In by far the biggest fight of the weekend Brit Carl Froch (30-2, 22) looks for revenge over Dane Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35) in an IBF/WBA Super Middleweight title unification bout. The bout, live on Sky Box Office in the UK and other various channels around the world is unarguably to define the #2 Super Middleweight on the planet and also a rare chance to see 2 top fighters pitted against each other.
When the men first fought, just over 3 years ago, it was part of the "Super 6" and Kessler claimed a very competitive decision decision in his homeland in what was a fight of the year contender. Since then a rematch always looked likely to occur despite the men becoming close friends and now we are just a few hours from that long awaited rematch, this time taking place in Britain, the homeland of Froch.
Since the men first fought their careers have seemingly gone in opposite directions. For Kessler things have been a struggle due to injuries and long lay offs. He's recaptured a world title (the WBA belt) though it's a title that most view as a paper belt manufactured for little more than a sanctioning fee and he hasn't looked as sharp, or as destructive as he had been before the Froch fight. For Froch he has moved from strength to strength and whilst he suffered a set back to Andre Ward he did go on to beat Arthur Abraham and Lucien Bute. both in impressive fashion.
At his best Kessler is a very solid all-rounder. He has very impressive straight shots, a lovely body attack and is durable, though he can be made to look slow and doesn't look the same fighter when forced on to the back foot. If you allow Kessler to fight behind his jab he's very hard to beat and if you let him connect with his booming straight right he can take fighters out with just a single shot.
When people talk about Kessler they never speak about any outstanding single attribute, just that he's very good at almost everything. He does have his flaws, notably his lack of handspeed and relatively weak inside game though on the whole he is a very solid fighter.
At his best (and at his most confident) Froch is a destructive fighter who will bring the fight to anyone, take one to land one and have the belief in his power and chin to stop anyone. He has an excellent work rate, under-rated "pure boxing" and although he can be dragged in to someone elses fight (as he was with Kessler first time around) he tends to dictate the action.
Froch does have numerous flaws, notably his low hands and again relatively slow hands speed though other than Andre Ward no one has really made him pay for those too much (though Jermain Taylor almost managed to do it).
Kessler has had a tremendous career and really helped put Denmark on the boxing map in recent years. He is a 3-time WBA champion and a 1-time WBC champion who has recorded wins over Dingaan Thobela, Julio Cesar Green, Manny Siaca, Anthony Mundine, Eric Lucas, Markus Beyer, Librado Andrade and Brian Magee whilst suffering losses to Andre Ward and Joe Calzaghe, two of the divisions greatest.
Froch on the other hand has beaten the likes of Magee, Jean Pascal, Taylor, Andre Dirrell, Abraham, Glen Johnson and Bute whilst losing only to Kessler and Ward.
With both men now in their mid 30's this could well be the final big fight for one of them. Although Froch is technically the older man (at 35 years old to Kessler's 34 years) he is the younger man in terms of ring years with 16 fewer fights and 39 fewer rounds, this could well give him the slight edge in terms of what he has left.
For me, Froch has looked a much better fighter in his past 2 bouts whilst Kessler is showing signs of his long career, with that in mind I'm picking Froch, in fact I'm going one further and predicting that Froch will stop Kessler.
Prediction-Froch TKO 7
Showing posts with label Unification. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Unification. Show all posts
Friday, 24 May 2013
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Nonito Donaire v Guillermo Rigondeaux
In this weekends stand out fight we see Filipino born American based pound-for-pound fighter Nonito Donaire (31-1, 20) face off against against former Cuban amateur legend Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0, 8) in a unification of the WBO and WBA titles and a bout to decide who truly is the top dog at Super Bantamweight.
Going in to the bout Rigondeaux is the betting under-dog despite having an amazing career as both an amateur and a professional. In fact as an amateur Rigondeaux's will go down as one of the all time greats. He fought around 400 amateur fights and was rumoured to have won 388 of them, which included numerous bouts in Olympics and World Amateur champions, in fact Rigondeaux claimed 2 Olympic gold medals and two World Amateur titles as he dominated the Bantamweight division in the unpaid ranks.
As a professional Rigondeaux has been fast tracked, partly due to his amateur credentials but also partly due to the fact he made his professional debut when he was 28 years old. The speed of Rigondeaux's rise to the top was amazing and within just 18 months of his debut he had already claimed the interim WBA Super Bantamweight title. After a solitary defense of the interim belt Rigondeaux claimed the "regular" title thanks to a victory over Rico Ramos and he has since defended his title twice.
Despite his stellar record and amazing skills Rigondeaux has numerous question marks over his durability as a professional. Although he has only been down once as a professional (thanks to Ricardo Cordoba) he has been rattled several times including in his last fight against the limited Robert Marroquin. It's fair to say that Donaire hit's as hard, if not harder, than both Cordoba and Marroquin but he's also not the sort of fighter who will let a hurt opponent recover with out applying some serious pressure.
Sure Rigondeaux can hurt fighters, especially with his body shots which are amongst the best in the sport right now but the big questions regarding his chin specifically are the big worries.
With Donaire we have an exceptional fighter. Sure the 30 year old lacks the amateur pedigree of Rigondeaux but his professional achievements speak for themselves. Not only is record excellent at 31-1 but he's also unbeaten in 30 bouts (losing only his second professional contest) spread over 12 years which have seen him claiming world titles at Flyweight, Super Flyweight, Bantamweight and Super Bantamweight. He has also been given accolades including "Fighter of the Year" as he's proven to be one of the sports premier fighters.
Over the past 6 years Donaire's record has spoke for it's self with victories over a real who's who of the sport including Vic Darchinyan, Moruti Mthalane, Hernan Marquez, Fernando Montiel, Omar Andres Narvaez, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr, Jeffrey Mathebula, Toshiaki Nishioka and Jorge Arce. It's little wonder that the "Filipino Flash" is so highly ranked, especially when you consider the manner of many of his victories which he has made look very easy.
Despite the fact that Donaire has scored some exceptional victories over top contenders other opponents have made Donaire look bad. For example Narvaez, Mthalane and Vazquez all frustrated Donaire despite losing. These men have shown that Donaire isn't a perfect fighter and where an opponent uses an intelligent defense they can annoy Donaire who appears to be a flat out counter puncher and struggles to force the action, this could certainly come in to play against Rigondeaux.
If Rigondeaux can frustrate Donaire with refusal to engage and his own counter punching and speed he does have a genuine chance of the upset here though he'll need to make sure Donaire can't tag him clean.
For me personally the key to this bout concerns who can be the most patient. I don't imagine this will be a classic but it should be a high speed chess match with both men looking for a gap for their sharp, technically beautiful shots. Neither man will be looking to open up too much but both will be looking to land. Whilst I think Rigondeaux will cope better with the boos that I expect we'll hear I just can't see him avoiding Donaire's power right through the bout and when he's hurt Donaire won't let im off the hook.
Prediction-Donaire TKO7
Going in to the bout Rigondeaux is the betting under-dog despite having an amazing career as both an amateur and a professional. In fact as an amateur Rigondeaux's will go down as one of the all time greats. He fought around 400 amateur fights and was rumoured to have won 388 of them, which included numerous bouts in Olympics and World Amateur champions, in fact Rigondeaux claimed 2 Olympic gold medals and two World Amateur titles as he dominated the Bantamweight division in the unpaid ranks.
As a professional Rigondeaux has been fast tracked, partly due to his amateur credentials but also partly due to the fact he made his professional debut when he was 28 years old. The speed of Rigondeaux's rise to the top was amazing and within just 18 months of his debut he had already claimed the interim WBA Super Bantamweight title. After a solitary defense of the interim belt Rigondeaux claimed the "regular" title thanks to a victory over Rico Ramos and he has since defended his title twice.
Despite his stellar record and amazing skills Rigondeaux has numerous question marks over his durability as a professional. Although he has only been down once as a professional (thanks to Ricardo Cordoba) he has been rattled several times including in his last fight against the limited Robert Marroquin. It's fair to say that Donaire hit's as hard, if not harder, than both Cordoba and Marroquin but he's also not the sort of fighter who will let a hurt opponent recover with out applying some serious pressure.
Sure Rigondeaux can hurt fighters, especially with his body shots which are amongst the best in the sport right now but the big questions regarding his chin specifically are the big worries.
With Donaire we have an exceptional fighter. Sure the 30 year old lacks the amateur pedigree of Rigondeaux but his professional achievements speak for themselves. Not only is record excellent at 31-1 but he's also unbeaten in 30 bouts (losing only his second professional contest) spread over 12 years which have seen him claiming world titles at Flyweight, Super Flyweight, Bantamweight and Super Bantamweight. He has also been given accolades including "Fighter of the Year" as he's proven to be one of the sports premier fighters.
Over the past 6 years Donaire's record has spoke for it's self with victories over a real who's who of the sport including Vic Darchinyan, Moruti Mthalane, Hernan Marquez, Fernando Montiel, Omar Andres Narvaez, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr, Jeffrey Mathebula, Toshiaki Nishioka and Jorge Arce. It's little wonder that the "Filipino Flash" is so highly ranked, especially when you consider the manner of many of his victories which he has made look very easy.
Despite the fact that Donaire has scored some exceptional victories over top contenders other opponents have made Donaire look bad. For example Narvaez, Mthalane and Vazquez all frustrated Donaire despite losing. These men have shown that Donaire isn't a perfect fighter and where an opponent uses an intelligent defense they can annoy Donaire who appears to be a flat out counter puncher and struggles to force the action, this could certainly come in to play against Rigondeaux.
If Rigondeaux can frustrate Donaire with refusal to engage and his own counter punching and speed he does have a genuine chance of the upset here though he'll need to make sure Donaire can't tag him clean.
For me personally the key to this bout concerns who can be the most patient. I don't imagine this will be a classic but it should be a high speed chess match with both men looking for a gap for their sharp, technically beautiful shots. Neither man will be looking to open up too much but both will be looking to land. Whilst I think Rigondeaux will cope better with the boos that I expect we'll hear I just can't see him avoiding Donaire's power right through the bout and when he's hurt Donaire won't let im off the hook.
Prediction-Donaire TKO7
Saturday, 1 September 2012
Felix Sturm v Daniel Geale
Unification fights seem to becoming rarer and rarer in today's boxing world and when they happen they genuinely deserve to have some attention. With that in mind I'm personally very excited about the up coming Middleweight unification bout between long term WBA "Super" champion Felix Sturm (37-2-2, 16) and the IBF champion, Australian Daniel Geale (27-1, 15).
Firstly we'll look at Sturm who at 33 years old is the older fighter though is far from a shot fighter going on the evidence of his last bout, a TKO9 over Sebastian Zbik. Sturm started his professional career back in 2001 and with in 3 years he had claimed the WBO Middleweight title thanks to a controversial victory over Argentinian Hector Javier Velazco. Sturn had been a very late replacement for former champion Bert Schenk (who was forced to pull out due to illness) taking the fight with just a couple of days notice though was impressive on in his first major professional bout.
After scoring a clear points victory over Ruben Varon in his only defense, Sturm lost his title, controversially, to American superstar Oscar De La Hoya just 9 months after winning it. Despite this loss Sturm had proven he could hang with top level fighters and he took little time climbing his way back to the top of the rankings, this time viewing the WBA title as the one he wanted. A little over a year after losing to De La Hoya, Sturm had claimed the mandatory position for the WBA Middleweight title.
With William Joppy (the WBA "regular" champion) losing against Bernard Hopkins (the WBA "Super" champion) the WBA vacated their regular title which was later won by Maselino Masoe who surprisingly stopped Evans Ashira (who would later go on to take Joe Calzaghe the distance). Masoe's reign was very short lived with Sturm defeating him in his only defence to become a 2-time world champion.
Sturm would surprisingly lose in his first defense of his WBA title as he was stopped in round 10 against Spanish veteran Javier Castillejo, a former WBC Light Middleweight champion. In a rematch just 9 months later Sturm would avenge his defeat and reclaim the WBA title by out pointing Castillejo in a hugely disputed bout that Spaniard's team were very unhappy about.
Since reclaiming the title from Castillejo back in April 2007 Sturm has amassed an incredible 12 title defenses (including 10 wins and draws). Included in those defences were Noe Gonzalez Alcoba (UD12), Randy Griffin (D12 and UD12), Jamie Pittman (TKO7), Sebastian Sylvester (UD12), Koji Sato (TKO7), Khoren Gevor (UD12), Giovanni Lorenzo (UD12), Ronald Hearns (TKO7), Matthew Macklin (SD12-in a hugely controversial bout), Martin Murray (D12) and Sebastian Zbik (TKO7), with the title being upgraded to the "Super" title after the victory over Gevor.
As well as being a long reigning champion of over 5 years Sturm is best known in the ring for his hard, accurate and razor sharp jab, a punch that he often dominates opponents with. Whilst not being a hugely powerful fighter Sturm's jab is hurtful and can bust up fighters with it's alarming cleanness. Outside of the jab however Sturm is very average with solid but unspectacular uppercuts and appears to like to work at his own pace preferring quality of work rather than quantity.
Unlike Sturm, Australian Geale, aged 31, is a relatively new champion having claimed the IBF title just last year as he out pointed former Sturm opponent Sebastian Sylvester by split decision to end Sylvester's controversial 18 month reign. This was a solid rise to the top for Geale who only started his own professional career in 2004.
Geale, who debuted in October 2004 started his career with 21 straight wins, including impressive victories over fellow Australian Daniel Dawson and the teak tough Serbian Geard Ajetovic, suffered his first (and only) professional loss in 2009 against Anthony Mundine. Mudine, a former 2-time world champion at Super Middleweight, controversially out pointed Geale by split decision in one of the most controversial bouts in Australian boxing in modern times.
Since controversially losing to Mundine in 2009 Geale has been on an excellent run of results with 6 straight victories including 3 in world title bouts. Before claiming the IBF world title Geale had to earn his mandatory position, to do this he would have to get past the experienced Russian Roman Karmazin. Karmazin, a former IBF Light Middleweight champion had taken the then reigning IBF Middleweight champion Sebastian Sylvester to a controversial draw (with many feeling Karmazin was robbed). Geale was hugely impressive in not only beating Karmazin but becoming just the second man to stop the Russian in 47 bouts.
Having earned his shot at the title Geale traveled to Germany to face Sylvester as the slight under-dog despite many expecting Geale to need to score a KO to win. Geale set off at a lightning quick pace completely outworking the then champion to take a narrow split decision. Whilst Sylvester's shots seemed to be the much harder, cleaner blows he was just simply out worked in too many rounds to deny the Australian.
Since winning the title Geale has made two defences out pointing the thoroughly outclassing both Nigerian Eromosele Albert and Ghanian Osumanu Adama to take unanimous decision wins in both defenses.
So now to this fight. On paper the bout appears to be a lot like Geale's first foray to Germany (where he beat Sylvester) in that he will go in as the under-dog with many people suspecting that he will be beaten if it goes to the cards, as he faces an accurate puncher who whilst not particularly active is very accurate. Also, like his first foray into the country Geale's opponent comes into the bout on the back of a clear victory following a draw (Sylvester drew with Karmazin before widely out pointing Mahir Oral whilst Sturm draw with Martin Murray before stopping Sebastian Zbik). However we also have plenty of differences, this time Geale isn't the taller man (having had a 2.5" height advantage over Sylvester he is now the smaller man by 1.5") and he's also not having a new experience of having to travel to a foreign country for the first time in his career.
From what we've seen of Sturm in recent years, most notably the Macklin fight, Sturm can easily be outworked especially at close range and whilst he's not so easy to hurt attacking his body will slow him down noticeably. However if you allow him to get into a rhythm with his jab, as he did against Zbik you can be in for a long painful night at a distance he controls. Geale will need to find a way to stay away from the jab whilst getting inside and working the body of the German, if he can do this then he'll have a lot of success.
From Sturm's point of view he'll be wanting to watch Geale's fight with Sylvester as well as his own bout with Macklin as they were surprisingly similar in that the challenger attacked, relentlessly through out the bout. Whilst Macklin hits harder than Geale it's fair to say the Aussie is slightly cleverer with his work and takes careful breathers outside of range. Whilst Sturm could look to strike when Geale is at range he may have better success striking as Geale comes in and out of range. Sylvester had his best successes when he nailed Geale up close with shots as Geale was letting his hands go and with Sturm being a much better boxer than Sylvester it's fair to say he could have similar successes.
Whilst I think Sturm could certainly hurt Geale, especially late when Geale will be tired from his high out put, I do, just, favour Sturm by decision. The fact Sturm is fighting at home in Germany is the deciding factor for me. Whilst Geale could certainly outwork Sturm, if he can avoid Sturm's jab and build on Macklin's game plan I just don't see him getting the decision even if he deserves it. Despite clearly defeating Sylvester last year one judge somehow saw the bout 118-110 to Sylvester.
Prediction-Sturm by decision.
Firstly we'll look at Sturm who at 33 years old is the older fighter though is far from a shot fighter going on the evidence of his last bout, a TKO9 over Sebastian Zbik. Sturm started his professional career back in 2001 and with in 3 years he had claimed the WBO Middleweight title thanks to a controversial victory over Argentinian Hector Javier Velazco. Sturn had been a very late replacement for former champion Bert Schenk (who was forced to pull out due to illness) taking the fight with just a couple of days notice though was impressive on in his first major professional bout.
After scoring a clear points victory over Ruben Varon in his only defense, Sturm lost his title, controversially, to American superstar Oscar De La Hoya just 9 months after winning it. Despite this loss Sturm had proven he could hang with top level fighters and he took little time climbing his way back to the top of the rankings, this time viewing the WBA title as the one he wanted. A little over a year after losing to De La Hoya, Sturm had claimed the mandatory position for the WBA Middleweight title.
With William Joppy (the WBA "regular" champion) losing against Bernard Hopkins (the WBA "Super" champion) the WBA vacated their regular title which was later won by Maselino Masoe who surprisingly stopped Evans Ashira (who would later go on to take Joe Calzaghe the distance). Masoe's reign was very short lived with Sturm defeating him in his only defence to become a 2-time world champion.
Sturm would surprisingly lose in his first defense of his WBA title as he was stopped in round 10 against Spanish veteran Javier Castillejo, a former WBC Light Middleweight champion. In a rematch just 9 months later Sturm would avenge his defeat and reclaim the WBA title by out pointing Castillejo in a hugely disputed bout that Spaniard's team were very unhappy about.
Since reclaiming the title from Castillejo back in April 2007 Sturm has amassed an incredible 12 title defenses (including 10 wins and draws). Included in those defences were Noe Gonzalez Alcoba (UD12), Randy Griffin (D12 and UD12), Jamie Pittman (TKO7), Sebastian Sylvester (UD12), Koji Sato (TKO7), Khoren Gevor (UD12), Giovanni Lorenzo (UD12), Ronald Hearns (TKO7), Matthew Macklin (SD12-in a hugely controversial bout), Martin Murray (D12) and Sebastian Zbik (TKO7), with the title being upgraded to the "Super" title after the victory over Gevor.
As well as being a long reigning champion of over 5 years Sturm is best known in the ring for his hard, accurate and razor sharp jab, a punch that he often dominates opponents with. Whilst not being a hugely powerful fighter Sturm's jab is hurtful and can bust up fighters with it's alarming cleanness. Outside of the jab however Sturm is very average with solid but unspectacular uppercuts and appears to like to work at his own pace preferring quality of work rather than quantity.
Unlike Sturm, Australian Geale, aged 31, is a relatively new champion having claimed the IBF title just last year as he out pointed former Sturm opponent Sebastian Sylvester by split decision to end Sylvester's controversial 18 month reign. This was a solid rise to the top for Geale who only started his own professional career in 2004.
Geale, who debuted in October 2004 started his career with 21 straight wins, including impressive victories over fellow Australian Daniel Dawson and the teak tough Serbian Geard Ajetovic, suffered his first (and only) professional loss in 2009 against Anthony Mundine. Mudine, a former 2-time world champion at Super Middleweight, controversially out pointed Geale by split decision in one of the most controversial bouts in Australian boxing in modern times.
Since controversially losing to Mundine in 2009 Geale has been on an excellent run of results with 6 straight victories including 3 in world title bouts. Before claiming the IBF world title Geale had to earn his mandatory position, to do this he would have to get past the experienced Russian Roman Karmazin. Karmazin, a former IBF Light Middleweight champion had taken the then reigning IBF Middleweight champion Sebastian Sylvester to a controversial draw (with many feeling Karmazin was robbed). Geale was hugely impressive in not only beating Karmazin but becoming just the second man to stop the Russian in 47 bouts.
Having earned his shot at the title Geale traveled to Germany to face Sylvester as the slight under-dog despite many expecting Geale to need to score a KO to win. Geale set off at a lightning quick pace completely outworking the then champion to take a narrow split decision. Whilst Sylvester's shots seemed to be the much harder, cleaner blows he was just simply out worked in too many rounds to deny the Australian.
Since winning the title Geale has made two defences out pointing the thoroughly outclassing both Nigerian Eromosele Albert and Ghanian Osumanu Adama to take unanimous decision wins in both defenses.
So now to this fight. On paper the bout appears to be a lot like Geale's first foray to Germany (where he beat Sylvester) in that he will go in as the under-dog with many people suspecting that he will be beaten if it goes to the cards, as he faces an accurate puncher who whilst not particularly active is very accurate. Also, like his first foray into the country Geale's opponent comes into the bout on the back of a clear victory following a draw (Sylvester drew with Karmazin before widely out pointing Mahir Oral whilst Sturm draw with Martin Murray before stopping Sebastian Zbik). However we also have plenty of differences, this time Geale isn't the taller man (having had a 2.5" height advantage over Sylvester he is now the smaller man by 1.5") and he's also not having a new experience of having to travel to a foreign country for the first time in his career.
From what we've seen of Sturm in recent years, most notably the Macklin fight, Sturm can easily be outworked especially at close range and whilst he's not so easy to hurt attacking his body will slow him down noticeably. However if you allow him to get into a rhythm with his jab, as he did against Zbik you can be in for a long painful night at a distance he controls. Geale will need to find a way to stay away from the jab whilst getting inside and working the body of the German, if he can do this then he'll have a lot of success.
From Sturm's point of view he'll be wanting to watch Geale's fight with Sylvester as well as his own bout with Macklin as they were surprisingly similar in that the challenger attacked, relentlessly through out the bout. Whilst Macklin hits harder than Geale it's fair to say the Aussie is slightly cleverer with his work and takes careful breathers outside of range. Whilst Sturm could look to strike when Geale is at range he may have better success striking as Geale comes in and out of range. Sylvester had his best successes when he nailed Geale up close with shots as Geale was letting his hands go and with Sturm being a much better boxer than Sylvester it's fair to say he could have similar successes.
Whilst I think Sturm could certainly hurt Geale, especially late when Geale will be tired from his high out put, I do, just, favour Sturm by decision. The fact Sturm is fighting at home in Germany is the deciding factor for me. Whilst Geale could certainly outwork Sturm, if he can avoid Sturm's jab and build on Macklin's game plan I just don't see him getting the decision even if he deserves it. Despite clearly defeating Sylvester last year one judge somehow saw the bout 118-110 to Sylvester.
Prediction-Sturm by decision.
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