Ajisafe on the move

Shaun Brown
06/08/2015 9:50am

Patience, maturity and air miles have developed Bob Ajisafe into a stylist that many a light-heavyweight rival has chosen to avoid rather than face. “I know I’m number one at 175lbs in the UK and I think I’ve already proven that,” the British and Commonwealth champion told Boxing Monthly. “I’ve paid my dues. I’ve fought better opponents and I’ve fought at championship level for a long time. I want my career to move up a level because it’s took me so long to get the momentum to bring my career back to where it is now. I want to make up for lost ground.”

TKO Radio meets Mikkel Kessler

TKO Radio
05/08/2015 2:14pm

Four-time super-middleweight champion of the world, and real fan favourite, Mikkel Kessler joins TKO Radio to talk about retirement, catchweight fights, Andre Ward and speculates on who would win between Joe Calzaghe and Carl Froch if both were in their prime.

Tyson Cave to co-headline PBC on Spike in Toronto

Shawn Smith
05/08/2015 10:04am

There will be a distinctively Canadian flair to Premier Boxing Championship (PBC) when they make their debut in Toronto on 11 September. After Adonis Stevenson announced that he will headline the show against Tomas Karpency, Boxing Monthly has now confirmed that Halifax native Tyson Cave will co-main event the show against Nestor Hugo Paniagua as part of the Spike TV broadcast.

Latest World and British Ratings (August 2015)

Colin Harris
03/08/2015 11:02am

Boxing Monthly’s World and British rankings for August 2015 are explained by Colin Harris, our in-house ratings statistician. Trainer, fighter, manager and promoter queries are welcome. Martin Murray (pictured) is among the big movers this month.

TKO Radio: Golovkin-Lemieux early thoughts

TKO Radio
31/07/2015 3:43pm

Hall of Fame boxing journalist and Boxing Monthly Editor Graham Houston joins TKO Radio to give some early thoughts on a fight that, on paper, could be the most crowd-pleasing fight possible in all of boxing. Thankfully, last weekend it was officially announced. Gennady Golovkin and David Lemieux will meet at Madison Square in New York, on 17 October. Are fireworks too obvious? Let’s start our assessment....

Smith finds the right path

Terry Dooley
31/07/2015 11:38am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W67u2f877ww

Like so many boxers before him, Liverpool’s Liam Smith was on the wrong path when sport came calling and set him straight after a few years spent causing mischief on the streets of his hometown. Unlike most boxers, however, Smith’s first love was football; he had high hopes of making it as a professional only to realise that his future lay with boxing instead.

What Wilder learned from Klitschko

Kelsey McCarson
30/07/2015 9:24am

If there is any one fighter WBC title-holder Deontay Wilder should emulate, it is lineal heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. Reigning IBF, WBA Super and WBO champion Klitschko has used a similar skill set to keep a firm stranglehold on the division for over a decade now. Wilder’s manager, Jay Deas, did everything he could during Wilder’s early development as a professional to get him badly needed experience. Wilder told Boxing Monthly one of the most important happenings during that crucial time period was being shipped over to be a sparring partner in advance of Klitschko’s unanimous-decision victory over Mariusz Wach in 2012. “When I went into his camp, I came in with an open mind. I was like ‘how has this guy dominated the sport for ten years?’ You know? And I got my answers. He’s a super hard worker. That’s why I gravitated to him like I did, and I admire his work, even more after seeing it up close and in person.”

TKO Radio: Dempsey and The Wild Bull

TKO Radio
29/07/2015 10:31am

“In September 1923, 85,000 packed into New York’s Polo Grounds to see all three minutes and fifty-seven seconds of it. Nobody asked for their money back.” Nothing steals the spotlight more than an action-packed heavyweight clash and for this podcast we wanted to bring you just that. John Jarrett joins TKO Radio to talk about his new book, 'Dempsey and The Wild Bull: The Four Minute Fight of the Century'. Fans and journalists regard it as one of the most sensational world heavyweight championship fights ever - champion Jack Dempsey and his hammer-fisted Argentine challenger Luis Angel Firpo left it all in the ring, except when Dempsey was knocked through the ropes and into the front row!

Amir Khan on charity, success, Mayweather

Terry Dooley
28/07/2015 10:15am

Amir Khan was fasting for Ramadan when Boxing Monthly popped over to his Gloves Community Centre gym, which is situated on the outskirts of Bolton town centre. The 28-year-old Boltonian told BM that the rigours of his annual fast helps to focus his mind on the plight of those less fortunate than him. This concern for others led to the creation of The Amir Khan Foundation, which provides funding for various charity projects. “I want to build orphanages around the world, create wells for clean water and do whatever I can do to help,” stated Khan. “I’ve been to places like Gambia and places in Pakistan where there’s poverty, so that’s why I do that and pay my Zakat [Islam's Charity Tax]. Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam - we have to give to the poor. I go to those places myself to see what the Foundation is achieving."

Diamonds in the Dirt: The Rise of Black Flash Promotions

John Evans
27/07/2015 10:05am

Hungover teens resisted the call of Rustler microwave burgers and cans of coke for a few extra minutes to stand and watch the boxing workout in Tesco. Retired Saturday night hardmen - who built their reputations in long gone pubs like The Nowster but are now resigned to picking up bits for the Sunday roast - stopped to turn back time and clumsily shadow box with their kids. Pensioners momentarily stopped complaining about the foyer being too busy to catch a glimpse of Michael Gomez Jnr skipping. Hundreds of people passed by and every single one of them will have left the supermarket with the name Black Flash Promotions tucked away with their groceries.

The junior and super divisions are a waste!

Michael Montero & Tiffany Lam
26/07/2015 7:55pm

Michael Montero discusses the history behind boxing’s divisions, starting with the five original weight classes in the 1800s all the way to the 17 divisions in our current system. The 'junior' and 'super' divisions not only add more paper titles, but they weaken the talent pool in the classic eight weight classes (heavyweight, light-heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, lightweight, featherweight, bantamweight, flyweight).