Throughout the short history of the Super Middleweight division the Brits have always been amongst the best in the world, in fact the first ever Super Middleweight champion was Britain's very own Murray Sutherland (who was the IBF champion back in 1984). Since Sutherland we've seen British champions such as Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank, Robin Reid, Richie Woodhall, Joe Calzaghe and current champion Carl Froch. With this in mind it should be little wonder that Britain currently has some of the top Super Middleweight prospects, including the unbeaten and very highly regarded "Saint" George Groves (14-0, 11).
The 24 year old Groves from Hammersmith, London first made his name in the amateurs where he became a 2-time ABA champion. It was whilst still fighting as an amateur that Goves and fellow British prospect James DeGale first crossed paths with the two men now having a heated rivalry which has crossed over into the professional ranks.
Groves turned professional debut following his 2008 ABA Middleweight triumph and debuted in November 2008 under the "Hayemaker" banner. On his debut Groves defeated Kirill Psonko out pointing him over 6 rounds on the same card as David Haye faced Monte Barrett.
Following his successful debut Groves was kept active stopping Romaric Hignard in 3 rounds in February of 2009 and then stopping hard hitting Brit Paul Samuels in a single round the following month. Amazingly by the end of 2009 Groves had managed to run his record to 7-0 (5) and had managed to show case his talents not only in his native UK but also in Germany as he out pointed the teak tough Kanstantsin Makhankou (UD8) on the undercard of David Haye's WBA Heavyweight title fight with Nikolay Valuev.
Groves would step up considerably in 2010 and after stopping Grigor Sarohanian (TKO3) in his first fight of the year he would go on to claim the Commonwealth Super Middleweight title by destroying the teak tough Charles Adamu in an incredibly impressive display that really put him on the map. Later the same year Groves made his US debut by stopping Alfredo Contreras (TKO6) before being involved in a war with Scottish hardman Kenny Anderson. Against Anderson (who had been given little notice for the fight) Groves was dropped twice before stopping a tiring Anderson in 6 rounds. It's the bout with Anderson that still looms over Groves' head as a professional with many feeling Groves was incredibly lucky to escape the bout with win.
In 2011 Groves managed to record another 3 wins. Firstly Groves stopped the tough Daniel Adotey Allotey (TKO4) before managing to score a notable (and controversial) majority decision win against former amateur rival, and Olympic gold medal winner James DeGale. The victory over DeGale, in what was a highly anticipated bout saw Groves maintaining his unbeaten record whilst inflicting the first professional loss to DeGale. The DeGale bout also saw Goves unifying his Commonwealth title with the British Super Middleweight title to become the #1 fighter domestically (and only behind Carl Froch in terms of Top British fighters in the division). Groves would defend both titles once, stopping former British champion Paul Smith in 2 rounds.
Since beating Smith Groves' career has been really disappointing as he's pulled out of a number of fights with various injuries. Amongst those bouts that he has pulled out of was a rematch with Kenny Anderson and a world title bout with Robert Stielgltiz. Groves however does look set to return to the ring this coming weekend as he's scheduled to face hard hitting Mexican Francisco Sierra (25-5-1, 22) and if he wins he is expected to fight again in September in Wembley. Against Sierra, Groves will go in as the favourite though he will need to be careful not to be caught by Sierra who has got genuine power and is actually going into this bout on the back of an upset against the previously unbeaten Rogelio Ruvalcaba.
Groves, trained by Adam Booth, is seen by many as a future world champion and at just 24 years old he has got a lot of time to pick up a title, though he does still make mistakes that Booth will need to iron out sooner rather than later.
The video below is thanks to JSFIGHTTV
Showing posts with label British. Show all posts
Showing posts with label British. Show all posts
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Bradley Saunders
Sometimes it's hard to be excited about a debut, especially when you can't be too sure about whether or not the fight will actually take place or not (such as Egviney Tishchenko's recently cancelled debut) this week however we are incredibly excited about Englishman Bradley Saunders who recently decided to turn professional with Frank Warren. Saunders will be making his debut against journeyman Jason Nesbitt (9-139-3-1, 6) on Friday night on Box Nation on the under-card of Kevin Mitchell's fight with Felix Lora.
What makes it easy to get excited about Saunders is know what's behind the former British amateur standout who really has made an impact on the international stage already. Fighting out of the South Durham ABC Saunders won a national title in 2006. The following year Saunders would win bronze medals at both the World Amateur Championships and the European Union Championships. In 2008 Saunders would be part of the brilliant Olympic team Britain took to Beijing (which included James DeGale, Frankie Gavin, Billy Joe Saunders and David Price), although he failed to medal at the games he did make a quick inpression stopping Ghana's Samuel Kotey Neequaye inside a round.
Whilst many of his Olympic team mates decided to turn professional soon afterwards Saunder stuck to the amateur scene though sadly missed out on the 2009 World Amateur Championships due to a hand injury (broken thumb). After that set back Saunders set his eyes towards the 2012 Olympic games in London though since then his plans have changed and instead Saunders has decided to put Olympic aspiration behind him and prepare for a new career as a professional fighter.
Whilst hopes are high for Saunders on Friday night he is facing a born survivour in Nesbitt who has only been stopped 11 times in a 152 and the last of those stoppages came in 2009 against Gary Sykes (who later went on to win the British super featherweight title). A victory for Saunders is expected though a stoppage would be incredibly impressive.
What makes it easy to get excited about Saunders is know what's behind the former British amateur standout who really has made an impact on the international stage already. Fighting out of the South Durham ABC Saunders won a national title in 2006. The following year Saunders would win bronze medals at both the World Amateur Championships and the European Union Championships. In 2008 Saunders would be part of the brilliant Olympic team Britain took to Beijing (which included James DeGale, Frankie Gavin, Billy Joe Saunders and David Price), although he failed to medal at the games he did make a quick inpression stopping Ghana's Samuel Kotey Neequaye inside a round.
Whilst many of his Olympic team mates decided to turn professional soon afterwards Saunder stuck to the amateur scene though sadly missed out on the 2009 World Amateur Championships due to a hand injury (broken thumb). After that set back Saunders set his eyes towards the 2012 Olympic games in London though since then his plans have changed and instead Saunders has decided to put Olympic aspiration behind him and prepare for a new career as a professional fighter.
Whilst hopes are high for Saunders on Friday night he is facing a born survivour in Nesbitt who has only been stopped 11 times in a 152 and the last of those stoppages came in 2009 against Gary Sykes (who later went on to win the British super featherweight title). A victory for Saunders is expected though a stoppage would be incredibly impressive.
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Boxing Prospects: Where are they now?
Since I started this blog back in March 2011 I have mentioned over 30 fighters so it seems only fitting, before the year ends, to see where the fighters have come since they were mentioned originally in this blog.
Carlos Ivan Velasquez-The biggest disappointment was our first prospect. Carlos hasn't fought in 17 months now after beating the tough Eduardo Arcos back in July 2010. Velasquez was a fighter I was genuinely very excited about though he appears to have just vanished off the face of the planet. The 27 year and his twin brother (Juan Carlos Velazquez, 10-1, 5) have both been MIA despite turning professional together in 2007.
Billy Joe Saunders-The British Olympian has moved on well since we looked at him back in April and has added 4 wins, 3 by KO to move his record to an excellent 11-0 (7). The stand out victory for Billy Joe came against the tough Gary Boulden in a fight for the Southern Area middleweight title, it was the first time Saunders was forced to fight for 10 rounds and he managed to pass the test with out too many struggles as he picked up his first professional title.
Gilberto Ramirez Sanchez-Sanchez was 16-0 (14) when we mentioned him back in April and since then the young Mexican has moved from strength to strength adding 4 more wins (all by KO) to move to 20-0 (18) and has started to get serious attention of boxing fans around the world. Sanchez now holds wins over former title challenger Oney Valdez and the teak tough Samuel Miller, in fact the win over Miller was the first time Miller had been stopped in 29 fights.
Rakhim Chakhkiev-The Cruiserweight division has got the real shot in the arm that it has needed for a while thanks to the real emergence of the Russian bruiser. Chakhkiev was another fighter we mentioned in April who went on to add some solid names to his record. Firstly he beat Harvey Jolly and then he become the first man to stop the veteran Michael Simms. Chakhkiev turns 29 early next year and hopefully his handlers realise it's time to let him off the leash and at the divisions champions.
Gary Russell Jr-What a year the young American has had, he was a promising youngster when we mentioned him in April though he has really built on his record since then. Russell has added 5 wins to his record since we mentioned him and moved to 19-0 (11) in impressive fashion. Most recently Russell viciously KO'd Heriberto Ruiz in a single destructive round. Although Boxnation's Steve Lillis seemed to feel that Russell's hype had been created by "youtube clips" even he seemed impressed after the victory over Ruiz.
Karl Place-Manchester's young Light Welterweight prospect is one of the very few fighters that we've mentioned that have lost this year. Place had a very busy year since we mentioned him in April and sadly suffered a huge upset loss at the hands of Steve Williams just over a week ago. Place's record currently stands at 15-1 (8) though the loss should really be a sign that the 23 year old needs to move up a division as making 140 must weaken the 5'11" fighter.
Tomas Dulorme-We mentioned just 8 days before he impressive blew out Harrison Cuello in 2 rounds on the undercard of Martinez v Dzinziruk. Since then Dulorme has had the development fights that we called for and looked very impressive in out pointing the tough and experienced DeMarcus Corley dropping "Chop chop" and dominating the fight to claim the NABA USA welterweight title. Dulorme has defended his title once when he widely outpointed former title challenger Charlie Jose Navarro. Dulorme is now 13-0 (10) and is one of the hottest Welterweight Prospects in the world today.
Carlos Negron-Negron was the only other fighter we mentioned that lost (along with Place). Negron's loss to former Light Middleweight Epifanio Mendoza was a huge shock and upset and saw Negron fall to 13-1 (9). Sadly it's left massive doubt over Negron's future and it could lead to a very long journey to rebuild the gigantic (6'6") 23 year old. Not only will Negron's confidence be shattered but long term questions about his durability will linger for years, if he returns to the ring.
Jamie Kavanagh-The Irish born prospect who is now trained by Freddie Roach started the year well and when we covered him in April he was 5-0 (2) and about to make his UK debut. Whilst Kavanagh won his UK debut (out pointing Sid Razak) he has recently suffered the first blemish on his record as he struggled to a draw with difficult Ramesis Gil on the undercard of Khan v Peterson. The draw with Gil was another case of Freddie Roach's fighter failing to live up to the expectations and may signal that Kavanagh needs to change something.
John Jackson-We looked at the exciting Jackson the eve before his bout with Welson Alves de Oliveira a bout that Jackson dominated en route to a 3rd round TKO. Jackson, the son of the fearsome Julian Jackson currently stands at 11-0 (10) and looks to add to his record when he fights for the WBC Youth Light Middleweight title against the unbeaten Keandre Leatherwood. The fight with Leatherwood takes place next Friday on a very interest card that is headlined by Marco Antonio Rubio v Matt Vanda.
Froilan Saludar-The Filipino puncher was recently featured in a piece looking at the top Pinoy Prospects and is quickly becoming one of the most talked about youngsters in the sport due to his combination of skills, speed and power. Since we mentioned Saludar he has fought twice to move his record to 13-0-1 (10) and was taken into the 10th round for the first time when he beat Gabriel Pumar in a fight for the WBO Asian Pacific Flyweight title. Saludar is expected to fight once more before the end of the year though his opponent is not yet known.
Joe Hanks-At the start of the year I picked Hanks out as the American Heavyweight to watch...it now seems that may not have been the best after all as Seth Mitchell has really made progress whilst Hanks hasn't really moved up. Despite scoring 3 victories since we wrote about him none of them were particularly note worthy, in fact the most noteworthy thing about them was that Hanks couldn't stop Alfredo Escalera Jr in 10 rounds of action. Hanks does look like he could go places but needs to desperately step up before Mitchell leaves him in his shadow.
Marco Antonio Periban-The Mexican Super Middleweight prospect is now 15-0 (10) and is amongst a number of quickly emerging fighters in one of boxing's most exciting divisions. Periban has added 3 wins since we covered him back in April and whilst they weren't amazing opponents he did deal with solid journeymen very well. Whilst Periban is inexperienced as a professional it is time he stepped up and perhaps looked for a fight with someone like Edison Miranda sometime next year, we know Miranda can bang but he can be hurt, it would test Periban's toughness, skill and his own power.
Kubrat Pulev-The former elite amateur seemed to be on the fast track to a world title fight after a number of notable wins but now the Bulgarian heavyweight is perhaps going to be put on a somewhat slower path. At 14-0 (6) he has a solid record and does hold some decent wins, though his recent fight with Travis Walker told us things. The first thing we learned about Pulev was that he didn't hit particularly hard as he landed a huge number of clean shots on Walker, the second was that he could be hurt as he was shaken by Walker a number of times, but maybe the most worrying is he doesn't have that extra gear that he needs if he wishes to make a dent on a Klitschko.
Sylvester Lopez-Lopez is one of the most under-rated Filipino's in the sport today and arguably the most forgotten due to the fact he currently has 3 losses on his record, but the 5 year pro is really coming good. When we mentioned him he was 15-3-1 and since then he has added 3 more wins, all by KO to move to a much more impressive 18-3-1 (14) including a notable victory over Oscar Ibarra for the WBC Silver Super Flyweight title. Although Lopez fought at Super Bantamweight last time out he could go back to Super Flyweight and have a very interesting fight with WBC champion Suriyan Sor Rungvisai.
Sadam Ali-American Olympian Sadam Ali is still one of the most promising young Americans in the sport though since we wrote about him he has still be kept on a leash. We looked at him prior to his bout with John Revish which he would go on to win by decision though he was rocked big time late in the fight. Ali has only scored 1 other win since we covered him and it was a win over a low level opponent in a bout that really shouldn't be taken too seriously for Ali. We all want Ali to step up a level though it seems like his management want to hold him down for a bit longer which is starting to get really annoying as a fan of the 14-0 (8) Light Welterweight.
Daniel Rosas-Mexican "Bad boy" Rosas was very nearly "our" first world champion when he fought just a few months back against Jose Cabrera for the interim WBO Super Flyweight title, that bout ended in a split decision draw. With a record of 12-0-1 (9) the 22 year old Mexican is still a fighter we strongly tip for the top and he's not having easy fights. Hopefully the the WBO will order a rematch between Cabrera and Rosas as it was an interesting bout and it'd be good to see one of the two Mexican youngsters getting some wider recognition.
Robert Manzanarez-16 year old Manzanarez is slowly maturing into a bigger, stronger and better fighter than he was when he turned professional back March 2010 as a 15 year old. Although still incredibly young (he turns 17 on December 17th) he is running up a long record of wins against gradually improving opposition. We first looked at Manzanarez back when his record read 10-0 (7), he has since added 5 more wins and moved to 15-0 (8) with his best win to date coming in 38 seconds against the experienced can Alfredo Montano. Although he has 15 fights and 37 rounds under his belt I still think it'll be a very long time before we see him in with anyone of any note at all, hopefully he'll have matured somewhat by then as he's definitely growing and has gone from being a Flyweight 15 months ago to a Featherweight in his most recent bout just a few months ago.
Carlos Buitrago-The Nicaraguan prospect who turns 20 in just a few days has run up 3 wins since we first looked at him and has moved to 21-0-0-1 (14) with a notable decision win over former world title challenger Carlos Melo just a few days ago. Melo is a good step up from the fighters that Buitrago had been fighting and will hopefully signal the start of the youngster rise through credible fighters. I'd be shocked it Buitrago doesn't break into the WBC's top 40 next year and perhaps angles for a title fight during 2013.
Leroy Estrada-The young Panamanian has moved to 6-0 (2) since we first looked at him, though has certainly not had everything his own way. In his last fight Estrada was dropped by Mercedes Concepcion before struggling to get a majority decision. Whilst that should be a character building fight for the 17 year old, it should be noted that Concepcion was picked in part due to losing his previous 2 bouts. Estrada, a minimumweight, may end up being wrapped in cotton wool for the next year or two following this close shave.
Oscar Cortes-The 18 year old Mexican Lightweight/Super Featherweight prospect was looked at back in May when he was 14-0 (8) and since then he has moved to 18-0 (11) and won the WBC Youth Intercontinental Lightweight title. Cortes' most impressive victory to date is a 9th round TKO over Manuel Aguilar back in September. Hopefully Cortes will build on a good year and try to force himself into the WBC's rankings over the next 12 months at either Super Featherweight or at Lightweight.
Leo Santa Cruz-We looked at Santa Cruz just prior to his fight with Jose Lopez which Santa Cruz won impressively via a 5th round KO (becoming the first man to stop Lopez) and then Santa Cruz stopped the tough former title contender Everth Briceno in 11 rounds. Whilst not a concussive puncher Santa Cruz is slowly developing a really nasty streak and throws punches to hurt opponents. With a record of 18-0-1 (10) Santa Cruz is really emerging as a serious threat at Bantamweight. He is currently ranked #15 in the world by the WBC at Bantamweight and is already making a real mark on the division.
Oliver Flores-Flores has had an interesting time since we originally wrote about him. Firstly he scored a controversial majority draw (the dissenting judge had Flores as a clear winner) against Abraham Rodriguez and then he stopped a novice as he advanced his record to 22-0-2 (16). Flores seems to be settling into the Super Featherweight division but the draw with Rodriguez appears to have taken some momentum from his career. Despite having just turned 20 Flores has amassed 110 rounds already and has gone 10 rounds on 3 occasions now which, if nothing else, is interesting.
Andrzej Wawrzyk-Polish Heavyweight prospect Wawrzyk has been one of the more under-the-radar heavyweight prospects and hasn't had the hype of countryman Artur Szpilka despite growing his record pretty carefully. Wawrzyk has scored 3 straight T/KO wins since we looked at him with the most recent of those coming against Nelson Dario Dominguez in just 2 rounds. Wawrzyk currently holds 2 regional belts though he really should be stepping up and perhaps starting to mix with solid European level fighters during 2012.
Wale Omotoso-The exciting Welterweight prospect has really started to make his mark on boxing fans thanks to two very entertaining fights in the US in recent months. The heavily built and aggressively minded Omotoso marked his US debut with a round of the year contender against Calvin Odom and then he followed it up with a very entertaining bout with Lanardo Tyner in November. Although the 20-0 (17) prospect is wild and can be caught he does promise excitement every time he steps between the ropes and could be one of the most fun to watch fighters out there today.
Andrzej Fonfara-The second Polish fighter that we looked at was Light Heavyweight prospect Fonfara who is 19-2-0-1 (10). The 24 year old from Warsaw (though now based in Chicago) has only fought once since we looked at him where he stopped Jose Spearman in 2 rounds. There really isn't much to report on Fonfara other than his fan-base in Chicago is growing nicely.
Richard Towers-As with many of the recent additions to the blog Towers has fought only once, stopping Yuri Bihoutseu in the 3rd round. The most interesting thing to happen regarding towers since we wrote about him is the strong rumour that he may be facing Tyson Fury early in 2012 in a very interesting all English heavyweight bout for the Commonwealth and British titles. A meeting of the two behemoths would be immensely interesting and it would be a rare fight where neither man would be towering over his opponent.
Grzegorz Proksa-The 27 year old Proksa burst onto the scene back in October and caught us out when he completely destroyed former world champion Sebastian Sylvester in one of the real break out fights of the year. Rather embarrassingly Proksa's arrival actually caught us off guard and so we have little to actually report on the exciting Polish Middleweight, though rumours are circulating that he will be facing former world champion Sebastian Zbik some time in 2012 in a fight that should see Proksa further his standing in one of the hottest divisions in the sport.
Yoshihiro Kamegai-The exciting Japanese Welterweight was mentioned at the start of this month, just prior to his bout with Eusebio Baluarte. The talented and hard hitting 29 year old from Tokoyo has had an excellent year with a fantastic US debut where he stopped Hector Munoz and looked sensation. Although he will almost certainly have to travel to the US again for a major fight at the weight he has impressed and could very easily find himself on the under-card of a Top Rank or Golden Boy show to build his US profile. Sadly for Kamegai he probably only 1 or 2 years to make his move and even then the division does have a lot of emerging talent so he maybe too late.
Eleider Alvarez-The hard punching Colombian Light Heavyweight prospect is the most recent fight that we've mentioned that has fought since we wrote about him. The Canadian based 27 year fought in his biggest fight to date when he faced Emiliano Cayetano in a bout for the WBO NABO Light Heavyweight title on the under-card of David Lemieux v Joachim Alcine. Alvarez's win is likely to force him into the WBO's rankings (which amazingly don't include Ismayl Sillakh). Alvarez is being tracked by Groupe Yvon Michel and his stoppage of Cayetano in the opening round will only see them speed things up.
We have covered 3 other fights but sadly none of them have fought since we mentioned them in recent weeks. Hopefully be the end of 2012 we'll be looking at some of these fighters as world champions.
Carlos Ivan Velasquez-The biggest disappointment was our first prospect. Carlos hasn't fought in 17 months now after beating the tough Eduardo Arcos back in July 2010. Velasquez was a fighter I was genuinely very excited about though he appears to have just vanished off the face of the planet. The 27 year and his twin brother (Juan Carlos Velazquez, 10-1, 5) have both been MIA despite turning professional together in 2007.
Billy Joe Saunders-The British Olympian has moved on well since we looked at him back in April and has added 4 wins, 3 by KO to move his record to an excellent 11-0 (7). The stand out victory for Billy Joe came against the tough Gary Boulden in a fight for the Southern Area middleweight title, it was the first time Saunders was forced to fight for 10 rounds and he managed to pass the test with out too many struggles as he picked up his first professional title.
Gilberto Ramirez Sanchez-Sanchez was 16-0 (14) when we mentioned him back in April and since then the young Mexican has moved from strength to strength adding 4 more wins (all by KO) to move to 20-0 (18) and has started to get serious attention of boxing fans around the world. Sanchez now holds wins over former title challenger Oney Valdez and the teak tough Samuel Miller, in fact the win over Miller was the first time Miller had been stopped in 29 fights.
Rakhim Chakhkiev-The Cruiserweight division has got the real shot in the arm that it has needed for a while thanks to the real emergence of the Russian bruiser. Chakhkiev was another fighter we mentioned in April who went on to add some solid names to his record. Firstly he beat Harvey Jolly and then he become the first man to stop the veteran Michael Simms. Chakhkiev turns 29 early next year and hopefully his handlers realise it's time to let him off the leash and at the divisions champions.
Gary Russell Jr-What a year the young American has had, he was a promising youngster when we mentioned him in April though he has really built on his record since then. Russell has added 5 wins to his record since we mentioned him and moved to 19-0 (11) in impressive fashion. Most recently Russell viciously KO'd Heriberto Ruiz in a single destructive round. Although Boxnation's Steve Lillis seemed to feel that Russell's hype had been created by "youtube clips" even he seemed impressed after the victory over Ruiz.
Karl Place-Manchester's young Light Welterweight prospect is one of the very few fighters that we've mentioned that have lost this year. Place had a very busy year since we mentioned him in April and sadly suffered a huge upset loss at the hands of Steve Williams just over a week ago. Place's record currently stands at 15-1 (8) though the loss should really be a sign that the 23 year old needs to move up a division as making 140 must weaken the 5'11" fighter.
Tomas Dulorme-We mentioned just 8 days before he impressive blew out Harrison Cuello in 2 rounds on the undercard of Martinez v Dzinziruk. Since then Dulorme has had the development fights that we called for and looked very impressive in out pointing the tough and experienced DeMarcus Corley dropping "Chop chop" and dominating the fight to claim the NABA USA welterweight title. Dulorme has defended his title once when he widely outpointed former title challenger Charlie Jose Navarro. Dulorme is now 13-0 (10) and is one of the hottest Welterweight Prospects in the world today.
Carlos Negron-Negron was the only other fighter we mentioned that lost (along with Place). Negron's loss to former Light Middleweight Epifanio Mendoza was a huge shock and upset and saw Negron fall to 13-1 (9). Sadly it's left massive doubt over Negron's future and it could lead to a very long journey to rebuild the gigantic (6'6") 23 year old. Not only will Negron's confidence be shattered but long term questions about his durability will linger for years, if he returns to the ring.
Jamie Kavanagh-The Irish born prospect who is now trained by Freddie Roach started the year well and when we covered him in April he was 5-0 (2) and about to make his UK debut. Whilst Kavanagh won his UK debut (out pointing Sid Razak) he has recently suffered the first blemish on his record as he struggled to a draw with difficult Ramesis Gil on the undercard of Khan v Peterson. The draw with Gil was another case of Freddie Roach's fighter failing to live up to the expectations and may signal that Kavanagh needs to change something.
John Jackson-We looked at the exciting Jackson the eve before his bout with Welson Alves de Oliveira a bout that Jackson dominated en route to a 3rd round TKO. Jackson, the son of the fearsome Julian Jackson currently stands at 11-0 (10) and looks to add to his record when he fights for the WBC Youth Light Middleweight title against the unbeaten Keandre Leatherwood. The fight with Leatherwood takes place next Friday on a very interest card that is headlined by Marco Antonio Rubio v Matt Vanda.
Froilan Saludar-The Filipino puncher was recently featured in a piece looking at the top Pinoy Prospects and is quickly becoming one of the most talked about youngsters in the sport due to his combination of skills, speed and power. Since we mentioned Saludar he has fought twice to move his record to 13-0-1 (10) and was taken into the 10th round for the first time when he beat Gabriel Pumar in a fight for the WBO Asian Pacific Flyweight title. Saludar is expected to fight once more before the end of the year though his opponent is not yet known.
Joe Hanks-At the start of the year I picked Hanks out as the American Heavyweight to watch...it now seems that may not have been the best after all as Seth Mitchell has really made progress whilst Hanks hasn't really moved up. Despite scoring 3 victories since we wrote about him none of them were particularly note worthy, in fact the most noteworthy thing about them was that Hanks couldn't stop Alfredo Escalera Jr in 10 rounds of action. Hanks does look like he could go places but needs to desperately step up before Mitchell leaves him in his shadow.
Marco Antonio Periban-The Mexican Super Middleweight prospect is now 15-0 (10) and is amongst a number of quickly emerging fighters in one of boxing's most exciting divisions. Periban has added 3 wins since we covered him back in April and whilst they weren't amazing opponents he did deal with solid journeymen very well. Whilst Periban is inexperienced as a professional it is time he stepped up and perhaps looked for a fight with someone like Edison Miranda sometime next year, we know Miranda can bang but he can be hurt, it would test Periban's toughness, skill and his own power.
Kubrat Pulev-The former elite amateur seemed to be on the fast track to a world title fight after a number of notable wins but now the Bulgarian heavyweight is perhaps going to be put on a somewhat slower path. At 14-0 (6) he has a solid record and does hold some decent wins, though his recent fight with Travis Walker told us things. The first thing we learned about Pulev was that he didn't hit particularly hard as he landed a huge number of clean shots on Walker, the second was that he could be hurt as he was shaken by Walker a number of times, but maybe the most worrying is he doesn't have that extra gear that he needs if he wishes to make a dent on a Klitschko.
Sylvester Lopez-Lopez is one of the most under-rated Filipino's in the sport today and arguably the most forgotten due to the fact he currently has 3 losses on his record, but the 5 year pro is really coming good. When we mentioned him he was 15-3-1 and since then he has added 3 more wins, all by KO to move to a much more impressive 18-3-1 (14) including a notable victory over Oscar Ibarra for the WBC Silver Super Flyweight title. Although Lopez fought at Super Bantamweight last time out he could go back to Super Flyweight and have a very interesting fight with WBC champion Suriyan Sor Rungvisai.
Sadam Ali-American Olympian Sadam Ali is still one of the most promising young Americans in the sport though since we wrote about him he has still be kept on a leash. We looked at him prior to his bout with John Revish which he would go on to win by decision though he was rocked big time late in the fight. Ali has only scored 1 other win since we covered him and it was a win over a low level opponent in a bout that really shouldn't be taken too seriously for Ali. We all want Ali to step up a level though it seems like his management want to hold him down for a bit longer which is starting to get really annoying as a fan of the 14-0 (8) Light Welterweight.
Daniel Rosas-Mexican "Bad boy" Rosas was very nearly "our" first world champion when he fought just a few months back against Jose Cabrera for the interim WBO Super Flyweight title, that bout ended in a split decision draw. With a record of 12-0-1 (9) the 22 year old Mexican is still a fighter we strongly tip for the top and he's not having easy fights. Hopefully the the WBO will order a rematch between Cabrera and Rosas as it was an interesting bout and it'd be good to see one of the two Mexican youngsters getting some wider recognition.
Robert Manzanarez-16 year old Manzanarez is slowly maturing into a bigger, stronger and better fighter than he was when he turned professional back March 2010 as a 15 year old. Although still incredibly young (he turns 17 on December 17th) he is running up a long record of wins against gradually improving opposition. We first looked at Manzanarez back when his record read 10-0 (7), he has since added 5 more wins and moved to 15-0 (8) with his best win to date coming in 38 seconds against the experienced can Alfredo Montano. Although he has 15 fights and 37 rounds under his belt I still think it'll be a very long time before we see him in with anyone of any note at all, hopefully he'll have matured somewhat by then as he's definitely growing and has gone from being a Flyweight 15 months ago to a Featherweight in his most recent bout just a few months ago.
Carlos Buitrago-The Nicaraguan prospect who turns 20 in just a few days has run up 3 wins since we first looked at him and has moved to 21-0-0-1 (14) with a notable decision win over former world title challenger Carlos Melo just a few days ago. Melo is a good step up from the fighters that Buitrago had been fighting and will hopefully signal the start of the youngster rise through credible fighters. I'd be shocked it Buitrago doesn't break into the WBC's top 40 next year and perhaps angles for a title fight during 2013.
Leroy Estrada-The young Panamanian has moved to 6-0 (2) since we first looked at him, though has certainly not had everything his own way. In his last fight Estrada was dropped by Mercedes Concepcion before struggling to get a majority decision. Whilst that should be a character building fight for the 17 year old, it should be noted that Concepcion was picked in part due to losing his previous 2 bouts. Estrada, a minimumweight, may end up being wrapped in cotton wool for the next year or two following this close shave.
Oscar Cortes-The 18 year old Mexican Lightweight/Super Featherweight prospect was looked at back in May when he was 14-0 (8) and since then he has moved to 18-0 (11) and won the WBC Youth Intercontinental Lightweight title. Cortes' most impressive victory to date is a 9th round TKO over Manuel Aguilar back in September. Hopefully Cortes will build on a good year and try to force himself into the WBC's rankings over the next 12 months at either Super Featherweight or at Lightweight.
Leo Santa Cruz-We looked at Santa Cruz just prior to his fight with Jose Lopez which Santa Cruz won impressively via a 5th round KO (becoming the first man to stop Lopez) and then Santa Cruz stopped the tough former title contender Everth Briceno in 11 rounds. Whilst not a concussive puncher Santa Cruz is slowly developing a really nasty streak and throws punches to hurt opponents. With a record of 18-0-1 (10) Santa Cruz is really emerging as a serious threat at Bantamweight. He is currently ranked #15 in the world by the WBC at Bantamweight and is already making a real mark on the division.
Oliver Flores-Flores has had an interesting time since we originally wrote about him. Firstly he scored a controversial majority draw (the dissenting judge had Flores as a clear winner) against Abraham Rodriguez and then he stopped a novice as he advanced his record to 22-0-2 (16). Flores seems to be settling into the Super Featherweight division but the draw with Rodriguez appears to have taken some momentum from his career. Despite having just turned 20 Flores has amassed 110 rounds already and has gone 10 rounds on 3 occasions now which, if nothing else, is interesting.
Andrzej Wawrzyk-Polish Heavyweight prospect Wawrzyk has been one of the more under-the-radar heavyweight prospects and hasn't had the hype of countryman Artur Szpilka despite growing his record pretty carefully. Wawrzyk has scored 3 straight T/KO wins since we looked at him with the most recent of those coming against Nelson Dario Dominguez in just 2 rounds. Wawrzyk currently holds 2 regional belts though he really should be stepping up and perhaps starting to mix with solid European level fighters during 2012.
Wale Omotoso-The exciting Welterweight prospect has really started to make his mark on boxing fans thanks to two very entertaining fights in the US in recent months. The heavily built and aggressively minded Omotoso marked his US debut with a round of the year contender against Calvin Odom and then he followed it up with a very entertaining bout with Lanardo Tyner in November. Although the 20-0 (17) prospect is wild and can be caught he does promise excitement every time he steps between the ropes and could be one of the most fun to watch fighters out there today.
Andrzej Fonfara-The second Polish fighter that we looked at was Light Heavyweight prospect Fonfara who is 19-2-0-1 (10). The 24 year old from Warsaw (though now based in Chicago) has only fought once since we looked at him where he stopped Jose Spearman in 2 rounds. There really isn't much to report on Fonfara other than his fan-base in Chicago is growing nicely.
Richard Towers-As with many of the recent additions to the blog Towers has fought only once, stopping Yuri Bihoutseu in the 3rd round. The most interesting thing to happen regarding towers since we wrote about him is the strong rumour that he may be facing Tyson Fury early in 2012 in a very interesting all English heavyweight bout for the Commonwealth and British titles. A meeting of the two behemoths would be immensely interesting and it would be a rare fight where neither man would be towering over his opponent.
Grzegorz Proksa-The 27 year old Proksa burst onto the scene back in October and caught us out when he completely destroyed former world champion Sebastian Sylvester in one of the real break out fights of the year. Rather embarrassingly Proksa's arrival actually caught us off guard and so we have little to actually report on the exciting Polish Middleweight, though rumours are circulating that he will be facing former world champion Sebastian Zbik some time in 2012 in a fight that should see Proksa further his standing in one of the hottest divisions in the sport.
Yoshihiro Kamegai-The exciting Japanese Welterweight was mentioned at the start of this month, just prior to his bout with Eusebio Baluarte. The talented and hard hitting 29 year old from Tokoyo has had an excellent year with a fantastic US debut where he stopped Hector Munoz and looked sensation. Although he will almost certainly have to travel to the US again for a major fight at the weight he has impressed and could very easily find himself on the under-card of a Top Rank or Golden Boy show to build his US profile. Sadly for Kamegai he probably only 1 or 2 years to make his move and even then the division does have a lot of emerging talent so he maybe too late.
Eleider Alvarez-The hard punching Colombian Light Heavyweight prospect is the most recent fight that we've mentioned that has fought since we wrote about him. The Canadian based 27 year fought in his biggest fight to date when he faced Emiliano Cayetano in a bout for the WBO NABO Light Heavyweight title on the under-card of David Lemieux v Joachim Alcine. Alvarez's win is likely to force him into the WBO's rankings (which amazingly don't include Ismayl Sillakh). Alvarez is being tracked by Groupe Yvon Michel and his stoppage of Cayetano in the opening round will only see them speed things up.
We have covered 3 other fights but sadly none of them have fought since we mentioned them in recent weeks. Hopefully be the end of 2012 we'll be looking at some of these fighters as world champions.
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Richard Towers
The heavyweight scene in Britain seems to be rather interesting at the moment, in fact with David Haye mixing it with the world elite, Michael Sprott mixing it with the elite of Europe and a number of exciting prospects coming through Brits have a lot to be excited about. It's odd however that the Best British prospects are all incredibly tall, you have both David Price and Tyson Fury both around 6'8" or 6'9" and then you also have the very interesting Richard Towers who is also 6'8" and lacks hype of the other two men.
Towers, known as the Inferno, is much older than his other British giants at 32 years old and as a result has gone a bit under the radar though talent wise he is well ahead of the other two and has the skills and speed to match his impressive physical presence.
Like a number of notable boxers Tower's (real name Hayles) hasn't always been on the right side of the law, in fact Towers was sentenced to 13 in prison (serving over 6 of them) for kidnap and had had a number of other runs ins with the law as a teenager. Since then however Towers has turned his life around remarkably and matured from being somewhat thuggish into becoming a real model of a person by warning kids off the slippery slope he was once on as well as becoming a real force in the boxing ring.
Towers would make his professional boxing debut after prison and was aged 30 at the time, an advanced age for anyone to start their career, though Towers has gone quietly and efficiently about his new job since 2009. In his debut he defeated the experienced Chris Woollas by decision and did the same over Howard Daley the following month before going on an 8 fight KO streak as the impressive physical specimen showed he had the skill to go with the size.
Although 2010 was a bit of a wasted year in terms of actual action (Towers fought just twice for a combined 3 rounds) 2011 has seen Towers get back on track with 3 fights already and another coming up at the weekend. The most recent of those fights was against Belgian tough-man Ismail Abdoul who took Towers 8 rounds, with Towers pitching a shut out on the referees card.
Towers, currently at 11-0 (8) faces unbeaten Belorussian Yuri Bihoutseu (5-0-1, 5) this coming Saturday at the Ponds Forge Arena in his home city of Sheffield on the undercard of the televised SKY Sports card that also features Gary Buckland v Gary Sykes (British Super Featherweight title fight) and Rendall Munroe v Ryuta Miyagi. I expect Towers to be impressive in defeating the unbeaten power puncher personally, though hopefully Sky will show the highlights.
Towers has both the Ingle gym and Hatton Promotions behind him which are sure to help get the best from him and despite his age he may well be the best bet from the British giants.
Thanks to sheffieldhistory for the video above.
Towers, known as the Inferno, is much older than his other British giants at 32 years old and as a result has gone a bit under the radar though talent wise he is well ahead of the other two and has the skills and speed to match his impressive physical presence.
Like a number of notable boxers Tower's (real name Hayles) hasn't always been on the right side of the law, in fact Towers was sentenced to 13 in prison (serving over 6 of them) for kidnap and had had a number of other runs ins with the law as a teenager. Since then however Towers has turned his life around remarkably and matured from being somewhat thuggish into becoming a real model of a person by warning kids off the slippery slope he was once on as well as becoming a real force in the boxing ring.
Towers would make his professional boxing debut after prison and was aged 30 at the time, an advanced age for anyone to start their career, though Towers has gone quietly and efficiently about his new job since 2009. In his debut he defeated the experienced Chris Woollas by decision and did the same over Howard Daley the following month before going on an 8 fight KO streak as the impressive physical specimen showed he had the skill to go with the size.
Although 2010 was a bit of a wasted year in terms of actual action (Towers fought just twice for a combined 3 rounds) 2011 has seen Towers get back on track with 3 fights already and another coming up at the weekend. The most recent of those fights was against Belgian tough-man Ismail Abdoul who took Towers 8 rounds, with Towers pitching a shut out on the referees card.
Towers, currently at 11-0 (8) faces unbeaten Belorussian Yuri Bihoutseu (5-0-1, 5) this coming Saturday at the Ponds Forge Arena in his home city of Sheffield on the undercard of the televised SKY Sports card that also features Gary Buckland v Gary Sykes (British Super Featherweight title fight) and Rendall Munroe v Ryuta Miyagi. I expect Towers to be impressive in defeating the unbeaten power puncher personally, though hopefully Sky will show the highlights.
Towers has both the Ingle gym and Hatton Promotions behind him which are sure to help get the best from him and despite his age he may well be the best bet from the British giants.
Thanks to sheffieldhistory for the video above.
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.
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.
Friday, 1 April 2011
Billy Joe Saunders
As well looking at 1 international prospect every week (this week was was of course Carlos Ivan Velasquez) we'll also try to look at 1 UK based prospect, or at very least a fighter fighting the same week as the blog. The weeks second fighter is British youngster Billy Joe Saunders. Saunders, one of Britain's 2008 Olympic team is one of the countries forgotten Olympians, he's been over shadowed by most of the others such as James DeGale and Tony Jeffries, yet has just as much long term promise as anyone.
Saunders is 21 and was the baby of the Olympic team going as just a teenager. Despite being knocked out in the 2nd round by the Cuban Carlos Banteaux (the eventual silver medal winner). As an amateur he had an impressive record, apparently winning his first 49 fights as a senior including all his fights at the 2007 Commonwealth Boxing Championships. Soon after the Olympics he would sign a professional contract with British boxing supremo Frank Warren and start his rise through the professional ranks.
Upon turning professional it didn't take Saunders long to make an impact. He needed less than 2 rounds to stop Hungarian Attila Molnar in show that also saw James DeGale and Frankie Gavin debut. Since then Saunders has racked up an impressive 7-0 (4) record and looked like an ever maturing fighter. Unlike many former amateurs Saunders isn't the type to be overly patient looking for single shots but has a very complete professional “style” based around aggression, coming forward and looking for the stoppage whether he gets it or not. With his youthful energy he looks exciting coming forward and throwing punches though we all know fine well that he has the technical skills to fall back on and box with if he needs to.
As a professional he has fought 24 rounds already in his career with distance fights against the likes of the tough Alex Spitko, the experienced Lee Noble (who had only been stopped once) and Andy Butlin. Billy Joe has looked impressive and a little hot headed, which at times has added a little bit more excitement and spite to the fight. Although he's still a youngster in terms of being a professional fighter he's shown he's not scared of older men and instead wants them to respect him as he beats them down. A side of him that is brilliant for a fighter.
Like Tyson Fury, Saunders is from travelling stock and has the fighting blood running through his veins. His father was an amateur whilst his mothers grandfather was the great Absolom Beeney, a legendary bare knuckle fighter. With this sort of pedigree and his Romany gypsy blood there should be no worries about Saunders knowing how to handle himself when the going gets tough. He'll have been brought up in a tough environment and often looks much older than his actual age. Amazingly as a fighter he's also been a traveller, each of his 7 fights have taken place in different areas, although 2 were in London, he's also fought in Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Belfast and Birmingham.
Saunders fights against 52 fight veteran Turgay Uzun from Turkey on the undercard of John Murray's fight with Karim El Ouazghari. Saunders is facing a tough hard punching fighter who has only been stopped twice and holds 22 KO's in 35 wins. Though Uzun should be a relatively safe test as he is a substantially smaller man and was making Welterweight last year when he took on World title challenger Rafal Jackiewicz (and went the 8 round distance). A win is expected of Saunders though a genuine stoppage win will be very impressive.
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