NEW YORK (AP) — Boxer Jarrell Miller was hit with such a good punch it knocked his hair off.
The heavyweight was facing Kingsley Ibeh on Saturday night when Ibeh landed a flurry of shots in the second round that caused a roar from the crowd, despite not looking particularly hard.
But one of the punches knocked Miller’s head backward, and his hairpiece popped upward from the front, revealing a large bald spot that covered most of his head.
Miller finished the round with the hairpiece, then ripped it off in his corner between rounds and tossed it into the crowd at Madison Square Garden.
Miller won by split decision, then rubbed the top of his head while doing a celebratory dance. He said in his interview in the ring afterward that he lost his hair a couple days earlier after using a bottle of shampoo he found at his mother's house.
The boxer from Brooklyn was fighting on the undercard of the event topped by Teofimo Lopez's title bout against unbeaten Shakur Stevenson, in what was his first fight at Madison Square Garden. Miller was supposed to fight at the arena against then-heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in 2019, but failed a drug test. Andy Ruiz replaced him and upset Joshua.
AP boxing: https://apnews.com/boxing
Kingsley Ibeh=, right, punches Jarrell Miller during a heavyweight boxing match Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Kingsley Ibeh, right, punches Jarrell Miller during a heavyweight boxing match Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Kingsley Ibeh, right, punches Jarrell Miller during a heavyweight boxing match Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Democrat Christian Menefee won a Texas U.S. House seat in a special election Saturday that will narrow Republicans’ already-slim majority, telling President Donald Trump that the Democratic district “topples corrupt presidencies.”
Menefee, the Harris County attorney, prevailed in a runoff against Amanda Edwards, a former Houston City Council member. He will replace the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, a former Houston mayor, who died in March 2025.
The seat representing the heavily Democratic Houston-based district has been vacant for nearly a year.
Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott didn’t schedule the first round of voting until November. Menefee and Edwards were the top vote-getters in a 16-candidate, all-parties primary. They advanced to a runoff because no candidate won a majority of the vote.
Speaking to supporters at his victory party, Menefee promised to fight for universal health insurance, seek to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations and “tear ICE up from the roots.”
He also addressed Trump directly after noting that one of the district's most storied representatives, Democrat Barbara Jordan, was an eloquent voice for President Richard Nixon's impeachment ahead of his 1974 resignation.
“The results here tonight are a mandate for me to work as hard as I can to oppose your agenda, to fight back against where you’re taking this country and to investigate your crimes," Menefee said.
Menefee will fill the remainder of Turner's term, which ends when a new Congress is sworn in to office in January 2027.
Abbott had argued that Houston officials needed the six months between Turner’s death and the first round of voting to prepare for the special election, but Democrats criticized the long wait as a move designed to give the GOP a slightly bigger cushion in the House for difficult votes.
While campaigning Saturday, Edwards, 44, referenced the long vacancy in a video she posted to social media, saying voters have gone too long without a voice in Washington. Later, she told supporters at her watch party that the race “never was about winning a particular seat.”
“This journey has always been about creating a community where every single person in it, no matter what their background, no matter where they were from, no matter where they lived, would have the opportunity to thrive,” she said. “That means access to health care. That means education. That means economics.”
Menefee, 37, was endorsed by several prominent Texas Democrats including former congressman Beto O’Rourke and Rep. Jasmine Crockett. He was joined Saturday by Crockett, who is running for the U.S. Senate.
Menefee ousted an incumbent in 2020 to become Harris County’s first Black county attorney, representing it in civil cases, and he has joined legal challenges of President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration.
Edwards served four years on the Houston City Council starting in 2016. She ran for U.S. Senate in 2020 but finished fifth in a 12-person primary. She unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in the 2024 primary, and when Lee died that July, local Democrats narrowly nominated Turner over Edwards as Lee’s replacement.
Menefee finished ahead of Edwards in the primary, but Edwards picked up the endorsement of the third-place finisher, state Rep. Jolanda Jones, who said Edwards had skills “best suited to go against Trump.”
After Saturday, yet another election lies ahead in little over a month. Both Menefee and Edwards are on the ballot again on March 3, when they will face Democratic Rep. Al Green in another election — this one a Democratic primary in a newly drawn 18th congressional district, for the full term that starts in 2027.
GOP lawmakers who control Texas state government drew a new map last summer for this year’s midterms, pushed by Trump to create five more winnable seats for Republicans to help preserve their majority.
Winter weather added to voters' confusion, forcing local officials to cancel two days of advance voting this week, prompting civil rights group to go to court to win a two-day extension, into Thursday.
Texas Congressional Candidate Christian Menefee speaks to supporters during his watch party at The Post Houston on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)
Texas Congressional Candidate Christian Menefee speaks to supporters during his watch party at The Post Houston on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)
Texas Congressional Candidate Amanda Edwards waves at a voter at a polling location at Acres Homes MultiService Center on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)
Texas Congressional Candidate Christian D. Menefee holds up one of his flyers as a voter passes by in a car while he visited a polling location at Acres Homes MultiService Center on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)
Texas Congressional Candidate Amanda Edwards waves at a voter at a polling location at Acres Homes MultiService Center on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)
Texas Congressional Candidate Christian D. Menefee gets a photo with poll worker, Jessica Barraza, as he visited a polling location at Acres Homes MultiService Center on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)
Texas Congressional Candidate Christian D. Menefee shakes hands with Patrick Edge, a poll worker for Amanda Edwards, as he visited a polling location at Acres Homes MultiService Center on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)
