EXCLUSIVE: Q n A With New NYSAC Exec Director David Berlin

Published

11 years ago

May 17, 2014

The New York State Athletic Commission has a new staffer in the mix, with the hiring of attorney David Berlin by Governor Andrew Cuomo as executive director. The Governor announced the appointment of the attorney, who will be responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the commission, on March 26.

The NYSAC has been under a microscope a bit, following the Nov. 2, 2013 bout pitting MikePerez against Magomed Abdusalamov at Madison Square Garden.

Abdusalamov, a Russian heavyweight and Florida resident, went back and forth with Perez for ten rounds, and was not long after the rumble taken to a local hospital, where he underwent brain surgery. He is currently in a rehab facility, working on regaining his faculties. (UPDATE, MONDAY MAY 19: I spoke to Mago’s cousin, Aminulla Suleymanov. He told the fighter has made some progress recently, maybe not as much as the family would hope, but they are all holding it together. “Mago’s parents are here,” he reported. “Thanks for the interest!” Good news, Mago can now say peoples’ names, and eat–he likes yogurt and ice cream–using his own left arm. Mago does have some use of his right arm, as well.)

A commission source not authorized to speak on the record informed me that a search for an executive director was in the works as much as six months before the Abdusalamov situation. So, the source told me, any inference that Berlin, age 50, was hired in response to that occurrence, and a pending suit lodged by the Abdusalamov family, which targets the commission for alleged procedural errors, is incorrect. I touched base with Berlin, who joins chairwoman Melvina Lathan, and commissioners Edwin Torres and John Signorile, and fired some queries at him to get a better sense of who he is, and what he sees is his mission.

Woods Q) For those unfamiliar with you, and your background, could you offer a short synopsis, and include how your history will make your tenure successful?

??Berlin A) I used to watch the fights with my father when I was a kid – that’s when boxing was televised on ABC and NBC on Saturday afternoons – but I really became hooked when my older brother Adam took me to my first live fights at the Felt Forum, which was the smaller venue inside Madison Square Garden. I was 15 years old and was visiting Adam, who was 18 and spending a year in New York City after high school. I don’t remember who fought but I remember the atmosphere and I remember feeling how different it was from watching on TV and how much more real. It was brutal but also beautiful, and I was attracted to it because it was so basic, so elemental, so stripped down. That was the beginning of my love for the sport, and my passion has continued to this day. Adam and I were regulars at the Felt Forum when we were both in our 20s and both living in New York. I attended law school in New York, at NYU, and started working out at Gleason’s Gym at that time, and later, when I was already a lawyer, I had a few amateur fights and won a Golden Gloves tournament in Florida. When I started my own practice as a lawyer, I was fortunate to be able to combine my profession with my passion, and I became involved in the sport as a boxing attorney and manager. I’ve also had a chance to write about the sport and my ideas for making it better. What will drive me in my new position? It is simple. I care about the sport and I care about the boxers who ply their trade in the sweet science. I want what the boxers and the fans want. I want to see the fighter who wins the fight have his or her hand raised in victory through competent judging and refereeing. I want to see competitive fights. I want to see a healthy sport where promoters succeed, because that will allow fighters to fight and to grow as fighters and to earn a living.

Q) What fight was your first on the job, and how did it go? What was the most surprising lesson learned, if any??

A) My first fight as Executive Director took place on May 10 in Whitehall, New York. It is a small town on the Vermont border and is a good reminder that New York State is far more than just New York City. Greg Gross, who started promoting boxing last year, has a beautiful facility, the Whitehall Athletic Club, and put on a pro-am card with four professional bouts, including a very exciting and very close main event. Ronica Jeffrey, who came into the fight undefeated at 13-0, lost her perfect record in a split decision loss to Carla Torres, who fights out of Cleveland. This is the second time the two have fought, and given how competitive the fight was, it’s no surprise that each of them can claim a victory over the other. I’d love to see a rubber match come to New York.

Q) Are you a fan of boxing? I’m assuming so, based on your years working with fighters and in this milieu. What attracts you to the sports and its athletes? What function does boxing serve in society, in your view?

A) Part of my attraction is visceral. It is competition at its most basic. No bats or balls, no nets, no goals, just two men or women in the ring using their skill, speed, strength and intelligence, and having their will and mental fortitude tested at the highest levels. I’m attracted to that. I love its simplicity. I am also drawn to boxing because of the human element. Boxing is a sport of underdogs. I spent many years working as a public defender. I have also represented children with disabilities, children in need of special education services. And I remain actively involved with the Dr. Theodore A. Atlas Foundation, a not-for-profit that was founded and is led by Teddy Atlas. It’s an organization that runs youth programs and also helps individuals and families that have nowhere else to turn, people in difficult or even desperate situations who need help; and the foundation helps. I care about people in difficult situations. Boxing can be a way out for underdogs, for young people who might not have other places to turn, who might not have the support and structure in their lives that young people should have. Boxing can provide that support and structure. Young people find it in the gym. They find it in the guidance that they receive from their coaches, and in the discipline that boxing demands. They gain a confidence, a self-assuredness, a self- esteem that they didn’t have before, and that allows them to grow as individuals. Very few go on to make a living from boxing, but the vast majority become better people.

Q) What specifically will you bring to the table, and what do you want to achieve in this position?

A) I bring a knowledge of boxing and a care for the boxers. As a boxing lawyer, I represented boxers, trainers, managers and promoters. I negotiated boxing contracts and represented boxers and other people in the sport before athletic commissions, in arbitrations and in court. I traveled in connection with my work and had a chance to see how commissions function all over the globe. So I have a breadth of experience to draw from as I begin with the Commission. In terms of my personal qualities, I believe that I bring common sense, a basic competence, good judgment and a willingness to listen. There are a lot of people who care about the sport and who have ideas for making the sport better. I intend to listen to those ideas, to create an atmosphere that is open to ideas and is transparent. My hope is that I will be able to bring practical solutions to some of boxing’s problematic issues. And of course I will work to make certain that fighters, and the sport as a whole, are well protected.

Q) Can you give us a sense on how your hiring, and the activation of this new position, will change how the commission does its business? How will duties be parceled out? What changes do you foresee making, if any?

A) New York has decided to adopt a more traditional structure for the Athletic Commission. Similar to Nevada and California and Pennsylvania and Florida, an executive director will carry out the day-to-day duties involved in regulating and overseeing boxing, and will report to a board of Commissioners and carry out the policies set by the Commissioners.Q) Can you offer your view of boxing in New York, how healthy the sport is in NY and overall? A) New York is called the mecca of boxing, and I believe that with the growing number of shows in the state and the growing number of major shows at Madison Square Garden and the Barclays Center, the moniker is still appropriate. There were 52 shows held in New York State in 2013, and we will have held 19 by the end of May this year. In June we have Miguel Cotto-Sergio Martinez at the Garden and a week later Ruslan Provodnikov is fighting Chris Algieri at Barclays. Exciting fights are being made and taking place in this great state and that is very healthy for the sport.

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Michael Woods

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

Published

2 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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