Ricky Hatton, a former world champion, returned to the ring last year for an exhibition fight with fellow former champ Marco Antonio Barrera. Hatton is interested in having more exhibition fights, but he does not want to face any YouTubers. The retired fighter, on the other hand, is open to participating in an exhibition fight with former five-division world champion Floyd Mayweather. Hatton suffered his first defeat in his career in 2007, when he was knocked out in ten rounds by Mayweather. Mayweather retired from the sport in 2017, but he participated in three exhibition fights last year alone. Unlike Hatton, Mayweather has no problem sparring with social media stars, but the Manchester legend wants to spar with other retired boxers. “Floyd seems happy to fight the YouTubers, if I'm going to do an exhibition, I want to do it against Floyd Mayweather or Miguel Cotto, or Juan Manuel Marquez, or someone like that where I'm getting something from it, not just a few quid in my pocket. I'm actually getting something from it, I'm finding out firsthand how good Miguel Cotto, or Marco Antonio Barrera was, or having another move about with Floyd Mayweather. That’s something that’s not just about the money. That's something special," Hatton told Mega Casino. "But if I'm offered a YouTuber called Billy Bungo or Billy the Kid or whatever I’d say why the f--- would I want to do an exhibition with someone I don't know? As a former champion, you want to have a little move about with other former champions and boxing legends.” And, despite Jake Paul's 6-0 professional record, Hatton would not consider facing him in an exhibition due to the size difference. In his exhibition fight with older brother Logan Paul in 2021, Mayweather gave up a significant amount of size. Hatton has no problem with Paul's approach to his boxing career. “I would not fight Jake Paul, he's massive. He's much too big for me. I don't think he's particularly good, and I think he's picking his fights very, very carefully, which he's getting a bit of stick for, which I think is a little bit unfair because give him a break, he is actually a YouTuber, not a boxer. You shouldn't expect him to go in there with former world champions right from the get-go. He's fought basketball players and mixed martial artists, and I think he's just going to dip his toe in the boxing world now isn’t he with a professional boxer,” Hatton said. “I think Jake Paul's going the right way about it. Don't forget, he's coming out of his comfort zone. He's a YouTuber with a passion for boxing. And people saying, “Well, he should be fighting him, he shouldn't be fighting him.” I disagree first, let him get his wings first, let him fight and the minute he feels he's got a bit of experience under his belt and he feels that he can go that extra step then dip his toe in the water that little bit deeper.”

Showtime president Stephen Espinoza has given insight into why the deal for the unification bout between Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford could never reach any conclusion. The WBA, WBC, and IBF welterweight champion, Errol Spence Jr. was poised to face Terence Crawford, the WBO belt holder, in a unification bout at the end of the last year. It was the fight that everyone wanted to see and was tipped to do huge business. But it never happened as the negotiations fell apart midway. Now the Showtime president, Espinoza has revealed that it was Crawford whose stern terms led to the failure of arbitration, and ultimately cancellation of the bout. “I think a lot of the dragging on was due to Terence’s own asks and the timetable he was responding.” Espinoza told Fight Hub TV “It seemed like a lot of time would go by after each offer, and there was a stubbornness that dug in after certain points that we thought shouldn’t have been insurmountable.” With the unification bout no longer there, Crawford went in a different direction defending his WBO title in a tremendous fashion against David Avanesyan in front of his home crowd at CHI Health Center, Omaha in December 2022. So far Spence hasn’t got any fight lined up. He was last seen defending his titles against Yordenis Ugas in April last year where he forced the latter to retire on the stool after the end of the 10th round.

Tyson Fury, the WBC heavyweight champion, has fired back at Oleksandr Usyk, the unified WBO, IBF, IBO, and WBA champion, who taunted Fury on social media. Usyk recently took a shot at Fury on social media, calling him "belly" and asking, "Where are you?" The two unbeaten belt holders are in serious talks to meet in the coming months, with the fight possibly taking place in the Middle East or the United Kingdom. Fury, as expected, lashed out at Usyk for his callout. "Usyk, calling out the Gypsy King with your pathetic little callouts, dosser," Fury said. "Rabbit, I'm coming for you rabbit. You're getting it rabbit. And I'll tell you what else, I'm going to bust you up real bad you little middleweight. I'm going to slap you into a big pile of tattoos, sucker." Top Rank CEO Bob Arum, who also co-promotes Fury, recently stated that he is awaiting a firm offer from the Middle East. The fighters' contract calls for a 50-50 split. However, if the competition is held in the United Kingdom, Arum suggests that Fury will require a larger cut of the pie. “Everybody agreed that if [Saudi Arabia’s] offer comes through and it’s real, that’s how we’ll go. If not, we’ll do the fight at Wembley," Arum stated. “The fighters have agreed to fight. I spoke to Frank Warren. We’re giving them until [this] week to come with their offer, which I believe we’ll get. If we don’t, then we’re gonna do the fight at Wembley. And then we’d have to talk about the percentages because Usyk wants 50-50. That’s not right if the fight’s at Wembley because there will be 95,000 Brits at the fight and big Brit pay-per-view money, so Tyson deserves the lion’s share. “But we don’t get to that point if the [investors in Saudi Arabia] come through, because the way they operate is they make deals with each of the fighters. We’ve been led to believe that they’re going to come with a proposal [this] week. I’ll believe it when I see it, but it’s not like they haven’t come through in the past.” Who do you think wins the massive heavyweight fight between the two boxers?

KSI took to his YouTube channel 'JJ Olatunji' to air off some of his steam build by his constant critism from the boxing world, with a drawn out rant in his first posted video since his knockout over Faze Temper. "We[influncer boxers] get so much slack from the traditional boxers, that scene basically hate us. They keep coming at us saying we are bad for boxing and I just keep looking at them like this is all your fault" KSI then spoke an onslaught regarding pro fighters, calling out how the big fights are not made in the sport, addressing the pro's and promoters that gate keep the worlds biggest fights. "The big fights you never make happen, like AJ [Anthony Joshua] versus Tyson Fury, why hasn't that happened?" "Usyk versus Tyson Fury, why hasn't that happened?" "Wilder versus Joe Joyce, what's going on?" "Ryan Garcia versus tank [Gervonta Davies], where's the fight at?" "Crawford versus Spence, where's that?" "Where's all these top fights that we have been gagging for, for years. So if anything, all these boxing purists coming at us, we are not the problem. Look on your own side and complain to these promoters who are not making these fights happen." After his rant aimed at the big fights failing to be brought to the fans, KSI then passionately expressed that his boxing promotion company isn't bad for the sport of boxing, and is quite the opposite, offering fighters a chance to grow their brand and get exposure they would not have been offered elsewhere. "You can't say we are killing the sport or making the sport worse, when we are bringing a completely different audience, inspiring so many young adults and kids to get into boxing." "Meanwhile, traditionalists and boxing purists are getting p****d off because the main fights that people want to see never happen, and people just get bored and just move on to UFC, because at least they are making the big fights happen." "And with our events, with misfits, it's entertaining from the start to the end. We are not just focusing everything on the main event like traditional boxing does all of the time. In boxing, when was the last time you knew every fighter on the card? With Misfits, we focus on the fighters and we build every single fighter, we care about the undercard as much as the main event and that's why we are able to make stars." "In traditional boxing, the undercard don't even get a press conference, only the main event does." KSI ended his rant, expressing that the hate and annoyance of the boxing world was not his aim. "We are not even trying to p*** off the boxing purists, we are just doing our own thing, they are just looking at what we are doing and are just getting p****d off." With Misfits deal with DAZN being signed for a 5 year deal, it is clear to see that influencer boxing is here to stay and isn't going anywhere, with more and more pro's embracing the change as time goes by. Does KSI have a point with his rant?

The UFC bantamweight champion, Aljamain Sterling is sorting out a solution for the fighters next in line to challenge him for the title. Sterling was rumoured to defend his bantamweight strap against Henry Cejudo at UFC 285. But that fight is off the chart as of now as the ‘Funk Master’ revealed that he will need surgery to repair his torn biceps. Sterling last defended his title against TJ Dillashaw at UFC 280 last October. On the same card, ‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley got the better of Petr Yan and established himself as the no.1 contender in the division. With Sterling sweating out with the injury concerns and sidelined for an indefinite period, the ‘Funk Master’ himself has come out as a moderator. The 33-year-old suggested that the former champ Cejudo should fight O’Malley for the interim title till he recovers from his insult. “If Henry wants to wait for me, he can wait,” Sterling said during a recent interview on The MMA Hour. “Or if he wants to take what he thinks is the easier fight right, he can fight Sean…an interim means both fighters get paid. They’re going to have a belt and they’re entitled to pay-per-view points.” O’Malley and Cejudo had an altercation on backstage at UFC 276 which might be one reason the duo agree to the fight. Since then, the pair have been going back and forth with each other, teasing a potential bout in the coming months or so.

At Uriah Faber's A1 Combat 7, MMA contender Ozzie Alvarez brutally broke Tyson Miller's perfect record to claim the welterweight championship. Alvarez and Miller's matchup was the centrepiece of the tournament's main card on Friday in Wheatland, California. Alvarez, 37, seeks his second straight victory after snapping a five-fight losing streak. At the time, 25-year-old Miller was going for his fifth straight triumph. With just over a minute left in the fight, the scorecards were essentially tied heading into the third round. Miller was knocked to the ground at that point by veteran Alvarez's sudden, winging right hand, which was followed by vicious ground strikes to put a stop to the fight. Since making his professional MMA debut back in 2010, Alvarez has amassed a record of 10-9. The Miami native, who had previously defeated Mikey Gonzalez in the first round at A1 Combat 5 in September, achieved his second consecutive knockout victory. Miller's record since making his professional debut at Bellator 226 in 2019 is at 4-1 after the defeat. At LFA 137 in July, the 25-year-old had previously defeated Emmanueli Adzoh through first-round TKO. Troy Green defeated Ryan Loder in the main event of A1 Combat 7 to win the middleweight title by a split decision.

The headline fight at the UFC Fight Night event on March 11 at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas will reportedly feature the former UFC champion Petr Yan and the rising star Merab Dvalishvili. There is already an agreement in place for the fight to happen even though the match agreements have not yet shown up. Dvalishvili (15-4 MMA, 8-2 UFC) enters the battle on an eight-fight winning streak. He last competed in August, defeating Jose Aldo at UFC 278 by unanimous decision. Dvalishvili, a rising star in the high echelons of the UFC rankings, has publicly said he will not challenge champion and comrade Aljamain Sterling. After a two-fight losing streak that included close decisions against Sterling and, more recently, Sean O'Malley, Yan (16-4 MMA, 8-3 UFC) will try to make a comeback. Aldo, Cory Sandhagen, Urijah Faber, and Magomed Magomedov are just a few of the opponents Yan has defeated in the past. The UFC Vegas 71 lineup includes: Merab Dvalishivli vs. Petr Yan Abu Azaitar vs. Sedriques Dumas Lukasz Brzeski vs. Karl Williams JJ Aldrich vs. Ariane Lipski Raphael Assuncao vs. Kyler Phillips

Someday, Deiveson Figueiredo hopes to win the UFC's two divisional championships. After defeating Brandon Moreno in the third round of their trilogy at UFC 270 in January, "Deus Da Guerra" is currently out of action. When he defeated "The Assassin Baby" in that match, the Brazilian improved to 1-1-1 overall. Figueiredo also obtained 125 pounds gold strap during the event. The two are presently scheduled to co-headline UFC 283 this Saturday night in Brazil. This will be the first time two competitors have faced off four times inside the octagon, making the battle noteworthy. Later this year, if everything goes according to plan for the Brazilian, he hopes to add to the history. Deiveson Figueiredo with Ariel Helwani recently appeared on The MMA Hour, where he talked about a potential move up to bantamweight. The discussion is hardly shocking. The current flyweight champion has previously had trouble making 125 pounds, but he believes he has accomplished the required adjustments to stay at flyweight. During his first title fight versus Joseph Benavidez in February 2020, he also infamously failed to make scale. The flyweight champion declared during the interview that stepping up and facing Aljamain Sterling, the bantamweight champion, would be fascinating. But soon this year, 'Funk Master' is anticipated to face Henry Cejudo, and if 'Triple C' prevails, he won't be interested in 135 pounds. "I want to go up a division, up to bantamweight. I want to fight with the bantamweight champion. But only if Henry Cejudo is not the champion. If Cejudo gets the belt, I won't fight Cejudo because Cejudo is my brother, he's helped me when I needed it, and I can't fight him. But, if Cejudo is not the champion, I will go up a division and challenge the champion to become a double champion.” Henry Cejudo and Deiveson Figueiredo are presently colleagues at the famous Fight Ready gym. Ahead of his third battle with Brandon Moreno, the flyweight champion made a spectacular effort and thanked "Triple C" for teaching him to win in January. "Deus da Guerra" responded when questioned if he currently has a deadline for making the switch to bantamweight that he wants to win two titles but is unsure if he would make the transition to 135 pounds this year. "I want to test myself in the bantamweight [division]. I won't leave it for a long time... I'm just gonna try to test myself and be a double champion. But I don't know when...now, or maybe next year... My focus right now is on my fight [with Moreno] and on keeping the belt of my division." No matter if Henry Cejudo wins the bantamweight title or not, Figueiredo still has a boatload of exciting fights at 135 pounds. Given how much he has achieved, a top-ranked fighter at bantamweight would be linked up for him right off the bat.

A third bout between Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora is on the table, but with a catch. Whyte prevailed over the other boxer on both of their previous appearances in the ring, but the two fighters are now interested in rematching in MMA. UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou's dethronement over the weekend served as the catalyst for the discussion. After a protracted legal battle and wage disagreement with the UFC, Ngannou has officially achieved free agency. He is this week being associated with a variety of potential courses of action as a result. On Monday night, Chisora presented himself as a potential opponent for Ngannou and even stated that he could be open to a two-fight agreement across different sports. “I’m trying to fight Ngannou,” Chisora said on Instagram live, “I want to do it in the UFC and boxing.” In their first confrontation, Whyte and Chisora fought each other in 2016. A rematch was scheduled for two years after Whyte's controversial split decision victory after 12 taxing rounds. The two continued their hilarious slugfest the second time around. Whyte found a decisive finish on this occasion, knocking Chisora out in round 11 with a powerful left hook. Since then, the two have patched things up and become friends, but this year, they might start fighting again in an unexpected way.

After his release from the UFC, Ngannou now has a plethora of choices as he searches for a new home. Ngannou has been immersed in a contract dispute with the UFC and CEO Dana White for a lengthy period because he was pursuing a new agreement with significantly more cash. Although the Cameroonian icon was the UFC heavyweight champion, he had his sights set on wealthy fights in the boxing arena, such as contests with Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte. Ngannou's departure from the UFC was officially confirmed over the weekend. He had been unable to come to terms on a contract renewal, which would have required him to abandon his heavyweight title permanently. It is now anticipated that he would receive a variety of proposals from competing promotions, including PFL and Bellator, both of which have expressed an interest in signing him. As a response, on March 4, 2023, in Las Vegas, Nevada, the headliner of UFC 285 will feature a fight between former Light Heavyweight champion Jon Jones and former interim Heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane for the vacated championship. The Bellator President, Scott Coker, retweeted a post from last year in which he stated that he'd appreciate having "The Predator" over to his promotion, in which many former UFC fighters have discovered a home. “We haven’t talked to him because he’s still under contract, he still has championship fights but if he’s a free agent one day and you know the timing’s right, we feel it’s a good fit and you know we’ll decide that time,” Coker said in an interview in 2022. “The philosophy is still the same, look, if you’re a free agent and you want to come shop your wares and your brand and your business, come talk to us because we are in the business of signing the biggest and the best free agents on the planet.” Meanwhile, according to BKFC President David Feldman, he is optimistic that this year would mark Ngannou's debut in the squared circle beneath their emblem. “We’re very interested in signing Francis Ngannou and would very much like to have him compete in the stacked BKFC heavyweight division,” Feldman said Sunday in a statement to MMA Junkie. “We’re tabling an offer for his services, and hopefully fans will see him in the BKFC squared circle in 2023.” Ngannou has frequently expressed a desire to pursue a career in boxing, and he has reportedly asked that a stipulation be added to any future UFC contracts allowing him to be relieved from his obligations and permitted to negotiate fight deals in the sport. However, with Ngannou being forced to consider his opportunities, he now confronts a bleak future that is not to be settled swiftly. The "Gypsy King" has already prepared a three-bout plan, making it doubtful that the fight would happen this year despite potential boxing rival Fury's initial proposal for a match as an exhibition. Ngannou has no professional boxing experience, thus he would be greatly completely outclassed in the ring by the best of the best. Even so, it's impossible to resist daydreaming about seeing him compete against the sport's top big men.

Liam Smith is adamant that he will only see the best possible version of Chris Eubank Jr. Liverpool's Smith, a former WBO junior middleweight champion and from a proud fighting dynasty, has gotten annoyed by talk of the second-generation fighter entering their middleweight battle on January 21 at under 50%. “Nobody believes he’s going to be 50 percent,” Smith told iD Boxing. “If a Canelo or someone elite said he only needs to be 50 percent, you think ‘Okay, the man’s a class act. “Chris is bang average but a good, fit athlete,” “If you need to be 50 percent… if he needs to be 50 percent to beat me, I may as well not show up.” Since partnering with the UK-based promoter last summer, Smith (32-3-1, 19KOs) has competed twice under the Boxxer brand. The 34-year-old former champion joined the organization hoping to challenge Eubank (32-2, 23KOs), who chose to compete in a rematch with Conor Benn on October 8. After Benn's positive drug test was made public and the British Boxing Board of Control declined to approve the match, their bout was called off. Eubank revised his plans with Smith as a result of the development. They agreed that their fight would be the main event of a Sky Sports Box Office broadcast on January 21 from Manchester, England's AO Arena. Since losing to then-unbeaten WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia in a twelve-round fight in July 2017, Smith has won six of his previous seven fights. That same championship had previously belonged to Smith, who was defeated by Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in the ninth round in September 2016. 'Beefy' Smith's only other loss in his professional career occurred in an ambiguous situation. In May 2021, he lost an extremely dubious decision on the road in Ekaterinburg to the unbeaten Magomed Kurbanov. Most people thought he was unlucky not to win their title eliminator. Since then, Smith has won three straight bouts inside the distance. In their all-Liverpool fight in October 2021, Anthony Fowler was stopped in the eighth round, making a statement. Six months later, on April 30, 2016, in New York City, Smith beat Jessie Vargas into submission at 0:41 of the tenth round. On September 3, 2016, in his birthplace of Liverpool, Smith knocked out Hassan Mwakinyo in the fourth round.

Jake Paul will compete in MMA after formally joining the PFL, but before he enters the ring, he'll need to improve his all-around skills despite having a strong high school wrestling history and being skilled in knocking out opponents during his boxing career. That's where Tony Ferguson steps in, having put his name forward to train the controversial figure, saying "Let me know when you need a good MMA coach - you can be one of my students" But it appears the youtuber turned boxer, turned mixed martial artist, has yet to get back to Tony, prompting him to tweet at him once again. Unaware to most, Jake Paul has previously competed in MMA before in an unsanctioned bout, of which he was defeated via submission to lightweight AJ Agazarm, in the second of three scheduled rounds. Neither fighter took the bout seriously, so it can not be a good way to gage Paul's skill in MMA, but he did show signs of skill in defending a few takedowns from the jiu-jitsu black belt fighter. Is it a good idea for Jake Paul and Tony Ferguson to team up ahead of Paul's MMA debut? I think so. Jake is in need of a experienced coach to come in and teach him the fundamentals, but the deal could make more sense than we first realized, as it could work in setting the groundwork for a big fight down the line. Both men share one rival, Conor McGregor, who Jake has called out on multiple occasions. Whether these two team up, remains to be seen, Jake Paul's current focus being his reportedly signed boxing bout with another one of his rivals, Tommy Fury.