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Alvarez vs. Lara: Either Way Cotto Wins

Slightly over a month ago newly crowned WBC middleweight title holder Miguel Cotto 39-4 (32) scored the signature win of his career at age 33 when he stopped former title holder Sergio Martinez 51-2-2 (28) in the 10th round. Cotto, behind Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, both of whom he’s fought and lost to, is probably the third most popular fighter currently in professional boxing. And of the three, I think Cotto is the easiest to like and root for. In a lot of ways Cotto is a throwback to an earlier era when the best faced each other and did whatever it took to make the matches with the top fighters at or near their weight.
In the midst of fighting for and winning titles between junior welterweight and middleweight, Cotto has faced the likes of Lovemore N’Dou, Randall Bailey, DeMarcus Corley, Paulie Malinaggi, Carlos Quintana, Zab Judah, Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito twice, Joshua Clottey, Manny Pacquiao, Yuri Foreman, Ricardo Mayorga, Floyd Mayweather, Austin Trout and Sergio Martinez. In four losses Cotto has only been stopped twice. Once when Antonio Margarito fought him with loaded gloves and the other time occurred when he fought Manny Pacquiao. And looking back over the five years since the Pacquiao fight, it just may be that Miguel had the misfortune of catching Pacquiao on his best night while being compromised fighting at the agreed upon 145 catch-weight limit for Cotto’s welterweight title.
His two decision losses came against Floyd Mayweather, who he put up a great fight against – and Austin Trout, on not one of his better nights. Yes, Mayweather is undefeated, but his record isn’t as deep as Cotto’s. Not to mention Cotto fought Mosley three years before Mayweather did and he faced Margarito who along with Paul Williams forced Mayweather into a short retirement and sabbatical. And here we are five years removed since Miguel fought Pacquiao and Mayweather still hasn’t even flirted with facing an obviously physically declining Pacquiao.
Yes, Cotto has done it all and in the process has become the first Puerto Rican boxer in history to capture a world title in four different weight division, something Felix Trinidad, Wilfredo Gomez, Carlos Ortiz and Wilfred Benitez never accomplished. Cotto has also been one of the rare, great fighters who have been able to adapt and change his fighting style to better match up with a particular opponent. We’ve seen Cotto thrive fighting as the attacker and aggressor and in other fights against bigger and stronger opponents, he’s shown the ability to step back and counter or move and fight in retreat. It’s remarkable what Miguel has accomplished in 43 fights since turning pro back in 2001.
At the moment Cotto is in a great position. He has something that Mayweather and Alvarez covet, the lineal middleweight title and he is in a power position over both. For starters, Cotto has no interest in proving he’s the best middleweight in the world. To do that he’d have to beat the alpha fighter in the division, Gennady Golovkin 29-0 (26). Actually, along with Golovkin there are two or three other middleweight contenders around who would be favored over Cotto. So we can forget about Miguel looking down the road in the hope of building a legacy as a middleweight. No, he’s won the legitimate middleweight title and that was the goal. At this stage of his career he’s about maximizing his net worth, and to do that he needs to fight a rematch with Mayweather or fight Alvarez if he gets by Erislandy Lara tonight.
If you remember, Cotto was going back and forth between fighting Martinez and Alvarez before eventually facing Martinez. Now look at him. He’s defeated Martinez and will most likely face Alvarez next… And if Alvarez were to lose, there’s still a terrific chance that he could fight Mayweather again, perhaps later this year. And please, don’t get twisted about who fights for Showtime or HBO or who is promoted by whom. A rematch between Mayweather with Cotto being the defending lineal middleweight champ would be huge. And the powers who have the means and control to get it done will somehow work it out – there’s too much money and fan interest for them not to.
It’s been awful quiet regarding Cotto since he upset Martinez last month. Everyone talks about how shrewd Bernard Hopkins and Mayweather are when it comes to managing their careers, but Cotto has taken great notes and he knows his value and he’s also cognizant that he has some nice bargaining chips on his side of the table. You better believe that Cotto will be the most interested observer this weekend who will be watching the Alvarez-Lara junior middleweight clash. Which in a way is bad for Lara because nobody has any interest in seeing him fight Cotto if he beats Alvarez. And knowing that makes you believe it’ll be that much tougher for Lara to win the decision over Alvarez if he really earns it.
Everyone who follows boxing knows, or should I say “should know” that each big fight is the next step in hopefully setting up the next bigger fight. A fight between the most popular and well known Mexican fighter in boxing, Alvarez, against the most popular and decorated Puerto Rican champ in boxing, Cotto, is a natural. And you better believe that both Cotto and Alvarez are aware of this and so are those who control the sport via the money, promotions and networks. It’s not a coincidence that it’s been leaked out the past couple weeks that Alvarez has a lot of trouble making the 154 pound junior middleweight limit. Although that’s been well known, it used to be denied. Just another layer of proof that Alvarez is probably done fighting at 154 win or lose against Lara. And we know who the perfect fighter would be for him to face in his middleweight debut for the lineal middleweight title, don’t we?
Tonight Cotto will root for Alvarez to beat Lara so he can meet him in his next fight. And if the desired result doesn’t come to fruition, he can taunt Mayweather and challenge him. Remember, Mayweather only fought Juan Manuel Marquez because Marquez challenged him, according to Floyd. The bottom line is, if Cotto fights Alvarez next, Cotto wins the jackpot. If Alvarez loses and he can get Mayweather again, Cotto wins an even bigger jackpot.
This time next week Cotto will be charging a lot to lose the title. Don’t take that the wrong way. Cotto will be going in there to beat Canelo, no question. And if he scored the upset, the Mayweather rematch is still plausible. But right now Cotto is fighting for money and to support his family. And he’s not delusional and knows he’s nearing the end of his career, that he’s really not a 160 pounder, and he’s going to be taking on a big, strong kid who takes a good shot. He’ll fight with everything he’s got because he never phones it in. Yes, Canelo will be too young and strong for him if they fight; however, Miguel will be highly paid for relinquishing the title.
Either way, Cotto wins.
Frank Lotierzo can be contacted at GlovedFist@Gmail.com
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Gabriela Fundora KOs Marilyn Badillo and Perez Upsets Conwell in Oceanside

It was just a numbers game for Gabriela Fundora and despite Mexico’s Marilyn Badillo’selusive tactics it took the champion one punch to end the fight and retain her undisputed flyweight world title by knockout on Saturday.
Will it be her last flyweight defense?
Though Fundora (16-0, 8 KOs) fired dozens of misses, a single punch found Badillo (19-1-1, 3 KOs) and ended her undefeated career and first attempt at a world title at the Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California.
Fundora, however, proves unbeatable at flyweight.
The champion entered the arena as the headliner for the Golden Boy Promotion show and stepped through the ropes with every physical advantage possible, including power.
Mexico’s Badillo was a midget compared to Fundora but proved to be as elusive as a butterfly in a menagerie for the first six rounds. As the six-inch taller Fundora connected on one punch for every dozen thrown, that single punch was a deadly reminder.
Badillo tried ducking low and slipping to the left while countering with slashing uppercuts, she found little success. She did find the body a solid target but the blows proved to be useless. And when Badillo clinched, that proved more erroneous as Fundora belted her rapidly during the tie-ups.
“She was kind of doing her ducking thing,” said Fundora describing Badillo’s defensive tactics. “I just put the pressure on. It was just like a train. We didn’t give her that break.”
The Mexican fighter tried valiantly with various maneuvers. None proved even slightly successful. Fundora remained poised and under control as she stalked the challenger.
In the seventh round Badillo seemed to take a stand and try to slug it out with Fundora. She quickly was lit up by rapid left crosses and down she went at 1:44 of the seventh round. The Mexican fighter’s corner wisely waved off the fight and referee Rudy Barragan stopped the fight and held the dazed Badillo upright.
Once again Fundora remained champion by knockout. The only question now is will she move up to super flyweight or bantamweight to challenge the bigger girls.
Perez Beats Conwell.
Mexico’s Jorge “Chino” Perez (33-4, 26 KOs) upset Charles Conwell (21-1, 15 KOs) to win by split decision after 12 rounds in their super welterweight showdown.
It was a match that paired two hard-hitting fighters whose ledgers brimmed with knockouts, but neither was able to score a knockdown against each other.
Neither fighter moved backward. It was full steam ahead with Conwell proving successful to the body and head with left hooks and Perez connecting with rights to the head and body. It was difficult to differentiate the winner.
Though Conwell seemed to be the superior defensive fighter and more accurate, two judges preferred Perez’s busier style. They gave the fight to Perez by 115-113 scores with the dissenter favoring Conwell by the same margin.
It was Conwell’s first pro loss. Maybe it will open doors for more opportunities.
Other Bouts
Tristan Kalkreuth (15-1) managed to pass a serious heat check by unanimous decision against former contender Felix Valera (24-8) after a 10-round back-and-forth heavyweight fight.
It was very close.
Kalkreuth is one of those fighters that possess all the physical tools including youth and size but never seems to be able to show it. Once again he edged past another foe but at least this time he faced an experienced fighter in Valera.
Valera had his moments especially in the middle of the 10-round fight but slowed down during the last three rounds.
One major asset for Kalkreuth was his chin. He got caught but still motored past the clever Valera. After 10 rounds two judges saw it 99-91 and one other judge 97-93 all for Kalkreuth.
Highly-rated prospect Ruslan Abdullaev (2-0) blasted past dangerous Jino Rodrigo (13- 5-2) in an eight round super lightweight fight. He nearly stopped the very tough Rodrigo in the last two rounds and won by unanimous decision.
Abdullaev is trained by Joel and Antonio Diaz in Indio.
Bakersfield prospect Joel Iriarte (7-0, 7 KOs) needed only 1:44 to knock out Puerto Rico’s Marcos Jimenez (25-12) in a welterweight bout.
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‘Krusher’ Kovalev Exits on a Winning Note: TKOs Artur Mann in his ‘Farewell Fight’

At his peak, former three-time world light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev ranked high on everyone’s pound-for-pound list. Now 42 years old – he turned 42 earlier this month – Kovalev has been largely inactive in recent years, but last night he returned to the ring in his hometown of Chelyabinsk, Russia, and rose to the occasion in what was billed as his farewell fight, stopping Artur Mann in the seventh frame.
Kovalev hit his peak during his first run as a world title-holder. He was 30-0-1 (26 KOs) entering first match with Andre Ward, a mark that included a 9-0 mark in world title fights. The only blemish on his record was a draw that could have been ruled a no-contest (journeyman Grover Young was unfit to continue after Kovalev knocked down in the second round what with was deemed an illegal rabbit punch). Among those nine wins were two stoppages of dangerous Haitian-Canadian campaigner Jean Pascal and a 12-round shutout over Bernard Hopkins.
Kovalev’s stature was not diminished by his loss to the undefeated Ward. All three judges had it 114-113, but the general feeling among the ringside press was that Sergey nicked it.
The rematch was also somewhat controversial. Referee Tony Weeks, who halted the match in the eighth stanza with Kovalev sitting on the lower strand of ropes, was accused of letting Ward get away with a series of low blows, including the first punch of a three-punch series of body shots that culminated in the stoppage. Sergey was wobbled by a punch to the head earlier in the round and was showing signs of fatigue, but he was still in the fight. Respected judge Steve Weisfeld had him up by three points through the completed rounds.
Sergey Kovalev was never the same after his second loss to Andre Ward, albeit he recaptured a piece of the 175-pound title twice, demolishing Vyacheslav Shabranskyy for the vacant WBO belt after Ward announced his retirement and then avenging a loss to Eleider Alvarez (TKO by 7) with a comprehensive win on points in their rematch.
Kovalev’s days as a title-holder ended on Nov. 2, 2019 when Canelo Alvarez, moving up two weight classes to pursue a title in a fourth weight division, stopped him in the 11th round, terminating what had been a relatively even fight with a hellacious left-right combination that left Krusher so discombobulated that a count was superfluous.
That fight went head-to-head with a UFC fight in New York City. DAZN, to their everlasting discredit, opted to delay the start of Canelo-Kovalev until the main event of the UFC fight was finished. The delay lasted more than an hour and Kovalev would say that he lost his psychological edge during the wait.
Kovalev had two fights in the cruiserweight class between his setback to Canelo and last night’s presumptive swan song. He outpointed Tervel Pulev in Los Angeles and lost a 10-round decision to unheralded Robin Sirwan Safar in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Artur Mann, a former world title challenger – he was stopped in three rounds by Mairis Briedis in 2021 when Briedis was recognized as the top cruiserweight in the world – was unexceptional, but the 34-year-old German, born in Kazakhstan, wasn’t chopped liver either, and Kovalev’s stoppage of him will redound well to the Russian when he becomes eligible for the Boxing Hall of Fame.
Krusher almost ended the fight in the second round. He knocked Mann down hard with a short left hand and seemingly scored another knockdown before the round was over (but it was ruled a slip). Mann barely survived the round.
In the next round, a punch left Mann with a bad cut on his right eyelid, but the German came to fight and rounds three, four and five were competitive.
Kovalev had a good sixth round although there were indications that he was tiring. But in the seventh he got a second wind and unleashed a right-left combination that rolled back the clock to the days when he was one of the sport’s most feared punchers. Mann went down hard and as he staggered to his feet, his corner signaled that the fight should be stopped and the referee complied. The official time was 0:49 of round seven. It was the 30th KO for Kovalev who advanced his record to 36-5-1.
Addendum: History informs us that Farewell Fights have a habit of becoming redundant, by which we mean that boxers often get the itch to fight again after calling it quits. Have we seen the last of Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev? We woudn’t bet on it.
The complete Kovalev-Mann fight card was live-streamed on the Boxing News youtube channel.
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 322: Super Welterweight Week in SoCal

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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