GENIUS BEHIND A LENS JOSHUA VS FURY Neil Leifer’s photography secrets Heavyweight showdown edges closer JANUARY 21 2021 THE WORLD’S BEST FIGHT MAGAZINE EST. 1909 WWW.BOXINGNEWSONLINE.NET WWW.BOXINGNEWSONLINE.NET HAGLER VS LEONARD SUPERFIGHT ★ THE MAKING OF AN EPIC GRUDGE MATCH ★ £3.99 VOL. 77 NO. 03 CHRIS EUBANK JNR NIGEL BENN ‘I am running out of time’ The mountain he had to climb DAVE COLDWELL / NICKY BOOTH, R.I.P / MARGARET GOODMAN / TONY BELLEW SUBSCRIBE TO BOXING NEWS PRESENTS Six brand new bi-monthly 100-page souvenir GREAT REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE bookazines from the award-winning Boxing News Receive all six issues straight to your door team. We started with the Muhammad Ali vs Joe PLUS your FREE Ali-Frazier cult t-shirt Frazier special. The second edition brings you worth £24.99! Pay just £40.94 by annual 27 exclusive interviews with legends including DD – saving 15% on the cover price. Hagler, Leonard, Foreman, Ali and Holyfield. ORDER TODAY Call 01959 543 747 & quote: BXPTM for size medium, BXPTL for large or BXPTXL for x-large. Visit: shop.kelsey.co.uk/BXPTM free cult t-shirt worth £24.99! Alternatively, to only order the Ali-Frazier bookazine for £7.99, visit shop.kelsey.co.uk/BXP1 *UK Direct Debit offer only, available until September 30, 2020. No cancellations within the first 12 months. Gifts are subject to availability and if the product goes out of stock an alternative product will be offered at a similar value. Colour of t-shirt may differ from photograph. Discounts are calculated on the full cover price. For overseas and UK credit/debit card offers, visit our website at shop.kelsey.co.uk. For digital subscriptions, visit shop.kelsey. co.uk/boxingnews. Calls charged at your local network rate. Order lines open 8.30am-5.30pm, Monday-Friday. Full T&Cs can be found at shop.kelsey. co.uk/terms. Kelsey Publishing takes your privacy seriously and will only use your personal information to administer your account and to provide the products and services you have requested from us. We will only contact you about our special offers via the preferences you will indicate when ordering and you can update these at any time by emailing us at [email protected] or by calling us on 01959 543 747. ContentsJanuary 21, 2021 THE SUPERFIGHT 24 Looking back on the timeless Leonard-Hagler rivalry UNMISSABLE HIGHLIGHTS >> 12 JOSHUA vs FURY 36 >> 8 STEVE BUNCE The blockbuster fight that everyone Nigel Benn’s toughest inner battle wants to see is drawing ever closer >> 10 CONOR McGREGOR >> 16 TONY BELLEW Could he really fight for a world title? Transitioning from fighter to manager >> 14 POVETKIN vs WHYTE II >> 20 DAVE COLDWELL Matchroom announce their schedule The childhood that made him a man >> 18 NICKY BOOTH >> 30 MARGARET GOODMAN Saying goodbye to a troubled talent A pioneering, respected ring physician >> 34 LEO vs FULTON >> 36 NEIL LEIFER The WBO super-bantam belt is on the line Boxing’s most celebrated photographer >> 40 AMATEURS SAVE £££ WITH A SUBSCRIPTION Ryan Fillingham hangs up his gloves >> 42 FOREMAN vs LYLE For more details visit One of the greatest heavyweight brawls WWW.BOXINGNEWSONLINE.NET/SUBSCRIPTIONS >> 44 BOB WILLIAMS The boxer-turned-ref’s fistic heritage >> 46 BRIAN ROSE The proud owner of a Lonsdale Belt www.boxingnewsonline.net JANUARY 21, 2021 l BOXING NEWS l 3 EDITOR’S LETTER Photo: STEVE MARCUS/GETTY IMAGES TIME’S UP: Time to Kovalev is surely subscribe running out of chances l THERE are numerous ways to subscribe, including special offers. l YOU can get a print and online Cover photography GETTY IMAGES subscription for £8.50 per month (special price available until the end of January), or digital only for just £4.99. l FOR more information on all the subscriptions THE DESCENT OF THE KRUSHER plus our special bookazines, Kovalev failing VADA test the latest in a long line of misdemeanours please visit www.shop. kelsey.co.uk ERGEY KOVALEV on Instagram a month before he was due so keen to hear his excuses. A positive or call 01959- was once deemed to fight on that channel. test, which can tarnish an entire career, 543-747. the most dangerous The DAZN transgression was not will do more harm in the eyes of boxing man in boxing. exactly on a par with the rest. Even so, it fans than any of his previous crimes. l THE next S Back then, when was more evidence of a mind that was Will this be the end for him? Probably issue will be at the peak of his making bad decision after bad decision. not. Even at 37 and facing a suspension, in shops on destructive powers, Those lapses in judgement have been it’s still easy to envision the door being January 28 and such a tag was a getting more frequent since he lost that left ajar where certain promoters will wait available to compliment. His controversial decision to Ward in 2016. to peddle what’s left of his reputation. download on ability to break his Unbeaten in 31 bouts before that reverse, The wider question, irrespective of his January 26. opponents with he’s 4-3 since. His rap sheet got longer innocence or guilt, should be whether skill and menace as he took more punches to the head. the sport can really afford to carry people The left many seasoned A coincidence? Maybe, but it’s not an who muddy its reputation so frequently. Opening Matt observers predicting uncommon theme. In 2021, as boxing strives to make the Bell... Christie greatness for the One can make an argument that right noises in its battle to be heard, Russian. Kovalev needed psychiatric help instead there’s no place for men as dangerous l IN this week’s @MattCBoxingNews Though never of being encouraged to don his boxing and damaging as Sergey Kovalev. show, available Editor quite invincible – gloves and beat people up. Our sport is on Wednesday nobody ever is, let’s superb at cultivating a villainous image - ONE hopes that boxing returns (January 20) face it – the crucial thing for him and his but less effective at dealing with the to Britain in February as planned. The we talk to Frank persona was that he believed he was. He consequences of that villainy when it sport showed last year that is capable Warren about was fearless, or at least acted that way. spills over into real life. of operating in exceptionally difficult his battle with Recognition of fear creates boundaries; Should Kovalev have been allowed circumstances; the bubbles worked and coronavirus and boundaries that keep us in check, inside the ring at a time when he was positive tests, at least when compared to his 2021 plans. boundaries that Kovalev chose to ignore. being accused of hitting women outside other sports, were rare. l There is a And it worked to a point. of it? Whatever one’s opinion on that, Matchroom have put together an bonus episode Like many boxers whose reputations it’s certainly hard to name another enticing schedule and Queensberry, now this week, too. are built on destroying all-comers and in high-profile industry that would be so that Frank Warren is returning to health You can hear turn getting their own way, it was difficult forgiving of such woeful behaviour. after contracting coronavirus, are also a special, and for him when he realised, after losing two Regardless, sympathy for Kovalev is set to announce some quality matchups barely heard, bouts to Andre Ward, that he was human now thin on the ground. with the pick-em clash between Jamel Muhammad Ali after all. Last week, the Russian – still a cult Herring-Carl Frampton set for February interview from The descent was perhaps always hero in the eyes of some – failed a 27. We wish Frank a full and speedy 1972. inevitable. He’s since been accused of VADA test after synthetic testosterone recovery. racism, of assaulting a woman and her was discovered in his system ahead of a Credit to everyone involved in keeping l Listen (& rate dog, of kissing a woman on a plane who scheduled comeback bout with Uzbek the sport’s flag flying in the face of this & subscribe) via didn’t want to be kissed, of driving under prospect, Bektemir Melikuziev. He claims horrible pandemic. Apple, Spotify the influence and, at the end of last year, innocence, of course. and all major Follow us and keep up to date of streaming the DAZN broadcast of Some will say Kovalev deserves the platforms. Canelo Alvarez vs Callum Smith for free right to defend himself. Others won’t be @BoxingNewsED BoxingNewsOnline 4 l BOXING NEWS l JANUARY 21, 2021 www.boxingnewsonline.net GUEST COLUMN ‘I AM NOT GETTING ANY YOUNGER’ Photo: RICHARD HEATHCOTE/GETTY IMAGES Now I have Roy Jones by my side I can make up for lost time EOPLE always before I go back to the gym and get cent, having a coach is a beautiful the ultimate target for me. I was ask me when ready for a fight this year. thing. I wish I’d met him earlier. supposed to fight him a few years I’m coming Roy Jones Jnr is my trainer. He’s I’m looking for the world titles. ago and it fell through. I’ve always back to England the main man and I’ll be with him I am not getting any younger. I regretted that. It’s been a thorn in P but I can’t until for the rest of my career.