Thoughts on why Wladimir is using the WBA Title to elude Anthony Joshua

Published

8 years ago

October 20, 2016

Elude Anthony Joshua – This time last week it looked certain that IBF heavyweight title holder Anthony Joshua 17-0 (17) was going to defend his title against former lineal champ Wladimir Klitschko 64-4 (53) on December 10th. But Klitschko went off in a different direction, spurning Joshua for a Dec. 10^th match with Lucas Browne in Hamburg, Germany. The reason for spurning Joshua, according to Klitschko, is that the WBA refused to sanction the bout and he wanted the bout to be for both titles. This doesn’t make sense because with Tyson Fury giving up the lineal belt, the bout with Joshua would have been for the real title.

Over the years I’ve been a defender of Wladimir when he was the subject of some pretty staunch criticism. I grew tired of most media and fans saying he was heartless and only thrived because the heavyweight division was so pedestrian. I retorted that nobody dominates for nearly a decade like Wladimir did without being a special fighter. As a challenger and title holder, Klitschko never ducked or side-stepped anyone who was considered a threat. Never have I questioned his constitution as a fighter, never.

Sadly, because the division which Wladimir ruled was so run-of-the-mill, he never had an opportunity to take part in a super fight. In all the years that he was on top, Klitschko never confronted another fighter his size with equal reach and equal or better skill than him. That was until the UK’s Anthony Joshua emerged. I don’t think it’s the slightest reach to assume that Joshua would’ve represented the most formidable foe Wladimir had ever shared a ring with. And that I believe has a lot to do with why Wladimir had a sudden change of heart and wouldn’t go through with fighting Joshua unless the WBA title was on the line (and even then I’m not sure).

Perhaps Wladimir doesn’t think he can win and is concerned about tarnishing his legacy. Think about this. For the better part of his title reign, boxing fans longed to see Wladimir, or his brother Vitali, matched against a fighter who they didn’t tower over, and who also brought something to the ring that they had to address….such as an abundance of size, power, skill or speed. However, the reality is that that fighter never showed up. This resulted in both Klitschko brothers fighting guys I often referred to as tweeners — meaning they didn’t do any one thing particularly well, and because of that they’d be at the mercy at whatever Wladimir or Vitali dictated they do during the bout. And more often than not, that’s how their bouts unfolded.

Unlike past greats Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes who, like Wladimir Klitschko, dominated for a long period of time, Klitschko never built up the cache of forgiveness if he had a bad night. Ever since Wladimir suffered his first defeat against Ross Purrity, during his second year as a pro, Wladimir has had doubters regarding just how good he really is. In 20 years as a professional fighter, with at least half of those years as a defending title holder, Wladimir never had that career defining signature bout — something that Joshua clearly would’ve represented to him, with the only problem being that he’s now 40 years old and on the decline whereas Joshua, at 27, is entering his prime.

Had Joshua and Klitschko met, neither would’ve held a physical advantage over the other. With that, the fight would’ve come down to who could impose his will and vast skill on the other. But it’s even more than that. Who between them will take the initiative to get off first and put the other on defense? I believe that Joshua would’ve been the one who fought with the greater sense of urgency from the onset. Anthony has complete belief in his power and that he can land it. He fights with the mindset that suggests that he fully believes if he can draw first blood, he’ll not allow his opponent any chance of return once he gets them in trouble and fighting to survive. Conversely, Klitschko enters the ring with shaky confidence and approaches his bouts with steep trepidation. And that’s the wrong sign to send a young-hungry Lion the likes of Anthony Joshua. There’s no doubt in my mind that Joshua knows down to his core that Wladimir wouldn’t come out and go right at him from the opening bell. Klitschko has never approached any fighter that way. Was it plausible to believe Wladimir would change his ways against a fighter his size with faster hands and fight-altering power in either hand? No, of course not.

Wladimir knows today that belts really mean nothing. Had he fought Joshua and defeated him, it would no doubt be the defining moment of his career. However, the risk would’ve been just as dramatic. Had Klitschko fought Joshua and was stopped in dramatic fashion, as I believe he would’ve been, he never could have recovered from that. The talk the next day in most boxing circles would go something like this…..”See, Klitschko was never that good to start with. He feasted on a bunch of no-hopers who lacked boxing skill or legitimate knockout power. The first time he fought a fighter his size with equal skill and faster hands, he was demolished. Joshua proved that Wladimir was a big fish in a small pond and only excelled because the division he dominated was devoid of good fighters.” And sadly, there is some merit to that point of view.

At this time Anthony Joshua firmly looks like the future of the heavyweight division. Even in Klitschko’s prime, Joshua would have been a bad matchup for him. Simply because Joshua can do everything that Wladimir could, only he can put his punches together even faster and more fluidly. In addition to that, Joshua doesn’t enter the ring with the trepidation that Wladimir has had since he lost to Puritty. Joshua fights with total confidence and doesn’t fear letting his hands go. Granted, there are some questions surrounding just how good Joshua’s chin is. He was really shook by Dillian Whyte a couple bouts back, and Whyte isn’t close to being the puncher that Wladimir Klitschko still is. The problem for Wladimir in fighting Joshua is that Joshua would have undoubtedly gone right after him and within seconds of the bout Klitschko would’ve been on the defense. Therefore Klitschko’s experience advantage and the unknown regarding Joshua’s chin would have never come into play.

Wladimir Klitschko is a very wealthy man. Sure, he would’ve earned more money fighting Joshua than he had in any other fight during his career. But the risk was too great when the money probably wouldn’t have changed his lifestyle. He lost an ugly fight to Tyson Fury in his last bout, and along with that went his title. However, he wasn’t beaten up or embarrassed. The chances of him saying that after fighting Joshua are not in his favor. And it is for that reason I believe Klitschko used the WBA title not being on the line as his means of getting around fighting Joshua.

The question now is whether he can defeat Lucas Browne and, if so, will he continue to fight. If he does, eventually fighting Joshua will be an issue. Only then Wladimir will be that much older and Joshua will be that much more experienced and confident.

Elude Anthony Joshua – / Frank Lotierzo can be contacted at GlovedFist@Gmail.com

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

Published

2 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

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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