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The Biggest HITS and MISSES from Boxing’s Latest Weekend

The Biggest HITS and MISSES from Boxing’s Latest Weekend
It was another slow weekend in boxing, from an American-centric perspective anyway. All eyes were pointed to the upcoming Super Bowl between the two best teams in the NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers. But there was still enough boxing to watch over the weekend around the world so long as one committed to doing it.
Here were the biggest HITS and MISSES boxing’s latest weekend.
HIT – Clay Collard’s Huge Upset of Previously Unbeaten Prospect
Nobody expected middleweight Clay Collard (pictured on the left) to defeat Raymond Guajardo on Saturday night during the PBC on FS1 preliminary card at Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, Miss. Heck, I’m not even sure Collard expected to win since he was so adamant beforehand that it would be his last boxing match before trying his hand at the Professional Fighters League MMA tournament later this year. But Collard, who formerly appeared in the UFC, dominated and stopped Guajardo in the second round in a terrific slugfest. It was an amazing and unexpected performance. Now Collard has way more opportunities than he would have before, and Guajardo has a ton of stuff to work on before moving on to his next fight. Boxing is the theater of the unexpected, and Collard-Guajardo was exactly the type of fight that makes the sport such a joy to behold each and every weekend.
MISS – Celebrity Pro Boxers Who Don’t Know How To Box
Technically, YouTuber Anesongib’s first-round knockout loss to fellow internet celebrity Jake Paul happened on Thursday evening at Meridian at Island Gardens in Miami, Fl., but since the card was so long and drawn out by DAZN for some reason, it lasted into the wee hours of Friday morning in some time zones. That makes it fair game for comment here. DAZN and promoter Eddie Hearn have a huge stake in celebrity boxing matches right now because it means they can sell more DAZN subscriptions to the masses. It’s not a bad grift (as grifts go), especially since everyone involved in it seems to know what it is and why they’re doing it. But it’s one thing to let the likes of Jake Paul, older brother Logan Paul and rival YouTube phenom KSI throw hands without headgear. It’s quite another thing to include Anesongib, who is one of the worst boxers I’ve ever seen in my entire life. It’s clear he didn’t do any serious training or even learn how to hit a heavy bag before his encounter with Paul. Subscriptions or not, there’s no good reason to ever let anyone with that kind of poor skillset into a professional boxing ring.
HIT – Fox’s Super Bowl Commercials for Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury 2 PPV
There they were, two undefeated heavyweight boxers, basking in the glory of their very own Super Bowl commercial. That was quite the sight to behold, especially in 2020 which most people would admit is far removed from boxing’s glory days. Look, the first fight only sold 325,000 PPVs last year, and historically most rematches, no matter how good they are, don’t outperform the original. But this one has the chance to certainly do that. With the might of both Fox Sports and ESPN behind it and the intriguing storyline of the split draw last year, Wilder vs. Fury 2 should turn out to be the biggest heavyweight fight in recent history. Will the buy rate reach 2 million like promoter Bob Arum claims? Not even close. But it’s nice to see the promoters and TV networks involved in the massively important heavyweight bout doing every single thing they can to sell it to the general public.
MISS – Rumble in the Jungle 2?
It looks like famed boxing promoter Don King decided to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Rumble in the Jungle in the least celebratory way possible: by leveraging its namesake for a vacant cruiserweight title bout between Ilunga Makabu and Michel Cieslak. This isn’t to discredit either fighter involved in what turned out to be a solid fight for one of the legitimate world titles in boxing. But Muhammad Ali’s eighth-round knockout over previously undefeated heavyweight menace George Foreman in 1974 was one of the most celebrated and important fights in boxing history. There was certainly a way to promote the Makabu-Cieslak event on its own without dragging such a pristine piece of boxing lore into the mix. Still, Makabu scored the important win and now adds another interesting storyline to the oft-overlooked cruiserweight division. It’s not nearly the most popular weight class in boxing, but it typically produces high-quality fights.
HIT – Crafty Cuban Welterweight Yordenis Ugas Getting Semi-Huge Spotlight
Maybe it wasn’t strange in the grand scheme of things for boxing’s Saturday night to be so light on action. It was Super Bowl weekend, after all, and all eyes were pointed toward the NFL. But Cuban welterweight Yordenis Ugas walked down Mike Dallas to score a seventh-round stoppage in an important bout for the 33-year-old welterweight, and it was nice to see him positioned in a place where all eyes in boxing would have to be pointed toward him. Ugas scored the win in the main event of the PBC on FS1 in Mississippi.
Ugas seems like the odd man out in the PBC’s cadre of welterweight stars, but he probably shouldn’t be. Shawn Porter barely got past Ugas via split decision last year in a fight some people believe Ugas deserved to win, and the crafty boxer is likely to play spoiler someday soon against the PBC’s bigger celebrities at 147. Ugas has won 10 of his last 11 fights. Someday he’ll be pitted against the likes of Porter, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia or Errol Spence, if anything since the PBC seems so against letting them fight each other enough times by now to tell the complete story. But Ugas is legit. When he gets those fights, don’t be surprised to see him play the role of spoiler.
Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp / TGB Promotions
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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

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 11th 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

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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