Boxing
Return, lawsuit and rematch
Published
3 months agoon
Floyd Mayweather Jr. turns 49 today. For most retired fighters approaching 50, a birthday means a still dinner or a social media post remembering the fight. For Mayweather, that means a spring exhibition against Mike Tyson, a $340 million fraud lawsuit against Showtime and – as of yesterday – a professional rematch with Manny Pacquiao at the Sphere in Las Vegas, streaming worldwide on Netflix.
Elated birthday, champ. Nobody retires like you.
The record still stands
Floyd Joy Mayweather Jr. was born on February 24, 1977 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He turned professional on October 11, 1996, and retired – as he claims it was for the last time – on August 26, 2017, after stopping Conor McGregor in ten rounds at T-Mobile Arena. Record: 50-0, 27 knockouts, world titles in five weight categories, from super featherweight to super welterweight. No career losses. No draws. No stars to check.
The financial numbers are as immaculate as the records. Mayweather’s career earnings are estimated at over $1.2 billion, making him the highest-paid boxer in history. The Pacquiao fight alone, which took place on May 2, 2015 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, generated 4.6 million pay-per-view buys, a $72 million live event and total revenue of more than $600 million. Mayweather’s guaranteed purse was $100 million. The McGregor fight added another $275 million to the sport’s coffers, with Mayweather reportedly earning more than $275 million.
The busiest 49-year-old in boxing
Mayweather announced last week that he did coming out of retirement and returning to professional boxingsigning an exclusive contract with CSI Sports/FIGHT SPORTS. The road to a comeback begins with a spring event against Mike Tyson – reportedly scheduled for April 25 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a nod to Ali-Foreman’s Rumble in the Jungle – followed this summer by a sanctioned professional fight against an opponent whose name will be revealed.
And yesterday, the biggest announcement was made: Mayweather and Pacquiao will meet in a professional rematch on September 19 at the Sphere in Las Vegas, streaming live worldwide on Netflix at no additional cost to subscribers. It will be the first-ever professional boxing match played in the $2.3 billion stadium. Mayweather (50-0, 27 KO) and Pacquiao (62-8-3, 39 KO) have not faced each other since 2015, when Mayweather won by unanimous decision.
“Floyd and I gave the world the greatest fight in boxing history,” Pacquiao said in a statement reported by ESPN. “I want Floyd to live with one loss in his professional record and always remember who gave it to him.”
Mayweather’s response was characteristically terse: “I fought and beat Manny once before. It’ll be the same result this time.”
The event will be produced by EverWonder Studio, Hidden Empire and Limitless X Holdings. Pacquiao Promotions and Mayweather Promotions are listed as partners alongside CSI Sports/FIGHT SPORTS. Card details and ticket information have not been released.
Lawsuit
Mayweather’s birthday celebration comes three weeks after he filed a $340 million lawsuit against Showtime Networks and former Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza. The lawsuit, filed in California and first reported by TMZ Sports, alleges that his former manager and advisor Al Haymon orchestrated a financial fraud involving Showtime in which at least $340 million of Mayweather’s career earnings were transferred to accounts he did not control. Haymon is not listed as a defendant.
Mayweather competed in eight pay-per-view events under the Showtime banner, generating an estimated 15 million in buys and over $1 billion in revenue. The lawsuit claims Showtime still owes Mayweather $20 million for his 2015 fight with Andre Berto. The case follows a pattern as aged as sport itself. A Paramount spokesman told ESPN the claims “lack legal and factual basis.”
What does the 49th look like?
Mayweather, who turns 49 today, is not the Mayweather who beat Pacquiao at 38. He hasn’t fought professionally in almost nine years. His exhibition opponents since his retirement – Tenshin Nasukawa, Logan Paul, John Gotti III – have ranged from mismatched to bizarre. He will fight the 59-year-old Tyson at an exhibition and then ask the commission to approve a professional fight in which his 50-0 record – the most critical artifact of his career – is truly at risk.
Whether the reason for the return is legacy, liquidity, or the straightforward inability of a great competitor to leave is a question only Mayweather can answer. The $340 million lawsuit and reported financial pressures suggest the motivation is not purely sporting. But Mayweather always understood something about boxing that his critics didn’t: business is sports and sports are business. He doesn’t separate the two and never has.
At 49, Floyd Mayweather’s credits include the Tyson exhibition in Congo, the Zambidis exhibition in Athens, a professional comeback fight TBD, a rematch with Pacquiao at Sphere on Netflix and a nine-figure lawsuit against the network that made him the biggest pay-per-view attraction in history. By any measure, this is the busiest year of any retired player’s life.
Perhaps “retired” is no longer the right word.
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Boxing
Peter Fury claims Tyson used the wrong tactics against Usyk
Published
2 hours agoon
June 4, 2026
“Well, he has his team there and I’m not criticizing anyone, but in both fights his tactics weren’t good,” Peter said in an interview with Sport Boxing.
“It worked out badly because look, if we have a little guy here who can throw, let’s say, a welterweight who can throw a thousand punches, and we have a heavyweight, will a heavyweight fighter throw a thousand punches with him? No.”
“Or maybe he’ll step in and take one good shot? Absolutely.”
“So basically yes, the strategy was just wrong. It doesn’t mean Usyk was better than him. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t say anything. You misunderstand the tactics and they are wrong.
“And you know, when you look at Usyk’s structure and what he does, when he distances himself and tries to box an elite boxer who is lighter than you and who is giving away pounds, he will ping you all over the shop. That should be noticed,” Peter Fury said.
Tyson Fury announced his return earlier this year and is expected to have a preparatory fight before the start of his scheduled series with Anthony Joshua. Queensbury promoter Frank Warren recently confirmed that Fury’s next opponent could be announced in the coming days, with the long-awaited fight against Joshua expected to take place later this year.
Usyk remains at the top of the heavyweight division and has been ordered to fight WBC interim champion Agit Kabayel. Warren also confirmed that negotiations for the fight are ongoing.
Fury’s third meeting with Usyk has not been announced. Peter Fury, however, remains convinced that the strategy used in the first two fights determined the result.
Boxing
The politician’s perfect 12-0 KO record remains the strangest in boxing
Published
4 hours agoon
June 4, 2026
Jorge Kahwagi achieved something almost impossible in professional boxing. The Mexican politician retired with a perfect record of 12-0, knocked out every opponent he faced, and finished his entire career in just 15 rounds.
On paper, this looks like one of the most devastating runs the sport has ever seen. In fact, many boxing fans wondered if they even believed it.
Perfect record
Kahwagi turned professional in 2001, despite having no boxing experience. Over the next fourteen years, he set an undefeated record, won regional titles, and never once heard the final bell.
Twelve fights brought twelve victories. All twelve victories were by knockout in just fifteen rounds.
The numbers are tough to understand even now.
Several of Kahwagi’s opponents entered the ring in defeat. Others seemed hopelessly outmatched.
But the record continued to grow as the politician and businessman rose through the cruiserweight ranks without ever being seriously tested.
By the time he retired in 2015 after returning from a ten-year hiatus for one final fight, Kahwagi owned one of boxing’s most remarkable undefeated records.
Why fans never bought it
The controversy surrounding Kahwaga was not in itself. This is how some of these victories turned out.
His last fight against Ramon Olivas remains the fight most frequently mentioned in discussions about Kahwagi’s career. The break came after seemingly minimal contact, prompting criticism from fans and observers.
Doubts have already surrounded previous victories, including the victory over veteran Roberto Coelho.
Whether these doubts were justified or not, the damage was done and many fans never accepted Kahwagi’s record at face value.
Boxing has seen this before
Kahwagi’s record may be extraordinary, but in boxing there is always controversy when it comes to results.
As WBN reports, while John Riel Casimero faces a fight-fixing investigation in 2025, debates continue to arise in the contemporary era about what happens inside the ropes.
Long before that, Roy Jones Jr. denied winning Olympic gold in Seoul despite dominating Park Si-hun in what many still consider the greatest heist in boxing history.
More than thirty years later, Park returned the medal to Jones.
The Kahwagi case falls into a different category, but the result is often the same. Once fans stop believing what they’re watching, the debate never really stops.
Still one of the strangest
Few fighters retire with a perfect record, and even fewer retire after every knockout victory.
Kahwagi handled both, finishing his entire professional career in just 15 innings, and those numbers remain remarkable.
More than a decade after his retirement, the debate surrounding his record has never really died down.
That’s why Jorge Kahwagi’s perfect 12-0 record remains one of the strangest in boxing history.
About the author
Phil Jay is the editor-in-chief of World Boxing News (WBN) and a boxing veteran with over 15 years of experience. Read the full biography.
Boxing
Teofimo Lopez sees only one winner of David Benavidez vs. Dmitry Bivol title fight
Published
4 hours agoon
June 4, 2026
One of the most coveted fights in boxing right now is the lithe heavyweight clash between unified champion Dmitry Bivol and WBC ruler David Benavidez for the undisputed 175-pound crown.
However, two-division world champion Teofimo Lopez believes that the fight could end in a “massacre”.
Bivol won the undisputed lithe heavyweight title of the world took revenge for his defeat against Artur Beterbiev in February last yearbut soon afterwards the Russian was stripped of the WBC marble and Benavidez became world champion.
“The Mexican Monster” has since won the unified cruiserweight crown, but maintains he would be willing to cut weight to face Bivol and claim the undisputed honors.
Speaking on Inside The Ring programLopez renamed Benavidez the “Massacre Monster” when discussing the potential fight, believing the age difference between the two lithe heavyweight champions could be crucial to the outcome of the fight.
“I’m going to call Benavidez a ‘massacre monster’ because, man, [that performance against Ramirez] it was nasty. It’s really nasty, really.
“He [Benavidez] enters its flowering period, while the other [Bivol] is on the way out. You have to think about these things too.”
Bivol fulfilled his IBF obligation by defending his belts against Michael Eifert last weekend, but the WBO ordered him to face mandatory challenger Callum Smith in order to retain the WBO belt.
As a result, it appears that a potential Bivol-Benavidez clash will have to wait until 2027, with Beterbiev also being considered for the trilogy.
Peter Fury claims Tyson used the wrong tactics against Usyk
The politician’s perfect 12-0 KO record remains the strangest in boxing
Teofimo Lopez sees only one winner of David Benavidez vs. Dmitry Bivol title fight
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