Pick of the 'pops'.

[bennie]

Unbeaten local man Don Broadhurst steps up in a crack at the vacant (and inaugural) Commonwealth super-flyweight title at the Aston Villa Leisure Centre in Birmingham on October 31.
Opponent is Ghanaian Isaac Quaye.
Classy Don is a former amateur star who won an ABA flyweight title and gold at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, so he looks ready for this move after eight straight wins in the pro ranks. He is not a puncher (only one early win) but applies plenty of educated pressure and mixes his punches up delightfully. At 24, and 8-0 (1), he looks one for the future, and the advent of the super-flyweight division suits him perfectly.
To the little-known Quaye, 25, who went 12 rounds in his last two outings (one loss, one draw), which is more than Broadhurst has ever travelled (six at most), and brings a reported 11 wins, two draws and that loss. There has been some dispute over Quaye's record but we know Ghanaians are strong, tough, fit and willing and unless Quaye is the second coming of Azumah Nelson (remember Nelson's chilling knockout of Pat Cowdell in Birmingham?), Broadhurst must be fancied to box his way to a decision.
Another fine boxer on the bill is Brummie Matthew Macklin, who takes on Liverpool's (by way of Serbia) Gerard Ajetovic over 10 rounds. This is a solid match. Middleweight Macklin is back in the Sports Network fold (F rank Warren) and at 22-2 (16), and still only 26, could be closing in on some big fights. He has charisma, talent and real snap in his punches. His chin also looks pretty firm.
Ajetovic was considered a prospect himself recently but a couple of losses abroad seem to have shed that tag, although it would be foolish to write him off at 27 and 16-3-1 (8). Ajetovic has never been stopped.


Basingstoke's Dean Francis is rewarded for his recent fabulous British title win when he challenges unbeaten Zsolt Erdei for the WBO light-heavyweight crown in Germany on January 10.
Francis came from behind to shatter the Lonsdale Belt hopes of Hampshire rival Tony Oakey in nine thrilling rounds last time out in June. Despite limited use of his right hand in recent years, Dean proved he can still find the big punches (well, the big left hooks) to finish a strong champion like Oakey on his own Portsmouth stomping ground. Back in his super-middleweight heyday of the 1990s, as European champion and a real threat to Joe Calzaghe, Francis did that kind of thing all the time and looked a 'gimmee' for world honours when a recurring shoulder injury led to years of frustration. Slowly he adapted his game behind the jab and the left hook - he uses the right as a range-finder - and showed against Oakey, when he shrugged off bad cuts, he still has realistic world title aspirations at nearly 35. His finishing punches were frightening.
Enter Erdei, a Hungarian based in Germany who has held the WBO title since January 2004 and made 10 defences, although the 34-year-old is hardly the second coming of Dariusz Michalczewski, he just does everything well and does everything well in Germany, where they like their fighters sober, steady and effective like him (think of Henry Maske, or worse, Sven Ottke) and where Erdei is going to take a lot of toppling. He boasts a record of 29-0 (17).
Francis will be sharp - he knows this is possibly his one chance to make up for all the lost years, the lost glories. Realistically, though, Erdei looks a bit too complete for him.



Baby faced Mexican prospect Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr takes on tough-looking (and tough) Minnesota veteran Matt Vanda in a quick rematch in Las Vegas on November 1. The 10-round headliner replaces the Antonio Margarito-Joshua Clottey welterweight unification showdown which was never actually finalised and may take place next year.
Unbeaten Chavez scraped a split decision over Vanda after 10 exciting rounds in Mexico in July. The lean, lanky, 22-year-old son of the boxing legend came forward and winged hard punches in customary Chavez-like fashion, particularly to the body, but also proved slow and easy to hit which made for an eventful evening as Chavez ran out of steam and barely made it through the later rounds. Vanda, from the mid-west of America, notorious for its boxing journeymen, proved a revelation as he soaked up Chavez's early pressure and came back from the middle rounds with educated pressure of his own and so nearly forced a stoppage. The 30-year-old, heavily tattooed Vanda was once a bright prospect but was winning and losing in equal measure going into the Chavez 10-rounder on Chavez turf - yet the crowd greeted their man's victory with a chorus of boos and threw paper cups into the ring.
On neutral turf Vanda deserves this rematch.


Former undisputed world middleweight champion Jermain "Bad Intentions" Taylor takes on Jeff "Left Hook" Lacy in a clash of American 'names' (and nicknames) in a 12-rounder in good ol' Nashville, Tennessee, on November 15.
Taylor shook up the boxing world (as opposed to the general world, these days) when he outscored Philadelphia's Bernard Hopkins for all the middleweight belts (worth having) in Las Vegas in 2005, and proved it was no fluke when he repeated the feat later in the same year. Those wins look very good indeed now, of course.
Taylor disappointed thereafter as he struggled to retain against the smaller likes of Winky Wright (who held him to a draw) Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks. "Just get out and fight!" an exasperated Emanuel Steward told Taylor before the start of one of the rounds in the Spinks bore, and Jermain then dropped the belt to Kelly "Ghost" Pavlik in seven stunning rounds last year, although he took Pavlik the full 12 in a non-title rematch earlier this year before conceding the points. That was up at super-middleweight where the 30-year-old Taylor looked strong and where he remains. This is his first fight since.
Lacy has also been through the mill and some say he will never get over a 12-round pounding he suffered at the hands of Joe Calzaghe in Manchester in March 2006. The brawling, 31-year-old Lacy copped 1006 punches that night and was down in the last - it was a terrible defeat, although it remains his only one. Stocky Jeff has plodded to three 10-round decisions since.
The comparison between the two is quite stark, then. Taylor looks to have much more left and, boxer-puncher as he is, should box and punch his way to a comprehensive decision.


A mouthwatering match at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 13 pairs Contender stars Pete Manfredo Jnr and Sakio Bika over 12 super-middleweight rounds.
Hometowner Manfredo is on a run of three stoppage wins since dropping a 10-round decision to "Joltin'" Jeff Lacy in Las Vegas last year. He's lost only to Lacy and Joe Calzaghe in his last nine outings, so his Contender form in 2005, when he reached the final of the original series to be outscored by Los Angeles slickster Sergio Mora at the legendary Caesar's Palace was no trick of the TV cameras. He is a durable, clever, stiff-hitting exponent, who fights regularly and looked desperately unlucky to drop an eight-round decision to Mora in a quick rematch in Los Angeles in October 2005. Unbeaten Mora, of course, went on to win the WBC light-middleweight title.
Manfredo moved up to super-middle where he hammered the likes of Joe Spina, Donnie McCrary and Scott Pemberton, although he lasted only three rounds with southpaw great Calzaghe in a stab at the WBO title in Cardiff in April last year. Six months earlier, Bika went the full 12 with Calzaghe in Manchester for the same title before dropping a unanimous decision, and also went one better than Manfredo in the most recent series of Contender, which he won (along with $750,000) by stopping tough New Yorker Jaidron Codrington in eight thrilling rounds last November at the Garden in Boston. "The Scorpion" from Sydney in Australia, by way of Cameroon, is a big, aggressive, tough, raw, unorthodox handful of a fighter who wears opponents down. When you think of Bika you think 'Aussie strongman'; when you think of Manfredo you think of a smaller guy with one of those 'flat' boxing faces, although his movement and defences have improved after a recent stint under Freddie Roach.
Don't get me wrong, Manfredo is definitely fighting well - well enough to stay in the fight. He boxes nicely and works hard and only Calzaghe has ever stopped him, and that was an 'iffy' stoppage (Bika, somewhat typically, has never been stopped). He also has the crowd on his side.
Bika, who comes off a first-round dismissal of Argentina's Gustavo Javier Kapusi in Sydney in April this year, is still favoured to grind out a decision.

[stujones]

Now we know what Francis' personal reason for dropping out of the Cleverly fight was.... go on Deano.

He can do this. He's been lucky being a left handed authordox fighter that he it was the right hand that goes. If this was in the UK I would favour Francis strongly.

[damianhucker1]

i personally dont beleive theres enough there to beat the hungarian , i think it will be a comfortable points decision

[Collins2000]

Nice previews bennie.

[stujones]

i personally dont beleive theres enough there to beat the hungarian , i think it will be a comfortable points decision

Maybe not, but I fail to see this respect people have for Erdei - he shouldn't be the champion, and his one decent display has really not looked so good with the subsequent performances of Gonzales and Michaelswecki - many thought a shot to shit Michaelswecki beat Gonzales.