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.