THE BREAKDOWN: Salido-JuanMa II

Published

13 years ago

March 8, 2012

Lee Wylie

THE BREAKDOWN: Salido-JuanMa II – What a difference a fight can make.

Last year, prior to the first meeting between Juan Manuel Lopez and Orlando Salido, Lopez was regarded as one of boxing’s future superstars. Considered by many to be a potential pound for pound talent, as well as a huge box office smash, due to his crowd pleasing style, Lopez could do no wrong. Apart from Pacquiao versus Mayweather, Juan Manuel Lopez versus Yuriorkis Gamboa was considered THE must see fight in boxing, in the eyes of many.

Orlando Salido had other ideas.

In the biggest upset of 2011, the undefeated Lopez, 32-1 [28 kos] was sensationally stopped in the eighth round by 8 -1 underdog Salido, 35-11 [23 kos]. Lopez versus Gamboa has now lost it’s glamour.

This Saturday, at the Calise Roberto Clemente in Puerto Rico, the 28 year-old Lopez has a chance of redemption when he gets his rematch with Salido in yet another chapter in the now famous Mexico versus Puerto Rico boxing rivalry. The contest, televised by Showtime, will be for Salido’s 126 pound title.

Up until the Salido fight, Lopez was on the fast track to stardom. Winning his first world title at bantamweight, via a stunning first round knockout over the always tough Daniel Ponce De Leon, Lopez rapidly progressed through the ranks and weights, with successful title defenses against the likes of Gerry Penalosa and Rogers Mtagwa, before moving up to featherweight and continuing his run with wins over Steve Luevano, Bernabe Concepcion and Rafael Marquez.

Contrary to Lopez, the 31 year-old Salido was never considered to be one of boxing’s prodigal sons. He plied his trade the old fashioned way. Suffering numerous defeats, during the early part of his career, Salido seemed barely a C level fighter. However, after a nine fight winning streak, which was eventually halted by fellow Mexican, Juan Manuel Marquez, Salido’s talent was starting to become apparent. His improvement continued with wins over Mtagwa [ in less difficult fashion than Lopez managed ], Robert Guerrero [ later ruled a no contest due to a failed drugs test ] and an avenged loss to Cristobal Cruz, in which Salido claimed the IBF 126 pound title.

Moving on from their last contest back in April of last year, both fighters have failed to impress. Lopez looked less than spectacular whilst stopping light hitting American Mike Oliver in two. Meanwhile Salido was dropped twice on route to stopping Filipino Weng Haya in eight rounds.

THE SCIENCE:

Lopez, a dangerous southpaw, is the owner of knockout power in either hand. Although most of his attacks begin with the right jab, he often leads with power shots, in particular his right hook and overhand left. While Lopez does not invest to the body as much as he should, he is not just a head hunter either. Lopez’ best weapon is his overhand left, which combined with his right hooks and uppercuts, make him one of the better combination punchers in boxing. Once Lopez has an opponent hurt, his size and strength simply overwhelm his opponents. He is among the best finishers in boxing.

Because of his lack of footspeed and less than great skills in close, Lopez, at his best, inflicts the most damage to his opponents at mid-range.

What makes Lopez so captivating to watch is his vulnerability, which is direct a result of his defensive neglect and seemingly poor chin. Lopez’ entire emphasis is on attack, so much so, that he has been hurt in fights [ Mtagwa and Concepcion ] when he really shouldn’t have been. As with a lot of southpaws, Lopez has also looked vulnerable to the right hand. More worryingly, Salido seemed to find a home for it in their last fight.

Technically, there is nothing flashy about Lopez’ movement, he will circle counter- clockwise from time to time, behind his jab. Before marching foward trying to land his power shots. Lopez is always pressing the attack. Despite Lopez preferring to be right in front of his man, he is not comfortable right in close. When he had Concepcion hurt in their fight, he took a step back, almost to regain his optimum distance at which he likes to get his punches off.

Salido, fighting out of an orthodox stance, is a more thinking man’s fighter than Lopez. While he is not a pure boxer, there is a lot more strategy involved in his work. On the surface, Salido seems like the stereotypical Mexican fighter, walking foward behind a high guard, taking two to land one, looking to get inside and land his power shots. Looks can be misleading.

Yes, Salido likes to come foward, yes, he is aggressive, but there are lot of subtleties that can sometimes go unnoticed. Salido is superb at creating punching angles. He achieves this by slipping punches on the inside, and coming back with a counter. Salido also likes to throw punches, away from the target, with the intention of countering straight back, because of his new found angle. While Salido is not a particularly hard puncher, he is an accurate puncher. Because of his limited handspeed, he has been forced to work a lot more on the timing of his punches, something Yuriorkis Gamboa found out during their bout. His overhand right that he likes to throw in close or at mid-range, is by far his most productive punch.

Salido, as proven in the past, is more than capable of fighting bell to bell. His stamina, for a fighter of 31, in a smaller weight class, is tremendous.

Perhaps the most effective part of Salido’s arsenal is his comfort level in close. Granted, he is no Pernell Whitaker, but Salido is not that easy to hit clean. His clarity and experience on the inside enable him to see most of the action amid heavy fire.

THE SCENARIO:

Like their first fight, Salido will again be the underdog. Lopez will be looking to prove the result of their last fight was nothing more than a minor set-back, whilst pursuing bigger and better things. Of course Lopez is capable of winning the fight. His heavy handedness is a “get out of jail free card” if ever there was one. Let’s also remind ourselves that like last time, the fight is in Lopez’ native Puerto rico. At the time of the stoppage, the judges had the fight even going into the ninth round, despite the fact many thought Salido was in control and winning the fight.

In terms of what both fighters require from the other, they both oblige. Although Lopez is the more athletic of the two, neither fighter is blessed with great speed or movement. Neither fighter wants to go looking for the other. They will be right in front of each other, willing to trade shots.

This is the reason why Salido came out on top last time. Salido is by far the more polished fighter in close. He is not as wreckless as Lopez is. Using the last fight as evidence, look at their body shapes during most of the exchanges. Lopez, looking to land his wide power shots in close, was standing square on to Salido, with his feet parallel to his shoulders. Contrast this to the way Salido was standing. Salido, with his right shoulder and left [front] foot, almost in a six o`clock position, was in a perfect position to throw a straighter, less telegraphed right hand.

Simply put, Salido has a better understanding of punching angles than Lopez does. If both fighter’s are throwing at the same time, technical correctness will win the day. Think of Nonito Donaire beating Fernando Montiel to the punch as an example.

Lopez cannot afford to get into a gunslinging contest with Salido again. While Lopez has a significant edge in power, Salido has the edge in precision and poise. There is more craft, than craziness, to his work. Last time out, Lopez was hit over and over by Salido’s overhand right. Lopez had no answer for it because of his lack of head or upper body movement. Suicide, when operating within punching range. Salido on the other hand, often utilises head movement in close. He also likes to dip and bend at the waist on offense and defense.

In order for Lopez to avoid the right hand, he needs to learn how to adapt in the ring. If Lopez goes in with the same strategy as last time, expect the craftier Salido to once again expose Juanma’s defensive flaws. Instead, Lopez should take a look at how Gamboa was successful against Salido. The Cuban was able to keep Salido guessing as to where the next attack was coming from. By using more movement and distance, he made Salido walk to him, which enabled Gamboa to come in from different angles, landing his combinations.

The problem of course, is whether or not Lopez can adjust. If he can, then maybe we will see a more rangy, counterpunching based strategy with more in the way of lateral movement. If not, then we will probably have a repeat of the first leg as Lopez will be standing flat footed, stalking and looking to land his power shots while disregarding his defensive responsibility, as Salido, proving he is the better technician in close, will be landing his right hand all night long.

This really is the last chance saloon for Lopez. Defeat wouldsurely put a fatal bullet in his chances of becoming a major box office performer. For his sake then, let’s hope he doesn’t opt for a gun fight. Salido has already proven that he will be the last man standing if Lopez decides to take that avenue.

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Lee Wylie

Avila Perspective, Chap. 322: Super Welter Week in SoCal

Published

5 hours ago

April 18, 2025

David A. Avila

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Two below-the-radar super welterweight stars show off their skills this weekend from different parts of Southern California.

One in particular, Charles Conwell, co-headlines a show in Oceanside against a hard-hitting Mexican while another super welter star Sadriddin Akhmedov faces another Mexican hitter in Commerce.

Take your pick.

The super welterweight division is loaded with talent at the moment. If Terence Crawford remained in the division he would be at the top of the class, but he is moving up several weight divisions.

Conwell (21-0, 16 KOs) faces Jorge Garcia Perez (32-4, 26 KOs) a tall knockout puncher from Los Mochis at the Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, Calif. on Saturday April 19. DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotions card that also features undisputed flyweight champion Gabriela Fundora. We’ll get to her later.

Conwell might be the best super welterweight out there aside from the big dogs like Vergil Ortiz, Serhii Bohachuk and Sebastian Fundora.

If you are not familiar with Conwell he comes from Cleveland, Ohio and is one of those fighters that other fighters know about. He is good.

He has the James “Lights Out” Toney kind of in-your-face-style where he anchors down and slowly deciphers the opponent’s tools and then takes them away piece by piece. Usually it’s systematic destruction. The kind you see when a skyscraper goes down floor by floor until it’s smoking rubble.

During the Covid days Conwell fought two highly touted undefeated super welters in Wendy Toussaint and Madiyar Ashkeyev. He stopped them both and suddenly was the boogie man of the super welterweight division.

Conwell will be facing Mexico’s taller Garcia who likes to trade blows as most Mexican fighters prefer, especially those from Sinaloa. These guys will be firing H bombs early.

Fundora

Co-headlining the Golden Boy card is Gabriela Fundora (15-0, 7 KOs) the undisputed flyweight champion of the world. She has all the belts and Mexico’s Marilyn Badillo (19-0-1, 3 KOs) wants them.

Gabriela Fundora is the sister of Sebastian Fundora who holds the men’s WBC and WBO super welterweight world titles. Both are tall southpaws with power in each hand to protect the belts they accumulated.

Six months ago, Fundora met Argentina’s Gabriela Alaniz in Las Vegas to determine the undisputed flyweight champion. The much shorter Alaniz tried valiantly to scrap with Fundora and ran into a couple of rocket left hands.

Mexico’s Badillo is an undefeated flyweight from Mexico City who has battled against fellow Mexicans for years. She has fought one world champion in Asley Gonzalez the current super flyweight world titlist. They met years ago with Badillo coming out on top.

Does Badillo have the skill to deal with the taller and hard-hitting Fundora?

When a fighter has a six-inch height advantage like Fundora, it is almost impossible to out-maneuver especially in two-minute rounds. Ask Alaniz who was nearly decapitated when she tried.

This will be Badillo’s first pro fight outside of Mexico.

Commerce Casino

Kazakhstan’s Sadriddin Akhmedov (15-0, 13 KOs) is another dangerous punching super welterweight headlining a 360 Promotions card against Mexico’s Elias Espadas (23-6, 16 KOs) on Saturday at the Commerce Casino.

UFC Fight Pass will stream the 360 Promotions card of about eight bouts.

Akhmedov is another Kazakh puncher similar to the great Gennady “GGG” Golovkin who terrorized the middleweight division for a decade. He doesn’t have the same polish or dexterity but doesn’t lack pure punching power.

It’s another test for the super welterweight who is looking to move up the ladder in the very crowded 154-pound weight division. 360 Promotions already has a top contender in Ukraine’s Serhii Bohachuk who nearly defeated Vergil Ortiz a year ago.

Could Bohachuk and Akhmedov fight each other if nothing else materializes?

That’s a question for another day.

Fights to Watch

Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Charles Conwell (21-0, 16 KOs) vs. Jorge Garcia Perez (32-4, 26 KOs); Gabriela Fundora (15-0) vs Marilyn Badillo (19-0-1).

Sat. UFC Fight Pass 6 p.m. Sadriddin Akhmedov (15-0) vs Elias Espadas (23-6).

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TSS Salutes Thomas Hauser and his Bernie Award Cohorts

Published

2 days ago

April 16, 2025

TSS Press

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The Boxing Writers Association of America has announced the winners of its annual Bernie Awards competition. The awards, named in honor of former five-time BWAA president and frequent TSS contributor Bernard Fernandez, recognize outstanding writing in six categories as represented by stories published the previous year.

Over the years, this venerable website has produced a host of Bernie Award winners. In 2024, Thomas Hauser kept the tradition alive. A story by Hauser that appeared in these pages finished first in the category “Boxing News Story.” Titled “Ryan Garcia and the New York State Athletic Commission,” the story was published on June 23. You can read it HERE.

Hauser also finished first in the category of “Investigative Reporting” for “The Death of Ardi Ndembo,” a story that ran in the (London) Guardian. (Note: Hauser has owned this category. This is his 11^th first place finish for “Investigative Reporting”.)

Thomas Hauser, who entered the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the class of 2019, was honored at last year’s BWAA awards dinner with the A.J. Leibling Award for Outstanding Boxing Writing. The list of previous winners includes such noted authors as W.C. Heinz, Budd Schulberg, Pete Hamill, and George Plimpton, to name just a few.

The Leibling Award is now issued intermittently. The most recent honorees prior to Hauser were Joyce Carol Oates (2015) and Randy Roberts (2019).

Roberts, a Distinguished Professor of History at Purdue University, was tabbed to write the Hauser/Leibling Award story for the glossy magazine for BWAA members published in conjunction with the organization’s annual banquet. Regarding Hauser’s most well-known book, his Muhammad Ali biography, Roberts wrote, “It is nearly impossible to overestimate the importance of the book to our understanding of Ali and his times.” An earlier book by Hauser, “The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing,” garnered this accolade: “Anyone who wants to understand boxing today should begin by reading ‘The Black Lights’.”

A panel of six judges determined the Bernie Award winners for stories published in 2024. The stories they evaluated were stripped of their bylines and other identifying marks including the publication or website for which the story was written.

Other winners:

Boxing Event Coverage: Tris Dixon

Boxing Column: Kieran Mulvaney

Boxing Feature (Over 1,500 Words): Lance Pugmire

Boxing Feature (Under 1,500 Words): Chris Mannix

The Dixon, Mulvaney, and Pugmire stories appeared in Boxing Scene; the Mannix story in Sports Illustrated.

The Bernie Award recipients will be honored at the forthcoming BWAA dinner on April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in the heart of Times Square. (For more information, visit the BWAA website). Two days after the dinner, an historic boxing tripleheader will be held in Times Square, the logistics of which should be quite interesting. Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, and Teofimo Lopez share top billing.

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Mekhrubon Sanginov, whose Heroism Nearly Proved Fatal, Returns on Saturday

Published

3 days ago

April 15, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Mekhrubon-Sanginov-whose-Heroism-Nearly-Proved-Fatal-Returns-on-Saturday

To say that Mekhrubon Sanginov is excited to resume his boxing career would be a great understatement. Sanginov, ranked #9 by the WBA at 154 pounds before his hiatus, last fought on July 8, 2022.

He was in great form before his extended leave, having scored four straight fast knockouts, advancing his record to 13-0-1. Had he remained in Las Vegas, where he had settled after his fifth pro fight, his career may have continued on an upward trajectory, but a trip to his hometown of Dushanbe, Tajikistan, turned everything haywire. A run-in with a knife-wielding bully nearly cost him his life, stalling his career for nearly three full years.

Sanginov was exiting a restaurant in Dushanbe when he saw a man, plainly intoxicated, harassing another man, an innocent bystander. Mekhrubon intervened and was stabbed several times with a long knife. One of the puncture wounds came perilously close to puncturing his heart.

“After he stabbed me, I ran after him and hit him and caught him to hold for the police,” recollects Sanginov. “There was a lot of confusion when the police arrived. At first, the police were not certain what had happened.

“By the time I got to the hospital, I had lost two liters of blood, or so I was told. After I was patched up, one of the surgeons said to me, ‘Give thanks to God because he gave you a second life.’ It is like I was born a second time.”

“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It could have happened in any city,” he adds. (A story about the incident on another boxing site elicited this comment from a reader: “Good man right there. World would be a better place if more folk were willing to step up when it counts.”)

Sanginov first laced on a pair of gloves at age 10 and was purportedly 105-14 as an amateur. Growing up, the boxer he most admired was Roberto Duran. “Muhammad Ali will always be the greatest and [Marvin] Hagler was great too, but Duran was always my favorite,” he says.

During his absence from the ring, Sanginov married a girl from Tajikistan and became a father. His son Makhmud was born in Las Vegas and has dual citizenship. “Ideally,” he says, “I would like to have three more children. Two more boys and the last one a daughter.”

He also put on a great deal of weight. When he returned to the gym, his trainer Bones Adams was looking at a cruiserweight. But gradually the weight came off – “I had to give up one of my hobbies; I love to eat,” he says – and he will be resuming his career at 154. “Although I am the same weight as before, I feel stronger now. Before I was more of a boy, now I am a full-grown man,” says Sanginov who turned 29 in February.

He has a lot of rust to shed. Because of all those early knockouts, he has answered the bell for only eight rounds in the last four years. Concordantly, his comeback fight on Saturday could be described as a soft re-awakening. Sanginov’s opponent Mahonri Montes, an 18-year pro from Mexico, has a decent record (36-10-2, 25 KOs) but has been relatively inactive and is only 1-3-1 in his last five. Their match at Thunder Studios in Long Beach, California, is slated for eight rounds.

On May 10, Ardreal Holmes (17-0) faces Erickson Lubin (26-2) on a ProBox card in Kissimmee, Florida. It’s an IBF super welterweight title eliminator, meaning that the winner (in theory) will proceed directly to a world title fight.

Sanginov will be watching closely. He and Holmes were scheduled to meet in March of 2022 in the main event of a ShoBox card on Showtime. That match fell out when Sanginov suffered an ankle injury in sparring.

If not for a twist of fate, that may have been Mekhrubon Sanginov in that IBF eliminator, rather than Ardreal Holmes. We will never know, but one thing we do know is that Mekhrubon’s world title aspirations were too strong to be ruined by a knife-wielding bully.

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