Saturday Recap 7/16: From New Delhi to La Paz, the Scene Was Vibrant

Published

9 years ago

July 17, 2016

Saturday Recap 7/16 – The eyes of most U.S. boxing fans were riveted on the big show in Birmingham, Alabama, but elsewhere there were some important matches that commanded the attention of hard-core fans. We’ll start this overview by going to India where professional boxing is sprouting from soil that was previously barren. The fight between Vijender Singh and Kerry Hope was a historic event.

NEW DELHI

Vijender Singh, a full blown celebrity in the world’s second most populous country, won a 10-round unanimous decision over Kerry Hope in a bout sanctioned for something called the WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight Title. The scores (100-90 and 98-92 twice) were somewhat misleading as many of the rounds were close. The 34-year-old Hope, who was 23-7 going in, did his best work in rounds four and five, but Singh came back strong in the sixth. There were no knockdowns.

The undercard fighters on the 9-bout card were primarily Indian boxers new to the professional ranks. The packed house at Thyagaraj Stadium was studded with well-known people. The Vice President of India, Rahul Gandhi, was among those in attendance. Singh was greeted with a huge ovation when he entered the arena and the crowd erupted with joy when the decision was announced. Singh had won each of his six previous pro fights inside the distance. All of those bouts were in England.

CARDIFF, WALES

At the Ice Arena, WBO World lightweight champion Terry Flanagan pitched a shutout over 42-year-old South African Mzonke Fana, winning by scores of 120-106 on all three cards. Although Flanagan, now 31-0, scored knockdowns in Round 4 and Round 12, his performance could best be described as workmanlike.

After the bout it was revealed that Flanagan’s promoter Frank Warren has been having discussions with Bob Arum about matching Flanagan with Vasyl Lomachenko. The bout would take place in England, likely Manchester where the Mancunian southpaw would have the home field advantage.

In the co-main, 35-year-old Cuban defector Guillermo Rigondeaux, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and the lineal bantamweight champion of the world, won as expected over Liverpool’s James “Jazza” Dickens. The fight, stopped after the second round, was largely devoid of action save for the perfect left that Rigondeaux landed in the second round. It broke Dickens’ jaw, forcing his capitulation.

In another bout of note, Welshman Liam Williams successfully defended his British super welterweight title with an 11^th round stoppage of London’s Gary Corcoran. This figured to be the best fight on the card and it didn’t disappoint. Williams, now 15-0-1 (9), suffered a long cut over his left eye following a clash of heads in the fourth round, but continued to apply pressure throughout. One could sense that the end was near when Williams felled his adversary with a thunderous right hook. It was the first defeat for Corcoran, now 15-1, who was applauded for his valiant effort.

BERLIN, GERMANY

Italy’s Giovanni De Carolis (25-6, 12 KOs) retained his WBA World super middleweight title when his match with Berlin’s Tyron Zeuge was scored a draw, a decision that was somewhat controversial as De Carolis had seemingly done enough to win. The 24-year-old Zeuge, who is undefeated (now 18-0-1), was bidding to become the youngest German to win a world title, breaking the record held by Graciano Rocchigiani. DeCarolis won the WBA title in January when he upset Vincent Feigenbutz, avenging a prior defeat.

In the 12-round co-main, veteran Arthur Abraham rebounded from a poor showing in Las Vegas where he lost his WBO 168-pound belt to Gilberto Martinez with an eighth round stoppage of Tim Robin Lihaug, an obscure 23-year-old Norwegian. Abraham improved to 45-5 (30). Lihaug declined to 15-2.

In another bout of note, Germany’s Ramona Kuehne successfully defended her WBO World female 130-pound belt when Ikram Kerwat retired after the fifth round. The 36-year-old Kuehne, who advanced to 25-1 (10) hasn’t lost in six years. Kerwat, who is of Tunisian descent, had been a pro for only 18 months. She was undefeated in six bouts with five knockouts.

LA PAZ, MEXICO

The ‘interim” WBO 130-pound strap was on the line when Miguel Berchelt, 29-1 (26), from Merida, Yucatan, Mexico met Thailand’s Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo, 61-2 (41) In his most impressive showing to date, Berchelt knocked out the Thai invader in the fourth round. In his two prior defeats, Piriyapino was widely outpointed by Chris John and Vasyl Lomachenko, but he hadn’t previously been stopped. It’s time to add Berchelt’s name to the list of sharpshooters in what is arguably the strongest division in boxing.

Saturday Recap 7/16 – STATESIDE

At Detroit, heavyweight Andy Ruiz, on loan from the Top Rank stable, registered a third round TKO over 42-year-old Josh Gormley. The pudgy Ruiz, born in Mexico but raised across the border in Southern California’s Imperial Valley, improved to 28-0 with his 19^th knockout. Gormley, supposedly a distant relative of Jack Dempsey, returned to the ring last year in the Dominican Republic after an absence of more than 16 years and bowled over three no-hopers to earn this assignment. Once considered a promising prospect, this was likely his last hurrah. If he leaves the sport, he will depart with a record of 22-5. As for Ruiz, he is slated to fight again on Sept. 10 where he will oppose 40-year-old Franklin Lawrence. This will be his third straight bout against a fighter in his 40s. This is the template of a fighter being groomed for a rich payday as a sacrificial lamb.

At the Pioneer Event Center in Lancaster, CA, on UniMas as part of the “Solo Boxeo Tecate” series, the “A side” fighters won as expected. In the 8-round main event, Casey Ramos, now 23-0, fought with more ferocity than was his norm and stopped Chile’s Hardy Paredes (18-14) in the fifth frame. The 25-year-old Ramos, who had his first pro fight at age 17, is a different kind of cat. The undefeated lightweight attends St. Edwards University in his hometown of Austin, Texas, and aspires to a career in politics. He is on the ballot in the race for city council in the November election.

In another TV bout, LA’s Arnold Barboza, now 13-0, topped John David Charles in a 6-round welterweight affair. Barboza won by 60-54 in all three scorecards. On the off-TV portion of the card, welterweight Egidijus Kavaliauskas dispatched Jeremy Bryan in the third frame. Bryan’s corner threw in the towel after Kavaliauskas, now 14-0 (12 KOs), smashed him to the canvas.

Kavaliauskas, a Lithuanian who fights out of Oxnard, California, was the subject of a recent TSS profile. He has a big upside.

Saturday Recap 7/16

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

Published

6 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

2 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

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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