BoxRec

Friday 20 June 2008
York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom
commission: British Boxing Board of Control
promoter: Barry Hearn : Matchroom Boxing
television: SKY
12 Featherweight Jackson Asiku 22 (12) - 3 (0) - 0
SC Osumanu Akaba...

Looking forward to seeing Asiku fight again on these shores. He put in some exciting performances that left many of us wanting to see more. I hope he gets pushed forward for bigger things tha the Commonwealth featherweight title.

just like Olusugen, Nuumbembe et al he's going to struggle to make it without a british passport. He also lacks a following and provides little reward for potential opponents.

Like Action jackson though, very good fighter.

Apparently Jackson is getting a crack at Chris John next month (in oz)

yeah, should be a good one. hope his UK fight will still be on.

John-Asiku will be a better fight than some ppl think. Quality defense for John IMO.

jomothepure wrote:Apparently Jackson is getting a crack at Chris John next month (in oz)

i'm surprised chris john is taking a fight over there.

john on pts.

John trains in Oz. They used to be part of the same camp but Asiku left.

Autobarn wrote:John trains in Oz. They used to be part of the same camp but Asiku left.

that's right his trainer is an aussie isn't it.

i remember watching the marquez fight and wondering who the brit was shouting out instructions in john's corner.

John is one of the most under rated fighters in the world - This is a big step up for Jackson.

Twinkle Toes wrote:John is one of the most under rated fighters in the world - This is a big step up for Jackson.

yeah he's under rated.

still never deserved that decision over marquez in a month of sundays though.

Australian Craig Christian trains John i think. He is underrated and a good quality operator.

I think his jab gave Marquez a lot of trouble. John deserved to shade it with his quality left hand work IMO. JMM was aggressive but seemed a bit subdued to me.

hitman_hatton1 wrote:

Twinkle Toes wrote:John is one of the most under rated fighters in the world - This is a big step up for Jackson.

yeah he's under rated.

still never deserved that decision over marquez in a month of sundays though.

Disagree, no robbery there. Close fight that couda gone either way.

Good fighter Jackson Asiku, hope he gets the breaks he deserves. He's a brilliant thinking fighter and a fighter who's a good thinker is hard to beat, felt like he knew what I was going to do even before I thought about what I was going to do when I boxed him! Dont forget his losses have been very close (think he has lost 3) like the one againts Hussian, was all basically early in his career when maybe he wasn't as experianced, heard Hussian loss and even other two was debatable. Had Hussian down and out in the 9th didn't he?! Hope Asiku's talent doesn't go to waste, dont forget prob the most updated training he has had has been at the Peacock when he did his final prebs for his few fights over here, imagine if he the proper training all the time!

Autobarn wrote:I think his jab gave Marquez a lot of trouble. John deserved to shade it with his quality left hand work IMO. JMM was aggressive but seemed a bit subdued to me.

It was a difficult one to score and if i recall Marquez had a couple of deducted points for low blows. He did the more quality boxing for the first 8 rounds or so but John brought it on in the final 4 with his controlled aggression and good left jabbing.

Shame it has been virtually written off as a foreign robbery and a nondescript blur on the record of JMM, mostly by people like Jim Lampley who have never even heard of John let alone seen the fight itself!

I think the problem is John hasn't mixed in very good company since Marquez - Jose Rojas notwithstanding - and he hasn't really looked hot. Whereas Marquez, since the John loss, has been throwing cracking combinations and facing the likes of Barrera and Pacqiao.

BS's Cliff Rold was the one who started the hysteria. He's a good writer but his Ringtalk days make him a guy who seems to like making his name off BAD THINGS! that happen in boxing. Maxboxing's Kim and Fischer insist JMM won 8-4 in rds, yet Marty Mulcahy of the same website feels John won and that a big fuss was made of nothing.

jomothepure wrote:Apparently Jackson is getting a crack at Chris John next month (in oz)

This fight is now off. Show had been cancelled due to Danny Green's retirement

What's the deal there? First Briggs and now Green I was shocked when i saw an article headline claiming Green had retired.

Marc.C wrote:Good fighter Jackson Asiku, hope he gets the breaks he deserves. He's a brilliant thinking fighter and a fighter who's a good thinker is hard to beat, felt like he knew what I was going to do even before I thought about what I was going to do when I boxed him! Dont forget his losses have been very close (think he has lost 3) like the one againts Hussian, was all basically early in his career when maybe he wasn't as experianced, heard Hussian loss and even other two was debatable. Had Hussian down and out in the 9th didn't he?! Hope Asiku's talent doesn't go to waste, dont forget prob the most updated training he has had has been at the Peacock when he did his final prebs for his few fights over here, imagine if he the proper training all the time!

Thanks for your input, Marc.

Feared Ugandan Jackson Asiku returns to these shores to defend his Commonwealth featherweight title against Ghana's tough but unheralded Osumanu Akaba at York Hall on June 20.
Matchroom promotes.
Asiku won the title with a crushing first-round stoppage of Marc Callaghan in Dagenham in November 2005 and retained with another first-round dismissal of Jamie McKeever in Liverpool seven months later. Too good for his own good, Asiku kicked his heels for a further 12 months, before making his way to Oz and stopping home man Matt Powell in four rounds in another defence. "Action" Jackson flits between here and Oz for much of his work, as much work as he can get. In eight years and 25 fights as a pro, the 29-year-old has lost only to Aussies Nedal Hussein and Gairy St Clair and to Thai Fahprakorb Rakkiatgym (in Thailand) - all top drawer fighters.
In contrast, southpaw Akaba is pretty inexperienced, with just 13 fights on his resume, but he's willing and resilient and comes off two stoppage wins since he was outscored by South African Jeffrey Mathebula in a 12-rounder in South Africa in September 2005. Mathebula, a former Olympian, has just one loss in 24 pro outings. The only other man to beat Akaba is fellow Ghanaian Abdul Malik Jabir - but Jabir climbed off the floor to come through on cuts in Ghana in 2001 and was hammered in six rounds in a rematch three years later. Jabir, of course, would earn an iron man reputation here after a bloody 12-rounder with Glasgow's Craig Docherty and weeks of sparring with (comebacking) Michael Brodie.
Akaba is a threat, then. Yes, he lost when he stepped up - and this is his first trip outside Africa - but the challenger has never been genuinely stopped, shown real improvement, carries a whack (10 stoppage wins) and done the championship 12. Plus, his southpaw style could cause Asiku problems, given Rakkiatgym is also a southpaw.
The slick, stiff-hitting Asiku, however, described by Londoner Callaghan as "a brilliant thinking fighter", represents a more serious step up for Akaba and does look a bit special.
The champion retains by late stoppage in a thriller.