RINGSIDE Bam Bam Rios Wins Fight of the Year; Donaire TKOs Nishioka

Published

13 years ago

October 14, 2012

Rios Alvarado 121013 001a Rios turned it around and gave fans what he said he wanted to give them, in concert with Alvarado. A rematch makes much sense to us in TSS Universe. (Chris Farina)

CARSON, CALIF.-One was the Fight of the Year and the other was Disappointment of the Year as Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios knocked out Mike Alvarado in a brutal battle between undefeated junior welterweights and Nonito Donaire cruised past Japan's Toshiaki Nishioka to win by knockout too on Saturday.

It's not often that the bigger guys out-fight the smaller guys but that's what happened at the Home Depot Center as Donaire (30-1, 19 KOs) won by technical knockout over Nishioka (39-5-3, 24 KOs) amid boos from those who saw Rios and Alvarado slug it out viciously.

Still, Donaire eliminated one more junior featherweight champion.

It was a slow first round with Donaire doing most of the leading. A few combinations by Donaire but the lead right scored a couple of times for the Filipino Flash.

Donaire opened up to another gear and began firing combinations, but not enough to please the fans who booed the lack of action. Nishioka discovered he could score with the right jab and connected several times. But Donaire's speed bothered him in round two.

Nishioka refused to mount any kind of offense against the speedy Donaire whose lightning reflexes and catlike movement seemed to intimidate the Japanese champion. Donaire pounced around firing combos but Nishioka could not seem to be inclined to take a chance.

Donaire carried the action in round four in a rerun of the previous three rounds. Donaire's speed caused pause after pause from the Japanese fighter who was strictly in counter punch mode.

The crowd couldn't tell but Nishioka finally mounted some kind of offense but was muted by Donaire's reflexes and legs. Still, Donaire won this round too easily. A low blow toward the end of the round by Nishioka stopped the action briefly.

After six rounds of relative inactivity, the Japanese boxer opened up with some big punches and that opened him up for a Donaire barrage of right hands and a left uppercut that dropped Nishioka. He beat the count and fired back. But after the knockdown there was no turning back for the Japanese fighter. Counter punching was not going to do the job.

After hitting the deck in the previous round, Nishioka returned to fighting more defensively and Donaire continued the outside assault that proved indefensible in round seven.

Nishioka attacked a little more and actually fired and connected with a three-punch combination. Both traded lefts with the Japanese landing but neither getting hurt. It was Nishioka's best round.

“I was just playing possum and I was timing that jab and that was it,” said Donaire.

The end for Nishioka came when he opened up with a three punch combination and several stiff jabs. Suddenly a Donaire counter right floored Nishioka and though he beat the count his corner saw Donaire jump on the Japanese fighter immediately. Referee Raul Caiz saw the corner asking to surrender and stopped the fight at 1:54 of round nine. Donaire was near flawless against Nishioka who was considered a dangerous opponent by most observers. The speed difference between the “Filipino Flash” and the “Speed King” was light years apart.

“Nishioka is a great fighter, we know he can end the punch with one punch,” Donaire said. “He made the mistake and I got him with the uppercut. But I hurt my hand so I had to go with my right.”

That single right hand ended the fight with Donaire sounding disappointed that there was not more of a struggle.

“When you do engage Nonito is a surgeon. I can pick them apart and knock people out,” Donaire said.

Final punch stats by Compubox had Donaire landing 134 to Nishioka's 49.

Fight of the Year?

More often than not, expected slugfests fail to materialize. But not this time between Rios (31-0-1, 22 KOs) and Alvarado (33-1, 23 KOs). Fans got what they expected in brutal fashion.

Let the slugfest begin as both Alvarado and Rios unleashed the big bombs in round one. Very few feeling out punches with these guys as they fired their best immediately.

Alvarado used his speed to fire off some jabs and combinations to win the first two minutes of the second round. But Rios rallied with his own bombs including two left hooks that rocked Alvarado a bit at the end of the round.

“He shook me up a little bit,” said Alvarado.

Body shots aplenty by Rios in the third round. But the Oxnard fighter ran into a right hand by Alvarado.

Alvarado decided to use more defense and slipped punches while delivering some hellish left uppercuts and left hooks to Rios' head in round four. He looked like he was beginning to warm up.

“I was still warming up in there,” Alvarado said.

Round five started with Alvarado pummeling Rios with jabs and a five punch combination. Then Rios erupted with his own salvo and both traded blows till the bell.

“I'm a warrior. I go forward. He got me a little stunned but I didn't show it and continued going on,” said Rios about receiving some of Alvarado's big blows.

The sixth round saw Alvarado splatter blood from Rios' mouth with a left uppercut but Rios rallied to win the round with a right hand that stunned Alvarado. It was a precursor of what was to come.

“I knew he had that style. It was hard to get him with my jab,” said Rios about working on the overhand right. “I practiced it over and over in the gym.”

Rios found Alvarado's weakness in round seven with several overhand rights that seemed to be out of the Colorado fighter's vision. After three rights snapped Alvarado's head another caught him on the jaw and sent him reeling along the ropes with his gloves down. Rios pursued with the referee looking closely and landed some more right hands that forced Alvarado to seek cover along the ropes. Suddenly, referee Pat Russell decided Alvarado had enough and stopped the fight at 1:57 of the round to give Rios the technical knockout win.

“I was ready for it. I thought it would go a little longer. I handled it,” said Rios. “It took a little longer to get him out of there. I have power. I carried it up.”

Alvarado was still slightly miffed at the stoppage.

“I was surprised about it,” said Alvarado about the stoppage though he never hit the canvas. “I'm still a warrior.”

Rios agreed and welcomes a second fight if the fans want it.

Other bouts

Highly touted Jose Benavidez (17-0, 13 KOs) survived a tumultuous last round to beat Mexico's Pavel Miranda (19-8-1, 10 KOs) by unanimous decision after eight rounds of a junior welterweight fight. For seven rounds Benavidez used his ramrod jab and precise combinations to rack up rounds against Tijuana's Miranda. Then, a left hook staggered Benavidez in the last round during an exchange and the Phoenix boxer held and clutched his opponent to survive the last round. All three judges scored it 79-73 for Benavidez.

Riverside's Saul “Kid Dynamite” Rodriguez (6-0-1, 5 KOs) was maybe 10 seconds from ending the night for Mexico's Cesar Garcia (6-12-2) who staggered back to his corner at the end of round two. But because of two severe cuts alongside both eyes of Garcia, the referee Pat Russell deemed both cuts came from accidental head butts. The fight was ruled a technical draw because the fight needed to go to four rounds before it could go to the judges' score cards according to California prizefighting rules.

A war between Southern California neighborhood gyms finally took place between Garden Grove's Jose “El Gato” Roman (14-0-1, 11 KOs) and Oxnard's Javier “Pelos” Garcia (8-2-2, 7 KOs). But the winner was not discovered when a cut suffered by Garcia in round three resulted in the referee stopping the fight after the second round. According to CA rules the fight must go four rounds to go to a decision. The fight ended in a technical decision draw.

The first two rounds saw brutal exchanges between the two warring boxers. Before the fight words and accusations flowed freely between the two camps. In the first round a double left hook to the body and head floored Roman. He beat the count. In the second round, a left hook staggered Garcia and that was followed by a pinpoint right cross through the gloves by Roman. Down went Garcia who held his opponent tightly to survive. Round three was not decisive for either fighter but Garcia's face bore blood streaming down from his left eye and the fight was stopped by referee Pat Russell.

Miami's Ronald Ellis (4-0, 3 KOs) out boxed Denver's Katrell Straus (2-3) after four rounds of a super middleweight bout. Ellis landed continually against the southpaw Straus but was unable to hurt the Denver fighter. All three judges scored it 40-36 for Ellis who trains under Oxnard's Robert Garcia.

Chicago's Trevor McCumby (7-0, 7 KOs) blew right by Mexico's Eliseo Durazo (4-4-1) in one round. A left hook sent Durazo flying across the ring and into the ropes for a knockdown. Then a couple of one-twos sent him through the ropes dangling and the referee ended the fight at 1:40 of the round for a knockout win for light heavyweight McCumby.

Comment on this article

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

David A. Avila

TSS Salutes Thomas Hauser and his Bernie Award Cohorts

Published

2 days ago

April 16, 2025

TSS Press

TSS-Salutes-Thomas-Hauser-and-his-Bernie-Award-Cohorts

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.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

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.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis Wins Welterweight Showdown in Atlantic City

Published

5 days ago

April 12, 2025

David A. Avila

Jaron-'Boots'-Ennis-Wins-Welterweight-Showdown-in-Atlantic-City

In the showdown between undefeated welterweight champions Jaron “Boots Ennis walked away with the victory by technical knockout over Eamantis Stanionis and the WBA and IBF titles on Saturday.

No doubt. Ennis was the superior fighter.

“He’s a great fighter. He’s a good guy,” said Ennis.

Philadelphia’s Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs) faced Lithuania’s Stanionis (15-1, 10 KOs) at demonstrated an overpowering southpaw and orthodox attack in front of a sold-out crowd at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

It might have been confusing but whether he was in a southpaw stance or not Ennis busted the body with power shots and jabbed away in a withering pace in the first two rounds.

Stanionis looked surprised when his counter shots seemed impotent.

In the third round the Lithuanian fighter who trains at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, began using a rocket jab to gain some semblance of control. Then he launched lead rights to the jaw of Ennis. Though Stanionis connected solidly, the Philly fighter was still standing and seemingly unfazed by the blows.

That was a bad sign for Stanionis.

Ennis returned to his lightning jabs and blows to the body and Stanionis continued his marauding style like a Sherman Tank looking to eventually run over his foe. He just couldn’t muster enough firepower.

In the fifth round Stanionis opened up with a powerful body attack and seemed to have Ennis in retreat. But the Philadelphia fighter opened up with a speedy combination that ended with blood dripping from the nose of Stanionis.

It was not looking optimistic for the Lithuanian fighter who had never lost.

Stanionis opened up the sixth round with a three-punch combination and Ennis met him with a combination of his own. Stanionis was suddenly in retreat and Ennis chased him like a leopard pouncing on prey. A lightning five-punch combination that included four consecutive uppercuts delivered Stanionis to the floor for the count. He got up and survived the rest of the round.

After returning shakily to his corner, the trainer whispered to him and then told the referee that they had surrendered.

Ennis jumped in happiness and now holds the WBA and IBF welterweight titles.

“I felt like I was getting in my groove. I had a dream I got a stoppage just like this,” said Ennis.

Stanionis looked like he could continue, but perhaps it was a wise move by his trainer. The Lithuanian fighter’s wife is expecting their first child at any moment.

Meanwhile, Ennis finally proved the expectations of greatness by experts. It was a thorough display of superiority over a very good champion.

“The biggest part was being myself and having a live body in front of me,” said Ennis. “I’m just getting started.”

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn was jubilant over the performance of the Philadelphia fighter.

“What a wonderful humble man. This is one of the finest fighters today. By far the best fighter in the division,” said Hearn. “You are witnessing true greatness.”

Other Bouts

Former featherweight world champion Raymond Ford (17-1-1, 8 KOs) showed that moving up in weight would not be a problem even against the rugged and taller Thomas Mattice (22-5-1, 17 KOs) in winning by a convincing unanimous decision.

The quicksilver southpaw Ford ravaged Mattice in the first round then basically cruised the remaining nine rounds like a jackhammer set on automatic. Four-punch combinations pummeled Mattice but never put him down.

“He was a smart veteran. He could take a hit,” said Ford.

Still, there was no doubt on who won the super featherweight contest. After 10 rounds all three judges gave Ford every round and scored it 100-90 for the New Jersey fighter who formerly held the WBA featherweight title which was wrested from him by Nick Ball.

Shakhram Giyasov (17-0, 10 KOs) made good on a promise to his departed daughter by knocking out Argentina’s Franco Ocampo (17-3, 8 KOs) in their welterweight battle.

Giyasov floored Ocampo in the first round with an overhand right but the Argentine fighter was able to recover and fight on for several more rounds.

In the fourth frame, Giyasov launched a lead right to the liver and collapsed Ocampo with the body shot for the count of 10 at 1:57 of the fourth round.

“I had a very hard camp because I lost my daughter,” Giyasov explained. “I promised I would be world champion.”

In his second pro fight Omari Jones (2-0) needed only seconds to disable William Jackson (13-6-2) with a counter right to the body for a knockout win. The former Olympic medalist was looking for rounds but reacted to his opponent’s actions.

“He was a veteran he came out strong,” said Jones who won a bronze medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics. “But I just stayed tight and I looked for the shot and I landed it.”

After a feint, Jackson attacked and was countered by a right to the rib cage and down he went for the count at 1:40 of the first round in the welterweight contest.

Photo credit: Matchroom

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!