This coming Saturday may not have a lot of Asian action but there is plenty of action Stateside with two genuinely notable cards in the US. On paper the most notable takes place in Alabama where fans will get a pair of world title bouts as well as an excellent support bout. The main event will see WBC Heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (33-0, 32) defending his title against the heavy handed but limited Eric Molina (23-2, 17) in what will be Wilder's first defense of the title. The bout has been slated due to the apparent gulf in ability of the two men and we do need to wonder how Molina has got a world ranking, despite that it is good to see Wilder as active as he is and we suspect he'll fight a more serious contender later in the year. The other title fight will see unbeaten Super Featherweight hopeful Jose Pedraza (19-0, 12) battle against once beaten Andrey Klimov (19-1, 9) for the IBF title. Pedraza has looked really good recently, including his dominant display against Michael Farrenas and should be too good for Pedraza however the Russian hasn't come to lie down. Interestingly Klimov is best known for losing on American soil to Terrence Crawford, that proved he was tough but fundamentally he shouldn't be good enough here. Arguably the fight of the card comes at Lightweight as Dejan Zlaticanin (20-0, 13) takes on Ivan Redkach (18-0-0-1, 14) in a really good looking and well matched bout. It's a hard one to pick and promises to be very competitive, not much more we can ask here. From what we understand the winner will be heading towards a world title fight in the coming 12 months or so. The other American card is in New York where we get another world title fight as well as another bout between unbeaten hopefuls. The world title bout is a bout between unbeaten punchers as Jamaica's Nicholas Walters (25-0, 21) defends his WBA Featherweight “super” title against Colombian Miguel Marriaga (20-0, 18). To say this looks explosive is little more than stating the obvious though we do need to favour the more proven Walters. The chief support here will see the mega-touted Felix Verdejo (17-0, 13) face his stiffest test to date as he goes up against Ivan Najera (16-0, 8). We're expecting this bout to tell us a lot about Verdejo who is really highly regarded though lacks a stand out win so far. Saying that however Najera has also got this far without a real win of note.
0 Comments
This past Saturday was a very busy day in the boxing world with numerous world level fighters in action around the globe. It was, in some ways, one of the most interesting days of the year for boxing fans despite a lack of elite level fights or huge name fighters. One of the key bouts was a Middleweight clash between former world title challenger Martin Murray (29-1-1, 12) who scored a technical decision win over Italian tough guy Domenico Spada (39-6, 19). The bout, for the WBC silver Middleweight title, was certainly not the best fight of the weekend but was a very important one and it seems likely the winner , Murray, will be facing Gennady Golovkin next February, also in Monaco. That bout looks like one of the best that can be made in the division but can see past a Golovkin stoppage against the game British fighter. Another bout on the same show saw Unbeaten Light Heavyweight contender Eleider Alvarez (16-0, 9) score a statement win by stopping previously unbeaten South African Ryno Liebenberg (16-1, 11) in 7 rounds. Liebenberg was attempting to defend the WBC silver Light Heavyweight title for the first time however the win for Alvarez is likely to put him right in contention for a WBC world title fight. For us however the most interesting bout, both in the ring and in terms of general significance, was a Bantamweight bout between the unbeaten Randy Caballero (22-0, 13) and former champion Stuart Hall (16-4-2, 7). The bout was a very competitive and exciting one as both men gave their all, sadly for Hall his all wasn't enough to over-come the more technically capable Caballero who scored a second round knockdown and just edged the contest. For Caballero this opportunity was a well deserved one following his win in an eliminator against Kohei Oba earlier this year and now we're hoping Caballero will be considering a unification bout with Shinsuke Yamanaka. In Montenegro we saw two other fringe world class fighters in action. One of those two fighters was Dejan Zlaticanin (20-0, 13) who dropped the teak tough Alex Bone (10-19-3, 4) twice on route to a very wide decision victory. Zlaticanin is a world ranked fighter and is best known for his upset win over Ricky Burns though it does seem likely that he could struggle to find other big fights due to a lack of a major backer. The other man on the card was Super Middleweight contender Nikola Sjekloca (28-2, 8) who out pointed Jorge Rodriguez Olivera (25-10, 12) in a clear cut 8 round bout. Unlike Zlaticanin it's fair to say that Sjekloca isn't struggling to get big bouts and has fought both Sakio Bika and Arthir Abraham recently and will be back in the ring on November 22nd to fight Callum Smith. One final bout of note was a female on in Mexico as Yazmin Rivas (31-8, 9) defended her WBC Bantamweight title with a 10 round decision over Australian veteran Susie Ramadan (23-2, 8). (Image courtesy of http://www.goldengloves.co.za) |
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
|