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Key events
A reminder that earlier, we were promised a huge announcement post-fight – and Anthony Joshua and Eddie Hearn are ringside at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. So, well, you do the maths. But first we have the small matter of Fury trying to earn a first win since 2023 first!
Michael Buffer is readying and rumbling.
If it was any normal boxer, you’d say crying during the ring entrance was a bad sign – shades of Oliver McCall. But of course Tyson Fury is not normal.
His mood switches like the wind and after shedding a tear for Hatton and having got rid of that emotion, he’s got a wide grin plastered over his face as he heads for the ring and the heavyweight contest up next!
Tyson Fury is in tears as he emerges, his ring entrance the promised tribute to Ricky Hatton. We get a blast of Blue Moon and Fury is in a sky blue and black robe to pay homage to his friend and the British boxing icon.
Arslanbek Makhmudov walks to the ring, looking focused. He has a strange quirk – almost Bill Goldberg-esque (dare I saw on the Guardian) – of twitching his muscular neck. It does not detract from his intimidating aura I must say.
Donald McRae
Conor Benn, at 29, is eight years younger than Regis Prograis. He is also the bigger and much fresher man so there was little surprise in his clear points victory. But the best welterweights in the world will hardly be quaking after watching Benn tonight. Instead, I reckon they will jump at the chance of making a shedload of money by signing up to fight him.. At least to my slightly jaded eyes, Benn is not much more than a decent operator who is in supreme condition and can fight at a fair old lick.
The muted hum of the crowd throughout the fight suggested that they were not exactly blown away either.
And now for the big men…
Benn beats Prograis by unanimous decision
Conor Benn gets the same score from all three judges: 98-92 for a unanimous decision victory over Regis Prograis, who applauded the victor at the announcement.
Benn is bleeding from one of his heead-clash caused cuts, the gutsy Prograis is marked up from Benn’s fists. It was a pretty clear decision as Benn swept the second half of the contest after Prograis had his moments in the first five rounds. Cue the Sweet Caroline!
We await the decision but I suspect it’s a formality. Regis Prograis has never been stopped and you can see why, great toughness from the two-weight world champion who had his moments.
The head clashes, often a problem for an aggressive orthodox fighter against a southpaw, caused Conor Benn some cuts and moments of uncertainty. But he found a gameplan that worked, going to body and head with success.
Round 10
The final round! Benn pushes Prograis to the canvas and gets a ticking off from the referee. Prograis’ legs are looking pretty unsteady but he fires off a few right jabs to show Benn he’s still in there. Benn rotates the target, fists cocked, he’s desperate for a stoppage of course – but the distance may be against him. Yet another head clash! And Benn is bleeding once more. He’ll be marked up tomorrow but the greater punishment honestly came from Prograis’ head rather than his fists. The final bell and the two embrace.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Benn 10-9 Prograis (Benn 98-92 Prograis)
Round 9
I have the same score as David Haye. Erm, is that ever a good sign? (We didn’t score the rounds the exact same way, for what it’s worth.) Anyway, the ninth round is more of the same: Benn with the combination punches, body and head. But he hasn’t found a shot to really shake up Prograis, despite his late-fight dominance. The American’s face is very marked up now but he’s incredibly game and bites down to survive the round. He’s looking weary.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Benn 10-9 Prograis (Benn 88-83 Prograis)
Round 8
An aggressive start from Benn, unloading as he wants a stoppage inside the 10-round distance. The corner have done on a fine job on the cuts, they’re not a problem. Benn is throwing punches in bunches and while he’s getting caught with the odd one-punch counter coming in, there’s not enough on Prograis’ blows to slow down the man stalking him. Benn is twisting from the waist, trying to find the angles, another clear round.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Benn 10-9 Prograis (Benn 78-74 Prograis)
Round 7
Prograis is sucking wind a bit as Benn bangs in the body shots. The head clashes, a problem against southpaws, have caused the cuts but to be fair to Benn he looks calm again now. The uppercut is working for Benn as he has found some variety at last. Prograis landed with the odd counter but the pace of this fight is against him. A big round for Benn.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Benn 10-9 Prograis (Benn 68-65 Prograis)
Round 6
Benn is wide open for a Prograis left hand. That’s happened a few times and a bigger puncher – or just a bigger fighter than the natural light-welterweight Prograis – would have Benn in some bother here. Benn lands an uppercut, but now he’s cut over the other eye! Benn’s face is looking a bit of a mess. Prograis says “no” when Benn lands a shot as the two exchange verbals as well as blows. I actually think Benn edged that round, landing some good body punches, but he’s not looking comfortable in there.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Benn 10-9 Prograis (Benn 58-56 Prograis)
Round 5
Benn looks to open up again. He’s outworking Prograis for spells but it’s a bit predictable and plenty of shots are hitting the American’s gloves. Prograis is catching Benn with some straight lefts. Now they’re swapping blows to the body! This fight is really catching fire and becoming a slugfest. I think Benn edged that on work rate but Prograis is putting in some eye-catching counters. Good entertainment.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Benn 10-9 Prograis (Benn 48-47 Prograis)
Round 4
Benn comes out fast but Prograis surprises him slightly by coming forward for the first time and landing a few solid punches. And Benn has a cut over his right eye! I’m not sure if it was a punch or a head clash but Prograis definitely landed a few clean shots there. Benn, bleeding, is more tenative. He’s still firing off shots – and connecting – but he doesn’t look particularly comfortable.
Additional: the replays show a clash of heads caused the cut.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Benn 9-10 Prograis (Benn 38-38 Prograis)
Round 3
Benn starts firing off his own jab, he’s boxing more now, rather than just looking to knock Prograis’ block off. Probably wise. He lands some jabs to the head. Prograis is looking a bit marked up as he dodges some blows but plenty more find their mark. Benn is setting a fast pace.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Benn 10-9 Prograis (Benn 29-28 Prograis)
Round 2
Prograis seems to have recovered fine at the start of the second. But he’s still standing in the pocket and trading with Benn, which may be risky. That said, Benn is missing a lot in this round. Prograis touches down as he throws a shot, but it was clearly a slip. A slightly untidy round from Benn, Prograis landed the better punches, but how long can he keep it up?
Guardian’s unofficial score: Benn 9-10 Prograis (Benn 19-19 Prograis)
Round 1
Conor Benn on the attack in the first minute, looking to utilise his weight as the bigger man. Benn is on the offensive early on and he seems to stiffen Prograis’ legs a touch with one clubbing shot. Prograis might be best to avoid a firefight and the southpaw backs off and fires off with his job for the second half of the round. And Prograis’ knees buckle at the bell from a straight right! He was rocked there, the bell came at the perfect time.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Benn 10-9 Prograis (Benn 10-9 Prograis)
Conor Benn gets a good ovation from his home crowd, despite being a divisive figure to many in boxing. We’re about to hear the first bell in this 150lb contest!
Donald McRae
It’s pretty cold out here in Tottenham tonight but at least the atmosphere is starting to heat up. The arena is around 80% full and a sign that the once magnetic power of Tyson Fury is just fading a little as, at various promotional events this week, they were reduced to plugging ticket availability. Clearly, the fact that Arslanbek Makhmudov is not a stellar name has contributed to Fury’s failure to sell out the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tonight. But time is also ticking for Fury and his latest return follows two narrow defeats in a row to the mighty Oleksandr Usyk.
Conor Benn v Regis Prograis is about to start. I’ve been close to Prograis over the years and was in his locker room for one of the great world title nights of his career. But Prograis is 37 now and this could be a hard night…
Conor Benn emerges in a black and gold robe with his father, Nigel, who you may be familiar with, over his shoulder. We get a full orchestra at the top of the ramp! Nothing spells terror like a harmony of strings.
Michael Buffer is in the ring and the veteran MC announces Regis Prograis, who is walking to the ring in a wonderfully elaborate mask. His nickname, Rougarou, is a sort of Cajun werewolf, so that’s one of the cooler/more original boxing monikers.
His song of choice is Stand by Me by Ben E King. I’ve heard more intimidating entrance music if we’re honest.
We await Conor Benn v Regis Prograis – which looks simple to predict on paper. Benn is younger, bigger and coming off a career-best win after dominating an admittedly shopworn Chris Eubank Jr. Prograis is a former two-time world champion and, if he was still the fighter who gave Josh Taylor a hell of a scrap in this city in 2019, we’d be sizing up a very different contest.
But at 37, Prograis appears diminished. He’s endured knockdowns and wobbles in losing two of his last three fights, and was at his best at 140lb. There’s even talk that the American is carrying an injury going into tonight.
Then again, it’s not all plain sailing for Benn who looked a tad drawn coming in at 150lb having fought the two Eubank contests at middleweight. Plus there’s all the distractions of his conscious uncoupling with Eddie Hearn and embrace of new promoters Zuffa. A case of Prograis winding back the clock or Benn earning a statement win? Let’s find out!
Anthony Joshua is ringside in Tottenham and Turki al-Sheikh, boxing’s Saudi powerbroker, is speaking on Netflix. He hints at “a big surprise” tonight and says that “we will announce the biggest fight in the history of England”.
Right, you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to work out what he means. So if all goes to plan tonight, we’ll be getting a Fury-Joshua post-fight face-off tonight. Unless Makhmudov can upset the odds.
Riakporhe wins KO5 against Tshikeva
Richard Riakporhe wins the British heavyweight title by stopping Jeamie ‘TKV’ Tshikeva. Riakporhe adds his name to the list of heavyweight danger men, the former cruiserweight displaying heavyweight pop as he dominated TKV.
Riakporhe dropped TKV with a powerful right hand in round five, then bludgeoned the defending British champ along the ropes, prompting the referee to leap in. A little early? Arguably, but that was one-way traffic and there was only one winner.
The new champion, looking younger than his 36 years (what’s your secret, Richard?) is now 3-0 (3 KOs) since moving up from cruiserweight.
Huni defeats Clarke by majority decision
We’ve had one heavyweight contest involving a Briton already: Frazer Clarke lost a majority decision to Australia’s Justis Huni. It’s a third defeat in his past four for the veteran Olympic bronze medallist Clarke – though he was in tough against Huni, who’s only loss came against Fabio Wardley in a bout he was winning handily before he was spectacularly stopped.
A close fight with one judge seeing it even probably isn’t the worst outcome for Clarke, who’s also suffered at the fists of the unbeaten Wardley. Huni confirms his standing as a decent heavyweight contender.
More elite-level pre-fight previewing: Donald McRae on the reasons behind Tyson Fury’s latest comeback. I encourage you to give it a read.
For me, it’s everything,” Fury said of boxing. “It’s everything that I love to do and it’s something that I’ll continue to do.” He then added, with aching simplicity: “It’s been a while and I’ve missed it.”
Arslanbek Makhmudov may look ferocious but Donald McRae found him to be very friendly when they sat down together. Unless, perhaps, you are a bear.
Although it does sound like he regrets that particularly contest. “It was very terrible to be honest,” Arslanbek told Don.
Preamble
Welcome to Tyson Fury’s return to the ring after a 16-month absence, officially ending retirement number 1,247 (OK, it’s number five, but close enough). His opponent? The fearsome-looking Russian Arslanbek Makhmudov, although you suspect the real prize for Fury is victory setting up a long-awaited megafight with Anthony Joshua.
Not that victory is guaranteed at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Fury turns 38 in August, hasn’t won a fight since October 2023 and – while there’s no shame in two competitive points losses to Oleksandr Usyk – he’s probably no longer at the peak of his considerable powers. There’s always a danger with his age, wear and tear, and a previously less-than-spartan lifestyle outside of the ring that Fury might just turn up and discover he no longer has it.
As for the 36-year-old Makhmudov: it’s obvious why he’s been chosen. A whopping 6ft 6in, 265lb with the look of a James Bond henchman/Rocky villain/WWE monster heel (delete as applicable). Yet for all his solid amateur pedigree and a decent 21-2 (19 KOs) record, he’s a pretty straightforward boxer – and one who’s been stopped in two of his last five fights.
In his last outing, Makhmudov beat a Briton in Doncaster’s Dave Allen. But Fury is no Allen and the best version of ‘The Gypsy King’ would absolutely toy with Makhmudov. How much of that Fury is left, however, is a real point of intrigue on a card that also includes Conor Benn v Regis Prograis in a 150lb catchweight bout as Benn moves on from Chris Eubank Jr and his former promoter, Eddie Hearn.
There’s some good heavyweight scraps on the undercard as well but we’re expecting Benn v Prograis to begin around 8.55pm (BST), while the first bell for Fury v Makhmudov will probably be approx 10pm. Please follow along with us!
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