September 11th-Stevenson faces Karpency whilst Spence and Valdez both take on interesting tests9/10/2015 Love it not or not this weekend is a big one for boxing fans and of course it kicks off on Friday with with numerous fights, sadly though few really excite us.
The most notable action comes from Canada where we have a male world title bout, a former Heavyweight contender and a man that many in the US are viewing as the most promising prospect in the west. The world title bout, the most notable bout of the night, is a bit of a farce if we're being honest as WBC Light Heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (26-1, 21) defends his belt against the undeserving Tommy Karpency (25-4-1, 14). Stevenson, who is widely viewed as one of the top Light Heavyweights, should be facing much better competition than Karpency who has scored only one win of note, an upset over Chad Dawson. Coming in to the bout Karpency is 4-2, though one of those losses was a shut out to Nathan Cleverly and it's be a huge surprise if this bout was even close to being semi-competitive. It really is a farcical defense by Stevenson. A much better bout will see Errol Spence (17-0, 14) take on Chris Van Heerden (23-1-1, 12). On paper this is a great match up with Spence finally taking on a guy who will be well prepared and confident. Sadly paper can be wrong and we're expecting Spence to make it look relatively easy against a some-what padded Van Heerden who is likely to be broken down in the middle rounds. A third bout, albeit another relative farce, will see 51 year old former contender Donovan Ruddock (40-5-1, 30) take on Dillon Carmon (8-2, 7) in a bout for the Canadian Heavyweight title. Ruddock, once one of the most exciting Heavyweights on the planet, is fighting for the third time since making his comeback to the ring earlier this year however he is a shadow of the man who fought Mike Tyson twice back in the early 1990's. Aged 29 Carmon is significantly younger than Ruddock but is relatively limited and hasn't really scored a win of note. Although a farce, given Ruddock's age, this could be an entertaining one. In the US we have 3 bouts of note, including possibly the bout of the night. One of the bouts will see Olympic champion Egor Mekhontsev (9-0, 7) take on the heavy handed Jackson Junior (18-3, 16) in what should be an explosive affair. It's hard to see Mekhontsev losing here though we would like to see him step up sooner, rather than later. Interestingly Junior's last fight came against Korean veteran Seung Kue Park, who was stopped inside a round by the Beazilian puncher, Park was 51 years old though and had been blown out in his previous 4. Another will see the promising, and very exciting, Jesse Hart (17-0, 14) battle against Aaron Pryor Jr (19-8-1, 12) in a bout for a couple of titles. Hart really does look to be one of the most fun to watch American fighters and he should see off Pryor here, despite the fact Pryor has only been stopped twice in 28 bouts. The bout of the show, and possibly the bout of the night, will see touted Mexican puncher Oscar Valdez (16-0, 14) take on former world title challenger Chris Avalos (26-3, 19). On paper this is a huge step up for Valdez but it's one that his team will feel confident about. Avalos, who has fought once since being demolished by Carl Frampton, is the under-dog but is certainly “live” coming in to this one. In Argentina fans will see a female world title bout as WBO Light Welterweight champion Fernanda Soledad Alegre (21-2-1, 11) defends her belt against Lely Luz Florez (15-6-1, 9). The long reigning champion has held her title for close to 5 years and this will be her 12h defense of the belt. As for Florez she will be hoping to score her biggest win since a 2009 shock win over Chris Namus in Uruguay. It's hard to see Alegre losing here though hopefully Florez will give the champion a good test.
0 Comments
Some days just look like they will be fun. The days may be full of mismatches but they look like fun mismatches with fighters we don't mind watching. This Saturday is likely to be one of those days. The biggest fight, by far, this weekend will see the big punching WBC Light Heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (23-1, 20) defending his title against Polish challenger Andrzej Fonfara (25-2-0-1, 15). Stevenson is a man who was being lined up to fight Russia's Sergey Kovalev though it appears that bout is now off the table after a lot of disagreements from the promotional teams of the two men. Instead it appears that Stevenson will be looking for Bernard Hopkins, if he's successful here. Stevenson is a monster puncher and was one of the revelations of 2013. Sadly for Fonfara he's probably on to a hiding to nothing, albeit a high profile hiding. With the power of Stevenson it's hard not to image that this will be fun. On the same Canadian card we're expecting an enjoyable clash between fringe contenders David Lemieux (31-2, 29) and Fernando Guerrero (26-2, 19). Both men are flawed and very limited but together they should manage to put on an entertaining, albeit shot lived, Middleweight scrap. Also on this same card is a clash between the world ranked Eleider Alvarez (14-0, 8) and the once beaten Alexander Johnson (15-1, 6). Alvarez made some enemies last time he was in the ring by acting like a spoilt brat. We're hoping that Alvarez doesn't just retain his unbeaten record but also shows some new found maturity. Whilst the most significant show of the day is in Canada it's not the only show with some bouts of interest. In fact we have two other notable shows in Mexico. The most significant single bout on those show's is in Acapulco convention center as WBC Featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez (55-8, 47) makes the first defence of the title he won from Abner Mares last year. Gonzalez is facing the unbeaten but unknown Clive Atwell (12-0-1, 7) from Guyana. Atwell is ranked #12 by the WBC and is on an 11 fight winning streak though his competition to date has been obscure to say the least and it's hard to imagine anything but a Gonzalez victory here. On the other Mexican card of note, in Baja California, we get two world title bouts. The most interesting of those is, oddly, a female bout as the returning Jackie Nava (28-4-3, 12) battles WBA female interim Super Bantamweight champion Alys Sanchez (12-1-1, 4). Nava hasn't fought in well over a year, having had a child in that time, though will be favoured to over-come Venezuela's Sanchez, who actually lost in a non-title bout last time out. This is a bout that looks interesting due to Nava's long lay off, though if "La Princesa Azteca" is half the fighter she was back in 2012, she wins this bout with out any major issues. On the same card is a WBA interim Super Flyweight bout that sees the talented David Sanchez (24-2-2, 19), no relation to Alys, taking on the limited Breilor Teran (13-9-1, 6). The "vacant" interim title is almost being gift wrapped for the WBA #3 ranked Sanchez here with Teran somehow holding a #9 ranking. We'll be honest and say we'd rather have seen Sanchez battle the WBA regular champion Kohei Kono than cheapen the WBA belts with this mismatch though with a strong rumour that we;ll be seeing Kono defending against WBA's top ranked challenger Koki Kameda we do understand why Sanchez is being given a WBA title fight, even if we do view it as a mismatch. (Image courtesy of Groupe Yvon Michel) |
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
December 2015
Categories
All
|