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Jon Jones Sets Condition for Potential Retirement Fight Against Oleksandr Usyk

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"Jon Jones Sets Condition for Potential Retirement Fight Against Oleksandr Usyk"

Oleksandr Usyk is in the market for an opponent for his retirement fight, and UFC legend Jon Jones is one name that has been reported as an option.

Usyk’s last outing was met with criticism both before and after the event, as the then unified heavyweight ruler faced 1-0-recorded Rico Verhoeven, only for Verhoeven to provide a much tougher test than anticipated before being controversially stopped in round 11.

The Ukrainian great has opted to vacate all three of his heavyweight belts, but has said that he will remain in the sport for one ‘last dance’ before retirement.

Deontay Wilder has been considered the frontrunner to be in the opposite cornerbut Jones and a rematch with Verhoeven are amongst the other possibilities that have been mentioned.

Speaking with Ring Magazinehowever, Jones ruled himself out of a boxing match with Usyk, only willing if it were to take place under MMA rules.

“No, [I am not interested] not at all. Usyk is Usyk, man, he is one of the absolute GOAT’s of heavyweight boxing.

“I also am aware that he does wrestling and that wrestling has been a heavy part of his training for many years, that is probably why he is so dominant in the clinch.

“If he would like to test his total combat skills, I would oblige him in that, but to handicap myself by only using my hands – that is just not the world that I come from.

“Out of all of the heavyweight boxers, I do see Usyk as having the highest potential [in MMA] and making it competitive, but I am no boxer and I don’t really consider Usyk to be a complete fighter.

“I think that the world knows what would happen if we were locked in the same room and I’ll just leave it at that.”

News on Usyk’s farewell fight is expected in the coming months, with Wilder’s team saying they are open to making it happen.

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Tim Bradley Criticizes Shakur Stevenson for Pursuing Mayweather-like Money

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"Tim Bradley Criticizes Shakur Stevenson for Pursuing Mayweather-like Money"

Tim Bradley jumped all over O’Shaquie Foster’s victory over Emanuel Navarrete, turning it into direct ammunition against Shakur StevensonGervonta Davisand the modern fighter mindset. His critique cuts right to the sport’s biggest problem: stars demanding Floyd Mayweather paydays without ever delivering the matchups that created Mayweather’s empire in the first place.

Foster became Bradley’s prime exhibit for what happens when someone takes real risks. Bradley loved Foster’s aggressive opening, smart in-fight adjustments, and sharp defense against Navarrete. Then he immediately aimed his fire up the ladder.

“Now you see why Shakur Stevenson didn’t want no action. Now you see why. That’s why,” Bradley said on his channel. “Yeah, Tank Davis, you ain’t going to want none either.”

Bradley did not point to leaked contracts or turn down paperwork to back those claims. Foster looking elite against Navarrete does not prove rivals actively ducked him. Still, that performance makes it almost impossible for top contenders to shrug Foster off as irrelevant.

Bradley delivered his sharpest hit when breaking down purse entitlement.

“Get that whole Floyd Mayweather up out of your mind,” Bradley said. “The money going to come with the challenge.”

Mayweather earned monster paydays only after grinding through titleholders, cleaning out contenders, and breaking box office records with Oscar De La Hoya. Copying Mayweather’s late-career financial demands without doing the front-end dirty work leads straight to overpaying for weak fights.

Promoters help fuel the mess. Once a company pays a star millions to beat overmatched opponents, it locks in a price tag that makes threatening matchups impossible to make. Getting that same fighter to accept less cash for higher danger becomes a lost cause.

Still, Bradley misses a vital point about the business. Foster cannot keep taking high-risk, low-reward assignments on the vague promise that cash might follow someday. His performance ought to give his team the leverage to secure major paydays right now.

Bradley even likened Foster’s ring intelligence to Terence Crawford, spotlighting his footwork, counter traps, and seamless rhythm changes. He capped it off by telling Davis to step up and “fight somebody that’s real.”

The ball sits squarely in the fans’ court. If Foster only earns polite pats on the back while cautious stars keep collecting nine-figure checks for soft touches, the sport is guaranteeing the exact culture Bradley hates.

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Boxing247.com is an independent boxing news publication covering the sport since 2001. It provides original reporting, fight analysis, schedules, results, and informed coverage of major fighters and events worldwide, backed by more than 25 years of professional boxing journalism.

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Sebastian Fundoras Inside Game: Mastering Distance Control for Optimal Performance

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"Sebastian Fundora's Inside Game: Mastering Distance Control for Optimal Performance"

Sebastian Fundora’s towering stature is frequently billed as a nightmare puzzle for Jaron “Boots” Ennis. His gritty scrap against Ermal Hadribeaj exposed a deeper issue: height means little if you lack the hand speed and sharp timing to protect it.

Shawn Porter zeroed in on those deficiencies while breaking down Fundora’s October 17 win alongside Hadribeaj. The unheralded challenger slipped past the WBC junior middleweight champion’s reach all night, causing chaos until Fundora finally halted him with one tick remaining in round 12.

“He couldn’t time you last night,” Porter told Hadribeaj Porter’s channel. “You were coming after him, and there was not one moment where he saw you coming.”

Porter mentioned Timothy Bradley’s note that Fundora’s father deliberately schooled him in phone-booth infighting, knowing shorter foes would inevitably crowd him. Preparing for the trenches makes tactical sense. It does nothing to develop range control or a punishing perimeter game.

“You don’t have natural speed with the jab. You don’t have natural timing with the one-two,” Porter pointed out.

That gap undermines Fundora’s physical gifts. An 80-inch reach should turn the outside into a minefield, yet Hadribeaj walked into chest range round after round.

Labeling Fundora an inside specialist lets him off the hook. Smothering a foe by choice after dictating terms from the outside is one thing. Living on the inside because you lack the tools to keep opponents off your chest is entirely different. Porter’s critique puts Fundora squarely in that second camp.

Hadribeaj also smothered Fundora so effectively that the champion lost leverage on his trademark uppercuts. Porter observed that while a few broke through, the challenger took away the arc and velocity that crushed earlier rivals.

That pattern should set off alarm bells for Fundora’s camp ahead of a clash with Ennis.

Hadribeaj was an overlooked mandatory, not a pound-for-pound technician, yet he repeatedly forced the champion into disorganized exchanges.

Ennis would not have to wage a simple war of attrition. Boots could exploit those same entry lanes with explosive combinations, fluid stance switches, and evasive angles before Fundora resets his feet. Breaching Fundora’s perimeter would simply trigger a much heavier assault.

Hadribeaj maintains that Fundora’s rare height might still trouble Ennis. His own 12 rounds offered the opposite verdict: a modest puncher penetrated Fundora’s defenses at will.

Boots would still have to respect the champion’s durability, heavy inside clubs, and unrelenting output. Fundora eventually broke Hadribeaj through pure grit, and absorbing that type of heat drains any gas tank.

Fundora cannot gamble on elite punchers gassing out before his defensive gaps catch up to him. Halting Hadribeaj protected his belt, but it never answered Porter’s questions about how effortlessly he was reached.

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BoxingNews24.com has delivered independent boxing coverage since 2007, including original news, fight analysis, schedules, and results. Our experienced boxing writers cover major fighters and events worldwide, with published content reviewed by editors for accuracy.

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Denzel Bentleys Future at Stake: Can Shane Mosley Jr. Cause an Upset?

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"Denzel Bentley's Future at Stake: Can Shane Mosley Jr. Cause an Upset?"

Denzel Bentley laid out his reasons for parting ways with Frank Warren, but his grievances with Queensberry are getting swallowed up by an immediate crisis: walking into his Zuffa debut stripped of his WBO middleweight title.

The sanctioning body is poised to strip Bentley after his camp let the clock run out on confirming a mandatory defense against Yoenli Hernandez. While the official declaration is still pending, his November 7 clash with Shane Mosley Jr. looks set to happen without world title hardware on the line.

Bentley vented about prolonged benching and ghost dates that never got booked.

“I didn’t think I was being treated the best, but I wasn’t in the position to look for anywhere else to go,” Bentley said to Boxing King Media. “It was just to that point where I was out for 16 months.”

He claimed phone calls went ignored and pointed to backstage efforts to scratch him from an MF Pro card.

“No one cared about how I paid the bills or how I was getting on in life or how I was looking after my family.”

Any prizefighter needs a steady paycheck. The economics clearly drove his decision. Warriors Boxing took the Hernandez purse bid at the $200,000 floor, which would have netted Bentley a modest $150,000 to $160,000 payday.

Still, Hernandez secured his status as the rightful challenger. Venting about Queensberry does not justify leaving the top contender on ice. The WBO shut down Bentley’s appeal on October 22, handing both camps a strict 24-hour ultimatum to lock in the bout. Reports indicate his team let the window slam shut.

Instead, Bentley meets Mosley at London’s Copper Box Arena, serving as the co-feature under Chris Billam-Smith versus Cheavon Clarke on Zuffa Boxing 12.

Walking away from Frank Warren is one thing. Plenty of fighters get frustrated by sitting on the shelf and look for greener grass. Tossing away a world title to take a non-title fight against a tricky, surging veteran like Shane Mosley Jr. is completely different. In modern boxing, belts are the ultimate leverage coin.

Without that strap, Bentley loses the single bargaining chip that made him attractive to a new promoter in the first place.

If he gets past Mosley, he can at least try to spin the narrative: he stayed active, got paid, and can target other middleweight names under the Zuffa banner. If Mosley beats him, Bentley’s standing is devastated. He gave up his belt to avoid an unheralded Cuban slickster in Yoenli Hernandez for a modest $150,000 purse bid, only to turn around and get clipped by Mosley in his very first outing with a new outfit. That leaves him with zero hardware, zero momentum, and no moral high ground.

The idea that Zuffa will carry him as charity if he fails is pure dream. Look at how Dana White and the Zuffa machinery run the UFC. They are notoriously cold-blooded. They operate on a strict return on investment mindset. If you produce, entertain, and win, they push you. If you underperform, look flat, or drop a fight you were positioned to win, you are instantly expendable. They don’t do sentimental rebuilding projects for foreign imports who don’t hold a title.

Bentley’s value exists almost entirely in whether he delivers in the ring right now. If he beats Mosley convincingly, the gamble pays off. If he loses, he gave up a world championship just to become an expendable roster cut on someone else’s highlight reel.

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Boxing 24/7 Wire

Boxing247.com is an independent boxing news publication covering the sport since 2001. It provides original reporting, fight analysis, schedules, results, and informed coverage of major fighters and events worldwide, backed by more than 25 years of professional boxing journalism.

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