS: RING IBF WBA WBC WBO | H NEW TO RATINGS

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHTS WEIGHT LIMIT: 175 POUNDS

HEAVYWEIGHTS WEIGHT UNLIMITED

CRUISERWEIGHTS WEIGHT LIMIT: 200 POUNDS

SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHTS WEIGHT LIMIT: 168 POUNDS

C OLEKSANDR USYK

C JAI OPETAIA

C DMITRY BIVOL

C (VACANT) 1 CANELO ALVAREZ

Ukraine • 24-0-0 (15 KOs) +3 DANIEL DUBOIS U.K. • 23-3-0 (22 KOs)

Australia • 30-0-0 (23 KOs)

Russia • 24-1-0 (12 KOs)

REDEFINING FAN EXPERIENCES SELA’S GLOBAL FOOTPRINT

1 H DAVID BENAVIDEZ U.S. • 32-0-0 (26 KOs) 2

1 DAVID BENAVIDEZ

Mexico • 63-3-2 (39 KOs)

U.S. • 32-0-0 (26 KOs)

2 OSLEYS IGLESIAS

2 AGIT KABAYEL

2 CALLUM SMITH

-1 GILBERTO RAMIREZ Mexico • 48-2-0 (30 KOs)

Cuba • 15-0-0 (14 KOs)

Germany • 27-0-0 (19 KOs)

U.K. • 31-2-0 (22 KOs)

3 CHRISTIAN MBILLI

3 TYSON FURY

3 ALBERT RAMIREZ

-1 CHRIS BILLAM-SMITH

France • 29-0-1 (24 KOs)

U.K. • 35-2-1 (24 KOs) -3 FABIO WARDLEY U.K. • 20-1-1 (19 KOs)

U.K. • 21-2-0 (13 KOs) -1 MICHAL CIESLAK Poland • 28-2-0 (22 KOs) -1 NOEL MIKAELIAN Armenia • 28-3-0 (12 KOs) -1 RYAN ROZICKI Canada • 21-1-1 (20 KOs) -1 BADOU JACK Sweden • 29-4-3 (17 KOs)

Venezuela • 22-0-0 (19 KOs)

4 LESTER MARTINEZ

4 ANTHONY YARDE

Guatemala • 20-0-1 (16 KOs)

Building upon its transformative impact in the Middle East and North Africa, Sela continues to orchestrate a powerful symphony of international expansion, solidifying its position as a global powerhouse in sports and entertainment. The recent launch of its London headquarters served as a crucial milestone and hub for cultivating opportunities across the globe. A testament to Sela's global impact is its innovative and globally recognized sponsorship of Newcastle United Football Club, which remarkably earned the status of "The Most Award-Winning Football Sponsorship in the World in 2024" with more than 97 awards in a single year. This success highlights Sela's effective international partnerships and represents one aspect of its diverse global engagement, where redefining fan experiences are central to its approach. Another testament to Sela's international approach lies in its deep involvement in the world of boxing. The groundbreaking multi-year partnership with The Ring and TKO signifies a substantial commitment to elevating fan experiences worldwide by providing a

premier platform for established and emerging boxing talents, access to world-class training facilities and delivering top-tier boxing events. Both of these projects align with Sela's overarching vision of creating spectacular and impactful entertainment experiences. The company's proven track record in delivering high-profile events, from the vibrant Riyadh and Jeddah Seasons, Esports World Cup, Formula E, Six Kings Slam to landmark boxing matches like Crawford vs. Madrimov and Joshua vs. Dubois, provides a strong foundation for its global boxing endeavors. Sela's international strategy extends beyond single partnerships. It embodies a commitment to understanding diverse global audiences and tailoring experiences that resonate authentically. By forging strategic alliances, Sela is positioned to continue its trajectory as a leading force in the international sports and entertainment landscape. The global stage is now set for Sela to further amplify its impact and redefine global entertainment experiences.

U.K. • 27-4-0 (24 KOs)

5 H JAIME MUNGUIA

5 FILIP HRGOVIC

+1 IMAM KHATAEV Australia • 11-1-0 (10 KOs) +1 JOSHUA BUATSI U.K. • 20-1-0 (13 KOs)

Mexico • 46-2-0 (35 KOs) -1 DIEGO PACHECO U.S. • 25-0-0 (18 KOs) Mexico • 16-3-0 (11 KOs) +1 JACOB BANK Denmark • 19-0-0 (11 KOs) -1 ARMANDO RESENDIZ

Croatia • 20-1-0 (15 KOs)

6 MOSES ITAUMA

U.K. • 14-0-0 (12 KOs) +1 EFE AJAGBA Nigeria • 21-1-1 (15 KOs) U.S. • 14-0-0 (12 KOs) +1 MURAT GASSIEV Russia • 33-2-0 (26 KOs)

+1 WILLY HUTCHINSON

U.K. • 20-2-0 (14 KOs) +1 NAJEE LOPEZ U.S. • 16-0-0 (13 KOs)

+1 RICHARD TORREZ JR.

-1 VIDDAL RILEY U.K. • 14-0-0 (7 KOs)

-2 CALEB PLANT U.S. • 23-3-0 (14 KOs)

-1 LEONARDO MOSQUEA

+1 UMAR DZAMBEKOV Austria • 14-0-0 (10 KOs)

France • 18-0-0 (11 KOs)

-2 HAMZAH SHEERAZ

10 H JUSTIS HUNI

10 H ZAK CHELLI

-1 ROBIN SIRWAN SAFAR

U.K. • 22-0-1 (18 KOs)

Australia • 13-1-0 (7 KOs)

Sweden • 19-0-0 (13 KOs)

U.K. • 17-3-1 (9 KOs)

MIDDLEWEIGHTS WEIGHT LIMIT: 160 POUNDS C (VACANT) 1 CARLOS ADAMES 2 YOENLI HERNANDEZ Cuba • 10-0-0 (9 KOs) 3 ERISLANDY LARA U.S. • 32-3-3 (19 KOs) 4 TROY ISLEY U.S. • 15-0-0 (5 KOs) 5 ETINOSA OLIHA Italy • 22-0-0 (10 KOs) 6 AARON MCKENNA Ireland • 20-0-0 (10 KOs) 7 CHRIS EUBANK JR. U.K. • 35-4-0 (25 KOs) 8 JESUS RAMOS JR. U.S. • 24-1-0 (19 KOs) 9 DENZEL BENTLEY U.K. • 22-3-1 (18 KOs) 10 AMARI JONES U.S. • 16-0-0 (14 KOs)

JR. MIDDLEWEIGHTS WEIGHT LIMIT: 154 POUNDS

WELTERWEIGHTS WEIGHT LIMIT: 147 POUNDS

JR. WELTERWEIGHTS WEIGHT LIMIT: 140 POUNDS C SHAKUR STEVENSON U.S. • 25-0-0 (11 KOs) 1 DALTON SMITH U.K. • 19-0-0 (14 KOs) 2 +1 KEYSHAWN DAVIS U.S. • 15-0-0 (10 KOs)

C (VACANT) 1 VERGIL ORTIZ

C (VACANT) 1 DEVIN HANEY

Dom. Rep. • 25-1-1 (18 KOs)

U.S. • 24-0-0 (22 KOs) 2 SEBASTIAN FUNDORA U.S. • 24-1-1 (16 KOs) 3 XANDER ZAYAS

U.S. • 33-0-0 (15 KOs) 2 BRIAN NORMAN JR. U.S. • 29-1-0 (23 KOs) 3 EIMANTAS STANIONIS U.S. • 25-2-0 (20 KOs) 5 ROLANDO ROMERO U.S. • 17-2-0 (13 KOs) 6 ROHAN POLANCO 4 RYAN GARCIA

-1 RICHARDSON HITCHINS

Puerto Rico • 23-0-0 (13 KOs)

Lithuania • 16-1-0 (9 KOs)

U.S. • 20-0-0 (8 KOs)

4 ISRAIL MADRIMOV

4 TEOFIMO LOPEZ

Uzbekistan • 11-2-1 (7 KOs)

U.S. • 22-2-0 (13 KOs)

5 JARON ENNIS

5 ALBERTO PUELLO

U.S. • 35-0-0 (31 KOs)

Dom. Rep. • 24-1-0 (10 KOs)

6 JOSH KELLY

6 GARY ANTUANNE RUSSELL U.S. • 19-1-0 (17 KOs) 7 SANDOR MARTIN Spain • 43-4-0 (15 KOs) 8 SUBRIEL MATIAS

U.K. • 18-1-1 (9 KOs) 7 BAKHRAM MURTAZALIEV Russia • 23-1-0 (17 KOs) 8 BRANDON ADAMS U.S. • 26-4-0 (16 KOs) 9 ABASS BARAOU Germany • 17-2-0 (9 KOs) 10 BAKARY SAMAKE France • 19-0-0 (11 KOs)

Dom. Rep. • 17-0-0 (10 KOs)

7 SHAKHRAM GIYASOV

Uzbekistan • 17-0-0 (10 KOs)

8 RAUL CURIEL

Mexico • 17-0-1 (14 KOs)

Puerto Rico • 23-3-0 (22 KOs)

9 ALEXIS ROCHA

9 ADAM AZIM

U.S. • 26-2-1 (16 KOs)

U.K. • 14-0-0 (11 KOs)

10 JACK CATTERALL

10 PIERCE O’LEARY

U.K. • 32-2-0 (14 KOs)

Ireland • 19-0-0 (11 KOs)

24 RINGMAGAZINE.COM

MEN’S RING RATINGS Through May 16, 2026 CHAMPIONSHIPBELTS: RING IBF WBA WBC WBO | H NEW TO RATINGS

LIGHTWEIGHTS WEIGHT LIMIT: 135 POUNDS

JR. LIGHTWEIGHTS WEIGHT LIMIT: 130 POUNDS

FEATHERWEIGHTS WEIGHT LIMIT: 126 POUNDS

JR. FEATHERWEIGHTS WEIGHT LIMIT: 122 POUNDS

C (VACANT) 1 SHAKUR STEVENSON U.S. • 25-0-0 (11 KOs) 2 RAYMOND MURATALLA U.S. • 24-0-0 (17 KOs) 3 WILLIAM ZEPEDA Mexico • 33-1-0 (27 KOs) 4 ANDY CRUZ Cuba • 6-1-0 (3 KOs) 5 ABDULLAH MASON U.S. • 20-0-0 (17 KOs) 6 FLOYD SCHOFIELD U.S. • 19-0-0 (13 KOs) 7 SAM NOAKES U.K. • 18-1-0 (16 KOs) 8 LUCAS BAHDI Canada • 20-0-0 (15 KOs) 9 JADIER HERRERA Cuba • 18-0-0 (16 KOs) 10 JOE CORDINA U.K. • 19-1-0 (9 KOs)

C (VACANT) 1 EMANUEL NAVARRETE Mexico • 40-2-1 (33 KOs) 2 O’SHAQUIE FOSTER U.S. • 24-3-0 (12 KOs) 3 ANTHONY CACACE Ireland • 25-1-0 (9 KOs) 4 ROBSON CONCEICAO Brazil • 21-3-1 (10 KOs) 5 CHARLY SUAREZ

C (VACANT) 1 RAFAEL ESPINOZA

C NAOYA INOUE

Japan • 33-0-0 (27 KOs) 1 MURODJON AKHMADALIEV Uzbekistan • 14-2-0 (11 KOs) 2 SAM GOODMAN Australia • 22-1-0 (8 KOs) 3 JUNTO NAKATANI Japan • 32-1-0 (24 KOs) 4 SEBASTIAN HERNANDEZ Mexico • 20-1-0 (18 KOs) 5 RAMON CARDENAS U.S. • 27-2-0 (15 KOs) 6 RYOSUKE NISHIDA Japan • 11-1-0 (2 KOs) 7 ALAN PICASSO Mexico • 32-1-1 (17 KOs) 8 SHABAZ MASOUD U.K. • 15-0-0 (4 KOs) 9 BRYAN MERCADO VAZQUEZ Mexico • 32-2-0 (26 KOs) 10 YUKINORI OGUNI Japan • 24-4-3 (9 KOs)

Mexico • 28-0-0 (24 KOs)

2 ANGELO LEO

U.S. • 26-1-0 (12 KOs) 3 BRUCE CARRINGTON U.S. • 17-0-0 (10 KOs) 4 STEPHEN FULTON U.S. • 23-2-0 (8 KOs) 5 BRANDON FIGUEROA U.S. • 27-2-1 (20 KOs) 6 NICK BALL U.K. • 23-1-1 (13 KOs) 7 LUIS ALBERTO LOPEZ

Philippines • 18-0-0 (10 KOs)

6 RAYMOND FORD

U.S. • 18-1-1 (8 KOs)

7 EDUARDO NUNEZ

Mexico • 29-2-0 (27 KOs)

Mexico • 32-3-0 (19 KOs)

8 RYAN GARNER

8 MIRCO CUELLO

U.K. • 19-0-0 (10 KOs)

Argentina • 16-0-0 (13 KOs)

9 JAMES DICKENS

9 RA’EESE ALEEM U.S. • 23-1-0 (12 KOs) 10 CRISTOBAL LORENTE Spain • 21-0-3 (8 KOs)

U.K. • 36-6-0 (15 KOs)

10 HAYATO TSUTSUMI Japan • 8-0-0 (5 KOs)

BANTAMWEIGHTS WEIGHT LIMIT: 118 POUNDS

JR. BANTAMWEIGHTS WEIGHT LIMIT: 115 POUNDS

FLYWEIGHTS WEIGHT LIMIT: 112 POUNDS

JR. FLYWEIGHTS WEIGHT LIMIT: 108 POUNDS

C (VACANT) 1 SEIYA TSUTSUMI

C JESSE RODRIGUEZ U.S. • 23-0-0 (16 KOs) 1 FERNANDO MARTINEZ

C ( VACANT) 1 RICARDO SANDOVAL U.S. • 27-2-0 (18 KOs) 2 MASAMICHI YABUKI Japan • 19-4-0 (18 KOs) 3 ANTHONY OLASCUAGA U.S. • 12-1-0 (9 KOs) 4 SEIGO YURI AKUI Japan • 22-3-1 (12 KOs) 5 GALAL YAFAI U.K. • 9-0-0 (7 KOs) 6 +1 FELIX ALVARADO

C (VACANT) 1 RENE SANTIAGO

Japan • 13-0-3 (8 KOs)

Puerto Rico • 16-4-0 (9 KOs)

Argentina • 18-1-0 (9 KOs)

2 TAKUMA INOUE

2 THANONGSAK SIMSRI

2 DAVID JIMENEZ

Japan • 22-2-0 (5 KOs) 3 CHRISTIAN MEDINA Mexico • 27-4-0 (19 KOs) 4 DAIGO HIGA Japan • 21-3-3 (19 KOs) 5 ANTONIO VARGAS U.S. • 19-1-1 (11 KOs) 6 RIKU MASUDA Japan • 10-1-0 (9 KOs) 7 JOSE SALAS Mexico • 17-0-0 (11 KOs) 8 Japan • 8-1-0 (3 KOs) 9 H KENNETH LLOVER

Thailand • 40-1-0 (35 KOs)

Costa Rica • 18-1-0 (12 KOs)

3 CARLOS CANIZALES

3 PHUMELELA CAFU

Venezuela • 28-3-1 (20 KOs)

S. Africa • 11-1-3 (8 KOs)

4 KYOSUKE TAKAMI

4 TOMOYA TSUBOI Japan • 3-0-0 (2 KOs) 5 ANDREW MOLONEY

Japan • 10-1-0 (8 KOs)

5 SHOKICHI IWATA

Japan • 16-2-0 (13 KOs)

Australia • 28-4-0 (18 KOs)

6 REGIE SUGANOB

6 RICARDO MALAJIKA

Nicaragua • 42-5-0 (35 KOs) +1 MIEL FAJARDO Philippines • 14-3-2 (12 KOs) +1 JOSELITO VELAZQUEZ Mexico • 23-1-1 (15 KOs)

Philippines • 18-1-0 (7 KOs)

S. Africa • 17-2-0 (12 KOs)

7 CRISTIAN ARANETA

7 WILLIBALDO GARCIA Mexico • 23-6-2 (13 KOs) 8 RENE CALIXTO BIBIANO Mexico • 24-1-1 (10 KOs) 9 +1 ISRAEL GONZALEZ Mexico • 31-5-2 (12 KOs) 10 Ghana • 14-0-0 (11 KOs)

Philippines • 25-3-0 (20 KOs)

8 ERIK BADILLO

+1 TENSHIN NASUKAWA

Mexico • 19-0-0 (8 KOs) 9 SIVENATHI NONTSHINGA S. Africa • 14-2-0 (11 KOs) 10 MASATAKA TANIGUCHI Japan • 21-6-0 (15 KOs)

+1 YOALI MEJIA MOSQUEDA

Philippines • 17-0-0 (12 KOs)

Mexico • 15-0-0 (12 KOs) 10 H ABRAHAM R. PEREZ U.S. • 14-0-0 (7 KOs)

10 H JASON MOLONEY

-1 THEOPHILOUS ALLOTEY

Australia • 29-4-0 (20 KOs)

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