Mayweather-Maidana 2 LA Presser Report

Published

11 years ago

July 17, 2014

Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidana, and their teams, came together in Los Angeles for the final get together on their press tour to hype their rematch, which will occur on Sept. 13 at the MGM in Las Vegas. The combatants have exchanged unpleasantries in NY, DC, Chicago and San Antonio, and there had been some ire on display along the way. Was it legit or part of the show, some manufactured animus to build buzz? Only the principals knows for sure; but in LA on Thursday afternoon, Floyd was chill, Maidana was too, and only trainer Robert Garcia showed anything resembling a fighting spirit.

Team Mayweather exec Leonard Ellerbe, introing Floyd, said Money will be remembered as a smart fighter, and smart businessman. He brought “the best ever to do it, TBE, Money Mayweather” to the mic.

Mayweather chugged water, and then thanked the fans, after everyone else had their time at the mic. “You fans have been great,” he said, mentioning Chino’s and his own rooters. He called the MGM Grand “truly unbelievable,” and said he couldn’t ask for a better company to be with than Showtime and CBS. He gave a shotout to his mom, and then his dad, “one of the best trainers in the world.” He addressed his four children and said he would dedicate the fight to them. Next, while some Maidana fans did an ole chant, he thanked Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza for “taking boxing to another level.” He called Showtime “number one.” He also tipped his cap to Richard Schaefer, who called the “driving force” behind building Golden Boy. He said he was “behind him one hundred percent.” We heard Schaefer was present, interesting considering he’s fighting with Golden Boy boss Oscar De La Hoya, who is on vacation, his people say, which was pre-planned.

Then, Floyd referenced his grandma Bernice, and then LA fans, who clapped and cheered tepidly. He congratulated the Kings. He said the Lakers and Clippers will probably both have a great 2015. He brought up his kids again, and pointed to them as his future. Publicist Kelly Swanson got a shotout, and he said he gives her a hard time sometimes, but he truly thanks her. He said Mayweather Promotions wants to be like Golden Boy but it will take time, he said. He said he couldn’t have a better staff, and he said he can’t helped it that he’s a rock star, and has a big staff. He gave a shootout to an app he touts, not sure of the name. A hard-dedication and hard work-easy work chant got a tiny bit of traction.

Maidana, during his time at the mic, thanked the fans present and his fans in his native land, Argentina. He said that he would come to fight Sept. 13, not dance. “Floyd is a great fighter and excellent boxer, and undefeated, but I’d probably be undefeated if I had the judges on my side,” he said. The hitter said it’s fine if Floyd doesn’t let him use the oversized mitts, the props referred to earlier by trainer Robert Garcia.

After Maidana spoke, Ellerbe then said it’s about being classy and said the fighters fight, the other support crew don’t.

Ellerbe spoke first after the presser was delayed for almost an hour, after being introed by the hype-builder Tattoo. He gave a shootout to two LA Kings hockey players, who received Chino and Money jerseys, and then posed in The Money Team ballcaps. Ellerbe asked the crowd who they though would win, in this battle on a card tagged “Mayhem.”

“You the fans demanded (this rematch),” he declared. He said the event is being promoted by Mayweather Promotions, and CO-promoted by Golden Boy, a switch from the recent past, by the way. He then called up Stephen Espinoza to the mic. The Sho boxing boss called Sho PPV “the industry leader in pay per view.” He said their first fight was “unforgettable” and predicted the same will occur in the rematch.

All Access, he said, will premier in August, date TBA.

Ellerbe said the card will run in over 500 movie theaters across the country, in Fathom facilities. Then, he called senior VP of Golden Boy Eric Gomez to the mic. He said today is Maidana’s birthday, and he led the crowd in a singalong. A boxing glove cake came out and Floyd didn’t smash it in his face, sadly, losing a golden opportunity.

Gomez called up Maidana advisor Sebastian Contursi, who thanked Mayweather Promotions and Floyd, for being a man of his word, for giving Chino a rematch. Gomez next brought up Maidana trainer Robert Garcia, who thanked all for coming to the event. He made a gloves joke, and trotted out a huge pair of gloves, which he said Floyd agreed to wear. He then spoke about Floyd’s alleging that Chino is dirty. The game is rough, he said, and this next fight will be even rougher. He insulted Floyd, saying his fights put his own kids to sleep, as contrasting with his fight against Chico Corrales, which was seven rounds of action, and which his own kids enjoy. Garcia then offered to take a walk, and rumble with Floyd right then and there, because, “In LA, we know how to handle business.” Then, he said that Floyd’s ladies leave him when not on his payroll. He next referenced the bet, the offer for winner take all purse, and said Floyd wouldn’t take it. Floyd didn’t…Garcia laughed at Floyd’s bodyguards, for being there only because they are on payroll. It was a solid heel promo…

At the end, Mauro Ranallo congratulated Floyd for winning the Best Fighter ESPY on Wednesday night. The boxer said he was happy to win, and thanked his staff for helping him. He said he chose a rematch because the fans wanted it. It will be an action-packed fight, he said, and he can make adjustments during the fight. Ranallo referenced the gloves issue. Floyd said this is a “barbarian’s sport” but he believes in safety, so that’s why he cares about the gloves. And is the work getting hard to do? No, he says, he likes the work. He said he will be a lot sharper on Sept. 13.

Ranallo brought Maidana over, and Eric Gomez translated. Maidana was asked what he can do to beat Floyd definitively. The Argentine said that he’s happy he got the rematch, and that he doesn’t have to change much, he just needs to tweak a few things. He said he will fight again to use the type of gloves he wants, for the record. “I think in the first fight, he lost…this time I’m going to be ready for any style he brings,” he said.

That was it, gang. Not too much out of the ordinary. Garcia brought a B plus game to the table, while Floyd seemed to lack energy. Now, we count down to the bout…which really isn’t that far away, is it?

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

Published

14 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

3 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

4 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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