“Fight Game” Recap: Lampley Talks With Arum, Schaefer On Lively Debut

Published

13 years ago

May 14, 2012

120506-jim-lampley-1024 Jim Lampley's half-hour boxing news show “The Fight Game” debuted at midnight on HBO Saturday.

In the first segment, Lampley, seated at a news desk, told viewers that the show would look at the game's strengths, and delve in to the sports' weaknesses. He got right into the flow, saying, “In recent years, Floyd Mayweathers' fights have tended to be noncompetitive exhibitions, as he carefully selected opponents who were either too inexperienced, too old or too undersized to compete with his immaculate skills. Not so Miguel Cotto…,” the host said, as we saw highlights from the May 5 Mayweather-Cotto clash.

Richard Schaefer, in a remote spot, was the first guest of the show. The Golden Boy exec started off by asserting that he disagreed with Lampley's take that Floyd has handpicked his past foes. He said the list of potential matchups for Floyd is getting larger, a contrast to what Floyd said post-fight, that the list is dwindling. Schaefer mentioned Canelo Alvarez, Robert Guerrero, Devon Alexander, and the Victor Ortiz-Andre Berto rematch. Manny Pacquiao he did not mention. Lampley asked if fans, long suffering, sad afterthoughts too often as the dealmakers do their thing, were any closer to seeing the dream fight, Mayweather-Pacquiao.

“It seems to be clear, Floyd Mayweather wants the fight, Manny Pacquiao wants the fight,” but Top Rank, Pacquiao's promoter, does not, Schaefer said. If Top Rank wants to get it done, they can call Schaefer, he stated.

Lampley asked about the split, wondering if Floyd wanting more than 50% of the take could kill the deal. Schaefer said, “I think Mayweather should get the lion's share.” He called for an accounting firm to pore over the Mayweather and Pacquiao fights since 2007, compare PPV numbers, gate revenue and such, and base the split on past earning history for each man.

Schaefer said Canelo is calling him almost every day, asking for a Floyd fight. The Mexican phenom will fight Sept. 15, at the MGM, the promoter said.

Schaefer said he's talked longer-term contract with Miguel Cotto, and said Cotto-Canelo is a possibility. What if Cotto goes back to Top Rank? He said he does not have a problem working with Bob Arum.

He left, and then Bob Arum appeared, from the Top Rank Gym. Lampley asked about Floyd's stance that Arum is holding up the Mayweather-Pacquiao bout. “It's the same mantra that we've been hearing, 'take the test,' of course Pacquiao agreed two years ago to take full drug testing. And then the other mantra is identify a scapegoat, and the scapegoat became me. Floyd Mayweather is the school of propaganda that Joseph Goebbels came from.”

“Never without a colorful quote,” Lampley drily responded, and switched gears. (Goebbels, a vicious ant-Semite, ran Adolph Hitler's propaganda campaign from 1933-1945. He briefly took over as Chancellor when Hitler killed himself

Is Tim Bradley a tough out for Manny? Arum said he poses a tremendous challenge. The promoter wonders what Pacquiao we will see. He has become a wholly different person, and does bible study every night. “Sometimes I get the impression that I'm promoting Rick Santorum, and not Manny Pacquiao,” he said.

What about Cotto returning to Top Rank? Arum said he has always been a friend of Top Rank. Cotto trained at the Top Rank Gym for the last fight, and he said he'd be happy to have Cotto back in the fold. Could Arum work with GB for Canelo-Cotto? “Jim, enough of this nonsense,” he said. If the fighters want to fight, the promoters don't have final say, he said.

Lampley asked about The Split. Would Manny do less than 50-50? Pacman and Arum both think they should do a 45-45 split, with the extra ten percent to the winner, Arum answered. “But we got to have parity here,” Arum said. “It's up to Floyd.” Floyd, I believe, sees parity as charity, and will never succumb to an equal split.

Lampley then shifted to the Lamont Peterson positive drug test issue. Peterson tested positive for synthetic testosterone, word dropped last Monday. Amir Khan and Freddie Roach chatted with Lampley. Khan said he was quite disappointed that the rematch was off. Roach said he didn't see the positive test coming. He thought Lamont seemed clean. Peterson has admitted he took testosterone, supplied by a physician to treat a deficit of naturally occurring testosterone in his body, before the first fight with Khan. Does that invalidate his win, Roach was asked. He said he thinks the result should be overturned, the trainer said.

Khan said he still wants one more fight at 140, and wants to add more mass before going to 147. Roach said Floyd looked beatable against Cotto. He said he thinks Pacman and Khan could both beat Floyd. “If we can get him in the ring, we'll be happy,” he said.

Max Kellerman joined Lampley in studio. He said he likes the idea of one fighter getting more of the prize, this being prizefighting, when asked about The Fight. The accountant assessment is smart, though he wonders if Mayweather would dig it if the process determined Manny should get 52%. Max said he thinks we might be closer to getting the fight made because Arum and Schaefer are talking split. I respectfully disagree, sadly; Arum bringing in the Goebbels comparison indicates he is in “loathing Floyd” mode instead of “loving Floyd” mode, or, at least, “tolerating Floyd,” which is the mode he generally snaps into in the few times this fight has been getting closer to being made. You can add “anytime Nazi comparisons are being made” to “as long as the Pacquiao defamation suit versus Floyd is in play” to the list of items that present as hurdles and symbols of failure in regards to The Fight reaching fruition.

Lampley asked Max about Canelo. The host said Schaefer laid out to him a tentative plan to fight James Kirkland in September, and then Miguel Cotto in December at MSG, followed by Mayweather in May 2013. “Let's do it,” Kellerman cracked. “If there are great fights be made, let's make 'em!”

Max said he's surprised a Mayweather-Cotto rematch hasn't been mentioned more.

Max talked the Peterson-Khan issue. He said he was impressed that Khan has sought out tough gigs, like Bradley and Peterson in DC. His career is stalled out because he's sought out tough challenges. He can go to 147 now if he has to. Max said he was shocked at the Peterson scenario and that the boxer has some damage control and rebuilding to do.

Roy Jones, in a segment called “Trick of the Trade,” talked Tim Bradley's head butts. He said Bradley is skilled at using the head as a weapon. In the studio, he talked us through Bradley's butting of Devon Alexander. He said it wasn't intentional but it wasn't unintentional. Bernard Hopkins also uses the head as a weapon, Jones said. The legend said a bad cut, such as when Manny was cut against Erik Morales, can really take a guy out of his game.

Can Pacman avoid head contact? He can, but not if he jumps straight in. Angles, Lampley said, are key.

Lampley then went into “The Gatti List.” He said that risk is central to the success of the fight game, and we saw highlights from Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward I. The list is of ten boxers who give every ounce of themselves, and renounce their instinct of self preservation, making them special to fight fans.

Jorge Arce was first on the list, then Abner Mares, Mike Alvarado, Orlando Salido, Cris Arreola, Canelo Alvarez, Sergio Martinez, Miguel Cotto, Manny Pacquiao and finally, Floyd Mayweather. The list will change, the host said, and losing will not automatically dump you off the Gatti list.

It was a fast-paced, informative program, and I look forward to the second edition, out in June.

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

Published

6 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

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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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