Boxing Social Staff · March 18, 2026
Tyson Fury Has Three Fights Left — And He Knows Exactly What They Are
The Gypsy King has, as promised, retired from boxing multiple times. And as promised, he is back. Fury fights Arslanbek Makhmudov on April 11 atop a Netflix card, and while the opponent may not have the marquee weight of an Usyk or a Joshua, the performance will carry one. Insider Gareth A. Davies told Boxing Social this week that Fury has a clear three-fight vision before genuinely walking away — Makhmudov first, then the Battle of Britain against Anthony Joshua, and finally an Usyk trilogy.
On Makhmudov specifically, Davies believes Fury — if operating at the level he showed across both Usyk losses — should have more than enough to stop or outbox the Russian, who is a genuine threat but not in the company Fury has been keeping for a decade. Whether the legs that carried him through those Usyk rounds are still what they were is the real test, and April 11 provides that answer.
The Joshua fight is the one British fans have been promised and denied for the better part of five years. If Fury and Joshua both win their respective spring outings, the pieces are finally in place. After that — one final run at Usyk, the man who has now beaten him twice, and a verdict that the division has been waiting to settle. That is the plan. Whether boxing allows it to unfold that cleanly, as ever, remains to be seen.
Mick Conlan Tells the Truth About Zuffa Boxing — Three Mistakes, One Pass
Mick Conlan sat down with Ariel Helwani this week, a day before returning to Belfast to defend his WBC International featherweight title, and took a measured but pointed look at what Zuffa Boxing has and has not got right.
Led by TKO Group figures including Nick Khan and Dana White, the promotion has run four events from its Las Vegas studio space at Meta APEX this year, building a roster around names like Conor Benn and Jai Opetaia and developing genuine prospects in Robert Meriwether III and Jalil Hackett. On balance, Conlan thinks they’ve “done well” — but three things stand out as errors.
The uniforms, he said, are a mistake. Boxing has always been theatre — the entrance, the kit, the individual expression of a fighter’s identity. Standardising that strips something fundamental from the sport. Then there is the question of financial architecture. Conlan pointed specifically to the role of Saudi investment, noting that the entire edifice depends on a relationship that could end. As he put it: the money looks good, but a lot rests on how long the key relationship holds. And the shows themselves have underwhelmed — though he offered a fair caveat: they are only starting, and the finished article takes time to build.
Conlan is the right person to be making this assessment. He is a fighter who has operated across promotions, across eras, and across multiple attempts to rebuild his own career. He knows what draws a crowd and what does not, and his verdict lands with more credibility because of it.
Caroline Dubois: Baumgardner Is Scared, and She Knows It
The back-and-forth between Caroline Dubois and Alycia Baumgardner has been going on long enough that it now requires a timeline. The latest chapter belongs to Dubois, who told the Cigar Talk podcast that Baumgardner is actively telling their shared management team at Most Valuable Promotions that she does not want the fight.
Dubois is 25, unbeaten, riding the momentum of a composed MVP debut over Camilla Panatta, and pointed squarely at Baumgardner as the fight she wants most — despite a five-pound divisional gap between them. Baumgardner, the 31-year-old former champion who built her reputation off wins over Terri Harper, Mikaela Mayer, and Christina Linardatou, has looked unconvincing since signing with MVP — points wins over Jennifer Miranda and Leila Beaudoin that generated little excitement and even less momentum.
Dubois pulled no punches: she believes everything Baumgardner does well, she does better. She believes Baumgardner knows it. And she believes a knockout — not a points win, a brutal, face-altering finish — is the reason the American is squirming. It is the kind of language that either ages badly or looks prophetic. For now, the fight remains unsigned. Dubois is next up against Terri Harper on April 5. Baumgardner faces Bo Mi Re Shin on April 17 at the IBF, WBO and WBA title level. Both women keep winning. The fight keeps not happening.
Rico Verhoeven vs Oleksandr Usyk — Why the Kickboxing King Isn’t Completely Hopeless
Alistair Overeem, one of combat sport’s most authoritative voices and a rival of Verhoeven’s in his kickboxing days, gave Ring Magazine his honest assessment this week of how the Dutch champion could cause problems for the unified heavyweight king when they meet at the Pyramids of Giza on May 23.
The answer: size, weight, and the fact that both men have something real at stake. Verhoeven is taller and heavier than Usyk, has competed at the highest level of his discipline against elite opponents, and — crucially — has a camp working on a specific plan to exploit the physical advantages. Overeem’s read on Verhoeven’s style is worth noting: he was never primarily a knockout puncher, instead relying on volume and speed in his kickboxing career. Against Usyk, a man who has never been stopped and who absorbs world-class shots with extraordinary composure, that profile may limit the paths to a genuine upset.
But Overeem was careful not to write the matchup off entirely. Different ballpark, different challenge, new problem for Usyk’s team to solve. At 39, Usyk is not operating at the peak of his physical gifts. The question is whether Verhoeven’s team has found something in the preparation that the sport has not yet seen. May 23 settles it.
Munguia Gets His WBA Title Shot — On May 2, Against Resendiz
The Mexican title fight at super middleweight is on — but it took a circuitous route to get there.
Jermall Charlo had appeared to be the man booked to challenge Jose Armando Resendiz for the WBA super middleweight belt on the Benavidez vs Zurdo Ramirez co-main event in Las Vegas on May 2. ESPN’s sources confirmed the deal. Then, hours later, Charlo was pulled for undisclosed reasons. And just like that, Jaime Munguia — who had reportedly been priced out of the fight weeks earlier after failed negotiations — was back in.
Munguia, 45-2 (35 KOs), is a former WBO 154-pound titleholder who challenged Canelo Alvarez in 2024 and came up short by unanimous decision, then endured a rough stretch that included a knockout loss to Bruno Surace, avenged last May in Riyadh. He has not fought since. Resendiz, 16-2 (11 KOs), won the WBA interim title with a stunning upset of Caleb Plant last May and was elevated to full champion following Crawford’s retirement in December. This is his first defence. The WBA’s mandatory, Bektemir Melikuziev, waits in the wings.
It is an all-Mexico fight, and it has commercial appeal — but the questions around Munguia’s recent form and the manner in which he arrived in this position are legitimate.
Miller vs Pero: Big Baby Returns to the Main Event on April 25
Jarrell Miller went viral in January when Kingsley Ibeh’s punches dislodged his hairpiece mid-fight at Madison Square Garden. He handled it with good humour, picked up the points decision, and moved on. Now he moves up in terms of both opportunity and opponent.
Miller, 37, will headline a Matchroom show at Fontainebleau Las Vegas on April 25 against Lenier Pero, the unbeaten Cuban contender ranked second by the WBA. Pero is 13-0 (8 KOs), a two-time Pan American champion, a 2016 Olympian, and a fighter with genuine upside. He has wins over Guido Vianello and Jordan Thompson, and called Miller out after that performance in November. Now he gets him.
Eddie Hearn, who once said publicly he would never work with Miller again following the failed drug tests that wiped out the Anthony Joshua challenge in 2019, has evidently revised that position. The bill is a WBA title eliminator. For Miller, a win puts his name back in world title discussions at 37. For Pero, a win over a marketable veteran with Miller’s profile announces him properly on the British-American circuit. Live on DAZN.
BKFC’s Bare-Knuckle ‘Tyson’ Thinks the Floyd Exhibition Is Nonsense
Leonard Perdomo, the Cuban BKFC heavyweight described as bare-knuckle boxing’s answer to Mike Tyson, told Boxing Social this week that he has no appetite for the exhibition circuit — including his own idol’s rumoured Floyd Mayweather showcase.
Perdomo, 30, is preparing for a co-feature bout at BKFC 87 in Hollywood, Florida on Friday — headlined by Kai Stewart and Nico Gaffie on DAZN — and was unambiguous in his view: Tyson fighting at 59 makes no sense. The Jake Paul fight, in his words, was something worse. For a fighter who has finished nine opponents in a row in the opening round and recently signed a five-fight contract that could see him challenge Andrei Arlovski for the BKFC title, exhibitions and scripted narratives hold no appeal.
There is something almost old-fashioned about Perdomo’s position. He wants real fights, real risk, real outcomes. He is, in that sense, closer to the spirit of the fighter he models himself after than almost anyone currently operating in his discipline. Whether boxing more broadly — across all its exhibition-friendly variations — agrees with him is the question the sport has been navigating for some time.
All fights correct as of March 18, 2026. For full results, fight coverage, and the latest boxing news, follow Boxing Social.
