This coming Saturday is a less than exciting day in international boxing. Much of the action is taking place in Europe, though there is some notable female action in Mexico.
The only male world title fight of the day takes place in Germany, however it's a less than exciting title bout that really shows how farcical the WBA are. The bout in question sees the very talented WBA “regular” Light Heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (46-2, 34) defending his belt against Konni Konrad (22-1-1, 11). Breahmer is talented, but he's a league lower than WBA “super” champion Sergey Kovalev. Konrad on the other hand is a pitiful challenger who is ranked #133 by boxrec.com, an accurate ranking showing just what a joke he is as a challenger. The German card does feature some interesting hopes, such as Cruiserweight Noel Gevor (18-0, 10) and Super Middleweight prospect Stefan Haertel (6-0), both of whom should continue their perfect runs. The other European card of note comes from Leeds where fans get the chance to see a number of notable fighters, though unfortunately the bouts are, on the whole, horrible mismatches. On paper the most interesting of the bouts will see the unbeaten, and hugely popular, Josh Warrington (21-0, 4) take on Australian Joel Brunker (28-1, 16). This looks a good bout on paper but Brunker has got a padded record and Warrington has been relatively over-hyped, based on his fan base. It should be an entertaining fight but one that won't really effect the world scene. One fighter who may be eyeing up a future world title fight is former IBF Bantamweight champion Stuart Hall (17-4-2, 7) who takes on the horribly matched Arnoldo Solano (14-10) in what is a farcical mismatch. Another terrible mismatch will see former world title challenger Tony Bellew (24-2-1, 15) take on Arturs Kulikauskis (16-26-5, 8). Another former world title challenger on this card is Martin Murray (31-2-1, 14) who faces Jose Miguel Torres (31-6, 27). On paper the Murray bout looks good but the reality is that Torres is a limited opponent who was beaten black and blue by David Lemieux not too long ago. The most notable action in Americas comes from Mexico where fans will get a couple of female world title fights. On paper the most exciting of those comes at 108lbs where Ibeth Zamora Silva (23-5, 9) will defend her belt against Esmeralda Moreno (31-7-1, 10). On paper this could actually be the fight of the day. On the same card fans will also get the chance to see the much touted Rey Vargas (24-0, 20), who many are tipping to become a world champion. Another female title fight set to take place in Mexico will see WBA female Minimumweight champion Anabel Ortiz (17-3, 3) defending her title against the once beaten Sandra Robles (11-1, 5). This will be Ortiz's first bout since defeating Nana Yoshikawa back in April and we don't expect to see her struggle with Robles, despite the fact Robles is on a 9 fight winning streak.
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This past weekend was of course all about Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley as they fought in their long awaited rematch. Aside from that bout however we did have some other notable action. The most important of those bouts actually on the Pacquiao undecard as the once beaten Bryan Vasquez (33-1, 17), pictured, out pointed the previously unbeaten Jose Felix Jr (26-1-1, 21) and retained the WBA interim Super Featherweight title, effectively putting him back in line for a rematch with Takashi Uchiyama. On the scorecards it was close, with two judges scoring it 114-113 to Vasquez though in our eyes he was a clear winner, despite the fact we had tipped Felix. On the same card we also got to see a pair of Olympic medal winners. One of those was Ryota Murata's former amateur rival Esquiva Falcao (2-0, 1), who looked very impressive in defeating the very tough Ethan Pena (2-1, 1), whilst the other saw the debut of bronze medal winner Oleksandr Gvozdyk (1-0, 1) who scored the perfect debut KO over Mike Montoya (4-3-1, 2) to announce himself on the pro ranks. In the Ukraine we saw the return to the ring of former Light Middleweight title holder Zaurbek Baysangurov (29-1, 21) who has come back from a long injury induced lay off. Baysangurov managed to stop the tough Guido Nicolas Pitto (18-3, 7) in 12 rounds to re-announce himself back to the boxing world. Unfortunately for his Baysangurov's compatriot Vyacheslav Uzelkov (30-4, 19) things weren't as successful. Uzelkov, a former opponent of Beibut Shumenov, was upset by Geard Ajetovic (25-9-1, 12) in what goes down as the fight to end Uzelkov's world title dreams. This was the second upset defeat in 4 bouts for Uzelkov who is looking done as a top level fighter. Whilst Uzelkov's loss was the biggest upset of the weekend it wasn't the only one and it was British fans who actually got the majority of them with a trio of big betting upsets. The first of those saw the highly touted George Keane (3-1, 1) lose a decision to journeyman William Warburton (12-60-3, 2) before we then saw Frank Buglioni (12-1, 9) get stopped by veteran Sergey Khomitsky (29-10-2, 12). Finally fans then saw Commonwealth Cruiserweight champion Tony Conquest (13-2, 5) getting stopped by the hard hitting Ovill McKenzie (22-12, 11) in what turned out to be an awful night for Frank Warren and his stable of fighters. Upset's were also seen in Mexico as Eduardo Martinez (10-2-1, 2) scored a major win by out pointing former Ryo Miyazaki foe Jesus Silvestre (28-5, 20) in what could be considered the biggest shock of the night. Silvestre, who we thought possible deserved a win over Miyazaki was the bigger man here, the more experienced man and the bigger puncher though was defeated by split decision in a result that could Martinez in to the world rankings. The other bout on the Mexican show wasn't an upset however as world title holder Anabel Ortiz (14-3, 2) easily out pointed Ivoon Rosas (10-7-1, 2). Ortiz, who is known by Asian fans for her bouts with Naoko Fujioka and Etsuko Tada appears, was in control of this one from the opening bell. (Image, of Vasquez, courtesy of http://www.wbanews.com) April 12th-Felix Jr meets Vasquez to decide Uchiyama challenger, former Murata rival returns!4/11/2014 This weekend is an oddly weekend in term of top level boxing. That's not to say that we don't have plenty of fights dotted around but what we do have seems to be very much below world level. A full card in Denmark, for example, is at best a fringe card with the most interesting bout on it being a Heavyweight clash between exposed fighters David Price (16-2, 14) and Ondrej Pala (33-4, 23). Sure that should be entertaining but we don't imagine either of those men will make a dent on the world level. What we are left is a bit of tiered system with bouts across the levels of varying significance to Asian boxing. One of those bouts is in Mexico as WBA female Minimumweight champion Anabel Ortiz (13-3, 2) returns to Mexico for the first time in 3 bouts. Ortiz is best known to us for her defeat to Naoko Fujioka and her debatable split decision win over Etsuko Tada, a decision many feel was a "Kameda decision". Ortiz will be hoping to secure a non-title victory as she battles Ivoon Rosas (10-6-1, 2) in what really should be a bit of a mismatch. On the same card as Ortiz's fight will be a man known to Asian boxing fans, Jesus Silvestre (28-4, 20) who was very unfortunate to lose to Ryo Miyazaki last year. Silvestre will be looking to score his second victory since the Miyazaki fight as he battles the seemingly over-matched Eduardo Martinez (9-2-1, 2) in what should be a marking time fight for the talented Mexican. The most meaningful bout, not including the Manny Pacquiao rematch with Timothy Bradley, is in the US as WBA interim Super Featherweight champion Bryan Vasquez (32-1, 17) battles unbeaten puncher Jose Felix Jr (26-0-1, 21) in what looks like a potential fight of the night. Vasquez's only loss came back in 2012 when he fought Takashi Uchiyama and was stopped in 8 by "KO Dynamite". In that bout Vasquez genuinely impressed us though seemed a little too weak and maybe lacked the physical maturity to match Uchiyama. For Felix however this is a huge opportunity and he has the sort of style and power that makes him very dangerous to anyone in the division. In theory the winner of Vasquez/Felix Jr will be next in line for Uchiyama though in a dream would Felix would make a perfect dance partner for WBC champion Takashi Miura and that would certainly be better for the fans if Felix wins. The same show in American also features the second professional contest in the career of Brazilian Esquiva Falcao (1-0, 1) who was of course an amateur rival of Ryota Murata's. Falcao will be looking for his second victory as he takes on fellow unbeaten Pubilo Pena (2-0, 1) in what is likely to be one of the first shows on the online stream on Toprank.tv. One more bout of note on the US show is the contest between the debuting Ukrainian Oleksandr Gvozdyk (0-0) and Mike Montoya (4-2-1, 2). Gvozdyk was sadly robbed of an Olympic final in London 2012 when he was beaten, on countback, by Adilet Niyazimbetov. Gvozdyk probably wouldn't have beaten Egor Mekhontsev though he certainly deserved the chance and was robbed of that opportunity. Hopefully we'll get to see Gvozdyk fight Mekhontsev somewhere down the line in the professional ranks, though for now we need to wish him good luck on his professional debut. (Picture, of Silvestre, is courtesy of notifight) |
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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