Root and Stokes grind down weary India to stretch lead beyond 100

NO BELTS on the line with both men coming to the end of their careers, facing one another in a catchweight contest at 149lbs, yet the Brook v Khan clash this weekend in Manchester has ignited more buzz and interest than many championship fights.
This is that rare thing though – a fight that needs no belts on the line to validate its importance or to make it compelling. What there is is a history of rivalry and bad blood, seasoned with plenty of nostalgia over the careers of two fighters who’ve climbed the heights and tasted the lows against the very best of their era.
This of course is a fight that should’ve taken place years before now. However it still retains sufficient interest to have sold out at the Manchester Arena in record time and it will doubtless attract a bounty of PPV buys over and above that.

Mary Kom’s fists made history in the boxing world. Malak Mesleh’s never got the chance. One story ends in glory, the other in grief — but both highlight the defiance of women who dare to fight, writes JOHN WIGHT

The Khelif gender row shows no sign of being resolved to the satisfaction of anyone involved anytime soon, says boxing writer JOHN WIGHT

When Patterson and Liston met in the ring in 1962, it was more than a title bout — it was a collision of two black archetypes shaped by white America’s fears and fantasies, writes JOHN WIGHT

In the land of white supremacy, colonialism and the foul legacy of the KKK, JOHN WIGHT knows that to resist the fascism unleashed by Trump is to do God’s work