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Last night, at Bowlers Exhibition Centre, Manchester, England, Steve Wood / VIP Promotions hosted a Fight-night billed as ‘Are you Ready?’ which included two Title bouts.

Martyn Grainger (Heywood) v Mike Stafford (Southport)
10 x 3 Cruiserweight Contest
International Masters Cruiserweight Title

It’s a confident start from the Champion - Grainger, but he gets a bloody nose in round two and it seemed he may have been distracted by it. Stafford is hurt by Graingers solid body punches but he starts to settle in to the fight and lands some body shots of his own. He looked stronger as the fight progressed - finishing the fourth round strongly and having a better round five.

Stafford gets the points win 98-94 and improves to 9 wins (1 by KO) 1 loss to take the belt.
Grainger drops to 8 wins (3 by KO) 5 losses (2 by KO). More...

Tonight, the rematch between ‘Bad’ Chad Dawson and ‘The Executioner’ Bernard Hopkins takes place at the Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City.

Their first fight, back in October of last year, ended in controversy when, in the second round, Dawson effectively shoved Hopkins to the canvas, resulting in an injury to his left shoulder.

The fight was first ruled a TKO victory for Dawson, but which was then overturned after an appeal by Hopkins team. The decision was changed to a ‘No Contest’ and the WBC belt was handed back to Hopkins.

It is hard to take much or analyze the ins and outs as it were from the first fight as not a great deal happened.

Dawson, 30-1-0 with 17 KO’s, played the role of the aggressor, whilst Hopkins, 52-5-2 with 32 KO’s, looked cagey and was on the back foot, as was expected of the 29 year old southpaw and the 47 year old veteran.

Hopkins would break the role of counterpuncher and look to throw the odd lead right hand, which never really connected, then he would hold onto Dawson to save himself having to trade with the younger man.

Dawson became clearly annoyed by this which resulted in him barging Hopkins over when Hopkins went to lean on him.

Hopkins landed awkwardly but Dawson did not actively look to damage his opponent's shoulder; anyone who watches the fight or saw it will have made up their own mind about what happened, as have I.

In my opinion, Hopkins did not particularly look like he was warming into the fight nor did he look like he wanted to. Should Dawson have pushed him when Hopkins leaned? No. More...

The Grand Oasis Resort in Cancun, Mexico hosts a big night of fights this evening with two world titles on the line.

Big punching featherweight Jhonny Gonzalez, 51-7 (45), meets Elio Rojas, 23-1 (14), in what should turn out to be a barnburner for as long as it lasts.

A former WBO bantamweight champ, Gonzalez failed to win a world title at super bantam but struck gold at featherweight with an IBO title win against Jackson Asiku in 2010 before annexing the WBC crown with a shocking four round dismantlement of Hozumi Hasegawa in Tokyo in 2011.

The busy banger from Mexico City turned away challengers Tomas Villa, Rogers Mtagwa, Roinet Caballero later that year and will be making his first appearance of 2012 when the bell rings this evening in Cancun.

Rojas, originally from the Dominican Republic but now residing in the US, held the WBC feather strap from 2009-2010, winning the title in Tokyo from Takahiro Ao before posting a wide points verdict over Guty Espadas Jr seven months later. More...

Teeraporn Pannimit displayed wonderful form to capture the WBO Minimumweight Female title on a OneSongchai Boxing show featuring a M150 Charity Promotion at Petchaboon Province, Thailand on Wednesday, April 25.

The venue was a temporarily stadium in front of Province Shrine, in Bungnamtao Sub District, Lomsak District with live television provided by Channel 7 from 15.00 – 17.00. More...

Bernard Hopkins, WBC Light Heavyweight World Champion:
"I'm a throw back. I live in a time where it is so microwavable that there is no time to cook, season, chop or marinate any more. I'm the last of a dying [expletive] breed. They were calling me old when I beat Trinidad 11 years ago.

"Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will always motivate me. I have proven who I am. The reason I'm here is because Dawson didn't do what he should have against Pascal. More...

Before future Hall of Famer Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins steps into the ring to defend his WBC light heavyweight title against "Bad" Chad Dawson this Saturday, April 28 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, fans will be treated to a full slate of undercard action that includes a heavyweight showdown between Seth "Mayhem" Mitchell and "The Gentleman" Chazz Witherspoon in the co-main event, and appearances by young talents Shawn "Showtime" Porter, Michael "Baby Face" Faragon, Lavarn Harvell, Michael Perez, Julian Williams and Phil "The Italian Sensation" Lo Greco. More...

If the Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley, Jr. WBO Welterweight Championship pay-per-view undercard was a poker hand it would be two pairs of world title fighters, Arce High! Six gladiators will be going mano a mano in two world championship rumbles and a 10-round junior featherweight brawl. More...

Former IBF junior welterweight champion Paulie "Magic Man" Malignaggi (30-4, 6 KOs) is excited that his world title challenge this Sunday against WBA welterweight champ Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-0, 21 KOs) is airing live in the United States on Integrated Sports Meida pay-per-view, live from Donbass Arena in Donetsk, Ukraine. More...

Undefeated middleweight contender Peter "Kid Chocolate" Quillin plans to crack Ronald "Winky" Wright's defensive shell, in addition to possibly becoming the first to knockout the four-time light middleweight champion, June 2 in their 10-round Showtime co-feature at Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

"I love crabmeat," Quillin said. "It's in a shell and you have to crack it to get to the meat. That's what I'm going to do to 'Winky'; hit his arms, body, all over - take no prisoners!" More...

Fresquez Productions held a press conference today to announce the much-anticipated June 15 rematch between French knockout-artist Anne Sophie Mathis and Holly "The Preacher's Daughter" Holm, universally considered the two best female boxers in the world, at Route 66 Casino Hotel in Albuquerque. More...

Ryan Rhodes is confident the gulf in class between him and Sergey Rabchenko will show in their ‘Road To Glory’ showdown.

Sheffield’s Rhodes (46-5) attempts to regain the European light-middleweight crown when he meets Rabchenko (20-0) for the vacant title at Manchester Velodrome on Saturday 16th June. More...

Scotty Cardle laces the gloves up for his second pro outing on Friday night as the Team GB star fights on the undercard of Tony Bellew’s British light heavyweight title defence against Danny McIntosh, live on Sky Sports 1HD.

Cardle made his pro bow on the undercard of Kell Brook’s welterweight showdown with Matthew Hatton in Sheffield on March 17 with a shutout points win over Sid Razak, and the Blackpool fighter was given the star treatment by promoter Eddie Hearn and Sky Sports. More...

The eight fighters in the all-Irish Prizefighter Middleweights came face-to-face at the stunning surroundings of the world famous Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, for the Sky Sports promotional shoot today (April 24).

In under two weeks time the King’s Hall in Belfast will be packed to the rafters as they fight for the title and £32,000 winner’s cheque in the 24th edition of Matchroom Sport’s eight man, one night event – and they were joined by Dungiven’s light welterweight star Paul McCloskey on a sunny day at the iconic rocks looking out on the Atlantic Ocean. More...

On Saturday night at El Paso, TX's Don Haskins Center, Abner Mares punched his way into the super bantam ranks with a strong performance against veteran Eric Morel, capturing the vacant WBC belt.

Having left the bantamweight ranks, where he had held the IBF, IBO and WBC Silver crowns, Mares faced a sharp operator in Morel, who had previously held the WBA flyweight title.

But at age 36, Morel no longer had the speed to contend with the youth and strength of 26 year old Mares, who started off with a punishing body assault that had Morel looking for answers.

As the rounds wore on it was obvious that Mares couldn't be stopped despite Morel's best efforts but the former world champ showed a lot of toughness and even managed to mount a spirited attempt to turn things around in the championship frames.

After 12 rounds were completed, Mares walked away with the WBC title on scores of 120-107, 119-109, 119-109, improving to 24-0-1 (13); Morel loses only for the third time in a long career, standing now at 46-3 (23).

On the undercard, WBA bantam supremo Anselmo Moreno also used a searing body attack to spearhead his offensive against challenger David De La Mora. More...

WBA super middle king Karoly Balzsay turned back the ambitions of Dimitri Sartison this past Saturday on a massive fight card at the Sport and Congress Center in Schwerin, Germany.

Both Balzsay and Sartison are veterans of the 168 pound European scene with Sartison having been a past holder of the WBA belt over 2009-1010 and Balzsay a former WBO titlist.

Once the bell rang, both men showed they were there to fight rather than box as the punches were many and the connection percentage high.

In the later rounds, Balzsay started to take over as his shots had a greater effect on Sartison, who had fallen behind and was downed with less than a minute left in the contest.

Sartison showed a lot of heart in beating the count but was on very shaky legs as Balzsay mounted a furious follow up assault that caused the bout to be waved off at 2:25 of the 12th round. More...