The Ultimate Boxing Twitter List: People Every Fight Fan Must Follow

Social media has placed fans and athletes in closer proximity to one another than they've ever been before.

Twitter, that magical 140-character-or-less wonder, has provided fans with unprecedented access to their favorite athletes and has given them a chance to interact in ways that didn't seem possible all that long ago.

Boxing, in particular, has benefited from this social media revolution, and many fighters, promoters and media members use the platform to make and consume news. That makes following sports easier than ever before, and it puts the fans in the position of not just being bystanders but genuinely contributing to the conversation. 

And the best way to do that, if you're a boxing fan, is to follow these people. Some are legends, some are movers and shakers both behind and in front of the cameras, and some are current fighters. 

This list is in no way meant to be comprehensive. That would disrespect all those missed who rightfully belong. 

Think of it as a beginner's guide to people that you must follow on Twitter if you're a fight fan. And feel free to add or subtract in the comments section.

Honorable Mention

PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/Associated Press

It is almost literally impossible to give just due to all the tremendous fighters, promoters and media members who make following boxing so easy on Twitter. As a starting point and not a final product, this list doesn't mean to complete that Herculean task but to simply be a springboard—a living list that can be built or contracted as needed.

Still, we'd be remiss to not at least give an honorable mention to these boxing luminaries:

Muhammad Ali - @MuhammadAli

"The Greatest" has a case for being the best fighter who ever lived. His Twitter feed is a great collection of nostalgic photos and ruminations on the state of the sport, and it provides windows into what boxing was like during his day.

Al Haymon - @AlHaymon

Haymon is boxing's ultimate mover and shaker away from the cameras. He has never tweeted and doesn't follow anyone, but if you want to go anywhere in the sport you'd better thank him.

Ricardo Mayorga - @TheRealMayorga

Like everything else about his life and career, Ricardo Mayorga's Twitter feed is NSFW. Check it out if you like vulgarity and call-outs of fighters that he has no chance of ever fighting—in the ring, anyway.

David Haye - @MrDavidHaye

David Haye is a brash former cruiserweight and heavyweight champion who is known for rubbing people the wrong way. But apparently he's really great with the fans he meets in his day-to-day life. Why else would he have so many pictures with them?

Michael Woods - @Woodsy1969

Michael Woods edits and operates TheSweetScience.com and is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He's one of the smartest fight guys in the business, and as a bonus, he'll even talk some politics with you.

Lou DiBella

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Lou DiBella - @loudibella

Followers: 27,900

Tweets: 4,930

If you are in any way involved in the New York boxing scene and don't know Lou DiBella, it's hard to tell whether we should sympathize with or crack you aside the head for not paying attention.

DiBella heads up DiBella Entertainment—you might know it as the handlers of middleweight king Sergio "Maravilla" Martinez—and has helped revitalize the boxing scene in NYC with his Broadway Boxing series.

He is one of the most candid, no-nonsense dudes you'll ever meet in the sport. Don't believe me? This is the guy who fired heavyweight fighter Tor Hamer on his Twitter feed after he quit on the stool against Andy Ruiz on the Manny Pacquiao vs. Brandon Rios undercard.

If that's not enough for you, check out his quip about Lil Wayne and Justin Bieber accompanying Floyd Mayweather to the ring last Saturday against Marcos Maidana.

Main Events

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Main Events - @Main_Events

Followers: 12,400

Tweets: 7,344

This will be one of the must-see Twitter feeds in boxing for the next whoever knows how long. Main Events, headed by Kathy Duva, recently found its way into the news after a very public spat over WBC 175-pound champion Adonis Stevenson's decision to jump to Showtime and not face WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (promoted by Main Events) in a bout that the promotion felt was a done deal for later this year.

That decision has sparked the end times in boxing, with Duva and the company engaging in a blistering Twitter war with Showtime Sports executive vice president Stephen Espinoza over the issue.

But it's gone well beyond that now. Main Events has filed a federal lawsuit against Haymon (who recently became Stevenson's advisor), Stevenson, Showtime, Golden Boy Promotions and Yvon Michel and his promotional company Group Yvon Michel (GYM). 

This has the potential to rock the boxing world to its foundations. The lawsuit alleges that Haymon and Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer have entered into some sort of seedy alliance to wrest the company away from founder Oscar De La Hoya. 

This is some crazy stuff, and you need to get on this feed right away to not miss a bit of it.

Adrien Broner

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Adrien Broner - @AdrienBroner

Followers: 177,000

Tweets: 20,300

Adrien Broner can't seem to do anything right these days. He put in a very ho-hum performance in his comeback fight against light-hitting Carlos Molina on the Mayweather vs. Maidana undercard, made a few stupid comments in the ring afterward and was subsequently suspended by the WBC for said comments.

"The Problem" might well be his own biggest problem, but he has one of the more interesting and entertaining Twitter feeds in boxing.

But put it this way: If you like him, you'll like him more. But if you don't like him, well, you see where this is going. But where else can you see a fighter openly casting the net for ladies to join his Vegas pre-fight party and fan polls on when to knock an opponent out?

Oh, and you can even follow his brush if you like. Yep. Can't make this stuff up.

Amir Khan

USA TODAY Sports

Amir Khan - @AmirKingKhan

Followers: 1.44 million

Tweets: 16,500

Amir Khan is once again in the midst of a heavy lobbying campaign to land the next shot at pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather, but regardless of whether or not that happens, he was pretty impressive dispatching Luis Collazo on "The Moment" undercard.

Khan is hands down one of the most fan-interactive fighters in the game today. He retweets and replies to fans on a daily basis, and he often gets into discussions with them. Seriously, check out his page. You'd think it's all he has time to do. 

There's surprisingly little trash talk to be found here—what can we say? The guy keeps it humble on his page—but Khan did come up with an interesting take on Mayweather's next fight. 

Oscar De La Hoya

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Oscar De La Hoya - @OscarDeLaHoya

Tweets: 10,500

Followers: 540,000

Oscar De La Hoya is one of the best fighters of boxing's most recent era, and he continues to influence the sport as the president of his namesake company, Golden Boy Promotions. The former multi-time world champion underwent some personal struggles late in 2013, but he's recently returned to form and gotten right back into the thick of the business.

De La Hoya, as has been his customary way since his loss to Mayweather in 2007, frequently uses his Twitter to take swipes at "Money." He put up a couple of nice ones after the Maidana bout, calling out the pound-for-pound king for touting his record when others don't, calling for a rematch and saying Floyd should be 43-3.

That last one has since been deleted, but the hits will keep coming. That's a promise.

Lennox Lewis

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Lennox Lewis - @LennoxLewis

Tweets: 23,500

Followers: 344,000

Lennox Lewis, the last man not named Klitschko to make a legitimate claim to being the heavyweight champion of the world, has taken up a very active presence on Twitter since his retirement. He doesn't just muse on fights or the fight game; you'll find him talking about all sorts of sports.

And he loves to call out the "haters" who frequently like to tell him that he was nothing more than a glorified journeyman who got lucky. But he always does it with class, dignity and a big dose of truth. He also, apparently at least, needs to beat date-seekers off with a stick.

Golden Boy Promotions

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Golden Boy Promotions - @GoldenBoyBoxing

Tweets: 29,600

Followers: 193,000

Golden Boy Promotions has one of the deepest rosters of talent in the sport of boxing. The company promotes Canelo Alvarez, Broner, Danny Garcia, Khan, Bernard Hopkins, Maidana, Leo Santa Cruz and Keith Thurman, among others. It's a stacked roster from top to bottom.

Golden Boy does exclusive business with Showtime and has been a key part of the network's recent boxing resurgence after years of being the unwanted stepbrother to HBO. The feed is a great source of exclusive fighter content such as photos, videos and interviews from fight events. 

Golden Boy is a promotional outfit, yes, but this Twitter is still one of the best ways to keep up with the fighters under its banner. And it has more tweets and followers than its biggest rival...

Top Rank

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Top Rank Boxing - @TRBoxing

Tweets: 25,900

Followers: 153,000

You can bet your bottom dollar that Top Rank head Bob Arum doesn't man this Twitter account—as he always says, he's old, and he hardly knew what a PS4 was during the Pacquiao vs. Bradley promotion—but it's another good source for direct contact with one of boxing's largest promotional companies.

Top Rank's outfit includes Manny Pacquiao, Timothy Bradley, Juan Manuel Marquez and Nonito Donaire, among others. You'll often find some interesting banter going on at this page—like the quotes from Thursday's Omaha, Nebraska, presser announcing Terence Crawford vs. Yuriorkis Gamboa for the WBO Lightweight Championship.

Not your cup of tea? Then try following Top Rank Knockouts, which any cursory look will tell you, is nothing more than a Twitter feed devoted to ring girls in revealing outfits.

Dan Rafael

USA TODAY Sports

Dan Rafael - @danrafaelespn

Tweets: 38,200

Followers: 132,000

Dan Rafael is ESPN.com's senior boxing writer, and you'll find few better sources on Twitter for fast, reliable boxing news. He's at or covering most, if not all, big fights and gives a great glimpse at the action through his live scorecards. Sometimes he produces a real head-scratcher or two, but it's a subjective sport.

He is also frequently at war with the WBC, whom he describes as "wretched," and often tweets his displeasure with the sanctioning organization. 

The Ring Magazine

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The Ring Magazine - @ringmagazine

Tweets: 17,800

Followers: 24,700

The Ring Magazine feed is quite possibly the best thing in the boxing Twitterverse. It's like the magazine, but you can access the stories wherever you go from your computer, phone or tablet. That sounds a lot like an advertising slogan we've all heard too much.

But the bottom line is that this particular feed is manned by three of the very best in the business—Doug Fischer, who you might remember from his MaxBoxing.com days, Michael Rosenthal and the incomparable Lem Satterfield. There are few, if anybody, who is better than these three, and they cover the sport from all angles.

Paulie Malignaggi

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Paulie Malignaggi - @PaulMalignaggi

Tweets: 52,800

Followers: 88,000

Call me a homer, and that's fine, but Paulie Malignaggi is one of the more entertaining and candid characters to ever set foot in a boxing ring. And he is, to the best of our knowledge, the first fighter to ever send out tweets between rounds during one of his fights.

That small moment in history took place during his 2012 WBA Welterweight Championship win over Vyacheslav Senchenko in Ukraine, but what else would you expect? The guy loves to talk.

Malignaggi has taken to calling himself the #TK (Twitter King) and most recently #SMK (Social Media King). Good luck arguing the point (he'll fight back often in just a few very specific characters). Like everything else with Brooklyn's "Magic Man,'' seeing is believing. There's just too much there to do it real justice.

If you want to be entertained, taken to the woodshed if you argue or see the occasional picture of Paulie wearing this, head over and check out the #SMK.

Tyson Fury

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Tyson Fury - @Tyson_Fury

Tweets: 9,217

Followers: 200,000

Tyson Fury has only two paths that he can take. He's either going to prove a lot of people wrong and become one of the best heavyweights in the world, or he's going to fall flat on his face. Either way, the brash British big man will keep it fun and real the whole way.

He is an unrepentant trash talker in and out of the ring. But if you follow him on Twitter, you also see that he's a serious and committed family man.

But, be honest: That's not what you're here for, is it? Nope. You should follow him if for no other reason than to see his constant smack-talking tweets to other heavyweights and particularly to his upcoming opponent Dereck Chisora.

Like when he called him a sack of spuds as talented as a moving heavy bag. Or when he called heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko an expletive-house who picks easy fights. There's just so much there. Like a potato chip, you can't have just one.

Stephen Espinoza

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Stephen Espinoza - @StephenEspinoza

Tweets: 3,734

Followers: 6,005

Stephen Espinoza (the guy on the right) scored the coup of last year when he helped Showtime snag Mayweather, the pound-for-pound king and undisputed top draw in the business, and fundamentally reshaped the cable boxing landscape. Shortly after, the other dominoes began to fall, as Golden Boy Promotions (whom Espinoza worked for as lead lawyer before becoming a Showtime executive) was shunned from HBO and became a full-time partner of its rival.

Bob Arum doesn't like him, and Espinoza is a network executive. But he is one of the more interactive guys to hold a high-level position in the fight game. He's done more to revitalize the boxing product on Showtime than anyone else at the network, and he frequently engages in discussions with the fans.

Every now and then, he'll even find his way into a Twitter beef with a rival promoter. And that's always entertaining.

He gives you a straight answer, like it or not. This fan found that out the hard way, and this one, and this one.

Oh wait. That last one was Dan Rafael. Whoops. Sorry, Dan.

Leonard Ellerbe

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Leonard Ellerbe - @LEllerbe

Tweets: 2,329

Followers: 22,300

Leonard Ellerbe is the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, and that automatically makes him one of the most powerful men in boxing. Mayweather does virtually all of his own talking, but on the rare occasions that he allows someone to speak in his name, Ellerbe is the guy.

Befitting his station, he doesn't spend a ton of time chatting up the Twitterverse.

Generally a man of few words, he is nonetheless a must-follow. When he does tweet, it's often short and sweet, and it's usually around the time when Mayweather is getting ready to either announce a fight or step into the ring.

That's worth the price of admission (free) alone.

Floyd Mayweather

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Floyd Mayweather - @FloydMayweather

Tweets: 5,918

Followers: 4.9 million

Mayweather is boxing's pound-for-pound king, its top attraction and most polarizing fighter. But controversy is big business, and "Money" has generated enough to line his pockets to the tune of several hundred million dollars over the course of his Hall of Fame career.

Like he does on all available social media platforms, Mayweather often uses his Twitter to remind his legions of fans and haters that he is ridiculously wealthy. He was recently named to one of the 140 Twitter feeds you must follow by Time magazine.

And why must you follow him?

You'll be treated to frequent selfies, hilarious trolling of longtime rival Pacquiao, huge betting slips and the only definitive news when it comes to whom he'll be fighting next.

In so many ways, Mayweather has become synonymous with boxing.

If you're not following him, what are you doing with yourself?

And while you're getting that Twitter ready and hitting add on Floyd's page, also check out your Bleacher Report boxing team: @McRaeBoxing, @KelseyMcCarson, @Fitzbitz and @briggsfighttalk.