“Boxing is the only sport you can get your brain shook, your money took and your name in the undertaker book.”
--Joe Frazier

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- At 40, Manny Pacquiao is one of the only few world boxing champions in history to fight a younger opponent as a defending champion.

Joe Joyce (7-0, 7 KOs) will be facing former WBC heavyweight champion Bernane Stiverne (25-3-1, 21 KOs) on February 23 on the undercard of James DeGale v. Chris Eubank Jr. at the O2 Arena in London, England, according to @BaylorICTV. This will be a good test for #9 WBA Joyce to show the boxing world what he’s got against a fighter that Deontay Wilder beat on two occasions.

FRESNO, Calif (Jan. 16, 2019) —Ray Beltran’s road back to title contention begins Sunday, Feb. 10. The former lightweight world champion will face the unbeaten Hiroki Okada in a 10-round super lightweight fight as the co-feature to the Jose Ramirez-Jose Zepeda super lightweight championship bout at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif.

(Jan. 15, 2019) — ESPN and Top Rank today announced their first pay-per-view event under the Top Rank on ESPN banner. Two kings are set for the year’s most anticipated welterweight showdown when pound-for-pound king Terence “Bud” Crawford puts his WBO welterweight world title on the line against former unified 140-pound champion and the pride of Bolton, England, Amir “King” Khan, on Saturday, April 20, live on pay-per-view at 9 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. PT. Details on how fans will be able to access the pay-per-view event will be announced at a later date.

Former WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez wasn’t entirely impressed with what he saw of Caleb Plant (18-0, 10 KOs) in his victory over IBF super middleweight champion Jose Uzcategui (28-3, 23 KOs) last Sunday night at the Microsoft Theater, in Los Angeles, California. Benavidez says Plant, 26, looked tired after the first one-third of the fight, and was getting nailed a lot by Uzcategui.

HINCKLEY, Minn. (Jan. 14, 2019) — Rob “Bravo” Brant upset the odds to win a world title. For title defense number one, he’s returning to his favorite stomping grounds. Brant, a native of St. Paul, Minn., will defend his WBA middleweight title against the unbeaten Khasan Baysangurov on Friday, Feb. 15 at Grand Casino Hinckley.

Caleb Plant unseated IBF super middleweight champion Jose Uzcategui of his title in his first defense last Sunday night in on Premier Boxing Champion on FS1 and Fox Deportes at the Microsoft Theater at L.A. Live in Los Angeles, California. Uzcategui says he wants a rematch, and he feels he should be given one because he gave Plant the opportunity to fight him for the IBF title.

Singapore, 14 January 2019 – Singapore-based, sports media and entertainment company, Ringstar Boxing (Ringstar) today announced 12 featured fights for its first show of 2019 happening on Friday 29 March at the Singapore Indoor Stadium with the main event featuring the much-anticipated rematch between Singapore’s best-ever boxer, Muhamad Ridhwan (11- 1, 8 KOs) and Namibian veteran, Paulus Ambunda (27-2, 11 KOs) for the WBC Silver Featherweight title.

Boxing enthusiasts already have their bets as the bout between Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao and Adrien “The Problem” Broner draws near, which can be seen in the Middle East via Pay Per View on Jan. 20, brought exclusively by Showtime and The Filipino Channel.

Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn is convinced that pay-per-view is officially dead as far as boxing goes in the United States, other than for the biggest stars of the sport like Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saul Canelo Alvarez. Hearn sees SHOWTIME in the U.S on a one-way path where they’re soon going to be getting diminishing returns for their pay-per-views broadcasts due to there being so many of them now coming one after another.

Former heavyweight world title challenger Dereck Chisora (29-9, 21 KOs) plans on continuing his boxing career despite losing a rematch to Dillian Whyte last month on December 22 at the O2 Arena in London, England. Not surprisingly, Chisora is still upset about his loss to Whyte, but he remains determined to continue fighting. His performance against Whyte was a good one for the most part, aside from the way he overreacted to the point deduction in the 11th. If Chisora had a chance to do it over, he would have stayed cool and composed after the second point deduction.

Manny Pacquiao says he’s got his mind completely focused on his next opponent Adrien Broner, and not on a big money rematch against Floyd Mayweather Jr. for later in 2019. Pacquiao (60-7-2, 39 KOs) and Mayweather Jr. (50-0, 27 KOs) fought each other four years ago in the biggest pay-per-view contest in the history of boxing and it’s no secret that Manny would like to face him again.