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Every Joe Gans Lightweight Title Fight – Part 5: Kid McPartland

The black champion walked to his corner at once and began preparations for departure while McPartland was still struggling against fate on the floor. – The New York Evening World, October 14, 1902.
The story of Joe Gans and Kid McPartland goes all the way back to November of 1898 and the time of their first fight, in New York. It was McPartland, then, who was labelled the fighter with perhaps the greatest left-hand in the sport and it was Gans, odd to read, who was a local attraction, a genius according to his Baltimore boosters but unproven to the wider world.
How times had changed.
But in 1898 it was McPartland who held the left, and it was McPartland who began as the favourite. This was something of a graduation night for Gans and two things fascinate above all others. The first is how well Gans, or perhaps the wily Al Herford, had McPartland scouted, and the second is how beautifully Gans put that scouting to work. The first of these is no small matter; Gans had observed McPartland from ringside but he had not film to study, no long hours of analysis. Still, for the most part, Gans reduced the McPartland’s celebrated left to something of a liability.
Gans boxed McPartland carefully, in a way that a ringsider at the Rufe Turner fight would have recognised. His essential strategy for a fighter that he finds dangerous is to handle them like they are deadly while simultaneously dominating them with accuracy and timing, and the first McPartland fight was such a contest. Gans spent the early rounds “fiddling” in the lexicon of 1898, “feeling his man out” to you and me. By the third what was notable was the ease with which Gans was parrying and blocking the left while having joy with his own. McPartland was sending in grazing left-hands or bodyshots while Gans repeatedly rattled McPartland’s teeth, literally, decades before the advent of the gumshield.
The price for his isolation of the McPartland left was his sucking up the occasional right, but Gans knew enough to know he could hold those punches without issue. When McPartland tried to change the pattern by rushing Gans, Gans was prepared for this too and lifted his man with uppercuts. Once his dominance was established, which was clear some time around the thirteenth round, he began fighting two-handed and with more abandon. It was late in the contest before McPartland was able to score a meaningful left, but he did so in the nineteenth round and for a moment it seemed he might save himself, but it was the Kid, not Gans who visited the canvas, dropped by a left-hand, of course, in the twenty-fourth round. Gans “escaped with little punishment” according to The Brooklyn Eagle, an opinion shared by The New York Sun.
Mid-career Bernard Hopkins is the fighter who comes to mind when reading about 1800s Gans. Brilliant at turning his opponent’s strength to a weakness and countering what is best in him, he seems first and foremost a general but lacking, perhaps, the vicious streak that would have allowed him to definitively conquer the better men he faced. Keep in mind the terrible battles Elbows McFadden forced upon Gans in the 1800s but that come the 1900s, Elbows could not live with his old foe. Now, McPartland returned to the fore, hoping, perhaps, his own experiences from the 1800s might help him.
That hope, such as it was, lay perhaps in his second fight with Gans, staged in 1899. A short-form fight over six, it reads suspiciously like the first six of their 1898 contest, much careful sparring early giving way to Gans offence at the end of the fifth, but no more was to be learned and the fight is generally reported a draw. A second fight over the shorter distance delivered the same result. McPartland, then, had information to hand with which to build his own plan.
The earlier incarnation of Gans was fought on even terms and forced to quit against Erne; the championship version destroyed him in one. The earlier incarnation of Gans was stretched to the absolute limit by Elbows McFadden; the championship version destroyed him in three. The earlier incarnation of Gans out-thought McPartland but was forced to traverse the distance against a dangerous fighter. What would the championship version make of him?
The fight was slated for October 6 and McPartland, at the end of September, brimmed with confidence.
“I am leaving nothing to chance,” he told reporters after training. “I have met Gans before…and I always managed to keep him busy. I know the coon’s [sic] style pretty well and I really believe I can do more with him than any other lightweight.”
“McPartland appears extremely confident,” reported The Buffalo Courier. “If confidence, condition, shiftiness and a dangerous punch cut a figure (and they usually do), McPartland will give a good account of himself.”
Certainly, his training camp seemed fit for purpose. McPartland often boxed three men a day, including the big, rough lightweight prospect Warren Zurbrick. “The more the merrier,” McPartland offered. “I shall be ready for all comers.” McPartland’s camp was an open book for fighters, all of whom were welcome to spar with him.
The truth of McPartland’s history shows a spotty attitude to training, “in and out” as the parlance of the day would have it. At the end of September 1902 though, McPartland was in crisp shape. The reason for this was McPartland’s membership in Kid Carter’s camp. Kid Carter was a middleweight contender of the era who had failed two weeks prior in an attempt at Tommy Ryan’s championship. The camp, described as a “siege” by one paper was a strict one and one that saw not just Carter but McPartland, too, trained to the absolute quill. McPartland rolled out of that camp and into preparation for his own crack at the world championship.
“Boxing with such big fellows as Kid Carter has done me a heap of good,” he said. “I feel stronger than ever and men of my own weight feel weak and light in front of me…I think I am better now than ever before.”
Five-thousand tickets went on sale on noon of the twenty-ninth of September; around this time rumour emerged of Kid McPartland developing a system specifically designed to offset the Gans left, much as Gans did to McPartland in 1898. Whether or not this story was a red herring is unknown, but it is a fascinating wrinkle. McPartland’s condition though seemed, for the moment, beyond reproach, The Buffalo Evening News making a fit McPartland “about the only man in the country today outside of Erne who has a possible chance to beat [Gans].”
It is interesting that the article excludes Jimmy Britt, who was in the picture to be matched with Gans at around this time but for hand-trouble. These injuries were the pugilist’s bane in a time of small gloves with minimal padding and was the reason so many six-round non-title fights were settled more peacefully, “exhibitions” only as was the accordance with law in many states. Fighters could not afford to put themselves forth to the full in every fight, especially not when they were fighting two, four, even more times in one month. Care had to be taken in sparring and fighting alike – training to the point of absolute peak only to break one’s hand in the first round after throwing an ill-advised left-hook was, I imagine, a special kind of misery.
Gans was not immune. On October fourth, the fight was postponed for one week. The announcement was odd. Herford, who was due to arrive with Gans in Buffalo the next day prior to travelling up to Fort Erie in time for the fight two days later, instead wired the International Club with news that Gans had “sprained his hand” and “would not take any chances until it was strong.” Sixty hours from weigh in, this was a blow, not least to McPartland who felt himself ready. The blow was perhaps softened by the $200 forfeit he was able to collect but according to the Buffalo Illustrated Times he “almost cried” when told the fight was off.
Now scheduled for the thirteenth, just one week later, the usual speculation began to circulate regarding Joe’s conduct; had he trained properly? Could he make weight? Was the injury real, or a fabrication? No answers were forthcoming from the Gans camp who were used to such accusations, but it was announced that the champion would now be arriving in Buffalo on the ninth. McPartland sulked, and crossed into Canada to be weighed, a necessity if he wished to collect his money. Sure enough, the challenger hit 134lbs. His face apparently “drawn and pinched,” The Buffalo Enquirer also reported that McPartland “never looked better in his life.” Tight at the weight but clearly ready to fight, he was not in the best of moods.
“Of course I claimed Herford’s forfeit,” he snapped. “I would not give him a penny if I could help it. He has been telling the same tales of me being afraid of Gans that he did about Frank Erne. [Training] was hard work and I will have to do the whole thing over again. Then it makes a man nervous. I am not afraid of the result of the battle. Gans knows that I have no fear of him. I never saw the negro I feared.”
Gans maintained his silence. Herford went to the trouble of telephoning The Courier to tell them that he planned to instruct Gans to give McPartland “an extra good beating” for these remarks.
Herford’s loyalty to Gans was mirrored in that of Gans to Herford, and this despite some allegedly shady dealings. Herford’s qualifications for handling a fighter as peerless as Gans were equally shady, his background that of a restaurant manager and gambler, not a boxing man. Showbusiness is showbusiness as the saying goes, however, and the two seemed to come to some sort of accord whereby Gans did all the work and Herford counted the money – and did all the talking.
“I had a hard time getting Gans where he is,” Herford once told assembled Baltimore reporters, overlooking, one might argue, Joe’s own role in his triumph. “I tell you boys it is a pretty tough job getting a colored boxer up to the top of the ladder these days. Of course some may say, look at Tom O’Rourke. Did he not make George Dixon the champion?”
It is unrecorded as to whether or not any of those assembled pointed out to Herford that Dixon, himself, was the man most responsible.
Gans and Herford arrived in Buffalo the day before the fight and seem to have set down in Buffalo for mere minutes before heading straight for Fort Erie and The American Hotel. “[Gans] looked to be in superb condition,” reported The Courier, which apparently caught a glimpse of the champion. Speaking briefly, Gans reported that his hand was ready and that he was too. He covered a reported twelve miles along the Canadian shore, “finishing as if he had been out for a short walk.”
Charley White was the other big arrival, the perennial championship referee having travelled from New York. Nor was he alone; many New Yorkers had travelled with him having secured tickets for the fight.
McPartland, who had finished his training the day before and tipped the beam at just under 134lbs, took his rest and waited. He weighed in at 3pm on the day of the fight weighing just under 135lbs; Gans followed him to the scales and matched the number but it was noted that he looked the bigger man. This was a problem for McPartland, for his plan to nullify the Gans offence called for him to impose himself upon Gans physically.
“Stretching…the rules to their utmost,” reported the Buffalo Morning Express, “McPartland tried his best to get Gans into a mauling, waltzing match.”
Gans has seen this before however, and from McPartland himself no less. He remained patient and he remained distant where it was possible. He also began to look for the right-hand, a change from his first fight with McPartland where he seemed to favour the left. Meanwhile, when it came to McPartland’s ranged efforts, Gans’ defence was more devastating than ever.
“McPartland did not land over eight solid blows during the entire time of the bout,” wrote The Buffalo Evening Times. “Gans smothering most of his leads before they were fairly started.”
While he smothered McPartland’s shots, Gans waited and that cost him the occasional left to the body. Some combination of McPartland’s grappling and Joe’s maneuvering caused Gans to slip in the second. In the third, Gans changed up and returned McPartland’s pressure but continued to block what McPartland returned with consummate ease. The fight so far had been defined by the “pretty blocking and shifty footwork” described by The Enquirer but Gans now changed it up.
McPartland “put forward a very fair effort” as The Evening World saw it, “but the effort to make weight had evidently told heavily on his frame…Cool, collected, holding himself in reserve form the first gong [Gans] stealthily pursued [McPartland] from corner to corner, never venturing to dangerous depths and unerringly grasping the occasional opportunities left open for him.”
As he stalked, he lashed McPartland’s body and although McPartland was able to block many of these shots, he left himself wide open for Gans right hand to the jaw which dropped him for an eight count close to the end of the third. McPartland, at least, had not showed fear in the opener but by the third he was on the run, Gans in cautious, tempered, stalking pursuit.
McPartland clinched his way through the fourth and in the fifth was reduced to remaining at distance but trying to time his rushes to get inside the Gans artillery while avoiding or blocking punches. Such strategy is doomed to failure in a four round smoker but against a great champion in his prime it spells the end. Gans literally “went over to McPartland’s corner” at bell and began hitting him. Almost every report of the fight describes the economy of risk with which Gans boxed but you can tell he has smelled the blood in the fifth; his approach seems intemperate for the first time, and McPartland was not so far gone as to miss the chance and “put left on face” [sic] according to The Enquirer’s round-by-round; then Gans rushed.
The end, when it came, was sudden but layered. Gans had spent the fight hitting to the body to open up a pathway for the right hand to the head. Here, he feinted with a right hand to the jaw and “McPartland, falling into the trap, raised his guard to the blow.”
The Courier continues the tale:
“In precisely the same manner that Bob Fitzsimmons won his famous battle from Jim Corbett,” it reported, “Joe Gans, the lightweight champion, knocked out Kid McPartland. The final blow…was a terrific left-handed drive to the solar plexus.”
The final punch is reported in much detail and is worth quoting in full that the reader may clearly understand the technique.
“In delivering the blow Gans shifted his position so as to bring his right leg in front of him, sending home his blow with full force simultaneously with the shift.”
The shift, a pivot, or switch, depending upon the era, was a much-admired technique perfected by Fitzsimmons and then Stanley Ketchel, here executed by Joe Gans. McPartland was immediately floored and “writhed in agony” as Gans coolly returned to his corner and prepared to depart the ring. He did not even look towards the shape snatching wildly for breath in a crumpled heap on the canvas.
“My punch,” McPartland wept, no less, once recovered. “He got there first!”
“He’s improved,” he offered later. “He’s a hard man to reach. He got me with just the same smash I was trying to put on him.”
Gans seemed please. He spoke at length to the press, not something he went out of his way to do, often preferring to speak through Herford.
“McPartland found me a different proposition tonight to what I was when we last fought. He gave me a good go tonight until I finally got him properly gauged. He is a shifty fellow and has a good defense and a wicked blow with that left. I knew I would beat him and figured that he would go out when I landed the first square blow. I thought it would be a jaw punch but he was too foxy, and I had to try the solar plexus on him.”
Joe’s plans were a matter of much interest but here Gans did hand over to Herford, who announced that Gans would travel down to Lancaster in Pennsylvania to face no less a figure that Dave Holly. Holly was inconsistent, but a serious proposition, especially the day after a title fight. Undefeated in twenty-nine fights he perhaps had plans on making Gans the thirtieth and therefore gaining himself a title shot. Those plans did not come to fruition; Gans dropped him four times as Holly became the latest elite pugilist to turn in a performance laced with fear.
This seems now beyond belief, but The Baltimore Sun was clear: “Holley [sic] made almost no effort to fight, confining his work to running around the ring out of the champion’s reach and clinching.”
“Gentlemen,” Gans addressed the crowd afterwards. “If the management will get a good man to meet me here, I will try and give you a better exhibition.”
“While disappointed in not scoring a knockout,” The Sun continued, “Gans took the fight almost in the nature of a joke.”
Holly would finish his career credited with victories over the like of Rufe Turner, Jack Blackburn and the all-time great Joe Walcott.
“That Gans is the superior of all the lightweights, there is no doubt,” concluded The Times. “He is the exponent of all that is clever, and though his gameness has been often questioned he must be given credit for being about the best the world has ever produced in the lightweight division.”
Before he was finished, Gans would prove himself as game as any pugilist who had ever stepped onto an ill-stretched canvas and scraped his carefully scarred leather soles in resin.
This series was written with the support of boxing historian and Joe Gans expert Sergei Yurchenko. His work can be found here: http://senya13.blogspot.com/
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Gabriela Fundora KOs Marilyn Badillo and Perez Upsets Conwell in Oceanside

It was just a numbers game for Gabriela Fundora and despite Mexico’s Marilyn Badillo’s elusive tactics it took the champion one punch to end the fight and retain her undisputed flyweight world title by knockout on Saturday.
Will it be her last flyweight defense?
Though Fundora (16-0, 8 KOs) fired dozens of misses, a single punch found Badillo (19-1-1, 3 KOs) and ended her undefeated career and first attempt at a world title at the Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California.
Fundora, however, proves unbeatable at flyweight.
The champion entered the arena as the headliner for the Golden Boy Promotion show and stepped through the ropes with every physical advantage possible, including power.
Mexico’s Badillo was a midget compared to Fundora but proved to be as elusive as a butterfly in a menagerie for the first six rounds. As the six-inch taller Fundora connected on one punch for every dozen thrown, that single punch was a deadly reminder.
Badillo tried ducking low and slipping to the left while countering with slashing uppercuts, she found little success. She did find the body a solid target but the blows proved to be useless. And when Badillo clinched, that proved more erroneous as Fundora belted her rapidly during the tie-ups.
“She was kind of doing her ducking thing,” said Fundora describing Badillo’s defensive tactics. “I just put the pressure on. It was just like a train. We didn’t give her that break.”
The Mexican fighter tried valiantly with various maneuvers. None proved even slightly successful. Fundora remained poised and under control as she stalked the challenger.
In the seventh round Badillo seemed to take a stand and try to slug it out with Fundora. She quickly was lit up by rapid left crosses and down she went at 1:44 of the seventh round. The Mexican fighter’s corner wisely waved off the fight and referee Rudy Barragan stopped the fight and held the dazed Badillo upright.
Once again Fundora remained champion by knockout. The only question now is will she move up to super flyweight or bantamweight to challenge the bigger girls.
Perez Beats Conwell.
Mexico’s Jorge “Chino” Perez (33-4, 26 KOs) upset Charles Conwell (21-1, 15 KOs) to win by split decision after 12 rounds in their super welterweight showdown.
It was a match that paired two hard-hitting fighters whose ledgers brimmed with knockouts, but neither was able to score a knockdown against each other.
Neither fighter moved backward. It was full steam ahead with Conwell proving successful to the body and head with left hooks and Perez connecting with rights to the head and body. It was difficult to differentiate the winner.
Though Conwell seemed to be the superior defensive fighter and more accurate, two judges preferred Perez’s busier style. They gave the fight to Perez by 115-113 scores with the dissenter favoring Conwell by the same margin.
It was Conwell’s first pro loss. Maybe it will open doors for more opportunities.
Other Bouts
Tristan Kalkreuth (15-1) managed to pass a serious heat check by unanimous decision against former contender Felix Valera (24-8) after a 10-round back-and-forth heavyweight fight.
It was very close.
Kalkreuth is one of those fighters that possess all the physical tools including youth and size but never seems to be able to show it. Once again he edged past another foe but at least this time he faced an experienced fighter in Valera.
Valera had his moments especially in the middle of the 10-round fight but slowed down during the last three rounds.
One major asset for Kalkreuth was his chin. He got caught but still motored past the clever Valera. After 10 rounds two judges saw it 99-91 and one other judge 97-93 all for Kalkreuth.
Highly-rated prospect Ruslan Abdullaev (2-0) blasted past dangerous Jino Rodrigo (13- 5-2) in an eight round super lightweight fight. He nearly stopped the very tough Rodrigo in the last two rounds and won by unanimous decision.
Abdullaev is trained by Joel and Antonio Diaz in Indio.
Bakersfield prospect Joel Iriarte (7-0, 7 KOs) needed only 1:44 to knock out Puerto Rico’s Marcos Jimenez (25-12) in a welterweight bout.
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‘Krusher’ Kovalev Exits on a Winning Note: TKOs Artur Mann in his ‘Farewell Fight’

At his peak, former three-time world light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev ranked high on everyone’s pound-for-pound list. Now 42 years old – he turned 42 earlier this month – Kovalev has been largely inactive in recent years, but last night he returned to the ring in his hometown of Chelyabinsk, Russia, and rose to the occasion in what was billed as his farewell fight, stopping Artur Mann in the seventh frame.
Kovalev hit his peak during his first run as a world title-holder. He was 30-0-1 (26 KOs) entering first match with Andre Ward, a mark that included a 9-0 mark in world title fights. The only blemish on his record was a draw that could have been ruled a no-contest (journeyman Grover Young was unfit to continue after Kovalev knocked down in the second round what with was deemed an illegal rabbit punch). Among those nine wins were two stoppages of dangerous Haitian-Canadian campaigner Jean Pascal and a 12-round shutout over Bernard Hopkins.
Kovalev’s stature was not diminished by his loss to the undefeated Ward. All three judges had it 114-113, but the general feeling among the ringside press was that Sergey nicked it.
The rematch was also somewhat controversial. Referee Tony Weeks, who halted the match in the eighth stanza with Kovalev sitting on the lower strand of ropes, was accused of letting Ward get away with a series of low blows, including the first punch of a three-punch series of body shots that culminated in the stoppage. Sergey was wobbled by a punch to the head earlier in the round and was showing signs of fatigue, but he was still in the fight. Respected judge Steve Weisfeld had him up by three points through the completed rounds.
Sergey Kovalev was never the same after his second loss to Andre Ward, albeit he recaptured a piece of the 175-pound title twice, demolishing Vyacheslav Shabranskyy for the vacant WBO belt after Ward announced his retirement and then avenging a loss to Eleider Alvarez (TKO by 7) with a comprehensive win on points in their rematch.
Kovalev’s days as a title-holder ended on Nov. 2, 2019 when Canelo Alvarez, moving up two weight classes to pursue a title in a fourth weight division, stopped him in the 11th round, terminating what had been a relatively even fight with a hellacious left-right combination that left Krusher so discombobulated that a count was superfluous.
That fight went head-to-head with a UFC fight in New York City. DAZN, to their everlasting discredit, opted to delay the start of Canelo-Kovalev until the main event of the UFC fight was finished. The delay lasted more than an hour and Kovalev would say that he lost his psychological edge during the wait.
Kovalev had two fights in the cruiserweight class between his setback to Canelo and last night’s presumptive swan song. He outpointed Tervel Pulev in Los Angeles and lost a 10-round decision to unheralded Robin Sirwan Safar in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Artur Mann, a former world title challenger – he was stopped in three rounds by Mairis Briedis in 2021 when Briedis was recognized as the top cruiserweight in the world – was unexceptional, but the 34-year-old German, born in Kazakhstan, wasn’t chopped liver either, and Kovalev’s stoppage of him will redound well to the Russian when he becomes eligible for the Boxing Hall of Fame.
Krusher almost ended the fight in the second round. He knocked Mann down hard with a short left hand and seemingly scored another knockdown before the round was over (but it was ruled a slip). Mann barely survived the round.
In the next round, a punch left Mann with a bad cut on his right eyelid, but the German came to fight and rounds three, four and five were competitive.
Kovalev had a good sixth round although there were indications that he was tiring. But in the seventh he got a second wind and unleashed a right-left combination that rolled back the clock to the days when he was one of the sport’s most feared punchers. Mann went down hard and as he staggered to his feet, his corner signaled that the fight should be stopped and the referee complied. The official time was 0:49 of round seven. It was the 30th KO for Kovalev who advanced his record to 36-5-1.
Addendum: History informs us that Farewell Fights have a habit of becoming redundant, by which we mean that boxers often get the itch to fight again after calling it quits. Have we seen the last of Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev? We woudn’t bet on it.
The complete Kovalev-Mann fight card was live-streamed on the Boxing News youtube channel.
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 322: Super Welterweight 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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