Not many bouts have "explosive" written all over them but the upcoming interim WBA Welterweight title bout certainly does as hard hitting Argentinian Diego Gabriel Chaves (22-0, 18) takes on American Keith Thurman (20-0-0-1, 18) live on Showtime.
Although Chaves is relatively unknown by the wider boxing public he's a fighter who has been receiving a lot of TV time in his homeland courtesy of TYC Sports and thus he's gotten plenty of attention as a fighter there.
Prior to turning professional in 2008 Chaves had been a solid amateur competing at 2007 World Amateur Championships and claiming various national and international titles. It was this amateur experience that helped him get the attention from TC Sports, it was also his amateur success that saw him being dubbed "La Joya" ("The Jewel"). Thankfully for Chaves he has transitioned from the amateurs to the professionals well and really developed as a hard hitter.
Chaves claimed the interim title around a year ago when he stopped Ismael El Massoudi in 2 rounds. Since then he has defended the belt once defeating Jose Miranda, also in 2 round. Unfortunately Chaves has been out of the ring since last September when he beat Miranda and this sort of a layoff could see him with a lot of ring rust, especially when you consider he had fought 21 times in the previous 4 years. Unfortunately part of this layoff was spent waiting for a fight in Dubai against Paulie Malignaggi, a fight that failed to come to fruition.
Style wise Chaves is a hard hitter as mentioned above but is a wild fighter. He's defensively open and appears to leave a lot of chances for a fighter to tag him. His defensive woes have seen him suffering several knockdowns however with his power he's looked like he is happy to have a firefight in the hope of taking his opponents out. He can box when he needs to, though often shows the Latin American machismo rather than his boxing brain.
Whilst Chaves is unknown to the US fanbase it's fair to assume that Thurman isn't. He's a brash but yet charismatic fighter who has been on US TV numerous times often as part of a major undercard giving him major exposure to fans.
Like Chaves, Thurman is a big puncher with genuine lights out power if he connects cleanly and hurtful thudding power if he only manages to land glancing shots. Although he's a big puncher he's more well schooled than Chaves, he's not technically perfect by any stretch of the imagination but he's more defensively sound and more aware of what he's doing when he comes forward and throws. Also like Chaves he has a solid amateur background with more than 100 amateur wins.
Nicknamed "One Time", Thurman seems to feel that he only needs one chance to stop an opponent though he did show last time out that he can box for 12 rounds as he took a decision over the always tough Jan Zaveck. This has been Thurman's only bout to go 12 rounds though I feel he's happy to have proved he can manage the championship distance.
When two big bangers face each other you'd usually favour the more technically rounded fighter and with that in mind I've got to with Thurman here. Both men have question marks hanging over them for sure but with Chaves defensive issues it's going to be next to impossible to back him against any top power puncher.
Of course Chaves could be the next Maidana, Matthysse or Abregu but personally I see him being just a level below that of Abregu, a fringe contender as opposed to a world level guy.
Prediction-Thurman TKO5
Showing posts with label Diego Gabriel Chaves. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Diego Gabriel Chaves. Show all posts
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Diego Gabriel Chaves v Jose Miranda
This weekend sees unbeaten Argentinian Diego Gabriel Chaves (21-0, 17) make the first defense of his WBA "interim" Welterweight title as he faces the somewhat uninspiring Jose Miranda (12-11-3, 8) in what appears to be a mismatch from the off.
The hard hitting Chaves claimed the title earlier this year when he stopped Frenchman Ismael El Massoudi in 3 rounds and made his first major mark on the boxing world. Although unknown by many in Europe and even North America, the hard core fans had been been following him for a while, with fans in his homeland dubbing him "La Joya" -The Jewel.
Chaves turned professional in 2008 after a credible amateur career and debuted in July '08. Within a year of being a professional he had swiftly raced out to 10-0 (9) with 8 victories in the first 2 rounds as he simply blew opponents away with hurtful nasty shots. It would take much longer for him to add his first professional title as he claimed the WBO Latino Light Middleweight title just a fight later.
After defending the WBO Latino Light Middleweight title once, Chaves dropped down to the Welterweight division and swiftly claimed the WBO Latino Welterweight title. He defend this second title 5 times as he moved his record to 20-0 (16) and defeated veterans Omar Gabriel Weis and Jorge Daniel Miranda.
Following the 5 WBO Latino Welterweight title defenses Chaves would then go on to defeat El Massoudi for the WBA "interim" Welterweight title.
Whilst he's a noted puncher Chaves does have some solid skills there to rely on if needed. He's never going to become a true slickster but he will make enjoyable fights with his aggressiveness and power which is deadly to both the head and body. This does often leave him there to be hit, and he can be hurt, in fact he's been down several times so far in his career, however he appears to be able to regroup and get back to work with out too many issues.
Sadly for Chaves' first defense he will be facing the very limited Panamanian Jose Miranda who's career so far has been really unspectacular in terms of results and performances.
Miranda made his professional debut way back in 2000 as a Super Bantamweight and despite starting with 4 wins it didn't take long for his record to become somewhat patchy as he swiftly fell to 4-2-2 (2).
Despite scoring 3 successive wins between September 2002 and August 2003 it didn't take long for Miranda's record to really falter as he scored only 2 wins in his next 12 bouts as he fell to 9-11-3 (6). Whilst some of those losses came to decent fighters, including the likes of Darley Perez, Alberto Mosquera, Johan Perez and former world champion Vicente Mosquera they were still career damaging losses.
Surprisingly Miranda has won his last 3 fights, including scoring a notable victory over William Gonzalez. Despite scoring those 3 victories they were, at best, a level or two below world title level (yes, even some interim titles).
Going in to this bout it's almost impossible to see how Miranda can win. With some 6 stoppage losses to his name we know that Miranda isn't that tough and having started his career way down at Super Bantamweight we also know that Miranda is naturally the smaller man. Perhaps most tellingly, at least from the footage that I've seen, is that Miranda is quite easy to hit and Darley Perez had no issue at all in dropping him twice. Whilst Perez hits hard Chaves hits much harder.
Whilst Miranda has been given a bit of a "Rocky" type chance here it's hard to see him lasting more than a round or two against a fearsome hard hitter like Chaves. Expect this one to be over early.
Prediction-Chaves TKO3
The hard hitting Chaves claimed the title earlier this year when he stopped Frenchman Ismael El Massoudi in 3 rounds and made his first major mark on the boxing world. Although unknown by many in Europe and even North America, the hard core fans had been been following him for a while, with fans in his homeland dubbing him "La Joya" -The Jewel.
Chaves turned professional in 2008 after a credible amateur career and debuted in July '08. Within a year of being a professional he had swiftly raced out to 10-0 (9) with 8 victories in the first 2 rounds as he simply blew opponents away with hurtful nasty shots. It would take much longer for him to add his first professional title as he claimed the WBO Latino Light Middleweight title just a fight later.
After defending the WBO Latino Light Middleweight title once, Chaves dropped down to the Welterweight division and swiftly claimed the WBO Latino Welterweight title. He defend this second title 5 times as he moved his record to 20-0 (16) and defeated veterans Omar Gabriel Weis and Jorge Daniel Miranda.
Following the 5 WBO Latino Welterweight title defenses Chaves would then go on to defeat El Massoudi for the WBA "interim" Welterweight title.
Whilst he's a noted puncher Chaves does have some solid skills there to rely on if needed. He's never going to become a true slickster but he will make enjoyable fights with his aggressiveness and power which is deadly to both the head and body. This does often leave him there to be hit, and he can be hurt, in fact he's been down several times so far in his career, however he appears to be able to regroup and get back to work with out too many issues.
Sadly for Chaves' first defense he will be facing the very limited Panamanian Jose Miranda who's career so far has been really unspectacular in terms of results and performances.
Miranda made his professional debut way back in 2000 as a Super Bantamweight and despite starting with 4 wins it didn't take long for his record to become somewhat patchy as he swiftly fell to 4-2-2 (2).
Despite scoring 3 successive wins between September 2002 and August 2003 it didn't take long for Miranda's record to really falter as he scored only 2 wins in his next 12 bouts as he fell to 9-11-3 (6). Whilst some of those losses came to decent fighters, including the likes of Darley Perez, Alberto Mosquera, Johan Perez and former world champion Vicente Mosquera they were still career damaging losses.
Surprisingly Miranda has won his last 3 fights, including scoring a notable victory over William Gonzalez. Despite scoring those 3 victories they were, at best, a level or two below world title level (yes, even some interim titles).
Going in to this bout it's almost impossible to see how Miranda can win. With some 6 stoppage losses to his name we know that Miranda isn't that tough and having started his career way down at Super Bantamweight we also know that Miranda is naturally the smaller man. Perhaps most tellingly, at least from the footage that I've seen, is that Miranda is quite easy to hit and Darley Perez had no issue at all in dropping him twice. Whilst Perez hits hard Chaves hits much harder.
Whilst Miranda has been given a bit of a "Rocky" type chance here it's hard to see him lasting more than a round or two against a fearsome hard hitter like Chaves. Expect this one to be over early.
Prediction-Chaves TKO3
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