Oscar and Canelo Announce Themselves As Present and Future Leaders in the Fight Game

Published

11 years ago

September 30, 2014

We fightwriters sometimes err in focusing too much on the business side of things, I think. While we are focusing on the power plays, and rifts and cold wars and thaws and suits and behind the scenes machinations, the majestic acts of the supremely talented and yes, courageous, athletes sometimes get under-reported.

But other times, as, I think, now, we get it right when we’re training our eyes, ears and keyboards on the business side of the red-light district of the sports world. Here in our favorite section of real-estate, we find such a delightful and sometimes infuriating and repugnant batch of characters as we would in any red light district. This melange of the motley and magnificent lends itself to be studied, dissected, discussed more so than is so in any other sporting realm.

That focus on the behind the scenes business, and the characters involved was on my mind during the intimate media luncheon held on the 14th floor of the HBO offices on 42nd St. in NYC, on Tuesday. Specifically, my thoughts were running to not as much the fighter who was there holding court, answering queries from the informed and aggressive media corps present, Canelo Alvarez, but the promoter who’d walked arm in arm with him from Showtime, where he’d been doing his thing for his last five fights, Oscar De La Hoya.

De La Hoya, I told you a few times since he’d exited rehab, and got back in the game which had long been his life, maybe too much so, maybe in a way that distracted him from other matters, of family, of emotional wellness, is not to be underestimated. Don’t assume, I wrote a few times, that because he’s admitted to various indiscretions, that some of the same attributes that served him well as a Hall of Fame fighter, a champion in six weight classes, a fighter who gravitated toward the sternest challenges, and not toward the most exploitable loopholes, that De La Hoya won’t be able to right his personal ship.

It looked to me like he was a proud captain of that vessel, as he sat next to Alvarez (44-1-1, with 31 KOs), the 24-year-old Mexican who is positioning himself as the present and future leader of the sport, after signing a new deal with HBO, terms not disclosed.

Right away, I put it to Oscar, before we got to Alvarez, who will glove up on HBO regular Dec. 6, likely against Joshua Clottey. What does this deal signify? Is it intended as an alert, a strong signal to Bob, to Floyd, to Richard, to Al, whoever…I’m a player, I’m THE player, I’m in the top slot as promoter as I was as a fighter?

The 42-in-February- year-old drew guffaws when he admitted that he decided to never fight again, just that very morning, after he ripped off a shirt, flexed in the mirror, and the mirror told him no mas. He said that the promotional sphere was to be his next chapter, and answered with savvy that people frankly haven’t been giving him credit for having.

“Just like the focus was always at hand when my job was fighting, if I was fighting Fernando Vargas, I wasn’t focusing on my next fight, who I lost or beat prior to that fight, I was focusing on the job at hand. With Canelo, I kept my eye on the ball, on the prize, the job at hand. What the fighter was asking me, what the best move would be for the future of Canelo Alvarez. I wasn’t listening to third parties, I wasn’t paying attention to anything that was going on outside of Canelo. Which made it easier for me to take care of business. I didn’t do it for no other reason but to look out for his best interest.”

Smart take. Do I fully believe the guy? No. He’s a competitor. Beyond that smile, toothy, A-grade on its best day, he can and has and did act in a manner which, I think, can hang with a Bob Arum, or a Don King. He told us that, and surprised many folks, when he sifted offers, and spurned the one from Stephen Espinoza, and took the one from KenHershman. How that plays out, we shall see, in the next few months, and into next year, when more players, the Roc Nations, and the Haymon Boxing’s seek to deepen their imprint on the fight game.

Oscar, smartly planting seeds and watering them, came back to that POV, that he’s there to serve the fighters, get the best deals for them, and nothing else. “Fighters don’t work for me, I work for the fighter,” he said.

Being a good fightwriter, hell, being a good writer in lots of areas, it helps if you can read between the lines. Is it possible that a message is being sent right there, a presentation of compare and contrast, was being thrown out there? Absolutely…pray tell, can you think of anyone who, conversely, people postulate might be working to their own benefit, and not fashioning deals which serve the best long term interests of people who they advise? I bet you can; but savvy Oscar was not going to burst a relationship bubble by going there. Yes, he can indeed get er done in the smoke filled back-rooms, as well as center ring, or so it seems.

Alvarez too got peppered. He will likely be fighting Joshua Clottey, a not untalented but infrequently active boxer, on Dec. 6. The Mexican too was in message mode; Oscar spoke up for him and declared him the current leader and the future driver of the sport, and Canelo concurred. No, he didn’t mean to pick a fight with Floyd Mayweather when he said he would be the man to own those all-important dates for Mexican boxers, Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day. No offense to Floyd, he implied, but bottom line…those dates are mine. We can play chicken if you want, he seemed to say, but I ain’t budging.

A fight with Miguel Cotto in maybe May seems like a nice option, and oh yes, in the not too distant future, a crack at middleweight star Gennady Golovkin is on his to do list, maybe in a year, or two.

Maybe my main takeaway on Alvarez was: he doesn’t see himself as a second fiddle guy. This guy plays lead guitar, he’s got the groupies who buy the PPVs, and he ain’t no warmup act.

Indeed, he did want to separate himself from the pack, give himself room to breathe and grow away from Mayweather, he said. “My goal in boxing is to be number one,” Alvarez said.

Oscar, once again seeming to say it without saying it, as a smart politician does, as it leaves him wiggle room should events warrant, basically said that Canelo is Golden Boy’s number one focus, and no, I don’t think we see Golden Boy doing promoter work for a Mayweather fight in the near future.

And on the subject of Mayweather, Canelo gave his longest answer to any query when I asked him if he didn’t think he needed to beat the man, to be the man. Does he want to get another crack at Floyd, and beat him, so he can physically usurp him from his throne? “No,” he said, as GBP VP Eric Gomez translated. “That’s not important.” Floyd avoids risk to such a degree, and fights hard maybe ten percent of a round, that his fights are too boring, Canelo said. No need to engage in such a dreary waltz, he said.

Oscar again sent a signal, lol, which he says he didn’t send, when speaking about his ex pal Richard Schaefer. They had been in mediation talks, and it was progressing, the ex fighter said. “But we hit a wall,” he said. “We were making progress and then hit a wall.” Lawsuit against Schaefer is still in play. Message: I finish my fights…

Later, I gave Oscar another in to make a loud stamping sound. Does it look to him like Haymon Boxing is readying to become another sort of entity, one that will be in direct competition with Golden Boy, and the Roc Nations, and such. Oh, Oscar did a bit of Alpha Promoter Male posturing when he said he didn’t see Roc Nation as an entity to threaten a Golden Boy, as music is their thing, and boxing hasn’t been. No, the Cali-based dealmaker said, he isn’t thinking about what shape the Haymon squad may take in 2015, he’s just focused on making the most compelling bouts now. Again, it was the smart politician answer. Fully truthful? Impossible to say, but the one Hillary Clinton would have given…

After the peppering session, Oscar seemed jazzed. “I liked that,” he said, grinning widely, pointing at me, indicating that he liked parrying some solid launches. Message: he’s all in, this is not a job for him, he’s in his element. He said he’s readying a re-launch of his personal brand, and will be firming up many charitable endeavors moving forward.

My last read of the whole deal, Canelo to HBO, and him and Oscar at HBO: if he continues to work towards having the fights fans want get made, then I’m in step with Oscar. That’s what I want, I’m a fan first, who happens to write about this addictive sphere we all adore and loathe.

Your thoughts, my informed and passionate friends. Talk to me…

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Michael Woods

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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