Eric Armit's World View by Eric Armit Jan 30th 2007

It seems that Ricky Hatton and Junior Witter just can't stop tripping over each other. The fight between Jose Luis Castillo and Herman Ngoudjo was officially an eliminator for the WBC light-welterweight title. However, after the fight Castillo announced that he was happy that he was going to fight Ricky for the IBF title. There is no doubt that the Castillo fight would have given Junior his biggest career purse and the chance to make his name in a big way. Now he knows that if Castillo wins as IBF champion he may have other options so he may not get a chance to face him, and if Ricky wins, well we all know how that script has always run. He is not the only one who was disappointed. The WBC President for Life-Jose Sulaiman (Ok he is not officially President for Life-it just seem like it) was very upset that Castillo had turned his back on the WBC after they had stood by him so well when he screwed their big sanctioning fees by not making the weight in the Corrales fights. However as he is Mexican-and popular down there-Jose naturally has forgiven him and said that he can fight for the WBC title after he fights Ricky. For now Junior will have to settle for meeting the winner of the Vince Harris vs Juan Lazcano fight on February 10. There is talk of a Diego Corrales fight and that would be great for Junior and I hope it comes off, but right now Ricky is a much bigger name in the USA and a bigger attraction for Corrales, particularly if Ricky beats Castillo. If it is Castillo who wins then another Castillo-Corrales fight would be a biggie for both of them. In another announcement Sulaiman confirmed that Omar Nino's second sample had also tested positive so despite drawing with Brian Viloria on the night he loses the WBC light-flyweight title. Did you see where Vitali Klitschko, out of the ring for over 2 years, is coming back straight into a shot at the WBC title. The WBC has this wonderful rule that allows them to stuff their mandatory challenger and let a former champion fight for the title-no matter how long he has been inactive. The brackets are not there but read-where there is a big sanctioning fee to be had. They used the rule to let Muhammad Ali return after two years and get a straight shot at Larry Holmes and to let Holmes return after 2 years to fight Tyson-both disgraceful and potentially dangerous matches. They also found it useful to allow Sugar Ray Leonard return after 19 months to fight Don Lalonde, so screwing the mandatory challenger Dennis Andries, and after 3 years to fight Marvin Hagler. Most recently it came in useful when there was a big sanctioning fee to be had for Oscar De La Hoya to be allowed to fight Ricardo Mayorga after almost two years out. The problem is that the returning fighter is only interested in fighting for the title and does not want to take any chance of losing a “warm-up” which would blow it. That means that irrespective of how long he has been out and without any real check on how his reflexes might have deteriorated in the period of inactivity, he can go right in with the champion. The WBC will tell you that they are very big on boxer's safety, but unlike in a dictionary, it comes behind sanctioning fees. When fighters disappear from the ring for a couple of years for no obvious reason you sometimes find yourself wondering-did they just give up or are they trying out prison food. Puerto Rican light-middleweight hope Ruben Fuchu disappeared for a couple of years, but is back again. No jail for Ruben-instead he was completing his military service in Iraq. So best of luck to the 28 year old ex-Olympian who has a 15-2-1 record. There is a lot of boxing that goes on in Indonesia and never gets reported. Even the best sources only scratch the surface. They are also becoming a force in the lower divisions through guys such as Chris John, the WBA featherweight champion who holds a win over Juan Manuel Marquez, and Muhammad Rachman. In case you missed it, Rachman “The Rock Breaker”, made a successful third defence of his IBF strawweight title with a seventh round stoppage of Filipino Benjie Sorolla in Jakarta on December 23. The 34 year old southpaw has a 57-7-4 record (or something like that as I have seen a couple of very different records for him) and is unbeaten in his last 37 fights. The “Rock Breaker” nickname is not a hark back to my earlier “prison” remark. It came from him beating a Filipino who was nicknamed “The Rock”. On the same night, in Villahermosa, Mexico, the former WBA bantamweight champion Julio Zarate made a first defence of his NABF super-bantamweight title with a sixth round stoppage of Giovanni Urbina to go to 24-4-1. Over in Donetsk in the Ukraine two of these new EBU non-EU title fights took place. At welterweight Vyacheslav Senchenko moved to 20 wins as he outpointed George Ungiadze and Vladimir Kravets became light-welterweight champion by decisioning Gari Abajian and has ten wins The winners are good prospects, the losers are lucky to be fighting for any title. Kravets represented the Ukraine in the European and World championships and at the 2004 Olympics. Senchenko won a bronze medal in the World Cup and fought in the 2000 Olympics. Guyanan Leon Moore returned to action after his challenge for the vacant WBO interim title bantamweight title with a fifth round stoppage of Linden Arthur in Bridgetown, Barbados on December 30. Being a 5'10” southpaw puts Leon well down the list of “Guys you would like to Fight” in his division and there is no sign of him getting a return with Israel Pacheco for the title even though the local judges were suspended for life by their own Commission after giving Pacheco the win. Leon is 17-1 and has changed his nickname to “Hurry Up” from “Hurry Up Chicken”. No real surprise there. If you fancy a clash of very tall bantamweights then I guess a Commonwealth title fight between Tshihiwa Munyai and Moore would fill the bill. On the same show heavyweight Kertson Manswell halted Saul Farah in seven rounds and now has 13 wins. The 6'4” from Trinidad and Tobago was a silver medallist in the Commonwealth, Central American and Pan American Games and could be a future opponent for Matt Skelton. World rated flyweight Luis “Titi” Maldonado started the year with a win as he kayoed Antonio Garibay in five rounds in Mexicali on New Years Day. Titi, managed by Eric Morales, won his first 33 and then drew with the current WBC super-flyweight champion Cristian Mijares and was stopped by Vic Darchinyan in a challenge for the IBF flyweight title. He is now 35-1-1 with 27 inside. On the same night in his hometown of Torreon middleweight Marco Antonio Rubio outpointed Canadian Dan Stanisavljevic. Marco Antonio has a 36-4-1 record but seems destined to lose the big fights. The Peterson brothers continued their progress with wins on a show in Biloxi on January 5.Younger brother Anthony retained his NABO lightweight title with a fourth round kayo of Mexican champion Juan “Ringo” Garza whilst Lamont outpointed Colin Lynes victim Joaquin Gallardo. Anthony has 22 wins. Anthony was National Golden Gloves champion in 2003 but lost to Vicente Escobedo for the Olympic berth. Lamont did even better being National Golden Gloves and US champion and being voted Amateur Boxer of the Year, but also lost in a box off for the Olympic berth to Rock Allen.

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