Nicholas Walters

When it comes to well hidden boxing prospects few have been as well hidden as Jamaican power puncher Nicholas “The Axeman” Walters, a Featherweight who seems like he's heading to the top. Originally of Jamaica Walters has been based in Panama for much of his career and as a result he's been relatively difficult to watch unless you're a really hardcore fan, however if you made the effort to watch him you were richly rewarded. With an aggressive mindset, thunderous power and a fighters attitude Walters has rarely been a boring fighter to watch since turning professional and running up a record of 19-0 (16).

As an amateur Walters made his name competing for Jamaica in a number of international competitions and ran up a record of 49-11. Included in Walters' amateur achievements was a Bronze medal at the 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games (where future world champion Yuriorkis Gamboa also won a Bronze medal).

Walters made his professional debut in August 2008 when he out pointed Esteban Ramos and by the end of the year Walters was 7-0 (5). Although Walters had run up a good record he had shown signs of being vulnerable and was dropped in his bout with Alejandro Corrales before fighting back to take a wide decision over a 6 round bout.

Whilst 2008 was a good year for Walters who had been busy and showing signs of improvement he had not really faced anyone notable and after 5 wins in 2009 to move his record to 12-0 (10) his handlers felt it was time to give him his first test. Walters' would face Carlos Manuel Reyes (who was then 13-0) in December 2009 in a bout for the vacant WBA Fedelatin featherweight title. The bout with Reyes proved to be by far the toughest of Walters' career but also the most impressive as he fought much of the bout with a damaged hand relying heavily on his under-rated boxing skills. Despite being dropped in round 7 Walters would take a wide decision over the 11 rounds to move to 13-0 (10).

After giving the hand ample time to recover Walters would return to the ring in April 2010 and defeat Alexander Alonso via a 6^th round TKO. Walters would then add 3 more stoppage wins later in the year (defending his WBA Fedelatin featherweight title on two occasions) to move to 17-0 (14) and have a secure WBA ranking. Despite the huge support he had back in the land of his birth it wasn't until June 2011 that Walters would go back and fight in front of a “home crowd”. Walters would travel to Kingston to defend his WBA Fedelatin featherweight title against Argel Salinas, sadly for the Jamaican fans the fight lasted less than two rounds as “Axe man” forced a quick stoppage.

In his most recent fight Walters put on an explosive showing against the experienced Irving Berry which included Berry being knocked out of the ring in the second round before being stopped in round 6. This fight can be seen in it's entirety in the two videos below (thanks to SuperBoxingVideos).

Although no date has been set for Nicholas Walters' next fight I'd be expecting the highly rated Featherweight to be stepping in with another credible opponent as he looks to secure a world title fight in the foreseeable future.

Javier Fortuna

Once up a time Joan Guzman was seen as a possible pound-for-pound great with amazing speed, respectable power and boxing skills that matched the very elite...then we found out that he couldn't control his weight as he grew heavier, failed to make weight and eventually faded into obscurity. Guzman was the last fighter from the Dominican Republic that really got boxing fans excited until now thanks to 21 year old prospect Javier Fortuna (17-0-0-1, 13).

Featherweight prospect Fortuna started boxing when he was 11 and become one of the top amateurs stars in the Dominican Republic winning a number of medals at the junior level of the sport. Javier however had no intention of staying an amateur for too long and turned to the paid ranks aged just 17. In Fortuna's debut he stopped Ricardo Johnson in the opening round and then ran up 4 more KO's (including one over the experienced Luis Sosa) before going 4 rounds with Carlos Diaz on a card in the US Virgin Islands that also featured John Jackson.

After running his record to 10-0 (8) Fortuna would step up to face former world title challenger Francisco Lorenzo in a 9 round bout. This bout ended prematurely as a clash of heads resulted in a 1 round No Contest after just 106 seconds. Although this left a minor mark on Fortuna's record it showed that his handlers had enough belief in him to at least put up a tough bout with Lorenzo. A month after the No Contest Fortuna stopped the over matched Cristian Martinez inside a round. Soon after the Martinez fight Fortuna traveled to Mexico and faced Gregorio Torres in a tough and close fight that Fortuna narrowly won.

In December 2010 Fortuna made his US debut when he faced the unbeaten Victor Valenzuela in New York and stopped him in 70 vicious and wild seconds (in a fight that can be seen in the video at the bottom of this blog post). The impact of Fortuna was instant and 3 months later Fortuna would return to the US to face Derrick Wilson in a fight for the WBC Youth Intercontinental title. Despite Wilson being very game he was dropped several times en route to being iced late in the 8th round.

Since beating Wilson Fortuna has added 3 more wins to his record including a 10 round decision win over Hugo Orlando Gomez (the first time Fortuna had been taken 10 rounds) and now prepares for his next big step up as he faces the tough and experienced Miguel Roman (37-8, 28) on the undercard of Marco Antonio Rubio v Matt Vanda. A win over the former world title contender showed see Fortuna well on his way to a world title fight of his own in the next 12 months.

Interestingly Fortuna's nickname of "El Abejon" translates as "The Drone".

Video below is thanks to reverseapachemaster1 and as mentioned above shows Fortuna's win over Victor Valenzuela.

Andrzej Fonfara gets his world title fight

A couple of months ago one of "our" fighters (Daniel "Bad Boy" Rosas) fought for the interim WBO Super Flyweight title and scored a draw with Jose Cabrera. Now we've heard that another of our fighters Andrzej Fonafara (or Andrew if you want to Anglicanise it) is about to fight for a title in early 2012 when he faces WBO Light Heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly.

The Chicago based Pole who's record currently stands at 19-1-0-1 (10) is on an unbeaten run since being stopped in the second round by Derrick Findley back in 2008 and has actually strung together an impressive 7 straight KO victories since that loss as he's moved from a Middleweight to a genuine Light Heavyweight. Sadly for Fonfara his best wins have been against relatively poor opponents and it's hard to really say just how good he is from stopping the likes of Jose Spearman and Anthony Russell.

Currently Boxrec have Fonfara scheduled to fight the hard punching Phil Williams on December 16th, odds are that fight is about to be cancelled and the Cleverly fight is about to confirmed for February 25th. Whilst on paper it looks like a mismatch with Cleverly a consensus top 10 it should be noted that Fonfara is thought highly of by Polish boxing fans and hs been looking better since he moved up to Light Heavyweight than he had previously. It should also be noted than Nathan Cleverly really struggled with Tony Bellew another fighter that Cleverly was expected to dispose of with relative ease. Though even with all this in mind it's hard to imagine Cleverly losing.

Despite being 19-2-0-1 (10) overall Fonfara is an impressive 7-0 (7) at Light Heavyweight and will be looking to move to 8-0 (8) when he travels to Cardiff next year though he will be regarded as a large under-dog.

Below we can see Fonfara v Spearman, video thanks to poltvchicago

Alex Theran

Colombian boxing is on a real rise with a number of top prospects such as Oscar Rivas and Eleider Alvarez who both fought last weekend and won their fights in Canada. The most exciting Colombian boxing prospect however is 21 year old Middleweight prospect Alex “El Principe” Theran. The southpaw from Barranquilla is currently 5-0 (4) as a professional since debuting back in July 2011 and has got the hardcore boxing fans really excited.

Prior to turning professional Theran had been a top national amateur and had fought in a number of international competitions including the 2010 South American Games (where he won Silver) and the 2009 World Amateur Boxing Championships. In fact Theran had fought around 180 times as an amateur before turning professional earlier this year and was seen as one to watch almost immediately.

Theran's debut in July saw the power punching Colombian take out Leo Cassiani in just 34 destructive seconds. Theran had settled immediately as a professional and just weeks later he would blow out Gabriel Bracho in an impressive 78 seconds. Theran's first 2 bouts had lasted less than 2 minutes as he moved to 2-0 (2) without even breaking sweat. After impressing in his first 2 bouts it was time for Theran to have a real test and he faced former world title challenger Oney Valdez. Valdez would survive the opening round and actually see out the 6 round schedule before losing by a wide decision to Theran.

Theran's destructive run continued after the victory over Valdez as he swiftly took out Jose Chiquillo in the opening round of a bout in October before before beating Jose Antonio Cervantes, also in 1 round. This victory moved Theran to 5-0 (4) all of the stoppages coming in the opening round. So far Theran has shown blistering handspeed and incredibly impressive power as he's swiftly increased his record and started to make a march up the rankings. At the end of the week we will see Theran in another step up in class as he faces another former title contender in Milton Nunez. A win over Nunez (23-3-1, 21KO's) is expected and would be a fantastic end to the year for the young quickly rising Theran who is almost certainly expected to fight for a title in the next few years.

The victory over Cervantes can be seen in the video below thanks to Yalter777. Interestingly the video has the fighter's name as “Alex Teherán”.

Boxing Prospects: Where are they now?

Since I started this blog back in March 2011 I have mentioned over 30 fighters so it seems only fitting, before the year ends, to see where the fighters have come since they were mentioned originally in this blog.

Carlos Ivan Velasquez-The biggest disappointment was our first prospect. Carlos hasn't fought in 17 months now after beating the tough Eduardo Arcos back in July 2010. Velasquez was a fighter I was genuinely very excited about though he appears to have just vanished off the face of the planet. The 27 year and his twin brother (Juan Carlos Velazquez, 10-1, 5) have both been MIA despite turning professional together in 2007.

Billy Joe Saunders-The British Olympian has moved on well since we looked at him back in April and has added 4 wins, 3 by KO to move his record to an excellent 11-0 (7). The stand out victory for Billy Joe came against the tough Gary Boulden in a fight for the Southern Area middleweight title, it was the first time Saunders was forced to fight for 10 rounds and he managed to pass the test with out too many struggles as he picked up his first professional title.

Gilberto Ramirez Sanchez-Sanchez was 16-0 (14) when we mentioned him back in April and since then the young Mexican has moved from strength to strength adding 4 more wins (all by KO) to move to 20-0 (18) and has started to get serious attention of boxing fans around the world. Sanchez now holds wins over former title challenger Oney Valdez and the teak tough Samuel Miller, in fact the win over Miller was the first time Miller had been stopped in 29 fights.

Rakhim Chakhkiev-The Cruiserweight division has got the real shot in the arm that it has needed for a while thanks to the real emergence of the Russian bruiser. Chakhkiev was another fighter we mentioned in April who went on to add some solid names to his record. Firstly he beat Harvey Jolly and then he become the first man to stop the veteran Michael Simms. Chakhkiev turns 29 early next year and hopefully his handlers realise it's time to let him off the leash and at the divisions champions.

Gary Russell Jr-What a year the young American has had, he was a promising youngster when we mentioned him in April though he has really built on his record since then. Russell has added 5 wins to his record since we mentioned him and moved to 19-0 (11) in impressive fashion. Most recently Russell viciously KO'd Heriberto Ruiz in a single destructive round. Although Boxnation's Steve Lillis seemed to feel that Russell's hype had been created by "youtube clips" even he seemed impressed after the victory over Ruiz.

Karl Place-Manchester's young Light Welterweight prospect is one of the very few fighters that we've mentioned that have lost this year. Place had a very busy year since we mentioned him in April and sadly suffered a huge upset loss at the hands of Steve Williams just over a week ago. Place's record currently stands at 15-1 (8) though the loss should really be a sign that the 23 year old needs to move up a division as making 140 must weaken the 5'11" fighter.

Tomas Dulorme-We mentioned just 8 days before he impressive blew out Harrison Cuello in 2 rounds on the undercard of Martinez v Dzinziruk. Since then Dulorme has had the development fights that we called for and looked very impressive in out pointing the tough and experienced DeMarcus Corley dropping "Chop chop" and dominating the fight to claim the NABA USA welterweight title. Dulorme has defended his title once when he widely outpointed former title challenger Charlie Jose Navarro. Dulorme is now 13-0 (10) and is one of the hottest Welterweight Prospects in the world today.

Carlos Negron-Negron was the only other fighter we mentioned that lost (along with Place). Negron's loss to former Light Middleweight Epifanio Mendoza was a huge shock and upset and saw Negron fall to 13-1 (9). Sadly it's left massive doubt over Negron's future and it could lead to a very long journey to rebuild the gigantic (6'6") 23 year old. Not only will Negron's confidence be shattered but long term questions about his durability will linger for years, if he returns to the ring.

Jamie Kavanagh-The Irish born prospect who is now trained by Freddie Roach started the year well and when we covered him in April he was 5-0 (2) and about to make his UK debut. Whilst Kavanagh won his UK debut (out pointing Sid Razak) he has recently suffered the first blemish on his record as he struggled to a draw with difficult Ramesis Gil on the undercard of Khan v Peterson. The draw with Gil was another case of Freddie Roach's fighter failing to live up to the expectations and may signal that Kavanagh needs to change something.

John Jackson-We looked at the exciting Jackson the eve before his bout with Welson Alves de Oliveira a bout that Jackson dominated en route to a 3rd round TKO. Jackson, the son of the fearsome Julian Jackson currently stands at 11-0 (10) and looks to add to his record when he fights for the WBC Youth Light Middleweight title against the unbeaten Keandre Leatherwood. The fight with Leatherwood takes place next Friday on a very interest card that is headlined by Marco Antonio Rubio v Matt Vanda.

Froilan Saludar-The Filipino puncher was recently featured in a piece looking at the top Pinoy Prospects and is quickly becoming one of the most talked about youngsters in the sport due to his combination of skills, speed and power. Since we mentioned Saludar he has fought twice to move his record to 13-0-1 (10) and was taken into the 10th round for the first time when he beat Gabriel Pumar in a fight for the WBO Asian Pacific Flyweight title. Saludar is expected to fight once more before the end of the year though his opponent is not yet known.

Joe Hanks-At the start of the year I picked Hanks out as the American Heavyweight to watch...it now seems that may not have been the best after all as Seth Mitchell has really made progress whilst Hanks hasn't really moved up. Despite scoring 3 victories since we wrote about him none of them were particularly note worthy, in fact the most noteworthy thing about them was that Hanks couldn't stop Alfredo Escalera Jr in 10 rounds of action. Hanks does look like he could go places but needs to desperately step up before Mitchell leaves him in his shadow.

Marco Antonio Periban-The Mexican Super Middleweight prospect is now 15-0 (10) and is amongst a number of quickly emerging fighters in one of boxing's most exciting divisions. Periban has added 3 wins since we covered him back in April and whilst they weren't amazing opponents he did deal with solid journeymen very well. Whilst Periban is inexperienced as a professional it is time he stepped up and perhaps looked for a fight with someone like Edison Miranda sometime next year, we know Miranda can bang but he can be hurt, it would test Periban's toughness, skill and his own power.

Kubrat Pulev-The former elite amateur seemed to be on the fast track to a world title fight after a number of notable wins but now the Bulgarian heavyweight is perhaps going to be put on a somewhat slower path. At 14-0 (6) he has a solid record and does hold some decent wins, though his recent fight with Travis Walker told us things. The first thing we learned about Pulev was that he didn't hit particularly hard as he landed a huge number of clean shots on Walker, the second was that he could be hurt as he was shaken by Walker a number of times, but maybe the most worrying is he doesn't have that extra gear that he needs if he wishes to make a dent on a Klitschko.

Sylvester Lopez-Lopez is one of the most under-rated Filipino's in the sport today and arguably the most forgotten due to the fact he currently has 3 losses on his record, but the 5 year pro is really coming good. When we mentioned him he was 15-3-1 and since then he has added 3 more wins, all by KO to move to a much more impressive 18-3-1 (14) including a notable victory over Oscar Ibarra for the WBC Silver Super Flyweight title. Although Lopez fought at Super Bantamweight last time out he could go back to Super Flyweight and have a very interesting fight with WBC champion Suriyan Sor Rungvisai.

Sadam Ali-American Olympian Sadam Ali is still one of the most promising young Americans in the sport though since we wrote about him he has still be kept on a leash. We looked at him prior to his bout with John Revish which he would go on to win by decision though he was rocked big time late in the fight. Ali has only scored 1 other win since we covered him and it was a win over a low level opponent in a bout that really shouldn't be taken too seriously for Ali. We all want Ali to step up a level though it seems like his management want to hold him down for a bit longer which is starting to get really annoying as a fan of the 14-0 (8) Light Welterweight.

Daniel Rosas-Mexican "Bad boy" Rosas was very nearly "our" first world champion when he fought just a few months back against Jose Cabrera for the interim WBO Super Flyweight title, that bout ended in a split decision draw. With a record of 12-0-1 (9) the 22 year old Mexican is still a fighter we strongly tip for the top and he's not having easy fights. Hopefully the the WBO will order a rematch between Cabrera and Rosas as it was an interesting bout and it'd be good to see one of the two Mexican youngsters getting some wider recognition.

Robert Manzanarez-16 year old Manzanarez is slowly maturing into a bigger, stronger and better fighter than he was when he turned professional back March 2010 as a 15 year old. Although still incredibly young (he turns 17 on December 17th) he is running up a long record of wins against gradually improving opposition. We first looked at Manzanarez back when his record read 10-0 (7), he has since added 5 more wins and moved to 15-0 (8) with his best win to date coming in 38 seconds against the experienced can Alfredo Montano. Although he has 15 fights and 37 rounds under his belt I still think it'll be a very long time before we see him in with anyone of any note at all, hopefully he'll have matured somewhat by then as he's definitely growing and has gone from being a Flyweight 15 months ago to a Featherweight in his most recent bout just a few months ago.

Carlos Buitrago-The Nicaraguan prospect who turns 20 in just a few days has run up 3 wins since we first looked at him and has moved to 21-0-0-1 (14) with a notable decision win over former world title challenger Carlos Melo just a few days ago. Melo is a good step up from the fighters that Buitrago had been fighting and will hopefully signal the start of the youngster rise through credible fighters. I'd be shocked it Buitrago doesn't break into the WBC's top 40 next year and perhaps angles for a title fight during 2013.

Leroy Estrada-The young Panamanian has moved to 6-0 (2) since we first looked at him, though has certainly not had everything his own way. In his last fight Estrada was dropped by Mercedes Concepcion before struggling to get a majority decision. Whilst that should be a character building fight for the 17 year old, it should be noted that Concepcion was picked in part due to losing his previous 2 bouts. Estrada, a minimumweight, may end up being wrapped in cotton wool for the next year or two following this close shave.

Oscar Cortes-The 18 year old Mexican Lightweight/Super Featherweight prospect was looked at back in May when he was 14-0 (8) and since then he has moved to 18-0 (11) and won the WBC Youth Intercontinental Lightweight title. Cortes' most impressive victory to date is a 9th round TKO over Manuel Aguilar back in September. Hopefully Cortes will build on a good year and try to force himself into the WBC's rankings over the next 12 months at either Super Featherweight or at Lightweight.

Leo Santa Cruz-We looked at Santa Cruz just prior to his fight with Jose Lopez which Santa Cruz won impressively via a 5th round KO (becoming the first man to stop Lopez) and then Santa Cruz stopped the tough former title contender Everth Briceno in 11 rounds. Whilst not a concussive puncher Santa Cruz is slowly developing a really nasty streak and throws punches to hurt opponents. With a record of 18-0-1 (10) Santa Cruz is really emerging as a serious threat at Bantamweight. He is currently ranked #15 in the world by the WBC at Bantamweight and is already making a real mark on the division.

Oliver Flores-Flores has had an interesting time since we originally wrote about him. Firstly he scored a controversial majority draw (the dissenting judge had Flores as a clear winner) against Abraham Rodriguez and then he stopped a novice as he advanced his record to 22-0-2 (16). Flores seems to be settling into the Super Featherweight division but the draw with Rodriguez appears to have taken some momentum from his career. Despite having just turned 20 Flores has amassed 110 rounds already and has gone 10 rounds on 3 occasions now which, if nothing else, is interesting.

Andrzej Wawrzyk-Polish Heavyweight prospect Wawrzyk has been one of the more under-the-radar heavyweight prospects and hasn't had the hype of countryman Artur Szpilka despite growing his record pretty carefully. Wawrzyk has scored 3 straight T/KO wins since we looked at him with the most recent of those coming against Nelson Dario Dominguez in just 2 rounds. Wawrzyk currently holds 2 regional belts though he really should be stepping up and perhaps starting to mix with solid European level fighters during 2012.

Wale Omotoso-The exciting Welterweight prospect has really started to make his mark on boxing fans thanks to two very entertaining fights in the US in recent months. The heavily built and aggressively minded Omotoso marked his US debut with a round of the year contender against Calvin Odom and then he followed it up with a very entertaining bout with Lanardo Tyner in November. Although the 20-0 (17) prospect is wild and can be caught he does promise excitement every time he steps between the ropes and could be one of the most fun to watch fighters out there today.

Andrzej Fonfara-The second Polish fighter that we looked at was Light Heavyweight prospect Fonfara who is 19-2-0-1 (10). The 24 year old from Warsaw (though now based in Chicago) has only fought once since we looked at him where he stopped Jose Spearman in 2 rounds. There really isn't much to report on Fonfara other than his fan-base in Chicago is growing nicely.

Richard Towers-As with many of the recent additions to the blog Towers has fought only once, stopping Yuri Bihoutseu in the 3^rd round. The most interesting thing to happen regarding towers since we wrote about him is the strong rumour that he may be facing Tyson Fury early in 2012 in a very interesting all English heavyweight bout for the Commonwealth and British titles. A meeting of the two behemoths would be immensely interesting and it would be a rare fight where neither man would be towering over his opponent.

Grzegorz Proksa-The 27 year old Proksa burst onto the scene back in October and caught us out when he completely destroyed former world champion Sebastian Sylvester in one of the real break out fights of the year. Rather embarrassingly Proksa's arrival actually caught us off guard and so we have little to actually report on the exciting Polish Middleweight, though rumours are circulating that he will be facing former world champion Sebastian Zbik some time in 2012 in a fight that should see Proksa further his standing in one of the hottest divisions in the sport.

Yoshihiro Kamegai-The exciting Japanese Welterweight was mentioned at the start of this month, just prior to his bout with Eusebio Baluarte. The talented and hard hitting 29 year old from Tokoyo has had an excellent year with a fantastic US debut where he stopped Hector Munoz and looked sensation. Although he will almost certainly have to travel to the US again for a major fight at the weight he has impressed and could very easily find himself on the under-card of a Top Rank or Golden Boy show to build his US profile. Sadly for Kamegai he probably only 1 or 2 years to make his move and even then the division does have a lot of emerging talent so he maybe too late.

Eleider Alvarez-The hard punching Colombian Light Heavyweight prospect is the most recent fight that we've mentioned that has fought since we wrote about him. The Canadian based 27 year fought in his biggest fight to date when he faced Emiliano Cayetano in a bout for the WBO NABO Light Heavyweight title on the under-card of David Lemieux v Joachim Alcine. Alvarez's win is likely to force him into the WBO's rankings (which amazingly don't include Ismayl Sillakh). Alvarez is being tracked by Groupe Yvon Michel and his stoppage of Cayetano in the opening round will only see them speed things up.

We have covered 3 other fights but sadly none of them have fought since we mentioned them in recent weeks. Hopefully be the end of 2012 we'll be looking at some of these fighters as world champions.

Eleider Alvarez

At the moment the Colombian boxing scene is on a real high. Not only does the country have a number of top 10 ranked fighters such as Yonnhy Perez, Darley Perez and Jesus Geles but it also has a huge amount of very exciting emerging prospects. In fact Colombia has so many top prospects that it's hard to really pin point one as being the best, however it seems as if Eleider Alvarez, the 27 year old Light Heavyweight, may be one of the ones on a real fast track to the top.

Alvarez was formerly a world level amateur and had won medals at the Pan Am games and the South American games and even appeared in the 2008 Olympics (where he was defeated by Tony Jeffries). A year after the Olympics Alvarez turned professional and blew away the experienced Jesse Sanders inside a round and then ran up 2 more quick wins before the end of 2009 all against experienced fighters.

Sadly after moving his record to 3-0 (2) Alvarez vanished for a year and didn't fight at all in 2010. Any early momentum he had seemed to vanish and the hard core boxing fans who had followed him early on had all but forgotten about him prior to his return in April 2011 when he stopped experienced Mexican Ernesto Zamora in 3 rounds. Just weeks later Alvarez would make up for lost time by defeating David Whittom by 4 round decision and then add the scalp of Michael Walchuk to his record to move to 6-0 (4).

On this coming Saturday Alvarez fights in his first title fight when he faces Emiliano Cayetano for the WBO NABO Light Heavyweight title. This will easily be the toughest fight of Alvarez's short career and a big chance for him to claim a place in the rankings. Also on the card, promoted by Groupe Yvon Michel are highly rated Canadian Middleweight David Lemiux and Alvarez's countryman Oscar "Kaboom" Rivas.

Video thanks to 14caratboxing

Diego Gabriel Chaves

I recently did a piece for hubpages looking at the best Argentinian boxing prospects and found out about arguably the most exciting young Welterweight on the planet, Diego Gabriel Chaves. Chaves is one of many, many prospects in the Welterweight division though to me personally he's the top prospect in the division with everything a fighter could want. In fact despite only having had 20 fights he has already started to break into the rankings of various organisations thanks to his long reign as the WBO Latino champion.

Chaves hails from Buenos Aires the same area of Argentina as Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna and has been dubbed “La Joya” which translates from Spanish as meaning “The Jewel” and he really is the jewel of Argentinian boxing at the moment, the hidden gem in fact. Chaves turned professional aged 22 after having had a solid amateur background in his homeland sadly however he seems to lack the big international medals due to facing the likes of Demetrius Andrade and Erislandy Lara.

Since turning to the paid ranks in 2008 Chaves has carefully climbed the rankings with the aid of some destructive power and really solid fundamentals. As proof of Chaves' power he stopped his first 9 opponents, all inside the opening 3 rounds of fights. It wasn't until Chaves faced the teak tough Guillermo de Jesus Paz that he was given his first real test. In round 2 of his fight against Paz Chaves was pushed down though the referee counted it as a legitimate knockdown (rather shockingly). Despite the “knockdown” Chaves got up and dominated his experienced and tough opponent for the remaining 8 rounds to take a wide decision.

Just a month after defeating Paz Chaves would capture his first professional title by winning the WBO Latino light middleweight title a title he defended once before returning to Welterweight. Chaves wasn't with out a title for long as he would pick up the vacant WBO Latino Welterweight title on his return to the division a title he has no defended 5 times. It was whilst defending his title against Omar Gabriel Weis that Chaves was given by far his toughest test. The experienced Weis would drop Chaves in the 6^th round and really gave the youngster all he could handle in a close and very competitive fight. The fight, despite being incredibly tough, would have been one of the greatest learning experiences of Chaves' career, being dragged into a tough 12 round contest does beat blowing opponents away in a round.

Since struggling with Weis we've seen Chaves have 2 confidence building wins against lesser fighters then a win over the tough and experienced Jorge Daniel Miranda. Chaves would score a 3^rd round knock out over Miranda from a beautiful body shot that really showed the heavy and accurate hands that Chaves has. Whilst he had been tagged by Miranda he seemed to always be in control of the fight before the knockout over a genuinely tough opponent.

Whilst Chaves is personally the most likely of the top Argentinian boxing prospects to really make a mark on the sport that's not to say that Argentina doesn't have a huge number of solid contenders and emerging fighters that could all seriously contend for titles.

Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna

The Super Middleweight division is one of boxing's hottest divisions and of course boxing fan is looking forward to the up coming Super 6 Final between Andre Ward and Carl Froch. As we all know it's not only Froch and Ward that hold a lot of interest from fans but we also have fighters like the IBF champion Lucian Bute, the 2 time former champion Mikkel Kessler, former title challenger Andre Dirrell, WBO title holder Robert Stieglitz, former Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik and emerging British stars George Groves and James DeGale. Though we also have a number of lesser well known fighters who are slowly but surely emerging as serious threats, one of which is Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna.

Maderna is from La Plata, Buenos Aires and really has Argentinian boxing fans drooling at his combination of skill and raw power which has seen him advance to a record of 16-0 (12) since turning professional in 2008. Before he turned professional however Maderna was a world level amateur fighter having won Bronze at the 2006 South American games before going to both the 2007 World Amateur Championships and the 2008 Olympics.

After being beaten in the Beijing games by Shawn Estrada of the US Maderna would turn professional and debuted in December 2008. On his debut he defeated Guillermo Pablo Armani over a 4 round decision this victory was followed up just 3 weeks later when Maderna defeated Victor Hugo Peralta, also by decision. Through 2009 and 2010 Maderna would add a number of wins to his record and actually moved to 12-0 (9) by defeating relatively obscure fighters in his homeland. Though it was in 2011 that he really stepped up a level and showed he was a fighter who needed to be followed.

In Maderna's first fight of 2011 he defeated former world title contender Ruben Eduardo Acosta via a 10 round decision. It was the first time Maderna had been beyond 5 rounds in his career and he passed the test by beating a tough fighter in Acosta in a fight that would see Maderna crowned the Argentinian Super Middleweight champion. Since then Maderna has added the interim WBO Latino Super Middleweight title to his waist by stopping Martin Abel Bruer inside a round and defending both of his titles once.

Stylistically Maderna seems to be a very intelligent fighter who appears to be huge for a Super Middleweight (he was dwarfing over Jorge Rodriguez when the two men met earlier this year). It's not just that Maderna is a massive fighter but he also uses his height well, especially using his jab to establish distance. Rather than being an out and out power puncher Maderna seems to be able to break opponents down well before stepping in with the heavy artillery. As you can see in the video below Maderna does have a lot going for him and when he lands that straight right hand he may well have one of the best punches in the Super Middleweight division.

Whilst Maderna has been on a tear through the C level Super Middleweights in 2011 he has been racing up the rankings. He is currently #21 in the IBO's computerised rankings, and #24 on Boxrec.com though most impressive is his #9 ranking with the WBO. These rankings have helped push him into being one of the top Argentinian boxing prospects.

Video thanks to boxeola1

Yohei Tobe

Even thought it is rare for me to talk about Japanese fighters on this blog Yohei Tobe is a fighter I simply cannot shut up about. The 24 year old Bantamweight was a former two-time national amateur champion before turning professional in February 2011. On his debut he made an immediate impact by stopping the Korean Super Flyweight champion Jin-Ki Jung in just 70 seconds. Just 4 months later Tobe would fight in his second bout when he took on the experienced Wandee Singwancha (who entered with a record of 66-13-1, 17KO's). Singwancha had been WBC interim champion at both Minimumweight and Light Flyweight and despite fighting above his best weight it was still hugely impressive that Tobe took him out at 1:58 of the second round.

Whilst Tobe's first 2 victories were impressive it was his 3rd professional contest that has really got the hardcore boxing fans excited as Tobe faced. In October Tobe faced the very tough Kohei Kono, a 2-time world title challenger who had lost a close to Nobuo Nashiro and a wider loss to Tomas Rojas. Although Kono, at 30 was the more experienced fighter he was made to look amateurish at times as he charged in only to be caught by uppercuts and jabs by the intelligent and much taller Tobe who took a close but unanimous decision over 8 rounds.

Whilst Tobe's 2011 has been an amazing rise from amateur star to genuinely exciting prospect whats maybe most amazing is that Tobe is currently ranked at #22 with the WBC after just 3 fights!

Tobe is one of the 11 boxers on the list of prospects to watch in 2012, and is arguably the most exciting addition to the list. If Tobe can continue his rise in 2012 we may well see him challenging the likes of Koki Kameda (the WBA Bantamweight champion) or dropping down to Super Flyweight (the division where we will likely see him competing in the short term) and facing Tomonobu Shimizu (the WBA Super Flyweight champion) in an all Japanese world title fight.

The footage of Tobe's first two professional bouts are below thanks to ibatetsu1





If you would like to follow Yohei on boxrec his record can be found here

Yoshihiro Kamegai

Japanese prospects are very rarely featured on this blog (and I'm sorry about that) though one fighter we simply cannot ignore is Japanese Welterweight prospect Yoshihiro Kamegai (19-0, 17). The hard hitting 29 year old has started to get some international attention in recent months thanks to his appearance in the states when he defeated Hector Munoz  in 6 rounds (on the undercard of Nishioka v Marquez).

Having debuted back in 2005 Kamegai's career has progressed somewhat slowly though he has shown all the traits of a fighter who can go a very long way. So far he has shown truly heavy hands and the ability to punch from almost any angles with his ability to mix it to both head and body being excellent. He has also shown an ability to switch hit and appears to hit genuinely hard with either hand. In fact of his 19 careers bouts only 4 bouts have gone beyond 6 rounds with only Daisuke Hata and Heri Andriyanto managing to see the distance.

Although Kamegai has genuine power on his shots he does look to be somewhat defensively deficient and can be hit clean and hard due to major defensive issues. Due to his defensive issues he could become one of the most fun fighters in the talent heavy Welterweight division. Sadly despite his power it's this defensive flaw that is likely to hold him back, despite his new found fame in the US. The current Welterweight division seems to be a division based upon speed with fighters like Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Andre Berto and Amir Khan (who has signaled his intention to move upto Welterweight in the foreseeable future). His defensive issues will almost certainly cost him though it will be fun to see how his career goes.