The Charlo Twins Are Heading Down Different Paths to Ring Renown

Published

6 years ago

June 21, 2019

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Throughout recorded history, mankind’s deep thinkers have always been fascinated by the living, breathing copies of one another that are identical twins. Psychologists have written scholarly books about their many shared traits, and paranormal researchers can cite literally thousands of examples of identicals that claim to know what their mirror image is thinking or feeling at a given moment.

All of which makes boxing’s Charlo twins, 29-year-olds Jermell and Jermall, such interesting case studies for probers of the human mind as well as fight fans. Seemingly separated only by one vowel in their first names, Jermell (31-1, 15 KOs), who is one minute younger, again appears only slightly earlier than Jermall (28-0, 21 KOs) when he takes on Jorge Cota (28-3, 25 KOs) in the PBC on Fox main event Sunday night from Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay. Six nights later, on June 29, Jermall defends his WBC interim middleweight championship against Brandon Adams (21-2, 13 KOs) in the Showtime-televised marquee bout from the NRG Arena in the twins’ hometown of Houston.

But while those ring appearances come less than a week apart, that’s still a wider gap than their most recent bouts, which came on Dec. 22 of last year, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Again fighting on the same card, as they occasionally have during their dual ascents to the borders of legitimate stardom, the matter of top billing that night was decided by a coin flip. Jermall won and thus was accorded the privilege of going on last, the slot usually reserved for the main event, while Jermell, the WBC super welterweight champ, served as his twin’s lead-in with a title defense against Tony Harrison.

This time, however, the Charlos did not enjoy their familiar success in tandem. Although Jermall retained his WBC interim middleweight championship with a wide unanimous decision over Matt Korobov, his mood at the postfight press conference was noticeably dampened as he sat alongside Jermell, who had been dethroned by Harrison on a close unanimous decision that more than a few observers thought might have gone the other way.

“There’s no way that (Harrison) won that fight,” Jermell said as he struggled to contain his emotions. “I don’t understand how they came up with those scores (116-112 and 115-113, twice). I didn’t just lose. I was robbed.”

Sunday’s opponent for Jermell was again to have been Harrison in the type of grudge match that always makes for compelling TV. But Harrison was obliged to withdraw when he injured his right ankle in training, opening the door for Cota to come in as a late replacement.

What the events of Dec. 22, 2018, did, maybe more than ever, was illustrate that the Charlos – who always will be as close as any boxing brothers have ever been, even closer than Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, who look like twins although they aren’t and who at one time simultaneously held alphabet versions of the heavyweight championship – are traveling slightly different paths toward the same goal.

The variations are as stark and noticeable as their tattoos (Jermall has the well-inked chest while Jermell’s tats are more concentrated on his arms and shoulders), and as subtle as the stylistic modifications adopted by Jermell when he switched several years ago from veteran trainer Ronnie Shields, who still works with Jermall in the Houston area, to Dallas-based Derrick James.

And although both were world-rated 154-pounders at one time, Jermell has elected to remain a super welterweight while Jermall now campaigns as a full-fledged middleweight, eliminating any notion that the twins might one day have to fight one another, just as the Klitschkos vowed that they never would square off in a unification showdown.

But times and circumstances can change, even for identical twins who share not only the same genetic makeup, but often the same home environments, friends, clothes and, of course, secrets.

“I think our being twins has had a beneficial effect on both of us because of marketability,” Jermell said in 2016. “It’s one of the reasons we’ve been pushed the way we’ve been pushed. I think we always had it in our minds that someday it might turn into a business asset. We always got more attention because we’re twins. It was fun. We slept in the same bedroom all the way through high school.

“But, really, we are different. We like different cars, different kinds of music. I think the time has come for each of us to be recognized for our individual accomplishments.”

James, The Sweet Science’s 2017 Trainer of the Year who also is the chief second for IBF welterweight champ Errol Spence Jr., said it was inevitable that the twins would make the choice, as all twins eventually do, to stake out something that for each is his and his alone.

“Jermell breaking away, he kind of told me why,” said James, who would not elaborate. “Jermell and Jermall are always going to be extremely close, but they’re each becoming their own man. That doesn’t mean they’re totally splitting apart or doing fewer things together. I just think they’re trying to establish their own individuality within the dynamic of being identical twins.”

For Jermell, the goal in the near-future is to meet and defeat Harrison, thus setting right the injustice he continues to believe that was perpetrated upon him a half-year ago in Brooklyn. He said that in the moments after the 12^th and final round had concluded and before the scorecards were read, Harrison whispered words of congratulations to him, an admission on the part of the Detroit fighter that he had been beaten. Harrison insists he said no such thing.

“He told me, `You did it. I can see why you’re a real champ,’” Jermell revealed at the time.

Jermell now insists he is fully focused on Cota, as it should be. Settling up with Harrison can stay on the back burner a while longer.

“I want to get him out of there,” Jermell said of his plans for Harrison’s stand-in. “This is a fight to show that I’m back and never really left. It was a quick change to Cota, but I’m always ready for anybody.”

For his part, Cota, a hard-punching Mexican, said he is inspired by the huge upset Mexican-American Andy Ruiz Jr. recently sprang in lifting Anthony Joshua’s IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight title belts. He also disputes Jermell’s assertion that he was shafted in the fight against Harrison.

“For me, Harrison won that fight,” Cota said. “He threw better punches and landed more. A lot of people thought Jermell had won, but I saw it for Harrison.

“I am a demon in that ring. When other guys are in there, my punches scare them. Jermell is a good boxer, but I think that when he’s under pressure he doesn’t know what to do. I’m going to put pressure on him from the first bell and go right through him.”

In the back-and-forth jockeying to be recognized as the better of the boxing Charlos, it would seem that Jermall, with his interim WBC title and undefeated record, presently holds the upper hand. Although he calls Adams a “game opponent,” he is energized by fighting before a supportive home crowd in Houston and believes a victory, especially if it comes in emphatic fashion, could put him in position for a big-money, high-visibility shot at WBC/WBA/IBF ruler Canelo Alvarez. Like Jermell, he said he will not make the mistake of taking lightly the guy who’ll be in the other corner on June 23.

“I’m training like I’m training for Canelo,” Jermall stressed. “Brandon Adams is going to be on his A-game, but if he makes a wrong move it’s going to be a short night for him. The division is mine as long as I continue to do what I’m doing. I’m in a good place. I’m a force to be reckoned with in the 160-pound division.”

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

Published

11 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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