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Amanda Serrano Dominates and KOs Daniela Bermudez in Old San Juan

Amid a beautiful beachfront setting Amanda Serrano made sure it was no paradise for Daniela Bermudez and stopped her by knockout in a battle between top pound-for-pound fighters on Thursday.
“We knew she was tough. She’s Latina. She’s from Argentina. We know that Argentines are very tough women. We were ready for it,” said Serrano.
Serrano (40-1-1, 30 KOs), a seven-division world titlist, accepted the challenge from Argentina’s Bermudez (29-4-3, 10 KOs) for the WBO and WBC featherweight titles and showed the limited crowd at Plaza del Quinto Centenario in San Juan, Puerto Rico, she indeed is the “Real Deal.”
Each fighter entered the ring with reputations at stake as two of top fighters in the female fight world. Each also realized that the world would be able to watch the beachfront spectacle and bragging rights were the prize.
Immediately Serrano took the lead behind a jab while circling right. Bermudez took a moment to gauge the Puerto Rican fighter’s movements and power. Serrano connected with a right uppercut and hooks. Bermudez countered with consecutive rights. Neither seemed fazed by the early exchange.
“I knew I was going to be able to walk her down. I’m a lot bigger than her and a lot more power,” said Serrano about Bermudez who was fighting at featherweight for the first time in her lengthy career.
In the second round Serrano stepped up the tempo and showed off her abilities to slip and counter. Bermudez moved in fired away but was unable to find a groove. Serrano slipped under, moved to the side and unleashed accurate counters. In the last 30 seconds Bermudez unleashed a three-punch combination and was met with a stiff left to the body by Serrano. It was a telling blow.
Neither fighter took the lead in the third and both fighters paused their attacks. Serrano demonstrated she was able to land from afar with a lead left cross and a stiff jab. Bermudez fired a jab and was met with a left cross to the body. Bermudez fired a one-two combination at the end of the bell. It seemed apparent that Bermudez looked to end each final 30 seconds with an attack.
Serrano seemed in a comfort zone in the fourth round and with the ability to time Bermudez’s attacks. She also seemed able to slip under the Argentine’s blows and counter with hooks. Bermudez fired an effective three-punch combination and was met by a Serrano three-punch combination. Bermudez fired a solid right cross and was met by a thudding left to the body. Bermudez attacked and was met by a solid left counter that snapped back the Argentine fighter’s head. She took it well.
“I expected it. I knew she was a tough fighter,” said Serrano who prepared in Brooklyn.
Bermudez seemed unable to switch gears while Serrano varied her attack. A jab by Bermudez in the fifth round followed by a left hook seemed to signal a change in momentum, but Serrano opened up with a left to the body and a three-punch combination capped by a right hook.
The face of Bermudez showed concern in between rounds and it also showed swelling and redness from the incoming blows. Still, Bermudez never seemed severely hurt by Serrano’s blows to the head.
Bermudez, a three-division world champion, did not become a multiple world titlist by quitting. She attempted to stand her ground and slug it out with the powerful Puerto Rican fighter. And she was able to match blow for blow except when Serrano connected with body shots. That slowed Bermudez every time.
By the eighth round it was seemingly apparent that Bermudez was far behind on the score cards. She gutted it out and was landing blows but then Serrano fired a right hook to the body and a left hand to the head and that sapped the energy from the Argentine fighter.
Bermudez needed a knockout to win in the ninth round. She connected with a right cross but was met by a body shot. Bermudez re-ignited her attack and was met with a perfect counter left cross from the Puerto Rican fighter. Bermudez attacked again but Serrano slipped under and connected with a left to the body and a right to the body. Bermudez’s face seemed in a frozen state of shock and she turned away and went down on both knees. She looked at her corner and shook her head as the referee counted her out by knockout at 1:33 of the ninth round.
“I knew I was hurting her, her hands were dropping. My corner told me two hooks to the body and that’s what happened,” said Serrano who became the only fighter to defeat Bermudez via knockout. “My knockout came in the ninth which shows I have power till the very end.”
Serrano had knocked off a pound-for-pound fighter.
When asked about her future plans, Serrano was decisive.
“I want to become undisputed,” said Serrano who holds the WBO and WBC featherweight world titles. “Nothing against none of those champions. I want those belts. If they want to become undisputed champion, they need to come through me. So we need each other.”
Of all the seven division world titles Serrano has conquered, featherweight seems to be her best. She was dominant.
Arely Returns
Mexico’s Arely Mucino (29-3-2) returned to boxing after a near two-year layoff due to injury and was victorious over Lucia Hernandez (7-11) by unanimous decision after eight rounds in a super flyweight bout.
Mucino, 31, is a former flyweight world champion, and recently signed a promotional agreement with Cotto Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions. On various occasions in the past, she held the WBA, WBO, WBC and IBF flyweight world titles.
Men’s Fights
The identical Baez twins, Leonardo and Eduardo, opened the main TV portion of the card. Super bantamweights who have one foot on both sides of the border, growing up in Mexicali and in Calexico, CA (shades of Andy Ruiz Jr.), the brothers earned a split against local products.
Leonardo Baez drew the tougher assignment. In his first fight since getting stopped by Australia’s Jason Moloney at the MGM Bubble, Leonardo was halted in the fourth round by sharpshooting southpaw Carlos Caraballo who improved to 14-0 with his 14th KO.
Caraballo knocked Baez on the seat of his pants in the second round with a 1-2-3 series of uppercuts. Baez wasn’t discouraged and continued to press the action, but he didn’t have the guns to stave off the Puerto Rican. The bout ended at the 2:36 mark of round four with Baez being strafed against the ropes, forcing the referee to intervene as Baez’s corner was simultaneously waving the white towel.
Eduardo Baez, (19-1-2, 6 KOs) won a lopsided 8-round decision over Puerto Rico’s previously undefeated Abimael Ortiz, now 9-1-1. The scores (80-72 and 79-73 twice) did not reflect the competitiveness of the fight as Ortiz gave almost as good as he got in a good-action fight that was contested at close quarters.
Photo credit: Tom Hogan / Hogan Photos / Ring City USA
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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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