By Eric Armit
There always seems to be so much going on with the heavyweights these days from the sublime to the ridiculous. Anthony Joshua vs. Kubrat Pulev is now set for 12 December in London. On the same card Lawrence Okolie and Krzys Glowacki will contest the vacant WBO cruiser title. Joe Joyce vs. Daniel Dubois for the vacant European title is set for 24 October and it has been floated that the return match between Alex Povetkin and Dillian Whyte will be in London on 14 or 21 November but that is not yet nailed down and neither is the proposed Oleg Usyk vs. Dereck Chisora fight although 31 October looks the likely date. Oh and Tyson Fury is talking about fighting a wrestler. Down in New Zealand negotiations are ongoing for old amateur foes Joseph Parker and Junior Fa to settle their differences. In France the much anticipated youth vs. experience contest will see Tony Yoka face former WBC title challenger Johann Duhaupas in Paris on 25 September. The hope is that 5,000 fans will be able to attend the fight. The 39-year-old Duhaupas has never lost to a French fighter. Yoka needs the action. He spent a year out of the ring after being suspended for skipping the drug testers and only managed to fit in two fights when his ban ended so has had only two fights in over two years. Croatian hope Filip Hrgovic returns on 29 September against Czech Ondrej Pala. Marco Huck will be the mandatory challenger for the winner of Joyce vs. Dubois. Huck was previously mandatory challenger but stepped- aside through injury and was reinstated once the Joyce vs. Dubois fight was approved by the EBU. Huck returned to action last Saturday. His only outing in 2019 ended on a one round No Decision after it was ruled that a knockdown he had scored was caused by a punch landed after the break call so before Saturday he had managed just 57 seconds of ring time in the last two years. His comeback is the ridiculous bit I mentioned at the start. It was a farcical mismatch against Dennis Lewandowski. The obese 6’2” Lewandowski weighed 335lbs (152kgs). The Body Mass Index (BMI) chart shows that anything over 30 is obese. Lewandowski’s BMI comes out at 43 almost 50% higher than the start figure for obese. What is even more alarming is that Lewandowski was not the worst case. On Friday night veteran Chauncy Welliver weighed 378lbs (171.5kg) against Cassius Chaney. Welliver is also 6’2” giving him a BMI of 48.5. Both Lewandowski and Welliver are considered “fit to box”. That stretches the definition of fit to the extreme. I just hope they never fight each other as instead of ropes and canvas you would need anchor chains and granite flooring. Boxing is slowly climbing out of the bunker and rebuilding after the pandemic. The latest to get the go ahead is the Philippines Games and Amusement Board which will be allowed to approve shows but within strict guidelines. I find it amusing that boxing comes under the banner of Games and Amusement. Subject to UK Government approval and BBB of C agreement Eddie Hearn is hoping to put on a show in front of fans on 26 September in London probably featuring unbeaten Joshua Buatsi Hearn will be putting on the IBF eliminator between Lee Selby and George Kambosos. Matchroom won the bidding for the fight with a purse of $277,777 against the $260,000 bid by DiBella Enterprises. As the No 1 and 2 slots in the IBF ratings are vacant the winner will be the mandatory challenger for the winner of the IBF champion Teo Lopez vs. Vasyl Lomachenko fight. It would be nice to think that the winner of Lopez and Lomachenko would be the unified lightweight champion but since the WBC appointed Lomachenko “franchise” champion that means that Devin Haney is the WBC champion-I think!!! Any hopes that WBC/WBO super light champion Jose Carlos Ramirez’s win over Viktor Postol would lead to a fight with IBF/WBA champion Josh Taylor and an early unification of the titles at super lightweight have disappeared. The WBO have ordered Ramirez to defend against their No 1 Jack Catterall. They have given the respective management teams twenty days to negotiate but if no agreement is reached then the fight will go to purse offers and in theory the fight should be scheduled to take place within 120 days but that is negotiable. Catterall has a 25-0 record with wins over Tyrone McKenna and Ohara Davis but does not have a very high profile in the USA Taylor puts his titles up against Thai Apinan Khongsong (Sakkreerin) in London on 26 September. If Catterall’s profile is not high Khongsong’s is practically invisible. Box Rec rates the Thai No 95 in the world and the computerised IBO ratings have him at No 59! I guess if both Ramirez and Taylor come through their title defences unscathed then early next year might be a realistic projection for that unification fight. Former undefeated WBC flyweight champion Charlie Edwards returns to action on this show against bantamweight Kyle Williams. Gervonta Davis already seems to looking beyond his fight with Leo Santa Cruz on 24 October and talking about how he will beat Vasyl Lomachenko. The Davis vs. Santa Cruz fight is another example of sanctioning body madness. The fight is said to be for the secondary WBA lightweight title held by Davis and the WBA Super super featherweight title held by Santa Cruz. That means that Davis will have to weigh inside the super featherweight limit whilst defending his lightweight title, which he has said he will do. If Santa Cruz wins he does not unify any titles as Vasyl Lomachenko is the real WBA lightweight champion and don’t forget that Santa Cruz is WBA featherweight super champion but obviously that title is not on the line. To be honest if someone asked whether I would rather recognise the WBA or the IBO then the IBO would win hands down. With Lawrence Okolie relinquishing the European cruiser title Belfast-based Tommy McCarthy will meet Belgian Bilal Laggoune for the vacant title. McCarthy earned his right to fight for the title with a points win over 17-0 Fabio Turchi in October. Laggoune drew with Dmytro Kucher in a fight for this title in 2015 and has won his last five fights. It looks a good match. Le McGregor is another British fighter on the cusp of a European title fight. He will challenge Frenchman Karim Guerfi for the bantamweight title on 14 November. Some people are just too talented and Frenchman Brahim Asloum seems to be a boxing version of a polymath. Asloum, the fourth child in a family of ten, won a boxing gold medal at the 2000 Olympics, the first Frenchman to do so since 1936, turned professional and won the WBA light flyweight title, moved on to become a sports broadcaster, set up a foundation to help people made vulnerable through illness, went into movies with a couple of starring roles, competed in reality shows, moved into boxing promotions, and is still active, and owned the Paris United team that competed in the World Series of Boxing. Finished? No way next year he intends to run for the position of President for the French Boxing Federation. Some world title fights to look out for include the exciting show at the Mohegan Sun on 26 September that will feature both of the Charlo twins in title fights. WBC super welter champion Jermell will tackle IBF champion Jeison Rosario in a unification battle and Jermall puts his WBC middleweight title on the line against No 1 Sergey Derevyanchenko in a great match up. Additionally Brandon Figueroa will defend his secondary WBA super bantam title against Damien Vazquez. In Moscow on 23 October Artur Beterbiev defends the WBC and IBF light heavyweight titles against Adam Deines. The Russian-born Deines lost an IBF eliminator against Fanlong Meng in June last year but when Meng decided not to face Beterbiev Deines took the offer of the title shot. On 31 October in Las Vegas Naoya Inoue defends his WBA and IBF titles against Australian Jason Moloney a fight that promises fireworks. Yordenis Ugas and Abel Ramos will fight for the vacant secondary WBA welterweight title on 6 December in Los Angeles. The WBA stripped Alex Besputin when he tested positive after winning the vacant title against Radzhab Butaev in November. On 12 December Nordine Oubaali defends the WBC bantam title against Nonito Donaire. Sad to learn that great little Swiss fighter Fritz Chervet collapsed and died on Saturday. Chervet was active between 1962 and 1976 and had a 59-9-2 ,1ND record at a time when Europe had a rich crop of flyweights and Fritz fought them all. Fernando Atzori, John McCluskey, Franco Udella and so many more. He did not fight for and win the European title for the first time until fight No 47 of his career. He had two shots at the world title challenging Thai Charchai Chionoi twice losing on a split decision in the second fight. One of the greatest boxers Switzerland has produced. The other bit of sad news was the death from cancer of Jean Baptiste Mendy at the age of just 57. The brilliant Frenchman was WBC, WBA, European and French lightweight champion being 9-0 in European title fights. A true great in French boxing history. RIP Fritz and Jean Baptiste. Last weekend Polish veteran Rafal Jackiewicz upset the odds when he won a six round decision over Rico Mueller in Germany. The scores were 58-56 twice for Jackiewicz and 57-57. So none of the three local judges scored the fight for Mueller. However Mueller’s team appealed to the Bund Deutscher Berufsboxer (BDB) who had five “impartial judges” review the fight and they all scored the fight for Mueller. Now at best the result will be changed to a No Decision and it might even be changed to a win for Mueller. Two things here. Firstly presumably the original three judges were “impartial” as they were German judges scoring a fight involving a German fighter in Germany. Secondly if the result is changed to a win for Mueller will Jackiewicz be allowed to appeal and if he wins that appeal will Mueller appeal………..and so on.
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For this edition of Controversial Clashes we return to poor scorecards, for one of the worst decisions in recent memory. The bout is from 2010 and the decision, now more than a decade on, is still completely baffling. Then again one of the men involved has had a very questionable career, with his long and inexplicable reigns never making much sense given his long stretches of inactivity. Beibut Shumenov (8-1, 6) Vs Gabriel Campillo (19-2, 6) II The man who has had the weird career is Kazakh enigma Beibut Shumenov. Early in his career he looked really exciting and the type of fighter we could get behind. He had hunger and desire to race to a world title, he was taking on notable fighters from very early on and ticked a lot of boxes. In just his third bout he was taking on veteran Shannon Miller, and then stepped up to Lavell Finger just a month later. In his 9th bout he lost a close decision for the WBA Light Heavyweight title, to Gabriel Campillo, and 5 months later he would get a second shot at Campillo. Despite facing decent competition it was unclear what Shumenov had actually done to deserve a shot, and in recent years his connections to the WBA have been very interesting, with the Kazakh having had some very questionable world title challengers when he's held world titles, and avoided being stripped, or being stripped and then reinstated, in very odd and strange looking circumstances. In fact as we write this, in May 2020*, the WBA still list Shumenov as their Cruiserweight champion despite having not fought since July 2018. Entering the bout as the WBA Light Heavyweight champion Campillo was a man who lacked in terms of power and financial backing, but more than made up for that in terms of skills, boxing IQ, speed and a brilliant ability to dictate the tempo of bouts. Campillo had proven himself to be a road warrior and had won the title with an upset in Argentina, against Hugo Hernan Garay. His first defense had seen him beat Shumenov, in Kazakhstan, before various dramas clouded over the bout, including accusations of drug testing irregularities and delayed payments of his purse. Unlike their first bout, which took place in Kazakhstan, this one was in the US and was much more visible for fans in the west. Sadly for Shumenov the bout being visible in the West meant that more fans saw what went down. The first round was a very good one for Shumenov, who was aggressive landed solid shots and easily out worked Campillo. He put everything in his shots and whilst he did land more than the defending champion he was using a lot of gas early on. The second round was a better one for Campillo, though Shumenov was again throwing heavy leather throughout. In round 3 Shumenov picked up the pace early on, but Campillo walked through it, as if it was nothing. Even when Shumenov landed clean head shots it didn't seem to phase Campillo in the slightest. On the other hand when Campillo let his hands go on forced Shumenov backwards, and despite not being a puncher it seemed that Campillo's shots were having more of an effect. After a busy start by both men, with the first 4 rounds being really good and competitive, the tempo from the challenger began to slow. This lead to Campillo taking control, and in a number of rounds it looked like a tiring Shumenov was on the verge of being stopped. He looked spent in rounds 7, 8 and 9 and struggled to land clean even when he picked up the pace late on, as he began to fight on fumes. The clean shots of Campillo seemed to be the eye catching ones and the more consistent ones. After 12 rounds it seemed that Shumenov had been game but lost. He had had his lack of professional experience shown up and his lack of stamina had proven to be an issue. He had shown his toughness, and no one could question his heart or desire, but he had been out boxed, out skilled, out landed. Going into the final round Colonel Bob Sheridan stated that he felt Shumenov needed a KO to win. It was a feeling echoed by ourselves, and many others. Despite needing the KO he failed to come close to scoring it and we went to the judges after the 12th round. It seemed a clear win for Cmapillo bot the judges, or more specifically two of them, went with Shumenov, scoring the bout 115-113 and a truly bizarre 117-111 in his favour. Only the card of Levi Martinez, who went 117-111 in favour of Campillo, seemed to make any sense. Sadly after winning the title with this bout we never saw Shumenov give Campillo a deserved rubber match. Instead he defended against the likes of a 40 year old William Joppy, a 38 year old Danny Santiago and fringe contender Enrique Ornelas. *Please note a lot of our articles were written during lockdown, things regarding Shumenov's reign may have changed by the time this goes live in September. We know all about Mexican Machismo, often giving us special all-Mexican bouts, but it appears that all-Japanese fights can give us something very similar. Today we look at one of those in the latest Closet Classic. The Fight Takanori Hatakeyama (23-1-2, 18) vs Hiroyuki Sakamoto (35-4, 25) In 1999 Takanori Hatakeyama retired from boxing following his his loss Lakva Sim, a loss that saw him lose the WBA Super Featherweight. That retirement didn't last long however and less than a year later Hatakeyama returned to the ring and stopped Gilberto Serrano to become a 2-weight champion, claiming the WBA Lightweight title with an 8th round win over Serrano. Prior to his retirement Hatakeyama had been one of the biggest names in Japanese boxing and had a reputation as a must watch fighter. His bouts provided a lot of action, and contests against Koji Arisawa, Yong Soo Choi and Lakva Sim were amazing bouts. After winning the WBA Lightweight title he made it clear he wanted to make his first defense against countryman Hiroyuki Sakamoto. Whilst Hatakeyama was now a 2-weight world champion Sakamoto had come up short in 3 previously world title bouts, including a loss to the aforementioned Gilberto Serrano in a thrilling but short bout. He had become one of Japanese boxing's nearly men, and despite his set backs he had remained a popular fighter due to his will to win, his exciting contests and his heavy hands. He had twice dropped Serrano in their bout before facial damage saw him being stopped in what was a great bout. He was tough, vicious and, like Hatakeyama, he knew how to give fans the action and excitement they expected. Fans had come into this expecting something special. On paper the men were made for each other. They were both aggressive, exciting fighters who loved to get in the ring and have a war. Those expectations were met from the opening seconds with the two men getting to it almost immediately and firing off heavy shots on the inside straight away. It seemed like, for once, it was Hatakeyama who was being forced to back up as Sakamoto unloaded huge hooks on the champion, before the champion fired back himself, in an opening round that needs to be seen to be believed. It left both men looking like they had swelling on their face, and that was just the first 3 minutes. Having started at an exceptional pace it wasn't a surprise to see both men continue to let bombs go on each other. As with almost all Hatakeyama fights this was thrilling action and heavy bombs away stuff, with the two trading some brilliant leather on the inside. Regularly it looked like Sakamoto was the stronger, more imposing guy, determined to make the most of his 4th world title fight, but Hatakeyama was the more skilled, controlling the action better, despite seeming to be the smaller men. As the bout went on the action continued to be fought at a high pace, but it seemed to be taking it's toll on the challenger, who struggled as the bout continued. Despite that he continued to come forward and kept trying. Even when he was shaken Sakamoto stood his ground and tried to fire off, continuing to give everything he had to try and take the title from his hugely popular foe. This isn't the best of the great wars we've seen from Hatakeyama in this series, but it's yet another amazing bout from Hatakeyama, who admitted after the bout that Sakamoto's punches were the most intense he ever felt. This was brutal, brilliant and a bout that those who haven't seen really should make time for. |
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