Izzy Burgos, Inspirational Figure, Is Shot and Killed

Published

10 years ago

July 22, 2015

For a time, Izzadeen “Izzy” Burgos was one of boxing’s inspirational stories, a kid who dreamed of becoming a fighter despite the amputation of his left arm at the age of two. Despite his handicap, the then-12-year-old got the opportunity to fight at Philadelphia’s legendary Blue Horizon on June 24, 2005, overcoming an early knockdown at the hands of a two-armed opponent to make it to the final bell of a scheduled three-rounder. Burgos’ scrappiness moved many in the audience to tears.

Now Burgos is gone, at 21, the victim of an apparently intentional shooting Sunday night in the Feltonville section of Philadelphia. The young man was standing next to his father, Dennis, when he was shot in the face at point-blank range by the as-yet-unapprehended assailant. He was taken to Temple University Hospital where he was pronounced dead 2½ hours later, at 1:29 Monday morning.

But the tragic end of Izzy Burgos’ too-brief life might have been foreshadowed. Unable to be fitted with a comfortable prosthetic on the stump of the left arm that was surgically removed at the shoulder, Burgos – twice nominated for the Boxing Writers Association of America’s Courage in Overcoming Adversity Award – drifted away from boxing and into a life of petty and not-so-petty crime. He had a fairly extensive rap sheet, was incarcerated on several occasions, most recently for aggravated assault. He was released after doing time for that crime last September from Graterford State Correctional Institution, the same prison which lists former middleweight and light heavyweight Bernard Hopkins as an alumnus.

Joseph Santoliquito, now the president of the BWAA, was managing editor of The Ring magazine when he wrote about Burgos nearly 10 years ago. The story became something of a cause celebre, picked up by the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer and all the Philly television stations, as well as by The Ring and ESPN.com. There was even some talk about a possible book deal, with Santoliquito to serve as the author.

“But then things started to trickle back to me, and not good things, either,” Santoliquito told me after Burgos’ murder. “If I was going to do a feel-good story about a kid who had beaten the odds, there had to be a lot of positivity attached to it. There was a growing sense that that wasn’t the case.

“I really hadn’t spoken to Izzy in close to nine years, when he was still a kid. In my mind, I still prefer to picture him as that 12-year-old in the ring at the Blue Horizon. The kid he was fighting wasn’t pulling any punches, that was for sure. But Izzy got right up and fought back. They really went at it. Izzy – that Izzy – was a tough, determined boy.

“Did it sting me when I heard the news (that he was dead)? Yes. But I can’t say I was completely surprised. As I said, I heard some things that were disturbing. I hoped someone could get through to him in time to straighten him out. It’s like he was never given a chance, almost from birth, because of where he came from and what he was raised around. It’s a shame. The only moment he had to really shine was that night at the Blue Horizon.”

As a toddler, Izzy’s left arm was shattered beyond repair by a bullet from a high-powered rifle; his left lung was also punctured. His father claimed that Izzy had accidentally shot himself with the rifle, which seemed unlikely since the loaded weapon, carelessly placed under a bed in a home in which three children resided, was taller than he was. A jury wasn’t buying Dennis Burgos’ explanation of what had happened, and he was sentenced to eight to 20 years for recklessly endangering a child.

As little Izzy fought for his life, strangers appeared at his hospital room to extend to his family their prayers and best wishes for a speedy recovery. And the child did recover, although he faced a long convalescence and uncertain future.

Sports options are scarce for one-armed kids, but cruel putdowns aren’t when you grow up in a tough neighborhood.

“Sometimes people have told me I can’t do certain things,” Izzy said in October 2005. “That’s hard to take. Sometimes, I try (team) sports and other kids tell me I can’t play. They used to make fun of me. They never wanted to know anything about me and what I’ve been through. They don’t think I can play any sport because I have only one arm. I try to prove them wrong when I get the chance.”

That chance – and it was a long shot — was provided by a Philadelphia police officer, Edwin “Bo” Diaz, who ran a boxing program for children in a blighted section of North Philadelphia.

“We wanted to treat Izzy like any other kid and we taught him how to box with the mitts,” Diaz told Santoliquito at the time. “Izzy was well-accepted. He fell right into the pack of little kids and he performed better than most of them.”

But still … how do you risk putting a one-armed child in an actual bout? It was a conundrum that Diaz grappled with internally until he decided the boy deserved a chance to compete against another person, not just inanimate objects. With the help of Vernoca Michael, owner of the Blue Horizon, Diaz placed Izzy on the undercard of a pro show against another 12-year-old, Chris Delvalle, who had fought in several previous amateur bouts. There were no restrictions placed on Delvalle, who quickly floored Izzy. But Izzy fought back hard, winning over the crowd and a specially designed championship belt for himself.

“Izzy is a survivor,” Diaz said. “I know for a fact he taught himself how to ride a bicycle and he always had it in him that he could succeed at anything.”

He did not succeed at winning the BWAA’s first Courage in Overcoming Adversity Award; that went to Kassim Ouma, who was abducted as a child in his native Uganda and was forced to serve as a soldier with rebel forces before making his way to America, where he became the IBF super welterweight titlist and the subject of an acclaimed documentary about his against-all-odds life.

Izzy also was a finalist for the second BWAA Courage in Overcoming Adversity Award, but he lost out to someone a little better known than himself – Muhammad Ali. After that, as his brush with boxing receded into the past, he more or less faded from view, except with law enforcement officials who came to know him more for his transgressions on the street.

Interestingly, Izzy got close to his father, Dennis, after the older man was released from prison. When Izzy was shot, Dennis chased the shooter for a block or so before the man turned, fired at him, and ran off, police said.

“Everywhere he went, he made friends,” Izzy’s mother, Lisa, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “He had a good heart,” she continued, telling young kids “that the streets are not the way.”

Diaz, now retired from the Philadelphia Police Department, told the Philly Daily News Izzy’s story “was like a `Rocky’ movie. Izzy had this incredible will to live, and a tremendous punch. We called him the `Bionic Arm.’”

And now?

“It’s a sad story,” Diaz said. “I’ve been getting calls from guys who feel like they should have done more for him. But in the end, everyone’s responsible for themselves.”

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Bernard Fernandez

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

Published

14 hours ago

April 18, 2025

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-322-Super-Welter-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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TSS Salutes Thomas Hauser and his Bernie Award Cohorts

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2025

TSS Press

TSS-Salutes-Thomas-Hauser-and-his-Bernie-Award-Cohorts

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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