Again Mayweather Leaves An Opening For His Critics

Published

12 years ago

September 5, 2013

In nine days WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather 44-0 (26), the pound-for-pound best and most relevant fighter in boxing, will fight for the second time this year. That hasn’t happened since 2007. Mayweather’s opponent is the up and coming prodigy Saul “Canelo” Alvarez 42-0-1 (30). They are fighting as junior middleweights, which has a maximum weight limit of 154 pounds. Alvarez usually comes in right at the junior middleweight limit and has shown that he’s very strong and powerful fighting right at the top of the division’s maximum weight. In in his last six fights, five opponents have tasted the canvas versus Alvarez. The only exception was the very tough and durable (but well past his prime) Shane Mosley, who has never been stopped and only knocked off his feet by Vernon Forrest (2002) and Manny Pacquiao (2011).

For his fight with Mayweather, Alvarez must come in at 152 or less as stipulated by the agreement he consented to with Mayweather. And to those reading this, the two extra pounds that Alvarez has to drop for Mayweather doesn’t sound like much. However, if you ever boxed or wrestled competitively, you know that cutting two pounds is not just a physical drain, it’s also a mental/emotional one as well. Even if an athlete isn’t really weakened or compromised physically by having to drop a couple extra pounds, he often feels as if he is. And if he feels that he is, it doesn’t take as much as it would normally to get him off his game. And for Alvarez, that could come into play being that fighting Mayweather will test him more so in and out of the ring than he’s ever been tested before.

And there, folks, is what’s so frustrating about Mayweather, and what tends to cause older observers, those over 40, to look at his career and accomplishments with a slight bit of skepticism. Why can’t Floyd just fight Alvarez at 154 and finally agree to a big fight where there isn’t something about it that tilts the field in his favor? Alvarez didn’t have to come in under the 154 pound limit to fight the unbeaten Austin Trout in his last fight. He didn’t have to cut weight to fight Mosley, who has fought mostly as a welterweight since 2000. Why does there always have to be an angle in Floyd’s favor every time he agrees to a big fight?

Obviously, we know the answer, and that’s because Mayweather is a great manager. It’s sad, but I knew the second it was announced that Mayweather was going to meet Alvarez, there was no way it was going to be a straight up fight like the previous 43 of Alvarez’s career. Yet I knew when “Canelo” agreed to face Mosley, there was no chance in the world that there would be some sort of gimmick or catch attached to it. I would’ve bet my life that Mosley was going up to meet Alvarez at his best weight, and that’s exactly how it unfolded.

Just once could Mayweather meet a real live fighter and threat without something in the contract or the opponent (being too old or small or weakened by a weight stipulation) that compromises them? The answer is no, if it hasn’t happened by now, why would he start at age 36? Let’s face it, Alvarez is the only fighter in boxing weighing between 140 and 154 who has at least a punchers’ chance to beat him and again Floyd goes in with a meaningful edge because Alvarez kills himself to make 154, once the gas tank reads empty, it can’t go any lower. Those two extra pounds could be a factor, only we’ll never really know. What we do know for certain is if Mayweather wins, he will have defeated a version of Alvarez that may not have been what he was for his last two fights versus Mosley and Trout.

Mayweather has picked his spots in one way or another throughout his career and especially since fighting as a welterweight. Floyd got over big time on Juan Manuel Marquez in 2009, who is barely a full fledged junior welterweight as of this writing, with his weigh-in trickery at the last moment right before their fight. He fought Oscar De La Hoya, and barely won, when Oscar was a corpse. Shane Mosley was an empty package when he finally fought him seven years after the fight truly meant anything. When he fought Miguel Cotto, Miguel was clearly on the decline and it was Mayweather who was more natural fighting as a junior middleweight than Cotto, despite Cotto being the title holder. In his last fight against Robert Guerrero, at 147, everyone knew going in that Robert is as much a welterweight as Bernard Hopkins is a cruiserweight. As a lightweight, Mayweather had to fight Jose Luis Castillo twice, just to claim one victory over him in the ring.

To some hardcore fight guys, as terrific as Mayweather is, he’s not the Bible of boxing the way he projects himself as being. He came along when there were some other outstanding fighters at or near his weight. Yet, aside from the late Diego Corrales, he’s never met any of them when the fight would’ve confirmed his greatness beyond any shadow of a doubt. And if you’re 40 years of age or older, I’m sorry, but that counts against him because he saw to it that it unfolded that way. Every star fighter since Sugar Ray Robinson made a few fights during their career when the risk-reward was heavily in their favor. It’s just that none of them made a career out of it like Mayweather has. Which is why he’s so sensitive and defensive about it when it’s mentioned or written about him.

Looking back, would Mayweather have been at least a slight favorite over Paul Williams, Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley, Oscar De La Hoya and Miguel Cotto when he and they were at their peak and the bouts could’ve been made. I’d say yes, with the exception of Williams, who for some reason Mayweather was quiet about and actually retired when Paul was a contender/title holder and challenging Mayweather at 147 every time he had a microphone in front of his mouth.

It would be great to write about Mayweather and laud all that he’s exhibited and accomplished as a fighter without bringing up these inconvenient facts, but it can’t be done if you’re being intellectually honest. See, Floyd has continued to provide his critics and skeptics with legitimate fodder.

Sure, of all the fighters out there between 140-154, Canelo is the most dangerous for Mayweather. So credit Mayweather for fighting him while he’s getting better. But once again, making him come in at 152 tilts the field in his favor. If you don’t think Alvarez having to weigh-in at 152 or less will affect him, you’ve never been around world class fighters trying to drain down to make weight. Two pounds is a lot to a young and growing fighter like Alvarez. In addition to that, it’s psychological pressure on Canelo that he’s never had to deal with before, but oh, that’s right, he’s fighting Mayweather. So of course it can’t be just like every other fight not involving Mayweather, because it does involve him. Once again Mayweather leaves an opening for his critics.

Frank Lotierzo can be contacted at GlovedFist@Gmail.com

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Frank Lotierzo

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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Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis Wins Welterweight Showdown in Atlantic City

Published

6 days ago

April 12, 2025

David A. Avila

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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

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