A couple of months ago one of "our" fighters (Daniel "Bad Boy" Rosas) fought for the interim WBO Super Flyweight title and scored a draw with Jose Cabrera. Now we've heard that another of our fighters Andrzej Fonafara (or Andrew if you want to Anglicanise it) is about to fight for a title in early 2012 when he faces WBO Light Heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly.
The Chicago based Pole who's record currently stands at 19-1-0-1 (10) is on an unbeaten run since being stopped in the second round by Derrick Findley back in 2008 and has actually strung together an impressive 7 straight KO victories since that loss as he's moved from a Middleweight to a genuine Light Heavyweight. Sadly for Fonfara his best wins have been against relatively poor opponents and it's hard to really say just how good he is from stopping the likes of Jose Spearman and Anthony Russell.
Currently Boxrec have Fonfara scheduled to fight the hard punching Phil Williams on December 16th, odds are that fight is about to be cancelled and the Cleverly fight is about to confirmed for February 25th. Whilst on paper it looks like a mismatch with Cleverly a consensus top 10 it should be noted that Fonfara is thought highly of by Polish boxing fans and hs been looking better since he moved up to Light Heavyweight than he had previously. It should also be noted than Nathan Cleverly really struggled with Tony Bellew another fighter that Cleverly was expected to dispose of with relative ease. Though even with all this in mind it's hard to imagine Cleverly losing.
Despite being 19-2-0-1 (10) overall Fonfara is an impressive 7-0 (7) at Light Heavyweight and will be looking to move to 8-0 (8) when he travels to Cardiff next year though he will be regarded as a large under-dog.
Below we can see Fonfara v Spearman, video thanks to poltvchicago
Showing posts with label Light Heavyeight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Light Heavyeight. Show all posts
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Friday, 9 December 2011
Eleider Alvarez
At the moment the Colombian boxing scene is on a real high. Not only does the country have a number of top 10 ranked fighters such as Yonnhy Perez, Darley Perez and Jesus Geles but it also has a huge amount of very exciting emerging prospects. In fact Colombia has so many top prospects that it's hard to really pin point one as being the best, however it seems as if Eleider Alvarez, the 27 year old Light Heavyweight, may be one of the ones on a real fast track to the top.
Alvarez was formerly a world level amateur and had won medals at the Pan Am games and the South American games and even appeared in the 2008 Olympics (where he was defeated by Tony Jeffries). A year after the Olympics Alvarez turned professional and blew away the experienced Jesse Sanders inside a round and then ran up 2 more quick wins before the end of 2009 all against experienced fighters.
Sadly after moving his record to 3-0 (2) Alvarez vanished for a year and didn't fight at all in 2010. Any early momentum he had seemed to vanish and the hard core boxing fans who had followed him early on had all but forgotten about him prior to his return in April 2011 when he stopped experienced Mexican Ernesto Zamora in 3 rounds. Just weeks later Alvarez would make up for lost time by defeating David Whittom by 4 round decision and then add the scalp of Michael Walchuk to his record to move to 6-0 (4).
On this coming Saturday Alvarez fights in his first title fight when he faces Emiliano Cayetano for the WBO NABO Light Heavyweight title. This will easily be the toughest fight of Alvarez's short career and a big chance for him to claim a place in the rankings. Also on the card, promoted by Groupe Yvon Michel are highly rated Canadian Middleweight David Lemiux and Alvarez's countryman Oscar "Kaboom" Rivas.
Video thanks to 14caratboxing
Alvarez was formerly a world level amateur and had won medals at the Pan Am games and the South American games and even appeared in the 2008 Olympics (where he was defeated by Tony Jeffries). A year after the Olympics Alvarez turned professional and blew away the experienced Jesse Sanders inside a round and then ran up 2 more quick wins before the end of 2009 all against experienced fighters.
Sadly after moving his record to 3-0 (2) Alvarez vanished for a year and didn't fight at all in 2010. Any early momentum he had seemed to vanish and the hard core boxing fans who had followed him early on had all but forgotten about him prior to his return in April 2011 when he stopped experienced Mexican Ernesto Zamora in 3 rounds. Just weeks later Alvarez would make up for lost time by defeating David Whittom by 4 round decision and then add the scalp of Michael Walchuk to his record to move to 6-0 (4).
On this coming Saturday Alvarez fights in his first title fight when he faces Emiliano Cayetano for the WBO NABO Light Heavyweight title. This will easily be the toughest fight of Alvarez's short career and a big chance for him to claim a place in the rankings. Also on the card, promoted by Groupe Yvon Michel are highly rated Canadian Middleweight David Lemiux and Alvarez's countryman Oscar "Kaboom" Rivas.
Video thanks to 14caratboxing
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Andrzej Fonfara
When you think of Polish fighters the first names to come to mind are Tomasz Adamek and Andrew Golota, now ever feel free to add another name, Andrzej Fonfara. Fonfara, from Warsaw is currently based in Chicago and the 23 year old has already made a bit of impact in his new home thanks to a devastating KO earlier this year.
Born in late 1987 Fonfara would make his professional debut as just an 18 year old Welterweight defeating Miroslav Kubik in 2006 by majority decision in Poland. This was followed up by 3 more wins (1 by KO) all coming in the US before he suffered his first loss, losing a 5 round decision to Eberto Medina. By now it seemed obvious that Welterweight wasn't a suitable division for the growing 6'2" Pole who was filling out quickly.
After running up 6 straight wins Fonfara would suffer his second loss, this time being stopped by Derrick Findley in 2 rounds whilst fighting as a Middleweight. This loss was shown on ESPN Friday Night fights and perhaps exposed Fonfara as being a weak chinned having been down twice, though the 21 year old Fonfara was possibly drained at the time and Findley has a reputation as having a solid punch.
Since Fonfara's loss to Findley however he's filled out completely and has started to campaign at Light Heavyweight where he seems to have rounded out into a much better fighter and is unbeaten in his last 9 fights with his last 6 fights ending by KO. Though their is a problem with Fonfara and one that he may be slighted for. In 2009 after a 2nd TKO over Skyler Thompson Fonfara tested positive for illegal substance and that fight was turned into a No Contest. Since then however Fonfara hasn't failed a test and did spend 7 months out of action due to the suspension.
Fonfara may not be on the Light Heavyweight world title scene at the moment though he has won the WBC Youth World light heavyweight and the WBO NABO Light Heavyweight titles and he is climbing the rankings. This Friday Fonfara fights the experienced Jose Spearman in Chicago, a win will help establish Fonfara as a credible prospect.
The video below shows Fonfara's victory over Anthony Russell earlier this year (thanks to poltvchicago)
Born in late 1987 Fonfara would make his professional debut as just an 18 year old Welterweight defeating Miroslav Kubik in 2006 by majority decision in Poland. This was followed up by 3 more wins (1 by KO) all coming in the US before he suffered his first loss, losing a 5 round decision to Eberto Medina. By now it seemed obvious that Welterweight wasn't a suitable division for the growing 6'2" Pole who was filling out quickly.
After running up 6 straight wins Fonfara would suffer his second loss, this time being stopped by Derrick Findley in 2 rounds whilst fighting as a Middleweight. This loss was shown on ESPN Friday Night fights and perhaps exposed Fonfara as being a weak chinned having been down twice, though the 21 year old Fonfara was possibly drained at the time and Findley has a reputation as having a solid punch.
Since Fonfara's loss to Findley however he's filled out completely and has started to campaign at Light Heavyweight where he seems to have rounded out into a much better fighter and is unbeaten in his last 9 fights with his last 6 fights ending by KO. Though their is a problem with Fonfara and one that he may be slighted for. In 2009 after a 2nd TKO over Skyler Thompson Fonfara tested positive for illegal substance and that fight was turned into a No Contest. Since then however Fonfara hasn't failed a test and did spend 7 months out of action due to the suspension.
Fonfara may not be on the Light Heavyweight world title scene at the moment though he has won the WBC Youth World light heavyweight and the WBO NABO Light Heavyweight titles and he is climbing the rankings. This Friday Fonfara fights the experienced Jose Spearman in Chicago, a win will help establish Fonfara as a credible prospect.
The video below shows Fonfara's victory over Anthony Russell earlier this year (thanks to poltvchicago)
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