Wednesday 31 October 2012

Shinsuke Yamanaka v Tomas Rojas

Talented Japanese Bantamweight Shinsuke Yamanaka (16-0-2, 11) will make the second defense of his WBC Bantamweight title in just a few days as he faces Mexican veteran Tomas Rojas (39-13-1-1, 26) in what promises to be a genuinely difficult bout.

Yamanaka turned professional in 2006 and has swiftly risen up the rankings despite not being the most active of fighters. Rather than fighting numerous time wasting bouts, Yamanaka has been pushed and forces to either climb the rankings quickly or find another career, thankfully he's climbed and climbed well.

The Japanese warrior claimed his first professional title in 2010 when he claimed the Japanese Bantamweight title via a 7th round TKO over Mikio Yasuda and after defending that belt once (stopping the highly touted Ryosuke Iwasa in 10 rounds) he moved swiftly on to the world scene. In his first world title bout Yamanaka defeated the highly regarded Mexican Christian Esquivel in a thrilling battle for the WBC title.

Since becoming the WBC Bantamweight champion Yamanaka has defended his title once, defeating the always fun to watch Vic Darchinyan. Despite not looking great early on against Darchinyan, Yamanaka eventually found his rhythm and started to out box the much less refined Darchinyan and seemed to think that he could go out and stop Vic in the final round if it was needed. Whilst it's fair to say that Vic isn't the fighter he was at 115lb he has since gone on to defeat the very highly regarded Luis Orlando Del Valle.

Despite not having a record of an out-and-out puncher Yamanaka had stopped 9 straight before the Darchinyan fight. Whilst he's certainly a thunderous 1-punch KO artist he's generally able to mix controlled aggression with hurtful shots eventually breaking opponents down bit by bit. In fact interestingly 5 of Yamanaka's stoppage wins have come in (or after) the 7th round. Whilst he certainly can take out lesser opponents early on (having taken out 6 opponents in the opening 3 rounds) against the high caliber opponents we expect him to just break opponents down.

As well as being a hard hitter Yamanaka is a very skilled boxer who can use his jab and straight to keep opponents at a comfortable range when he wants. Despite his ability to box however his most memorable bout so far was the 10 round war with Iwasa which suggests that Yamanaka is happy for a tear up when he has one, even though he was dropped by Esquivel.

Whilst the champion will be the favourite, the challenger, the freakishly tall Tomas Rojas is a very live under-dog and with good reason.

Despite having numerous losses on his record Rojas has one of the most misleading records in the sport. Sadly this is what happens when you regularly face top quality fighters. Rojas has suffered losses to a relative who's who of the boxing world including Rosendo Alvarez, Cristian Mijares, Gerry Penalosa, Luis Maldonado, Anselmo Moreno, Jorge Arce, Vic Darchinyan and     Suriyan Sor Rungvisai.

Having been a professional since 1996, the 32 year old Rojas has really seen everything in the ring and should really be considered a bit of an old school fighter in that he's been willing to not only fight hard fights but use them as his development. He's never avoided a tough fight to keep his record pretty and likewise he's never been one to refuse to travel having fought around in Mexico, Nicaragua, USA, Philippines, Panama, Japan and Thailand. In fact going to Yamanaka's backyard may well be a good thing for Rojas who has never lost in Japan (having beaten both Kohei Kono and Nobuo Nashiro in the land of the rising sun).

Early in his career Rojas was too willing to give away his height for a fight and the 5'8" Banatamweight (who was once making Flyweight!) suffered a number of losses as a result of not boxing clever. He's not only tall, but rangy and more importantly a southpaw making life for all of his opponents a nightmare. When he finally started to use his freakish physical features however Rojas started to have real success and became the WBC Super Flyweight champion as a result, a title that he defended twice before losing to Suriyan Sor Rungvisai in Thailand.

Whilst Rojas is a bit of a physical anomaly his advantages won't be as telling here as Yamanaka is also a taller, rangier fighter and will be almost able to match Rojas for both height and reach (likewise Yamanaka is also a southpaw). Though an advantage that Rojas does have is experience and genuine toughness. In a career spanning 16 years the Mexican has only been stopped twice, most recently by Darchinyan in 2009 with the other coming in 2007 at the hands of Jorge Arce.

Whilst I imagine a hard fight here for both men, I also imagine it'll start as a technical fight with two talented, rangy southpaws cautious of each other. The bout however will warm up and by the middle rounds I can see both men trading a bit more freely with Yamanaka slowly but surely grinding down Rojas and probably even dropping him late on but maybe not quite forcing a stoppage.

Prediction: Yamanaka UD

Monday 29 October 2012

Toshiyuki Igarashi v Nestor Daniel Narvaes

This coming weekend sees Ring, Linear and WBC Flyweight champion Toshiyuki Igarashi (16-1-1, 10) making the fist defense of his titles as he faces little known Argentinian Nestor Daniel Narvaes (19-0-2-1, 9). Despite being unbeaten Narvaes is a hugely underwhelming opponent for a Linear title bout such as this, however could he spring an upset?

Although most boxing fans won't really know who Igarashi is, the Japanese fighter is a well regarded fighter who ran up an impressive amateur record of 77-18 and competed at both the 2004 Olympic games and the 2005 World Amateur Championships.

Aged 28 Igarashi is seen as one of the rising stars of Japanese boxing and despite having been a professional since 2006 it's only been in the last year or so that he's really made any sort of an impact on the world stage. In fact Igarashi's rise to success seems to have arisen from his short reign as the Japanese Flyweight champion in early 2011, a title he would defend just once.

After defending the Japanese title Igarashi was swiftly pushed up the WBC rankings and given a title eliminator against highly rated Mexican Wilbert Uicab. Igarashi managed to claim a narrow decision victory over Uicab to earn his shot at the WBC Champion, and after Sonny Boy Jaro defeated Pongsaklek Wonjongkam for the title the match up was made for Igarashi to face Jaro.

Igarashi made the most of his opportunity against Jaro and claimed a narrow decision to win the titles in an enthralling battle between two tough men. Although Igarashi was tagged numerous times he never seemed that hurt as he landed his own flush shots on Jaro in a genuinely fun to watch fight and one that told us a lot about Igarashi's heart as well as his skills. He appeared to be a powerful punching, tough fighter who had very solid boxing skills even if he lacked a massive work-rate, however he still looked "fresh" in rounds 11 and 12 which would suggest he probably could go up a gear if he felt he needed to.

Whilst we might not know a huge amount about Igarashi we certainly know more about him than we know about Nestor Daniel Narvaes a fighter who has yet to face anyone with a pulse. Despite being unbeaten Narvaes hasn't faced anyone to really gauge him against and as a result it's hard to really tell how good, how powerful and how durable he actually is.

From the footage I have seen of Narvaes he appears to be crude and very open. He does have some hurtful body shots though against the likes of Marcelo Antonio Gomez it's hard to really see just how hard he actually hits. Despite this it's worth noting that Narvaes has fought as high as Super Bantamweight, perhaps suggesting that he will be the naturally bigger man against Igarashi.

So far the best win on Narvaes' record has come against Luis Singo, a veteran Ecuador and this really says everything about this match up. One man has beaten Jaro, and Uicab the other has beaten nobody of worthy, with this is mind I have to go with Igarashi to score the victory, almost certainly by stoppage. When Igarashi lands a solid shot I expect Narvaes to crumble.

Prediction-Igarashi TKO4

Saturday 27 October 2012

Miguel Vazquez v Marvin Quintero

Despite it's historical place in boxing as one of "the original 8" divisions the Lightweight division has somewhat lost it's flair and star power in recent years with the move north of top fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez. Despite this however the division is actually packed with genuine world class talent such as current IBF champion Miguel Vazquez (31-3, 13) who defends his title this weekend against mandatory challenger Marvin Quintero (25-3, 21).

Whilst he may not being a big name in the sport, Vazquez (also known as "Titere" of "Puppet") is one of the sports truly over-looked fighters who lives by the old adage of "hit and don't get hit", which stands out even more when you realise that he's an out and out Mexican.

The 25 year old Vazquez debuted as just a teenager way back in 2006, losing his debut fight to current WBC Light Middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez via a close split decision. Vazquez built well after his debut loss and ran up 18 successive wins to move to 18-1 (9) before running in to current WBO Welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, who scored a clear victory over Vazquez in a bout for the WBC Youth Light Welterweight world title.

After losing to Bradley, Vazquez won his following 3 bouts, claiming the lightly regarded WBC FECARBOX Light Welterweight title in the process before losing in a rematch to Saul "Canelo" Alvarez over 10 rounds. Since then however Vazquez has dropped down to Lightweight and really began to make a name for himself with 10 straight wins, including a decision win over the then unbeaten Breidis Prescott.

Alongside the win over Prescott, Vazquez has also gone on to claim the IBF Lightweight title (defeating exciting South Korean Ji-Hoon Kim to claim the title) and defend it 3 times with victories over Ricardo Dominguez, Leonardo Zappavigna and Ammeth Diaz.

In terms of his style Vazquez is very slippery. He can either fight at range disrupting his opponents with his long, accurate jab or he can stand in the pocket, moving and countering at will, with either body movement or foot movement. He hasn't any real power but he is alarmingly accurate and really frustrating for opponents. It also helps Vazquez that, at 5'10" he is tall and long allowing him to dictate the pace of the action with his natural advantages as well as his skills.

With Vazquez seen as the talented pure boxer, it may be fair to say that Quintero is much more of a banger, and his record reflects that with 21 stoppage wins from his 25 victories and an over-all KO rate of 75%. Despite this however his competition has been rather limited with just a solitary stand out victory standing beside his 3 losses.

Quintero debuted back in 2004 as a 17 year old and after winning his first 4 bouts he suffered his first loss, an opening round stoppage to the debuting Balam Castellanos (who would win just 1 of his next 5 bouts). Despite this set back Quintero rebuilt his career running off 12 straight victories (9 by T/KO) to move to 15-1 (11). Despite his growing record his most notable victory up to that point was an 8 round decision over the limited Wes Ferguson.

Just as it seemed that Quintero was about to get his career on track he would suffer his second career loss as Tyrone Harris stopped him in round 8 on a ShowBox Broadcast. Despite his reputation as a big puncher Quintero was unable to intimidate Harris who repeatedly landed solid, hurtful blows on Quintero before forcing the stoppage. Overall it was an embarrassing performance by Quintero and sadly for the challenger the most obvious sign that Vazquez will beat him with his jab and movement, two things Harris used wonderfully.

After his second loss Quintero once again started to rebuild, this time scoring 4 wins before stepping up a level and being stopped by Daniel Attah (who incidentally went on to fight, and lose to, Vazquez himself) in 2 rounds. Once again this was a case of stepping up to fringe level and losing, badly, for Quintero who seemingly found his own level.

Thankfully for Quintero he is now on a 5 fight winning streak, including a solid victory last time out against the highly ranked Filipino Al Sabaupan in what is easily the stand out victory on Quintero's record. Sadly his lack of quality wins doesn't fill me with much expectation going into this bout.

From what footage I've seen Quintero is limited, wild and whilst he certainly has power he doesn't seem to have the ability to land it against someone like Vazquez who will play the role of matador to the bull like Quintero. If Quintero can land a bomb we might see Vazquez troubled, but the champion has faced bigger punchers and made the look like amateurs at times (including Ji-Hoon Kim and Breidis Prescott).

As a big fan of Vazquez I'd like to see him make a statement here, and whilst he should win with relative ease I'd like to see him hunt a stoppage if he hurts Quintero rather than just putting on a masterclass. For Quintero to win he will need to show a lot more than he's ever shown so far.

Prediction-Vazquez by Unanimous Decision

Wednesday 24 October 2012

Takahiro Ao v Gamaliel Diaz

Japan may well have 2 of the best Super Featherweights at the moment with WBA champion Takashi Uchiyama (18-0-1, 15) and WBC Champion Takahiro Ao (23-2-1, 10) however Ao will need to prove his worth this coming weekend as he faces Mexican veteran Gamaliel Diaz (36-9-2, 17).

Despite Diaz's unflattering record, the Mexican can seriously fight and at 31 years old knows that the clock is ticking down on his long career that started way back in 1998 with a decision loss to Luis Alberto Reyes. In fact Diaz's early career goes some way to explaining his poor record as he lost 5 of his first 8 bouts, including one to Martin Honorio, as he spent 3 years trying to get his career off the ground.

After struggling very early in his career Diaz finally got things going and he would go unbeaten over his next 18 bouts. Included in that run of 18 successive bouts were 16 victories and two titles, including the WBC FECARBOX Featherweight title (that he would defend 4 times) and the NABF title that he won by scoring a notable upset over Robert Guerrero (yes, the current WBC interim Welterweight Champion). Sadly however Diaz would suffer at the hands of Guerrero in a rematch as "The Ghost" stopped him in round 6 with a beautiful shot.

Following the loss to Guerrero, Diaz struggled to rebuild his career and went 3-3 in his next 6, scoring a notable win over Elio Rojas whilst suffering losses to Jorge Linares (KO8), Humberto Soto (TKO11) and to South African Zolani Marali (UD12).

Since losing to Marali back in April 2009 Diaz has been on an excellent run winning 13 straight bouts and climbing to #4 in the WBC's rankings. Whilst many of his wins have come against no hopers he has also gone on to defeat the likes of veteran Cesar Soto and the promising Jhean Carlo Aparicio Romero. These probably shouldn't have been enough to earn him such a lofty ranking however the WBC do work in mysterious ways.

Whilst his record isn't pretty Diaz is a decent fighter. Not the most durable admittedly, especially at the world level, however he's still a solid fighter who, if allowed to box, can give almost anyone currently at Super Featherweight real issues. At 5'9" he's tall for the weight, he's experienced, he's tougher than his record indicates (2 of his 5 stoppages came very early in his career) and knows how to box. Sadly however Diaz does lack a serious punch, especially at Super Featherweight and even more so at the world level.

Japanese champion Ao, will be the clear favourite here and with good reason. Not only is he fighting at home in Tokyo but at 28 years old he seems to be coming in to his own and has finally started to fulfill his sizable potential.

Ao turned professional back in 2003 and swiftly rose through the Japanese rankings, taking the Japanese Featherweight title in just his 14th professional bout back, way back in 2007. Ao defended his national title 3 times before moving in to the world level with a bout against the then WBC Featherweight champion Oscar Larios. Despite dropping Larios in round 4, Ao was narrowly beaten by split decision. A rematch 5 months later however saw Ao defeat Larios and claim the world title.

Despite claiming the WBC Featherweight title Ao's reign was very short lived as he lost his belt in his first defense, losing to Elio Rojas (incidentally Rojas had lost to Diaz just 2 fights earlier). This loss saw Ao fleeing the Featherweight division to head to pastures new at Super Feather. At his new weight he swiftly climbed up the rankings before beating former amateur stand out Vitali Tajbert for the WBC title to become a 2-weight world champion.

Since winning the Super Featherweight title Ao has made 3 title defenses beating Humberto Mauro Gutierrez (KO4), Devis Boschiero (SD12) and Terdsak Kokietgym (UD12) and whilst he hasn't looked great in last 2 defenses it does need to be noted that Boschiero is one of the sports most-under rated fighters and has since gone on to claim the European belt.

Like Diaz, Ao is a talented boxer though lacks real venom. It's true that Ao is a hurtful puncher (having dropped Larios, Tajbert and Gutierrez at world level) though he's not a massive hitter and he isn't likely to put a top fighter out of there. At his best Ao is a very good boxer, he's a tricky southpaw who is quick with his hands and feet and seems to be growing in confidence. Unlike compatriot Uchiyama he hasn't the power to nearly behead you, however he has the skills to out box most at the weight and he's proven to be tough having never been stopped.

Although Diaz is capable of springing the upset here I just can't see Ao losing. Diaz doesn't hit hard enough to stop Ao, and I can't see Diaz getting a decision in Japan. It could well be a close and interesting fight, but Ao will likely have the crowd behind him and do enough to claim a comfortable decision. Saying this however Ao has got the power to hurt Diaz and whilst I wouldn't bet on him to score a stoppage, it's not actually out of the question.

Prediction-Ao Unanimous Decision.

Note-For fans watching this card keep a close eye on Ryosuke Iwasa (12-1, 9) who faces former world title challenger David De La Mora (24-2, 17). Iwasa is one of the best prospects in world boxing right now and we imagine he will take a world title in the next few years.

Friday 19 October 2012

Omar Andres Narvaez v Johnny Garcia

Despite the fact Argentina has historically been a notable boxing country, it's on a real high at the moment with a number of world champions and top contenders. One of the top Argentinian fighters, the WBO Super Flyweight champion, Omar Andres Narvaez (36-1-2, 19) looks to make the fifth defense of his title as he faces Mexican Johnny Garcia (16-3-1, 8).

At 37 years old Narvaez is coming to the twilight years of his exceptional career which has seen him become a 2-weight world champion and a fighter who has reigned at the top for almost a decade despite staying in relative obscurity.

Sadly most boxing fans who have seen Narvaez have only seen his fight with Donaire, a mismatch from the offer in which Narvaez clearly spent more time trying to survive against a fighter who was simply too big and too strong. Against men of a similar natural size to himself however, Narvaez is something special with tricky defense, fast hands and some lovely combinations that he rattles off over and over despite his advanced age.

Narvaez first made his name as an amateur and actually appeared in both the 1996 and 2000 Olympics before turning professional in 2000. Within 2 years of his professional debut Narvaez had already claimed his first professional title (the WBO Flyweight title) by defeating Adonis Rivas. As the Flyweight champion Narvaez made 16 title defenses and defeated the likes of Luis Alberto Lazarte, Andrea Sarritzu, Bernard Inom, Brahim Asloum and Carlos Tamara before giving up the title in 2009 and moving up to Super Flyweight looking for a challenge.

After moving to Super Flyweight Narvaez swiftly won the WBO title as he defeated Everth Briceno and followed that up with 3 title defenses before his loss to Donaire. Following the loss to Donaire, Narvaez has fought once, defending his title once more by defeating Jose Cabrera.

Despite the claims of Steve Lillis (prior to the Donaire fight), Narvaez has surprisingly fought around the world with fights in Italy, France and Spain as well as the Donaire fight (in America), however this will be his 33rd fight in his native homeland of Argentina, a country in which he is 31-0-1 and 16-0 in title fights.

The challenger for the title, 23 year old Johnny Garcia, is seen as huge betting under-dog and with good reason, and not just because Narvaez is extremely talented. Sadly for Garcia he's really up against it because he himself is unproven at this level.

Garcia made his professional debut back in 2007 when he was just an 18 year old kid. Sadly for Garcia his career started slowly as his record swiftly fell to 3-2-1 after just 14 months. Since then however Garcia has really gotten his career going and has gone 13-1 over the last 4 years.

Not only has Garcia been on an excellent run of results over the past 4 years but he has also been scoring notable victories including wins over Jesus Ruiz, William Urina and most recently Manuel Vargas. The only loss in that time came at the hands of the very highly regarded Carlos Cuadras who stopped Garcia in 2 rounds a little over a year ago.

In terms of pure technique Garcia is quite raw and very aggressively minded however it'd by harsh to flat out call him crude as he does seem to have some technical skills in his arsenal. Sadly, on a technical basis he can't hope to match Narvaez, however in terms of brute power he'll feel that he's easily the more powerful man, and is certainly the younger, more energetic man. Despite the youth, it's fair to say that Narvaez is probably the faster fighter however.

Personally whilst I think Narvaez has slipped a fair bit he is still a fighter who is amongst the top guys in his division and whilst Garcia may have his moments, especially if he starts fast, he won't have enough of the to win a decision. I'd go with Narvaez by a clear decision, I don't think he'll manage to really hurt Garcia too badly but I'd be shocked if Garcia manages to win more than 3 rounds.

Prediction-Narvaez by unanimous decision

Paulie Malignaggi v Pablo Cesar Cano

Earlier this year out-spoken American Paulie Malignaggi (31-4, 7) really revitalised his career as he claimed the WBA Welterweight title in an impressive performance against Ukrainian Vyacheslav Senchenko. Malignaggi is now set to make the first defense of that title as he prepares to face popular Mexican Pablo Cesar Cano (25-1-1, 19).

Despite being a noted non-puncher Malignaggi has, time and time again, proven himself to be an extremely talented fighter who has brilliant technical skills as well as fantastic speed and movement coupled alongside real heart and genuine toughness. Sadly, most, seem to only remember the fact he is a non-puncher rather than give his skills the credit they deserve.

Malignaggi burst on to the world stage way back in 2006 when he showed his toughness in brave losing effort to hard punching Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto and since then has been a mainstay on the world scene with bouts against the likes of Ricky Hatton, Amir Khan and Juan Diaz. Sadly, despite his extreme talent he has found it hard to beat the very top guys who just have that something extra.

Malignaggi made his professional debut way back in 2001 and since then has won both the IBF Light Welterweight title (which he defended twice) and the WBA Welterweight title (the belt he is defending this weekend). All this despite having serious hand issues troubling him through out his career. In recent years however the hands seem to be holding up well and remarkably he has stopped 2 of his last 4 opponents, scoring his first stoppage wins since 2003.

In terms of his style Malignaggi is very slippery, he not only judges distance wonderfully well but he also anticipates his opponents next move whilst landing stinging jabs on to his opponents face, often landing his pot shots and getting out of range before he, himself, is tagged. When tagged however, Malignaggi has shown great resiliency and his brave battle with Cotto really earned him some well deserved plaudits. Sadly however his lack of power has always been an issue and has separated him (a very good fighter) from his top contemporary fighters, such as Cotto and Hatton who were simply able to walk through his shuts using educated pressure.

Whilst Malignaggi is a very known fighter, his opponent, Pablo Cesar Cano, is a bit more obscure having only really come to prominence in the last year or so. Aged just 23 the Mexican burst on to the scene last year in his highest profile bout so far, a brave losing effort to Mexican icon Erik Morales in a WBC Light Welterweight bout. Despite being stopped (by his own corner) against Morales, it was easy to like the kids grit and heart as he started to cut up and swell badly at the hands of Morales.

Other than the Morales bout there is little of note on Cano's record, however earlier this year Cano did claim the interim WBA World Light Welterweight title by defeating the relatively unknown Venezuelan Johan Perez, via controversial technical decision. Despite winning this title, it appears Cano is making a move to 147lbs, and if he defeat Malignaggi he may well intend to stay there. Interestingly however Cano did manage to make Super Featherweight less than 2 years ago, which would perhaps show that he is not a true Light Welterweight, never mind a Welterweight.

Like many Mexican's Cano is a tough fighter, he's not massively skilled but he's tough and seems to enjoy a fighter, however he does have decent boxing skills, as he has shown against both Perez and Morales. He is slowly improving and gaining relevant experience and appears to be really developing as not only a boxer but also a man and with this in mind he must come into this bout as a the puncher, despite arguably being the smaller man.

Sadly despite Cano being an improving fighter he is unlikely to have improved to the level of being able to beat Malignaggi who I feel is simply going to be too fast and too skilled for Cano, who may have his moments but will not have enough of them to claim more than a round or two here and there. Due to the fact Cano is a tough and brave Mexican I imagine he will make it to the final bell, however I wouldn't be shocked if his face looked a bit of a mess by the end of the bout as Malignaggi tries to make a statement.

Prediction-Malignaggi UD

Thursday 18 October 2012

Randall Bailey v Devon Alexander

Earlier this year veteran hard hitter Randall Bailey (47-7-0-1, 37) scored one of the upsets' of the year by stopping the highly favoured Mike Jones in a bout for the IBF Welterweight crown. This weekend see's Bailey making the first defense of his title as he faces former Welterweight title holder Devon Alexander (23-1, 13), can Bailey really upset the odds twice in a row?

They often say that the last thing a fighter loses is his punch and that seems to be the case for Bailey. The defending champion who at 37 (he turns 38 soon after the bout) is certainly an out and puncher, known by many simply as "The Knock-Out King" the Florida native really has got lights out power in his right hand, commonly referred to simply as "the stick of dynamite" and it's this power that has seen him become a multi-time world champion.

Bailey first turned professional in 1996, an amazing 16 years ago and started his career with a sensational run of 21 straight victories by T/KO. Amongst those victories was a notable one in May 1999 over the then WBO Light Welterweight champion Carlos Gonzalez who was stopped in just 41 seconds as Bailey claimed his first world title. After winning the title in his 19th bout Bailey made 2 defenses stopping both Hector Lopez and Rocky Martinez before losing it by split decision to Ener Julio.

After suffering his first loss Bailey bounced quickly and scored 4 more wins, each of those by T/KO in the first 3 rounds as he claimed the interim WBA World Light Welterweight title. Sadly for Bailey his reign with the WBA was short lived as he was defeated in his next fight as he fought for the full version of the belt against Cuban Diosbelys Hurtado, with Hurtado stopping Bailey in round 7. Following this loss Bailey's career struggled to get re-started as he lost 3 of his next 6 fights including WBO Light Welterweight title bouts to DeMarcus Corley (LUD12) and Miguel Cotto (LTKO6).

Those losses had seen Bailey's record falling to 28-5 (27) and it appeared that Bailey's time at the top was all but done, he was now 30 years old and a certified member of the "Who need him?" Club. Despite this Bailey fought on and ran up 7 straight wins after the Cotto loss to move him back up the rankings. Sadly Bailey's winning run came to an end in early 2007 as Canadian based Cameroonian Herman Ngoudjo won a competitive split decision over Bailey in an IBF Light Welterweight title eliminator.

Following the loss to Ngoudjo it would take 22 months for Bailey to work his way back to an eliminator. This time he took the chance with both hands and stopped Francisco Figueroa in eye catching fashion. Bailey however couldn't over come the then champion Juan Urango and was stopped in the 11th round after running out of gas in an enthralling war that saw both men down and hurt. By now nearing his 35 birthday many expected this bout to be the final chapter in the career of Bailey but instead it just seemed to spur him on and after 4 fights (winning 3 with the other being a bizarre no contest as Said Ouali was literally thrown out of the ring) he was back in line for one more chance at a world title. To claim the vacant IBF Welterweight title however Bailey would have to defeat the highly touted and then unbeaten Mike Jones (who was 26-0, 19). Jones got off to an early lead and it seemed almost certain that Bailey would come up short once again. Things started to change however in round 10 when Bailey dropped Jones and started his fightback. Bailey then did the unthinkable and knocked out Jones the following round with a peach of an uppercut to claim the IBF Welterweight title.

Whilst not the most skilled in the world, or the fastest or the fighter with the best stamina Bailey is a true knock-out artist, if he lands clean on anyone they may not know where they are. Many of his knockouts have left opponents either completely out cold or rolling on the canvas as if they have had a few drinks too many. His power is genuinely scary and something every opponent he faces has to be aware of. If he catches Alexander (or anyone else for that matter) it could well be good night Vienna.

Alexander, as the challenger will be seriously fancying his chances over someone who is 12 years his senior however he is relatively unproven at Welterweight having been a Light Welterweight for much of his career, and certainly for his most notable bouts so far.

The young fighter first made his name in the amateurs where he ran up an amazing record reported to be 300-10 with a huge number of title. Having missed out on the 2004 Olympic games Alexander decided to turn professional, aged just 17. He was seen as a prodigious talent and swiftly moved up the rankings. In 2006, in just his 9th bout he claimed his first title, the WBC Youth World Welterweight title before moving down to Light Welter the following year.

It was as a Light Welterweight that Alexander defined his career (at least to the point of writing) as he continued to improve and beat progressively better opponents. In 2008 he scored his first notable victory as he beat former champion  DeMarcus Corley before defeating former title contender Miguel Callist, by the middle of the year it seemed only a matter of waiting to get his shot at a title. The following year the waiting paid off as he got a shot at the vacant WBC Light Welterweight title though he would have to get past former title holder Junior Witter to claim the belt. Despite being just 22 years old Alexander managed to defeat the British veteran who quit in his corner citing a hand injury between rounds 8 and 9.

Having claimed one world title Alexander wanted another and in his first defense he fought the then reigning IBF champion Juan Urango in a unification bout. Alexander managed to not only retain his belt but also add the IBF title to his collection by unexpectedly stopping the teak tough Colombian in the 8th round of a very impressive performance. From there however things started to go wrong for Alexander who was fortunate to defeat the very under-rated Ukrainian Andriy Kotelnyk. Against Kotelnyk Alexander worked hard, throwing over 1000 punches but his jab was next to useless landing at around 10% according to Compubox. In his very next fight Alexander suffered his first loss as a professional losing a 10 round Technical Decision to fellow unbeaten American Timothy Bradley losing his WBC title in the bout and being stripped of his IBF title for failing to fight the mandatory contender (Kaizer Mabuza).

Since suffering the first loss of his career Alexander has won twice. The first of those victories saw Alexander controversially defeating Lucas Martin Matthysse in a bout that most (including myself) felt he comfortably lost) whilst the second saw Alexander put on an excellent performance against Marcos Rene Maidana in a very one sided victory.

Whilst Alexander does have power of his own, as shown in his stoppage of Juan Urango he is at his best boxing ability and speed to stay out of range whilst landing his shots. He can be incredibly busy however a lot of his attacks can be ineffective as his jab isn't the weapon that it should be given his speed and movement. Fighting out of the Southpaw stance he will have to be even more wary than most of Bailey's right hand which will be the punch he needs to look out for.

Despite being the challenger Devon Alexander is seen as a big favourite priced at around 1/5 this is due in part to his youth (as I've mentioned he's significantly younger than the champion) and also due to his career so far which has seen him never (so far). However two things need to be noted by anyone betting on Alexander. Firstly the decision isn't in his back pocket, this fight isn't in Missouri where Alexander has had favourable judging in the past instead it's in Las Vegas. Secondly Alexander has been hurt and was dropped by Matthysse and, without trying to demean the hard hitting Argentinian Bailey hit's harder. That's not to say that Alexander can't win or won't win, but just that those odds are incredibly short for a fighter who is facing a lights out puncher.

For Alexander to win he has to use what he's been given, speed. He needs to get in an out with pot shots, land and move or hit and hold. Just neutralise the right hand of Bailey any way possible, circle away, hold, run anything. If he can bag the rounds with out getting tagged Alexander should win. For Bailey to win however he needs to land the pay day punch, something he's made his career out of. Bailey will be looking for the straight right hand, he'll probably flick out a few weak jabs to distract the challenger before trying to lower the boom with the right. If Bailey can start fast and tag Alexander in the first round things could be very interesting, though the champion does have poor stamina and may intentionally start very slowly like he did against Jones hoping to catch a tiring Alexander.

Despite being the under-dog I need to go with Bailey who is amazingly priced as high as 5/1 at the moment however the smart money is on Bailey by T/KO at around 13/2. Those odds are just unreal on what is a much, much closer fight than the bookies seem to be thinking.

Prediction-Bailey TKO8


Note-This preview was originally written for when the bout was first stated to take place. The Preview has not been edited since then.

Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam v Peter Quillin

In recent months the Middleweight division has really come alive with Gennady Golovkin defeating Grzegorz Proksa (WBA interim), Daniel Geale defeating Felix Sturm (IBF and WBA "Super") and Sergio Martinez defeating Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (WBC and Ring). Now we get to see the current WBO champion Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam (27-0, 17) try to defend his title for the first time as he faces the highly regarded Peter Quillin (27-0, 20).

Despite not being well known outside of mainland European N'Dam N'Jikam is well regarded as a talented boxer-puncher though many question his credentials so far and especially the way in which has has been crowned world champion, which saw Russian Dmitry Pirog controversially stripped of his belt.


Whilst many may not like the way N'Dam N'Jikam got his title, the Cameroonian born Frenchman is a very talented fighter who moves excellently and has fantastic hand speed. His ability has seen him not only recording 27 victories but also scoring several notable victories including defeating the likes of Gennady Martirosyan, Avtandil Khurtsidze, Giovanni Lorenzo and the well regarded Max Bursak. As well as those victories he also been the WBA interim champion and the WBO interim champion.

In terms of his style N'Dam N'Jikam is an impressive boxer, he moves well and looks very loose in the ring, however his power does seem lacking and many question whether or not he can cope with really top class fighters. In fact many felt that Avtandil Khurtsidze did enough to deserve the victory over him last year in easily the toughest bout of N'Dam N'Jikam's career so far. With his speed and movement however N'Dam N'Jikam is a problem for most fighters in the division and will not be easy to beat.

Interestingly, since debuting in 2004 N'Dam N'Jikam has only fought in France, Morocco and Luxembourg, in fact 24 of his 27 bouts to date have taken place in France. With this up coming bout taking place in America, this could be a key factor.

Despite being the challenger, American based Peter Quillin is the big favourite (priced around 4/11) and with good reason. Not only is the fight going to take place in America but Quillin is seen by many as the best Middleweight not to have fought for a world title yet.

Quillin, like N'Dam N'Jikam, is seen as a very talented fighter, however Quillin appears to have much more sting on his shots than the champion and has shown his hurtful power on a number of well known opponents. In fact 5 of Quillin's last 6 opponents failed to survive the distance with only Ronald "Winky" Wright managing to see the scheduled and even he was dropped.

Whilst the victory over Wright was the highest profile of Quillin's career he also holds victories over Craig McEwan, Jessie Brinkley, Fernando Zuniga, Dionisio Miranda and a faded Antwun Echols. All credible and solid victories against fringe title level competition.

In terms of his style Quillin is a fighter who is able to box excellently and has fast heavy hands hands.  He's unlikely to apply a huge amount of pressure but he is very patient and a very accurate counter puncher who has a wonderfully effective jab when he decides to actually use it (it has been under-utilised in the past).

In terms of this fight I think we're going to see a high paced chess match early on as the fighter take a round or two to figure each other out. Don't expect it to be very exciting but expect to see a lot posing and a lot of looking for openings before it opens up a bit in the middle portion of the bout. Expect by round 9 or 10 for both fighters to have finally warmed into the bout before Quillin lets his hands go and really looks to make a point before stopping N'Dam N'Jikam late. However by the same respect if Quillin can hurt N'Dam N'Jikam early expect him to go for the kill earlier.

Prediction-Quillin TKO 11

Danny Garcia v Erik Morales II

Earlier this year Danny Garcia (24-0, 15) announced himself on to the world stage by defeating the then WBC Light Welterweight champion Erik Morales (52-8, 36). Since then Garcia has also added the WBA "Super" Light Welterweight title to his collection of belts by stopping Englishman Amir Khan. Garcia will make the first defense of his unified titles this coming weekend as he goes head-to-head with Morales for a second time in 7 months.

At just 24 years old Garcia seems to be one of the forgotten men of world boxing. His victory over Khan has been dismissed by many as a fluke, his quiet and likable personality sees him over-looked and if it were not for his rather brash and loud father it may well be difficult to remember just who Danny Garcia is. Despite this however he's proven over the last 12 months that  he's a credible fighter who deserves to be amongst the top fighters at 140lbs.

Since debuting back in 2007 Garcia's rise has been a swift one and has already seen him scoring notable victories over the likes of Nate Campbell, Kendall Holt and of course Khan and Morales. Despite this however Garcia has had his detractors, most notably in 2010 after struggling to defeat Englishman Ashley Theophane.

In terms of his style Garcia does nothing excellently. He's not fast, he's not a big puncher and he doesn't have a huge work rate, however he is very well schooled and he hits hard enough to hurt fighters, as he showed against Khan. He has good timing and a solid defence but again nothing really stands out as amazing about him.

Whilst Garcia stands out in no way at all, the challenger, Mexican legend Erik Morales is, well, legendary. He has had a truly tremendous career and is a nailed on Hall of Famer. Since debuting way back in 1993 Morales has faced a genuine who's who of top fighters and holds a number of notable high profile victories over the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Marco Antonio Barrera, Daniel Zaragoza, Paulie Ayala and Jesus Chavez. In total Morales has not only fought some of the best fighters in the world but he has also claimed world titles in 4 separate weight divisions, starting as low as Super Bantamweight and going as high as Light Welterweight.

At 36 years old Morales' career is certainly on it's last legs however his love of a good tear up seems to be as strong as it ever has been and it's his war mongering that has helped to make him such a huge fan favourite over the years. Sadly however his tenacity for a blood and guts battle has taken it's toll on his body and he now marks up and bruises very easily and whilst he's certainly not a chinny fighter he is a fighter who has taken a huge accumulation of damage over the years. It seems this damage has taken it's toll on his punch resistance and last time out against Garcia, Morales looked almost ready to be stopped.

At his best Morales was a phenom. He could, if he wanted to, box with the best of them, he could go to war, he could bang, in fact in all honesty Morales at his very best was one of the top fighters in recent years and he was always willing to fight the top fighters. However the current version of Morales is a much lesser fighter than he once was, however he still has the ability to shine in spurts, he's no longer able to keep up the intensity of brilliance for 12 rounds.

After watching the final few rounds of their first bout, I can't help but think this will be a very painful night for Morales who I think will be stopped late here. Had Garcia not spent 5 or 6 rounds over-respecting Morales in their first bout Morales would have been stopped. He was almost gone in rounds 11 and 12 and this time I think Garcia will look to make a point and retire Morales.

Prediction-Garcia TKO9

Wednesday 17 October 2012

AJ Banal v Pungluang Sor Singyu

The weekends most obscure world title fight takes place in  Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines as Filipino youngster AJ Banal (28-1-1, 20) attempts to claim the vacant WBO Bantamweight title as he faces Thai Pungluang Sor Singyu (42-1, 27).

Despite the fact neither fighter is very well known this still promises to be a very good fight as not only do we have two skilled fighters, but we have two young fighters looking to make a name for themselves and we also have nationalistic pride as boxers from two Asian countries battle out.

The highly ranked AJ Banal (WBO #1) has been one of the Philippines' best kept boxing secrets since he debuted way back in 2005 as just a 16 year old. Since his debut he has developed very well and become a very talented young fighter who many with a knowledge of Filipino boxing have tipped as one of their brightest young stars.

Banal's professional career didn't start brilliantly as he suffered a technical draw on his debut, however it didn't take long for him to get things back on track as he rattled off a series of 17 straight wins. Amongst those 17 wins were victories over Juan Alberto Rosas (who would later go on to claim the IBF Super Flyweight title) and the then 25-0 Caril Herrera in an IBF Super Flyweight world title eliminator.

Sadly however for Banal his winning run came to an end in 2008 as he was stopped by the hard punching Rafael Concepcion. Following the loss to Concepcion, Banal moved from Super Flyweight to Bantamweight, accommodating his growing body. Since moving to 118lbs Banal has been unbeaten and scored 11 wins (some of which have been above the Bantamweight limit) including a notable victory over former 2-weight world champion Luis Alberto Perez.

Despite having notable victories against both Rosas and Perez (as mentioned above) Banal is still pretty unknown by all but either hardcore fans or Filipino fans. This is a shame as he's actually fought in the US 3 times (with the most recent of those bouts coming in 2009) and has an eye pleasing style that should really have helped made him a US TV mainstay. Banal has fast, heavy hands and when he has his man hurt he really likes to unleash, as he did against Raul Hidalgo. Despite his aggressive mindset however, he has got decent boxing fundamentals and in his only loss to date, he was actually ahead on the score cards prior to be stopped.

Like Banal, the co-challenger Pungluang Sor Singyu is also highly ranked (WBO #2) and despite having had over 40 fights is also surprisingly young at just 24 years old. In fact the comparisons between the two men are numerous. Not only are both surprisingly young and very experienced for their age, but both men made their professional debuts at just 16 with Sor Singyu debuting back in 2004.

Sor Singyu started his career in excellent fashion and won his first 23 fights as well as the WBC Youth World Bantamweight title. Impressively he remained unbeaten until 2009 when he was controversially beaten by the talented Belgian Stephane Jamoye, in Jamoye's home city of Liege.

Since being beaten by Jamoye, Sor Singyu has run up 19 more successful victories, however they have all been at home and often against nondescript opponents with the best of them being against the likes of Marvin Tampus and Danilo Pena (both of whom are Filipino journeyman).

Sadly for fans wanting to see something of Sor Singyu it's hard to find footage of him in a decent fight, however the footage I have seen has shown him to be an "in your face" type of fighter with a solid guard and powerful looking right hands. His style looks like he'll be hard to force back and that if you remain in front of him, he will happily guide you to the ropes to bounce straight right hands off your hands. The fact he's only been in with poor opponents (Jamoye aside) however doesn't fill me with much confidence as to just how good he really is.

Whilst I do, genuinely like what I've seen of Sor Singyu I can't help but question his opponents and this leads me to feel that Banal will come out victorious, especially with this fight being held in the Philippines. I have to go with Banal by decision in what could genuinely turn out to be the fight of the weekend. I have a feeling that their styles will just play off on each other other as each man takes his turn to land their hardest shots on the other.

Prediction-Banal UD.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Nonito Donaire v Toshiaki Nishioka

The solitary world title fight from this coming weekend sees multi-weight world champion Nonito Donaire (29-1, 18) defending both the WBO and IBF Super Bantamweight titles against the highly regarded Japanese veteran Toshiaki Nishioka (39-4-3, 24), a former WBC Super Bantamweight champion.

The 29 year old Donaire is seen by many as one of the most talented fighters in the world due to his rise through weights from Flyweight all the way up to Super Bantamweight. Not only has Donaire moved through the weights effectively but he's also picked up a number of belts on his way as well as notable, and often eye catching victories.

Despite having debuted back in 2001, it was until 2007 that Donaire really started to become a boxing star, following his shock upset win the then unbeaten Vic Darchinyan to claim the IBF Flyweight title. Since then he has claimed the WBA "interim" Super Flyweight title, the WBC and WBO Bantamweight titles and, of course, the WBO and IBF Super Bantamweight titles.

Along the way Doanire has scored notable victories over Moruti Mthalane (the current IBF Flyweight champion), Hernan Marquez (the current WBA Flyweight champion), Volodymyr Sydorenko (former WBA Bantamweight champion), Fernando Montiel (the then WBC and WBO Bantamweight champion), Omar Andres Narvaez (the current WBO Super Flyweight champion), Wilfredo Vazquez Jr (former WBO Super Bantamweight champion) and Jeffrey Mathebula (the then IBF Super Bantamweight champion).

Despite his impressive record and list of victims, Donaire has had a lot of complaints, especially in recent fights. The victories over Darchinyan and Montiel were very, very impressive however the victories over Narvaez (a much, much smaller man), Vazquez (who had been stopped in his previous bout) and Mathebula (who looked shocking) have left many doubting Donaire who has started to look like a one trick pony. He has speed and is a fantastic counter puncher, one of the best counter punchers in the sport, especially with his left hook. The counter punching aside he's fast, he's slippery and he's a hurtful puncher. Sadly however Donaire, especially recently, doesn't seem to have a massive punch at Super Bantamweight, he doesn't appear hugely active and he appears to lack the ring intelligence that many claim he has. Despite a reputation as a massive puncher, his last 3 fights have gone the distance (and that includes the much smaller Narvaez) and he hasn't appeared able to really open opponents up like one would wish to see from a top fighter.

The challenger, Toshiaki Nishioka is the older man by far at 36 years old, and is the much more experienced fighter with 292 professional rounds (compared to 170 of Donaire) since 1994 however this may actually be one of his problems. Nishioka has been in hard fights, he's had the sort of bouts that take something out of a fighter and the sort that catch up on a man, especially when they are in their 30's.

The talented Southpaw first made a name for himself back home in 2000 when he attempted to claim the WBC Bantamweight title from Veeraphol Sahaprom. Although Nishioka came up short on that occasion (and 3 subsequent attempts at the legendary Thai) he did eventually break through in the wider boxing consciousness in 2008 when he defeated Napapol Sor Rungvisai for the "interim" WBC Super Bantamweight title (that was upgraded to the full title soon afterwards). 

As the WBC Super Bantamweight champion Nishioka really proved himself as one of the sports top fighters as he defended his title 7 times beating the likes of  Jhonny Gonzalez, Rendall Munroe and Raul Marquez. Sadly however Nishioka has been out of the ring for 12 months following the excellent victory over Marquez in America, in what was Nishioka's 3rd appearance in the US.

Despite being a Japanese based fighter, Nishioka has fought around the world, not only has he fought 3 times in the US but he has also fought in France and Mexico. Impressively Nishioka is 5-0 (4) away from his native homeland.

In terms of his style Nishioka is a very highly skilled southpaw. He moves well, he's tough (having suffered just a solitary, early career stoppage defeat), he's fast (surprisingly so for someone his age), he's accurate and he's hurtful even if he's not a monster puncher. However, as said above, he is 36 and he's been out of the ring for a year, a very long time for a fighter his age, and it may well be that this coming fight is more about Nishioka collecting a retirement payment than a real attempt at decrowning Donaire.

If, both men were at their very best, I'd certainly take Nishioka to beat Donaire. Sadly, as mentioned several times, Nishioka is 36, he has been inactive, and he has been in tough bouts as well as the fact he'll be fighting away from home. This bout, sadly like a number of Donaire's bouts, has been stacked in his favour to the extent that it's not the match up it perhaps should have been. It's a very cynical match up by Top Rank promotions and one that too many fans don't seem to have seen through.

Despite loving Nishioka, he can't win this, he's been picked as a well respected, though not prime "patsy". I expect he'll try, but he won't find things as easy as he did a few years ago, Donaire won't look great but I do imagine he'll score a late stoppage against a very old looking Nishioka who'll struggle to get his timing down.

Prediction-Donaire TKO10

Thursday 4 October 2012

Zaurbek Baysangurov v Lukas Konecny

Despite the fact that 3 of this weekends world title bouts take place in the lower weight divisions, arguably the most exciting takes place in the Light Middleweight division as WBO Light Middleweight champion Zaurbek Baysangurov (27-1, 20) faces the always fun to watch Lukas Konecny (48-3, 23).

The 27 year old Baysangurov will be seeking his second successful title defense since being seeing his interim status upgraded to full champion earlier this year. In his first defense he was less than convincing against the unheralded Frenchman Michel Soro, however he showed his experience late in the bout to take a close but clear decision.

Baysangurov really made his name as an amateur where he excelled in the cadets and juniors winning various national and international titles including the 2001 European Cadet Championships and the 2003 European Junior Championships, before turning professional in 2004. As a young professional he rose through the ranks quickly and claimed various titles including the IBF Youth Middleweight title (in his 11th bout), the WBC International Light Middleweight title (in his 15th fight) and the European Light Middleweight title (in his 16th bout) before suffering a notable upset loss to Cornelius Bundrage in 2008.

Since suffering the sole loss of his professional career Baysangurov has rebuilt well. He has strung together 8 wins (6 by T/KO) however the quality of the opponents is questionable with Soro being the stand out amongst them. Despite the quality (or rather lack of) of Baysangurov's opponents in recent times he has claimed both the WBA Inter-Continental Light Middleweight title and of course, more notably, the WBO world title.

In terms of talent, Baysangurov is a very talented fighter, but I'm not sure I'd describe him as being genuine "world class". He has shown his vulnerabilities in the past, not only suffering the stoppage to Bundrage but also being dropped by Soro and Marco Antonio Rubio (and possibly others) which is quite worrying and probably explains the weak recent opposition he's been facing. Despite this he does hit very hard himself and can hurt almost any fighter if he lands clean.

The challenger, Czech Lukas Konecny has been one of boxing's most over-looked fighters over the last decade and despite not being a really well known name has scored notable victories. Despite being around since 2001 Konecny hasn't really had a defining win, however he does have a number of credible wins including victories over the likes of Siarhei Khomitski, Matthew Hall, Khoren Gevor (twice) and Roman Dzhuman.

Despite having several good wins on his record, Konecny has had 2 issues with his career. The first of those is that he's had to travel to get his most notable bouts. So far in his career he has fought in Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Poland, Russia and the United Kingdom. Sadly this leads to the other issue, when your forced to fight away from home you often suffer some unfortunate losses and that's what happened to Konecny. So far all of his losses have come away from home.With losses coming in Spain (to Ruben Varon, by Split decision), Italy (to     Michele Piccirillo by unanimous decision) and in Germany (to Serhiy Dzinziruk by majority decision, with judge Clark Sammartino having a ridiculous card of 118-110).

Whilst Konecny may be described as a journeyman due to his need to travel to the opponents backyard, he is anything but a journeyman in fighting style. He's a very intelligent pressure fighter who throws a lot and generally lands a lot grinding opponents down with a very solid work rate and a determined mindset. Whilst he's not a massive puncher, he is an exciting fighter who has hurtful stinging power on his punches and often refuses to take a backwards step.

So now on to this fight, I really like Konecny and to see him with a world title would genuinely be nice after the career he's had and I'll be honest I think he may just nick this on work rate in a genuinely enthralling fight that ebbs and flows. Baysangurov certainly has the ability to to make life difficult for pretty much anyone at Light Middleweight however I don't think he has that "world class" ability needed to do more than just make life difficult. At 34 years old however Konecny may well just have a slid a bit too much and his work may just lack the snap that it once had.

Moises Fuentes v Ivan Calderon

Probably the most interesting title fight from this coming weekend sees future Hall of Famer Ivan Calderon (35-2-1, 6) trying to roll back the clock and regain the WBO Minimumweight title as he faces current champion Moises Fuentes (15-1, 7).

In his prime Calderon was sensational. He was as slippery as they came defensively and yet able to land 3 or 4 punch combinations at will as he out classed opponent after opponent in impressive fashion. Whilst never a hard hitter he was incredibly skilled. Sadly however Calderon is not what he was, he's now a 37 year old who has not looked like a top level boxer in several years and in fact has lost much of what made him great.

Calderon's professional career started way back in 2001 (after having competed at the 2000 Olympic games) and a little over 2 years later he had claimed the WBO Minimumweight title by defeating the then champion Eduardo Ray Marquez. As the champion Calderon was amazing and made 11 successful defenses over the following 4 years.

Having been the stand out Minimumweight fighter of his generation, Calderon moved to Light Flyweight in 2007 and swiftly claimed the WBO title in his new weight by winning a decision over Hugo Fidel Cazares.  As the WBO Light Flyweight champion Calderon looked less sensational, whether it was his age or just the opponents he was looking ever more beatable.

After making 6 successful defenses at Light Flyweight (and taking his record to an excellent 34-0-1, 6) Calderon was finally beaten in 2010 by the hard hitting and hugely exciting Giovani Segura in one of the fight of the year contenders. The following year Calderon would again lose to Segura, and this time Calderon looked like a shell of the fighter he had once bean and was no match at all for Segura.

Since the losses to Segura, Calderon has fought just once, struggling to a controversial victory over journeyman Felipe Rivas. Sadly for boxing fans the world over, Calderon looked like a completely spent fighter who many hoped would just hang them up and walk away from the sport before he took much more damage, sadly however he seems to be wanting to continue, maybe looking for one last hurrah.

Whilst Calderon is is a fighter who's career is coming to an end, the champion, Moises Fuentes is a fighter who is just emerging as a really serious fighter at Minimumweight. At 27 years old he's not only the younger fighter, but he's also the fighter who has taken much less overall punishment having fought just 84 combined rounds in 16 fights so far (compared to Calderon's 332 rounds in 38 contests). However unlike Calderon he'll never be described as much of a pure boxer.

When you think of Mexican boxers you think of hard hitting  body punchers with questionable defense and big heart and to be honest Fuentes is exactly that. He's not a stand out fighter in terms of raw talent but he's a hard hitting and aggressively minded tough fighter who miraculously makes the 105lb division despite looking huge at it. In all honesty he's a bit of a beat with nasty shot on him (despite his record not showing him to be much of a puncher, he hits hard).

Fuentes really burst on to the scene last year when he won a split decision over the then WBO champion Raul Garcia in an excellent contest. Despite this being his "unearthing" in the boxing world, Fuentes had actually been unlucky earlier in the year to lose his unbeaten record to Juan Hernandez .

Since winning the title from Garcia, Fuentes has defended it once, blowing out the over matched Julio Cesar Felix inside a round thanks to several devastating body shots. Now he looks to score another notable victory by not only beating but retiring Calderon and I think he will. Fuentes has a similar (not the same but similar) traits to Segura. He's naturally a bigger man than Calderon, he hits hard and works very hard looking to landing his punches, something that against this version of Calderon will work.

Prediction-Fuentes TKO6
Note-This is yet another bout in the legendary rivalry of Mexico (Fuentes) v Puerto Rico (Calderon)

Tuesday 2 October 2012

Jesus Silvestre v Takuya Mitamura

This weekend Mexican Jesus Silvestre (25-3, 18) will make the first defense of his WBA "interim" Minimunweight title as he faces unbeaten Japanese fighter Takuya Mitamura (12-0, 2) in a bout that appears to be much, much more meaningful than the bout that saw Silvestre claiming the belt.

Silvestre won the title just a few months back as he out pointed Panamanian Edwin Diaz (15-18, 5) in what I felt was a joke of a fight, so much so that I didn't even attempt to watch it. Whilst it poor that Diaz getting the shot despite a losing record, it was made even worse that the bout for the interim title came just weeks after the the "regular" title had been unified with the WBC title by Kazuto Ioka.

Whilst Silvestre will go into this match as the "champion" he is an awfully weak champion and has very few notable victories. In fact he's lost to his 3 best opponents (Paipharob Kokietgym, Donnie Nites and Jose Alfredo Rodriguez) whilst his best wins have come against the likes of     Yader Escobar and Walter Rojas, who are far from special themselves.

Despite being just 22 years old, Silvestre has been a professional for almost 6 years and with 28 fights behind him, I really need to question how much he can actually improve. Sadly from the footage I've seen he's very wide up, and whilst he has a nice array of body punches he's defensively awful and doesn't have any sort of world class quality. Whilst he appears to be big and tough he simply can't keeping eating punches or his career will be over very quickly.

Whilst I don't think much of Silvestre he does have one saving grace, the fact he is fighting at home. In Mexico Silvestre is 25-1 (18) away from Mexico however he is 0-2, more interestingly is that Silvestre is 15-0 (12) in his home state of Nayarit, the same state as this upcoming fight.

Sadly whilst Silvestre isn't great he is a lot more well known than Takuya Mitamura, who appears to be very difficult to find any footage of. Despite this what I do know is that Mitamura is unbeaten in 12 fights since turning professional in 2008 having won all 12 of those fights.

Last year Mitamura won his professional title by claiming the Japanese Minimumweight title by out pointing the experienced Takashi Kunishige (who's best known for fighting Edgar Sosa in a WBC world title fight) and he has since defended that belt once by stopping Toshihiro Nakashima. Despite being the national champion, no one really thinks that Mitamura is the best Minimumweight in Japan after all the country has Kazuto Ioka, Akira Yaegashi and Katsunari Takayama however is likely the best "#4" in world boxing.

Sadly for Mitamura however he's not much of a puncher and he will struggle to get a decision in Mexico against a Mexican fighter. With this is in mind it's hard to feel that the challenger really has a chance. Unless Mitamura can stop Silvestre he'll not win.

Prediction-Silvestre UD

Kompayak Porpramook v Adrian Hernandez II

As all true fans of boxing know, the lower weight divisions are all too often over-looked and ignored by both the casual fan and the TV companies in the US and in Britain. This is one of the great shames of our sport as we often miss some absolute tear ups such as last years fight of the year contender between the then WBC Light Flyweight champion Adrian Hernandez (now 24-2-1, 15) and current champion Kompayak Porpramook (now 46-3, 31).

When the two men first met, last December they went at it like caged animals beating the ever loving snot out of each other in a high tempo all action war before Hernandez was stopped in round 10 in the Thai capital of Bangkok. Sadly unless you were a true die hard fan you almost certainly missed watching the fight live and had to go to youtube some days later to watch the bout. Thankfully this coming weekend, fans who unfortunately missed out on the first bout between the two men get to see it all over again as Porpramook travels to Mexico to face Hernandez in a highly anticipated rematch.

Despite being the champion, and having a win already over Hernandez, Porpramook will likely go into this bout as the under-dog. Not only is he the older man by several years but he's also having to travel to the unfamiliar surroundings of Mexico in what will be only his second fight outside of his homeland (last time he traveled was to Australia where he was beaten by Hussein Hussein over 6 years ago). Despite this he will likely feel confident of scoring another win over Hernandez who was a broken man at the end of their first bout.

Sadly however things haven't been great for Porpramook since the first fight with Hernandez and in his first defense he was lucky to retain his title as unheralded Filipino Jonathan Taconing genuinely gave him hell, before he was bailed out by a ringside Dr. after a clash of heads. It's very unlikely that Porpramook will be given any similar favours in Mexico.

With 49 fights behind him, the tough Thai is experienced but isn't the most skilled and is more of a "warrior" than a boxer, willing to go in to a slug fest. For Porpramook this may well be out of necessity as he's a very short fighter (listed at 5′ 0½″, though I think he's slightly taller than that) and needs to get inside to be effective. Thankfully, inside Porpramook has amazing work rate a solid defense and a very hurtful body attack (that was used to great effect when the men met for the first time).

Whilst Porpramook hasn't had the best of times since he claimed the title, Hernandez has looked very solid and bounced back well in defeating two relatively abject opponents who were there for little more than to rebuild the confidence of Hernandez. Though in all honesty Hernandez did deserve an easy fight or two having had a very tough 2011 with fights against Porpramook,     Gideon Buthelezi (the the IBO champion) and Gilberto Keb Baas (the then WBC champion).

Despite only being 26 years old Hernandez has faced a relative who's who of the lower divisions and has been in with Rodel Mayol, Eric Ortiz, Oscar Ibarra, Gilberto Keb Bass (twice), Ganigan Lopez, Erik Ramirez and of course Porpramook.

In terms of stature Hernandez is the direct opposite of the champion. He's tall (listed at 5'8" though I don't think he's quite that tall) and rangy and often he looks like he's in the wrong division, however like Porpramook he appears to like a good old tear up, which is the Mexican way I guess. Despite being huge at the weight Hernandez has a solid work rate himself and although he may not be the hardest single-shot puncher he lands a lot of hurtful shots that can mark up opponents and break them mentally.

Despite Porpramook winning last time the two men met, I have to go with Hernandez here. He's at home, he's in front of his own fans and he's away from the humid and hot conditions of Bangkok. It won't be easy, Porpramook won't just want to give up his title, however I think Hernandez will do enough to get the decision in another memorable war.

Prediction-Hernandez UD12