Florida's unbeaten Andre Berto makes the first defence of his WBC welterweight title against Portland veteran Steve Forbes on the Shane Mosley-Ricardo Mayorga undercard in California this Saturday (September 27).
The 25-year-old Berto, a pro less than four years, won the title last time out in June. The belt had been vacated by one Floyd Mayweather Jnr, after his surprise retirement, and Berto took full advantage with a solid seven-round stoppage of Mexican Miguel Angel Rodriguez in Memphis. While Berto still remains relatively untested on the world stage, he is a fine, heavy handed prospect at 22-0 (19). He dropped Rodriguez twice with right hands to force the stoppage. He does pack a wallop.
To Forbes, who once held the WBC super-featherweight title but was always tight at the weight and bulked up to welterweight for a slot on Contender II and carried it well (and still does). He reached the final, where he was outscored by Oklohoma surprise package Grady Brewer, and gave Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya 12 brisk rounds in his last fight in May, conceding a unanimous decision but doing enough to secure this shot. The 31-year-old Forbes is tough cute and clever - he's never been stopped - but it will take more than all that to derail Berto at this stage of the champion's rapidly burgeoning career.
The champion punches out a decision.
Also this Saturday, on a big show in Hamburg, Germany's Firat Arslan defends his WBA cruiserweight title against Panamanian threat and mandatory challenger Guillermo Jones.
Arslan, who looks for all the world like a porn star of the 1970s, complete with perm, moustache et al, won the title with an upset decision over Virgil Hill last November and has since retained with another decision over American Darnell Wilson. He is one of those rare German fighters afforded no protection in his early career and more rounded and hardened for it. Arslan was even thrown in with big-hitting Yorkshireman Mark Hobson in Barnsley back in 2001 and took a bit of a pasting (although he was never in any danger of being stopped) before heads clashed out and Hobson was ruled out with a cut with the fight nearly over. A fortuitous win indeed and nobody in the audience that night could have forseen Arslan's steady improvement over the years but, after a predictable points loss to a Czech in Prague in 2003, the muscular, hardworking, cagey southpaw from Rottweil (growl) has gone unbeaten (five long years). He's won his last 11.
The lean, rangy, dangerous Jones is also on a good run since dropping a disputed 10-round split decision to classy and then unbeaten Steve Cunningham in April 2005 - now the IBF cruiserweight champ. He came back with fine stoppage wins over Kelvin "Koncrete" Davis and Wayne "Big Truck" Braithwaite - destroying them both - to secure his official ranking and ticked over with a couple of more routine wins while awaiting this shot. Jones tends to keep his head down anyway (not easy at 6ft 4ins tall) since a notorious draw with Johnny Nelson in Derby in 2002, a stab at the Sheffield man's WBO cruiserweight title which Jones looked to have handily but wound up a no-contest when the challenger tested positive for a banned substance (frusemide, and allegedly a whole lot more).
Bad boy Jones didn't fight again till 2004 and at 36 this probably represents a last chance. Incredibly, he turned pro at welterweight in 1993 and first challenged for a world title at light-middleweight 10 years ago when he drew with and was then narrowly outscored by Frenchman Laurent Boudouani. They call him the Incredible Growing Man in the trade. Jones, who has even knocked out heavyweights, is undoubtedly a banger and probably goes in as favourite. He has all the physical advantages.
Arslan, however, turns 38 the day after the fight and looks seasoned enough - and strong enough - to salvage a split decision, or possibly even a draw. This is Germany, remember.
Southpaw bogeyman Juan Carlos Gomez finally gets it on with Ukrainian tower Vladimir Virchis on the bill, in a WBC heavyweight title final eliminator.
These two were scheduled to square off back in March for the right to meet Nigerian puncher Samuel Peter, holder of the WBC belt (although Peter fights Vitali Klitschko shortly), but wanted more time to prepare, a boxing pseudonym for wanted more money. Clearly, the pair are now happy with terms and, with 67 wins between them, they need to be. Nobody queues up to fight either.
In 45 fights Gomez has lost only to fellow Cuban exile Yanqui Diaz over in the States in 2004. It was a disaster. It was a fight designed to showcase Gomez's skills to an American audience but the unheralded Diaz teed off with right hands from the opening bell and Gomez caved in at the 1:46 mark. Humbled, the loser returned to Germany aftewards, where both he and Virchis are based, and nearly blew it again when he tested positive for cocaine after a unanimous points win over American veteran Oliver McCall in 2005 and was banned for well over a year (426 days). Gomez returned in December 2006 and later clearly outscored McCall a second time to make amends for the first fight, which had been declared a no-contest.
Virchis has lost only once himself (in 25): on a majority 12-round decision to Ruslan Chagaev in 2006, the former WBA heavyweight champion and a southpaw like Gomez. The hulking Virchis, 35, made life extremely difficult for the talented Chagaev and held the European heavyweight title without ever losing it in the ring - his pedigree is good.
His stamina, too.
Strong, heavy-handed, awkward but inevitably quite slow, Virchis was losing to much smaller fellow Ukrainian Taras Bidenko until finding the big punches for a last-round stoppage and also got the runaround from little Michael Sprott in 2005 before taking a close 12-round decision, again courtesy of a big finish.
Still, Gomez, also 35 and a former cruiserweight star, knows how to outbox and outspeed the giants and his stamina looks every bit as good as his opponent's. He can whack a bit himself. He put the iron-jawed Sinan Samil Sam on the floor on the way to a landslide 10-round decision in 2003. It won't be easy because Virchis will be 'up' for it and keeps rumbling forward, but the classier, cleverer, quicker, more seasoned Gomez should get home by a decision.