BoxRec

The general forum is talking about Takaloo defending his WBU light-middleweight title against America's Matt Vanda on the Cardiff bill in December topped by Joe Calzaghe. Vanda is 29-0 (20), but from a notoriously weak area of the United States. (See the thread "uptconnect" on the general forum).

is Vanda a club fighter?

i dont know where takaloo is going in his boxing career, alexander and takaloo are after santos and probably wont be matched with each other, surely takaloo doesnt want to make 20 defenses of the WBU belt,

Interesting name on his record - the only one I have vaguely heard off. Eric Jakubowski - he has been on our shores before and lost to Paul Scrap Iron Ryon (a light welterweight mind) by 3rd round TKO in 1995.

Jakubowski has really been in with a lot of good fighters he always loses to them, tends to get stopped and has campaigned mainly as a Welter. However, two respected fighters he did go to the distance with are former world champion Khalid Rahilou and current world contender Michael Trabant. Vanda stop him in 3.

Another fighter he has KO'd is Jonathorn Conn who himself was deemed worthy to contest for the WBO Middleweight belt - and got stopped by Kranic. However, he's (Conn) also won contests at Supermiddleweight.

This fight is certainly interesting and Vanda sounds like a banger. With undefeated fighter you never can tell.

REAL_DEAL wrote:is Vanda a club fighter?

i dont know where takaloo is going in his boxing career, alexander and takaloo are after santos and probably wont be matched with each other, surely takaloo doesnt want to make 20 defenses of the WBU belt,

Ricky Hatton does.
Don't know much about this Vanda. But he's from that area of the States where it's quite easy to build up a long unbeaten run and look better on paper than you really are. You might remember Dan Morgan as someone similar. He came over to Dublin in 1991 with a 35-1 record and lost easily to Steve Collins. He was from the same area as Vanda (Minnesota).

bennie wrote: He was from the same area as Vanda (Minnesota).

Yeah, Minnesota and Belguim are the places to get a decent record if your not that good. Some of these Belguim champions that have come over here aren't much kop.

Is this the same Dan Morgan who, complete with droppy moustache, bowed out pathetically against Michael Nunn?

I noticed on Vanda's record on BoxRec that he is managed by a member of the infamous Brunette family, who are real "Rent-a-Stiff" peddlers. One of them, Brian Brunette, was a former pro who built up a long unbeaten record in the 80's and earned himself a crack at the WBA light-welterweight title held by Patrizio Oliva in 1986. Despite his unbeaten record, he was destroyed in three rounds.
Mind you, as Stu says, you never know how good - or bad - an unbeaten fighter is. Vanda could be a good fighter.

Anybody remember this Jabbawoski (or whatever) fight Scrap Iron?

TerribleTerry wrote:Is this the same Dan Morgan who, complete with droppy moustache, bowed out pathetically against Michael Nunn?

Yes. He became quite popular on the 'opponent' cicuit for a while. He was a Will McIntyre-type figure (the guy Joe Calzaghe destroyed in Denmark): tough and willing at club level, but always outclassed once he stepped up. Tocker Pudwill would be another example.

stujones wrote:Anybody remember this Jabbawoski (or whatever) fight Scrap Iron?

I can vaguely remember him being one of two fighting brothers - possibly Eric and Marty?

They both had glossy looking records and one of em fought a few decent names - but was taken out fairly easily after stepping up in class.

Must admit don't recall the Scrap Iron fight particularly.

TerribleTerry wrote:

stujones wrote:Anybody remember this Jabbawoski (or whatever) fight Scrap Iron?

I can vaguely remember him being one of two fighting brothers - possibly Eric and Marty?

They both had glossy looking records and one of em fought a few decent names - but was taken out fairly easily after stepping up in class.

Must admit don't recall the Scrap Iron fight particularly.

It was Eric actually (sorry, I knew that - didn't know of Marty). Just trying to gauge his chin (and Vanda's power).

stujones wrote:Anybody remember this Jabbawoski (or whatever) fight Scrap Iron?

Vaguely remember it. Scap Iron had too much power for the guy, and was at his peak. A fight later he bombed out Ross Hale for British and Commonwealth light-welterweight titles. "It doesn't get better than this," he told Sky Sports afterwards, and he was right. He had an unhappy reign as champion; got chinned by Jon Thaxton in a non-title fight and was inactive for over a year before losing his titles in one round to Andy Holligan.
He had to get a job as a taxi driver in Hackney over Xmas because he needed money to buy his kids presents. I remember he was acutely embarrassed by it. "Ninety-nine per cent of the people who get in the cab know who I am, " he reflected bitterly.
Wonder what he's doing now.

Wow, just looked at Marty Jakubowski's record on here and he was 110 - 7 (30 kos). How padded can you get?

JC Chavez - not a particulalry fast starter, dealt with him in 4 but he must have been okish to survive the course against Grigorian.
As is mid-west fighters want, he faced Verdell Smith a number of times...

Lack of decent commisions means the fight game is hard to guage in that part of the world.

Yeah, it was a bit sad - I heard that he suffered quite alot of verbals from drunken punters about his defensive flaws. Unfortunately, he couldn't spark them or say anything back. Must have been tough for one who was such a crowd favourite.

Ol' Scrap Iron was a bit light fingered before boxing brought him back onto the 'straight and narrow'...fair play to him for working the taxis rather then returning to his former profession.