WHILE David Haye was still spewing excuses in Hamburg a joke started swirling social networking sites that Wladimir Klitschko was going to have a tee-shirt mocked up showing him holding up his vanquished opponent’s severed toe.

Legendary trainer Freddie Roach isn’t allowing a battle with Parkinson’s Disease curtail his development of a new era of boxing superstars. Simon Lewis spoke to him in Los Angeles.

JOHN DUDDY insisted that a world title fight next year was out of his hands, but it’s looming after his thrilling victory over the former European, British and Commonwealth middleweight champion, Howard Eastman, before a frenzied full house at The Kings Hall in Belfast on Saturday night.

RENOWNED trainer Don Turner is convinced John Duddy will join the likes of Evander Holyfield and Larry Holmes and become his 21st world champion.

HE IS boxing’s longest reigning current world champion and, with 20 defences under his belt, ties legends Larry Holmes and Bernard Hopkins as the fighter with the fourth-longest winning streak in title history.

AFTER taking the Big Apple by storm, John Duddy has finally decided to return to his roots for a belated European professional debut and a build-up to a European title shot.

Joe Calzaghe has confirmed he broke his hand during Saturday’s stoppage victory against Peter Manfredo in Cardiff.

Joe Calzaghe taught ’Contender’ star Peter Manfredo a violent lesson in the reality of world championship boxing with an emphatic third-round stoppage victory at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.

JOE CALZAGHE has sent opponents and records tumbling during his nine-year reign as WBO super-middleweight champion, but his most coveted prize remains the ability to walk down the street unnoticed.

JOE CALZAGHE has 35,000 incentives to turn in the most devastating performance of his career tomorrow night as he finally begins to reap the rewards his talent deserves.

As his old friend and former foe Muhammad Ali celebrates his 65th birthday, Henry Cooper insists he feels no bitterness about his controversial defeats by the man known as ‘The Greatest’.

Former world heavyweight champion Trevor Berbick has been found dead, according to Jamaican police.

FLAMBOYANT fight promoter Don King filed a $2.5bn lawsuit against ESPN yesterday, claiming he was defamed by a programme on the cable sports television network.

Light-welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu is set to sign a four-fight deal which would see him take on England’s Ricky Hatton and Oscar de la Hoya, according to reports in his homeland.

AS BILL Clinton basked in the spotlight yesterday at the opening of the Democratic convention, John Kerry visited Florida to press his case as to why voters should put him the White House in place of President George Bush.

John Ruiz believes victory over Roy Jones in Las Vegas tonight will finally earn him the respect he deserves and put him at the front of the queue to fight Lennox Lewis.