The US has a number of very young but very, very promising prospects coming through at the moment with one of those being 20 year old Frankie Gomez (12-0, 9) a fighter many are tipping as a sure-fire star of the future. Not only due to his links with Golden Boy Promotions and their head honcho Oscar De La Hoya, who has praised Gomez highly since he signed but also his exceptional amateur pedigree.
Gomez first became a "fighter to watch" in 2007 when he won the 54KG division at the World Cadet Championships in Baku. On route to winning the competition he stopped 3 of his 4 opponents, with only finalist Elvin Aliyev managing to survive the schedule with Gomez.
Gomez's success would continue in the amateur as he went on to claim the 2009 US National Championships, beating the highly touted Jose Benevidez Jr in the final. Whilst the victory over Benevidez was a notable win, the year just got better for Gomez who went on to claim the Silver medal at the 2009 World Championships, losing in the final to Cuban superstar Rosniel Iglesias (who went on to claim Gold at the 2012 Olympic Games).
Following his amateur success Gomez decided to turn professional in 2010 rather than remaining in the amateur ranks for the 2012 Olympic Games. He swiftly signed on to Oscar De La Hoya's "Golden Boy Promotions" and made his professional debut in April of that year stopping Clayvonne Howard in the 3rd round of a bout on the under-card of Bernard Hopkins v Roy Jones Jr II.
By the end of 2010 Gomez had swiftly and effectively moved his professional record on to 7-0 (6) with only the experienced Ramon Montano managing to survive the distance. The following year saw Gomez continue his development, and his winning run as he scored 5 more wins (3 by T/KO) however for the first time as a professional he struggled as the under-rated Adrian Granados pushed him close.
Since defeating James Hope in December 2011, Gomez hasn't fought, however he returns to the ring this coming Saturday to face experienced Mexican Manuel Leyva (21-9, 12). Whilst on paper Leyva is a good opponent, it needs to be noted that Leyva ia 1-7 in his last 8 contests dating back over 3 years and has been stopped 5 times over those 8 bouts.
Showing posts with label Boxer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boxer. Show all posts
Thursday, 1 November 2012
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Julio Ceja
When you get a 19 year old with more than a handful of fights you tend to get a little bit excited and with Mexicans it maybe a little expected but sometimes there is just something about the fighter that makes you more than a little bit interested and that's what we have in Julio Ceja who at 19 has a record of 17-0 (16).
Ceja made his debut in 2009 aged just 16 and stopped Floro Carranza in the opening round before being taken 4 rounds by Fernando Curiel in September 2009, the fight with Curiel has been the one and only time that Ceja has had to hear the final bell as he has ran through opponents with alarming ease. By the end of 2009 Ceja had moved to 5-0 (4) with 3 opening round wins. The following year Ceja would add 7 more wins, each of those coming by KO/TKO with another 2 coming in the opening round as he swiftly moved to 12-0 (11).
Now I won't pretend that Ceja's first 12 opponents were anything to right home about, most were unknown fighters with only a handful of rounds of experience though in 2011 Ceja proved that he could face a better quality of opponent and still impress. In his 15th fight Ceja fought Cesar Javier Gandara (who entered 14-1) in a bout for the vacant WBC FECARBOX Super Flyweight title, Gandara, like 13 men before him was stopped as Ceja continued his tear through the ranks. In his next fight Ceja stopped the then 12-0 Alejandro Morales in just 1 round.
Whilst it is fair to say that Grandara and Morales weren't that experienced themselves despite having solid looking paper records it's now time that Ceja did face his first real test and this coming weekend he faces Ronald Barrera (30-8-2, 19). Barrera of Barranquilla, Colombia is a talented southpaw who has repeatedly challenged for world titles over the past few years (and arguably beat the great Ivan Calderon back in 2007). Although he has yet to win a world title has has faced Yutaka Niida (WBA Minimumweight champion), Ivan Calderon (WBO Minimumweight champion), Raul Garcia (IBF Minimumweight champion), Omar Nino Romero (WBC Light Flyweigth champion) and Juan Carlos Reveco (WBA Interim Light Flyweight champion) with 6 of his 8 losses coming to these men.
Whilst Ceja may prove to be too big, strong and too good for Barrera the bout is a decent test for the Mexican Super Flyweight against a talented and proven fighter. Whilst I'd expect Ceja to add another stoppage victim to his record this is easily going to be the most impressive opponent he will have faced in his short and impressive career.
Note an updated piece on Ceja can be found at http://www.boxingprospects.info/1/post/2012/04/julio-ceja.html
Footage below thanks to marvinkbox
Ceja made his debut in 2009 aged just 16 and stopped Floro Carranza in the opening round before being taken 4 rounds by Fernando Curiel in September 2009, the fight with Curiel has been the one and only time that Ceja has had to hear the final bell as he has ran through opponents with alarming ease. By the end of 2009 Ceja had moved to 5-0 (4) with 3 opening round wins. The following year Ceja would add 7 more wins, each of those coming by KO/TKO with another 2 coming in the opening round as he swiftly moved to 12-0 (11).
Now I won't pretend that Ceja's first 12 opponents were anything to right home about, most were unknown fighters with only a handful of rounds of experience though in 2011 Ceja proved that he could face a better quality of opponent and still impress. In his 15th fight Ceja fought Cesar Javier Gandara (who entered 14-1) in a bout for the vacant WBC FECARBOX Super Flyweight title, Gandara, like 13 men before him was stopped as Ceja continued his tear through the ranks. In his next fight Ceja stopped the then 12-0 Alejandro Morales in just 1 round.
Whilst it is fair to say that Grandara and Morales weren't that experienced themselves despite having solid looking paper records it's now time that Ceja did face his first real test and this coming weekend he faces Ronald Barrera (30-8-2, 19). Barrera of Barranquilla, Colombia is a talented southpaw who has repeatedly challenged for world titles over the past few years (and arguably beat the great Ivan Calderon back in 2007). Although he has yet to win a world title has has faced Yutaka Niida (WBA Minimumweight champion), Ivan Calderon (WBO Minimumweight champion), Raul Garcia (IBF Minimumweight champion), Omar Nino Romero (WBC Light Flyweigth champion) and Juan Carlos Reveco (WBA Interim Light Flyweight champion) with 6 of his 8 losses coming to these men.
Whilst Ceja may prove to be too big, strong and too good for Barrera the bout is a decent test for the Mexican Super Flyweight against a talented and proven fighter. Whilst I'd expect Ceja to add another stoppage victim to his record this is easily going to be the most impressive opponent he will have faced in his short and impressive career.
Note an updated piece on Ceja can be found at http://www.boxingprospects.info/1/post/2012/04/julio-ceja.html
Footage below thanks to marvinkbox
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
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 6th 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.
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 6th 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.
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.
Friday, 9 December 2011
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 6th 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 3rd 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.
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 6th 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 3rd 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.
Friday, 2 December 2011
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.
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.
Monday, 10 October 2011
Daniel "Bad Boy" Rosas, part 2-The title fight
Back in May I wrote about a young Mexican prospect called Daniel Rosas,who at the time was 10-0 (7) and was emerging as a contender in either the Bantamweight or Super Bantamweight divisions. It's always exciting when one of us writers spots a special talent and this coming Friday Rosas, (now 12-0, 9) attempts to prove he is a real deal whilst fighting down at Super Flyweight.
Since the first piece was written on Rosas back in May the young Mexican has dropped down to Super Flyweight where he picked up WBO Youth Title and defended it once though it's the way this sport has developed which now sees him fighting for an "interim" world title. We are less than a week away from Rosas "title fight" in which he will be facing Jose Cabrera (20-2-1, 8) in Los Mochis.
Whilst this is easily the biggest fight of Rosas' career it's a fight he really should be able to win and if he does he may well join the top of one of boxing's more changing division. The current WBO champions is Omar Andres Narvaez, who in 2 weeks makes his Bantamweight debut to face Nonito Donaire whilst the other champions include Rodrigo Guerrero (who recently won the IBF title), Tomonobu Shimizu (who won the WBA title just a few weeks ago), Tepparith Singwancha (interim WBA champion who upset the highly rated Drian Francisco) and Suriyan Sor Rungvisai (who scored a huge upset a few weeks back by defeating Tomas Rojas and defends his title in November against Nobuo Nashiro).
Rosas could join the ever growing list of Mexican world champions, but could he also actually be the best of them? We'll have to find out but one thing is for sure, he's an exciting and skilled fighter who will be near the top win or lose.
Since the first piece was written on Rosas back in May the young Mexican has dropped down to Super Flyweight where he picked up WBO Youth Title and defended it once though it's the way this sport has developed which now sees him fighting for an "interim" world title. We are less than a week away from Rosas "title fight" in which he will be facing Jose Cabrera (20-2-1, 8) in Los Mochis.
Whilst this is easily the biggest fight of Rosas' career it's a fight he really should be able to win and if he does he may well join the top of one of boxing's more changing division. The current WBO champions is Omar Andres Narvaez, who in 2 weeks makes his Bantamweight debut to face Nonito Donaire whilst the other champions include Rodrigo Guerrero (who recently won the IBF title), Tomonobu Shimizu (who won the WBA title just a few weeks ago), Tepparith Singwancha (interim WBA champion who upset the highly rated Drian Francisco) and Suriyan Sor Rungvisai (who scored a huge upset a few weeks back by defeating Tomas Rojas and defends his title in November against Nobuo Nashiro).
Rosas could join the ever growing list of Mexican world champions, but could he also actually be the best of them? We'll have to find out but one thing is for sure, he's an exciting and skilled fighter who will be near the top win or lose.
Friday, 9 September 2011
Wale Omotoso
It's not often that an Australian based boxer gets much hype on this site but Australian based Nigerian Wale Omotoso (18-0, 16) deserves his mention amongst the elite prospects.
Stood at 5'10" the powerfully built Welterweight debuted as a 21 year old back in 2006 though his career took quite some time to really get going. Despite stopping Singyok Sor Seesunt (TKO2) in September 2006 it would be 13 months later before Wale would fight again (stopping Ariel Omongos in 152 seconds). During 2008 however Wale was a busy boy and racked up 8 wins (6 by KO). Despite being dragged 10 rounds in his fight against Samuel Colomban, Wale would pick up the Australian Welterweight title and make his first real mark on the boxing public.
If 2008 was Wale's busy year 2009 was his real break out year and despite "only" 4 fights in the year. As Wale would score a very notable scalp as he stopped Emanuel Augustus in 9 rounds and picked up the OPBF welterweight title by defeating Hwan-Young Park of South Korea. The following year Wale added 3 more wins including stopping the known Juan Alberto Godoy of Argentina.
Wale is making his US debut tomorrow night on the Yuriorkis Gamboa v Daniel Ponce De Leon undercard where he faces experienced veteran Calvin Odom (15-10, 11). Whilst Omotoso is expected to win the bout it is the start of a new chapter in his career and hopefully we will see him regularly in the US.
Known as "Lucky Boy" Wale is seen by those down under as their top boxing prospect to have been fighting in Australia in a very long time and is one that the world should start paying attention to.
Stood at 5'10" the powerfully built Welterweight debuted as a 21 year old back in 2006 though his career took quite some time to really get going. Despite stopping Singyok Sor Seesunt (TKO2) in September 2006 it would be 13 months later before Wale would fight again (stopping Ariel Omongos in 152 seconds). During 2008 however Wale was a busy boy and racked up 8 wins (6 by KO). Despite being dragged 10 rounds in his fight against Samuel Colomban, Wale would pick up the Australian Welterweight title and make his first real mark on the boxing public.
If 2008 was Wale's busy year 2009 was his real break out year and despite "only" 4 fights in the year. As Wale would score a very notable scalp as he stopped Emanuel Augustus in 9 rounds and picked up the OPBF welterweight title by defeating Hwan-Young Park of South Korea. The following year Wale added 3 more wins including stopping the known Juan Alberto Godoy of Argentina.
Wale is making his US debut tomorrow night on the Yuriorkis Gamboa v Daniel Ponce De Leon undercard where he faces experienced veteran Calvin Odom (15-10, 11). Whilst Omotoso is expected to win the bout it is the start of a new chapter in his career and hopefully we will see him regularly in the US.
Known as "Lucky Boy" Wale is seen by those down under as their top boxing prospect to have been fighting in Australia in a very long time and is one that the world should start paying attention to.
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Prospect Review Pt 2
Whilst doing this blog it can be easy to forget about the guys I've already spoken about, so lets take a look back at everyone who has been mentioned on this blog since the first review back in April.
In the first review Billy Joe Saunders had just beaten Turgay Uzun in 2 rounds, more recently we've seen Saunders adding to his record by stopping the tough British fighter Kevin Hammond, also in 2 rounds. Saunders is now 9-0 (6) and may well be the most promising young fighter in the UK at the moment. He's exciting, growing and puts his punches together better every time he's out. Hopefully Frank Warren will get him into some sort of a title fight by the end of 2011 and move up through the levels swiftly rather than waste time at domestic level.
Although Gary Russell Jr hasn't fought since defeating Adolfo Landeros back in April he is pencilled in to fight at the end of this week on a card in Fantasy Springs Casino, Indio, California. The same card also features recent addition Leo Santa Cruz against Jose Lopez and the promising youngster Luis Ramos Jr facing Francisco Lorenzo.
17 year old Oscar Cortes moved to 15-0 (8) last week with a majority decision victory over Armando Mariscal. Cortes is currently pencilled in to fight on the undercard of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez v Ryan Rhodes in what should be an interesting bout. Hopefully Cortes will see his chance on the card as a stepping stone to bigger things as will Marco Antonio Periban who will also be fighting on the undercard. Periban is current 13-0 (10) having stopped the under-whelming Jose Alberto Clavero in 2 rounds back in April. Staying with Mexican fighters we also saw Gilberto Ramirez Sanchez move to 17-0 (15) by stopping Francisco Villanueva in 7 rounds.
Leroy Estrada, the 16 year old Panamanian prospect that I'm excited about moved to 5-0 (2) last weekend when he stopped Pedro Reyes in 3 rounds though it's a result that needn't be taken too seriously as Reyes wasn't expected to be even a slight test. One fighter who was in a tougher than expected test was Sadam Ali who defeated John Revish a few weeks back in a clear decision, though he was rocked late in the fight and had to show his maturity to survive and buy himself some time.
On May 14th we saw Sylvester Lopez scoring a sensational victory over Everardo Morales inside a round. Whilst Morales has now been stopped 10 times, he took fighters like Hugo Fidel Cazares, Tomas Rojas and Pongsaklek Wonjongkam a number of rounds to stop. Talking about stoppages Kubrat Pulev would stop Derrick Rossy in 5 rounds a week earlier in a result that looks iffy to say the least. A video of the Rossy v Pulev stoppage can be watched here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnlfUG2vCYw at around the 8:40 mark into the video.
Joe Hanks, one of the more promising American heavyweights managed to climb to 16-0 (11) after forcing Terrell Nelson to retire from a bout in late April.
Froilan Saludar has moved to 12-0-1 (9) after stopping Jack Amisa in just 48 seconds as the Pinoy puncher impressed again and the more we see of him the more impressive he seems to be.
As well as those fighters already mentioned as having bouts scheduled we also expect to see Jamie Kavanagh out in late June (23rd) and Thomas Dulorme in early June (10th). Kavangh's opponent has not yet been named though Dulorme is set to face the excellent test of Demarcus “Chop Chop” Corley in what should be an excellent learning fight for Dulorme.
All the fighters not mentioned in this blog have either not fought since the first review or haven't got a fight scheduled yet. Hopefully I'll update things at the start of July and we'll hopefully see the the likes of Carlos Ivan Velasquez returning to the ring.
In the first review Billy Joe Saunders had just beaten Turgay Uzun in 2 rounds, more recently we've seen Saunders adding to his record by stopping the tough British fighter Kevin Hammond, also in 2 rounds. Saunders is now 9-0 (6) and may well be the most promising young fighter in the UK at the moment. He's exciting, growing and puts his punches together better every time he's out. Hopefully Frank Warren will get him into some sort of a title fight by the end of 2011 and move up through the levels swiftly rather than waste time at domestic level.
Although Gary Russell Jr hasn't fought since defeating Adolfo Landeros back in April he is pencilled in to fight at the end of this week on a card in Fantasy Springs Casino, Indio, California. The same card also features recent addition Leo Santa Cruz against Jose Lopez and the promising youngster Luis Ramos Jr facing Francisco Lorenzo.
17 year old Oscar Cortes moved to 15-0 (8) last week with a majority decision victory over Armando Mariscal. Cortes is currently pencilled in to fight on the undercard of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez v Ryan Rhodes in what should be an interesting bout. Hopefully Cortes will see his chance on the card as a stepping stone to bigger things as will Marco Antonio Periban who will also be fighting on the undercard. Periban is current 13-0 (10) having stopped the under-whelming Jose Alberto Clavero in 2 rounds back in April. Staying with Mexican fighters we also saw Gilberto Ramirez Sanchez move to 17-0 (15) by stopping Francisco Villanueva in 7 rounds.
Leroy Estrada, the 16 year old Panamanian prospect that I'm excited about moved to 5-0 (2) last weekend when he stopped Pedro Reyes in 3 rounds though it's a result that needn't be taken too seriously as Reyes wasn't expected to be even a slight test. One fighter who was in a tougher than expected test was Sadam Ali who defeated John Revish a few weeks back in a clear decision, though he was rocked late in the fight and had to show his maturity to survive and buy himself some time.
On May 14th we saw Sylvester Lopez scoring a sensational victory over Everardo Morales inside a round. Whilst Morales has now been stopped 10 times, he took fighters like Hugo Fidel Cazares, Tomas Rojas and Pongsaklek Wonjongkam a number of rounds to stop. Talking about stoppages Kubrat Pulev would stop Derrick Rossy in 5 rounds a week earlier in a result that looks iffy to say the least. A video of the Rossy v Pulev stoppage can be watched here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnlfUG2vCYw at around the 8:40 mark into the video.
Joe Hanks, one of the more promising American heavyweights managed to climb to 16-0 (11) after forcing Terrell Nelson to retire from a bout in late April.
Froilan Saludar has moved to 12-0-1 (9) after stopping Jack Amisa in just 48 seconds as the Pinoy puncher impressed again and the more we see of him the more impressive he seems to be.
As well as those fighters already mentioned as having bouts scheduled we also expect to see Jamie Kavanagh out in late June (23rd) and Thomas Dulorme in early June (10th). Kavangh's opponent has not yet been named though Dulorme is set to face the excellent test of Demarcus “Chop Chop” Corley in what should be an excellent learning fight for Dulorme.
All the fighters not mentioned in this blog have either not fought since the first review or haven't got a fight scheduled yet. Hopefully I'll update things at the start of July and we'll hopefully see the the likes of Carlos Ivan Velasquez returning to the ring.
Thursday, 26 May 2011
Leroy Estrada
After looking at Robert Manzanarez recently it seems only fair to look at another incredibly young fighter, this time Leroy Estrada. Estrada is another of the really young fighters aged just 16 and is fighting out of his native Panama and currently competes in and around the Minimumweight division.
Born in La Chorrera in the south of Panama not much is currently known about the youngsters childhood other than the fact he was born June 16th 1994 with the full name of Omar Leroy Estrada Avila. As Panama is a country with Spanish naming traditions we can assume his fathers surname to be Estrada and his mothers to to be Avila, though why “Omar” was dropped I'm not sure.
At the moment it seems little is known of his amateur credentials though he would debut as a professional on a Septetember 2010 card set up by Panama's “Premium Boxing Promotions” (which is apparently run by Hector Villarreal, though details are difficult to come by and mostly in Spanish). On that card, which was free admission apparently, Leroy faced fellow debutant Davis Reyes. Estrada would score 2 knockdowns en-route to a 40-34 decision over 4 rounds.
Estrada would return to the ring in November and December of 2010 to add two more wins to his record stopping Jose Angel Montilla (KO3) and out pointing Guatemalan Julio Canastuj (UD4) to end the year 3-0 (1). Since then Estrada has fought just once, a rematch with Julio Canastuj which again saw Estrada winning the decision (UD6) to move to 4-0 (1).
On this coming Friday night Leroy Estrada gets his next bout when he faces Nicaraguan Pedro Reyes (0-1). This should be little more than an elementary win for the young Estrada against a man who hasn't fought in over 2 years though it's not a bad thing to see Estrada treat with kids gloves at this early stage. Hopefully Premium Boxing will bring along the youngster slowly and correctly rather than rush him and put him in bouts where he could end up being hurt.
Sadly I couldn't find much at all in regards to him, though Boxrec did have this image on their site:
http://static.boxrec.com/wiki/a/a1/Leroy_Estrada.001.jpg
Rankings:
Boxrec.com have Estrada at #78 in the world and at #5 in Panama
Born in La Chorrera in the south of Panama not much is currently known about the youngsters childhood other than the fact he was born June 16th 1994 with the full name of Omar Leroy Estrada Avila. As Panama is a country with Spanish naming traditions we can assume his fathers surname to be Estrada and his mothers to to be Avila, though why “Omar” was dropped I'm not sure.
At the moment it seems little is known of his amateur credentials though he would debut as a professional on a Septetember 2010 card set up by Panama's “Premium Boxing Promotions” (which is apparently run by Hector Villarreal, though details are difficult to come by and mostly in Spanish). On that card, which was free admission apparently, Leroy faced fellow debutant Davis Reyes. Estrada would score 2 knockdowns en-route to a 40-34 decision over 4 rounds.
Estrada would return to the ring in November and December of 2010 to add two more wins to his record stopping Jose Angel Montilla (KO3) and out pointing Guatemalan Julio Canastuj (UD4) to end the year 3-0 (1). Since then Estrada has fought just once, a rematch with Julio Canastuj which again saw Estrada winning the decision (UD6) to move to 4-0 (1).
On this coming Friday night Leroy Estrada gets his next bout when he faces Nicaraguan Pedro Reyes (0-1). This should be little more than an elementary win for the young Estrada against a man who hasn't fought in over 2 years though it's not a bad thing to see Estrada treat with kids gloves at this early stage. Hopefully Premium Boxing will bring along the youngster slowly and correctly rather than rush him and put him in bouts where he could end up being hurt.
Sadly I couldn't find much at all in regards to him, though Boxrec did have this image on their site:
http://static.boxrec.com/wiki/a/a1/Leroy_Estrada.001.jpg
Rankings:
Boxrec.com have Estrada at #78 in the world and at #5 in Panama
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Robert Manzanarez
The sport of boxing currently has a handful of professional fighters who are just 16 years old. These were the youngest fighters I could find, the youngest individual was Robert Manzanarez who was born on December 17th 1994. Now you may be thinking, a 16 year old Mexican, a fighter just starting his career, nothing to be too excited about, right? Well kinda. Mazanarez certainly is just starting his professional career in the scope of things, though he's already the most experienced 16 year old out there. With a record of 10-0 (7) he's not as inexperienced as we perhaps expected when we learnt his date of birth.
Robert was born in Phoenix, Arizona though is now based in the wonderful fighting city of Los Mochis, Sinaloa in Mexico. It was in Los Mochis that a 15 year old Robert would step into the professional ring for the first time. Robert had turned 15 just 3 three months before his debut, an age perhaps too young to be fighting. He would win that night by stopping Jose Rosario Lopez in 32 seconds and just 8 days later he would return to the ring to defeat Julio Carmona in 3 rounds.
Between the start of April 2010 and the end of June that same year Robert hand managed to notch up 5 more wins and had already amassed an impressive record of 7-0 (6). All those opponents he faced, apart from the man he faced on his debut, were making their own debuts though it was still impressive that the youngster was beating them with such ease. Even the man who had made it to the final bell, Ricardo Carrillo, was dropped from a body blow in a white wash decision of 40-35 on all 3 cards.
To end the year Robert would step up his competition slightly and beat the 1-3 Rafael Moreno in 2 rounds before out pointing Omar Martinez over 4 rounds. Before his 16th birthday Robert was 9-0 (7) though then he'd take a break. After 6 months out of action Robert “Tito” Manzanarez would have his next fight and face the 1-4 fighter Luis Angel Hernandez. Against Hernandez we would see the young prospect go 6 rounds en route to winning the decision. This would be the first time Manzanarez would go 6 rounds and even in this fight he would knock down his opponent to take a wide decision (60-51 on one card).
The 5'7” 16 year old has only fought once this year, the victory over Hernandez, though of course as a teenager will almost certainly have other things on his mind. It's very, very unlikely that we'll see him in a meaningful fight any time soon, if ever to be honest, he's too young for us to assume he'll be a star. Though hopefully when he next returns to the ring he'll have decided which weight he's suited at as he's boxed as low as Flyweight and at his heaviest has been over the Super Bantamweight limit. With a record of 10-0 (7) and a total of 28 rounds under his belt he's far from experienced, though as far as 16 year olds go, he's one of the most experienced we'll find in our great sport.
Video thanks to larazabox
Robert was born in Phoenix, Arizona though is now based in the wonderful fighting city of Los Mochis, Sinaloa in Mexico. It was in Los Mochis that a 15 year old Robert would step into the professional ring for the first time. Robert had turned 15 just 3 three months before his debut, an age perhaps too young to be fighting. He would win that night by stopping Jose Rosario Lopez in 32 seconds and just 8 days later he would return to the ring to defeat Julio Carmona in 3 rounds.
Between the start of April 2010 and the end of June that same year Robert hand managed to notch up 5 more wins and had already amassed an impressive record of 7-0 (6). All those opponents he faced, apart from the man he faced on his debut, were making their own debuts though it was still impressive that the youngster was beating them with such ease. Even the man who had made it to the final bell, Ricardo Carrillo, was dropped from a body blow in a white wash decision of 40-35 on all 3 cards.
To end the year Robert would step up his competition slightly and beat the 1-3 Rafael Moreno in 2 rounds before out pointing Omar Martinez over 4 rounds. Before his 16th birthday Robert was 9-0 (7) though then he'd take a break. After 6 months out of action Robert “Tito” Manzanarez would have his next fight and face the 1-4 fighter Luis Angel Hernandez. Against Hernandez we would see the young prospect go 6 rounds en route to winning the decision. This would be the first time Manzanarez would go 6 rounds and even in this fight he would knock down his opponent to take a wide decision (60-51 on one card).
The 5'7” 16 year old has only fought once this year, the victory over Hernandez, though of course as a teenager will almost certainly have other things on his mind. It's very, very unlikely that we'll see him in a meaningful fight any time soon, if ever to be honest, he's too young for us to assume he'll be a star. Though hopefully when he next returns to the ring he'll have decided which weight he's suited at as he's boxed as low as Flyweight and at his heaviest has been over the Super Bantamweight limit. With a record of 10-0 (7) and a total of 28 rounds under his belt he's far from experienced, though as far as 16 year olds go, he's one of the most experienced we'll find in our great sport.
Video thanks to larazabox
Monday, 23 May 2011
Daniel "Bad Boy" Rosas
Young Mexican fighters seem to be the rising part of the sport. At the moment Mexico have more “World Champions” than any other country and it seems with the likes of Marco Antonio Periban, Gilberto Ramirez Sanchez and Julio Ceja they will be dominating for the foreseeable future. Despite the fact so many young Mexicans are making their mark it's impossible to know which will become the biggest success story, though another name to add to the huge list is Daniel Rosas.
Rosas was born in 1989 and is currently aged 21 though the past few years have been really stop start in regards to his boxing career. He debuted way back in November 2007 though only racked up 4 fights prior to 2010. Whilst he had won all 4 bouts 3 of them in the opening round, it wasn't a great start for a Mexican teenager who are typically kept incredibly active.
Something happened in 2010 that really kick started Rosas' career and in just his 5th professional bout he would win the WBC Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) super flyweight title by stopping the then 7-0-1 Juan Carlos Sanchez Jr in 2 rounds. This would be the first title for Rosas though almost certainly won't be the last.
Since beating Sanchez Jr back in February of last year Rosas has been on a run of impressive victories beating far more experienced fighters in a run of form that has seen him being mentioned as a real star for the future. It's been his last 3 fights that have really been the most impressive. In November of last year he faced the then 21-5 Mario Macias in a bout that really proved Rosas was a special talent. Rosas would have to pick himself off the canvas before scoring a decision victory and dropping Macias twice in 8 rounds. It was the first time Rosas had had to go beyond 4 rounds and it was also the first time he had been down and yet he managed to past the test.
To end 2010 Rosas would face the 18-0 Felipe Orucuta. Orucuta was older, more experienced and naturally bigger. The two men would meet in a competitive bout though Rosas would manage to take the decision by the narrowest of margins, with scores of 95-94 (twice) and 96-94 all favouring Rosas. This result really made some folks sit up and take note, it was a stand out fight between two prospects and really a result that looks better now than it did at the time. Orucuta has since gone on to stop Julio David Roque Ler, who has famously taken top fighters the schedule including Jorge Arce and Alexander Munoz.
Rosas has only fought once in 2011 though he would score an incredibly impressive stoppage against David Gaspar who had only previously been stopped by world challenger Carlos Rueda. Sadly though Rosas seems to be wasting more time and after having a fabulous 2010 he's running the risk of losing his momentum if he only fights every 5 months. Amazingly there was talk of Rosas facing Fernando Montiel though thankfully that talk doesn't seem to have come fruition as that would still be a step too far for the youngster.
Daniel “Bad Boy” Rosas as he is known now stands at 10-0 (7) as a professional. Currently he is ranked #38 at Super Bantamweight by Boxrec.com, #45 by the IBO at at Bantamweight but most impressively #15 at Bantamweight by the WBC. He's certainly a fighter on the up, though can he continue his rise? Only time will tell.
Rosas was born in 1989 and is currently aged 21 though the past few years have been really stop start in regards to his boxing career. He debuted way back in November 2007 though only racked up 4 fights prior to 2010. Whilst he had won all 4 bouts 3 of them in the opening round, it wasn't a great start for a Mexican teenager who are typically kept incredibly active.
Something happened in 2010 that really kick started Rosas' career and in just his 5th professional bout he would win the WBC Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) super flyweight title by stopping the then 7-0-1 Juan Carlos Sanchez Jr in 2 rounds. This would be the first title for Rosas though almost certainly won't be the last.
Since beating Sanchez Jr back in February of last year Rosas has been on a run of impressive victories beating far more experienced fighters in a run of form that has seen him being mentioned as a real star for the future. It's been his last 3 fights that have really been the most impressive. In November of last year he faced the then 21-5 Mario Macias in a bout that really proved Rosas was a special talent. Rosas would have to pick himself off the canvas before scoring a decision victory and dropping Macias twice in 8 rounds. It was the first time Rosas had had to go beyond 4 rounds and it was also the first time he had been down and yet he managed to past the test.
To end 2010 Rosas would face the 18-0 Felipe Orucuta. Orucuta was older, more experienced and naturally bigger. The two men would meet in a competitive bout though Rosas would manage to take the decision by the narrowest of margins, with scores of 95-94 (twice) and 96-94 all favouring Rosas. This result really made some folks sit up and take note, it was a stand out fight between two prospects and really a result that looks better now than it did at the time. Orucuta has since gone on to stop Julio David Roque Ler, who has famously taken top fighters the schedule including Jorge Arce and Alexander Munoz.
Rosas has only fought once in 2011 though he would score an incredibly impressive stoppage against David Gaspar who had only previously been stopped by world challenger Carlos Rueda. Sadly though Rosas seems to be wasting more time and after having a fabulous 2010 he's running the risk of losing his momentum if he only fights every 5 months. Amazingly there was talk of Rosas facing Fernando Montiel though thankfully that talk doesn't seem to have come fruition as that would still be a step too far for the youngster.
Daniel “Bad Boy” Rosas as he is known now stands at 10-0 (7) as a professional. Currently he is ranked #38 at Super Bantamweight by Boxrec.com, #45 by the IBO at at Bantamweight but most impressively #15 at Bantamweight by the WBC. He's certainly a fighter on the up, though can he continue his rise? Only time will tell.
Video below thanks to taverarichard It's of Rosas fight with Gabriel Aguillon, and although the stoppage is poor it's the best quality video of the young Bad Boy.
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
Sadam Ali
When it comes to rising American fighters, those in the know really are big on one young man, Sadam Ali. Known as “The World Kid” the 22 year old from Brooklyn seems to have been one of the quiet but improving fighters who people have perhaps forgotten about since his failure at the 2008 Olympic games. At the Olympics he would face talented Romanian Georgian Popescu who would thoroughly out point the young Ali though it was a learning experience. It would end Ali's amateur career which had seen him winning a number of competitions including 2 Golden Gloves championships.
After the Olympics Ali would turn professional and by the end of 2009 Ali was 4-0 (2) having stopped Ricky Thompson in his opening bout in just 102 seconds. Through 2010 Ali would add another 7 wins as he seemed to stand head and shoulders against the fighters he was facing. Although a win over Costa Rican Lenin Arroyo was impressive (Arroyo is a a veteran who had been durable though does seem to have faded in recent years) it seems like Ali was still a fighter playing in the low gears.
After 4 months out of the ring Ali started his 2011 and stopped Javier Perez on the Tomasz Adamek v Kevin McBride under card with a brilliant KO. Ali will return to the ring this coming Friday night at the same venue of the Adamek v McBride card (The Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey) to face John Revish. Revish who is 10-3-2 (8) is another fighter that we'd expect Ali to beat with out too many problems and hopefully then move on to facing much better opponents as at the moment Ali is simply not being tested.
The super sharp, accurate puncher is so far not being forced to really show what he has and is getting away with winning whilst fighting on cruise control. We'd all love to see him in with someone who can force something else form him, though it could be a while before we see him in such a fight. Fighting in the talent heavy Welterweight division isn't going to help though he's young and will grow into a full blown Welterweight or even a Light Middleweight. He's one to keep an eye on and his fight with Revish will be a great chance to see just how good he is.
After the Olympics Ali would turn professional and by the end of 2009 Ali was 4-0 (2) having stopped Ricky Thompson in his opening bout in just 102 seconds. Through 2010 Ali would add another 7 wins as he seemed to stand head and shoulders against the fighters he was facing. Although a win over Costa Rican Lenin Arroyo was impressive (Arroyo is a a veteran who had been durable though does seem to have faded in recent years) it seems like Ali was still a fighter playing in the low gears.
After 4 months out of the ring Ali started his 2011 and stopped Javier Perez on the Tomasz Adamek v Kevin McBride under card with a brilliant KO. Ali will return to the ring this coming Friday night at the same venue of the Adamek v McBride card (The Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey) to face John Revish. Revish who is 10-3-2 (8) is another fighter that we'd expect Ali to beat with out too many problems and hopefully then move on to facing much better opponents as at the moment Ali is simply not being tested.
The super sharp, accurate puncher is so far not being forced to really show what he has and is getting away with winning whilst fighting on cruise control. We'd all love to see him in with someone who can force something else form him, though it could be a while before we see him in such a fight. Fighting in the talent heavy Welterweight division isn't going to help though he's young and will grow into a full blown Welterweight or even a Light Middleweight. He's one to keep an eye on and his fight with Revish will be a great chance to see just how good he is.
Monday, 2 May 2011
Kubrat Pulev
We are all calling for former great Evander “The Real Deal” Holyfield to retire from the sport of boxing, though on his up coming card in Denmark where Holyfield faces Brian Nielsen we have one of the hottest rising Heavyweight prospects, Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev. Pulev was a former elite amateur competing on the international scene and being involved in World championships and Olympics before turning professional. Kubrat would continue as an amateur for almost a full year after a very unimpressive 2008 Olympics.
On Pulev's debut he would stop Florian Benke in September 2009 and ended the year 4-0 (2) after adding wins over Serdar Uysal, Gbenga Oloukun and Zack Page. It seemed as if Pulev was going to be active and just need a few years to really establish himself as a premier heavyweight. 2010 started the same way, he stopped former world title challenger Matt Skelton in January and by May 2010 Pulev's record stood at a brilliant 8-0 (5). All of this was achieved in less than 9 months as a professional.
Sadly his career has slowed down substantially since then despite having added good rounds against good heavyweights. In fact his wins have included one time American hopeful Dominick Guinn, Olympic bronze medal winner Paolo Vidoz and also Yaroslav Zavorotnyi (a less impressive victory). He has amassed a solid looking record of 11-0 (5) and has several noteworthy names on his record already, he has shown a good jab and technical skills and although he's not lightning quick or mega powerful the man known “The Cobra” has been winning.
His bout on the Holyfield undercard sees him facing American fighter Derric Rossy who enters with a 25-3 record. Rossy is experienced and has mixed with the likes of Eddie Chambers and Ray Mercer though I can't help but feel that Rossy doesn't bring anything new to the ring that we've not seen already from Pulev's opponents. Rather than staying at this level of opponent what Pulev's management should perhaps do it try and keep pushing him, try and get an opponent like Alexander Dimitrenko who is ranked in the top 15 or so.
Pulev stands around 6'4” and appears to perhaps carry a little bit of extra weight, in fact he'd probably work best in the low 230's instead he's been above and around 247 a weight that really is unnecessary for him. If he can get into shape, and I don't even mean the prime Holyfield ripped to the nines shape, then he'd been a real potential challenger, but instead the soon to be 30 year old seems to have a party boy reputation that could destroy, or at very least, slow his progression to a world title fight.
On Pulev's debut he would stop Florian Benke in September 2009 and ended the year 4-0 (2) after adding wins over Serdar Uysal, Gbenga Oloukun and Zack Page. It seemed as if Pulev was going to be active and just need a few years to really establish himself as a premier heavyweight. 2010 started the same way, he stopped former world title challenger Matt Skelton in January and by May 2010 Pulev's record stood at a brilliant 8-0 (5). All of this was achieved in less than 9 months as a professional.
Sadly his career has slowed down substantially since then despite having added good rounds against good heavyweights. In fact his wins have included one time American hopeful Dominick Guinn, Olympic bronze medal winner Paolo Vidoz and also Yaroslav Zavorotnyi (a less impressive victory). He has amassed a solid looking record of 11-0 (5) and has several noteworthy names on his record already, he has shown a good jab and technical skills and although he's not lightning quick or mega powerful the man known “The Cobra” has been winning.
His bout on the Holyfield undercard sees him facing American fighter Derric Rossy who enters with a 25-3 record. Rossy is experienced and has mixed with the likes of Eddie Chambers and Ray Mercer though I can't help but feel that Rossy doesn't bring anything new to the ring that we've not seen already from Pulev's opponents. Rather than staying at this level of opponent what Pulev's management should perhaps do it try and keep pushing him, try and get an opponent like Alexander Dimitrenko who is ranked in the top 15 or so.
Pulev stands around 6'4” and appears to perhaps carry a little bit of extra weight, in fact he'd probably work best in the low 230's instead he's been above and around 247 a weight that really is unnecessary for him. If he can get into shape, and I don't even mean the prime Holyfield ripped to the nines shape, then he'd been a real potential challenger, but instead the soon to be 30 year old seems to have a party boy reputation that could destroy, or at very least, slow his progression to a world title fight.
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
Froilan "The Sniper" Saludar
Having recently seen an episode of KOTV I became aware of 22 year old Filipino flyweight Froilan Saludar (11-0-1, 8KO's). Although what KOTV showed of Saludar was limited to a mere 84 seconds it was 84 very impressive seconds for the youngster. Saludar's February fight with Liempetch Sor Veerapol (21-9-1, 14KO's) was shown in full by KOTV and it showed everything to get excited about.
Saludar made his professional debut in late 2009 when he was 20 years old and scored an opening round TKO over fellow debutant Roland Gamolo. In fact Saludar's first 3 contests ended in the opening round. Saludar's run of KO's would end with 3 straight decision wins including a 6 rounder against Ryan Illustrisimo. In his next fight Saludar's record took it's first black with a technical draw against Brian Diano after a clash of heads very early in the fight caused the early end.
Since the technical draw Saludar has really started to progress his career. He would win his first title, the WBO Asia Pacific Youth flyweight title 5 months after the Diano fight by defeating Remuel Obidos in just 146 seconds. The win over Obidos showed the impressive power of Saludar who left Obidos out cold in the centre of the ring face first. (Video below courtesy of MrJerbox10)
Saludar made his professional debut in late 2009 when he was 20 years old and scored an opening round TKO over fellow debutant Roland Gamolo. In fact Saludar's first 3 contests ended in the opening round. Saludar's run of KO's would end with 3 straight decision wins including a 6 rounder against Ryan Illustrisimo. In his next fight Saludar's record took it's first black with a technical draw against Brian Diano after a clash of heads very early in the fight caused the early end.
Since the technical draw Saludar has really started to progress his career. He would win his first title, the WBO Asia Pacific Youth flyweight title 5 months after the Diano fight by defeating Remuel Obidos in just 146 seconds. The win over Obidos showed the impressive power of Saludar who left Obidos out cold in the centre of the ring face first. (Video below courtesy of MrJerbox10)
Since knocking out Obidos for the WBO Asia Pacific Youth title Saludar has fought twice, defending the title once and then adding the WBO Youth flyweight title when he faced Sor Veerapol. (Video below courtesy of localhawaiian1) in just 84 seconds.
So far the man known as “The Sniper” has shown fantastic potential, he has lightning fast hands, hurtful power in both hands and true 1 punch KO power. Although he lacks experience having just fought 29 rounds as a professional he's managed to climb up the world rankings and now stands at #5 with the WBO at Flyweight. Stood at 5'5” Froilan Saludar could well be the next big boxing star from the fight crazy Philippines following in the footsteps of Nonito Donaire and Manny Pacquiao.
Monday, 18 April 2011
John Jackson, the son of the Hawk
Although most fighters with famous fathers appear poor and average there is one fighter who has a famous father and seems to be going places is 22 year old hard punching John Jackson (9-0, 8), the son of the legendary banger Julian Jackson. John, and older brother Julius (10-0, 6) are both pencilled in to fight on Tuesday in an obscure card in Uruguay though both have been somewhat forgotten fighters in the ranks of “jr's”.
John is a light middleweight fighting in the same division where his father made a name for himself. Julian won the WBA title in the division in 1987 by beating In Chul Baek for the title and John will have that the achievement of his father to aspire too (who would also become the WBC Middleweight champion on 2 separate occasions). Though comparisons to his dad are currently somewhat unfair, so lets look at John for who John is.
Born in January 1989, just 17 months after brother Julian, John made his first major mark on the boxing word by defeating Pan-Am champion Pedro Lima (from Brazil) in an Olympic qualifier prior to the 2008 games in Beijing. Although Jackson was defeated in the 2nd round at the Olympic games the 19 year old had caught the eye of some promoters. A 10-0 loss to eventual bronze medal winner Kim Jung-Joo of South Korea was nothing to be ashamed of.
Rather than remain an amateur John would turn professional and alongside his older brother make his debut on 30th January 2009, just 2 weeks after turning 20. John would beat fellow debutant Alphonso Alexander in the 2nd round to start his career as a professional on a high note. (video of the fight can be found at the bottom of this blog). Despite an obvious blow after the bell to end the opening round the youngster looked rather good, he showed good power in his right hand and hurt Alexander numerous times with shots to the head.
John's first few opponents were incredibly raw novices, his first 4 opponents had a combined 1 fight (a 4 round draw) to their name and Jackson needed just 6 rounds to get rid of all 4 of them. His first opponent with any true experience was Rafael de la Cruz (2-34, 1) an opponent who was there to try and get a few rounds of experience out of the young Jackson. De la Cruz managed to survive into the 3rd round though didn't have enough to stave off the Jackson attack and was stopped like the previous 4 men.
2009 had been an easy year for Jackson, a year for him to get used to the pressures of the professional sport. 2010 was however a whole different ball game, this time Jackson was going to tested. His first bout of the year was against Mexican Alvaro Clinton Ayala who entered with a respectable 19-8 (10) record. Ayala's record although respectable for a 5 fight novice to face did include a 6 fight losing streak going in including 3 by knockout. Jackson would need just 3 rounds to extend his own record to 5-0 (5). This was swiftly followed by a 43 second blow out of the then 6-10 Valerio Marte. To end 2010 Jackson faced the 24 year old 9-0 (5) Manuel Martinez and was taken into the 4th round for the first time in his career. Jackson would keep his KO streak alive by stopping Martinez in the 4th as he extend his KO streak to 8 and his record still stood at a perfect 8-0 (8).
In his only fight of 2011 so far Jackson would be extended the distance for the first time as Carlos Argentinian Andres Araya (7-4 entering) took Jackson to the end of the scheduled 6 round contest. Jackson may not have managed to stop Araya though he had managed to win every round of the fight and proved he could fight for 6 rounds. On Tuesday Jackson faces his stiffest test to date when he meets Brazilian puncher Welson Alves de Oliveira (14-4, 12). Oliveira sports an impressive record “on paper” though his record is somewhat padded and his most notable fight to date was a 3rd round loss to Britain's Denton Vassell in December 2010. A victory for Jackson is expected and the result should be compared directly to that of Vassell who is the current Commonwealth Welterweight champion.
Whether John will ever get close to the achievements of his 3-time, 2 weight world champion father isn't really something that we should concern ourselves with quite yet, the 22 year old still has a lot of developing to do, though we should be more than a little excited about him.
Video courtesy of rockcity45
John is a light middleweight fighting in the same division where his father made a name for himself. Julian won the WBA title in the division in 1987 by beating In Chul Baek for the title and John will have that the achievement of his father to aspire too (who would also become the WBC Middleweight champion on 2 separate occasions). Though comparisons to his dad are currently somewhat unfair, so lets look at John for who John is.
Born in January 1989, just 17 months after brother Julian, John made his first major mark on the boxing word by defeating Pan-Am champion Pedro Lima (from Brazil) in an Olympic qualifier prior to the 2008 games in Beijing. Although Jackson was defeated in the 2nd round at the Olympic games the 19 year old had caught the eye of some promoters. A 10-0 loss to eventual bronze medal winner Kim Jung-Joo of South Korea was nothing to be ashamed of.
Rather than remain an amateur John would turn professional and alongside his older brother make his debut on 30th January 2009, just 2 weeks after turning 20. John would beat fellow debutant Alphonso Alexander in the 2nd round to start his career as a professional on a high note. (video of the fight can be found at the bottom of this blog). Despite an obvious blow after the bell to end the opening round the youngster looked rather good, he showed good power in his right hand and hurt Alexander numerous times with shots to the head.
John's first few opponents were incredibly raw novices, his first 4 opponents had a combined 1 fight (a 4 round draw) to their name and Jackson needed just 6 rounds to get rid of all 4 of them. His first opponent with any true experience was Rafael de la Cruz (2-34, 1) an opponent who was there to try and get a few rounds of experience out of the young Jackson. De la Cruz managed to survive into the 3rd round though didn't have enough to stave off the Jackson attack and was stopped like the previous 4 men.
2009 had been an easy year for Jackson, a year for him to get used to the pressures of the professional sport. 2010 was however a whole different ball game, this time Jackson was going to tested. His first bout of the year was against Mexican Alvaro Clinton Ayala who entered with a respectable 19-8 (10) record. Ayala's record although respectable for a 5 fight novice to face did include a 6 fight losing streak going in including 3 by knockout. Jackson would need just 3 rounds to extend his own record to 5-0 (5). This was swiftly followed by a 43 second blow out of the then 6-10 Valerio Marte. To end 2010 Jackson faced the 24 year old 9-0 (5) Manuel Martinez and was taken into the 4th round for the first time in his career. Jackson would keep his KO streak alive by stopping Martinez in the 4th as he extend his KO streak to 8 and his record still stood at a perfect 8-0 (8).
In his only fight of 2011 so far Jackson would be extended the distance for the first time as Carlos Argentinian Andres Araya (7-4 entering) took Jackson to the end of the scheduled 6 round contest. Jackson may not have managed to stop Araya though he had managed to win every round of the fight and proved he could fight for 6 rounds. On Tuesday Jackson faces his stiffest test to date when he meets Brazilian puncher Welson Alves de Oliveira (14-4, 12). Oliveira sports an impressive record “on paper” though his record is somewhat padded and his most notable fight to date was a 3rd round loss to Britain's Denton Vassell in December 2010. A victory for Jackson is expected and the result should be compared directly to that of Vassell who is the current Commonwealth Welterweight champion.
Whether John will ever get close to the achievements of his 3-time, 2 weight world champion father isn't really something that we should concern ourselves with quite yet, the 22 year old still has a lot of developing to do, though we should be more than a little excited about him.
Video courtesy of rockcity45
Friday, 8 April 2011
Thomas Dulorme
Puerto Rico is a country with a very rich history of fantastic boxers. Though out the ages the country has given us some of the greatest fighters ever. We've had Carlos Ortiz, Felix “Tito” Trinidad, Wilfredo Gomez, Cocoa Kid, Jose Torres, Esteban De Jesus, Wilfred Benitez, Sixto Escobar and a host of others. Though looking towards the future and not the past the country has some sensational rising stars. We've already looked at Carlos Ivan Velasquez, though this week we'll be looking at other top Puerto Rican prospects that are likely to become big names in the sport of boxing.
Firstly we are looking at the younger of this weeks prospects, Thomas Dulorme. Dulorme is an unbeaten 21 year old Welterweight prospect currently promoted by Gary Shaw Productions. He turned professional in late 2008 and defeated David Rodriguez by a razor thin majority decision. Since then Thomas has matured very well and gone from being a fighter who seemed able to make lightweight into a full out welterweight, adding power and confidence to his ultra quick hands and exceptional boxing ability.
In an interview with Boxing Asylum's Ben Weisman Dulorme admitted he had started boxing when he was just 8 years old, it shows in his fighting that he has a very wise head and his 13 years of learn so far have helped him to develop. Not only does Dulorme look relaxed and calm in the ring due to his years fighting but he also has a head that shows the experience, he's not, as his record shows, a 10 fight novice he's instead a veteran of the amateur game.
After struggling with Rodriguez in his debut Dulorme has strung together 9 straight stoppage wins. Although his first few fights were low key affairs in his native Puerto Rico he now seems to be blossoming into a fine fighter as he steps up the level of his opponents. Having already fought twice this year he has stepped up the level of opponents and seems to be cruising. His most recent victory was against Guillermo Valdes (TKO2) and was by far his most high profile fight. On the same night countryman Miguel Angel Cotto stopped Ricardo Mayorga in the MGM Dulorme was in the Foxwoods Resort Casino making up the undercard of the Sergio Martinez v Serhiy Dzinziruk fight. Whilst Cotto struggled against the tough Nicaraguan Dulorme cruised through Valdes.
Although it's too early to start saying that Dulorme will take over when Cotto retires, he's already being compared Cotto for the crisp sharpness on his shots, especially his jab and again like Cotto he shows that he can really dig to the body. His heavy fast hands will help him at this level to just cruise against opponents and we'll have to hope that 2011 sees Dulorme getting some serious development fights.
Video thanks to Yalter777
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Karl Place
British boxing is still on a bit of a high, currently the Brits have 4 world champions to celebrate with Amir Khan (WBA Light Welterweight), Carl Froch (WBC Super Middleweight), David Haye (WBA Heavyweight) and Ricky Burns (WBO Super Bantamweight) and a number of high ranked contenders. It’s when we looking to the future that we see just how hot British boxing really is. Not only do we have fighters like John Murray on the verge of world title fights but a lot of young raw talent breaking through. This coming Saturday we see one of the most exciting young British prospects back in action in a major Sky Sports 1 show. Although the main event on “Saturday Fight Night” is Stuart Hall (10-0-1, 6KO’s) defending his British Bantamweight title against John Donnelly (12-1, 3KO’s) it’s the co-feature that really interests me.
22 year old Light Welterweight Karl Place (12-0, 7KO’s) returns to the ring to face George Watson (8-3-2, 1KO). Place is really one of the most exciting young talents in the UK and has shown plenty to be excited about so far. Stood at 5’11” Place has the natural size to fill out into perhaps even a Light Middleweight though for now he’s a tall lanky Light Welterweight with a big future ahead of himself and with VIP Promotions/Steve Wood behind him theirs no reason why he can’t become a big star.
Place debuted as a professional back in October 2008 just weeks after turning 20 and scored a 2nd round stoppage over Chris Kitson. He would follow that up over the proceeding months by beating up some of the best journeymen with points wins over Carl Allen, Johnny Greaves and Baz Carey. Those 3 fights account for 12 rounds of Place’s 40 career rounds to date. After those fights Place would defeat 3 fighters in confidence building victories before getting his most notable name to date, Steve Saville.
Saville was a limited fighter but a tough guy, although he entered on a 3 fight losing streak they had included a loss to Gary McArthur (who entered 11-0) and Frankie Gavin (who was 3-0). Place started the fight terribly and seemed to lack the defensive skill to keep Saville off him, he had his nose in the opening round and appeared to be eating Saville‘s left hand too often. Late in round Place was caught with a big shot and appeared to be wobbled. He came out for the 2nd and appeared to have calmed down as he went about breaking down Saville and beating him to the canvas in the 2nd. Saville had received hard blows to the body and head from Place who learned more in that fight than he had in his previous 7.
Since scoring the victory over Saville Place has fought 4 times, scoring wins over Michael Frontin (TKO5), experienced journeyman Billy Smith (4PTS), Maurycy Gojko (TKO3) and Danny Dontchev (6PTS). With George Watson in the opposite corner on Saturday Place competes in his first fight scheduled for 8 rounds and Watson, despite the losses on his record is a tough fight. To date Watson has only been stopped once, two fights ago by Stephen Jennings (LTKO3) and has since taking the hard hitting Carl Johanneson 8 rounds. A stoppage for place would be hugely impressive, though a win would expected and still impressive for Place.
Video’s courtesy of Frank Maloney’s Youtube channel.
22 year old Light Welterweight Karl Place (12-0, 7KO’s) returns to the ring to face George Watson (8-3-2, 1KO). Place is really one of the most exciting young talents in the UK and has shown plenty to be excited about so far. Stood at 5’11” Place has the natural size to fill out into perhaps even a Light Middleweight though for now he’s a tall lanky Light Welterweight with a big future ahead of himself and with VIP Promotions/Steve Wood behind him theirs no reason why he can’t become a big star.
Place debuted as a professional back in October 2008 just weeks after turning 20 and scored a 2nd round stoppage over Chris Kitson. He would follow that up over the proceeding months by beating up some of the best journeymen with points wins over Carl Allen, Johnny Greaves and Baz Carey. Those 3 fights account for 12 rounds of Place’s 40 career rounds to date. After those fights Place would defeat 3 fighters in confidence building victories before getting his most notable name to date, Steve Saville.
Saville was a limited fighter but a tough guy, although he entered on a 3 fight losing streak they had included a loss to Gary McArthur (who entered 11-0) and Frankie Gavin (who was 3-0). Place started the fight terribly and seemed to lack the defensive skill to keep Saville off him, he had his nose in the opening round and appeared to be eating Saville‘s left hand too often. Late in round Place was caught with a big shot and appeared to be wobbled. He came out for the 2nd and appeared to have calmed down as he went about breaking down Saville and beating him to the canvas in the 2nd. Saville had received hard blows to the body and head from Place who learned more in that fight than he had in his previous 7.
Since scoring the victory over Saville Place has fought 4 times, scoring wins over Michael Frontin (TKO5), experienced journeyman Billy Smith (4PTS), Maurycy Gojko (TKO3) and Danny Dontchev (6PTS). With George Watson in the opposite corner on Saturday Place competes in his first fight scheduled for 8 rounds and Watson, despite the losses on his record is a tough fight. To date Watson has only been stopped once, two fights ago by Stephen Jennings (LTKO3) and has since taking the hard hitting Carl Johanneson 8 rounds. A stoppage for place would be hugely impressive, though a win would expected and still impressive for Place.
Video’s courtesy of Frank Maloney’s Youtube channel.
Gary Russell Jr
One of the names on the under-card of Maidana v Morales that seems to have been some what forgotten about is one of the USA’s most skilled prospects around. “Mr” Gary Russell Jr (14-0, 9KO’s). Currently based in Maryland the skilled youngster is still only 22 but seems headed to the top of the sport and is starting to take those big steps up in the boxing world that every fighter needs to make at some point.
Russell was one of the top young amateurs in the USA after picking up the sport at a young age he progressed well and ran up well in excess of 160 wins. He would win several amateur championships including the Junior Olympics (2004) Golden Gloves (2005), U.S. Championships (2005, 2006) and a Bronze medal at the 2007 World Amateur Championships. Though he missed out on making a shot at the 2008 Olympics when he collapsed prior to the weigh in.
Having seen his Olympic dreams crumble Russell would turn professional and make his debut in January 2009 on an episode of ShoBox: The Next Generation. He would stop Antonio Reyes in the 3rd round and follow it up with a handful of wins through out 2009 as he started to adapt to the professional scene. By the end of 2010 Russell Jr was starting to face substantially tougher opponents and gone were the inexperienced professionals that he had been allowed to face to get into the sport.
Stoppage wins against veterans Carlos Diaz, Mauricio Pastrana and the previously never stopped Rodrigo Aranda were hugely impressive for Russell. Russell showed not only was he maturing and genuinely able to throw hurtful shots but land to both the body and head. The key to Russell Jr though wasn’t his power but his lightning quick southpaw jab which comes from a wonderfully balanced stance. As well as the lightning jabs he can throw the hooks and crosses with the same alarming speed. He appears to be confident and is being pushed well by Golden Boy Promotions, hopefully they’ll continue to step him up in levels over his next few fights.
So far in 2011 Russell Jr has fought once beating Feider Viloria who entered the ring with a 23-7-1 record. Russell dropped Viloria in the 5th round before winning a 7th round technical decision in his longest fight to date. His upcoming fight on the Maidana v Morales fight sees him facing Ira Terry (24-4, 14KO’s). Terry is with out a win since December 2009 though lost in April 2010 to Carlos Ivan Velasquez in 4 rounds. Of course Carlos Ivan Velasquez was featured in the opening post of this blog, this gives us a chance to compare how the Puerto Rican and how Russell compare.
Stood at 5’5” and with a 61” reach Russell isn’t big for a featherweight though he is lightning fast and seems to be maturing into a fighter with a solid punch on him. The Featherweight division does seem to be one of the most promising in the world today with the likes of Yuriorkis Gamboa and Juan Manuel Lopez dominating it. Though with American talent including Mickey Garcia, Robert Marroquin and Abraham Lopez all along with Russell the Americans could well become the divisions dominant force one day.
Videos courtesy of Youtube user Boxing Prospect (not confused with an actual link to this blog with the same name).
Russell was one of the top young amateurs in the USA after picking up the sport at a young age he progressed well and ran up well in excess of 160 wins. He would win several amateur championships including the Junior Olympics (2004) Golden Gloves (2005), U.S. Championships (2005, 2006) and a Bronze medal at the 2007 World Amateur Championships. Though he missed out on making a shot at the 2008 Olympics when he collapsed prior to the weigh in.
Having seen his Olympic dreams crumble Russell would turn professional and make his debut in January 2009 on an episode of ShoBox: The Next Generation. He would stop Antonio Reyes in the 3rd round and follow it up with a handful of wins through out 2009 as he started to adapt to the professional scene. By the end of 2010 Russell Jr was starting to face substantially tougher opponents and gone were the inexperienced professionals that he had been allowed to face to get into the sport.
Stoppage wins against veterans Carlos Diaz, Mauricio Pastrana and the previously never stopped Rodrigo Aranda were hugely impressive for Russell. Russell showed not only was he maturing and genuinely able to throw hurtful shots but land to both the body and head. The key to Russell Jr though wasn’t his power but his lightning quick southpaw jab which comes from a wonderfully balanced stance. As well as the lightning jabs he can throw the hooks and crosses with the same alarming speed. He appears to be confident and is being pushed well by Golden Boy Promotions, hopefully they’ll continue to step him up in levels over his next few fights.
So far in 2011 Russell Jr has fought once beating Feider Viloria who entered the ring with a 23-7-1 record. Russell dropped Viloria in the 5th round before winning a 7th round technical decision in his longest fight to date. His upcoming fight on the Maidana v Morales fight sees him facing Ira Terry (24-4, 14KO’s). Terry is with out a win since December 2009 though lost in April 2010 to Carlos Ivan Velasquez in 4 rounds. Of course Carlos Ivan Velasquez was featured in the opening post of this blog, this gives us a chance to compare how the Puerto Rican and how Russell compare.
Stood at 5’5” and with a 61” reach Russell isn’t big for a featherweight though he is lightning fast and seems to be maturing into a fighter with a solid punch on him. The Featherweight division does seem to be one of the most promising in the world today with the likes of Yuriorkis Gamboa and Juan Manuel Lopez dominating it. Though with American talent including Mickey Garcia, Robert Marroquin and Abraham Lopez all along with Russell the Americans could well become the divisions dominant force one day.
Videos courtesy of Youtube user Boxing Prospect (not confused with an actual link to this blog with the same name).
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Gilberto Ramirez Sanchez
Mexican fighters are probably the most fascinating group of boxers out there at the moment. If you wish to just stereotype they are true warriors, they battle until they can't fight on and they often enjoy a good scrap. Although a few more skilled than that, such as current IBF Lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez who prefers to fight on the move with accurate counters and slippery movement, the majority prefer to fight than to box. Though one youngster who can box or bang and is very much one to watch is Gilberto Ramírez Sánchez.
Sanchez aged just 19 looks set to follow in the footsteps of so many other fighters from Mexico and go from being almost unheard of to reaching the top of the boxing tree. He has already sparred with a world champion (the then WBA Light Middleweight champion Rigoberto “Español” Alvarez, older brother of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez) and has already started to gain some form of notoriety as a hard punching youngster.
With a record of 16-0 (14) you could easily assume the 19 year old southpaw has been facing soft touch after soft touch. His record of a mere 43 rounds does suggest that his fights haven't been long gruelling tough affairs. Though below the raw numbers his opponents have been surprisingly solid so far. Since debuting as just an 18 year old back in 2009 Sanchez has faced opponents with a combined record of 123-65-6. Although he has faced several debutants and “career losers” his most recent opponents have been impressive enough fighters in their own right and have included:
Christian Solano (22-19-4 upon entering)-Solano had beaten British fighter John O'Donnell, he had taken Julio Cesar Chavez Jr 10 rounds and Saul Roman the same distance.
The, then unbeaten Rogelio Medina (23-0)
And veteran Antonio Arras (21-9)
Against Medina Sanchez picked up his first title as a professional by winning the vacant WBC Youth World middleweight title. This entitled Sanchez to a WBC ranking (though he is still outside of the top 40 after checking at with the organisation) though his most notable ranking is the #13 ranking he has with the NABO. The independent rankings of the IBO and Boxrec.com place Sanchez at #76 at Middleweight (IBO) and #41 at Middleweight (Boxrec.com) though the rankings hardly matter at this point.
From sources found on the web about Sanchez it's no wonder he is being matched as a professional. He is according to an article on “notifight.com” he was a “national champion and three-time junior national champion elite” as an amateur. Though as a professional those skills haven't really been required. Instead his exceptional power, thunderous aggression and ability to land hard clean shots to both head and body have helped “Zurdo De Oro” create a bit of a buzz.
Fighting out of Sinaloa, Mexico Sanchez will have plenty around him that know the business inside out. Sinaloa is of course the state that contains Los Mochis (think Fernando Montiel) and Culiacán (Julio Cesar Chavez). If Sanchez can emulate either of those two he'll become a name to be remembered, though as a Mexican middleweight/Super Middleweight he'll also have something going for him. Although Marco Antonio Periban is a Mexican Super Middleweight who may end up competing for a world title by the end of 2012 Sanchez, at just 19, will easily out grow the Middleweight division and could easily end up as high at Light Heavyweight. Imagine a Mexican 3 weight champion taking belts at Middleweight, Super Middleweight and Light Heavyweight, that really is the potential of young Gilberto Ramírez Sánchez.
Since his debut he has shown fast heavy hands, a patience far beyond his time and an ability to pick the right shots at the right time. The combination of these traits could very easily see him becoming of the modern Mexican greats.
Sources:
Notifight.com
Video below thanks to ZapariBoxingNotifight.com
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