Nicholas Walters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Javier Fortuna

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Andrzej Fonfara gets his world title fight

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

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

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

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

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

Alex Theran

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

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

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

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

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

Boxing Prospects: Where are they now?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eleider Alvarez

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

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

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

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

Video thanks to 14caratboxing

Diego Gabriel Chaves

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna

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

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

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

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

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

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

Video thanks to boxeola1

Yohei Tobe

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

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

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

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

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





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

Yoshihiro Kamegai

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

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

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

Zurdo to be tested tough on Canelo undercard

In the past I've looked at Gilberto "Zurdo" Ramirez Sanchez, the young and emerging Mexican Middleweight who currently holds a perfect record of 19-0 (17). Sanchez has so far faced relatively limited opposition with Rogelio Medina and Oney Valdez standing out as the only credible wins, though on Saturday (on the undercard of Saul "Canelo" Alvarez v Kermit Cintron) he faces a very tough test against the experienced Samuel Miller (24-4, 21).

The 32 year old Miller is currently based out of  La Habra, California (though was born in Arboletes, Colombia) and is one of the most testing fighters out there. Not only does Miller have a solid punch on him, he's also tough having never been stopped. Whilst Miller has lost to world title contenders such as David Lopez and Marco Antonio Rubio he's probably best known for his wild war with Darrell Woods in what was one of 2007's fight of the year contenders.

For Sanchez this is a genuinely tough test against a power punching tough man who is likely to shake Zurdo at least once. If the Mexican 20 year old can get past the tough test of Miller then he'll have further cemented his growing reputation as one of the brightest prospects in Mexico.

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.

Grzegorz Proksa

Grzegorz Proksa, the Polish born British based middleweight alerted the world to his great potential this past weekend by completely dominating former IBF Middleweight champion Sebastian Sylvester. Sylvester refused to come out of his corner after 3 one sided rounds at the hands of the man dubbed "Super G".

Whilst Proksa may no longer be a "prospect" as such he was a fighter who was so alarmingly eye catching that he deserved a place in this blog based on his skill, performance and the way he has managed to remain under-the-radar until the Sylvester fight despite being so ultra talented. The 26 year old was born in Jaworzno, Poland though is now fighting out of Redhill in Surrey (UK) and has already fought all over the world in a career that has somehow not managed to get the attention that he has deserved.

Despite his UK and Polish backgrounds Proksa actually made his professional debut in the USA beating Adam Capo by TKO in the opening round on the undercard of a star studded card that included Jeff Lacy defending his IBF Super Middleweight title against Rubin Williams and Jose Luis Castillo defending the WBC Lightweight title against Julio Diaz. This was way back in 2005. Just months after the victory over Capo Proksa would be back fighting in the US when he would stop Sean Rawley Wilson in 2 rounds. Like on his debut the card was star studded with the infamous first fight between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo headlining (a WBO and WBC Lightweight title unification) with Juan Manuel Marquez defending the IBF and WBA Super Featherweight titles against Victor Polo.

Over the following few years Proksa would begin to fight more regularly in the UK where he picked up both the IBF and WBC youth versions of the middleweight title. Then came a fight in Ireland and Germany and soon after he turned 25 he had added the EBU-EU (European Union) middleweight title to his belt collection. Although this belt was somewhat meaningless Proksa did defend it once, needing to go to Spain to defend it against the well regarded Spaniard Pablo Navascues. Proksa would stop Navascues in 9 rounds to defend his title and score, what was then, his biggest win.

Although people that had seen him live were big on him he was seen as the under-dog when he traveled to the Jahnsportforum in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to face Sylvester. Sylvester was the home town favourite though it seemed straight from the off that the swift, accurate and exciting looking Proksa just simply had far too much for him. Proksa was landing clean accurate shots time and time again, boxing with his hands down low and repeatedly switching stances whilst toying with Sylvester. This was the performance of the night and the performance that saw Proksa become the European middleweight champion in excellent fashion.

Currently 26-0 (19) Proksa has already won fights in the USA, UK, Ireland, Germany and Spain and been featured on cards including the likes of Victor Ortiz, Manny Pacquiao, Jose Luis Castillo, Diego Corrales, Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Manuel Lopez. The way he is fighting at the moment Proksa may be having his name in those sorts of circles, with a fun to watch style, fast hands and surprising power.

Thanks to IGIELI for this video

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.

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)

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.

Andrzej Wawrzyk

This weekend is a really busy one for boxing fans thanks to a number of noteworthy cards, most obviously the huge Don King card in Missouri. Though the prospect I'm interested in here is a young Polish heavyweight who I have tipped for very, very big things. Andrzej Wawrzyk is 23-0 (10) and at 6'5” he's got the size to be a real force as long as he matures true power that I'm sure he will.

As an amateur Wawrzyk was truly an exceptional youngster in the Super heavyweight division where he won the European juniors and reached the quarter finals of the World juniors both in 2006. Unlike many other top juniors though Wawrzyk turned professional early and was just 19 when he turned to the paid ranks in late 2006.

On his debut Wawrzyk defeated the experienced Ervin Slonka over 4 one-sided rounds and just a week later Wawrzyk would score his first stoppage win by defeating Martin Stensky in the 2^nd round. Although Wawrzyk would have his first real problems in his 3^rd fight when he was dropped he'd get up and manage to just nick the win there against Aliaksandr Mazaleu.

Within a year of being a professional the giant Pole had run up a record of 11-0 (6) and early in 2008 Wawrzyk would pick up his first professional title, the Polish heavyweight title by defeating Marcin Najman in 2 rounds. He would soon add the WBC Youth World heavyweight title by stopping Harry Duiven Jr from the Netherlands (a fighter who took Odlanier Solis 8 rounds). He would defend both of those titles against Tomasz Bonin by a wide 10 round decision and has been on a string of wins against journeymen since then. Included in the names on Wawrzyk's record are the likes of Oleksiy Mazykin, Harvey Jolly, Lee Swaby and Paul Butlin.

This coming Saturday the huge Pole faces veteran German Andreas Sidon (36-10-0-1, 30) in what is another learning fight as opposed to a real test for the young heavyweight prospect. Wawryzk is, at 23 years old, one of the young emerging heavyweights who is worth following for the next few years.

Oliver Flores

Tonight prospect hunters get to see one of the young rising stars of the sport if they can make their way to the Palacio de Deporte in Mexico city as Costa Rican based Nicaraguan teenage Oliver Flores (21-0-1, 15) faces his stiffest test.

Flores, currently fighting out of San Jose, Costa Rica is the son of former fighter Roger Benito Flores and it seems, aged just 19, Oscar has out performed his father. Having debuted way back in 2006 just a month after he turned 15 years old Flores has come a long way and is now ranked in the top 70 at Lightweight by both Boxrec and IBO.

Flores started his career with a number of really simple looking wins against fellow inexperienced fighters do what every young protégé in this sport does. It wasn't until he'd had over a dozen fights that Flores would face a fighter with a winning record when he met the 9-0 Gabriel Dorado of Panama. Flores passed the Dorado test and also picked up his first title, the IBF Latino Super Featherweight title.

Since beating Dorado back in May 2009 Flores has run up 6 wins out of his seven fights, it's the one that he didn't win that is of the most interest. In February 2010 he only managed a draw with Santos Medrano (who entered with a record of 5-3). This result has left a lot to be desired and although Flores has managed to run up a number of wins since then it's perhaps a worry for Flores when he steps up, which he does later today when he faces Abraham Rodriguez (23-10-3, 12).

Whilst Rodriguez doesn't have an impressive record it's mostly due to the awful way he started his career where he went 5-6-2 and has since gone 18-4-1 and managed to win a number of regional titles. Although Flores is “supposed” to win Rodriguez will certainly not be a push over in what should be an interesting bout.

A look forward to this weekend

Although this weekend isn't a huge high profile one for our great sport it is a genuinely busy one so rather than spending the next 30 minutes writing about the next prospect we'll be featuring I'll instead just quickly go around everything we have on.

Friday:
Firstly Thomas Dulorme, the Puerto Rican sensation who was featured very early on in this blog attempts to improve his record from 11-0 (10) when he faces grizzled veteran DeMarcus “Chop Chop” Corley. Dulorme, aged 21, is seen as the next big thing from Puerto Rico and shot in to the eyes of boxing fans last time out when he scored a tremendous KO over Harrison Cuello. In Corley we find a fighter who is generally a stubborn opponent and although he's now 37 he's only been stopped 4 times in a 55 fight career. Corley now stands at 37-17-1 (22) and gave Marcos Maidana fits when the two met last year.

Although it would be a huge surprise to see Dulorme lose, this promises to be his first real test and not one that he'll walk through. Corley, although beaten badly by Lucas Martin Matthysse in January, has done the distance with the likes of Maidana, Zab Judah, Randall Bailey, Floyd Mayweather, Junior Witter and Devon Alexander. A stoppage for Dulorme puts him in alongside the likes of Matthysse, Miguel Angel Cotto, Freddy Hernandez and Jose Alfaro (a lesser group group admittedly).

Other prospects in action include Fidel Maldonado Jr (10-0, 9) a Cameron Dunkin managed Lightweight who is facing his toughest test to date when he faces Eddie Ramirez in a Golden Boy Promotions show. Although Maldonado has been dropped as a professional he is still young and a fighter who is improving as he fills out his body. Though the show of the night is the Showtime triple header.

On the Showtime card we are treated to heavy punching Cruiserweight Lateef Kayode (16-0, 14) facing recent world title challenger Matt Godfrey (20-2, 10). This is the main event and sees Kayode step out of the prospect bracket into the contender one though the card has 2 other very interesting bouts which have genuine prospects facing off on it. We have talented Archie Ray Marquez (12-0, 8) facing Art Hovhannesyan (13-0-1, 7) is what promises to be a telling fight more than a major one. The fight likely won't have tremendous fireworks though the winner will find themselves stepping up the rankings. A few weights down exciting power puncher Chris Avalos (18-1, 15) faces Russian Khabir Suleymanov (11-0, 5). Whilst Avalos is expected to win we have seen his flaws in recent bouts with Chris Martin toying with him when the two faced off last year and a talented fighter can take advantage of Avalos' flaws.

Away from the prospect scene we have an interesting WBA Interim title fight down at Flyweight where relatively unknown Jean Piero Perez (18-3-1, 13) faces off against former Light Flyweight interim champion Juan Carlos Revecco (26-1, 15). The bout will be the first defence for Perez who won the title last year by beating Jesus Jimenez, though other than that little is really known about the champion.

Saturday:
Although Friday is packed to the rafters in terms of action, prospects and notable fights. Puerto Rican's seem to be the flavour of the day with Jonathon Gonzalez (13,0, 13) facing off against the tough Richard Gutierrez (26-6-1-1, 16). Gutierrez has only been stopped 3 times in 34 fights though 2 of those have come in his previous 2 fights. On the same card Luis Orlando Del Valle (12-0, 10) faces Vietnamese Dat Nguyen (17-1, 6) in a fight that is genuinely an enthralling contest with both guys looking to establish their own names in the sport.

21 year old Middleweight/Super Middleweight prospect Dominic Wade (11-0, 8) looks to add to his growing reputation by facing off against Juan Astorga (15-6-1, 10) in what could be a short but sweet 6 rounder.

The biggest prospect fight of the weekend however takes place in England and sees Olympic bronze medal winner David Price (10-0, 8) facing off against Tom Dallas (15-0, 11). This heavyweight clash will almost certainly over-shadow the British flyweight title fight between Paul Edwards (8-0, 2) and Chris Edwards (15-14-3, 4). Dallas goes into the bout after an incredibly poor showing with Zack Page whilst Price managed to impressively bang out Raphael Butler inside a round on his last showing, so this will be a fight with Dallas looking for redemption.

Again we have title fights, this time we have two pretty interesting bouts one in Mexico that really is interesting and one in Argentina that I feel will be a little bit one-sided. The Mexican one sees the new WBA Light Middleweight champion Austin “No Doubt” Trout (22-0, 13) defending his title against grizzled veteran David “The Destroyer” Lopez (40-12, 23). Trout starts at a 1/5 favourite though I cannot help but feel that the bookies have gotten this one very, very wrong. Lopez is on a long unbeaten and has been beating a number of top fighters on his route to a world title fight that takes place in Mexico, Lopez's homeland. Trout is in for a very, very difficult time.

The other title fight of the night sees unbeaten Argentinian Omar Andres Narvaez (34-0-2, 19) defending the WBO Super Flyweight title against William Urina (17-1, 14). I love watching Narvaez there is something really appealing about his style and although he lacks power he's a fun one to watch, though this fight really doesn't do anything for me. Narvaez is incredibly talented, a capable fighter who should be mixing it with the best in the division though has found himself in with Urina who isn't really even near to the same level as Narvaez.

Sorry for being “behind” on this blog, I've had a visitor and not really been working as much as I should have for the past 2 weeks.

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 14^th 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 (23^rd) and Thomas Dulorme in early June (10^th). 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.

Leo Santa Cruz

It's great when you see really promising boxing prospects taking their first steps up in the world. This coming Friday night on TeleFutura we get to see one of the most promising young Mexican fighters fight in the biggest test of his career. 22 year old Leo Santa Cruz, 15-0-1 (7), of Lincoln Heights, California (though born in Huetamo, Michoacán de Ocampo, Mexico) faces the experienced Jose Lopez, 39-9-2 (32) of Puerto Rico. Lopez, although now 39, was recently the WBO Super Flyweight champion and has never been stopped in a career that dates back to 1991. Included the names that Lopez has fought are the likes of Fernando Montiel, Juan Alberto Rosas, Marvin Sonsona, Isidro Garcia and Carlos Gabriel Salazar.

For Cruz the fight with Lopez will be a major test of his ability, chin and mental toughness though maybe it's the sort of test a fighter like Cruz will need. So far in a career dating back to October 2006 he has had things relatively his own way, only a draw with Rodrigo Hernandez in Cruz's second fight marks an otherwise perfect record. Up to now the best win on Santa Cruz's 16 fight record is a 5^th round KO over tough and skilled Belgian Stephane Jamoye (20-3) back in March of this year. Other than the win over Jamoye however Cruz lacks any sort of known quality on his record and perhaps needs to beat Lopez to prove he is a contender rather than a pretender.

Although Cruz is not a noted puncher, in fact he only scored 5 KO's in his first 11 bouts, he is a man who seems to be able to hurt other fights and his growing confidence seems to be a telling factor as he has stopped his last 5 fights early, including stopping the previously unstopped Jamoye. A stoppage against Lopez, whilst unlikely, would really prove that Cruz is a fighter to mark down as a future world level competitor. Although he's got a growing reputation for landing painful blows he's a solid enough boxer from a technical stand point to go places and with Golden Boy Promotions behind him there seems to be no reason for him not to be a major contender over the next decade.

Oscar Cortes

Teenage stars seem to be the theme of this blog this week, so lets add one more before the week's out. This time Mexican 17 year old Oscar “Raton” Cortes who fights later today (Friday) in what will be his 15^th fight as a professional in a career that is still in it's infancy.

Oscar Cortes (full name Oscar Oswaldo Cortés Navarro) was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico on June 25^th 1993 and as a young teenage amateur he would win a bronze medal in the National Olympics in 2007. In 2009, soon after his 16^th birthday, he made his professional debut and stopped Geovani Vargas in 2 rounds on a card promoted by HG Boxing. It'd been a good start to his career though it was how he progressed that was going to be the interesting part.

Things weren't immediate for Cortes who had to wait 5 months for his second professional bout though when he returned to the ring he stopped Luis Angel Hernandez in 3 rounds and started to really mature in the ring. Over the proceeding 9 months following the win over Hernandez Cortes would fight 10 times scoring wins in each of those fights, 5 by KO. By the end of 2010 Cortes had climbed to 11-0 (6) and had run up over 40 rounds as a professional. Interestingly by the end of the year he had also inked a deal with Canelo Promotions, the promotional vehicle of the ultra-popular Saul “Canelo” Alvarez who were starting to promote him and put him on their shows.

To start 2011 Cortes would rematch Alejandro Gonzalez (who he beat by decision in December 2010) and manage to score a stoppage in the rematch to improve his record to 12-0 (7) and add to his growing reputation. He's added 2 more wins since that bout to stand at his current record of 14-0 (8) and he's been pencilled in for 2 upcoming dates. The first bout is tonight when he faces his toughest test so far in Armando Mariscal (5-4-2, 2). If he can, as is expected, beat Mariscal he is expected to be on the undercard of Saul Alvarez's title defence against Ryan Rhodes in a scheduled 8 rounder. That card will be by far the biggest that Cortes will have been on and he shares the undercard with Horacio Garcia and Marco Antonio Periban amongst others.

If Cortes can follow the pathway of a fighter like Alvarez he'll be onto very big things, though we've got to hope that he starts to face tougher tests than he has been doing so far. At the moment he has been facing soft touches that have been to help pad his record and get him used to the sport, after 14 fights and 57 professional rounds it's time he starts to face some opponents who will teach him something new before he starts to form bad habits. Currently ranked at #236 with Boxrec at Super Featherweight he seems like he'll be a fully fledged Lightweight by the time he really starts to face solid competition, though should be one to watch for the future.

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 16^th 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

Carlos “Chocorroncito” Buitrago

Often in boxing it can be easy to get caught up in the hype of a prospect before they prove anything. We try not to but often we get drawn in. It's happened with us all, fighters like James Kirkland, Francisco Bojado and Danny Jacobs have promised the world then failed to deliver. It seems like all of Nicaragua is hoping that Carlos “Chocorroncito” Buitrago will turn out to be much more than just hype.

Born in Mangua in December 1991 Buitrago would take up boxing as a young child and was trained early on by Nicaraguan icon Alexis Arguello. In fact Buitrago would be trained by Arguello until the great man's death just a few short years ago. After a reported 165-7, (48) amateur record Buitrago would turn professional and when he was just 16 years old he would make his debut under the Boxeo Prodesa of Nicaragua promotional team.

Buitrago's debut, a 4 round decision victory over fellow debutant Oscar Lopez occurred in May 2008 and by the end of the year Buitrago had built up a record of 8-0 (6). Both Lopez and Ernesto Castillo, his first 2 opponents had managed to survive the 4 round distance before being stopped in rematches as Buitrago would progress nicely at the early stages of his professional career. The following year would see Buitrago building further on his career and record and by the end of 2009 he had amassed an excellent ledger of 13-0 (10). The most impressive thing though, was that Buitrago had shown more than just the skills but also the heart of a fighter having been dropped for the first time in his career before rallying back and stopping Edgar Jimenez. It was the fight with Jimenez that saw some really start to pay attention as Buitrago won his first title, the WBO Youth Minimumweight title.

Buitrago had just turned 18 and won his first title though was already being compared to stable mate Roman Gonzalez, a fighter who was at the time a world champion. He was being lauded over due to his handspeed, jab, and what seemed like natural born skill. He was rising up the computer ranking systems and yet it was 2010 that really saw him rising through the general rankings. He would add 4 more wins in 2010 and be pushed into longer fights, he was forced to go 8 rounds and soon afterwards 9 rounds. During 2010 he would add to his title collection by winning the WBA Fedecentro Minimumweight title, this title helping him gain a world ranking with the WBA. It was whilst defending this title that he would also suffer his first “set back”, a 2 round no contest after a clash of heads with Eddy Castro.

Buitrago has fought just once in 2011 stopping Eddy Castro in 2 rounds to undo-the dirty mark on his record and move to 18-0-0-1 (13). Though perhaps more telling than his record and trinkets are the views of the men he has been sparring with. Both Roman Gonzalez (WBA Light Flyweight and former Minimumweight champion) and Juan Palacios (WBA interim Minimumweight champion) have sparred with Buitrago and said that he's improving, Gonzalez jokingly saying he's moving up a weight before Buitrago beats him up. Sparring with these sorts of top fighters will only see Buitrago improving and with Prodesa behind him he'll almost certainly be moved towards a world title fight in the next few years.

Although only 19 years old Buitrago is ranked extremely highly by all the organisations. He is the WBO #2 , WBA #8, IBF #15 and WBC #22 ranked fighter at Minimumweight. Although the WBO have rated him a little bit too highly the IBF and WBC seem pretty fair, he's around the top 20 in the world and given another few years he should be in and around the title holders on merit, not just the hype that some have given him. The supremely talented fighter who has a technical style with fast hands and movement had started to give his more experienced sparring partners difficulties and yet is still a kid. As he grows the power will come and although questions do still remain over his chin and stamina they are likely to be answered when he steps up. For now though he's one of boxing's true prospects and a fighter we should all keep an eye on.

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 17^th 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 16^th 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

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 5^th 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.

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.