Three Punch Combo: Two Under the Radar Fights and Thoughts on Joshua – Ruiz

Published

6 years ago

June 26, 2019

THREE PUNCH COMBO — After what was in essence a bye week in the sport, the schedule ramps up again this weekend with several high-profile cards on major platforms. And as is usually the case in such busy weeks, a few very intriguing contests are flying severely under the radar.

On Friday, ESPN will televise a card from the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, CA headlined by the lightweight title fight between Richard Commey (28-2, 25 KO’s) and Raymundo Beltran (36-8-1, 22 KO’s). While I love this fight, the 154-pound co-feature between Carlos Adames (17-0, 14 KO’s) and Patrick Day (17-2-1, 6 KO’s) is no less intriguing.

Adames nicknamed Bronco Horse (El Caballo Bronco in Spanish), is an enigma. As far as talent goes, he has plenty of it. He’s very athletic with above average hand speed and heavy-handed power. There is also fluidity to his game that makes him stand out as a prospect. He seems to have star potential written all over him.

However, there is a major question mark on Adames. Though he oozes with talent, he often seems unmotivated. In his fight in January against Juan Ruiz, Adames looked asleep for the first two rounds allowing his opponent to do whatever he pleased. But in the round three, Adames looked like a different man and easily dispatched Ruiz. Thus far, these types of moments have been all too common in Adames’ career.

Day is a big step up in class for Adames. A classic boxer-puncher by trade, Day is quick on his feet and will certainly look to use his legs in this fight. He likes to work behind the jab and fire off combinations when in range with his quick hands. Though Day is not a huge puncher, he is sharp and accurate with his power shots. He will also be coming into this bout with a lot of confidence, having won his last six fights, several of which found him in the underdog role.

This fight is going to feature a nice contrast of styles. Adames will press forward as the aggressor while Day will look to use his legs to box from the outside. If Adames is motivated, he could certainly put on a scintillating performance, but if he is off his game, Day could be the one who puts on a show and vaults into contention in a deep 154- pound division.

Under The Radar Fight, Part Two

Showtime will televise a card on Saturday from the NRG Arena in Houston, TX that will be headlined by a middleweight contest between Jermall Charlo (28-0, 21 KO’s) and Brandon Adams (21-2, 13 KO’s) with an interim title belt at stake. While this bout is drawing most of the headlines, the televised undercard features a very intriguing featherweight crossroads fight between Eduardo Ramirez (22-1-3, 9 KO’s) and Claudio Marrero (23-3, 17 KO’s) that should provide plenty of fireworks.

Ramirez is just a solid professional fighter. He is not the most athletic, doesn’t possess the quickest hands, and doesn’t have much power, but he is skilled enough to compete at a certain level, often times making very good fights. Ramirez is a southpaw and does fight as a classic boxer-puncher using movement working behind the right jab. He also likes to counter and has shown in the past to be very effective as a counterpuncher. However, he will hold his hands low, presumably looking to get his opposition to lead to set up counters, but in the process can be easy to hit. And he has shown a willingness to get into exchanges which is not always the best idea for him although it does make for entertaining fights.

Marrero, also a southpaw, is an aggressive heavy-handed, volume puncher. At his best, he is pressing the attack from the opening bell throwing punches from all angles as he seeks to overwhelm his opponent. Marrero is not afraid to get into exchanges but unlike Ramirez carries thunderous power in both fists. Defensively, Marrero’s high work rate coupled with any sort of head movement often leaves him exposed to being countered. Essentially, he can be very easy to hit clean.

I love this match-up. It offers a nice contrast of styles between two solid fighters who are not afraid to move their hands as well as get into exchanges. And with both having serious flaws on defense, it figures to be the most action-packed fight of the weekend.

This is going to be fun to watch.

Joshua-Ruiz: Putting The Rumors to Bed

What is the correct explanation for Anthony Joshua’s shocking loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. a few weeks ago in New York? The rumor mill has been churning with all sorts of theories, but I am not buying any of them. In my mind, there’s a much more logical explanation for what happened.

Let’s start by looking back at Joshua’s boxing career. As an amateur, he had a lot of success including winning a 2012 Olympic Gold Medal. But that said, he only had about 50 amateur fights (even fewer according to some accounts). So entering the pro game in 2013, Joshua was still relatively green as far as experience inside the ring.

As a pro, Joshua was moved relatively swiftly fighting 15 times between October of 2013 and December of 2015. This seemed to be a very appropriate pace for a naturally talented fighter who overall lacked ring experience.

But early in 2016 those moving Joshua saw an opportunity they just couldn’t resist. Charles Martin had won the then vacant IBF portion of the heavyweight title when his opponent, Vyacheslav Glazkov, suffered an injury early in their title fight. Martin was still seen as raw and not nearly as talented as Joshua. So Joshua’s team made Martin an offer he couldn’t refuse to come to the UK to defend his newly won title against Joshua. And as expected, Joshua made quick work of Martin. Joshua was now a heavyweight champion.

From that moment forward, Joshua’s career path changed. It was now going to be about bigger fights and bigger events. The developmental stage was over and Joshua became essentially a two fight a year fighter.

I want to pause for a second here and look back at the early careers of three recent long- reigning heavyweight champions in Lennox Lewis, Vitali Klitschko and Wladimir Klitschko. Specifically, I want to look at what happened soon after they each had their 16^th fight as a pro.

After Lewis had his 16^th fight in July of 1991, he fought five more times in a span of 13 months before receiving a title shot against Donovan “Razor” Ruddock. Vitali Klitschko fought for the 16^th time in March of 1998 and went on to fight seven more times that year alone.

As for Wladimir Klitschko, he had his 16^th fight in December of 1997. In 1998, he fought nine times and that included a shocking loss to Ross Puritty. But that continued development, even with a loss suffered, would help Klitschko later on in his career.

My point here is that these three outstanding champions, all of whom had a much deeper amateur pedigree than Joshua, were still in the process of developing as pros and fighting relatively frequently after their 16^th professional fight.

My strong belief is that Joshua lost because he became a two fight a year fighter much too early in his career. He still needed to be fighting more frequently, like the three champions above, to develop his craft. Just how different was the Joshua who fought Ruiz to the Joshua who fought say Dillian Whyte in December of 2015? Not much different frankly and that is a problem.

Put all the rumors to bed. Joshua’s lack of development as a pro is what did him in against Andy Ruiz.

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Matt Andrzejewski

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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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Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis Wins Welterweight Showdown in Atlantic City

Published

6 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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