A few for the New Year...
Posted: 04 Jan 2009, 08:19
Andre Berto defends his WBC welterweight title against Luis Collazo in a good-looking clash in Mississippi on January 17.
The unbeaten Berto, still only 25, faces his biggest test against the slick-boxing southpaw Collazo, who held the WBA welterweight title a few years ago until he dropped it on a close but unanimous decision to Ricky Hatton in May 2006. Collazo gave Hatton a 12-round war, and also took Shane "Balco" Mosley 12 rounds in a more recent defeat. Mosley fights division No. 1 Antonio Margarito in Los Angeles on January 24.
New Yorker Collazo poses a real threat to Berto's rising star but the champion from Florida looks strong and hard-hitting at 23-0 (19), although his best win is probably a 12-round decision over light-hitting Steve Forbes. Berto picked up the title (vacant) with a seven-round dismissal of Mexican nobody Miguel Angel Rodriguez last June in Memphis, a title made vacant by Floyd Mayweather's retirement.
Forbes was his first challenger.
This one is bound to be close and could go either way, in fact. One thing is for sure, the leash is definitely off Berto.
If comebacking Clinton Woods performs like he did in his last fight, the career of the Sheffield man is probably over.
Woods slumped to a woeful points defeat against near 40-year-old Antonio Tarver last April in the States, a defeat which cost him the IBF light-heavyweight title after three heady years as champion. Styles make fights, of course. The clever, gritty, diehard Woods holds a win over Glen Johnson and two over tough American Julio Cesar Gonzalez. His stamina comes by the bucketload. His chin is almost impervious. His height and reach make him a handful for anyone. Nevertheless, he allowed himself to be outclassed over 12 rounds by the slick but unremarkable Tarver.
Frankly, Woods gave away his belt.
Maybe the trip, to Tarver's own Tampa, rattled the Yorkshireman who had endured a six-round pounding at the hands of a peak Roy Jones Junior on a previous trip to the States. Maybe it was Tarver himself, a giant of a light-heavyweight who had belted Jones twice. Maybe the 36-year-old Woods just got old. Maybe he is just a home boy, like that other Sheffield man Naseem Hamed. Back on home turf, relatively speaking, Woods hopes to put it all behind him in Jersey in February in an eliminator for his old title.
His opponent is Elvir Muriqi, a 29-year-old New Yorker of Kosovan descent who took on Tarver himself 10 months prior to Woods (June 2007 in Connecticut) and made life much more difficult for the southpaw Floridian and at the end of 12 hard and exciting rounds, the decision was only a majority one in Tarver's favour. Fans in attendance roundly booed it.
Muriqi is stocky, rugged, determined, a particularly strong body puncher and has turned his career around after he was blasted in the fourth round by unheralded Bronx man Danny Santiago on a big show in Madison Square Garden in 2004. He might be a bit 'chinny', and you wonder if the Tarver fight flattered him, given that Tarver had been out for over a year beforehand and was clearly rusty, but the fact remains Muriqi looked much, much better against Tarver than Woods and will make this trip with real ambition and belief with a major world title shot at stake.
For BOTH men, then, this is make or break, but I have a feeling Wood's craftiness and an obvious desire to make amends for the Tarver debacle (one would hope) will sway the balance his way.
German puncher Marco Huck defends his European cruiserweight title against Ukraine's Vadim Safonov in Germany on January 24.
Huck, 23-1 (18), won the title with an impressive 12-round stoppage of useful Frenchman Jean Marc Monrose in Germany last September. He has won four on the spin - all by stoppage - since American slickster Steve Cunningham denied him in a challenge for the IBF cruiserweight title in 2007. That challenge was always an ambitious one for 24-year-old Huck, who has 'grown' as a fighter and looks too much for the solid but unremarkable Safonov, 21-2 (10), a 27-year-old (28 by fight time) with seven straight wins since another German, Alexander Petkovic, outscored him in eight-rounder in Hamburg in 2005. The challenger's only other loss came on a 12-round split decision in Ukraine in 2003 to Russia's Sergey Karanevich, so Safonov has never been stopped.
He will need all his durability against a dangerman like Huck.
A cracking unification showdown in the States on April 4 pairs off WBC light-welterweight champion Tim Bradley with WBO champion Kendall Holt.
Bradley, of course, won his title with a split decision over Junior Witter in Nottingham last May. He dropped the Bradford man in the sixth round with a big right hand and proved a bit too quick and sharp all round on the night. Despite the split scores, the stocky Bradley undoubtedly deserved the verdict and looks a great prospect at 23-0 (11). He is still only 25.
This may have come too soon. The rangy, 27-year-old Holt comes off a win over another (previously) unbeaten fighter in the dangerous Demetrius Hopkins, nephew of modern-day great Bernard, and took part in two controversial encounters with prodigious Colombian banger Ricardo Torres to win the WBO belt. Torres seemingly cried off from a third encounter.
Holt looks the more rounded, battle-hardened champion and it seems a strange decision by Team Bradley to agree to take him on at this time. Don't get me wrong, BOTH men know how to box and punch, and we can expect a tight, hotly disputed affair.
Holt's experience, however, should prove the difference.
IBF light-heavyweight champion "Bad" Chad Dawson defends against fellow American southpaw Antonio Tarver in a bad rematch in the States on March 14.
The slick, talented, unbeaten Dawson, 26, pasted the now 40-year-old Tarver in October in Las Vegas to win the title, dropping Tarver in the final round to clinch wide scores on all three cards. "I played with him and I outworked him round by round. That was our philosophy," said Dawson, who had scraped home in a previous 12-rounder against Jamaican veteran Glen Johnson.
Johnson, not Tarver, deserves this rematch, but Tarver continues to trade on his appearance in Rocky Balboa.
Argentina's Omar Narvaez defends his WBO flyweight title against American "Stingray" Rayonta Whitfield in a clash of unbeaten fighters on February 7, a quality clash.
The canny, 33-year-old Narvaez has held the title since July 2002 and racked up 14 successful defences - as many as the great Carlos Monzon made of his world middleweight title in the 1970s (Monzon then retired). His tried and failed challengers include Alexander Mahmutov, Bernard Inom and Brahim Asloum, all of whom failed on their own turf. In Argentina, then, where this fight takes place, southpaw Narvaez looks like a champion who could stay that way forever.
Whitfield does pose a threat. Six years the younger man and a four inches taller at 5ft 7ins, the Georgian from Green Jacket territory of Augusta picks off his opponents with precise combinations and has a touch of the Mark "Too Sharp" Johnsons about him (from the orthodox stance), with plenty of natural ability, slick moves and speed. Narvaez might be a tad vulnerable - mentally - after reaching the Monzon landmark earlier this year. Will he get 'up' for this?
I believe he will. The champion's great experience, his home pride and the edge he holds in power make him favourite to retain yet again in a close one.
Andreas Kotelnik defends his WBA light-welterweight crown against Argentina's Marcos Rene Maidana in a classic boxer v puncher clash in Germany on February 7.
Ukrainian Kotelnik, based in Germany (along with the challenger), won the title from our own Gavin Rees on a one-sided 12-round stoppage in Wales last March and retained with a one-sided decision over Japanese southpaw Norio Kimura in Ukraine in September. Kotelink, 31, is a sharp little operator with all the punches, all the moves and a solid chin; however, he is not a one-punch knockout artist and Maidana most definitely is at an imposing 25-0 (24) - 15 wins inside two rounds.
Nicknamed "El Chino", Maidana was taken the distance by fellow Argentine Daniel Benito Carriqueo in Argentina in August 2005 (six rounds) but the rest of his opponents have been savaged, including Hungarian tough guy Laszlo Komjathi in three rounds in Germany in June 2007, a man who had been the full eight with Kotelnik just two weeks earlier. Maidana also needed just three rounds to dispose of Mexico's Arturo Morua last year in Germany, and Morua went nine rounds with Junior Witter in a world title challenge here and the full 12 with vaunted Colombian banger Ricardo Torres in Colombia in another world title tilt.
At 25 Maidana defines the term 'hot prospect'. He goes in as No. 1 contender.
Still, the vastly experienced Kotelnik, a former Olympic silver medallist trained by the excellent Michael Timm, has lost only to Witter and Souleymane MBaye in a pro career dating back to 2000 (Maidana only turned pro in 2004) and looked desperately unlucky to draw a rematch with MBaye in Liverpool. The Witter verdict was also contentious, on 'away' turf in Nottingham. Andreas worked long and hard to win his world title and is not about to concede his title to a young upstart like Maidana, as dangerous as the young upstart looks.
Kotelnik's seasoning and class and that solid chin of his should be enough to take him to the points.
Aussie sensation Vic Darchinyan defends his unified world super-flyweight title against brash Mexican Jorge Arce in a sizzler of a match in California on February 7.
Southpaw Darchinyan, quick, rangy, unorthodox and dangerous, secured his rare undisputed status with a dazzling nine-round knockout of Cristian Mijares just last month in California - a man who had licked Arce. Styles make fights, of course, and the strong, all-action, heavy handed Arce is one of those perennial threats after 56 fights as a pro (51 wins), one of those perennial favourites. Still only 29, three years younger than Darchinyan, Arce has come back well from the Mijares points pasting last year with five solid wins and holds two stoppages of Hussein Hussein, another good Aussie.
He certainly enjoys a battle.
Darchinyan, 31-1-1 (25), came through a sticky patch himself recently when he was poleaxed by a Filipino and held to a draw by another. He then overwhelmed Russia's Dimitri Kirilov in five rounds to capture the IBF super-flyweight belt earlier this year in the States and dominated Mijares for the latter's WBC and WBA belts. It made Vic the first undisputed champ in the 30-year history of the super-flyweight division.
This one cannot fail to provide excitement as both men go at it hard, head and body, whipped up by a big crowd. Arce, a pro at 16, looks a bit battle-weary and might be ready to go, but then again, Darchinyan looks a bit chinny and might be a tad vulnerable, mentally, after all the Mijares plaudits. Fighters are often 'flat' in the wake of a huge win. Plus, he - well, his body - endures big fights back-to-back, here, which is no easy task for anyone.
Ultimately, the Mijares comparison splits the two. The relentless Darchinyan must be favoured to bust up tough Jorge and to break him up in nine or 10 rounds.
Gifted Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez takes on dangerous Texan Juan Diaz in a world class lightweight 12-rounder in Houston on February 28.
Marquez is the man who holds a fantastic 12-round draw with pound-for-pound champ Manny Pacquiao, back in May 2004 in the States. The Filipino legend made Marquez wait four years for a rematch and, earlier this year in Las Vegas, looked desperately lucky to emerge on a split decision after 12 thrilling rounds. Given that Pacquiao then battered Oscar De La Hoya to defeat, it shows you what a good fighter Pacquiao is and what a good fighter Marquez must be. To me the smooth-boxing, sharp-hitting Marquez was robbed against Pacquiao - twice. Marquez came back to hammer Cuban star Joel Casamayor in 11 impressive rounds in Las Vegas last September to take his record to 49-4-1 (36) in his first fight at lightweight.
It was the first time Casamayor had been stopped.
To "Baby Bull" Diaz, a whopping 10 years younger than Marquez at 25. The home man is a solid, strong-looking fighter at 34-1 (17). His only defeat came earlier this year in Mexico, where Nate Campbell schooled and outpointed him over 12 rounds. It was a shock defeat, and a costly one. Diaz dropped three major world lightweight belts to the ageing Floridian, who showed all his experience to ride out Diaz's early attacks before busting him up and dominating the later rounds. Still, most fighters gain from defeat, especially a young fighter like Diaz. The ex-champion had never really gone to the well before but did just that to outscore Aussie warrior Michael Katsidis in a gut-wrenching thriller last time out in September to secure this one.
Diaz is an improved fighter, a good fighter; his raw strength and aggression should blend well with that of the more refined Marquez's. Even at home, though, and much more accustomed to lightweight than Marquez, Diaz look to have his hands seriously full in this one.
Marquez boxes and punches his way to an exciting decision.
The unbeaten Berto, still only 25, faces his biggest test against the slick-boxing southpaw Collazo, who held the WBA welterweight title a few years ago until he dropped it on a close but unanimous decision to Ricky Hatton in May 2006. Collazo gave Hatton a 12-round war, and also took Shane "Balco" Mosley 12 rounds in a more recent defeat. Mosley fights division No. 1 Antonio Margarito in Los Angeles on January 24.
New Yorker Collazo poses a real threat to Berto's rising star but the champion from Florida looks strong and hard-hitting at 23-0 (19), although his best win is probably a 12-round decision over light-hitting Steve Forbes. Berto picked up the title (vacant) with a seven-round dismissal of Mexican nobody Miguel Angel Rodriguez last June in Memphis, a title made vacant by Floyd Mayweather's retirement.
Forbes was his first challenger.
This one is bound to be close and could go either way, in fact. One thing is for sure, the leash is definitely off Berto.
If comebacking Clinton Woods performs like he did in his last fight, the career of the Sheffield man is probably over.
Woods slumped to a woeful points defeat against near 40-year-old Antonio Tarver last April in the States, a defeat which cost him the IBF light-heavyweight title after three heady years as champion. Styles make fights, of course. The clever, gritty, diehard Woods holds a win over Glen Johnson and two over tough American Julio Cesar Gonzalez. His stamina comes by the bucketload. His chin is almost impervious. His height and reach make him a handful for anyone. Nevertheless, he allowed himself to be outclassed over 12 rounds by the slick but unremarkable Tarver.
Frankly, Woods gave away his belt.
Maybe the trip, to Tarver's own Tampa, rattled the Yorkshireman who had endured a six-round pounding at the hands of a peak Roy Jones Junior on a previous trip to the States. Maybe it was Tarver himself, a giant of a light-heavyweight who had belted Jones twice. Maybe the 36-year-old Woods just got old. Maybe he is just a home boy, like that other Sheffield man Naseem Hamed. Back on home turf, relatively speaking, Woods hopes to put it all behind him in Jersey in February in an eliminator for his old title.
His opponent is Elvir Muriqi, a 29-year-old New Yorker of Kosovan descent who took on Tarver himself 10 months prior to Woods (June 2007 in Connecticut) and made life much more difficult for the southpaw Floridian and at the end of 12 hard and exciting rounds, the decision was only a majority one in Tarver's favour. Fans in attendance roundly booed it.
Muriqi is stocky, rugged, determined, a particularly strong body puncher and has turned his career around after he was blasted in the fourth round by unheralded Bronx man Danny Santiago on a big show in Madison Square Garden in 2004. He might be a bit 'chinny', and you wonder if the Tarver fight flattered him, given that Tarver had been out for over a year beforehand and was clearly rusty, but the fact remains Muriqi looked much, much better against Tarver than Woods and will make this trip with real ambition and belief with a major world title shot at stake.
For BOTH men, then, this is make or break, but I have a feeling Wood's craftiness and an obvious desire to make amends for the Tarver debacle (one would hope) will sway the balance his way.
German puncher Marco Huck defends his European cruiserweight title against Ukraine's Vadim Safonov in Germany on January 24.
Huck, 23-1 (18), won the title with an impressive 12-round stoppage of useful Frenchman Jean Marc Monrose in Germany last September. He has won four on the spin - all by stoppage - since American slickster Steve Cunningham denied him in a challenge for the IBF cruiserweight title in 2007. That challenge was always an ambitious one for 24-year-old Huck, who has 'grown' as a fighter and looks too much for the solid but unremarkable Safonov, 21-2 (10), a 27-year-old (28 by fight time) with seven straight wins since another German, Alexander Petkovic, outscored him in eight-rounder in Hamburg in 2005. The challenger's only other loss came on a 12-round split decision in Ukraine in 2003 to Russia's Sergey Karanevich, so Safonov has never been stopped.
He will need all his durability against a dangerman like Huck.
A cracking unification showdown in the States on April 4 pairs off WBC light-welterweight champion Tim Bradley with WBO champion Kendall Holt.
Bradley, of course, won his title with a split decision over Junior Witter in Nottingham last May. He dropped the Bradford man in the sixth round with a big right hand and proved a bit too quick and sharp all round on the night. Despite the split scores, the stocky Bradley undoubtedly deserved the verdict and looks a great prospect at 23-0 (11). He is still only 25.
This may have come too soon. The rangy, 27-year-old Holt comes off a win over another (previously) unbeaten fighter in the dangerous Demetrius Hopkins, nephew of modern-day great Bernard, and took part in two controversial encounters with prodigious Colombian banger Ricardo Torres to win the WBO belt. Torres seemingly cried off from a third encounter.
Holt looks the more rounded, battle-hardened champion and it seems a strange decision by Team Bradley to agree to take him on at this time. Don't get me wrong, BOTH men know how to box and punch, and we can expect a tight, hotly disputed affair.
Holt's experience, however, should prove the difference.
IBF light-heavyweight champion "Bad" Chad Dawson defends against fellow American southpaw Antonio Tarver in a bad rematch in the States on March 14.
The slick, talented, unbeaten Dawson, 26, pasted the now 40-year-old Tarver in October in Las Vegas to win the title, dropping Tarver in the final round to clinch wide scores on all three cards. "I played with him and I outworked him round by round. That was our philosophy," said Dawson, who had scraped home in a previous 12-rounder against Jamaican veteran Glen Johnson.
Johnson, not Tarver, deserves this rematch, but Tarver continues to trade on his appearance in Rocky Balboa.
Argentina's Omar Narvaez defends his WBO flyweight title against American "Stingray" Rayonta Whitfield in a clash of unbeaten fighters on February 7, a quality clash.
The canny, 33-year-old Narvaez has held the title since July 2002 and racked up 14 successful defences - as many as the great Carlos Monzon made of his world middleweight title in the 1970s (Monzon then retired). His tried and failed challengers include Alexander Mahmutov, Bernard Inom and Brahim Asloum, all of whom failed on their own turf. In Argentina, then, where this fight takes place, southpaw Narvaez looks like a champion who could stay that way forever.
Whitfield does pose a threat. Six years the younger man and a four inches taller at 5ft 7ins, the Georgian from Green Jacket territory of Augusta picks off his opponents with precise combinations and has a touch of the Mark "Too Sharp" Johnsons about him (from the orthodox stance), with plenty of natural ability, slick moves and speed. Narvaez might be a tad vulnerable - mentally - after reaching the Monzon landmark earlier this year. Will he get 'up' for this?
I believe he will. The champion's great experience, his home pride and the edge he holds in power make him favourite to retain yet again in a close one.
Andreas Kotelnik defends his WBA light-welterweight crown against Argentina's Marcos Rene Maidana in a classic boxer v puncher clash in Germany on February 7.
Ukrainian Kotelnik, based in Germany (along with the challenger), won the title from our own Gavin Rees on a one-sided 12-round stoppage in Wales last March and retained with a one-sided decision over Japanese southpaw Norio Kimura in Ukraine in September. Kotelink, 31, is a sharp little operator with all the punches, all the moves and a solid chin; however, he is not a one-punch knockout artist and Maidana most definitely is at an imposing 25-0 (24) - 15 wins inside two rounds.
Nicknamed "El Chino", Maidana was taken the distance by fellow Argentine Daniel Benito Carriqueo in Argentina in August 2005 (six rounds) but the rest of his opponents have been savaged, including Hungarian tough guy Laszlo Komjathi in three rounds in Germany in June 2007, a man who had been the full eight with Kotelnik just two weeks earlier. Maidana also needed just three rounds to dispose of Mexico's Arturo Morua last year in Germany, and Morua went nine rounds with Junior Witter in a world title challenge here and the full 12 with vaunted Colombian banger Ricardo Torres in Colombia in another world title tilt.
At 25 Maidana defines the term 'hot prospect'. He goes in as No. 1 contender.
Still, the vastly experienced Kotelnik, a former Olympic silver medallist trained by the excellent Michael Timm, has lost only to Witter and Souleymane MBaye in a pro career dating back to 2000 (Maidana only turned pro in 2004) and looked desperately unlucky to draw a rematch with MBaye in Liverpool. The Witter verdict was also contentious, on 'away' turf in Nottingham. Andreas worked long and hard to win his world title and is not about to concede his title to a young upstart like Maidana, as dangerous as the young upstart looks.
Kotelnik's seasoning and class and that solid chin of his should be enough to take him to the points.
Aussie sensation Vic Darchinyan defends his unified world super-flyweight title against brash Mexican Jorge Arce in a sizzler of a match in California on February 7.
Southpaw Darchinyan, quick, rangy, unorthodox and dangerous, secured his rare undisputed status with a dazzling nine-round knockout of Cristian Mijares just last month in California - a man who had licked Arce. Styles make fights, of course, and the strong, all-action, heavy handed Arce is one of those perennial threats after 56 fights as a pro (51 wins), one of those perennial favourites. Still only 29, three years younger than Darchinyan, Arce has come back well from the Mijares points pasting last year with five solid wins and holds two stoppages of Hussein Hussein, another good Aussie.
He certainly enjoys a battle.
Darchinyan, 31-1-1 (25), came through a sticky patch himself recently when he was poleaxed by a Filipino and held to a draw by another. He then overwhelmed Russia's Dimitri Kirilov in five rounds to capture the IBF super-flyweight belt earlier this year in the States and dominated Mijares for the latter's WBC and WBA belts. It made Vic the first undisputed champ in the 30-year history of the super-flyweight division.
This one cannot fail to provide excitement as both men go at it hard, head and body, whipped up by a big crowd. Arce, a pro at 16, looks a bit battle-weary and might be ready to go, but then again, Darchinyan looks a bit chinny and might be a tad vulnerable, mentally, after all the Mijares plaudits. Fighters are often 'flat' in the wake of a huge win. Plus, he - well, his body - endures big fights back-to-back, here, which is no easy task for anyone.
Ultimately, the Mijares comparison splits the two. The relentless Darchinyan must be favoured to bust up tough Jorge and to break him up in nine or 10 rounds.
Gifted Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez takes on dangerous Texan Juan Diaz in a world class lightweight 12-rounder in Houston on February 28.
Marquez is the man who holds a fantastic 12-round draw with pound-for-pound champ Manny Pacquiao, back in May 2004 in the States. The Filipino legend made Marquez wait four years for a rematch and, earlier this year in Las Vegas, looked desperately lucky to emerge on a split decision after 12 thrilling rounds. Given that Pacquiao then battered Oscar De La Hoya to defeat, it shows you what a good fighter Pacquiao is and what a good fighter Marquez must be. To me the smooth-boxing, sharp-hitting Marquez was robbed against Pacquiao - twice. Marquez came back to hammer Cuban star Joel Casamayor in 11 impressive rounds in Las Vegas last September to take his record to 49-4-1 (36) in his first fight at lightweight.
It was the first time Casamayor had been stopped.
To "Baby Bull" Diaz, a whopping 10 years younger than Marquez at 25. The home man is a solid, strong-looking fighter at 34-1 (17). His only defeat came earlier this year in Mexico, where Nate Campbell schooled and outpointed him over 12 rounds. It was a shock defeat, and a costly one. Diaz dropped three major world lightweight belts to the ageing Floridian, who showed all his experience to ride out Diaz's early attacks before busting him up and dominating the later rounds. Still, most fighters gain from defeat, especially a young fighter like Diaz. The ex-champion had never really gone to the well before but did just that to outscore Aussie warrior Michael Katsidis in a gut-wrenching thriller last time out in September to secure this one.
Diaz is an improved fighter, a good fighter; his raw strength and aggression should blend well with that of the more refined Marquez's. Even at home, though, and much more accustomed to lightweight than Marquez, Diaz look to have his hands seriously full in this one.
Marquez boxes and punches his way to an exciting decision.