Tag: Rashidi Ellis

Rashidi Ellis thrilled that his career is back on track

Rashidi Ellis plans to take full advantage of his new opportunity with Premier Boxing Champions.

Rashidi Ellis thought he’d be a world champion by now.

The one time amateur star from a fighting family has elite boxing ability and speed but, even at 29 years old, he hasn’t had opportunities to show what he can do against the top welterweights.

That can be attributed in part to a contract dispute with former promoter Golden Boy, which has kept the brother of Ronald and Rashida Ellis out of the ring for 20 months.

However, now he has a fresh start. He left Golden Boy and in April and joined forces with Premier Boxing Champions, which is loaded with well-known potential opponents at 147 pounds.

Ellis (23-0, 14 KOs) makes his debut for PBC against Argentine Alberto Palmetta on the Mark Magsayo-Rey Vargas card July 9 in San Antonio (Showtime).

“I feel like a kid going to recess. I’ve very excited,” Ellis told Boxing Junkie.

The easygoing fighter from Lynn, Massachusetts, doesn’t dwell in the past because he has business at hand. However, he admitted that his layoff was difficult.

He could only watch as matchups he coveted – including one against unbeaten Golden Boy star Vergil Ortiz – never materialized for reasons that depend on whom you talk to. And he couldn’t leave Golden Boy until his contract expired.

So he did the only thing he could do: wait.

“It was very difficult, very frustrating,” he said. “I just had to stay focused and stay in the gym, get ready for the next one. I was always in the gym. I wouldn’t say it was a waste of time. Time did pass. It sucks. But I gotta look forward.

“This is definitely a fresh start. I finalley get to showcase my talent, to show everyone what they’ve been missing.”

Of course, if things go well against the Palmetta (17-1, 12 KOs), he’d love to jump into a fight with the winner of the anticipated showdown between Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford for the undisputed championship.

Ellis is realistic, though. He’ll have to earn his stripes against a few PBC fighters – Jaron Ennis? Eimantas Stanionis? Keith Thurman? Cody Crowley? – before he finally gets a shot at a major championship.

“Hopefully I’ll get that next but I know it don’t work like that,” he said. “Two, three fights after [July 9], next year. You could say that.”

And he has a simple message for those who might wonder whether he can really fight on even terms with the champions and contenders mentioned above. He said confidently: “Just wait and see.”

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Jaime Munguia stops hard-luck Tureano Johnson on cut

Jaime Munguia stopped Tureano Johnson as a result of a cut after Round 6 Saturday in Indio, Calif.

Saved by a cut?

Jaime Munguia was in the battle of his life against Tureano Johnson when the fight was stopped after Round 6 because of a gruesome cut on Johnson’s upper lip Friday night in Indio, Calif.

Munguia, fighting for the second time as a middleweight, was a significant favorite going into the fight but his veteran opponent made it clear from the opening bell that the 24-year-old Mexican would have his hands full.

Johnson’s strategy wasn’t complicated: pressure, pressure, pressure. The 36-year-old Bahamian attacked Munguia immediately, fighting chest to chest, throwing short, hard punches – particularly an effective chopping right — and smothering Munguia.

The former 154-pound champ adjusted fairly quickly, finding a home for his right uppercut and other power shots or spinning away from Johnson and fighting effectively from the outside.

Still, this was a back and forth fight. Johnson had good moments in every round and so did Munguia, which made the fight difficult to score. Boxing Junkie had it 58-56 for Munguia but the same score for Johnson or even card after six rounds would’ve been reasonable.

The pattern of the fight hadn’t changed significantly in Round 6 when, with about 30 second left, one of those right upper cuts from Munguia snapped Johnson’s head back and split his lip wide open. Referee Raul Caiz Sr. called a timeout with 21 seconds remaining and asked the ring doctor to have a look. Johnson was allowed to finish the round but the fight was stopped after the bell.

Johnson was the victim of bad luck, as he seemed to have a legitimate chance to score the biggest victory of his career only to watch it slip away because of the gash.

The good news for him is that he clearly demonstrated that he can still compete on even terms with a top 160-pounder. He almost certainly isn’t finished as a player in the middleweight division if that’s what he wants.

Meanwhile, you can’t say that Munguia was lucky. He landed a perfect shot that busted up his opponent. You can say that he was fortunate to avoid six more rounds that might’ve been the toughest of his career, with the final result in doubt.

He acknowledged that Johnson gave him all he could handle.

“He surprised me with the pressure from the get go,” Munguia said through a translator. “He wanted to surprise me with those punches. But I adjusted. The uppercuts inside were very important [for me].”

Munguia hadn’t fought since January, when he stopped Gary O’Sullivan in 11 rounds in his debut at 160 pounds. He had been out of the ring for more than nine months.

Now, with another victory under his belt, he wants to get back into the ring within a few months.

“I want another fight in January, then potentially a title fight,” he said. “I’ll wait and see what my promoter Fernando Beltran says what’s next for me. I want any of the 160-pound champions. Any of them would be great for me.”

In a preliminary bout, Rashidi Ellis (23-0, 12 KOs) defeated Alexis Rocha (16-1, 10 KOs) by a unanimous decision in a 12-round welterweight bout. The scores were 116-112, 116-112 and 115-113.

Jaime Munguia stops hard-luck Tureano Johnson on cut

Jaime Munguia stopped Tureano Johnson as a result of a cut after Round 6 Saturday in Indio, Calif.

Saved by a cut?

Jaime Munguia was in the battle of his life against Tureano Johnson when the fight was stopped after Round 6 because of a gruesome cut on Johnson’s upper lip Friday night in Indio, Calif.

Munguia, fighting for the second time as a middleweight, was a significant favorite going into the fight but his veteran opponent made it clear from the opening bell that the 24-year-old Mexican would have his hands full.

Johnson’s strategy wasn’t complicated: pressure, pressure, pressure. The 36-year-old Bahamian attacked Munguia immediately, fighting chest to chest, throwing short, hard punches – particularly an effective chopping right — and smothering Munguia.

The former 154-pound champ adjusted fairly quickly, finding a home for his right uppercut and other power shots or spinning away from Johnson and fighting effectively from the outside.

Still, this was a back and forth fight. Johnson had good moments in every round and so did Munguia, which made the fight difficult to score. Boxing Junkie had it 58-56 for Munguia but the same score for Johnson or even card after six rounds would’ve been reasonable.

The pattern of the fight hadn’t changed significantly in Round 6 when, with about 30 second left, one of those right upper cuts from Munguia snapped Johnson’s head back and split his lip wide open. Referee Raul Caiz Sr. called a timeout with 21 seconds remaining and asked the ring doctor to have a look. Johnson was allowed to finish the round but the fight was stopped after the bell.

Johnson was the victim of bad luck, as he seemed to have a legitimate chance to score the biggest victory of his career only to watch it slip away because of the gash.

The good news for him is that he clearly demonstrated that he can still compete on even terms with a top 160-pounder. He almost certainly isn’t finished as a player in the middleweight division if that’s what he wants.

Meanwhile, you can’t say that Munguia was lucky. He landed a perfect shot that busted up his opponent. You can say that he was fortunate to avoid six more rounds that might’ve been the toughest of his career, with the final result in doubt.

He acknowledged that Johnson gave him all he could handle.

“He surprised me with the pressure from the get go,” Munguia said through a translator. “He wanted to surprise me with those punches. But I adjusted. The uppercuts inside were very important [for me].”

Munguia hadn’t fought since January, when he stopped Gary O’Sullivan in 11 rounds in his debut at 160 pounds. He had been out of the ring for more than nine months.

Now, with another victory under his belt, he wants to get back into the ring within a few months.

“I want another fight in January, then potentially a title fight,” he said. “I’ll wait and see what my promoter Fernando Beltran says what’s next for me. I want any of the 160-pound champions. Any of them would be great for me.”

In a preliminary bout, Rashidi Ellis (23-0, 12 KOs) defeated Alexis Rocha (16-1, 10 KOs) by a unanimous decision in a 12-round welterweight bout. The scores were 116-112, 116-112 and 115-113.

Rene Alvarado upsets Andrew Cancio by 7th-round stoppage

Andrew Cancio had no answer for Rene Alvarado, who stopped Cancio in the seventh round of their junior lightweight title fight.

One of boxing’s best stories came to an end on Saturday night at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California.

In its place is perhaps just the beginning of yet another feel-good underdog tale. 

Junior lightweight titleholder Andrew Cancio, boxing’s cinderella man, had no answer for Nicaraguan Rene Alvarado, who set a blistering pace from the opening bell and never looked back. As both fighters returned to their stools at the end of Round 7, referee Raul Caiz Sr. took one quick look at Cancio’s battered face and waved off the bout, as the pro-Cancio crowd went silent.

An emotional Alvarado began tearing up, as his team, including countryman Roman Gonzalez, surrounded him. Like the blue-collar Cancio, who lays pipes as a full-time employee of the Souther California Gas Company, Alvarado was something of a journeyman. After a 10-fight stretch that saw him go 4-6, Alvarado had doubts about his career. But he retooled himself to reel off seven straight wins.

With Saturday’s win, Alvarado avenged his stoppage loss to Cancio in 2015 and joins his brother, 108-pound titleholder Felix Alvarado, as the only other current Nicaraguan titleholder. Saturday’s win also landed on the 45th anniversary of when lightweight great Alexis Arguello became the first Nicaraguan to win a world title by beating Ruben Olivares.

From Round 1, Alvarado (32-8, 21 knockouts) was the quicker and stronger man. He unleashed one quick combination after another as Cancio stood in the pocket and absorbed them. By Round 3, Cancio’s face was swollen and bloodied, with a cut over his left eye. As the rounds went on, Alvarado continued his demolition job, peppering Cancio with right hands from the outside and outworking him on the inside, where he routinely snapped Cancio’s head back with quick hooks.

“It was the plan to start dominating from the beginning of the fight,” Alvarado said afterward. “This was the plan.”

Cancio could never quite get into a rhythm.

“Rene fought a helluva fight,” Cancio said afterward. “I was just two steps behind him. I don’t know. I don’t know. He fought his fight tonight and got his revenge for the rematch. Congratulations to him. He did what I did: Came over here and became a world champion. Enjoy this. I know how it feels.

The loss caps what has been a remarkable comeback for Cancio (21-5-2, 16 KOs), who had briefly retired from the sport after his stoppage loss to Joseph Diaz in 2016. He returned in 2018, won two straight, and in February, challenged then titleholder Alberto Machado and upset him by a fourth-round stoppage. He then won the rematch later in the summer.

Cancio offered no excuses for his performance on Saturday.

“I kept trying,” he said. “Tonight was (Alvarado’s) night. I got hit with too many shots. I had a great camp. There were no excuses about it. The better man won tonight. He fought a tremendous fight.”

In a barnburner on the undercard, the fan-friendly Xu Can threw 1,562 punches — a junior lightweight record, per CompuBox — en route to outpointing Manny Robles III over 12 rounds in a junior lightweight bout.

The scores were 120-108, 119-109, and 118-110, all for Can.

Both fighters wasted no time exchanging hooks and uppercuts on the inside. The early rounds were close, with Can (18-2, 3 KOs) throwing more punches but Robles (18-1, 8 KOs) landing the cleaner shots.

The tide began to turn midway through the fight, in Round 6. Can began to separate himself with his body work, landing knifing left hands to Robles’ right ribcage, and, in a sign of his superior conditioning, never relented from his torrid pace. In Round 10, Can began to add more starch to his punches and even seemed to stagger Robles with a body punch late. Though Robles was more than game — the fight was closer than the judges scored it — it was clear he had no answer for Can’s volume punching.

Afterward, Can called out Josh Warrington for a junior lightweight unification.

Also, Rashidi Ellis (22-0, 14 KOs) defeated Eddie Gomez (23-4, 13 KOs) in a welterweight rematch by unanimous decision. Two judges had it 99-91 and the other had it 100-90, all for Ellis.

Ellis won the first fight by first-round knockout in 2016.