One of the big complaints we've made this year is that there was a real lack of big time action. We're two months in to the year and we could count the number of significant fights on one hand, we could then use the other hand to count how many genuinely good fighter we've had. Honestly it's been an awful start to the boxing year. Thankfully March seems to kick off the boxing for 2014. It may be late but it is much, much better than never. Unfortunately however the sheer number of high quality fights make it almost a given that you will be missing something this weekend. The first notable fight, and the one featured in the small image, is one of several female contests of interest and takes place in Australia as the hard hitting Diana Prazak (12-2, 8) attempts to make the first defense of her WBC female Super Featherweight title. Prazak will be fighting fellow compatriot Shannon O'Connell (8-2, 5) in a bout that has all the ingredients to be a fire cracked. O'Connell is best known to use for her close fight with Korea's Hyun-Mi Choi last year whilst Prazak announced herself last year by stopping Frida Wallberg and unfortunately ending Wallberg's career in the process. Although it's a female fight it could be the best of the day. The O'Connell/Prazak bout isn't the only major female bout of the day and in Germany we get another as the highly popular Chrstina Hammer (16-0, 8) defends her WBO female Middleweight title against fellow German Jessica Balogun (23-2, 11). Whilst the Prazak/O'Connell bout looks like a fantastic match up, this one is unfortunately a huge mismatch and it's hard to see anything other than an easy defense for the talented Hammer. On the same card in Germany their is a WBO Super Middleweight title fight as Robert Steiglitz (46-3, 26) battles Arthur Abraham (38-4, 28) for the third time in less than 18 months. Although the men are 1-1 it seems that Abraham's career is in free fall and we'd be shocked if Steiglitz doesn't retain his title again here. The Stieglitz/Abraham trilogy isn't the only world title fight in Europe as Scotland's Ricky Burns (36-2-1, 11) tries to put poor back-to-back performance behind him and defend his WBO Lightweight title against America's unbeaten Terence Crawford (22-0, 16) in what looks like one of the nights most interesting match ups. We'd favour Crawford here though it's certainly his toughest bout to date and Burns, for the faults he has shown in recent bouts, has shown that he's not got any quit in him. Unfortunately we have the feeling this could end up being either a total dud or controversial with fans on both sides of the Atlantic being unsatisfied by either the action or the result. Staying in Britain there is another major contest involving a Brit as James DeGale (17-1, 11) battles the unbeaten Gevorg Khatchikian (20-0, 8) in what looks to be a semi-final eliminator to fight Sakio Bika for the WBC Super Middleweight title. The winner of DeGale/Khatchikian is likely to need to beat another top contender to get a world title fight but this is a big step towards one. Across the Atlantic the action comes just as thick and fast. The highlight bout state side sees Vasyl Lomachenko (1-0, 1) fighting grizzled Mexican veteran Orlando Salido (40-12-2-1, 28) for the WBO Featherweight title. A victory for Lomachenko gets him into the record books for fewest professional bouts before winning a world title (in regards to men, the actual record is held by the aforementioned Choi who won a WBA title on her debut) though this is far from a foregone conclusion and it should prove to be one of the most enthralling and anticipated bouts of the year. On the same card as Lomachenko/Salido we get a major non-title fight as former WBC Middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (47-1-1-1, 32) takes on the under-rated Brian Vera (23-7, 14) for the second time. The two men fought last year with Chavez being given a highly debatable victory over Vera. Although Chavez had his excuses for his performances it does sound like he means business this time and is expected to "show up" this time around. Going south, down the American continent, we get another major female bout in Mexico. Strangely this is another major rematch as Zulina Munoz (40-1-2, 26) attempts to avenge her sole defeat. Munoz, the current WBC female Super Flyweight champion, is unbeaten in over 6 years, since she dropped a decision to Alesia Graf (26-3, 11) this time Munoz is more experienced, wiser and more mature as well as the home fighter. The Mexican champion has ti be favoured here. Finally, in Argentina, we get one more female world title fight. Like the Hammer/Balogun fight this one is also a mismatch as WBC Lightweight champion Erica Anabella Farias (18-0, 9), one of the premier pound-for-pound female fighters on the planet, defends her title against Maria Eugenia Lopez (8-7-2). To call this a mismatch is little more than stating the obvious, unfortunately however we do sometimes need to state the obvious. A win for Farias however sets up a fight with Belgium's excellent Delfine Persoon in what should be considered a female super-fight. (
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February 28th-Middleweight Boxcino tournament on ESPN and Mayweather prospects on Showtime2/26/2014 This Friday's action outside of Asia feels massively lacking in terms of quality match ups with only a handful even worth noting. Thankfully it lightens our work load though it does leave fans perhaps feel a little under-whelmed at the relative lack of action. The most notable action for us is on ESPN in the US and is the second week of "Boxcino". Last weeks "Boxcino" action was in the Lightweight division, this week however we move up the weights to Middleweight and unfortunately we have no direct interest in this weeks bouts. Whilst there are no Asian fighters involved this time we still get 4 interesting bouts. In one quarter final we will see US based Lithuanian Donatas Bondorovas (18-4-1, 6) taking on the once beaten Willie Monroe Jr (15-1, 6). On paper this looks like a bout that you'd favour Monroe in, though Bondorovas is better than his record indicates and some are tipping him as the competitions dark horse. Another of the quarter finals will see Cerresso Fort (17-2-1, 11) fighting the unbeaten Vitaliy Kopylenko (22-0, 12). The winner here will face the Monroe/Bondorovs winner and whilst again one man has to be favoured by record it's probably the man with the more losses who is actually the more proven and more complete fighter here. A third quarter final will see another unbeaten man in action as Brandon Adams (12-0, 8) takes on Daniel Edouard (23-4-2, 14) in a bout that probably should see the unbeaten man favoured. The winner of Adams/Edouard will be fighting against the winner of the final quarter final, which pits together Sena Agbeko (15-0, 15) and Raymond Gatica (13-2, 8). It's fair to say Agbeko will be favoured but he is taking a major step up here. As well as the ESPN card their is a rival card on Showtime that features a number of promising US prospects who are fighting under the "Mayweather" banner. These fighters include the highly rated Christopher Pearson (10-0, 9), who will be fighting the tough Larnado Tyner (31-8-2, 20), and the talented Luis Arias (8-0, 4), who fights the experienced Dashon Johnson (15-14-3, 5). It's hard to imagine any of the unbeaten men, which also include J'Leon Love (16-0-0-1, 9) and Badou Jack (16-0-1, 11) losing, though if any of them really stand out they may be able to feature on the Floyd Maywerather/Marcos Maidana undercard on May 3rd. With that in mind we may well see some of the man really trying to put on a show. It's rare to say this but this past Saturday saw the most interesting international bout of the day being between two females as opposed to their male equivalent. Although it's rare for female boxing to be one of the true highlights of the weekend it did come with a good reason. That's because the bout in question featured former world champion, and Mexican boxing goddess, Mariana Juarez (39-7-3, 16), pictured, fighting against American buzzsaw Melissa McMorrow (9-4-3, 1) in a Super Flyweight contest. The bout, a hard fought one to say the least, saw Juarez just coming out with a narrow unanimous decision in a bout that could easily have gone either way. What it set up for Juarez was a WBC title fight with fellow Mexican Zulina Munoz though with McMorrow retaining her high standard she may be viewed as a potential opponent for another champion possibly even Naoko Fujioka who surely has to be looking to her next fight having taken the WBA belt at 115lbs late last year. As well as the female contest we also saw a few world ranked men in action. The two notable ones were both Dominican. These saw Featherweight hopeful Claudio Marrero (15-1, 11) take an expected decision victory over veteran Jose Angel Beranza (36-29-2, 28) whilst Juan Carlos Payano (15-0, 8) took a decision over the stubborn German Meraz (46-30-1, 25). Unfortunately, as you can tell from the records, both contests were mismatches and between them the Dominican's lost just a round or two. Payano, a Bantamweight prospect, will need to fight top Asian's to get to a world title whilst Marrero, a good Featherweight, will likely have a number of Asian's aiming for his head and the world ranking he holds. (Picture courtesy of boxrec.com) There wasn't much notable action in the US on Friday night though there was enough to get our interest for various reasons.
For us the stand out fighter to keep a note of was Ievgen Khytrov (3-0, 3) who stopped the more experienced Julius Kennedy (7-8-1, 3) in 5 rounds. Khytrov, who is gradually developing his traits as a professional, seemed very relaxed and although he took some shots he did really grind down Kennedy with solid shots to head and body. It's a shame Khytrov, who beat Ryota Murata in the 2011 World Amateur Championships final, is starting at such a low level but on the flipside he is re-styling himself slightly and being given time to adapt to that change rather than being put on the fast track like Murata. Another notable set of bouts took place on ESPN's "Friday Night Fights" as part of a "Boxcino" tournament. The tournament pits 8 men in a small knockout competition in the hope of creating a notable name at the end of it. One of those fights was an all Russian affair that saw Petr Petrov (33-4-2, 15) decisioning the previously unbeaten Fedor Papazov (14-1, 9). Petrov will find himself fighting Chris Rudd (13-1, 8) in his semi final after Rudd surprised everyone and defeated one of the tournament favourites Yakubu Amidu (21-5-2, 19) via a decision. The Rudd/Amidu bout went to an extra round to declare a winner with the men drawing after 6, unfortunately for Amidu he failed to convince the judges he deserved round 7. The other semi final will pit Miguel Gonzalez (23-3, 16) up against the big punching Fernando Carcamo (16-5, 13). Gonzalez booked his place in the semi finals by narrowly out pointing the big punching Miguel Angel Mendoza (21-3-2, 21) whilst Carcamo unexpectedly stopped the previously unbeaten Samuel Kotey Neequaye (21-1, 15) in just 2 rounds. The only other fight of any real note saw the world ranked Henry "Hammerin' Hank" Lundy (24-3-1, 11) out point the once touted Angelo Santana (14-2, 11). Lundy, ranked by the WBC and IBF will likely see a boost in his ranking and may well climb above Min-Wook Kim in the next WBC rankings as a result of this victory. We don't imagine Lundy will ever be a world champion but he has the skills to give many of the elite Light Welterweight's a very tough time if he's on form. If he's not using his skills he can be beaten by many of the top 25 guys at 140lbs and this inconsistency is a big problem for the talented and brash Light Welterweight. This past Thursday may not have been a big one for boxing but we did have some action in Panama that was streamed live, around the world, by TV Max 9. For the most part these bouts where lower level and lacking any real interest to use however there were two lower weight bouts that certainly did catch our attention. The first of these bouts was fought at Super Flyweight and saw former world title challenger Ricardo Nunez (26-5, 22) suffering a shocking upset loss at the hands of the unheralded Jonathan Arias (15-9, 13). Arias, from the Dominican republic, was given no chance though managed to hurt Nunez in the second round before forcing the referee to stop proceedings with Nunez unable to protect himself. Whilst Nunez loss was a major shock the main event wasn't much of a shock with WBC #2 ranked Flyweight Luis Concepcion (31-3, 22) taking a victory over Carlos Fuentes (17-2, 14). Fuentes, a hard punching Mexican was dropped in rounds 5 and 7 before a clash of heads saw the fighters taken to the scorecards in round 9 with Concepcion taking a clear decision victory. Although the contest was relatively one sided in terms of rounds it was highly entertaining with both men landed plenty of big shots...and missing plenty of big shots. With his WBC ranking Concepcion is likely to be first in line to fight for the WBC world title next year if the much talked about world title bout between Akira Yaegashi and Roman Gonzalez takes place later this year. (Picture courtesy of boxrec) Whilst much of Saturday's important action is in Macau there is a small number of notable bouts taking place elsewhere. The stand out bout, from where we're sat, is in Mexico as Mexican female fighting icon Mariana "Barbie" Juarez (38-7-3, 16), a former Riyo Togo opponent, takes on the excellent little American Melissa McMorrow (9-3-3, 1). This bout might not be one that registers in the mind of many boxing fans world wide due to the general view on female boxing but this is as close to a female super fight that you can get. Whilst the Juarez/McMorrow is a big fight on it's own it's a bigger fight for us when you consider it's in the Super Flyweight division, the same division that currently has Japanese sensation Naoko Fujioka as one of the champions. Although the Juarez/McMorrow fight is effectively an eliminator for the WBC title we'd certainly not mind either of the women challenging Fujioka for the WBA belt. In the US we get two other bouts of note, both on the same card and both featuring world ranked Dominicans. One of those fights sees the unbeaten Juan Carlos Payano (14-0, 8) fighting against the experienced German Meraz (46-29-1, 25). Ranked #2 by the WBA and #10 by the WBC at Bantamweight Payano is certainly a contender that Asian fans should be making a note of. His WBA ranking sits him a place ahead of Tabtimdeang Na Rachawat (#2) whilst his WBC ranking sees him sandwiched between Petch Sor Chitpattan (#9) and Kohei Oba (#11). It would seem very likely that if he wants a Bantamweight title he will need to fight at least 1 top Asian opponent in the near future and that could make for an interesting contests. The other bout on the show sees Payano's compatriot Claudio Marrero (14-1, 11), ranked #10 by the WBA at Featherweight. Marrero, like Payano,is in easy against an experienced but limited Jose Angel Beranza (36-28-2, 28). Although Marrero is coming in after his first loss, he should still have a field day with Beranza who is tough but very limited and has been collecting a lot of losses in recent years. This coming Friday is a busy one in Asian boxing with shows scattered about Asia though it's also a big one in the US with a number of fights that should interest our audience for various reasons. The clearest reason is the Lightweight "Boxcino" tournament which gets under-way on ESPN Friday Night Fights in Nevada. For us the most interesting bout is the quarter final that pits Fedor Papazov (14-0, 9) against Petr Petrov (32-5-2, 15) in an all Russian bout. As we've mentioned this in the upcoming bouts segment of our site we won't go into too much detail though we do expect this be a great fight between two men looking to prove their value to an American audience. The Papazov/Petrov fight is one of 4 Lightweight contests on the show and amazingly the other 3 all look great. These include Miguel Gonzalez (22-3, 16) fighting against the big punching Miguel Angel Mendoza (21-2-2, 21). This bout is one where intuition makes you favour Mendoza though in reality we'd favour Gonzalez who has beaten better men that Mendoza. Another bout sees Mexican southpaw Fernando Carcamo (15-5, 12) fighting the unbeaten Samuel Kotey Neequaye (21-0, 15) in a very good match up, despite the difference in their record. For us the the tournament favourite takes part in the remaining contest which sees the highly experienced Yakubu Amidu (21-4-2, 19) fighting Chris Rudd (12-1, 8). Amidu is, for us, the clear tournament favourite and although he has lost 2 of his last 4 he should go through Rudd relatively easily. Importantly for us, the winner of this fight will face the winner of the all Russian contest giving it a little bit of extra significance. On a separate US show Ukrainian former amateur sensation Ievgen Khytrov (2-0, 2) takes on Julius Kennedy (7-7-1, 3) in what we're going to guess will be a mismatch. Khytrov, who beat Ryota Murata in the 2011 World Amateur Championship final could do with much stiffer tests than this and is, in terms of ability, around the same level as Murata. There is little point in this sort of match up for the Ukrainian when you consider that Murata fights the following day against a former world title challenger. In terms of female boxing, the only fight of notice is in Argentina as Fernanda Soledad Alegre (17-1-1, 8) defends her WBO Light Welterweight title against the over-matched Marisol Reyes (13-7-1, 6). Don't be shocked if this one is over early as it really is a border-line criminal mismatch. The Middleweight division got a lot of attention this past Wednesday with several bits of news flying out as well as one major domestic bout in Australia. The first bit of news was that Britain's Martin Murray had been offered world title fights by both Felix Sturm, the IBF champion, an Gennady Golovkin, the WBA champion. Surprisingly just as that news broke Australian Sam Soliman mentioned, live on TV, that he had a signed contract to fight Felix Sturm in a mandatory title fight organised by the IBF. Whilst Sturm's comments and mandatory status don't prevent a bout between Sturm and Murray taking place, it would force the winner or a Sturm/Murray bout to face Soliman by August and that would be a quick turn around considering we're already in February. We'd assume that the Soliman/Sturm bout would take precedence over a Murray contest with the British fighter perhaps given a chance to fight Sturm if he defeated Soliman. When it came to the only notable fight of the day, which was on the same broadcast as Soliman's comments, we saw former IBF champion Daniel Geale (30-2, 16), pictured, batter fellow Aussie Garth Wood (12-4-1, 8). The bout was a mismatch from the off and Wood was dropped numerous times before his corner saved him from even more embarrassment. What Wood found out was that there is a gulf of difference between domestic class and world class. Following Geale's victory there was a lot of calls for him to be Golovkin's next opponent. We know that won't happen, Geale has already said as much due to TV issues, though there is nothing stopping Geale from fighting Golovkin later in the year in a bout that seems to be as good as any that Golovkin will get. The other option is that Murray says yes to Golovkin, unfortunately though that bout would likely need to be fought outside of the US as Murray has failed in the past to get a US visa. It seems likely that Golovkin's next contest won't be with either man but his one after next could be with either depending on how easy they are to negotiate with and what other options they may have going their way. Thursday night isn't a day when Western fans tend to see much boxing in this day and age but for fans in Panama this coming Thursday is a notable night with a card shown on local channel "TV Max 9". The main event on this show sees WBC #2 ranked Flyweight Luis Concepcion (30-3, 22), pictured, defending his world ranking and his WBC Silver Flyweight title. Concepcion, one of the most entertaining Flyweights in world boxing, will be expected to roll over Mexican 23 year old Carlos Fontes (17-1, 14) who has an impressive looking record until you look at just how padded it is. To date Fontes has beaten just 5 fighters with winning records including Ernesto Guerrero, who he has beaten twice. Although a puncher the Mexican lacks the experience of Concepcion who is a former interim WBA World Flyweight title hold and holds wins over Denkaosan Kaovichit, Odilon Zaleta and Eric Ortiz. Those wins, alongside his 2 losses to Hernan "Tyson" Marquez, should have done more than enough to prepare him for a fight with Fontes. If Concepcion, as expected, gets past Fontes he'll be in pole position for a WBC Flyweight title fight with the winner of the heavily mooted bout between Akira Yaegasghi and Roman Gonzalez. With out trying to sound pre-emptive Concepcion against either would be genuinely great to watch. Boxing can be a funny old sport at times and today showed just how funny and odd it can be as we got a bit of everything. There really was nothing missing from what should be considered the night of boxing so far this year. The first notable action was in the UK as Heavyweight's collided in two separate "UK v US" bouts. Unfortunately for the US these were both won by the British fighters. The first Heavyweight clash saw the always entertaining Tyson Fury (22-0, 16) stopping the hard hitting Joey Abell (29-8, 28) in an entertaining, if some what clumsy, battle. Abell went over to the UK to win but simply lacked the skills or size to really give Fury too many questions, he did however buzz Fury on at least 2 or 3 occasions. In the second Heavyweight clash we actually had something a bit more competitive with Dereck Chisora (20-4, 13) out pointing American Kevin Johnson (29-5-1, 14) in a bit of a peculiar bout. It seemed, for many rounds, that Chisora simply out worked Johnson applying constant pressure and and just breaking him down bit by bit. Unfortunately though Johnson showed that he had the skills to beat Chisora he just lacked the desire to do so and instead dropped a clear decision in a bout that he could have won had he managed to find the fire inside of him to actually fight. The results in the Heavyweight bouts are set to see the winners pitted together in all British Heavyweight bout that could also act as a pseudo world title eliminator. Following the fights from Britain we had to wait a little bit before we had action from South America. Amazingly the South American action was spread across numerous countries. The most notable bout in Latin America was in Mexico as Roman Gonzalez (38-0, 32) extended his unbeaten record with a highly entertaining stoppage over Juan Kantun (21-6-3, 15). Kantun, to his credit, came to fight and show no respect to Gonzalez's fearsome reputation unfortunately though he was no match for Gonzalez when the Nicaraguan moved through the gears and broke down the brave Mexican. This victory for Gonzalez sees him moving a step closer to a fight with WBC Flyweight champion Akira Yaegashi in a bout that we expect to see later this year. Whilst the Gonzalez/Kantun bout was the main event on a card from Tapachula, Chiapas the highlight of the show was actually the chief support bout which featured a truly sensational fight of the year candidate. The bout in question saw former IBF Super Flyerweight champion Rodrigo Guerrero (20-5-1, 13) stopping the previously unbeaten Daniel Rosas (17-1-1, 11) in a bout that can only be described as "pure, unadulterated violence". Both men were staggered, stunned, rocked and cut as we had a pure Latino war that saw both men putting it all on the line. If you get a chance to download this one do, you will not be disappointed. Guerrero may be a familiar name to Asian boxing fans having seen him lose late last year in an IBF title fight to Daiki Kameda. This win just puts into perspective how good Guerrero is and how good, as a result, Daiki actually is despite the hate he seems to get from various corners. Staying in Mexico for a few more moments, though moving to Jalisco, we had the biggest upset of the night. In this bout the WBC #2 ranked Featherweight Robinson Castellanos (19-10, 12) was sensationally stopped by the unheralded Rene Alvarado (20-2, 13). Whilst the records may not make this look like an upset it really was a shock. Alvarado has lost 2 of his last 7 and had never beaten anyone of note, Castellanos on the other hand was unbeaten in 11 and held a notable recent victory over Celestino Caballero, whilst other wins included a decision over the then unbeaten Christopher Perez and a stoppages over Omar Estrella and Orlando Rizo. This was a huge shock and a big shake up at 126lbs will follow this result. Down in Argentina the former WBA interim Welterweight title holder Diego Gabriel Chaves (23-1, 19) bounced back from the first loss of his career by stopping the over-matched Juan Alberto Godoy (31-14-1, 10) in just 3 rounds. Chaves, a highly entertaining fighter with real power, would make for a great opponent with almost any top Welterweight contender and we'd love to see him in action again even if he'll never manage to become a genuine world champion. He's talented and exciting but also very flawed and could be matched in to some fantastic action contests if promoters want to give him a chance. Whilst in Panama former world champion, and a man known to every Japanese boxing fan, Liborio Solis (17-3-1, 8) took swift care of the horribly over-matched Alex Olea (10-7, 5). Solis, who has beat both Kohei Kono and Daiki Kameda at Super Flyweight, scored a first KO over Olea in a bout that saw Solis weighting 124lbs, significantly above the Super Flyweight limit that he fought both Japanese fighters at. Going back up continental America, from the south to the United States we saw yet more fistic action. The bout that we felt was most noteworthy from this show saw Esquiva Falcao (1-0, 1) make his successful debut in professional boxing as he managed to defeat Joshua Robertson (5-5, 1) by stoppage. Robertson did prove to be tough early on but was swiftly broken down by Falcao who looks like he has the potential to be a world Middleweight champion. For fans who recognise the name "Esquiva Falcao" it could well have because of his amateur rivalry with Japan's very own Ryota Murata. Murata twice beat Falcao in major international competition, including the 2012 Olympic final, and they are now both promoted in the US by Top Rank. On the same US card as Falcao's victory there was also a stoppage victory for the much touted Jessie Magdaleno (18-0, 14 KOs) who stopped stopped Mexican Roberto Castaneda (20-6, 15 KOs) in 5 rounds. Castaneda was dropped twice in round 2 before being finished in round 5 by one of the fastest rising US prospects. The main event on the aforementioned US show saw Jessie Magdaleno's older brother Diego Magdaleno (25-1, 10) in action. Diego Magdaleno, ranked by bother the IBF and WBO at 130lbs, made light work of the over-matched Jorge Pazos (14-7-1, 8) though looked several leagues below the likes of Takashi Uchiyama and Takashi Miura, both of whom look like they would eat up Magdaleno and spit out the bones any time they wanted. |
InternationalWe know that not every fight involves an Asian fighter but a lot of fights do affect Asian fighter. As a result we've decided to add this new section to Asian boxing where we look at selected International bouts. Archives
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