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Avila Perspective, Chap. 155: James Toney and More

James “Lights Out” Toney clearly epitomizes the meaning of a true prizefighter.
In the last 60 years no other pugilist possessed more fighting skills than James “Lights Out” Toney nor more willingness to face the best during his era.
Yet, Toney was overlooked by voters in last year’s International Boxing Hall of Fame.
It was an egregious oversight.
You can really judge a fighter by the number of Hall of Fame fighters encountered in his career. Toney fought numerous during his career including Mike McCallum, Roy Jones Jr. and Evander Holyfield.
There could have been more if some fighters had been willing to meet with Lights Out. Instead, many took the easy way out.
Toney was and is an old school, hard core, line-em-up and knock them down kind of fighter. The word “avoid” does not exist in his vocabulary. When Toney was still a super middleweight, he always vocalized his desire to fight heavyweights like Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield.
People would stare at Toney as if he was delirious.
Finally, in 2003, promoter Dan Goossen took a chance and matched Toney against undefeated cruiserweight world champion Vassiliy Jirov. It was a clash of titans televised nationally that allowed fans to witness one of the most brutal fights seen in years. Toney floored Jirov in the last round and that proved to be the margin of victory.
Six months later, Toney was matched against the great former heavyweight champion Holyfield. After nine rounds of scientific brutality Holyfield’s corner threw in the white towel. It was only the second time Holyfield was ever stopped via knockout.
In April 2005, Toney was matched against WBA heavyweight titlist John Ruiz at Madison Square Garden. It was all Toney and after 12 rounds he was declared the victor by unanimous decision. But a PED test revealed Toney had traces of a banned substance used by a medical physician to treat a torn muscle suffered in an earlier fight. Not enough time had lapsed for that drug to leave his system and the world title was stripped from Toney.
Still, no fighter that encountered Toney in the boxing ring can claim they beat him up. Yes, some fighters like Roy Jones Jr. won by decision, but no one ever beat up Toney. No one. His skills were off the chart good.
The Michigan native fought out of the pocket and dared anyone to enter his realm. Even when he suffered a torn knee against Denis Lebedev in Moscow, Toney was still able to fight on one leg in a title fight loss that went 12 rounds.
Even the Klitschko brothers dared not fight Toney. Though they both towered over him by several inches, the late great trainer Emanuel Steward advised them to avoid the skilled Toney. Steward personally told me several times their style just didn’t mesh well against the Michigan prizefighter who retired after 92 pro fights.
In my opinion Toney could have fought in any era and possessed one of the best chins boxing ever saw. He was never knocked out. And when it came to fighting skills, no one ever had more than “Lights Out.”
It is time to vote Toney into the Hall of Fame.
Heavyweights in Las Vegas
A new spark to the third encounter between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder has been added to the WBC world title fight that takes place Saturday Oct. 9, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Fox pay-per-view will televise.
With Oleksandr Usyk dethroning Anthony Joshua for the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles, it should make it easier to unify all the titles with less fuss from competing media outlets. It should.
Heavyweights can be deceiving simply because of their raw power. One punch truly can change the outcome and whoever has the better chin should win. In this case it might mean Fury, but these are heavyweights.
Body shots seem to be foreign to both Fury and Wilder. Though the British heavyweight did connect with a few in their second meeting, Wilder has yet to go that direction. Whoever concentrates on the body first will win.
These are two extremely tall heavyweights who both hunt for the head. Fury has shown adeptness at using head movement to avoid blows to his cranium, but his body remains vulnerable. It’s the same with Wilder.
Liverpool
Former super welterweight titlist Liam Smith (29-3-1, 16 KOs) meets Anthony Fowler (15-1, 12 KOs) in the co-main event on Saturday Oct. 9, in Liverpool, England. DAZN will stream the fight between super welterweight contenders.
Smith lost his title to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez five years ago and lost two subsequent attempts to regain a world title. Only Alvarez was able to stop him before the final bell.
In the other co-main event Shannon Courtenay (7-1) lost the WBA bantamweight world title on the scale after weighing more than two and half pounds above the limit. Only California’s Jamie Mitchell (6-0-2) can win the title set for 10 rounds on Saturday.
Courtenay, 28, was making the first defense of the title she won earlier this year in a bruising battle with Australia’s Ebanie Bridges. The fight will proceed but only Mitchell can win the title.
Fights to Watch
Sat. DAZN 11 a.m. Liam Smith (29-3-1) vs Anthony Fowler (15-1); Shannon Courtenay (7-1) vs Jamie Mitchell (6-0-2).
Sat. ESPN2 4 p.m. Edgar Berlanga (17-0) vs Marcelo Coceres (30-2-1).
Sat. FOX pay-per-view 6 p.m. Tyson Fury (30-0-1) vs Deontay Wilder (42-1-1); Robert Helenius (30-3) vs Adam Kownacki (20-1); Efe Ajagba (15-0) vs Frank Sanchez (18-0).
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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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Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis Wins Welterweight Showdown in Atlantic City

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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