This coming Saturday is set to be a hectic day for American boxing fans who get treat to 3 separate shows, split across 3 channels.
For us the most exciting bout of the day, at least on paper, comes from Canada and is aired on USA Fox where we get Puncher Vs Boxer for the IBF Middleweight title. The puncher, is Canada's very own David Lemieux (33-2, 31), who is a very popular and heavy handed puncher with a pretty boy face. The boxer is former WBO champion Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam (31-1, 18), a Cameroonian based in France, a very talented boxer-mover with shaky chin. This bout really does have the hall marks of a must watch and looks like to be thoroughly entertaining. The chief under-card bout here is also an interesting looking contest, as former world title challengers collide. The bout will see the exciting Dierry Jean (28-1, 20) take on the under-rated Jerry Belmontes (19-6, 5) in what is really a must win bout for both men if they are looking to get themselves another world title fight in the foreseeable future. In Oakland we'll see a show featuring one of the sports most talented, but least exciting, fighters. The bout in question is the return to the ring of unbeaten American Andre Ward (27-0, 14) who takes on former world title challenger Paul Smith (35-5, 20) of the UK. It's hard to be too excited about this one considering Smith has lost his last two bouts to Arthur Abraham and Ward has been in active for more than 18 months, in fact Ward has only fought twice in the last 3 years. Despite that it's good to see Ward back in action and the sport has missed someone of his his ability. Notably this show will be aired on BET in America. The third show is in Las Vegas with a bout that has really excited some American fans. The contest that stands out here will see former world champions colliding as the enigmatic Adrien Broner (30-1, 22) takes on the strong and rough Shawn Porter (25-1, 16) in a catchweight bout. The catchweight, and subsequent rehydration limit, are expected to favour Broner, however the 3-weight former world champion hasn't looked great recently and Porter will know that his career really depends on a good performance here. We suspect Broner will win but we don't expect this to be a thriller as many fans seem to be hoping for.
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December 6th-An American triple header, Pascal in action, Breahmer defends and Estrella fighting!12/5/2014 This weekend isn't a huge one but it's a genuinely exciting one with a number of notable bouts on the fringes of world class. The biggest show of the night comes from New York where Golden Boy Promotions will be putting on a really good triple header. The main event from the US show will see the heavy handed David Lemieux (32-2, 30) battle against former world title challenger Gabriel Rosado (21-8-0-1, 13) in what promises to be an explosive encounter. Lemieux is very exciting but very flawed and will be attempting to stop Rosado from the off, if he fails to win early then Rosado will fancy his chance to score his first win in more than 2 years. In a Light Middleweight bout on the same show the unbeaten Hugo Centeno Jr (21-0-0-1, 11) battles against the promising James De la Rosa (23-2, 13). For De la Rosa this is a chance to build on his upset win over Alfredo Angulo earlier this year whilst for Centeno this allows him a chance to score his second win of the year and continue his development. The third interesting bout on this show will see two contenders in action each looking to moves towards a world title bout next year. This bout will see the much touted Thomas Dulorme (21-1, 14) battling against Henry Lundy (25-3-1, 12). We're expecting that this could be a genuinely great bout in the ring and although it's likely to be over-shadowed by the Lemiuex/Rosado bout it should still be a great bout with both men real skills and under-rated power. In Canada fans will see the popular Jean Pascal (29-2-1, 17) battle against Argentinian veteran Roberto Feliciano Bolonti (35-3, 24) in what is a bit of a stay busy bout for the talented Canadian based Haitian. If Pascal wins here, as is expected of him, he will meet Sergey Kovalev early next year in what looks to be a brilliant contest and another chance for Kovalev to prove that he's the best fighter at 175lbs. Continuing with Light Heavyweights German fans will also get the chance to see a highly regarded Light Heavyweight in action as WBA “regular” champion Juergen Braehmer (44-2, 32) battles against Pawel Glazewski (23-2, 5). This will be Braehmer's third defense of the bout, strangely following a defense over the previously mentioned Bolonti. In Mexico Super Featherweight hopeful Adrian Estrella (19-0, 17), a possible future opponent for Takashi Miura, will be defending his WBC FECARBOX title against the heavy handed but limited Edwin Lopez (21-3-1, 19). From what we understand Estrella has shown an interest in a bout with Miura for next year and it would certainly be an exciting contest between two fearsome punchers. Of course Estrella will need to get past Lopez first. (Image courtesy of Barclays Center) It's not often that we get Saturday's that are busy but low profile. Days that look like total mismatch but yet deliver some good back and forth action and days that end with us all viewing fighters different to how we began the day, whether that's for better or for worse. The fighter who took the biggest "hit" in terms of what we think of them was Adonis Stevenson (24-1, 20) who retained his WBC Light Heavyweight though looked like a totally different man who had impressed so many fight fans last year. In 2013 Stevenson blasted opponents away for fun mowing through 4 fighters in a combined 20 rounds. Those victories had seen him becoming "Fighter of the Year" and being viewed as potentially the best Light Heavyweight on the planet and one of the sports biggest punchers. The reputation of Stevenson didn't scare Poland's Andrzej Fonfara (25-3-0-1, 15) who twice pulled himself off the canvas to give Stevenson his toughest bout in years and in fact dropped Stevenson in round 9. Although Fonfara did lose he seemed to come out of the night as a man heading upwards whilst many will be questioning what Stevenson really has in the tank. From this performance it was little wonder Stevenson wanted nothing to do with Sergey Kovalev who would have to be favoured if the two men did in the next year or two. Fonfara wasn't the only man to impress on the show in Canada as the much touted, and very exciting, Middleweight contender David Lemieux (32-2, 30) put on a stunning performance. Lemieux was fighting recent world title challenger Fernando Guerrero (26-3, 19) and made Guerrero look like a 4th round fighter. Lemieux battered, bruised, cut and broke up Guerrero in 3 vicious rounds that left Guerrero being bounced off the canvas and badly cut before finally being stopped. It was genuinely sensation from Lemieux who appears to want a WBO world title fight later this year. Stevenson wasn't the only world champion in action as Mexico's Jhonny Gonzalez (56-8, 47) successfully defended his WBC Featherweight title with a technical decision over the previously unbeaten Clive Atwell (12-1-1, 7). Atwell was taking a huge step up in class and did, at times, manage to make life difficult for the big punching Gonzalez though the Mexican's experience helped him through any issues thrown his way as he built up a big lead on the score cards. Unfortunately the bout failed to reach a natural conclusion after Gonzalez was cut from a clash of heads sending us to the scorecards which all had Gonzalez comfortably in the lead. On a second Mexican we saw a new "world champion" crowned in the Super Flyweight division as Mexico's talented David Sanchez (25-2-2, 19) claimed the WBA "interim" title. Sanchez was given a tougher than expected contest with Venezuela's Breilor Teran (13-10-1, 6) who proved to be much better than his record indicated despite losing a unanimous decision to Sanchez. As with the Stevenson/Fonfara bout the loser here probably came out with enough confidence and credit to feel like they could well give anyone in the world a hard night's work. With the victory for Sanchez he becomes the top contender to the WBA Super Flyweight and could well emerge as the next man on the radar of current world champion Kohei Kono of Japan. Despite a Kono/Sanchez bout being one we'd love to see there are some murmurs out there that a Sanchez/Koki Kameda fight is more likely, at least for now. Given the promotional issues with the Kameda clan a bout against Sanchez in Mexico could well take place later this year as Koki Kameda looks to re-establish himself as a force on the world stage. On the same card as Sanchez's win fans also got to see the triumphant return to action for the very popular Jackie Nava (29-4-3, 13) who stopped Alys Sanchez (12-2-1, 4) and claimed the WBA female interim Super Bantamweight title. This was Nava's first fight since 2012, after having had a child, though her class was on show as she faced a woman who simply wasn't in her league. We'll say that Alys Sanchez was lucky in the fact Nava was coming back from a break or this could have become rather nasty. Nava was down herself in the opening round and we'd hasten to suggest that wouldn't have happened had it not been for the long break. Also on this show former world champion Edgar Sosa (50-8, 30) made his return to the ring following his loss to Akira Yaegashi last year. Sosa was triumphant here as he defeated Omar Salado (24-8-2, 15), who retired at the end of round 4. Sosa now looks likely to campaign at Super Flyweight and whilst he's certainly got the skills to hold his own we do wonder if he has the size needed to really compete at the top level at 115lbs. (Image courtesy of groupe Gvon 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
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