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Alexis Rocha KOs Blair Cobbs in the Main Event at SoCal’s Galen Center

LOS ANGELES-After years of back-and-forth taunting Alexis Rocha won the welterweight feud with Blair Cobbs by knockout in a fight that did not disappoint on Saturday.
A mostly pro-Rocha crowd saw their Santa Ana fighter Rocha (19-1, 13 Kos) deliver the desired knockout ending over Philadelphia’s Cobbs (15-1-1, 10 Kos) in front of more than 5,000 at the Galen Center.
Words had been fired by each southpaw fighter, but it all came down to settling their feud in the prize ring. And it was Rocha who emerged the victor.
“It took me quite a while because I was getting careless,” said Rocha. “I could have got him out of there a long time ago.”
In the opening round Cobbs released quick short bursts and seemed to have the advantage as Rocha seemed to be measuring. It was Cobbs round and it looked like his confidence was soaring.
Rocha made his move in the second round with several combinations and momentum was set for the welterweight from Orange County.
Though Cobbs connected several times through the first half of the fight, it was always with single punches and never enough to stop Rocha’s momentum.
In the fifth round Rocha connected with a six-punch salvo and then added a three-punch combination. It was the first time either fighter dominated a round.
Cobbs seemed to slip into a defensive mode and did not fire jabs or combinations. Instead, he seemed to be looking to land a big blow to turn things around. It wasn’t looking good for the “whew!” guy. He was still in the fight but losing on points.
Rocha finally caught up to the fleet Cobbs with a three-punch combination including a right uppercut to the chin that delivered his nemesis to the floor for a count of eight. Cobbs continued.
“I was chasing him around. I fired two hooks and that’s what put him down. I thought he was very hurt,” said Rocha.
Cobbs survived that round and things looked bleak. In the ninth round Rocha maneuvered Cobbs into the ropes and opened up with an estimated 17 unanswered punches. Some snapped back the head of Cobbs when a towel was waved from his corner consisting of Freddie Roach and others. The fight was stopped at 44 seconds of the ninth round. Rocha declared the winner by knockout.
“He’s a good opponent but Mexicanos,” said Rocha. “My mindset was not being tired at all. Give credit to Blair.”
Blair was respectful to the winner.
“He was just a good fighter today. Shout out to him.” Said Cobbs. “I was throwing shots but I wasn’t following up, I couldn’t figure it out.”
McKinson
Stepping out of the main event to semi-main event Michael McKinson (22-0, 2 KOs) accepted a late-replacement contest against a fellow southpaw Alex Martin (17-4, 6 KOs) and both demonstrated the difficulties in fighting southpaws. But McKinson pulled out the win by unanimous decision, 97-93 on all three cards.
Both lefties had similar styles and preferred countering than attacking. The crowd disapproved and booed throughout the 10-round welterweight match. Very few times did either fighter open up with more than two blows. Neither was ever hurt.
McKinson said before the fight that he expected difficulty because he had trained for the attacking style of Vergil Ortiz Jr. who pulled out of the fight for medical reasons. Maybe a fight between the two would be better.
Looking to redeem himself to fans, Bek “The Bully” Melikuziev (9-1, 7 KOs) took his time looking for openings and checking the firepower of his Peruvian foe David Zegarra (34-8, 21 KOs) for one round. Then, he unloaded with one single bazooka left to the body of Zegarra and game over. Knockout in 30 seconds of the second round.
The sound of that body shot could be heard from one side of the arena to the other and perhaps mellows the sting from his sole loss to Gabe Rosado who was analyzing the fight nearby.
Rematch anyone?
Other Bouts
Northern California’s Evan Sanchez (11-0, 6 KOs) hammered and hammered Colombia’s Alejandro Munera (6-5-4, 5 KOs) but the Colombian super welterweight had a chin made of tempered steel. Sanchez did score a knockdown with a step-back right hook counter but Munera seemed unfazed.
Sanchez eventually attacked the body in the sixth and final round and that seemed to slightly irritate Munera, but not too much. Sanchez finally pulled back and allowed the clock to end the fight. Maybe just to save his hands for the future. Nothing less than a diamond drill was going to affect Munera. All three judges scored the fight in favor of Sanchez 60-53.
Texas middleweight Alex Rincon (10-0, 7 KOs) defeated Puerto Rico’s Luis Sanchez (9-3, 6 KOs) by knockout in the second round. In a battle between southpaw sluggers, Rincon caught Sanchez with a counter right hook and down he went as if shot. He stumbled slightly around the boxing ring but was allowed to continue. Another right hook by Rincon almost lifted Sanchez off the ground and down he went again. Referee Rudy Barragan stopped the fight at 1:44 as Sanchez tried to convince the judge he could fight. Meanwhile, Rincon collapsed to the floor and his corner worked to revive him by pouring water from a bottle on his head as he lay in his back. Announcer Joe Martinez saw Rincon on the floor and announced Sanchez as the winner though he was the loser.
It was a strange set of events. Rincon was then correctly announced the winner as his corner carefully escorted him from the boxing ring to the locker room. Very strange indeed.
John “Scrappy” Ramirez (9-0, 7 KOs) out-punched Mexico’s Roberto Pucheta (10-21-3) to win by unanimous decision after six rounds in a bantamweight fight. Ramirez took control of the fight around the third round but could never seriously hurt the hard-headed Pucheta. All three judges scored it 60-54 Ramirez.
Alejandro Reyes (7-0, 4 KOs) of Los Angeles floored Mexico City’s Daniel Evangelista (20-13-2, 16 KOs) twice on his way to a unanimous decision victory after six rounds in a super lightweight match. All three judges scored it 60-51 for Reyes.
Ramla Ali (5-0) needed less than two rounds to stop Shelley Barnett (5-7-2) and win by knockout in the second round of their super bantamweight fight.
“She was tough and didn’t want to stop,” said Ali, who trained in Los Angeles eight weeks for this fight and lives in England. “I’ve been working with Manny Robles on punching with power.”
Photo credit: Al Applerose
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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’selusive 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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