PATERSON'S PREVIEW: Ricky Burns-Terence Crawford

Published

11 years ago

March 1, 2014

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WBO lightweight champion, Ricky Burns (36-2-1, 11 KO's), coming off a hotly disputed 12 round draw in his last outing against Raymundo Beltran (scores: 115-112, 114-114, 113-115), will seek for gratification this Saturday (March 1) when he takes on unbeaten American, Terence Crawford (22-0, 16 KO's), at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) in Glasgow, Scotland.

Against Beltran (Sept, 2013), Burns, 30, suffered a broken jaw during the second round, was knocked to the canvas in the 8th, and subsequently visited a Glasgow hospital to have a titanium plate inserted into his jaw.

A terribly sore one for Burns when it came to his performance, the draw, oh, and the jaw.

After a hard night's work inside his office, the boxing ring, Burns usually goes home via McDonald's to feast upon a Big Mac. Not on this occasion. A trip to McDonald's would have to wait a month or two, as the healing of his snapped jaw meant that liquid through a straw would be the only intake of nourishment.

Back in 1962, after being smacked senseless by Sonny Liston, the fearsome heavyweight champion, Floyd Patterson's turbulent mind went into overdrive when decided to leave Comiskey Park, Chicago, disguised in a false beard and sunglasses – such was the embarrassment of his defeat that he delved himself hiding.

Make no mistake about it, the only hiding Burns has ever done would be when he took part in a game of Hide-and-Seek as a teenager in his hometown of Coatbridge.

Burns will stand during the introductions, within the confinement of the ring inside the SECC arena on Saturday night, with a certain slogan cemented upon his consciousness: “Losing is not an option.”

Crawford, 26, from Ohama, Nebraska, verbally pointed out his sureness of winning during Wednesday's final news conference.

He added: “It's definitely my time now, it's been a bit slower than I wanted to get here but I am here now and I am ready to become a world champion, no doubt about it.”

Burns certainly has the world title fight experience which Crawford lacks. He won his first world title against the highly respected Puerto Rican, Roman Martinez, back in 2010 at super-featherweight. And it was perhaps the best win of Burns' entire career. After being dropped by a straight Martinez right hand near the end of the first round, Burns showed his mettle. He sucked up everything Martinez threw at him, used his spearing jab, stood inside, triggered-off combinations, and pulled out the win down the stretch to win on points.

If Burns is going to send Crawford home a loser, well, he'll need a virtuoso, Martinez like, showing.

Burns' trainer, Billy Nelson, has been implementing aggression and volume into his pupil's arsenal. But at his best, Burns is a stand-up, long range, accurate, stand-off, point-scoring stylist. His jab is, without question, his main tool for success in the trade of fistic violence.

If you picture Ken Buchanan (rated among many historians as Scotland's greatest ever boxer) in the ring at work, a similar picture of Burns is presented.

While his nifty skills and moderate hitting power have usually equated to Burns going the the 12 round distance throughout his nine world title fights, his power shouldn't be underestimated. He stopped fellow Brits Nick Cook (TKO1) and Kevin Mitchell (TKO4).

Crawford, who'll be fighting outside America for the first time as a pro, doesn't seem too bothered with the hostile reception he'll receive from the 10,000 sold out home crowd. He arrived in Glasgow at the start of fight week with a posse of around a dozen in his entourage. Included within that circle is trainer, Kevin McIntyre.

He added: “I look at Ricky and I see what he is capable of and I look at Terence, and I see what Terence is capable of, and I believe Terence is way better and he is a couple of years from his peak. In two years, he will be like Floyd Mayweather”.

Crawford, a fighter possessing decent athleticism, a solid defense, and quick hands, sure knows the geography of the ring. Included in his amateur record: a silver medal at the 2006 National Golden Gloves, and a gold medal at the Pan American Games Box-Offs in 2007.

He'll, no doubt, take confidence from the fact that he's challenging for his first world title against a fighter with a somewhat leaky defense, and only average hitting power. But Burns' accomplishments and skills far exceed that of Crawford victim Breidis Prescott, easily beaten on points by Crawford early last year).

For Burns to successfully defend his title, he must avoid a full scale collision. Feeling his way into the contest and focusing on movement and defense would be a wise move on his behalf. No matter if Crawford is being aggressive or not, Burns must stick to an educated gameplan and blank out trying to simply please the crowd – keep his emotions in check. That means popping his jab and boxing the challenger, at least during the early stages.

If the fight goes by the halfway stage, with success going his way, of course, Burns can then start moving through the gears, testing Crawford's armoury with regular combinations and right hand leads. The inside uppercut of Burns just happens to be one of his infrequent weapons. He'll certainly need it when up-close and inside in the trenches.

Crawford needs to keep his cool throughout the biggest occasion of his life. He's an unknown commodity at world level, yes, but there comes a time when every fighter needs to step up to the plate and prove his worth.

Naturally an orthodox fighter, Crawford has the ability to switch to southpaw, easily. Trust me, that's a nice piece of equipment he's got up his sleeve going into this fight when it comes to befuddling Burns' rhythm. It's being drastically overlooked by many observers.

The weigh-in: Crawford 134.5lbs; Burns 134.25.

Rewind……

The last time an African-American came to Scotland to challenge for a world lightweight title was away back in July 1980. His name was Howard Davis. He lost on points to Jim Watt for the WBC title at Ibrox Park, Glasgow. Davis was a fast and slick stylist, a bit like Terence Crawford.

Davis' amateur pedigree was as impressive as you could possibly get – his overall record was 125-5. He won a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics as a lightweight. He also won the revered Val Barkey trophy (the award for the best pound for pound boxer at the Olympics) at the games as well, beating boxers like Sugar Ray Leonard and Michael Spinks.

As a professional, Davis never won a world title.

Can Crawford succeed in Scotland where Davis failed?

Robbi Paterson is a feature writer/analyst who has contributed to various boxing websites. He can be reached at Oscar_no1@hotmail.com

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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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Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis Wins Welterweight Showdown in Atlantic City

Published

5 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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