The Super Featherweight division has been a long over-looked one with many fighters, such as Takashi Uchiyama, the WBA "Super" champion, and Takashi Miura, the WBC champion, both being massively under-rated by fans in the West. Thankfully the division does often deliver on action and later today fans get a chance to see some of that action as a really exciting takes place in the US.

The match up in question will see the unbeaten Francisco Vargas (21-0-1, 15) battle against Will Tomlinson (23-1-1, 13) in a bout for the WBO International and NABF titles.

Vargas really impressed us last year when he scored wins ove Abner Cotto, Juan Manuel Lopez and Gernaro Camargo, with stoppage against both Lopez and Camargo. With an exciting and action based style Vargas has the potential to add real excitement to the division and a chance to become a major player. Likewise Tomlinson is also capable of giving exciting bouts with his all action style that saw him putting a loss to Jerry Belmontes behind him courtesy of wins over Alberto Cupuido and Miguel Samudio.

Of the two Tomlinson is the harder worker and the one who depends more on volume however Vargas is the bigger puncher and this should make for some really exciting moments with some serious back and forth action.

Also on this card is Olympic bronze medal winner Yamaguchi Falcao (3-0-0-1, 1) who puts his unbeaten record on the line against fellow unbeaten Raymond Terry (3-0, 2). Falcao, who is the brother of Esquiva Falcao, came up short in the 2012 Olympics against Egor Mekhontsev however the general view is that he could go all the way.

One other bout on this card worth noting will see the much touted Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (12-0, 10) battle against another unbeaten fighter in the form of Fabiano Pena (11-0-1, 8). The Ukrainian boxer-puncher is widely viewed as a potential champion and has shown all the tools to go a really long way however on paper this is a good test. Sadly looking in to Pena's record is disappointing and he's certainly the big under-dog here considering his opposition so far.

(Image courtesy of www.couriermail.com.au)

This past Saturday was an amazing day for boxing fans with a fantastic show in the US. The show, one of the best of the year, at least on paper, was thoroughly interesting but sadly not always the most entertaining.

The show, at least the televised portion of it, kicked off with an enthralling WBO Bantamweight title fight that saw Tomoki Kameda successfully defending his title and leaving an excellent impression on US fans. The fight, which ended when Tomoki landed a brutal body shot to Pungluang Sor Singyu, should have been impressive enough to impress US audiences in to wanting to see more of Tomoki.

Following the all-Asian show starter we then had the fight of the night as Mauricio Herrera (21-4, 7) took a majority decision over Johan Perez (19-2-1, 13) and claimed the WBA interim Light Welterweight title. The fight, which was action packed through out, swung several times as the two men unloaded shots on each other in a high paced and highly skilled contest that was genuinely enjoyable. 

The action from the Herrera/Perez was great to watch but neither guy had the power to really hurt the other and as a result it never looked like we were going to get a stoppage, though Perez was rocked very late in the fight. In the contest that followed however there was no chance the contest was going to go the distance as all action Francisco Vargas (20-0-1, 14) stopped the hard hitting but very shop worn Juan Manuel Lopez (34-4, 31). Lopez was rocked hard in the second round before being dismantled in round 3 by a very sharp Vargas who seemed to announce himself on the world stage. Sadly for Lopez this was another painful loss and it seems time that he called quits on his career before he ends up with serious long term health issues.

Sadly the excitement all vanished in the very next fight as Abner Mares (27-1-1, 14) put on a controlled but dull performance to over-come Jonathan Oquendo (24-4, 16). This was Mares first bout since being blasted out in a round by Jhonny Gonzalez and although that set back was a bad one the tactics Mares used in this fight really were disappointing for the most part.

In the main event of the show fans saw the hugely popular though very divisive Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (44-1-1, 31) take a highly disputed split decision over Cuba's Erislandy Lara (19-2-2, 12). The bout saw Lara boxing and moving for vast parts of the fight whilst Alvarez stalked with mixed results. The men both felt their tactics had seen them controlling the bout though in all honesty no one truly "controlled" it with plenty of rounds that could be debated. Sadly one judge managed to see the fight 117-111 to Alvarez, a result that simply didn't make sense, despite the numerous close rounds. Each man seemed to clearly win 4 rounds with their tactics whilst the remaining 4 were up for debate. The only thing that the fight really told us is that whilst both men were evenly matched Canelo struggles with movers and Lara struggles with body shots.

Sadly the 117-111 card in the Alvarez/Lara fight as well as the draw card in the Herrera/Perez fight and a card of 58-56 to Pungluang, prior to the stoppage, all leave major question marks about judges and we wonder if they were watching the same fights as our selves

Prior to the American card fans also had the chance to watch some fights from the UK. These including a bout with Super Featherweight contender Stephen Smith (20-1, 12) who looked terrible against journeyman Pedro Navarrete (28-19-3, 17). Navarrete is better than his record indicated but Smith really was awful and if he's thinking about fighting Takashi Miura he probably needs to think again or he'll end up badly beaten.

On the same British card we had a trio of Olympic medal winners including Super Heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (7-0, 7), who stopped veteran Matt Skelton (28-9, 23) in a bout that saw Skelton looking his 47 years of age, and Luke Campbell (6-0, 4) who sadly looked lacking in his decision victory over the brave Craig Woodruff (5-4, 2).

The main action on the British show was in the Cruiserweight as we had two bouts of note. The first saw former WBO Light Heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (28-1, 14) make light work of the limited but fun Alejandro Emilio Valori (15-5, 11) whilst the second saw the big mouthed Tony Bellew (22-2-1, 14) stopping Brazil's Julio Cesar Dos Santos (26-3, 23). Both the visitors came with the intention of scoring a KO but neither had the ability against the more well known British fighters who are now set to face each other, in fact they almost had an impromptu fight last night, suggesting that neither man had had to work hard enough to score their wins.

(Image courtesy of Golden Boy Promotions)