Snips and Snipes 23 July 2015
It looks very much as though Andre Berto will be the next FMMM (Floyd Mayweather Made Millionaire).If he is the choice then it is good news that it might be available on free to view TV but how much of a concession is that? Being realistic Mayweather vs. Berto is not a very attractive fight as Berto just does not have the record or the charisma for it to be a pay-to view sellable event, so getting something for free that you would not have bought anyway is not much of an offer. The big attraction of course is Mayweather aiming to make history by equalling Rocky Marciano’s 49-0. That will be a tremendous achievement and it is inconceivable that Mayweather will settle for equalling the record when one more fight could take him past Marciano’s record (don’t give up hope Amir). If he does bow out at 49-0 then the search on for another “Mayweather” but to make the sort of money Floyd has made you also need to find another Manny Pacquiao. Suggestions please to Showtime and Top Rank. It is incidental but it shows how the sport has changed in that it took Marciano just eight years to reach fight No 49 and it has taken Floyd 19 years. No reflection on either boxer just the way that things were and are now.

Nothing is signed yet but it looks as though the Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux fight may go ahead on 21 November. If it comes off it will be a clash between two of the greatest amateur boxers of all time. They never met in their vested days as Rigondeaux fought as a bantam and Lomachenko as first a featherweight and then a lightweight. Rigondeaux won Olympic gold in 2000 and 2004 and World Championship gold in 2001 and 2005. Lomachenko won Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012 and World gold in 2011 and 2012. The only major championships they might have both appeared at was the 2007 World Championships but Rigondeaux attempted to defect at the 2007 Pan American Games in Brazil but was arrested by the Brazilian police and sent back to Cuba and Fidel Castro banned him from any further participation in the Cuban team so no world championships for Guillermo in 2007. He finally managed to defect in 2009 and turned pro.

Mayweather vs. Berto may be a hard sell but the talk of Gennady Golovkin vs. David Lemieux in New York on 17 October and of Scott Quigg getting a defining fight against Nonito Donaire with November being suggested (perhaps alongside Lomachenko vs. Rigondeaux) either in Manchester or Dubai is exciting. Now they would be fights worth paying for.

Whilst Wlad Klitschko vs. Tyson Fury has hugged the heavyweight headlines there was bad news in the background for heavyweights as Wlad signed a new five fight deal with German TV Company RTL. The Fury fight is the first fight in that deal to take care of Wlad’s mandatory obligation with the WBO and the plan is then to tackle Vyacheslav Glazkov to get his IBF mandatory out of the way with probably Ruslan Chagaev or whoever holds the secondary WBA title next. Of course Fury could make that deal just a worthless bit of paper.

The WBA, WBC and IBF have been very kind and ensured that my ratings oversight of bouts now past and yet to come during the past week has been interesting but not good for my blood pressure. Now read on:
Every time I think the WBA have hit rock bottom they produce a big shovel and continue to dig. Take the fight last weekend for their vacant interim super middle weight title where German hope Vincent Feigenbutz stopped an outclassed Mauricio Reynoso to win the title. Reynoso-who is he? Well he is a Peruvian who lost on points to Jaime Barboza in December 2012 and did not fight again until winning a four round fight in March this year. But Reynoso needs to be in the top 15 to fight for the title and he was. He was No 8 in the ratings issued by the WBA on 5 June. A bit of a puzzle that as he was not in the WBA ratings for January, February, March or April but in the ratings for May published on June 6 he suddenly appears at No 8 on the basis of one four round fight in 31 months and not having fought for almost three months before his mysterious elevation. What a disgraceful manipulation of their ratings.

On August 15 Carlos Cuadras will defend his WBC super fly title against Dixon Flores. This is so bad I thought it must be another WBA title fight but no it is the WBC. Flores who is he? Well he is a 21-year-old Nicaraguan with an 11-2-2 record and is a bantamweight/super bantam. In July last year he lost to Frederick Castro (6-3-2 Flores weighed 119lbs) and then in August drew in his only ten round fight with Jose Rios (11-1) for the Nicaraguan bantam title (Flores weighed 118lbs). He has had four fights since then-all six round fights with his weights having been 119lbs, 122lbs, 118 ½ lbs and 120lbs. In February he was not rated in the WBC top 40 at bantam or super fly. By April he was at No 21 at super fly and in May was up to No 19 and in June up to 18 which is still a problem as he needs to be in the top 15. Surprise, surprise in the latest WBC ratings Flores is No 13 so eligible to fight for the title. Not bad progress for a guy who has not fought for the last five months and has not weighed inside the super fly limit since his first two fights in 2013! If something tragic were to happen to Flores the largest blame would lie with the WBC for doing this with their ratings and therefore making possible by sanctioning such an obvious mismatch. Of course no one will ask but it would be interesting to hear Mauricio Sulaiman’s explanation for this action. Perhaps there will be something in his next weekly report if he is not too busy swanning around the world.

The IBF did not want to be left out and they also played little games with their ratings over Alejandro Gonzalez eligibility to fight Carl Frampton. Although he had not fought since December Gonzalez suddenly appeared in their May ratings, published 5 May, at No 13 so that the fight could be sanctioned. I think he was meant to be slipped in a month earlier but there must have been a bad telephone line as they actually put Andres Gutierrez in at No 13 in their April ratings (understandable mistake after all they are both Mexican and their initials are both AG). Gutierrez had not fought since November, but the mistake was rectified and Senor Gutierrez did a disappearing act the next ratings and the correct AG was put in his place.

It is impossible to believe that someone at either the WBA or WBC thought the matches they were asked to sanction were so attractive that they slipped these guys into their ratings so it could/can happen. How it works so often is that the title fight promoter asks for and is fed with by an agent a suitable opponent i.e. one incapable of winning, and then the promoter asks the sanctioning body if they would kindly screw their own ratings, and their ratings committee, by slipping this guy in and not at any measly No 15. It is like having a little puppy rolling on its back and saying “scratch my tummy with a sanctioning fee and I’ll do anything you ask”. Sanctioning bodies have to work with promoter’s that’s a fact of life; it’s the way the boxing world turns. Alejandro Gonzalez was an acceptable level of opponent for Carl Frampton and the IBF did a bit of “adjustment” to their ratings to enable them to sanction it. Morally wrong? Yes but pragmatically acceptable, but there is no excuse for Mauricio Reynoso or Dixon Flores and what is the point of fighting your way into the top 15 when someone with no credentials at all can leap over you with the connivance of a sanctioning body. It stinks.

The people behind Jorge Linares have been talking about the WBC light champion having a defence at home in Venezuela and indicated that a return with Kevin Mitchell might be next after that. Linares was behind on the cards of two judges before the stoppage of the fight in the tenth round.

The hand injury suffered by Julio Cesar Chavez Jr at the weekend is not as serious as first thought and he is now looking to return to action in late October or early November with Alfredo Angulo being named as the possible opponent. It should be interesting to listen in on the discussions of what weight they will fight as Angulo has been 162lbs in each of his last two fights and Chavez could not get under 170lbs in his fight at the weekend.

Jhonny Gonzalez returns to the ring on 1 August against Japanese fighter Kazuki Hashimoto as he moves up to super feather. He is aiming to become a three division champion but he looked a fading fighter against Gary Russell Jr when losing his WBC feather title in March. This fight is for the vacant WBC Continental Americas title. Hashimoto has never reached ten round class, but he is leaping up to 12 rounds for this one, he has been beaten inside the distance four times in prelim bouts and is not in the JBC top 15 so they are making things as easy as the can for Jhonny.

On Japanese fighters Olympic gold medal winner and now unbeaten pro Ryota Murata has had to pull out of scheduled fight in September due to a shoulder injury but should be okay to fight in October. Despite only having had 7 pro fights and never having fought anyone even remotely rated he is No 4 with the WBC, 8(6) with the IBF and No 9 with the WBO. A fight for any version of a world title would be a huge draw for Japanese TV so don’t rule it out for late next year.

Good show shaping up in Frederikshavn for 12 September with Patrick Nielsen and Rudy Markussen both in action against TBA’s as the build-up starts to their eventual clash. Also on the card will be Patrick’s brother Micki and featherweight Dennis Ceylan.

An all-South American clash in Montreal on 18 August will see a first loss on somebody’s record as Colombian light heavy Eleider Alvarez faces Argentinian-based Paraguayan Isidro Ranoni Prieto. Alvarez is 17-0 with 10 wins by KO/TKO and Prieto is 24-0-3 with 20 wins by KO/TKO. Typical lack of agreement between the sanctioning bodies with the WBC having Alvarez 3 and Prieto 14, the IBF having Alvarez 12 but don’t rate Prieto and the WBO have Prieto 6 and don’t rate Alvarez. The WBA? They have never heard of either of them!

Marcos Maidana is back in light training. The Argentinian had said that after getting $6 million for the match with Floyd Mayweather he had lost the incentive to fight. Now he is reconsidering which is good as he is an exciting fighter and still a player at the big table.

Boxing is still a big attraction in Germany and the Arthur Abraham vs. Robert Stieglitz fight drew 3.61 million viewers equal to a 20.3 % share of the TV audience. Abraham could decide to retire next year and Sauerland Events will need to find a replacement who can draw that well and they were encouraged that Vincent Feigenbutz drew good viewing figures for his part of the show.

Television is vital for boxing so it might have seemed a good news story when South African Boxing Corporation (SABC) the government TV covered a boxing show for the first time in five years but all it really did was to highlight the chaos that only gets worse down there. By broadcasting the show the SABC ignored a long standing court interdict as part of an as yet unresolved court case against the SABC showing boxing which covers both the SABC and Boxing South Africa (BSA) and so with the support of the Minister for Sport defied their own courts. It might have been better if this tournament had been open to the public but attendance was by invitation only with the general public excluded. At the heart of the court case is BSA’s senseless determination to take control of broadcasting rights. This from an organisation whose fiscal control has been abysmal. Despite letters to the President of South Africa the Filipino boxers Rey Loreto and Jetli Purisima from a show on March 22 have not been paid. Further the participants in a South African Boxing League have not been paid and South African fighters and officials are still waiting to be paid for shows on 29 May and 28 June-don’t hold your breath guys. As for the allocation of the broadcasting rights for the SABC covered show there is no published process giving transparency on the process for allocating broadcasting rights which leaves the door open for all sorts of nefarious activities, but that is par for the course. I am sorry Rey Loreto and Jetli Purisima the way the South Africa boxers are still being screwed puts your chances of being paid at a little below zero!

Plenty of good matches scheduled for August in Mexico. On 8 August in the famous Arena Coliseo in Mexico City lightweights Dante “Crazy” Jardon and Jairo “Doberman” Lopez clash in a real 50/50 fight of big punchers and Adrian “Confessor” Hernandez meets Saul “Baby” Juarez with former WBC light fly champion Hernandez looking to get revenge for a loss due to a cut in May. A third fight on the card sees Reyes Sanchez and Diego “Buster” Cruz clash in one that is unlikely to go the distance. On 15 August in Guamuchil Carlos Cuadras defends the WBC super fly title against Nicaraguan Dixon Flores (you already know my opinion on this farce) and in a support Ramon Garcia and Juan Hernandez meet at light flyweight. On 22 August in Ciudad Juarez the colourful Nery Saguilan takes on DeMarcus Corley and on the same night in Monterrey Adrian Estrella starts his rebuilding against Colombian Alex Monterrosa with busy busy Miguel Roman also on the card. Finishing the month on 31 August not in Mexico but very much of Mexico in Los Angeles we have Abner Mares vs. Leo Santa Cruz and Hugo Ruiz vs. Julio Ceja.

Manuel Charr returns to the ring on 22 August against Mairis Briedis in Grozny, Chechen. It will be his second fight since suffering an upset loss against Johann Duhaupas in April. He kept his career alive with a win over Alex Leapai in May but he can’t afford another loss. Briedis is unbeaten in 16 fights and unlike most Latvian fighters is not a travelling loser having won bouts in Germany, Poland and the USA. The problem for Briedis is that he is a cruiserweight and weighed 201 ¾ lbs in his last fight whilst Charr weighed 252lbs in his last one.

Deirdre Gogarty was one of the pioneers of woman’s boxing and blazed a trail for others such as Katie Taylor to follow so it was good to read that Deirdre has been inducted into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame. Deirdre turned pro in 1991 and apart from her first fight in Ireland and a couple in Britain she then fought exclusively in the USA. She fought in nine different States before winning the International Boxing Federation featherweight title in Louisiana in 1997 but lost her title in 1998 and was forced to retire due to a shoulder injury. After retiring she became the first women to serve on the Louisiana Boxing Commission and trained young aspiring boxers in conjunction with Beau Williford’s well respected and very successful Ragin’ Cajun gym. A real credit to women’s boxing still.

In my report on the Cesar Cuenca vs. Ik Yang fight I mentioned the Cuenca was probably the best defensive fighter Argentina had produced since Nicolino Locche. I can imagine some younger readers (to me that is anyone under 60) saying to themselves Nicolino who? Well Locche was a legend in Argentinian boxing and was known as “El Intocable “- the untouchable and arguably the most brilliant defensive boxer of all time. He could duck, bob, weave and as a last resort block punches and leave his opponents swishing empty air and looking desperate and foolish. He had an incredible 136 fights with a 117-4-14,1ND record. He turned pro in December 1958 and in his tenth fight in December 1959 he lost on points to fellow-countryman Vicente Derado. Between that loss in December 1959 and March 1972 he had 113 fights and lost only once to Abel Laudonio and he reversed that loss. He won the WBA light welter title in 1968 beating “Paul” Takeshi Fuji in Japan and lost the title in his sixth defence to Alfonso Frazer. He beat all of the top fighters in Argentina including Derado, Jamie Gine, who was unbeaten in 76 fights at the time, Hugo Rambaldi, Manuel Alvarez, Raul Villalba and other world class fighters such as Joe Brown, Carlos Hernandez, Adolph Pruitt, Eddie Perkins, Sandro Lopopolo and Antonio Cervantes and drew with Ismael Laguna and Carlos Ortiz. His only loss inside the distance came against Cervantes in a return when Locche was the challenger for his old title and that was due to a bad cut and huge swelling over his left eye. He retired in August 1976 by which time he had fought 1349 rounds of boxing. He was never the most diligent trainer and habitual smoker and it was not unusual to see his seconds shielding him from view and helping whilst he had a few puffs of a cigarette between rounds. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003. A remarkable man who passed away in 2005.

Boxing has always been a big supporter of charities and there are a couple of good works planned. Polish boxers have been involved in supporting an amputee football match organised by the Foundation Amp Active and some Polish footballers will also be there for the game.

In Ghana at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Accra a boxing show is goiung to be put on by Alex Ntiamoah’s Box Office and Millionaires casino. The show Boxing 4 Charity will feature Issah Samir against Philip Kotey for the Ghanaian and West African titles at middleweight and Prince “Octopus” Dzanie against Emmanuel Quartey for the same title at welterweight. Proceeds will go to Autism Awareness Care and Training Centre, a Primary School and a Children’s Orphanage.

Still on Ghana Azumah Nelson received a Sporting Legends Award which recognises outstanding achievements by Ghanaians in different spheres of life. Azumah was a great fighter; perhaps the best fighter ever produced in Africa and is a great ambassador for boxing.

   Snips and Snipes 8 July 2015

No real surprise in the WBO stripping Floyd Mayweather of their welter title. Mayweather had refused to pay them a sanctioning fee of $200,000 due from the match with Manny Pacquiao (oh come on guys he only took $2000 million + from the fight and he has home and 85 Ferrari’s to keep). The first question is why the WBO allowed the fight to billed for their title if they had not been paid or promised a sanctioning fee. They also insisted under their rules that no one can hold a WBO titles in two divisions so Mayweather had to relinquish one and he had not responded to say which one he would keep so he was also stripped on that basis. Once I had recovered from the shock of someone at the WBO not only knowing they had a rule book but also knowing where they saw it last I could only agree with them. Then again never before in his career has Mayweather fought for a WBO title so he has not been a cash cow for them in the way he has for the WBA and WBC. The WBA and WBC between them are so greedy for reflected fame and sanctioning fees that they have allowed Mayweather, and still allow him, to tie up four titles. The WBC is not breaking their rules in doing this as Clause 3.14. (b) says that the WBC may permit someone to hold titles in two divisions if the boxer is an elite champion (whatever an elite champion is and that is not in their table of definitions) or in the case of special circumstances where it is considered to be in the best interests of boxing. So they are not breaking their rules they have special weasel words in most Clauses to allow then wriggle room but how it can be “in the best interests of boxing” for Mayweather to hold title in two divisions for almost three years escapes me. In Mayweather’s interest and good for WBC sanctioning fees yes but in the best interests of boxing I just don’t see. The WBA? Good old WBA their rules updated even as recently as last month says that in the case of a WBA champion fighting for a second title in another division” in the event he wins the fight and obtains the other title, within five (5) days of the fight he will choose the title he wishes to retain and relinquish the other title. Failure to comply with any of these provisions is sufficient cause for the Championships Committee to withdraw recognition from him of either title or both titles”. They allowed that rule to be broken in May last year and as long as the sanctioning fees keep rolling from “Money” the rule book stays in the drawer.

It has been stated by the WBC that the fight between Leo Santa Cruz, their super bantam champion, and Abner Mares will be for their featherweight Diamond title. I hope this is just carelessly worded. A few years back they introduced their Diamond belt for elite fighters. An expensive gimmick for a fight which was not even a WBC title fight (Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez III for the WBO title). So now a big event again and no WBC title on the line and up pops the WBC Diamond Title. What madness. Whoever wins will be the WBC diamond featherweight champion That leaves their actual featherweight champion Gary Russell with only the WBC green belt to fight for which is an insult to their champion and disrespects their green belt. Green is good enough for Russell but not good enough for a non-title fight between Santa Cruz and Mares.

Great news that the Wlad Klitschko vs. Tyson Fury is set for 24 October in Germany. Once again we see that despite all of the shouting and screaming from some unrealistic “contenders” Wlad is not ducking anyone. Wlad could just sit back and not bother publicising the fight as Tyson has shown he is never short of a gimmick or an outrageous quote. Together with the Miguel Cotto vs. Saul Alvarez fight close to being signed and sealed, an even money fight between Andy Lee and Billy Joe Saunders, Marco Huck defending his WBO title against Krzys Glowacki in Newark, Yoan Pablo Hernandez vs. Victor Ramirez in Argentina later this month, Juan Francisco Estrada vs. Brian Viloria in the works, Bob Arum talking about Scott Quigg vs. Nonito Donaire etc. etc. boxing is in a good place right now.

I am British but the WBC is doing Anthony Joshua no favours by throwing him so high in their ratings. The standard of his opposition and the lack of a single rated fighter on his CV makes it a bandwagon-jumping farce. Back in April 2014 Joshua was rated No 29 by the WBC. He is now the WBC No 2 and that has been achieved without beating a single fighter who was rated in the WBC top 40 when he beat them. That should not be allowed to happen I can’t think of any other sport where such a thing could happen. Can you imagine a tennis player beating the No 50 in the world and then being ranked above Roger Federer, a sprinter winning his national title and being ranked over Usain Bolt, a driver winning a touring car race and being put above Lewis Hamilton? No because there is no sense of fairness in such stupidity. Don’t get me wrong I am vastly excited by the potential of Joshua I feel he is a tremendous prospect who has brushed aside all of the opposition in impressive fashion and will be a world champion in due time. The way he has destroyed them has created its own problem in finding someone who can extend him, but he needs a lot more experience and by making him No 2 in the world the WBC have made it virtually impossible for him to have the learning fights he still needs. The WBO have him at No 3 which is equally as bad. With them Joshua came from out of the ratings gradually to No 7 in May and then jumped up to No 3 for beating Kevin Johnson! Typical for the WBO but from the composition of the WBC ratings committee I expect more sense. Life is full of disappointments!

It looks as though Vitali Klitschko has put boxing behind him. The former WBC heavyweight champion is running again for the post of mayor of Kiev. He has done a good job and is popular so get your bets on now-if anyone will give you odds.

The situation in the Ukraine was highlighted to an extent with Stanyslav Kashtanov, a Ukrainian citizen from the pro-Russian city of Donetsk fighting for the Russian title but what was also controversial is that Kashtanov is on an EBU list of suspended fighters. As far back as 2013 his Donetsk-based Union Box Team had allegedly reported that he was suffering headaches and vision problems and recommended retirement.

Okay, time for me to come out of the cupboard and admit that I admire Tim Bradley. I love the way that he just gets on with the job. He finds a way to win against even the toughest opposition. He has been in 12 world title fights and one interim title fight and has scored wins over Lamont Peterson (27-0 at the time), Luis Carlos Abregu (29-0) Devon Alexander (21-0), Ruslan Provodnikov (22-1), Juan Manuel Marquez and Jesses Vargas (26-0) and won and lost against Manny Pacquiao so why do I feel so lonely in this fan club? What more do we want out of “Desert Storm”. He certainly has done enough to earn a place in Canastota one day.

I could bet that Meldrick Taylor would have been looking at the controversial end to the Tim Bradley vs. Jesse Vargas fight and murmuring “I wish the referee had made that kind of mistake in my fight with Julio Cesar Chavez”. In 1990 in the last round Taylor was 7 points and 5 points ahead on two cards and just two seconds from victory when the fight was stopped and awarded to Chavez. If Richard Steele had “heard the bell” eight seconds earlier it could have changed boxing history instead the dramatic stoppage is boxing history. Such a small margin.

I recently learned that Denis Bakhtov tested positive for a banned substance after his fight with Arnold Gjergjaj on June 6. However my understanding is that the positive test arose from a light stimulant a substance that appears in some drinks and many boxers are unaware of so there appear to be extenuating circumstances to be taken into account. He will be the second opponent in successive EBU-EE title bouts who has tested positive after a fight with Gjergjaj as Adnan Redzovik reportedly gave a positive test in October.

The news that Vijender Singh had turned pro met with very mixed reception in Indian boxing circles with the Indian amateur body not being at all happy. I have been saying for a long time that with China dipping its toes in the profession game that the sub-continent is the biggest market as yet untouched in any significant way by professional boxing. In a “cart before the horse” situation after Singh signed pro an Indian Boxing Council has been set up to sanction boxing matches and award national and subordinate championships. It will be a not-for-profit organisation. Well that’s what the publicity blurb says. I don’t like the sound of “subordinate championships” and not-for-profit is about as practical as a snowball in New Delhi but if they walk the talk OK. Let’s wait and see. The potential is there as they have produced outstanding amateur boxers such as Ahli Kumar who won gold medals at the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games and was a quarter finalist in 2010 and in the 2008 Olympics, Dinesh Kumar who has competed at the Olympics Games, World Championships and Commonwealth Games, Manoj Kumar another Commonwealth gold medallist and Olympian, Suranjoy Singh a Commonwealth gold medal winner and World Military silver medallist and Shiva Thapa a silver medallist at the World Youth Games and World Youth Championships and 2012 Olympian plus many more. The big difference is that these top amateurs were financed and supported by the Government and that will change when they turn pro so there is only the green shoots peeping through and a long, long journey for pro boxing to get off the ground there.

Istvan Szili, one of Hungary’s most successful amateur boxers is scheduled to have his first fight in the US on July 17. “The Prince” will face a tough test as he goes up against unbeaten Antoine Douglas in Bethlehem and Douglas (17-0-1) has a draw against new European champion Michel Soro. Szili did not turn pro until he was 26 and is currently 18-0-2 as a pro. It is good to see that both teams have the confidence to put their man in a fight as competitive as this.

An interesting clash between two former amateur stars sees Juan Carlos Payano making the first defence of his real WBA title against Rau’shee Warren in Florida on 2 August. Both are unbeaten and both are southpaws. They were both permanent fixtures in their respective national teams and were competing at the same time in a whole host of tournaments such as the Olympics, World Championships, Pan American Games etc but as far as I know the only time they ever actually fought each other was in a dual international in 2008 when Warren representing the USA beat Payano representing the Dominican Republic 32-15. This time they will get paid for their efforts. Also on the show Yudel Jhonson faces Jorge Cota and John Jackson tackles Dennis Laurente in what is described as a WBC super welter tournament. Can’t think what position is on offer to the winner as Jhonson is No 12, Cota is No 24, Jackson is No 7 and Laurente is No 11 in the current WBC ratings it can hardly be to find a mandatory challenger and even if it is Floyd Mayweather will laugh it off and the WBC will let him.

A couple of former boxers are now running gyms in Germany. Graciano “Rocky” Rocchigiani is just setting up and building a team with his brother Rolf as the trainer. Rocky will be remembered as the man who nearly put the WBC out of business when he sued them for trying to rob him of their middleweight title. A US Judge awarded Rocchigiani $31 million which would have bankrupted the WBC. There was even a plan in the event of forced liquidation for the WBC to cease to exist and reform as the Universal Boxing Council. Naturally Rocchigiani did not want to force liquidation as he would get nothing so in the end he reached a settlement which left a huge hole in the WBC finances but showed that they were not a law unto themselves.

The other gym owner is Alex “White Tiger” Petkovic who has built a team that he intends to expand to 12 boxers and put on 6 shows a year. The 35-year-old Petkovic lost a majority decision to Johnny Nelson for the WBO cruiser title in 2003. Now up at heavyweight he is unbeaten in his last 19 fights. Petkovic staged one of his promotions last Saturday in Munich where two of brightest young prospects Toni and James Kraft boxed.

A real time of mixed grief and joy for Olga Boystov. Husband Denis is showing some slight improvement after his serious injury in what now appears to have been an accident and not an attack but there is a very long way to go. However on 1 July she gave birth to a baby daughter and the hope is that someday soon Denis will be able to appreciate the wonderful gift he and Olga have been given.

Magomed Abdusalamov is showing signs of improvement. His wife said that there had been progress on the right side of his body and he has been trying to talk; now the specialists will be working to see if they can achieve any improvement on the left side

Nice to hear that the Ghana Boxing Authority made a generous donation to Teddy Lamptey who suffered an amputation last year due to an infection. Lamptey was influential in the careers of former world champion David (Poison) Kotey, Azumah Nelson and Ike Quartey.

Good to see great boxers from the past being honoured. In Castanera Sur, Argentina they have unveiled a bronze statue to the “Mendoncino Lion” Pascual Perez. The great little flyweight was an outstanding amateur compiling a record of 125 fights and winning the Olympic gold medal at the Games in London in 1948. He turned pro in 1952 and was 51-0-1 in his first 52 fights becoming the first Argentinian world champion when he won the title from Yoshio Shiro, Japan’s first world champion, in Tokyo in November 1954. He made 14 title defences some of which were not billed as defences but since both boxers were within the flyweight limit the title was at stake. His unbeaten streak of 52 fights was broken when he lost a decision to Sadao Yaoita in Japan in 1959 but knocked out Yaoita in a title defence the same year. He lost his title to Pone Kingpetch in 1960 and failed in a challenge to Kingpetch the same year. He kept boxing and won 29 fights in a row and was 82-3-1 before falling away in his last year and being 2-4 in six fights. Only 4’11” (150cm) tall he scored 57 wins by KO/TKO and I can still remember the doom and gloom in the Valleys when he knocked out Welsh hope Dai Dower in one round in a title defence in 1957. Dower was thought to have a good chance as he was 33-1 going into the fight but the “Mendocino Lion” ate him up in one bite. Perez died tragically early in 1977 at the age of 50. A true “Little Giant”

A show is being staged in East London South Africa in celebration of the life of Nelson Mandela who boxed a bit in his early days. It features two IBO title fights with Lwandile Sityatha defending the super fly title against fellow South African Gideon Buthelezi who is a former IBO minimum, light fly and super fly champion. Buthelezi must be the least know three division champions in boxing. He is also the only fighter to have beaten Hekkie Budler and in his last fight beat Namibian Immanuel Naidjala for the WBO African bantamweight title. Another all-South African affair sees Ali Funeka defending his IBO welter title against Tsiko Mulovhedzi No 31 in the IBO ratings.