Schedule
3 upcoming fights to watch on the boxing schedule
3 upcoming fights to watch on the boxing schedule
Boxing does not need a quiet calendar to keep attention, but 2026 has gone out of its way to avoid one. The boxing schedule reads as follows: Tyson Fury returns against Arslanbek Makhmudov at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 11 April, Alycia Baumgardner defends her titles against Bo Mi Re Shin in New York on 17 April, Naoya Inoue meets Junto Nakatani at Tokyo Dome on 2 May, and one week later, Fabio Wardley defends his WBO heavyweight title against Daniel Dubois in Manchester.
Then the schedule gets strange: Oleksandr Usyk will defend the WBC belt against Rico Verhoeven at the Pyramids of Giza on 23 May, and Floyd Mayweather Jr. will box Manny Pacquiao again at Sphere in Las Vegas on 19 September. That is enough. It is also a good reminder that the year is being shaped by booked fights rather than wish lists.
Boxing schedule: Fury is back under a bright light
Fury’s comeback against Makhmudov has weight because it answers a real question rather than a nostalgic one. He has not boxed since his second straight decision loss to Usyk in December 2024, and this return comes at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with Netflix carrying the event and Conor Benn facing Regis Prograis on the same card. Makhmudov is 21-2 with 19 knockouts, so the opponent has been chosen to force exchanges rather than to stage a harmless lap of honour. This one matters.
Tokyo gets the fight that was hanging there
Inoue vs Nakatani on May 2 is probably the cleanest matchup on the entire boxing schedule. Inoue brings an unbeaten 32-0 record, 27 knockouts, and the undisputed junior featherweight title to Tokyo Dome, while Nakatani arrives 32-0 with 24 stoppages after moving up to 122 pounds in December. The contrast is part of the appeal: Inoue looked measured and busy in his decision over Alan Picasso, while Nakatani had a rougher, more disputed night against Sebastian Hernandez than many expected. That recent difference does not settle anything, but it does give the fight texture before the first bell.
Las Vegas gets a weight jump with real risk
David Benavidez’s fight against Gilberto Ramirez on the same date in Las Vegas raises a different question. Benavidez is moving up 25 pounds to challenge for Ramirez’s WBA and WBO cruiserweight titles, and that is not the kind of jump that can be smoothed over with adjectives. Ramirez is a two-division world champion, Benavidez stopped Anthony Yarde in November before calling for this fight, and the whole matchup sits in that awkward space where size, pace, and punch volume all need to be re-read. There is enough uncertainty there to make the fight feel live from the opening rounds.
The second screen is part of the build now
Boxing coverage now starts well before the first bell. A fan tracking Inoue-Nakatani or Benavidez-Ramirez is usually moving between the official schedule, the last fight on replay, a few weigh-in clips, and the odds screen, which is why betting online (French: paris en ligne) fits so easily beside fight-week updates on a phone. That changes the mood of the build. By the time the ring walks begin, plenty of people have already spent days watching how a line shifts after a press conference, how a camp talks about weight, and which short sparring clip keeps getting passed around.
Manchester gets a heavyweight fight without padding
Wardley against Dubois on 9 May has a very British kind of edge to it. Wardley is 20-0-1 with 19 knockouts and making the first defence of the WBO title. Dubois is the former IBF titleholder, and the fight lands at Co-op Live rather than being hidden away on an undercard. There is no warm-up here. Wardley chose a dangerous first defence, Dubois has already said he intends to expose him, and the matchup feels closer than the belt-holder-versus-challenger label suggests.
Giza is either a spectacle or a real title defence
Usyk against Verhoeven on 23 May is the card that divides people before the gloves are even on. Usyk is 24-0 with 15 knockouts, and the WBC has sanctioned the bout as a heavyweight title defense, while Verhoeven arrives from kickboxing with a reputation built over more than a decade and a boxing record that says almost nothing by itself. The location in front of the Pyramids of Giza is doing obvious work, but the boxing problem is still there underneath it: how Usyk handles a larger, awkward athlete over 12 rounds and whether Verhoeven can make the fight ugly before Usyk’s rhythm takes over. That changes the room.
New York and Las Vegas will close the year loudly
Baumgardner’s title defence against Shin on 17 April deserves more attention than it will probably get in a year this crowded. The fight is set for 12 three-minute rounds at the Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden, which gives it a different pace from the standard women’s title format, and Baumgardner enters with the Ring, IBF, WBA, and WBO belts at 130 pounds.
Then the boxing schedule swings all the way to 19 September, when Mayweather and Pacquiao meet again at the Sphere more than 11 years after their first fight in May 2015. That rematch arrives late, but not quietly, and it sits in the schedule the way old names sometimes still can: drawing attention before anyone has agreed whether the timing is smart. It has also been confirmed that Xander Zayas will defend his unified super welterweight titles against Jaron Ennis at the Barclays Center on June 27.
Boxing schedule: Why this year feels fuller than usual
The boxing schedule looks stronger than usual because the fights are asking different things of the sport. Fury’s return is about wear, Inoue-Nakatani is about level, Benavidez-Ramirez is about size, Wardley-Dubois is about pressure, Usyk-Verhoeven is about credibility, Baumgardner-Shin is about visibility, and Mayweather-Pacquiao is about what old rivalry can still sell in 2026. Not every one of those nights will deliver. But enough of them carry a proper question into the ring, and boxing still works best when the answer has to be earned in front of everybody.
