Boxingtalkers be sure to check out this must see interview with ESPN's Max Kellerman, one of the foremost boxing experts in the world today. No subject is taboo in this nearly 30 min exclusive! Interview by H.K. Leon 

Tomas Rojas WDQ10 Ranfis Encrnacion... A fight in the Dominican Republic had a very disturbing ending as 40 year-old ex-champion Tomas Rojas wound up in convulsions on the canvas as a result of a punch to the back of the head by Ranfis Encarnacion. Rojas, a former 115-pound champion in 2010-2011 was well past his glory days. A pro since 1996, Rojas had lost three straight and was fighting well above his best weight, taking this fight at featherweight, with Encarnacion coming overweight at 129 pounds. In round ten, the referee called for the fighters to separate but Encarnacion punced Rojas on the back of the neck, where the brain has the least protection. Rojas fell face first and began convulsing while the confused referee did not know what to do. A ringside physician seemed ineffective through the end of the video. Boxingtalk will follow the story, with best wishes going out to Rojas for a full recovery. Obviously, he should never fight again.

Fabio Wardley KO2 Richard Lartey... In a country crowded with notable heavyweights, Fabio Wardley is starting to make a name for himself. Wardley is now 10-0 with 9 KOs after knocking out Ghana's Richard Lartey in round two. By way of comparison, Lartey (14-3) lost a ten-round decision to Nathan Gorman but was stopped in four by Daniel Dubois. Some fans are complaining that Wardley's KO punch of Lartey caught mostly glove rather than temple. Take a look for yourself.

Canadian welterweight Cody Crowley (19-0) showed his creative side with a one-minute video calling out down-on-his-luck Adrian Broner. A former four-division champion, Broner recently spent a night in jail on conetmpt of court charges, and Crowley found a way to distinguish himself from the many 140- and 147-pounders wanting to share the ring with Broner. Have a look at the courtroom-themed video:

UPDATE: According to Cleveland.com, Adrien Broner has been released from an Ohio jail after less than two days incarceration due for conetmpt of court. This video, taken on Monday, shows Broner being led away to jail when he failed to provide sufficient financial disclosures about his assets, which are subject to seizure to satisfy an $800,000 judgment for sexual assault. Broner says he has a fight scheduled for January 16th, although it has not been announced to the public.

ORIGINAL STORY, NOV. 2, 2020: The legal troubles continue for former four-division champion Adrien Broner, who was thrown in jail for contempt of court by a Cuyahoga (Ohio) County judge. According to a Cleveland.com report and accompanying video of court proceedings, the background of the dispute is an $800,000 civil judgment that was issued against Broner after Broner he was accused of sexual assault. Broner failed to hire an attorney to defend against the charges and was ordered to pay the $800,000 but the self-proclaimed "About Billions" now says he doesn't have the money to pay. Recently, Broner was ordered by the judge to provide financial documents proving his claim of poverty but he failed to document that too. On Monday in court, the judge reviewed an Instagam post Broner made in which he is admiring a big stack of cash. Broner lamely attempted to explain that the money was not his: "I got rich friends... I can ask Gervonta Davis, Al Haymon, I can ask Stephen Espinoza, I can ask anybody [for money]." Haymon is Broner's de facto promoter through Premier Boxing Champions and Espinoza is the head of Showtime Boxing. 

Murat Gassiev TKO1 Nuri Seferi... Former IBF/WBA cruiserweight champion Murat Gassiev returned from two years of inactivity with an easy win in a mismatch against Nuri Seferi (41-10). The 43 year-old Seferi, about 30 pounds over his normal fighting weight, succumbed to the first real punch thrown by Gassiev. He beat the ten count but didn't seem focused on the referee so the bout was quickly stopped.  Gassiev, now 27-1, is still only 27 years old but had not seen action since losing a cruiserweight unification bout to Oleksandr Usyk in July 2018. 

Gervonta Davis KO6 Leo Santa Cruz... On Saturday night Gervonta “Tank” Davis delivered a knockout of the year candidate against multi-division champion Leo Santa Cruz. It was in the sixth round when Davis found an opening to land a perfectly executed left uppercut, a knockout shot which Santa Cruz never saw coming. 

Robin Krasniqi KO3 Dominic Boesel... Kosovo-born light heavyweight Robin Krasniqi got a late-career highlight in his 57th professional fight. In Magdeburg, Germany, a Krasniqi right hand put Dominic Boesel (30-2) down and out in round three, giving Krasniqi the IBO championship and the WBA interim title. Krasniqi took advantage of a blown call by the referee, who ruled that Boesel slipped when he was actually knocked down. Boesel should have gotten an eight-count to recover, but was pushed right back into action and Krasniqi flattened him. Krasniqi (51-6) has lost almost every time he's stepped up in class, but not this time.

Filip Hrgovic KO2 Alexandre Kartozia ... Heavyweight contender Filip Hrgovic of Croatia found himself in with an unqualified, late replacement, Georgian-born Alexandre Kartozia (now 8-2). Hrgovic responded appropriately, with a brutal second-round knockout that put Kartozia to sleep. Have a look by clicking on the image...

Tony Yoka TKO1 Johan Dahaupas... The two best heavyweights in France met, with 28 year-old Tony Yoka pummeling 39 year-old Johan Dauhaupas (38-6) in less than a minute and a half. Yoka is a 2016 Olympic gold medalist, 8-0 as a traditional pro but 15-8 including the World Series of Boxing. Dahaupas' time as a fring contender is clearly done. He's 38-6. Yoka's demolition of Dauhaupas comapres favorably to Dahaupas lasting a full ten rounds with Jarrell Miller and taking then-WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder into round eleven.

David Tua KO1 John Ruiz... On this date in 1996, on an HBO show entitled "Night the Young Heavyweights," New Zealand's David Tua destroyed John Ruiz in one round. The amazing thing about this KO is that it would be Ruiz, not Tua who would go on to win a heavyweight title. Tua lost a title shot to Lennox Lewis in 2000 while Ruiz would have multiple reigns as a WBA title holder with three fights vs. Evander Holyfield, two vs. Nikolay Valuev and single fights vs. Roy Jones, Hasim Rahman, James Toney, Andrew Golota and more. Tua had his last fight in 2013 and finished up at 52-5-2 while Ruiz fought one of the toughest schedules in heavyweight history until hanging them up in 2010 at 44-9-1.

In a minor league hockey game in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Derek Sheppard of the Charlotte Checkers knocked veteran tough guy Kale Kessy of Hershey Bears unconscious with a big right hand. As soon as Kessy hit the ice, a concerned Sheppard called for medical attention. Kessy was carted off the ice on a gurney and brought to a local hospital where he was reported to be in stable condition.

Sad news out of New Zealand: Jimmy Peau, who fought under the name Jimmy Thunder, has died at the age of 54. Details of Thunder's death are unclear, but the New Zealand Herald reported he recently underwent brain surgery for a tumor. Reports also say that Thunder was homeless in his retirement years. Thunder was an exciting heavyweight who fought many times on USA Network's legendary Tuesday Night Fights series. As an amateur, he won gold at the Commonwealth Games, but somehow was left off the 1988 New Zealand Olympic team. Thunder's pro career stretched from 1989-2002. Although he wasn't a slick boxer, the heavily muscled Thunder always entertained and ususally had success. His resume is highlighted by wins over three former title holders,Tim Witherspoon, Tony Tubbs and Trevor Berbick. A 1994 majority decision win over Tubbs brought Thunder the IBO heavweight championship.  But Thunder is best remembered for his 1997 win over Crwaford Grimsely. Fighting on Tuesday Night Fights, Thunder stormed out of his corner at the opening bell and threw a single overhand right that immediately put Grimsley to sleep. A vidoe of the eight-second fight is included with this story.Briefly seen on the video is the wake of the KO- it came so fast that while laying flat on his back, Grimsley thought the fight was still going on and threw some punches while he was laying on the canvas. Boxingtalk sends it deepest condolences to the friends and family of Jimmy Peau a/k/a Jimmy Thunder, a man who provided boxing fans with many thrills throught the 1990s.

According to CBS Miami, Gervonta Davis has been charged with simple battery domestic violence based on the video that can be viewed by clicking on the image to the left. Davis, the WBA's secondary lightweight champion, turned himself in to Coral Gables, Florida, police on Tuesday. The woman has been described as the mother of Davis' child. 

Junior Makabu W12 Michal Cieslak ... Ilunga "Junior" Makabu is the new WBC cruiserweight champion, having won the vacant title by defeating Poland's Michal Cieslak by twelve-round decision.  The judges’ scores were: Omar Mintum 114-112, Carlos Flores 115-111 and Humberto Olivares 116-111, all in favor of Makabu.  The fight took place in Makabu's home nation, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Makabu is now 27-2, while Cieslak is 19-1. Click on the image to view the entire fight.

The weigh-in for Saturday's heavyweight title fight is over and there was a shocker... WBO/WBA/IBF heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz weighed in for his first tile defense at a startling 283.7 pounds!  That is about 15 pounds more than he weighed in June when he captured the championships from Anthony Joshua, and Ruiz, took that fight on short notice and wasn't exactly slim at 268. Note: Ruiz stepped on the scale wearing long pants, a tank top and sneakers but did not appear to be hiding any weights in his pocket (a possible mind game). Joshua, the former champion, weighed in at 237.5, about ten pounds lighter than he weighed in June. The closest historical precedent for Ruiz's shocking weight gain is James "Buster" Douglas in 1990. Like Ruiz, Douglas had a beefy body type, but Douglas trimmed down to 231 for the chance of a lifetime against world champion Mike Tyson. Douglas and Ruiz both pulled huge upsets, but for his first defense, Douglas could not discipline himself in the same way, and also weighed in 15 pounds heavier for Evander Holyfield.  Douglas wound up getting knocked out by Holyfield in the third round and his career was never the same. Will Ruiz suffer the same fate? 

Promoter Dmitriy Salita confirmed on social media that Romania's Constantin Bejenaru has landed a title shot vs.WBA cruiserweight super champion Arsen Goulamirian. Born in Armenia but living in France, Goulamirian is 25-0 and defended his title less than three weeks ago. Bejenaru is listed at 14-0 but was 0-1-1 in pro bouts under the World Series of Boxing.  From 2016-2017, he reeled off quality wins over Thabiso Mchunu, Stivens Bujaj and Alexey Zubov.  Here is a training video of Bejenaru. More details to follow...

Russian super middleweight Vladimir Shishkin is listed at 9-0, but is more accurately 10-0 as he won his only World Series of Boxing contest. Shishkin, under contract to Salita Promotions, has been hard at work sparring in Detroit's Kronk Gym. Check out this short video highlighting some of his sparring work.

Boxingtalk’s Sean Sullivan was on hand for the post fight presser in Las Vegas last night. Check out the video to see what the pound for pound great Canelo Alvarez had to say moments after his historical stoppage over Sergey Kovalev.

What is Otto Wallin thinking as he prepares for the biggest fight of his life, a challenge against former world heavyweght champion Tyson Fury on Sautrday, September 14th in Las Vegas? Check out this Salita Promotions video to find out.

On August 23rd in Arrow, Oklahoma, junior welterweight Shohjahon Ergashev (16-0, 14 KOs) of Uzbekistan return for his third ShoBox appearance against Mexico's Abdiel Ramirez (24-4-1, 22 KOs) in a ten-round bout. Here is a training montage for Ergashev as prepared by his promoter, Salita Promotions.